Still Alive

The evening of that Saturday in Brooklyn Heights, a quiet and peaceful neighborhood located in an affluent district in the heart of Brooklyn was cool. In Brooklyn Heights, most families owned their homes. The area was meticulously planned by renowned architects across the country. Rhododendron trees were planted in front of each apartment. Varieties of Nemesia shrubs are used as edging plants to create a border between apartments and define the sidewalk.

All these lined up like a beautiful mini-forest, something close to the biblical Garden of Eden, giving a mesmerizing appeal to the area, especially in spring. The sun could be seen faintly as it prepared to set. Now and then, a gentle breeze blew to replace the heat of the earlier scorching sun. People were stepping out to enjoy a walk with their babies or dogs.

Emily and Melissa were going to have their usual movie night at Melissa's. Melissa lived with her parents in one of the magnificent three-bedroom apartments that Brooklyn Heights boasts of.

Emily had arrived an hour earlier to help Melissa make some snacks for the movie night. They had different kinds of snacks - chips, a full plate of macaroons, caramel popcorn, a box of pizza, and bottles of coke - arranged on the center table. Melissa settled on the very comfortable couch while Emily went into the kitchen to get a bottle opener and some serviette papers.

"Emily! Get over here, you won't believe this," Melissa yelled from the living room.

Melissa was at the window. It looked like her eyes were going to pop out. Emily wondered what could be wrong as she hurriedly walked over to the window to take a look at what terrified her friend.

"What are those?" Emily shrieked.

The whole street was filled with people walking around as if they were sick. The two girls stared in horror for a couple of minutes.

"What is going on?" Emily asked again, not particularly expecting an answer.

"I don't know, but they sure look like freaks," Melissa said. "Just like in the movies," she continued.

Men and women walked slowly up and down the street, with heads bent sideways. Some of them had blood on their mouths, hands, and necks. Their hair seemed in place; their clothes were not particularly dirty, a contrast to their bloody faces. Cars were trying to maneuver their way through the traffic of sick-looking people, some of whom were trying to open the car doors, hitting on the car windows, and trying to reach the occupants of the cars.

"Why are they attacking the cars? Are they trying to kill people?" It was Melissa's turn to ask questions to which both girls did not have answers.

As Emily and Melissa continued to stare at the frightful event, a young man in a yellow polo shirt and blue jeans alighted from his car and looked intently ahead, probably trying to figure out how he could drive through. Suddenly, one of the sick people - a woman - appeared from nowhere and snuck up behind him. Emily and Melissa tried to get the man's attention.

"Hey, hey, man, look behind you! Get in the car! Run!" Both girls babbled simultaneously

to the man.

But it was too late as the sick woman pounced on him from the back. The man tried to ward her off, as he swung from side to side, trying to get her off his back; but no matter how much he fought, the sick woman seemed stronger. She scratched the man's face and kept trying to strangle him. The sick woman had the man on all fours in no time. She wound her legs tightly around the man's lower stomach as she bit him everywhere her mouth could reach; then got off him.

Emily and Melissa muffled their sobs as they watched on. The injured man started to twitch and jerk. He hit himself several times, trying to stop what was going on in his body. Shortly after, his face became contorted, and he looked exactly like the sick persons who had taken over Brooklyn Heights. He got up and headed in the direction of the other sick people.

"What in the world is this? I need to call my parents," Emily said amidst tears.

The girls hurriedly walked to the couch to pick up their phones. Emily picked up her pink iPhone 12 Pro Max and dialed her dad's number, but got the voicemail.

"Hi there. Jack here. I'm unavailable at the moment. Please leave a message."

"Dad, please call me as soon as you get this. I'm at Melissa's. Something is happening on her street; we don't know what it is. We're so scared. Please come pick us up," Emily cried.

"I can't reach anyone. Seems like all calls are going to voicemail," Melissa said tiredly as she reached for the television remote.

"I can't seem to reach anyone; not even 911. All lines are jammed. How are we sure that our families are safe?" Emily complained in despair. Melissa went around the couch to hug her friend.

"Be strong, Em. Wherever our parents and siblings are, I'm sure that they are fine and we will see them soon," she tried to assure Emily. It was already about 7:00 p.m.

The two girls had dozed off on the couch, tired from worry. Melissa thought that she heard a voice. She woke up with a start. She looked around her like she was trying to ascertain her present location. She yawned and drowsily staggered to the window. She moved the blind carefully to the side and peeped. The street lights were already on and the reflection illuminated Melissa's now dark living room. The street looked deserted.

"There is no one out there. I must have imagined someone speaking. Maybe it was a dream," she thought. Just as she moved away from the window, she heard it again.

