Story
1 – Guilty
Walter
is a teacher who has killed people before, kids in particular. He thought that
this was the best way to avenge the kids that killed themselves. Walter taught
at a local high school and was the history teacher who was very popular with
the kids. Since the teen suicide rate in the country was increasing, Walter
gave extra support to his students, especially the quiet ones and even though
he did make them all feel better and outgoing, a suicide still happened in the
school. The student that killed themself wasn’t one of Walter’s students, but
he still felt guilty because he didn’t pay as much attention to other students.
Walter automatically blamed the kids that picked on the others. He followed the
bullies after school and killed them in a secluded area then threw the bodies
in a nearby river that leads to the ocean. No one found the bodies of the kids
and couldn’t even find clues to their current location or even where they
disappeared from, so the detectives working on the case have long since given
up. It’s been a few months since then and Walter has forgotten about what he’s
done, but part of him hasn’t.
Summer
vacation started about a week ago and Walter is working at the shore. He serves
ice cream, pizza, and other foods and sweets at his own restaurant, which is
one of the most popular places on the pier. Walter takes a lunch break and
overhears a conversation take place between two people who also own restaurants
on the pier.
“Rumors
are starting to spread about people being eaten by zombies,” says one of them.
Walter
joins in the conversation by asking, “Where did you hear that from?”
“From
one of my buddies from further down the pier. Did you hear anything Walter?”
says the other guy.
“No,
but something does feel off about today. I mean the air smells different then
it usually does.”
“I
was thinking that too, but I didn’t really hear anyone else talk about it, so I
kept it to myself.”
Screams
can be heard in the distance approaching them. It takes the three a second to
pick up on it, but once they look to see where the screams are coming from,
they see a crowd of people running from what looks to be a horde of zombies.
“Oh
shit,” one guy says as he watches the chaos in complete shock.
The
other person has long since run away like an Olympian runner. Walter sprints
back to his restaurant and warns everyone about what is currently happening.
Some people go outside to see if what Walter said is true and others stay to
finish their meal before checking. Walter goes back outside to see the rapidly
growing and approaching zombie horde and the people running away from the.
Walter runs away from the shore and about ten blocks after that, he finds a
connivance store being barricaded by its owner.
“Hey!”
the man says, “Help me barricade my store! You can stay here for shelter if
you’d like!”
Walter
helps the man barricade his store with metal tables, wooden planks, and other
nearby objects. The two then go inside the store before the zombie hordes reach
their area.
“Thanks,”
says the man, “What’s your name?”
“Walter,
what’s yours?”
“Chris,
where are you from?”
“From
out of town. I work as a history teacher, but I own a restaurant at the pier.
What about you?”
“Oh,
I’m just your normal connivance store owner. Nothing special.”
Small
footsteps are heard from the back of the store, causing Walter to heighten his
guard.
“Calm
down man. Kids, come on out and introduce yourselves to Walter.”
Three
kids walk out from the back of the store. There are two girls; one has tan skin
while the other is white. There’s also one boy with tan skin like the young
girl’s.
“Hi…I’m
Clementine,” says the girl who is wearing a little red dress.
“My
name’s Crane,” says the boy with shorts and a tank top on.
“And
my name’s Sherry,” says the girl who is wearing a school like uniform.
“Well
I’m Walter and it’s very nice to meet you. Now since we’re going to be here for
a while, you wanna play some games?”
“Yeah!”
the kids say.
“There’s
a lot of games in the back of the store,” says Crane, “Can we play one of
those?”
“Well…they’re
suppose to be for sale so wouldn’t we be stealing-”
Chris
interrupts Walter by saying, “It’s fine. You can have anything in the store for
free. This is a zombie apocalypse after all and I don’t think money will help
me at all.”
“Yay!”
the kids say as they instantly go for the sugars and snacks.
“Jeez
these kids don’t really care that a zombie apocalypse is happening,” Chris says
to Walter as they look for a game to play.
“It’s
all these movies, comics, and games that get them used to it.
“But
as soon as they experience it for real, they’ll lose some of that courage.”
“True,
but it’d be worse if they didn’t know what was happening. Fear of the unknown
is one of mankind’s biggest fears.”
“You’re
right, you’re right. Hey, you wanna play blackjack?” Chris says as he holds a
pack of cards.
“Sure
though I must warn you that I have really good luck when it comes to cards.”
They
play cards and board games with the kids for a while with Walter winning most
of the games, only letting the kids win once in a while. Chris doesn’t win at
all, but he doesn’t show the defeat he feels to the kids, but Walter sees it
plain as day. Later in the night, Chris talks to Walter about their situation
in the back outside of the store.
“We
should take care of the zombies outside. I’m afraid that the kids might go
outside and run into one of them or the smell of them might make them sick.”
“I
get what you’re saying. I’ll get rid of them while you keep the kids safe. I
don’t want anything happening to the both of us and the kids being alone
without any adults.”
“Fine,
but take this.”
Chris
gives Walter a survival knife.
“Where
did you get this?”
“Some
guy tried robbing my store a while back and lets just keep the story short and
say that he failed so I took his knife as a prize.”
“Wow
you’re tougher than you seem! You sure we shouldn’t trade places?”
“Nah
I’m not as good as I was before and you’re better built than I am.”
“Alright
then.”
