Flesh and Blood

Stumbling over pot holes, she ran as if being chased by a pack of maggot-filled zombies spitting, hissing and groaning through decayed teeth, yellowed and full of pulpy bits of bloody flesh.

Heavily, she breathed, panting like a wolf searching for her pack, as she took a quick glimpse over her shoulder. Red, black, white and green rotting eyeballs gazed back at Ellie (their dinner). Tattered clothes, ripped and worn, dragged along the floor, creating a scratching sound as they picked up cracked stones from the road. From out of nowhere, more zombies stumbled out, their haggard fingers pointing at Ellie as she desperately dodged the debris launched at her. Trying to see through the thick mist, she heard a lou, human-like shriek, echoing from a huddle of zombies gnawing at a lady, lates on her back, kicking and screaming. Luckily, the pack chasing Ellie crowded the weeping woman, therefore she lost them.

Cuddling together, a small girl and boy cried out, eyes puffy with tears rolling down their rosy cheeks. Ellie stopped. She glanced behind her, then at the children. Messy plaits hung down next to the girls ears, resting on the sleeves of her denim dress. Equally as scruffy, the boy had lost one of his shoes and had a gash on his forehead, bruised around the edges.

Morning blared from behind Ellie, so she ran leaving the desperate children. A couple of metres further, she stopped again - unsure what to do. Nearing the children, the zombies staggered attached to a whiff of the decaying undead. Reluctantly, Ellie grabbed the boy (who can only have been three-years-old) under her arm and held the girl’s sweaty hand. Innocent blood stained her white tank top, whilst a rancid stench blanketed them. Running faster than her little legs could handle, the girl tripped. Decrepit hands clawed at her muddy white canvas pumps. As she pulled her to her feet she could taste the sharp, metallic blood oozing out of their razor-thin, mangled lips with the salty saliva slopping to the floor. The wash of stomach acid burned up Ellie’s oesophagus, as she gagged, still whilst trying to run. Unlocking her hand from the girl's, she bent down to pick up a small, metal car panel, Forcefully, she thwacked the zombie closest to her, only for it to get more fierce and bloodthirsty.

“Shit!” Ellie whispered to herself.

A diner seemed to appear out of nowhere, the bright neon lights standing out from the whitish fog surrounding. The second ‘a’ in ‘Grandma’s’ flickered with an animated buzz. Empty car parking spaces were nearly lines in front of a blac-and-white chequered building with scratched windows and e central, metal door. Hurriedly, she sprinted up the few steps - allowing the young girl to nip through the door, then herself with the boy. Gently dropping the boy to the ground, Ellie rapidly fumbled with the lock and bolted the door shut. In a flash, she escorted the kids into the kitchen and hid in a gap behind the freezer. Ellie knelt down to their height, exhaling weightily.

“Are you both okay?” She asked through icy lips.

Scared, they nodded.

“My name is Eleanor, but you can call me Ellie, what are your names?” Ellie asked in a kind, welcoming tone.

“My name’s Ava and this is my brother, Nicholas,” the girl replie, stuttering, her lip trembling and eyebrow twitching. She sniffed, loudly.

“Do you know where your parents are?”

“Mummy died after Nicholas was born and Daddy...” she paused.

“What happened to you Daddy?”

Instantaneously, a window shattered, Groaning crescendoed and the diner was riddled with blood-curdling zombies. Ava and Nicholas managed to squeeze further into the gap, out of view. Ellie couldn’t cram herself in, but she knew if they flooded in here, she’d be obliterated in seconds - one bite and she’d become then. Above the stove was a missing ceiling panel. Both legs simultaneously, she leaped on top of the stove and used her upper body strength to pull herself up. A shard of ceiling broke off, clattering to the linoleum floor in slow-motion. Hearing the bang from the kitchen, hordes of zombies streamed in. Just in time, Ellie climes into an open cupboard. Silently, she curled into a ball, aside tins of tomato soup. Ellie could hear the zombies careering past, the malodorous stench seeping through the gaps around the door. Abruptly, the room went ominously silent, aside from the heavy breathing of the frightened kids. Tentatively, when she heard the back door slam shut, Ellie creaked the cupboard door open and softly tip-toed to the sobbing children. Warmly, she hugged them both, not letting go for an entire minute, her shoulder soaking up their tears. On a baking tray, there were six chocolate chip cookie. First, Ellie offered some to Ava and Nichola, they scoffed a couple each, as if they hadn’t eaten in months. Then, Ellie ate one herself, putting the remaining cookie in her pocket.

Taking them both by the hand, carefully, she pushed open the back door. In the distance, the mess of zombies ambled away, looking for more flesh. We creeped into the woods, running from tree to tree, to better hide themselves. Twigs snapping beneath them, they jogged through the mass of trees, no idea of where we were heading. Ellie lifted Nicholas over a fallen tree trunk, Ava struggled herself over with Ellie close behind. A pitter-patter of raindrops sounded, but wasn’t heavy enough to penetrate the quite thick layers of trees, yet. Hopeful choruses of birds harmonising prettily filled the air, darkened by the distant moans and groans. Beads of sweat dribbled down their foreheads, soaking their eyebrows. Swinging form side to side, Ava’s plaits were even messier than when Ellie found her and, now, had a dirty look, as if she’d been rolling on the floor. Lightning struck with an electrical zap followed by a roar of thunder.

