Broken Silence

We are Family

My heartbeat speeds up, like a drumroll in my chest. My breathing is faster than a sprinter who just finished first in a ten mile race. My palms are sweaty too, clammy and cold.

My mother comes closer, hissing and grunting.

Her eyes roll around uncontrollably, like white marbles being thrown across the floor by a child.

"Mom," I whisper, crawling backwards. When stupid Snake Eyes kicked me, he cracked something in my side. Every movement is strained.

"Mom, stop." I say quietly.

But her ears are unhearing. She's not my mom anymore.

I hear a grunt from across the room. The blue-haired girl, Sara I think, reawakens. Her skin is a yellowy faded colour, with cracks and bumps. She has the complexion of mold.

Her eyes are that awful white, and they roll around like crazy. Her body begins to convulse, a series of spasms starting with her arms and working down to her legs. Her entire structure shakes and seizures, flailing in every direction.

As I'm looking at her, mortified and a little grateful, I don't notice my mother.

She's about a foot away from me, snapping her jaws the way she did in my dream.

I can see her teeth, rotten, yellow, all missing.

She spits something out of her decayed mouth. Blood. Black blood.

She crawls on all four legs like an animal, ascending closer and closer.

Her fingernails are like claws. They scrape the linoleum floor of the classroom.

I back up as far away as I can from my mother, my back hitting the locked door.

I slide my hand up to the doorknob and twist it. The cold metal comes out of the door and falls to the ground.

Well, I'm not getting out this way.

"Mom," I whisper, closing my eyes, "Please, please, stop."

But she doesn't. She can't. She won't. And now I'm dead.

Her eyes roll around as she bridges the tiny little gap between us. I clench my fists and I wait for her to kill me.

And I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Nothing happens.

I open my eyes and see my mother, on the other side of the the room. She's trying to smash he window.

I slowly stand up, clenching my jaw as my side stings.

Sara stops shaking. Her blue hair has faded to an almost green. Her eyes are white, but they are more vibrant than any other zombie I've seen so far. Her skin has gone pale, but not yellow.

"Um, Sara?" I whisper.

She goes stiff, and her head slowly turns towards me. An unnatural smile creeps up her face, revealing her teeth: white, clean, non-flesh eater.

"How are you...?" I trail off.

I press my back against the door, trying to push it down.

Sara begins to laugh a maniacal laugh. She spits black blood as she rolls around on the floor.

"It...works!" She says, her voice gravely and low.

My eyes widen. She just spoke. A zombie spoke.