Day one
"Please don't leave your houses.
We can’t guarantee your safety.
Reports are coming in of rioting
Looters pilfering everything.
We will bring more news as it comes in"
Barricaded, light slowly fading,
Only candles to illuminate.
No one warned us.
Just days
of food and drink
to keep sated.
I think of my dream,
she who lives
on the other side
of the city
and I pray
she is safe.
We will call her Elouise.
If anything happens to me
make sure she is okay. Please.
Curtains drawn.
Don't want to alert
that I am home
Outside car alarms
and groans.
A braindead lullaby calls
to chill tired bones.
As the light
fades away.
Into nightmares
I fall.
Day two
"There are things on the streets
Your brains they want to eat.
We repeat. Keep inside.
They want your brains to feast."
Has insanity washed over me?
Will the men in white suits
soon be here to constrain me.
Contain me?
I feel ill at ease.
Something is outside.
the smell of disease,
rotten flesh and faeces
permeates the air.
A sound chills.
The dragging of broken limbs,
grinding bones on concrete pavements.
Chances of surviving
are looking slim.
Great, I think to myself,
the apocalypse is here
and I can't even watch it on TV.
Social media is out of reach,
all I can do is sit quietly
and hope it peaks.
My heart breaks, as soon as that name
shimmers into my brain.
Elouise, I hope you
are safe from pain.
Day three
"Unconfirmed reports are coming in.
The military are down.
The government is gone,
we are on our own"
Of that sweet Elouise, I think,
alone, on that deserted street.
A cloud sinks
I need to make sure she is safe.
If I don’t, I'll regret every breath
I never spent by her side.
Into the blinding sunlight I step,
bodies lay, where once a flowerbed was kept.
As I turn onto the main road,
the stench of death
hits like the hot air on a summer’s day,
burrows into my nose
and lodges itself to stay.
An approaching hoard lurches forward.
into the alley, I duck
hiding from the light of day.
The dead lay.
Fuck this is too much.
Some still twitching,
such an horrific sight to see
like a scene from the trenches,
but this army of dead still encroaches on me.
Past the alleyway they stumble,
their darkened shadows cast
eerily across the brickwork.
I fumble for a weapon, but nothing
so, I stay hidden. Better that way.
As the surge crosses the horizon,
I jump into action,
then regret it immediately,
as cramp grips my legs in agony.
Towards the other side of town
I embark, seeing horrors
which can never be written down.
If I live, my nightmares
will never be the same,
so many visions, a future so dark.
This is not some PlayStation game
and you only get one go
to make it to the finish line.
I see a glow,
a candle flickering in a window.
Elouise. Alive. I just know.
I walk to her door and knock.
Our secret knock
so she knows it's me.
Day four
"We urge anyone still alive
to head to the docks,
a boat is arriving at high tide.
So set your clocks.
We hope you make it
safely to the dockside"
The news wakes us.
Sleep was slept.
The sleep of hearts
sharing solidarity.
I look out of the window.
Oh shit no.
The hoard here!
How will we get through?
It was no use.
So, I did what I had to do.
I lured away the hoard,
made them follow me.
Told Elouise to catch the boat instead.
I cut myself and bled,
the scent would get them to follow.
I led them back to my home,
where once there was a flowerbed
and now I'm here writing this down.
I just pray she is on the open sea,
and that she will remember me.
I sink into sleep
Dreams,
the only place
I wish to be
if I cant be
with my
sweet Elouise.
Day five
Gunfire?
Screeching sounds.
Flares,
lighting the already
bright air.
I spy through
a crack in the curtain.
A soldier. No, a whole battalion,
marching, clearing away
any brain munchers
that stay,
and behind
I see a sight
that makes
my heart explode.
Elouise, rushing
towards my home.
Past where the
flowerbed once grew.
Thanks for reading
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