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.
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.
The Living VS The Dead: Chapter 2
By: Sandy Riedel
“Stephanie…” Lisa said, almost weak-sounding. “You don’t need to save me. Save yourself. We may both die if we try going inside.”
I shook my head. “You’re not going to convince me to not try to save you, Lisa. We will figure out a way to get in there. You just have to trust me.”
Zombies began crowding around the car without me even realizing it, so when I heard a bang on my window, I jumped out of my seat. I slammed on the gas and drove around the hospital, looking for a way in. I noticed there was an open window with no zombies around. I decided there was no time to think about it, or else zombies would soon be near, so I jumped out of the car, grabbing the bag, and went to help Lisa out of the passenger seat.
“I got it, Steph.” She insisted. I ran to the window and waited for her. She was walking at such a slow pace, and zombies began making their way towards us. I realized I was tapping my foot and biting my lip, worried she wouldn’t make it.
“Can I help you?” I shouted to her.
“Stephanie.” She stopped walking. “I am completely capable of walking on my own.” She sounded angry so I took a deep breath and waited impatiently.
She finally made it and I jumped in the window, holding out a hand.
She looked at me with such a furious expression and began climbing in the window on her own. The zombies were arm reach away from her and she barely made it inside when the zombies made it to the window, but I closed it shut, cutting off one of the zombie’s hands.
It seemed to have no effect on it whatsoever, and this almost disgusted me. How could a creature, which was once so alive, be so dead with no soul or feeling?
I heard moans come from behind me and noticed the door was open and there were a few zombies in the hallway. I pulled a knife out from the bag and held it in front of me. I had never killed anything before. But if I was going to save myself, as well as Lisa, I had to be brave; I had to kill this...thing.
I stepped forward a few steps and when I was close enough, I swung my arm, digging the knife into the zombie’s neck, decapitating it. The head fell first, with a loud thump, and rolled to the wall. The body finally fell backwards, in the doorway. I hear more moans approaching and jumped at the sound of it. I kicked the zombie body inside the room and slammed the door right in time. The zombies banged on the door and I cringed at the thought of them breaking the door down.
I looked over at Lisa, who was leaning against the wall. She looked as if she was asleep. I had two hours left; why was she already showing signs of change? Her pale, almost green, skin. Her dark, gloomy eyes. She seemed exhausted and angry. Was I running out of time?
“Lisa!” I shouted at her, pulling at her arm. She opened her eyes and stood up, almost straight. I saw a swinging door in the room and I decided to see what was inside. I pushed it open, slowly and cautiously. The light was on and I heard the talking of a man come from the back of the room. I looked at where it was coming from and two intelligent-looking men, wearing white clothing, were talking- or one was talking to the other.
I stepped inside, and the talking came to a halt, and both men looked at me, with mysterious eyes. One of the two pulled a knife from out of his pocket.
“I’m not infected.” I stated, simply.
I walked to the back of the room, pulling Lisa with me. I tried to hide her behind me so that the men did not get angry. I stood in front of them, and they stayed silent.
“Do you guys happen to have the cure for the infection?”
The one with the knife held out relaxed his arm and his eyes narrowed. “How do you know of the cure?”
“So you do have it?”
“I’m Dr. Johnson. This is Dr. Fields. We do have the cure, but we are not allowed to distribute it. Were you bitten?”
“No, my friend was. Why aren’t you allowed to distribute it? Now is the perfect time to use it.”
“Well, you see…There are many side effects that may even include killing a person. We do not want to be held responsible.”
I felt my face turn red and my jaw clench. “She either becomes a zombie, I kill her or we take that risk.”
Dr. Johnson sighed. “Come with me.” He turned around and walked into another room through a swinging door. Dr. Fields just stood there, not taking his eyes off of Lisa and I. Inside this room was a ton of beakers, filled with all different colored liquids. He examined a collection of red liquids and picked one that had the date “04-13-2018” written on it.
“They are supposed to age for at least three years. This one has only aged for two and a half, but it will have to do. We’ve used the ready ones on the bitten doctors. All she has to do is drink this whole beaker full and then she needs to stay standing for thirty minutes. The medicine should then kill the infection throughout her whole body and she will hopefully be cured.”
I turned around to find that Lisa was no longer in the room with us. I hear a man scream from the other room and I ran to it to find Lisa ripping apart and chewing on Dr. Fields. She seemed unpleased.
Dr. Johnson pulled out a knife and decapitated Lisa. I felt my knees get weak and my eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry. It had to be done. She found out that he did not have real human blood and was getting ready to attack one of us.”