Zombie Mastermind: Part 1 - The Arrival
It was a beautiful Los Angeles day when the the zombies arrived.
It was spring, the afternoon. We were in Hollywood walking near Highland and talking about the latest episode of Glee. You would always tell your friends you only watched the show because of me.
Liar.
We saw them heading toward us, but - like everyone else - we weren’t scared. It was the Hollywood Effect: the oddest things seemed perfectly normal here.
It was as if they knew the perfect place to rise, to descend on the masses of an unsuspecting metropolis…and it would be.
Their feet that limped down the Hollywood Walk of Fame had found themselves on an already well-worn path made by those willing to die just a little to be known for a lot…or a little (depending on how you looked at things). Countless others with painted faces and garish clothing had descended here before them. They didn’t seem any different from them, so we didn’t treat them any differently than we would a dance group or man painted in silver pretending to be statue - let alone retreat.
“They almost look real,” I heard someone near us say.
“Isn’t it a bit early for a zombie uprising?” I asked. The sun was still bright in the sky and I had always associated zombies with the dark.
“It’s never too early for zombie uprising,” you replied, and maybe saying that sealed your fate.
We weren’t the closest to the zombies as they climbed out what looked like the elevators and stairs of the Hollywood/Highland Metro Station. It was the distance that bought us some time - to run, to recognize that this wasn’t just an act.
At first we thought the victims were just “victims”, actors playing their own part.
“They’re really going all out for this…” someone walking by us observed. He was wearing Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. There was something casual in his stride, “meh” in his voice. Definitely not a tourist.
We thought the same thing he did, until the screams.
In the distance, you could see the first victims reacting like anyone would to who they thought might be an actor. We couldn’t see their faces from where we were, but there was the distinct shift of their body language that spoke volumes. I can almost envision how they probably did look initially - maybe some silly grin on their face or being more embarrassed than scared. Whatever it was, when they realized it was real, that this wasn’t some flash mob rising from some Metro Red Line subway cars - they froze, some tried to run. Whatever the reaction - it would be too late.
Too late to stop from being overtaken.
Too late to stop from being consumed.
But not too late to scream - blood-curdling screams that we could hear resonating in the air. It filled the air with the last adrenaline burst of life, a siren call to the living to tell us to run.
You and I turned to each other for a second and wordlessly we took off on foot in the other direction.
It didn’t take us long to realize that we were only running toward another attack. The zombies had also risen from the subway station at Hollywood/Vine. I could imagine them streaming out of the subway as if they were trying to make some theater show at the Pantages.
We saw them in the distance ahead of us and looked frantically at each other.
You grabbed my hand and we ducked into a side street.
“Where do we go?” I said. “W-Where do we go now?!” My voice was shaking. My body was shaking. Meanwhile my mind was running in circles, constantly thinking: “Is this happening? What is happening? No way is this happening.”
You were looking around, panicked. You did that thing you did when you had to think, where you ran your fingers through you hair, even though it was cut short and I never knew why this helped you process anything. Then you looked up, searchingly. “Maybe we can hide in a building?”
I looked around. We were in the middle of Hollywood. There were plenty of random buildings. “Which one? What if we get stuck in one?”
“I’d rather be stuck in one later than be dead now. It’ll give us time to think.”
“Think about how to die, maybe.”
You looked at me and I said, “What? I didn’t say that! I don’t sound like a man.” But then I realized you were looking behind me.
And that’s when we met Oz.
To be continued…
-Charity Tran
Photo: Zombie Walk: The Zombie Masses by intellichick
