The Living VS. The Dead: Chapter 1
By: Sandy Riedel

I grabbed Lisa’s hand and pulled her into the mansion, gasping for air, and slammed the door behind us. I looked back at her; a mixture of pool water and sweat dripped down her face. She was shivering and I wasn’t sure if it was from being cold or from being scared.

“What’s going on out there, Steph?!” she demanded, holding back tears. “What were those things?!”

“I…I don’t know, Lis.” The faces of the frightening creatures took over my mind; their peeling skin, exposing rotten flesh, eyes black, full of hunger, and that horrid smell; the smell of death. It still lingered in the back of my throat.

Lisa got my attention back and we ran upstairs to Sarah’s room. I wondered if she had survived the unexpected attack. I knew I should not have come to this party. I was never a party person anyway.

We turned on the TV in her room and changed the channel to the news. It was an urgent message. The first word that processed through my head was “zombies”. My jaw dropped, and I walked to the window. I peeked outside, afraid to see them. A crowd of zombies was forming, pushing themselves against the walls of the mansion, trying to get in. I spotted a few friends dying on the ground.

I quickly averted my head and noticed Lisa was sitting on the bed, crying. A video of zombies attacking and pulling apart a couple was being shown on TV. I recognized this couple; Lisa’s parents. The news reporter then explained that the government believed the public should know the truth, and ended her report with “Good luck surviving.”

Lisa and I exchanged looks; we were both completely speechless. On the TV, “Things To Know” popped up, with a list of facts. I read them aloud.
1. You can NOT hide. They can smell you from a mile away.
2. You CAN outrun them, but they never get tired, and you DO.
3. They’re DEAD. They feel no pain. The only way to permanently kill them is to behead, drown, freeze or burn them completely. Anything other than that will merely slow them down.
4. Do NOT allow yourself to be out in the open; they will close in on you, with no possibility of escape.
5. Stay in groups, help one another, and stay inside as much as possible. It’s up to you, the people, to save mankind. It is out of the government’s control now.

“Steph, what do we do?!” Lisa broke my concentration. I looked over at her; the fear in her eyes scared me almost as much as the zombies did. She was always the strong one, not me. Normally, I would be the one asking her what we should do.
I glanced around the room and spotted a computer. I quickly opened it and clicked Internet. I searched “Zombies” and clicked the first website that came up, which was titled “Zombie Apocalypse Guide”. I scanned through, only picking up important, unknown facts. The one that really stood out to me was “Scratches don’t infect, but bites do. There is only one known cure- a special top-secret medicine that doctors have been working on for years. But it is not guaranteed to work, and if it does, it needs to be taken 4 hours, or less, after the bite- anymore, and it will not work. This medicine is held in all hospitals, but most doctors don’t know of its existence, so it is nearly impossible to get ahold of.”

I examined Lisa’s body, covered in scratches. She possibly could have gotten less scratched up if she was not wearing just a swim suit. They were small scratches though- just a lot.

“Did you get bit at all, Lis?” I asked her.

She stood up. “I don’t know. I just felt pain. I thought I was going to die right then and there. I wasn’t really paying attention to what exactly the pain was coming from”.
My mind flashed back to when I walked to the pool and saw Lisa- zombies surrounding her while attempting to get to the mansion. I was lucky to get through them, using a drunk, confused boy as live bait. I had a few scratches, but it seemed Lisa ended up badly wounded, but she stayed strong.

She examined each and every scratch on her body, making sure they were just scratches, and not bites. I noticed a circle, red mark on the back of her leg. My mind went blank. My eyes opened wide. My jaw dropped open.

“Lis-“was all that managed to come out of my mouth. I felt beads of sweat form on the surface of my skin. It was as if time slowed down. I knew one thing for sure- if that was a bite, I was going to save her. I had to get to the nearest hospital and find out if this medicine truly existed. It was our only option.

She realized what I was staring at and tears filled her eyes. “Is it the end for me, Steph?” The tears rolled down her face, wetting her cheeks and brought out the bright, rosy color of her cheeks. I could not let my best friend die.

My eyes focused on hers. “No.” I ran around the room, searching for something for Lisa to wear rather than a swimsuit. I threw a T shirt and sweat pants to her and she quickly put them on as I skimmed through we website’s facts. It stated that it takes 5 hours for the infection to spread throughout a person’s whole body, and then another hour for them to transform. It had already been an hour since the bite.

“We don’t have much time, Lisa. We need to get to the hospital, which is at least thirty minutes away. Go downstairs, and get the best knives you can find. I’ll find Sarah’s car keys.” I handed her a bag and she left the room.

At that moment, the moans of the zombies outside struck me. I burst out into tears, but I told myself I had to be strong; for Lisa. I wiped my tears and searched for the keys in drawers, but they were nowhere to be found. I spotted a purse and rummaged through it, finding the keys, a cellphone, and forty five dollars. I took all of them and ran downstairs.

I met Lisa in the garage and put the phone and money in the bag that now had knives and a first aid kit inside. We jumped in the 2020, red corvette.
I took a deep breath and pressed the button to open the garage door. Zombies crowded around and began making their way inside the garage. I put the car in drive and slammed on the gas pedal, the car screeching, hitting zombies on my way out of the driveway.

The car ride was quiet beside the moans, and the car engine. I swerved around zombies, body parts, and abandoned cars.

We finally arrived to the hospital after thirty minutes. The parking lot was barbaric, hordes of zombies roaming and fighting over left over body parts. Their moans filled my ears, causing the hair on my skin to rise. Lisa was beginning to look hopeless and, her face becoming pale and lifeless. Her beautiful blue eyes were now a dark gray. But I was not going to lose hope. I was going to save her. Even if it was the last thing I did.