Byron : A Zombie Tale (Part 1) (13 page)

‘What did you give me?’ she had asked. That was an interesting question. And, it was one which I was completely unprepared to answer.

How was I going to explain to this gorgeous creature sitting on the couch before me that she was dead, infected by some bizarre symbiotic organism, and would henceforth require a constant influx of fresh animal blood? Hell, I had a hard time either believing or understanding this concept myself. This was not a conversation I wanted to have. But, it was one that needed to happen.

“Elise,” I said to her. “There is something I need to explain to you.” I paused, trying to figure out the appropriate approach. “You were bitten by the creatures.”

Her face paled. “What? What do you mean? Am I going to become one of them?”

I shook my low-hanging head. “No. You won’t become one of them. But, you’re never going to be the same anymore, either. I don’t know how to say this, but…” I paused. She just looked at me expectantly, after a few seconds of silence she flipped her hand at me as if to say,
Well?

“You’re not human anymore,” I blurted out.

“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice giving away a strange mix of anger, fear and concern.

“You died after the creatures bit you.” I told her flatly.

“What?” she gasped, “how do you know?”

“Let’s not get into that,” I said abruptly. But, as I looked into her eyes I couldn’t not tell her. There was something about her that affected me in a way nobody had ever done before. I hung my head and studied my feet. “Because,” I began to say examining the intricacies of my shoe knots and not wanting to finish the thought, yet knowing it was necessary. “Because I killed you.”

Her jaw fell open and her eyes opened wide. “You did what?” I could hear the anger and confusion mixed in her voice. “I don’t even understand what you’re saying!”

I raised my hands in a defensive gesture. “Now just calm down, please, Elise.”

“Calm down,” she shouted, “what do you mean, calm down? I’m dead? I’m one of those goddamn things? A zombie?”

I had to work hard at restraining myself. “No,” I said. No, you aren’t one of those things.” Then, I added, “and, neither am I. We’re something different.”

This seemed to catch her a little off-guard. She blinked in surprise and arched her eyebrows high. “What do you mean we?”

I sighed and studied my shoes again. “Look, I was the first person infected to survive the assimilation process.” I explained to her. Then, I told her about what the symbiots had told me – about how the blood-thirsty creatures were caused by failed colonies of symbiotic micro-organisms. I also explained to her that when I had come to find her she had just been assaulted and bitten by several of the creatures.

“So,” she asked, “then how did you come to kill me?”

“I did to you what had happened to me,” I told her. “You see, I had been bitten too. I was leaving the campus pub when some weirdo attacked me.” As I said the words, I knew the truth of them. The symbiots had repaired the holes in my memory. I remembered it all now – down to the rotten smell of the homeless man who attacked me. Or, more appropriately, the creature who had attacked me. “I ran inside my dorm to get away from what I know now was one of these creatures. But, as I crested the top of the third-story stairs and reached for the door some damn ass pushed his way out and knocked me over. I fell down several flights and broke my neck. But, the smell of blood roused me. I walked back up the stairs and managed to make it back into my room. The last thing I remember was throwing up before blacking out while falling from the bed. When I woke next, my roommate was freaking out and screaming. But, I quickly passed out again. The last time I woke up I was in a morgue at the police station and the creatures were running rampant.”

I explained to her about my old frat brothers and how I had managed to get back together with them and that I hadn’t lost one bit of my identity after becoming infected. But, I also cautioned her that the organisms growing in my body had attempted on several occasions to seize control from me. And, as they had matured and learned to communicate with me, they’d indicated that this was a constant risk if they were to lose sustenance. I would have explained more, but Elise suddenly started talking.

“Who said that?” she yelled, scanning the room. I waited. “Who are you? Where are you?” She looked at me for help. “Where are the voices coming from?” I could hear tons of emotion in her plea.

I smiled at her. “You can’t see them, because they’re inside of you.” I explained. “What you’re hearing are the microorganisms that I told you about. They’ve tapped into your nervous system and can sense everything you can. They also repaired all the damage done to your body by the creatures.” I moved a little closer to her and noticed that she was no longer repulsed by me. In fact, for me she seemed to smell irresistible. I had never been so attracted to any one person before in my life.

She looked up at me and blinked. And, as I watched, she kept cocking her head from one side to the other. I could tell that the organisms inside her were talking. There was nothing I could do now but wait.

I busied myself searching the apartment for anything we could use to help us battle the creatures. There were a number of tools in a closet down the hall including hammers, and wrenches, but nothing what was really helpful. However, when I reached the second bedroom my jaw dropped to the floor.

