Eating my experiences (16)

TOME 17

We sat in silence till me knees hurt from pressing into the wood floors. I stood to pace, limping before asking "How long do we have to figure out how to leave?"

Zach let out a short chuckle. "Until she gets bored" somehow this answer is what makes me most fearful. My throat feels as though it will close entirely due to the festering pit of mold in the sink amidst dishes and rotting food. This entire week is enough to make my head spin. I worried about the inevitability of my fainting spells, which mold has always made worse.

We relaxed as best we could for the time being, sleepy, and unwell, when we heard the pounding of heavy footsteps coming down the hallway. This would be it, the last time my friends were all alive. Six people armed to the teeth burst through the door, two people each, and dragged us down the hallway, this time kicking and screaming. I could taste the blood of one of them, and savored it as I listened to screams emanating from down the hall

We got to a door with several all to human voices in it along with the slurred speech of entities I could not recognize. I could not place it, but it ate away at me as the door began to swing open, inside sat my old friend, Aurora, crying and I couldn't help but feel bad for her. All she wanted was to see her family. Alex, Zach and I were thrust through the door, sending most of us to the floor, I land on my face.

"Aurora, what happened?" I ask ignoring the blood pouring from my nose.

"As soon as they had you, they put me in a car and told me they would take me home, but they brought me here. You have no idea how horrific these things are?" She said pointing to her left where a large prison-like cage was located, taking up most of the apartment. The cell was filled to the brim with Zombies, talking in a slurred tone through broken teeth and rotting tongues. Some missed their jaw, yet they still tried to speak, to little benefit.

"Oh god, they're so...human." I say before one of the fresher looking Zombies looks over and replies, to my horror.

"Well yeah, we're learning more all the time, with each new brain, with each precious person." She allowed herself a crooked smile, as a slimy goo poured out. I shimmied away on my hands an knees, for the first time realizing how doomed the human race really was. They would be smarter than us, and we are nothing but their food. They had no remorse.

As my panic built, I saw Aurora being swept to her left before a decrepit being crashed her body hard into the wall of bars, ripping and biting at her arm as she attempted to claw her way away, to no avail. Becoming sick of her squirming another being, seemingly intact put one hand on her shoulder and pulled with the other hand as the sinews of her shoulder ripped apart, her eyes rolling into while as she bit her tongue, spitting up blood. Her arm was free from her body with a sickening pop as she fell away to the floor, which flooded with her blood.

She would be dead quickly if I didn't do anything, and at a loss for what to do, I attempt to pack her wound with my now removed shirt. The shirt does little to nothing as I hear the contents of the cage beginning to fight over her small arm. Tears flood my face as she regains consciousness in writhing pain, looked me in the eyes and said "I don't want to live like this, I won't survive with a giant wound where my arm should be." Before plunging her head through the bars before I could gain the sense to help her.

Her blood splattered my exposed belly and face, entwining itself in my dirty hair while I tried to pull myself out of shock, her screams driving me to madness as memories with her flooded my brain. She had always been so kind, generous, and strong, seeing her give up like that was a wake up call none of us were ready for. Zach Alex and I had been largely sheltered in the hills, these were actually the first Zombies we had seen speak. They started out nothing more than blundering fools.

TO BY CONTINUED...