May 31, 2011 by Mark Lidstone
Zombies 1 – Chapter 1
This is the first chapter in my Vote Your Own Adventure series. Your vote will determine the next step and could end up winning you a book. To read more about the series, click here Place your vote in the comment section below and make sure you use a legit email address so I know where to send your book if you win.
VOTING FOR THIS CHAPTER IS NOW CLOSED
No Place Like Home
You push your way down the long hallway of the old apartment building. The doors are broken off of most of the suites and you try your best to keep your eyes forward but the sounds of screams and moans fight for your attention. You can hear flesh and limbs being torn away inside the tiny apartments.
The amount of people pushing against you is overwhelming. Everyone around you is trying to get out and you’re the only one forcing your way in. You fight to see past the bodies as you scramble to find apartment 128. You felt horrible when your parents and younger sister had to move in here. Once your dad had lost his job, this was all they could afford and the stubborn old bastard refused to accept help from anyone – especially family.
You catch a glimpse of the door and force yourself through the crowd with great urgency. It’s left open, but hasn’t been torn off. There was a small possibility that your family had managed to escape before things got bad. Maybe they were somewhere in the sea of people, fighting their way out of the building. You place your hand on the door and try to steady your heartbeat. Your other hand grips the wooden baseball bat at your side. You wish you had taken something better but it will have to do. After a deep breath, you push the door open.
Any hope you had quickly diminishes as you examine the front room. It’s completely totalled. The furniture has been toppled over and paintings have been knocked to the floor. You quickly step inside and shut the door behind you – securing it with the deadbolt. The thick wood barely muffles the deafening screams coming from the hallway.
You take a couple of steps into the apartment, weary of the broken glass that litters the floor, and call out to your family. The only response is a low, muffled noise coming from the back of the apartment in your parents’ bedroom. You slowly creep towards the room, tightening your grip on the bat with both hands. You lean your shoulder against the bedroom door and hesitate a moment before pushing it open, terrified of what could be on the other side.
The white bedsheets are stained with blood and the room is a mess. Your eyes fix on the source of the noise and a wave of fear moves through you. On the floor, near the bed, the figure of a middle-aged man is hunched over the blood-stained carpet. His face is pressed close to a bloody mess laying on the floor. The sound of his chewing turns your stomach. Beneath him, you can barely make out the floral pattern of your mother’s favourite nightgown. A loud sob escapes your lips when you realize what’s happening and you quickly cover your mouth to stifle the noise.
He stops eating and slowly turns his head towards you. Panic sets in and you dig your fingers into the handle of the bat. He still looks very human but his eyes have completely whitened, masking the pupils completely. You recognize him right away as Mr. Harris – a good friend of your father.
The creature that used to be Mr. Harris slowly pushes himself to his feet. Your heart races as you raise the tightly gripped baseball bat above your head. He sways and slowly steps closer to you, fresh blood drips from his darkened lips. You hold your breath and take a step backwards. He screams and rushes towards you, his hands outstretched. You shut your eyes and throw all of your strength into swinging the wooden bat. A tingle moves through your arms as the bat makes contact.
You slowly open your eyes and see your attacker laying on the floor, his arms flailing wildly in a desperate attempt at regaining his footing. His broken jaw dangles uselessly from his face.
You struggle to calm your breathing but you catch the sight of your mother’s mangled body next to the bed. Her eyes stare lifelessly into yours as the pupils slowly begin to fade. A wave of grief and anger washes over you.
A hand tightly grabs your ankle, pulling your focus away from her and back to the monster by your feet. Mr. Harris’ tongue flicks from his disfigured mouth as he pulls himself towards you. With a scream, you bring the bat down hard on his neck. You flinch as the sound of cracking bones echo through the room. His body goes limp and his tongue ceases to move.
You sigh in relief as your heartbeat echos in your ears. You jump when you hear a loud crash near the front door. You rush towards it with your blood-stained bat. The front door is destroyed and in its place stands 4 figures, three men and one woman. Each one has bright, white eyes and blood stains their faces.
They sway in the doorway, blocking your only exit. You stumble backwards to take refuge in the bedroom but a low moan from behind stops you in your tracks. It’s coming from your mother.
You try not to think of what she’s become and scan the room in front of you. You quickly spot the hallway that leads to your sister’s bedroom. You sprint towards it but hit the ground hard as something snags your ankle. You lose the grip on your bat and it rolls out of reach. From your stomach, you look back to see the face of your father staring back at you as he lays on the floor. Most of the flesh is torn from his back and his hand is tightly wrapped around your leg. He lets out a deep moan.
You kick wildly at him until his grip on you is broken. The group at the door stumbles over the toppled furniture as they attempt to surround you. You take advantage of the delay and quickly push yourself to your feet. You stumble into your sister’s bedroom and shut the door behind you. You press your back against the hard wood to secure it in place.
