Read Dead Eyes: A Tale From The Zombie Plague Online
Authors: James Dwyer
Dead Eyes: A Tale From The Zombie Plague (15 page)
Terrified, I started reaching for everything in sight, bombarding the zombie with all I could get my hands on. Chairs, stationery, even an empty water cooler tank. The zombie dodged my assault easily, standing there, waiting for me to use up my ammunition.
“What are you waiting for?” I screamed, “Come and get me.”
The zombie stood passively, staring at me, its gaze seeming to pin me into the corner. “Come on you piece of shit. Eat me!”
The waiting was killing me. Why wasn’t it attacking? I was trapped. There was no way out. Why didn’t it just kill me?
I looked out to the open window. One last avenue of escape. My legs started shaking, trembling with fear and anticipation. They knew what I had to do. I stood up and ran to the window, to leap out into the night. I would end things on my own terms.
I was at the window when the zombie moved towards me, catching me around the waist with one impossibly strong arm and throwing me back into the corner.
I landed heavily on my feet, a snapping pain in my ankle telling me I had injured something fragile and important. I cried out in agony, my leg twisted at an impossible angle beneath me. Cornered and crippled. What else was left?
“What are you waiting for!” I screamed, “Finish this!”
Dark clouds eclipsed the moonlight, plunging the office into darkness. I could just make out the zombie ahead of me, an angular dark shape. It felt like I was looking at the devil or death itself. Come to collect its due. The zombie turned away from me and began moving towards the door. It reached out to the handle and twisted the lock.
Click.
The door burst open and the Daisies spilled inside, shrieking and screaming. They moved around the new zombie, not getting too close. They were scared of it too.
The writhing grey blurs poured towards me like a horrible wave of frenzied animals. One grey mass of gnashing jaws ready to devour me. To tear me into pieces to satisfy their need. Their hunger.
At the end of it all, the hunger always wins. Death must feed on the living to survive. Without life, there is no death.
The hunger will be sated.
My eyesight finally gave in, plunging the room into blackness. All my other senses seemed to amplify, warning me of what would happen next. The smell of rotting flesh, the sound of the shrieking and screaming horde. The touch of their horribly clawed hands on my skin.
I cowered back in the corner and waited for death to take me. Sensing the undead closing in, I was happy for the first time to share blood with my grandfather. The blindness would hide some of the horror of my demise.
And as they started tearing at my flesh, biting into my neck and body, I thought of Libby. The only thing that could numb the pain.
Send me back; send me back to that assembly hall. Where I could tell her that I would stay with her until the end. Whatever it took, whatever happened. I would be there for her.
Until the final darkness tears me away.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Dwyer is a writer based in Poole on the South coast of England. Living in Poole, Dorset, James has won prizes for his short film scripts. With a passion for storytelling and writing, James hopes to one day make a living out of monsters, mystery and murder. Until then, he hopes people will enjoy reading his stories as much as he enjoys writing them.
He is currently working on his first full length novel “The Labyrinth”, a horror adventure novel with monsters, myths and murder.
To find out more about the author and be kept up to date on his upcoming novel visit his website or contact him on twitter or via email.
Other stories from this author
Dark Christmas Tales
A collection of five short stories set around the Christmas period.
The Dead
A short story following an old man finding himself trapped at the start of a zombie story.
The Rat God
A short story following a sadistic pest exterminator who finds himself punished by the creatures he killed.
Winter’s Bride
A young girl is chosen by her village as the ritual sacrifice to keep Winter at bay. Can young Frieda escape her destiny and the icy embrace of Jack Frost?
Frankenstein’s Monster Goes West
A US Marshall on the trail of a brutal murderer, starts to suspect that he is not hunting a man…but a monster.