2024: Zombies

4

There was a scream, and I saw a woman dropping a little girl as zombies covered her. The little girl stood there crying, calling her mother’s name.

Without thinking, I ran over to her.

‘’Hey, hey, look at me. We have to leave now.’’

‘’No, my mother.’’

‘’I’m sorry, but she is dead, and she will be just like those things.’’

I knew that wasn’t the right thing to say, but she seemed at the age to understand things like this.

‘’No, my mom.’’

I forced the little girl to look at me.

‘’My name is Jeremy. What’s your name?’’

‘’Lura.’’

‘’Ok, Lura, do you want to live?’’

She nodded.

‘’Then you must come with us now. Please. We have food and water.’’

The little girl looked down at her mother, watching as they tear and rip at her flesh.

She wiped her eyes, then nodded. ‘’Ok, I’ll come with you. But you have to lift me up.’’

It was then that I noticed that she had a prosthetic leg.

‘’It needs to charge. My mom has the things in her bag.’’

I glanced over at where the woman lay, her eyes slowly getting vacant and I knew that soon those fisting on her will turn on us, and she would as well.

‘’I think we can find chargers elsewhere, if not a leg that doesn’t need charging.’’

She nodded, and I lift her onto my back.

‘’It’s going to be okay, Lura.’’

1

She sniffled. ‘’Ok.’’

I looked around for Chrisean and began to panic after not being able to see her.

I wanted to call out her name, but if I did that, then it would only draw attention to me and this little girl.

I was actually surprised that we weren’t being bothered by the horde of zombies. Most were just standing in stop, are eating just one person who was still screaming for help.

As bad as it might be, I’m glad it was a male and not Chrisean. Even though I think she might go to that soon, she didn’t seem like the type who knew how to protect herself.

‘’Mr. they are looking at us.’’

I turned around to see that she was right. A small group of the living dead had their sunken yellow eyes staring at us. They bared their teeth that were red from blood, and the first one made a step towards us.

‘’They’re coming!’’ Lura screamed.

With fast thinking, I pulled out the gun from the side of the bag and aimed right for the head. Two shots rang out, but I had never used a gun before, so my aim was off.

‘’Shit!’’

I had to try my best not to panic. I aimed again, but my hand was shaking too much for the gun to be steady and I didn’t want to waste bullets.

‘’Calm down Jeremy,’’ I told myself.

This time, the gun shot hit a zombie in the shoulder and even though he fell to the ground for a while, he didn’t stay down for too long.

Another shot and I got a zombie in the mouth just as he opened it to screech.

But I wasn’t out of the hoods yet, because the loud sounds only drew attention to us.

 "We need to go, there are too many of them,’’ I said. I guess Lura was scared, because she dropped my bag and hid her face in the crock of my neck. 

‘’It’s going to be ok,’’ I told her, but not even I believed my own words. I picked up the bag and wondered how we were going to escape. I have seen how fast these relentless monsters move, and I knew it was hard to get away from their pursuit.

But I was desperate to try.

I refused to die like this. I still have hopes of raising my family and watching my grandkids run around, while I sip coffee before a lake house where I will spend the rest of my days before passing on.

I refuse to let the infected eat me alive; I refuse to become like them, and I refuse to let Lura suffer alone in the world.

I turned to run, but it was hard to see through the thick smoke, plus the scent of burning flesh and tire was making me gag.

After seeing movement up ahead of me, I slowed down, knowing that any and everything could kill us in this moment. I changed directions to where the smoke was thinner, but there were cars in the way, and we had to climb over them like an obstacle course.

And then we were cornered.

The zombies found us in what looked like a maze trap that was set to get to the unsuspected. I pushed Lura to the very top of a car while looking for a way out. She clung to me, literally putting her life in my hands. Making me feel bad that this might just be it for us.

The only way out was to jump on the car tops, but with Lura’s leg, that would be impossible and me having her on my back while jumping would only weigh us down. I was scared but determined to protect Lura and get us out of here, but only if I could find even just a small opening for us to get out.

And where the heck was Chrisean?

I didn’t want to think about it, but I feared the worst and that thought caused my chest to tighten.

More and more zombies began to gather around the car. One grabbed at my leg and would have pulled me down if I didn’t kick it in the face.

I now wished I didn’t give Chrisean the ax to hold while rescuing Lura, else it would have been such a big help right now. A zombie, who looked ready to sink his nasty teeth into me, stared right in my eyes and for a split second, I swore I saw it smiling.

Then the unthinkable happened.

The zombie began to climb the car. The only challenge it had was walking up the windscreen. I guess it was too slippery for him, but I know that soon, this thing with be lunging at us.

Just as the zombie was about to come at me, something amazing happened.

Chrisean crashed a truck into the front of the car we were standing on, sending the zombie flying and leaving me to hug Lura to my chest so she didn’t fall into the flesh-eating creatures that were there clawing at the sides of the car.

The passenger door opened.

‘’Get in!’’

And she didn’t have to tell me twice.

