Hi everyone, this is the third, and final instalment of “A Zombie's tale.” Anyone wishing to catch up on the earlier instalments can find them here:-
A Zombie's tale. (Part 1)
Zurvivor. (A Zombie's tale Part 2)
Thank you for reading.
Steve Green.
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Zigourney. (A Zombie's tale Part 3)
Seventeen days later...
I went through what had come to be my morning ritual, removing the bullet from the revolver, I cleaned it, carefully replaced it, then ran the chamber across the palm of my hand setting it spinning. I closed my eyes, and when the chamber finally stopped turning I drew the hammer back with my thumb, placed the barrel in my mouth, and squeezed the trigger...
CLICK !
I guess fate doesn't want me to die today.
As I placed the revolver back onto the packing crate there came a thud from the door at the top of the stairs...
“Ah Jeez... ” It had been eleven days since there'd been any noises at the door, and I was trying to pluck up the courage to take a look outside. Courage was in short supply down here, my time in the dungeon had done something to me, taken something from me, maybe I would never find the courage to leave.
THUD!
My shredded nerves got the better of me. I screamed obscenities at the stairwell, too far gone to care any more.
THUD... THUD... THUD... THUD... THUD... THUD...THUD... THUD... THUD...
Panic started setting in, would this nightmare never end? Something snapped inside me, yes... yes.. the nightmare would end, it would end right now. I grabbed the gun and raced up the stairs...
Somewhere deep inside my terror-stricken brain I realized there were other noises mixed in with the thuds, smaller noises, muffled, almost drowned out by the banging...
I reached the door and pressed my ear against the wood, listening carefully...
THUD... THUD... THUD... “Hey, hey, is someone down there?” THUD... THUD... THUD...
A voice, a human voice, almost lost on its journey through the heavy door.
THUD... THUD...THUD... “Hey... open the door... ” THUD... THUD... THUD...
I almost wept with relief, taking a firm hold of the heavy bolt I slid it aside, the door slowly opened towards me...
Framed in the doorway was a young woman, probably in her twenties, she was filthy, streaked with blood and grime, her clothes ripped and scuffed, held loosely in her hand, and caked with dried blood and globs of gristle was the biggest, meanest-looking cleaver I have ever seen.
“Hi,” she said, a wide grin spreading across her face, “do you err... have anything to eat down there? I'm starving.”
* * * * *
Over the next hour or so, and between mouthfuls of tinned fish and fruit, she told me how she had survived the slaughter. How she had grabbed a bag of supplies, and made it up to one of the tower rooms. The zombies, unable to climb the ladder had eventually wandered off in pursuit of another resident who had stumbled past the doorway.
Several days later the sound of a heavy engine caused her to look from the window. Some of the survivors were making a run for it. One of the castle's tourist coaches was idling in the yard and several survivors were feverishly unblocking the main gate, whilst others fought bravely to keep the zombies at bay.
The gate unblocked and opened, the ones still left alive boarded the coach, which then drove off through the gate, accelerating all the time, and in a shower of splintering bones and spraying body fluids punched its way through the horde of living dead in the castle's outer grounds. The mass of inhumanity followed the fleeing vehicle, joined by the ones that had chased the residents from the castle's interior.
She had watched with horror as the coach ran off the road and into a tree about half a mile from the castle. Soon the area was a mass of writhing creatures trying to climb over each other to get at the meal now available to them.
Eventually, the feast over, the zombies had walked off in the direction of the city ruins, perhaps drawn by the sounds of moans from other living dead.
A few days later, her food gone, she had been forced to leave her hideout and scavenge the castle for supplies. Wandering through the body-strewn rooms and corridors she had encountered only a few of the living dead, usually trapped behind closed doors, she had then taken great delight in introducing them to her razor-sharp friend, which just now lay on the floor close beside her.
* * * * *
“I have a plan,” She said, “We'll re-seal the gate, then work our way through the castle room by room, drag all the bodies outside and burn them. We can survive here for years, I don't know if there is anyone else left alive or not, but I'm for staying put.”
