Hal awoke and was back in the familiar surroundings of the bedroom within his apartment. Judging by the light emitting through the window, it was early morning. The events of the day before returned to him in an uncomfortable hazy memory. He remembered an encounter with a vicious dog and...a zombie trying to attack and kill him! Concealing the zombie's body he had managed to render unconscious and then something else? Yes: getting that goddamn drug filled needle accidentally stuck in his arm, running away from the oncoming zombie horde, avoiding them by taking time out and hiding within a trash dumpster. The events concerning his return to the apartment block were still a total memory block to him.
Getting out of bed he felt surprisingly refreshed and more secure, now that he was back in the safety of his home. Ambling off to the kitchen, he checked the cupboards for food; unfortunately, last nights scavenger mission had failed, but luckily he was still well stocked with food supplies. He made himself some breakfast and sat down at the table, thankful to be back here, safe and sound.
After finishing breakfast he took a cautious look out of the window – like he always did these days – more so today because he knew for certain of the confirmed zombie threat. Perhaps zombies were now the only other dwellers left inhabiting the planet. Except for the animals. Speaking of which the foxes seemed to be back in slightly greater numbers, across the road from his apartment. They were making that awful unearthly cry again, unusual to see them doing so in the day, as you only heard them at night-time, but never saw them. On closer inspection the reason became clear; some of the foxes were involved in an aggressive scuffle between themselves. Never before had he seen foxes fighting so viciously; going straight for each other's throats and not letting go until the loser was dead. The rest were participating in an orgy of manic screwing. Perhaps this was evidence of the rabid disease which was spreading between them, and the stray dogs and whatever other rabid invested animals were still lurking out there.
At times like these. Hal always liked to escape into the soothing remedy that only good music could bring. He hunted around his living room for the old battery powered stereo he still treasured. One of his remaining belongings from the old world that still brought him pleasure. Although the radio transmissions were no more, he still had his collection of CDs to fall back on. He spent the next few hours lazily listening to fine music: rock, pop or classical. He did not care just so long as it drowned out the noises from outside the building and the noise of the thoughts inside his head.
When the music started failing to keep him cocooned from real life matters, he finally realised just how foolish he had been, not to have used headphones, the noise could attract the zombies! He quickly pounced on the stereo and switched off the device. Perhaps he had got away with it...or perhaps not.
Just at that moment, there was a loud banging on the door of the apartment. Shit, the zombies had penetrated into the building! How long would the door hold off the crazy hoards of creatures? He panicked and tried to work out some kind of escape plan; the only options springing to mind were jumping out of the window or fighting off the zombies, but there could be dozens of those abominations out there? Either way, his chances of survival seemed pretty damn low.
"Never be too hasty", said Hal to himself. His first logical thought after the initial panic was to barricade the door, that would buy him some time to decide on his next move, perhaps the creatures would even get bored and walk away!
Trembling he approached the door – the load knocking continued – there was a hefty cupboard along the wall, Hall was a rather strong man and felt the zombies would be frailer, so if he could barely move the cupboard across the doorway with his own strength then the zombies would have an even greater struggle to push their way inside.
Before he could put the plan into action, there was the unmistakable sound of a young ladies voice outside the door – was she being attacked by the zombies – strangely there did not seem to be too much-unbridled horror in her voice. If she was being torn apart outside, limb from limb by the beasts, surely her emanating screams would unbearably load? Then again, perhaps this was a trick by the zombies and some of them could talk! Stupid theory - they lost their vocal skills after changing into monsters – didn't they?
A decent idea then sprung into Hal's weary mind, "Have a look through the keyhole you idiot," he said reprimanding himself.
There appeared to be a slim young lady rather beautiful in appearance, elegantly dressed and with, gorgeous long flowing blonde hair. Standing outside, she looked as panicky as he felt himself.
“Who's there,” shouted Hal in a tense voice.
"I'm Tania, I live down the hallway," she replied, "I thought that I was the only one left alive in this building until I saw you returning home this morning. After hearing the music coming from your apartment over the past few hours, I finally plucked up the courage to go and investigate."
“Why were you knocking at my door in such a crazy fashion?”
“I thought I saw a zombie hoard approaching from the distance!”
“You had better come in.”
Hal opened his front door as fast as humanly possible and Tania rushed into the apartment. Hal slammed the door shut and hastily secured all the locks.
“Thank you,” said Tania in a strained voice; a little out of breath.
“Don't thank me now, we may not be completely safe yet.”
“I guess you have a valid point there.”
Hal paused for a moment, to regain his composure. A pair of binoculars rested on the top shelf of the big cupboard; they would be useful for surveying the oncoming zombie threat.
