A Nightmare

“I’m going to knock your fucking head off!” Johnny shouts at the oozing corpse in front of him. The stench of feces, rotted organs and spoiled blood rises in the wet, winded air but that doesn’t bother him. Twenty four hours ago he was dealing with normal, everyday problems. He was going back home to his on and off again girlfriend and trying to find out where they now stood.

But then it began to storm…in the middle of a sunny, warm California morning rapid darkness coursed through the clouds-the veins of the sky, diseasing and ripping apart the gorgeous, average weather and replacing it with treachery. The sky froze into a sheet of black steel then the clouds curled up like brittle, over grown finger nails, in a searing green color. The rain started falling next: hard, wet and cold enough to rattle the bones underneath the flesh it touched.

Thunder rang against the black sky and lightening in the deepest shades of blue broke through, shattering the pallet of dead black above. The electricity in the cities, the towns and farmlands went out all at once and no one was going to be calling for help. Cell phones had no reception as the rain turned into grey balls of hail, plummeting into the ocean, swimming pools and breaking the glass of windows.

And when everyone huddled together with their love ones they thought it was just some quirky, abnormal weather due to some government experiment. None of them dreamed of the events that began occurring next. Not the snowfall in the riches shades of red or the bodies from the graveyards, backyards and ditches that began walking and moaning on the streets…

6 Hours Earlier

On the plane ride back he prepared himself for the best and the worst but only through the freight of being hurt again he was showing the worst. Seize the day-something he and his friends poured into every fan in the form of a song, and as much as he tried living up to this way of life if was difficult. Johnny Christ can conquer any and everything on stage, pulling on his rocker clothes and personality was his safest place in the world. Jonathan Seward on the other hand had a bit of a harder time, he like every other guy makes mistakes with what just may be the love of his life.

He’s no longer a young boy trying to find his way to the world; he’s now a leader, inspiration and a man-a very good man at that. He pulls and pushes away, afraid of his world crumbling beneath him and sometimes finds it just easier to get up as Johnny Christ instead of Johnny Seward. And sometimes that’s where he makes his mistakes…

“Hey,” She greets in a warm hug as soon as he steps through the door. Her arms tell a story of missing and love, just as her eyes do.

“Hey,” He answers as he hugs her, the scent of her hair and that special perfume she wears dances up his nose and pulls at the strings of his rhythm heart.

“How was your flight?”

“It was okay.” He drops his bag on to the floor as he gives their living room a good glance over. She hasn’t changed a thing.

“I’ve missed you.” She says in a very low, shy whisper.

Over the phone they miss each other like crazy but once in person they both stiff up. They once had an intense, often dangerous relationship and as hungry as they are for it they aren’t sure if that’s the right thing to do.

“I’ve been thinking about us on my trip and…I think…it might be better if…”

“So you haven’t really changed your mind?”

“We’re dangerous-“

“We’re in love!”

“Are we?”

“I think so…I’m in love with you and I’d give anything to not see you walk out that door.”

His lips tremble because he can not grasp any words to fit what he is feeling. His head and heart are battling at war with one another and everything else. Sometimes it’s just better to throw in the towel.

“I won’t watch you walk out that door Johnny, I love you and I know you love me too. You’re just scared and I can accept that and give you time.” She says with strong eyes but a weak heart. Abruptly she stalks off towards the door, her arms slightly catching on his jacket as she passes him but she doesn’t dare look into his eyes of burning sensations. “I want to wait forever but I don’t think I can,” She says to the air before turning the knob and escaping the life that they built.

“Idiot,” He mumbles to himself as he stands there rooted to the spot. He can’t turn around and watch her walk away nor can he stop her, this break he hopes can tell him if they’re meant to break. “Fuck!” He shouts at the hasty movement of the floor beneath him. “…Earthquake…” His hand lunges for the couch to stable him-self but he just ends up crashing to the floor. The floor rises and falls, cracks and bends and a developing harmony rises with the two. Sirens from outside sing the lullaby of the song and the screams of nearby neighbors add the background voices for the chorus.

