by DeLeon, Jon
Kurt’s mind ran wild. He slipped into a waking dream.
Joe rounded the corner of the stairs as sweat poured down his forehead. The zombies were still behind him. His heart and breath raced as he continued up. As he reached the door to the roof, tragedy struck. It was locked. Joe kicked it and threw the weight of his body into it, injuring his shoulder. He was stuck. The zombies drew closer, howling up the cement stairwell. As the creatures came into sight, Joe looked to the sky. “Kurt, where are you?” The zombies descended on him with absolute force.
An explosion in a video online pulled Kurt back to reality. It was just a dream. Joe had to be okay. Kurt jumped between Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and several other social media sites, hoping Joe had posted something. He found the same thing at every turn, nothing. There was only silence from Florida. Kurt scanned the headlines for hours, looking for more information and maybe some kind of answer.
Kurt’s eyes were burning from LED-induced dryness as he continued to scan through pictures. Cities on fire, dead people on the street and faces filled with fear. The entire world was falling apart. The internet was filled with a constant stream of photos and videos uploaded from cell phones and webcams. People were turning into rage monsters, vomiting blood and ripping the living apart. Dead flesh and bloody streams littered the streets.
A red banner came up across the bottom of the screen, drawing Kurt’s attention from the flesh-curdling images.
ENERJAX TO BLAME FOR RECENT ZOMBIE OUTBREAK!
The news article took up the entire homepage of The New York Times website. A talented reporter had somehow uploaded the story from the center of New York City. She was The Times medical reporter. Kurt was glued to the words on his computer screen. The article was short, rushed, straight to the point, poignant and well written. Kurt felt terror in her words, the fear in the prose, although admittedly it may have been the fear pulsing in his own heart. Kurt could envision this woman. She must have written this article with hands sweating, hoping to publish the truth before the last people on the planet who could read them ceased to exist.
The End of the World: Enerjax to Blame for Recent Zombie Outbreak!
At 8:00 a.m. local time, the world rejoiced at the release of Enerjax, the solution to laziness. Today was touted as the day of our salvation from ourselves. We as humans were to blame for all that was wrong with this world. We had polluted the seas and skies and built a society that rewards the slothful and greedy. Why? We as a race are flawed, destined to destroy, through our own sins, the earth that had given us life for so many years.
Enerjax was supposed to be the solution to our ailment. The Health Engineered medicinal company had provided us with the cure to laziness! No more would we work less than 100 percent of the time at 100 percent of our capabilities. Powered by Enerjax, we would build skyscrapers that would rival the Tower of Babylon. We would engineer green solutions and save the earth. Mankind could reach out amongst the stars and find life in the void. Our species would reach new heights and explore new worlds. We would be free of the bane of our own faults, all thanks to the work of Health Engineered.
Well I can tell you, they have succeeded.
Mankind is no longer slave to laziness or fear. All who have ingested Enerjax, whether voluntarily or through the bite of an infected individual, are no longer living with fear. They are able to act on their desires without restraint and never need rest. Unfortunately it would appear that freeing us as a species of all our “faults” also has taken our humanity. All that remains is the base instinct of feeding.
Enerjax is designed to increase the mitochondrial energy output of every cell in the body. The result is an increase in your vitality. What has occurred and the “living dead” that have been subsequently created are shells of their former selves. Their cells have become morphed. They now exist more alike to the amoeba. Their only goal is to survive, and with the increase of mitochondrial metabolism, the cells have targeted other living cells as a fuel source. How could a product like this have been released?
According to Richard Falton, President of Health Engineered:
“Enerjax had never shown any similar reactions during testing or clinical phases. The resultant reactions of mass distribution are completely unprecedented and unexpected. The remaining scientists we have are working to find a cure to the situation. We, as an act of good faith, had a simultaneous internal release of Enerjax, leaving us with only a skeleton crew of researchers. Stationed in New York City, we are in the eye of the storm and have a limited time until the affected reach our headquarters. We promise to dedicate the rest of our time to reversing this tragic mistake.”
