A SYNOPSIS OF M.D. (MORGUE OF THE DEAD)

BY LEE TAYLOR

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF THE TOWN YOU LIVED IN WAS OVERTAKEN BY FLESH-EATING ZOMBIES?

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF A LOVED ONE TURNED INTO ONE OF THEM?

The town of Clifton Falls had recently put aside the terrible bank robbery from a few months earlier, only to be faced with the worst week in the lives of every resident. Blake sat with his closest friends, thinking about the week that was best left forgotten. He’d been a survivor of the deadly onslaught of crazed zombies, and he sat, telling his story to his friends.

Blake’s farming company was chosen to be the guinea pig for a new, chemical tested fertilizer. It was meant to destroy the plant-eating bugs, and therefore help grow the crops. This was supposed to be the answer for a profitable year, but turned out to be the reason as to why the dead were rising again.

A crazy rainstorm washed the compost away from the field and it found its way onto a deceased corpse, a man who’d taken his own life. Any corpse that’d been in close contact with the fertilizer was given the chance to live again, but only if the person had been dead for less than nine months. Wives, mothers, friends, and lovers, were going to die brutally by one of these sick, twisted monsters.

The local bank manager bought a bag of the fertilizer for his garden, but the crazy storm washed it over his mother’s grave. The horror was going to spread in a different part of town.

Clifton Falls hospital was piling up with victims, but how could anyone have known that zombies truly existed?

The local police chief and his men finally control the situation, but the next day arrives, bringing more chaos, as the robbers are back to dig up their cash. The money is buried inside the coffin of a recently deceased body, but the dead person isn’t dead anymore. The robbers flee after one of them is savagely attacked by the dead corpse. Now the graveyard is overtaken by the recent dead. They find a way out and head through the forest in search of more humans. The local holiday village is in the forest and the beasts smell their prey as they close in.

A twisted and violent battle escalates, as the police chief recruits new staff to replace the ones killed, but he knows that time is running out. The night falls and the creatures have the upper hand. They now stalk the humans, picking them off inside the forest. The battle goes on till the early hours.

The next day brings an end to the slaughter and the chief has to find a way to get rid of the fertilizer. He decides to burn it, but while the flames spiral and the ashes scatter, they land behind a large hedgerow. This spot is where recently planted graves are, but of who? If the compost was the reason to why the dead rose again, then what would happen if the ashes landed on graves? Probably nothing, but the crazy rain shower is back.

TWENTY-SEVEN

The rotting flesh and maggot-infested monsters approached the holiday village. Apart from a few kids playing outside, and an elderly lady situated nearby, the area seemed pretty much non-existent of activity. The bloodthirsty, flesh-biting zombies spotted the unfortunate woman, and moved in her direction. Even the old corpse, with infected drool leaking from its mouth, desperately tried staggering that little bit faster to get its hands on some tasty, human meat, but fell down from going too quick, and like a drunken bum in a pissed up alleyway, it eventually found itself upright again to carry on its quest.

The woman didn’t spot the unwelcome visitors, but stopped and sniffed the air for a few seconds. The zombie stench floated around her face, moving up her nostrils until she coughed from the lack of breathing properly, but once used to the stench, the woman carried on with her work. She thought the drainage system was blocked up again and that notion wasn’t going to put her off. The smell increased in toxic texture, and the old lady could now taste the strangling odour of rotting meat until it almost blocked up her windpipe, threatening to knock her out with its foul, suffocating tentacles, but, like a stubborn mule, she held her nose with one hand and pulled down the washing with the other.

This lady must’ve been slightly blind or extremely deaf because not once did she turn around to witness what made the haunting sounds closing in on her. It wasn’t until one of the zombies passed and stood in front of her that she became worried, but before she could scream, another one gripped the back of her hair, sinking darkened teeth into the side of her face. This snapping sensation completely tore off the left ear, and the zombie stood with the ear plus the earring in its mouth, chewing on the prize catch. Crunching sounds were heard as the earring was scrunched between teeth.

