Ladder

You know how dreams start off sometimes in the middle, and you go from there? And how dreams can be only 30 min in reality, but feel like hours or days? Yeah, that’s what happened. Both.

I’m asleep and hear my mom and next thing I know, I’m dreaming a nightmare!

It starts off like this: My mom told me and Asuka, that’s my younger sister, to get dressed so that we could leave for the laundry in 30 min. I was mad, Asuka was mad and mom was mad. Jin and dad weren’t mad at all. In fact, neither was home then. Jin’s clothes were washed the day before and dad was working on uncle Lee’s car.

“Mom, can’t we go tomorrow? I just really don’t feel like going today.” I walked into the living room.

“No, because we already put it off from Friday, so you could go to the movies with Christie. Anyway, I don’t wanna go either. But we have to. I’m not sending Asuka to school Monday with dirty clothes.” She said looking up at me, from the place on the couch.

“Yeah, I know. Get your shoes on. We leave in 10 minutes.”

I shake my head even though I know she can’t see me. Then, I pull my pink flip flops that match my blue jean capris and pink t-shirt from the closet. I look over and see Asuka putting on pink/white/silver sketchers on, and she’s wearing a blue army camouflage shirt with a dark blue tank top dress that stops to ankles with flowers on it.

“Uh uh. You’re not wearing that, Suky. Put something on that matches.” With that, Asuka goes to mom.

“Rubi’s starting trouble with me mom.” She sits next to mom.

“What’d she do, Suky.” That’s the nickname we all call her.

“She said I can’t wear this. It’s cute ain’t mom?”

“Yes.”

“No it’s not.” I shake my head from the opening in the hall and living room.

“Leave her alone, Rubi. She’s dressing herself.”

“Yeah, I know. But she’s 10. At 10 I knew how to dress myself. I also knew how to match.”

“Well, Rubi, you were my first baby. Born into a world of adults. You wanted to be like us. That meant being able to do for yourself. Suky’s the baby.” With that Asuka hugs mom.

I think about what mom said. “You just want Suky to stay the baby for as long as she can, since she’s the last one.”

Mom shakes her head, smiling. “Yeah.”

“Whatever. As long as it’s known that she dressed herself. And not because we’re bums and don’t have clothes.” They both laugh.

I go in the kitchen and get me a diet Pepsi. When I come out, they’re heading to the car. Mom had put on some black sweat pants and a red t-shirt and black/white sneakers. I sit my pop down on the table and head to the bathroom. When I was little, mom’s always asked, “Did you go to the bathroom before we leave?” It’s stuck with me ever since. When I come out, I grab my diet Pepsi and run out to the car. Mom stops me halfway.

“Go to the fridge and get me a diet Coke.” And I know Asuka interrupts, because mom turn towards the backseat.

“And get Suky a a Pepsi or Coke, doesn’t matter which. Which ever is cold.”

Back in the house, in the kitchen I grab a Coke. That’s what was cold. I run back outside and get in the car. We drive off.

We’ve been driving for at least 35 minutes. The stupid laundry had to be across town. Bastards couldn’t make one closer. We turn a corner and down the stretch of road, are a horde of people. In my mind, I’m like ‘What the hell?’ But out loud, mom voices it for me.

“What the hell? All these people in the damn street! I know they’re not having a block party. People are too crazy nowadays to have those.” Me and Asuka don’t say anything. We’re just watching them as we get closer. As we get closer, Asuka notices something strange that mom and me don’t notice right away.

“Those people that are chasing them other people, look like zombies.”

“They’re not zombies, Suky.” I say.

“Well they look like zombies to me.” She says kinda angry.

Now we’re close enough that I’m not so inclined as to not believe what that 10 year old said wasn’t true. Since we were close, we could see the people running away and even hear the people screaming. Everything they screamed was in-decipherable. But you could see in their faces and more importantly, their eyes, that they were terrified. I looked over to my mom and I saw that she had noticed the same things. She pushed her foot on the gas and plowed through the zombies and people. Obviously, she wasn’t trying to hit the people. But accidents happen, especially when there’s a state of mass panic.

Another woman in a white tank top, brown shorts and white sneakers, attacked a man with shoulder length auburn hair and a slim tanned muscular body. Once he was on the ground, she didn’t waste any time for him to die or to kill him. She dug both her hands into his chest. He fought her, but to no avail. His body shook as she dug deeper into his chest. Finally after what seemed an eternity to me but was with no doubt one for him, she pulled out her prize. As big as a baseball and red with deep veins, it was his heart. He rolled his head to the side. The side that faced me, and I knew. I knew it was Hwoarang. The conceded young man, that always tried to cop a feel, but had a good side that lots of people didn’t know. He looked directly at me. At first, I wasn’t sure if he recognized me. But not for long. His hazel eyes were completely focused on me. If only for a few seconds, then they closed and blood poured from his mouth and chest and nose. I was so caught up in what I was seeing that I didn’t notice the woman looking at me. Her long reddish brown hair was stiff looking with bright blood. Her normally chocolate brown legs were so advanced in her decay, that they weren’t just blue or gray, but a sickly yellow. Her face was covered in blood and gouges of flesh and meat were gone. Her eyes were normally hazel, but now were a dead gray and red with purple. It was Christie, my best friend.

I know what her eyes look like because……She looked at me. Stared at me with such an intensity, that my breath caught in my throat. She watched as we rode by her. I looked out the side window; she watched us as we rode until she couldn’t see me, nor I her.

“What about Jin and daddy?” Mom was silent, then spoke.

“We’re on our way home now. They should be okay. We came from that direction,” she points behind us, “so those things haven’t reach there yet.” Both hands are on the steering wheel again.

