Appearance: 
  
 
Page:   
 Share It:
https://fiction.homepageofthedead.com/forum.pl?readfiction=1110H

Cessation
(© M.A. Kastle)

Page 2

The zombies didn’t care what name it went by, they kept coming.

With enough zombies locked up, and not merely in quarantine, but in cells, it gave doctors the opportunity to eliminate several possibilities. They weren’t zombies from the movies, it wasn’t bio anything, there were no chemicals in their blood, they weren’t contagious, and they weren’t simply sick. They all suffered from the same thing. An aneurysm. A vein exploded in their heads causing blood to soak into their brains, resulting in something resembling encephalitis. Somehow, it stripped them of their conscience, their knowledge of right and wrong and left them to survive on primal, territorial, and violent instincts.

It didn’t stop the rumors of testing, government conspiracy and too many other speculations he couldn’t remember. Too quickly, people chose sides, pro-medical went to hospitals, pro-chaos stopped going to the hospitals and started hiding. They, the zombies, soon out numbered the healthy, or so it seemed when their attacks turned states, counties, and towns into bloody disaster areas. When another wave of sick took to the streets, fear, hate, and frustration ruled over commonsense and the healthy went into hiding.

The question on everyone's lips- were people born with an expiration date, and if they were, how long before the entire human population turned into zombies?

No one had an answer.

After a five-month rampage resulting in countless dead, healthy and zombie alike, and a level of fear no one thought possible, the first wave started to die. Three more months and the second wave picked up where the first wave left off, falling dead where they stood. Everyone gave into the relief they felt when the zombies stopped, then fell. The break gave law enforcement, the military, and all healthies time to regroup and fight back. When the third wave fell ill, the fear of the expiration date became a reality. With or without acknowledging their pending termination, people concentrated on fighting the third and fourth waves. Worry eased further, when the waves began to spread out, at first by weeks and then by months, even the number of infected people grew less with time. It didn’t change the end. Those whose expiration dates came up, turned.

In the background mumbled voices drifted, but as Jack went deeper inside his own reasons for being there, they turned to whispers. He tugged the green tactical strap slung over his right shoulder, an old habit that brought the AR-15, to his right hand. His gun exploration had begun out of fear when the first wave ran wild, and as painful, as it was, all trial by error, he settled on the AR-15. The dealer told him, it was the civilian’s M-16. It was fast, efficient, and common enough he could buy rounds anywhere. That wasn’t his only gun. Just in case, he also carried a Beretta 9 millimeter holstered at his hip. The Cessation’s terror taught everyone a lesson in the importance of self-defense.

Jack pulled the sleeve of his coat back exposing warm skin to chilled air and checked the time. Too soon, with the company of his guide, he would walk through the gate entering the area created for the expired, known as the preserve. It cost him dearly, the trip to the preserve, and then the guide. You had to have one, and they had to be paid, you couldn’t go in and search the place for the person you wanted, as if the zombies were all lined up like dolls on a shelf with plastic covering them.

After the healthy gained control, places like the preserve, nothing more than pastures for zombies, sprouted up all over the US. Like the addition of the preserves, there were changes, states kept their names, but changed their counties to quadrants, and while some stayed the same size, the state expanded each section to incorporate smaller cities and even small towns. Jack currently stood in quadrant 31-A-52, he didn’t know what the numbers meant, but knew two cities lost their identities. The same went for most of the preserves, but not the one he stood in, it was notorious for civilian deaths and rated as one of the most dangerous. Its nickname, Sorrow Flats, hinted at its history, while the two hundred zombies living out their last days explained the danger.

[ Continue to page 3 ]

Donate
Help keep this site online by donating and helping to cover its costs.

Information
Genre:Living Dead
Type:Short story
Rating:6.87 / 10
Rated By:65 users
Comments: 1 user
Total Hits:11866

Follow Us
 Join us on Facebook to be notified of updates
 Follow us on Twitter to be notified of updates

Forum Discussion
 "In A Violent Nature" - trailer... »
 Helldivers 2 (video game) »
 Alien: Romulus (trailer)... »
 Could James Rhodes aka War Machine hav... »
 Could James Remar have portrayed Rhode... »
 Reacher (Amazon series) »
 SRS Cinema (Merged Threads) »
 Rate the last movie you've seen »
 Fallout (Amazon Prime series) - Based ... »
 TWD: "The Ones Who Live" (Rick/Michonn... »
 TWD: Dead City teaser... »
 Had Rhodes and the boys been inside th... »
 Shogun (TV series) »
 MZ's Movie Review Thread »
 Dune: Part 2 (film) »
 For those who have visited the Monroev... »
 Masters of the Air (Apple TV+ series)... »
 the Walking Dead Empires. PC/MAC MMO S... »
 Boy Kills World (film) trailer... »
 Dawn Of The Dead (1978) - On-Set Home ... »