1950s: The Decade of Perfect Housewives, Cadillacs & Zombies

by Eduard Joseph

hand and could feel a solid unseen obstacle in front of him.

  “What the heck?” Elliot asked confused.

  “What is it?” Lucy asked.

  Elliot felt with his hands along the unseen obstacle. It was enormous.

  “I think it’s a wall of some sorts.” Elliot said baffled.

  “What?” Agnes asked.

  Agnes stepped forward and held out her hand. She could feel the smooth surface of something invisible in front of them. She dragged her hands across the unseen surface as she walked to the left.

  Lucy finally gave in and touched the unseen force that entrapped them.

  “What kind of wall is invisible?” Lucy asked baffled.

  “Why is it invisible?” Samantha asked.

  Lucy turned to her right and saw that Samantha was also feeling the surface of the unseen wall.

  Elliot bashed his fist against the undetectable wall out of frustration and the image of the field flickered in static for a split second.

  “What was that?” Elliot asked vigilantly, “Did you guys see that?”

  “Yes.” Lucy said baffled, “I saw it.”

  “What does it mean?” Samantha asked.

  “I don’t know.” Lucy said.

  “Mom…” Agnes called out from a distance.

  The others all looked to their left and saw Agnes standing next to a tree about a hundred yards away.

  “I think you’d better take a look at this.” Agnes said.

  Agnes’s sights were transfixed upon something next to the tree. As the others approached, a door came into sight. It was a wooden door that stood up right next to the tree. It appeared to be held up by nothing. Lucy felt the area around the door and could still feel the invisible wall.

  They all stood in front of the door and stared at it. The door had a sign on it that read Emergency Exit. They were all at a loss for words and didn’t know what to make of the invisible wall or the wooden door.

  FIFTEEN

  Elliot reached for the doorknob, but Lucy stopped him.

  “Wait.” Lucy cautioned, “We don’t know what’s on the other side.”

  Elliot stared at her and she could see that he was just as scared and baffled as she was.

  “We came this far.” Agnes said, “We can’t chicken out now.”

  Lucy had a bad feeling about the wooden door in the invisible wall, but took some solace in the fact that she could see what was on the other side of the wall. She finally let go of Elliot’s hand and nodded. He turned the doorknob and pushed open the door. The door led to a twilit storage room that lay in array. Lucy glanced into the room and then at the field she could still see through the invisible wall.

  “What the heck?” Elliot asked baffled.

  “It’s some kind of illusion.” Lucy said in thought.

  She stared at the field as she laid her hand upon the invisible wall again. The imagery flickered once at her touch.

  “Some kind of optical illusion.” Lucy said.

  She turned to the others who all stood in front of the open door. Elliot took a deep breath and stepped into the storage room. The others followed him and Lucy left the door open behind them for some light. Chairs and boxes lay scattered throughout the storage room. Lucy spotted a spiral staircase to their right and motioned for Elliot. He nodded and vigilantly made his way towards the staircase. The others scrutinized the storage room as they walked over to the staircase.

  Elliot took the stairs hesitantly one by one and the others followed him. The staircase led them to a second floor landing and a door that had a sign that read Control Room.

  Elliot hesitated for a moment and then opened the door. The room was filled with objects and machinery he had never seen in his life. The opposite wall was covered in technologically advanced televisions. The televisions were not switched on and looked like darkened souls. Three chairs stood in front of a counter filled with buttons, levers and lights.

  “What is this place?” Lucy asked as the others entered.

  Elliot stepped closer to the counter and reached out to it with caution. He wanted to know what the buttons did, but he was afraid. The others joined him in front of the counter of buttons and scrutinized everything flabbergasted.

  Little Tabitha reached up at the counter and accidentally pressed a button. Instantaneously one of the Televisions switched on and displayed an image that made everyone jump. Big letters flashed onto the screen and spelled Town of the dead. The letters dissipated to reveal a man standing in front of the main gate of Chrismar Valley

  “I’m Jack Peters.” The man announced.

  “Dad?” Lucy asked confused.

