Page 1
Renee dragged herself up and placed her palm against the windowpane. The bloody scene in front of her wasn’t any different from anything she’d seen in the past, but it still left her heartbroken. People ran and screamed, trying to escape them. Some shot and took the slower ones down, the shamblers. Humans dressed in military fatigues fared better, seeming to have gotten away and moved out of her vision. Most humans died horrible and bloody deaths; their limbs torn off as the hungry horde surrounded them.
No escape. Even Renee knew her time was up. She got away because they’d assumed she was already dead and had moved on to the still-live prey. They preferred meat with a heartbeat. Eventually, once they ate their way through a city, they’d go back and scrape the bones clean until there wasn’t anything left of the living.
Renee had fallen and hit her head on a concrete curb just outside the hotel she was hiding in. She only managed to make her way two floors up because dizziness was overtaking her sense of direction and ability to balance. Her fingers gripped the windowsill of the window in the room she was hiding in while her palm, flat on the glass, kept her from swaying. Something tickled the side of her face, but she ignored it, unable to look away from the death in front of her.
Maybe it was better she couldn’t hear the screams, gunfire, or explosions. Her cochlear implants had been acting up for weeks, and the hit to her head against the concrete seemed to have taken what little hearing she had left. She’d lost the hearing in her right ear when the transmitter and speech processor had been ripped off in a narrow escape from one of the undead. The left external processor needed new batteries.
It was one of the only reasons Renee thought maybe going into a city was necessary. Now she was back in the silence that filled her early years, only this time, it was a relief. Never could she have guessed she’d want to be deaf, but at least this way the last sounds she heard wouldn’t be the screams of terror that haunted her days and nights.
Renee shivered. Most places had no power, and it was only fall, so she shouldn’t have been as cold as she was. It was just after nightfall. She closed her eyes even though it was stupid to close them, leaving herself open to attacks, but what did it matter anymore?
The city was overrun. All of her family and friends were long dead. Any new alliances she’d made - gone. After fighting so hard over the last seven years, she was alone again. The last of her food was depleted days ago. Out of water. No reason to try anymore. Humanity had lost.
For months, she and some other people she’d met chased a dream of reaching Nantucket. Supposedly it was a safe haven, and it was the only reason they’d been foolish enough to enter Baltimore. They wanted to go around the city. All cities were dangerous because there were always undead around, but they’d been desperate. They didn’t have enough supplies to make it if they went around the large city. Going straight through was their last hope.
Her small group had joined up with a scrappy militant group Renee didn’t trust, along with an insane posse of scavengers. All scavengers seemed to have a death wish, at least in Renee’s opinion. Who else would venture into cities for supplies regularly? As soon as they stepped foot in Baltimore, Renee knew they’d made a colossal mistake. It was too barren, too quiet. She swore she even felt the undead watching her. It didn’t make sense - zombies didn’t watch anything; they didn’t plan. They came in waves and devoured everything until only piles of bones remained.
The image of the tall, menacing zombie filled her mind. Renee had seen him in the shadows just after she got to the heart of the city. At first, she hadn’t realized he was undead because the dim light obscured his features. Even after, when everyone was running for their lives and she’d seen him again, he didn’t look quite dead. He was too clean, too fresh looking - almost human. If it wasn’t for his deathly pallor and the way the other zombies hurried away from him like they were making room for him, she might have mistaken him for a human survivor.
Renee put her forehead against the glass and gripped the windowpane tighter. Nausea threatened to make her throw up what little fluid she still had left in her body. The hair on the back of her neck stood. She bit her lip. They were here. Only a matter of seconds until it was over. She might not hear them, but she could sense the zombie’s approach. She refused to open her eyes.
I’m a coward. I should face my death, or at least fight back. She squeezed her eyes tighter. A light touch on her back made her stiffen and tremble. It was a hand, a chilly hand. It slid up her neck and gently squeezed. Renee froze. It wasn’t a zombie. Confused, she opened her eyes and looked at the reflection in the window.
Table of Contents
- Page 1 (Reading here)
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
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