Recently I had a Zombie Apocalypse dream, It was awesome.
So there we were, last vestiges of humanity held up in an ancient palace fortress. Millenniums of scientific and cultural development had been torn down in a matter of days a foul plague. In the fortress, we had but a few weapons, mostly poleaxes, swords, bows and arrows, and other ancient tools of war kept in good condition as museum pieces in the palace armory. We had fire-arms too, mostly just pistols and hunting rifles, and a couple automatic weapons, but ammunition was scarce for them. Among us there were a few scientist who had been studying this disease when the first few cases were reported.
The disease attacks the brain. The host's brain gradually dies while the parasite establishes itself in the it's place. Once the parasite has claimed the body of it's victim, it's only purpose is then to spread the disease as quickly as possible to as many others as possible. It seems as though it isn't to contagious, you could talk to a zombie and be just fine, if the zombie was willing to just talk. Precisely, the bodily fluids of the infected must be injected directly into the blood of the health for the disease to take hold. Most disturbingly, the disease can even infect those who had already been dead, even up to six months after death if the body was still in some sort of usable condition. It is unclear how the infection can live on a dead host.
However, it is clear that a butchered body is of no use directly to the parasite, but it was reported that the zombies will cannibalize limbs that have been hacked off. When we first took refuge in the keep I had witnessed it first had and up close. The zombies were hard on our heels we didn't have time to close gate, but we managed to organize a defense against them. Remnants of the military rained down a hail of lead on the zombies from the walls outside. I had taken up a long sword, and held guard with a few others who also took an ancient weapon from the armory/museum. That night was a living hell, more so than our current condition in the keep. We fought dearly, a zombie must almost be fully dismembered before it's advance could be stopped, fortunately, the flesh of a zombie is soft from a slow decay and my sword could easily slice the zombies in half. We must have killed over a thousand zombies and it must have been a miracle that we all survived that night. The military had finally closed the gate by pushing it shut with an old back hoe against the swarms trying to push their way in. The gate, is a strong, thick, and made of iron. Once it was closed, no more could enter the keep. We killed the rest in the keep swiftly and burned their remains. Outside the walls they continued to claw at walls for three days. When they finally left, they dragged the fallen away with them.
Then we began to just try to survive in our tiny walled off world. We began to farm what pitifully small amount of land within the keep. And we waited, for three long weeks we waited. The people spoke very little, and all I could do was pace the halls of the palace nervously. Then one if the scientist finally gained the courage to speak. He told us everything he knew about the plague, which was far more than any of us wanted to know. The first few cases had been isolated enough, people who lived in or near swampland got infected first. Perhaps this could have all been prevented if had just nuked those places. It was believed at the time that a cure could be found quickly, so the villages that had been infected were put under a loose containment, but a zombie honors no authority, and the disease spread non the less, it spread slowly at first, from village to village, until it hit first major metropolis. Then it spread like wild fire. Many utilities were destroyed, and now we had little power, limited water, and no communication to the outside world.
As he finished speaking we said something that gave us a little hope. He said, "Before we were forced to flee our laboratory we managed to make a breakthrough, we had a soluble mineral that destroys the parasite, we aren't certain of the possible side effects, but given circumstance I think any side effects will be the least of our concerns." Sadly, he had also said something that crushed that tiny gleam of hope that we had found. "Unfortunately we were only able to escape with some of our notes, nor were we able to bring with us the samples that we had." We all grumbled and complained in disappointment. Finally the a women wearing a fine dress spoke up "Do you know the location of your lab?", "y- yes..." the scientist replied feebly.
"Then perhaps we could send the soldiers to retrieve it for you, they had were able to protect this place for us now, surely they could retrieve it for you so that you may finish your research.".
"No, no, we could not send all the soldiers out, to send so many would attract the hordes of dead back here, and then, we must get them all back within this fortress."
The young commander then piped in, "We are low on bullets, I doubt we could handle another siege forced to rely on bows and spears. Perhaps we could send a smaller group, at least then we don't need to keep the gate open for quit so long."
So it was then decided, the scientist we be escorted by three people, Two soldiers armed with automatic weapons and the last of the grenades, and me with my sword and a pistol. We would set out at dawn in an old Humvee, and we would be as quick as possible in retrieving the research. It started quit that day, we reached the lab, my heart dropped when we saw how the place had been trashed, rubbish and papers where everywhere, acids and various solutions had leaked onto the floor, windows were smashed, and so many computers were broken. "What if the zombies show up." The scientist asked nervously. "Then I shall fight," I said, he seemed as though was gonna say something else, but I went on with what I was saying. "And you shall run with your notes, perhaps you could fight too with that pistol of yours, but you would not be able to survive, besides, the hopes of everyone now rest on you returning safely with the data." Then we arrived at his lab. We were relieved to see that it was not nearly as totaled as the rest of the building. He collected his work and we began to leave. As we were leaving, one zombie showed up, it was once little girl, but now looked hideous and disfigured, I cut it down quickly and more zombies showed up. I slashed through a few more, and one the soldiers called out for us to Run. I backed off firing my pistol into the mob while the soldiers fired their weapons as well. I leaped into the back seat of the Humvee, the soldiers hustled in also, and the scientist got behind the wheel and floored it. We fired into the horde of zombies as we speed a way, but for now that was it, we had gotten away, and perhaps we had won.
Back at the keep the scientist frantically completed their data, the soldiers and I were pacing and jittery, and then I woke.
Upon waking up I was like
, I wanna see what happens next. Oh well, if you actually read through it, you can either agree on the awesomeness of zombie dreams or agree on the awesomeness of zombie dreams.