  Though he was a man in his early twenties, Lucy and Samantha recognized the man as their father. They were baffled as they stared at the man talk.

  “…is a reality show like none other.” The man on the television announced, “There are no winners in this reality show. It’s simply survival of the fittest. The town of Chrismar Valley is enclosed in a dome in the world’s largest studio to ensure the most realistic show ever created. The town consists of over two hundred inhabitants; all hypnotised to think that it’s the year 1935 when in fact it’s the year 2025. They will have no contact with the outside world, except when the dead come knocking on their door. That’s right! What makes this survival of the fittest is that we’ve genetically reanimated the dead and enclosed them in the space between the dome and the wall that surrounds the town. With over two thousand cameras in and around the town, you will not only see the inhabitants’ most intimate moments, but you will see them fight for their lives when the dead breach the wall…”

  The video playback stopped abruptly when Lucy pressed a button. The television went black and the room fell quiet. None of them could believe what they had just heard. Lucy couldn’t believe that as a young man her father was part of this… whatever this was.

  “I don’t believe this.” Lucy said with a sigh.

  Little Tabitha started playing with the controls again and then one of the other televisions switched on to reveal a news bulletin. Lucy looked up when she heard the anchor woman speak.

  “It’s been three weeks since the reality show Town of the dead went horribly wrong.” The anchor woman said, “The genetically engineered zombies that were created for this one of a kind reality show breached the dome and entered the city. City officials have reported that the number of infected has risen to just over three thousand. Citizens are urged to stay indoors and not attempt to make contact with any loved ones. Should you come in contact with the infected they can be stopped by removing the head or destroying the brain…”

  Lucy pressed the same button as before and the television went black. She leaned up against the control board and tried to let everything sink in. Could it all be true? Could the optical illusions they just saw on the screen be telling the truth? That would mean that her entire childhood was a lie – a lie for the entertainment of others. What kind of sick person would brainwash people and entrap them in a place filled with the undead? Whoever was behind it didn’t take all the consequences into consideration.

  “Mom?” Agnes asked scared, “What do we do now?”

  “We should go home.” Samantha said as she picked Tabitha up.

  Lucy hesitated for a moment and then said, “No. We’re not going home. Like Elliot said; we came this far. We can’t turn back now.”

  “Where else can we go?” Agnes asked.

  Lucy scrutinized the room and spotted a sign above a door to the left that read Exit. She turned to the others when they too spotted the door.

  “We go outside.” Lucy said, “The real outside.”

  Lucy was the first one to walk over to the door, but she was tentative about opening it. What would be waiting on the other side? She wasn’t quite sure whether she was ready to see what the real world looked like. She grew up in Chrismar Valley and though it was all a lie, it was her home. Was her dad really her dad or was he simply a memory planted in her head? Did she really grow
up fighting zombies in Chrismar Valley, or was that too a figment of someone’s imagination forced upon her? When your perfect little world collides with reality, it’s hard to tell the difference between what you thought you knew and what’s real.

  She reached for the doorknob with an indifferent hand and bit down on her lower lip. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

  No light came rushing in when the door opened. It was dark outside. She stepped out onto a third floor balcony that overlooked a metropolis that looked like something from a futuristic novel Agnes loved reading and telling her about. Skyscrapers reached high up into the sky, but there weren’t any flying cars like in the novels; in fact, there were no cars at all. The streets were deserted and the buildings were all dark. Creeper plants were crawling up the sides of most of the buildings. It appeared that the city had been deserted for decades.

  She noticed a stray zombie walking down one of the abandoned streets below; other than that the city was completely desterted.

  Lucy was thunderstruck as she stared out at the sight before her. One by one the others joined her out on the balcony. Samantha picked up Tabitha and balanced her on her hip. Nobody said a word. They all just stared out at the futuristic city that lay in ruins before them; it was a vast difference from the quaint 1950s little town they called home.

  “Mom?” Agnes asked baffled.

  Lucy kept staring out at the desolate city and then finally turned to Agnes. For some reason Lucy couldn’t quite comprehend she wanted to explore the city that lay in ruins. For years