THE APOCALYPTIC RISE OF ADAM

Adam Smith thought his day was already bad enough as he walked home dejectedly. His ears were still ringing with the slaps and the stinging insults that his boss’s wife had hurled at him, right before she had her husband sacked him.

The injustice of being sacked from the job he had laboured so hard to keep weighed on his mind, but nothing was as damning to him at that moment as the look of disappointment that he was sure to get from his girlfriend, Anastasia.

Gone were the days when those eyes were filled with love as they gazed into his.

Lately, Ana’s temper was always short with him, and she had even banned him from sleeping on the bed with her since she started paying for their apartment six months ago.

“Since you are no longer man enough to take proper care of me, and I even have to pay for our rent now, you don’t deserve to touch me!” She yelled at him when he tried to talk about her coldness since things had worsened for him at his workplace.

Adam sighed long and hard as he looked up in the direction of their unit in the old-looking building where they lived. Then he gathered his resolve to go in after all.

He heard shouts and chaos from a far distance down the street, but at the moment, he couldn’t even be bothered to care about whatever was happening around him. He had a bigger problem to face inside. Ana.

“She would understand. Ana would understand,” he muttered to himself in a litany as he trudged up the staircase, leading up to the third floor, where they stayed.

He didn’t even bother to check out the elevator since he knew what he would meet there anyway. It wouldn’t work. The elevator had only functioned once since they had started living there. Another thing that Ana had been complaining about.

Scents of garlic and chilli filled the hallway as he neared their room, and Adam knew that their Creole neighbour was currently cooking again.

The woman seemed to always be cooking something. If she was not cooking, then she was yelling at one of her legions of children.

Adam’s stomach rumbled painfully and he remembered that the last meal he had was the carbon-tasting burger he had had for breakfast the day before. He was currently saving his meagre earnings so he could pay Anastasia back for the rent she had paid.

“Oh, yes. You are so hot, baby. ahhh!”

However, just as Adam was taking out his keys to open the door, a rather faint and suppressed moan reached his ears.

Adam’s head snapped up as he heard the unmistakable, throaty sound of his girlfriend’s moan through the door.

His mind was blank for a second, but then, the next moment, a wave of pain crashed into his chest as he realized what might be happening.

He kicked hard against their door, partly thinking it would be locked.

To his surprise; the door swung open and in his blinding rage, he tripped over a pair of well-tailored trousers on the floor.

He lost his bearings for a while and almost fell atop the couple on the brown vinyl couch, he had bought before he was demoted, and his pay got cut in half.

“Who the hell is that?” yelled the blond man, who was currently gripping a woman in doggy style on the couch.

“You?!” Adam yelled in excruciating pain as he stared at the shocked face of his so-called best friend, Jean Van Claude.

“Adam?” Anastasia called his name in disbelief. The haze of passion was still on her face as she tried to rise up beneath Jean’s grip.

Jean seemed to remember that his hands were still on her at that moment, and he released her as annoyance crossed his face at the interruption.

“What are you doing at home at this time?” Anastasia snapped at Adam as she tried to cover her bare breasts with her hand. The initial shock was gone from her face, and it was obvious that she wished Adam to hell at that moment.

“What am I doing at home? You think that is the right question to ask me right now?” Adam asked in disbelief as he finally took in the state of their one-room self-contained unit.

The bed he had joyfully bought and helped Ana pick the bedsheets was currently rumpled, and the clothes of his girlfriend and best friend were all strewn over the floor.

It was apparent that they had already had a session on the bed before they moved to the couch.

His azure blue eyes sparked with animosity when Anastasia only snorted at him and said, “And so what? I am not going to bother myself to explain what you can already see with your eyes. Jean is more of a man than you will ever be. If you do not like what you are seeing here, you can just pack your belongings and leave. After all, I paid for this apartment!”

She pulled on her bra and pulled her pants up without bothering with her clothes as she glared at him.

Adam felt as if the floor should open and swallow him, but then a movement at the corner of his eyes snagged his attention.

“Where do you think you are going?” He directed all his frustration at Jean, who had pulled on his shirt and was currently pulling on the trousers that almost tripped Adam earlier.

Jean raised his hands as if in surrender, even as an arrogant smirk showed secretly on his face as he saw the way Ana was talking to Adam. “Adam, man. Sort this out with your girl. I don’t want any trouble,” he said with a shrug and continued to button his trousers.

“You bastard. You dared to..."

They all turned towards the door as they heard a shrill cry in the hallway, followed by a thud, then someone shouting, “Hold the door tight! Gale, bring that iron chair. Don’t let that...don't let it get in here!”

The voice stopped, but the thud continued.

“Adam, don’t just stand there like a moron! Check what is happening outside!” Ana yelled at Adam.

Immediately after she spoke, the thud stopped.

Then a strange, shuffling movement of feet could be heard in the hallway.

Though Adam has had it with Ana and couldn’t believe that she still dared to order him about even in such a situation, his curiosity got the better of him, and he moved out the door to check what happened to his neighbours.

He got knocked back as a snarling man with half of his face torn out of his head tackled him!

“What the…”

Adam’s intended words got slammed back into him as he quickly rolled away from the spot where the gory creature in front of him tried to pin him.

Mouth gnarling and teeth snapping, the thing that was once a deliveryman stood up from where it fell and started moving slowly towards Adam again with arms extended.

As the thought clicked in Adam’s mind, he heard Jean shout, “Zombie? What the fuck?! Zombie in real life?!”

The zombie turned his head sharply towards Jean, then back towards Ana as she screamed. Ana’s scream increased as she saw the horror in front of her.

“No! No! No! Don’t come for me! Eat him!” she mouthed silently and threw a bottle at Adam’s direction. The sound successfully distracted the zombie from her.

“Run!” Noticing what happened, Jean gestured, and darted out of the open doorways as he was the closest to the door.

Ana, on the hand, also realized the importance of keeping quiet to avoid attracting the zombie’s attention. She quickly grabbed her clothes and ran quietly after Jean, still in her pants and bra.

Adam wanted to make a run too, but when the zombie first came after him, he had retreated far back towards the bed and now, the zombie was right between him and the door.

And to make matters worse, Jean had reached for the door.

He mouthed "Good riddance, sucker" with a devious grin.

Then he firmly shut it behind them.

Adam swore he would never forget the mischievous and cruel smile on Jean’s face, but it wasn’t the right time to cry over spilled milk

Like a hellhound, the zombie sniffed the air and then let out a gnashing sound from his teeth again.

Silky black saliva clung to his teeth as he opened his mouth wide and jumped at Adam.