“They’re zombies.”

“What, Suky?”

“They’re zombies, mom.” We’re all silent again. Up ahead, we notice that there’s a few people walking. There’s a woman with bright red hair in two ponytails, tanned skin and a purple tank top with a white skirt and sandals. She’s walking next to a girl with neck length red hair that flairs out, red t-shirt and brown shorts and sandals. A little farther ahead, we see a man with black pants and shoes, a white t-shirt, short black hair and tanned skin. I notice the man is one that’s had a crush on my mom, Marshall Law. A few steps ahead of him, is a man with chocolate brown skin, short white hair and black pants and shirt. The man named Raven who is so mysterious, that this is the second time I’ve seen him. As we get closer, we notice 2 things. All their cars are uninhabited and our car just let us know we’re out of gas. The same thing happened to them, I guess.

“Suky’s with us and we have to think about her safety first. You hide in the bushes with her while I get gas.” She never stopped walking.

“No. We’re staying together.” She starts to argue, but I stop her.

He jumps on the girl, knocking her to the ground. With the force, the red haired woman had to let go of the girl. At that moment, I saw it was Kunimitsu. Which meant that the girl was Miharu Hirano, her daughter. Kunimitsu tried to fight him. The man pulled at her back with his mouth, blood running down his chin, spatters of blood hitting his yellow shirt, and then Miharu stopped screaming for her mom. The screams were now for the pain. He lifted his head up and brings with it a mouthful of blood red meat. She screamed again when he beat her face into the ground. He beat it, and beat it, and beat it. Harder and harder and harder. Until her screams were no more. But he continued to beat her face into the ground, until I realized with sick horror, that he wasn’t beating her face into the ground, but her head. He wanted what was in her head! He beat her head until I hear a sickening crack and like a child on Christmas, he dug his hands into her head. I couldn’t look anymore. I ran. But one last glance told me all I needed to know of Kunimitsu. She had stopped helping her daughter, not for fear, but for death. Death had claimed her. Putting her in the hands of a zombie I couldn’t see, but I knew it was a man bent over her. All this happened so fast, like the blink of an eye. But I felt that it was slow enough for me to have seen her death, without being in safety.

Next thing I know, I’m running next to my mom and Asuka on my back down a street I know all too well. My home! We ran that far and fast, that we made it home? That was at least a 50 minute run, and I’m not the least bit tired. Mom doesn’t appear to be tired either. But, along the way, we lost Raven and Marshall. I hope they’re okay.

“If we call their cells, and they’re in hiding, the zombies will know where they are.” She’s right, but I’m still worried about them. As if on cue, Jin runs in, shutting the door, and running up stairs to his room. I know he saw us, but he didn’t say anything. Mom goes into the kitchen and double checks the windows and putting boards up with nails and a hammer. I turn back to the window near the door and find Asuka pulling the blinds up and looking through the window.

“What are you doing, Suky?” I ask and holler while pulling the blinds from her hands. In the process, I see our neighbor running from a zombie down the street.

“What’d say, Suky?” I turn and look at her.

“I said that I wanted to see if any zombies were near the house.”

“Of course there are! And by doing what you were doing, one could’ve walked past and seen us. Then what would we’d have done?” Before she can answer, I cut her off.

“Hold that thought. Tell mom I’ll be right back. There’s something I remembered.” I push her towards the kitchen. I open the door as quiet as I can and shut it the same. I go to the side of the house and I see my dad talking to his friend Baek Doo San! What the hell is he doing talking to his friend, while there’s zombies out here! I don’t even ask him. But I somehow was able to climb on the roof, and get the metal ladder that was there from earlier this year when my dad cleaned the gutters. He didn’t want there to be any chance that he’d be stuck since we were all gone, so he put it up there with him.

How the fuck could Jin sleep like that? We’re all working while he sleeps. Ain’t that some shit! I don’t say any of this, though. But I do go and check the door that leads outside. (Mini A/N 6- What the hell? A door leading outside from the second floor? No doors lead to the ground from the second floor. Or do they? I my dream they do. LOL) I notice that there’s a man outside. And at first glance, I think ‘zombie’. But I notice when he turns to me, how relieved he is. It’s Raven. He signals with his hands to ask if it was okay to come inside and stay with us. I shake my head yes. Raven comes inside and we lock and board up the door. I can see that mom and Asuka are shocked that he’s here. He could tell too.

“I ran with Marshall after we all got separated. But, along the way, a zombie came out. We didn’t hear him. He was real quiet. We only knew when he bit Marshall on the neck from behind. I threw my knife at the zombies head. It fell over. Marshall fell and clutched his neck, but blood spurted through his fingers. He asked me to kill him. He didn’t want to become a zombie. Although we had never actually seen anyone turn into a zombie from being bit, we knew from the movies that it would happen. I broke his neck. It was quicker than knifing him.” He shrugs his big shoulders, when we look shocked. “Hey what’d you expect? I am an assassin.”

I turn in the direction of my dad, when I see the most unlikely person. I mean zombie. It was Christie. Her mouth was covered in blood. We didn’t board that one door up, I thought. She was walking towards me, not my mom, dad, Asuka, Raven…but me. She wanted me. She stops and cocks her head. I remember how she stared at me when we rode past her earlier. How’d she know where I was? Sadly and greatly relieved, I’ll never know. I run at her and I thank god that I never let that ladder go. I did one good swing, and brought the ladder crashing over zombie Christie’s head. Her head smashed and bone flew on both sides. Her blood squirted and we closed our eyes, not wanting to become infected. When I opened them, zombie Christie was only a body laying on its stomach. No head insight; just a lot of blood.

Well, I can’t tell you anything else, because I woke up after that.