the day i met my fate

I’ll never forget that day. The day everything went FUBAR. When work and video games didn’t matter. When having enough bullets and keeping a sharp blade were the top priorities. It was the day they came. The shuffling masses. The flesh eaters. The LIVING DEAD.

I was just leaving my house to go see a movie with my friends. I got into my car and the man on the radio was talking about some new virus sweeping the nation. Of course, I didn’t want to listen to some boring news report. I was more concerned with listening to my music. Looking back, maybe if I did pay attention to it, some of my friends would still possibly be alive.

We got to the mall around 3 p.m. We were complaining about being late because we stopped to grab a bit to eat first. As we walked into the mall, we should’ve noticed that there was a sever lack of people there. But we were too busy looking for girls and complaining about the time. It seems so insignificant now. We went and bought our tickets and walked in. Ironically, that movie completely sucked.

When the movie finally ended, was when the apocalypse began. We barely made it out of our seats before the first attacks began. At first, we just thought it was just some kids playing a joke. That is, until we walked out into the food court. They were swarming all over the place. Pulling people to the ground and ripping them apart, leaving bits of bones and entrails everywhere. Thankfully, I was able to remain semi- calm and grabbed the first thing I could use as a weapon. It was one of those shitty brass poles used to hold up the rope for the ticket line. We made a beeline for the exit but when we got there, the outside was a sea of undead flesh.

My group ran back inside. Thankfully most of those things were too busy feasting upon others to pay attention to us. The ones that were still searching for a new chew toy, we knocked over or just plowed straight through. Our target location was Dick’s Sporting Goods. I figured that a rifle, or at the very least a bat was better than a flimsy, cheap pole. Plus no one else was armed.

We got to and inside of Dick’s fairly easy. We closed the doors behind us and made a haphazard barricade. There were a couple wandering around inside but we quickly grabbed some bats and began swinging for the fence, so to speak. It was also, then, we discovered that a headshot was the kill shot. We pushed the bodies to a corner and began arming ourselves. I knew that all the noise we were making was going to send out party invites to the wrong addresses, so I made sure we moved quick as possible. We began with weapons. I handed out a rifle or shotgun, along with a pistol, to each person. Along with that, I also handed out a machete, axe, hatchet, or bat for the up-close kill.

After the armament was handled, we set about for food and other supplies. The store had a healthy supply of MRE’s and freeze- dried foods. I figured that would be perfect for us. I had a rather strong feeling that it would be a while before we had a home-cooked meal again. We all grabbed at least one tent plus sleeping bags for each of us. Then loaded all that shit onto camping packs and gathered at the front door.

We loaded everything up that we couldn’t carry into a shopping cart and prepared ourselves at the front door. There was surprisingly less rot bags than what I thought would be. But even one was dangerous enough. I swung open the door and began unloading on the crowd. Bits of skull and bags of blood were popping everywhere. We charged into the horde, killing everything in our path. My friend Ginger, poor bastard, panicked and broke away from the group. But as he rounded the corner, he plowed head first into another crowd. He got three or four of them but there was just too many. We all stood in shock as his flesh was being torn from him, exposing ribs and femurs and kneecaps. I never believed it until then but they really are white as snow.

My friend Fatass was the first to slip out of the death trance we were all in. It was a good thing too because one had just gotten a hold of my leg. He was about to pull a repeat of ginger on me when Fulton had blown his skull apart. We began our journey again when, thanks to Murphy’s Law, we realized all the noise we just made was also ringing the dinner bell for the zeds. Looking at the swarm heading toward us, we all knew that the direct path out was not part of the equation. We had to take the long way out.

We began our mad dash down the corridor, pausing every 30 seconds or so to clear a hole. As we got to the far end of the hall, it seemed like lady luck was cheering for us but good old Murphy pooped his head in and screwed us over. As we rounded the corner, we met another oh so friendly swarm. At this point, I thought all was lost. That is, until I heard a car engine. Even through all this shit, I still found it kind of strange to hear a car starting up. I turned around, just in time I might add, to jump out of the way as a freaking mini- van came barreling down toward us. Some crazy bastard must’ve hot-wired one of the display models and tried making a break in the z-line for us.

He plowed through their ranks like a certain long haired flying Hawaiian on Sunday would go through the defensive line. The haphazard pile of body parts must’ve been too much for the traction of the van because he soon ran straight into the wall. I ran over to try and help our undead hero but the undead carcasses were already feasting over a hero sandwich. His eyes met mine and I knew what he wanted me to do. I raised my hand and took aim; he closed his eyes, and bowed his head. It covered the brown leather interior with a human brain smoothie.

I recollected myself as much as I could and took full advantage of the hole made for us. I charged through, leading my rag-tag unit. Since most of the flesh-mongers were at either end of the mall, we ran a beeline toward the lobby. We didn’t even stop to kill the ones in our way. We just plowed right through them.

EXIT. There it was, in bold, glowing, green letters. It was our salvation. In my stupidity, I was running too fast and didn’t give the self- opening doors time to open. I went straight through the glass, putting a nice, big gash in my arm. The adrenaline rushing through me must’ve really had a numbing effect on me because it didn’t hurt at all then, but dear god did it hurt later.

Thankfully, most of the zekes had become thinly spread throughout the parking lot. I feel sorry for whom or whatever was drawing their attention away. But, about 20 yards away, we saw my car. I swear we literally jumped for joy. We ran a little bit faster and harder now. The group got about ten feet from the car when, with gratitude toward fucking Murphy again, a throng of ten or so zed-heads came sprawling out from the cars around our four-wheeled v-6 savior.

We all knew what to do by then however. In what seemed like less than a nanosecond, the shamblers went back to resting in peace. The last empty round didn’t even hit the ground by the time I went for my pocket, grabbed the keys, popped the door, turned the key, and sped off toward our new lives.