I tumbled over and landed on my back. Pain shot through my body. My 6 year old backpack decided to take a sharp turn, sending me straight for the wall.



“Oooh, making out with the wall I see! Finally bribed someone into kissing you? Oh wait! I forgot! You don’t have anything to bribe anyone with!” Chelsea smirked and her cronies began to giggle. She waved her arm and there was pin drop silence. She leaned so close to me, I felt like I was drowning in the overwhelming smell of her designer French perfume.

“And BTdubs, I know you think that you have a shot with my boyfriend. Just know that Chase would never date a slug,”
She looked at me from head to toe with a disgusted look on her face.
“Like yourself.” She whispered into my ear.



I stared at her. “Well you’re a piece of work, Chelsea. I didn’t know that you were back together with Chase. In fact your relationship is so secret, Chase doesn't even know about it." I mocked her. Her backup group laughed without the least bit of notion that Chelsea would get mad at them.



She rolled her eyes. Brushing imaginary dust off her shoulders, she strutted away, her meticulously straightened hair flipped over her shoulders and mini bag slung fashionably over her arm. Ten pounds of makeup barely covered the atrocity of a face she had. She pulled out a nail filer and began to attend to her fingernails, her back towards me. Her designer skirt fluttered in the air and you could hear the pitter patter of her 5 inch high heels. I hate Chelsea. I hate her Hench girls. I hate high school. I may or may not like Chase though.



Truth is, I may not be the most popular girl at school, but people know well enough to stay out of my way. When I mean business, I mean business. The one two people in my life that remotely understand me are Gonzella and Aken. I know it must sound like we’re BFFS, but we’re more like acquaintances. They just… get me. We don’t speak to each other or anything but we have some sort of connection. I mean we act like we’re friends by sitting together during lunch to shoo away the jocks, but otherwise there’s nothing between us.



I stumbled over to my math class. One more humiliating period to go ‘till I could get out of this joint. I peered over my shoulder, there it was, Mrs. Sherrie's classroom. Prepare for humiliation. I took a deep breath and set one foot into the classroom and was interrupted by several spitballs hurtling toward me.
“Look everyone! It’s Pale-a-Azalea” They snickered. It wasn't even clever and I was teased because of it every single day of my life.
I continued to walk over to my shady seat in the back of the classroom. I was showered with more spitballs and crumpled up pieces of paper. Just before they were going to tease me even more, Mrs. Sherrie showed up.
“So, I see we’re ruining people’s lives today? Okay, I’ll get in on it too: Chelsea, detention!” Mrs. Sherrie declared.
“Why? I didn’t do anything wrong,” Chelsea purred like an angelic kitten.
“What do you call torturing Azalea?” Chase called.
“Fun!” Chelsea’s eyes lit up.
“Fair enough. Today we will be discussing algorithms..." Mrs. Sherrie began her daily lecture.

I slumped in my seat. I took a quick glance at my nasty classmates giving me dirty looks. I hid my face till no one could longer see me. Right then and there I wanted to bury my face under the ground. I hated it when everyone’s attention was directed on me. Especially in math class. Those kids really hate me.


The weird thing is that I don't blame Chelsea for all this torment. It’s because of the unforgivable thing I did to her in second grade.

(Second Grade)
Her blonde hair swished against mine. I licked my lips, the smell of the warm baked cookie in her perfectly manicured fingernails. My mouth drooled and I snatched the cookie out of her hands. Before I knew it, the chocolate chip cookie had already melted in my mouth. She looked at me thinking that I was hiding the cookie from her until she saw the crumbs on my lip.
I have never regretted anything more in my life. I don't blame Chelsea for torturing me like this because I deserve it. I mean I should have left that cookie alone, but I couldn’t help myself. My family can’t afford luxuries like chocolate chip cookies.


