Creative Visual Design for Print and the Web

The Night Of The Living Dread...

 By Chris Aykroid      May 20, 2018

ONE Gloomy night, not that long ago... a Friday night for that matter, I remember because we had gone out earlier for a "fish fry" at a local bar & grill and stopped at the local supermarket to rent a movie on DVD at a rental kiosk. I had a tough week and it was great to unwind with the family at dinner. Our boys, Colman, 17 and Shane, 14, had come along and we discussed watching a good horror film for later on.

After a little back & forth, we decided on a zombie movie that was a little bit older and in black & white, it was called "I remember Zombie". It was a story about a zombie outbreak, yeah, I know big surprise, this one's about a mother who went out for a late night dog walk and was attacked and bitten by a man who appeared to be a zombie. Not only appeared but infected the mother who in turn turned her whole family into drooling, rotting zombies who started attacking the entire town that they lived in. This was back a few years ago when the zombie thing was just starting to get going. The Walking Dead was in its second season and we loved it! Watched every Sunday night.

My story starts with my ten year old dog named Indi, an australian shepherd who has so much pent up energy, we need to walk her at least three times a day and tonight was no acception. After the film was over, it was just about midnight and the fog had been rolling in since dusk and now was thickening. We walk a few usual routes around town. This one takes us down Clover drive to Maple Avenue, along street that runs north and south for a few miles. I was walking north towards the local elementary school where we loop around an come back towards home for a solid 1.5 mile route. As Indi and I walked towards the school you can see the traffic lights flashing in the distance at Main street.

I stopped to use a poop bag to pick up some doggie droppings, looking up I noticed a staggering silhouette about half mile down and closing. After "I Remember Zombie", a long chill went right up my spine and raised the hair on the back of my neck. Indi started a low slow growl so she must sensed it as well.

The figure continued his approach, slowly staggering from side to side, swaying but staying on the concrete sidewalk. As this person got closer he even looked more like the un-dead. I was seriously thinking about cutting across the lawn to avoid the strange person or whatever it was. It/he was getting so close I could hear his feet scraping the sidewalk.. My dog was in a sustained, rolling gutteral growl. It comes along side of us, turns it head an releases a long bbuuurrrrpp! The man then mumbled "excuse me" and continued on his way south on Maple Avenue.

Verrryyy creepy! He was obviously a drunk, and not even a little bit, walking home from one of the taverns down a east main street. A responsible move on his part, not drinking and driving that is but leaving me with a scare I haven't felt since my first visit to a haunted house many years earlier I guess I need to ease up on the horror films or just not take walks on gloomy nights.