Inside his little living room as the pictures and objects fall, it gets dreary and almost cold. Just as the floors begin shredding it all stops…

Scaring him out of his wits and making him jump out of his skin; she comes bustling through the door, a look of complete freight wearing down her features. She hugs him frantically and he doesn’t understand why. It was just an earthquake, nothing to be so distraught about…Right?

He calms her down and holds her tight, he’s in love with her and won’t turn her away like this. Can’t turn her away like this. And just as he calms her down he gets a good look of what’s going on outside their address.

A pitch black sky, darker then night, a lot eerier too; tight green clouds that are shooting down thick rain droplets-echoing against the glass of the windows creating an alone feeling. And that is what she was trying to tell him, better see then told I suppose.

They sit down on the couch, entangled in each others arms; it’s all going to be okay they reassure one another, just some abnormal weather.

But then the hail begins to glide down from the green clouds, breaking anything it can in site.

“We better get away from the windows…”

“Every fucking room has windows!” She screams in panic, pulling at the ends of her hair.

“Calm down, please, it’s going to be okay, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Line right out of a horror movie…It’s like end of the world!” Before he can reply that ridiculous notion passes through her ears and she begins laughing, the sound soothing them both.

Then together they hustle into their bedroom, theirs only two windows in there and they’re quite small. And if worse comes to worse then they can camp out in their closet.

The minutes start ticking away and outside grows madder and madder. The winds whip at telephone lines thrashing them to the ground, cutting out all means of communication. The lights soon follow the telephone lines and all they have for light is the flicker of the lightening and their useless fancy-smancy cell phones.

The time spent on their bed feels like a tour seven fold. A shattering echoes through out the house and she jumps but doesn’t scream. The bed creaked when her body left it and creaked again when her body came back down in touch. In the corner of her eye she seen Johnny flinch, but he didn’t say anything. They aren’t alone anymore; the end from the outside has just broken in.

They keep quiet and still, maybe it’ll just pass…Maybe they’ll be lucky. What’s lucky about hiding in your house from the apocalypse, surviving and living without all the people who made of your life previously? It doesn’t sound much like being lucky…

More things smash out beyond the door; windows, cabinets, dishes and knick knacks. As long as it’s taking for it to reach them she’s ready to just scream out and help them find her quickly. All this waiting is quietly driving her mad, sound by sound. Every sound; the wind, the breaking, the groaning and the screams from the streets, its all getting to closer but none of it is stopping.

His hand takes hers and he stands up, pulling her in the direction of the closet. “It’s time to hide?” She whispers as light as a feather dropping in the wind, Johnny nods, quietly and slowly pulling open the grey door. He leads her in and waits for her to get settled, she’s sitting on her feet with her hands wrapped in front of her chest. “I love you,” He whispers, looking into her shadowed eyes for what he hopes isn’t the final time. As she goes about to tell him she loves him to, she’s stopped by him closing the door and submitting her into total darkness.

“Johnny!” She calls silently but all she can hear is shuffling noises. A thud taps against the door and she realizes what he’s trying. She turns the knob after she finds it but it doesn’t budge. “Johnny, get your ass in here or let me the fuck out!”

“You’re safe in there,” He whispers to door, picturing her face in his mind before unlocking the bedroom door and stepping out pass the threshold.

A steel bat is secure in his left hand, he picked up from his side of the bed. In front of him he see’s shadows dancing along the walls and ceiling, as he walks further along the noises grow louder and his stomach ties and ties itself into micro knots. He can feel it, the nauseating end that he’s walking into as he walks out into the room.

On a silent count of three he steps out of the hallway into the living area, ready to swing for his life. A puzzled look spreads through his eyes that soon turns into relief-there’s nothing in the room. Mud tracks and blood are spread across the floor but whatever was in here left. He stops a second later, pushing the relief away. He listens stiffly to the rooms around him, waiting to hear that little groan or the light step. But there was nothing.

After a few more minutes pass and he’s quite sure that no one is there he rushes back to his bedroom to let her out. They hug each other tightly and she whimpers silently against his chest. “We should try leaving,” He says into her shoulder before pulling away.