I practically threw Lura into the truck, and she crawled over to the back so I could get in after.

But I wasn’t so lucky.

A zombie grabbed my pants leg, trying to pull me out of the truck, but Chrisean had a strong hold on my arm.

‘’Hit the gas!’’ I told her.

‘’Are you crazy? You might fall out of the car; this isn’t like in the movies.’’

And she was right, her driving with more than half of my body hanging out of the car could end badly for all of us.

‘’Your gun!’’ Lura said and threw it at me.

I wasn’t expecting that, causing the gun to fall to the ground and under a car.

‘’Chrisean, let me go.’’

‘’What? No.’’

‘’You have to, so I can get the gun.’’

‘’Don’t be stupid and risk your life.’’

I kicked at the zombie and tried to pull out of her grip.

‘’Damn it, just let me go, or else I’ll be zombie food.’’

I was struggling with both things, a hungry zombie, and this girl.

‘’Chrisean, just let me go! It’s not like you can pull me up. This motherfucker is too strong, and I’ll die if you hold on to me still. Zombies are coming this way.’’

Just as I said it, one ran towards me and I closed my eyes, thinking that was it for me.

There was a booming sound. My body fell to the ground and my head bounced off the asphalt. My ears began to ring, and I could feel things raining down on me.

I slowly opened one eye, then the other, to see what had just happened.

I tried to sit up but felt disoriented and could hardly make out two men getting into the back of a truck and driving off.

‘’Jeremy, come on!’’

But I don’t think Chrisean understands that I just hit my head hard, and it felt as if I was about to black out.

‘’Get off your ass, now! Zombies are coming.’’

I rolled to my side and struggled to sit up. When I finally did, the place was spinning and the ringing in my ears got worse.

I felt something tugging at me.

‘’Jeremy, come on,’’ Lura’s voice seemed to pull me out of the fog.

I went on my hands and knees and got the gun from under the car before entering the truck.

Chrisean sped off as soon as I closed the door.

‘’Who the heck was that?’’ I asked, my voice came out weakly.

‘’How should I know? But we have to thank God for sending that stranger.’’

I scoffed. ‘’Don’t tell me that you are one of those people.’’

‘’What do you mean by those people?’’

‘’People that believe that there is this man who created us and will damn us to hell just because of one person’s mistake.’’

The truck came to a screeching halt.

‘’You are an atheist?’’

‘’No, I just don’t think there is someone living in the sky.’’

‘’You are an atheist.’’

‘’Call it whatever you want.’’

‘’I know that God is real, so don’t you dare-‘’

‘’He isn’t! It’s all just a made-up story, just like with Zeus and Hades. There is no God and the sooner you see that, the better your life will be.’’

‘’There is a God, and I refuse to let you corrupt me.’’

I laughed in her face.

‘’So, you mean to tell me that this is his doing? Since you people like to say that if it’s God’s will, then he made people to be born and suffer until the day they die? He caused this virus to kill us all off. But what about his so-called loyal worshippers? Because I sure as fuck saw a church burning back there. Shouldn’t that place be untouched?’’

Chrisean gave me an angry look, but I didn’t care.

‘’You people need a reality check.’’

‘’And you’ll be going to hell.’’

‘’So will you, Chrisean. You just hit a man with a car. Murder is a sin, right?’’ I laughed. ‘’Imagine fighting to survive, but because you killed some creature, your soul is damned to hell.’’

She said nothing and began to drive again.

‘’You are the one who need the reality check.’’

‘’Do you remember that pastor who was sacrificing people using the sky man’s name? Lying to them that he could bring them back from the dead and they will be saved and get a chance to go on the ark. Don’t tell me that you don’t see that as bullshit. He was even stealing from those people. Getting them to put him in their insurance so he could collect money after murdering them.’’

‘’My aunt was one of his victims.’’

‘’Well, congratulations.’’

Chrisean gripped the steering wheel, and if not for her dark complexion, her knuckles would have turned white.

‘’Where are we going?’’ Lura asked.

I almost forgot about her and felt bad about it.

‘’Out of Kingston, that’s for sure. Maybe we can head to St Mary or Portland. I’m sure those places are bound to be a lot safer.’’

‘’I live in Spanish Town; we might be ok there.’’

I scoffed. ‘’There is a ninety percent chance of it being just like Kingston, and if you think those hoodlums can protect us, they can’t. Just like how those so-called thugs were of no help to kill those zombies.’’

‘’Ok, what is your problem?’’ Chrisean asked.

‘’My problem is all this! It’s fucking getting to my head. I almost died! There is no help from our so-called government, and we are cut off from the world. If there was a safe place, we wouldn’t know about it.’’

‘’I still say we go to my house in Spanish Town.’’

‘’We are not fucking going! There will be roadblocks and those dons that you people love to protect might feed us to those things.’’

‘’Fuck you, Jeremy.’’

‘’I know you want to.’’

‘’Can I at least go and see if my mom is ok?’’

‘’Fine.’’

‘’What about your parents?’’

‘’I really don’t care about them.’’