(Three days ago)
I hovered outside as the bell rang. Ding. Ding. I ran as the enormous tsunami of high schoolers crowded the gates. Lucky, that’s what I was. Most people get stuck in that thing for hours.
As I was on my way to the bike rack to retrieve my mode of transportation, I looked backwards to find Chase smiling, his pearly white teeth shimmering in the sunlight. I tripped on the bike rack, temporarily staining my vampire white knee with blood red droplets.
“Are you okay? You took a pretty hard fall, huh?” Chase simultaneously spoke as he weightlessly picked me up.
“Uhh, thanks Chase,” I held the tears in. “Well, I’ll be on my way then.” I continued bravely.
“Yeah, bye.” He softly spoke.
Until that second I believed that this would just be a normal day. But then I saw him approach me even closer in a split second. I stared into his deep blue eyes and smelled his minty fresh breath. Out of nowhere, he cascaded his baby soft lips onto mine. Scared that Chelsea would be watching, I tried to loosen his grip on me. He wouldn’t let go, all he did was hold me even closer. After about a minute or two, Chase let go of me. I never felt that way before. My eyes puffy face warm in his soft hands, and my lips wanting more.
Just before I could say anything, Chase sprinted as fast as he could. Trying not to make it a big scene, I decided to head on home. I climbed on my bike, secured my 20 year old helmet, and shot off.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I knew my dad would be fussy after I came home so late. He hates it when I take too long at school. He has a very short temper.
“Evenin’ dad.” I called as I entered my box-sized house.
My dad didn’t reply. I was used to this sort of thing since my mother died. He’s been grieving ever since. The only unfortunate thing was that unlike in most households, the father is the pillar of support. In my house, my mother held our crumbling family together.
When my parents were young, they fell in love. Yes, big whoop. My mother came from a rich family and was equipped with many skills whereas my father was the poorest of the poor. My dad didn’t really know how to make a living either so when my mother died, we were left with the money she had earned but nothing else. That’s why I’m so poor and not able to wear decent clothing. Chelsea taunts me day and night, even in my dreams, but all of which she taunts me about, is not my fault. I just get so worked up; I just wish my mom hadn’t married such a loser like my father. Sometimes I regret even being born.


Anyways about Chase... well he’s the only person who gets me other than Gonzella and Aken. I mean I know that’s a lot of people to support me but against Chelsea’s rain of torment, even the tiniest sliver of hope that things will get better is crushed.


Honestly speaking, it feels like there is something lingering in the air for a while now. I remember that I used to be friends with this guy named Joseph. He was a lot like me and we were tight. Then one day, all of a sudden, he disappeared. Gone, deleted from life. No one knew what happened to him ‘till I discovered it.


I touched his cold, dead fingers inside the unforgiving lockers. I slapped his lifeless face until I was sure he wouldn’t wake up. Then I saw it, the locker was filled with his blood. I touched the fluid; it was cold, like my heart. A tear rolled off my cheek and fell on his pale face. He was the only one who was like me. He got me. Only then I realized the consequences of his demise; I will be an easy target for Miss Snooty.
He was the one who taught me to stand up to people like Chelsea. He fought for me, he wanted justice. Joseph was my friend. But now he is dead. And I want justice, but I don’t know how to gain it. He was the leader. Without him, I might as well be Chelsea’s ragdoll.

I was hiding from them, waiting until they found me. I knew it wouldn’t be long, but I gave it a try. I heard the pitter patter of their supposedly “soundless” robotic feet. I didn’t have much time and I needed to work my way out of this.

Surely I had to run away from them. Did I? Or can I weasel my way out after they capture me. No, that won’t work; they would just kill me on the spot. Or would they prefer torturing me until I die. Yes, they’d probably prefer me getting killed slowly and steadily so I can die painfully. So if I was to make it out of here alive, I had to think fast.



“Come my pretty, we know you’re in here,” They cackled softly. What is this, a reenactment of the Wizard of Oz? Well, I’m definitely not in Kansas… Am I?

