"Brother...you ain't seen nothing yet", the figure said.

With that, it vanished...with him, he took the small shred of light that had entered the void. The darkness was complete now...suffocating in every way.

"Hello?", the ZOMBIE tried. "Anyone?"

...something started to come into focus...like the zoom on a camera. It started small and seem to be rushing at him...rusing at him fast.

The ZOMBIE started to run...but the image came crashing over him...threatening to engulfing every part of him...

Run...run fast...that was the only thing rolling through his head...but it was no use. The image came crashing down over him...like a tidal wave of emaotion and memory...

A ZOMBIE Looks Inside

"Hello, Kevin"
"Whoa, hey...who said that?"
"Well...you did. You're basically talking to yourself rigth now"
"...have I finally gone insane?"
"Maybe...but that seems like a step in the right direction if you ask me."

A figure appeared out of the void. It seemed to be the ideal version of what the ZOMBIE could look like. The ZOMBIE had those same striking eyes that the bookseller did. So alive...so alert. They looked like they were studying everything around the figure at the same time.

"...at least going insane would be going somewhere.", the figure said.
"Who are you?"
"Again...I'm you. Not too quick with the uptake, are we?"
"OK, then where are we?"
"Well...we're inside your soul....do you like what you've done with the place?"

The darkness around them was absolute. There was nothing in this place.

"So", the ZOMBIE said, "what do we do now? Are you my spirit guide or some crap?"
"Spirit guide? Sure, I'm whatever you need me to be. I'm whatever you wish you could be. I'm the endpoint that you'll never reach."
"...endpoint that I'll never reach? Then what's the point of even starting?:
"Beats the hell out of me, but then again...what's the point of existing? What's the point of even being alive? If we're just taking up space until the end of our days, then what's the point of waking up every morning?"

The panic started to set in again...the ZOMBIE wasn't going to be able to just stare off into space and wait this one out like normal. He was in this thing now, and there didn't appear to be any going back. As he started to think about what the guide just said, the void started to lighten a little in one area.

"Hey!", the guide said, "Look at you with the thinking and the whatnot. Looks like you might not be too much of a lost cause after all. Are you ready to begin?"
"....I'm afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"...everything."

At this the guide took that ZOMBIE's hand. The guide looked into the ZOMBIE's dead eyes...

"...brother...you ain't seen nothing yet."

A Light Sparks in the Void

"Can I help you?", asks a voice.
"Eh?"
"Can I help you find what you're looking for?", the voice patiently asks.

The ZOMBIE pulls his head away from the section he is pretending to browse, and sees that the voice has come from a bookseller. The bookseller is looking at him with bright, shining eyes, and the ZOMBIE is taken a back. Those eyes....

"No thank you...I'm just browsing.", the ZOMBIE is able to muster.
"Ah, just browsing. I see."

Instead of leaving at this point, the bookseller just stares at the ZOMBIE....stares at him with those eyes. So bright....so full of life...so....

"So...thank you for your concern, but I'm doing just fine here."
"Are you?"
Yes, thank you."
"....are you, really?", the bookseller calmly asks.

At this question, the ZOMBIE starts to panic . Of course he was fine..what the hell was wrong with this woman? Who does she think she is? He had already given the cursory answer that made most people happy...and made them leave him alone. Yet, here she is...starting at him. No, starting through him...right into that void that exists inside him.

"What are you after? Where do you come off asking me this? I've told you already that I'm fine. I do not need any help."

With this, the ZOMBIE turns away from the bookseller. He finds a very sudden interest in whatever book he can grab first...

That should make her go away, thinks the ZOMBIE.

After a long moment, he looks back....and there she is...waiting.

What the...?

"OK, what gives here?", the ZOMBIE demands. "Why are you just staring at me? Do you think I'm going to steal something? I can assure you that I will not be taking anything with me out of this store."
"That's what I'm afraid of", she replies.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand."
"No, you don't. You're standing in a bookstore that has virtually everything on any subject you could imagine...yet, you're just going through the motions until your family is ready to leave."
"....going through the motions? Why are you doing this? Did someone put you up to this? Did Megan ask you to harass me?"
"No...but if Megan is your wife, then I'm sure she would agree with me. I will repeat again, how can I help you?"

At this point, the ZOMBIE is in full out panic mode. His palms are starting to sweat...the coffee in his hand is getting heavy...again, those eyes are on him.

...and the ZOMBIE does something he hasn't done in a very long time...he looks inside himself...down deep...into his very being. He journeys down...down into the fiber that makes him what he is.....and he finds....

....nothing.

ZOMBIE

See this setting...see it very well.

The ZOMBIE wonders through his local bookstore. He has a coffee in one hand, and a placid smile on his face. See him glancing at all the right books...at all the right sections. See him pick up a book in the Science section, and pretend to read the back cover. See him set the book down, and wonder over to the next section...

Get a picture in your mind of this thing...this man...this ZOMBIE. Imagine the nothing that's gong on in his head as he walks around the Fiction section. Visualize the immense void that exists behind his eyes. Feel the absolute nonsense as it rolls off his tongue. Do you pity him? Should you pity him?

Now, some things in life happen gradually, and some just bang into existence....without as much as an "excuse me, I'm about to explode onto the scene here...so you may want to take cover." Our ZOMBIE friend is walking right into the latter...and that is where the story of ZOMBIEKevin shall begin...