PARADOX ↦ ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

00

The wind was calm as whipped through the windows of the truck, his eyes on the road ahead of them.

She was next to the young man in the passenger seat as she looked out the other window, humming to the radio as it played some popular country song.

He looked at her for a brief moment, smiling at sun reflecting off her sunglasses. Her mind focusing on the warm summer day and the plans she prepared for the time ahead of them. Her knees were bent as her feet rested on the dashboard comfortably.

"You okay?" He asked finally her, his gaze returning to the old country road.

She turned and up looked at him, smiling with reassurance. "Yeah of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugged and moved one of his hands off the steering wheel, reaching for hers and glancing off the road for a second. "I don't know. You just seem quieter than usual."

She sighed, intertwining her fingers with his. "I guess I just have a weird feeling in my gut, or something."

"Hey, you know you can talk to me." He assured her, his eyes remaining on the road now as he drove.

"There's nothing to really talk about..." She told him, brushing her blonde hair out of her eyes and behind her ear with the hand that wasn't holding his. He nodded slowly in response, giving her hand a gentle squeeze, seeing her smile out of the corner of his eye.

The two maintained their silent state for a while longer as they both continued to listen to the radio, the talk-show host telling the weather for the week and later came some product commercials.

It was peaceful once more, just the two of them as they drove towards her childhood home. They would be staying there for a week with her family on a small vacation before going back to their apartment in the city. It was a good break to be back in the country, away from all the noises and clutter of close buildings.

As they continued to drive past the endless fields of corn and grain, the radio suddenly changed. The normal country tunes were now replaced with an unusual and uneven static.

He looked down at the radio as he took his hand from hers, turning the dial up slightly to see if it was just losing signal from distance. "What even?" He questions while tuning the knob to find a reach a different station. While he did so, her eyes scanned across the fields and land on the familiar white house sitting at the end of the road, a good distance from any other house.

He gave up finally and shut off the radio, pulling into the house's main driveway. It must have been some glitch of sorts.

She quickly hopped from the car when it stopped and went to the truck's bed, grabbing her backpack and slinging it over her shoulder.

He grabbed both of their suitcases and placed them down, looking around at the empty yard. "Didn't you say you had a dog?" he said after a moment, remembering the pictures she had back at their apartment.

She nodded slowly, leaving his side to walk to the front porch. "Yeah, Pepper usually is barking by now. Maybe he just, went for a run with someone or something." She said, trying to make up a reason why he wouldn't be here.

He looked at her with a curious look before he walked towards her house, her parent's car was seen in the open garage and yet the house was silent.

"Mom? Dad?" She called as she opened the screen door, both unlocked.

An eerie silence had responded, no words other than the whisper of the breeze through the curtains by the open window. No one seemed to be there, but they had said they would. The two were here for a whole week after all.

"You sure they're here?" He asked as he stepped inside behind her.

"Dad said he would be. He was excited that you were coming again." she said as she glanced around, looking in the living room for a moment.

He set her suitcase down behind the stairs as he looked around the house for her parents, making his way up the stairs to see if they were possibly sleeping or busy.

"Where else could they be?" He asked the silence, once again getting no response. He checked the room and looked out the windows to see if they were in the back. Nothing.

Until her scream is heard from down the stairs into the basement, afraid. His blood ran cold as he darted from the room he was in.

"Char!" He called out as he raced down the hallway in fear, down the basement steps where she stood, her eyes widened at the sight she saw. A horrific scene lay out before the two, one that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

An older woman lay on the ground, her eyes open and foggy as a man leaned over her, tearing into her skin, blood spilled everywhere on the ground along with organs ripped from her body.

It was, eating her.

He looked at Char as the creature slowly stood, looking at both of them with foggy eyes and blood over his face. He staggered towards them both as she stood behind Shiro. "Dad?"