Upon opening the door to the bedroom, I could see that the people who lived here were not what I had expected. The room was painted in very earthy tones. All furniture in the room was arranged around the outer walls and a giant circle was painted on the floor. Having grown up with a very liberal religious background I knew at once what this room was. It was a sanctuary, or a ritual room for neo-pagan practitioners. I also knew that this meant there were bound to be tools of the craft around.

In my late teens I’d dabbled in Wicca a little bit and had participated in several Sabbath and Esbat rituals. One of the things I also knew was that Wiccans tended to have ceremonial knives and swords. Given that the practitioners were likely to be dead or roving mindless monsters I saw no harm in borrowing the implements for use in self-defense.

In the apartment’s third bedroom I found the proverbial jackpot. I couldn’t believe my luck. Apparently, the tenant in this apartment wasn’t just a neo pagan, but also an avid collector of medieval artifacts. From suits of armor to maces, battle axes, and great swords the room was a veritable arsenal from some ancient castle. When I came out of the bedroom and made my way back to the living room I had a smile plastered from one ear to the other and an armful of steel death.

Elise looked at me. “Are we going to war, or something?” she asked laughingly.

I nodded. “Oh, yeah.” I said with a big grin. But, as she simply stared me up and down I continued, “I’ll explain later. But, first, how did your conversation go with the uhm…” I pointed to her head.

She furrowed her brow in an unasked question, then realization dawned on her. “Oh, that.” She seemed to take some time to choose her words. “So, it sounds like it’s pretty much like you said. We both died and these things kept our bodies active until they could rejuvenate us. And now, we need a constant diet of blood in order to survive. The thing I don’t understand, though, is how come we were both able to maintain our identities while so many other people didn’t.”

“I have a theory about that,” I told her. “I thought that because I had broken my neck it restricted the blood flow to my brain and blocked the microorganisms from infecting it. Without their influence I was able to maintain control of my body. They didn’t have a good hold on my nervous system or my brain and therefore my will was too strong for them to take command. So, that’s why I broke your neck when I saw that you’d been bitten. I was hoping that it would have the same results. It looks like I lucked out.”

She pondered my response for a while and then asked another question. “If you crave blood so much, then why didn’t you bite me too?”

I thought about this. “I think because the smell of your blood didn’t appeal to me. The smell of animal blood has been the most appealing. Human blood smells diseased to me. So, it wasn’t hard not to bite you.”

Elise had a shocked expression on her face, but there was something else to it, too. “Oh,” was all she said before getting up and walking out of the room. I knew in an instant I had hurt her feelings even though I hadn’t meant to.
Damn.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been slapped in the face by that one person who meant the absolute world to you. But, the simple act of Elise’s walking away was like that. I could feel my face and ears burning in embarrassment. I’d misspoken in a bad way. I’d inadvertently insulted her and for that I was foolish.

But, I was just trying to explain to her that of all the types of blood I’d smelled so far, human blood was no longer appealing. It wasn’t a commentary on what I thought of her, it was an explanation of my desire to consume human blood. My intentions didn’t matter, though, and I’d insulted her.

I walked off down the hallway and into the third bedroom where Elise was arming herself with some hand-selected specimens of medieval steel. “Look,” I began, “I’m sorry. That didn’t come out the way I’d intended it. All I was trying to say was that my body doesn’t crave human blood, it craves animal blood.” I paused, “I feel like a heel.”

Elise jumped right in, “you should! Do you have any idea how you made me feel?”

My mouth fell open. I didn’t know what to say. “I… Uhh… No,” I stammered and then stopped. “I’m sorry,” I said again and hung my head. “I didn’t think.” Without thinking, I began walking toward her, and wrapped my arms around her small body. “Can you forgive me?” I asked her.

I didn’t know why, but I needed her approval – her forgiveness. She meant everything to me. Nothing else mattered now. She and I were the world.

I had to admit that I’d never had these kinds of feelings for someone before. I don’t know if it was because we were now the only members of this new hybrid species, or if the microorganisms were manipulating us in some way, or if it was something personal within me. Whatever the reason, she was my sole concern.

She looked up at me with her honey-amber eyes. Her thick, luscious lips pouted at me. My heart melted. “Look,” she said, “I know that you didn’t mean anything by it. And, I’m not even sure why it bothered me so much, but it hurt me more than anything anyone else has ever said to me before.” She paused. “But, yes, I can forgive you.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and planted her lips on mine.

I didn’t know how to react. It was everything that I’d wanted since I set eyes on this woman. She was absolutely gorgeous. As I mentioned before, she had honey-amber eyes and full lips, but these only accentuated her petite, lithe frame and short flaming red hair. I did what my body – what I – wanted to do most. I kissed her back.

