Waking Up Dead

Waking Up Dead
It sucks, waking up dead. I was prepared for the attack, I was sure that I had the knowledge and the speed to avoid it. But unsurprisingly, I was like most kids that age, and thought I was invincible. Two robbers, a gun, and a knife. All of which wound up with me lying on this cold slab in the middle of a dark room with a sheet over me, and an unbearable stench. I've never been much of one to like the smell of hospitals, but believe you me -- the morgue is worse. It must have hit me somewhere between getting dressed, and walking toward the door illuminated by the EXIT sign. I must have thought to myself: Oh. I'm dead. How nice.

Okay, so maybe I might have hit a pitch with my voice that would have put my younger sister to shame... but that's a natural reaction for this particular situation, isn't it? I mean, c'mon -- Nobody expects to turn into the walking undead when they bite the bullet. Almost literally in my case. However I found out, I did realize the nature of my situation. Once realized, I came to a decent conclusion.

I was now a liability.

It should be noted that I probably watch way too much television. But every story I've ever read, every movie I've ever watched, every newspaper article in those gossip magazines that I might have just peeked at when my mom wasn't looking? Yeah, I was going off of those. Not to mention that, when I was alive, I used to stop by a zombie every day and pick up a basket of food. I knew they were real, Zave was living proof... sort of. And I still hadn't beaten his high score.

Making my way down the street was easy, since there wasn't anyone out this late. Or at least I thought there wasn't. I heard the footsteps behind me a little after I crossed Phoenix Tree Lane. I thought they were my imagination. Until they started to pick up speed. So I picked up speed. Call me a chicken, but there is very little I like to run into on a dark and scary night. Somewhere in the back of my mind, my little rational voice was telling me that I had nothing to be scared of, because now I WAS what went bump in the night. But there seemed to be a disconnect between my brain and my legs, because my legs were still going as fast as they could possibly go.

I turned a corner onto the street I lived on, and stopped abruptly for a moment. I couldn't just walk into my house after being dead and say 'Mom! I'm home!' - that seemed like a really, really bad idea. So after a brief hesitation, I turned the other way, and darted into the park. Maybe I could lose this guy. No such luck. However, the thing chasing me did step into a bright patch of moonlight, and I got to see his face. It was pretty interesting to be staring into the death mask of a famine suune. Granted, somehow this sunne was in a two-legged form, and chasing me. But let's not get into the details. I had a suune when I was still alive. I knew what they looked like. And this one wanted me. For what? I didn't particularly care to stick around to find out.

The suune continued to follow me as I rounded the swing-set, and headed toward the beach. When I reached the seaside, I discovered that running on sand is no easier undead than it is alive. Falling was easier, though. No real pain associated with it. But now the suune was hovering over me like some angel of death waiting to take my stubborn soul. I reached up to fend off the attack, but to my surprise, something dropped next to me on the sand.

I looked up, to find that the mask of death was just that -- a mask -- and there was a rather irate looking young man standing over me, pointing down to what had dropped beside me. My wallet. I started to laugh with relief, and sat up in the sand, looking up at the person who had chased me all the way from Pheonix Tree Lane, to the seaside. He grinned.

"I saw you dropped this. It's not safe for things like us to be roaming around like you were." he said, reaching down to help me up. His skin had the same greyish tint mine now had. "My name's Riley -- and I think it's time you learned how to be a proper zombie."

I picked up my wallet, and put it into my pocket.

"Why the mask?" I asked, starting off after my fellow zombie.

"You want everyone to recognize you? We'll get you a disguise too." he answered, taking off at a brisk pace back toward the park.

"How did you get that way?"

He grinned, shook his head, and began his story. "Let me tell you first, it sucks waking up dead...."