Zombies Apocalypse

Chapter 3

He stopped abruptly, and as he looked out the window, his excitement dropped sharply. He was curious about the weather outside. In Texas, it was still late August, just before school started, so it was undoubtedly extremely hot. But was there any rain? Cloudy? Windy? If he still had access to the internet, he would look it up online. He knew in the back of his mind that he could just open the blinds and look out the window for a few seconds to get the basic idea, but doing so would let all that awful natural light into the apartment. The thought made him tremble. He could tell that it was daylight and probably not more than a little cloudy because there was already enough sunlight coming through. He decided that would suffice until he reached the outside. In the event that conditions were terrible it was just a short stroll down to his vehicle and afterward he would be out of it once more. He could always go back inside and wait for a while longer if that wasn't enough.

He should be able to access the internet!

He paused as a result of the entire circumstance, and the uneasy sense that something very wrong was resurfacing in him. He was unable to completely forget it, no matter how much effort he put into trying to ignore it. He wanted to do something he hadn't done in a very, very long time because it was enough: Observe the news.

"The media." Who knows what good the news has ever done? He had generally thought that only sadists, perverts, and weirdos would be interested in the news; essentially, the kind of people who are most likely to be misrepresented in a news story. Politicians, naturally. They would need to be the kind of person who is so interested in themselves that they will follow their own media trail.

He would occasionally experience an event that prompted him to question this philosophy. Like the summer in Paris when so many cars caught fire, or whatever. He was still unsure of what had transpired. He didn't know about it until he was taking a class that summer. If not, who knows? He often wondered if he would have been aware of 9/11 if he hadn't been in school.

He thought to himself, "Oh God," and his face turned red with horror. "What if there was another 9/11?" This time worse one? He developed a sickening feGabriel ng within himself: a feGabriel ng that looked like his stomach had fallen into an endless abyss. What could be more regrettable than 9/11? What would happen if a war broke out?

He glanced at his computer, which was idle and quiet. He truly misses not having access to the internet now! God, what if an atomic bomb exploded, transforming everything outside into radiation?

He had a million different ideas racing through his head, but he took a deep breath, shook his head, and with sheer willpower stopped the flow of horror and relaxed. He would have heard the explosion if there had been a bomb. If something like that had occurred, he would already know. There ought to have been some hint. He wasn't that cut off from society, even without the web and its climate and news updates, and Legends of Lorindia, the web based game he invested the greater part of his energy playing.

He grimly realized that the only issue was, ironically, that he needed to get outside more. Most likely, all of this worrying was just the result of feeding an agoraphobic tendency to never go outside. In any case, he wasn't agoraphobic. He never experienced panic attacks. He had no qualms whatsoever about public and open spaces. He just didn't care much for other people. He didn't dislike people in general; he just wasn't good at talking to people face to face, so he tried to stay out of those kinds of situations.

He took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped outside because, in the end, he was aware that he would have to be honest and get on with it.

He immediately stopped.

His neighbor from the apartment across the hall was just standing there, barely moving, in the hallway. She was an older woman, probably in her late twenties, who appeared to live alone with a dog and made creepy comments whenever she passed him in the hallway.

Most people probably wouldn't find her creepy. That probably belonged more to him than to her.

He contemplated the possibility that if he waited long enough, she might simply go back into her apartment without even noticing him as he stood there for a brief moment silently pondering whether or not he should say anything.

He said, racking his brains as he tried to recall her name, "Hey... uh..." Suzy? Susan? Ann? Evelyn? Peter? Wait, Peter? Where did that originate? It was obvious that she was not Peter. However, you are no longer aware. Sometimes people did crazy things. Hey neighbor,” he settled on, "What's-" He stopped there, choking on the words that came after. When she turned to look at him, it occurred to her that no words were appropriate.

Her eyes appeared to be bulging out of her skull, ready to fall to the ground, as her face was drawn and gaunt. Her otherwise chubby features were given an odd appearance due to her sunken cheeks. One side of her lower lip appeared to have been torn off, exposing some of her teeth. Her left ear, on the other hand, was the most horrifying, appearing to have been infected and disgustingly infected after being left untreated for several days.

She launched herself at him with a sudden spring of movement and let out a strange guttural growl that almost sounded like a moan. Gabriel jumped back in horror and tried to slam the door on her, but she moved faster than he did. Her head and upper shoulders barely made it past the closing door as she squeezed in part of the room. She carried on pushing. He fought back, but he almost didn't push hard enough because he didn't want to crush her.

"Are you insane?" He called out while observing her as she repeatedly bobbed her head in his direction in an effort to squeeze more through the narrow opening. He came to the realization that she was actually attempting to bite him when her jaw kept opening and closing. What motivated her to bite him? I'll call the authorities! He warned, but she didn't seem to be bothered at all by the threat.

He thought about trying to push her head back outside, but something in the back of his mind was telling him not to let her bite him. It wasn't just the desire to avoid being bitten by a random person; something else was telling him not to let her bite him. As the seconds passed she slid endlessly further into the room, and he understood his work was basically vain. Despite how strong she appeared, her strength somehow exceeded his own.

He quickly backpedaled, bracing himself, and let the door fly open. Not anticipating the sudden release of pressure, his neighbor collapsed to the ground. Oh god!” He exclaimed, taking a small step forward and slightly raising his hands to resist the urge to assist her in rising. I apologize. Is it true that you are OK?"

Are you alright? Really? Did he truly care about whether he had inadvertently hurt this crazy person? What's the matter with me? He pondered internally.

It did not appear that Sally, Suzy, or whoever her name was was even aware. Her menacing bulging eyes were fixed on him as she quickly got back to her feet. She lunged at him once more before fully rising, but without properly balancing, she fell back to the ground, almost a full foot from her target. She didn't let this stop her. One arm erupted and got Gabriel 's leg, gripping with a brutal strength. She appeared to be attempting to extend her other arm as well, but it was entrapped beneath her and she was simply unable to comprehend the idea of first getting up to free it.

She had terrible strength in her limbs despite her absurd situation. Gabriel could only watch in awe as his leg was pulled ever closer to the woman's mouth, no matter how hard he tried to get away. Her desire to gnaw on him was now abundantly clear, and that mouth opened and closed wild. She finally succeeded, her strength triumphing, and she sunk her teeth, albeit in vain, into the shoe's rubber sole.

Gabriel's thoughts raced. He could not even comprehend what was taking place because it was so far beyond his comprehension. He stopped trying to think and became just a responder. His eyes were frantically searching for the means of his salvation as he turned his head left and right. Without an idea, his right arm connected, snatched up a vacant container sitting on a close by table, and brought it crushing down on his neighbor's cheek. Gabriel was liberated from his shock when the horrible sound of bones breaking broke through the air, making him suddenly fully aware of what he had done.

This should have been resolved definitively with that blow. The jaw of Suzanne or whoever it was should have been useless, and she should have been unconscious or screaming in pain while rolling around on the floor. Most appallingly, this was far from the truth. She continued to gnash and bite in an effort to get through his shoe, but she didn't seem to notice the attack.