Field of Corpses

The place was dead. Literally, the entire country was turning into zombies. Soon we’d be called the United Zombies of America. I wish I would have noticed that sooner, though, before I became dead myself.

Everyone had different ways of dying, but there was so many like me. There was some who died of suicide, others who had been murdered, and the ones who got stuck in their prison cells to rot, but never had I seen so many people who felt just like me. Almost more than half of the people deceased, died from a broken heart. I never died, though. I was only half dead, but still rotting in my own bloody flesh and slowly finding death.

It was all so boring though, living in the UZ of A. Either you had decaying bodies on the ground, or you had the slowly moving zombies, walking around aimlessly. There was nothing to live for, so there was nowhere to go. The zombies just walked the grounds, not bothering anyone, but not being useful by any means.

I just sat and watched them sometimes. I was the least dead, so I obviously had a little bit more life to live. Others were jealous, but we couldn’t speak. Most of our tongues have rotted themselves out of our mouths, or the few who had their tongues cut, or yanked out. I was the only one who still had a tongue, and voice, too. I still had the clearest mind, and I was still able to breathe. Like I said; I was only half dead.

I often thought back to the day I died, and I wish I never would have let emotion grab me so hard and drag me down so fast. I miss being alive sometimes, but I couldn’t help but to fantasize about my final death; I could walk the earth without any care or thought of anyone else around me ever again. I could finally be alone, and not have anyone to get on my case. There was many other reasons though, but I still missed being able to be so undead.

The day I died is still unknown to me, but I know the cause. I believe I started dying the day my heart broke; the day he left me crying until my eyes bled and I sunk so lowly to pray to “God” for the pain to end. I could never get that pain out of my heart- the pieces that were left hanging. Even though he and I got back together the next night, my heart never healed. Somehow I always knew that our reunion was actually temporary. So, starting from that first night he left me, I started to die slowly.

My dying grew quicker over the years, though. I became more zombie-like within months, and soon I was feeling nothing besides sadness, sorrow, and pain. That was the death of me; it was almost like suicide, so I had to suffer with the pain and sadness. During my time of living, I wanted nothing more than to die somehow, someway, but never self-inflicted. I was just care-free, kind of like I am now, but it’s different now.

Now I’m just a zombie with a broken heart, waiting out this tragic time. Soon enough, my life would run out, and I’d be just like the other zombies; dead and nothing.

There was a way out of it though. An old friend told me once. It was before the entire population turned into walking corpses. At that time, only hundreds of people were dead and dying, and I still had friends. One in particular was the only one who stuck around, though.

I had a few friends, but before a change could be made, they all started dying slowly. They started out not being social, but that was understandable. By losing communication with people, there’d be nobody left to live for. It made it easier to die, and sadly, that was the only way out of this shit-world. I understood it, and I felt the same way, but it was always sad when another friend died off and you never talked to them again.

I managed to keep one friend though; one friend who didn’t die. He was the only person I knew that took a deep interest in necrophilia and dead stuff alike. Curt knew everything there was to know, and because of this, he knew how to keep hidden from the zombies who were out to kill. He knew how to survive the dying country, and soon, our dying world.

I remembered everything he told me before he got away. I remember that day…
Curt and I were sitting on his roof to his apartment, and we were watching the empty streets with a few zombies walking around here and there. I had just gotten done crying over how the last member of my family had died. He was helping me through my hard time.

“The world is dying.” I said under my breath, but he still heard me.

“I know. I wish we could go back in time before everyone got so stupid and started fucking up this place.”

We sat in silence for a few moments, when I finally spoke up again, not once looking Curt’s way. “It’s sad that I have nowhere to go. I don’t even know if my dad’s still alive, or any other family in Utah is for that matter. Now that my mom’s gone… I’m all alone now; I’m on my own.”

Curt just looked at me, but didn’t say anything. He was thinking, but before he could find something to say, I thought it would be a good time to tell him the most important thing he’d need to know.

“Curt?”

“Yea?”

“…I’m dying.”

He didn’t look at me, and he didn’t say anything. He continued to stare off into the sky where the sun was going down slowly. We both watched that sunset for a few minutes until he finally turned to me.

“I… I know. I’ve tried to ignore the signs, and I’m attempted to pretend it’s not happening, but I can’t.”

“It’s okay,” I said looking him in the eyes now, “there’s nothing left for me anyway. I mean, I have you, and maybe a few friends still out there somehow, but everything else that matters is out of reach.”

“I know what you mean. You can still get away, though. You can make it to California to see if they’re alive.”

He knew exactly what I meant by ‘everything that matters is out of reach’. The only people who could save my heart from completely dying were in California, but I couldn’t get there safely. Although, I was partially zombie, so the others wouldn’t have come after me. I just didn’t want to be alone, but Curt had somewhere else he had his mind set on.
“I can’t do it alone. I can take any car in the world, and I can pump all the free gas I want, but I’ll be too lonely. My heart will only die so much faster. By the time I got to California, it’d be too late.”

“You know I would go with you, right? I just… I can’t. I’ve stolen enough money now to get me a plane ticket to Europe. You know why I need to go.”

I did know. I wasn’t stopping him. But I wasn’t wanting him to drop everything just so I could save myself, either. He had so much going for him, it would be a waste if he stayed here in America to die with us.

“I know,” I said looking away, “I know, dude. It’s fine. I wasn’t expecting you to come with me…”

“Have your friend Paul go with you.” Curt suggested enthusiastically.

It made me burst out laughing. “Yea, right. I don’t think I could get him out of hiding!
He stays locked up in his room to keep away from the zombies.”

“You’re a zombie.”

It made me stop laughing and smiling. “How does it feel to have your only friend left turning into a zombie?”

“It’s fucking cool.”

Same old Curt. He always got such a kick out of things like this. I couldn’t help but smile though; he was the only one left with optimism. It made me real sad he would be leaving though. I couldn’t imagine my life without Curt by my side. It would be so dull; so boring; so… so dead.

Nights away from Curt, I often thought about him. His story was so sad. His dad and mom were splitting, but what they didn’t know was that their oldest son was actually a zombie. They’d thought he was just hiding out in his room, but he was really keeping away from his family so he wouldn’t go after them. It was going alright, until the day their mom went into his room to check on him. No one could say what happened in there, but their mom got infected. Soon, the entire family was zombified. All except for Curt.

He killed them off, and dumped their bodies out his parents’ window. He dragged them through the hole in the fence, and put them into the river. He lived alone ever since, and I thought of him every time I got lonely.

My mom died, my step dad died, and my step brother got away. He left before the zombie-infection hit, and I think he’s still alive. He was one of the lucky ones, but he was still stuck in this dying country.

With Curt and everyone else gone, I was seriously all alone. I had nothing left to live for.