Zombies in Minneapolis

2008-08-27T10:08:00.005-05:00

The dead have risen. People are dying. Society is crumbling. It all started in Minneapolis. Something worse is coming.

Zombies in Minneapolis follows Lee, a young man working in downtown Minneapolis, while he battles his way through the hordes of the undead. Survival seems hopeless until he uncovers something from his past that may change the world.

Zombies in Minneapolis is an online zombie novel created by Lee Striegel. To begin reading, select a chapter on the right or click here to begin chapter one.

Acknowledgements and Announcements

2008-04-18T12:59:00.005-05:00

Welcome to Zombies in Minneapolis. This is the very last page of the story, so if you haven't finished it yet, start on Chapter One on the right.

If you've read the story scroll on down....

Hello everybody! I want to thank you all immensely for reading my story. I would especially like to thank Stephanie, Ben, Steffanie, Jeff, and Rory for letting me use you as characters in the book. I apologize for turning you into mindless zombies, I'm sure you didn't mind.

It has been tons of fun to write this story. I'm working on getting this published. I need an idea of how many people would actually be willing to buy the book if it was published. So, send me an email at leestriegel (at) gmail.com and let me know. If I have enough, I will probably just self publish.

I'm not sure what I'll be working on next. I will be starting something new this summer. It may or may not be zombie related. Possibly even a sequel. Make sure to join the ZIM mailing list on the right side of the site. I will send out an email whenever I start something new.

Thanks a ton.

Epilogue

2008-04-14T22:32:00.001-05:00

Epilogue

Rory silently walked away from the battlefield, unsure of what to do next. He carried his weapons, ready for anything. He knew he would never see his family or his friends again. He knew that the world would never be the same as it once was. He knew he probably wouldn’t even live long enough to find any other survivors, but he knew that he had to try.

There was the faint sound of a gunshot in the distance. Now he knew he would never see Lee again.

As the sun rose, he just kept walking away. He knew he couldn’t walk forever, but it just made sense to keep going. He had to get as far away from this place as possible. He kept going. After a short while he made it to highway 35W. On the interstate, he found a motorcycle that still had some fuel.

Rory looked back at the city. The sun was beautiful and seemed to give a warm glow to the entire place. But there was no warmth there, only death. He stood the motorcycle up and started it.

Rory quietly lit a cigarette and took a long drag. He felt the smoke warm his lungs and breathed it out with a sigh of relief. He glanced back at the city once more, then turned and rode south into the crisp morning.

ZIM Day 60

2008-04-12T18:49:00.001-05:00

“You didn’t think you’d be rid of me that easily, did you?”

It was him or me or whatever. My other self. I was back on top of the IDS tower, except the room was empty. It was extremely bright in the room, the sun was blazing through the windows.

“You thought you could just kill me. Didn’t you realize I was already dead? Didn’t you realize that I would have already thought of that? Remember that the only reason you are here is because of me? Remember that the only reason I made was you was because I needed a body, a living body? I figured you’d be smarter than that.”

I thought back. I thought about when he shot me. He hit me with a tranquilizer dart, but I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t even get drowsy.

“Ahh, you get it yet? That dart, it wasn’t to kill you. It was to let me live again. I injected the nanomachines directly into you. I injected the ones from my very own blood, the ones that kept me alive and thinking. You see, it wasn’t my rotting corpse that kept me going, it was the machines. And now they are part of you. Now I’m part of you.”

“No, you asshole. You can’t win. I’ll kill myself before I let you take control.”

“Good luck with that.”

He just started laughing and I blinked. I was sitting on the car again with Rory. He was just staring at me. He looked scared out of his mind. I looked back at the dead, they were just standing there. I looked back at Rory.

“You have to get out of here, now! Just get all the weapons you can carry and get as far from this place as possible.”

He looked stunned, “What? You have to come too. I don’t know where to go. Is there anybody else even alive out there?”

“Just go. Go as fast as you can. I can’t really explain, but my other self is going to be back and soon. He won’t be happy. You’ll be the only one around and he’ll kill you for sure.”

He stammered, “But, but…”

“Go now or I’ll kill you myself.”

He looked up, seeming to understand, “Okay. It’s been good knowing you man. Good luck.”

He left. I sat on the car and watched as he walked off into the distance. He was out of sight in a moment or two. I just sat there, watching the sun come up. My army of dead stood there and did the same thing, only because I made them. I watched as it came up over the buildings to the east. The storm had finally ended. It was going to be a beautiful morning.

I reached into my coat and drew my pistol. I checked to make sure it was loaded. There was only one bullet left. I cocked it and raised it to my temple. I watched the brilliant light of the sun as it cut through the clouds. It was nice to feel the warmth of the sun. I pulled the trigger.

The gun fired, but I didn’t die. I realized that I wasn’t aiming at myself anymore. I had fired into the sky. I didn’t have control of my arm anymore. I dropped the gun and stood up. I looked at the dead and smiled.

There was no me anymore, there wasn’t even a him. There was just us. I didn’t fight it anymore. He didn’t fight either. We just were. We were one person again, the good and the evil mixed together. Everything finally made sense.

I laughed as I watched the dead pick up their weapons and get into formation. The brilliant sun flooded the city with a bright orange glow. I could feel the warmth of the sun and among the dead, I felt truly alive.

I drew my sword and smiled. I had an army to lead.

ZIM Day 59

2008-04-11T13:31:00.002-05:00

Stephanie said something that I couldn’t quite make out over the commotion. I turned to see her loading her gun.

“What are you doing?”

She looked at me, “That’s enough, we have to stop this. We can’t kill all of these people.”

She took off running toward the battle. I chased after her with Rory right on my heels. She ran toward what was left of the living and the dead, firing all the way. She was taking out anything in her way. She sprinted into the crowd and started blowing the dead away. I willed the dead not to attack her. She kept going though. I followed through the battle. It was hard to make out who was living and who was dead, but they mostly ignored us. I just barely escaped being shot by a soldier. I turned and watched him get stabbed in the back by one of my warriors.

I saw Stephanie dodge past a group of the dead and kill another few. We were in the midst of a war zone. I kept up with her though. I turned to look back at Rory, but I couldn’t see him in the smoke. I turned back and saw Stephanie killing another corpse. I told the dead to stop fighting and they stood motionless. The living kept firing though and it would only be a matter of minutes before I was hit. I could still make out where Stephanie was running.

I followed her into the crowd. The living must have realized that the dead had stopped because the firing went on. Then there was the explosion. I was engulfed in smoke and went toppling over through the mess. I crashed to the ground and lost one of the swords. It clattered about twenty feet across the ground. As the smoke cleared, I knew that there was no one controlling the dead. They attacked the living again without their weapons. Tearing them apart and eating anything in their path.

I looked ahead and saw Stephanie lying on the ground next to the sword. I sprinted through the crowd to help her. I came up to see that she’d been shot in the chest. There was blood everywhere. One of the dead attacked me and I sliced its head off. I came up to Stephanie and checked to see how badly she was hurt. It was too late. She lost too much blood. She was dead. I reached for the sword on the ground and she sat up. She tried to bite me, but I dodged her teeth. I quickly grabbed the other sword and retook control of the dead.

She was one of them now. I pulled out my pistol and aimed at her. She just stood there staring blankly at me. Blood was dripping out of her mouth as she watched me raise the weapon to her head. I shot her and turned away.

The battle went on, but I was growing sick of everything. I walked back out of the crowd to see Rory. He was standing on top of a truck, trying to stay away from the dead. The dead kept attacking the living. It was close to an hour later when I finally heard the last gunshot. It wouldn’t be long now. It was a few moments later when I noticed that the dead had stopped fighting. There must not have been anyone left to kill.

I waited a bit longer to make sure that there was no one left alive to set off the bomb. Then I sat down on the car next to Rory. I just looked at the dude. He was just sitting there. No expression, nothing on his face. Just staring off into the distance.

He laughed, “Guess now’s as good a time as any.”

He pulled a flask from his jacket and handed it to me. I took a long sip and handed back. He did the same.

I just stared at the dead. Then it happened again, everything flashed white and I wasn’t sitting on the car anymore.

ZIM Day 58

2008-04-01T21:01:00.002-05:00

The dead shambled forward one by one as the soldiers started firing. They moved as one, constantly dragging themselves forward. They didn’t flinch when fired upon. When one went down, another took its place. It was a giant moving wall of death. Their rotting corpses would split apart as they were mowed down by gunfire. They never stopped though. They never showed fear or hesitation. The mass of dead just kept marching into battle.

They were being blown apart like crazy as they stumbled along. The soldiers were putting up a good fight, but the dead would never stop. They would attack until every one of them was dead for good. Or until there were no soldiers left alive. The mass of dead quickly closed on the men with guns.

They came as fast as they could force their bodies forward. At first they hit the line one by one. These first ones were easily put down. Then more and more caught up with the first ones. Soon enough, they were attacking the living in full force. I willed them to swing their weapons, attacking the living like a group of ancient warriors. The living must have been bewildered as they were attacked by these creatures. Surely, they had never seen a corpse wield a sword.

The dead tore through the front line of the soldiers, killing every one in their path. The living kept fighting even though they were being torn apart one by one. We moved closer so we could see what was going on better. The dead were still being shot up quickly. I wondered if there was any chance of winning. This was the biggest group of living people I’d seen since the outbreak.

The battle raged on. I could see dead people swinging their swords, cutting the living apart. The soldiers fought back, constantly firing into the crowd of the dead. I could see some of them run out of ammo and charge into crowds of dead ready to fight them with their bare hands. These poor souls never had a chance.

I moved even closer. I could see Ben swinging his giant axe like a madman. I knew he wasn’t really alive, but it was comforting to see a friend. I watched as he caught a man with a rifle in the stomach. He sliced the man in half and just turned to attack another. There was no remorse, no guilt, no feeling in these things. They just attacked like I told them to. It was exhilarating to fight an entire army at once. All I had to do was think of what they should do and they did it.

The fighting continued. I could see Steffanie and Jeff tearing through a group of soldiers who had apparently run out of bullets. They ripped them apart like it was nothing. I could see the dead tearing the living apart limb from limb. I tried to make sure that they didn’t spend time eating any of the living. That would just mean less of them to actually fight.

It was almost funny to watch the soldiers go down after being killed and get up a few moments later and attack their comrades. For every corpse that was killed, another was created from the group of soldiers. I watched as the dead fought their way through the living. They were doing a good job. It was almost scary how much I enjoyed this.

I watched these ancient warriors stab and slice away at the dwindling army of the living. I turned to see Stephanie and Rory watching too. I couldn’t tell what they were thinking. They just stared in horror as the battle went on. Rory stood with his weapon, ready for anything. Stephanie had given up on her rifle. She looked pretty bad. She just leaned against a car and stared into the distance.

I could hear the sound of steel on steel droning out the gunfire. There were fewer and fewer shots fired every second. I blankly surveyed the scene through the smoke. The dead were winning.

ZIM Day 57

2008-03-24T18:20:00.000-05:00

After about twenty minutes of walking, we came to the truck with the bomb. The dead followed me and I had them gather around the truck. There were thousands of them. I must have called all of the dead in the city. All that were left and able to walk stood there in front of me.

“Do you know how to disarm the bomb?”

Rory looked up, “No, I just drive the truck and kill the living dead. Never had Nuclear Bombs 101.”

“Well hopefully we can convince them to stop. You think they’ll trust a guy with two swords and an army of corpses?”

“Yeah, good luck with that one.”

I could see them coming in the distance. I had the dead line up between them and the bomb. I knew that there would be no talking to them. Either we’d stop them or die trying. If the bomb went off, there’d be millions of radioactive dead roaming the country. I wouldn’t even be around to control them. There’d be no chance of saving anybody.

I drew my swords and looked around. Stephanie looked sick, Rory was scared shitless, and Ben, Steffanie, and Jeff stood next to us in silence. It was really funny to see Ben with that giant axe. The dead stayed at attention, waiting for my command. I was surprisingly excited. I wasn’t worried about the impending battle. I wasn’t worried about dying. I was just excited to see what I could do with the dead against the living. I didn’t want to see anybody else die, but we didn’t have much of a choice if they didn’t listen to me.

The living approached, but stopped about forty yards out when they saw that the dead weren’t moving.

I shouted, “We’re alive over here! You can’t set off the bomb! It’ll just make the dead stronger! Go home!”

Nothing happened. They just stood there. An army of living facing an army of dead. The living stood there, armed and ready to fight. Yet no one was moving. I looked over at Rory, he was trembling. Stephanie had her rifle pointed at the living, ready to fire. The dead stood there at full attention.

No one spoke from the other side. I’m sure they didn’t know what to think about an army of corpses with a spokesman. I looked at the other two.

“Ready?”

The dead lifted their weapons and faced the living.

“This is your last chance! Go home! We don’t want to kill anybody!”

I stared in silence at the other side. The living didn’t move. Then a shot rang out. Someone had fired. Then more followed. They were firing into the crowd of dead.

“Attack!”

The dead started moving forward.

ZIM Day 56

2008-03-21T16:46:00.003-05:00

I ran to the edge of the building. I didn’t know if this would work, but I yelled as loud as I could out into the night air. I called all of the dead. I told them to head to the IDS tower. We needed all of the dead that were left. I needed an army to stop the living.

I went back to Rory and Stephanie. “You guys got any ammo left? We’re gonna need everything to stop these guys. I really doubt they’ll just stop if I ask them. Even if I have an army of dead with me.”

Stephanie looked up, “I’ve got about fifty rounds for the sniper rifle left.”

Rory spoke up too, “I have a few clips left for my gun down in the truck.”

“It’ll have to do”

We hurried down the stairs. I was telling the dead the whole time to arm themselves with the weapons from upstairs. We came to the lobby to find Ben, Steffanie, and Jeff milling about with the other dead. Ben had a huge axe in his hands and a huge medieval helmet on his head. Jeff and Steffanie had swords and helmets of their own. The helmets made sense since only a head shot could take them out.

I went out the front door and couldn’t believe my eyes. The dead were picking up the weapons all up and down the street. The others were passing them out as quickly as they could. After just a few minutes they were all armed. They just stood there staring at me. It was a weird sight. An army of dead from the dark ages. I chuckled. I guess I did have the same sense of humor as my other self.

“Rory, lead the way. You know where the bomb is right?”

He looked around at the dead and answered, “Right this way.”

We followed him down the street. It was odd to walk around without worrying about the dead. They were everywhere, but none of them attacked. They just followed any order I gave them. We led them down the street toward the bomb.

I came up beside Stephanie, “I’ll bet you never thought we’d be doing this.”

She laughed, but looked sad, “I still can’t believe were leading an army of the dead. Just make sure you don’t let me turn into one of those things.”

“What?”

She looked over and was crying. She showed me her arm. It was scratched. Nothing too bad, but it wasn’t healing.

She said, “When BW landed on me. He scratched my arm. I can feel it already. I don’t know how much longer I’ve got. Just make sure you shoot me in the head.”

“You’ll be fine, it’s just a scratch.”

She laughed and hoisted the rifle onto her shoulder.

ZIM Day 55

2008-03-18T18:06:00.001-05:00

Stephanie looked up at us, “Lee, you can stop them. You can control them with the swords like he did too, right? You can control the dead. There’s no reason for them to set off a bomb. We’ve gotta get to it as soon as we can.”

“I don’t know how to. Did he do anything special with these things?”

I looked down at them and drew them both at once. I went downstairs to where the dead were waiting. They didn’t do anything, just looked at me. I waved the swords at them, nothing happened.

“Do something!”

They just stood there.

“Sit down!”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. They all dropped to the ground at once.

“Hahaha, stand up!”

They all got up again.

“Hey guys come check this out.”

Stephanie and Rory came downstairs and looked in.

“Wave at Stephanie!”

They all waved in unison. This was great.

“Rory, look around. See if there are any guns or anything. We’ll need whatever we can. I don’t know how much I can do with these things.”

He ran back upstairs. I played around with the swords some more. It was almost fun. Except for the whole dead people thing. I was able to make them do all sorts of stuff. I had one dancing while another was trying to juggle with his rotted arms. I didn’t know if this would work against the ARMY, but it was worth a try.

Rory came running down the stairs a few minutes later, “You guys gotta see this. This guy was planning for a fuckin war.”

We went back upstairs. Rory led us to another room and switched on the light. There were crates upon crates stacked in the giant room. He had one thrown open. It was stuffed to the brim with all sorts of weapons. There weren’t any guns, but tons of swords, axes, knives, armor, and every type of medieval weaponry.

“What the hell was this guy thinking? I guess the dead probably can’t shoot guns very well. Let’s get this stuff downstairs.”

Stephanie looked exhausted, “How the hell are we going to do that? This stuff must weigh a ton.”

“Don’t worry; we’ll have our new friends here carry it for us.”

I shouted at the dead downstairs, “Hey! Start carrying this downstairs.”

They obeyed. They moved like a machine. They created an assembly line of death, moving each of the crates out of the room and down the stairs.

Rory came up while we watched, “I think we have another problem guys. The reinforcements just showed up.”

He handed me a pair of binoculars and I looked off in the distance. They were coming up the river, in long rows of boats. There were others marching alongside the banks of the river. There were thousands of them. The reinforcements had in fact shown up.

ZIM Day 54

2008-03-17T20:36:00.001-05:00

The driver from the military truck and Stephanie helped get my leg patched up. I lost a lot of blood, but was still able to walk. I checked the monitors again and saw the others downstairs. They were dead, but sadly back up and walking around. We were the only living people left in the building.

The guy in the leather jacket looked at me, “Are you Lee?”

I figured he must have heard Stephanie or Chuck say my name earlier.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

He laughed, “I can’t believe you’re still alive. I’m Rory, the guy you were emailing right after all of this started. I was the guy stuck in the Ole Piper Inn south of the city.”

“Holy shit, I figured you ended up one of them. I hadn’t heard from ya in forever. How did you end up in this mess?”

Rory said, “Well, it’s a long story, but I finally ended up getting in touch with my brother from Ft. McCoy. He saved us just in time. Our barricades were trashed and we were surrounded by the dead. We were about to make a run for it and he pulled up in a frickin tank. The dog and I were the only ones to make it inside before the dead tore the others apart.

We tried to find a place to go, but ended up just roaming the streets in the tank to stay away from the dead. Eventually, we ran out of gas. We were surrounded by dead. We made a run for it and I was able to climb up on top of a gas station. The others weren’t so lucky. They tried to barricade themselves in a store across the street, but it didn’t work. The dead got in and attacked them; my brother managed to get away and ran toward my gas station. He was about twenty feet away when I saw that he was bitten. I shot him before he climbed up. Worst thing I ever had to do man.

I was on the run for a few days, mostly sticking to the rooftops when I ran into what was left of the ARMY and National Guard. They were recruiting, so I joined up. It’s kept me alive this long.”

“I’m sorry man. I still can’t believe you made it out. Is there anybody left alive out there? Do you have any way to contact them?”

He shook his head, “The whole group was killed or ran off, I don’t have a radio, but who knows? There may be a way to get in touch with them. There were reinforcements on the way, but I don’t know how far off they were. Oh shit…

He said that he needed the bomb to make these things strong or something right?”

“Yeah, obviously he won’t be doing that now.”

Rory looked nervous, “He won’t, but if the reinforcements get here they will. They think it’s the only way to stop this. They figured out that this all started here and figure that there must be a source or something. There’s another bomb out there in the city and if they get to it, they’ll blow it.”

“Then were all screwed.”

ZIM Day 53

2008-03-14T06:57:00.000-05:00

I went down fast, but was up just as fast. I couldn’t put much weight on my hurt leg. I gripped my sword and stared him down. I could feel the rage building in me as he stood there laughing. I wanted to kill him.

I came at him as fast as I could limp. He jabbed at my face with his blade. I dodged left and swung low on him. I sliced into his leg, but he didn’t seem to notice. I stabbed at him again and missed. I stepped right and just missed being cut in half. He came at me faster now. I couldn’t keep up. He swung again and missed my throat by an inch.

I spun out of the way and cut his arm off. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the one holding the sword. He chuckled and kicked his arm to the side. Then he charged again. I dodged and our swords clashed again. I blocked and countered as fast as I could. He easily blocked it and shoved me to the side.

“I’ve beaten you. You can barely stand up straight. We need to get you fixed up soon or you’ll bleed to death.”

I stumbled back. He was right. I was losing too much blood. I couldn’t stand very well and felt like I was about to pass out. I bumped into a desk. Leaning on I looked at him. He looked overjoyed. I was pissed. I raised my sword to attack, but my arms were weak. I watched in horror as it slipped from my grasp. It clattered to the ground at my feet and I couldn’t help it. I sat down on the chair by the desk. My breathing was rushed. I couldn’t think straight.

He came walking over. He had a torn piece of cloth in his hand.

“Now let’s get you bandaged up before you die. I’ve got shit to do tonight.”

He stood in front of me and reached for my wounded leg.

I looked at him and spoke, “Ya know you’re right. We are the same. I’m just as much of an asshole as you are.”

He looked up and I kicked him in both knees as hard as I could. I could hear his bones crunch inside his legs. He dropped to the ground. I stood up and picked up my sword.

“That’s the shitty thing about being dead. You’re rotting away. And your bones are brittle.”

He looked up at me from the ground and screamed, “It’s not over! I’ll still beat you!”

I swung the sword and sliced clear though his neck. His head dropped to the ground at my feet. Black blood oozed out his neck. I picked up his sword and sat down in the chair. I could feel the blood draining from my leg and started to feel dizzy.

Sitting there, staring out at the rain, I started to laugh. I’d won.

ZIM Day 52

2008-03-12T18:03:00.001-05:00

Our swords hit head on. They clanged into each other and I stepped back and swung low at his legs. He countered and attacked high. I blocked the attack and stepped right. He came right after me though. Our swords met again and again. He stepped back for a second.

“Just give up. We have to do this. If we both die, there will be nobody to control the dead. They’ll just roam forever. There won’t be any living left to save.”

“Fine then, give me the sword. I’ll do it. Anything’s better than a sadistic asshole like you running the world.”

He lunged again. I hit his sword as he came at me, driving him back. I came down hard and swung at him from above. He rolled out of the way and I missed. I turned to my right and stabbed at him. He blocked it and swung at my feet. I just barely jumped over the blade and swung at him again.

“I’m better than you. I always will be. I created you. Now just stop and it’ll all be over.”

“It’s already over. I’m just going to kill you for starting this whole thing. You created the dead, you deserve to join them.”

I sliced at his face, but he ducked just in time. He spun around and I felt his sword slice into my side. The cold steel seemed to burn through my skin. I was stunned for a second, the cut in my side making me wince with pain. I attacked again. Our swords clashed, sparks flew for an instant. I was close enough to see that even his eyes were exactly the same as mine. Just colder.

“I’m going to take your body and set off this bomb. I’ll destroy the city. I’ll destroy the world. I’m going to rebuild the world how I want it, ruled by me and my dead army. We’ll be unstoppable.”

“You haven’t beaten me yet.”

I sliced at him and just barely caught his throat with the tip of my blade. Black blood oozed out down his shirt. He just laughed and lunged again. Our blades met in the middle. He swung again and again. I blocked the attacks left and right. I shoved him back and kicked him in the chest. He tumbled back.

“You see I’m already dead. You can’t stop me. Now stop fighting before you hurt yourself. I don’t want to be walking around with a broken leg or anything after I beat you.”

“I’ll fight you to the death. I’ve got nothing to lose now. Everybody I know is dead or dying. You’re gonna have to kill me to beat me.”

I attacked again with all my strength. I stabbed him in the heart. He didn’t even flinch. I jerked back on the sword, but it was too late. He stabbed me in the leg with a knife and I went down hard. The pain screamed through my body. I hit the ground face first.

I could hear him laughing again.

ZIM Day 51

2008-03-11T21:55:00.000-05:00

The gun clicked. I tried again. Nothing. The fucking gun was empty. What the hell was Osiris thinking? I threw the empty gun at him. He dodged and I charged him. I crashed into his chest and shoved him down. He rolled a few feet and stopped moving.

I could see the others on the screen. They were firing frantically at the now wild dead. I knew they wouldn’t last long down there. I could see Ben blasting away with his giant machine gun. He was tearing through them like crazy, but there were too many. Steffanie was firing into the crowd and just that second fired a grenade. The screen went dark with smoke.

I had to get the swords. I dashed over to the one that Chuck had kicked away. I quickly picked it up and turned back to where my other self went down. He was gone. I searched the room for a sign of him, but didn’t see anything. Where did he go?

I glanced back at the screens. The smoke had cleared and I could see Jeff unloading into a couple of corpses. He was screaming something that didn’t make any sense. Ben and Steffanie were firing too. Jeff ran out of ammo for one of his guns and chucked it at one of the dead. He kept firing with the other and charged into the crowd. I could still hear him screaming as they closed in on him. The others were firing and telling him to stop, but he just disappeared into the crowd. There’s no way he could have survived it.

I had to find him. I glanced around again, but couldn’t see him. I heard him chuckle to my left and turned, but he was gone before I could attack.

“Behind you!” Stephanie yelled.

I turned and he lunged at me with his sword. I dodged and he disappeared back into the shadows. I quickly glanced back at the screen. Steffanie was firing wildly in the chaos. I saw as one of the dead made it through her attacks. The rotting man lunged and his jaw closed down around her neck. I saw blood spurt out as my other self attacked again.

I dodged this time and shoved him to the other side of the room. He tripped and fell. I looked at the screen again to see Ben standing alone, firing into the dead. They inched closer and closer. Then I heard his gun click empty. He started swinging it around like a club. Then something pulled him down from below. The dead piled on top of him in an instant.

“Watch out!” Stephanie yelled this time.”

I looked up to see him standing there right in front of me. He smiled and pointed something at me. It must have been a gun because I heard it fire a second later. I expected to be hit in the chest with a bullet, but it didn’t happen. I was shot with some kind of tranquilizer dart. I quickly pulled it out and threw it to the side. It couldn’t have been in long enough to have any effect.

This time he didn’t run away. He just stood there and drew his sword. I drew mine as well and stared him square in the eye.

He charged at me.

ZIM Day 50

2008-03-10T20:45:00.001-05:00

“You see, I’m not a big fan of being dead. It’s really uncomfortable, actually. My senses are shot. I haven’t smelled the air or tasted anything in weeks. I miss the simple things that the living enjoy. I haven’t eaten anything other than human flesh. I’m starving for real food. I’m dying for a beer. Being dead is getting really damn boring.

I’m going to enjoy being alive again.”

“What makes you think I’ll let you? I’d rather jump off this building before I let you do that.”

Osiris stepped up behind me and put the pistol to the back of my head.

“Oooh I’m soo scared. That’ll just save me the jump. It’s your choice. Shoot me or let me jump, but you won’t get my body anyways.”

“You seem to have forgotten, you were made for this. The only reason I created you was for this. We are the same person. You shouldn’t even be alive. I own that body.”

I took another step toward the edge. He stood his ground, but I could see the fear in his eyes.

“The world’s done what the hell does it matter anyway? I’d rather be dead than help you.”

Osiris still stayed by me as I stepped to the edge of the roof. He started moving closer too. Osiris wasn’t going to do anything. His hand started shaking. He was barely even pointing the gun at me.

“Fine, if I can’t convince you to do it for your own life, how about your friends?”

He gestured to the monitors on the wall. I could see Ben, Jeff, and Steffanie on the screen. They were being held by the dead. They were still armed, but it wasn’t going to do anything to stop them. There were too many.

“All I have to do is give the order and they’ll be dead in seconds. Now, come back from the ledge. This won’t even hurt.”

He came closer. I stood still at the edge of the roof. He was only a few feet away now and I could smell him. He reeked of death.

Only a few feet away, I could see that he really looked just like me. I still couldn’t believe this was happening. Then the unexpected happened. Out of nowhere Chuck came diving at him. He was more or less flying through the air. He kicked my other self square in the jaw. The corpse went down and one of the swords went clattering across the roof. Osiris shot Chuck in the back and he went down in an instant. I turned and grabbed the gun. He held tight, but I was able to aim it away from myself.

We struggled for a moment, but I didn’t give him an inch. I kicked him in the knee, dropping him to the rooftop. I yanked the gun free of his hands and shot him square in the face twice. I turned to see my other self rising to his feet again. He still had one sword.

I glanced around. Chuck must be dead. Stephanie was sitting down with a dazed look on her face. Osiris was dead. I raised the side arm and aimed it right between the dead me’s eyes. I pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

ZIM Day 49

2008-03-06T20:33:00.000-06:00

BW was gone, Chuck was either dead or close, and Stephanie looked to be hurt. The door burst open again. This time more rotting corpses came in carrying a box. They also brought the driver in. I recognized him from my weird dream. He was the same guy from before with the leather jacket and sunglasses.

They carried the box in and set it at our feet. They threw the driver to the ground and he laid there unmoving.

“Well, I’ve had enough fun. How about we get down to business.”

“What do you want? You already have the sword. There’s nothing to stop you.”

“Well, you see there is a problem with this army of dead that I’ve created. They are pretty easy to kill. Plus they have that whole rotting away thing. Even if I do control them, it won’t be very long before they just fall apart. Luckily, there’s a way to get the nanomachines to keep them around a bit longer. Unfortunately, that involves destroying a lot of them. You see, if the robots inside the dead are exposed to radiation they can reach their full potential.

The machines, when radioactive, make the dead unstoppable. They transform from the dead you see here to monsters you couldn’t even imagine. There would be no stopping me. I could control the world. All I have to do is expose them and I’ll be unstoppable.

Inside this box is the government’s feeble attempt at stopping me. Too bad they didn’t realize what it would really do. They really thought that they could nuke their problems away. Quite an idea, but I planned for that. I will set this bomb off myself and rebuild the world my way.”

“You’re insane. You’ll kill yourself doing it. What’s the point?”

“Luckily, they were also nice enough to bring me a helicopter to get away just in time. I’ll be long gone before it goes off. I’ll be on my way with my army of the dead to set off the next bomb. I’ll keep going until the world is almost completely overrun with the new and improved dead. Then, I’ll start again. I’ll allow the living to rebuild their world. I’ll let them rebuild it in my image.”

“They’ll never follow you. They’ll fight till the end. What does it matter anyways? You’ll still be just another fucking corpse.”

“Actually, that’s where you come in. I still need a living body.”

ZIM Day 48

2008-03-05T18:16:00.001-06:00

I didn’t know what was going on, but just then, the door to the roof burst open. BW, Chuck, and Stephanie were shoved into the room by their rotting captives. They stumbled in looking completely confused. They stood there staring in awe at me and my dead self.

BW yelled, “What the hell is going on? Why didn’t those things kill us? Who the fuck is this guy?”

My dead self looked right at him, “We’ve got a few minutes before they get upstairs. Why don’t we have some fun, Osiris.”

Osiris laughed, “My pleasure.”

He quickly drew a gun from under his coat and shot BW square in the back. BW went down in an instant. He was dead before he hit the ground.

“Just watch.”

“What?”

BW slowly got back up off the ground. He stood there with the same blank expression as the rest of the dead. Drool dripped down his shirt and he just stared at us. He was one of the dead now. Chuck stepped forward, ready to attack Osiris.

“You see, I can control everything they do. I barely even have to try. They just do whatever I tell them to. Now. Kill him.”

BW lunged at Chuck. He missed by only inches as Chuck dodged to the left. He dove to the ground and rolled out of BW’s reach. The dead BW simply got up and tried again. This time he came closer, but still missed.

“Now watch, I can do more than this. I can control his every movement.”

BW stopped lunging clumsily and steadied himself. He raised his fists and crouched in a fighting stance. He stepped left and then back right, landing a quick punch on Chuck’s face. Chuck recoiled, but countered with two punches to BW’s stomach. BW was just as agile as he was when he was alive.

“They are much faster when they are fresh. He can fight as if he was still alive.”

BW kicked and missed Chuck, but landed another punch to the face. They fought back and forth across the room. Chuck versus the dead BW. Chuck would attack and BW would counter perfectly. I couldn’t believe that a dead man could fight like that. BW stopped again.

“Well, I’m bored. Let’s have a little more fun with this.”

BW reached down and pulled a knife out of his boot. He lunged at Chuck with the knife, stabbing him in the stomach. Chuck almost fell, but caught himself on BW’s coat. With his last bit of strength, he kicked BW in the face and threw him across the room. For a moment, Chuck stood there clutching his wound. Then he charged at BW, kicking him again and grabbing him by the neck. Chuck swung him around and threw him across the room.

BW crashed into Stephanie and she fought to get him off of her. Chuck came up again and kicked BW to the ground. BW attacked again, almost stabbing Chuck. They traded blows and Chuck kicked him in the face again. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but Chuck flipped. He charged BW. I thought they were both going to go off the roof at once, but at the last second Chuck caught the edge and sent BW falling to the ground.

BW went off the side of the building in what seemed like slow motion. Chuck tried to get up, but collapsed to the ground. The dead version of me was sadistically applauding.

ZIM Day 47

2008-03-03T19:50:00.001-06:00

The dead outside stopped attacking the troops in unison. They just stood there, completely still. The monsters stopped and waited for something. They waited for instruction. I knew he was controlling them. Somehow they all seemed to work as one. Almost as if they were just smaller parts of a much bigger organism.

Then the attacked as one. Wave after wave of the dead charged at the living. It was the most organized army in the world. Every soldier was a part of the same consciousness. He had complete control over the masses. He drove them into the middle of the living troops. They tore through the lines. The dead didn’t act as they had before. Before, they were just individual creatures, each with its own goal. The dead used to hunger for the living, but now they just killed. There was no need to feed. They were under his control now.

The corpses were mowed down by bullets. One right after another, they would fall to the ground. But they were almost instantly replaced by another. For every living person that was killed, at least five of the dead were gunned down, but it wasn’t enough. The dead severely outnumbered the living. It was only a matter of minutes before it became hopeless.

The whole scene was a mess. What had once been a battlefield quickly became a graveyard. Most of the soldiers who were still alive scattered across the city. They ran for their lives. There was barely anything left. The dead chased them out of sight.

I noticed that the dead seemed to be congregating around something. They were all just standing around one of the black vehicles that I saw earlier. The dead just stood there staring at it. The rest of the living were gone now. The only thing that remained was this one vehicle. The others were either on fire or destroyed. There was no more gunfire. There were no more screams, just the silence of the dead.

One of the dead stood next to the driver side window and pointed forward. He pointed for the truck to head in our direction. The dead parted in the street and allowed the truck to move forward through the crowd. It was very slow, but obviously there was someone still alive enough to drive the thing.

It inched its way down the street. The dead would only give it enough room to move ahead a few feet at a time. I can’t even imagine what the driver was thinking. I watched as it made its way all the up to the IDS tower and stopped in the road. The door opened and the dead grabbed the man who stepped out. They opened the back end and pulled out a big crate. I had no idea what was inside.

“What the hell are you doing?”

The other me said, “You’ll see soon enough.”

ZIM Day 46

2008-02-28T20:06:00.001-06:00

“Who, who are you?”

He smiled as he looked me up and down, “I knew that they would kill me as soon as they knew that it wouldn’t work. So I created something else. Something much better than some pesky robots. I created you. You are essentially me before everything happened. You are something of a clone I guess, but more than that. You are me and I am you. You have no recollection of anything related to the project. That was the idea, you couldn’t know. I always knew there was more potential behind the machines I created than they thought. You are part me and part the machines. Everything you knew didn’t exist.

I need you to control them. Well, I had to be more careful than that. I came up with an ingenious way to control the dead. They would never be able figure it out. His sword, please.”

Osiris pulled the sword from my belt. He tossed it across the room and the man caught it. I just stared in disbelief. I couldn’t really do anything with the gun pressed against my neck.

He started to talk again, “I created the machines so that only I, or you, or us, I guess, could control them. I made sure that they couldn’t get to you though. We needed the sword to completely control them. Actually there are two of them.”

He pulled out a matching sword and held them together. “We needed both to really control it. I didn’t expect it to take so long, but then the whole plan went to hell. Osiris here wasn’t supposed to spread the outbreak so fast. But what can ya do?”

“Why me? Why didn’t you just use the swords?”

He laughed, “Do you think I like being dead? Do you think I like watching my fucking body rot away? I needed you. I needed a living body to continue my work. I am you. And you are me. The whole reason you were created was so I could do this.”

“Do what? What the hell are you going to do? Everybody’s dead. What the hell does it matter anymore?”

He looked down quietly, “Not everyone. Yeah, the outbreak has reached most of the world, but there are still survivors. There will always be survivors. Just think, if someone had the power to control the dead, to stop this, wouldn’t he be a hero? Wouldn’t he be able to save the world? And if you can save the world, you can control it. With the dead, I can save this world, or I can destroy it. Don’t you see the possibilities? I could rebuild it however I wanted. I can control it.”

“You’re insane, don’t you see what you did? You kill most of the world, but then expect to control it. What’s the point? I’ll never help you to do this.”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure I am insane. That’s the fun part. The question isn’t whether or not you’ll help me, but how hard you fight it. Let me ask you a question. Would you rather do this the easy way or the hard way? Oh, and, how do you feel about watching your friends die?”

Osiris shoved me forward. He pulled at his beard and hair, removing a wig. It was the man from my visions, the man in the black suit. They showed me to a monitor. It was full of smaller views of the building. The dead were holding the others in the lobby. They were ready to kill them, but didn’t. My other half was controlling the dead.

“Fuck”

ZIM Day 45

2008-02-27T16:40:00.000-06:00

He opened the door. We stepped into a small enclosure on the roof. It was pouring now, but we were dry inside. Osiris looked at me and started to talk.

“This is it; this is where he’s been since it all started. He’s been waiting. He figured out how to make it all work for them. He created this, but it didn’t go exactly as planned. He created a new type of nanotechnology that could make the average person stronger, faster, and smarter. The problem was that it didn’t work right.

They were expecting to be able to create soldiers that could be controlled as one. There wouldn’t be a question of judgment anymore. Someone could sit back from a safe, comfortable desk and control everything. To the government, this seemed like a great idea. They could actually take the individual out of the battle. There would never be confusion again; no more wasted time on communications. One person could control it all.

They realized that the great soldiers of our time weren’t the men on the battlefield. The men on the ground weren’t effective. They couldn’t see the big picture. They could win the battle, but not the war. They decided that the best soldiers were the ones sitting behind computers. In a world of video games and computer nerds it wasn’t very surprising. They saw this as an opportunity. The great military leaders weren’t war torn veterans anymore; they were guys who spent all day behind a monitor.

They were working to make this happen, but he didn’t see it the same way. He made sure it wouldn’t work. They tested it over and over again. They put the machines into men and women and tried to make it work. The soldiers couldn’t be controlled; it didn’t even have any effect on them. They were still normal. The higher ups were infuriated. They couldn’t understand why it didn’t work.

He was fired and I was told to continue my work. I didn’t know why. I wasn’t even working on the same project. My job was to figure out how to transmit the machines through the air. They had realized long before that the best way to use this wasn’t to put them into our own soldiers. The idea was to get them into the enemy and control them. There would never be a need for US troops to enter another country again. We could just use their own people against them.

They executed the test subjects after he was fired. The next morning, they found the base overrun. He had built the machines only to work after the living person died. The problem was that no one could control them. They lost all reasoning ability after death and became the monsters you see outside. He did, however, come up with a way to control them.”

“How do you know all of this? I thought you weren’t sure what happened. How the hell did it get out? Why is everybody dead?”

I didn’t know what to think. Nothing made sense anymore. I looked and saw someone standing in front of me in the shadows. Then I felt the cold steel of a hand gun press into my neck.

Osiris said, “Because I was the one who released it.”

Then a voice came from the man standing in front of me, “And I’m the one who started it all.”

He stepped out of the shadows. I gasped. Except for the rotting flesh hanging off of his bones, he looked exactly like me.

ZIM Day 44

2008-02-25T20:36:00.001-06:00

The elevator abruptly stopped at the top floor of the IDS building. The music ended and the doors opened with the familiar “ding”. The entire floor was one big room. It was empty except for three long rows of large black boxes. I could see that it was raining outside. Pouring in fact. There was no sound in the room except the nervous breathing of the group. BW, Chuck, Stephanie, and I stepped out into the empty room.

As I stepped into the room, an alarm sounded. I was confused by the blaring siren, and to my horror, realized what the boxes were for. They all sprung open at once. Fresh corpses began to crawl out of the boxes. The monsters quickly saw us and came right at the group. They were fresh, almost as if they had just died, and were much faster than the others outside. There had to be at least fifty of them in the room, probably more.

Gunfire erupted as they stumbled towards us. We started killing them as fast as we could. The bullets were whizzing through the air. They kept getting closer even though we were blasting our way through. I was slicing through their skulls with my sword with ease, but I could see right away that there were too many of them. BW was taking them out with his guns like it was nothing. Chuck had his blades and was carving them to bits. Stephanie was blowing them away faster than I could count.

Then a few of them got close enough to bite. I dodged out of the way and shoved Stephanie in BW’s direction. He caught her and pulled her out of the way. There were too many of them at once. I was surrounded by myself. I could see the others across the room fighting the dead, but couldn’t get to them. A ghoul grabbed me and I turned, slicing through its neck before it could bite down. There must have been more boxes than I though because they kept coming.

The others were surrounded. I was fighting my way through as fast as I could, but kept getting tripped up by the hungry dead. It seemed like the room was full of them. There was nowhere to go. I cut another one down and blew another’s rotting brains out. Then another grabbed me and I kicked his skull in. I was confused, but kept fighting. I had no idea where the others were now. I managed to fight myself to the far wall, but there were always more and more of them.

I slashed through one and then another and then another. There was blood and gore everywhere. I could smell it all around me, the smell of death was overwhelming. I kicked ones head in and shot another one when something grabbed me from behind. I turned; ready to cut its head off when I realized it was Osiris. He pulled my arm and just before another one was on us, he pulled me into an open doorway. I didn’t even know the door was there.

He slammed the door shut and locked it behind us. We were in a dark stairway. Thankfully, there were no dead in here. We quickly ran up the stairs to another doorway.

He looked at me, “You still have the key, right?”

“Yeah, here”

I handed it to him and he snatched out of my hand.

He looked scared, “This is it Lee. We can stop all of this. The end is just on the other side of this door. Are you ready?”

ZIM Day 43

2008-02-22T20:18:00.000-06:00

I watched from above as the soldiers fired mortars into the city. They slowly moved along to the west through downtown. They were blasting the city apart. The smoke filled the sky and covered Minneapolis in a haze. The living moved slowly through the streets. They didn’t even know what they were firing at, but kept doing it.

They were getting closer every minute, pushing through the wreckage that used to be Minneapolis. They were getting closer to the dead with each step. The tanks led the way like before. The smaller vehicles and men on foot followed closely behind. They stayed close together, never letting anyone fall behind.

The soldiers great plan was about to be ruined. The dead were moving closer and closer to them. They were surrounding them on all sides. Didn’t they know they would be outnumbered? They were almost to the center of downtown when the attack started. The dead moved as one giant mass, pushing and clawing their way toward the living. The soldiers started firing. They kept together and held the dead off.

Too bad the dead never stop. They never get tired or scared or bored. They are like machines, machines designed only to kill. They kill and never stop killing. The mass crowds the living. They surround them on all sides. The living keep fighting and pushing forward, but they are being overrun.

The battle continues on as the sky darkens. The living are keeping up, but it won’t be long until they are all eaten. The lines start to waver and the men grow tired. The dead never get tired. They just keep piling up.

Finally, one gets through. Then another and another follow. They tear through the lines, the living panic. They keep fighting, but it quickly goes from being an army of soldiers to a gang of barbarians. They are fighting for their lives. There is no plan anymore. Each man and woman is fighting just to stay alive. They start to break up. Some of them run, while others try to group together and fight. The tanks keep pushing forward though.

They are getting closer and closer even though they are dying faster than they can walk. There are still hundreds of living fighting their way through. The battle rages on. It’s almost completely dark and starting to rain. I watch the battle for a little longer until I hear a familiar beeping.

I reach into my pocket and pull out a cell phone. I casually flip it open and read the text.

“They are here.”

ZIM Day 42

2008-02-20T21:14:00.000-06:00

I had no idea where I was, but I crashed into something cold and hard in the smoke. My head started to clear and I realized I was lying on the ground. The smoke drifted away some and I wondered why I wasn’t dead. I could see again and looked around. It was Stephanie who grabbed me while I was blind. Everyone was dazed from the blast. We must have all landed in the same area. I helped her to her feet and we got the others up. Surprisingly nobody was dead.

Then I realized that we had crashed into the IDS tower. We were actually here. BW picked Steffanie up and Chuck helped Ben to his feet. Ben looked pretty bad. He could barely walk on his own. Osiris seemed fine despite what we just went through. Jeff was in bad shape. He had hit his head pretty bad and was bleeding. It must have been a concussion because you couldn’t understand a word he was saying. He just kept spouting off gibberish every time we asked him if he was alright.

Osiris pushed past me and said, “This way.”

He hurried to the door and started digging around in his pack. The strange man pulled out the key card from the Carlyle building and swiped in the mechanism next to the door. It slid open easily and he went inside. He leaned out the door and motioned for us to follow. I pulled Jeff along while the others dragged themselves inside.

The main area was empty. There weren’t any dead in sight and it was actually quiet inside. Osiris told us to be quiet and led us through the lobby. We walked past the deserted shops and restaurants. The whole place gave off an eerie vibe. It was so quiet we could hear our footsteps. I could feel the blood pounding in my temples as we made our way through the empty room. The strangest thing was that all of the lights were on and there were no signs of the outbreak anywhere. Unlike the other buildings I’d been in, there was no blood or bodies on the ground. The place seemed like it was just closed for the evening.

We got to the elevator and Ben sat down, “Guys, I can’t go any further. I’ve gotta stay here and rest for awhile.”

“Were almost there buddy. Pretty soon this will all be over.”

Ben answered, “It’s alright man, I’ll just hang here and wait for you guys. I won’t be much help up there anyways. I can stay here and watch the door.”

Steffanie looked up and said, “I think I’ve gotta do the same. I pretty beaten up too.”

Jeff just grinned at me, “I watch tacos too. Fuck post office. Pickle. Mustang in a bucket.”

“What the..? Maybe it’s best you guys stay. Keep him out of trouble.”

Ben laughed, “I’ll call you on the radio if we see anything come in. Then I’ll blast the shit out of it.”

Before we went up, I looked outside. It was just starting to get dark outside. It looked like it was going to rain soon. The city was full of smoke and I could see the blasts in the streets.

Osiris, BW, Chuck, Stephanie, and I said goodbye then got into the elevator. Osiris swiped the card again and the doors shut. We started to rise just as that creepy elevator music started to play. It was almost funny.

ZIM Day 41

2008-02-19T19:33:00.000-06:00

Osiris looked frightened, “We have to get to the IDS tower now. We’re gonna get killed out here.”

Everybody agreed. The explosions were all around us. There was no hiding from them. We were only a few blocks from the tower. It was going to be hell getting there through the blasts, but I guess we didn’t have any other choice. We readied our weapons and took off down Hennepin Avenue.

I was at the front of the group. There weren’t many dead around and the few that were left weren’t in good enough shape to walk. The smoke from the bombs made it hard to see where we were going. Every few seconds another one would hit close by. We ran down the middle of the street to stay out of the way of any stray ghouls hiding among the buildings. The abandoned cars and debris made it a pain to run, but we kept going.

Osiris ran up next to me and yelled something in my ear just as an explosion hit to my left. I didn’t hear a word of it, but he looked scared. I turned back to see the others following as fast as they could. Ben looked to be limping for a second, but then was blocked from my vision by another plume of smoke. He kept running past the blast and pushed someone else along.

We made a couple of blocks when Steffanie tripped over something. She fell face down onto the street. I turned back to help her, but was shocked to see BW pick her up and throw her over his shoulders. I think it was the first nice thing I’d seen him do. The group pushed on. The mortars seemed to be hitting closer. They were coming from the east and weren’t stopping. I couldn’t understand why they were shooting at us; there weren’t even any dead around.

After another block, I looked to the east to see that they weren’t just landing near us. There were plumes of smoke rising from the ground and buildings for blocks. The city was being destroyed. I didn’t know who was doing it, but I figured it must have been the same people from my dream. They were attacking downtown and we were caught in the middle of it.

“They’re bombing the city, why don’t we just run away. Let them deal with the dead.”

Osiris looked back at me and said, “We have to do this, it’s the only way to stop it. They can bomb the whole country and wouldn’t be able to stop it.”

We were only a block away from the IDS tower. The bombing was getting faster and louder. I kept running though. Some of the others were right next to me now. I knew we were close even though I could barely see through the smoke. I turned to make sure every one was keeping up. They were right behind me now. When I looked back ahead, a blast went off right in front of me.

I couldn’t see anything. Everything went white and I was deaf. It felt like I was spinning and falling and floating all at once. The world was just an empty white room. I couldn’t hear anything. I caught my foot on something and almost fell. I tried to balance myself, but could barely tell which way was up. Nothing made sense.

Then I felt something. Something ran into me, its hands grabbing at me in the blinding light. I tried to fight it off, but it wouldn’t let go. I knew that at any second I’d feel teeth tearing into me. The whole world was spinning and I knew I was about to die.

ZIM Day 40

2008-02-13T18:41:00.000-06:00

I blinked and was back in the surplus store basement. Everyone was looking at me with confusion. I felt like I’d been gone for hours, but it must have only been a split second. The group just continued talking like normal once I sheathed the blade and attached it to my belt. I grabbed a couple of handguns and threw as much ammo into my bag. We were planning our next move when there was a crash upstairs. It sounded like breaking glass and there was a scream. The other stripper wasn’t with us in the basement.

We hurried up the stairs as fast as possible to see what was going on. At first it looked like there was nothing wrong, except that the girl was nowhere in sight. She must have gone out the front door because it was wide open. There were bloody footprints leading away from the building. The few dead outside were milling about the streets. I turned the corner to see her limping away. There were four or five corpses heading in her direction.

The group ran in her direction. I shot one of them and somebody shot another. One of the dead lunged and was on her a second later. Stephanie took its head off with the sniper rifle. We were almost there when I saw another one grab her from behind. What used to be a man dragged her to the ground and clawed at her back. Its head was taken off a second later.

I reached her first and pulled the body off of her. She was face down whimpering. I could see already that she wouldn’t last long. The girl went limp and I rolled her over. She was dead. A second later, she started clawing wildly at my legs. I reached for my weapon, but stumbled backward over a broken street sign. She caught my leg with her left hand and sent me tumbling to the ground. The dead girl crawled over and got ready to sink her teeth into my arm.

I froze. I didn’t grab my gun or blade. I just watched as she reached for me with her gaping jaws. I struggled to get the sword out. Then she stopped. She just sat there staring at me with her lifeless eyes. A moment later, her head exploded. Stephanie must have sniped her.

I just sat there on the concrete, not knowing what to do next. Why didn’t she kill me? The others ran up to make sure I was ok. I assured them that I was totally fine. I got to my feet and brushed myself off. A few of the dead were heading in our direction and we took them out quickly. I was just about to ask the others what we were going to do next when I heard a weird noise.

There was an odd whistling noise, then an explosion in the building to my right. Then another about a block down the street. Then another and another. The place was being hit with these strange bombs like crazy. We didn’t stick around long. They were crashing all around us now. We ran down the street and turned into an alley for cover. The explosions continued.

“What the hell was that?”

BW just looked and me and said, “Mortar fire.”

ZIM Day 39

2008-01-31T19:13:00.001-06:00

The dead kept coming and coming. The never ending swarm moved in on the troops without remorse. The living were fighting a losing battle against the dead. The entire scene was one of chaos. There were people swinging their rifles at the heads of corpses, then one would get them and about five more would climb on top to get to the living person. They would eat until another person got close enough, then they would go after him. The men would see one of their comrades go down and then watch in fear as he got back up to join the dead.

The dead were being replaced by the recently fallen soldiers almost as fast as they were clambering out of the smoking buildings. The tanks kept firing into the crowd, killing the living and the dead at the same time. I could see them running over the walking corpses through the billowing smoke. The soldiers threw grenades and Molotov Cocktails into the crowd of dead. The ones that caught on fire would stumble out after the living. Half of the time, they would just catch more of the corpses on fire. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to see ten burning ghouls heading in your direction.

The tanks started to form a crude line along the north lane of Franklin Avenue. They all started heading east in close formation through the fire, smoke, and flesh. They easily broke through the mess. The vehicles rumbled along, most of them covered with corpses clinging to the sides, toward highway 35W.

More soldiers came from the middle and back of the battalion. They were more organized and weren’t caught up in the panic of the battle. They fired into the crowd, killing both living and dead. There was no way to tell which were which any more. These fresh soldiers formed a tight line behind the tanks, keeping the dead from the rest of the group. They fired without question, each one a head shot. The moving line kept up with the tanks and allowed the entire group to either move along with the tanks or join the line. They stayed solid and switched out perfectly when they needed to reload.

The dead would occasionally get through, but would be quickly killed without remorse. The line would be reformed where someone would fall. Most of the soldiers that were left made their way behind the moving line of tanks and kept the dead away. They slowly moved along the road. After everyone who was still alive made it along side the tanks, they pulled the last few behind the group to form an almost solid wall of moving metal. The living were still firing among the tanks to keep the dead back.

After about an hour, they made their way to the Franklin Avenue Bridge that crosses over 35W. Once everyone was across, the tanks fired their guns and took it out. The dead poured out onto 35W from the other side, but couldn’t get back up the other side.

After another block, they stopped for a few minutes. The soldiers regrouped in the intersection. There were no dead around and it was quiet for a few minutes. I could see them congregate around the two big black vehicles that somehow made it through. Almost all of the other vehicles were lost in the mess. The tanks were the only ones that could push through. About one third of the huge group was lost in the battle. I could still see some of them fighting the dead back where it started. They didn’t last long.

The tanks were brought to the front of the remaining group. The men lined up once again, ready for battle. They organized faster than I would have expected. These people were broken from the fight, but not quite beaten. I watched in amazement as they continued north along Portland Avenue, directly into downtown. Where of course, there were plenty more dead waiting.