In the Summer of 2020 I traveled home to visit my parents. I don’t know why I did. They always had hated me. They never really showed any affection. But nonetheless I felt that familial loyalty to them and I guess that is what brought me back.
I ended up staying there a month, helping my father rebuild a barn that had burnt down the previous summer. They seemed kinder now, now that I was away from their lives. Perhaps I brought them down into the pits of despair.
“Travel safe dear,” my mother told me, as we made our way towards the train I would be boarding.
“It’s a train, mom, I don’t think I could be any safer,” I told her.
“We love you, Kevin,” she said. She and my father each giving me a goodbye hug. Well this was certainly new, but I had time to ponder it on the five hour train ride home.
I said my goodbyes and made my way onto the train. I sat next to an elderly couple, putting in headphones so they would know not to talk to me. I hated chatting with strangers.
I fell asleep, waking up as the train pulled into the station. Everyone got off and I headed over to the parking area where my moped was.
This place is surprisingly empty, I noted to myself as I headed towards the lot. Normally it was bustling with people.
I was even more shocked when I managed to get to the parking lot. It was packed with cars as usual. So where was everyone?
I heard a grunting noise, turning to face the source of the noise. A lone man in tattered clothing was limping towards me. Something didn’t feel right about him. He seemed off somehow like he didn’t belong here.
I started quickly walking away from him, and more people in tattered clothes came out, following me towards my moped. Something felt familiar here but terribly wrong.
The people started mobbing towards me, traveling at a more rapid pace. I broke into a run, my moped in sight. The crowd began to run after me.
I leapt onto my moped, digging the keys out of my pocket. I brought the thing to life, speeding away from the people and out onto the open highway.
I noticed lines of cars, just parked in the middle of the road. I had to zigzag through them and not a person was in sight.
What happened while I was gone? I asked myself. I figured Albert would know. I took the familiar streets that were now empty towards the pizzeria. Parking out front I went inside.
“Albert?” I asked as I made my way towards the back. Albert’s pogo stick was propped against the wall. I never understood why he was so obsessed with getting a record for that. It seemed silly.
I noticed the store was rather damaged and windows were broken. I then heard that familiar moaning sound. Albert came limping out of the back, similar to the other people at the train station.
“Albert are you ok?” I asked him.
“Grruuu,” Albert mumbled.
I glanced down at the magazine sitting on the counter. It was a tv guide from a few years ago. Albert never updated his magazine stock.
“The Walking Dead” was on the cover. I had always enjoyed that show. And then it clicked. It was really happening. A zombie apocalypse was taking place at this very moment.
“Shit,” I growled. I backed away from the slow m
“What do you think I’m doing,” I yelled back. The zombies were trained on me now, coming towards me.
The girl stayed, petrified where she was. I knew she might know more about this outbreak than I did. She might have some valuable insight.
The zombies were coming towards me now. I stopped the moped, noticing a golf club in the backseat of a car near by. I tried the door, finding it unlocked.
As I pulled it out, the zombies were nearly upon me. “Come at me,” I yelled at the zombies. They charged forward, and I connected club to head, sending guts spraying from the first one. I repeated the process with the next two.
The girl was clearly less traumatized now. She jumped from the top of the mini van and raced towards me. “Oh thank-you,” she said.
“It’s no problem, miss,” I told her, “I just got back to town, I really have no idea what’s going on.”
The girl’s face turned downcast. “The doctors were working on an experimental cancer treatment,” the girl said, “it went horribly wrong.”
Suddenly a groaning sound came from a few blocks away. “We need to get out of here,” I told her.
She hopped on the back of the moped, wrapping her arms around his waist. “You don’t have any helmets?” she asked.
“Where’s the fun in that?” I said with a laugh.
I jolted us forward and down the road. “There is a group of us staying in an apartment towards the edge of the city,” the girl said, “we will be safe there for now.”
“Tell me the directions,” I told her, and I headed towards the southern city edge.
oving Albert and out the door, hopping on my moped once again.
Fear was pulsing through my body. How had this happened? Why did the train still drop them off here with such widespread disaster? Why wasn’t it on the news? Where else had the virus spread to? And how was it spread?
My thoughts were disrupted by a gut-wrenching scream. A ways down the road I saw a young woman who had managed to climb atop a mini van. About three zombies surrounded her.
Normally I wasn’t the saving type, but I couldn’t let this girl be overrun and killed by zombies. Plus, since the train, she was the only human I had actually seen.
I let out a whistle, gathering the attention of the zombies. “Oh my god, please help me,” the girl wailed.