This is almost word for word a dream of mine and I wanted to get it down on paper because I thought it was cool. There were some changes to dialogue, but the scenery and major events that happen did happen. The dream didn’t stop at the end of this short story, and I want to turn it into an actual novel. Let me know what you think in the comments section or through any of my social medias. Without further adieu, I present Dying and Living Again, a Zombie’s Tale.

The Island

There was a large group of us students cataloging fauna in the inter-tidal zone of this island. We had just spent a day sifting through muck, writing down what snails and crabs we found. I was with my best friend Josh and my girlfriend Sophie. The island we were on was a small one, mainly used for weddings. It was a slow wedding season for the island, so they rented out the dormitories to us for cheap money.

“Michael,” Josh said to me.

“Yeah?” I replied

“You ever think about what it means to be alive?”

I took in a deep breath. Josh’s inquisitive nature really ground my gears sometimes. “Do you feel the air in your lunges? Do you feel the damp air on your skin? Do you feel the warmth of a person when you make love? That’s what it means to be alive.”

“So, the sense of feeling is what makes you alive?”

“I don’t know. Imagine what it would be like without it. You wouldn’t know if you were watching TV or fighting. You wouldn’t know if you just made love or screwed a tree knot. If you couldn’t see, at least you could still feel everything around you. You could still live in the moment instead of getting sucked into your own head.”

“What about thinking? Don’t you think that thinking would make you alive?”

“Amoebas don’t think, but they’re alive. They also have a sort of feeling system too. They can respond to their surroundings without seeing or hearing anything. They survive purely by feel.”

“Let me rephrase. You’re talking about being alive, but what about living. Imagine being able to feel but not being able to think.”

“That’s an oxymoron.”

“I guess.”

As we walked back, I noticed a night ceremony going on for a wedding. There were about eighty gests, all sitting in white chairs in the classic wedding chair formation. Groom’s relatives on one side and bride’s relatives on the other with a column down the middle for the bride to walk down. The bride and the groom were both in front of everybody under a white wooden arch with the minister performing the ceremony. It was a pretty looking wedding.

I heard rustling in the woods beside me. It was getting dark out so I couldn’t make anything out. It was probably a raccoon or something.

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And the creature with pale, dead flesh ran straight at Michael, Sophie, and Josh through the bushes and snapped its leg from tripping on a rock. It didn’t feel anything, but its progress was slowed significantly. It gave the trio enough time to get to their dorms.

This was a creature purely of the present. It had a thought process similar to that of an amoeba’s. It could still see and smell and even taste its food, but it cared little for all of that. It sought to fill a belly that would never give it a feeling of being full. It wanted to make more of itself so that it could better hold down its food to eat. This thing represented the basic definition of what life was defined as. It had a metabolism. It could reproduce. It was comprised of cells. It could move. It excreted its waste and needed food. It was the embodiment of the characteristic traits of a living thing. Nothing more, nothing less.

After dragging itself a hundred feet through the woods, the creature experimented a little and found that it could run using its arms and on good leg. It ran toward the wedding ceremony and jumped onto the closest person it could sink its teeth into. The man it bit was exposed to the pathogen. The pathogen that had made this creature. It quickly coursed through his veins. His skin turned pale. His veins bulged through his skin. His skin became taught over his face. His heart stopped, but his body kept moving. The same relentless hunger took over his mind. He jumped at the nearest person and bit their neck as did the original. They were reproducing so they could better eat the rest of the population. The wedding ceremony exploded into screaming guests and the living dead. Only five wedding guests managed to escape the turning.

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I was shaving my face real quick before dinner. Sophie was relaxing on my bed, waiting for me to finish so we could head down to the cafeteria together. We managed to catalog all the critters we could find in our section and I was starting to get excited to go to our next location tomorrow.

For some reason, Josh’s little inquiry earlier had really stuck with me. Why was I thinking so much about it? Who cares about those stupid questions. If I wanted to fight, I would fight. If I wanted to ditch class, I would ditch class. You only live once, and you have to live in the present.

The wedding we had passed got loud once we got back to the dorm. It must be a crazy bunch of people.

