“What the hell is going on?” Devin demanded.“Please, there’s no reason to be alarmed,” said the intelligent zombie.At the sound of his voice, Daniel jerked so hard in surprise that he, too, nearly toppled over. “What the hell!” he shouted, more of a statement than a question.“You can talk?” Matthew said, his voice almost quivering in horror.The creature seemed to find this amusing, and its chuckle was so human that it was disturbing. “Well, of course I can talk.”With a sudden bolt of terror ripping through him, Gabriel realized there was another zombie standing right next to him. He reeled back as far as he could, though tied to the chair as he was, this proved not to be far at all, and let out a short yelp.This second zombie was dressed in a waiter’s outfit that appeared to be in strangely immaculate condition. The long sleeved white shirt looked pressed and freshly cleaned. The bowtie tied tight and straight. The black vest and slacks looked pristine. The zombie did not seem
“The food was for us,” Gabriel explained. “He wanted to fatten us up, like cows to the slaughter.”Jake’s eyes narrowed. “That’s a scary amount of intelligence for a zombie. Are you sure that was his goal?”“He told us himself,” Robert confirmed. Gabriel nodded, a sour expression on his face.“This is fascinating and all,” Aliyah interjected, “but maybe we should gather up the food and get out of here. Like, pronto. There’s more of those things outside looking for a meal.”“Should we take the food?” Gabriel asked, uneasily poking at a grape as if he expected it to explode upon touch. “We have no idea what they put in it.”“Aw, come on,” Jay whined, “we can’t not take all this food. I mean, look at it! When’s the last time anyone’s had a freakin’ roast ham or cooked turkey?”“Actually, I think it's roast turkey and cooked ham,” said Gabriel .“Does it matter?” Jay shot back.Gabriel was about to argue when a thought struck him. He began to look from side to side, and then spun arou
Gabriel decided that his first goal should be to try and get back to the police station. This was assuming, of course, that he would be able to find it. He had no real concept of the layout of the town, or even where in the town he was. Everything looked mostly the same in small towns; a bunch of antique stores and specialized shops, a bunch of crumbly old buildings, and plenty of random little shady spots where they had decided to leave some trees standing instead of putting up a building. As he peeked out of the relative protection of an alleyway to make sure the street up ahead was clear of zombies, he wondered to himself how people got by before being able to look up directions on the internet. He could hardly recall a time that he had ever driven anywhere without looking it up online first or being led by his phone.Sufficiently satisfied that the street was clear, he burst out of his hiding spot and crossed over to the next line of buildings, quickly ducking down an alleyway be
These were not the zombies he had seen before, the ones that had come en masse after the living. Those zombies had been dedicated, focused on a single goal. These zombies seemed more like what Gabriel expected to see: the typical movie zombie that just roamed around blindly with no specific direction in mind, barely managing a snail’s pace, and only scary because of their disturbingly vast numbers. As long as they stayed like this, he should be able to slip past them with relative ease. If they were to regain their earlier focus he could be in serious trouble.Whatever the case, he decided he would have a better chance of getting away and surviving almost anywhere than he would by getting trapped in the gas station. So with that thought in mind, he made a dash for the nearest alleyway. The gas station sat in the center of a large, empty area, and crossing that area left Gabriel very exposed. He tried not to think of this – or of how loud the echoing of his footsteps rang in his ears
Almost immediately the door stopped, and Gabriel nearly collapsed against it. His eyes wide with sudden terror, Gabriel pushed against the door again, and again it refused to yield. Through the slim crack he could just barely make out the shape of some object barred across the door, lying on the floor. It must have fallen at some point, unintentionally providing a lock for the door. Daring a quick glance over his shoulder, he noticed that several of the creatures had begun to make their way toward him. There was no more time to waste. With renewed determination, Gabriel shoved his whole body at the door, shoulder first. The door moved a little, but quickly swung back to almost closed. He charged it again and again, each time the door yielded a little more. The nearest zombie reached for him, almost touching his shoulder.“Screw off!” shouted Gabriel , swinging his bag full of water and catching the zombie straight in the face. It crashed into one of his buddies, and as the two fell
Zombies continued closing in on him as he pulled himself up. At the top of the fence, two bars ran parallel across the length of the fence. Once he had pulled himself up high enough, Gabriel jammed one foot into this gap, and then used that leverage to swing his other foot up and over the fence to hook it into another such gap from the other side of the fence.Right then, one of the zombies reached up and grabbed his foot that was still outside. Gabriel yelped and tried to jump, but both of his feet were stuck. He twisted and lost his balance, which nearly sent him tumbling back down into the mass of zombies. He kicked his foot around until he managed to free it from the bars in the gate. The zombie, however, proved to be significantly less cooperative. The creature held on tight to his shoe and refused to let go. Gabriel kept kicking, and between the zombie’s pulling and Gabriel ’s thrashing about, the shoe suddenly came right off and Gabriel ’s foot slipped free.The sudden lack
Someone, at some point, had clearly driven into the gates in an attempt to bust them open. Most likely they had been trying to get away from a group of zombies that even then were gathered around the empty vehicle, wandering aimlessly. Or that person could have been attempting to get away from the group that was currently following him. In fact, the two groups could have been one group at some point, but some had made it through the gates, while others had simply continued to mill about outside.Standing there, letting himself catch his breath he suddenly got an idea. The mausoleum, the one he had found the zombies at, was all the way across the graveyard from his current position. If he ran fast enough, the zombies would probably lose track of him. Then he could slip inside the crypt, close the door, and try and wait them out.The thought of spending the better part of the day inside of a crypt during a zombie apocalypse didn’t exactly fill him with enthusiasm, but as every other dir
Again she held the hammer up and this time Gabriel took it, though somewhat hesitantly. “Are you… sure?”“Yes,” she responded, matter-of-factly.Gabriel twirled the hammer in his hand, still uncertain. “I, I don’t know…”“Please, Gabriel . I don’t want to be one of those creatures. I just want it to end. I don’t think I have long. I can feel the disease eating away at me. My fever is growing. Just, please, stick around a little while and then… then end it.”Gabriel nodded. “’Kay…” he squeaked, barely able to get the word out.“Thank you,” Sara said, and rGabriel ef seemed to sweep over her. She closed her eyes and turned her head away from him.Gabriel returned to his spot by the door and waited.After a time, he realized he had drifted off to sleep again. He seemed to be doing that every time he sat still for more than a few moments. These past few days had to have been the most exhausting of his entire life, and no doubt that was taking its toll on his body.He looked over to Sa