Have you noticed that in every form of zombie related literature, the zombie apocalypse always happens because of an accident involving a virus somehow escaping a lab and destroying the entire world? Well only half of this cliche happened this time. A lab somewhere in Royal Woods, Michigan was experimenting on a strange virus that was hypothesized to cure diseases and as you can guess, it somehow got loose. Now this is the most surprising part, the scientists were actually took precautions for any possible incident! As the zombie population was still incredibly small, swat teams were called in and began to successfully eradicate the undead. There was a report that a total of 26 people were killed that night, and those same people who turned to zombies are now dead again. So that means our planet dodged a huge bullet and soon enough, everything went back to normal. Well...except for the loud family.
Loud House...
Lynn Sr held a hot bowl of soup with oven mits on his hands.
"Excuse me, kids. Excuse me." he said kindly as he walked passed his children. But the siblings gave off worried glances towards their father. They know what he's going through as they feel the same exact pain.
They watched their father enter the basement door in the kitchen and disappeared into the darkness.
"Is daddy going to be okay?" Lola asked
Lori sighed.
"I literally don't know." she replied
After walking off the final step, Lynn Sr flipped the switch next to him which illuminated the basement.
"Honey, are you awake?" he asked
Sound of low groaning and chains clanking filled the room.
A figure swayed back in forth rapidly, trying to escape the confinement.
Lynn Sr approached the slumped figure.
"Good afternoon, dear. You're looking nice today." he smiled
The figure turned out to be a zombified Rita Loud. Her wrists and ankles bounded by chains. She started to gnash her teeth at Lynn, trying to bite him.
About two months ago(on night of the temporary outbreak), Rita was attacked by a zombie only to be saved by a swat officer who shot the creature off of her. But little did they know, the zombie managed to bite Rita's arm before dying. When she got home, the mother(while concealing the bite mark) was bombarded by questions from her children and husbands about her health. Rita just told them that she was alright and got inside of the shower soon after, hoping she could disinfect the wound as if it was as like any other cut or scrape. After getting out of the shower, Rita suddenly felt nauseated and went to bed early. Sadly, that was the last the siblings would ever see their mother for who she was.
As Lynn Sr was getting ready for bed, he was attacked by a zombie Rita only to be over-powered by her kids. Lori grabbed a knife from the kitchen and held it over her mother's head, tears streamed down her face as she knew had to end her own mother's suffering. But Lori was stopped by her father who tried desperately to convince his kids that they can find a cure instead. This sparked Lisa's interest so she's agreed with her father. Rita was brought into the basement where she was chained to the ground so she wouldn't be able to bite anyone. But for the last few months, Lisa has never found a cure, no matter what, nothing worked. Lynn tried to convince his kids to talk to their mother but they decided to keep their distance, leaving Lynn to be the one to care for his undead wife. Not long after, news reports confirmed that all zombies has been exterminated and are no longer a threat. But they don't know about the one in their basement. To explain Rita's disappearance, it hasn't been agreed that Rita ran off with another man while the kids were banned from telling anyone the truth about their mother. Everyday, Lynn fed Rita breakfast only for the food to be smeared on her face and end up on the floor. After that, he goes to work and comes home later to feed Rita once more while talking to her, showing photos from the past while keeping his distance from her jaws. And later, he fed her dinner and told her good night. None of them had the strength to tell him that Lisa had given up on the cure and anytime Lynn asked husband intelligent daughter about her progress, she lied and says that she's close to a cure.
This process has been repeated each day for the last two months...until Rita's birthday came up.
"Come on, kids! It's almost time for cake!" Lynn Sr announced
The siblings begrudgingly entered the basement where they came into the view of what was their mom.
"Stay here while I go grab it from the kitchen." said Lynn Sr as he want up the stairs, leaving his kids with the monster.
Few struggled to not gag at her rotting flesh or yellowed teeth. Rita hissed at her meals.
"H-Hi, Mom." Lincoln muttered while putting in a fake smile.
Rita growled in response.
Lynn groaned in annoyance.
"I can take this anymore. It's bad enough that mom is now a mindless zombie who wants to eat us, but dad decided to keep her alive for two whole months on his belief that there's a cure!" she vented
"Yes, I agree. I hate having to lie to father but if something isn't done soon, then father's sanity will permanently deplete." Lisa added
"What should we do?" asked Leni
"We wait for him to come back, and then we tell him how it is!" Lynn explained
A minute later, Lynn Sr came down with the cake and a knife to cut it.
"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!" Lynn sang
"Dad." Lori called calmly
"Happy Birthday, dear Rita.." Lynn continued
"Pops." Luna called with a voice more stern than Lori's.
"Happy Birthday to you!" he finished
"DAD!" all kids yelled making Lynn jump in surprise.
"Oh, sorry kids. What do you need?" he asked
Lucy sighed.
"Dad...we can't keep pretending anymore. YOU can't keep pretending anymore." she replied
"What do you mean?" he scowled
"What she means is that we can't keep pretending that that thing is our mother!" Lola said bluntly
Lynn Sr gasped.