As a word of caution, Enerjax was distributed everywhere worldwide. I would include a map of where, but the map would be all-encompassing. If you are lucky enough not to be near a highly populated city, stay put and secure. As for now, the only means of transfer is through the bodily fluids of an infected host.
To any of the population still able to read and comprehend these words, I promise to publish updates to this story when I can. The security forces have already lost half of their men and most of their ammunition. We won’t last long, but I have faith that we can survive as a species.
—Rhonda Callus, Medical Reporter, The New York Times
As Kurt finished reading the article, he found himself staring at the bio picture. He was looking at the smiling face of a woman who could be dead at that moment. Kurt suddenly felt an even deeper longing to be near his brother, Joe.
Miami: Outbreak Day -10 Years
For a week straight, Kurt had been shoved into his locker. This was not how he had envisioned sixth grade. Kurt had so optimistically looked forward to junior high school. First dances, real sporting events to cheer on, new girls to meet, and most importantly to him, being reunited with his brother in school. Well that wasn’t looking like it would happen. Joe’s and Kurt’s schedules could not be more different, putting them in different halls and separate lunch periods. So instead Kurt had gotten to know someone else. His name was Mark.
Mark was older, in Joe’s grade. He was large bodied, destined for a frat house, an offensive lineman for the school football team. Mark loved pushing people around on the field and off. Mark had begun targeting Kurt from day one. Kurt was so clearly out of his element and nervous, looking around the hallways, Bambi-eyed yet overwhelmed. Kurt tried standing up for himself once, only making Mark shove him harder. So the bullying continued.
Kurt began avoiding his locker at all costs. As he did, his backpack got heavier and heavier.
Joe grabbed Kurt’s backpack by mistake one day as he rushed out the door. He was nearly dragged backward. What the hell? Why is this thing so heavy? He looked inside. Every binder and textbook Kurt owned was shoved into it. Kurt came out of the house, carrying Joe’s bag.
“Wrong backpack, Joe.” Kurt held out Joe’s pack.
“Dude, do you have your whole locker in here?” Joe asked.
“It’s easier.” Kurt answered quickly.
“It’s easier to carry a hundred pounds all day than going to your locker?” Joe asked sarcastically.
“I’m fine, Joe. Don’t worry about me,” Kurt spat back angrily.
“Okay,” Joe said, taken back by the attitude.
Kurt zipped up his bag and slung it on his back with some effort. He didn’t want to be known as the little brother throughout school. This was his problem to solve.
Joe, confused by the random attitude Kurt had shot him, decided to meet Kurt by his locker that day and figure out what was going on. Just after third period, he saw Kurt surrounded by a small group of people by his locker. Joe pushed his way to the front. There he saw Mark pushing Kurt down. Kurt was trying to stand, but Mark kept pushing him down into his bottom-row locker. Joe took action.
Acting like he was in a rush, walking fast, Joe hurriedly ran into Mark. Leaning into it a little bit but not enough to be obvious, he rammed Mark. Kurt had seen Joe coming and stuck his l
egs out behind Mark. Mark’s feet twisted on Kurt’s, and he fell, hard. Mark’s body, being rather large, slapped the tile floor. He sprang around with a loud, “What the fuck!?” As he turned, Joe was there holding out a hand to him.
“Sorry about that. You okay? Oh hey, Mark! My bad, man, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m all right, man.” Mark knew Joe. They were in the same grade. Joe was the naturally gifted athlete that every coach, including the football coach, loved. Cross him and he would be running up-backs until he was puking. Mark picked himself up, ignoring Joe’s outstretched hand, and then picked up the notebook and papers he had dropped.
Joe turned his hand to Kurt. Kurt grabbed it, pulling himself off the ground. “Thanks, man,” Kurt said quietly.
“You know I’ve always got your back, man,” Joe said. He then turned to Mark. “Hey, Mark, have you met my brother, Kurt?” Joe had a slightly twisted smile on his face.
Mark didn’t smile. “No, I haven’t.” Mark extended his hand to Kurt. “Nice to meet you.”
