Dead of the Night... Silently Happening.

[Ash]

[Her Story]

Promise walked back to her housing unit in the walls of the station, headphones blasting her favorite band into her head and completely cutting her off from the rest of the piece of shit verse. In her peripheral vision, she could make out plenty of people milling about around her like background character’s in a music video. They hardly seemed to notice her, never turning to look at her as she continued on with her day. Promise was fairly normal. She was just a girl with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, caucasian, about five-five, and just turned twenty-one. She wasn't exactly a normal person though. That was for another time.

Her favorite colors were purple, blue, green and black. She was wearing a purple tank top, black pants, and a grey hoodie with a skull design on the back. Her dark long hair was in a french braid and hung over her shoulder. She wore black and silver headphones that covered her entire ears which she cherished if only because it was easier to block out everyone with them.


Promise had a serious problem with people; she didn’t like them. Almost everyone she has come into contact with has done her wrong in some way, and eventually, she gave up on finding anyone to be friends with. It was a waste of her time and effort to get close to anyone anymore.

Only this would become the root of her problems because it seemed to attract even more people to her! Something about a loner always made people want to be a part of their desert island world. This served a single purpose in life and that was to piss her off even more.


She reached into the black studded messenger-style bag that hung on her shoulder and went to go dig out her key. When she doesn't find it immediately she frowned out of frustration and pulled the bag closer to search harder! Normally this wouldn’t get to her, but there was a limit to how many minor inconveniences a girl could endure for one day.


Behind her, the world was becoming a little grimmer.


A pack of real zombies was attacking a small group of people a few blocks away. A crowd watched some in awe at the brutality, some in shock, most of them thought it was just an act, and even if it were impressive most of them acted like it wasn't.


Everyone has heard of zombies and everyone thought they were just something out of a sci-fi comic but wasn't that the same thing said about space travel? When the zombies had devoured the small group of kids, who had been screaming and freaking out the whole time, the living cadavers turn to take their clapping audience! Suddenly it is apparent that this wasn't entertainment thought up by some governmental official, it was real. The crowd quickly started to dilute, running in all sorts of direction, trying desperately to get to some safety, and soon the zombies were spreading out and taking big bites out of society.


Finally!


Promise found her key card! She slides the black strip on the back through the card reader mounted beside her door before cursing that the damn lock wasn’t working. Again. She sighed loudly before she swiped it again. As the door beeped and flashed a red light, forcing her to groan in added frustration, a deadly figure took noticed and began to limp over to her. It raised its arms towards her and just as it was close enough to lunge the door dinged instead and slid open; Allowing her to step in undisturbed other than a bit peeved her card was acting like it needed to be replaced.


As for the zombie whose intestines were dragging behind it, before it could catch its next meal the automatic door slammed shut. He smacked against the door, well more bounced, the room behind it was filled with a hollow metallic ‘thump’ before going silent once more. The creature of horror stumbled back due to such a force acting upon its movement. It means to attack the door once more, but the sound of a woman in the distance screaming alerted it to the action around it. It shuffled away


Promise also had five pets. She didn’t like people, but she liked animals. Funny given her profession.

She went through the ritual of unloading her stuff on the table while she still listened to her favorite band, tossing her key card on the table and grabbing the can of food flakes for her fish. There were three fish in the single tank, a cleaner and a two bizarre alien looking ones with bulging eyes and neon colors. She twisted the top of her can so there were holes at the top and then shook it over the water. She watched the two fight over the flakes which went from a solid flake to a sheet of edible fabric. What wasn’t hungrily devoured by the two main ones floated to the stained yellow rocks at the bottom of the tank. She had always wondered if they did that on purpose...


Promise made a note to clean the aquarium on her next day off.


She also had a black and white sheepdog who was locked up in his own room and a white rat that was probably sleeping in her edible log. Next on her daily routine was to cook herself something. [Nothing like zombies to make a girl hungry..]


She doesn't bother to take off her headphones, she had no family to deal with after work nor did she have any roommate. She decided to skip the oven and put some tuna fish on some bread and eat it instead. When she was done with her food she is ready to play with Max.


In the little time that she took to eat, the undead terrorist had taken care of any person on the streets, a few had made it back into their homes or other forms of safety. So when Hope finally pulled the headphones off she couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary, except Max who was barking and scratching away at the door where he’d been left.

Feeling bad despite how much she spoiled him, Promise headed up the staircase and opened the door. As soon as she did Max bolted out and down the stairs. A moment later he came back up as fast as a four-legged buddy could and jumped his owner. She laughed at his silly display and began to pet him all over his fur covered body. "Good boy!" She exclaimed. You’d never catch her dead this excited to see a human.


A few hours later, after supper, Max is to be taken for a walk, but that day was different.


When Promise opened the door and stepped out she was met with a horrible sight fit for the goriest of movies!! Bodies everywhere! She went into shock almost instantly, so much that Max was able to jerk free from her grip and ran off. She was so stunned she hadn’t even noticed. Promise was left staring at the sea of bodies.


Had cutting herself away from the world caused her to miss some crazy event?


She took a few heavy steps towards a small boys body that laid lifeless on the ground, kneeling down to look it over. There were vicious wounds along his frail shoulders and neck, but the strangest part is they looked like bite marks! Her fingers start to tremble as she goes to touch the body; Cold...

Suddenly something pulsed against the tip of her finger and in an instant the boy jumped up in a sitting position! There was a second of pure awe as he gasped in lungs full of air. The next second it screamed an inhuman screech that frightened Promise into falling back on her tailbone. She clasped her hands over her ears and endured what she couldn’t block out. When it was done she was left breathing erratically. Her chest pumped up and down with air as she began to panic.

At the edge of her vision, she saw more movement. The blurry shadow was first a formless figure, and then a man. Her neighbor. He was already coming at her with this dead look on his face mouth opened as wide as the gaping holes in his neck and chest. She could only hear her heart beating faster and faster in her ears, she was numb to everything else. However, Promise managed to get back to her feet.


In her escape, she backed into another corpse and jumped with a shrill and short terrified scream. She turned, covering her mouth to contain her fear, and saw several undead rose. She turned left and right so many times that her head spun, quickly losing count of the bodies. Her anxiety builds to crippling levels and had it not for one thing she may have quickly become the next victim. Her mind snapped to full attention upon hearing her dog’s barking. Promise rushed past the unholy creatures and back to her door. Max’s barking both alerted and attracted them, and she suddenly understood what these things were; She did everything she could to comprehend that fact though.

Promise slammed her body against her own door and ripped at her clothing as she struggled to find her key card once more, her hands trembled as she internally screamed. 'Oh fuck, oh fuck!' He unsteady hands fought to swipe the card, its red light flashed and declined her access to her own home. Desperate she began to bang on the metal door, tears streamed down her face as she could only hear the loud the moans of the undead. The sounds were haunting and if she wasn't in danger she'd have admired them for the horror sounds that they were! Max’s barking sounded right into her ear, he was beside her even now in her final hour - of which was the only sound that could successfully drown out her panicked heart as she felt the fingertips begin to find purchase on her shirt.

Having already begun to give up, letting the gravity of the situation drag her down the front of the door. Defeat bubbled inside of her and began to consume her and she began to cry loudly.

She never even heard the cock of the gun. By the time she heard gunshots echo through the enclosed space and Promise’s head. Her crying stopped in an instant and blood rained down on her. She looked up at where a head used to be, the body crumpled and gave her a promising view of her hero as he turned to gun down several other people she had only barely known.