• A Traditional Irish Zombie Tale
    7 replies, posted
Just a shitty story I made for a Creative Writing assignment. Figured I'd share it. [quote] The sky was washed with a muddy yellow as the sun set over the Irish plains. Night was creeping fast and there was nary a place to find shelter. For the past few hours we had been walking towards Offaly, where we hoped we would be able to find a place to settle down. We were walking for hours, our car had broken down as soon as we tried taking it off the roads (the abandoned vehicles went on for miles). The outbreak had only happened a week or two ago, but it only took a few days for all hell to break loose. We only heard snippets about what exactly happened, something about a research lab or bio weapons. The only thing we were sure of was to get as far from the cities as possible. Even in the distance you could see the smoke billowing on the horizon, and the sky light up from a bombing run. We would count the seconds until we heard that thick thud of an explosion to check how far we had gotten. Suddenly, I heard my brother call “Guys! Hey guys! I think I see shelter!” We rushed up to him. “Look, Finn, I think I see building!” he said. “Where are you looking, Gene? I can't see a bloody thing.” I asked. He pointed off to the west. At first I thought it had just been a pile of rocks, but as we walked closer, I realized that it was a building. A church to be exact. It was just about sundown and the land was painted hues of brown. We weren't sure of the safety of the church, but we hadn't had much of a choice. As we got closer, we drew our guns and moved in slowly. The church was a wreck. I was surprised that it was still standing from the way it looked. The sky was dark now, so we flicked on our flashlights. We walked through the huge doors, and looked around, to make sure the place was empty. A small mouse scampered across the floor and Hope gave out a little yelp. “Shhh! Do you want to get us discovered?” Simon scolded her. “Sorry...” she said. Hope Fitzpatrick's a bit of a clumsy girl, but I couldn't help but stifle a snicker at how sweet she was. We finished looking through the building and couldn't find a soul. So we finally decided it was safe to sit down and rest. Arthur Sweeney, who used to be a butcher before the outbreak and was our old family friend, pulled out a chunk of ham that we salvaged from the last town. He cut off a few slices and handed them out amongst the group. “Sorry that we can't get you some Filet Mignon, sir” he said jokingly as he handed a piece to Simon. Simon Clayworth was some executive out from London on a business trip when the outbreak happened. A bit of a snooty arsehole but you can't pick and choose who you survive with. We unpacked our bags and set up places to sleep. We drew straws for who would get the lovely position of guard duty. Tonight, Franz got the honor. Franz Kirsch is a bit of a strange bugger. He's out here from Germany, hasn't told us exactly why. He's a very quiet fellow, hardly ever says a thing. He also seems a tad paranoid, he's quite jumpy. He's good with a gun though, so we let him tag along. The rest of us settled down under our jackets as Franz went up to the roof to keep watch. I hadn't been sleeping an hour when I felt a boot give me a nudge to my ribs. I opened my eyes to see Franz kneeling above me. “Dammit what is it this time Franz?” The last time he had guard duty, he woke us all up because he'd seen a bloody owl fly past. “If this was just a fookin' cat I'll wring your-” But then I heard it. A hollow, parched moan pierced my ears. I wasn't the only one who heard it, everybody sat up, stiff as boards. I looked back at Franz and he pointed to the upper floor, and gestured for us to come along. We climbed up to the attic and looked out the window. There it was. A crooked, shambling figure silhouetted by the light of the moon, lurching toward the church. Hope began to pull out her rifle, but Arthur pushed it down. “Our best bet is to see if the thing will leave on its own, rather than firing and alerting every one of those damn ghouls” He whispered. So we waited. The monster creeped closer and closer to the church, until it was finally at the entrance. It slowly pushed the doors apart, and slouched inside. The smell of rotting flesh hit me like a hammer, and I had to clap my hands over my mouth to keep from coughing. As the creature wandered about, it crouched over one of the backpacks and began to rip it open. “The bloody bastard's going for my ham!” Arthur whispered. “Well at least nothing of value was lost.” Simon quipped. Finn covered both of their mouths, “Would you two shut the fook up?! It'll hear us!” he said. We went back to looking at the ghoul (which was now taking bites out of Arthur's ham.) When we heard a strange sniffling sound. We looked over to see Franz, with his hands desperately plugging his nose. He was on the verge of sneezing! We started to move toward him to help, but it was too late. Though he was muffling it, the sneeze was still loud enough to alert the creature. It let go of the ham and turned it's mutilated face towards us. It opened its mouth and let out another terrible moan, and began to move toward the stairs. Simon went to pull out his knife, but the ghoul had already made it up the stairs and was moving faster towards us. Simon tried to get his knife but it was stuck in the holster. The monster was just about to land on top of Simon when suddenly, my