1. PEACE & QUIET

The sound of Amon Amarth filled the small room. Sounds from below were barely auditable as the singers voice blared through the speakers positioned on the window sill. The girl was lying on the bed rereading an autobiography by one of the greatest men to ever walk the face of earth. She was fully immersed in the stories of Charles Darwin’s childhood. It was nearing the end of summer and the 18 year old spent most of her days locked in her room, music flaring & a book in her hand. The common distraction of her age group – socialisation, was never on her mind as she read a book after a book, an article after an article of both fictional and real life.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

She ignored the person behind the door as it was most likely her mother or older brother trying to impose the boring aspects of every day life.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The impatience of the person trying to get her attention irritated her. Alone time was rarely an option at her household. The only person she enjoyed spending time with was her very good friend Lizzy who spent most of her days in her house. But she was at home that day, probably entertaining herself on Facebook or YouTube.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Paranoia returned to every bone of the girls’ body as the insistent person behind the locked door kept up the noise. Paranoia often crept upon her keeping her aware of her surroundings and filling her with dread and fear. Mother said it was because of her habit of thinking. Her thoughts always gave way to the most horrible, troubling and often traumatizing scenarios imaginable.

She finally got up and unlocked the door. It was her brother. He had a smile on his face as he rushed into her private hideaway. She immediately regretted opening the door.

“What do you want?!” she asked in the most annoyed tone of voice she could gather to announce her displeasure.

“Have you been listening to the news? Or been on Facebook, YouTube or any other site?” he stared at her with a searching smile.

Her voice softened. At least he wasn’t there to cause trouble or disrupt her peace as he usually did.

“No. I’ve been reading a book. What’s up?”

“Chaos. It’s pretty awesome if you ask me. Awesome in a funny, yet bad way. Something’s up all over the world. Random attacks and deaths. Americans, like always, think it’s terrorism. Some say the world is ending, some say that the zombie apocalypse is finally upon us. You should look at the videos of the many incidents on YouTube.”

She laughed. “Anything here in Ireland? Hey, and I thought I was paranoid. Is it serious, or something like the ‘2012’?”

He laughed too. “Yeah, Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Athlone are affected as far as I know. Could be just random occurrences, but seems very unlikely. Mother seems pretty upset about it all.”

“Wait… Athlone? That’s so close. Did Nathan get the bus? Is he still coming here? I don’t want him there in case it’s actually something serious.” Her smile turned into a worried frown. Nathan was her boyfriend. He lived 30 minutes away and they met as often as possible. She didn’t love him, but they were very close. Also, the sex was great.

“Yeah. I heard he’ll be here in 15 minutes or so. He better not come back as a zombie. If he tries to eat my brain, he is finished.” He chuckled at his own joke.

“Don’t be an idiot. Zombies don’t eat the brain. First of all, the skull is in the way and they can’t use tools to crack it open and if they did eat the brains, the infection wouldn’t spread as they need them to function. But just in case, I want you to know, I’ll enjoy stabbing a knife in your eye if you get infected…  Or if you don’t. Now get the fuck out, please!”

He made a mock surprise expression as he left the room. She loved her brother and was very proud of him. But their relationship wasn’t one of the best. Only with a year and a half difference in age, they seemed worlds apart. He suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome which made it quite difficult to deal with him. The reason she was proud of him was because he was very artistic and intelligent. She often envied him, especially when she observed him getting ahead in life with less effort than she needed.

She sat on her bed fantasising as she often did about surviving a zombie apocalypse. Little did she know that during her daydream, the world around her was falling apart.