ZOMBIE SURPRISE

“What should we do with the body?” John asked as he nudged the corpse with his steel-toed boot.

“Which one?” Michael asked, backing away from the gruesome scene literally spreading across the floor.

John squinted at Michael, disbelief evident in the set of his face. “The human one.”

“Oh, right, of course,” Michael stammered. The previously undead, now fully dead, genetically modified animal crumpled in the corner rattled him. Michael shook his head to clear it. “The safest thing to do is leave him here. He’s behind a locked door. When he reanimates, he’ll be contained.”

“How long should we wait before we come back to finish him off?” John asked.

Michael sighed. “Probably twelve hours, give or take.”

John nodded and punched in the code for the laboratory door. It slid open, and they exited the room. 

“Have you ever considered the irony of zombies?” John asked. “You kill them and they’re dead, so you can’t re-kill them. And you know they’ll become zombies, but you can’t pre-kill them. Honestly, it’s frustrating.”

As they walked down the brightly lit corridor of the abandoned building, a sense of unease tickled Michael’s awareness. He half-listened to John while the other half of his brain tried to work out what was setting off his instincts. Michael knew that leaving the body behind was the best thing to do, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

A loud thud interrupted John’s yammering. Both men stopped, going completely silent. They listened intently, trying to determine the direction of the sound. Nothing. Michael’s sixth sense buzzed, and he motioned for John to follow him back toward the area they’d just left.

They retraced their steps and cautiously approached the laboratory door, each man’s gun at the ready. Michael peered through the small window in the door and saw the lifeless body they had left behind standing upright. Its eyes had a foggy appearance, and it moved slowly and jerkily.

Michael jerked back from the window, his eyes wide with alarm. John took in his expression.

“What is it?” John asked, his voice low and tense.

“It’s already turned.” Michael answered.

John swore under his breath.

Michael started pacing. He’d never seen a zombie turn from dead to undead this fast. Typically, the corpse was dormant for at least a day. Though, recently, they’d been rising in about half that time.

“Is it the lab?” John asked. “Did they do something to him before he died?”

Maybe that was it. Maybe... The swoosh of the laboratory door opening interrupted Michael’s thoughts. John raised his gun and fired off six rounds. The shots hit the zombie in the head, creating a shower of blood and brain matter. Its body fell to the ground with a thud.

“What the fuck?!” John asked, his face a mask of disbelief.

“I don’t know,” Michael replied, his heart racing. The zombie shouldn’t have risen that quickly, and it definitely shouldn’t have had the mental capacity to enter a code on the keypad.

John locked the keypad on the outside of the lab door to reseal it. They took turns peering into the room, making sure the zombie was fully dead this time. After a few minutes, John exhaled heavily, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and started back down the hall. Michael followed. They turned a corner at the end of the long, sterile hallway when a low growling noise followed by a shuffling sound caused them both to stop and turn in slow motion. They peered around the corner.

Not only was the zombie back on its feet, it was regenerating. They watched in abject horror as brain matter grew to replace what was missing and bone slowly grew to cover it. In fact, it looked more whole than it had a few minutes earlier. John and Michael exchanged a look of terror, turned, and ran for their lives.

The zombie chased them. It moved faster than any zombie Michael had ever encountered. He could hear the lumbering thud of its feet behind them as it gained ground. Michael ran faster than he’d ever run in his life. A rumbling growl accompanied by the feel of hot breath on his neck interrupted the sound of his labored breathing. He put on a burst of speed he didn’t know he had in him, and passed John.

A moment later, John screamed in agony, and Michael risked a glance over his shoulder. The zombie had tackled John to the floor, his neck a bloody mess. John hadn’t gotten off a single shot. With shocking speed, the zombie tore into John. The zombie disemboweled him in a matter of seconds.

Walking backward, Michael raised his gun and fired multiple times. Each shot slammed into the zombie’s body with a sickening squish. Michael’s gun clicked empty, and he reloaded another clip. Throat burning, he aimed for his friend’s head.

They’d made a pact. If one of them went down, the other promised to turn the dead one into swiss cheese. If the body suffered enough damage, sometimes it couldn’t rise—it simply stayed dead. A tear of rage ran down Michael’s cheek at the unjustness of the situation as he pulled the trigger over and over until his clip was empty. He’d turned John’s head into gooey red bits and fragments of bone.

Michael turned and ran. He didn’t stop and didn’t dare look back. The zombie had been preoccupied with John, but Michael sprinted, heart in his throat, until he reached the exit. He swiped a stolen badge to unlock the laboratory exit and burst into the bright summer day. Nothing gave chase. Michael heaved as he made sure the door locked behind him. He gave himself until the count of five to catch his breath, then took off at a run for the safe house.

Inside the building, the zombie stood still in the middle of the corridor. John was nothing but a pile of bones. The creature had eaten every bit of meat and now stood perfectly still, eyes closed, as if meditating. His flesh wove together as if by magic until it was as smooth and flawless as marble.

Slowly, the zombie opened its eyes. They were no longer fogged over—they were clear and intelligent, with dark red irises. Its movements agile, the creature licked the blood from its fingers with a wicked smile, then looked around and took in its environment. It rifled through John’s pockets until it found a second laboratory badge. It stood, cleaning the blood from its face, and headed toward the door.

Previous
Previous

DOUBLE VISION

Next
Next

BREAKFAST IS SERVED