Short Story 44: Melba’s Zombie Kid…

I walked for many days and was blessed with not finding anyone, Zombies or not during those days. Sometimes solitude is the best medicine and I needed some peace…

I finally found a woman and her child and the woman was named Melba and her child was named Teakly…

As I neared the two walking down the road. I saw her pull the child by a chain and then I realized that the child was a Zombie. He was gagged and chained up. The woman had a wild green eyed look and she hissed at me as I stopped and stared at them. Then I took in what had happened from the vibrations in the air and asked her in a quiet toned voice, “Are you Hungry?”

I knew she was and I knew that she had been so abused by life that she was literally a psycho, that is waiting for an excuse to leap off the cliff…

I knew that was her child and I knew that she could not understand what was going on, except that her child was her baby and that it was sick…

I pointed at her child and asked, “His name?”

She looked at me with distrust and I said, “Stryker!” pointing at myself…

I pointed at her…

She hissed, “Melba and Teaky!”

I saw a huge boulder along side of the road and I went to it and sat down. I pulled out food and spread it on the flat topped boulder. She watched me and I could see the hunger in her eyes, yet I also could see the distrust in those same eyes. I simply said, “If I wanted to kill you! You would never have see me coming…”

She blinked and something clicked inside of her as hunger overcame reason and fear. She dragged the boy Zombie with her and she grabbed a chunk of bread and backed away. I thought that is fine and said, “Just eat!”

I ate a meal and sat for awhile just thinking about what kind of world that we had made for ourselves and she spoke on her own finally, after eating a large meal herself…

She said, “Thank you, you are very kind and I am sorry to distrust you at first!”

I looked at her and just offered her a drink of water and then asked her, “I collect stories! Tell me yours and then we will part our ways! Tell me how the Zombie Virus day happened for you?”

She say=t and thought a moment and then had to get her kid under control as he started to jerk violently and moan to beat the band. Then I saw a rabbit hop by and I realized that he was wanting that rabbit…

The rabbit wandered away and the boy calmed down. Then she turned to me and spoke…

Hi I am Melba,

My world actually started when the Zombie Virus began. I was a single mom and was brutally beaten and raped constantly by men who where drunk. They would hunt me down and threaten me to kill my kid if I did not do things for them. Things that were bad…

I lived a life of hell and will not talk about that anymore. I will talk about what happened after the Zombie Virus happened…

I had hidden in a deep basement area and no one had found me or my son for days, in fact it had become very quiet and after the day before it was calm. There was a whole day of screams and yelling and gunshots and it sounded like a war was happening. Hunger drove me and my boy outside and we dared to venture just to find food and then we were going to hide again…

The sight that we came upon was terrible. People shuffling and moaning all over and half eaten bodies everywhere. Then out of know where, this dragging corpse of a Zombie grabbed my boys ankle and bit him. I beat the Zombie or corpse that was living and drug my boy back into the basement. I tended his wound and went and got food and stuff…

When I came back to the basement, I found that my boy was delirious and going crazy. I tended to him and fed him. He just threw up the food and got worse by the minute. Finally he died in my arms and I cried for hours…

Then as I was still holding him, he moved! I knew what was happening and just like all those corpse above us. I knew that my boy was waking up to be just like them. I quickly tied him up and as I finished, his green beautiful eyes had become milky colored eyes as they opened up and he moaned. I gagged him real quickly as I knew that would bring the others. That moan is a communication to the other Zombies as to a food source is around…

Then I thought about what to do and since I knew I would not kill my boy. I decided to gather supplies and we would leave the city. We would go to the countryside and survive. Zombies leave us alone as they think we are both Zombies. My little boy seems to be able to tell other Zombies that we are undead and that I am also. So the only issues that we have are humans and I keep my boy tied up and gagged so no one hears us. I let him free when we are very alone and I catch rabbits and such so that he can eat. He is happy as a Zombie can be, with rabbits to eat…

We have wandered the land just surviving and as I said, “My world actually started when the Zombie Virus began.” I now have peace and my boy still loves me. I can just feel it…

Malba…

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Then her child looked at me and moaned a soft moan that was unlike any that I have heard before. She released him and he stumbled around as we watched. He actually ate some insects that were trying to get away and he seemed to be happy with that. He never acted bad and never treated his mom as a food source and he just would stop and stare at me and shudder as he looked at me. I could feel his eyes searching me under that layer of fogged lenses. He knew I was different and he knew that I was not going to harm them…

After they did there things and I gave her as many of my supplies as I could. So that they would not have to go near a town for awhile longer. They said goodbye and packed up and started to leave…

I did my rare thing I do and I touched Melba on the hand. She jerked and then blinked. I turned to the boy and touched his forehead. I marked him for heaven and I gave his human soul a chance to rest. I told him that when he is ready, just call and I will come to take him away. He blinked and moaned that soft moan again…

His mother then woke from her inner self and I saw her stand taller and stronger. I had given her some strength to replace the years of abuse that she had to endure and gave her the ability to spend more years in happiness and from that touch on her hand, I could tell she was truly happy…

I watched Melba walk away with her kid and the Zombie boy turned to look at me! I know it seems funny, but I felt a thank you coming from the Zombie boy…

I sat and watched them as they disappeared into the distance and then I did something that I do not do often…

I cried…

I cried for a world that was once so bad that even now in the worst of times, the Zombie Times! Someone thinks that the world is better now and that their life is better. I cried for a world that abused her people so bad that we ended up like this. Zombies…

I cried as I watched a mother and her Zombie boy walk away and they are happy…

Stryker…