The Fight 4 Survival
Chapter One - "You May Now Kiss My Ass"
Lily felt numb from happiness. The full view mirror she was looking at herself in showed a radiant, 25 year old woman. Her face was flushed with excitement and anticipation, her bright green eyes were shining in joy, and her blonde hair had been brought up in an elegant up-do. She was clutching a bright little bouquet of flowers and her long, flowing wedding dress hugged her in all the right places. It barely looked like she had a baby bump of five months, not that she wasn't proud of it.
"My little Jamie," she sighed contentedly. "Today is the happiest day of our life, isn't it?" She rubbed her pregnant belly and smiled when she felt her baby kick in response.
"Lilian!" Lily turned around just as her bedroom door banged open. "Lilian, I've been looking everywhere for you! We're going to be late to the church!" A short, bustling lady with graying hair burst through the doorway.
"Relax, mom," Lily replied calmly, grabbing her veil from her night stand. "Ted said he was going to be late too."
"How can you be so calm? This can ruin the entire day! You being late to your own wedding! The neighbors will talk about how badly I've raised you, you know. And Ted, that Ted, he's only going to be late because of traffic on the highway! The same highway we'll be taking, the same highway we'll be stuck at in traffic, too! Oh boy, you're really in for it, young lady."
"Oh, mother," Lily sighed. The elderly lady looked like she was about to have a brain hemorrhage. "Please, this is my day. Can't you at least lighten up a little and look on the bright side of things?"
"Oh, yes, look on the bright side of my daughter being late to her own wedding. I don't know why you couldn't have just gone with Ted to the church," her mom added, gumbling.
"Mom!" Lily said, aghast. "It's unlucky for the groom to see the bride's dress before the ceremony!"
"Okay, okay, Lilian," her mom said, defeated, wringing her hands worriedly. "Let's just get in the car. The limousine's out front."
Lily's heart was beating so hard it threatened to burst out of her chest. She was standing in front of the doors to the main room of the church, where all her friends, family, and in-laws were waiting anxiously for her to walk down the aisle. She had only been 15 minutes late, but she could feel their impatience through the door. She didn't have anyone to be beside her as she walked down the aisle; her dad had died three years ago from a heart attack. She couldn't do this; there was just too much pressure.
"Okay, Lily," she told herself, taking deep breaths to calm her hysterics down. "You can do this." She wished her mom had stayed to walk with her, but she had bustled off to sit down in the pews next to her Aunt Marge and Uncle Henry. She didn't know why; they were so disagreeable.
She took one final breath and opened the church doors. The pianist started playing, "Here Comes the Bride." The flower girl, a sweet 6 year old who lived in the apartment two doors down, smiled and skipped ahead, throwing fistfuls of flowers in every direction. Her eye caught Ted's at the altar. His handsome face beamed when he saw her. He looked happier than the day she had said yes to his proposal.
I can do this.
She took a tentative step forward when she heard the sound of glass breaking. She looked, alarmed, to the source of the sound and was shocked to see someone had broken a window on the left side of the church.
"What the -" she started, but stopped when she saw five, inhuman creatures jump through the broken window. They screeched and growled and then the room was complete and utter chaos. People sprinted toward the door, but were promptly killed by one of the zombie-like things. Blood was spouting everywhere. Blood curdling, pain filled, heart wrenching screams filled the large room. Her dress was sprayed with red liquid, and she realized she was under one of the pews, trembling.
"Please god please god please god, please," she prayed. "Make it stop, god. Please god, please."
Of course she knew about "The Green Flu." It was all over the news. People thought it was a joke, a rumor, and she was one of them. Was. It claimed to take over a person's body, soul, and mind, so all that was left was rotting, gray skin and a shell of your former self. They were blood thirsty creatures, getting energy off of flesh, which made her friends and probably half the population dub these "imaginary" people zombies.
But it was real, all too real. Screeches of the creatures' triumph over the venerable humans echoed throughout the church. Her friends, family...dead. Her heart had been stomped on, put through a blender, and shot by a shot gun over and over agin. She repressed sobs so they wouldn't be able to find her.
Coward, she thought to herself bitterly. She had done nothing to protect her loved ones from the zombies. She wondered if they could smell her. Good for them if they did. She deserved to die. She wished Ted were beside her, he'd be able to cheer her up.
Ted. The love of her life, the reason the light in her eyes was so bright, the man she had been through so much with - dead. She wanted to scream. Agony coursed through her veins. She didn't know she could be in so much pain. Her mom, her best friend Amy, her uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces...dead.
Please, she begged herself. Wake up from this nightmare. Please. Come on, Lily, it's all in your head, now wake up.
But she knew it was futile to even try. She was awake. The smell of so much fresh blood nauseated her, and when she saw a human arm in the aisle, torn carelessly from a poor human's arm she nearly hurled her breakfast then and there.
