Flesh of My Flesh: Part One

Alan Nesmith is hungry. In fact, he is STARVING. So are his sons and daughters. They are starving for food, starving for heat, starving for medical aid and starving for hope. The past eighteen months have been nothing but pure hell on Earth for the Nesmith family and literally every other family out there. The legions of the dead have decimated all four corners of the globe. Their numbers run close to a billion, while the human race has dwindled down to a couple of million.

The latest addition to the tragically long list of permanently deceased is Alan’s wife Nancy. Alan and Nancy were high school sweethearts, married nearly thirty-two years, who were the proud parents of seven children. The Nesmiths lives were sweeter than sweet. They struggled quite a lot financially but they were wealthy in a different way. They were incredibly were flushed with love. And had the good fortunate to be blessed with an amazing abundance of wonderful moments together. The Nesmiths might have been the happiest family on God’s Earth.

Now the Nesmith’s might be the most heart broken family in existence. The youngest(16) and eldest (32)Nesmith children were devoured by the living dead in a catastrophic massacre. The middle child, an aspiring grade school teacher was the first child to die but unlike her siblings her demise was only momentary. She became a blood-crazed zombie with a body count numbered in the hundreds. Four of the seven children still live. The surviving members of the Nesmith clan are holed up in a fortified bomb shelter. Alan built the subterranean refuge for protection against nuclear fallout. He never thought in his most terrible nightmares it would used as sanctuary from armies of flesh craving corpses.

Most of the resources for survival are near depletion and all the food is gone. It’s been gone for nearly five days. The family’s only source of sustenance is water and even that is almost done. All the remaining family members are in various states of malnutrition.

The Nesmith’s already very bleak situation has been made even more despairing - beloved wife and mother, Nancy, died just a three hours earlier of walking pneumonia. Nancy’s demise has further devastated the already ruined family.

Nancy’s lifeless body lies in front of Alan on a chilled cot. There are fresh tears rolling down Alan's hallowed cheeks and a fresh gunshot wound post-death marked in the middle of Nancy’s forehead. The bullet was a loving gift of mercy and prevention given by her husband whose shattered soul is blacker then the waters of Hades. He's painfully aware that this profound loss will not be the worst of it. More debilitating despair is to come to him and his falling loved ones.

Alan’s utmost concern at the moment is the fate of his wife’s body. The question of what to do is ravaging him inside. He desperately wishes to give her a proper burial. It is a wish that won't come true. The grounds outside his home are teeming with the dead. Stepping out means certain death which is something Alan would welcome with open arms. The allure of suicide has amplified several fold since Nancy's death. Alan is just one fucked up moment away from self obliteration and that moment might arrive shortly. There is another reason why Alan is unable to bury Nancy - she didn't want to be buried. Or cremated or laid to rest in other traditional method. Alan had always fulfilled his wife's every request. She never wanted for anything. But he feels this last time, will be the first time he fails her.

During the final minutes of Nancy's life, she proposed to Alan a solution which would temporary relieve the family of their hunger ills. What Nancy told Alan made his blood go unbearably cold. Alan couldn't believe what heard. "She must've been delusional" Alan thinks. "There's no way any clear thinking woman would want her husband and children to eat her dead body!" After a moment, Alan re-examines the life and death severity of the lack of food in the shelter. Maybe Nancy was thinking straight after all. What's a father to do?

To Be Continued...
(c) Eversley Matthew Forte 2010