GARDEN OF THE UNDEAD - A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE ROMANCE & ACTION TALE

chapter one

A busy Friday at Rob's Diner as expected. I always blew most of my money on rent and groceries every month, so working overtime at this Hooter-style diner was necessary. I tolerated my minimum wage job and the skimpy work outfit because the tips I got from customers who sometimes didn't know how to keep their hand to themselves were unrivalled, although I had always dreamed of becoming a nurse one day.

Unfortunately, my family's circumstances stopped that from happening anytime soon. I understand that not everybody can be born on a level playing field but I was not given a head-start at life at all. In fact it seemed like everyone was always ten steps ahead of me in life no matter how hard I tried to catch up.

Sinful, the club opposite the diner was massive. Sickeningly rich men and women indulged in 'sinful' activities up in the VIP sections. As far as I knew, there were twenty different branches in separate states and all across the city of Cleveland, Ohio with so many girls working, many making thousands of dollars a night. An advantage of being opposite Sinful was that the midnight party-goers would flock here afterwards drunk and reckless so the tips were insanely good. This caused overtime rates to be so high so Rob - the owner, didn't need to hire many employees.

My father was unemployed shortly after being injured at his construction job, he fractured his spine severely and was never able to walk again. My little brother was suffering with terminal cancer at the time- leukemia. This forced my mother to take extra shifts at the hospital and apply for more government benefits in order to cover hospital bills and to keep a roof over our heads. She was still so selfless and kind despite working up to 6 days a week with little rest . Eventually the amount of stress took a toll on her and she had a cardiac arrest at work. She was a devout catholic and believed that when it was her time to go, she would not interfere with 'God's Plan' therefore she got approved for a do not resuscitate order so doctors didn't attempt to save her life.

Since that day, dad was never the same, he fell victim to alcohol abuse, spending all the pension mum had worked so hard to get on drugs, alcohol and other women till eventually we were completely broke. He began to get physically and verbally abusive with me and my sick brother and quickly the man I used to love and adore in childhood; The man who had taken me to the park after school and bought me ice-cream every Friday afternoon became a distant memory, a requiem of the past.

He became the devil himself.

Then he committed suicide on my 18th birthday, shooting himself with a shotgun in the living room of our shabby shared apartment. I didn't give him a proper funeral, I cremated him cheap and fast just like he did my mother and left his ashes with his side of the family.

I thought things couldn't possibly get worse till my brother abruptly died the following week despite his promising improvements in health.

My hope for a better future had almost fully diminished. At times I felt like giving up, to end my life and finally be able to rest. I was alone on the earth with nobody looking out for me, only the memory of my mothers desperate struggle for my families' survival pushing me forward no matter the circumstance.

She knew, unlike my late father, that I wanted to become a nurse and always reminded me anything was possible. That dream never came to pass.

I remembered her now as I served a group of six mildly drunk men their food, pretending to ignore the thirsty comments about my ass and how great it would be to pull on my wild blonde 'mane' of hair during sex.  For the sake of keeping my job, I kept a tight lipped smile as all I had in my bank account was a pitiful one hundred and fifty-six dollars and twenty-seven cents.

I was dying to clock out, I only had thirty-five minutes left on my shift  and time seemed to be going by slower on purpose. Faint shouts and screams echoed outside the diner, however we assumed it was probably the usual overdrunk 'Chad' so nobody paid it any mind. The screams and thundering of what sounded like people running continued to gradually get louder as if they were getting closer. Some of the waitresses and drunken partiers looked slightly concerned but this was a rough part of Ohio, crazy shit happened all the time.