Amateur Detective Files On Paranormal Encounters

A Living Person

“What is that?”

Toward his left, there was a disturbance that caught Duncan’s attention, causing him to look closely at what was happening.

At first, Duncan couldn’t figure out exactly what the disturbance was about, but as he continued to observe, he saw what looked like a person running frantically in his direction.

“Is that a zombie?” Duncan asked himself, confused by what he was seeing.

Duncan doubted it was actually a zombie that was running in such a manner; so far, none of the other zombies he had seen could even get their legs to move at the speed of a light jog, not to talk of full-on sprinting like an Olympic runner.

But if it wasn’t a zombie, then what was doing the running?

It didn’t take long for the figure that was running to come close enough for Duncan to get a clear look at it, and when he saw what it was, Duncan couldn’t contain his shock.

“Is that a person?”

It is no wonder that Duncan was surprised—all along, he'd thought that the only things present in this ghost realm were ghosts, corpses, zombies, and him; and yet, here there was another living human suddenly showing up out of the woodwork to challenge Duncan’s assumption.

“What is a living person doing in here running around freely? I thought nobody should be able to dig themselves out of the grave... did he somehow manage to escape?”

That was the only reasonable explanation for why a living person was running around freely inside this ghost realm.

“But what is he running from?” Duncan wondered.

Very soon, Duncan got his answer, and his confusion—along with the slight relief he felt from seeing another living person in this realm of death—swiftly changed to dread as he suddenly cursed out loud.

“Oh shit!”

The reason this living person was running was because he was being chased by a huge crowd of zombies that were pursuing him like dogs chasing a mailman.

Seeing those zombies running, Duncan felt that he owed them a huge apology. The way they ran—they were like a group of old grandparents riding along in a hurry on their little electric chairs trying to get to a gathering for a game of trivia on bingo night.

The mental image might look hilarious, but this wasn’t the time to laugh.

The zombies may not be that fast, but seeing hundreds of them mindlessly coming after you at such a persistent speed was enough to terrify anybody into losing their souls, and right now, all of them were heading straight for Duncan’s location.

“Damn! Of all times, why am I being plagued by so much bad luck now?” Duncan said to himself.

Faced with this situation, Duncan hesitated, unsure of what to do.

Although the zombies were heading in his general direction, there was still a lot of space around his area, and they might not necessarily stumble into his location in particular, so there was a chance that he still wouldn’t be discovered.

So, what Duncan was considering was if he should take a gamble and stay put, hoping that the zombies would pass by without noticing him... or should he not risk it and simply stand up and make a run for it?

At the current distance between himself and the zombies, Duncan felt that he could definitely run far away enough that he would lose them in no time.

“What should I do?”

While Duncan hesitated in what option to choose, the one thing he did not consider at all was actually helping the living person who was running away for dear life.

In the first place, Duncan didn’t know how he would help him since he couldn’t even help himself, so bringing another person along would invite a lot of unnecessary trouble which Duncan would like to avoid.

Also, there was a little part of Duncan that was unhappy with this person for foolishly running around an unknown location and attracting the zombies to his location.

If it weren’t for him, Duncan would only need to figure out how to lure away the zombies blocking the exit of the ghost realm.

Speaking of luring the zombies away from the exit, a cruel idea came into Duncan’s mind...

What if he used this person to lure away those zombies?

With the way the living person was running, Duncan could probably speculate what had happened after he had appeared here.

“Most likely, this person appeared here at about the same time I did, and after finding himself buried underground, struggled to dig himself out of his grave, which he miraculously managed to do. After that, he must’ve wandered around and stumbled into a few zombies, becoming scared, which made him start running all over the place, causing him to attract even more zombies.”

This is what Duncan felt had happened. In the end, while running for his life, this person must’ve noticed the huge white light and had decided to run in its direction hoping it was a way out, only to end up leading the zombies to Duncan instead.

All things considered, the person was really unlucky, but that wasn’t any of Duncan’s business.

Regarding whether to use the person as bait, Duncan didn’t completely dismiss the idea, but he didn’t act upon it immediately.

Duncan also didn’t choose to flee immediately, feeling that the chances of being discovered were low, and even if he was, as long as he fled quickly he would still be able to lose the zombies quite easily.

Duncan was going to wait to see if this person would attract the zombies in front of the exit away on his own, and how many would be lured away.

If he did, then Duncan wouldn’t have to do anything and could continue remaining in hiding. But if he didn’t, then it wasn’t too late to work out a plan to use the person as bait.

Don’t think that Duncan was being cruel. Given the same circumstances, everyone else would make the same decision if it meant that was the only way they could survive—and Duncan was an extreme survivalist with a strong desire for self-preservation that surpassed anyone else.

Even if it meant making a deal with the devil and sacrificing all of his morality, Duncan would not hesitate to do so as long as it would ensure his continued survival.

So, when it came to sacrificing this person as bait in order to escape, Duncan was completely up for it.

Unfortunately for Duncan, he forgot one very important thing that would eventually cost him his one chance to escape.