“Do you hear that?” Sophie called to me.

“Yeah, they must be having a blast.”

“It doesn’t sound like that. It sounds like they’re scared.”

I listened a little more closely. It did sound kind of like they were scared. I grabbed my towel and wiped the shaving cream off my face. I hadn’t gone against the grain yet, but I wanted to go see what was happening outside. It didn’t sound good, so I went to rummage in my bag for my hatchet. I brought it in case I had the opportunity to practice bush craft, but it was useful in self defense too. I wasn’t going to hack anybody to pieces or anything. It was a solid hunk of steel with a nice blunt end I could hit people with.

“Stay here,” I said to Sophie.

“I can help too,” she said, grabbing a taser from her purse.

“Fine but stay behind me.”

I slipped on my sweatshirt and put the hatchet in an inner pocket. If there wasn’t any trouble, I didn’t want my friends thinking I was a creep for bringing a hatchet with me.

We went out into the hallway to see Josh and a couple other people with an arrangement of makeshift weapons. “What’s going on guys?” I asked.

“We don’t know,” Josh answered me. “We were just about to go check it out. You in?”

“Hell yeah.”

“You got something to help out?”

“Yeah,” I replied, shyly taking out my hatchet.

“No shit, Bear Grills,” he laughed. “Let’s head out.”

We all went down the stairs to the dorm doors. They were locked for the night and by now it was pitch black outside. The screaming had stopped.

Josh, the brave leader, unlocked the door and peaked outside. It was quiet. Too quiet for the after party of a wedding. He stepped outside followed by two other guys. Sophie and I unfortunately got stuck at the back of the group going down the cramped stairwell, so we couldn’t see much of what was happening in the front.

That’s when I heard it. Josh let out an ear-piercing screech. “It’s biting my leg!” he screamed. The other two guys jumped back inside, dragging Josh with them. “Get it off!” he continued to screech.

Whatever was biting him pulled back. The two rugby players who were dragging him in were struggling against whatever was biting Josh. I was the strongest one here and my best friend needed help.

I pushed my way to the front of the group, but as I did, I heard one of the rugby players scream so loud it hurt my ears. I jumped up in the air to see what was going on. Being short sucked. What I managed to see shocked me beyond belief. Josh had turned a deathly pale, his veins jutting through tight, flakey skin. His face was gaunt and his eyes glowed red. He was biting the neck of one of the rugby players, blood streaming down his white shirt.

Screw this. This was beyond me. I pushed my way back through the crowd of people. I had to get to Sophie. I grabbed her arm and we ran up the stairs along with a couple of the people who had seen what was going on. There were people waiting at the top, scared shitless.

“Get back to your rooms,” I commanded, my voice cracking a little. “Lock your doors, and don’t come out. Get anything you can to fight with.”

They hesitated.

“Get going!” I shouted again, shoving one of them.

They quickly dispersed into their rooms.

I quickly ran into my room and locked the door. “What’s happening out there?” Sophie asked me, terror in her eyes. “What happened to Josh?”

“I don’t know. He turned all pale and started to bite one of the rugby players. I don’t know what happened, but whatever bit him turned him into something different.”

“What do we do?” she asked, starting to panic.

“Just calm down. We stay as quiet as possible and hide in the bathroom. Turn off all the lights.”

“Okay.” I could still see the panic in her eyes.

I grabbed her shoulders and made her look into my eyes. “We’re going to be fine.”

She nodded.

We turned off all the lights and hid in the bathroom. I had the bathroom door locked and Sophie in my arms. My hatchet was in my hand, ready to strike at whatever came through that door. The screaming had stopped downstairs. I think they were all dead…or turned into whatever Josh had become. The thudding up the stairs answered my question. There were a lot of feet stomping up the stairs.

Sophie squeaked when she heard the stomping. I put my hand over her mouth and a bead of sweat rolled down my face. My heart was racing in anticipation. It was like waiting for a fight times a hundred. I was completely in the moment. There was no me of the past, nor me of the future. The sweat trickled down my brow. My heart was racing so fast I thought it would burst out of my chest. Being alive had its downsides sometimes. If I didn’t calm down, I might not be able to fight these things off. I heard people screaming near the stairs. Some of those dipshits hadn’t listened to me and stayed outside. There was nothing I could do for them now.