"Somebody help me."

This time, the voice was not as faint as before. The speaker was nearby.

"Can anybody hear me? Please help."

At that point, it hit Melissa. A girl was out there! Melissa hurriedly tiptoed to wake Emily who was still fast asleep.

"Em," she called in a hushed tone, nudging Emily's shoulder to rouse her from sleep. Emily's eyes flew open and she sat up in an instant, looking puzzled.

"There is a girl out on the street. She's calling for help," Melissa whispered.

Emily frowned in confusion.

"Really? Did you see her?" she inquired, squeezing her nose. Melissa pulled her by hand from the couch to the window. They caught the shadow of the girl and heard her sobbing.

"Oh my God, she's crying. We need to let her in," Melissa said as she headed toward the front door.

"No, Mel! We can't let her in!" Emily yelled in a mix of fear and shock.

"Why not? She needs our help."

Melissa was alarmed at her best friend's lack of empathy at that crucial time.

Many students at school usually spoke about Emily as being unkind, arrogant, nasty, saucy, selfish, and lots more. Melissa refused to believe any of these. True, she had seen Emily act like she didn't care about people, but Em had been her best friend since first grade. They have done practically everything together since they were six years old. She knew that deep down, Emily had a good heart; people just tend to misunderstand her.

If other students at school had witnessed this scenario of Emily opposing the idea of letting the unknown girl into the house, they would have given her another bad name. But Melissa understood her friend more than anyone else ever would. Emily was just afraid to be hurt. That was why it seemed to everyone like she was not a nice girl. Melissa held Emily's two hands and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Emily, calm down. We need to help her, okay?" Melissa said reassuringly.

Emily nodded timidly.

Melissa looked out through the window.

"Hey. Come over here fast," Melissa called out. "I will get the door."

Emily kept staring unbelievably at her friend.

"Be careful, Mel," she said, more like a plea than a warning. Melissa nodded as she unbolted the door, and turned the knob. She took a step outside the door. A gust of wind blew through the branches of the trees and brought her hair over her face as she scanned around for the girl. She took a second step outside but made sure to have her right hand on the outer doorknob.

"Where are you?" Melissa whispered.

Then she saw a shadow. The girl came out from behind one of the huge waste bins which stood four houses away from Melissa's.

She looked eleven-ish, slim with long, dark hair. As she crossed to Melissa's side of the street, Melissa inspected her face. She didn't recognize the girl. "She must be from another neighborhood. I will find out when we get back inside," Melissa thought.

The girl walked briskly towards Melissa. She kept darting her eyes sideways and looked back and forth as she approached Melissa.

"Hurry, Mel," Emily called from the living room.

Just as the girl got in front of Melissa's building and walked towards her, there was movement in the shrub just by the door. A sick man jumped out from the shrub, grabbed the girl, and sunk his teeth into her skin.

Melissa screamed as she stood there, horror-stricken. Emily opened the door and pulled her into the house. Quickly, Emily bolted the door.

"Noooooo!"

Melissa would not stop screaming as tears streamed down her eyes. She slumped on the floor, like a big bag of flour.

"The girl has been bitten!" Melissa said repeatedly, her whole body shaking like a leaf beaten by the rain.

"Mel, please don't cry," Emily said, trying to console her friend.

"It was my fault. If I had opened the door in time, she would be here now. She needed my help, but I failed her." There was no stopping the tears as they poured down Melissa's cheeks without restraint.

"No Mel. Don't do that to yourself. You were brave. You stepped outside. You tried your best to bring her in here."

"My best wasn't enough!" Melissa cut in with a shaking voice as she allowed herself to be enveloped in Emily's embrace.

A loud thud on the door startled the girls.

"What was that?" asked Emily as she and Melissa disengaged from their hug in an instant.

"What was that?" Emily asked again.

Aggressive grumbling noises could be heard outside. The pounding on the door increased.

Melissa crawled to the door and looked through the peephole. There were at least twenty of those sick-looking people at the door, acting both angry and hungry at the same time.

Melissa panicked.

"Em, they're here. They want to get us."

"Over there! There's more of them," Emily lamented as she pointed towards the back door. Glancing in the direction of Emily's pointed finger, Melissa saw more of the creatures. They looked into the house through the transparent glass sliding door. They had wicked smiles on their faces as they beckoned to the girls to let them in. Thankfully, the door was locked from within. Melissa sighed in relief as she expressed silent gratitude to her mother who made it a point of duty to ensure that the door was always locked when everyone was inside the house. One of the creatures had a huge stone and slammed it against the glass door. This caused a tiny crack. The door was made from triple-tempered glass, which makes it resistant to breakage. The creature tried continuously, throwing the big stone with a force that increased with each throw.

