Chapter One
Adam was a tall lanky teenager. He was over six and a half feet tall and looked like the living dead.
It's ironic because Adam loved zombie movies,maybe a little too much. He couldn't care less about what was really going on around him in the real world, all he would day dream about was zombies rising from the grave as he walked past his local cemetery, or whenever he was in a shopping mall he hoped a hoarde of zombies would burst out of nowhere and start a riot. Sadly none of this happened to Adam..
It's a warm summer night and Adam finds himself walking home from a friends house. It's almost 3 in the morning and he's the only person around the city streets.
"I'd better get home quick, I told mom I'd be home hours ago." Adam says to himself. He begins to walk faster. Soon he begins to run.
Huffing and puffing he abruptly stops due to being out of breath.
Adam wipes the sweat from his forehead and continues on his way home.
The city is dead silent except for Adam's labored breathing. A low moaning noise is heard behind him. Adam immediately swings his head back to find the source of the noise, but no one or thing can be seen, only unbelievably tall skyscrapers and trash blowing in the streets.
"I swore I heard something,... oh well." Adam gives up his search.
Adam looks forward again to catch a glimpse of a shadow going in between two large buildings to his left. He follows without thought.
In the alley way there is nothing but trash and stray cats. He investigates further and finds a fresh pool of blood coming from a rusty old side door of a Chinese restaurant.
Adam bends down to look at the blood closer. As soon as he bends down, the rusty door blasts open, causing Adam to fall on his back.
A walking corpse shambles out of the door with his decaying hands reaching out for Adams flesh.
Adam blinks and shakes his head as if this were another one of his delusions but the zombie keeps coming.....
| Chapter 1 by DestroyaSkold |
..An hour later found Adam kneeling by the front steps of his apartment building. His stomach lurched, and everything came up....he couldn't help it, after what he had just witnessed.
The trauma his eyes and body had gone through during the previous sixty minutes was too much for any sane kid to bear, much less an already-delusional one.
The last sensible thing that Adam could remember was walking. Then the noises...after that was sheer and utter madness.
After a few moments he gathered his wits and fumbled up the steps and into the main hallway. There were three more obstacles to face before Adam could attempt any sleep.
The first was easily conquered...getting up the main stairwell without awakening Mrs. Henry down the hall.
The second was nearly as simple...getting into his front door without awakening his mother.
She was a drunk...at four a.m. all of the zombies in hell would not have awakened her, even if she had been concerned with Adam's whereabouts.
The third was the hardest of all, and as the lanky boy stood in front of the bathroom mirror, still fully clothed, he gritted his teeth in nausea.
Once he got his clothes off, he would know if his greatest dream had, after all, come true. If he had crossed over to become one with the undead...
Chapter 2 by LondonReign |
Chapter Three
Hung Lo puffed his fat Havana cigar, a thick smokey halo wafting above his head.
"Damn it Chu!" he complained chomping on the saliva soaked butt. "How in the hell did you let that one get out? If anybody finds out about our little "enterprise" we'll be back in Hong Kong making fireworks with the rest of those damn coolies".
"S-S-Sorry boss." stammered Chu. "I had him sweeping up just like you asked and all of a sudden he just went crazy and busted through the back door.
He mighta got into the salt, that happens sometimes but one never got away before".
" Lord Jardine will have our asses if he ever gets wind of this, You know how he protects his little export business.
Bringing in zombies from Jamacia to serve as slave labor is very profitable for him and if we screw it up it'll be our balls."
"How about that kid? Did you follow him like I asked?"
"Yeah boss, he lives just a few blocks from here over on Sophia Avenue. In one of those run down tenaments, next to the Scarabus mortuary.
You don't think the boy got infected do you?
The last group Jardine sent were "turned" using a new method involving chemicals instead of the old Voodoo way.
Jardine says it's cheaper and faster cutting out the Voodoo priests all together."
"We'd better pray that he didn't." sighed Hung Lo. "Can you imagine a plague of those things loose in the city?"
"It'd be Hong Kong here we come".
Chu just nodded.