Bodies hit the door hard, pushing you forward and opening it slightly. You slam your back against it once again, forcing it closed. You slide down the door onto the floor and press your feet against the leg of the bed in front of you. Hands bang on the door from the other side but you are able to keep it closed. The second you move from your position, there will be nothing stopping them from breaking through.
You look around at the stuffed bears and other animals that litter the floor. The walls are covered in posters of boy bands and Harry Potter characters. Across from you, above the bed, are two small windows. It would be a tight squeeze but you could get through. The apartment is on the bottom floor of the building. An easy escape.
Your hope of escape dwindles as you watch filthy hands reach up and press against one of the windows, leaving brown streaks on the glass. A head and shoulders come into view and an elderly woman struggles to stand. Her white eyes fix on you and she presses her face against the glass, smudging it with pink drool. You watch a bald-headed man quickly join her at the window, slapping his hands against it.
You lift your hand to your face to wipe the sweat from your eyes but pause when you see the bright red liquid dripping from your palm. You look down at the floor and see a fresh trail of blood that leads to the bed. You lean over as far as you can without taking pressure off the door and stare into the darkness underneath the bed. Your heart nearly jumps into your throat when you see the pale face of your younger sister staring back at you.
Her thin arm reaches out and pulls her tiny body from the shadows. Her eyes are white like the others and her mouth is gaping as she moans deeply. Her lower body is almost completely gone. She drags broken bones and darkened muscle behind her along with strands of torn, pink pajama bottoms.
You fight back tears as you frantically look for a way out. One of the windows is clear but isn’t far from the one surrounded by zombies. You have no idea how many more are out there and as soon as you take your back from the door, there will be nothing to keep the others out. You are pretty confident that you could push your way back into the room to grab your bat but with the front door gone, there’s no telling how many more are behind the door.
You stare down at your sister. She is only a few feet away from you and slowly moving closer. You don’t have much time.
Do you:
A – Release your hold on the door and bolt for the window into the unknown before your sister gets to you.
B – Force your way back into the main room to retrieve your trusty bat and escape the building the way you came in.
VOTING FOR THIS CHAPTER IS NOW CLOSED
Be sure to check out Jen Kirchner’s Vote Your Own Adventure story: The Relic
casorb - May 31, 2011 @ 1:06 am
Love the story! Very ‘gripping’.
I’d go for option A, they’ll be plenty of weapons out there!
Looking forward to the next installment.
Jen Kirchner - May 31, 2011 @ 8:27 am
Crap, I’ve been thinking about this for days and I still am not sure how to vote! I really want that damn bat. Let’s go for B.
Gene Lempp - May 31, 2011 @ 8:55 am
A – too many to fight, better to press forward and run until better odds exist. Intense ride so far, looking forward to more.
Alan Edwards - May 31, 2011 @ 8:59 am
Wow. OK. Hmmm. I’ll go with option A. Too much stuff in that main room for my taste.
Steven Montano - May 31, 2011 @ 9:30 am
Why is it that neither of these choices involve me soiling myself? Or is that just implied?
In any case, I think I need to go for B. I want a weapon, and if worse comes to worse I can always find another room to hold up in. Maybe…
Cee Martinez - May 31, 2011 @ 9:43 am
I vote A!!! No sense in going back into a swarm of zombies for a bat. There will be other blunt objects to pick up along the way to bash in zombie heads!
Jordan - May 31, 2011 @ 10:12 am
Yeah gotta go with A for sure. Zombies arent that fast so I can probably out run them and I agree with Cee Martinez going to be a lot more weapons out there. Use a rock if I have to!
Jordan - May 31, 2011 @ 10:14 am
And plus you have a much larger area to run! Going back into a small room with 6+ zombies when you dont even have a weapon yet is just asking to get killed!
jeff - May 31, 2011 @ 10:40 am
I vote for option A. you need to regain the advantage with speed and agility.
amber - May 31, 2011 @ 11:01 am
I keep starting to choose and then second guessing myself.
After two cups of coffee, I am prepared to HEAD FOR THE BAT!
Ahem. I choose B.
Eric - May 31, 2011 @ 11:13 am
I vote B, i need my bat…
Mark Lidstone - May 31, 2011 @ 11:15 am
Sammy Sosa over here.
Tiffany Reisz - May 31, 2011 @ 11:22 am
A! Get the FUCK OUT OF THERE!
AHHHHH!!! *nervous*
Kiss!
Tiff!
FARfetched - May 31, 2011 @ 12:00 pm
B is suicide. Option A gives you one crippled zombie sister to dodge and then two more outside the window. I’d wait until the last possible moment though, then the sister will block the door & buy enough time to GET OUT.
