I forced my eyes open and realized I was on land.
…I also realized something frightening.
Before me, for as far and wide as my eyes could see, there was nothing but men.
Only these men were not men at all.
They stood on two feet and looked uncannily human, sure. But their flesh was decomposing in putrid patches, and their unfocused eyes were milky white.
Desecrated tufts of hair clung to their heads and tattered clothing hung from their emaciated frames, swaying eerily in the ocean breeze.
The moment they noticed my washed-up body lying on the shore, gut-wrenchingly hollow groans slipped through their decaying teeth as they lurched forward in my direction.
Their movements were jerky and unnatural. But above all, they were extremely fast. In merely a heartbeat, dozens of them were already only just a few steps away from me.
They were not people.
They were something far more sinister, a grotesque mockery of life and everything that was living.
Zombies.
