Fragile Wings
My Story; Parte Uno
You may be wondering how a lovely gal like myself got to the lovely woods of Georgia all the way from the windy coasts of the pacific steep. Well, I will admit I had help, my family and I were visiting my grandparent’s in North Carolina when scary things started to happen. It was supposed to be a family reunion, but my Father was calling us about every hour from the airport, saying there was some delay, that my uncle’s plan was landed but for some reason they weren’t letting people off. Each new call my Dad kept sounding more worried, of course he tried to hide it, but we knew. His last call had us scared, and sad. He said he didn’t know if he would see us again. The airport was on lock down, something was wrong. He told us how much he loved us and that was it, I haven’t heard from my dad since. Things just went downhill from there. My mother was rightfully frightened, she wanted to go to the airport, but knew it just wasn’t practical, and besides my Father had made her promise to not go near it. He told her if he made it out he would find us. Oh yes I believed it, every part of me did, even though my logical side it was just a fantasy, I still believed in it. In the end we just stayed in the house. Things were okay for a while, my grandparents, luckily, were the paranoid type, they had a safe room, in it we stock piled everything we had, only going out for basic necessities. On those trips out we could hear gunfire, screaming, explosions, it was horrible. I couldn’t believe what was going on around me, I was just waiting for the government to step in, to fix it. But with every cry of terror, of pain, every gun fired, every house looted, ours included, I knew ‘they’ weren’t coming. We were on our own.
~*~
I believed we stayed there for 3 weeks, finally it was too much to just stay there. We were almost out of food, of water and I was going crazy. I went out, against the wishes of my elders and I almost turned away in horror. From the front porch it looked like a scene from a movie, or from the documentaries they do of third world countries; cars were parked everywhere, in houses, on lawns, in the middle of the street. Things were strewn about but the worst thing was there was nobody. Or whoever was there were also hiding like we were. At least that’s what I figured. I went back and told my family, told them that we had to go out and at least look for something, food, water, anything. Reluctantly they agreed and we set out, rifling through cars got us a couple of bottles of water, some energy bars and some Tums. Not too bad I thought. I wanted to go into a house, most were open, doors ajar, windows broken so I thought it couldn’t hurt but my Mother disagreed. Instead my grandpa was feeling a bit dizzy and they all leaned up against a car to take a break, which I used to sneak away and into the first house I could. I entered from the back and covered my nose once inside.
The stench was wretched but I pushed forward. Part of me found myself feeling like a kid who had just went on an ‘adventure’ where I pretended to be excavating in Egypt, or escaping danger with a dashing fellow explorer. Another part was I had strong ‘stick your nose in other people’s business’ flaw and I was curious as to how this neighbor lived. First place I hit was the kitchen, nabbing matches, half a loaf of wrapped banana bread from the fridge and a can of soda which I immediately opened and began greedily guzzling. That’s when I heard a noise, I gulped a little frightened and started to wander out, afraid that if anybody was here they would shoot me on principal, as I retreated I noticed a figure just standing by the window. It had short hair so I was assuming it was male, but the way it just swayed there gave me goose bumps, I kept my eyes on him as I backed up to the back door, that’s when I heard the screaming. I froze and my heart sped up, the guy also heard and he turned around. I dropped my can of soda, foam and dark sticky liquid coating my shoes, but I was too caught up looking at the thing in front of me to care. I say thing because it wasn’t human, not anymore. It’s eyes were filmed over, and it’s skin was loose and seemed like it was falling off. I wanted to vomit because I realized that’s where the reek was coming from. The screaming brought me out of my morbid fascination, as did the fact that it was coming at me, and I could feel in my gut it wasn’t to say hi. I back pedaled out of there and jumped off the porch, coming around the siding I saw my Mom clutching my grandmother who was wailing and trying to move forward, I followed her gaze and almost wished I hadn’t. My grandfather was held against the car by two things who were presently gnawing away at him like he was a five star dinner. I turned to the side and vomited, tears spilling from my eyes.
“Emily!”
I looked at and saw my Mother calling to me, but she had a frightened look on her face and I turned around, in time to stumble away from the creature whom I had encountered in the house earlier. It continued to come at me and I noticed more shuffling things coming out of hiding.
“Come on!”
I screamed at my Mother and Grandmother, I tried to help my Mom get her back to the safe room and we barely got there without being feasted upon, the door slammed shut and we all fell into a sobbing mess.
~*~
“Stop it Emily, you know that’s just nonsense.”
“Is it? Do you not remember what happened out there? Those things eating him?”
The last part I whispered to my unkempt Mother, mostly because I didn’t want to upset my Grandmother more, but looking into the corner she was in I knew she was too far away to even hear us.
“Zombies do not exist. Except in movies and gratuitous comics.”
I snorted.
“So then what’s going on? People, decaying people have gone cannibalistic? Come on Mom, those monsters are definitely zombies and we need to be careful. I really don’t know if we should just sit here. I mean we have to go out for supplies and we don’t know when, or even if somebody is coming for us.”
“We are enclosed in four very strong, sturdy walls, this is the safest place for us.”
“Sure but there is only one way in and out, and like I just said we need to eat and drink and relieve ourselves to stay clean. To do that we have to go out, wouldn’t it be a shame if we couldn’t because there was a mass of zombies outside those walls?”
My Mother said nothing but her lips tightened into a straight line.
~*~
A few days had passed, days where my Grandmother said nothing, and we couldn’t get her to eat or drink. One night I woke up to my Mother sobbing, my heart sank and I knew what it was for without asking. I hugged my Mom and we wept together.