Honestly speaking I have no idea where I am, until about ten minutes ago, I didn’t know what I was. I think they abducted me or something but all I know is that I have to get out of here.
I scan the room for any exits or trapdoors. My heart sinks. All I see is a dark cave with no light to shine the way. The perfect place to die, I reminded myself.

“Show yourself, rat!” Their demonic voices howled through the cave.

“Never!” Why did I say that?! Oh, my God, I am so stupid, now they’ll actually be able to find me.

“She’s this way!” They echoed.

Now I’m really in trouble. What to do, what to do?
At that crucial moment, I was unable to see my escape route. For some reason, I began to shuffle my feet in place without any thought. Thanks a lot amygdala! Wait, why do I know the parts of the brain all of a sudden? I never pay attention in science class. I mean I like science but it’s just before lunch and I become hungry. I’ve attempted to focus in science, but it never works. If I do, I start to get creepy hallucinations about amino acids going haywire and eating the human race.

Anyways back to freaking out, I didn’t have a clue as to what to do. There they were, Death was my answer, as once I am dead they have no purpose for life. How will I kill myself so quickly? I can fake my death until it’s time to make a move. But how could I make my death look realistic? I am not an actor so I guess I could use some sort of chemical to make me unconscious at least for some time. I scrambled through my pockets looking for something, anything. Yes! I guess I never returned the chemical we made in science class. I was just so hungry.
I pour the icky liquid down my throat and forced myself to swallow it. Right then and there, they found me. They found me dead, or was I?

The next thing I knew I was being dragged out, feet first. The drones didn’t have the decency to make sure that my head wasn’t pulled through a heap of half decomposed trash.


“How’s the prisoner, she doin’ fine?” One of the goons turned his rotting head toward me., as I shivered. There was just something so wrong about a being half-alive. They were like corpses that could walk. Their rotted skin, or what was left of it, was held on only by a thin strand of muscle. These beings were embodied by a deathly pale face. One look at that hideous thing and any normal human being would pass out. And their eyes. Eyes I could never forget in my entire life. Crimson red eyes with the irises being a ring of white around a pure black pupil. I shuddered again. They were not human. That was painfully obvious.
The zombies’ hands were ice cold. I knew this because they grabbed my arms and pulled me up. They shoved me more inwards of the cave we were in. They threw me to the ground in front of Chase’s feet.

“So you’ve come to join the party, Azalea?” His deep voice made me feel sluggish inside.
“Let me go!” I cried as I began to loosen the zombies’ grip on my cold arms.
“Wanting to leave already? You must stay; I have a surprise just for you.” His voice resounded with a taunting tone.
I had a feeling that this ‘surprise’ wasn’t going to benefit me at all.


“Just sit down and relax while I present my surprise,” Chase anticipated me to reply.


“No?” He raised a thin eyebrow. “Alright, then.” He turned.


I rolled my eyes. I doubt it’s anything to change my fate. I mean I’ve lost all hope and I’m pretty sure nothing is ever getting better. And if it’s bad, well it can’t be any worse than my plight right now.


My eyes widened as I noticed two people in front of me.


“Gonzella? Aken? You betrayed me? I thought you were my friends.”


“That’s where you got it wrong; we never were your friends. We don’t even know what a friend is supposed to be. Are they supposed to marry you or kill you? We don’t know.” Aken babbled.


