Well fuck, what a year it has been for only being March 3rd 2025, started out as a normal, lonely, work filled day. Waking up from a hangover, I got up, dressed in my pink polo and khakis and headed off to work. Working for a phone store in the mall is the worst, no one comes in except old people that can’t figure out how to work their new technology or people trying to access their phone’s account that is under someone else’s name, then get mad that I unable to help them without the named person there to authorize. Same scenario day in and day out. Is this how I live out the rest of my life? Drudging around from work to home with no purpose but to sleep and eat? So far that is all my life has been and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
The 3rd was a normal Monday, our first customers were an older couple that couldn’t figure out why their data wouldn’t work on their phone, showed them how to turn the cellular data back on, took all of 2 minutes and I am sure I will be seeing them in a month when it accidentally gets turned off again. Now I am sitting behind the counter while my coworker plays candy crush on her phone.
“Lu, why does there really need to be two of us here? It’s been 3 hours and not one customer has come in.”
I pretended to think about her question, but eventually responded that we can at least entertain each other. Finally she stopped looking at her phone, glared at me that I wouldn’t send her home, then continued to play her dumb candy crush game. I’m not necessarily the manager but who even is in a store this dead? I stood up, patted her on the shoulder “I’m going to take a break in the back”
There is one pea green futon couch in the back with a mini fridge, microwave and burning fluorescent lights. I took off my polo, laid on the couch and used the shirt to cover my eyes from the brightness. The one good thing about the break room is that it is always warm, warm enough that I am comfortable in my tank top, guess being right in the middle of the mall has its benefits. With the warmth and darkness from my shirt, I was soon snoozing away.
I felt like I was running, continually running through the mall, I could see all the stores I pass every day, Bath and Body Works, Hot Topic, Macey’s, Kay Jewelers, Hallmark, I was running past each of them, but the mall was still going, never ending so my running never stopped. Huffing as I was out of air, my lungs burning, legs were getting weaker, reaching my hands out to try and grasp the end that was always out of sight.
BANG!
I jumped off the couch, standing straight up as I tried to catch my breath from the sudden jump scare. What was that noise? I look around, trying to find myself when I realized I am still in this bland, white prison of a break room at work. How long had I been asleep? Why didn’t Ashley come wake me up if it has been too long? I still felt weak and out of breath, that running dream had really taken a toll on me. I picked up my pink polo off the floor where it had fallen of my face, looking at the tiny mirror on the wall that was made for school lockers, I wiped away some running eyeliner, fixed my shoulder length brown hair back into a presentable ponytail, and then oops, noticed some crusty by my mouth, must of drooled a bit. Ugh, I think that dream left me more exhausted than I was before the nap.
After looking presentable, I tucked my polo into my state farm khakis and headed back into the store. It still looked the same, but Ashley was gone? I grabbed my phone from under the computer counter, it was already 7pm, I had slept for 4 hours?! Why didn’t Ashley wake me? Is she already gone for the day? Her schedule ended at 6 but she is a good girl that would at least make sure to check with me before leaving. As I walked around the store, the phones were all still in their locked cases, the lights were still on, she didn’t pull down the gate, so what happened? I peeked my head out into the mall, it seemed so quiet? Even for a Tuesday there are always usually middle and high school kids wandering around, families looking for gifts then getting food in the food court with their screaming children running in circles around them why they were in line to buy pretzels bites. But now, there wasn’t a soul in sight. I wandered down the hall towards the food court, slowly looking into the other stores, waiting to hear anything but there was nothing and nobody? Did I wake up in the twilight zone where everyone suddenly disappeared? I briefly thought that I might not mind being alone that much, I usually am alone anyways but now it wasn’t by my choice.
As I kept walking closer to the food court, there was finally a silhouette of a person by the escalator. AS I got closer, I could make out that it was a pretty tall man, big beer belly that very predominant as he was turned to the side, his extra-large navy blue shirt and jeans, looked like a normal guy that his wife probably dragged him here against his will when he would rather be home, contributing more to his beer belly while watching some kind of sports game. As I got closer, the man just continued standing there, barely moving besides swaying from side to side.
“Hey” I muttered at him, now only five feet away from the larger man. He didn’t even flinch, let alone turn to look at me. “HEY” I called, his head turned achingly slow to look right at me and that is when I finally noticed the blood. His beer belly had drips of red all down the shirt, his chest was soaked in it, when I managed to look at his face, his eyes were the brightest blue, as pale blue as the god awful baby blue that gets picked out for nursery rooms, maybe the blue stood out more against his white pale face, and mouth and chin covered in black blood. The blood was still dripping from his mouth onto his belly as he moved to turn his whole body to face me now. I immediately started stepping backwards, afraid to take my eyes off of him. He would take a step towards me every time I was trying to take a step back. My body felt numb as I came face to face with what? A cannibalistic serial killer?
