Zombie Love

Someone once told me that with every sun shower there’s rain. At the time I didn’t know what that meant but today I found out because the rain was coming in a matter of hours it would be pouring all over my head in buckets. 

“Aretha we have to talk about something important.” 

Oh, no this can’t be good. Every Time someone has told me that they need to talk about something important it is always bad . My dad would say that when one of my fish would die. He’s come in the room and say, “Aretha, there’s something important I need to tell you. Sit down.” He said that when my goldfish, Wally died, when my dog, Shelly died, when my uncle, Charlie died and the last time he said it was when my beloved mother passed away ten years ago. So, this can’t be good at all Aretha thought. 

Aretha took a deep breath and adjusted herself to sit straight in her chair at the kitchen table. She moved her bowl of blueberry cheerios to one side of her and prepared to hear words she probably would regret hearing from the mouth of her boyfriend, Jayden.

“Aretha, there is something I need to tell you.” Jayden continued

“I am guessing it is bad news.” Aretha chimed in.

“Well, it could be good or bad depending on how you look at it.”

“Okay, Jay what is it? If you are going to leave me for another woman or you are dying or something horrible like that just tell me. Please just spit it out. I will deal with it whatever it is.”

Aretha took another deep breath and folded her arms in front of her. She wished that she was dressed so that she could run out of the house dramatically and yell in the streets, “WHY, WHY ME!” like they do in the movies. But, there she was in her white bathrobe with the pink pockets and bunny slippers on and her hair is a hot mess on top of her head in a messy bun. There’s no way she could run out of the house looking like a hot mess that she was. 

“Aretha, I’m not the man that you think I am.” Jayden continued as he now took a deep breath.

“You mean what by that?” 

Before anyone could say anything more there was a knock at the front door. The knock was more like a pounding knock as if someone was desperate to get inside. 

“That better not be the police.” Aretha said getting up from the table walking to the door.

“Wait, don’t answer it!” Jayden screamed.

“What do you mean don’t answer it. Do you have something to hide? Do you know who it is? Is it the other woman?” Aretha screamed back.

“Open the door!” A female voice screamed from behind the door. 

“Help ME!” the voice continued.

“We have to open the door because the person might need help.” Aretha said to Jayden.

“No, we can’t. We don’t know who to trust.”

“Jayden what the hell are you talking about? There’s a person screaming for help behind the door and you say don’t open it because they can’t be trusted and we don’t even know who it is.”

“Aretha, just hurry up and get dressed because we have to go.” Jay ordered.

“No, I need to open the door.” 

“I will deal with the door. Trust me, Aretha, please just go and get dressed NOW!” 

“Alright, alright just get the door.” Aretha walked as fast as she could in her bunny slippers to the bedroom.

“Please open the door!” The voice screamed once again.

Jayden looked through the peephole at the person on the other side of the door and the look of terror on their face made him decide not to open the door. He knew that look and had seen that look too many times and he knew that if he opened the door harm would come to both him and Aretha. 

“Go away. I’m not opening the door.”  Jayden said as he double locked the door with the deadbolt lock. They rarely used the deadbolt but right now it was the only thing he could do to try to keep that voice on the other side of the door. 

Jayden heard a piercing scream and the voice disappeared. Jayden assumed that either the woman got away or worse, she didn’t. 

“Aretha, hurry up! Are you dressed?” Jayden screamed from the front door still looking out of the peephole.

“I’m coming. What’s the hurry? We aren’t late for work or anything.” Aretha screamed back from the bedroom.

“We have to get out of here. They know that we are here now.” Jayden yelled to Aretha in the direction of the bedroom.

“What?” Aretha walked towards him dressed in her blue jeans, white sneakers and a button down white blouse. Her hair was neatly combed back in a ponytail and she had her work bag in her hand.

“Stay right there.” Jayden said as he went into the bedroom and came out with a medium sized black tote bag. 

