Welcome to the Weekly Challenge Number One Hundred And Four, where I post a topic and then challenge you to come up with a 100 word story based on that topic.
The topic this week was selected by , who is going for broke with…
It’s Zombies.
The excellent theme music is by Guy David
VOTING
Go ahead and listen to them and then vote for your favorites (multiple selections are allowed):
TOM M
The great leviathan with her, barnacle encrusted, titanium platinum alloy hull, lurked beneath her prey. For centuries automated systems kept the great beast functional. Her crew long dead.
Mindless, Soulless, and without remorse, the powerful zombie of the deep, targeted the yacht. The yacht shuddered a second, as steam and light came from below and tore it asunder. Debris drifted around it, as the hulking monster receded back to the deep to recharge.
The search continues but the warm Caribbean waters had claimed another victim. Meanwhile in the inky depths of the ocean an ancient terror recharges, repairs and waits.
MIKE A
I was really starting to hate autumn. The reddish
leaves were pretty, but since I usually saw them
only at night, I preferred them brown; it made it less
difficult to move unseen through the woods.
No, the problem was this: autumn always saw a major
increase in the number of zombies, almost like
some bizarre perversion of Spring. I almost have to
double the number of traps, which cuts into my
sleeping time. Unfortunately, you can’t cut into the
‘reproduction cycle’ by just eating them. Some
of my fellow werewolves had tried, and no good had
come of it.
JOEL H
Slow, shiftless, lifeless meat sacs roaming aimlessly without a purpose. One is young, thin and never stops smiling.
The other is old, brittle and cannot move without pain. The third is flawless even in his current state; the envy of the others.
The fourth, once a big hero in Houston is now a lifeless corpse floating in the Hudson. The fifth, a man once so strong he could move mountains, i
s tired at the thought of merely eating brains. You look at these men, defeated, dead and without a purpose and you must ask yourself”
what happened to the Mets’ offense?
HOTSPUR O’TOOLE
Phosphorous, the old man said. Their bodies generate phosphorous when they have finally collapse from hunger. I don”t care. They have always resembled giant glowing mushrooms at night. Cleanup duty isn”t too awful, once you get past the stench. Kind of peaceful. I just keep my bandana tied tight under my nose and wear my steel toed boots, in case of wrigglers with intact jaws. Tonight was a surprise. Old Mrs.Garrigus, the den mother. I remembered. She had turned in the middle of a pack meeting. “Ain”t that a kick in the head”, I mused, reaching for my axe handle.
GUY DAVID
I was just about to wrap up things at the office, when Barney went by me running and chased by a zombie. Now, it’s not everyday you see your coworker being chased by a zombie around the office, so this aroused my curiosity. Now ” where did this zombie come from, who bit who? Was this zombie bitten by his girlfriend in the middle of some steamy sex? Ooh, think what a damper this could put on his sex life. Maybe he was bitten by a salesman. Now ” this would definitely kill his insurance deal. That’s what I call sloppy salesmanship.
STEVEN THE NUCLEAR MAN
Hush. Do not say another word.
You stand out. You are not dressed like them – no suit, no power tie, no
flag pin. They swarm downtown during the day. Nighttime is safer; they
shelter in their homes.
I can pass among them. I can rattle off last week’s scores and the
contestants on the reality TV shows. You have to talk in soundbites, not
analysis. Are you stupid? They will eat your brain if they notice you.
Damn. My co-workers. Follow my lead.
Bobby! Yeah, shame about last night. We were just talking about who got
voted off, right?
Right?
CALEB BULLEN
In Haiti, zombies don”t eat yer brain like in de movies. In Haiti, de zombies are real. In de old time dey used to work as servants or mebbe in de plantation. Now most zombies sit in de cubicle writing SPAM or tech support. I got one zombie he do me taxes, another designed me website, “voodoo warrior dot com”.
Course we keep our zombies docile by filling dem with drugs and mind numbing messages so dey work and work without tryin improve dere situation. How you keep yer zombies workin? Budwieser? McDonalds? Lindsey Lohan as News? Just Like Haiti!
TERRY TEE
Bizroc and his wife walked along the tunnel with the satisfaction of full stomachs for the first time in many months. Like every worship day, they had joined their neighbors, marching like zombies, silently down the tunnel toward the worship hall.
They continued to march, getting closer to the meeting hall, becoming increasingly aware that something was different today.
Maybe different wasn’t the correct word, they were in for something special, special and profound, from the sounds of the choir.
Bizroc wondered if it pertained to the earthling, as he and his wife had found so sweet and delicious.
DAPHNE
I went to the surface today. We needed supplies. It was night and I stayed in the shadows but I watched out for the ‘Zombies’. They aren’t really Zombies, not the walking undead, but more like humans who after it happened… well they kind of died inside. If you looked at their eyes, there is nothing there, just a vacant stare. But never look at them, if you ever see one, hide. Find a dark corner, alley, open manhole, some place dark and stay there being very quiet and very still. Be very careful, you don’t want to be caught.
