Word Count: 1,962


The ambient lighting dialed in, shedding a cool, but comfortable light in the white walled room. A woman, about middle age sat with pen and paper in hand, recorder on the table, at the ready. She wore a conservative and unthreatening white blouse, and a partially unbuttoned p-coat. She looked at him with admirable but suspicious eyes. This man had done it, what everyone else who didn’t escape had tried. And all failed. Except this one. Now she had the chance to understand how he had done it, what made him different? Just then she noticed herself looking at his hip.

“What?” He said, pointing to his gun. “This?”

“Well…I can’t help but wonder why you need it.” She said soothingly.

“Mary, that’s your name right? Mary?”

“Yes.”

“This is part of me, this saved my life, this is as essential to my continued survival as my very beating heart.”

Mary was taken aback by this, and startled, he had said it with such intensity and aggression that she couldn’t help but feel intimidated. She looked for a moment into his steel blue eyes, cold, efficient, determined. Immediately a tingling, cold feeling crept up her spine and settled in her chest. And she knew, this man was a killer.

“So, you seem like a man of action, no nonsense…” She couldn’t help but stutter a bit, he was making her nervous.

“Not always.”

She paused for a moment, unsure of what he had meant.

“Not always?”

“Not…Always… That’s what I said.”

She couldn’t help but smile because this man obviously hadn’t understood what she meant.

“What do you mean, Not always?”

Again there was a pause, he merely looked at her, analyzing.

“I mean, I’m not always a man of action, sometimes I contemplate, and I froze once.”

“You froze…” She repeated, not sure what to make of this.

“And then I died.”

“Well you obviously didn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting here.” This petty attempt at humor was instantly mistaken, and she could visibly see the rage begin to gather in him. Every muscle in his body tightened, and he lost a bit of color in his face. And then it was gone. She glanced at the camera man, sitting a few feet away that had become nervous in that moment. But in the next, one could feel the tension leave and the man relaxed again. The cameraman sat back, visibly sweating, and relieved.

“I do wonder… How someone like you makes it past childhood.”

“Excuse me?”

“You escaped did you not? Maybe you lived eastward? Or maybe you’re foreign, and don’t seem the grasp the fact that this is not something you joke about.”

She found herself breathing heavily looking around the room as if to find an exit, when she noticed this she remembered what had landed her this job, she had a cool head for hot situations. But nothing like this…Not like this, something was different. Maybe it was the circumstances. Maybe it was the loaded Colt .357 Magnum holstered inches from what she could only assume was a madman’s hand. Maybe it was his eyes, His eyes! As far as she could tell he hadn’t blinked, and he always seemed to be half staring half day dreaming, like he wasn’t all there. It seemed like minutes passed, she decided just to let the blatant insult go and move on.

“So…uhm…How did you die.”

“Would you mind sitting in a different chair….I don’t like Maplewood…”

She gave him a sideways stare, wondering if he was serious, but ultimately determining that he was not one for jokes. She motioned for the cameraman to give her his chair, and he instantly ablidged not wanting the chilling stare of this man on him for any longer than absolutely necessary.

“Is this better?”

“I died, because I froze, and I froze, because I was weak.”

“How where you weak? You look like a strong man to me.”

And indeed he was, lean and built, like that of a hardened war veteran, and for good reason, he had survived something far more tramatic.

“I was weak because I could not protect all that I cared about. I let them down, and so, I had nothing to live for, and I died. He flat lined.”

“Who’s this he?”

“EVERYONE!” At this point the man burst out of his chair and sent it clattering it to the floor behind him. At the same time Mary jumped up and out of her own taking a few startled steps away.

And he was calm again.

“Bryce, Dustin, Casey, myself.”

The sound person who had flattened himself against the wall at the first sign of action hesitantly, fearing for his life, picked up the chair and put it back behind the standing man, then retreated to a safe distance. Without even looking at him, the man sat down, and after a few moments so did Mary.
She leaned in, showing her compassion and interest.

“Tell me…What happened to them.”

At this moment his eyes went from half focused to completely gone. A haze seemed to have gone over them. He sat back in his chair and breathed deep. Then waited for a moment.

“It starts out like everyone who has a plan about this sort of thing expects it to. You see some things on the news but you dismiss it. Then you start to see the signs, the birds all leave the dogs bark and throw themselves at the walls until you let them go. All you hear is the wind, and you can feel...Something…Is coming… So you sharpen your machete or you dig the old crow bar out of the garage, but still you don’t full accept it. But then…then, quarantine is declared in your area, and you know…This is real. Now you clean and oil your gun, and go to the meeting place you have with your team. Hopefully they will have seen the warning signs.”

He paused for a moment seemingly contemplating whether to go on.

“And they had, and I was so relieved. When I arrived at our sheltered forest hideout, there they were. Safe and unbitten, seemingly uninfected. As soon as I walked into the camp I felt tem all brief out at once, relieved that I had made it out alive as well. We all shared a long, happy embrace, my good friend Bryce, my best friend Dustin, and his wife Casey. All was well for the moment. So we counted out supplies and went over our priority checklist, exchanged petty jokes etcetera. And that’s where we stayed, for an entire month if I counted the days correctly. But as expected we were running low on food by this time, of course we were never low on water, we had chosen a spot close to a fresh stream. And so it was decided that we would go out for a scouting mission, find some food and see if the ordeal was over.”

Mary sat wrapped entranced by his story and his eyes, unable to take notes or look away.

