Zombie Policy

Emily Maynard

The weather had been hot and humid for several weeks. The air was warm and thick with humidity. The sounds of peeper frogs could be heard along with the quiet chirping of crickets. A strange odor wafted through the air. Emily opened her eyes to the warm light from the ceiling of the hallway, just outside her bedroom door. She was still wearing her day clothes and in her right hand was the arm of the teddy bear she had gotten yesterday on her seventh birthday. Her face was warm and her hair was sticking to her forehead and her cheeks. She sat up and glanced out her window. There was nothing but blackness to be seen out the open window. The sounds of the country property came in loud and clear through the window screen. She listened to hear sounds of her family in the house but could hear nothing. Emily's night light was not on and she didn't like it when it was so dark in her room. She stretched and yawned, realizing that she had fallen asleep after an early dinner and now she wasn't sure what time it really was. She hopped off the bed and turned on her own light, then peeked out into the hallway. She heard some noise coming from the kitchen downstairs. She assumed it was her mother and decided to check in on her older brother Marcus. She went to his door which was open partially with a light on inside. She nudged the door open and saw that his bed was a mess as usual and that the room, in general, was as unkempt as always. "Marcus?" she called. There was no answer. She thought it was odd that his desk chair was laying on its side.

Emily left the bedroom and noticed that her parent's door was ajar. She could see the light was off in there and had no reason to go into the room, but she felt like she needed to. "Marcus?" she called again into the room as she pushed the door open. She reached up to the light switch and flicked it on. This room was also in shambles. This was definitely out of the ordinary. Emily's mother never left a mess like this. The mirror on the vanity was cracked and several items from the vanity top were strewn across the floor. To Emily's left was the bed, which was still made but had some pillows clearly out of place. She walked forward into the room and saw the master bathroom door ajar with a light on inside. She stepped over an upside-down jewelry box and a hair dryer and turned the corner of the bed. She stepped in something wet and looked down to see a dark swath of color staining the carpet. She withdrew her foot and noticed that it was stained red. Emily looked again at the floor, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. She looked at small table and some blankets that were laying on the floor, now soaking up some of the red liquid around them. In the corner, she saw something that she couldn't understand at all. She could recognize her brother's t-shirt, but it looked strange juxtaposed to all the glistening, bulbous forms that were pulled from under of the shirt. The colors were strange. Purple, red, some tan, and even some green shiny lumps. She looked up and saw a flash of crimson dotted by a few white teeth. The odd shape was topped by a mop of brown hair. Emily began to realize that this was a human, or what was left of one, laying in the corner of her mother's bedroom. She stared in shock and she began to breathe faster. She tried to speak, tried to scream, but the sound would not come. She turned and sprinted from the bedroom, down the hall and ran down the staircase as fast as she could. She turned to the kitchen and before her feet hit the tile floor, she yelled "Momma!"

Emily's mother stood facing away from Emily, but slowly turned. When she did so, she lowered her back and brought her arms up, sneering at the young girl. The woman let out a shriek that sounded in part like Emily's mother, but there was another unidentifiable quality that sent shock waves through the little girl. She was covered in blood all over her face, hands and down her sweater. The woman was clad in jeans and one shoe, and her hair was disheveled and caked with dried blood. Her eyelids twitched in contrary rhythm to similar twitching of her checks and mouth, which had various lacerations. She was chopping with her teeth making chewing noises. Emily could see a dark object clenched in her teeth that she continued to gnaw on as she approached. Her eyes were two glazed spheres bulging white like sickly poached eggs. The woman was not sure footed, but instead stepped in a jerked, sporadic motion. Emily could smell something awful coming from the woman, who she no longer recognized as her mother. This was a thing, a monster. A twitching, stinking bloody monster and Emily knew that it was evil. She ran for the front door and shut it behind her heading into the moist air of the warm night. She ran down the steps of the porch on to the lawn. The only light she could see was the light emanating from the windows at the front of the house. As she stood for a moment or two, her eyes began to adjust to the dark and she was able to see the moon behind some clouds.