In the Dead of Night (Part 1)

Well you have all had a chance to sample my dark poetry(If not, please see previous posts The Burning & Deadly Rift ) Now allow me to treat you to my very own horror short story. This is a tale I wrote and had web-published on The Homepage of the Dead. It is a zombie story titled...

In the Dead of Night

Frank was breathing hard as he came around the corner of the building. He stopped short and slammed his back against the wall. His heart was pounding hard in his chest as he thought for a moment of what was happening, and how it had begun. He had been watching a re-run of Gilligan’s Island. It was one where the castaways built a bicycle car out of bamboo and coconut shells. He always got upset about how absurd that invention was. Then an announcement broke in with an Emergency logo across the screen. The announcer sat with unbelieving paranoia in her eyes, and Frank’s expression froze.

"Reports are continuing to flood in, that dead people are coming back to life and attacking the living. This is not a joke nor is it a hoax. All across the nation at this hour, broadcasters from our affiliates and the major networks are echoing and confirming reports that people who have died, are returning to life. These once dead individuals have been seen biting, killing, and in some instances eating their victims. A reporter from this station, out on routine assignment, was attacked in this fashion and is presumed dead. We have disturbing footage taped from the downtown area where our Bill Watkins was reporting on the demolition of the St. Clark Hotel."

The images flashed through Frank's mind. A confident Watkins, who was standing in front of the hotel babbling something about posterity, was suddenly distracted by a man coming towards him from within the condemned building. After a few seconds of unanswered probing, the individual came close enough for the camera to capture a close up of the apparently deceased man before he began clawing and biting Bill Watkins. The footage ended after the camera had fallen to the ground, Watkins' screams had faded, and the cameraman's screams echoed through the abandoned hotel entrance.

The tear soaked face of the announcer returned and she continued, "All local station broadcasts are to be replaced by the National Civil Defense Network this evening at 6:00 p.m. Please stay indoors and keep your television tuned to this station for continuing updates." Frank shook his head to clear the bloody images from his mind, and took a deep breath. After he saw the first report, he had tried to reach his family on the telephone. He found that there was a constant busy signal that probably meant that either the lines were overloaded or communications had been halted by some government agency. He assumed that this agency had already been in place to deal with the crisis. Either way he was unable to reach anyone and was now alone in the situation.

The thought of the dead returning to life was not all that incredible for Frank. He was a student at the local university and was often in the campus library. He was frequently reading and researching a myriad of topics, including the supernatural. He had read an article reporting that a village in Sierra Colorada, South America was plagued by some kind of virus in the late 1970s. The virus was said to have revived the dead and cause them to become flesh-eating creatures. The incident resulted in over 4000 deaths and hundreds of missing persons reports. All cases were reported in only a matter of days.

He had also reviewed a document that was submitted to a government office by a couple of scientists, which dealt with Bio-technological Advances. They claimed to be responsible for allowing some mutated human specimens to escape from their laboratory, located in Pennsylvania. They stated that the specimens were extremely dangerous and were to be treated as bio-hazardous contaminants. Following a string of murders and mutilations tied directly to the escaped specimens, the two scientists were arrested and the specimens finally captured by the National Guard. No "official" public report of the story was ever released after that particular document surfaced, nor were the scientists heard from again.

The fact that real zombies were actually appearing here in the city made Frank wonder how it could have started. He began to ask himself questions. How could this really behappening and why? How many were already in the city and of those, how many were active in his immediate area? What was he going to do now? A rustling of feet against the pavement jarred him out of his pensive state. He chanced to peer around the corner into the alley that he had just run through; to get away from the ghoul infested parking lot. A single figure darkened the alley entrance and was moving its head from side to side as though sniffing the chilled night air for something...or someone.

Frank darted away from the building and ran along the metal fence that separated his apartment complex from the trucking company depot in the next block. He rushed ahead beside the fence until he came to a grass, covered field where the fencing turned and extended to his right. He looked to see if the lumbering figure was in pursuit, it was not. He thought of how quickly things had seemed to fall apart around him. After he hadtried to reach someone by phone, he had looked out through his living room mini blinds to see what was going on outside and that is when he saw the first of the zombies.

He knew that staying in his apartment with no contact to others and no means of protecting himself was a very bad idea. He would eventually need more food and would not like spending the rest of this crisis alone. He saw several of the ghouls moving about downstairs in the main courtyard. There were only a few, but more were coming in from the parking lot. As he scrambled down his staircase, he saw that there many apartment doors wide open, but there was no normal activity for this time of night.

He had hidden behind one of the large dumpsters for a couple of hours, watching the zombies walk around. He thought about where everyone had gone too, was he the only one left in this neighborhood? No dogs barking, no people running and screaming in the midst of this crisis, how had he missed it? One of the ghouls was getting closer to his hiding spot, that's when he had decided to run through that alley. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat and considered his options. He looked out over the trucking depot parking lot. What were the chances of finding one of the trucking rigs with the key in the ignition?

~*~*~*~

Tune in tomorrow for PART 2!

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  Today's Cure song is One More Time from the Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me CD -(1987) A break from the heavy bass that usually overshadows the Cure's tunes, however not any less melancholic. A sadder flute song you will never hear. This is a song of longing and the desire to touch the eternal.

"Take me in your arms tonight. Take me in your arms, just one more time"

CJ