“We made our way out of the forest, it was impossible for anyone to find out camp if they had not been there…So we weren’t worried about theft or ransacking. Everything was as we had left it. Quiet, silent even. Eerie in every sense of the word. We walked through city streets deserted; the flaming cars you always see in the movie had burned out long ago. We didn’t bother trying to clear buildings, from a survival sense that would be foolish. Let someone else stick there neck out for the greater good; we were only there for each other. Finely we arrived at a promising spot, a once super market. Without a word we bypassed the fruits and vegetables and meat, which by now gave off a horrid odor that would wake god. And head strait for the canned goods, beans, soup, peaches. Anything we wanted we took. We were relaxed, we could spend more time hiding in the forest now where everything was pristine, away from the apocalypse which we were sure had encompassed the entire world.”

Again he reminist for a moment.

“Unfortunantly….Before we would even reach the door again there was the sound of a terrible scream as one of THEM came bursting through a display window and befor we could even act was on top of casey vomiting and beating her. Dustin was first to act, He yelled something like “Son of a bitch!!” bringing his crowbar around with great force, the thing went limp and fell to the ground a few feet away. Instantly Dustin and Bryce where at her side and I was standing there trying to take it all in. I knew what was going to happen, but Dustin wanted to believe she was fine. He was trying to reassure her in her hysteria. And then she started to convulse and scream about the burning. Burning she said “I’m burning!” She started to through her arms around and hit Bryce and Dustin, the held her down and she merely thrashed about for a few moments then looked directly at Dustin with bloodstained eyes turned, and coughed blood directly into Bryce’s face, who fell back screaming clawing at his eyes and mouth. And then he went on about the burning. Before we could even react she had rolled over and now with a free arm, wrapping it around him and biting him square on the neck. And there was I, I knew in that instant that everyone was infected but me. Dustin didn’t make a sound, just looked at me, then at her, in utter shock and amazement as if to say “What’s happening, this isn’t how it was supposed to go.” And there I was standing over the 3 people I cared about most in the world. Now all convulsing and 2 of them screaming. Dustin just lay there letting the virus take hold, before bringing his pistol to his head and ending it right there. And that’s when I died.”

The focus came back to his eyes and he sat there quietly. Mary, looking back, now able to move again. She fixed her hair and gave a polite cough. Took a quick glance at her notes and realized she hadn’t written anything. Looked over to the tape recorder, which was rolling still. She put down the notepad and folded her hands in her lap.

“Tell me what you mean by that, in what way did you die.”

He looked back at her analyzing again.

“I…Did not die.”

She looked at hi quizickly.

“But you ju-“

He interrupted her

“Jack died.”

“Excuse me?”

“Who I was died there.”

“Then who are you.” She had put on a serious face. Jack chuckled for a moment.

“I am Jack.”

“But you just said jack died.”

“Who says he didn’t?”

She paused, stunned and unable to think of anything to say.

“I stood there unable to move, entranced still frozen. Casey began to stand up unsteadily and I looked at her, she looked at me…Screeched. She ran at me an din the same instant I brought this up and fired a single round through her brain.” He said pointing to the .357.

“I turned walked over to Bryce, stepped on his chest and did the same. And then I was alone. And everything was silent again.”

Silence filled the room and Mary felt she could hear the screams he was describing, she shuddered.

“No one that was left behind survived. Not intact. We are all lifeless, or in an asylum somewhere drinking sedative like water. We are all different now.”

Then he looked directly at her, his eyes piecing her soul.

“We died there.”

Amazing.

Grammatical errors aside, amazing. It made me really visualize it and it felt realistic. Especially the "This isn't how it's supposed to happen" look you described.

But Damnit! You 1upped me! You and Dasutin both! My work's really cut out for me damnit!

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Thanks! I tried to make the reader "feel" the story.

Great story. Well done.

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Bastard.

I knew it was going to be good when you started it, but that was awesome. I'm willing to ignore the grammatical and spelling errors because how epic it was.

Wow... Just... Wow.

I love it. Its in a similar style as World War Z and I have to say that I actually like it more than any one part of that book. And that's a damn good standard you're surpassing here.

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Veiled Duality

Very good story. Well written, excluding the errors.


What the hell! why is my post being deleted? I can't comment on a persons story? Come on, what is the world coming to?

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Wow thanks! Being compared to a professional author is quite the compliment!


It's probably because you never put anything constructive in your posts leroy.

Well you deserve it, you should try writing something bigger.


Exactly what Chesire said. And by the way; check your inbox

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Veiled Duality

I already have. You could of just told me. I don't remember you telling me add more.

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y'all should chill about the errors there are only 10 7 of which are typos >

I didn't even notice any while reading lol I was too involved in the story :/

Also; Leroy, this isn't the place. Problems; PM me.

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Veiled Duality

Well that's a good thing then xD

Mary totally has the hots for Jack, it's obvious. She probably approached him after the show and asked him out to dinner. Jack, being the badass that he is, would've denied, saying he doesn't date weaklings, flesh-eating zombies, or, surprisingly, brunettes.

Well he does have quite a PENETRATING personality, heyo.

And then the zombies would attack again and he'd save her, followed by the world and then they'd get together.

I think we've got a movie on our hands boys.

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Veiled Duality

Can I be the Jack?

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Well...You can be bryce xD

I could totally play Dustin.

And to give it notariaty, Harrison Ford as Jack.