Concept Stories - Untitled Zombie Story - Chapter 3

I had already decided I wasn’t going to go into that hallway. These zombies were far too aggressive to fight hand to hand. I hadn’t leveled up to level two yet, and I didn’t know when that would happen. I also still didn’t know what would happen if I was bit. I had to assume that this was infection rules. A bite killed you and turned you into a zombie. Of course, there was a question of how fast. In some stories, the zombie infection happened within moments. In others, it took hours to days.

I already could tell these zombies varied in speed. Just looking out the window, I could see some sprinting while others were moving slowly, dragging their feet. The difference seemed to be with the infection. Those that had “died” were slow-moving, while the zombies that had turned without dying were faster. I understood that conflict with the mode of infection, but I was just trying to figure this out as I went along.

With a breath, I opened the window and peaked my head outside to get a better look. I was looking for whoever had screamed. If it was another girl being run down by a zombie, there wasn’t much I could do. I was on the second floor of the dorm, so it wasn’t like I was that high up. If I jumped into the grass, I could probably land without breaking my leg. I had done bigger jumps with the guys when we went hunting.

The problem was that once I was on ground level, I was open to every zombie in the area. It wasn’t like many zombies would notice me, but even one was too many. Plus, remembering how the other ones had let out screams, they’d alert the other zombies.

That’s when it occurred to me that rather than listening for a girl screaming, I should be listening for the zombie screeches. This led me to look to my side, where I found a van that was parked near the dorm. There were two girls in the van, and it was surrounded by zombies.

The zombies were trying to climb up onto the hood of the van, using it to reach the top. The girls appeared to be using their purses, swinging them wildly to cause the zombies to fall off. They were managing to keep them at bay, but the zombies were already rocking the van, and more were coming every moment. In fact, that was why the area was so devoid of them, as they were all focused on the two white girls.

This left me an opportunity. I could jump down and escape while the zombies were distracted. That would be abandoning those girls for dead. There were already so many dead, what did it matter if I let two others die? I had already seen one woman torn apart. There was only a bloodstain now. She had either been completely torn apart and the zombies carried all her pieces away… or she had woken up a zombie, and crawled away herself. I didn’t know the answer, and I didn’t want to know.

I opened the window. The screen was sealed in, so I needed to kick it several times before it broke off. The plastic fell out and down to the grass below, but it was seemingly ignored by the zombies on the ground, which were all focused on the van at the moment. I crawled out the window, getting onto a ledge that ran alongside the edge of the building. All of the university buildings were old and archaic. This woman’s dorm was no different. It was made of stone and had a wide terrace in which there was stone statues of a hawk and a wolf on either end.

Clinging to the edge of the building, I slowly made my way down the building, leaving my window behind. As I approached the next window, I couldn’t help but sneak a look. The door was wide open, and all I could see was a pool of blood on the ground.

When did they die?

I didn’t even hear a struggle in my neighbor’s room. I had been too busy with my problems. There was another scream, causing my eyes to lock back down at the van. One of the girl’s feet had been grabbed, and the zombie was trying to pull her off the van. Her friend started to desperately help her.

I started increasing my shimmying speed, trying to get there faster. I didn’t even know what I would do once I was there, but I felt like I had to get there. My foot slipped, and I nearly fell off. Grinding my teeth, I regained my balance.

“Noooo!”

The girl who had been grabbed lost the battle. Another zombie got a hold of her, and then as they pulled her down, more and more zombies grabbed her. She was yanked into the crowd and dragged to the ground. Her friend stumbled back, looking down in horror as the girl screamed and cried while being torn apart. The zombies were definitely eating her. That part of zombie lore turned out to be true.

I started to look away, but then I caught myself. With a bit of force, I looked down at the woman’s last few painful moments. Everything had changed. If this was the way of things, I needed to get used to it quickly. If I didn’t adapt, I would die. I had a feeling I’d be seeing scenes just like this countless more times before this was all over. I needed to get used to it now.

The friend’s death had been enough of a distraction that they weren’t jumping on the hood where the remaining girl was most vulnerable. However, that distraction would end as soon as the friend was finished, and that only gave me a minute or so. As the panicked girl seemed to be losing all the fight left in her, I continued my trek over to the van. They were parked at the opposite end of the dorm building, right off the corner.

By the time I reached the location, the zombies had already finished and were renewing their attack on the surviving girl. She had dropped her purse while trying to protect her friend, and without a weapon, all she could do is stand in the middle of the van and shake. I had to do something. She’d be joining the other girl in just a moment. I had already watched two girls eaten this morning. I didn’t want to have to watch a third!

One of the zombies managed to get a good grab and pulled himself up onto the hood. He stood up, his eyes growing light with delight as he stared at the morsel. She looked back, all hope leaving her eyes.

Looking down, I could see the statue of the wolf and hawk was jutting out from the rest of the step, just far enough that if it was pushed over the edge, it’d land on the zombie. Shoving my back against the building, I sat down and kicked with all of my strength. I heard a crack, so I kicked again, and then again. The zombie had taken a step forward, intending to eat his prey, but he found the windshield was too slanted and slippery, and he ended up falling. With his upper body over the edge, and his lower body still on the hood, he started crawling for the girl. His hands could almost reach her feet. Once he tripped her, it didn’t matter which direction she went, she’d be in a horde of zombies.

With one last scream, I kicked with all of my strength, and the statue gave way. It went tumbling down, slamming into the front of the van with a resounding thud. I immediately crawled to the edge of the projecting ledge and looked out. I could see that the zombie’s legs had been crushed, and he could no longer move forward. He thrashed around wildly while screeching unintelligibly.

I noticed the girl was no looking up at me, a slightly stunned, slightly hopeful expression on her face. Without a thought, I wrapped my legs around the outcropping that the statue had been resting on and then rolled around. My body hung down from the ledge. I was only on the second floor, so hanging in this manner, I was only just above the zombies. Holding out my hands, I gestured.

“Come on!” I shouted. 

What was I doing? In this position, I could barely pull myself back up, let alone a girl. I had just done it out of desperation. She was going to die, so I had to react. However, I had a greater chance of her pulling me down, or me dropping her. This was basically suicidal! A small part of me hoped that she was too scared to go for it and froze up, but after a quick look, her face steeled, and she ran at me.

She jumped over the head of the crushed zombie, who could only unsuccessfully lunge toward her. Her foot landed on the top of the statue and she crouched down. Without looking back, she pushed off with all of her strength. I braced myself as our hands met. The zombies naturally saw this, and all started leaping in her direction.

With a roar, I pulled up, and to my surprise, she came up with me. I had already forgotten that I had dumped all of my points into strength earlier. A move that was once impossible for me was something I was able to accomplish easily. With some effort, the pair collapsed on the ledge out of the zombie’s reach. Yet… what now?