Kurt shook his hand, awkwardly smiling. “You too.”
Joe didn’t say anything else to Mark. He didn’t need to. His eyes said it all: Stay away from my brother.
“Come on, Kurt, let’s get to class,” Joe said out of the corner of his mouth.
They walked off toward their separate classes. Mark never pushed Kurt again.
Russia: Outbreak Day
Together they were a great team. Now with the civilized world at an end, Kurt only wanted one thing, for his brother to be there. The duo needed to be reunited.
An update flashed across the screen:
WARNING: DO NOT DRINK TAP WATER!
It is being widely reported that cases of zombie outbreak can be attributed to consuming household drinking water. The source of the chemicals in the water cannot be readily traced; however, people are encouraged to stop drinking the water from their faucets. If you need to consume tap water, be sure to put it through a carbon filtration system; otherwise, you are still at risk.
Persons are also warned not to dispose of any un-ingested Enerjax pills down their drains, as this may be a contributing factor to water contamination.
—Shelly Sturley, The Associated Press
Kurt’s screen turned into a strobe light as headlines changed at an ever-increasingly rapid pace. The carousel was spinning out of control:
Emergency Response Teams Nonresponsive
Containment Breached at Nearly Every Border
Get Out of Major Cities Now!
Widespread Panic Leads to Firefights throughout Metro Areas
Resisting the Zombie Plague
BuzzFeed: Best Zombie Kills So Far!!!
It seemed like all the news and blog sites still running were posting now. With the world going fast into terror, everyone wanted the last word. Kurt could only think of one thing to do. One word rang in his consciousness. It was resounding like a bell, tolling in his head: RUN!
Kurt had learned earlier in life how important it was to listen to his intuition. At the age of eighteen, he had been driving late at night with Joe on a Taco Bell run. They were heading home, racing in an attempt to beat curfew.
North Miami Beach: Outbreak Day -6 Years
“Shit, Joe!”
“What?” Joe responded.
“I’m almost out of gas,” Kurt said.
“Dude, we’re gonna miss curfew,” Joe said nervously.
“Maybe not, that new gas station is open now, right?”
“Yeah, it is, take a right here and it’s just a few blocks ahead.”
Kurt took the right when suddenly a feeling gripped his soul. He pulled off the road, taking a moment to understand what was going on, slamming on the brakes and jerking the car to a sudden stop. Joe dropped his Nachos BellGrande all over the floor.
“Ah, dude, what, what was that for?”
“There’s something . . .” Kurt’s thought trailed off into the night.
Joe looked out the window. “I don’t see anything, bro.”
“No, not that. It’s something else. Something bad is about to happen.”
Joe looked at him like he was crazy and started picking up what was remaining of his nachos. “Hold on before we go anywhere. Let me clean this up.”
“Yeah, okay.”
One minute later, Kurt’s faith in his own feelings was rewarded.
Light streaked into the sky as a fireball climbed. The new gas station a few blocks down the road had just suffered a major failure in one of their pumps. The whole station went up in one massive explosion.
“Holy shit!” Joe stepped out of the car to get a better view. Kurt stepped out with him. They were both staring at the fire raging in the sky when Joe turned to Kurt.
“Dude! That’s the gas station! You freaking called it. How did you do that?”
“I don’t know. I just felt something in my gut.”
“Well from now on, you listen to that thing. If you had kept driving, we would have been at that gas station.”
“Yeah, will do.”
“Seriously.”
“Yeah.”
They both stood there watching the fireball dissipate into the night sky.
From that moment, Kurt made a promise to never ignore his gut instincts. Now his stomach called out again, and it was screaming so loudly that his mind was echoing it.
Russia: Outbreak Day
RUN!
Kurt jumped up and bolted to the closet, pulling out his backpacking pack. Kurt had hoped to travel Europe using this bag of random survival supplies, but now they would have to be adapted to saving his life. Luckily he had the essentials for living in the wild. He checked the inventory of his pack.
