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The words came involuntarily from his zombie mouth again.
"Emma! No!" he screamed. He thrashed about on the ground trying to push the zombies from him. Then suddenly he stopped as he realised he was not on the train platform and there were no zombies on top of him...and no Emma.
He shook his head, sat up and looked around in startled disbelief. He was in an alley, his clothes were in tatters and he had the most awful taste in his mouth. He spat out a chunk of furry flesh and almost vomited. His arms and legs were covered in strange sores that were festering from what looked liked rat bites, including several fresh ones. There were also a myriad of semi healed sores on other parts of his body too, his original zombie bites.
"What the hell happened to me?" he thought to himself as he gingerly stood up. He felt sick in the stomach and a little dizzy. That was when he noticed that he was sweating and shivering at the same time and felt like he had a fever. As he stood he steadied himself against the cold metal of a dumpster. That was when he first looked up and realised he was standing just centimetres away from at least 20 zombies who were standing inside the bin. Each of them was staring at him, almost like they were frozen in place or somehow mesmerised.
Instinctively Keith stumbled backwards away from them, but in his dizzy state he tripped and fell backwards. He scrambled to his feet and ran in the opposite direction down the alley. He did not look back, he knew by instinct they would be chasing him and looking over your shoulder just slowed you down.
Keith came quickly to the end of the alley and burst out into the next street with the full intention of crossing it and heading directly into one of the nearby buildings in the hope of finding somewhere secure where he could barricade himself until he had a chance to think. There was going to be no chance of that however, as the street was packed with more zombies. He came to a skidding halt in the middle of the street and his shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Stuff this!" he thought.
What was the point of going on anyway, Emma was gone. He stood straight, pushed his chest out proudly and awaited the mass of zombies to tear him to pieces. Instead of charging at him however, all the zombies in the street simply stopped and turned to stare at him. That was when Keith noticed that the zombies in the alley had not pursued him either.
"What the hell?" he said out loud.
Several of the zombies closest to him sniffed the air and at the sound of his voice they began to back away. Keith could not believe what he was seeing!
"BOO!" he yelled and took a threatening step towards the nearest zombie. The reaction was uncanny, every zombie in the street started to lumber directly away from him as fast as possible.
"That's right you zombie scum you be afraid!" yelled Keith with hysterical joy and anger mixed together. "In fact how do you like it when I come and bite on you!"
In a fit of rage, and a modicum of delirium from his fevered state, Keith ran up to the nearest fleeing zombie, grabbed its arm and bit deeply into its flesh until he drew blood. It was strangely satisfying somehow. The zombie moaned its zombie moan, broke free of his grasp and continued to lurch away from him with the others.
In minutes the entire street was empty all except for the zombie that Keith had bitten. It had fallen to the ground just metres away and had started frantically kicking and screaming as though it was being attacked by some imaginary crowd.
"Get off me!" it screamed.
Keith walked warily towards the zombie who had now stopped flailing around and sat up. When Keith reached the zombie it turned around and stared at him.
"The zombies...they got me...how did I get here?" the man asked shaking his head in confusion.
"You would not believe me if I told you," said Keith.
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Keith grabbed the backpack that he had raided from a nearby department store and filled it with as many non perishable tins of food and chip packets as he could fit into it. He wanted to be stocked up, because he had no intention of putting rat into his mouth ever again.
He had already spent enough time feasting in the convenience store and it was time to move on. Even with a full stomach though he found had a strange craving for zombie flesh. That was probably a good thing given how many of them he would have to start biting into if he was going to start a revolution.
Truth be told however, there was only one zombie's flesh he truly desired with every fibre of his being and that was zombie Emma. If he had to hunt down every zombie on the planet he would not stop until he found her again.
END
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About the Author
Shane Griffin lives in Australia near the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. He is a part time author and full time scientist. He has been writing science fiction and fantasy since age 19. He has published over 20 short stories in magazines and ezines such as Potato Monkey, Antipodean Science Fiction, Ripples, Eclecticism and Masque Noir.
With stories like Accident Man, Border Patrol and the Duel proving popular with readers Shane is now focusing on e-publishing under his own label - Poupichou Press.
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Other Titles by This Author
Science Fiction Short Stories
Accident Man
Antipodean Collection
Antipodean Collection2
Barkley's Body Swap and Pawn Shop
Border Patrol
Blue Pelagic
Cancer Stick Addiction
Cure Overdose
Deathday
Drifter
Generation Next The Real Thing
Heir Neekay
Long Odds
Manjac and the Nosebleed Section
Necrofairies
Shady Hazy and the Subliminal Criminal
Fantasy Short Stories
The Duel
The Mercenary
Visions of Magic - The Kidnap of Gabrielle Ulan
Novels
Apocalyptica - Rogue Memories
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