I kept stepping back until my legs and butt bumped into one of the giant fake plants that they decorated the mall with. The giant pot, being unsteady already, tipped over and landed with a thud. It didn’t break but the thud was loud enough to where the guy and I both looked at it before looking at each other again. Within a heartbeat, his face changed to a monster, his mouth opening up as more blood spilled out of it, including chunks of something, fell down his belly onto the white, clean tiled floor, his blues eyes burning, when suddenly he started rushing at me. Screaming a terrible high pitched cry like a pig’s squeal mixed with the nails on a chalkboard, it felt unhuman and shook me to the core. I turned around and started sprinting. There was a side door to the outside past my store, I needed to get to that door then to my car and I could get away.
As soon as we started running, more screaming squeals followed, all coming from the food court, more seemed to be chasing me. I didn’t dare turn my head to look back, just run forward, that was the goal. As I passed Spencer’s, a couple bloodied teenagers popped out, a sudden scream burst out of me as they came close to grabbing me but fell over on top of each other. Just like the fat man, blood dripping down their chins with bright, pale blue eyes.
I was getting closer to the phone store, when Ashley appeared, I briefly got excited until I saw that her eyes too had turned into the bright blue, her pink polo covered in blood, limping towards me while holding onto her stomach. She reached out to grab me as I sprinted past her and all her intestines started falling onto the floor. I screamed again, poor Ashley, I had a little crush on this cute pink haired bimbo and to see her guts fall outside of her body was too overwhelming. My breathing had started getting heavier, like I couldn’t take in a full deep breath, my body shaking, wanting to collapse and shut down. But no! I can’t! I can’t stop running, I have to keep going! I don’t want to die like her and have my body ripped apart!
The shrieks behind me are getting louder, more and more people were adding to the crowd behind me. No, these are no longer people, this is a straight up an apocalypse!
I turned the corner of the mall, I could see all the glass doors, freedom to the outside world. At 7pm in March, the sun was fading which means what could be lurking in the shadows? However, I could see all the parked cars underneath the flickering parking lot lights. With that sight, I felt a surge of energy, pushing me towards my escape, away from the screams and smell of blood.
I busted through the first set of doors, pushing my whole body weight against it, slammed through the second set of doors where the cold air hit me like a brick. It was eerily silent, there was no cars driving past, no sound of people talking, nothing was moving to where I briefly forgot of the terror that was following me. It was so peaceful that I, for a second, thought if I had dreamed the whole running for my life. It took every ounce of my being to turn around to look behind at the doors I had just crashed through. With that image still in my mind, I jumped off the curb, took a sharp left turn to run to my car in the middle of the parking lot. The zombies had pressed themselves so tightly to get through the doors after me, that they became stuck in the door frames. Blood dripping from all of their mouths, yelling, clawing at me as they tried to wiggle around each other to get unstuck. The large man was pulling back the head of the zombie that had trapped him in the door way, trying to push her back so he could get through, he was pushing and clawing so hard at her that he was taking the skin right off of her face. All the while looking right into my eyes. I have never experienced a man wanting me more than this reanimated corpse that was trying to eat my organs.
While running, I couldn’t feel the cold air, my adrenaline and movement keeping me warm until I could reach my car. Like a good lesbian, I always keep my keys on a carabiner that was hooked to my jeans loop and tucked safely into my pocket. I shoved the key in the door lock, ripped open the door, got in and pull the door shut so hard, I thought I was going to break the handle off. I could hear my heart beating in my ears, my mouth tasted like blood, I felt like I couldn’t take a deep enough breath and kept gasping like a fool. I haven’t ran that hard in, well, ever. I’m trying to process all of this, how, how could a movie genre become real life? And how could I still be alive all because I was lucky enough to take a nap? And why the hell did it have to happen while I was at work?? I grabbed at my hair, pulling it enough to make me focus on the pain while my heart tried to stop beating out of my chest. The radio! It should have something of what had happened in the last four hours!
I turned the car on, hearing it click over while my old lady struggled in the cold to turn on. But finally she did, the engine whirring to life as I patted the steering wheel “Good girl” I told her. My poor, dinged up, rusty red Subaru that has spent too long of life driving my ass around but hey she was still kicking!