Chris
walks back into the store as Walter sneaks to the front of the store and starts
to get rid of the zombies. Since they’re slow and their flesh is soft and
decaying, they’re easy to kill as Walter stabs their heads and slashes through
their throats, decapitating them with his knife. After killing the eight or so
zombies outside the store, Walter catches his breath then cleans up the area by
hiding the bodies of the zombies in the trash bins of the nearby houses so the
kids don’t see or smell the stench of the corpses. Walter then goes back inside
the store much to the relief of Chris and the kids.
“Wow
you’re so cool Mr. Walter!” says Crane.
“But
you really smell!” says Clementine.
They
all share a laugh together as they celebrate Walter’s job well done. On the
next day Chris talks to Walter about another important issue.
“I
know we have an entire store full of food and stuff, but we’re eventually going
to run out, so we need to expand our territory before then you know?”
“I
know, but there’s too many zombies around here and I can’t do this alone.”
“Yes,
there’s a lot of them and they’re all spread out. But all we have to do is get
most of them away from here and we can clean up the stragglers.”
“That
actually sounds like a great idea, but how do we pull it off?”
“I
got a stash of fireworks that I sell and use for New Years. How about that?”
“Sounds
great. Let’s do it!”
The
two shake hands and get to work. They put the fireworks in a location far away
from them, but not too far so the zombies can still hear them and they set off
the fireworks. The horde of zombies starts to move to the location of the
fireworks as Chris and Walter go back to the store via a longer, but not zombie
infested way. They rest up a bit before taking care of the remaining zombies
and after that they go to Walter’s restaurant to celebrate.
“Here
we go!” Walter says as he brings out his specialty made pancakes with syrup,
“Let’s eat!”
Everyone
starts to eat Walter’s pancakes.
“Wow!
This is delicious!” says Clementine.
“You
gotta give us more Mr. Walter,” says Crane.
“More
please!” says Sherry with her plate already clean.
“Haha!
I’ve always heard about your restaurant Walter, but I’ve never actually gone to
it. I now know that was a mistake and I should’ve visited here more often!”
says Chris.
The
weeks go on and on as the group survives the zombie apocalypse with travelers
taking shelter in the area. Walter and Chris make agreements with these people
so they can all live peacefully and hopefully make a community. After a routine
killing of zombies around the area, Walter stands on the pier and looks out
into the ocean.
He sighs and
thinks to himself, Man…the sun doesn’t shine like it used to since the
apocalypse started, but at least we’re safe.
He then notices
three bleeding corpses in the water, three corpses he now remembers. They stand
on the water laugh at Walter as they walk towards him while staining the ocean
with their blood. Stunned and disturbed by what he is seeing, Walter stands in
place, motionless, until Chris walks up to him and puts his hand on Walter’s shoulder.
“You ok man? You
look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Yeah I’m fine I…I
just need to lay down,” Walter says while rubbing his eyes.
“Get some rest
then, you deserve it. I mean you should leave some of the zombie killing to
some of the newer people so they can get some experience instead of you doing
most of the work.”
“I know, I know.
Maybe next time I’ll let them do it.”
“Good,” Chris pats
Walter’s shoulder, “Now get some rest.”
Walter walks away
and into the convenience store to find a snack and something to drink before
going to sleep. He finds what he wants and as soon as he opens the door to
leave, he sees the previous three corpses he saw before standing in front of
him still laughing. He quickly backs away and in the blink of an eye, the three
corpses he just saw become Clementine, Crane, and Sherry.
“What’s the matter
Mr. Walter?” says Crane.
Walter sighs as he
calms down then says, “Nothing, I’m just a little tired, so don’t worry about
me. Just go back to whatever you were doing.”
They look at him
for a second with concern on their face then Sherry speaks for them by saying,
“Ok.”
The kids go into
the store looking for a game to play while Walter walks into a nearby house to
sleep in. He eats and drinks the things he got from the store then lays on a
bed upstairs in the house and slowly falls asleep. As he sleeps, he feels eyes
watching him and wakes up to see the three corpses from before, standing above
him with smiles on their faces. He jumps back and falls off the bed and down a
hole then lands in a school. The school is dark with only red tinted lights to
illuminate the void. There are desks stacked unnaturally on top of each other
and bodies hung on the ceiling by nooses.
“Do you really
think you can escape guilt?” says a dark child like voice.
“Wha-What are you
talking about? Who are you?!” says Walter.
“We didn’t forget.
Guilt punishes the guilty obviously. You can’t run from it. You can’t hide from
it. You can only accept it.”
The three corpses
appear in front of Walter, sitting on the desks with wide smiles.
“I killed you
bastard children! Why are you alive?”
“Bastard children?
Are we really what you say we are?”
“You made those
kids, your friends! Kill themselves.”
“Did we really?”
“You picked on
them all the time and were rough on them!”
“But that’s how
best friends act with each other and don’t tell us that we’re wrong. You act
the same way with yours.”
“…Shut up.”
“You killed three
innocent kids and you know it.”
“Shut up!”
Walter lunges at
them and slices them with his knife.
Despite being cut
open, the three corpses are unaffected and they say, “And now you’ve killed
three more.”
Walter snaps out
of the hallucination and sees that he’s killed Clementine, Crane, and Sherry.
He falls to his knees as he cries for seemingly hours. The dead bodies of the
kids get up, zombified, and limp towards Walter. He notices this, but is too
racked with guilt and shame to do anything, so he accepts his punishment and
gets eaten by the three kids.
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