He finally had his first breakthrough as he made a powerful throw which brought small chunks of glass crumbling to the floor.

Emily and Melissa were scared stiff. They knew they had to leave the house immediately, as those sick people were desperate. Now that they knew that the sliding door's glass could break, the number of sick people trying to break the glass suddenly increased. Luckily for the girls, the now broken part of the glass door was not wide enough for an adult's arm to go through.

"We need to leave now! If those things get a chance to come inside, we are dead meat," Melissa warned.

"Where would we go? We don't know what is out there. What if we come across those things and they attack us?" queried Emily.

"They will attack us if we stay. You saw what happened to the girl I tried to help. We will get bitten and become like them." Melissa explained.

Emily seemed to be convinced by the explanation and followed Melissa up the stairs. "I need to live to see the end of this,' she thought. "I don't want to turn into a zompire."

"Zompires!" Emily exclaimed.

"What?" Melissa stopped abruptly at the entrance to her room.

It was as though a bulb was lit in Emily's mind.

"Those things are zompires! They are trying to wipe out the human race and increase their population."

Melissa's face crumpled in confusion. This was no time to bring up theories. She picked up her backpack, emptied the contents on her bed, and went ahead to do the same with Emily's backpack.

Emily continued to ramble on and on about how zompires are a mixed breed of vampires and zompires; how a biologist hundred centuries ago had postulated their existence, and predicted that they would take over the world from humans one day.

Melissa only listened half-heartedly as she picked a blanket, insect repellent cream, sunscreen cream, some light clothes, two cardigans, two baseball caps, sunshades, and a few other items that she thought would be necessary, and could be stuffed into her backpack.

"Physically, they move and walk about like zompires, but their bite infects their victim to become like them; just like vampires. That's how they got the name 'Zompire'," Emily went on and on.

"Hmm-mmm," Melissa kept saying as Emily moved around the room talking about her supposition. Realizing Melissa wasn't paying attention to what she was saying, Emily complained more than asked, 'Are you even listening, Mel?

"No, I'm not! I'm trying to get us ready to leave this house; I could use your help," Melissa snapped.

"I'm sorry. I'm just so scared," Emily whined.

"The more reason why we should leave for a safe place," Melissa said curtly.

Emily wanted to ask where the safe place was and how to ascertain that any place was safe at all. But she knew to keep those questions to herself as Melissa was not in a good mood. Quietly, Emily picked up her backpack and walked toward Melissa's closet. She started to scrutinize the clothes.

"No, Em. I've picked all the necessary clothing items. Food, water, and a few things from the first aid box will go in that bag."

"Here, take this. Let's go." Melissa handed the filled bag to Emily and took the empty one.

They tip-toed down the stairs like thieves in the night, Melissa leading the way. At the foot of the stairs, Melissa crouched, looking left and right to make sure they were not seen by the zompires. She wasn't yet sure that she was ready to accept that those creatures were zompires but calling them that will do in the meantime.

She moved quickly into the kitchen and hid beside the huge grey refrigerator. After scanning around, she beckoned Emily to join her. Melissa placed the bag on the table and filled it with canned foods that would not need to be cooked, a few bottles of water, and some medicines and Band-Aids from the medicine box. Emily kept guard, looking to ensure that the zompires at the front and back entrances hadn't found their way in.

"What do we do now, how do we get past the zompires?" Emily asked, looking puzzled.

"There is an underground passage beneath the basement. I don't know where it leads, but it should serve as a perfect escape route," responded Melissa.

She sounded like an adult, like she had been through this situation before, and knew exactly what she was doing. Emily had no choice but to follow Melissa's lead. She still was unable to get through to anyone on the phone. Melissa had warned her earlier to conserve the phone's battery.

Melissa climbed her two-year-old sister's high chair and moved her hand back and forth on the wall cabinet, searching for the key to the basement. Another shattering of glass by the zompires made her jump and almost lose her balance. Thanks to Emily who held the high chair in place.

Finally, her roaming hand felt cold metal.

"I've found it!"

She sounded excited but didn't raise her voice to avoid being heard by the zompires.

Incoherent sounds came from the living room. The girls froze. Emily peeped. Two zompires had found their way in through the glass door. They had managed to break the glass enough to create space for them to pass through. Emily communicated this to Melissa using her hands and eyes.

Melissa hurriedly jumped down from the chair, grabbed the bag, and headed towards the locked basement door all within two seconds. She fumbled with the key as she tried to insert it into the keyhole. Just then, one of the zompires appeared at the kitchen door. The girls screamed in horror.