I’m just glad this thing has come to an end and that’s it’s all over. It may not be the kind of thing that you’d expect a person to be thinking in a moment like this, but I can assure you, you’d be thinking the same thing if you were my position. I had just accomplished something spectacular and after a long strenuous wait I finally felt at ease. My friend tugged feverishly on my arm.
“Yeah yeah. I’ll be with you soon.”
My struggle was over at last. A sense of peace washed over me as I laid there on the hot asphalt of the freeway staring up at the clouds. In that moment all I could think was,
“My god this world is beautiful.”
Chapter One: Shock
It was a seemingly normal day. I mean that relatively of course. Nothing these days was really “normal.”
It was early morning and I was driving down the trans-Canada highway somewhere between Saskatchewan and Alberta. I had left Ontario 3 days before and was heading west towards B.C. I had heard that there was a safe zone there where people were living like the good old days, before the world went to shit. At this point I was somewhere in Saskatchewan. Well, I assumed it was Saskatchewan on account of how straight the road and how flat the landscape was.
The drive was easy. In fact it was mind numbingly boring and border line hypnotic. There was nothing to look at for miles except for the odd car pulled off to the side of the road and a few white patches of snow, remnants of a particularly brutal winter. I had driven through the night and was feeling euphoric as I watched the sun begin to rise above the horizon.
My eyes drifted back towards the road. For a brief moment I thought I was dreaming. There was a man standing in the middle of the highway. This posed a serious problem for me. My car was travelling at top speed and the man was directly in my path. Instinctively, I swerved. The tires squealed a high pitch whine sending white smoke into the crisp morning air.
I hit the ditch at almost top speed. The car did a few barrel rolls before coming to a stop on its roof. Luckily the habit of wearing a seat belt had been ingrained in me since birth. Images of a bingo ball rolling inside a wire basket come to mind when I think of alternative scenarios.
The accident hit me in the chest and head and sent a shock wave through my being. I crawled from the wreckage coughing up caustic dust. Powder from the air bags that helped save my life. My head throbbed.
I was engulfed in a fog of confusion as I stumbled my way onto the road. I was in a daze. I looked up to where I had swerved just moments ago. The man was standing in the exact same place, un-phased by what had happened. He turned his head towards me. He had the characteristic blood shot eyes and blank stare that I had learned to fear and that had come to haunt my dreams. I hadn’t seen one in months. They had all frozen over the winter but now I guess they were starting to thaw in the warmer April weather.
His mouth dropped open as his arms and hands lifted. Reaching out towards me he lurched forward. I instinctively turned and bolted down the highway. Create distance. It had become a principle rule of survival in the new world.
My Adrenalin wore off quickly. I was breathing hard and began to feel nauseous as lactic acid built up in my leg muscles. I learned forward to catch my breath. I looked back and could see him in the distance, slowly lumbering towards me, his mouth open and his arms outstretched. His pace was steady and persistent. I wasn’t thinking clearly but I knew that I had to keep moving. He wasn’t going to stop until he caught me.
My initial shock wore off as I realized that there was no point in running. Out here there was nothing to run to. There was nothing for miles, except open road and overgrown field. This was going to be an endurance race and running would only waste energy. I began to walk at a comfortable but steady pace, trying only to maintain the distance I had already established.
I could keep this up for a while. Unfortunately though, so could he.
Chapter Two: Denial
Hours passed slowly. I kept up my usual pace, but so did my stalker. The relentless bastard. I glanced back periodically. I estimated that he was about 2 minutes behind me.
The sun began to dip below the horizon and soon it was dark. My shirt was damp with sweat and the air was cold. I felt a chill run up my spine. I looked behind me once again. There was only a sliver of a moon that night and it was too dark to see anything. But I knew I was still being followed. The thought made the chill worse.
You’d be surprised at how difficult it is to walk in a straight line when it’s dark outside and you can’t see the horizon. Every hour or so I’d gradually drift to the right and end up on the soft gravel shoulder of the highway. I’d turn slightly to the left to correct myself and an hour or so later I’d hit the left shoulder. It went on that way through the night.
I was getting tired and my muscles were stiff in the cold. Everything from my waist down was in pain. My inner thighs and my calves burned. Each step was agony. I could feel blisters developing on my feet. My body screamed for me to stop but I knew that I couldn’t.