A sudden heart breaking scream, a human scream, rose through the air. She gathered the courage to stand up and peer over the pews, and was horrified when she saw her flower girl cowering in the corner of the room, the 5 bloody zombies advancing on her, hungry for her delicate, young flesh.
"No!" Lily screamed. "Stop! Please, by the love of god! Don't kill her!"
The zombies turned their attention to her. Their eyes narrowed and they seemed to smile. They looked like they exchanged glances with each other and came to an agreement which she realized went along the lines with, "Tear the pretty blonde apart, eat her until all that's left is bones, and come back for the little one afterwards." The five started to close in on her, slowly, taunting her. A growl came from the closest one. She prepared herself for the unbearable pain...
...But it never came. Gun shots resounded through the high room. Two of the infected fell, dead. She was confused and stood, frozen like a statue, as the closest one lashed out. She let out a pained yelp as his sharpened claws tore through her tender flesh on her cheek. He was ugly, with lifeless, cold eyes and sharp jagged teeth, like a shark's. He rose his hands, ready to rip her limb from limb, when another shot rang out. He fell to the ground, dead, as well. Her heart was beating fast. All five were down. She was save - for now.
She looked around for the person who had saved her. Someone was still alive, someone with a good aim and gun. Protection. She needed protection. She scanned the room and her eyes fell on an old woman with several deep gashes on her face and her dress torn to ribbons.
"Mom," she gasped, and ran over to the woman.
"Lilian," she croaked. "I'm pretty good with a pistol, if I do say so myself."
"Mom," Lily whispered, tears springing to her eyes. "Thank you for saving my life."
Her mom took her hand and squeezed it weakly. Her life was slowly fading from her green eyes.
"I love you, Lilian. Ever since the first outbreak of the virus I kept a pistol in my handbag, just in case. Looks like it came in good use." She chuckled and gasped in pain. Laughing hurt her. Lily cringed. She didn't want to imagine what kind of pain her mother was in right now.
"Don't do this to me, mom. I need you now more than ever. Everyone I've ever loved was in this room, and now they're dead, slaughtered by those...those things. Please, don't leave me." Her voice turned whiny, like a little girl whose mother wouldn't buy her an ice cream.
"I'm sorry, Lilian. Be safe. I...love...you," she wheezed. Her grip on Lily's hand loosened, and Lily knew the truth. Her mom had been killed by the infected. A sudden rage burned within her. She would get her vengeance against these cruel, heartless monsters. She wrenched her mom's pistol out of her hands. It was as good as a weapon as she could get right now. Who knew what was prowling the street this very second?
She suddenly heard a groaning sound come from the direction of the altar, and she gasped when she saw Ted stirring in front of it. Her heart beating fast, she ran to her love.
"Ted!" she cried, throwing down the pistol beside his still form. She crouched beside him and took his hand.
"H...hey, beautiful," Ted whispered, blood trickling down the side of his mouth. He squeezed her hand weakly. "Your mom kicked some zombie ass back there."
Lily laughed softly and brushed one of his black curls away from his face.
"Why did this have to happen to us?" she asked, her voice cracking.
"Everything happens for a reason," Ted replied calmly. If he hadn't been bleeding so profusely Lily would've felt more at ease but this might be the last conversation she'd have with her almost-husband so she nodded and caressed his face.
"I love you, Lil." Ted smiled, which still made Lily's insides flutter after all this time. He paused for a second. "May I kiss the bride?" he requested, arching his eyebrow like a teenager asking his mom to go to a concert in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of complete strangers.
Lily smiled back. "Yes," she said, "you may kiss the bride." She leaned down for the kiss, and was surprised that his lips were still warm. After a few moments Ted stopped moving his mouth in tune to hers.
"I love you," he mouthed, his lips still connected with hers, and he went stone cold. Lily stumbled back.
"No..." she whispered. "No, no, no. Ted, please, hunny, wake up. I need you here with me. I can't do this without you."
But there was no response. Ted, so full of life and happiness, was laying ice cold at her feet, a pool of his blood laying beneath his body. She screamed then, until her throat went raw. Tears were streaming down her face.
"You...damn...zombies!" she gasped , picking up the pistol beside her husband's body. She picked up his lifeless hand and kissed it.
"Don't worry, Ted," she whispered, calming down enough to wipe her eyes. "I'll get revenge for us."
She stood up and began to walk out of the church, knowing there was more to come outside of the not-so-holy building. She turned to the corner of the room when she reached the wide, oak doors.
"You coming, sweetie?" she asked the little girl in the corner. The girl looked terrified out of her wits.
"They killed mommy," the girl replied, trembling, walking toward Lily.
"Oh, sweetie," she whispered taking the girl's hand in her hand. "I'm so sorry. But these so-called zombies, they're about to all have their asses kicked." And with that she left the church, standing ahead of the little girl protectively, to face the horde outside of it.
A/N: Sorry, I was bored. I'm not the best writer. These next few chapters are basically about getting to know the characters a little. They're all original except the zombies.
~Inkling :)