The following account of a zombie (Hostile Infected Person, or H.I.P.) encounter was collected at the Spring River Zoo in Roswell, New Mexico from the security tapes off of several different computers.

According to personnel files recovered from the zoo’s computers, Jonathan Ramirez was a 52-year-old custodian who worked at the zoo for 22 years. His personal file showed a man who was rarely late for work and who had multiple reports from zoo patrons telling administrators how nice and helpful Mr. Ramirez was. (more…)

Readers and writers,

Just wanted to give another thanks to the support we’ve seen over these past nearly-four-years. Our readership is up to levels we never really believed possible when this project started in March of 2007. We thought it might be fun to share some of the current statistics with regards to the top-viewed stories on the site. Our current all-time top five, preceded by their number of viewers: (more…)

Announcing the contest winners for the second prize period of 2010:

1st Place: REVENGE by Nick Lloyd

Runner up: THE POWER OF PRAYER by Kevin Fortune

Again we are indebted to our contributors and readers. Choosing the prize winners is excruciatingly difficult. Our thanks to you all.

Lead them to victory.

Daddy took me fishing with him and the other fishers today! He made me my very own bamboo fishing pole and said that when I’m older we’ll go into town and see about finding me a better one! One of the good ones like Mrs. Davis’ pretty gold one or the McQueen brothers’ silver and black ones. The one daddy made me doesn’t have a reel on it so I’ll have to stay close to the shore. (more…)

The snow glistened white, pure and sweet

the wind had blown, thawing the top layer

that it might freeze again, a thin crust

like sugar on creme brulee. (more…)

-Undisclosed location

I meet the interviewee, ‘John’, in an interstate diner. John had tracked me down a week previous, after hearing about my report ‘from some friends’, and requested to be interviewed.

John’s a lean, rangy man and he’s wearing mirrored aviators. He drinks his coffee and explains his request for confidentiality. (more…)

Molly looks up at me from the bed with her yellow eyes.

The left is bloodshot, not pink but a deep, blood red.

I stand in the doorway and watch as she tugs at the ropes that bind her wrists and ankles.  The rough weave digs hard into her skin, rubbing it raw.  She would keep trying to reach me until her flesh gives, I fancy, until her hands and feet come off.

Good morning, dear.  I don’t speak aloud; talking to yourself is for crazy people.  I know exactly what I’m doing. (more…)

The artillery barrage had gone on seemingly forever. Hans and Reuter had long ago given up any notion of hearing anything beyond the pounding of the approaching wall of American 105 mm shells. The landscape looked like some cratered imagining of the moon the two men had seen in picture books when they’d been boys. It was clear that Wessel was no longer going to be in German hands for much longer. The two men communicated by hand signals, pointing themselves in any direction which would take them away from the Ami’s relentless bombardment. Running away held many dangers though. Both men knew all too well what would happen should the Feldjaeger find them. Those Fepo bastards were too damned eager to string up anybody caught going in a direction other than the fighting. (more…)

“Are you there, God? It’s me, Bob. I expect that you’re rather busy- it’s Hell on Earth here… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t mock you. You know all the mysteries. I- I’m just a man. Mortal, fallible, afraid… sick to death for me and mine. They’re all I have, Lord. Watch over us and protect us. Amen.”

-Bob, Zombie Hunter (more…)

Hungry. There’s nothing to eat but us, and Zeke already knows that.

We got caught by a herd. Don’t know how or why, but lately the zombies have started to congregate, to gather and move in schools like fish, or flocks of birds. Emergent phenomena, Doc Black says. He was a biologist of some kind, before. (more…)

Tina knew when her sister first picked up the infection. Tammy tried her best to hide the bite, but it was no use. Somehow, Tina knew. She always knew. There was a strong connection between the pair, a bond that neither could explain. Once, when they were twelve, Tammy took a face full of softball, but it was Tina’s nose that bled, flowing like a hose before they finally plugged it. The doctors called it an unusual case of sympathetic pains, while managing to ignore the fact that Tina was indoors during a history class while Tammy was outdoors during PE. The twins didn’t need a fancy explanation, nor did they want one. They had lived with the phenomenon their whole lives. Knowing what the other felt or thought or craved was as natural as breathing. (more…)