Story Snippet: Zombies Hate To See You Cry

Back again! This time with a snippet of a zombie story that I worked rather hard on. It’s also going to be part of the collection I am working on getting published!

This story was written while I was in SNHU for a short story writing class. I charged it full of religious trauma, queer feels, and a hungry undead soul. The rewrites for this one were not as intense as some of the others were, as this story was actually pretty decent to begin with. I almost got it published in SOOP. (Thank goodness I decided against it, because I am not sure I would have been able to put this collection together if I didn’t.)

This snippet is closer to the middle of the story, featuring our main character Marissa take shelter from the rain after being kicked out of her parents’ house.

This snippet contains discussion of religion and features a queer main character who has been thrown from her home amidst the zombie apocolypse and is struggling between her faith and her sexuality. This scene in particular is quite heavy in this department. Read with caution.

The thudding of the rain against the arch stopped, causing Marissa to lift herself up from the ground and look around her. The rain had stopped pounding on the ground and was more like a dense mist. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Maybe God was listening to her after all?

She laid her head back down against the wet grass. She didn’t like thinking so negatively about her faith. To her, her faith was one of the few things she’d thought she was sure of. Everything she knew had been driven deep into her soul since she was a kid. Her mother had done what she could to raise her to be devout; Marissa should have expected nothing less from a former Catholic nun.

As she lay there, her mother’s deep and judgmental voice echoed in her head. Even there in the woods, so far away from her home, her mother’s scathing preachings were still ringing in her ears.

“Marissa, the Bible says don’t lie.”

“Marissa, the Bible says a woman should be modest.”

“Marissa, the Bible says a woman cannot lie with another woman.”

Marissa squeezed her eyes shut, put her hands over her ears, and shrieked. “I know what the bible says, mother!” She took a few deep breaths, ready to start crying.

A loud crash from the woods made her abruptly sit up and scan the woods around her with a terrified and alert gaze. She covered her mouth, her words still echoing through the trees around her. No. No, no, no… She didn’t mean to open her mouth. She reached for her bag, pulled out a tiny kitchen knife, then zipped the bag back up. She pulled one of the straps over her shoulder, scanned the woods from where she had come moments before, and slowly stood to her feet.

She could hear the whistling of the wind as the rain continued to fall around her. She heard a snap and froze. Nothing was moving in the woods in front of her. She took a step closer, looking for any sign of an attacker. But there was a stillness behind the trees.

She needed to get out of there. She slowly tore her eyes away from the treeline and moved to turn around.

A growl alerted her to duck before she laid eyes on the creature. Its rotting arm swung over her head, and she stumbled back onto the ground with a scream.

“Gotcha!” The thing grinned down at her as she scrambled backward. She couldn’t tell who this thing used to be. The skin on its face was so decomposed that it was hard to believe it had ever been human. All she could see were bloodshot red eyes and strangely gleaming white teeth. It was wearing some kind of uniform, but Marissa wasn’t concerned about that as two strong arms reached for her.

She let out another loud scream and crawled backward, moving a foot up to try and kick at it as she tried to get away. Her hand still clutched the handle of the knife, holding it out towards the creature in a less than threatening manner. She backed up into the trunk of a tree. Was this the end of her?

Why wasn’t she running?

“You’re gonna make this too easy for me!” The creature teased her in a raspy voice.

She stood up, using the tree to support her as the creature stumbled toward her. She looked around the creature. There was a wide-open space on either side. So she asked herself again, “Why am I not running?”

She used the tree as a launchpad and took off past the creature.

“That’s the spirit!” She heard the thing roar as she rocketed through the trees. How the heck did this one find her? Never mind. That was her own fault. Even when running for her life, her personal issues had to take over. She dodged a tree and ripped through the edge of the woods. She could hear the grunting and branches cracking behind her. Where was she?

It was an open field of upturned roots and dirt– well, mud. At the edge of the field, she could make out a small gathering of buildings surrounded by a large fence. She didn’t care what lay on the other side or how she would make it there. She had no time to think about it. She could hear the footfalls behind her get louder.

She booked it across the field, keeping her energy focused on not tripping before she could reach the fence. She had no idea what she was going to do when she got there, but the fence was the closest thing to safety she had. She just kept her eyes on the fence, not caring about the fiery pain she felt from the waist down. She let out an angry growl and pushed herself harder.

As she approached the fence, she almost jumped onto it and started climbing… But something stopped her. A small buzzing filled her ears, seeming to get louder as she reached out for the fence.

“No…” She turned around. The creature was lumbering across the field, throttling towards her. She glanced up and down the fence line. It looked like it spanned for miles… She had nowhere to go… She had nothing she could do.

She had nothing left…

She faced the zombie and held her knife out.

Was her life really worth defending?

A tear slipped from her eyes as she dropped the knife into the dirt.

I am so sorry to end the snippet right there. >.<

But I have some good news! If you want to read more, this story will be in my collection! So, you will have the chance to read the full story! 😀 Evenutally!