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Lake of the Living Dead

A bad day in a zombie apocalypse

By Stacey HowarthPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 14 min read
7

First there was a virus. Millions of people died with an infection which attacked human brain cells. Symptoms started with an imbalance, people began to fall over, the weak, old and alone suffered as they were unable to get back up after a sudden vertigo-like feeling caused spills down the stairs, heads hit off bathroom sinks, days left alone led on the floor with a broken back or hip and no help from the relatives who had forgotten to check in on them. Another heart-breaking effect of the virus, peoples short-term memories began to vanish, as if erased from the brains hard-drive. Ovens were left unchecked, children forgotten in baths, families left devastated as routine things began to be overlooked.

The virus itself wasn't a killer more of an instigator, but once it had began to attack the Hypothalamus, hospital beds were overrun with patients suffering extreme body temperature changes. As the virus progressed, those infected developed an inability to fall asleep and suicide spiked globally as people became desperate to end the suffering that came with the endless insomnia.

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Next came the vaccine. It took 2 and a half years for it to be created and distributed to more than a quarter of the worlds population. Less than a year after that for the Global population of living persons to drop to less than 1 million total. The manufacturers of the vaccine, under enormous pressure, released the medicine without properly trialling the long-term effects of the vaccine on human patients. After 6 months from receiving the vaccine people began to change. A small mutation formed on the Hypothalamus, it mirrored and exaggerated the symptoms of the virus of which it was meant to protect us from. Extreme personality changes combined with insomnia and a constant stream of adrenaline flowing turned people into aggressive, delusional savages who would attack viciously without thought or provocation until eventually they died within a week from a fever.

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Then they returned.

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The nervous system was reanimated and the adrenaline rushed through the still deteriorating bodies of family, friends and co-workers turning them into cannibalistic beasts lacking the ability to communicate and reason with those left alive. They ravaged through the population rapidly, tearing the flesh off of bones in seconds to chew through the organs of human beings. Only satiated for a moment before needing to find more to eat. The war between the Living and the Dead was over quickly. Those Dead soon outnumbered the Living, with only an impulse to kill and a craving for the taste of blood-soaked muscle and meat, quickly they rose to the top of the food chain and sent everyone still alive into survival mode.

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A small group of survivors have managed to create a reasonably safe space on a small recursive island in the middle of lake in Northern England. Isolated from land it requires a boat to reach the large manor like hotel that sits on the island's shore. Peter Piper the owner of "Pied Piper's Hotel and Spa" had offered up the hotel to those immune and unvaccinated. The Dead were unable to get across the deep lake en masse. Occasionally a straggler would be able to endure the long walk underwater which induced a horrific skin slippage and trauma to their already rotting corpses from rocks dashing into them beneath the murkier depths of the lake, they would crawl out from the water and lie snarling, stuck in the mud and sand until Peter came along on his walk and thrust his favourite stick "Mr Pointy" through their skull in an act of mercy. Rarely would one still have the ability to walk out of the lake, but remembering the horror of the night one did, he himself patrolled the island twice daily. His daughter Alice and her husband Robert also walking the island's perimeter once a day each.

By Marek Levák on Unsplash

There were 12 other people in the hotel with them, or at least there were. For the past 4 nights a murder had occurred in the hotel. In brutal slayings, the victims suffered horrific injuries, leaving the scenes left behind for the others to find, filled with bloodshed and carnage.

Tensions were high, for most people anyway, Louise had taken to spending a lot of time in the spa and away from the group. Her husband Craig had become a man on a mission to find the culprit. At this moment Craig was yelling at Peter that there was a serial killer in his hotel and he was doing nothing to stop it. Louise knew this wasn't true, Peter was obviously distraught and had been unable to sleep, adding an extra patrol around the hotel and island late at night. She had watched him slip out after midnight the past couple of nights as she left the spa. It had been as late as it reasonably could be, to avoid her husband, and his theories about what they had then only thought was a couple of missing people. Now they knew that they were being picked off one by one, she would still prefer the solitude of the spa to his company.