“Shut up Aken! Don’t reveal too much to her.” Gonzella shouted.
“No, no I think that since she is about to meet her end, this would be a sufficient time to explain to her how she ended up like this.” Chase stared at me with his sea green eyes.
“Okay then. Well, we are all zombies. We always have been, but unlike other zombies, we are different. Our parents died and met each other. They decided to make a family. When our mother gave birth to us, she realized that we were special. You see there used to be no such thing as half zombies until Chase came along. Aken and I were born two minutes later." Gonzella explained.
"So we can live as humans until we choose to die and reincarnate forever. You see I had loved your mother so, but when she dumped me, I killed myself. Since then I became a zombie but I look like I am 17 because that is when I suicided. Even mortals look the same age after they die; they never age because well then they'd die again." Chase twinged his fluffy eyebrows.
"So now that you've figured out our secrets, you must die," Aken bellowed.
"No, just wait a minute. I prefer to turn her into a zombie so she can suffer for eternity." Argued Chase.
"But if she lives then she can destroy our plan," Gonzella asked with a concerned tone in her half dead voice.
“No Gonzella. I am the oldest so you have to let me scare her! So where was I? Oh, yes. We must wash your memory if you live, Azalea. And only if, you will not try to foil our plan.” He grinned like a maniac as Gonzella and Chase bound me to the huge machine. All I could think of was that I wasted my first kiss on Chase. Walking over to a large button, Aken turned to me with a sad smile that was so out of place from my surroundings.


“This could have been prevented, Azalea. You could have joined us. But I guess it’s too late now.” He turned his back to me and pushed the black button. I screamed and everything went black.


I gasped, wide-eyed when I awoke. I searched my mind for any clue of why I was in this unfamiliar place. I heard two voices talking that I didn’t recognize. The deeper voice said,


“Give her back her memories, Aken. She’s of no use to use without them.” The other voice, Chase, said,


“Alright, Chase. But we’ll still get to torture her, right?” The first voice, Aken, chuckled and said,


“Of course.” And the last thing I felt was my memories slamming back into my head and cold bonds restraining me.


Present Day
The machine held me down with strong metal restraints. Wires were hooked in various places in my skin. When the wires penetrated the thin layer of skin and tissue of my arms and legs, the pain was unimaginable. It targeted each nerve cell in my body and began to make them disfunction. My nerves flared in agony. My body arched off the stone floor. I held my jaws together so I wouldn’t scream. I wouldn’t give my torturers that pleasure. Faint whimpers and moans were the only things you could hear coming from my raw throat.


“Enough,” I managed to place the voice that spoke so calmly. It was Chase.
“I think she’s had enough for now.” He continued. Turning to me, he said,
“Don’t worry Azalea. You’ll be one of us soon enough.”
“I’ll never join your sinister ways!” I yelled in his face. I also may or may not have spit a little bit.
“Well then, let’s begin.” He took another machine and stuck the wire on the side of my head. I gasped. It wasn’t very painful, but it had more of a tingling sensation. This is it, I thought. Best to avoid any bad confrontations.
“Please,” I begged. “Please, Chase, don’t do this, please.” Chase smiled, a bit pitying.
“It’ll all be over soon, Azalea. And then your mother will rue the day she ever declined my offer of marriage.” I was struck speechless.
“Wait, wait, and wait. YOU proposed to MY MOM?!?!” Chase smiled widely, showing his pearly teeth off. I can’t believe I kissed the dude who proposed to my mom.
“Of course. But she rejected me for that lazy father of yours. But that’s not important right now. What is important is getting you to become one of us.” He walked over to a (very cliché, in my opinion) lever that was sticking out of the ground. Chase smirked a bit.
“Goodbye Azalea. I’ll see you in your next half- life.” He pulled the lever. And everything went black as unconsciousness claimed me.

I woke up, everything I had ever known gone forever. The zombies enslaved other humans’ minds and now all I see is destruction. Zombies were now simply eating people’s brains and humans were running around.


I ran to my house to see if my father was still there. Sure enough he was cowering under his covers, scared to face the world.


“Azalea? Is that you? Why are you a zombie and not eating me?” He asked me with a terrified look on his face.


“I’m not like the other zombies- they didn’t eat my brains. I still have my knowledge of life as I know it. Chase turned me into a zombie with some invention of his.”


“Chase? That’s weird, there was this kid in high school who proposed to your mother but she declined because she already agreed to marry me. I think he killed himself after that, it was all over the news.”


“It’s the same guy- Chase. He was already a zombie because of weird consequences and you know what, I'll leave out the details. But right now he’s turning the human race into zombies...” I whispered.