Rolling discontentedly, was a man in severe pain. Ava and Nicholas peeped round their shield (Ellie) at the man wailing. Corpse-white skin patches started growing, one eye was clear with a single blood-red vein streaking from left to right. The decaying man had a rancid, toxic stench wafting up their nostrils, Kneeling down, Ellie examined him new skin, her fingers sunk into the meat. Grotesquely, the skin peeled back to reveal rotted sinew and tissue now softer than mud. Rotting teeth showed as he went to speak.

“Ava?” He muttered

Ellie looked at Ava’s confused face

“It’s me, Ava, darling,”

Finally, she realised who he was.

“Daddy?” She fell to his side, going to hug him. Ellie stopped her.

“Daddy’s not quite feeling himself at the moment,” she hugged her signalling to the man as if to say ‘I’ll look after them‘.

“Run!” He exclaimed, as he felt himself losing control, “I love you, Ava, love you, Nicky,”

”Love you, Daddy” they both replied, in-syn.

All three started running, Crawling after them, the man grabbed Nicholas’ ankle, his bony, wrinkly finger wrapping round him. Instantly, Ellie held into his clawing arms, they were plying tug-of-war. However, the man (or zombie’s) brutal strength was too overpowering. Screams as high as the heavens filled the air. Ava stood, not knowing what to do. Without warning, Ava picked up a pointy stick and stabbed it into her Dad’s back. Betraying her Dad to save her brother. a single tear trickled down her face with a gasp. Crying out in pain, he whipped his hand to his back, unable to stand up as they Trottes away in terror.

Sharply, a stabbing muscle cramp shot up Ellie’s calf, tumbling her to the ground. Both kids halted. Aching, she picked herself up and hobbled on. Glancing to her right, Ellie spotted a hospital, she limped over, ushering the children through the automatic door. Hiding behind the front desk, she rubbed the back of her leg, silencing the painful gasps. Knees muddy and grazed, Nicholas wa sort of breath, cheeks crimson. The elastic ties on Ava’s plaits has snapped and her hair had a beautiful, yet dirty, wave.

Then, the mechanical brush of the front door sounded, zombies crawled in. As quick as light, they sprinted into an x-ray room, whilst lobbing the receptionist chair in the vicinity of the mob. All together, they butted a desk against the door, for extra protection. The room was surrounded by windows, now filled with pale, grim faces and shoulders fashioned with torn shirts of dark, ugly colour: greens and browns and dirty pinks. Banging at the windows like kids at a zoo, the zombies were aggressive, clawing at the innocent survivors of their plague. Dashing to a desk, Ellie picked up a pair of scissors. Zombies were rattling the door handle, eager to get in, inching the table forward. Stood ahead of the children, Ellie readied the scissors in-front of her.

Zombies charged in, instantly impaled, some scarred across the cheek, Barging through the crowd, the kids avoided the grotty, cold hands reaching at them, Ellie defended them with a pathetic pair of blunt scissors. Running down a corridor, they could hear the heavy, uneven footsteps behind them. Whilst looking for a door that they could lock behind them, they felt the group of zombies closing in.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Ellie swivelled her head to see a silhouette, a masculine figure, broad shoulders, muscles arms, toned legs. He also had a pistol pointed at the zombies, subsequently, at them. On their right was a laboratory, labelled DO NOT ENTER. Breaking the rules, they waltzed in, greeted by a zombie. Immediately, Ellie recognised her.

“Jane, baby,” she cried lovingly.

The zombie neared them in an aggressive manner.

”Jane, it’s me, Eleanor,“ she pleaded “your fiancé,”

The ‘human Jane’ was reaching through, yelping something, whilst pointing at a conical flask of blue-tinted liquid.

“The cure!” Jane gasped “Ingest with food,”

Hurriedly, Ellie searched her pockets for food, feeling a disk-shaped object in the back of her jeans. Yanking out the cookie from ‘Grandma’s Diner’, they all walked around the room in circles as Jane chased them, unwillingly. Then, Jane cornered Ellie, trying to gnaw at her arm, rotting flesh peeling back revealing scabs and bruises. as a last minute plan, Ellie chucked Ava the cookie, indicating to soak it in the solution, whilst gently fighting Jane away from her. Plonking the cookie on the table, Ava drenched the cookie. Poking her hand through Jane’s arm, she grabbed the cookie, forcing her to take a bite.

Instantly, the grey, wispy hair evolved into a lush, chestnut-brown pony-tail, her skin turning a beautiful olive colour (from her holiday to the Caribbean).

Embracing Jane in an affectionate cuddle and kiss, she expressed how much she missed her.

“And, thanks for not hurting me, when I changed,” Jane appreciated jokingly.

“How did ‘the real you’ communicate with me?”

”Just as I was turning, I drank a shot of the unfinished formula I’d been creating, since they predicted the apocalypse,” Jane replied “and ever since I’ve been working to rectify it for full recovery,”

“Talking about ‘recovery’, should we cure all the others,”

As they unlocked the door, they were greeted by a layer of rotting, dead zombies. Jane snatched the cookie, crumbled it in her hand, dividing the crumbs between the four of them. Jane started scattering crumbs like ashes over the corpses, the others did the same. Rising from the dead, the zombies and transformed back into humans.

“Ava! Nicholas!” a voice shouted. Their Dad striding heroically into view. He grabbed both of them in a hug, with a “thank you,” to Ellie who was canoodling with Jane. All five of them walked down the hospital corridor, triumphant, they had overcome the plague together.