Zed: Chapter Three

Life June 11, 2014

[Note: This is part three in a three-part series.

Click here to read part one.

Click here to read part two.]

The following is a theatrical retelling of a Humans vs. Zombies event, hosted by UVic Urban Gaming. During these events, the last of the human race fights off the zombie horde with everything NERF at their disposal, accomplishing missions as they try to survive.

Last time, Rene and Patrick continued their search for Rene’s wife, Jasmine. Patrick and Rene put down a goliath-class zed and gained a clue as to where they might find Jazz. It was revealed that Patrick had been infected by the virus for years, but somehow continued to live well beyond when most expire from the infection. Unsure of when or if he’ll ever turn, Patty hides the bite from Rene as they re-enter the zombie-infested town in their search for Jazz.

 

I sat on the ledge of the old chapel’s balcony, dangling my arm through the rails as blood fell to the horde below. The zeds desperately swatted at my feet, brushing me with their fingertips.

We made it to the church a few weeks ago, finding people had carved out a life here. It seemed safe, but it was just a fleeting dream. They were all just fodder for the zeds, bolstering their ranks.

Life fell apart in mere hours.

Photo by Geena Ross.

We took the quickest route to the church Ned told us about: straight through town. It was a bad idea from the start, and we didn’t care. Before long we crossed paths with a howler, which pulled zeds in from all directions. Pinned down an alley, all we could do was funnel them through the corridor to fight small groups. No bullets, no way out, and no hope, Rene and I prepared for the end.

A blast of heat swept through the air as the back ranks of the zeds burst into flames. They dropped to burning heaps of flesh, the last few in front of us falling as the flames washed over them. Rene and I stood there, eyes wide in shock, having weaseled out of yet another near-death experience.

As the smoke cleared we could make out a solitary figure. With a flamethrower balanced on her shoulder, she lifted her goggles and cocked a sideways grin. Rene ran towards her as I grinned and thought, We found her. Rene nearly in contact, she threw a hard right hook into his stomach, collapsing him on the ground. Yeah… that seems right, I thought.

“Good to see you too, Jazz,” Rene wheezed as he curled into a ball, gasping for air.

“Idiots! I put my life on the line to pull the zeds away, telling you to meet me on the other side of the building, and what do you do? You follow me and almost get us killed!” Jazz screamed at Rene, still huddled in a ball more out of fear than pain at this point.

“We wanted to help!” I said, from a safe distance.

Turning her glare towards me she said, “And after all that, I tell you to rendezvous with me at the train station because I now have to pull the zeds even farther from you two asthmatic idiots, and what do you do? Ride off on some train to play hero!”

“We wanted to come find you,” said Rene as he tried to get up, Jazz slamming him face-first into the ground with her foot.

“No, you were trying to play hero instead of doing what you were told! I got to the station just after you left on that train. Had you waited around like you were supposed to, we’d have gotten out of there together,” Jazz said, furious. “I’ve spent the last two weeks looking for you idiots, not sure if I’d find you, a body, or a walking corpse,” she said, her eyes starting to water.

Rene got to his feet, put his arms around her, and said, “I know, I’m sorry. Thanks for saving our asses, twice.”

“Three times,” she said, quickly correcting him.

“Three times.”

 

Finding Jazz was a dream come true for us, and the base they had created was equally unbelievable. My vision blurred as I lay slumped against the railing of the balcony, a zed swatting at my foot, causing my leg to swing. All dreams end eventually.

 

Turns out Jazz had lit the station up to pull the horde towards it while everyone escaped. Had we made for the fire instead of the woods that night, we probably would have met up with her.

Photo by Geena Ross.

They had created a fortified base around an old church, using an old brick wall to create a defendable perimeter. At some point Jazz picked up a flamethrower and spent most of her days gathering supplies while searching for us in the parts of town too dangerous for anyone else to venture into.

She always did like fire.

 

Vision mostly gone now, my body felt heavy and weak. A hand grabbed my shoulder and dragged me away from the balcony’s edge. “Stay with us, Patty!” Rene shouted.

“Rene, he’s really pale,” said Jazz, trying to shake me awake.

“He’s lost a lot of blood and is covered in bites,” he whispered quietly. Everything went black, and my body fell limp.