PLANET XRAY
I lie awake at night thinking of love I have lost because of what I didn’t say.
My first love came early in life, Pamela, and at a time when we could be carefree, with the whole world out there.
We would spend afternoons on those cold, winter days, next to the fireplace listening to our LPs.
We would have them all stacked up on the stereo spindle ready to go, The Beatles, Turtles, and our favorite, The Zombies.
The rhythm of our love keeping beat to the Zombies’ music.
Now all lost, because I didn’t say,
I Love You
ELISSON
When he first awakened in the grotto”s gloom, a spasm of pain in his side jolted him to his feet. That was when he realized how desperately hungry he was.
Where was he, anyway? All he could remember was being lifted high, being stabbed in the side, the taunting voices. His hands and ankles ached; in his mouth was a lingering taste of vinegar.
Standing up, he could barely see the rock blocking the exit. Ignoring the agony in his feet, he pushed it aside.
Out in the desert sun, all he could think was: I”m famished. “Bra-a-a-ains…” he moaned.
ANIMA
Zoe has slipped from the realm of the living.
Once, she was a caring, vibrant woman who volunteered at the shelter .Now she worries if she can get a manicure Tuesday.
Maury Povich is her bokor. Hooked on “Hard Copy” and “A Current Affair”, Zoe has lost her consciousness. She is a Psychological Zombie.
But I can’t let her go..
I know I can help. Given a strong enough emotional connection to the mortal world, zombies can break the trance. Kidnapping Zoe’s parents wasn’t enough. This time, I’ll take drastic measures on her lapdog.
Eventually, I will succeed.
TOM
Vapors squeezed from the steamer truck gather about Quatermain”s moustache. Cervantes noted Allan looked older as if something was finally wearing him down.
“What happening here?” asked Arnesto.
“You dear Cervantes. Your little journey through time has had dire effects. When you bleed time the body caporial loses blood to the brain. So many of our best and brightest have succumb so many Time Zombies.”
“Zombies ” that”s why life is in the sewers.”
“Yes it something about higher levels of moisture. It”s a bloody miracle the nightingale got you to the Hub.”
“The easy bake is our only hope.”
HEDGIE
Ever since I became a zombie people have been saying to me “Bob, you’re acting really weird”. Sure, I enjoy the taste of brains now and then. And yeah, I’m technically dead but really I’m just a monster. Honestly though, I’m still a regular guy. My friends and I just saw a movie at the mall. We’re all getting a little hungry though. Hey there’s Tom! We used to work together. I think I’ll go over and say hello. Maybe see if he would join us for a bite to eat.
JD
Of a morning one of them comes into my room and hands me the Clozapine in a small paper cup.
At noon they call me to lunch where they hand me the Risperidone, also in a small paper cup.
In the evening, when the darkness returns, they give me a new paper cup with new pills inside.
They will not tell me what the red and blue pills are.
Sometimes they don’t catch me when I hid the pills under my tongue.
Later, in the early hours of morning, I cry.
Zombies can’t cry, or laugh, or smile, or feel.
LAIEANNA
Civilization was wrong. The zombies aren’t mindless. They just had a
change in taste, and I agree with them. A good chef doesn’t pass up
any unusual or exotic ingredients for their dishes. When the world
was handed to the zombies, I was ready to serve them with heavenly
meals. My restaurant is perfect with a basement kitchen and closed in
steel serving area. Getting past the diners for groceries and fresh
meat is the hardest part. That’s why I always welcome survivors to my
sanctuary. Never keep your customers waiting for long by keeping a
good stock of food.
TERRENCE
Raoul watched as the zombies crested the hill in the distance headed in his direction. At first the group was small, but more continued to pour over the hill. Now off to his right a hand reached up and then soon a human figure dragged itself from the ground.
The zombie looked at Raoul, it’s jaw hanging from a few strands on flesh. Its right hand nothing but bone and a large hole in its chest through which you could see its slow beating heart and the small witherhunch. The good book never described resurrection of the dead like this.
SOUGENT
As he waited, the sweat trickled down his back, the humidity of this “tropical paradise” closed in around him like a soggy blanket. In the darkness, a cacophony of noise burst forth from the jungle, but that would all change when “they” came, the living did not take kindly to the creatures he was waiting for. The cessation of noise would be his first sign that the zombies had risen from their earthen abodes and were on the hunt. Their task for the night? To kill him.
But he was ready for them, tonight the hunted would become the hunter.
PLANET Z
We’re in here. Zombies are out there.
I’d like to keep it that way.
Not Duffy. Every night, he sees his wife on the monitors.
“You’ve gotta let me save her!” he says.
No. Even if he finds her, there’s no cure.
“I don’t care,” he says. “I made a vow. I’m going out there .”
There’s a difference between In Sickness And In Health and Till Death Do Us Part.
Guilt drives people like Duffy mad.
You see, those cameras were disconnected weeks ago.
Which is a good thing, because I didn’t have to see Duffy swarmed, taken down, screaming.