Obviously, I vote A.
Kelly Said - May 31, 2011 @ 1:27 pm
Go for the window! Option A! Of course, that’s my go-to emergency escape in real life, no hesitation, front kick, shattered glass, I’m free! Besides, you made me feel too claustrophobic to even consider going back for the bat and at least if I get mauled, I’ll see the sky for one last time. (^_~)
Wynn Scarlett Frost - May 31, 2011 @ 2:28 pm
B. He can catch them off guard so they stumble throw the door and hop over the pile back into the other room. Remember, there are zombies at the window, too! If anything gets snagged, he’s goner!!
Tom - May 31, 2011 @ 2:45 pm
I have to go with A. It’d be hard to survive one zombie in the doorway, let alone a group of them. It’s too easy to get nicked. The sister can’t move much without legs so the threat ahead is manageable – or, at least, known.
Marie Clarke - May 31, 2011 @ 4:23 pm
I would have more options with A as there must be something in the room I can grab and seeing how you never gave me the option to just sit on the floor and bawl until they ate me!!!
ryan - May 31, 2011 @ 4:45 pm
A all the way. You need to go with what you know and you have no idea what is behind the door.
Monica-Marie Holtkam - May 31, 2011 @ 4:58 pm
I’m with A all the way! Going back for the bat would simply be asking…no begging to become a zombie too! With that many zombies trying to come after you? Yeah….the window all the way….and who knows…you might be able to pick something up in your sister’s room to be able to beat the living crap out of them! Granted it’s not a nice hefty bat…but it’s better than getting eaten by like 6 zombies! So head for the window..chances are much better out there!
Anonymously S.C - May 31, 2011 @ 7:35 pm
I really enjoy this. It reminds me of a video game cut sort of. Gives me chills regardless.
I would choose…B…
But only because I am assuming the zombies in your tale run slower then the zombies in say, dawn of the dead or something.
Also, its a friggin Zombie apocalypse, you need something to wail on them with.
Mira - May 31, 2011 @ 9:34 pm
B makes the most sense for survival… I reckon…?
Zoe - May 31, 2011 @ 10:12 pm
I say A. I prefer my apocalypses to include many locations in the zombie infested city rather than just one apartment building.
Reaia - May 31, 2011 @ 11:56 pm
I vote for A. I ain’t going back into the main room! That’s just loco!
Giselle - June 1, 2011 @ 9:45 am
A! Why the hell would you go back into the main room!?
The Muse - June 1, 2011 @ 10:07 am
Well, in all our time spent playing zombie games together, I would have to say that A is the best choice. There are always things around to improvise a weapon. . It usually ends in a “Game Over” when you try to go back into the room with the most zombies, especially without your baseball bat.
EHFoster - June 1, 2011 @ 5:23 pm
A. Definitely A. And I’d kick lil’ sis in the face on my way out. And btw, pink drool? Awesome AND disgusting…which makes it even more awesome.
Hockeyvamp - June 1, 2011 @ 11:05 pm
I want my bat….. but I like my chances better with my lil sis….. A for me
Andrew Mocete - June 2, 2011 @ 11:34 am
B sounds crazy! So I vote B.
Phil B - June 2, 2011 @ 12:25 pm
A- All the way, get out and face whats coming next!
Mhairri - June 2, 2011 @ 12:30 pm
i vote pinching yourself to wake up. making waffles for breakfast and hitting the beach. no more of this pesky zombie business.
Marty - June 2, 2011 @ 12:37 pm
Great start to another amazing story!
My gut says get the bat and lets hunt more zombies!
I choose “B”. Final answer.
Tiffany A White - June 2, 2011 @ 1:17 pm
Well, you have zombies banging on the door behind you…and your sister/zombie inching closer and closer. Opening the door to retreive your bat doesn’t sound like the best choice…so I vote A – you jump out the window. You can find another weapon in the streets.
Rudy - June 2, 2011 @ 5:09 pm
Going with “A”. At least you haven’t seen zombies THERE yet! And there will probably be other heavy objects to swing at zombies out there.
Miro - June 2, 2011 @ 10:37 pm
Option A. Run into the unknown for sure.
Silvia - June 2, 2011 @ 10:53 pm
A. I got really scared, it was my bedtime story, read by miro. Thanks mark!
The RPG Guy - June 2, 2011 @ 11:16 pm
Option A – no zombies for me!
The RPG Guy - June 2, 2011 @ 11:20 pm
By the way, thanks for commenting on my Choose your Own Adventure series as well. Here’s to hoping that option A is the winner.
Jessie - June 21, 2011 @ 8:00 pm
im behind on all of these and i dont know the upcoming outcomes but im gonna say a very delayed “A”. Better late than never right?! dont be hatin.