Jason Sanchez - When They Come

“Smart if they’re ready for a long term stay.” Matt thought. Much like most people addicted to the digital world, he learned to de-humanize the situation in order to ease off some of the stress.

He tried to think of the situation as nothing more than a video game simulation, one he was determined to pass. He thought of people as other players and thought that the longer he can go without power, the better his score and the stronger he will become out of all this mess.

He smiled at himself for coming up with such a great idea.

“This is nothing.”, he thought. He went around looking for items that would be of any use for the time being.

“That’s it, that’s it, that’s FUCKING it!” Matt, unfazed by the random outbursts crept nearer to his door. It sounds like his neighbor could no longer take the psychological stress of the scratching. He was furious.

He wasn’t thinking.

Matt heard the door open. He also remembered that the doors in the apartment opened inside. While his neighbor had his hand on the knob, Stephanie immediately threw her weight onto him and finally won her prize.

It was ironic, pure, primal instinct out did a being with logic and the ability to plan. Her simple scratching got him to open the door, caught him by surprise, and eventually lost his life and joined the ranks.

Matt listened to his loud screams, only seconds ago, full of rage, now, full of pain and fear. Matt heard some crunching.

He closed his eyes and thought to himself.

“One more player down. It could have been me.”

Suddenly, the world became a little bit more real and he began to wonder how much longer his door could out.

How much longer could he hold out?

Do You Believe Everything You See on TV?

It hadn’t been more than a few days since news of further outbreaks hit the front pages and clouded news programs all over. The emergency service broadcasts warned of power outages and gave instructions on where to go if outages affected your area or if you were bitten/infected.

“Why is it that if you’re infected, they advise you not to go to a hospital?”, Dave asked.

“Really, dude? ‘Cause they’ll probably take you somewhere and just shoot you. Remember that reporter? If I was a doctor, I wouldn’t want to treat that.”, Jason said back.

“I don’t know, doctor? Really? You’re more of a candy striper” Dave replied back, laughing at his friend.

“I didn’t know they still made those. Thanks, Mr. 1950’s”, Jason came back. “But, seriously, we need to think of something because this doesn’t seem to be getting any better. It just gets worse and worse and that bothers me.”

“What makes it worse is that things keep getting closer and closer! We even have a curfew now, I didn’t even have one of these when I was a kid!”

“Dave, it’s tough, but it’ll blow over. It has to. Oh shit man, what time is it?”

“It’s about 10:45pm…” Dave said.

“Mind if I crash here? I don’t feel like getting picked up by those cops. You heard they shot some drunk guy ‘cause he was out late and limping around to get home? I don’t even want to chance it.”

“Sure man, go ahead. I felt like having a beer, and now that you’re staying, I won’t have to be pathetic and drink alone!”

“You’re an ass…but, yeah, throw one over here.”

A few hours had passed by. Both friends fell asleep after a few beers. They didn’t notice the TV’s steady beep. The text scrolling on the bottom was what every town that had become over run was playing.

THUMP

THUMP

Dave stirred a bit; it was 4:30am.

THUMP

THUMP

The house was dark. The only light was from the TV. It’s steady beep was lost to Dave. The thumping noise was coming from the front door.

He was too tired to notice the text.

“Do not let anyone in. Beware of bites. Beware of infected. Head to your nearest evacuation site located on…”

Dave limped to the door

THUMP

THUMP

The noise grew more and more excited after it heard Dave’s footsteps.

Jason began to stir a little bit. Something was wrong.

Dave looked through the small rectangle window on his door. No one was there. He began to walk back to the couch, letting sleep take his body again.

Scratch.

The noise echoed through his mind, “What the hell..?” He said to himself. He went back to the door and heard two hands scratching at the wooden structure. The noises grew more and more louder and more excited.

THUMP THUMP

SCRATCH SCRATCH

Whatever it was smelled him and grew aroused at Dave’s presence. Looking through the window, seeing nothing, and hearing the scratching, Dave was confused and scared.

What was behind the door?

He opened the door slowly.

The door was pushed back with just enough force to knock Dave on his feet. One of the undead, with mangled legs, bone sticking out and blood still pumping through them looked at his meal. It pushed itself forward with it’s gnarled fingernails. It’s dragged itself closer and closer to Dave, letting out an excited and loud moan.

It grabbed Dave’s legs. He kicked it away.

“Wh-What, Jay, JAY!!”

Jason ran over and froze for a second at the sight. It was a young adult, not much older than them. His body was destroyed, his legs were twisted and his clothes were torn. He had barely decayed if at all.

“Help me!” Dave yelled “Please! Don’t just stand there!”

The monster snapped it’s jaws at Dave’s legs. He kicked it in it’s face, knocking away a loose tooth.

Jason ran over and stepped on his head, smashing it into the floor.

Over and over again he stepped on the undead’s head until it stopped trying to turn his friend into one of it’s own.

Dave dragged himself away from it’s now loosened grip and hugged his knees. Still on the floor, he looked at it and began to breathe heavily. A few tears rolled down his cheek.

“Jay, what was that? Did I just almost..”

“No! We killed it, you’re fine. We’re both fine!”, Jason yelled.

They couldn’t hide their fear anymore. The lives they had taken for granted and the safety they relied on was all but gone. Jason held in tears as hard as he could. He looked outside as he walked to close the door. He noticed three limping figures a few blocks away. They were drawn to the safety lamps of the house.

The irony was not lost on him.

He dragged the ghoul out by its legs into the middle of the street and quietly made his way back into the house and closed the door quietly and locked it.

Dave made sure to lock the other doors and draw the curtains.

Jason was in the kitchen, going through the cupboards. His eyes were red. Dave knew his friend. There was fear written all over his face.

“Hey man, now what?”, he asked quietly.

Jason put a can of kidney beans on the table and squeezed it hard with one hand.

“I don’t know man. I just, I don’t know.” Jason couldn’t hold it back anymore, he cried softly a little bit.

“Hey, Jay, thanks, man. If you weren’t there, I don’t know man, they would have taken me to one of those hospitals and you know.”

“No, we’re fine man, and that’s what counts. I wouldn’t let them do that to you.” He looked up and smiled, eyes still red, “you’re welcome though, dude.”

They both began to compose themselves and sat down on the couch. The steady tone was just background noise now, and it was also the only night in the house.

“We can’t stay here forever. We don’t have enough food and I saw a few of those things wandering around. Should we head to the evacuation site?”