Personal Narrative: A Zombie Virus

I’m a zombie that’s about it. My life before (what I can remember of it) was pretty boring so I’m not going to make you suffer through it. The virus that made all these normal people die then get up with a bad case of the munchies spread like a cold. After the first few died and then got up it was too late. Countries blamed each other and eventually everyone was trying to shoot you in the head. You think that it would freak everyone out not really every human i have happened across is pretty calm with the idea of making your brains splatter.

I’m actually kinda lucky (as far as a zombie can be) I don’t look like as much as a corpse as the others some are missing limbs some are missing their bottom jaw it’s kinda gross. I have all my arms
and legs and fingers and toes and my face. Having a face is a plus. Being a zombie isn’t the greatest thing in the world. The virus kinda takes over your brain and then your body. You kinda shamble along you still get to think but you aren’t in control of your body. You can have a good idea to walk one way but if the little bacteria in the virus decide they want to go the other way you have no say. It’s infuriating you can want to read a sign or see where this possessive little bug is taking you but you can’t. Most of all it’s boring you can want to sleep but only when you literally collapse from exhaustion can you sleep.

I don’t like eating people the disease kinda controls that. Yah sometimes I’ll want human food but I don’t really get a say. Usually you think you would be freaking out but I just kinda meditate not very interesting. I can’t speak i kinda grunt when I feel pain and I do not moan what a zombie stereotype. No zombie I have ever met moans as it shuffles along. My feet take me to an old city the place must have been amazing before people starting going psycho cannibal. Buildings that only a 100ft giant could see over, panes remain but the glass is long gone. The city must have been something to see once but now it’s just a skeleton nothing useful remains. I walk along the streets they aren’t silent the zombies that surround me make shuffling nosies.

I can feel exhaustion setting in and I know that where ever this disease is dragging me we won’t get there tonight. When I finally do collapse I am in what was once probably a laundry mat or something I can hardly tell. Usually right before I pass out I find shelter. I no longer have dreams I don’t think that's possible any more. When I do sleep it’s just darkness.

The small buildings roof is metal so I can hear it when the rain begins. Usually I can feel humans when they wander too close. I can’t explain it’s like there is a radar in the back of my skull. When it rain my senses are slowed I can’t feel it from as far a distance, sometimes not at all. Most humans want to kill us all so a lot of us die because of it.

I really don’t like eating humans it just plain gross and plus they aren’t as tasty as a hamburger. When we do get too close to humans if they can they fight until the gory end. As more of us die and then get back up there is less and less food. Sometime we can walk for weeks until we find anyone. When my eyes close and I pass out I think about the last time I found a human. While I sleep I think I’m safe. I am wrong very wrong.

I wake up to someone slamming through the front door of the laundry mat. I jump up from my spot behind a dryer. People in all black carrying guns rush in. I know instantly they are humans and I am hungry. They don’t shoot my instantly which is a change but they do try to grab my arms I shake them off and grab the taller man’s arm and bring it to my face.

His scream is so loud I can hear other zombies stirring. They shout to hurry up and then i feel a metal cuff go around my throat it doesn’t make it so I can’t breath so I scream and howl. Other zombies come rushing in and they are put in collars too we are ushered outside kept at a safe distance so no one else can be bitten. I know that I am in serious trouble. I honestly don’t like hurting people it usually isn’t like me, but now I have no control. I miss having a choice in what I do. We are loaded into a black van and then set off. I have no idea where I am, I have no idea where I am going. The whole confrontation didn’t last more then a few minutes. I sit in the back the cuff that went around my neck is chained to a metal hoop that is welded onto the van so I can’t go anywhere. I scream and howl it is an awful thing to hear. As I sit and scream I think about how I became this way.

When we reach are destination the sun has already risen. The day is warm and bright. There is a huge concrete wall all around what appears to be a small city. There are masses of zombies surrounding this place but they look different less dead maybe. There is a huge metal gate that opens and closes quickly behind us so no undead can get in.

I am ushered into a bug bunker that looks imposable to get out of I see a huge tower with really big guns mounted on it there are guards on the tops of walls spaced every fifteen feet. There is no way out I look around wildly. The man that i bit is bleeding horrible and he is on deaths doorstep they are going to have a fresh zombie on there hands if they don’t “take care of him”. I would rather not die today but I don’t see the logic in driving all the way out to where I had hidden to get more they could start in there own back yard. We are unloaded from the back of the van and I can tell this is the end of the road. The man that was bitten is slumped over he has heartbeats left.

