Diaries of the Damned by Alex Laybourne

further down the cabin. A young man, not long out of his teens, stood up. “They are not mindless. At least, not all in the same way.”
    “What do you mean?” Paul appealed, stealing the words from Leon’s mouth.
    The young man walked toward him with a profound limp, but looked as though he had survived relatively well; he had a healthy color to him.
    “What I mean is... well, you said they are mindless animals, slaves to their hunger. You’re right, but they are all different. Some of them have a hunger for something else entirely.” He looked around for the best place to sit. He chose the row of seats in front of Leon, diagonally across from Paul, and Jessica, who returned close behind him.
    “Tell me everything,” Paul solicited, eagerly flipping to a fresh page.
    “Ok, but please, don’t judge me…”

Chapter 7 – Don’t Judge Me
     
     
    “Don’t judge me, okay?” The young man repeated as he settled down and fastened his seatbelt. He left enough room to allow himself the room to turn around and face his new found scribe.
    The plane bounced through another patch of rough weather and the man closed his eyes and gripped the seat handle at the first little bump.
    “You don’t like flying?” Paul asked, once again taking control of the conversation.
    “You noticed, hey,” the younger man snapped. His eyes sprang open and a flash of fire shone within them. He caught his words and reeled his temper back in. “I’m sorry, I haven ’t…never mind, it’s gonna make me sound like someone I’m not,” he corrected himself.
    “It’s ok ay; we are all open minds here. No judging, I promise.” Paul flashed the young man a smile and offered him the pack of cigarettes, He took one and appeared to calm almost immediately.
    Further down the body of the plane, somebody coughed, the throat tickled by the smoke; or rather, the smell of the smoke, for the air filtration system in the plane was state of the art, a little something extra added by the military the first time Jessica had landed and unloaded the passengers. They stood up, ready to make their protest. One look at the bloodied group at the back of the aircraft and the worn out looks on their faces was enough to make the man sit back down.
    “I still can’t believe any of this is happening, can you?” he stalled. “I used to love those fucking films man – all that zombie shit.” He gave a slight chuckle as he exhaled a stream of smoke. “Me and the guys would sit around the dorms all day long watching them. We would joke about how we would do it differently; how we would kick zombie ass all day long and be treated like kings for saving the world.” He gave another laugh, which sounded more like a cry at the end. He fidgeted in his seat, and his breaths came quicker and quicker. He pinched his eyes closed and slammed his head back into his seat. “What a fucking joke. What tough guys we were,” he spat out another burst of crying laughter and took a deep drag on the cigarette. “We were going to have all the women begging to stay with us; we would keep them safe. HA! What a joke that was. Sure, we got women, oh, they got all the women they wanted, but like that…no, not me…I wasn’t going do anything like that. You need to understand…I didn’t…” the young man spat his words so fast they came out without pause or breaks, and it was the best Paul, Leon and Jessica could do to separate them where they could and fill in the necessary blanks.
    “Listen kid, calm down… take deep breaths. Come on, do it with me, let’s breathe.” Leon had risen from his seat and crouched in the aisle before the kid, whose tears streaked his face, cutting tracks through the grime.
    It took a while, but Leon managed to talk the man down off the emotional ledge. “We are all in this together. We all have blood on our hands.” Leon looked right into the young man’s eyes, and said, “Trust me on that.”
    The kid nodded, and sat back up in his seat,