Chapter 8: UnDead Girl by Stephen Simpson
Startled, Genesis looked in the direction of the voice. The girl looked about sixteen years old and was beautiful with huge, sky-blue eyes. Her face was perfectly symmetrical, and her skin was flawless. Her long hair was a deep auburn red and fell in heavy waves past her shoulders. She put the bag Genesis recognised as the bag she packed when she was thinking about running away, on the floor beside the bed.
“Morning,”
Genesis greeted her with a tremor of uncertainty in her voice.
The girl smiled. “I am Finn, number ten. Welcome home,
Genesis,” Finn said warmly.
“Thank
you. It’s nice to meet you,” Genesis said, trying really hard to sound as if
everything was normal. “You said you are number ten, are you also...”
Finn nodded. “I am, but unlike you, I never left the
facility.” She moved her hand in a little sweeping motion. “I stayed.”
Genesis thought she saw a hint of regret or loss, or maybe
even hate, in Finn’s eyes.
Just as quickly as it appeared, the look in her eyes
changed. “Don’t be afraid. All will be well...” Finn paused and smiled.
“Genesis, are you ready to begin your new life?”
Genesis realised it was not as if she had a choice and she
had to embrace her destiny. What would the use be of denying she was dead, a
zombie. It was what it was. “Yes, I am,” she said and was happy she sounded
more confident than she felt.
“Excellent!”
Finn said.
Genesis glanced at the one-way mirror on the wall as she
slipped her legs off the bed. She was wearing a hospital gown and wondered who
had stripped her of her clothes after she had arrived here unconscious. She
asked Finn, “Can they see me, or will they stop looking once I start getting
dressed?”
Finn smiled at Genesis again and even though she was scared
and nervous, she smiled back at her. It seemed as if Finn was happy to meet
her.
“Come.
I’ll show you where the bathroom is, you’ll have privacy there,” Finn offered.
Genesis lifted her bag from the ground and followed Finn out
of the room. They were walking down a narrow, straight hall. The walls were
white, and the fluorescent lights overhead made the white tiles on the floor
shine even brighter. There were no windows in the hall, and they did not meet
anyone else, even though Genesis kept peeking around nervously, imagining her
encounter with the others.
“Why
did you stay?” Genesis asked Finn, trying to banish the eerie, cold
tranquillity of the quiet hallway.
“As my name implies, I am the last,” Finn said, with a small shrug of her shoulders. “I guess they had to have someone stay so they could have a comparison to those who left and lived outside these walls, to see if living normal, human lives will instil a sense of wanting to save the human race from a zombie apocalypse, should it ever happen.” She smiled slightly when she saw the shock on Genesis’ face.
“Which means you don’t care either way, whether the world comes to an end or not,” Genesis said.