I thought, what can we do to stop him? The answer is nothing. Chase won this time, leaving the human race in destruction. This was it, life as I knew it, gone forever. Just like Joseph. And I couldn’t do anything about it.

Everything has gone berserk. Since I was turned into one of the walking dead. They have turned everyone to the dark side. I know there is only a sliver of hope left and that is me. I had realized that I had no one in my past life. Gonzella, Aken, and Chase had all been zombies, just waiting for the time to turn me into one of them. They had tricked me, deceived me. But that is all behind me now. The human species and zombie race had fought in a war together. The zombies had won, of course. How could you lose if every time you’d been brought down, you’d just rise again? Obviously, the human race was just not strong enough for the zombies. We were brought down by Chase’s evil plan to kill me. To make Chase’s plan even more boisterous, he made me swear to an oath to never use my knowledge against him. In the beginning I was trying to find a way to untie the knots to his plan, but now I have given up. It was so inconceivable, Einstein couldn’t have solved it.


I know Chase had never intended to eliminate the human race, but my friends who are also his brothers and sister, Gonzella and Aken, poisoned his mind. They were all special cases because their parents died and then given birth to the three siblings. Before this, zombies were a myth or a fairytale. But now, they were real and they wanted the others to feel their pain. This especially went for Chase because when he was born, he was given the chance to live as a zombie forever or be a human until he died. As I learned in the past year, my mother had dated Chase (eww) and finally broke up with him when he proposed so she could marry my father. This broke Chase’s heart so he killed himself and became a zombie because he hadn’t fully died. Ever since he had once again become a zombie, he’s been watching me. He used Gonzella and Aken to spy on me. Only now do I understand why I felt secure and insecure at the time. They were just playing me, the whole time they knew me. I laughed breathlessly. I felt so stupid now. I shook my head. This was no time to dwell on the past. I lifted my chin up. I had an army to lead.


So far, everything was going well. The human race had willingly turned into zombies. Chase was leading the world and making it into a land for the undead. Aken, Gonzella, and I had been made commanders of the zombie army. Everything was peaceful, for once. But would it last forever? I dismissed the thought from my head. I would enjoy the world, for the time-being. I leaned back into my commander’s chair in my personal office. My feet were crossed on top of each other and my hands were comfortably folded behind my head. I closed my eyes in bliss. This was the life. This was how I should be treated. With respect. Suddenly, Aken ran into my office, slamming the door open as he came.



“Azalea! Azalea, come on! We’ve just been informed about a rebellion found in an old warehouse on the outskirts of the city. We’ve been called to deal with them.” Here, Aken looked at me impatiently.



“Come on, Azalea, what are you waiting for? Let’s move out!” He beckoned with his hand and ran out of my office again. I shook my head as I pulled my army commander jacket on. That guy took his job way too seriously. I grabbed my knife and headed to the edge of the city.




I ran across the ground, calling to my army.


“Come on, move it!” I shouted at them. “Keeps it going?”


We travelled on the muddy ground soaking our pale feet with blood. Where did all this blood come from looked around only to see children. Poor, innocent children being slaughtered. A man 15 feet from me slashed his blade across a little girl’s throat, killing her slowly and making her suffer, most likely, only for what her parents had done. My stone cold heart twinged just a bit. That girl who had just died couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8.


“Hey! Stop that! You! Why are you hurting this innocent girl?” I glowered at them.
“Did you get permission to do this? I thought this squad was sent to turn the mortals into zombies, not permanently kill them.”


“Commander’s orders. When they fight, they die.”


“Wait, why are they fighting? Are the rebels being killed?”


“Yes, ma’am.”


I understood. We were being sent in to murder all those innocent people, not to negotiate with them. I wasn't going to make peace; Chase’s plan was to create war. And I thought I was doing the right thing.


I stood there in the middle of the street. Waiting for the rain to destroy me. Waiting for peace that would come when I took my final breath. Waiting for an answer.