“What’s in there?” Aretha asked, pointing at the bag.

“Supplies. Now, you don’t need your work bag. You aren’t going to work. I need you to put some bottles of water in that bag as many as you can carry and some kitchen knives as many as we have. Also, put some forks in there.”

“Jay, what’s going on? Why do we need water, knives and forks? And why aren’t we going to work and who was at the door?” 

“Aretha, there is no time to explain all that to you right now. We gotta go.”

“Go where?” Aretha asked as Jayden pulled her by the hand.

“Just trust me.” Jayden pulled Aretha’s hand and opened the front door. 

Aretha and Jayden hopped into Jayden’s sports car and he drove as fast as he could and they ended up on a dirt road about 40 miles away from their house. It looked like the middle of nowhere. The sky had a haze of purple colors and it was dirt and dust everywhere and no trees or plants as far as the eye could see. It  was one color except for the sky. Everything was hues of brown. It looked like a deserted island but without the “island part” as there was no water, no palm trees, no people no nothing except a dirt road, a little house that reminded Aretha of a tiny home she has saw on the TV commercials and a white flag flying from a flagpole on the porch of the tiny home. 

“Where in the heck are we?” Aretha said looking around.

“We’re somewhere safe.”  Jayden answered by taking his bag from the car.

“Safe from what?” Aretha asked.

She didn’t have to wait too long for an answer because just as Jayden opened his mouth to answer her something or someone jumped in front of Jayden. Aretha couldn’t believe her eyes. She didn’t know what she was seeing at first. All she saw was a figure all dressed in black torn clothes and very white looking. They looked spooky like in a Halloween movie. Before Aretha could do or say another thing Jayden shoved the figure to the ground and so hard that Aretha thought that his head would explode. Jayden yelled at Aretha to throw him her bag. Aretha did as she was told and threw Jayden the bag. Jayden reached in the bag and took out two forks and stabbed the figure in his eyes. 

“What is going on and what is that?” Aretha said horrified.

“Come on we gotta get inside.” Jayden grabbed Aretha’s hand and they ran inside. Aretha could barely keep up with Jayden and thought that she was going to fall a few times. The tiny house looked closer than it really was. 

Once inside Jayden placed the contents of her bag on a small kitchen table made of what looked like plywood. He carefully placed the forks and knives next to each other and the spoons he placed inside a drawer in the kitchen. He took out the water bottles and carefully lined them up on the table next to the utensils.  He motioned for Aretha to sit down on one of the chairs at the table. 

“Ok do you want to explain what that was all about? Who was that man or woman? What did they want with you? Why did they want to hurt you? And why in the heck did you stab them with forks?” Aretha said looking horrified and scared at the same time.

“ Look out! Jayden yelled as the window near the kitchen shattered and glass went flying all over the floor. 

“Oh no!” Aretha screamed and ran into the living room and took cover behind the small black couch. 

She peeked around the couch and saw Jayden fighting again. This time it looked like a younger man. He was dressed in black too and his shirt and pants were torn in various places off of his body. He was pale too and had the biggest blackest eyes she had ever seen in her life. Jayden punched the man and the man went down to the ground and Jaydon did the same thing he did to the last man who attacked him. By now Aretha was more than horrified and was ready to get out of there as fast as her two feet would carry her. She looked up at Jayden and down at the man on the floor. She didn’t know what to say.

Jayden dragged the man outside of the tiny house and placed him near the other guy with the forks in his eyes.  He ran back inside the house and locked the doors and proceeded to board up the remaining windows inside the house. He didn’t say a word to Aretha who was now shivering in fear sitting on the couch. 

“Aretha, I have something to tell you.” Jayden started again.

“What are these people? They look like zombies or something but I know that is not possible because there are no such things as zombies except in the movies.” Aretha said, still shaking.

