New York, 2012
The gay man was walking down Lower Manhattan.
In his right hand was a briefcase.
The 47 degree weather became bitterly cold, as winter became harsh. New Yorkers were shopping for the holidays; shopping cleansed the soul. In the iron grilles were eyes that focused on him.
He peered at them, and shuddered with horror.
The zombies raked across his hands.
He screamed, as blood spilled down his ripped flesh.
And he died instantly from the wounds that infected him.
*
Alison Radford walked towards the dim hallway.
She shivered, as she headed to her parents' bedroom.
'MOM! DAD!', she yelled.
She hated the cold; she looked at the door.
It creaked open.
In the room was her Mom.
But she wasn't normal.
She was a zombie.
'No! No!'.
She backed away.
When she noticed the dead body of her father, she screamed.
Then she ran away from her house, and didn't return.
*
The African-American soldier stood by the barbed fire fence.
In his right hand was an air rifle.
'Don't shoot!', Alison shouted.
He turned around, and saw her.
'What's the matter?', he asked her.
'Zombies are here. They infected my Mom, she's one of them. She killed my Dad; she bit him', Alison answered.
'Jesus! What's your name?'.
'Alison', she said.
'Cadet Peter Anderson. You'd had better come with me'.
Then they saw the marauding zombies, and the alarm bell rang.
*
The New York barracks was guarded by soldiers.
'What's going on?', Colonel Richard Markham, Jr., asked.
'We have zombies on the loose, Colonel. This girl's Mom attacked her husband. He's dead. She escaped. She should be safe here', Cadet Peter Anderson answered. The other soldiers were armed with rifles, and were firing at a group of four zombies; the fear of horror descended just outside the city of New York.
Then the madness happened.
*
New York Mayor Deane Lowe was shivering.
'Today, our city is in crisis. Zombies! We have orders to eradicate the Undead; we will decide to shoot-to-kill the Risers, as they're called. Today, we shall win the fight'. Then the press conference ended.
*
'It is impossible', Raymond Albreicht said.
'How. We messed up', Jocelyn Davies said.
'We can't...'.
'Look, there is a bloody zombie apocalypse. It is not radiation; it is not the Risers. Maybe it was the New York Memorial Cemetery'.
'And'.
'And we messed up'.
'And'.
'Listen, Soros Kampinsky, the Polish Jew is in Lower Manhattan, at the Synagogue; the city is collapsing, and soldiers are shooting at the graves'.
'How can we fix it?'.
'We don't!'.
'That is a problem'.
'Yes, it is'.
And the conversation ended.
*
'What is the next story?', Brenda Harper asked her producer.
'The zombies of New York', Chloe Bannerman answered.
'Zombies, you think I'm mad'.
'This is a story, Brenda. A career making move'.
'So'.
'This is what's going to work in New York', Chloe said.
'New York is full of freaks and crime in the 1960's, and 1970's. And protests against the Vietnam War, and the Kennedy family assassinations; and Woodstock. And the Stonewall raid in '69. In short, as the decades took its toll on everyone. The Greed is good 1980's was full of HIV/AIDS, and glam rock music. The 1990's was full of Seattle rock bands; the 00's is about the Internet. No one gives a damn about zombies in the post 9/11 World, unless it breaks the bank, so to speak. And when it does happen, the shit hits the fan, and we all die'.
'And'.
'And the mess we're all in in the social media Age, means we want instantaneous satisfaction. If we die, I want to survive', Chloe said.
Then the horror was all over the Internet by five o'clock PM.
*
Marcus Robertson stood near the Hudson River. He smoked a cigarette. It was raining. He focused his blue eyes on the Atlantic River. In his mind, no one was looking into the sewers; there was something wrong with the yukky water. Then he saw someone inside.
It was a girl zombie riser.
It scratched his hands.
Then he screamed in terror, and died from his injuries.
*
'Maddie!', Roger said.
'Yes'.
'Where's Natalie?', he asked his wife.
'Outside, in the garden', she answered.
'Are you sure?', Maddie said.
'Look, she is outside for a reason. She hates lounging around in the room watching TV; she thinks that the Undead are roaming New York', Roger said. She looked out of the window.
A Riser girl was biting off its right finger.
Maddie screamed, and saw her ten year old daughter.
She fled the zombie, and opened the front door.
Roger shot at the zombie.
It fell onto the hard ground, and died.
*
Alison looked at the group of cadets.
She was scared.
As they ate their lunch at the Mess Hall, the silence was loud.
*
'Shoot the Risers...now', Colonel Arch Cary Moore yelled.
The ten zombies were biting into the flesh of their victims. The shooting was ferocious; the bullets were fast. 'Go! Go! Go!', the Colonel yelled. The horror was terrifying.
As the zombies rose from their graves in the eerie atmosphere, the city that never sleeps, was over run by the Undead.
*
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