Image Caption: Fantasia in Morocco. CC photo by Maxim Massalitin

For this week’s Flash!Friday we had to write 250 words about the prompt above, and include the theme of ‘love lost’

One Day

They said it couldn’t be done, that we had to wait for them to come to us. We proved them wrong. Why wait for the zombies to come out at night? We knew where they were. Underground, hiding in tunnels. They hid from the sun for a reason. They hated the heat. The only warmth they sought was fresh blood, but why give them the chance? We built flamethrowers on poles, so we could flush out their burrows. We attacked while they were dormant, just as they did to us. 

Some lessons we learned the hard way. If they felt movement above they would attack, bursting out like a trapdoor spider. One bite was enough, even on an ankle. So we adapted. No-one remembers who first suggested horses. Their hooves protected them, and us, trampling anything stupid enough to erupt from the dirt. We were cowboys, herding the undead away from our fair city. We rode in a line, pushing them back, watching the mounds retreat as they scurried away. We did the same thing, night after night, like the push and pull of the tide. Just like the ocean, they were endless, relentless, unforgiving.

It wasn’t perfect. Sometimes one slipped through. If they were buried deeper, or dodged the flames, then we missed them. We couldn’t be everywhere. It was a fact of life. We all accepted that. We just prayed it wasn’t our house they found.

Then one day, it was.

I’ll never forget the screams.