The Last Plague

Chapter Two: Hiding

I stayed in the corner of my house as I heard his footsteps running by. I could hear him shouting at me as his voice faded out the door. I looked over the counter and tried to find him. When I couldn't see him anymore I started to settle down.

"Just come out!" he begged from outside. "Stop making this difficult!"

"Just leave him, once he's bit he'll die after becoming one of them. We'll be fine, it's only one person," I heard another man shout from the truck

"We could lose our jobs for this!" the officer countered.

"It's just one man, let him die. Come on, we have a deadline." I secretly thanked the stranger in the truck.

I continued sitting against the wall as I heard the footsteps and groaning of the officer. When he got out of the house, I moved slowly across the ground, careful to not be seen. I heard the slow crunching of tires as they drove away. I finally started to breathe again. The crunching tires became more distant as I heard him drive away.

They're gone, I told myself. I slowly stood up and looked around for him. I walked out slowly and saw my window; it was shattered on the ground across my bedroom. I could see the faint dots of the vehicles driving away. I walked out of the window and looked at it from the outside. The glass had shards sticking out from the ground, looking like spikes. I kicked down the large shards and wondered what they were talking about.

He'll die after becoming one of them. The words replayed in my head.

Become one of what? I thought this was a disease. I wasn't sure what they meant. A shudder entered me. What's going on? Was the final thought that entered my head.

I began to grow worried, not knowing what was out there. I looked around at the glass and wanted to board it up, at the least. Everyone had already evacuated, so I didn't feel any guilt doing it. I walked over to my neighbor's house and broke down their home. I used their wood to board up my hole. I searched other neighbors houses' and found a hammer and nails.

After spending a few hours boarding up my window I fell asleep. I felt calm. The boarded window gave me a sense of security. I woke up the next morning and walked outside; still nothing. I don't know what I expected. They were talking about a disease that had gotten out. What was this disease, and why was it so fatal? I questioned myself.

I walked throughout the neighborhood in search of something, maybe another stowaway. I found nothing, of course. The bright sun was shining down while I searched. I searched an entire day in homes. Breaking down doors, smashing windows, searching for food; I found nothing. The emptiness around me was worrying, and stressful. I had always kept to myself, but the eerie emptiness and unpopulated area was stressful.

I slept in a stranger's home, still searching for somewhere else. I woke the next morning and continued walking in the same direction. Every home was empty. I continued my process, breaking doors, smashing windows, searching for food. I would find food occasionally in a home, but most of them were abandoned. I found a backpack in one of the homes. I used it to store most of my food. I didn't know what came over me. I was storing and saving food as much as I could.

He'll die anyway, the words repeated in my head. Those words alone had set into my survival state. I walked around silently gathering food into my backpack. I made sure to only travel in one direction, I didn't want to lose my home.

What's the point of staying at your home? The thought suddenly popped into my head. Memories, I thought to myself. My home gave me memories that I never wanted to let go of. It also provided me a feeling of safety. I would stay there no matter what happened. My home was what I had lived in, it was where I would stay. I slept in a stranger's house again. I had filled the backpack full of food, mostly cans.

I woke up early that morning to a faint moaning sound. It was distant and faint, but it seemed full of pain, and it almost didn't seem human. The moaning sound seemed to grow louder and closer over time. I couldn't bear not knowing what it was. I walked out of the front door. I looked around towards the front and saw a human-like figure in the distance. From what I could see, it was human. It acted stupidly, and its arms seemed to be grabbing towards me.

I walked up, slowly, getting closer to it. When I was close enough I saw the unnatural thing. It slugged itself towards me. Its lower body was slime. It was a clear, clouded liquid. It seemed to slug itself across the concrete without any trouble. It let out a phlegm-filled moan that uneased me. Its eyes were blank and pale. Its skin was a faded gray, with green spots that seemed moldy. It looked like a zombie, but its legs were slime.

It let out another moan, making me shudder. I started to back away when I looked at its shirt; it was an officer. I had a thick black vest on its chest. A golden badge was still shining like new on its chest. I could tell it was a man, and he was slowly slugging himself towards me mindlessly. I continued standing where I was as I observed it. I continued moaning at me and reaching out for me. It seemed like a stupid creature, reaching its arms out mindlessly.

It then let out a shriek. The shriek was louder than I could have ever guessed. It stared at me for a moment, then started slugging towards me again. I started hearing a chant from behind him. I ran behind him, knowing he was slow, and glanced my eyes out looking for the cause of the noise. It looked like a crowd of people coming towards us.

"Who are you?" I shouted at the chanting crowd, almost knowing they wouldn't be able to hear me.

Their response was the faint chanting. I walked closer and started hearing what the sound was. It wasn't a chant, and there weren't people. It was a constant moaning sound. From a distance, it seemed to grow to a chant. As I got closer, I could hear the moans. Their faint bodies began to grow visible. I could see the same slime as on the things from the distance.

Zombies, the word popped in my head. That was what they were. I couldn't find any other way to describe it. They acted stupid and moaned, their bodies had the aura, but their legs didn't seem to fit the description.

I felt a cold and clammy hand grab onto my shoulder. I turned around quickly to see the officer grabbing me. I kicked it off and ran back a few steps. I was so dazed I hadn't even realized the zombie was still lurking towards me. I was terrified of the situation and started running back to my home, making sure not to lose my direction.

I slept in a stranger's house when I was convinced I had run far enough. I woke the next morning and walked back to my home, finally seeing it around midafternoon. I walked in and set my backpack on the ground. Everything was how I left it. I swept up the glass in my room and ate. I felt a strange calm within my house. The daylight made me calm as it shone through my windows.

I started living a monotonous life. I'd wake up, eat some of the food I had scavenged, walk around the neighborhood, and go to bed. I only repeated my routine for six days though, then I was interrupted.

I woke up after a week of my routine to another faint moan. It sounded almost exact to how the zombies' moans had sounded. Their faint, yet growing, moan continued to grow as they grew closer. I walked out of my home calmly, saw them coming, then locked myself in the house. I double-checked every window in my house and made sure there were no cracks in the boards. It seemed secure enough, so I calmed down.

After a few hours of pacing the floor, I realized the moans had come close enough. I knew it was the zombies coming to the street. I could hear her moans flood the streets. I stayed inside and was as quiet as I could. I was peering out of a small crack left in the wood as I watched the zombies slug by.

A few of them stopped moving away from me. They slowly started turning their heads towards my house and moved closer. They came closer to my house and clawed against the door and wood.

How do they know I'm here? I wondered, they were all clawing at the door.

Okay, this may sound crazy, but what if the zombies have a sixth sense? Or maybe they have a super smell? I don't know—I'm just brainstorming here. But think about, how did the zombies know he was there? His house didn't look any different—except for the boarded window. And with what the zombies were mutated with, it would be that surprising. . . .

~Trina