Sheila's Voice

[Present Day]

He found himself in a dark place, his eyes couldn't see anything. The place was pitch black. It had no floor or walls. He was floating in the dark. 

'I'm sorry I wasn't able to protect you,' he said it to no one in particular. 

A voice responded, 'how many time do I have to tell you!? It wasn't your fault.'

It was Sheila's voice. 

'But- but- I-...'

'Sush, now stop rambling about the past. You have to get to the apartment before it gets dark. Now open your eyes, slowly.'

He did as he was instructed. The darkness swept away when he opened his eyes. He found himself sitting in the kitchen next to a dead zombie girl.

'Oh right,' he said it in his thoughts. 'I think I passed out here, I must hurry home. Sheila you must be tired by hearing that story again, take some rest now.'

'Yes. I will talk to tomorrow, bye.' Sheila responded, but that voice had no physical form. It was almost like it didn't exist outside Raiden's subconscious.

'Bye. Good night,' Raiden said it as he stood up. Filled the remaining food cans inside his bag then his gun and dirty knife which he took out from dead girl's skull. 

Sun was almost down. He slowly made his wat back to the apartment, going back from the same way he came. Passed the novel shop then the cigarettes shop. He encountered few zombies in his way but each time those pebble helped him put away their attention from him. 

Sun was fully down and moon shone in the sky. Moonlit reached him, making his path visible. 

He reached his apartment. Going slowly up the stairs, he made his way to the upper most floor. 

At the top floor the staircase led to two different paths. One on the left and one on the right. He took left then moved ahead passing lots of rooms which had number plates embedded on the door. He came across a room having number '1504'. He stood facing the door, starting at number '1504' for some time. The room on his left having number '1505' on it had open door. It was the room in which he woke up today's morning.

After staring at the door for some time he put his bag down and kneeled over to open a small chain from which he took out a bundle of keys. 

He opened the door using a key and closed it after entering in.

That room was exactly like the room in which he woke up today. He ate the canned food which he brought then drank water which was available in the fridge.

After changing his clothes he went straight to bed.

His eyes closed. He again floated in the darkness. He was falling down in the deep abyss. 

'Hey Sheila! Are you asleep?' He called out.

No one responded.

'I guess you are. Well I'm going to sleep too now. See you tomorrow.'

He got himself mixed in the darkness. Now just a void was left there. He fell asleep.

Morning came as well as sunlight on his face. He woke up and followed his regular routine. Brushed his teeth, took a dump still not flushing it, ate canned food, drank bottle water from refrigerator, wore his regular clothes. He was ready to leave.

While doing all these tasks he went inside his mind and called out for Sheila, 'you still not up?' No respond came and he didn't bother asking again.

Then he left the apartment to wander on some new location. Big buildings all around him. He walked on a 4 lane highway.

'I'm so bored,' he spoke in his mind.

'Ohh then why don't you do "that"?' Sheila responded in his mind.

'Oh you are awake, good morning.'

'Yes, good morning. So are you going to do "that"?'

'Well just to kill some time I will do it.'

'Cool. Let's see you can beat the high score this time.'

'Ahh yes let's see it for real.'

He reached a crossroad consisting of traffic lights at all four side but were off. That crossroad was surrounded by big building and he stood in the very middle.

He took out a player from his pocket which can only play musics.

Music started playing out of it as he pressed the middle button then he put his player back in his pocket, music was still hearable. It wasn't playing at full volume, maybe half so it could only be heard at a close rage.

He waited there for few minutes and then a zombie, coming out from the far end of one of the four streets, caught his attention. 

Then he noticed they started coming from all four directions. Not a big horde but certainly more than 30 in total.

He opened the furthest chain of his bag as  the bag was hung on his back. Holding in both hands he pulled out two machetes and gave those upcoming zombies a grim look.   

He held a machete of green handle in his right hand and a red handle machete in his left.

The red handled machete was Sheila's.

The zombies were almost on him when he jumped out ahead while swinging his machete and started killing them.

His facial expression didn't even change a single time when he was cutting off their heads. 

He kept on killing them. He sliced the neck of the zombie who stood ahead then rolled his machete behind without even looking and impaled the skull of the zombie which stood behind.

They were coming from all directions and he kept killing them as he only stood at the very middle of the crossroad.

'21..'

'22..'

'23..'

'..24'

While beheading the zombies, a voice was subconsciously counting them. 

That voice was Sheila.

At last the music stopped and the zombies stopped coming too. Everything became silent again. And he stood in that silence in the middle of the road surrounded by tons of corpses from all sides. 

'How many?' He asked.

'53,' Sheila replied.

'Damn it, i only needed 12 more of these suckers.'

'Haha better luck next time. Next time you should go to some more populated area so-'

A voice cut her off in the middle. It came from one of the streets and Raiden stared towards the far end of that street. He was shocked as he heard that.

He took a step ahead, stomping on one of the corpses but he didn't take his eyes off the far end.

His eyes widened, sweat fell down from his head, he was shocked as if he had seen a ghost.

But his condition was for a valid reason, because a car appeared out of the far end and now was coming towards him.

He was so shocked that it took him some time to notice the big horde of zombies that was running behind that car at some distance, literally covering all the 4 lanes.

He stood still even after the car almost reached the crossroad. Finally the car made its way on the corpses towards him and stopped right by him.

In these 5 years it was the first time that he saw a life full skin. Not a pale white skin with no flesh underneath it, but a real human's skin.

An open roof car and on the left side sat a man holding the steering wheel.

He just stood there glaring at the man's face, eye to eye. And in the first time in five years he saw something so alive.

He was so lost there, just staring at the man, that he forgot about the big horde of zombies coming at them.

"Hey!" the man in the car screamed.

That 'hey' was so loud he felt his ear drums being torn apart. But because of that sound he snapped out of it and looked at the left, from where all the zombies were coming, then again to that man.

"What are you waiting for? Get the hell in!" The man screamed once again.

Raiden again looked at the zombies, they had almost reached the crossroad. 

He immediately jumped inside the car, that man pushed the accelerator with full force and the car boosted ahead before the zombies could reach them.

They went ahead and ahead and ahead and zombies followed them just like that.