I heard the footsteps continue down the hallway. I knew whatever things belonged to those footsteps used to be my friends. One of them was probably Josh.

Sophie’s breathing continued to get heavier, and I had to put my hand back over her mouth to keep her quiet. As soon as I did, she slowed her breathing. My palm was sweaty, and her humid breath made it even more clammy. The hand holding my hatchet was getting slippery, so I set it down and wiped my hand on my pants. Suddenly, there was a slamming on the door leading into my room. I scrambled to pick up my hatchet and pushed Sophie off me. I needed to be ready. I gave up the pretense of pretending not to be in my room. Whatever was out there knew I was in here.

The door crashed open and a figure burst in. I could see its shadow coming underneath the bathroom door. Bang! It hit the door with a resounding thud, leaving an indent where the impact was. Another bang. And another. In the same exact spot as the first. Soon, the heavy wood gave way and I could see whatever was hitting hit. Josh. The skinny track star screeched once it saw me. It wasn’t like before, when the screech was one of pain. This was high pitched and primal. His jaw stretched to an ungodly width when he did so. His newly gaunt, grey face contorted, and he began to rip at the opening.

Sophie screamed when she saw Josh. Josh looked at her with his red eyes, hungry for flesh. I swung my hatchet at him, chopping off a couple fingers. He didn’t even flinch and kept ripping at the opening. I had to protect Sophie.

The opening was just big enough for me to jump through. I took a step back, gearing myself to do just that. Sophie saw what I was about to do and reached out to stop me. She was too late, and I tore out of her grasp as I sprinted at the door. I jumped through the opening, tackling my dead friend to the ground. He was strong. Way stronger than Josh ever was when he was alive. I was a hundred and eighty pounds of muscle and he was a hundred pounds soaking wet, but I was struggling to pin him to the ground. I got too close to his mouth though. Josh sunk his teeth into my neck. They felt like hot irons being pressed to my flesh. I let out a grunt and jerked away from his mouth. A chunk of my neck ripped off with his teeth and I yelled out in pain. I savagely hacked off his skinny arm, but it was too late. Whatever was in his saliva was in my blood. I could feel my flesh being turned into whatever that grey shit was. I could feel the buildup of blood in my face. I could feel the flutter of my heart as it thudded its last thud. My vision went red. Then nothing.

There was nothing but black all around me. I was vaguely aware of my body moving, but I wasn’t in control of it. I could hear faint screaming in the distance. But I was tired. If I just closed my eyes, I’m sure the screaming would stop. An amoeba. That’s what I was now. I could finally embrace my existence of the present in this black void. The blackness around me was cold, but in a relaxing sort of way. It was like sitting in a snow bank with your winter clothes on. Cold. Soothing. The flutter of snow on your face putting you to sleep.

“Michael!” a voice shouted in the distance. That caught my attention. If only it would just stop so I could sleep. “Michael!” I heard the voice shout again. This time much clearer. It was Sophie’s voice. What did she want? “Michael!” she screamed at the top of her lungs in terror. She was in trouble! I had to wake up. I had to wake up. I had to wake up! And with that, the blackness disappeared in an instant. I was standing over her, her neck inches away from my teeth. I jumped back from her so fast, I flew into the wall, the plaster becoming a crater around me. There was a loud crack and instantly I knew the wooden beam hidden behind the plaster had also snapped.

She looked at me, fear written across her face. Then Josh burst through the doorway, jumping at her. Faster than anybody should have been able to react, I jumped back across the room, tackling him into the wall. I savagely beat in his face. One punch. Another punch. A third punch. That’s all it took. Josh’s head was nothing more than a bloody pulp lodged into the wall, and his body wasn’t moving. Whatever he was, he was dead now.

“Sophie,” my voice rasped. My throat was desperately dry, but I felt no need to drink water. “Sophie, we need to go.”

