A Zombie's Memories

Milly pushes through the swollen front door of her old home. Dust hangs in the stale air, and faded family photographs line the hallway beneath cobwebs.

Undead Rifleman, a gaunt adult male zombie with gray, rotting skin, a slack jaw, clouded eyes, and a torn desert-camouflage uniform shambles in close behind her, rifle angled toward the dark rooms. His desert camouflage scrapes the doorframe as he turns, guarding the entrance.

The living room sits exactly where memory should be, yet nothing in Milly recognizes it. An overturned couch faces a dead television, its screen filmed gray.

The static growl fades. Somewhere deeper inside, a loose shutter taps against the wall, while a narrow trail of muddy footprints crosses the kitchen tiles.

Milly stands at the hallway’s fork: the bedrooms lie to the left, the kitchen and back door to the right. The abandoned house waits silently for her search.

Undead Rifleman lowers his rifle toward the muddy footprints and follows them across the kitchen tiles. Milly lumbers into the hallway, searching the rooms behind him.

His tracking is hampered by the house's stale rot and his own stench, which muddies every faint human trace. Still, the prints lead through the kitchen.

The footprints pass the back door without using it, then continue into a narrow pantry. A fallen grocery list lies beneath the final prints, its paper smeared with brown mud.

Undead Rifleman tracks the trail to the pantry's rear wall, where a child-sized backpack rests behind stacked cans. The muddy path ends there, beside a torn family photograph.

The photograph shows Milly's daughter, her son in law, and her grandson. Their faces are scratched away, but the abandoned backpack and stopped trail leave evidence that they were here.

Undead Rifleman crouches beside the pantry wall and retrieves the torn photograph first, then hooks two fingers through the child-sized backpack’s strap.

His boot slips on the muddy tile. The backpack jerks hard, tearing its loose strap partly free, but he keeps hold of both items and steadies himself against the cans.

Milly reaches with both swollen arms. Her groan cannot form a request or answer, leaving only the direction of her grasp to guide him.

Undead Rifleman places the torn photograph into Milly’s hands, then settles the damaged backpack against her chest and releases it. Both recovered objects are hers.

Milly stares down at the scratched faces and clutches the backpack beneath it. Dust drifts through the pantry while the house remains otherwise still.

Undead Rifleman lowers his skull-like face over the muddy trail. The scent of his own decay overwhelms the faint human scent, but pain cannot slow his searching hands or sharpened attention.

He follows the prints behind the pantry shelving, where a warped panel hangs ajar. His fingers scrape splinters aside without flinching, exposing a cramped service passage and fresh mud.

The passage ends beneath the stairs. A young adult woman crouches there, thin and mud-streaked, with cropped blonde hair, a green jacket, and a revolver leveled at the doorway.

Milly lurches into view behind him, clutching the photograph and damaged backpack. Lena's revolver shifts between the two zombies, her finger tightening along the trigger.

She aims the revolver at the two zombies. Her hands are shaking with hesitation, as she knows gunshots will alert any nearby horde.

The human must act with hostility toward the zombie.

Undead Rifleman must protect Milly.

The M4 Carbine bucks against Undead Rifleman's shoulder. His undead arm shakes with the aim, but the familiar weapon, painlessness, and practiced firearms skill hold the shot true while Lena's terror hardens into hostility.

The round strikes Lena high in the chest and kills her instantly. Her revolver snaps from her hand, skitters across the floor, and clatters harmlessly against the wall instead of firing toward Milly North.

Lena collapses beneath the stairs. The cramped passage falls silent except for the rifle's ringing report, and the dropped revolver lies beyond immediate reach, its cylinder still loaded.

Milly North remains untouched behind him, clutching the photograph and backpack. Her hunger pulls her toward the corpse, but Undead Rifleman's shot has cleared the immediate threat.

Dust shakes from the stair beams. Beside Lena's body, a mud-stained canvas pouch has spilled open, revealing a house key, a folded road map, and several family photographs.

The human must act with hostility toward the zombie.

Milly drops heavily beside Lena's corpse and feeds, tearing into the dead woman's shoulder. The wet sounds pull Undead Rifleman's attention, but he focuses on picking up the folded map.

He unfolds the map over the stairs with a blood-stained glove and reads it, keeping his rifle angled across the passage as Milly hunches over the body.

The map shows all the locations that Lena had marked before she came here. She must have been scavenging for supplies.

The markings show this house circled, then a route north along back roads toward a place called Haven. A second circle marks an abandoned roadside gas station, with three small crosses beside it.

Milly's chewing and the body's odor keep breaking his attention, but the map was clear. Haven was a settlement full of survivors. If Milly's family was alive, they may have gone there.

Beyond the map's edge, a line traces back to Haven, further up north. Way too far on foot. They would need some form of transportation.

Undead Rifleman leaves Milly's Home service passage beneath the stairs behind and arrives at a functional car.

A battered blue station wagon sits beneath a sun-bleached awning at an abandoned roadside service lot. Its tires are inflated, its frame is intact, and weeds have not yet claimed the pavement.

Milly North lumbers from the tree line beside him, still clutching the damaged backpack and torn photograph. The wagon's broad rear compartment offers room for her immense weight.

Undead Rifleman crosses the lot in a swift, balanced rush, checking the wagon's doors, windows, and undercarriage without wasting movement. Nothing moves beneath it.

The driver's door opens on the first pull. A key hangs from the ignition, and the dashboard fuel gauge rests just above empty, enough for a careful run toward Haven.

He turns the key. The engine coughs, catches, and settles into a rough but steady idle, coughing blue smoke into the hot air.

A road sign beyond the lot points north toward Haven. The wagon waits ready, its rear hatch wide enough for Milly, while the engine ticks beneath the rising groan of distant dead.

Undead Rifleman leaves abandoned roadside service lot behind and arrives at Haven.

The blue station wagon rolls through the crumbled roads of the old world. Undead Rifleman never forgot how to drive, even in his zombie form.

Together, they drive past several towns, abandoned and forgotten. Many hordes of zombies would notice the moving vehicle and shamble towards it, thinking it was survivors.

Milly's immense rotting form shifts in the rear compartment, clutching the backpack and torn photograph against her chest. Undead Rifleman kept his focus on the road, occasionally making static growls every time they passed a dead animal.

Eventually, they made it to the city in which Haven was located. They decided to ditch the car, as it would attract unwanted attention from any human survivors.

The human must act with hostility toward the zombie.

Undead Rifleman must protect Milly.