Back in the run-down apartment Adam Foster slowly unbuttoned his shirt..........
| Chapter 3 by Slo |
Just below his neck, sections of his skin, from his chest down to his torso had become ashen. These patches we covered by spidery blue and purple veins, giving some of them the appearance of bruises.
Adam lightly touched the discolored flesh. It felt cold and unyielding. He dug his finger nail into the skin, it was completely numb, not the slightest trace of sensation.
He had be gazing down at his chest for several minutes. "How deep into me does this go? Is it just my skin that's affected or is it spreading through my blood stream.?"
Looking up at the mirror Adam had his answer. An ugly welt had appeared on his neck and the skin around his eye was becoming puffy and discolored.
Adam's fascination with this gradual transformation turned to horror as he realized what would happen when it reached his brain and nervous system.
The vision in his right eye was already becoming blurred. He tried to close it but his eyelid had become stiff, locked in a half open position.
A sound escaped from his mouth that due to his stiffening vocal cords, started as a loud bray and ended in a high pitched croak.
Suddenly, Adam saw in the mirror that his mother was leaning in the doorway behind him.
As he turned to face her she let out a cry of her own at the sight of his grotesquely disfigured body.
She rushed to her son, tears streaming from her eyes and began to hug him,
"Who did this to you? Who beat my baby like this?"
Adam could no longer speak with his paralyzed vocal cords and it took all his effort to raise his arms and place them around her.
Her hot tears fell on Adam's bare chest. The tears were not just hot, they felt like molten lead searing Adam's skin. Hot salty tears!
Somewhere through the pain, Adam remembered a piece of Voodoo lore ... salt killed zombies!!
This thought was quickly replaced as an image from his childhood flashed into Adam's mind.
Some older boys had found a large slug crawling on the sidewalk and had poured salt on it ...
Adam struggled to free himself from his mother's grip, she was on a crying jag now, weeping over her lifetime of misfortunes, sobbing and moaning and clinging to her son.
They had slid down the tiled bathroom wall and were now wedged between the toilet and the tub.
Adam knew only too well, that his mother's alcohol fueled crying fits could last for hours, with an endless flow of tears.
| Chapter 4 by Dr. Scarabus |
Adam used the last of his humanly strength to push his mother off and struggled to his feet.
"I'm sorry mom, I really am." he croaked as he staggered out of the apartment and down the stairs, half stumbling, half falling as went.
"I've got to go back to the restaurant" he cried to himself. "I don't REALLY wanna be a zombie".
An old adage suddenly haunted his tormented mind....
"Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it".
Adams muscles were really starting to stiffen as he found himself lurching along the street. "I have to get there before sun up." he sobbed aloud.
"OH GOD, PLEASE HELP ME !!"
The sun's first golden rays were peeking over the eastern skyline as Adam made his way back to the restaurant.
Sunday mornings in the city were semi quiet. The lone soul who did witness Adam's passing must have thought he was just another Saturday night party casualty.
Chu and Hung Lo were just getting the door back in place as Adam shuffled up.
"Well, well", Hung Lo said in a sing song voice.
"I figured if you were infected you'd show up this morning".
"How's it feel?" teased Chu.
"I'll bet it hurts don't it?"
Adam could no longer speak.
His answer came as gutteral moans.
"I'll take that as a yes." chided Hung Lo. "Come inside kid" said Chu motioning with his smokestained index finger. "We've got something to show you".
Zombies were bursting through the door searching for their next victim as the frightened heroine screamed for all she was worth.
"Hey Chu, pass the friggn' popcorn!" demanded Hung Lo.
"Damn, these zombie movies sure
give a guy a thirst".
"Probably the popcorn boss..... must be the salt." smirked Chu.
With that comment they both burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"What other movies did you rent tonight boss? asked Chu after he had his giggling under control.
"Bringing this vcr to pass the time is sheer genius."
"Oh you know Chu, the usual stuff, AND a little porno." said the grinning Hung Lo.
"Hey You !!" Hung Lo shouted to the hunched figure in the corner.
"You missed a spot".
Adam Foster slowly made his way over to the edge of the stove and began to sweep.