Humanified

Once upon a time there lived a whole universe full of zombies and humans. They weren’t your typical zombies though who ate every human being they could get their rotten undead hands on. These zombies didn’t like to eat human flesh. Instead they ate animals like cows, fish, etc. Like humans do. On February 13, 2015, there was a 16 year old girl named Teresa who was walking home from school when this zombie just kept following her. Teresa at first, wasn’t worried because she knew zombies didn’t hurt humans as long as humans didn’t hurt them. But, after a while Teresa looked back and the zombie was still following her. Teresa started to walk a little bit faster. But, then the zombie started walking faster too! He walked pretty fast for a dead person if I might add. She looked back one last time at the zombie before running but when she looked back she noticed that the zombie was trying to say something to her. So, she stopped and turned around and started walking toward the zombie. Then, the zombie stopped and started to speak. He said in a mumble “My name Carter.” “Me you be friends?” Teresa wasn’t sure what to say. She just kind of stood there just staring at his emotionless face for the longest time before asking “What did you say?” Carter said “Me you be friends?” Teresa looked at her phone and said “Well, I better be getting home or my mom will start to worry.” Then, she turned and ran without another word.

***

A couple days later, Teresa and her friends saw Carter walking through the empty hallways of the school looking for something or someone again. Teresa walked up to Carter and started to yell at him. She said “STOP FOLLOWING ME! I DON’T WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH A CREEPY ZOMBIE!” And, that was it. The following week, Carter was nowhere to be found. Teresa started to feel really bad about yelling at him. Besides, he just wanted a friend. The next day Teresa was walking home from her friend’s house and saw Carter standing on her front porch just staring inside her house like he was watching someone. So, Teresa walked slowly up towards Carter and said “Hey haven’t seen you around lately. What happened?” Carter looked disappointed like it hurt him to see her after she brutally yelled at him in the hallway. Carter said nothing. Teresa waited for him to speak but he never did. So, she said bye and went inside. About an hour after she had gone inside Carter just left. For a couple of days she didn’t go to school because she thought he would show up again but sadly never did. So, she lost hope that he would show up so the next day went to school and was planning to ignore everybody because she didn’t feel like talking to anyone. As soon as she walked into the school’s main building to her first period she saw Carter just staring at her. She kept walking but, still had no hope in her body that he would even talk to her. So, she just ignored him and walked right past him like he wasn’t even there. Teresa then felt bad so she turned away and Carter was right behind her staring at her again. Teresa noticed that he truly wanted a friend. Unfortunately Teresa noticed a little to late because by the time she actually noticed Carter was gone again. She felt as if he was never really there. Like he was a ghost or something but, other people could see him as well so she scratched that thought out of her brain hopefully forever. She went to first period and didn’t see him which was unusual because he always sits in the back of the classroom in every single class but he wasn’t even there. She tried asking the teachers where he was but they just turned her down and said it was confidential. Do they really think that would keep her away from finding out what happened with Carter? No. It just made Teresa more motivated to keep searching for him. So in second period she asked the teacher but she said it was confidential. She did this in all of her classes hoping that one of her teachers would tell her something she could use to help her find Carter easier but no one said anything else. Just the same stupid phrase “It’s confidential.” That seems to hurt worse than Carter not talking to her. That no one would help her find him. So she quit asking the teachers. Instead, she started asking some of the students in her classes but, it was like everybody she asked was in some sort of trance. They said “He is safe and doesn’t want to be found.” That kind of started to freak her out. She even asked her friends but they said the exact same thing. She had to figure out why all the students she had asked were saying that phrase over and over again. She then decided if no one was going to help her at school she would have to skip the last three periods and go out and look for him herself. If she was no successful she was then give up and hope he returns on his own but, she really did not want to give up. She started to search near her house and then in the forest behind her house. She searched and searched until dark. She started to give up hope when she couldn’t see anything and she wasn’t near her house. She tried to get some light from her phone and it helped for a little bit but her phone died so it was back to not seeing anything in front or behind her. She then had this strange feeling like someone was following her so she started to walk faster but, then she heard a noise like a bone breaking but, it must have been a tree branch crack. But, she started to get super nervous because the sound came from behind her not under her. So, she never made that noise someone else did. And from how clearly she heard the sound her starker was closer than she thought. It felt as if he was right behind her the whole time. So, she started running toward the direction she thought her house was but then the follower grabbed her arm and pulled so she would stop running. She started to cry because she had no idea what this person was capable of doing. So, she started to scream and then the person put his hand over her mouth. It was strange because she recognized the smell of his hand. She calmed down and the person took his hand away and faced Teresa now. He turned a flashlight on and shined it on his face. Teresa smiled because she saw that it was Carter. She hugged him and said “How did you know I was in the woods?” Carter – being a zombie and all - said “Sorry.”

***

A few days after trampsing through the woods she came across another zombie but, this time it was a little girl. She didn’t say anything when I asked her what her name is, well was. So, that evening I talked with Carter and told him about the little zombie girl. He looked shocked to hear that there was another zombie in town. The next day, Carter and I went to find the little girl to get some answer onto why she was here. We searched for hours and hours until we came upon an old abandoned warehouse. Carter said that he knew that she would be in here because it was dark and cold. We went inside and sure enough, we found the little girl just lying on the floor. Carter and I walked up to her and sat next to her so we wouldn’t scare her. Carter was the first to say anything to the little girl. He said that we weren’t there to hurt her and that we wanted to know why she was there. Then, the girl sat up and looked at us for a couple minutes. The silence was deafening. Finally, the girl said “See big brother.” Carter and I were shocked. There was ANOTHER zombie in town? But, Carter just said “Hey Brooke.” I turned to Carter and asked “You’re her big brother. How come you never told me?” Carter thought for a moment before speaking. “Don’t remember. Came door remember.” I thought for a second and then said “I wonder what made you remember your little sister.” Then we looked at the little girl and asked when she remembered she had a brother and she said that it was when we came into the warehouse a couple hours ago. I knew this warehouse was creepy but making zombies remember people from when they were alive? That was impossible. I knew if other zombies knew about this warehouse, they all would start coming here and that was make a bloodbath for sure between them and the humans. Carter, Brooke and I made a pact to never speak of what the warehouse can do. Little did I know someone was already talking about it before we even left to head home. A couple weeks later, I was walking home from school when I saw a big group of… You guessed it. Zombies.