The hand that gripped his didn’t feel normal, in fact since
when was it ever normal for someone to grab your hand as you delivered their
mail?
Jeremy tugged and braced his one free hand against the door as he pulled
with all his strength to free his hand from the grip of the cold clammy hands
on the other side and finally he wrested his hand free, sprawling backwards to
the ground as he did so.
What is going on here?
Must be some kind of joke …
Lying there looking up at the door, his mail bag on the
floor beside him, contents spilling out , he felt the beginnings of anger
welling up inside him. Someone was obviously fooling around with him. That must
be it.
At least that’s what he thought until the banging started. It sounded
like hands furiously slapping at the door, desperate to get through to him and
… hurt him. He picked himself up and quickly gathered his scattered mail before
exiting the front garden. Joke or not, he was spooked. It was too early in the
morning for such cruel antics and he would be reporting this to his boss back
at the Royal Mail Depot.
Still shaking slightly, he made his way up the dark street
to number 27, his next stop. The streets were still and nothing stirred in the
frigid darkness as he quickened his pace, looking over his shoulder as he did
so.
At number 27 things got even worse. Stepping through the
little gate he saw that the front door was open and inside the house, the
darkness was almost impenetrable. He hesitated for a moment before stepping
forward and placing a single letter on the mat within the house.
Weird …
As he turned to leave, he heard a grunt from within the
darkness of the hallway which caused him to stop and he stood waiting, unsure
if he had imagined it. All at once, a frenzied shuffling began accompanied by
an ululating moan that had his hairs on end and Jeremy stood transfixed as out
of the darkness the stumbling figure of a man made right for him.
Terror stricken, he was frozen to the spot as the man fell
upon him, moaning even more urgently now that he had Jeremy in his grasp.
Jeremy, still confused and very afraid looked up into the face of a madman.
The man’s hands found Jeremy’s throat and squeezed until
blood welled under the nails and Jeremy fought back, finally, pushing the man’s
face up and away from his.
He screamed out in pain as the man bit into his
fingers savagely and gargled on the blood that sprayed forth, drenching both of
them and Jeremy attempted one finalpush but the stranger was too heavy and
besides, more of the stumbling, moaning figures were around his stricken form
now, dropping to their knees around him and leaning in.
As multiple sets of teeth sunk into his flesh, chewing and
tearing, one word flashed into Jeremy’s panicked mind – Zombies…
