The zombies stood around the apartment like statues , unmoving , unblinking and lifeless . The only sign they were still animated was the growling and groaning they emitted . The odd thing was that they were not doing anything and not just then but when Lesley took a peek , the zombies near him turned to look his way .
Lesley turned around to run but saw that the alley was a dead end at the back . Then thinking quickly, he rushed back to the fire escape of the next building over , jumping up to pull down the stairs , frantic to save his life . But the damn thing was too old and rusty , he couldn't pull down the stairs with both his hands on . Lesley let go , dropped to the ground and turned to see the zombies there looking at him .
But that's all they did ; look at him .
The fear of death , of dying there, that had consumed Lesley slowly ebbed away after five minutes of the zombie being stagnant. With a frown on his face , Lesley got to his feet and looked at the undead legion . They were gazing at him with their vacant expressions but not one of them attacked him .
" Hey ! " Lesley shouted and winced preparing to be torn apart . But nothing happened and he looked back at the still zombies .
What the hell was going on ? He wondered, they're like the other one and just do nothing . Is there an upper rank zombie that's controlling all of them ? That would have to be extremely powerful and dangerous .
Lesley swallowed heavily and stared hard at the undead monsters . Well , he thought , if they're going to do nothing then I'll just ... walk past them . He lifted a foot but that's when a zombie started rushing towards him .
With its speed the zombie was soon infront of him , with it's blue eyes and green jacket . It was the zombie from the apartment again and Lesley gave it a sour look . He didn't have time for this thing .
" So-rr- " the zombie tried to speak but Lesley just walked past it , glaring at the zombies infront of him . His heart was beating at ten miles a minute in his chest though.
However his fear was unsounded, because as soon as he approached them , two zombies moved out of his way and cleared him a path . Soon , all the zombies made a path for him and Lesley felt a strange sensation walking through that throng of death and horror .
He tried not to , but couldn't help looking at the zombies , their faces , clothes and expressions, although the former was the same on most of them . There were women zombies , young and old , each in their own grimace of death . The men faired no better , bones and ragged flesh , little more than chunks of meat on a skeleton . For a brief moment , the briefest , Lesley wondered if they had some sense of humanity left somewhere in there .
Of course he immediately dismissed the thought , it was too ludicrous to entertain. These creatures feasted on human flesh , young and old with no remorse or pity . It was only right they faught back as humans to save themselves and if he started feeling a drop of empathy for these creatures , then he was insane .
Finally when Lesley reached across the street , he had a inkling in his gut and turned around . He'd walked in a straight line and the zombies behind him had not closed his path . He could see the teenage zombie from the apartment , it was looking at him and Lesley couldn't help but look back .
Why was that ?
Slowly the creature raised it's hand and offered it to Lesley . Lesley looked at that hand , thinking about what it would entail ; being trapped , being fed and danger all around him . The choice was obvious.
He turned around and ran away , the zombies made a path for him as he did and he shoved those who didn't move fast enough out of his way . He never would go back to that zombie . He had a home and that's where he was going to go back to .
....
Mel watched the human run away from him with a vacant expression and then he looked at his hand . It had risen up by itself , calling the human back and that made Mel confused .
But that did not matter , the human was gone now .
He turned to the apartment but then his feet made him go on the path that the human had made . Stopping in the street , he stood there , between his fellow zombies wondering what was happening .
He should follow him , but then what ? The human did not want to go back to the apartment .
He could force him to stay but the thought made a bad feeling like a bad meal appear that had Mel put on a frown .
What should he do ?
Should he follow him ?
Go back to his room ?
What about Death , will she be angry ?
Thoughts , the very thing that zombies are not meant to have , floated through his skull like wasps , stinging the simple oder of reason that he had .
He was a zombie , and the human was a human . The human had tried to kill him in the bed room . The human would kill him if he followed him .
But the human had not killed him in the bedroom .
What should I do ? The thought stung the most and Mel frowned at the ground . Then slowly , the path started to disappear as the zombies left , each going their own way . One would even think that they had been there for the human and that now that he was gone , they had no purpose to do anything else than what they had been doing before .
Mel stood alone in the street , except for a few zombies wandering the pavement . He was alone and surrounded by the undead . They were like him , he did not have anything to do with the human except what Death commanded of him .
And he had done it , he had watched over the human . He had wandered around , looking for food in places where other humans were. He'd killed them , taken their food to feed the human . Now that was over . The human no longer needed him .
Mel looked up at the sky and for the first time in years , a wet and solitary tear fell from his right eye .
" Sor-rry. " He said softly but he didn't know who he was saying it to .
And it didn't matter . There was no one to hear him .
Or forgive him .