Chapter 2: Knocks

Thump! Thump! The knocking came from the floor below him. Darren thought it was just another one of those zombies. Honestly, though, Darren did not care if a zombie killed him. He just did not have the will to live anymore. The knocking came back. Out of frustration, Darren slammed his fist to the knock, wanting it to cease. This caused his bandage on his elbow to slip off. Blood went everywhere. Darren needed to get to a doctor fast, or something bad could really happen. But what did Darren care. He didn’t care a damn bit to die. He had no family. His wife Laura was gone. His daughter Josephine was gone. His son David was gone. Hell, for all he knew, every single body on Earth was gone. With all this commotion the knocking started back again, but a couple feet beside him. Why is the knocking over there now? Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t a zombie. Darren crawled over to where the knock came from and knocked back. A couple seconds passed and another knock came a couple feet over. He knocked a third time. The fourth knock led Darren to a refrigerator. He opened it up. Darren nearly fainted due to the god-awful smell. The smell came from some expired milk. He pulled out the expired milk. The date on the milk was August 12, 2012. This was nearly two weeks after Darren’s surgery on July 31. Could he have been in the hospital for 2 weeks? Everyone he ever knew could be dead by now.

For a minute Darren forgot about the knocking. He thought to himself that the knocking had to come from under the fridge. With of all his strength he had left, Darren pushed the fridge over to the wall. He nearly fainted. And the blood that was pouring out of his arm didn’t help much either. He fell to the ground. He took his bandage and pulled it back around tight around the wound. He was too weak to get up. He just wanted to see his family one last time. Darren was just going to lay there and die. All of a sudden the knocking started again. It came from a latch that had been under the fridge. Darren’s only will to live was to find out what was under that latch now. He just had to find out. There was just one problem with the latch. It had a lock on it. Now he had to find something to get in. He needed something that could break a lock apart with no problem. Before he could do this, he had to find a way to get up. He was very weak. His bandage was soaked in blood. The original color of white was now dark red. Now the knocking on the door never stopped. Instead of two knocks here and there, it was now 20 knocks in a row. There was nothing he could do until he got up though. Darren grabbed the refrigerator handle to pull himself to his feet. He began looking for something to break the lock. After a good while of looking, he found something. Over in the corner of the wall was a pair of lock cutters. Darren thought the dumbass that didn’t want anybody down in this basement should’ve thought a little bit more. Darren took the pair of lock cutters and put them over the lock. He immediately stopped. If he was going to go down there, he better take a flashlight so he can see who he’s dealing with, and he better take the lock cutters down there with him too, for protection.

Darren looked around the old storage room and found a flashlight. The batteries still worked. This had been the first good news he’d had all day. He once again put the lock cutter down on the lock and pulled them together, and the lock snapped apart. He switched on the flashlight and opened up the latch. All of a sudden he heard someone or something come up the stairs. Whatever it was, it sounded like it was having a hard time getting up the stairs. He warned whatever it was not to come any closer but they did. Darren held up the lock cutters and opened them, ready for a fight. As soon as he saw their face, he would kill them. But as the person walked up out of the latch, Darren paused. He wouldn’t dare hit a girl, let alone kill one. But most of all he wouldn’t kill his own mother.

This thing that walked from the latch was Darren’s poor old mother, but this was not his mother’s normal appearance. She looked like one of them. She was a zombie. There were bullet holes all in her body. What happened to her?  She had had a wonderful life of 64 years, and now the woman who took care of him as a child was dead. Who knew that after waking up from surgery, his mother would be dead? Who would have known when he went to talk to her to ask her up for supper at his house would have been the final time he would see her?  He could see his mother in her eyes, but also he could see the evil in her eyes. This was not Darren’s mother. He knew that. But there was no way he could kill what used to be his own mother. There was no damn way he would. He tried to plead with her, and tried to see if she could remember him. She just started chasing after him. There was no use. His mother was gone forever. There was only one thing to do. Darren got down on his knees and let her come toward her. He was ready to die. All he thought about was getting to see his family in a new world, a new life. He sure hoped God would forgive him for suicide. As he closed his eyes his dead mother came toward him ready to eat his flesh. Right as she was about to reach her son, Darren opened his eyes to a loud bang. His poor mother had been shot. But there was some good news. The person, who shot his mother, was Laura, his darling wife.