Another one of the grotesque figures took a clump of flesh out of the petrified woman’s right arm. The extreme blood flow was enough to make these cannibals act more and more crazy. The pure shock of this horrific attack caused her to faint, leaving the walking dead an easy access to the first meal of their new lives. The washing was now splashed with red liquid, as these hungry animals feasted.

The children, who’d played during the massacred attack on the defenceless human, weren’t playing anymore. They’d witnessed the brutal onslaught, but were too frozen with shivering fear to speak.

One of the zombies sniffed the head of the victim and moved away. The children watched, as the creature walked towards a gardening rake lying on the ground, then, with twisted fingers picked it up. It seemed to remember what the object was used for, and tried raking the grass for a few seconds before stopping and looking puzzled. The other zombies looked over, admiring the one with the wooden handled rake. They produced smiles. It was a very weird moment, but wasn’t as weird as when they were still at the cemetery.

The beast returned with the object and sat next to the victim’s scalp. The other zombies carried on feeding. This one stroked the dead person’s hair before whining like a dog. All of a sudden the menacing, piercing eyes were back, and the gentle touch faded. The sharp points of the rake aimed at the dead woman’s skull, and with one quick, heavy blow, the object embedded into it. The creature watched in excitement, then tugged on the handle until the top half of the head came clean off. A large smile and sparkling eyes indicated that the monster was happy with the witnessed prize. While all the others ripped away at the torso, legs, arms and stomach, this clever zombie found the brain. It lashed out, stealing the organ away from its home before pleasingly sinking teeth into the blood-soaked tissue.

It took a few more seconds before the children broke away from their hypnotised state of mind. As soon as one stopped the horrified staring, the rest followed. The village echoed with the sounds of scared kids, as their cries for help raced wavelengths of pure terror through every caravan.

The residents evacuated their mobile homes to witness the chaos taking over the caravan site. Frantic parents rushed around in pursuit to round up their little ones.

All the commotion stirred the un-dead six, as their deadly vision spotted the scurrying humans. The feasting was over on victim number one. The freaks returned to their feet to attempt another attack on the living. The humans gathered up their children, locking themselves inside the mobile homes, as the creatures closed in again.

Each family was accounted for, except for one. The Carters had misplaced their little boy. He hid in his secret spot, and the gruesome sight made him too afraid to come out. Little Kenny was a shy, seven year old, so all this activity was sure to send him into his own little world. His parents shouted to gain the attention of their son, but also aimed the words at the other neighbours. They weren’t impressed by the cowardly behaviour of their so-called friends, and Tom was furious by their reaction.

“Can’t you lot see that our son’s gone missing?” After a quick rotation, so all the hiding people knew he was talking to them, he spoke again. “As long as your kids are safe, you don’t give a fuck about mine.”

The zombies closed in even more on the married, troubled couple. If the humans were going to survive an attack, then they would have to remove themselves from where they stood.

Suddenly, doors opened all around them. A few of the fathers plucked up enough courage to attack the bloodthirsty enemy. Armed with kitchen knives, gardening tools, and anything that could be used as a weapon, the occupiers left their homes to try and scare off the trespassers. Tom grabbed hold of his wife, telling her to get inside their caravan. He was going to find their boy, but needed her to get to a safer place first. Diane shook like a leaf. The bloodstained intruders watched, as she ran back to her home.

Tom and his three compatriots stood side by side. It looked a bit like a scene from West Side Story. The humans were the jets, and the ugly fucks, the sharks. All that was needed now was for them to do a stupid dance routine and it would’ve been spot on. The zombies stood close by, but didn’t attack. Surely they weren’t hatching a plan? Tom turned, looking at the other men.

“I’m sorry for shouting at you. I thought you were going to leave me out here to face these things on my own.” He stared at the enemy for a second. “What the fuck are these things?”

Normally, the sight of witnessing such a horrible and cruel event would make these men cringe in their shoes. They weren’t expecting a visit from the devil’s warriors, but at this moment, all they saw were intruders who scared their children.

“I don’t know what they are, mate, and I don’t care. I just want them off our patch,” Curtis replied.

