Luck

I can't believe how lucky we got. It was almost over.
We had run out of change and were so hungry; we had to break open the vending machine. They heard us.
There was bunch of them at the door, pounding, banging, yelling. We didn't know what to do. There was no way the door was going to hold and the only option was to jump from the second floor to the cement courtyard, where there were more zombies. We could see their bloody pus faces just urging for something to bite.

But, anything was better than waiting to be eaten. We opened a window and leaned out, hoping for a solution.

"Mike, what the hell are we going to do?"

"We're going to have to jump."

"What! We'll die. Either from the fall or all of them down there!"

"Look." He pointed down.

Beneath us, on the courtyard, was a body splayed, bloody, eaten at the stomach with guts hanging out.

"No way." Mike wanted us to use the body to break our fall.

"We have no choice."

They were louder at the door now, slamming into it.

"Jump, land, and start running. I'll go first and you follow."

"Oh God, Mike, I'm so scared." I was almost crying.

"Me, too, but we have to go. Come on, babe. One bad thing and we'll get past this. They're slow-moving. We can make it."

He squeezed my hand. "We have to go, now."

I nodded. He jumped.

I couldn't believe it. The body "squooshed" when Mike landed on it. Mike quickly got to his feet, though, bloody now, and started running toward a sidewalk. I almost couldn't follow but then the door behind me burst open. I didn't even look back. I couldn't. I knew anything I would see would haunt me forever. I jumped and felt the squish with my own impact. It was like landing on a giant soggy peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I almost retched but didn't have time. They were everywhere and were already starting to follow Mike, who had a head-start on me.

Mike was ahead of me about twenty feet and I could feel the zombies behind me. Some fast-moving ones had got on our trail.
Then, miraculously, I heard an engine. I looked all around. I couldn't see it. Where? Where was it! We couldn't keep running forever.

Then I felt something grab my arm and I screamed. Mike looked back and I saw terror in his eyes.

I knew I was going to die.

Something whizzed past my ear and I felt the splatter of blood on my cheek. I heard someting fall to the ground and looked. A zombie missing a face was laying next to me. Fear and disgust shook through me.
I looked to my left, where the bullet had come from, and almost fainted with relief. A man and a woman stood in the back of a truck, both holding long shotguns. I ran to them, and so did Mike. They pulled us into the back of the vehicle and then pounded on the cab. We took off, the woman picking off another zombie as we fled.


We're in a safe house, now. As safe as it can get, anyhow. The people we're with, Bob, Deb, and Randy, took over an apartment above a restaurant. They installed metal shields against the windows downstairs, barricaded all the doors, and then the door that led up to us. The only way in is through a fire escape on the side that we keep pulled up unless it is absolutely necessary for us to go somewhere. They had read our blog post, and had come to rescue us. Thank God.

We have food now, and water, and electricity. I don't know how they did it, exactly, although I will need to learn, in case something should happen to anyone. Because it can happen. I know that, now.
I lay in a bed this night, with Mike next to me. Deb set his toes; she used to be a nursing assistant. Randy was an electician, and Bob owned an electronics store. Deb is Randy's wife. It all seems crazy to me, but I guess I will learn more about their story in the coming days. They have fed us and got us cleaned up and are letting us sleep in a spare bedroom. They said we can stay as long as we like, but that we'll have to chip in somehow. I'm not sure what we can do. I'm an english teacher, and Mike taught computers. But we'll learn. We need to know how to survive in this world. The government has disappeared, the people are gone, life has changed. One day we were pulling carrots from the ground, the next I was scrubbing blood and gore out of my hair. I don't know what to make of this world. Of what can happen. I do know that we will make it. Dead or alive, we will not succumb to these beasts.