A Wedding to Remember
Olivia
“I’m sorry, I can’tdo this.”
Those are not the words I expected out of his mouth.
“What?” My voice is high pitched and filled with panic as I stare at Gale, my soon-to-be-husband. Beside us, the minister shifts uncomfortably while the rest of our guests whisper amongst themselves.
“I meant what I said, Olivia. I can’t do this; I can’t marry you.” He sighs and shakes his head, already sounding exasperated with me. As ifI’mbeing the unreasonable one.
I stand there and stare at him, my brain refusing to comprehend what’s happening. He’s not serious, right? He can’t be saying what I think he’s saying. Thishas to be a joke.
My brow furrows. “I don’t understand. I thought we were happy together.”
“Come on, Olivia,” he scoffs. “You can’t be that fucking stupid. You know as well as I do that this marriage is doomed to fail, so I’m doing us a favour and saving us from divorce.”
I shake my head. I always knew he was a pessimist, but I didn’t think he’d condemn our entire marriage before it’s even begun.
“Fine. I didn’t want to say this to you, but if you won’t listen to reason…” Gale sighs heavily, like this is a hardship for him. As if he’s not the one currently ripping my still beating heart from my chest and crushing it in his hand. “I thought your issues would get better. That I wouldn’t have to constantly put my life on hold for you because you didn’t want to get into a car that day or your nightmares kept both of us awake that night.”
Each word is like a knife to my heart. Pain and grief tighten my chest, squeezing me until I’m barely able to breathe as I stand there staring at him in dismay. But he’s not done.
“I mean,really. How do you think I feel? I’m a doctor, sleep is important to me and I can’t keep catering to you because your parents died in a car crash. It happened over ten years ago, Olivia. Get over it! And that’s without mentioning that you won’t get a proper job. Training animals all day isn’t a job! And don’t get me started on the fact that we’d never be able to have kids.” He shakes his head. “No. This relationship isn’t going to work and—”
The church doors burst open and several people shuffle inside. They look like they’ve just walked off a horror film set; covered in blood, wearing tattered and ripped clothing and deep gouges and bites in their skin.
“What the fuck?” Gale turns away from me to glare at the newcomers. “Can’t you see this is a private wedding?”
I almost snort at that.Not really a wedding anymore, considering you were verbally ripping me apart just five seconds ago.
The newcomers ignore him as they pile into the church and meander around the back pews.
Gale’s mum, a stout woman with a permanent scowl on her face, stands from her seat at the front and marches toward one of them. “My son is talking to you,” she announces with an indignant sniff. “You’re not allowed to be in here. This is aprivateevent.”
As one, the newcomers turn toward her and it’s then that I finally see their eyes. They truly embody the phrase; the lights are on but nobody’s home. Gone is the usual spark of humanity that every person has. Instead, they’re glassy, shining with an inhuman hunger that so feral and alien it causes a shiver to run down my spine.
A sense of foreboding slithers down my spine and I grab Gale’s arm. “Gale, I think there’s something wrong with them.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Olivia,” he says with a scoff as he shakes me off and strides towards his mum.
However, before he reaches her, one newcomer launches themselves at her and delivers a savage bite to the side of her neck. Gale’s mum shrieks and collapses to the ground as blood bursts out from the wound on her neck. Everyone in the church gapes in horrified shock at the display as Gale’s mum is mercilessly attacked.
And then the church explodes into chaos.
Gale sprints toward the horror film extra gnawing on his dead mum as he shouts for her while the rest of the newcomers launch their own attacks on the rest of the wedding guests. Cries, screams and moans fillthe church as guests run for their lives, only to be chased down and brutally bitten and eaten.
I stand at the altar, gaping, because thiscan’t be what I think it is. And yet I watch as a guest has their throat torn out and is left dead in a pool of their own blood. Only for them to jerk back awake with those same gleaming alien eyes and attack another guest.
Holy shit. This is real. The zombie apocalypse is actually happeningon myfucking wedding day!
I shake myself out of my horrified stupor and force myself to move. There’s pandemonium around me as people scream and fight for their lives. Gale has only just got to his mum, who’s still getting chomped on by the first newcomer—zombie—and is trying to push the guy off her. The zombie snaps his eerie glowing gaze to him, moans, and lunges at him with an open maw.
I reach them just in time to grab Gale by the back of his suit jacket and yank him back. Gale curses as he stumbles back and glares at me over his shoulder. “What the fuck are you doing?” he demands.
I roll my eyes. “Saving your life apparently,” I mutter before dragging him further back away from the dead man still intent on biting him.
“What… We can’t just leave my mother!” he says as he yanks himself free of me. “I know you never liked her but—”
