Mechanical Failure, Chap. 6a (zombie apocalypse novel in progress)

~continued~

 

I was terrified. I’ve always had an overactive imagination, and it was working against me. I used to lie in bed at night and let my mind wander, and it came up with some pretty bizarre stuff. Sometimes I’d imagine a hideous creature crawling across the floor, dragging itself toward my bed. And I just knew if I opened my eyes, I’d see it crouching next to me, its face just inches from mine. It never happened, but these days it was much more likely. So, thanks to my warped mind, I couldn’t just go outside and calmly retrieve my pile of supplies. Instead, I had to imagine dead faces materializing through the inky darkness. I visualized a dozen walking corpses slowly turning my way and taking those first lurching steps, arms outstretched. I tried to tell myself that it wasn’t likely that any of them had climbed over my makeshift gate, since I had been watching carefully for them earlier. It didn’t matter. I scared myself out so badly that I almost turned around and went back inside. Instead, I took a deep breath and just listened for a while. My eyes adjusted a bit to the dark. It wasn’t much, but I felt like I could see a few feet in front of me, whether it was true or not. Taking small steps, I started to walk toward what I hoped was the park area. I almost tripped over some curbing at the edge of the dying lawn. I caught myself in time, but I made a mental note to find the driveway and walk down it on the next trip.

I began to stack the supplies by the front door, and it was going pretty well until I thought I heard a foot crunch on the grass nearby. I was in the park area at the time, and I froze, straining to hear. When it came again, I was certain that there was one of the creatures inside the wall with me, and it was close. My hands began to shake as I ran through my options, not sure what to do. I could try to sneak past it if I could tell where it was, but I still had a lot of stuff to bring inside. I also wasn’t sure that there was only one of them. For all I knew, they could have gotten over the car, and there could be a dozen of them wandering around. I heard it take another step, and I pulled my knife. Unfortunately, I didn’t do it quietly. The sound could have been heard a mile away. A low moan came from somewhere between me and the house, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before he got the others interested if I didn’t shut him up. I took a step toward the dead thing, knife ready.

~to be continued~