Alive

2011 Creative Writing Competition Winner – Year 8

Jack’s eyes flickered open and immediately slammed shut again in the gleam of the sun. He could easily have fell asleep on the gritty sidewalk he was lying on. Jack wasn’t aware of where he was, his memory was clouded. He managed to open his eyes to two slits, what met him was a tranquil blue sky with a blazing sun, if it wasn’t for the sidewalk Jack would’ve said he was on the beach. Ever so slowly the feeling started coming back to his arms and legs. He coughed uncontrollably. Then for the first time a thought struck him, where am I and why am I lying on the sidewalk. Steadily he got to his feet, he still felt extremely dazed so it wasn’t an easy procedure. His legs wobbled but he managed to stay standing. Jack looked around. He knew exactly where he was; in fact he was a mere five yards from his own house. Then another thought struck him, where were all the people? The usually bubbling streets of New York were completely deserted. Not a soul in sight, nor were there any cars on the roads, all was quiet as if he was the only person left on Earth.

Whilst trying to remember just what had happened Jack noticed that the front door of his house hung ajar. Crime rates were high and it was no surprise to Jack that someone had broken in. So maybe a burglar had knocked him out and dumped him on the sidewalk? Well might as well see what’s been nicked Jack thought to himself. Jack slowly approached the house not so much in fear but to prevent himself from nose diving into the sidewalk. He walked into the house through the door frame half covered by the battered door. Looking into the front room he could see all his furniture had been well and truly wrecked. In front of him was the kitchen, he walked towards it and suddenly stopped. What was that? There it was again, a sort of murmuring sound followed by chomping. It was coming from the kitchen, Jack pressed himself against the door and peered around it, the fridge was open but the fact there was a young boy standing in front of it took him away from that detail. So he was been burgled by an infant?

“Hello”, said Jack. The boy murmured something under his breath; Jack stepped into the room and could see the child was eating something with his back to him. “Are you lost?” Jack asked as he approached the boy. Again in an inaudible voice the boy said something. “Hello, I need you to answer me please”. He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder which immediately triggered him to turn around. The sight that met Jack left him stunned. The boy’s eyes were red and swollen, his nose was horrifically broken and he was completely covered in blood from head to toe. Then Jack’s gaze met the child’s hands, he had several fingers missing on both of them. “A-a-a-are you okay?” The boy growled and unexpectedly lashed at him. Jack jumped back “Calm down”, he said. This only seemed to make the child angrier, he leapt at Jack and grabbed on to him, he could feel the child’s head close to his neck, god damn it he was going to bite. The boy wriggled around, Jack tried franticly to get him off but he was unbelievably strong. He could see the boy’s eyes and for a second they met, Jack saw emptiness. Then there was a bang and the boys head erupted into a mass of blood and flesh, the remainder of his body crumpled to kitchen floor, Jack stared at the horrible scene, a puddle of blood was quickly forming and bits of the child’s head were splattered on the wall. Jack swivelled around, now in front of him was a young woman reloading a shotgun. “Well I’ve just saved your life, would it be too much to ask for a thank you”. The room fell silent. “Er...thanks”, stuttered Jack. The woman smiled.

“Hi I’m Lindsey and I’m in charge now”

Jack had followed Lindsey out of his house and they were now walking down the street outside. Again it was eerily quiet; Jack was replaying the events that had happened back at his house. Finally he broke the silence. “Mind telling me what’s going on”, asked Jack.

“Hell”, Lindsey answered.

“What?!” Jack exclaimed. Lindsey finally turned towards him and stared into his eyes. “You could call this hell, why? Because if this isn’t the apocalypse then I don’t know what is”

“What the hell are you on about?” Jack shouted. Lindsey slapped him hard around the face. “ Don’t you dare talk to me like that, now listen, the dead are rising right here right now and they’re hungry and they are gonna kill us both if we’re not careful”, Lindsey boomed. Jack laughed.

“Zombies? Really, sorry I wasn’t aware the dead were walking”, Jack said sarcastically. “What would you say that was back at the house then?” Lindsey asked. Jack went silent. “Well...answer me!” she shouted. Jack raised his finger and pointed over Lindsey’s shoulder. Lindsey turned slowly, “Oh damn it, run!” she screamed looking at the charge of zombies. She turned and ran, Jack followed suit, the group was slow but one or two of them were fast. Jack kept looking over his shoulder and consequently tripped and fell. Lindsey sighed and readied her shotgun. “Stay down!” she shouted. Jack obliged and she fired a shot at the closest zombie, hitting him in the stomach, growling it crumpled to its knees. Franticly reloading Lindsey fired another shot at a large on rushing female zombie, the bullet pierced the flesh on the arm, she yelled but stayed standing. Once again she reloaded hitting the male zombie in the face as he was getting back up. Next she hit the female zombie in the stomach and went to reload again. “Damn it!” she shouted as she realised she was out of ammo. Lindsey looked at Jack. “Up!” Jack sprung to his feet as the female zombie flung a hand at him. He scrambled away and quickly ran towards Lindsey and he assumed safety. “Now what?” he asked. Lindsey looked at the scramble of zombies more had joined the pack and the new one’s were faster. “We run!” she screamed as she charge away, Jack stood there for a moment and then followed. It was tiring running up hill and the zombies were getting ever closer, the two of them were on their last legs. Just when it looked like all hope was lost the roar of a car engine was followed by the appearance of two Ferraris, they swerved around the two of them and smashed into the pack of zombies taking them down like bowling pins.

Four people now stood at the top of the hill. Jack was franticly trying to find out what was going on. Lindsey simply pointed. Jack looked out at the city, and froze, hundreds, no thousands of them. This wasn’t a joke…

©Jake Winwood