Posted by
Catmman on Friday, October 31, 2008 10:32:11 AM
“Shhh!”
“Be quiet!”
“Move and your dead!”
You hear these words in hushed, yet urgent tones. You realize they aren’t trying to kill you, only trying to keep you still and quiet. You relent and relax in the grip of your captors.
As you relax, so do they. You can make out the shapes of three people. Only one you recognize as your neighbor who lives in the house whose yard you just invaded. You can see that there are two men and one woman in this group. All seem to be armed in some form or fashion. You neighbor is the only one with an apparent firearm – it looks like a lever-action rifle. The others are holding some type of bludgeoning object – one has a wooden baseball bat, the other is armed with a shovel.
You regain your composure from your earlier initial terror at being grabbed. “What’s going on?” you ask. “We were watching TV when the power went out. I dug out an old radio and turned it on. The announcer was spouting something about mass riots breaking out in several areas of the city, mostly on or side of town. That’s all we heard for awhile. Then the announcer became, I don’t know, scared? He started saying the rioters were bodies of the recently deceased which had come back to life, attacking anything living - people, animals, it didn’t matter. They said everyone should stay inside, barricade your home if necessary and not answer the door or go outside until it was safe. We were hiding in the house. We saw several people shambling around in the street. We just hunkered down and tried to be quiet.”
The female speaks, “We heard screams coming from your homes direction a little while ago and got really scared.” You think back to the attack in front of your house, the attack you watched. “We wanted to go look, wanted to see what was going on. We thought better of it though.”
The other guy speaks, “Then we heard the shots from your house. We knew someone was fighting back, trying to anyway. We decided to come out and see if we could maybe, help – I don’t know what we were thinking, but we had to do something. We snuck out here and were trying to figure out what we were going to do next, when we saw you come out the back door of your house. We didn’t want to call,” he looks at your shotgun, “Thinking you might be a bit trigger happy. Then you climbed over our fence and here we are.”
Your mind is racing. Dead people? Impossible! But then you think back to your engagement in your front room. It took four shots, the fourth being a headshot, to stop that one attacker. Immediately, you think of the one you shot who was crawling through your window. One shot to the head was all it took. Then you remember watching the attack in front of your house – the guy hit one attacker in the head with his bat, it bent the bat but the attacker fell and didn’t try to get up. That must be it, how to take them down – a headshot or severe trauma to the head...
“Look,” you say, “we need to get moving. You said you had a radio. Where is it?”
“Batteries died,” the guy shrugs. “I never used that radio, only when the power went out.”
“You don’t have any extra batteries?” You want to scream at this guy.
“No.”
“What kind of batteries does it take?” the other guy asks.
“Double A’s.”
“Dude, you don’t have a damn remote control in the house?”
The guy opens his mouth to speak, but stops. “Yes,” he says realizing his stupidity.
“We need to get that radio back on and see if there is any other news.” You say. “It’s not safe staying out here static like this. Let’s go in you house”
You and your three new comrades get back into the house without incident. Once inside, the guy looks for his remote control to get the batteries. You go into the front room to take a look out the window.
“How many did you say were outside?” you ask.
“A few. Three. Four maybe?”
You glance outside the front window from the side. Indeed you see four ‘undead’ shambling around in the street in front of the house. Not as many as were in front of your house – good.
“Found ‘em.”
The man replaces the batteries in the radio. “Wait, don’t turn it on now. These things seem attracted to noise. Where can we listen to it?”
“How about the bathroom?” he says.
You and he and the others head into the small downstairs ‘half-bath’. You pull the door to. “Ok, turn it on – low volume.” you whisper.
“...definitely dead. Again, the people involved in the riots earlier tonight are indeed deceased. How, why they are reanimated is unknown. Where they came from is unknown. What we do know is that they are maniacally homicidal. They will attack and attempt to devour any living creature they come in contact with. Calls to the State Police and the National Guard have gone out. Local authorities have contained most of the rioters. The last area is the Northwest Vista section of town. This area is extremely large and bordered by several city parks. Numbers of walking deceased are extremely numerous in this area.”
“Most city power is out, but is being brought back online as fast as possible. If you are in your home and can hear this broadcast – quietly go about your house and turn off all light switches and power switches to any appliances you may have had on when the power went out. The walking deceased are extremely attracted to noise. If the power was to return to your home and your area has not yet been cleared, this may attract unnecessary attention to your house.”
“If you are detected, these deceased bodies will continue to attempt to gain access to your home until they get in, or are destroyed. It has been determined that the only means of destroying these deceased persons is to either separate the head from the body or cause extensive trauma to the head or brain. Gunshots to the head are the most effective means, though blunt trauma can be effective if delivered decisively.”
“…what? This can’t be right…what?” the announcer seems confused; “We have another report. Apparently this has been confirmed by the authorities…any person who comes in contact with the walking deceased…any person injured by them through an attack…any person who is bitten or otherwise severely injured…will die from said attack. Upon death, the attacked person will re-animate and assume all the characteristics of the walking deceased. It appears these people do not respond to any amount of reasoning, they are completely and utterly, as explained before, maniacally homicidal. They will attempt to kill any living creature they are attracted to or come in contact with.”
“By all means, avoid contact with the walking deceased at all costs. Stay in your homes. Stay quiet. Avoid attracting attention…repeating…”
You reach over and switch the radio off. Your mind reeling yet again, walking deceased?
The ‘Living Dead’?
Zombies?
Zombie’s man, they creep you out.
You and the three others exit the bathroom in shock.
You kneel down, trying to gain control of the thoughts swirling through your head.
The four of you freeze as one. You all turn your attention towards the front door.
You all notice a scratching…
And that moan…
You’ve been discovered again.
To be continued…
Part 9 (with links to Parts 1-8)