“Mum?”
Audrey groaned and rolled over to squint sleepily at the doorway. Her daughter Sally was standing there in her pyjamas, rubbing her eyes with one hand, the ever-present Mr Bunny dangling from the other.
“What’s up, honey? Did you have a bad dream?”
She tried not to sound frustrated. She thought Sally had grown out of this phase, and had been looking forward to a weekend lie-in with Ralph.
Sally shook her head. “There’s a zombie on the lawn,” she said.
With a sigh, Audrey sat up and held her arms out. “Don’t be silly, love,” she said. ” It’s just a bad dream. Come here.”
Sally stayed where she was. “It wasn’t a dream, mum. There really is a zombie on the lawn.”
Audrey frowned. Sally seemed completely awake and deadly serious. Maybe something was there. She shook her husband’s shoulder.
“Ralph,” she whispered. “Wake up. Wake up!”
“Hrmphrm,” Ralph muttered, rolling over. “S’up?”
“Sally says there’s something on the lawn,” Audrey said, leaning over to shake him some more.
“It’s a zombie,” Sally insisted.
“Go and check it out,” Audrey said.
“Oh, all right,” Ralph said, swinging his feet out of the bed and wincing at the cold floorboards. “Let me get my zombie-whomping bat.”
Sally grinned as her father took an old cricket bat out of a basket in the corner and went to the window. He pulled the curtains aside slightly.
“Holy…”
Audrey went cold at the tone of his voice. “What? What is it?”
He turned to her with a resigned look on his face. “Wake David. Get the kids armoured up. Check the chainsaws.”
She shook her head. “No,” she said, jumping out of bed to cross the room and join him at the window. “No, you can’t be serious!”
He nodded and stepped aside so she could look out of the window. The zombie on their lawn was missing half of its leg and was therefore making slow progress towards the house, but there were more in the road that seemed considerably more mobile. Across the road, Mr Winslow’s door already hung off its hinges. He never had been as security conscious as the rest of the neighbourhood.
She sighed. “Not again.”
© Kari Fay
(Author’s Note: This is my first story from a Write Anything Fiction Friday Challenge prompt. I hope you enjoy it.)
The Best Place By The Fire 
That ending absolutely sells this. Brava!
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lol again?!!! Creepy!
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Finally! A zombie story with a twist. Thank you.
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*bravo* loved the ending. Welcome to Fiction Friday over at Write Anything. I’m the co-ordinator for FF and love to see new faces popping over. What a great introduction to you and your writing. Your voice is strong, your prose flowed effortlessly and in that short space, readers identified immedialty to your characters.
I certainly hope to see you over at FF again soon!
On another note, if you are interested in zombie/ action based fiction – or would like to try your hand at something a little different – a bit challenging – but a bucket of fun – come and check out CYOA – a collaborative writing project as they are looking for submissions for the next project.
http://CYOA.submishmash.com/submit
http://chooseyouronlineadventures.com/read/zombie-invasion
I look forward to seeing you round the blogosphere!
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Ack! Those zombies on the lawn are harder to get rid than crabgrass.
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♪♫ “There’s a zombie on your la-awn!” ♫♪
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Don’t you just hate it when your parents don’t believe you about the zombies outside?
I am only on my second week of Fiction Friday prompts and I see in other writer’s work the progress I need to make! I enjoyed your story.
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Argh. Commented in the wrong forum. Here’s a copy…
Great story! The reveal that what we expect to be a child’s fantasy is, in fact, a well-established reality packs a punch. Thank you for sharing.
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