“From what direction did you see the creatures approaching?” said Hal as he grabbed hold of the binoculars.
“You should be able to see them from your window, they're still a fair distance away.”
Hal rushed to the window and began scanning the far reaches of the local park; Tania's sightings matched the same location that he himself had seen the living dead approaching from. After a moment of inspecting the horizon of the local parkland, he spied the abominations. They were all huddled together: various humanoids of different age, gender and ethnicity. All were grotesque apparitions of their former human lives, dishevelled devils wearing raggedy clothing.
"You're right," sighed Hall, "the bad news is those creatures are zombies for certain; the good news is they don't appear to be moving anywhere at the moment."
Tania had moved up beside him to look for herself, so he handed her the binoculars. The horrific revelation of the zombie infestation was muted out by the arrival of this beautiful young lady. He had been living the solitary life so long, he had forgotten that there used to be other human beings living around here, within this very residential complex. At least one had survived.
“I can't let you go back to your own quarters, with this looming zombie threat. You could stay in this apartment for a while if you like,” said Hal chivalrously.
“You're a very kind man, Hal. I gladly accept your offer, thank you.”
“No problem.”
"You look like you haven't eaten properly in weeks. Please let me prepare some dinner, it's the least I can do."
“Just having some company again, is more than enough, but like you said, I really haven't eaten properly for some time now. I'm a well below average cook and have mostly been living off junk food – so thanks - I'm really grateful you're here.”
Tania smiled at him warmly and pranced away to the kitchen, now looking remarkably calmer, even though she had just viewed an entire crowd of killer zombies. He guessed that the joy of meeting another human being had cancelled out her terror of the zombie hoard. As was the case for himself too!
Once dinner was prepared they sat down at the table together. The candle lit meal was especially romantic and Hal found himself staring dreamily into Tania's adorable eyes. He had so many questions regarding Tania's experiences of surviving the apocalypse but thought it rude to ask, and why spoil such a special moment! Instead, Hal drove the conversation onto the topic of the arts. A wise move, as Tania was quite a lady of culture. A trained classical musician, enthusiastic amateur painter and a published author. Hal was mesmerised by her stories but did not want to probe too deeply into her past for fear of upsetting her with memories of how joyful life once was, and turning the atmosphere unnecessarily sour.
After a refreshing enjoyable dinner, it was back to zombie watch duty. Hal took the first watch; even though Tania had insisted on helping out her involvement was politely declined. To be honest Hal was getting a little too unhealthily obsessed with the zombies, regardless of the fact they were still standing far away in that same sluggish state. In his experience, zombies were more active during the daytime, hence his own nocturnal existence. So why the sudden worries?
A few moments later Hal was roused from his intense observation by the sweet sound of Tania's voice. She appeared to have moved through to the bedroom.
“You're a little naïve if you thought I was going to let you rough it out on your sofa tonight,' said Tania in a cheeky voice, 'when this nice warm bed is just about big enough for both of us.”
Upon moving into the bedroom, he was greeted by Tania's clothes discarded in an unkempt pile on the floor. She was now tucked up in his bed with a saucy grin on her face.
“What are you waiting for, take your clothes off and jump in here with me.”
Hal had the unusual feeling of being both embarrassed and randy at the same moment. He had never known a girl to be this surprisingly forward with him. Perhaps the apocalypse brought out a kind of 'live for today' behaviour in human survivors.
“If you're waiting for a formal invitation here are two.” Tania gave out a giggly laugh and proceeded to flash her ample breasts over the top of the duvet.
Hal undressed as quickly as he could, Tania threw back the duvet cover to reveal the rest of her nubile body and he scrambled in with her. Hal suddenly paused for thought – even in an apocalypse you still need to use a 'Rubber Johnny' – rummaged through his draw for one, then got on with the shagging!
Throughout the copulations, Tania's rapidly building moans of pleasure gradually started to sound more like pure pain. Even her face was starting to twist into a pale tortured expression. "Shit, you're turning into a zombie!" Screamed Hal at the top of his voice.
The only thought to pass through his stunned mind at this point was, 'Is the zombie infestation caused by a sexually transmitted disease?'
With his ardour now cooled, he sprang out of the bed over to the other side of the apartment, from his marginally safe distance he could just about see that Tina was no longer lashing out wildly, perhaps the transition to zombie state had killed her? Curiosity got the better of him and he crept back into the bedroom.
Tina was lying lifeless in the bed, the zombie transformation had no doubt been too much for her. If anything Hal was glad that he would no longer be the one responsible for killing the foul abomination that she would have otherwise become.
He peered down at her now peaceful corpse; then she reanimated and in a deadly attack went straight for his throat!