ears were filled with a loud crack, and the ghoul's head was split in half. It collapsed onto the ground a few feet from Simon, who had finally managed to get his knife out. I couldn't hear anything but ringing in my ears. I turned to see Franz standing behind me, smoke coming from the muzzle of his rifle. “DON'T FIRE THAT THING SO CLOSE TO MY FOOKIN' HEAD, GOD DAMMIT!” I yelled (though all I could here was a mere muffle) I looked and saw Hope say something, but my ears had not cleared yet. “WHAT?” I yelled. Finally my hearing had come back. The echo from the shot was still rippling through the countryside. Hope looked back to me “I said everything within twenty kilometers will have heard that.” We looked out through the windows again, and we could see hundreds of specks on the horizon, growing ever larger. We wouldn't have a chance if we were to stay there. We had to find a place to get to, and we had to find it fast. We rushed up into the bell tower to get a better view of the landscape. We looked around and saw the faint light of a town in the distance. We figured that we might find a phone or a car or [I]anything[/I] to help us. Just as long as we would be able to get away from the church. We could hear the groans of the ghouls now, and their stench was wafting in the air. We were out of time, and we had to move. We went back down to the ground floor. We checked all of our ammunition. Simon had the most rounds left so he would be leading the way. We shoved our magazines into our pockets, and between our belts. We would be leaving the backpacks so we wouldn't be slowed down. We made our way out of the church. The creatures were already about a third of a kilometer away. We started to run toward the town. Once we got within range, we began to fire at the ghouls. We had to try to cut a path through them so we could run through their ranks. Our guns blazed, and the monsters fell one by one. We managed to create a small path through the shambling figures, and we started running through it, still firing on the ghouls as they started moving in from the sides. We had almost made it through the crowd, when Arthur ran out of ammo. He started to reload his gun, but wasn't paying attention to where he was going and tripped on a body. “SHITE! ARTHUR! Finn shouted. He started to run back, but the creatures were already descending upon the both of them. “FORGET ME FINN! SAVE YOURSELF!” He yelled back. He drew his pistol and shot the ghouls that were approaching them. I ran back and grabbed Finn by the arm and started to drag him away. “Gene what are you doing!? We have to save him!” he said. “Dammit Finn, it's too late! We'll never get to him in time! I'm sure as hell not going to let you get killed as well!” I told him, and we kept running. I looked back and saw Arthur. His pistol had run out and he was now hitting the creatures with his butcher knife. It wasn't enough though. He was smothered by the horrific monsters, and all we heard was an awful scream as they began to devour him. We had made it past the creatures. A few stragglers were still after us, but the majority had gone to get a piece of Arthur. The town was now in sight, and we could hear the sound of a helicopter. As we got into the town we saw a news helicopter that was sitting there with its blades spinning. “Well are you fellas gonna just sit there waiting to become ghoul food, or are you gonna get aboard?” the pilot said over his loudspeaker. We climbed into the helicopter and took off. “How did you find us?” Hope asked the pilot. “I've been flying around trying to find as many survivors as I can. I could hear shooting so I made a few passes until I saw you folks tearing your way through the ghouls.” As we flew, we made another pass over the church. The monsters had overrun it, looking for anyone else who may have been alive. We could also see a few of the creatures finishing up the remains of old Arthur. I stuck my rifle out the window and put a bullet into one of them. “That was for you Arthur...” I said. We settled down inside the helicopter. Hope put her head against me and closed her eyes. After being through hell for this long, it was nice to finally get some rest. [/quote]
I read it all in a thick Irish accent, the "fooks" and "shites" helped. All in all, very well written with a nice ending.
[QUOTE=WingedTurtle;25079404]I read it all in a thick Irish accent, the "fooks" and "shites" helped. All in all, very well written with a nice ending.[/QUOTE] Thanks. Wasn't sure what kind of reception it would get around here. And I'm glad that it came off as Irish to you.
me being irish it comes off nothing like irish at all
[QUOTE=Parakeety;25083823]me being irish it comes off nothing like irish at all[/QUOTE] Had a feeling it would to a native. What do I know, I'm American v:v:v When we think of Ireland we think of leprechauns. Though I also think of leprechauns when I think of Scotland. I get the two mixed up all the time.
[QUOTE=Parakeety;25083823]me being irish it comes off nothing like irish at all[/QUOTE] You're British. :downs:
[QUOTE=WingedTurtle;25079404]I read it all in a thick Irish accent, the "fooks" and "shites" helped. All in all, very well written with a nice ending.[/QUOTE] Never heard someone say 'Fook' up in The north, if they did i would slap them so hard, though i hear 'shite' alot v:v:v
The story lacks authenticity. The zombies clearly aren't red-headed or drunk
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