Better off Undead

Chapter 20: Dinner of the Dead

There were explosions of light and pain, dismal but blinding flashes of color in what seemed like an eternity of blackness. Everything seemed to be spinning, even though it seemed as if there was nothing there to be spinning. It was sickening, and it made him want to vomit, but he could not be sure for even a split second that he actually had a stomach with contents to lose. Then suddenly the spinning stopped, the flashes stopped, everything stopped.

It seemed like another lifetime came and went, and a dull ache began to settle inside his head and hum one long, unbroken note without end. Slowly, he began to grow aware that he could open his eyes. This he managed, but not without great effort. Even once he had done it, all that could be seen was a blur, a shapeless void of colors and light that did not seem to make any sense. With a fortitude that would shame even Hercules, he managed to blink a few times, and in doing so cleared away some of the blurriness.

When formless blobs finally molded into familiar shapes, his first thought was that he was dreaming. In fact, it seemed rather obvious that he had to be dreaming. After all, the luxurious feast spread before him could not possibly be real.

There were bowls filled with fruits such as dates, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries – just about every type of berry, really – as well as watermelon, cantaloupes, kiwi, grapefruit, and still more Eli did not really recognize. There were vegetables: green beans, corn on the cob, roasted carrots. There were also various other dishes, such as scalloped potatoes, potato salad, macaroni salad, squash casserole, spinach casserole, and a sweet potato soufflé with raisins and topped by marshmallows. All off these dishes were arranged around three central dishes, each containing a different type of meat. On Eli's far right was a roasted turkey, in the center of the table what appeared to be a large meatloaf, and to his far left a large slab of cooked ham, all still fresh and steaming.

The table on which the meal sat was massive and ornate. The chairs around it matched the table and everything shone with a brilliant gloss that came only from fancy and well-kept furniture. The endless flow of a beautiful white table cloth stretched across the entire table. It seemed to be made of pure silk. The whole thing was lit by the glow of a chandelier hanging above their heads, with gold fixtures and real candles, which gave everything a very formal tone. The light from it only served to add to the surreal nature of the whole moment, as it only lit the table and its immediate surroundings. The rest of the room fell away into complete darkness, until it seemed like he was in an endless, empty void where all that existed was the small globe of light in which he sat.

Despite the impossibility of the meal, Eli's stomach growled with hunger as the aroma of delicious smells washed over him. It was growing painfully obvious just how long it had been since he had last eaten anything.

With hardly a thought he attempted to reach out for a nearby grape, but something stopped him. He tried a second time, and once again the inconceivable force prevented him from making the move. Without having complete control yet over his body it did not really seem that ridiculous, but nonetheless he rolled his head to the side so as to get a good look at whatever it was holding him down.

It was then that he discovered that his arm was tied to the chair.

Not just his arm, either, but actually both arms, his legs, and his chest were all bound tightly in a thick brown rope. Suddenly he was filled with a sense of panic, and he began to wiggle with all his might, straining against the ropes, pulling and tearing for the slightest chance of freeing himself.

A strange, soothing voice floated over the table to him. "Please, calm down, or you will only risk hurting yourself."

Eli's body froze, but his eyes immediately shot in the direction the voice had come from. Over on the end of the table with the turkey, to his utter shock, sat a zombie. Or at least, what looked rather like a zombie. Its skin was almost the same, greenish pale, but a little lighter and a little less green. It also looked significantly less decomposed than the zombies he had seen, with no sign of the boils or puss sacks that seemed to be a mark of the infection. To top it all off, as Eli was looking at it, it did something far more horrifying than anything – anything – that Eli had ever seen.