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Almost There                  

Written by David Cao

 

 Blood. There was blood everywhere. Smeared on to the streets, spattered on my clothes. Luckily, none of the blood was mine. Well, at least not all of it.

 

 Another scream hit the air, making me break into a cold sweat. I must be in Hell, I thought in panic. The air and fog around me was swelling up in a green color. I stayed in my hiding spot, behind some metal trash cans, now brown from rust and dirt, with my back against the back of a store. I was more than terrified, which made it awfully hard to keep my breath quiet. The stench of the garbage was filling my nose.  It wasn’t pleasant, but a relief from the metallic smell of blood. Blood. The blood of pets, friends, neighbors, zombies, but luckily, not family.

 

My family had survived. My parents and my sister survived the zombie attack. How? You see, I live on an island, and many figured that if they sailed away, the zombies would eventually die of a severe starvation after feeding of the unfortunate people who got left behind. Easy as that, almost everyone will be saved. But here on the island, supplies were scarce, so there weren’t many boats or ships to sail on away from the island. Especially since the zombies had attacked many of the boats already. There wasn’t time to assign places in the ships, for the population of zombies were increasing, while any human got eaten alive, or turned into a zombie.

 

So there we were, everyone rushing onto boats, one of the many zombie groups not far behind. As the last ship was about to take off, my family hopped on, but I got left behind fighting of one very fast zombie with a bat who seemed very hungry, and almost got a hold of a three year old. I got scratched, but not bitten. I was so close, almost there, but of course my luck didn’t last long enough. All of the boats started sailing away, and I thought my heart had skipped a beat as the ship, was drifting farther, and farther away. I dropped the bat that was still clutched in my hands as I watched my chance of survival disappearing into the thick, greasy fog. Every atom and cell in my body wanted to break down crying, but I didn’t. I just let my eyes sting, and my throat strain. I remember the faraway look on their faces when they realized that I wasn’t on the boat. When they finally saw me out on shore, trying to keep myself together, they ran to the captain. Probably begging him to turn the ship around.  I imagined the captain shaking his head no, saying it was too late, and that many others got left behind too. I realized that my vision was blurring up. I blinked, and couldn’t keep the ocean of tears back, so I let it all out. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want my family to die. So, I wasn’t going to let it happen, I told myself.

 

 Now here I am, planning to wait out the zombie invasion. But one thing that I had forgot that day, was that once hungry enough, the zombies would do anything to get just one bite from human flesh.

 

      I needed a plan, I thought. I didn’t dare talk out loud. I didn’t want to get caught. I didn’t want to die. I confirmed. The moon was full half up the sky. My parents probably thought I was dead by now, and most of the people on the island were either dead or zombies. A mixture of sweat and mud coated my body, and made me as sticky as honey. Because of this, I had to swat the flies away from my skin. This awfully dire situation felt hopeless.

 

 Earlier that day, I decided to build a raft, or sneak into a store and get one so I could go out into the ocean, and drift away like my parents had on the boat. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I realized that I was really lucky to have found a hiding spot this easy to be hidden in. The position that I was in made my back press against the flat brick wall. The garbage cans made a semicircle around me, but everything was smushed together, so there was no way I could even shift slightly. I could always just stay here and wait for the zombies to starve, then die… but my chances of living in that situation were pretty low.  Another scream dramatized the moment.  I held my breath as I peeked through the crack in between two garbage cans.  Practically all of the zombies ran to the exact location of the scream. They must be hungrier than ever. I have got to get out of here.  I knew that this was my chance. I looked down, trying to persuade my mind not to go, to reconsider.

 

     No one knew how it happened, how the outbreak of zombies came to be. Many believe that the crazy scientist downtown did it, but no one knows for sure. I closed my eyes shut, prayed to god that my life wouldn’t end at age twelve, and let out an aching pain that had been in my chest ever since day one of this chaos. I was thirsty, hungry, and I needed supplies to survive. This risk had to be taken. Now.  I quickly slipped out of my hiding spot, and quietly sprinted through the dark alley, and into a store nearby. My heart was pounding so much, I thought it would rip free and jump away. I heard a groaning. I ignored it. The front window was dull and foggy, showing a small section of the super market. I had to act fast. It was dark outside, with millions of stars sprinkling the sky deep night sky. My mind was focused on sneaking in without getting caught. I tried my best to smoothly slip into the store without making any creaking noise. Once I had entered the store, I realized that the lights started to flicker. The lights flickered, flickered, flickered, then went out, and even the bright stars outside couldn’t protect me from the darkness that was swallowing me whole. I had to admit, I was afraid. Then, I heard another groaning. Now, in the darkness, the groan seemed to be getting closer. I tensed up. I had to remember, that if this is a zombie I’m dealing with, and I survive,  I couldn’t tell anyone about it, write a story about nearly escaping a zombie, or anything like that. People believe that knowing about one’s interference with a zombie is extremely bad luck. 

 

I wanted to run out the door, as quietly as possible. Of course, nothing ever good happens when you’re around millions of dark souls. I tripped over my feet in my own hastiness, and no matter how hard I tried to keep it in, a loud whimper escaped my throat. My nose was bleeding. I listened and waited, expecting a zombie to come out of the shadows in the store. I turned to go outside, when I see three zombied waddling towards the store. they smell my blood, I thought, wiping my nose. If I ran out, the zombies would definitely catch me. I couldn’t give up now! The zombie invasion must be half way over by now. I’m almost there. The zombies were nearly at the door now. Panicking, I grabbed everything in the huge, cold sore around me, and used them to block the door. They were getting closer. Closer…. I gazed at them in disgust. Those horrible monsters weren’t actually alive. They are, but they couldn’t be. They have no soul, no meaning. All living things have purpose. They grow, love, care, and feel pain. Zombies don’t care. Don’t even pay attention. They could walk off a cliff and not even know it.

 

     Thank god these aren’t automatic -slide- opening doors. My relief was quickly swept over by a wave of worries. The zombies were lightly pushing open the door- and the door was giving out. My heart returned to it’s racing speed, accept this time, it was over. I took a couple steps back. I couldn’t lose. I was almost there. But…. was that enough to save me? Once again, I looked around. Pitch black. I could only see slightly near the windows because of the dim street lights. I had to hide. Then, it seemed like the only sway. If only I had known NOT to do that. I wiped my bleeding nose and wiped it on a mannequin. That way, they might  pay a bit more attention to that. I then quickly disappeared into the dark shadows. This was where I made my mistake.

 

Staying as low as a whisper, I searched the gigantic building for a spot to hide. I still hadn’t found a good hiding spot, when I heard the door give way. I was doomed. I ran. Fast. I didn’t know where to go, but one thing was being repeated over and over again in my mind: Run. 

 

  I ran faster than the speed of light, but I was running out of building. Eventually, I had a little collision with a fellow zombie, who just HAPPENED to be carrying a knife in his hand. Does that seem even a little odd to you?!!

 

That…. that thing chased me around like a creepy dead stalker, which he was, so it couldn’t get any worse than that. I ran into a bathroom. I didn’t care which one. As soon as I entered, I was surrounded by the living dead. I tried to exit through the door, but I was blocked. Where did he come from? These zombIes were appearing out of nowhere! They were walking towards me, and I was taking trembling little steps back. Soon enough, by back was pressed against the tile wall. 

 

On that day, I forgot that the zombies were almost there too. But they were closer, they always were. 

 

 

 

David Cao is a 15-year-old Chinese-American originally from Chongqing. He loves to watch TWD and read graphic novels in his free time. When he isn’t writing, he is sketching out ideas for a new comic strip.