Living With The Dead

January 1, New Year's Day.

Time: 8:30 a.m.

Location: Montgomery, Alabama.

It was a cold morning, the Jackson family's eldest son just came home from a trip with friends. His family was in the street making noise of his return. Emily Rockets stayed in her bed, leaning towards the window looking at him, his name was Lee, and she loved him so deeply.

While suddenly an ambulance came rushing through the neighborhood, stopping in front of old man Jefferson's house. Two paramedics came rushing out, one with a big briefcase and the other grabbing a lift. They barged into his home, and were immediately attacked by Mr. Jefferson, Emily's eyes widened as she put on her glasses for a better view. Mr. Jefferson had taken a huge bite out the paramedics neck, the one holding the briefcase. The other paramedic rushed into the vehicle to grab a gun, but Mrs. Jefferson came out and lunged at him before he could get inside.

The couple crouched over their victims bodies eating them violently and when they were done, they looked to the Jackson family who stared in shock and disgust. Immediately Lee grabbed his parents hands and scooped up his little sister, who clung to his neck, and ran inside their home.

Emily prayed to god for a sign that what she just witnessed wasn't what like in the movies. She peeked out her window again and some other neighbors were coming out to get their mail or go to work. The paramedic men and the Jeffersons rampaged after everyone they saw and started devouring them, soon later they'd stop and move on, and those who were freshly feasted apon.. came back to feed on others.

Emily's house phone rang, she got out of bed and went towards the furnace. Emily grabbed the furnace poker and answered the phone.

"Emily stay inside, lock all your doors and windows, and close the blinds, stay as quiet as you can."

Then they hung up. Emily knew it was Lee, she could hear the stress and panic in his voice. Luckily his house had a emergency basement that lead to their shed. Emily's house was just plain but had an attic. She locked all her doors and closed each blind. Then she went to her kitchen an opened the pantry, grabbing all the canned foods that she could. Lucky for her she had just went grocery shopping the day before. She took all the food and bottles of Smart Water into her closet and sat there with the furnace poker in her hand.

Emily had fallen asleep, she took out her cellphone and put it on silent vibration, then looked at the time. It was 5 p.m. Suddenly a loud thud came from inside her house. She slowly opened the closet door and held the fire poker tightly in her hands. Slowly Emily walked out her bedroom and into the kitchen. There she saw glass broken from her living room window and the blinds were blowing from the cold wind. There was a random snarling like sound. Emily looked at her kitchen floor and saw Lees little sister standing in the center and a pot on the ground.

"Lisa?" Emily spoke softly to the little girl.

Lisa turned around and faced Emily, half of her faces flash was showing, and she had a missing eye. Emily gasped loudly as tears swelled in her eyes and she backed to the wall. Lisa stared at Emily and tilted her head to the side, sniffing the air she walked toward Emily slowly, still making little grunts. Then she lunged at Emily, holding her arms up trying to grab her. Emily quickly raised up the fire poker and Lisa ran right into it. There was a loud wet crack that came from Lisa's head as the poker slid into her brain. Lisa's body dropped to the floor and Emily withdrew the poker from the child's corps.

A tall African male came into the house through the window and looked up at Emily, putting his hands up to reassure her he was human. Emily was shaking and crying, holding tightly to the now bloodied poker. Lee noticed her appearance and the blood, he looked down and saw his little sister.

"She broke into my house, I saw her in the kitchen and then.. she just.." Emily tried to explain, but started choking on her tears.

Lee walked over to Emily holding onto her and kissed her forehead, hiding her face so he couldn't see Lisa. He fought back his own tears of seeing his little sisters decayed corps. After a few moments they heard growling sounds from Emily's backyard. Emily grabbed Lees shirt and dragged him into her room, and pushed her dresser against the door, because there was no lock. Lee looked around her room. He has always wanted to come in her room, but was too shy to ask. Emily went into her closet and sat in the corner, Lee entered with her and they shut the door.

"What happened with your parents?" Emily whispered to Lee, as she passed a bag of cookies to him.

"My mom got bit while trying to grab some fruit from her garden. I told her not to go outside, but she wouldn't listen." he shook his head slowly, taking a bite into his cookie.

"Did you try to help her? I know you're a nurse, was there nothing you could do to stop her from.. become them."

Lee sighed loudly, pressing his finger tips against his forehead and eyes, "I tried everything, disinfecting the wounds, patching it up. She got hot all over her body and started shaking. Then had a seizer, but two minutes later she came back. She attacked pops, I packed my shit up, and went to get Lisa, but she vanished. I guess she saw mama and got scared."

I nodded understandingly and huddled up next to him to keep warm. In my closet I had a my old backpack filled with canned foods and waterbottles, also a pack of band aids. My fire poker was next to me on the floor, still covered in Lisa's blood. Lee was 24, and I'm 18. He's a nurse at Baptist East Hospital. We ate the rest of the cookies and fell asleep shortly.

We decided that the next day, we'd look for a better and safer place to hide.