Shook: Zombie Infection

Editor’s note: The author of this story is the fourth grade first place winner of the 22nd annual Fraser Creative Writing Contest, put on by Aspen Elementary School. His name is Carter Shook. This story is printed verbatim.

Day 1, 12:00 PM Osaka, Japan: It started off as a normal day, but then tragedy struck. A 35-year-old son from a wealthy family had just died in a car crash. This was a family of scientists and doctors who wanted to try to illegally revive their son using an untested chemical that might bring him back to life. They gave him the injection.

A few days later, the chemical started to affect his body. Then one night, a security camera caught him leaving the hospital room. After walking out of the hospital, he was nowhere to be found. The family was sent to prison a couple days later for illegally tampering with their son’s body.

Day 5, 9:15 AM Sunday: My name is Jack Karter. I am 12 years old, and I really like basketball. I live in Osaka, Japan, near Osaka Castle. I am on crutches from a snowboarding injury. I am getting ready for basketball practice. The news says that someone went missing again, last night. His name is Bill Madison. I go to practice even though I can’t run because I’m injured. When I arrive at practice, my coach shows me dribbling skills even though I can’t do them right now.

As I’m walking home, I hear gunshots. Now I’m running to my house and there are four people there. I recognize one of them from the news this morning: it’s the missing man, Bill Madison. The police are able to subdue Bill. They put him to sleep and take him to the hospital.

Day 6, 8:12 AM Monday: My parents wake me up. They say people – many of whom were previously dead—have come back to life and are attacking others. It seems that these ‘undead’ people have some sort of infection now making them go crazy. They are biting people, which then turns those people crazy as well. They are basically zombies.

I was supposed to go to school today, but the prime minister has decided there will be a quarantine in place. So, I try to remain calm. I do my homework and play video games. I start to hear loud noises: screams and gunshots. Suddenly a police car pulls up and tells us we have to evacuate. “I will explain in the car,” the officer says. We get in his police cruiser. He says to us: “My name is Kenji. Basically, an infection is spreading, and we have to get to the top of Tokyo Tower. That’s where they are taking people to the nearest city – by helicopter – where we will all be safe”.

Day 7, 12:09 AM Tuesday: We are driving to Tokyo. Kenji says, “It will be a bit over 6 hours until we get to Tokyo Tower”. It has been about 1 hour so far. We are speeding along, but then I hear loud noises and see bright lights in front of us. All of the sudden a stop sign impales into the front of the car and the engine explodes. The car stops and we all get out. Then I see someone running at us. It is a zombie! He is fast and I cannot outrun him on my crutches.

I open up the manhole cover on the street and push the zombie into it then close it. Kenji tells us to go around the chaos, so we walk a couple blocks and now we have to go to the nearest place to

stay. We walk 15 minutes and see a hotel. We go in and say we need a room. We take the last room available. We head in, lock the door, and try to get some rest.

Day 7, 8:00 AM Tuesday: I wake up startled. Kenji goes out and finds some food for us. We eat fast and leave in a hurry. We go to a car rental store. We rent a large car with three rows we tell Kenji we want him to come with us. While we are driving, we see someone on the street who needs help. “They attacked me, and I need a ride and medical help,” he says.

We are thinking of letting him in when Kenji says, “let me see your left hand.” The man lifts his arm. There is a brutal bite mark on his arm. It was bruised and bleeding. Kenji turned to us. “We can’t let him in; he’s infected.” Sure enough, this man suddenly started acting crazy, so we sped away and drove on.

As I looked back, I could see the now-zombie chasing us. It also appeared that he had grown big, sharp teeth. We drove for hours without stopping again. We were an hour from Tokyo.

Day 8, 11:24 AM Wednesday: We arrive in Tokyo. Everything looks totally depressed and chaotic. I see trash and car crashes everywhere. It takes a long time to get to the top of Tokyo Tower, but we make it. Once there, a security team screens everyone trying to enter. Medical tests are used to see if we are infected or not. The people infected are sent into special treatment. As we are doing the test, I hear a helicopter. I look up and see zombies on the side of it. The helicopter crashes right next to us into a giant water tower, which starts leaking.

The zombies from the helicopter are now running towards us. I feel like I’m about to die, when suddenly, the water from the tower catches up with the zombies. As soon as the water overcome them, the zombies disintegrate into slimy gross stuff.

I tell the military what happened. I hear them say on the radio to send guns with water in them. They finish our test- we are healthy. They thank us for the tip on how to end the infection and security lets us through the security gate. When we got to the top of the tower, we can see for miles across the entire city. I see a machine gunner on top of a building. But instead of bullets, he is now spraying water onto the streets below. I see a zombie try to climb up a building. The gunner sprays the zombie and again it disintegrates.

A couple hours later, everyone is evacuated. We take the helicopters to the airport, where we get on planes to take us out of the country. I don’t know where we are going, and I fall asleep.

The plane touches down. We are in Beijing, China now. The militaries of several countries are now joining forces to drop tons of water all over Japan. We are hoping that soon we can move back home.