Zelda The Ordinary Girl

Imagine it’s 2035 and you look inside your coat pocket and find a rhinestone covered mask with a design of a pair of lips smack in the middle of the mask. You smile and think what a decade that was. 

Now you are a princess living in a world where you have to put on  a full suit made of industrial materials and a gas mask just to go outside to make your way to the corner store for a snack. You hope that you don’t have to kill any zombies along the way. Princess Zelda is living in this world. She is alone. Her mom, Amy was killed a little over a year ago by a zombie. She wasn’t killed by any zombie. She was killed by Zelda’s father.  Before Zelda’s mom died she whispered something in Zelda’s ear. Zelda didn’t understand it at the time but now, a year later she knew exactly what her mom had told her. 

Zelda was born in another world in another time. She had been in this world for six years. In Zelda’s world she was royalty. She was a princess. Her mom was a queen and her dad was a King. Together Zelda’s parents ruled the country of Merica. Merica was a small country on the other side of the world. Not many people knew about Merica and they rarely saw any outsiders. Zelda lived a life of privilege. She got everything she wanted and more and she even had a special power. The only person who knew about her special power was her mother, Queen Amy. She told Zelda that she could never use her power and she couldn’t tell anyone about it, not even her father. So, Zelda never did. She kept it a secret for many years. 

Ten years ago Zelda’s country was invaded. The invasion was by the Neutron soldiers led by Prince Walter of the country, Sumor. Everyone fled the country including Zelda and her parents. They were lucky to get out alive. They were smuggled out by one of the knights under her parents command. They sailed on a small boat for what seemed like a lifetime until they ended up here in Valez. Valez was a much bigger country than Zelda came from and here she was not a princess. She was just an ordinary girl. An ordinary girl to most people but Zelda had a secret. Her secret made her extraordinary. For years her family lived in peace. They had a modest house and her father even found a high paying job in a government office. Her mom taught school and they lived an ordinary life. Each day her parents went to work and Zelda went to school. Until one day it all changed. Zelda thought it was the end of the world.

It started off as a regular day until it wasn’t. Zelda woke up at her usual time to go to school. She took a shower, brushed her teeth and got dressed in her school uniform as she did on the other 300 days of the year. It wasn’t until she went downstairs that she knew something was terribly wrong. The sky had turned a bright orange color. Zelda knew instantly that was from a big fire, a fire which must have been burning for a long time. She had heard about some cities on fire in the news but she never thought that the fires would affect her in any way. She lived far from the fires she thought. But, looking out of the window she was not so sure now. She looked for her mother who was usually in the kitchen making breakfast. Her mom was not in the kitchen and her dad wasn’t in his chair waiting to eat breakfast. Zelda looked all over the house and called their names. They didn’t answer.

Zelda ran to the garage to check on the cars. She knew that if the cars were there her parents had to be somewhere close. She saw one of the cars parked across the driveway and the doors were open. Zelda ran to the car thinking that perhaps her parents were hurt inside the car and needed help. She thought that perhaps they passed out or were sick. She ran as fast as her feet would run and she looked inside the car. She gasped at what she saw. 

Zelda didn’t see her parents; she saw something she never thought she would ever see. There was a person in the car. Maybe it was a person. She had never seen a person with half a head before in her life. It looked like someone had bitten off one side of the person’s face and head. Blood was all over the car and all over the person. It was something that she had only seen in a horror movie. Zelda had to pinch herself to make sure she was really seeing it and wasn’t dreaming. 

“Ouch.” Zelda screamed after she pinched her arm. She definitely was not dreaming.

Zelda ran back inside the house and locked the doors and windows. She was shaking with fear but knew that she had to protect herself and her house. She didn’t know where her parents were but she had to believe that they were okay. She just had to believe that for her own sanity. Zelda didn’t know exactly what to do. She wanted to use her power but she had promised her mother that she would never use it. So, she didn’t, for now. 

“Zelda? Is that you?” A voice called from what seemed to be coming from a broom closet in the kitchen.

“Mom? Is that you?” Zelda responded as she walked to the corner of the kitchen where the broom closet was and opened the door. 

“Zelda, thank goodness.” Her mom said in a weak voice.

Zelda helped her mom out of the closet and hugged so tightly that she never wanted to let her go. Zelda didn’t even notice the blood at first. She let her mom go and helped her mom to the sofa. Zelda’s mom was weak and could barely sit up so Zelda carefully and slowly eased her down into a lying position on the small sofa. Her mother was dying and they both knew it.

“Zelda listen carefully.” Her mom whispered.

“Mom don’t try to talk.” Zelda said cradling her mom in her arms.

