BETTER SAFE THAN ZOMBIE

OZTS 1| Break In

-

HE WHO FIGHTS WITH MONSTERS SHOULD SEE TO IT THAT HE HIMSELF DOES NOT BECOME A MONSTER.

WHEN YOU GAZE LONG INTO AN ABYSS, THE ABYSS ALSO GAZES INTO YOU.

-NIETZSCHE

-

I stared at the view outside, feeling grim and unable to sleep. Lights strung on the roof of the building illuminated the barbed fence and the soldiers silently making their rounds, their guns ready and alert on their sides.

I was sitting on the window ledge of my room, my head resting on my knees with my arms encircling them. A blanket covered me to keep me from shivering in the cold, though I already wore a sweater. I was supposed to be sleeping hours ago, but nightmares kept me from resting, deeply buried memories rising as soon as my guards were down. I closed my eyes and let the tears fall, where no one would see them.

This building was a hospital long ago, but the government officials turned it into a quarantine to accommodate the few survivors from the zombie apocalypse. I was one of them.

Scientists were already starting to cure the zombies, and those who were cured were kept in the other building, where the hospital used to store dying patients. The government still didn't release them; for fear that they weren't quite sane enough. I agreed with them. We have to take what safety measures we could get to keep the pandemic from spreading. The virus had done a lot of harm to the population. No need to make it more widespread.

"Still awake, huh?"

The familiar teasing voice made me smile, and I turned around to face my new best friend, Hazel Williams. She was a survivor too, along with her boyfriend, Ethan Blake. If anyone could survive the apocalypse and still smile, they were my best bet. Those two are fearless.

"I can't sleep," I said, stating the obvious. Hazel sat opposite me, a shotgun gripped in one hand. She should have surrendered them to the officials long ago, but I knew that Hazel would sooner die than leave herself weaponless. I bet Ethan still had his shotgun too.

"Jeez. Is the sound of my snoring really that loud?"

I laughed. Hazel's room was next to mine, and even though Ethan constantly teased her about being able to snore like a hibernating bear, I knew better. 

"No, actually. I...I kept having nightmares," I confessed.

"I feel you." Hazel nodded seriously. "Its about zombies, isn't it? They're really gross. It would keep anyone from sleeping."

My nightmares weren't about zombies, but I just nodded. I wasn't ready to talk anyway.

"Humans just keep evolving nastier and nastier. First, we're primitive apes, then we became hairy standing sticks, and now cannibals with no talent for speaking and had an icky craving for flesh. What next? Ethan look-alikes?"

I grinned at her. "Careful. He might hear you. He's just next door."

Sure enough, an offended voice said, "Ethan look alikes? How could I, a study of human perfection, be somehow worse than zombies?"

Ethan Blake stepped out of the shadows, his smirk similar to Hazel's as their eyes met. I tried to keep my envy from showing as I watched Hazel throw herself on his arms and Ethan sweeping her off her feet with one big kiss. Despite all their teasing, they were truly a beautiful couple. Ethan, with his dark hair and green eyes, an Adonis to Hazel's Helen.

Hazel broke their kiss and grinned at him. Her royal blue eyes twinkled in the dim room. "Looks like someone misses my luscious mouth."

"Baby, I ain't through with you yet, but that shotgun is making me nervous," Ethan replied.