Page 2 of Dyana
“The zombies are coming,” Ernie said in a spooky voice as he slung his arm around my shoulders. “So, Dyana, since it could be the end of the world, what do you say you finally say yes and let me take you to dinner?”
I rolled my eyes and elbowed him in the side playfully. Ernie was a big teddy bear, and if I were interested in dating, I might give him a shot, but I wasn’t. Even though the first anniversary of Jack breaking my heart was quickly approaching, I was still licking my wounds. Ernie knew that, but it didn’t stop him from shooting his shot every chance he got. I asked Ernie once why he kept asking, knowing I would say no. Ernie said it was because one day I wouldn’t, and he wanted to make sure he was the first person to ask when that day came. In a way, it was sweet.
“Not if you were the last man on the planet,” I teased as I walked away. “And zombies aren’t real, Ern.”
“You wound me, Dyana!” he called after me. “But I forgive you because our love is stronger than that.”
I shook my head and chuckled as I took the stairs to my second-floor dorm room. As expected, Amy was still asleep. “How can you still be sleeping?” I asked as I dropped my bag by my desk and turned to look at the person-shaped lump in her bed.
“Just because you chose to be awake on a Monday morning doesn’t mean I have to be, too,” Amy replied sleepily as she rolled toward the wall.
“Come on,” I whined, jumping on her bed and bouncing on my knees to jostle her. “I’m done with classes for the day, and now I’m bored. You have to wake up.”
“Better idea,” Amy replied, rolling over again to push me off her bed. “Go back to sleep.”
I glared at her briefly from the floor and then grinned as I pounced on her again. “Better, better idea! Let’s get our bathing suits and head to the lake for sunbathing!”
An eye popped open. “I’m listening.”
I knew I had her. Amy was from California and took her first steps in the ocean surf. Being landlocked here in Colorado drove her nuts, so she took every chance to spend time on the water, even if it was just a local lake. “We’ll stop off at the store for food. We can use our fake IDs to buy beer. Spend the whole day at the lakeside soaking in the sun. You know you want to,” I cajoled.
“Fine,” Amy sighed, rolling her eyes when I whooped in victory. “I take my best naps on a beach towel anyway.”
“That’s the spirit,” I said. I hopped off her bed and went to my dresser to dig out my bikini while she left for the bathroom. If we moved quickly, we could be at the lake in under two hours.
I jumped when Amy came running back into the room and slammed the door behind her. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she was breathing heavily. “Something’s wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard screaming downstairs. A lot of it.”
“What?” I pushed her away from the door and opened it a crack. Panicked screams filtered up from the stairwell, accompanied by other sounds I couldn’t quite identify—sounds you would expect to hear from wild animals or your nightmares. “I’m going to go see what’s going on,” I said as I opened the door wider.
“Are you fucking nuts?” Amy asked, shoving the door closed. “You can’t go down there! Have you learned nothing from our horror movie marathons? The last thing you ever do is go investigate the scary sounds!”
Amy had a point.
I reached for the doorknob again. “What the fuck are you doing?” Amy hissed.
“I’m not leaving the room. I just want to see if we can figure out what’s happening by listening,” I assured her. After a few seconds, Amy nodded, and we opened the door again. There was less screaming than before, but I wasn’t sure that was a good thing. One of the guys who lived a few doors down from us stumbled up the stairs. He was covered in blood from a wound on his neck and moved past our door before collapsing in the hallway.
“We should help him,” Amy whispered.
I watched his prone body. “I think it’s too late to help him,” I replied. I kept one eye on him as I watched the stairs and listened for any signs that whatever was happening was over. When he began twitching, I thought he was still alive. “Hey, buddy, are you ok?”
A few more twitches, and he slowly got to his feet with his back toward us.
“What happened down there?” I asked.
He turned toward us, and my eyes widened in horror. His eyes were cloudy and lifeless, his face was a grayish purple, and his wound was black and oozing. He emitted the same animal-like sound I could still hear downstairs and lunged toward us. Amy and I screamed as we quickly slammed the door shut and locked it. Thankful for the heavy metal door, I watched through the peephole as he repeatedly slammed into the door in an attempt to get to us.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
“Zombie,” I whispered. Son of a bitch, Ernie was right. Ernie. My heart clenched at the thought of him and what might have happened to him. I knew he had been in the lounge, and I doubted he had left when I had.
“Oh my God,” Amy said repeatedly as she paced the room.
I ignored her and went to the window to look outside. I almost wish I hadn’t. Similar to all the news coverage I had seen, people below us screamed and ran for their lives as groups of... zombies, may as well call them what they are, chased after them. Some braver souls tried to fight back but were soon overpowered as more and more zombies surrounded them. It was complete chaos outside.