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Just before the world went to Hell, Craig confessed to a brief affair with a woman from his company. He wanted to work things out in his marriage and begged for her forgiveness, she had loved him deeply at the time and found the strength within herself to forgive him and try to repair the relationship he had shattered. As chaos descended across the world, they had ended up in group of people that had also escaped death from the hordes of undead, one of those people was the woman from his company, Drew. Faced with his betrayal on a daily basis as they fought to survive and find a safe haven, Louise's resentment of her husbands actions grew, despite her best efforts to forgive and forget, her resentment soon turned into anger. With every day just an exhausting attempt to stay alive and the intelligent, witty and strong woman's presence a constant reminder, Louise swallowed down her pain and became withdrawn. She pushed Craig away, straight into Drew's arms. She saw the glances between them, pretended not to notice when they both were visibly absent within the small group, she buried her feelings about the horror of her new reality and she became numb. So numb she almost welcomed the thought of a serial killer in the hotel.

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Craig was getting louder and more lively as he continued on his quest for the killer. The dwindling group of survivors gathered around him and Peter. Robert stood beside his father-in-law ready to intervene should he get too confrontational.

"There is a madman stalking the halls of this hotel and you want us all to sit here and wait! You're gonna get us all killed old man!" Craig poked a finger into Peters chest and Robert instantly grabbed his hand and swiftly twisted it away. Craig snatched his arm back and glared at the pair.

"I will find out which one of you is doing this" he declared to the whole group "and I will fucking stop you!" Red-faced he left the dining room with a loud slam of the door.

Drew excused herself one minute later.

Louise stared out of the window, Winter was here. Frost formed on the glass pane. A fog rolled over the lake but in the distance she could still see where the Dead lined the outskirts of the forest across the water. Easily a hundred of them stood motionless, appearing to watch the island for signs of activity. Their food supply must be running low at this point, Louise thought. They seemed closer to the hotel tonight than the previous nights she had sat here, watching them watch her. She imagined the island drifting slightly closer towards them every day and felt a mild panic but she dismissed it as her over-active imagination.

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Mostly everyone retreated to their bedrooms, Louise could hear the locks clicking in the hallway and handles being tried for reassurance that no-one could enter their room without permission, as if a little thing like a lock was going to stop this maniac. Another "guest" of the hotel, Hannah, thought this also and she remained behind in the dining room with Louise. Her wife Tilly was murdered 3 nights ago as she slept. She hadn't heard a thing. She had woke up in the morning and turned to cuddle with her wife, sheets damp with blood, her eyes had stared lifelessly back at her. Hannah had screamed, awakening the whole hotel, she had not said a word to anyone since. She sat now in silence. Louise felt no need to break it.

She sat for a long while, not wanting to return to her room but accepting that she did not, in fact, want to die the way Tilly did. She had decided against going down to the spa all alone tonight. Darkness had descended on the hotel. Her and Hannah remained silent, deep in emotional torment, until they heard a loud slam of a door out in the hallway. She began to rise when Hannah grabbed her arm.

"Don't" she said, "Don't leave me."

"I won't, but I'm going to make sure the door is locked, maybe move a couple of those tables over there and barricade us in so we can at least try and fall asleep." Louise felt a sudden need to protect Hannah and would rather sleep upright in a dining chair than next to her husband anyway.

"I can't fall asleep." Hannah said softly.

"Seems to be contagious." Louise replied thinking of Peter.

She had seen him sneak out earlier from her seat by the window. He had stumbled down the steps from the kitchen, he looked like he been drinking, she didn't think he should be wandering the island by himself in the dark, but then she saw Alice catch up to him and forced herself to stop watching, not wanting to intrude on their family affairs.

By Noah Silliman on Unsplash

Now though she started to think, what if he hadn't been drinking and his stumbling was caused by something else? Louise's thoughts were interrupted by a scream from upstairs, both she and Hannah looked at the ceiling and then at each other. Fear flooded over Hannah's face, they heard footsteps pounding the up the stairs to find whomever was in trouble.

"I'm going to go and see what's happening, lock the door behind me." Louise instructed. Hannah nodded her head but didn't release Louise's arm. Louise gave her hand a little squeeze, Hannah let go and followed her to the door. "Be careful" Hannah said in a low voice, "stay with the group." Louise nodded her agreement and stepped out into the hallway, she heard the lock turn in the door behind her.

She walked up the stairs catching up to Alice and Robert on the landing. "What's going on?" she asked.

Alice jumped, unaware someone was behind her. "I'm not sure." she replied.

They found the source of the commotion. Everyone was huddled in the corridor. Magda, an elderly lady originally from Scotland, was crying whilst her son hugged her. Will, a farmer from Newcastle, backed out of an open room, the colour drained from his face. He turned and spotted Louise. Usually misanthropic and surly, Will's voice had a softer edge than normal when he spoke to her.

