Eating my Experiences (17)

TOME 18

As reality set in, burrowing into my bones, I could see how imperative it would be to get out of here. "Z...Zach, we're on the fourth floor right?" I ask, looking for any possibility of freedom from this hell scape of my friends blood. My voice comes out weak and pleading.

"Uh, yeah, I don't think there's any windows we can get to from here, so the only way out is through the front door." He had obviously been thinking of exit routes the whole time, yet could not think of a way out, something that made all hope drain from my body, instilling weakness in my limbs.

I tried to overcome the impossibility of our situation, but the strong smell of my friends blood as she was pulled apart, bones cracking, eyes dangling from their sinew. Aurora's mouth gaped as if suspended in her final scream for eternity. Tears threaten me as the first round of bile forced its way out of my throat. I could not help but stare into the mess that was my former friend, it became my whole world.

As Aurora's garbled body grew in my mind, corrupting each memory I had of her, each moment passed in half speed, each sound lasted a lifetime. I could hear her bones ground to bits between teeth as I sat in a pool of her blood and my own vomit. Defeated. I felt so suddenly alone, my BPD had never been triggered so intensely, I had lost two people I loved dearly in the span of a week, yet this one was the most gruesome. This was the first time I had seen zombies this cognizant, and yet casually brutal, the combination ripped me to pieces.

That's when I felt a smooth, warm, pillowed palm in mine, causing me to flinch at suddenly being pulled into the moment again. "You're going to be okay." Zach said, a reassuring smile crossing his face as he swept a soft curl behind his ear before leaning over to provide a long hug. I let all my pain out onto his shoulder in the shape of snot, screams, and tears while he sat patiently. I took in a deep swallow before leaning back onto my hands in an attempt to regain independence.

I could hear someone pacing in front of the door before deciding to stand and pace without purpose myself. I had a plan, but felt I could not risk verbalizing it. I would be alone in this plan. The only door into the hallway began to open with a creaking slowness. There was only one guard, an unworthy move, as he strolled across the room, with an err of caution, I knew we were in luck.

"Tch, the one she wanted is already dead...damn. Okay, I'll take you, missy." He was clearly bothered, yet had little balance, making my plan perfect. I waltzed towards him, making a small diagonal nearer the cage, where I caught him by the elbow, then the lower back, thrusting him into the cage. As his body flew to the cage I yelled "Hey! Zombies, I have food for you." The moment his body collided with the bars, one knee and an arm went partially into the cage.

One zombie who was lying on the on it's back caught him by the knee, pulling it to it's mouth, accepting a large mouth full of patella, muscle and blood with a toothy smile. "Th-thank you." It sputtered out through a mist of blood, I allowed myself a flinch as more bodies came forward to accept this meal. A well persevered woman stepped forward to take his arm, pulling hard on his wrist, allowing his head to breach the cage, but she kept pulling as each joint in his arm popped as it dislocated, now just a tube of flesh and bone he could not move.

I allow myself the luxury of a vomiting spell before rounding up my friends and pulling them out the door, down the hallway now filled with the vocalization of pure pain resounding from the guard I had just fed to his own demise. I wondered if I would ever forget or forgive myself for this act. I know he was a local homeless man, I knew of him before all this happened, all he was trying to do was survive.

I shook my head in an attempt to empty it of our current situation, of the sound of his body being ripped apart, of his screams.

TO BE CONTINUED....