The radio came to life, but was silent as well, I clicked through all my presets but nothing, no music, no news; all the stations were quiet. I put my car into drive and pulled through the parking lot, I could see in my rearview mirror, the zombies had finally managed to squeeze past each other to get through the doors and running into the parking lot. They were all paused, looking, listening around them for me. I rolled down my window, arm out, middle finger high in the air towards them “Fuck You Zombies!” and gunned it out of the parking lot. They tried to keep chase but I was soon out of their sight and heading back to my apartment of solitude.
The roads were still quiet, no other cars were driving besides me. When I would turn onto a road, the lights from my car would glare off some of the sheer, blue eyes. But they would quickly get back to eating on whoever poor soul they managed to grab. Reminded me of the hyenas on the nature documentaries, a group of them biting into flesh and ripping their prey in to pieces. I would just hit the gas to hurry past them but as long as they had food, none of them paid me much attention. I finally pulled into my apartment’s parking lot, this was quiet as well. Some of the apartments had lights on, but there was not a soul around in the lot or the stairwell.
I gripped the steering wheel and laid my head against it, what even happened? I was asleep for 4 hours, that’s it! How could the world turn to such shit in only a 4 hour span? I let out a huge sigh, feels like the whole world is now on my shoulders. Fuck that, I didn’t ever want to live during an apocalypse, I knew it was too much pressure and anxiety. But now that I am here, I don’t want to die either, especially by being eaten alive by some shitty person who doesn’t deserve to even have a taste of me. Another sigh as I smushed my head against the steering wheel.
After a few minutes of self-pity with lots of sighs and banging my head against the steering wheel, I think I am ready to make it up to my apartment. I turn the Subaru off and take my time looking around before getting out of the car. Still quiet, no movement in the car lights, no blood can be seen either but it is dark out. I turn the lights off and quiet as I can, I open the door, get out and very cautiously shut it. Walking around the trunk, I also open it as sneakily as possible, grab the tire iron that buried under too much random shit, then close the lid. Pausing to look around after the trunk seemed to close too loudly.
I creeped, tiptoe towards the apartment stairwell. Living on the 3rd floor could have its benefits during an apocalypse, as long as I can get up there. Getting up the first flight of stairs was no problem, still no person around. I gained a little more confidence as I climbed up the second flight of stairs, about the walk out into the open turn to the next set of stairs when I noticed her. I fell down to the stairs, peeking out over the top step, I could see a person, swaying back and forth. It was the old lady who will feed any stray cat that she comes across. Ahh man, I liked her, she would smile at me as I would walk down the stairs and sometimes we would talk about the cats that were around the area.
Her back was towards me, but that swaying movement is all too much like the fat man from the mall. I slowly get up, and while keeping crouched, I turn the bend to head up the third stairwell, all while on my tiptoes to stay as quiet as possible. Sorry old lady, but this girl is not dealing with you right now.
Finally on the 3rd floor, this one is empty, thankfully. I walk to my apartment, get in and slam the door shut behind me. Locking all the locks that it has, including the flimsy chain link. I dropped the tire iron as I slid down the door. Realizing I still had my work polo on, I ripped that over my head and threw it across the room. Was this day even real? How could a zombie apocalypse even happen? After all the movies, didn’t that make the government smart enough to handle an emergency like this? Oh yeah, they will probably just nuke us and then we’ll have radioactive zombies chasing any survivors. That’s how the government works so hopefully they were all brutally ripped apart and eaten. That’s what they get for making decisions about my womanly body, those bastards.
That thought made me let out a giggle, as I willed myself to stand up away from the door. I slumped onto the couch and turned the tv on. I switched it to the live station but nothing was popping up, it was just static, trying to change any channels but they would either be blank or would state “will be back soon” yeah, no one is coming back. I grabbed my phone from my back pocket, luckily it hadn’t fallen out while I was running full blast down the mall. I opened up Twitter, the app where I normally get my news from like every other millennial.
“Outbreak! Stay Inside” “Do Not Go Near!” #zombie #endoftheworld #apocalypse #sweetescapeofdeath
All of twitter was filled with news about the zombie outbreak, but no indication of how or where it started. It was too much chaos to try and sift through. The last news article was updated 3 hours ago, no other major station has updated since, not MSN, CNN, BBC, even bitch ass Fox news has been quiet for the past 3 hours.
I switched over to my profile, that I am famous for all of my 67 followers but maybe someone will see it.
I write “Hello, please help, surviving over here in Yonker, NY, is there anyone else around? #newyork #survivor”.
And post. I hope someone will be able to see it and reach out. I drop my hand and my phone falls down to the floor, this was too much stress and anxiety. My whole body feels so lethargic. I am barely able to grab the remote to switch to a streaming service to throw on my favorite comfort show, Parks and Rec. As soon as I see all their faces, working their normal everyday life in a tiny office setting, my eyes start closing. I lay over on the couch, kicking my shoes off as I close my eyes and fade away.