The pain came in waves. I tried not to think about it. I occupied my thoughts with other things and pretended that this wasn't happening.
My thoughts always came back to the pain.
My eyes struggled to see and in the darkness my mind played tricks on me. I saw faces and shadows moving towards me. I flinched and ducked putting my hands up to protect my face. But I felt nothing in front of me. I looked above at the stars closet to the horizon. They became my focal point. Small beacons of light to guide my way.
Chapter Three: Depression
Eventually, the sun began to rise again. In the fresh light I looked back and saw my silent stalker walking at the same pace as he had the day before. He was closer to me now. I must have slowed down in the night without realizing it. I looked ahead and saw nothing but open road and fields. A fresh wave of panic swept over me.
“Dammit!”
I said it out loud. I was exhausted, dehydrated and in pain. All I could think about were the blisters on my feet and the relentless pounding of the road. But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t rest. There was nothing in sight and there was nowhere to go. Everything felt hopeless. Waves of doubt and agony washed over the shores of my soul. The spurts of pain were getting longer with each passing moment. Endorphins were being released into my system as fast as my body could produce them, but my resources had dwindled. There was no reprieve.
In my miserable sorrow I shut my eyes. I continued to walk using the same strategy that I had done during night. I imagined my body running on auto pilot. I tried to “will” a part of my brain to fall sleep like a shark swimming in the ocean.
Chapter Four: Bargaining
With my eyes closed my mind was flooded with lavish images and radiant scenes of color. Was I dreaming?
Gravel… Gravel… Gravel… I chuckled to myself. Gravel… Gravel… Gravel…
A memory of my father popped into my mind. We had built a deck in our backyard one summer when I was 14. We were dumping large bags of gravel into holes that we had dug for the deck posts. He was telling me how the gravel stopped the posts from sinking in the soil over time. He then gave me some cliché about the importance of a good foundation. I remember being bored at the time. I tried to get out of the situation so that I could spend the afternoon with friends. My dad was looking at me. His face was so clear and vivid. He kept saying
“Gravel is your foundation,”
over and over again.
“I don’t know what you are talking about but can I go now?”
At that moment my foot came down onto open air. I was falling. My eyes shot open in alarm. I had been walking on the soft gravel shoulder and now I was falling into the ditch. My legs struggled to keep up to the momentum of my upper body. My ankle twisted and my arms reached out to catch myself. I hit the ground hard but popped up immediately. My body moved quickly with a new surge of Adrenalin. The ditch was wet and muddy from melting snow. It was almost impossible to walk in. I moved quickly to get back onto the road ahead of my stalker. He was closer now and I could feel myself slowing down.
As the Adrenalin wore off an unfamiliar wave of pain swept over me. My ankle was sprained. I cursed myself.
"How could I be so stupid? Why had I shut my eyes?"
I looked up into the sky.
"Why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? Help me, please."
Chapter Five: Anger
Walking through the night was agony. It wasn’t just the pain anymore. With my foot injured and me limping, my stalker had gained some ground on me. I heard his footsteps only a few feet behind me. I had to jog a few steps every so often just to keep out of his reach. I prayed for the sun to rise. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep this up.
In the morning when the sun did finally rise my world was shattered once more. Again there was nothing in sight. Only fields and flat open road.
“Fuck.”
I put my head back and began to cry. I was tired, broken and overwhelmed by my own self-pity. My chest shuddered and I began to moan and sob. My body got heavy and slow. I felt like giving up. I dragged my feet and then stopped altogether. I closed my eyes and waited for my stalker to take me at last. To put me out of my misery.
Images began to flash before my eyes. I saw my mother’s face. And then my fathers and my sister’s. They had all died over a year ago. I had been alone in this world for a long time and I yearned to see them again. There is nothing worse than being alone.
My family stood there, in my mind’s eye urging me to join them. They looked so peaceful.
But then everything shifted. Their skin fell from their bones and their faces began to rot. Their eyes went blank and their mouths dropped open.
I opened my eyes in anger just as my stalkers hand began to grip my jacket. I unclasped the zipper, pulled myself forward and allowed the jacket to be ripped from my body. Anger fueled me and I moved forward with a new sense of urgency and power.
"I’m not letting you take me. I’ll walk to the end of the earth if I have to!"
