Essays

Death Awaited(Part 2)

Jessica marched down the halls, ignoring Erik's shouts. She could hear his footsteps coming up behind and she started to run. Classrooms whizzed past as she attempted to ditch her pursuer. Her eyes widened as she skidded to a stop. Erik appeared next to her, looking from her to the loosely chained door ahead of them. Jessica let out shaky breaths as she remembered what was beyond those doors. Erik raised his hand to comfort Jessica. "Look I know you're still scared-" he cut off as she flinched away from his touch. "We have to go out soon."

"They sacrificed themselves so we could live, the least we can do is actually stay alive!" Jessica screamed. The day they lost everyone replayed in her mind for the hundredth time:

"I call crowbar!" I said with a smile.

"Come on, with a baseball bat you can just knock their heads off!" Jason said while swinging his bat.

"Well I can pry their heads off too."

"Guys, we have to stop joking around. This is serious. We could die out there," Izabella said quietly.

Erik wrapped his arm around Izabella's shoulders, "We'll be fine, you have Jason and me to protect you." He winked.

"What about me!" I said, acting offended.

We had blown everything off, the urgency of supplies and the likelihood that we would die. Clyburne and Allan walked in. "We all set?" Clyburne questioned. We all nodded. We followed him to the front doors. Allan unlocked them and we took our real first looks at our destroyed world. We had walked cautiously, but not necessarily quietly. There were loud bangs as one of us would walk over the mysterious pieces of sheet metal that seemed to have manifested out of nowhere. We started to hear gurgles and grunts from behind us. As we turned around we saw a small group of four zombies. We quickly hid inside the local supermarket and started to gather what food was left. When the group had passed, we headed further into town to the gun shop. Inside there was still a few guns, ammunition and other weapons. We gathered what we could, but Jason started to mess around. He loaded a gun and aimed at the wall. "Stop waving it around! Do you even know how to use that?!" Izabella whispered.

"I am a skilled video game player. I think I know how to use a gun," he said.

"Still put it down. We need to conserve what we have left," Allan said, pushing the gun down. Jason's hand slipped. Instinctively he grabbed the gun to keep it from falling. A shot rang out and Allan was on the ground, holding his leg. He screamed as the blood started to gush from his fresh wound. Outside there was rustling as more zombies followed Allan's screams. "You have to get out of here!" he said while grinding his teeth together, fighting back the pain.

"We can't just leave you here!" Izabella screamed, then quickly covered her mouth.

"Just go!"

As we started to file out of the store another shot rang out. I heard the thud as Allan's torso hit the ground, a hole in his head. The others saw too and Izabella screamed again. The zombies went after her first. She screamed again and again as the zombies ripped her apart. Clyburne and Jason were idiots. They ran to her and tried to get them off, but even if they could she would already be infected. Erik and I watched in horror as they too were ripped to pieces, their blood staining the street red...

There was a bang on the chained door. Jessica's breathing quickened. "I know you don't want to go back, but-"

"I just want to live."

Erik clenched his jaw tight. "Do you think you could make up some stuff for when we do go?" Jessica's mind filled with anger and she ran again. This time, Erik didn't bother to follow. She ran all the way back to her lab and slammed the door behind her. She screamed out of frustration. She swept her arms across the tables, sending glassware crashing to the ground. Her screams echoed through the room and tears stained her face. So consumed within her own self pity, she had almost missed the fresh stench in the air. Ahead were the boarded windows and she could hear the scratching from the other side. Jessica took in shaky breaths and just stood, puffy-eyed, frozen. Though she had stopped screaming, they continued to claw at the weak boards.

A discolored hand reached through a crack between two pieces of wood. Jessica gasped but still couldn't run away. The hand seemed to grow and stretch closer and closer each second and instinctively started to back away, slowly. Now the zombie's entire forearm was through the thin wall of wood and other fingers were starting to pick at other cracks. There was a shatter from behind Jessica. She turned to see another flask in tiny pieces on the ground. From that single shattering sound, the zombies ahead became more determined to get in. One board popped off, then another. Suddenly the only barrier between Jessica and her killers was gone. And she screamed. This time, not a low one out of anger, but a shrill, blood curdling scream out of pure fear.

Erik had been already making his way towards the lab to make it up to her when he heard her voice through the halls. He ran quickly swung the door open. Just before a looming zombie could take a chunk out of Jessica, he pushed it back with an upturned stool. He grabbed a machete, fending off another zombie, and handed Jessica a gun. She grabbed it hesitantly, still red from her crying. Erik now had two zombies on him. He was able to kill one, but the other took him by surprise. The zombie's teeth had almost sunken into Erik's flesh when Jessica stood in its way. Pain flowed through her shoulder as the zombie's rotten teeth gnawed on her flesh. Erik swiftly decapitated it and dragged Jessica into the hallway, locking the door and throwing away the key. He brushed his hand over the wound. "Don't try and sugarcoat it, okay?" she said wincing.

The tissue around the teeth marks was already starting to decay from both the virus and the bacteria that had grown in the zombie's mouth. "What the hell were you thinking!"

"I couldn't let you get hurt," Jessica said softly.

"Well, you didn't have to do this!"

"Maybe it's better this way..."

Erik sighed, "Don't say that." Jessica backed away from his grasp and held the gun close to her side. "I can't risk putting you in danger," she said sadly.

"What do you..." he trailed off as she raised the gun to her temple. "You don't have to do this!"

Jessica smiled, "Yes I do." Using her other hand, she pulled at the collar of her shirt to reveal the bite again. "We can find a way!"

"No we can't!" she shouted, then drew in a shaky breath. Erik took a step closer, but she just backed away. Tears started to fill her eyes again. "Please don't do this, I can't go through this alone..." Erik tried to reason with her.

"Just promise me something," she paused, "promise me that you won't waste your life in here..."

He let out a nervous chuckle, "Weren't you just telling me you never wanted to leave?"

Jessica smiled, "Then don't be like me. Live your life. Find others, if you can. But stay who you are." His eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

She giggled. "Don't stop being the nerd I love. The one that can't stand a day without worrying if we'll make it out..." she trailed off, barely able to stop herself from completely crumbling the floor.

"Jess..." She lowered the gun kissed him. It was sweet and filled with the love that had grown through the years. As she backed away and raised the gun again, Erik was now crying. "Please..."

Through her tears the final words she said were nearly inaudible, "I'm sorry..." The shot rang through the empty halls. Erik rushed to her limp body as blood rushed from her nose. He held her in his arms, brushing hair out of her face not wanting to let her go.