36th PAWW’s story

Not what I was aiming for, but I still love it. Warning for violence, zombies and all that. 

Screams woke me up, my heart pounding painfully. The back of my neck was throbbing, and I remembered someone hitting me before losing consciousness. I shakily stood up in the midst of all these voices, feeling lost. I blinked and grimaced once I discovered where I was.

It was… morbid to say the least, even though the word lost a bit of its fire in the apocalyptic world we were living in nowadays. I’d never seen so many corpses gathered at the same place. They were everywhere, piled up in the corners, with a cell door on each wall of the large room I was in. The doors shook with the zombies pounding against them, eager as they were to eat me alive.

I looked up to see a crowd leaning over the hole in the ceiling, a fence keeping from falling down. I was alone in a room with zombies-filled cages. I looked once more the people above me, a mix of dirty, embittered and avid faces.

I saw money pass around dark hands, I could hear numbers being shouted from one end to another. They were betting on my death. Where the fuck had I fallen into? They were going to open the cages, and the zombies would rip my throat open. If only I had a weapon…

A voice shouted towards me, tried to get my attention, and I thanked my reflexes, because I narrowly avoided a crowbar thrown at my head.

“Take this, and defend yourself!” A woman told me with a high-pitched voice. “I bet you would be able to kill six of them!”

This old crazy cunt! Of course I would defend myself, but it wouldn’t be for her to win money. I searched through my pockets but found out I didn’t have my knife nor my cigarettes anymore.

I should have listened to Georgia when she told me not to go out. We’d heard a groan outside, one that didn’t come from one of those bloody creatures, and in my charity, I’d decided to go check it out despite my partner’s warning. That same charity would get me killed.

“And now, show time!” A man yelled.

I saw that he had a controller in his hands, and with a grin that made a shiver crawl down my spine, he pressed a button. I quickly picked up my weapon, my heartbeats already speeding up as a loud noise echoed behind me. The doors were opening. I clenched the crowbar in my hand. I had to think, and fast.

I turned to the mass of corpses and ran to it. Some limbs were discarded on their own, I took two despite my repugnance and threw them in the zombies’ direction. Some got distracted by them, but others couldn’t approach fast enough and decided I was a tastier-looking prey, even if I threw some other limbs at them.

They were getting closer. I hit one in the eye with the pointy side of my crowbar, removing it with a viscous noise. The zombie fell.

I would never be able to kill them all without being bit or clawed by one of them, it was impossible. By instinct, I pushed another one with a kick in the chest and jumped multiple times on its head. Already a third one was on me, and I drove in the crowbar in its temple before stepping towards an end of the room.

And then, hidden underneath a beheaded zombie, shone an axe’s bloody blade. I grabbed it, smiled with the comfort of its weight. I turned around, went to the only standing zombie remaining. My axe made a circle in the air before I crashed it right in its face.

I had to take care of those who were still busy on the limbs while I could. Two zombies were eating a leg, and I successfully planted my axe in the side of its head. I struggled to get a hold of it again, finally giving way with a grotesque sound.

I was gasping for air, the strength I had to use for each hit exhausting me, but I had to continue. I didn’t know how long I could survive, but I had to, for Georgia…

The other zombie noticed me, but its face was caved in before it could moan.

“He already killed six, Suez, can you imagine?” The same woman from before laughed. “You’ll own me a lot of cash.”

Her voice distracted me for a second, and I didn’t realize that one of those creatures was getting to me until it tried to grab my arm. I screamed from fear and surprise, jerking back my arm so it would let go, but another was already approaching. I clumsily threw my axe at it and took my crowbar I’d slid in my belt.

I hadn’t aimed correctly to finish the zombie, however, it only fell down. It had crawled towards me and took my foot to unbalance me. I fell with a yelp, discarding my weapon. Its disgusting face with a missing cheek stood a few inches away from me. I pushed it away with a hand while I frantically looked for the crowbar, but the first zombie jumped on me and bit my wrist deeply, taking away a piece of flesh and a loud scream of pain from me. Curses escaped from my gritting teeth, and I became furious.

How I took hold of my crowbar remained a mystery, but I used it like a knife in the ear of the one that was still chewing its bite, before taking care of the last one.

I found myself breathing hard, slouched in the middle of the corpses, covered in blood and brain and other fluids. The crowd was yelling above me, from joy or fury, some was even throwing me objects.

I was fucked, I was infected. Never again would I see Georgia’s beautiful face… Tears streamed down my cheeks as I clutched my wound to my chest, even if it quickly stopped bleeding.

Someone in a stark yellow bunny suit appeared through one of the doors, coming forward with a stick. What did they want? I managed to stand up, only to receive an electric shock in the chest, sending me back to the floor.

“You’re going into the cage.”

I discovered my fate once the door closed behind me.

“You thought you could survive by killing them, didn’t you?”

The person snorted, as if the situation was funny to him.

“This is what they all believe.”

And then they were gone, leaving me alone in this putrid cell. A sob escaped me.

My blood began to boil.

The PAWW Project