He had purchased two water-filtrating Nalgene bottles so that he wouldn’t have to deal with the runs while traveling all over a foreign continent. He had a lean-to shelter kit his brother had bought him so that he could sleep under the stars if he found a great campsite. The kit came with a small tow strap for wrapping a guideline around two trees easily and a tarp with two stakes. It was the simplest form of shelter, but it would be easy to set up, tear down and keep Kurt dry. Also in his pack were a sleeping bag, a set of waterproof pants, hiking boots, a winter coat, a rain poncho and a flashlight with extra batteries.
It would work perfectly, but Kurt would have to get going soon. The town he was now calling home may not have been a major city, but it had to have gotten some deliveries of Enerjax. The outbreak would begin to grow soon. Kurt filled his water bottles and said a little prayer. Raising one to his mouth, he sucked through the filtrating straw. He swallowed, forcing the water down his throat. After five minutes, nothing happened.
I guess I didn’t kill myself with tainted water.
He headed for the door. Kurt stopped and looked at the hallway mirror. He was wearing the winter coat, which he had removed from his pack, jeans and running shoes. He had decided to save the hiking boots for later. Right now he would need to be speedy. The backpack would slow him down a little, but he would be fast enough. He would have to be. If his intuition was right, Kurt would be running for his life.
Just as Kurt reached for the door handle, he realized he had no weapon. Joe’s voice called out to him from the past.
Rocky Mountain National Park: Outbreak Day -5 Years
For Joe’s senior high school trip, he and Kurt had gone backpacking in Colorado. For two days, they hiked through the forest, pitched their tent in backcountry spots, and told stories and talked about girls. It was a perfect trip. The next morning, they had been climbing a low ridge when they heard a noise ahead of them on the trail. As they turned the corner, they found a baby mountain lion eating a small rabbit. They both froze. They knew the truth; the mother had to be close by. Joe pulled out his knife and started turning in circles, looking for movement.
The mother lion came bounding out of the pines, snarling. Kurt turned, ready to run. Joe grabbed him before he could.
“We need to back away sl
owly or she’ll chase us,” Joe said.
Joe held the knife in her direction as he and Kurt walked back slowly. After a few minutes, they were in the clear.
“Do you really think you would have been able to fight that thing with a flip knife?” Kurt asked when his heart rate had gotten low enough to talk.
Joe looked at his small switchblade. It was really not even close to enough to fight off a mountain lion. It wasn’t about that. It was about giving them a chance to get away. The weapon had been meant as a last-ditch attempt to get lucky and slow down the lion if it had come.
Joe answered Kurt’s question. “It’s always better to have a weapon.”
It’s always better to have a weapon. Kurt shrugged and made a mental note.
Russia: Outbreak Day
It’s always better to have a weapon.
Kurt didn’t want to fight, would probably die if he tried, but if he needed to, it would be better to have something than nothing. Kurt grabbed a chef’s knife from the kitchen and went back to the front door. Taking a deep breath and steadying his nerves, he grabbed the handle and pushed it open.
Kurt’s host home was part of a small suburban area just above the main town. As he opened the door, his worst fears became an instant reality. Out in the street, people were running. Their zombie counterparts were close behind.
Kurt took a step toward the west, which led away from town into the mountainous areas, and stopped in his tracks. A group of six zombies had just finished taking down an older lady who didn’t stand a chance. Two of them turned and made eye contact with Kurt. Their milky-white gaze froze him. Their high-pitched wail made him jerk. Kurt turned on his heel and sprinted at full-adrenaline speed down the road. He didn’t even glance over his shoulder. He just kept running.
After about five minutes at full speed, he dared a glance. The zombies weren’t following him. He put both hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath. His lungs were on fire, and his heart was threatening to climb out of his throat and call it a day. Luckily for Kurt, this heightened heart rate also ramped up his hearing ability. He heard the footsteps coming from the grass to his left. He looked over and saw a skinny little girl, or what used to be a girl, racing toward him. Kurt swallowed hard and took off running again.
