Zombie Valentine's Day

Sorry folks, no sex in this short story.

Just a short and dirty story I threw together for my wife to celebrate two of her favorite things; Valentine's Day and the show The Walking Dead that came back from its mid-season hiatus on Valentine's Day.

There is no mention of characters from the show and is not intended to be associated with it in any fashion, nor was the story intended to be part of a Valentine's Day contest.

*****

Zombie Valentine's Day

After 5 years of fighting and surviving the apocalypse, there were only two people left in our area.

There were still plenty of walking dead, but only one man and one woman with a heart beat remained. Not surprisingly it was a husband and wife that refused to leave their home when all others left for what was rumored as a safe haven.

Dennis and Sandy did not believe the rumors that the military was able to create an area free of the undead. Instead they thought it best to remain where they were while they eked out their own survival the way they thought best.

A vow was made between them that if one was taken, then the other would take their own life so they would remain together forever. Body to body, soul to soul for eternity. Or at least until the body rotted completely, then what would they care, their souls were in a better place anyway.

It had been a hard winter in Ohio unable to hunt for anything other than the occasional squirrel. Searching abandoned homes provided little as most have already been raided by those leaving for the rumored safe haven.

A few cans of food barely sustained them throughout the coldest of days, but their tenacity and love made up for the difference.

On this latest search of an outlying home, Dennis discovered a solar powered clock with a calendar display. Survival had taken total control over their lives but when he read the calendar showing it was Valentine's Day, an old memory came back to him.

It was Valentine's Day. As mentioned five years before when the world went to shit. Dennis and Sandy decided to take an overnight trip to a bed and breakfast not far from home. They wanted to leave everything behind. Cell phones, lap tops, etc. Just the two of them not being distracted by the world. This day was just for them.

As they were getting ready to leave they were walking around the house turning off lights and small appliances. The kitchen radio was the last device playing love songs from a station Sandy had tuned in. Steps away from the radio, they station stopped playing songs to start an emergency broadcast. Sandy wanted to listen but Dennis pulled her out of the house before the complete message could be heard. Reports of crazed people attacking others...

Dennis would listen to no more. His mind was on the night he was going to spend with his wife and the look in his eyes would accept nothing less. Sandy knew that look! It was a look beyond pure love. It also had a tremendous amount of lust raging in them. Her body warmed when he looked at her like that. With the fire within her lit, she led the way to the car dragging him along every step of the way not wanting to waste a moment of love.

They drove to the B&B with the car radio off lost in the anticipated night filled with love celebrating years of blissful marriage. The arrangements were made in advance so all that needed done was for Dennis and Sandy to walk in the room and enjoy the ambiance. And of course a night of love.

The sun shined through the windows waking them both up. They were still holding each other tightly each with smiles on their faces. Dennis looked at his watch wondering why the ordered breakfast in bed wasn't delivered.

He untangled himself from his beautiful wife so he could look outside to see if the B&B operators were on their way. He did see some people moving around but thought they were drunk. He figured they just celebrated a little too much. To each their own.

Sandy was watching her husband smiling thinking herself lucky for having such a good man. She thought after all theses years he still a great catch and he still has one set of killer buns! After she told her husband to come back to her for her kind of breakfast in bed, he forgot all about the crazies stumbling around outside.

A few hours later their stomachs were screaming for food. After getting dressed they walked to the car parked a few yards away from the B&B door. Both heard noises that sounded like sirens and people screaming.

Dennis immediately became alarmed and pulled his pistol from his hip holster. Seconds later a couple of people stumbled from around a few parked cars. They didn't look right. Dennis seen blood covering portions of their bodies and what looked like pieces of meat hanging from their mouths.

He pulled Sandy to his back putting himself between the people and Sandy. Making their way closer to the passenger side of their car allowed them to see past the bloodied people to a spot past a nearby tree. Sandy saw it first causing her to scream. On the ground behind the tree was a woman's body torn to shreds. With it was two more people with faces buried in it chewing on the flesh.

Only seconds past when the shock wore off and Dennis realized the one walking toward them was too close for comfort. Instinctively he raised the gun in his hand and fired hitting the individual center mass, an obvious shot in the heart. However the person kept walking toward them getting closer with every step. Its eyes were a strange color, almost blood red. A second shot rang out this time he placed the bullet their head, stopping their advance. The sound of the shots caught the attention of the two eating the woman on the ground. They raised up and started toward Dennis and Sandy chewing what remained of the woman in their mouths. They too had blood colored eyes.

