Cured [ManxMan]

Chapter One

My stomach rumbled angrily as I staggered forward.

I couldn't remember how long it had been since my last meal, at least the last real meal. Weeks, at least. I struggled to keep up with the back edge of the herd, always arriving in time to pick the last scraps from the bones of whatever creature the lead zombies had managed to catch.

I was aware I was a zombie, and I was aware I hadn't always been, but I didn't remember what came before. Oh, I knew zombies were human once, had seen enough humans escape the herd long enough for the virus to take effect—though that became less common as the herd grew and our prey became scarcer. I assumed, then, that I had also once been human, but the memories of my former life had faded, though whether they left with my death or time I no longer knew.

What I did know was that I was weak, as far as zombies went. To some level, I always had been. For as long as I could remember, moving my right leg had been difficult, my foot dragging the ground and hard to lift. My left arm was not as much of a problem as I didn't have to use it as much, but I had difficulty flexing my hand or using my fingers to grip. Zombies were already slower and weaker than our human counterparts, so a zombie with only one good arm and one good leg shouldn't be a zombie for long, as even zombies starve.

I didn't know why I was still alive. So many of my herd, zombies far stronger than me, had fallen and refused to get up, left for dead. So many times, I'd almost become one of those zombies, because I couldn't lift my bum leg over a crack in the sidewalk or tried to move too fast to keep up with the herd on the hunt. Somehow there was always something pulling me back up, some will driving me to cling to the life I had left pushing me to put my legs back beneath me and stand back up.

A raindrop landed on my cheek, followed by another on my shoulder. My throat released some zombie groan of frustration as the rain picked up, and soon I was soaked to the bone, the remaining rags of my clothes sticking to and hanging heavy from my body, weighing me down. Water stuck my hair to my forehead and into my field of view, and the irritated jerks of my head weren't enough to dislodge the stubborn strands. The rain came down in sheets, obscuring the front of the herd and the towering buildings of the ruins ahead and to the sides until I couldn't see more than twenty feet in any direction, slicking the road in a dangerous layer of water that made every step treacherous. As if I needed something else to make me more likely to fall.

Even better, tracking would be more difficult, and I needed a meal. Whatever inexplicable will to live driving me could only help me so much, and if I didn't get something to eat soon, nothing would get me off the ground the next time I fell.

So when the lead zombies—well, the furthest zombies still visible through the heavy rain—started to pick up the pace, I did what I could to do the same. Not that it made much of a difference, or more like it did but in the wrong way; my right foot refused to be lifted from the ground, and I stumbled. Had it not been raining, I may have been able to catch myself, may not have stumbled at all. Instead, my good leg slipped out from beneath me, and I hit the ground hard, a stunted grunt my body's only response.

I was too stunned to move at first, my knees and palms stinging from trying and failing to catch myself as I fell. Lying face down in a puddle of muddy water, knowing the herd probably wouldn't pause to see my fate, and definitely wouldn't stop long enough to help me up. Zombies were selfish creatures, and with food involved, no one would care for the poor, weak zombie, fallen and dying on the street.

The shuffling and splashing of the herd faded as I was left behind, abandoned. The feeling shouldn't have hurt like it did. I didn't care for the rest of the herd, why should they care about me? How many times had I seen this fate befall others, and done nothing to stop it? And yet, being on the other side of things, being alone for the first time in my memory... well, I didn't like it, that was for sure.