Later in the day, as we played our word association game we heard a stirring. We hadn’t taken our Grandmother out of the safe room, as morbid as it was, at least not yet. My Mother was worried that the zombies outside would eat her and we didn’t want that, of course we knew we would have to take her out soon, just not today. But another rustle brought our attention to her corner. We saw her hand twitch, I looked at my Mom who had gone very pale under her tangled hair and then turned back to my Grandma, her eyes snapped open and I stifled a scream. They were frosted white over and I got up, grabbing my Mom by her hands to hoist her up, she was muttering ‘no, no, no’ and I gave her a quick shake to stop her. She looked at me with water filled eyes and I nodded my head in agreed sympathy. We grabbed what we could carry and quietly left the safety of those walls.
~*~
I believed we stayed there for 3 weeks, finally it was too much to just stay there. We were almost out of food, of water and I was going crazy. I went out, against the wishes of my elders and I almost turned away in horror. From the front porch it looked like a scene from a movie, or from the documentaries they do of third world countries; cars were parked everywhere, in houses, on lawns, in the middle of the street. Things were strewn about but the worst thing was there was nobody. Or whoever was there were also hiding like we were. At least that’s what I figured. I went back and told my family, told them that we had to go out and at least look for something, food, water, anything. Reluctantly they agreed and we set out, rifling through cars got us a couple of bottles of water, some energy bars and some Tums. Not too bad I thought. I wanted to go into a house, most were open, doors ajar, windows broken so I thought it couldn’t hurt but my Mother disagreed. Instead my grandpa was feeling a bit dizzy and they all leaned up against a car to take a break, which I used to sneak away and into the first house I could. I entered from the back and covered my nose once inside.
The stench was wretched but I pushed forward. Part of me found myself feeling like a kid who had just went on an ‘adventure’ where I pretended to be excavating in Egypt, or escaping danger with a dashing fellow explorer. Another part was I had strong ‘stick your nose in other people’s business’ flaw and I was curious as to how this neighbor lived. First place I hit was the kitchen, nabbing matches, half a loaf of wrapped banana bread from the fridge and a can of soda which I immediately opened and began greedily guzzling. That’s when I heard a noise, I gulped a little frightened and started to wander out, afraid that if anybody was here they would shoot me on principal, as I retreated I noticed a figure just standing by the window. It had short hair so I was assuming it was male, but the way it just swayed there gave me goose bumps, I kept my eyes on him as I backed up to the back door, that’s when I heard the screaming. I froze and my heart sped up, the guy also heard and he turned around. I dropped my can of soda, foam and dark sticky liquid coating my shoes, but I was too caught up looking at the thing in front of me to care. I say thing because it wasn’t human, not anymore. It’s eyes were filmed over, and it’s skin was loose and seemed like it was falling off. I wanted to vomit because I realized that’s where the reek was coming from. The screaming brought me out of my morbid fascination, as did the fact that it was coming at me, and I could feel in my gut it wasn’t to say hi. I back pedaled out of there and jumped off the porch, coming around the siding I saw my Mom clutching my grandmother who was wailing and trying to move forward, I followed her gaze and almost wished I hadn’t. My grandfather was held against the car by two things who were presently gnawing away at him like he was a five star dinner. I turned to the side and vomited, tears spilling from my eyes.
“Emily!”
I looked at and saw my Mother calling to me, but she had a frightened look on her face and I turned around, in time to stumble away from the creature whom I had encountered in the house earlier. It continued to come at me and I noticed more shuffling things coming out of hiding.
“Come on!”
I screamed at my Mother and Grandmother, I tried to help my Mom get her back to the safe room and we barely got there without being feasted upon, the door slammed shut and we all fell into a sobbing mess.
~*~
“Stop it Emily, you know that’s just nonsense.”
“Is it? Do you not remember what happened out there? Those things eating him?”
The last part I whispered to my unkempt Mother, mostly because I didn’t want to upset my Grandmother more, but looking into the corner she was in I knew she was too far away to even hear us.
“Zombies do not exist. Except in movies and gratuitous comics.”
I snorted.
“So then what’s going on? People, decaying people have gone cannibalistic? Come on Mom, those monsters are definitely zombies and we need to be careful. I really don’t know if we should just sit here. I mean we have to go out for supplies and we don’t know when, or even if somebody is coming for us.”
“We are enclosed in four very strong, sturdy walls, this is the safest place for us.”
“Sure but there is only one way in and out, and like I just said we need to eat and drink and relieve ourselves to stay clean. To do that we have to go out, wouldn’t it be a shame if we couldn’t because there was a mass of zombies outside those walls?”
My Mother said nothing but her lips tightened into a straight line.
~*~
A few days had passed, days where my Grandmother said nothing, and we couldn’t get her to eat or drink. One night I woke up to my Mother sobbing, my heart sank and I knew what it was for without asking. I hugged my Mom and we wept together.
Later in the day, as we played our word association game we heard a stirring. We hadn’t taken our Grandmother out of the safe room, as morbid as it was, at least not yet. My Mother was worried that the zombies outside would eat her and we didn’t want that, of course we knew we would have to take her out soon, just not today. But another rustle brought our attention to her corner. We saw her hand twitch, I looked at my Mom who had gone very pale under her tangled hair and then turned back to my Grandma, her eyes snapped open and I stifled a scream. They were frosted white over and I got up, grabbing my Mom by her hands to hoist her up, she was muttering ‘no, no, no’ and I gave her a quick shake to stop her. She looked at me with water filled eyes and I nodded my head in agreed sympathy. We grabbed what we could carry and quietly left the safety of those walls.