Dennis knew something terrible on a cosmic scale had happened. Something that made people to become cannibals. But his first concern was getting Sandy to a safe location. She was still in shock from what had transpired in the last few seconds unable to move. Forcing her into the passenger seat Dennis ran around to the driver's side just in time to keep from being attacked by one of the crazed people with blood eyes.

After they made it to the road, Sandy turned on the radio and immediately found that all the stations were issuing emergency messages about people infected with an unknown disease killing them. But would soon rise again with an insatiable taste for living flesh. Zombies!

He was brought back to the present when he felt Sandy's hand on his shoulder. As he looked in her eyes he could tell the same thoughts were within her as she also noticed the calendar date.

The one topic not spoken out loud between them for some time was what happened to their children. Both seen the torment in each others eyes, but neither could bring themselves to speak the words. Not for the past few years and not now. The last time they hugged their girls was earlier that fateful Valentine's Day. The girls knew their parents were going away for the night so they were going to spend time together over at Ashley's house.

It took hours to make it back to home. It was total chaos with indescribable carnage following them the entire way. All the major roads were impassable so they were forced to take back roads It was late night before they made it home. The entire trip Sandy repeatedly called the girls cell phones trying to make sure they were OK. They never made contact. All that was found in the house was a hurried mess of clothes thrown from closets a and note telling them they were being evacuated by the military to a safe place, but not known where they were actually going.

The neighborhood was quiet. Not even a zombie was seen. Dennis had the foresight for him and Sandy to start raiding homes for food, weapons and anything else they might need. He knew they needed to hold up and sleep the night and in the morning if able they would venture out in the car.

Multiple attempts to drive away in search of the girls were unsuccessful. For some reason five miles out the dead were walking in high numbers forcing them to retreat. Years later a few people made their way into the neighborhood, but those knew nothing except for rumor and conjecture.

Many times throughout the years, the couple found each other crying quietly with worry for their girls. Today was no different. Five years and no word about...really anything except for the few who stuck together finally abandoning the area for the fabled safe haven.

Telling her husband it was time to go, they gathered what canned food they found and headed back out the front door. Each carried one bag of food in one hand and their weapon in the other.

Sandy has become and excellent fighter preferring the quiet protection of a cross bow when she had to stop a zombie attack while Dennis primarily used a short sword. Each only using firearms when absolutely necessary because the report from the weapon caught the attention of the dead.

Even though Valentine's Day brought memories of sadness, Dennis always found some way to show his love for his wife. A small trinket of some kind or just some words of love so that this day did not lose its true meaning. Before Sandy woke Dennis up from his memory, he did something that would make this Valentine's Day the best ever. All they had to do was get back home.

The drive back was uneventful until they were just outside their old neighborhood. An area where zombies always avoided was suddenly overrun. The home where Dennis, Sandy and the girls lived before the apocalypse was now zombie central.

They had to get inside. The house had been made into a fortress impenetrable by dead man and beast. There was too many of them. It would be impossible to make it and they both knew it unless there was some sort of diversion. Dennis knew what had to be done. He was going to sacrifice himself so Sandy had enough time to run inside. She knew immediately what he intended and immediately took him to task. There was no way she would allow her husband to do it. They had an agreement, a pact. Both together always. Their souls in heaven and their bodies walking the earth.

Being Valentine's Day, Dennis took his wife's hands in his, looked her in the eyes and told her how much love he has for her. How his life was made better when he met her on the job while he was on summer break from school and made better still when she agreed to be his wife. She made his life complete when she gave birth to two wonderful children. The only time in his life it has lessened was when the apocalypse separated them from the girls.

The gift for this Valentine's Day however, would bring completeness back to them. All they had to do was survive for a few hours. What Dennis did not tell Sandy was his tears he fell back at that house was not those of sadness, but were instead tears of joy.

While Sandy was in the basement looking for supplies, Dennis found a two way radio. He hoped it was powered by the solar panels he saw mounted on the house roof. Saying a slight prayer before he flipped the switch, his finger jerked back as soon as the sound broke free from the speaker. It was pre-programmed to an emergency frequency and it was still in use.

He heard talking! It didn't sound like the military, but maybe a para-military group of some sort. More likely those of other survivors. Pressing the microphone button, he asked if he could be heard. Immediately a response came back asking if they needed help. Something about the voice seemed familiar, but it couldn't be, could it?