I wake up the next day, groggy as hell, only waking up due to the light shining through the window behind me. My tongue covered with a cotton film and my head feels like my brain is pushing against my skull. I sit up, holding onto my head, grumbling and moaning like an old man from my body being in pain. Sitting there, trying to remember how to breathe again, I start feeling more human. I trudge over to the kitchen to pour myself some carton iced coffee, the time on the stove is 1:13. Damn I slept for like over 15 hours, and my body still aches. I try to crack my back, spinning and stretching it out from being squished on the couch. I finish my iced coffee, turn the tv off from its “are you still watching” bullshit, grab my phone to the floor and stumble into the bedroom. A quick pee where the pants did not come back on, I collapsed onto my bed. Ughhh I love my bed, why did I sleep on the couch? How did I sleep on the couch for so long?
Finally I look at my phone and there’s a twitter notification. I sit straight up, my heart racing as the events of yesterday came rushing back into my memory. Oh yeah, that’s how I slept on the couch all night and morning, because I was utterly exhausted from a fucking world ending apocalypse!
Opening up the app, my heart is racing out of my chest at the dm notification, someone is still alive, someone saw my tweet even with the world ending?? If it is a spam dm, I will scream!
No, it is a real message, and @djmann had responded back to me! “hey bb, still here in Brooklyn, pull thru”. Ugh are you fucking kidding me? Mr.djmann still looking for a booty call in the middle of a fucking apocalypse. The world is still shit, no matter who is left alive. I searched up #newyork on the app, seeing if anything new appeared since the night before. At least for now, the internet is still working to check. mainly it is showing pictures of the devastation in the major cities. Well maybe that djmann got pulled thru by the zombies. Giggling at that thought, I still keep scrolling, searching for any type of hideout. I haven't talked to my parents in years and am not going to make a trek and risk my life to see people that I don't plan on ever talking to again, not even the end of the world will bring me around to their judgmental ideals.
Finally after 5 minutes of ruined cities, people taking selfies with zombies, then a picture of them being bit by said zombie, prayers, thoughts, cries, in the midst of all the chaos, a picture stood out. A mansion called the Montauk Manor was housing survivors as of 3 hours ago according to the post. so from Yonkers that is normally a three hour drive. That is not too bad, if I can get through the tolls. I know eventually that food and necessities are going to run out and then the electricity, water, gas and internet are no longer going to be working. At least that is what happens in the movies, eventually everything stops working and I think my best bet to survive for someone who has never once gone camping in their life, is to find other refugees and a camp to survive with others who do know how to keep surviving in a world ending apocalypse.
But first, I am going to take another nap. Zoning out to tiktok videos that were likely uploaded before the world ends seems the best way to forget all this pressure to survive, it didn't take much scrolling before I was able to pass out again in the bed this time.
When I woke up again, it had turned to night, checking my phone, it was well after 4am and finally I felt more rested than I had before. I will take this rest now while I can before getting onto the road. Trudging myself into the bathroom, I finally looked into the mirror after my whole zombie encounter from days before and ugh. What a mess I was in. My ponytail has long been gone and now my hair has turned into a giant rats nest where anything could be buried in there. Even after sleeping so long, I still had bags under my eyes, making my pale skin stand out even more under the harsh fluorescents. my green eyes staring back wondering how we got here, my lips chapped from sleeping and lack of water, I reached up to grab my hair brush and could smell the b.o from under my pits. After that smell, I immediately turned and started the shower. As the water was heating up, I picked at my face, plucked some random hairs, popped a zit on my chin, really still getting zits at the end of the world? Now that was more bullshit than the zombies. Finally with steam coming from the shower and fogging up the mirror too much for me to continue the productive face destruction, I hope in and immediately regret not checking how hot the water is! Squeezing my body as close to the wall, feeling the cold, dampness against my side, stretching as far as I can to turn the cold water on more while avoiding the scalding water descending for the shower head. Finally I got it and was able to turn it to a reasonable temperature so i am not burning the skin off of my body. Feeling the water run through my hair, down my back and into the drain, feels like I am washing away the entire burden placed upon being a survivor. Like the water is cleansing the nightmares I had come face to face with and blocks out the rest of the world. Washing my hair, pushing my fingers into my scalp to try and push the pain away but the longer I am in the shower, the more I keep reflecting just what has happened to the world. Everything we all knew is likely gone, every person we knew has been changed, the world no longer needs to run off money, jobs, bitterness, and in this country, capitalism.