Unlikely Zombae

They found us!

The day of my 20th birthday started out supremely normal. I had woken up to my mom and dad on the video intercom looking at me in my bed singing happy birthday to me while my lights slowly increase in brightness, a feature I'd asked for on my 18th birthday that'd been a heaven sent! Once they'd finished the song, I sat up and said thank you as well as good morning. They proceeded to let me know breakfast was on the table and they'd love to see me in the home gym as soon as I was up and ready to go. I turned on the radio beside my bed to have some background noise as I stumbled to my bathroom to brush my teeth and hair, all while absentmindedly listening to the music playing. Once I'd finished getting ready for the day the emergency broadcast noise blasted through the entire compound scaring the absolute fuck out of me and making me just 2 feet in the air. I definitely was awake now as my radio had my full attention. I don't remember the exact words it said but the meaning was clear. Stay in your homes. Lock and barricade any doors and windows. Hunker down and try not to make any loud sounds. It had seemed absurd, why would anyone want to do that? What had happened?? Was there a foreign invader? Nukes? The broadcast hadn't said what the threat which almost scarred me more than the broadcast had. Hurriedly I went to my bedrooms intercom and called the outside pool area, assuming my parents were already there. It took a minute or two but finally my father answered the video call.

The first thing I saw wasn't actually my father, but the background behind him. Pillars of smoke rose behind him and planes were flying all around in the distance. My eyes then focused on my dad, or more aptly what was in his hands, in them he held a hand gun in his right hand and a baseball bat in the other. The sight would've been ridiculous if I hadn't of just heard the bone chilling emergency broadcast. Before I could even utter a sound my father spoke "Jake you need to stay in the house. I don't care what you hear or what you see, you are not to leave the compound under any circumstances am I heard?" My mind felt like I'd taken a shot of adrenaline. Everything was happening so fast I didn't understand what was going on or why my dad was telling me to stay in the compound. "Dad what's going on, are you guys ok? Why can't I leave the compound?" I tried to get out every question I had, that way my father couldn't interrupt me, which he did anyway. "Am I heard jake?" My father had basically screamed at me, which stunned me, but also set my mind in one direction. "Yes dad, you're heard. What's going on?"

My father proceed to list out instructions for me. I swear he didn't take a breath the entire time he spoke. Even though his tone was steady and calm, his face and actions weren't. He constantly looked around himself in a panic, his eyes darted everywhere the whole time we spoke. His instruction were simple enough. He needed me to go to the front of the compound as quickly as I could manage, enter in the main keypad his code that would lock the entire place down. Cutting it off completey from the outside world. Impenetrable to anyone and everything. To stay in the compound until someone came along and told me it was safe. Nothing made sense. My parents weren't inside, if I locked it down they'd be stuck outside forever. Which funny enough is the next thing I said to my father. His next and final words would haunt me for the rest of my life. "Your mother and I love you so much Jake. We won't be coming back inside. Remember everything we taught you, and you'll be ok my son. I love you so.." just as he was finishing his sentence I watch helplessly as my father was tackled by someone I didn't know. I watched in horror as my father was ripped apart limb by limb, and bite by bite watched as my father was eaten alive. Hearing his screams deafened me... the look of horror in his eyes as the life slowly drain from them made every drop of blood in my body run cold...

How could this happen? Why did this happen? Why couldn't it have been me instead of him! Where was mother?

All of these thoughts ran through my brain like a race car as my fathers last words moved me forward, my feet slamming on the smooth concrete floor as I ran to the main entrance to the compound, tears flowing freely from my eyes like a river. In moments I found myself at the entrance. The glowing green keypad right at chest level in front of me, I'd never even touched this keypad, let alone enter in the 6 digit code that would lock the entire building down completely... My hands shook as I slowly typed in the numbers. "1...9...2...2...1...9" as I pressed enter into the keypad, the entire compound shook and rumbled. The only sound I could hear was the clanging of metal and the deep clunks of bolts being locked into place all throughout the halls.

What had I done? What was going on in the world? What had happened to my mom and dad? What was going to happen me? My exhaustion from everything that happened hit me all at once and the only thing that crossed my mind as I lost consciousness was "but it's my birthday!!!"