What would a night be like when a zombie-invasion actually happened? What would you do? What would I do?
After playing the game "Last Night on Earth" - a zombie survival boardgame - I made a series of paintings depicting the terror and sense of dread of a zombie invasion - one painting for every hour from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and how that night would feel like.
The story I'm writing here is exclusively written for Steemit! I'm also integrating (parts of) all comments given on the previous episode. Read about that below. This is how I envisioned the first zombie - and last normal? - night on earth in my paintings. I appreciate any and all (relevant!) comments, upvotes and resteems, thank you!
You can read episode one: prologue - 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. here.
You can read episode two: 9 p.m. - 10 p.m. here.
You can read episode three: 11 p.m. - midnight here.
You can read episode four: 1 a.m. - 2 a.m. here.
Episode four.
Enjoy. Or be afraid.
Last Night: 3 A.M.
"It's the zombie apocalypse, chum", Steve whispered to me while looking at all those roaming zombies in his backyard - no, make that all over town.
CLICK. WHIZZZZ. THUD.
One of them fell down like a sack of potatoes after a bullet to the head, conveniently next to the compost heap.
"Let's go back inside. I have some more information about all of this." Steve poured a me a big glass of cheap scotch and started explaining the situation: "TV's dead, internet's down, radio, phones: all gone. Everybody's on his own. But we've got these," and he took a walkie-talkie out of his pocket. "I'm in touch with Mark, he was at Suzie's Bar 'n Grill with Cisco and his family when all this started happening. They quickly took control and now they're safe in this fortified restaurant with food supplies to last at least a forthnight. We should go there and join them."
"Steve, look," I said, "let's not be a 'glass-half-empty' person - It's already 2AM and we're in a safe place. Sounds like more than we could have hoped for, right? Why don't we wait for the morning before we try to reach Mark and Cisco. You've got ammo to sit out the night here, right?"
"Got five bullets left, chum. We're fucked once those zombies start breaking through the door. We can't stay in the apartment forever, but of course, you can if you want to."
"Got any garlic here?" I asked.
"Yuck, garlic's gross, why'd you ask?"
"Never mind, let's go." I drank my glass of scotch half empty.
We waited until it looked like the streets were reasonably clear of roaming zombies and dashed off. I followed Steve and Lynn, my axe in hand. All went surprisingly well until Steve took a shortcut and we were suddenly faced with
"Oh, shit," Steve said. At a first glance, there were four zombies between us and the end of the alley. They looked up. "Didn't expect this, nobody ever takes this alley. I can handle these with my gun, but there could be more." The four zombies started approaching.
"Let's go for it," I said, raising my axe. The closest zombie was now only a yard away...
"Fuck 'em," Lynn shouted. "Awesome!" Steve cried out and shot the closest zombie at point blank range.
I ran off, striking one zombie after another in the spooky alley. I don't know how many I took out - sometimes I hit their head, sometimes just their arm or their chest, but I knew I had to keep going, quickly, not to get stuck or I would be caught, and eaten alive. That idea and that idea only kept me going. I stopped counting after killing, hitting or running away from roundabout fourty zombies. And then I was out of the alley, onto a little marketplace. Back into silence.
I heard no voices, no guns. No Steve. No Lynn. I waited in darkness.
Last Night 4 A.M.
I hoped they would come out of the alley, but as every minute passed, it was less and less likely. Fuck me!, in all my haste I had forgotten to take care of them. I had ran and ran and not taken enough zombies out to give them a safe passage.
I felt like shit and didn't know what to do. Dash back in and try to save them? Carefully sneak up on the zombies? Or just cowardly leave them and continue to Suzie's bar 'n Grill? How could I then live with myself?
I didn't have to make a choice. The zombies made it for me.
Suddenly I was surrounded again.
I heard the church's clock striking 4 a.m.
Dawn would be coming, but I was all alone again in a scary and wicked world.
Are you afraid? Intrigued? Fascinated? Wondering what the night will bring?
Episode 6 continues the story, going from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. ... coming tomorrow! Thanks for reading & watching!
Bonus: if you read the previous episode and comments: I took a quote from every one of the comments of the previous episode and integrated them in this episode: "in a scary and wicked" by @deemarshall; "can't stay in the apartment forever" by @thetruthbomb; "spooky" by @lenadr; "Awesome" by head10; "more information about" by @steemitboard and "**Let's not be a "glass-half-empty" person - It's already 2AM and we're in a safe place. Sounds like more than we could have hoped for" by @fraenk.
I will try do the same for the next episode. So, leave a (creative) comment and see how your comment gets written in Episode 6 (coming in roundabout 24 hours). I'm thinking how I can redistribute some sbd for the most creative comments. Can't promise, we'll see. Thank you!
It's surely the end for you so I am very afraid now. It must be horrific to be a zombie feeling hungry all the time! Still I guess not all stories have a happy ending :(
It's not over yet, @deemarshall - the paintings go on till 7 a.m. :)
Hopefully there was a few bulbs of garlic kicking around the marketplace!
Things are getting desperate now!
What's that saying, "it's the darkest just before dawn"?
Thanks for reading & commenting @fractalizer!
My pleasure!
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STOPIt's getting harder and harder to include (part of) this comment in the next episode... But fun, woo-hoo!