The apology came now, and Curtis spoke on behalf of the others. He admitted to being scared, and panicked. His top priority was to save his family and he hadn’t been thinking about anyone else. Tom nodded his approval, and probably would’ve done the same if he were in their shoes. Curtis offered him a baseball bat, as the men braced themselves. They knew that whoever or whatever these things were, they weren’t going away without a battle.

“Right men, let’s show them who the boss is around here,” Tom shouted.

The four humans ran at the monsters, swinging whatever weapons they had in their hands at the freaks. Tom’s bat crashed against the side of one, sending the zombie sprawling across the grass. Curtis managed to deposit a large, carving knife into the chest of another, and this reaction knocked the beast to its knees. The other men used golf clubs and gardening spades to smack the shit out of the enemy. This all appeared too easy to achieve, as all six zombies were sent crashing to the ground. The men laughed, walking away, as their wives waved and cheered through the caravan windows.

Tom’s little army stood there, as the monsters brushed the recent attack to one side. They returned to their feet. Each male witnessed an astonishing sight, and couldn’t believe that the one with the knife stuck deep into its body frame acted like nothing happened. These humans hadn’t realized that the things in front of them were zombies, and Tom thought they were a hillbilly, inbred, mutant family, but even mutant people would be close to, or even dead after a knife attack.

The pissed-off men charged again, but this time it wasn’t as easy as the first. One of the guys made a big mistake of grabbing a zombie and placing it in a headlock.

“Hey, look at me.” He moved the snarling creature in a circle and laughed. “Would anybody like a free punch?”

He wasn’t the only one who thought this was hilarious, the other men also giggled. The laughing didn’t persist for very long, as the creature saw the chance to strike. It clamped its jaws into the man’s ribs.

“OOOOOOOUCH.”

The zombie was thrown to the ground, as the scream pierced through the eardrums of every person standing there. Nobody could understand why the other person laughed one minute and the next was in a fit of pain, but after a few more seconds, they realized what was wrong. Now all eyes were focused on the drip, dripping of blood leaking from the ribcage area.

While the humans remained gob-smacked at the sight of the injured man, the beasts planned their own attack. Another man was set upon by the pillaging evilness that was about to bite him. Tom and Curtis could only watch in horror as their friend was brutally attacked by one of the monsters. If they thought the screams from a few moments before were bad, then these sounds whistled a circle of frightened squeals that sounded ten times worse. This man had no chance to fight back. Teeth were deposited deep into his left eye socket and once retreated, the eye popped out, snapping veins and connective tissues without any fuss. The blood from the wound gushed down the terrified, screaming man’s face.

The zombie on the ground seemed way too interested in licking up the excess blood forming a circle next to it, to bother in the battle between life and death. The bitten, first victim staggered, as he tried stemming the release of red juice, but it now became a delicious drink for the lazy zombie who’d found the ideal resting place.

The man with the eye wound stood no chance without the help of his friends, but the two, untouched men still tried unscrambling this terrifying experience to even think about a rescue attempt. The one-eyed man did the wrong thing and fell to the ground. He was now an easy target for the enemy. Once down, the beasts were on him like hungry wolves ready for another feeding frenzy.

The other wounded man produced bludgeoning cries in an attempt to be noticed by the uninjured duo. It worked. Curtis regrouped his thoughts and rushed over, supporting the stumbling male and escorting him to one of the empty caravans. The blood-lapping monster watched the two men escape. The beast opened its mouth, letting out a loud screeching noise, just like the movie ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’.

It was Tom’s turn to head for safer surroundings. He knew Kenny was safe, well as safe as he could be.

He’s not a stupid boy, and will be out of range by now. He’ll come home when all the trouble was over, he thought.

He ran towards the same caravan as his mates, but as he past the screeching zombie, it swung an arm at him. Tom was quick enough to avoid this and kicked out at the fiend, landing a superb head shot.

Everyone who was locked inside mobile homes was now pressed up against the windows, staring at the living corpses. Their thoughts were on the subject of ‘who and what were these people?’

The blood lapping zombie headed for the dead man, feeding on the scraps, as the five killers returned to their feet.