Dead End 2
A Better Day to Die
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Aaron Porter
The sun started to rise, finally giving me enough light to write my final message to the world. I still had the pen and paper… Almost too coincidental that I was trying to live now. My suicide note was going to be a bit different than I originally planned.
“Dear those left alive.
There are two possible ways you could’ve gotten this letter. A: You looted it off my zombified carcass, or B: There wasn’t enough left of me to mutate and you found this at still the same death trap of a house I’m regretting ever going into.
Three days ago, I got fired from my job by my girlfriend/boss. I was out on the street in more than one way. I got very depressed and spent most of my time thinking about what sucks about modern day life. Corrupted politics driving our society down the drain, money controlling every single action we take, unloyal spouses cheating on one another. It seemed to me that society itself was fucked beyond repair. I didn’t want to live in a world like that; it just wasn’t worth struggling for.
But, even though I’d been driven to loathe people, I’m still sorry for the selfish acts that have kept me alive this long. Was it worth that many lives to save me? Someone who wanted to die?
I’m sorry to the surviving relatives of the people who were kept in the police station's shelter. I thought heading out to help hold them off was the right thing to do! If I’d know the injured man in the corner would’ve become one of them I wouldn’t have barricaded the door behind me.
I’d like to say one thing before these things finally get me. It doesn’t matter what life was like before, all the tedious things that drove us nuts or all the annoying people we had to deal with, AT LEAST THEY WEREN’T TRYING TO EAT YOU! The contrast I’ve seen since this all began is indescribable! I’ve seen living humans sacrifice more of their humanity than these damned corpses just to survive! And fail!
So if there’s anyone, ANYONE who can get this letter, forgive the way things are! They could be much much worse.”
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I folded my final thoughts and stuck them in my pocket, that way the blood wouldn’t stain the page as much. But that didn’t mean I was going to keel over and die!
There was enough sunlight to reveal just how old this roof was. The slate shingles were chipped and loose from years of wind and rain. I took a decent number of them and threw them like Frisbees down at the sea of reanimated bodies below me. When I went back for more ammo, I noticed one of the horizontal supporters for the roof through the whole I was making.
Despite the fact that the attic was now swarmed with undead, I still somehow managed to kick at the wooden beam without being bitten. I smashed away until it broke free and pulled it up to the apex of the roof. Sliding it down the rear, I used the beam as a ladder to get down onto the top of the porch that sat behind the house. I then flipped it down onto the ground, the top end just barely landing on the fence that boxed the zombies in with me. If I could run up it as a ramp I might stand a chance for survival.
I took a few minutes to summon up the courage and stupidity for what I was about to do, but before I could the mangled cannibals started tearing away at the roof I sat on! Adrenaline would have to make up for the bravery I lacked.
I jumped down from my hiding place, landing foot first on a cadaver that oddly resembled my third grade teacher, and used its face as a springboard to get to the wooden ramp. I briefly thought how odd it was that third grade was the last time I tried running across a balance beam.
I almost made it to the fence when a horrid looking mailman grabbed my pant leg and pulled me crotch first down on the rotted wood. The pain kept me from doing anything but watch, as the thing opened its blood drooling mouth wide and reached in to end my days as a human.
Just as its teeth touched my pants, a bullet whizzed through its skull. I didn’t take the time to see just who had rescued me, pulling myself up and over the wood fence and into temporary freedom. But, as with everything else I put in their way, the hoard started to bash through the fence.
The hand of a soldier came down and pulled me to my feet. He turned to me, gasmask hiding any expression, and said “Let’s go! Your luck won’t be enough if they get their teeth into ya’!” Him and his partner threw my arms over their shoulders and carried me off like I’d been shot in the leg. After all, I was incopasitated in much the same way.
End.