Love and Zombies

Chapter 1

Alex was small, blond and had delicate features and fair skin. He walked around as if he was oblivious to the huge target on his back that apparently was visible to all the bullies. As a child he played at skipping with the girls and picked daisies to make daisy chains in the summer on the playing field. He joined the sewing club with his friends, he played the recorder, he read ‘The Famous Five’ books, was baffled by George and loved Anne. The final straw, according to his teachers, was when he opted to join the secretarial classes.

“You can’t” his teacher told him “You’ll be the only boy there.”

“But sir,” Alex tried not to whine but his frustration was clear “everyone who uses a computer should know how to touch-type and we’ll all need office skills in the future!”

Alex managed to survive school, mostly through avoiding bullies whenever possible and just accepting the beatings when he couldn’t. He had a number of female friends and regularly hung out with Helen and Melanie at lunch time and in breaks. His only male friend was Richard. Richard was the only guy who treated him with respect and gentleness. Alex kept away from Richard though, as much as possible, to avoid dragging Richard into his problems.

He had the last laugh on his teachers and the bullies after he completed his IT and Business Studies degree and got a job with a software company writing and selling business software. His knowledge and insight into what busy secretaries actually needed helped his company thrive in their niche. He progressed rapidly in the company and by the time he was 30 years old he could retire for life. He vanished for a while, he had a new task in hand. He spent over a year struggling to come to grips with why he was still unhappy and felt unfulfilled. With the help of a sympathetic GP and a team of specialists he began to explore his gender issues and began transitioning to womanhood.

He became she in her own mind at last. She achieved a kind of peace once she accepted her feminine nature. But her peace was shattered, along with everyone else’s when news came of an outbreak of a new and deadly disease in Africa.

Everyone had assumed that the zombie apocalypse was fiction and it would start in Hollywood. Everyone had assumed that the next deadly virus outbreak would come from the crowded streets of the far east. No one knew what to make of a disease that spread like wildfire and left its victims shambling corpses that continued to spread the disease that killed them.

No one knows, until the day comes, what they will do when civilization dies screaming. Alex spent a day locked in her secure apartment in London getting drunk and sobbing at the unfairness of it all. Civilization had screwed her by collapsing just when she was trapped halfway between being a man and a woman. Hormones and surgery had shaped her body but the final SRS procedure had not been completed.

When she stopped crying resolve gripped her and Alex decided to find her mother in among the chaos. The delay setting out probably saved her life. The internet gave details of how to survive the zombie apocalypse before it went offline and the streets were eerily quiet now zombies and humans alike had fled the city.

Alex set out, well prepared mentally and physically for the rigours of the journey. She avoided all contact with humans and zombies alike but when she couldn’t avoid it she struck with startling ferocity. She pictured the faces of the bullies who had tormented her childhood which allowed her to strike without hesitation and destroy any monster who crossed her path. She found an officers sabre on the way and she had her trusty Sabatier kitchen knives. Eventually she raided a sports store and managed to obtain a fibreglass bow and some arrows.

She finally made it across the width of the country from her London apartment to the cottage in Somerset.
It nearly broke her heart when she had to destroy the shambling corpse that had once been her mother. Destroying the body that used to house her father was considerably easier, he was the first of the bullies to pick on her for being ‘too girly’.

Alex stumbled into town in nearby Taunton, scarcely caring if she lived or died.

Chapter 2

Stumbling through the town she grew up in, nearly blinded by tears of grief, Alex looked like she was one of the living dead herself. Maybe that’s why none of the zombies attacked her. She made it to the bridge in the middle of town and looked out over the River Tone. Everything was so quiet and peaceful, if you ignored the odd shambling corpse and the blood splattered walls by the nightclub entrance. Alex looked around and tried to summon up the energy to care whether she lived or died.

“Alex!?” She heard a cry from somewhere above street level. She looked up into the eyes of Richard. Momentarily lost for context she couldn’t grasp why this beautiful man who looked like her best friend should appear in front of her. She shook her head and suddenly realised that she was back in their home town.

“R-Richard?!” she called back, hardly daring to hope it was really him.

“My god! It really is you? Wow! You look amazing! Hang on, I’ll be down as fast as I can.” Richard said. His head disappeared back into the window and a few seconds later he burst from the door of the building opposite the night club.

Alex dropped all her gear and her rucksack and ran into his outstretched arms. He crushed her body against his as he hugged her and she buried her head against his neck and sobbed and laughed. They broke apart after a moment and began babbling at each other, words falling over each other as they struggled to ask their questions and answer the other’s questions.

Richard suddenly stopped and looked around. “Let’s get off the street.” He said. “Come on upstairs where it’s safe.” He turned to lead her back to the doorway.

“I’ll just grab my stuff.” Alex said as she slipped her hand from his and darted back to grab her rucksack.

Suddenly, as if it had appeared from nowhere, a zombie launched itself at Alex and she let out a shrill scream. It pinned her in a corner and she struggled to fight it off as it tried to bite her face off. She struggled with all her might but she couldn’t get any leverage to throw it off. Slowly and inexorably its jaws moved closer to her. Richard ran across the road and joined in the struggle to drag the corpse off Alex. He cursed his stupidity in failing to bring a weapon.. He struggled to get a grip on the zombie. Because of the way it had jammed Alex into a corner Richard couldn’t get in a position to kick or strike the zombie without letting go of it and letting it bite Alex. Richard screamed in frustration and then in crazed ferocity he started biting at the zombies head while the zombie tried to bite Alex.

The zombie suddenly went still and Richard and Alex threw it to the ground while Richard tried to spit the disgusting remains of its brains from his mouth.

“Oh my god! That was the bravest, stupidest, most romantic and disgusting thing I’ve ever seen!” said Alex. “Are you crazy? You have no idea if you’ll get infected now!”

Richard looked at her his eyes full of complex emotions. “I couldn’t bear to lose you again.” He said simply as he shrugged.

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” Said Alex, and they headed back into the building.

A few minutes later Richard had gargled and they had stripped to their underwear checking for any missed wounds.
Richard turned to Alex and said “I always knew. One way or another. I didn’t understand at first, but I always loved you. It confused me, because I knew I wasn’t gay. Seeing you today makes it all very clear.”

“I figured it out. I’m a girl. Or I would be if the world hadn’t ended. I was all set for the final surgery when this happened.”

“You’ve always been a beautiful woman. The surgery wouldn’t change that.” Richard said.

Alex looked out of the window watching as the sun set. Richard crossed the room and stood behind her. Alex could feel his warm breath on her neck as his arms went around her. She shivered and relaxed against him. Astonished that she had found this refuge, this place of safety within his arms. Richard kissed her on the neck and Alex closed her eyes. She was practically purring and every nerve ending was straining and yearning for his caress.

Richard stopped.

Alex looked up at their reflection in the window. She could see the anguish in his eyes as he realised the infection had taken hold and he was starting to change. His mouth was open and his teeth were poised to rip out her throat. The pain on his face as he realised what he was inevitably becoming broke Alex’s heart.

“I love you. I forgive you…” she murmured as she relaxed into the arms of the only man she would ever love.