"Lola! You don't talk about your mother that way!" he snapped
"She was our mom!" The princess snapped back.
Lynn Sr grew angry.
"No! You're wrong! Lisa is working in a cure to fix her!" he stared
"Wrong, father. I stopped working on a cure a long time ago. I tried everything I could to fix mother. But she's gone." Lisa explained
Lynn's glare changed to a stunned expression as his lips began to quiver.
"no...no..." he whimpered
"I'm sorr-"
CRASH!
CLANG!
The glass platter of the cake shattered as it landed on the ground along with the knife.
"NO!NO!NO!NO!" Lynn Sr repeated loudly as he ran over to Rita and placed his hands on the sides of her face.
"I-I know that she's still in there somewhere! I just know it!" he cried before hugging Rita.
The female zombie opened her jaws as she's was prepared to bite only for Lynn to be forcefully pulled back, making Rita snap the air.
The kids held down their father to the ground.
"Dad! Get a hold of yourself!" said Lori
Lynn kicked and trashed as he tried to get out of the hold.
"S-She needs me! I need her!" he yelled
"Dad, mom is dead and she isn't coming back. Nothing will bring her back!" Lincoln explained as he held down her father's arm.
"Y-You're w-wrong! I can stil h-help her!" Lynn screamed
"By how? Talking to her? Feeding her? Reminding her about the good old days? Tell us how all of that worked out. What has she's done the whole time when you tried to help her!" Luna shouted back
Lynn's movements began to slow down.
"S...She.." he sputtered
"She tried to bite you, didn't she?" Leni asked, already knowing the answer.
Lynn Sr's kicking finally seized. The only sounds we're now the zombie's moans and Lynn's heavy breathing.
"Dad...look at her. Is that your wife? Is that our mom? Mom has never once tried to eat us! We accepted that she isn't coming back!...but you never did.." Lincoln spoke, causing Lynn Sr to spill tears from his eyes.
"R-Rita...Rita!" he sobbed
The kids have never felt so sorry for their dad in their entire lives.
"Father unit, we had hopes as well that I could find a way to fix our mother and continue our regular lives. But sadly, it was not meantime to be. You in the other hand, refused to give up the hope of being reunited with the woman you love. And that...that's what love is about. But she's wouldn't want for you to suffer like this. Mother would've wanted for you to move on and continue living your life, like you would've wanted her to do as well." Lisa exclaimed
Lynn Sr stopped crying as he tried to see past his tears.
"I..I want to get up." he said
The siblings got up from their father, allowing for him to rise on his feet. Lynn then looked as his zombie wife who was opening and closing her mouth rapidly, trying to eat him but was still bound by the chains.
He then looked down at the at the ruined cake on top of broken glass and the knife.
Lynn took a deep breath before talking.
"So what you said is true, Lisa? There is no way to reverse the affects of the virus?" he asked
"That is right, father," she answered, sounding a bit worried for him.
"But you no lo-"
Lisa's sentence was interrupted by Lynn Sr's rage filled scream as he picked up the knife from the ground and forcefully stabbed Rita in her head.
"Uurk!" The zombie grunted
Lynn pulled the blade out of the head and slammed it back in over and over as the kids watched in horror.
Zombie Rita was dead once more, sitting limply on her knees as her lifeless eyes stared at the ground. But Lynn had too much anger built up from learning the truth. He wasted two months of his life taking care of the soulless husk of his dead wife instead of spending time with his own kids and moving in from their loss. The games he missed, pageants, concerts, golf tournaments, poem readings, fashion shows, comedy gigs, so much he declined going because he rather spend more hours with a monster than his own family. The fact that he was being a bad dad made him more furious as he continued to plunge the knife into the already demolished cranium.
A few minutes later, Lynn finally dropped the knife. His clothes covered with peices of brain, blood, and other fluids. He kept breathing heavily as his anger switched to sadness as he fell to his knees and began to cry. He freed his wife from being that thing, so shouldn't he be happy?
The siblings looked upon their wailing father.
Lincoln approached Lynn.
"Dad?" Lincoln asked as he placed a hand in Lynn's shoulder only to immediately be pulled by Lynn into his arms.
Lynn Sr hugged his son tightly as tears stained his face.
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." he sobbed
The rest of the siblings joined in the hug.
Later:
Rita's body was buried in the backyard under the big tree. Everyday, Lynn comes out to the backyard and pays his respects to his late wife. The kids also visit their mother's grave and leaves flowers for her as well.
Yes, they do miss their wife and mother, but they know that she's in a better place. And everything really did go back to normal this time. Lynn Sr finally moved on, the zombie threat is finally over with, and the family makes sure to spend as much time with each other knowing just like their mom, their lives can unexpectedly end as well.
If Rita was to see this, she wouldn't trade it for the world.
The End
I hope you all enjoyed this little Halloween story I made up. This idea was in my head for a while and at first, I had this story going in different ways before deciding on Lynn Sr and Rita as main characters.
Happy Halloween