Kirk Allmond - What Zombies Fear - A Father's Quest

“I guess the most important part is how I got bitten,” she said.

“I was bent over the bathroom sink to wash my hands. When I lifted my head up, I jumped at the sudden appearance of a disheveled looking woman. Her blonde hair was frizzy, her clothes were all crooked and she was staring at me through the mirror with a crazed look on her face,” Leo said.

Leo’s accent was very thick and hard to trace. It was definitely Australian, but there was a tone of something else I couldn’t place. “Leo, where are you from? I can’t place your accent. I don’t mean to interrupt you, but I’m going to be terribly distracted until I figure it out,” I said. I felt like a jerk for asking, but between her strange wording and the way she pronounced things I really was having a hard time concentrating.

“I lived in Sparta until I was eight,” Leo said. “Until my parents moved us to Sydney, I didn’t speak a word of English. Anyways, I smiled at the crazy looking blonde and tried to apologize for my reaction, but she stood there unfazed, smirking at me. That’s when I noticed a huge cut on her neck. Blood was slowly oozing out of it, turning her yellow t-shirt a scarlet red. The blood had somewhat coagulated, leaving a maroon colored gelatinous lump clinging to the wound. Every time she moved, it jiggled.”

“Oh, gross,” said Mrs. Tookes.

“It was disgusting,” Leo continued. “But I was more worried about how she was even standing. I spun around, reaching to comfort her. I was just about to call for help, when she took hold of my arm forcing my shoulder backwards, pulling my hand towards her. She bit deep into my forearm just above my wrist.” Leo paused, remembering the incident.

“Shit, Leo. I can’t imagine – don’t want to imagine how much that hurt,” I said.

Leo grimaced. “The pain was excruciating. Her teeth pierced through the layers of skin deep into the muscle. It was unlike any kind of pain I had ever felt in my life. I pushed myself sideways; my shoulder felt like it was inches from dislocating, but I managed to bend my elbow and she let go, tearing a small chunk from my arm. She came at me with full power and we locked with each other. She pushed towards me; I tried to push her back away from me. She was very strong; the best I could do was to hold my ground,” she said.

My mother looked upset by all this. She was wringing her hands and had a very slight frown on her face. She was trying to remain stoic, but she hadn’t experienced any of this type of horror. She’d been safely locked down on the farm during the outbreak. She hadn’t ever seen anyone get bitten. Sure, she’d seen news reports, but hearing a firsthand account had left her visibly shaken. I remembered how upset I was when I watched the one on the gurney bite that EMT’s throat out. Bile rose in my throat remembering that experience, remembering the terror and ultimately my determination to get to Max and see him to safety.

Leo continued her story, “Suddenly, I felt my body twitch several times. My arm felt hot. Not just from the blood that gushed all over it; the heat went all the way up my arm into my chest. I remember that my eyesight blurred for a few seconds. At the time, I figured it was from the physical exertion, but after a few seconds, my vision was back. Everything seemed sharper than ever before.”

“Just like me,” said John softly.

“A sudden surge of energy filled me,” said Leo. “I thought it was the adrenaline finally kicking in, but now I know better. The blonde woman’s face was covered with my blood. That sight made me mad. I remember being so angry with her. I concentrated all my will, summoning every bit of strength I could muster and grabbed her by her jaw. Her eyes widened at the pressure. I don’t think she understood what had happened to me any more than I did. With one swift movement, I pushed her to the side, driving her head into the ceramic hand drier mounted onto the wall. The force of the impact destroyed the drier, smashing it into pieces. She fell to the ground, her skull split open from the force of the collision. A pool of blood bloomed on the white tiles underneath her. After just a second, she pulled her arms under her body and got to her feet, the look in her cloudy eyes wild and vengeful.”

“Wait. She wasn’t dead?” asked my mother.

“No,” said Leo. “And that’s when it dawned on me. It felt unbelievable, but it made perfect sense. I had been an avid fan for years. She was a zombie and she wasn’t going to go down easy. She leaped towards me, but I somehow managed to avoid her. I ran, swerving past her, hoping she would lose sight of me. I had no weapon to finish her off with, but the door was easily accessible now, so I ran for it. I ran faster than I’d ever run before. I was out the door before she even realized where I went.”

“Leo, I’m amazed you survived,” I said. “What brought you to the States in the first place?”

“It was meant to be a well-earned break for me, away from the everyday bullshit, meeting new friends, experiencing American culture, the people, and their way of life. I got that, plus some! John and I, although we lived in different states, we had been planning for this trip for over a year. Our American connection and best mate, Kyle Anderson, had invited us to stay at his place for two weeks. He had organized activities where we could test our combat, survival and shooting knowledge all in the name of fun. We all knew each other through our favorite survivalist website. Our trip was to culminate with a big gathering of American people from the site.”

“You were a survivalist before all this? I wish I’d been more prepared. I mean, I’d often thought about what would happen if zombies walked the earth, but I never expected it to really happen,” I said.

“We all wrote articles on various survival topics. John and Kyle were both pretty entertaining characters. We spent a lot of time chatting online. I couldn’t have picked two more compatible mates. John and Kyle were both the same build, sported the same short hair; they’re both witty and fast with their jokes. Sometimes, I wondered if the two of them were twins separated at birth.”

John smiled. He had kind of a glossed over look, as if he was thinking about his friend Kyle.

“I flew in from Sydney,” Leo said. “Kyle picked me up at Dulles airport since his house wasn’t far from there. As we drove, I got a quick glimpse of an American town for the first time in my life through the car window.”

“How did it compare to Sydney?” Mom asked her.

“The suburbs looked similar to back home, but the atmosphere was completely different. Maybe it was being in an unfamiliar territory that made it exciting. John had already arrived a day earlier; he was crashed on the couch when we got there. I practically had to kick him so he would wake up and greet me, which he did with a wisecrack comment as always. To this day, I don’t believe I have ever been able to beat him with a smarter comeback, but the day will come and I will drink to it.”

Leo grinned at John as she spoke. John appeared lost in his own thoughts, so she continued. “We spent two days catching up, laying back at Kyle’s drinking and laughing; then it was time for some adventure. I packed my kukri and my batons in my pack along with some water, a couple of shirts and something to munch on, and the three of us took off in Kyle’s huge, black, four door ute.”

“A ute?” I asked. “What is a ute?”

“You yanks call ‘em pickups, mate. We call ‘em ‘utility trucks’, or ‘utes’,” replied John.

“It was about nine in the morning, so we decided to stop in Leesburg for breakfast before driving to wherever Kyle was going to take us. He’d kept it secret for some reason. I wish he had lent his secret to us, I will never know where we were heading that day,” Leo said sadly. “The boys made the usual jokes between mouthfuls of chocolate chip pancakes and orange juice. I noticed two men across the road wrestling in a lane. They were stumbling, and I assumed they were drunk, or they were playfully ‘fighting’ with each other. I thought I saw one of them bite the other on the shoulder, but I wasn’t paying much attention as I made my way to the bathroom to clean up from breakfast.”