“Michael?” Sophie asked. She still looked scared. I had to get her out of here. I reached to grab her, but she flinched away. What was wrong? Then I looked at my hand. It was a deathly grey. The veins jutting through my newly taught skin.

“It’s me, I swear,” I rasped again. “We have to go.”

She nodded her head, but still didn’t grab my hand.

“Follow me.”

I ran out into the room and grabbed my hatchet. There was a bloodbath going on in the hallway. I grabbed Sophie quickly, and ran as fast as could through the hallway, down the stairs, and out the door. There was nobody out there, but I could hear footsteps chasing after me. I needed to get to the dock. I was half an island away from me, and I needed to run there fast. The island was a giant mesa jutting out of the water. The dock was at the bottom of four flights of stairs that ran parallel to a vertical cliff face.

My undead legs carried me nearly twice as fast as I could run before even with Sophie over my shoulders, but I felt no exertion. The undead behind me weren’t nearly as coordinated as me and kept stumbling over themselves. I quickly escaped immediate danger, but I knew there were other creatures like that out in the wilderness around me. The stairs were close now. I could see the archway over them. But undead burst from the bushes around me, leaving their meals. Whatever they were eating didn’t resemble a human anymore.

I got to the stair case, but there was no time. I had to jump down the four flights to the ground. I would die, but Sophie would land on me as if I were a cushion. I jumped, cradling her in my arms. She was screaming, but all I could do was look at her face. If these were my last moments, it wasn’t terrible. But I never hit ground. I landed in water. The undead jumped off the top as well, plummeting into the water and sinking like rocks. They weren’t coordinated enough to swim. I was.

The water should have felt cold, but I didn’t feel any uncomfortable level of coldness. I didn’t feel anything. Sophie was shivering though. Whatever happened to me had desensitized my body to any feeling. If we didn’t get on a boat or onto land soon, Sophie was a dead woman.

That’s when I saw it. A search-light. There was a boat. “Wait!” I shouted, my voice rasping loudly. I began to paddle towards the boat. They must have heard me because they stopped, and the spotlight landed on me. My hood was up, thank God. They would have seen my undead appearance and stayed away. I quickly paddled to the dive table on the back of the boat and hauled Sophie onto the back of it. I pulled myself up as well. Whoever was on this boat gave Sophie and me a towel and a thick wool blanket.

“Th-th-thank you,” Sophie stammered out.

“No problem,” the man who gave us the towels replied. “Get inside and take a seat.” The man was dressed in a tuxedo. He must have been from the wedding ceremony I had seen before.

I kept my head down as I passed by him. Sophie and I went in and grabbed a seat. This was the same ferry we had been brought in on. There were five other people here, all of them shaking. One was a woman who was balling her eyes out on the shoulder of one of the men.

Sophie and I took a seat, and I started to towel her dry. I didn’t even bother with myself because I wasn’t even cold. I wasn’t even anything. She helped me and dried herself as well.

“M-M-Michael,” she stammered between shattering teeth. “W-what happened to you,” she whispered.

“I don’t know, but don’t talk to loud,” I rasped. “Whatever happened to those people also happened to me. I can just control myself.” What was I if I couldn’t feel anything? I could already feel myself losing my mind. I had no heartbeat thudding in my chest, no sense of cold as my soaked cotton clothes sapped what little heat was in my body. What was I? I was no better than a point of consciousness with memories.

“All of those people,” she said, starting to warm up. “Josh.” And with that, she began to cry. I held her close, providing no warmth whatsoever from my lifeless body. I made sure to keep my head down so nobody could see my red eyes. There was a window right next to our seat and I looked at my reflection in shock. My face was grey and pulled tight over my skull bones. But I didn’t have red eyes. It was only one eye that was red. The other was its normal brown.

“Oh my God!” one of the wedding guests screamed. I looked up to find him staring at my hand. Shit. I forgot my hands looked like death. As soon as he saw my face, he stumbled back even more. The other wedding guests saw my face and the woman let out an ear-piercing scream.

The men stood up and began to run at me.

“Wait!” I shouted. “I’m alive!”