Saturday, March 8th, 7 days before contamination
As if it’s a Saturday tradition, I pour the ramen into the strainer then empty it into the two bowls, preparing our snack the American way. I look over to the TV in the living room. “Ava, look at the news. Something about a government experiment gone wrong.” I turn up the volume with the remote from the kitchen, also grabbing chopsticks and the ramen flavoring packets. “Seems interesting enough.” I comment, bringing her bowl of ramen to Ava as she perches on the computer chair.
I quickly recognize the reporter who‘s talking all officially on the screen, “Scientists have been working on a top secret experiment called “Corpse X” where they are reviving the dead. Recently there has been a major explosion in the main building where these experiments have been taking place. There has been a small outbreak but the armies are quickly coming in to protect the people.” Dave, the main reporter on the news crew stated as a few pictures of the deformed beasts was shown. I recoiled in disgust when I saw how horrifying the experiments were. It looked like something out of an alien horror movie, not real life. Dave Splotch continues, seemingly unaffected by the absolutely disgusting images. The only thing that seemed strange was his eyes did widen and dilate in fear. “Most of the experiments have been contained and taken care of. In other news, the famous actor-”
I looked over to Ava who had the remote in her hand, shut off the TV and look blankly at the black screen. “What the hell did I just watch?” She asks, her face unreadable as she says this, still watching the blank screen. I had a shudder go through my spine and I noticed both of our bowls of ramen are cold. I take them back to the sink and leave them there, slowly returning. A slow and awkward silence settled over the room. I turn back to the hypnotic blank screen. “Was that the local news?” I ask, even though I already know the answer; Dave lives in the Twin Cities area, only 20 miles from where we live. The scientist building was even closer than that. If there was a zombie apocalypse here, well we are screwed. It sounds like something out of a movie.
Now it is Ava‘s turn to shudder. “Yea,” Ava says, now scrunching up her face in confusion. I crack a smile and burst out laughing. Instantly I cover my face with my hand but I can’t stop the giggles and now I see Ava has joined me in this hysteria of laughter. For some reason, I think what humans do is we laugh when we can’t believe something, or when we think everything is a dream. We have turned into fiction and everything we see can’t be real. It’s not possible.
Deciding that it wasn’t worth my time, I stop laughing and merely smile. Getting up and throwing away the cold ramen, grabbing a pack of Oreos. This is also one of our favorite weekend snacks. After taking 3 cookies, I hand the pack off to Ava who also takes a few cookies. “Do you think it’s a prank?” Ava asks out of the blue, chewing on an Oreo. I didn’t want to think what she meant by that. If it was a prank, it probably wouldn’t look that gruesome, even in the one up close blurry photo of it.
I sigh and raise my eyebrows and shoulders. “No idea. But if it was, they have the best Halloween costumes by far.” I laugh a bit, knowing that whenever we try to do zombie make-up it turns out horribly. “But if it’s real, we’ll be in California where all of the Hollywood big shots would make a horribly done movie based on it.” I laugh a little more, thinking of some of the silly situations new movies have.
Ava catches on to my train of thought with the silliness and continues with “They’d have special interviews with the scientists who are all stuttering and confused!” Ava laughs heartily now along with me, instead of the awkward and hysterical laughter from earlier. This is what best friends do. They don’t call each other every other week or talk on the Internet all the time they have face-to-face conversations, real life food fights and they write books together. They create legends. This is true friendship, a bond that can last through anything. I’m happy to be a part of this eternal happiness.
