Seldom Six Feet Under

Chapter One: The Art of The Cursed Evolution

(AUTHORS NOTE: IN REGARDS TO THE EVENTS OF 2020, THIS STORY HAS ZERO CONNECTION AT ALL TO COVID-19. IT'S JUST A FUNNY COINCIDENCE THAT AS SOON AS I START WRITING A ZOMBIE NOVEL, A VIRUS OUTBREAK OCCURS- I ORIGINALLY STARTED WRITING IN DECEMBER 2019, I'M JUST TRANSFERRING IT FROM DOCS TO HERE)

          6 months. 182 days. That is how long the dead have been walking. That is how long it's been since the undocumented virus spread, although it felt as though an eternity had gone by. Nobody knows where it came from. Nobody knows how it got here. All anybody knows is that it reanimates the deceased and gives them an irresistible hunger for flesh. Everything since then has fallen. Cities have been bombed, small towns have gone up in flames, and humanity itself seemed to sink down the drain. To some, it was terrifying how quickly humans seemed to fall into savage manners. To others? It was fascinating.

      But even with everything the way it is, some people never entirely lose their humane ways. That's why Ruby couldn't resist stopping in at the, what used to be, floral shop. She cautiously pushed open the doors, freezing when the bell above her jingled. She gritted her teeth and gazed around inside, light pouring in from the windows as support. The back of the store was practically pitch black. Shelves and pots had been knocked down and smashed. Dirt and soil was scattered all over the tiled floor. Any flowers that were in those pots were now all scrunched up, dry, and dead. Ruby took a cautious step inside, gently closing the door behind her. From what it seemed, she was alone in this store. No dead to be seen- Unless you count the plants.

      With her fully loaded Mossberg 590 Shockwave tightly gripped in her hand, she crept along the isles, carefully stepping over the debris from the pots. She felt stupid for thinking that it would still smell refreshing and calm. All she could smell was dirt, dirt, and more dirt. Oh, and dead. She could smell a lot of rotting and decay that must have seeped in from the outside. Or maybe that was just coming off of her. As of lately, the city seems to be becoming highly populated of dead. They were frequent before, but now? You couldn't turn a corner without seeing at least two of them. But thankfully, this floral shop appeared to be clear.

      There wasn't anything to scavenge from there, except for maybe bags of seeds and soil. Ruby stood by the counter, darting her eyes around slowly at this mess of a store. She set down the shotgun on the countertop behind her, then walked over to a pile of soil and parts of a pot. She crouched down beside it, carefully picking up a large piece of the shattered pot. She inspected it, squinting her brown and blue colored eyes. She scanned the rest of the pile, trying to find a piece that would fit into the missing pieces of the pot. She brushed aside some soil to find one larger piece. She held them both up and put them together. Enough glue could probably fix it. The chipped brim didn't bother her. But she didn't have glue, and she was sure her friends wouldn't understand her desire for some. She stood up straight and set the pieces of the pot onto the counter, swapping it for her shotgun. She made a mental reminder to return here once she got glue to fix that pot, for she had the urge to try and grow plants. Before all this, she found gardening to be a bore. She had better things to do with her time. Key word; Had.

      She took a final glance around before heading back towards the door. She reached for the handle, but froze before she could get a firm grip on it. She had a bad gut feeling about opening this door. She didn't understand why, until the bones of a 9 foot tall zombie casually strolled past it. She backed away from the door, knowing it could see her through the glass and potentially even smell her. The aberration was a light shade of grey with visible, blue veins bursting all over it's slim, starved body. It's hands were large and meaty, reaching down past it's knees.

      Ruby's heart pounded in her chest, praying that it didn't detect her. She had seen ones like this before, and they were certainly abnormal. These ones could grab you by the throat and ankles and tear you apart with ease. That appeared to be their choice of attack, for she hadn't seen it ever just take a bite out of someone other than eating one whole. She stayed still as she watched it pass by, unsure when it'd be safe to leave the floral shop. So she didn't move. The only thing she could hear was her heart rapidly pounding in her chest. Her confident yet fickle conscience taunted her like angels and devils on her shoulders.