He called the name of his youngest daughter. The reply was hesitant, but firm. Excitement between the two for the next few minutes were exchanged. Dennis noticed that the power supply to the radio was ready to fail. Kayla gave him enough information about the resources pulled together over the last few years. They found a way to kill the zombies quickly with a viral spray. However it also has severe side effects on living tissue.

Because of the harm the virus causes the living, the military does not spray and area until they are absolutely positive the target area is cleared. The para-military groups volunteered to clear target areas after the military caused the death of numerous civilians because of poor search and clear techniques. Kayla's, and not surprisingly, Ashley's group was directed to clear out their old neighborhood.

It would be impossible to retrieve them from their current location, it was too far away from the staging area, so he directed her to follow through with the planned clearing and to get them from home.

The power was lost at that moment. It was a few minutes later when Sandy came up from the basement and saw the tears in Dennis' eyes. Sandy thought they were tears of sadness, but instead the tears were that of extreme joy. His girls are alive and well. And they were coming to save their mom and dad.

Dennis wanted it to be a surprise for his wife this Valentine's Day so he kept the information to himself. He always gave her a gift on that day. Even something small was appreciated by his wife. This time it was going to be huge!

*****

The time came for Dennis to leave the confinement of the car. He took his wife's hands in his and told her what this Valentine's Day present was going to be. But unless he could get the zombies away from the car, his wife would perish.

Zombies were already banging away at the passenger door windows where his wife sat. It would only be moments before they made it all the way in. He could exit from the driver's side knowing the dead would smell the blood and warm flesh of his body. A meal that would sustain them for just a while.

Telling his wife that even in death he would always remember her, he placed a kiss on her lips and for the first time ever, forcibly pushed the woman he loved away, opened the driver's side door and ran from her.

At first the zombies payed him no attention. His yelling did nothing as they concentrated their efforts on his wife and her sweet smell.

Taking his knife he cut himself exposing the air to the delicious taste of a hot zombie meal. Almost like ringing the dinner bell, zombies realized an easier meal with more meat was closer. Dennis could almost see them lick their lips.

Sandy was screaming at her husband to get back in the car, but he refused. She even tried to get out the same way Dennis did but he broke off the door release handle from its mount before he got out. She considered her passenger door and giving herself up for a free meal, but Dennis had broken that door handle as well.

One last look into his wife's eyes told her he loved her without question ad would for all eternity Whether it be in this zombie waste land on earth or in heaven.

Zombies were almost within reach of him. They followed him as he started to step away from the car making the sure the smell of his blood remained thick in the air. His concentration was on the zombies walking toward him, not on his footing. He tripped and fell to the ground hitting his head knocking himself out cold.

Seeing her husband on the ground gave Sandy the strength to kick the door open. She grabbed every weapon she could making her way past the zombies reaching her unconscious husband. She went out guns a blazin. She had only seconds trying to revive him. Unsuccessful, she stood her ground facing a large number of flesh seeking walking dead.

Her skills as a warrior was tested this day. Using the firearms she held off the immediate threat keeping them away from her prone husband. However the sound of the rife and pistol she used to save Dennis drew the attention of more dead invaders.

She was down to only a few rounds of ammunition in her pistol. There was no way she would allow her and her husband to be eaten by these monsters.

Dennis came to just as Sandy was kissing him good bye. There were just too many zombies and the route to their house was blocked. He knew what needed to be done and gave his wife a weak smile and a nod of his head.

Embracing for the last time, she raised her pistol putting it to her head. She had to do it herself. She would not allow her husband to do it because the pain he would suffer would be too great. She would do it gladly knowing he would follow her into the next life. Both knew one could not live without the other, hence the vow made when the world became filled with more dead than live.

Zombies were within 10 feet when Sandy told her husband Happy Valentine's Day and put the nozzle of the pistol against her head. Her finger tightened against the trigger and she closed her eyes.

Suddenly shots rang out around them. The closest zombies fell to the ground. Sounds of rifle shots continued with more and more zombies falling. Looking toward the source of the shots, Dennis and Sandy held the sight of both Ashley and Kayla holding the weapons that removed the zombie threat.

The truck the girls were riding in stopped along side their parents. Both jumped down and ran to the parents they feared long dead. A family together again, five years to the day they were separated by a still unknown force making the dead desire the flesh of the living.

As the reunited family held each other tightly, crying with happiness, men from the truck protected them allowing the family bond to be made whole again.

A Valentine's Day finally filled with joy for a small family.

The best Valentine's Day Ever!