Time seemed to have stopped. The world around us melted away. It was just the two of us. How could it ever have been any other way? We were made for each other – a perfect fit.

A crash sounded in the hallway of the apartment building. Suddenly, I remembered that I had neglected to close the front door to the apartment behind us. So, it was no surprise that as I broke from Elise’s embrace my eyes caught the sight of one of the damned beasts approaching us from the hallway. Its face was covered with blood from the bowl from which Elise had just a few moments ago fed. I could smell the animal blood covering the beast. And, it was readily apparent that the animal blood seemed to have no measurable effect on mitigating the beast’s wanton bloodlust.

I pushed Elise behind me while taking a mighty broadsword from a nearby stand. It was likely a replica from some movie and wasn’t the sharpest implement, but I was sure that it would serve its purpose quite effectively. The creature saw us both and rushed at me. However, I met him midway with a fierce thrust from the weapon. The blade, turned sideways, pierced the damned creature’s breast between his ribs, but the momentum of the beast carried it along the length of the blade to me. Otherwise, the weapon had no effect on it. In a vain attempt to subdue the creature, I shoved it sideways with the hope that it would stumble away from us.

Fate smiled upon me and the beast did just that. It fell awkwardly sideways toward the wall while I managed to get my hand upon a massive double-headed battle axe. Speaking of fate’s smile, the simple fact that we’d happened upon the most fortunate apartment within which to receive an attack was a miracle. Before the beast could recover its feet my axe was high over my head and swinging downward in a curving arc toward its neck. The blade cleft cleanly through the partially-rotten meat and severed the beast’s head from its body and lodged into the wall’s framing.

To my surprise, however, its jaws kept snapping shut in search of something to feed upon. The body, though, had fallen completely lifeless to the floor. I pulled the axe from the wall’s framing and brought it crashing down on the beast’s still-animated severed head, cleaving it twain. A small dribble of fresh animal blood dripped from the mouth, but the gnashing of its jaw stopped. The creature was finally dead.

“Why the hell wasn’t it repulsed?” I asked out loud in hopes that the microorganisms surging through my veins would answer.

Elise simply looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. But the chorus of voices inside my head answered – only not with any type of answer I had hoped for.
We do not understand this behavior. The other colony should have recognized two established settlements and turned away. We are still emitting our warning, as is the colony you call ‘Elise.’ But, this other colony ignored it.

“So, then Elise is emitting a warning also?” I asked. She looked at me quizzically with a furrowed brow.

Yes, her colony has begun emitting its warning to other colonies.
The chorus told me.
We sense it.

“So, then am I immune to it or something?” I asked again. But, the answer was not immediate. In fact, our conversation had just been interrupted by another intruder.

A second creature burst into the room at high speed. I yanked the axe from the floor and swung backhand at the oncoming beast’s torso, cutting deep into its left side. With amazing luck, the axe blade passed between two ribs and struck the thing’s spinal column. I tried to pull out the weapon, but it was firmly lodged and I couldn’t budge it.

“Dammit!” I shouted, my right hand already lashing out to grasp another weapon. However, none were handy and I didn’t want to relinquish my grasp on the battle axe in my left hand for fear that the creature would be able to come close enough to bite me or worse, Elise.

I yanked as hard as I could, pulling the beast awkwardly off balance and forcing it to crash to the floor. The stumble was enough of a distraction for me to lunge for a nearby short-sword and cut at the beast’s neck. The first blow knocked it back down again as it tried to rise, but it took two more heavy blows until the head was severed from the body. This fellow must have been a little more freshly dead than the others since the sinews of the body hadn’t yet become soft and pulpy with putrefaction.

I looked to Elise, who had managed to strap two fine-looking Japanese swords to her back, saying “we gotta leave. Now! It’s not safe here for us.” It hadn’t even dawned on me that the colony had never replied to my last question.

Liking the sleek styling of the Japanese weapons, and the fact that as opposed to the tradition Medieval ones I had been using they appeared to be razor-sharp, I grabbed the only other samurai sword available and tucked it into my belt. I grabbed a few more implements of pain and destruction including a nasty set of knuckle-guards, a left-handed spiked gauntlet, and a pair of fierce-looking daggers and made my way toward my last fallen foe. Using my foot to hold the corpse still I managed to dislodge the battle axe.

Turning back toward Elise I smiled, hefted the axe up onto my shoulder and said, “ready to go.”

She smiled, tucked a few more odds and ends into her clothing, and winked at me.

As I turned back toward the doorway I heard three emphatic words escape my lips before I could even think to stop them, “I love you!”