Queens

Joseph Young slumped against the wall of his house, crying and holding the barrel of an empty .38 caliber pistol against his forehead. His wife and two kids were lying on their bedroom floors, dead from gunshot wounds to the head that he had given them moments earlier. His whole world had turned into a nightmare, and it had begun the moment he walked through the doors of Astrotech Enterprises, a corporation working closely with NASA. Joseph had been working there for ten years, and he had never seen anything like what he saw that day. His friend and co-worker, Steve Wozniak, had walked into the corporation, falling down drunk. Of course, that turned out to be a wrong assumption.

Another one of his co-workers, Ted Grant, approached Steve, warning him that if the boss saw him like this, he would be fired. Steve made no indication that he even understood, then leapt on Ted without warning. He bit into Ted's neck, ripping out veins while he screamed in horror. Blood began to pool everywhere, and without even thinking, Joseph grabbed his office chair, rushed up, and hit Steve as hard as he could. He flew off of him, but was up in seconds, and came after him. The look in his eyes was horrific, and Joseph hit him with the chair until he was absolutely sure Steve was dead.

In all the commotion, Ted had died from having his jugular ripped in half. One of the other office workers, Tammy Page, went to cover his body, when he suddenly jerked up. Seeming to come back from the dead, Ted bit deep into her leg, and Tammy fell. Ted began to eat on her, and Joseph was terrified. Within an hour, all of his co-workers had been turned into zombies. Now, they were all looking to eat him.

Joseph ran for his life, knocking over anything he could in an attempt to slow them down. Still, they kept on, and he dared not look back as he approached the emergency staircase. Then, something caught his eye. A red, glass case was mounted on the wall, and inside, was a fireman's axe. This was to be used in case a door was blocked during a fire. He smasshed the glass with his hand, the tiny pieces of glass biting into his hand.

As he removed the axe from the case, he thought that this was as good an emergency as any to use it. As a zombie approached, he swung the axe, sending its head into an adjacent wall. With a naked need to survive, Joseph began to hack at the zombies, always aiming for their heads. One thing Hollywood had always taught moviegoers was that the brain was the only weak spot of a zombie. Kill the brain, kill the zombie; simple as that. His suit stained with blood, Joseph left the enemies he had returned to the dead and bolted down the staircase.

Zombie Steve's handiwork was evident, as he was forced to cut down more zombies on his way to the parking garage. He took out his key and got in his car, thankful that the engine turned over. As he was about to tear out of there, the zombified parking attendant leapt upon his windshield. It beared its rotten teeth and began hitting the windshield. Punching the gas, he let the speedometer climb to fifty before he slammed on the brakes. The zombie flew off, busting its head on the concrete.

Joseph crushed its head with his tire for good measure, then drove through the pandemonium-laden streets on his way home.
"Please be all right," he said under his breath, referring to his wife and two kids at home.
As he squealed into the parking lot, he took his axe up to the door and opened it. The house was all clear, but then his wife, Cyndi, came tearing down the hall at him. The look in her eye and the blood around her mouth made it clear that she had been turned, but Joseph could not find it in himself to butcher the woman he had loved since high school. Crouching down, he threw the axe at her horizontally, tripping her up.

Retreating down the hall, Joseph ran into the master bedroom. Tears stung his eyes as he rifled through the closet, pulling out a shoebox with his .38 caliber pistol in it. Pulling it out, he loaded it and pulled back the hammer. As Cynthia came into the room, he turned to her.
"I'm sorry," he said with a cracking voice as he took aim and fired a single round into her head.
Her head jerked back, and she collapsed to the floor.

Joseph lowered the gun and hung his head, knowing that his work was not finished yet. If his wife had been turned, then his two children, eight-year-old Thomas and six-year-old Annie, had probably been turned, as well. Tears now completely blurred his vision, but he wiped them away. Moving into the living room, he headed down the hall into the kid's rooms. He opened Thomas' door, and found him sitting on his bed. The boy snarled at him, and Joseph took aim.

However, before he could take the shot, he felt his legs go out from under him. Annie had tackled him with strength far surpassing her size. As she prepared to bite into him, he took aim and fired once, killing her. However, Thomas was upon him, and Joseph's gun was knocked away. He got up and kicked his son back onto his bed. Thomas sprang back up, and leaped into the air as Joseph turned and fired.

Fear had caused him to keep pulling the trigger, even though the first shot had killed Thomas. When the gun could only offer an empty click, he staggered out of the room, and collapsed against the wall. He rested the barrel of the gun against his forehead and uttered heart-wrenching sobs. His whole life had been turned upside down, and now he had nothing. There was no job, no family, and no reason to keep going. All because of those...damn zombies.

His eyes opened and hardened in anger. He gritted his teeth and uttered a primordial scream of soul-shattering pain and unsuppressed rage. When he could scream no more, he found a reason to keep going. Those zombies had taken everything from him, but they had not taken his life. As long as he could yet draw breath, he would make them pay. Leaving the house and getting into his car, he promised himself and his family that he would annihilate every last zombie.