“Zelda, just listen. I am dying and I need to tell you this before I go. I need for you to know that your dad is not your dad. Your dad has turned into a zombie. He is the one who stabbed me and bit me in the arm. Don’t blame him, it is not his fault. Last night the zombie got him. This whole city had turned into a city of zombies. Remember back in our old country that Elenore, the witch, said that she put a spell on everyone who managed to leave and cursed them and the new country they were going to? That we were going to also? Well, this is the curse. The curse has come now. Most of the people if not all will be zombies pretty soon. Now, listen closely. I know I told you not to use your power. But, baby girl you have to use it and use it within the next 24 hours. That’s all the time you have to escape. There is a new world and the only way you can get to the new world is to use your powers to summon the vertex to the new world. You will have to make your way across town to Resse Avenue. Once you get to Reese go to the northeast corner where the stop light is and when that stop light turns yellow twice use your powers to open the vortex. Now, baby, once you get there to the new world you will never have your power again. You can only use it once and then it will be gone. Once you get to the new world you truly will be ordinary. You will have no special power. Now, I know you don’t want to leave me but you must do what I am telling you to do. I will be fine in the afterworld beyond. There is a suit in my closet that you must wear to ward off the zombies. Wear it when you are outside and wear the mask too. Remember baby girl that you only have 24 hours and you must go. Please promise me that you will go and be safe and live your life in the new world.”

“Mom. I promise and I love you so much.” Zelda replied with tears in her eyes.

“Remember Zelda you have to go and go now. Don’t ever look back. You have to get to the new world. I will always live in your heart baby and in your memories. Please also try and forgive daddy. Take care baby. I love you.” Zelda’s mom closed her eyes for the last time.

Zelda covered her mom with her favorite blanket and prepared herself for what was yet to come.

Zelda knew she had to move fast. She ran upstairs and put on the suit her mom told her about and the mask. She carefully opened her front door and peeped outside before she took a step to the porch. She knew that was the first step to freedom. She didn’t see anything. She looked all around her and up and down the street. She was not more than a half block from her house when she saw her first zombie and he was not alone. Zelda quickly ran in the opposite direction and tried to find a place to hide until they passed her. She ducked behind an old building which until today had been filled with people living there. Now, it looked abandoned like the buildings in her old country. She stayed there until she saw the zombies pass by. They looked terrible. They were a ghostly white and there was no sign of life in their eyes. They just walked past the building like it was not even there. They didn’t even look at it when they passed it. They kept walking towards the opposite corner where one black and white cat was sitting. Zelda yelled for the cat to run and it did. The zombies on the other hand ran too. They ran in the direction of Zelda’s voice. 

She ran fast. She had never run so fast in her life. She lost them a couple blocks away when she ducked behind a dumpster. One thing she noticed about the zombies was they weren’t very smart and she could lose them pretty easily. 

A few more blocks and she was there at her destination. She was there and so were about ten zombies too. They were all bending over something. She couldn’t see what they were bending over and didn’t want to get too close to them to find out. One or two zombies she could out run but she didn’t think that she could out run ten. So, she needed a plan to get to the corner. She looked around to find a distraction for them to move. There was nothing except a few trees, some garbage cans, and a few cars parked on the street. She got an idea. All the cars parked on the street had alarms. She hoped that the alarms still worked since nothing was the same in this world today. Slowly she crept towards one of the parked cars and she shook the car as hard as she could. The car made no sound. 

“Dam.” She whispered to herself. 

The zombies were still busy bending over whatever it was on the ground. Zelda didn’t want to guess what it was but in her mind she knew exactly what it probably was. She walked slowly to a second car and hoped for better luck. She shook that car also and the alarm went off. It was a loud alarm that startled her but even better it startled the zombies. They started one by one slowly walking towards the car and Zelda quickly ran from the car. She knew that she had to get to that corner. As the zombies emerged on the car one by one Zelda sprinted to the corner. She prayed that she would have enough time to get away before the zombies saw her.

“My mom said to use my power. So, here goes nothing.” She said to herself.

Zelda lifted her hands over her head and closed her eyes. Before she could open them she felt a hand on her left shoulder. She turned around quickly and could not believe what she saw. 

Standing there over her left shoulder was a zombie in a torn black suit like her dad used to wear to work. But, this zombie couldn’t be her dad. Before she had time to process that thought the zombie opened his mouth like he was going to take a bite out of her shoulder. Zelda quickly took a step away from him and she said the words to open the vortex portal to the new world. She had only seconds before it closed. Zelda took one last glance over her shoulder at her zombie dad and jumped into the portal to the new world. 

Zelda remembered waking up in a hospital bed. She tried to focus her eyes on the person standing near her bedside. He was a tall man with horn-rimmed black glasses dressed in a white lab coat. 

“Do you remember your name?” He asked her.

“She just looked up at him with a blank expression.”

“I’m doctor Hatch and you are in the hospital. You have been here for a few months. Someone found you on the street corner unconscious. Do you remember your name?”

Zelda looked up at the doctor and cleared her throat. Then she said, “My name is Zelda and I am an ordinary girl.”