Gary’s eyes opened, slowly, lazily. His vision was blurred, everything seemed as if it was in a vignette. He just lay there, waiting for his vision to focus, for about twenty minutes. When he could see properly, he had no idea where he was. Sitting up Gary looked around at the furniture in the room. There was an old hickory desk, with lots of etching in it, mostly curse words. A chair, the kind you find in an office, that swivels. Posters of movies littered the walls, some half falling down, and none of them straight.
He sat up slowly in his bed, there was an immense pain coming from his right side of his chest. Putting his hand to his rib cage, he felt a bandage, and underneath it was soft, and tender. Gary stood up, and looked at himself in the mirror, he looked pretty pale, the bandage was stained a dark red, and he had giant bags under his eyes. He felt alright, maybe all he needed was to get some food, he thought.
Gary opened up the bedroom door, and walked out into the sunlight hallway. Instant pain came to his eyes as the brilliant white light hit him, putting his hand in front of him he started to stumble down the hallway. From somewhere in the house he could hear some conversation. Hobbling step by step, he followed the voices. Getting close he began to worry who he would find there, instead of walking headlong into a group of delinquents he decided to take a peek around the corner.
“Hey, bro! Your back!” it was his room-mate Frank, sitting in a chair half hunched over, looking like his back was in severe pain. Gary looked around, at each of his friends, all of them looked just like him; pale, hobbling, and bandaged in one spot or another. “Hey guys, um, what happened? Why do we all look like death?”
“None of us know, we all woke up like this, we kind of assume we got into some kind of bar fight.” Gary remembered that they were at a bar last night (if it even was the next day he thought) having a lot of drinks, joking, laughing, and having a good time. Some guys they used to go to high school with walked into the bar, they were walking with a swagger, like they owned the place; then something happened, and a giant brawl started, people were screaming, running, and fighting. He couldn’t remember why though, and thinking about it caused his head to hurt even worse.
After some discussion Gary asked the guys if they wanted to go get some ‘brain’ food’ maybe that would help their memories, get rid of their hangovers, or at least make them look a little less pale. They all agreed, but as it always was, the five of them could never agree right away what they wanted to go out for. Finally, they all chose to go out, and find some chinese.
They walked outside, all of them unsure of where they were, the bright sunlight blinding them, it was even worse out in the open world. They hobbled down the sidewalk in search of some chinese food. The streets were littered with people laying on benches, and on the grass, sleeping in the middle of the day; incredibly surreal.
Finally, they stumbled upon a chinese joint. The group opened the front door, and hobbled inside the mostly empty restaurant. A chinese man poked his head out from behind a corner “I’ll be right with you” came the man’s voice as he disappeared behind the wall. Moments later he popped back out with a pistol in his hand.
“Gun!” screamed frank and they all tried to scatter, their broken and bruised bodies didn’t allow for much mobility. Two shots rang out, two of Gary’s friends fell down beside him. Gary couldn’t tell who they were anymore, both of their faces were blown off beyond recognition, blood was everywhere. Gary hobbled as fast as he could towards the Chinese man with the gun. Gary was face to face with the gun as he came nearer, there was a clicking sound; the gun misfired. The man’s face contorted into a look of disgust and fear, he tried to back away, but there was no escape anymore.
In an instant Gary was on top of the man, biting into his neck, ripping the sinewy flesh from his body, and chewing it up greedily, while the man screamed in pain. Gary’s other two friends stumbled over, and started to feast on the man as well. After the meal was finished, they hobbled back out into the street. All around was people like them, pale and wounded, stumbling around. Some were attacking the living, some were fighting over dead carcasses of either humans or animals.
After the body was thoroughly picked through Gary stepped back and looked around at his friends. ‘What did we just do? Why did that taste so good, and why do I want more?’ he thought to himself. His friends seemed to have a shocked look on their faces as well. A door to his left opened up, a Chinese lady, probably the man’s wife, stood inside of it. She turned and screamed. Gary was pretty sure she had just cried out ‘Zombies’.
“Did she mean us?” Frank asked, confusion, and a look of horror as reality seemed to set in. Gary suspected he looked the same right now, blood soaked jaw open, eyes bulging, and looking horrific with the big black bags underneath.
The group turned around to leave the shop, it seemed like the only thing to do. As they did this they saw another group of people walking by the shop. Looking just like them, pale, blood soaked, stumbling, they walked past the door. There was a scream, and the other group of zombies turned around. Blood, guts, and brains went flying in every direction as a thunderous blast of shotguns boomed. Some of the zombies turned and opened the door to the Chinese restaurant, and fell inside re-dead.
Gary just stood staring as a group of men, policemen, dressed in blue, covered from head to toe in some kind of thick material, and appeared in the doorway. No words were exchanged, no thoughts passed, the men opened fire, Gary and his group didn’t even get a chance to explain themselves.