"You don't wanna go in there, Pet"

Louise was confused. Why was he addressing only her? Where was Craig? Then she noticed whose room they were all gathered outside. It was Drew's.

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Louise pushed past Will and the rest of the group. She felt her legs give way from under her and arms catch her underneath her shoulders so she didn't land in heap on the ground. In front of her, her husband and his lover lay semi naked on the bed, limbs entangled, Drew's head hung off the edge of the mattress, a crimson puddle formed on the floor next to the bed. Craig sprawled on top of her, naked from the waist down, socks still on, lifeless and bloodied. They looked like a human kebab, Louise couldn't help thinking, as she tried to process the scene. A large wooden pole jutted out of Craig's back, it ran entirely through him and straight into the gut of Drew beneath him. Her throat had also been sliced.

"That's Mr Pointy" said Robert quietly from behind her referring to the pole sticking out of Craig. All colour had drained from Alice's face.

"Where's your father, Alice?" asked Will.

"No" she started to shake her head, "He couldn't have done this!"

"My Love," Robert started, placing a hand on his wife's shoulder, "he's not been feeling very well."

"So what?! That doesn't make him a murderer Robert!" she snarled at him.

Louise thinks back to seeing Peter the past couple of days.

"He's infected, he has the virus." she said as she freed herself from Will's grip around her.

"I thought he was immune?" a member of the group said.

"It's not him!" Alice yelled at everyone.

Another scream echoed through the hotel.

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"Hannah!" Louise gasped. The survivors thundered down the stairs, with Alice taking the lead. Louise sees the door that Hannah had locked behind her a few minutes earlier, wide open. Robert steps in front of Alice to enter the room first, it appeared to be empty at first glance. Walking further into the room, Louise spotted Hannah cowering under one the tables, a purple welt forming around her eye.

"Hannah, what happened?"

"I thought it was ok cause it was Peter", she started to cry, "he punched me!" tears flowed down Hannah's swollen face.

"Where is he?" Will asked.

"He didn't even recognise me I don't think," Hannah said.

"He's sick. Where did he go Hannah?" Louise asked this time.

"He fell over and banged his head but he got back up and headed out there." Hannah pointed towards the patio doors.

The door to the outside from the dining room had remained locked for as long as Louise had been a guest there but she now noticed it was slightly ajar.

Alice looked petrified. The realisation that her father was the culprit of these crimes was evident on her face, and that the only way for this murder spree to end would be when the virus had progressed enough that her father ended his own life.

"It's freezing out there Robert, we have to go find him!" Alice pleaded with her husband.

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A couple of the survivors volunteered to go out with them, to help restrain him, until they could figure out if there was a way to help Peter. The temperature had dropped dramatically in the past couple of days, armed with a weapon and a torch, they wrapped themselves up in thick coats and gloves and headed out into the cold air, the ground below slippery from ice.

Louise, Hannah and the rest of the group decided that staying together for the night until everyone else returned was the safest option, in case Peter was still close, there was a false sense of security in numbers. Will built a fire for them before he left to join the search party. Louise lay down on a blanket near the fireplace, the image of her husbands last movements scarred into her brain.

She must have managed to nod off though as the next thing she knew she was being awakened by some loud scratching sounds.

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Louise lifted her head and looked around the room. It seems everyone had managed to fall asleep, including Hannah. No-one had returned from the search party and Louise could see that the sun had risen through the gaps in the curtains. She shivered as walked across the room and towards the window. She heard a low groaning noise. Looking around, she realised the sound wasn't coming from the sleeping survivors.

She thrust open the curtains and instantly stepped away. Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at back her. Faces decomposing and warped pressed up against the window pane.

By Nathan Wright on Unsplash

Louise let out a little cry, and walked backwards slowly, reaching down to shake people awake. "The Dead are here" she whispered.

Hannah's eyes widened. "How?"

Magda's son answered. "The lake has frozen, they just walked over." He was stood looking at the patio doors, hundreds of hands scratched and clawed at the glass. "That isn't going to hold."

The Dead were minutes away from breaking down those doors. Louise grabbed Hannah's hand. "We need to move, now!" she pulled her towards the hallway. Hannah pulled her arm back.

"What about Peter? And the others?"

Louise knew they were most likely all dead.

"We'll find them!"

Pulling the door open, the women screamed. Stood there with a crazed expression and a bloodied knife was Peter.

By Hassan Rafhaan on Unsplash

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