Essays

Death Awaited(Part 1)

A/N: This is a narrative I wrote for school based on the zombie apocalypse

The young woman poked her head through the doorframe and the buzzing of electricity filled her ears. She stood for a minute and scoped the treeline surrounding their homemade electric fence. To her left, sparks flew off of the metal chain links. Slowly she inched closer, locking her stare on the limp body in the grass. She swooped down and picked up a branch, knuckles turning white around the dried wood, and she brushed a piece of her long wavy hair behind her ear. The smell of the zombies rotting flesh overcame her and she stumbled back. The woman swallowed hard to keep herself from regurgitating the little breakfast she had. "You get me every time Steve," she whispered to herself, shaking her head.

She prodded at the motionless corpse testing to see if it was still... alive. She started to push the limp zombie off the fence when she heard static at her hip. "Jess, we need to talk," a man's voice sputtered out from the walkie talkie. Jessica jumped back and shuddered from the sudden noise. She let out a sigh of relief and grabbed the small black box. "You gave me a fricking heart attack!" Jessica whisper-screamed into the walkie, trying not to draw attention.

"You're still talking aren't you?" Erik replied. A smirk formed on her lips.

"Is that snark I hear?" she said.

"Shut up and meet me in room 604," he said in a monotone. Jessica rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Roger that boss," she said and placed the walkie back on her hip. She finished clearing the fence of the zombie and scanned the treeline again before retreating inside. Jessica walked down the long, empty halls, occasionally glancing through the doors of abandoned classrooms. She turned into a classroom with the name Elder etched into the glass. Inside was the remnants of an English class. The once new textbooks were starting to yellow and the despised bag of Corn Nuts was slowly falling from its post on the wall. At the front of the classroom was a whiteboard with scribbles and calculations. In front of the board stood Erik, pondering and mumbling to himself. His black locks were scruffed up and stubble was starting to grow. Jessica walked in and sat on the desk next to him. "Regretting your life choices?" she joked. Erik scoffed and looked at her from the corner of his eye, then back at his calculations. "So what I've worked up here is," Jessica interrupted him with an exaggerated yawn.

"Yeah, yeah, we both know basic algebra, your point is?" she questioned.

"The point is," he huffed with annoyance, "that if we keep going on the way we have, we'll only last another three months," he concluded. Jessica sat up straight. Her eyes darted back and forth between two of the linoleum tiles as her mind raced through possible ideas, attempting to find their salvation. She landed on the most obvious one first. "We shorten our rations," she said, though already knowing that he had thought this through.

Erik shook his head, "Even if we shorten it down to about 1800 calories a day, we would just be delaying the inevitable," he paused and turned to Jessica, "unless we can start growing again..." he trailed off. Jessica ground her teeth together. She had been having trouble with their little garden the past few months. They had been lucky that it had rained the first few months of the outbreak and they had stocked up, but now they knew they had blown through it too fast and their other supplies were dwindling too. "I'm working on it," Jessica said quietly.

Erik snapped at her, " Well if you don't then we're going to be dead!" She flinched slightly at his sudden outburst.

He drew in a deep breath, "Sorry," he looked at her small figure and his face softened, "but if we can't get the garden going again then we'll have to go into town." Jessica's head snapped up and her eyes filled with anger and fear. "We are NOT going back into town!" she exclaimed. She stood up and started to pace around the room and ideas raced through her mind again. Erik watched her as she walked in circles and mumbled to herself. He walked in front of her and grabbed her shoulders, "You're going to make yourself sick."

"Well, it's better than going out there again!"

"Just calm down, we don't know if we actually have to go, yet..." he trailed off. Jessica grumbled and pushed past Erik. "Where are you going?" he shouted down the hall. She ignored him. "At least finish the daily rounds!" he called and Jessica turned around.

"Sir, yes sir," she saluted to him sarcastically and walked away. As she turned the corner, she was met with the image of a wolf. It startled her for a second, but then she welcomed the familiar sight. Next to the mural for the Westerburg Wolves was a collage of pictures from the years that the school was active. Smiling faces from graduations and festivals. The gym, when it was decorated for pep rallies.

She continued past the wolf and started to think of how dark the world had become. The outbreak had thrown the world into chaos and they were lucky to make it inside. Jessica stopped by room 368, Clyburne's class. The last time she had been there was for a calculus lesson. She went further down the hall and passed by 311, chemistry. The windows that had once looked out across to the nearby park had been boarded. She moved toward them and peered through a slat. Outside it seemed that the sun had stopped shining. It was grey and overcast and quiet. A tree limb crashed to the ground, breaking the eerie silence. Jessica's breath hitched at the unexpected sound. Then from the corner of her eye, she saw a group of zombies appear from behind a play structure. At the sight of them, she instinctively ducked from the tiny crack in the boards.

Jessica turned around to look at the lab tables. Each one held something different. One had a seedling project, other alcohols, and glassware she used to make Molotov cocktails. She walked past another table lined with various knives, and past the former goggles cabinet, transformed into a gun safe with a small lock. The former chemistry room was not only Jessica's personal lab but was also their weapons storage. Though they practiced wielding them every other day, they hadn't used them for a fairly long time. She stood silently, looking down at the Molotov materials laid out on the table. She sighed, dreading what they might have to do, that she might have to leave the safety of the school. Shaking her head, she exited back into the hallway.

Jessica walked down the halls without really knowing where she wanted to visit. Maybe 610, her Spanish teacher, or 904, her homeroom teacher. She finally found her way to room 704, the music room. She walked around the large, empty room. She sat in front of the piano near the front of the room and trailed her fingers across the ivory keys. Jessica started to play the beautiful sound resonated through the room. In the doorway appeared Erik. He smiled softly as he watched Jessica enjoying herself as she continued with her song. As she finished, she tilted her head slightly. "You just gonna watch?" she asked. Erik walked in and sat beside her. He pressed a key down hesitantly. Jessica started to crack up. Erik grumbled and stood up quickly. "We don't have time for stuff like this!" he shouted, his voice echoing off the walls. Jessica stopped laughing. "What the hell is your problem! Why can't you just have fun like we used to!" she shouted back to him.

"Because our lives aren't like they used to be! We can't just stop what we're doing and have 'fun' anytime we want now because we might die!" he continued their small shouting war. Jessica looked down and knew he was right. She balled her hands into fists. "Well I'd rather die happy than live in fear," she said and stormed past him. As she passed, Erik grabbed onto her arm. "You know that's not what I mean."

"Yeah, whatever," she said and left the room.