They drag him over to a fenced in inclosure like a dog kennel. They drop him in and close the door he has his back to the wall and his head slumped into his chest. I hear the other men mutter and they do sound genuinely upset about this man. Suddenly the dead man’s head snaps up and he stands shakily. He slams himself against the wall screaming. He is enraged by the scent of there flesh. He tears at the fencing separating him and his meal. He will eventually rip off all his fingers on that fence they always do. We are on the out skirts of the city and there aren’t very many buildings just a few sheds and a small barn. We zombies are dragged down a dirt path to a huge hole in the ground. There is a steel door that would take thousands of zombies to break in. They unlock the door and shove us in.

I was expecting like big pit to keep us in.
I was wrong again. Its a long hallway at the end I can see a glaring light. We are shoved along the hall down to what looks like a hospital ward. There are lines of bed all with a zombie chained to it. They look different there are biohazard tents around each one. We new zombies are shoved down a separate hallway and there are individual tanks that contain a fresh zombie each. We are put in our own tank away from each other.

I curl up in a corner of my tank and wait I know something is going to happen. I have a suspicion of what is going on. The zombie apocalypse began just over five years ago. I have kept track of the seasons since the day I realized I couldn’t do much else. Humans must have built this place when it first began but i wonder why all of us weren’t put in this eden. They might have begun a cure program and that might explain why the other zombies don’t resemble the rest of us. I began wonder if that is possible when a guy in a lab coat comes in.

He begins telling us our history. How the apocalypse began. We all know it we were there we are the reason they are living in a fish bowl. I wonder why he is droning on and on the zombie next to me is thrashing next against the glass screaming. I am standing against the glass perfectly silent. He tells us how the infection began and how We are just rotting host to an infection. All I can think is DUH I could have put on a lab coat and told you
that!

What the doctor says next is surprising. Zombies don’t age. We rot we decompose like a corpse but if our cells still grew we would literally stay frozen in time. We wouldn’t have to worry about dying of old age. I am stuck as a seventeen year old undead boy for the rest of time until I rot down to dust. We also have a low tolerance for pain it doesn’t affect us. when the infection took over it killed most of the nerves that convey pain to our brains. The only way to stop us is to sever our spine or to cause intense damage to our brain. We are just shy of imposable to end.

The next part is even harder to believe they are going to take infected cells from us zombies and then inject them into a healthy human being. Its like a vaccine they are going to microscopically mutate a part of the disease that takes the control of our bodies and makes us crave human flesh. They are trying to make immortals. Instead of just finding a cure they are trying to make humans immortal. If this works then we will be able to control our bodies. We will be able to live again.

We are left here all through the night i alternate between sleeping and then screaming.
I don’t like being caged. There is a small chance that I might be able to not eat people to do what I want to be who I want. I don’t like living like this.

When someone comes in and walks in we all stand and scream and attack the glass. He is holding what looks like a cattle prod and stands in front of my goldfish bowl. I scream even louder he unlocks my door and before I can seriously mess up my day he zaps me and I drop he collars me so I can’t bite him. I am dragged back to the hospital part and am put into a large square glass box. There is a vent and a drain.

I am put in the room and then let free I run around a bit and scream and then spit blood at the two way glass wall. The people behind the glass sit with clip boards and pencils ready taking notes. There is a hissing noise behind me and i look up at the vent. A blue cloud of something is leaking from the vent. I huddle on the opposite side of my tank and try to avoid breathing in the gas. Eventually it reaches me and I have to breath. I can feel the gas reach my lungs and I know that this might just save my life.

It hurts to go back to human. It feels like being ripped in half, dipped in acid, lit on fire, and then run over a sander. I scream and twitch on the floor and then my world goes
dark.

When I wake up I look around. Then i realize I can control what I see i sit up. I can do what i want. I lift my arm and study it. I laugh out loud and the freeze. I can speak. What could I say. I get up out of the hospital bed. I stand and walk around shaky at first. I smile and touch my face. I sit back down on my bed and wait for someone to come in. This room is nicer then the tank there is a twin bed in the corner with a warm quilt on it and a desk the walls look like they are made out of old stone. I sit back on the bed and curl up underneath the blanket. I’m freezing cold. I smile. This is how it feels to be alive. I want to scream with happiness. I am warm and cold I can feel the walls. I can look at what i want. I can move how I want. I can smile and laugh and talk. You don’t realize how important all that is until you miss it. I still can’t remember anything from my past.