The First 30 Days (PUBLISHED)

Twenty-Six - Day 12

What in the hell was it doing up there?

My first thought was confusion as I looked around Shawn and caught a glimpse of the zombie. It had managed to climb up onto the long center island that ran the length of the kitchen, and was reaching toward a set of pots that hung gleaming in the faint moonlight from ceiling hooks. This one had obviously been dead for a while. It's bloated and greasy looking flesh seemed like it wanted to slide right off of the bones. Most of it's hair had fallen out, leaving just a few sparse clumps to cling limply to it's scalp. Gore crusted it's ragged clothing, and I couldn't tell what was blood from any hapless victims it had managed to sink it's teeth into, and what was it's own leaking bodily fluids.

I thought that we had been silent, but maybe we weren't quiet enough. The creature slowly swung it's head in our direction and focused it's one remaining eye on where the three of us had frozen in the doorway.

Maybe we confused it as much as it standing on top of that counter confused me. Or, maybe it was just having trouble seeing. Either way, the zombie cocked it's head slightly to the side and went utterly still, staring right at us.

Then it's rotted lips peeled back from it's teeth and the zombie snarled, exactly the type of sound that one did not want to hear coming from the dark.

Lurching forward, the zombie crashed to the tile floor in an ungraceful heap. It took it a few seconds to disentangle it's limbs, but far too soon, it was clambering disjointedly back to it's feet. I didn't even realize that I had backpedaled back through the swinging door, until I was already back into the cafeteria. Behind me, Fallon was backing away too, and the door hadn't had a chance to swing all of the way shut again before Shawn followed.

I guess none of us was too eager to get anywhere near the zombie.

The door swung shut all of the way this time as the three of us regrouped near the center of the cafeteria room. At that point, we came to our senses enough to know that we were going to have to stop our retreat at some point. The zombie was going to have to be dealt with, like it or not.

A scream came from behind the kitchen door just before the door burst open. Lurching through the doorway, the zombie focused it's one good eye on us. It moved with none of the speed than I had come to expect from the zombies. Instead, it jerked along in those characteristic fits and starts, but much slower and almost uncoordinated in it's movements. The creature shambled towards us, paying no mind to anything that was in it's path. It tripped over downed chairs and bounced off of the heavy tables, intent only on reaching us.

The sight was horrifying.

As the zombie came within a dozen feet of our group, Shawn stepped forward and raised the bat. It's eye held the dead gaze of a predator, as it focused on his movement. Swinging the bat hard, he connected with the creature's skull. A wet splattering sound was followed quickly by the sound of the zombie hitting the ground. It was the for-real kind of dead instantly.

All of us breathing fast, we just stood there for a few seconds, staring at the rotting corpse that now lay just feet from us. A pool of blood began to spread across the floor. The hard hit had split the zombie's skull.

Hyped up on adrenaline, I hadn't noticed the stench coming from it, until now. The zombie smelled like an animal that had been killed on the highway, and then laid in the summer sun for a week. Fighting back a gag, I pulled the neck of my shirt up in a futile attempt to cover my mouth and nose.

Poking at it with the end of the bat, Shawn looked back at us. "It's dead."

Next to me, Fallon gave an audible sigh of relief. "Do you think it was just the one?"

"I think so, but we should probably look around. Just to be sure." He looked over to where the door was still hanging open. "Need to do something about the door, too."

I chimed in through my shirt, "We need to do something about the zombie. It can't stay in here."

Nodding, Shawn handed me his bat. He reached down and grabbed the corpse by it's filthy shoes, and began dragging it toward the door. The smear of blood that was left in it's wake looked nearly black in the limited moonlight. Trailing behind him with some vague thought of watching his back, I watched as he paused at the open door. Looking out, he looked around carefully before dragging the zombie outside. He dropped it's feet when he had pulled it a dozen yards away from the building. "When it's light out, I'll come back out and finish dragging it further away, but this will have to do for now."

Back inside the building, we found Fallon looking into every shadowy corner nervously. The bathrooms were still and empty, the kitchen now thankfully the same. There seemed to have only been just the one zombie.

Upon closer inspection, we found that the door had been forced open when some of the screws in the jam pulled free. Shards of wood from the door frame still littered the ground. Fixing the door properly with what we had on hand wasn't really an option. Surprising me, Fallon was the one who came up with an idea that at least allowed us to keep the door closed. It was by no means secure. But anything was better than letting it hang open for any passing zombies to stroll right on in, and the fix was as good as it was going to get, anyhow.

By the time we were finished, there wasn't a lot of the night left. No one wanted to go back to sleep, so we all sat in the office, sharing a bag of beef jerky and talking about what had just happened.

"Why was it different from all of the other zombies I've seen?"

Fallon asked the question that had been mulling around in my mind. I shrugged before answering. "I don't know. Maybe it was so decomposed that it was starting to have trouble getting around. I've not seen one like that before, either."

She nodded. It made sense, anyhow. Who really knew anything about why the zombies were the way they were. I was convinced that the Flu vaccine was what had started this whole disaster, but the why still escaped me. Was it some random fluke, or had someone engineered the apocalypse? I wasn't sure that we would ever find out the answer to that question.