 

I took up work as a farmer with a few other people at the church. Rene wanted to scavenge with Jazz, but she wouldn’t have it. Instead she put his engineering skills to work fixing things. She even brought him back a motorcycle to work on.

Everything went to hell when a massive horde came down on us. Tanks and goliaths made short work of the walls, and howlers brought more herds. Some of us sought refuge in the church itself.

 

We tried to bar the doors, but a goliath burst through them, sending a rain of splinters across the hall. The goliath grabbed me by the torso, but I drove a broken piece of wood into its eye before it ripped me in half. Enraged, it slammed me to the ground and ripped off my right arm, roaring as it threw me across the hall like a rag doll.

Someone shot the goliath in the face before it came down on me again. It reached out, grabbing them by the head, popping it like a grape. Zeds continued to claw in from every opening. Rene and Jazz picked me up off the ground and dragged me upstairs to the balcony, knowing that zeds can’t climb so well.

 

My eyes opened to blurred shapes thrashing around and the muffled sounds of screams. A zed with long, lanky limbs skittered around the balcony, swatting and clawing at Rene and Jazz, Rene swinging at it with a bat as hard as he could. Clenching my teeth, I pushed myself off the ground with my remaining arm.

Weak and completely numb, I was driven by the will to protect.

 

“Patty! Wake up, Patty!” I yelled as the mangled body of our friend went limp and lifeless.

Rene put his hand on my shoulder. “It’s too late, Jazz; he’s gone.” I wiped the tears from my face and looked up in time to see a spindly-legged zed leap onto the balcony and swat Rene into the wall. I let go of Patty and moved to Rene, swinging at the jumper with a bat.

The jumper ripped the bat away, drool running down its face as its teeth chattered. We backed away as far as we could until we bumped into the railing, a sea of zeds below us. Rene gripped my hand as it moved in closer, chattering its teeth wildly.

The side jumper’s head slammed in to the wall with intense force. An arm held it tightly against the wood panelling of the church and dragged it across the wall, grinding off flesh as it went before sending it rocketing off the balcony. We looked in horror at the one-armed zed, skin pale and grey. It looked over its shoulder, making eye contact with Rene and me before descending to the hall below.

“Patty had blue eyes,” Rene muttered.

“What are you talking about?” I said, still in shock.

“I promised Patty once that I’d give him a chance to let me know it was him inside if he ever turned. Zeds’ eyes are milky and white, completely lifeless. His eyes were still blue,” said Rene.

“So what? We follow it?!” I asked in disbelief.

“Got a better idea?” he said, slowly moving through the door of the balcony.

 

The goliath roared below, the entire building shaking. Peering inside the main hall, it was caked in blood. Half embedded in the wall across the room, the goliath thrashed wildly.

Patty approached the goliath, dragging a blade behind him. His skin had turned darker grey, rough and hard as if armoured. Where the stump of his right arm once was now hung a twisted mess of flesh and bone curved into a blade. As the goliath charged, he swung the bladed arm upwards, slicing it in two.

We followed Patty out of the chapel, feeling safer with him than not. Zeds came at us from every side, but Patty stayed near, cleaving through anything that got too close. Patty’s body seemed to be rapidly mutating, his face now encased in what looked like bone, skin grey and rough, and the blade of his arm becoming finer. Every now and then he would face us, and we would see his blue eyes, as if to say, “I’m still inside.”

Carving a bloody path through the horde, we reached the motorcycle Rene had been working on. The horde of zeds still coming to us, we prepared to leave through one of the breaches in the wall. I opened and closed my mouth a few times, having trouble bringing out words. In the end, all I managed to force out was, “Goodbye, Patrick,” in a choked-up voice, holding back the tears.

Rene never looked up, simply saying, “See ya, buddy.”

Eyes still clear and alive, Patty raised his left arm and pointed at the road, signalling for us to leave. I wrapped my arms around Rene’s waist as we sped away. I only looked back once, seeing Patty in the horde, cutting a bloody swath through their ranks.

 

Rene and I kept riding, never staying anywhere too long. From time to time we ran into other survivors, but always went our own way in the end, feeling safer on the move. We would always share stories with others we found, though.

Every now and then, someone mentions a grey-skinned zed, armoured like a knight. An arm curved into a massive sword of bone, capable of cutting zeds in twain. Not one story has ever told of it attacking the living, though.

Sometimes they say they saw its face, encased in bone, brilliant blue eyes shining through.