Alisha, horrified "what is that?!"
"Maybe..."
"Huh, what?!"
"Zombie, maybe..."
"Like in the movies and such?!"
Rian nods..
"What is going on?!"
Rian sits on the bed and sighs.
"I...don't know."
"Just what is happening?! This can't be. Right, a dream! It must be a dream, right?!" (anxious)
Rian looks at Alisha who is really shaken by this incidents happening and tells her to sit beside her.
Alisha calms down soon after.
*Sigh* "What are going to do now?! Will we become like that too?!"
Rian holds her hand and reassuringly says..
"No, we won't. Definitely not."
'her hands are shaking.' Alisha thinks...
"Oh shit! I need to pee."
"Hey! Are you leaving me alone right now?! Hey!"
"Just a minute, Lisha"
Rian runs off to the bathroom and after coming out around two minutes later, finds Alisha rummaging the cupboard.
"What are you finding?!"
"Something to eat. I just checked the time, it's already past 10 am. I am hungry."
Rian realizing something-
"Don't, don't eat."
"Why? It's not like I will become a zombie."
"If you eat now, we'll definitely become zombies."
"What?!!" (shocked)
Alisha drops the package of biscuits she found to eat. Rian while picking up the biscuits package-
"Yeah, zombies. In fact hunger zombies."
"Don't mess with me, Rini." *sigh*
"I am not kidding. Think about what we will eat later. It's not like this 'situation' will be resolved in a day or two."
Rian continues... "it may take 15 days, 1 or 3 months, even years."
"Then.. What are we doing to do?!"
"I don't know."
Silence prevailed in the room for a long time after that. That silence was more loud and noisy then the growling sound coming from beyond the doors and was filled with all the thoughts, emotions and doubts of Alisha and Rian.
When instead of sun, moon was in the sky, the silence finally broke with Alisha's question who was lying on her bed..
"Rini, are we going to die?! From hunger even if not from zombies ?!"
Rian lies on her bed which they joined with Alisha's.
"Nah, we are going to live."
"How are you so sure?! Maybe we'll die. You in front of me or me in front of you."
"No, even if we can't do anything, someone will definitely save us."
"But-"
Just as Alisha was about to say something, Rian interrupts her.
"Sleep, maybe this is all nothing but a dream."
"hm..okay."
They fell asleep almost instantly. They must have been tired from all this happening or maybe they really believed this all was just a dream.
They didn't eat much as they thought of the future. But little did they know, this was just the start of their misery.
The next day they woke up just to have their hopes broken into pieces.
Around noon, Rian was writing in her diary when a sudden thought strikes her. She then takes a notebook and starts to write with a serious look.
Alisha notices this and comes closer to know what she was writing.
"Hey!"
"hm?!"
"What are ya writing?!"
"What I know about zombies."
"About zombies? Like what?!"
"Like their weaknesses, habits that I know from movies."
"Why are you writing that?! It's not like those are real. The writers made them with their own fantasies."
"I know, but maybe they'll come in handy. If someone doesn't come to save us, we'll have to save ourselves, no?!"
"hm.. Then teach me too."
Rian studies Alisha's expression and finds her to be serious.
"okay, sit here."
Alisha sits beside Rian on her bed and she starts explaining.
"What I know about them is that they are physically weak and unintelligent monsters. They go crazy over blood and flesh. They are relatively easy to kill but zombies generally grow too many in numbers in a small amount of time. That's how they are portrait in movies and dramas.
"Aha!! I see." *nods*
"Their eyesight is weak and they generally rely on their hearing."
"Then Aunty didn't saw us that time, it was because of the sound..."
"That's what I think too."
"Their weak spots are the side of their head, neck and maybe the heart, remember that."
"Okay."
"That's about it"
"okay...Rini?!"
"Yeah?!"
"Our water bottles are empty."
"Ah.. I.. I see."
Rian wanted to reassure Alisha who was getting anxious by the day but so Rian was.
With no water available, they resorted to tape water to survive in the end.
The food they had was getting less and less as the days rolled by.
After six days of 'that' morning-
"How many days has it been since we took a bath?!"
Rian asks Alisha while they were sitting on the floor.
"five days."
"We have to think about going out-"
A loud noise was heard just as Rian was saying something. They stood up hurriedly. Alisha runs to the window to check what was going on and Rian follows right behind.
They saw a group of three(a boy and two women) were trying to escape. This scene gave a ray of hope to these two which then scattered to pieces just minutes later.
Those three tried to escape using a motorcycle just outside their house but got bitten even before they could reach it.
Horrified, They stood still as those three turned into zombies one by one. This made them have second thoughts about leaving.
'how will we be able to leave?! We'll become like those three. No, don't think like that. Just like Rini said maybe someone will save us. Definitely, we'll definitely survive.'
Alisha thinks, and then reach out to hold Rian's hand tightly. Rian snaps out from her thoughts.
Just as Rian was a reassurance and comfort to Alisha, seeing Alisha by her side was what kept Rian from crumbling and standing strong.
Days passed by and they became thinner and thinner day by day. They made noodles with cold water and those noodles were a delicacy to these two who hadn't eaten in days. It was around these days when they really got know to know about 'hunger'.
"it's the 16th today, isn't?!" Rian asked-
[16 march, 2027]
"hm."
"And we just have two more packets of noodles left? Haha.."
Alisha while sitting on the floor said-
"It's been already thirteen days since we last ate our fill. We are really going to die of hunger at this rate."
Rian then suddenly jumbs from her bed and says-
"Right! Lisha, you are right. Let's eat our fill today and go out tomorrow."
*startled* "What?! Are you crazy?! Didn't you see how they turned into zombies?!"
"But we are going to die of hunger at this rate like you said. If we are going to die anyway, let's eat our fill and try our best before that."
*Silent*
"And it's not like we'll charge at those zombies mindlessly, we'll go with a plan."
"Okay, I believe you, Rini."
"Right, just believe in me and make those noodles. If anything happens, just blame me."
"These uncooked noodles aren't tasty though."
"Don't whine about it now. This is all we have."
The words "we'll make it" or "we'll survive" were what Rian wanted to say but couldn't leave her lips. Just the words "blame me" were what she could tell her in the end.
At night...
"Thank you for believing in me until the end, Lisha. We'll definitely make it. I promise."
These words of reassurance were received by silence as Rian whispered it to the soundly sleeping Alisha. Those words weren't meant for Alisha but instead for Rian 'herself'.
[Some have fantasies about saving the world but just having the thought of saving oneself was a daring thing to do in this 'new world '. Can one really save oneself and others?! Are we strong enough to do that?!]
-To be continued