“Let me start at the beginning. When we met around three years ago I knew that the world was slowly changing. I was not sure what kind of change was coming. You see I am really a scientist and I have been working with a group of other scientists and we were studying climate control and one day something strange happened. John, my coworker went to get us some coffee. We always started the day with coffee. When he came back we all noticed something different about him. He looked like he had seen a ghost. He was as pale as a ghost and he couldn’t speak. Before we could find out what was wrong our lab was invaded.”

“Invaded? Who would invade a lab?” Aretha asked, looking confused.

“It was an invasion of people who were the undead. They were caught between this world and the next. Well, before we knew what was going on one of these “undead” people knocked me to the ground and bit me on the hand. I managed to fight that one off but more and more and more kept coming and I woke up in another place. I didn’t know where I was or how I had gotten there all I knew was that I felt funny. I felt sick but I couldn’t move. I was in what I thought was a bed but it wasn’t a bed it was a table. I was strapped to a table. My hands and feet were tied with some kind of rope. I tried to wiggle my way out of them but they were too tight. I yelled for help but realized that I was also gagged. I couldn’t move and couldn’t scream. It felt like I was lying there forever when someone came in the room. They opened up a curtain and I was blinded for a minute by the sunlight.”

“Where were you?” Aretha asked, still shaking a bit.

“I didn’t know at first. Then a strange man came over to me and he didn’t say a word he just took the gag out of my mouth and motioned for me to be quiet. I did as I was told because I didn’t know where I was. A few minutes later another man came in and untied my hands and feet and handed me a mirror. I looked in the mirror and I didn’t recognize myself. I was white as a sheet and my eyes looked strange. “

“But you look perfectly fine now.” Aretha said.

“Yes, I do. I spent months there in that room and all I saw were the same two men. One would give me food and the other one would come in and give me shots. I didn’t know what kind of shots all I knew was that the shots made me sleepy at first and then over time they made me stronger and faster than I was before. One day the first man came in the room and took me to another room. I guess they must have done some type of operation on me because when I woke up I looked like this. Like I look now. So, the second man explained to me what happened. He told me that I was now one of them. I would never be the same again. I wasn’t human anymore. And I had work to do. I didn’t understand them at first. But, over the years I did carry out their work. I won’t tell you what I did but it was horrible. After many years of doing their “work” I changed . I still didn’t feel totally like myself. I still didn’t have the feelings I had before towards human beings but I knew that I couldn’t do anymore of their dirty deeds. I ran away. I met you a year after I ran away. I knew that from the first day I met you that I felt something for you. Something I had never felt before.”

“What did these people do to you?” Aretha asked.

“Aretha, they made me one of them, or they tried to. I was a zombie. The people I killed were zombies sent to find me and bring me back to those men. I can’t go back. Although, they turned me into a zombie like them and this may or may not be the end of the world as we know it. I have to tell you something.”

“I should be running for my life? Is that it?” 

“No, I would never hurt you. What I need to tell you is that I love you, Aretha Jane Phillips.”

“So, what you are trying to tell me is that you are part zombie and in love with me?” Aretha said looking confused but flattered at the same time.

“Yes, but, you have to decide if you love me and are willing to stay with me because we will probably always be on the run, unless the world comes to an end soon and we will always be looking over our shoulders for zombies. If you can’t deal with that I understand. I will leave and you will be safe.” Jayden said in a low voice.

“That is what you were trying to tell me at the house? Before we left?” Aretha asked.

“Yes, but I was planning to leave out the zombie part.” Jayden laughed. 

Aretha laughed too. 

“Jayden, I love you too and would go with you to the ends of the earth and until the end of all time. All my life I have waited to find love but who would have thought that the love of my life would be a zombie and when I found my love the world might end? Just my luck huh?” Aretha said and they both laughed and laughed until they heard a knock on the door. 

“Oh no not again! I will get the forks.” Aretha said.

“Good, cause that is one of the only ways to ward off zombies.” Jayden said.