I looked at this draggle-haired, dirt-encrusted, gore-splattered, post-apocalyptic angel before me...
She was awesome... Beautiful...
“It sounds like a good plan.” I said, my voice quivering slightly. “I don't know if names mean anything any more, but for what it's worth, my name's Adam.”
“Pleased to meet you Adam.” She smiled, that broad confident grin that had greeted me when I had opened the door.
“My name is Zigourney, yeah... I know... it was my dad's idea, I think he was a bit of a closet chav, but I prefer to go by my middle name, which was also my mother's name, it's Evelyn, in the old world my friends just used to call me Eve.”
©2011 Stephen. J. Green.
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A Zombie's tale. (Part 1)
Zurvivor. (A Zombie's tale Part 2)
Oh what a perfect ending, loved it! Adam and Eve the new beginning!
ReplyDeleteGood story enjoyed all of them.
Honestly, I think that "CLICK" moment might have been your most clever invention to date in prose. Good work, Steve.
ReplyDeleteAnd such was life in the castle Eden....
ReplyDelete@Helen - Thanks, I did want to give it a happy ending... sort of.
ReplyDelete@John - Haha, it was just something that "Clicked" into place. :-)
@Tim - Well, it will be once that bit of tidying up has been taken care of. :-)
I enjoyed this variation of the origin story. Life is so much easier with someone else. A nice ending that leaves us with a sense of hope (and a lot of hard work in the near future.)
ReplyDeleteWe have to start over at some point, right? It might as well be the next Adam and Eve. That was a nice touch at the end.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your zombie tales, Steve, and I look forward to reading more of them down the way.
Very clever way to wrap this up! Adam & Eve indeed. Let's hope they do a good job of sealing up the doors again!
ReplyDeleteDad, That's a fabulous ending to the Z tales! It's lovely when you can wrap it all up neatly with a bow on top.
ReplyDeleteLouise.
Wonderful way to tie the ends together. I think there's nothing more fantastic than a determined woman with a cleaver.
ReplyDelete@Aidan – Thank you, yes, with a good woman by his side there will be so much more to live for.
ReplyDelete@Stephen – The ending seemed just the perfect way to bring this mini-series to an end. (If indeed this really IS the end of it) I don't have any more zombie stories earmarked for the near future, but then again this last two were “spur of the moment” so maybe my muse will throw another one my way.
@FAR – Oh, I'm pretty sure HE will make sure that the door is well-sealed, after all, he has plenty of positive things to focus on now. :-)
@Louise – Thank you darling, I know how much you like zombie fiction, and I was hoping that this one would give you a fix. :-)
@Icy – Thank you, I quite agree, and the name Zigourney is of course a derivative from the name of the actress who played the awesome Ripley in the Aliens quadrilogy, one of my all-time favourite heroines (and films).
This piece was really well thought out. I'm impressed with everything about it. The hook and the end said so much about life on the extreme and the begining of a new path.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part was his description of her near the end: "this draggle-haired, dirt-encrusted, gore-splattered, post-apocalyptic angel." The image is somehow disgusting and endearing at the same time. Really enjoyed every word of this conclusion, well done!
ReplyDelete@Lara - High praise indeed, thank you so much for the confidence boost. :-)
ReplyDelete@Liminal - Thank you, it was the best way I could describe what I could see in my mind's eye.
Hi Steve =)
ReplyDeleteA good ending to the trilogy, and I liked the way you played with a few zombie conventions on the way to the end, the thumping door, the coach escape attempt.
The end... or the beginning... as they used to say. ;)
Hiya John, and thank you. I never intended to add anything to the original story, but I'm glad that now that I did. The thing with post-apocalyptic fiction is that there is always another confrontation for them to deal with, or the strife of the next generation to add on. I'm not completely sure that this story is over yet. :-)
ReplyDelete