Chapter Six:
Hours passed. Or maybe days? It was just the two of us and open road.
“So what’s your name anyway?”
I don’t know why I said it. Maybe because I hadn’t spoken to anyone in weeks or months? I was lonely, depressed and angry. I was dehydrated and in pain. I was confused and delirious from the lack of sleep.
My stalker didn’t answer my question but at that moment the flood gates of my mind opened. Everything that I had been keeping inside for so many weeks and months poured out of me. I told him my entire life’s story from start to finish. He was a good listener. He didn’t say a word.
We had only known each other for a short time. Just a few days. But in a strange way I began to consider him my friend. In a weird way, we had been through a lot together.
I told him about my childhood and wanting to do something great in my life. I didn’t know what exactly but I had always thought I would do something special. I thought I would be someone special.
I told him about my family and how much I loved and I missed them.
My friend remained silent.
I told him how my family had died.
I told him how my father had been bitten when a hunter had entered our home in search of food. In search of meat. My father had tried to defend us but eventually he fell. I remember clearly the hunter perched over him, eating his face while my mother screamed. In that moment all I could do was turn and looked away.
Even the memory of it was horrid.
Somehow we snuck past the hunter. I lead the way holding my sisters hand, pulling her as I went. As we passed my father I looked down. I couldn’t help myself. His eyes were open, even while the hunter feasted. His lifeless eyes looked through me. But then my father’s hand shot out. He grabbed my mother’s ankle as she tried to move past him. She tripped and went down. I felt a tug on my arm. My sister stopped to help my mother while I stood motionless at the open door, paralyzed in a moment of terror. I stood there watching the two of them scream. My father had my mom’s leg and the hunter was now on my sister. Something in me jolted and I turned and ran from the house without looking back.
I told my friend how the image and the sounds of that day have been etched into my mind. I told him that I still see their faces each time I shut my eyes. I told him that I dream about them each night and how I wake up in a pool of my own sweat. I told him that I am ashamed of myself for being a coward and how many times I thought about giving up. I told him how many times I had thought about ending my own life.
My entire family had been bitten but I had survived because I ran. I did nothing to save my family and now I’m tortured everyday by my own cowardice.
My friend said nothing. He didn’t judge me or offer me advice. He just listened.
I felt a great sense of release and in that moment I cried. I cried while I walked.
After a while I began to feel relief. I felt relieved at having told someone what had happened and how I felt about it.
We continued to walk in silence for a time.
It was mid afternoon and the sun was shining. Fluffy billowing clouds gently floated across the sky. Ahead of me was field and open road. Behind me was my new friend.
I stopped and a laid down on the warm asphalt. It felt good against my skin.
I had been walking for days without sleep. I was exhausted and in pain and ready for it all to end. I thought about the past few days. I had accomplished something quite spectacular. I felt at ease in the moment and realized that I had been resisting my world for long enough. I was ready to join my family, wherever they were.
My friend reached down and began tugging on my arm.
“Yeah yeah. I’ll be with you soon.”
Acceptance
A sense of peace washed over me as I laid there on the asphalt staring up at the clouds as they gently drifted across the blue sky.
“This world truly is beautiful.”
The End
This story was created for @sndbox and @celfmagazine's short story writing contest.
Dang.. That was quite a story. You're a super talent writer and in my opinion deserve more feedback, unfortunately steem has been really slow lately and like a ghost town.. But I'm glad I took the time to come back here and read this. I especially liked how the main character kept talking to the zombie.
Even made me a bit emotional at times. I love zombie stories and movies and games and you did a great job with this one! Well done man.
Thanks a lot. I appreciate the affirmation. I'm glad you liked the story. Yeah I'm a big fan of zombie stories as well. I actually envisioned this as a graphic novel with a lot of the story being told through imagery. Unfortunately i'm not that talented in the drawing department and it would take a long time to create a graphic novel. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to accomplish that. Take care man.
Would be awesome as a graphic novel or a movie or something like that! Though you did such a great job with your words that it felt like it was anyways. And thanks! Same to you. :)
Este post ha sido votado por @celfmagazine. Un proyecto de curación y revista digital de arte y cultura.
This post has been upvoted by @celfmagazine. A curation project and digital art and culture magazine.
Thanks for the support! I appreciate it :)
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