The weather hasn’t changed but it hasn’t gotten better. They were lucky this time, that whoever that was didn’t go into the house further, they can’t be that sure next time. And he told her this and reluctantly she agreed, after all she wasn’t going to let him lock her in a closet again.

Before the journey out into the end of the world they grab jackets, hats and another bat for her. The hail stopped flowing from the ebony sky moments after it started, doing all of its damage within seconds. The streets are bare with no sign of anything living in sight. There are no moving vehicles, people, animals or anything. It’s all just as dead as the sky looks above.

They check their cars and both of them are gone, looks like they’ll have to make their escape by foot. Intently they listen to everything, watching everything for any sign of movement. Watching for any sign of life…

They walk down the street, down a few blocks and it all looks the same. They don’t understand what is happening or even how this is happening. Then their eyes set sight to the beach, the water has turned black with everything in it belly up. As disgusting as it looks it smells even worse. They cover their noses as they keep walking by, with still no signs of life.

There are fires along the streets, shops have burned up and if they didn’t know any better it could have been by the now invisible sun.

“What the hell was that?” She hissed, a shattered noise echoes from up the street, like someone was breaking into a car. They tip toed next to each other, up the street and looking at each and every car as they passed them.

“I don’t know but be quiet,” He whispered, getting ready to hit anything that moved.

Together they screamed as their eyes set upon the scene they almost passed. A decaying man stood over a victim who tried escaping. His face is drenched with the man’s insides, guts and blood smeared along his cheeks with bits of flesh stuck in his bared teeth. His nose sniffed the air at the moment they screamed and broke the silence. He immediately lunges at the couple, who break into a bustling run. They try running together but with all the barriers and breaks in the street they separate.

The man behind them catches up with such a quick speed, it’s unnatural and doesn’t look fitting to someone decomposing. Like in any movie, the girl trips and skids to a stop. He hears it and stops in his tracks, he turns and after seeing her he runs towards her. He knocks the man in the face as he approaches them. She scrambles to her feet to run but is scooped up in the arms of another.

A sickening sound of ripping flesh echoes in the air and he turns to see her writhing in a woman’s arms. She’s screaming as the lady is tearing her teeth into her neck, digging her teeth as deep as she can possibly get them. Her face is moving all around, tearing the flesh in all directions. The blood seeps and spills all over and all he can do is stand there in shock and pure horror.

Her body goes limp not a second later but the corpse continues to feed, Johnny snaps out of it and turns to the one he knocked to the ground. Wrath kicks in automatically and he is one pissed off motherfucker.

“I’m going to knock your fucking head off!” Johnny shouts at the oozing corpse in front of him. The stench of feces, rotted organs and spoiled blood rises in the wet, winded air but that doesn’t bother him. Twenty four hours ago he was dealing with normal, everyday problems. He was going back home to his on and off again girlfriend and trying to find out where they now stood.

And now he is beating the head off of a zombie. He repeats vicious blows to the neck until the head pops off like a bug bite that you can’t help but squeeze. Blackened crimson blood squirts out onto the pavement. He turns around to take his continued aggression out on the feeding lady behind him but in the distance, growing nearer, he hears ’ Incy Wincy spider climbing up the water spout, Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain, Now Incy Wincy spider went up the spout again!’ He shakes it off and the momentary pause he took as well, and he goes to beat on the corpse, to see that she has disappeared.

He blinks then looks around, from left to right and up and back down the street, but she’s no where. He then decided to kneel and look under the car, figuring maybe she’s playing a trick, in movies anyway there is always someone under something right?
As he kneels to look under the car the ground suddenly moves with him, he’s going down; he’s falling down, fast.

His face smacks the floor along with his body, in a loud thud. He immediately wakes up with a jolt, looking around horrifically, that so felt real. He then sighs with relief when he realizes it was only a nightmare. His face is wet in a sweat and it is illuminated by the glow of his clock, its 4:26 am.

The buzz of the city life can be heard through his open window as he climbs back into bed. His empty bed… And the heartache that he fell asleep to lives again now that he’s awake.