Zombie Short Story Competition Entry #1

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A brilliant doctor, named Jeff Daldy, wanted immortality, so he tried to create a way to have it. But the experiment went awry.

After having positive results, he tried it out on himself. He died in agony and when he awoke, there was no Jeff Daldy anymore; all that was left was a living rotten corpse that had a hunger for flesh. He stumbled outside, where he ate the first person he saw, also turning them.                        

                                                                                                                            *                               

Lizzie hid behind the dumpster, her nose wrinkling at the repulsive odor. She peeked out and sighed in relief: the zombie that had been chasing her was gone.

It had been three weeks since the outbreak. She had no idea what had caused it, but all of a sudden, her friends and everyone she had known turned into zombies. Her parents had left town with other people who managed to escape, but were in such a rush, they had forgotten her.

She heard slow footsteps, coming closer. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the horrible face of a zombie.

“Hey, are you alright?” A voice asked. She opened her eyes to see a boy a little older than her crouched in front of the opening.

“Not really,” She answered. He offered his hand and she took it, crawling out from behind the dumpster she had been hiding behind for over an hour.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“Lizzie," she answered.

“Hi Lizzie,” the boy said, smiling. “My name is Pete,”

A growling noise filled the alleyway. Lizzie ducked instinctively, while Pete turned to face it; picking up a piece of trash; he saw her disbelieving look out of the corner of his eye and shrugged. “It’s better than just standing with my arms open wide saying ‘come and eat me,’”

The source of the growling was a zombie girl; she was bent over and her face was mostly rotten and she was missing an eye.

Lizzie watched her, eyes wide in terror. Pete threw the trash at the girl, who ducked it and snarled at him, walking slowly forward.

“Do you think making her angry was a good idea?” Lizzie asked.

“Probably not,” Pete replied, circling the zombie.

The girl leaped at Pete, who ducked. The girl went flying overhead and bounced off the wall, landing in a snarling heap.

Pete motioned for Lizzie to move behind him. She complied.

“We should start backing up now,” He whispered, and she started to back up. “Just to the sewer opening,”

Lizzie stopped when she saw the opening. She glanced over Pete’s shoulder to see the zombie on all fours crawling towards them, still snarling, staring at them with unblinking eyes.

“We’re here,” She whispered.

“Can you get it open?” He asked. She got down on her knees and started to move the covering. When it was completely off of the hole, she looked up at Pete to see him still backing up.

“Jump,” He said briefly and waited for her to jump in, and then followed, pulling the cover back over the hole. They heard the zombie land on the covering, making a horribly loud sound.

Lizzie held her hand in front of her face, she couldn’t even see the outline of her hand it was so dark.

“Can’t it follow us down here?” She asked.

“They tend to stay away from the sewers,” He responded. “And we have dynamite set up in case they get curious,”

“You’ll collapse it on them?" She asked.

“Yes,” Pete said simply; he took her hand and led her through the dark tunnel until they came to one that had a light at the end.

As they walked into the light, walking slowly so as to not shock their eyes, they saw a woman standing in the entrance, arms crossed and foot tapping.

“Where have you been?” she demanded, and then noticed Lizzie and her expression softened slightly. “Oh; you rescued another one, I see,”

“Yup,” Pete said.

“Here, let’s get you cleaned up,” Crystal said, holding out her hand to Lizzie and led her away. As she was being led away she saw Crystal glance over her shoulder at Pete. "We'll talk about you being out there alone later," she added.

                                                                                                                       

After Lizzie had showered; Crystal started showing her around.

Lizzie listened to her talk as she scratched absently at a rash; she briefly thought about telling Crystal and Pete about it, but she pushed that thought aside, thinking she was just allergic to the clothes she was wearing, there was no need to worry them for nothing.

 As they walked into the main room, they saw Pete at a table and joined him. “What are those?” Lizzie asked, seeing papers spread across the table.

“Some notes on the outbreak,” He said; Crystal leaned over, reading them.

“We know how the zombies started?” She asked; Pete nodded.

“How did they get started?” Lizzie asked. Pete started to explain, but was interrupted when a man came running in, screaming at the top of his lungs.

“They’re in!”

“How did they get passed the dynamite?” Crystal asked.

“I don’t know,” Pete said to her as he watched the man turn and open fire into the tunnel behind him.

“Everyone! Run!” Crystal screamed. “We'll try and buy you some time!”

“Go with them,” Pete said to Lizzie as he went running after Crystal, others following. But Lizzie just sat down as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She felt nauseas.

 Others also opened fire on the zombies, the bullets having little to no effect on them. “Run!” One of the men finally screamed. “It’s no use!”

As everyone ran to the emergency exits; Pete glanced over at the table he had last seen Lizzie at, and saw her still sitting there, curled up in the chair; her back was to him. He ran over to her.

“Lizzie? Are you alright?” He asked as he reached for her.

“Pete! We have to leave!” Crystal yelled at him, fighting to stay steady while being jostled by the crowd. 

“I’m coming!” He screamed back.

“Lizzie?” He asked. He touched her shoulder and she spun, snarling at him, her face already halfway rotten. Pete shrieked as she pounced on him, and flailed as she dug her teeth in.

“Pete!” Crystal yelled again, running towards him, but before she could reach him, she was also hit and knocked down. Her screams were heard by her crew members, some started tearing up as they fled with heavy hearts as they knew there was nothing they could do to save her.

By the time they all piled into escape routes, more than half of the crew members were lost. As they made their way out of the sewers, they fled to find somewhere the virus had not yet spread.

The End