Whispers

There is a still hour when no one speaks but whispers are nevertheless heard, like flags fluttering in the wind or dogs barking far off in the distance, a call of distress poisoning the thickness in the air. This is when Michael hears her voice, whispers in a still hour. All through the night he keeps himself moving just to feel sane, but eventually he must stop, consign himself to the softness of a bed in which sleep will barely come, and think of the love he lost to the bitter irony of circumstance.

Her name was Beth. Months ago the zombies stole her right out from under him. The apocalypse had been in full effect for years. Beth and he had held out for so long. They had a strong marriage before the day the virus escaped a secret government lab, and he felt so fortunate they were not infected. They boarded up their home. They had guns, ammo and food aplenty hidden away. They had no trouble acquiring more food in the daytime.

Most of the zombies were nightwalkers. The sunlight seared their already mottled flesh to the point that they often hid during the day, which also weakened them to a degree that made them an easy target for close combat. At first the zombies were mindless characters—drooling idiots stumbling into each other, serving only their basest instincts to eat and grossly copulate though they had no chance of breeding; but at some point they began to become more self-aware. That was when they stopped trying to break in and started standing outside of the house with signs that said “ZOMBIES ARE PEOPLE TOO” and “WE'RE HERE, GET USED TO IT”, and “JUST BECAUSE I EAT BRAINS DOESN'T MEAN I DON'T HAVE ONE”.

Which was all fine as long as Michael could mow them down with his machine gun.

One day Beth said “You know, there's more of them than us now. Our neighbors Bobby and Tina joined them willingly. Maybe we should stop persecuting them and start accepting the new way of things.”

Michael was shocked. He argued with Beth. “They're flesh-eating monsters!” he'd say. “When everyone is a zombie who will be left to provide food for them but themselves... and when they are done eating themselves, what then? This is the end of the human race, Beth! All we have is each other! We've got to stick together!”

“I don't know, Michael. Our marriage isn't fun anymore! I mean look at them out there!” She said one day, “They dance and cavort and revel. They have community, sociability. What's happened to us? We're hermits, locked away in this house! Dammit, I'm starting to go stir crazy!”

“But...” Michael would stutter and splutter, beside himself with the absurdity of what she was saying. “They're zombies! Flesh-eating zombies!”

They had this argument many times, until finally she would speak to him no more, and they would not have sex, or enjoy cuddling, or even eat together. By the time she announced she was going out to join them, Micheal was not surprised.

“I still care about you, Michael, so I'm going to leave you my keys, and I promise I will try to keep them away.”

But what solace was this to him? He would be all alone here, without even the entertainment of shooting zombies at night. Besides, he didn't want to shoot her too, even if she was a zombie.

She left, and he never saw her again. The zombies do not protest in front of his house, but some nights he can hear them feasting, screeching, reveling as Beth had said, far off in the distance—muted whispers of a life he will never want, reminding him of a life alone which he doesn't want either.

Hell is just the suggestion of futility hissed into an unwelcoming ear.

***** * *****

Afterword:

I admit that this is a tragicomic quip on Richard Matheson's amazing I Am Legend, which I strongly suggest anyone read. There is also a playful jest about human beings as social animals, and how many of us seem to let that tendency override our better judgment. I can hear Mom now: “If your friends became zombies, would you become a zombie too?”

This story is based on a song that I wrote of the same name, from my EP Misty Regions. The song is a seven minute musical extravaganza which sounds kind of like something that one might find on the soundtrack of a post-apocalyptic science fiction film.

The song: