The air smelled of damp leaves and grass. The park was almost empty of kids since most of them were getting ready to go trick or treating. It really was the perfect time of year in Arizona, when the leaves were turning colors and people were putting jack o' lanterns outside of their houses. It wasn't the dead heat of the summer and it was just warm enough for a picnic, unlike the winter. They said that love was in the air in spring, but I believe that fall was the true season of love.
My heart was beating fast and I was chewing on my thumb nail. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket to check the time. Four o' clock, on the dot. Kat should be here. While I was checking again that I had everything set out, sandwiches, lemonade, fresh fruit salad, I felt a tap on my back. "Ah!" I yelled out, startled.
Oh, it was her. I immediately felt the knot untie in my stomach upon the sight of her. She looked stunning. She had on black and white striped tube top with a black tutu skirt and red flats. Her dark brown hair fell over her shoulders and framed her delicate face. She had her usual ten pounds of eyeliner on. She wore the Hello Kitty locket that I had bought her on her birthday.
Her brow furrowed. Why? Was she upset at me? Oh, yeah, I hadn't said anything yet, just stared. "Hey, Kitty!" I smiled and pulled her toward me in a warm embrace. I gave her a peck on her cheek and she smiled at me.
"You look so beautiful." She replied, with a smile on her face.
I looked down at my ripped up denim skirt, combat boots, and black button down. I laughed. "I could never look half as beautiful as you do. No one and nothing could."
She blushed, her cheeks turning the color of roses. That reminded me. I grabbed her rose from the picnic basket.
"For you." I said, handing her the delicate red thing.
"For me?" She replied, surprised.
She took it in her hands and held it to her heart. She was always so adorable.
"So, I have everything set up for a nice Halloween picnic. Then we can go chill at my house and watch some scary movies. Sound good?"
She paused for a moment, contemplating. God, there must be something wrong. I must've done something bad and now I'd ruined the night. As if she could read my mind she took my hand and said, "You worry too much. I love the idea, but I have a better one."
Dumbstruck, I made a motion for her to elaborate.
"How about," she paused for dramatic effect "we go to the cemetery and have our picnic!"
I thought about it for less than a minute, and I was packing up the picnic basket. We went over to our bikes and decided we'd take the route by the supermarket and the mall as to avoid running into trick-or-treaters. The sun was just starting to set and we would be able to make it there before it got too dark.
When we were about halfway to the cemetery, I noticed that the moon looked different that night. Almost... blue. I took its beautiful hue as a sign of good things to come. I wish now that I had listened to the small voice in my head that had whispered "Run."
I leaned my bike up against the cemetery's ornate fence and chained it up. The gate was open, unlike most nights, so we didn't have to have to hop the fence. The cemetery was huge; almost everyone in town had been buried there since the town was founded. Naturally, there were a few groups of teens out looking for a good Halloween scare or trying to find out if some old legends about the cemetery would come true on that night.
We found a nice spot under a willow tree to lay out our picnic. I took out a small flashlight that I had brought with and propped it against the tree. I set out the picnic blanket and food and pulled out two plastic skull goblets I had bought at a party store. I poured her and myself some lemonade and did a toast. “To undying love.” I smiled and we clinked our goblets together.
We cuddled and kissed and talked and laughed for hours in that cemetery. We told each other ghost stories and chased each other through the graves. We hid from the groundskeeper and made ghost noises to scare the other teenagers in the graveyard. It was the type of night we expected to have several more of in the future.
It was about midnight when we heard the first screams. At first we didn’t think much of it, just someone scaring their friend with a prank. But then there were more and more, from all around us. Then there they were, in front of us, behind us, sprouting up from the ground like ghastly flowers. They were corpses… reanimated… corpses. Zombies. This was what me and my friends had joked about and even glorified for years. The zombie apocalypse.
My first instinct was to fight, protect Kat, but how? I looked around for anything I could use as a weapon. All we had were a few plastic butter knives and those certainly wouldn’t do. Suddenly there was something long and reflective flying towards me. I grabbed it and some blood spilled from my hands. A long knife- no, sword, like you see in the ninja movies. I looked from the direction it had come, and the groundskeeper winked at me then continued to behead the undead. I’d heard he was crazy. I guess they said that because he was planning for this all along. I kissed Kat, and pushed her behind me as gently as possible. Then I charged into what would almost certainly be the end of me.
I knew from the movies that I had to cut their heads off. I went at as many of them as I possibly could but they were closing in on me. Hopefully they hadn’t gotten to Kat yet. I swished around and frantically swung the sword. I whispered a silent prayer just in case anyone was listening. Blood and guts splattered all over me. I looked into the eyes of a few of the zombies, but all I could see was hunger. These weren’t people anymore, they were monsters. As dead as they head been a few moments ago.
I heard a scream from behind me, a scream that came from a voice that I would no anywhere, and my heart dropped to my stomach. I felt like I was going to faint, to die on the spot. No, I couldn’t. I had to go to her, to stop this from happening.
I ran to the tree where we had spent our night and fought off the zombie that was biting at her. There she was, unconscious, almost peaceful on the picnic blanket where she lye. On her arm, I could see, there was a huge gash with what looked like bite marks. She couldn’t become one of those things, I wouldn’t let it happen. I did the only thing I could think of: I cut off the entire arm of my beloved. Hopefully that would stop the poison- or whatever it was- from reaching her brain. She didn’t even flinch. Maybe she was already dead. That would at least be better than her coming back as one of those. I waited with her for what seemed like an eternity, killing off the few zombies that made it our way. Most of them would be on their way to town by now.
Even with my efforts, eventually, she opened her eyes. At first I thought maybe, just maybe, it was her. But no, those eyes had none of the light of my darling’s. They were too milky, too…. dead. She rose but I stayed down on my knees, tears streaming down my face. She moved toward me, but somewhere, on her way, our eyes met. And there was something, I was sure, something other than hunger, other than death. Her eyes met mine and there was… recognition, and for a moment, love, I was sure of it. Mid-way through going for my flesh, she turned the other way. Even in death she would not harm me. “To undying love.” Maybe she remembered.
She was stumbling away, in the way that the undead do, when it occurred to me that I couldn’t let her go. I couldn’t let her destroy the loved ones of others. I certainly couldn’t let this…. disease, or whatever it was, dishonor her body, dishonor her. I snuck up behind the corpse, and as gently as possible, beheaded her. She fell to the ground and so did I. Now for the grand finale. There was no way I would survive much longer in this post-apocalyptic wasteland anyways. I plunged the sword through my half-dead heart and went to join my beloved in the afterlife.
My heart was beating fast and I was chewing on my thumb nail. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket to check the time. Four o' clock, on the dot. Kat should be here. While I was checking again that I had everything set out, sandwiches, lemonade, fresh fruit salad, I felt a tap on my back. "Ah!" I yelled out, startled.
Oh, it was her. I immediately felt the knot untie in my stomach upon the sight of her. She looked stunning. She had on black and white striped tube top with a black tutu skirt and red flats. Her dark brown hair fell over her shoulders and framed her delicate face. She had her usual ten pounds of eyeliner on. She wore the Hello Kitty locket that I had bought her on her birthday.
Her brow furrowed. Why? Was she upset at me? Oh, yeah, I hadn't said anything yet, just stared. "Hey, Kitty!" I smiled and pulled her toward me in a warm embrace. I gave her a peck on her cheek and she smiled at me.
"You look so beautiful." She replied, with a smile on her face.
I looked down at my ripped up denim skirt, combat boots, and black button down. I laughed. "I could never look half as beautiful as you do. No one and nothing could."
She blushed, her cheeks turning the color of roses. That reminded me. I grabbed her rose from the picnic basket.
"For you." I said, handing her the delicate red thing.
"For me?" She replied, surprised.
She took it in her hands and held it to her heart. She was always so adorable.
"So, I have everything set up for a nice Halloween picnic. Then we can go chill at my house and watch some scary movies. Sound good?"
She paused for a moment, contemplating. God, there must be something wrong. I must've done something bad and now I'd ruined the night. As if she could read my mind she took my hand and said, "You worry too much. I love the idea, but I have a better one."
Dumbstruck, I made a motion for her to elaborate.
"How about," she paused for dramatic effect "we go to the cemetery and have our picnic!"
I thought about it for less than a minute, and I was packing up the picnic basket. We went over to our bikes and decided we'd take the route by the supermarket and the mall as to avoid running into trick-or-treaters. The sun was just starting to set and we would be able to make it there before it got too dark.
When we were about halfway to the cemetery, I noticed that the moon looked different that night. Almost... blue. I took its beautiful hue as a sign of good things to come. I wish now that I had listened to the small voice in my head that had whispered "Run."
I leaned my bike up against the cemetery's ornate fence and chained it up. The gate was open, unlike most nights, so we didn't have to have to hop the fence. The cemetery was huge; almost everyone in town had been buried there since the town was founded. Naturally, there were a few groups of teens out looking for a good Halloween scare or trying to find out if some old legends about the cemetery would come true on that night.
We found a nice spot under a willow tree to lay out our picnic. I took out a small flashlight that I had brought with and propped it against the tree. I set out the picnic blanket and food and pulled out two plastic skull goblets I had bought at a party store. I poured her and myself some lemonade and did a toast. “To undying love.” I smiled and we clinked our goblets together.
We cuddled and kissed and talked and laughed for hours in that cemetery. We told each other ghost stories and chased each other through the graves. We hid from the groundskeeper and made ghost noises to scare the other teenagers in the graveyard. It was the type of night we expected to have several more of in the future.
It was about midnight when we heard the first screams. At first we didn’t think much of it, just someone scaring their friend with a prank. But then there were more and more, from all around us. Then there they were, in front of us, behind us, sprouting up from the ground like ghastly flowers. They were corpses… reanimated… corpses. Zombies. This was what me and my friends had joked about and even glorified for years. The zombie apocalypse.
My first instinct was to fight, protect Kat, but how? I looked around for anything I could use as a weapon. All we had were a few plastic butter knives and those certainly wouldn’t do. Suddenly there was something long and reflective flying towards me. I grabbed it and some blood spilled from my hands. A long knife- no, sword, like you see in the ninja movies. I looked from the direction it had come, and the groundskeeper winked at me then continued to behead the undead. I’d heard he was crazy. I guess they said that because he was planning for this all along. I kissed Kat, and pushed her behind me as gently as possible. Then I charged into what would almost certainly be the end of me.
I knew from the movies that I had to cut their heads off. I went at as many of them as I possibly could but they were closing in on me. Hopefully they hadn’t gotten to Kat yet. I swished around and frantically swung the sword. I whispered a silent prayer just in case anyone was listening. Blood and guts splattered all over me. I looked into the eyes of a few of the zombies, but all I could see was hunger. These weren’t people anymore, they were monsters. As dead as they head been a few moments ago.
I heard a scream from behind me, a scream that came from a voice that I would no anywhere, and my heart dropped to my stomach. I felt like I was going to faint, to die on the spot. No, I couldn’t. I had to go to her, to stop this from happening.
I ran to the tree where we had spent our night and fought off the zombie that was biting at her. There she was, unconscious, almost peaceful on the picnic blanket where she lye. On her arm, I could see, there was a huge gash with what looked like bite marks. She couldn’t become one of those things, I wouldn’t let it happen. I did the only thing I could think of: I cut off the entire arm of my beloved. Hopefully that would stop the poison- or whatever it was- from reaching her brain. She didn’t even flinch. Maybe she was already dead. That would at least be better than her coming back as one of those. I waited with her for what seemed like an eternity, killing off the few zombies that made it our way. Most of them would be on their way to town by now.
Even with my efforts, eventually, she opened her eyes. At first I thought maybe, just maybe, it was her. But no, those eyes had none of the light of my darling’s. They were too milky, too…. dead. She rose but I stayed down on my knees, tears streaming down my face. She moved toward me, but somewhere, on her way, our eyes met. And there was something, I was sure, something other than hunger, other than death. Her eyes met mine and there was… recognition, and for a moment, love, I was sure of it. Mid-way through going for my flesh, she turned the other way. Even in death she would not harm me. “To undying love.” Maybe she remembered.
She was stumbling away, in the way that the undead do, when it occurred to me that I couldn’t let her go. I couldn’t let her destroy the loved ones of others. I certainly couldn’t let this…. disease, or whatever it was, dishonor her body, dishonor her. I snuck up behind the corpse, and as gently as possible, beheaded her. She fell to the ground and so did I. Now for the grand finale. There was no way I would survive much longer in this post-apocalyptic wasteland anyways. I plunged the sword through my half-dead heart and went to join my beloved in the afterlife.
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