THEY CAME TO LIVE WITH US

Chapter One — The Arrival

I don’t remember how we got there.

That is the first thing that bothers me.

I remember the place.

I remember the people.

I remember the feeling.

But I don’t remember arriving.

It looked almost like a normal community. There were buildings, roads, open spaces and groups of people moving around as if they had lived there for years.

Some people were talking.

Some were laughing.

Others were sitting together.

For a moment, I thought everything was normal.

It wasn’t.

We were being watched.

There was a leader among us. Everyone seemed to know him, although I couldn’t remember when I had first met him.

He was responsible for the place.

And there was someone else I couldn’t stop thinking about.

A girl.

Someone I had feelings for.

I never told her.

But whenever she was nearby, I found myself looking at her.

She was one of the few things in that strange place that made me feel normal.

Then everything changed.

Our leader suddenly announced that he was leaving.

A plane was waiting for him.

Nobody seemed to understand why.

Before boarding, he turned toward us.

He looked serious.

Then he said something that made no sense at the time.

“Wait for what I am sending you.”

Everyone became silent.

He continued.

“You will need them.”

Someone asked, “Need who?”

He didn’t answer immediately.

Then he said:

“We can no longer control you.”

And he left.

The plane disappeared into the sky.

We waited.

For a while, nothing happened.

Then we heard something behind us.

Footsteps.

Slow footsteps.

Everyone turned around.

They were coming toward us.

At first, I thought they were people.

Then I saw their faces.

They looked almost human.

But something was wrong.

Their clothes were dirty.

Their bodies looked worn.

Their faces looked tired, almost empty.

They didn’t walk like normal people.

They walked as if they were learning how to use their bodies.

Someone screamed.

“What are those things?”

Nobody answered.

They came closer.

One stopped directly in front of me.

It stared at me.

Then it asked:

“Who are you?”

I didn’t answer.

It asked again.

“Who are you?”

I stepped backward.

“Why do you want to know?”

It tilted its head.

“Where do you live?”

I said nothing.

“What do you love?”

That question frightened me more than the first two.

I looked toward the girl I had been watching.

The creature followed my eyes.

Then it looked back at me.

“Who is she?”

I felt something cold inside my chest.

That was when I understood.

They weren’t simply watching us.

They were learning us.

Every person was given one.

We called them Zombies.

They didn’t attack us.

They didn’t eat us.

They didn’t even appear to hate us.

They simply followed us.

Everywhere.

They asked questions.

Constantly.

How are you feeling?

Where are you going?

Why did you do that?

Who did you speak to?

What are you thinking?

What are you planning?

There was no privacy.

No freedom.

And slowly, we discovered something worse.

They could control us.

If someone tried to do something they considered wrong, they stopped them.

Sometimes they grabbed our hands.

Sometimes they stood directly in front of us.

Sometimes they simply looked at us, and somehow our bodies stopped responding.

It was as if our own decisions no longer belonged to us.

People became frightened.

Then miserable.

Nobody smiled anymore.

Nobody felt safe.

We had everything we needed to live.

Food.

Shelter.

People around us.

But we had lost the most important thing.

Choice.

I began to feel trapped inside my own body.

One night, I thought about ending my life.

But even that choice was taken from me.

My Zombie found me.

It stood behind me.

I didn’t hear it arrive.

It held my arm.

I tried to pull away.

It wouldn’t let me.

For a moment, I looked into its eyes.

And something unexpected happened.

I saw fear.

Not anger.

Not hatred.

Fear.

I had never thought about it before.

But maybe they were prisoners too.

---

Chapter Two — The Forest

Several days passed.

Then something happened that nobody expected.

The Zombies began behaving differently.

They started looking toward the forest.

There was a forest behind the community.

We had always been told not to go there.

Nobody explained why.

But the Zombies seemed especially interested in it.

Sometimes I would see them standing at the edge of the community, staring between the trees.

They looked afraid.

One morning, we were ordered to gather together.

Everyone stood in a large open area.

Humans on one side.

Zombies on the other.

Our leader had returned.

He stood in front of us.

He began to speak.

“We brought you here because—”

He stopped.

Something moved behind him.

A Zombie ran.

Then another.

Then three more.

They sprinted toward the forest.

Everyone froze.

For the first time, the Zombies were escaping.

The other Zombies reacted immediately.

“STOP THEM!”

They ran after them.

The forest became chaos.

The escaped Zombies reached several old vehicles hidden near the trees.

Nobody knew where the cars had come from.

They looked ancient.

Rust covered their bodies.

The windows were cracked.

Some appeared as if they had been abandoned for decades.

Yet somehow, they started.

One engine coughed.

Then roared.

A Zombie jumped inside.

Another followed.

The car disappeared into the forest.

The others followed in another old vehicle.

We stood there watching.

Then the remaining Zombies became violent.

They weren’t chasing them to kill them.

They wanted them back.

One Zombie grabbed another by the shoulders.

“COME BACK!”

The escaped Zombie fought.

“No!”

“You cannot leave!”

“LET ME GO!”

“You don’t understand!”

“I understand enough!”

Then something terrifying happened.

The Zombie that had been trying to escape screamed:

“I DON’T WANT TO LIVE HERE!”

The words echoed through the forest.

Nobody moved.

Not even our leader.

The remaining Zombies dragged the escapees back.

But I noticed something.

They were crying.

Not like humans.

But they were crying.

And suddenly I understood.

They weren’t our monsters.

They were prisoners.

Just like us.

---

Chapter Three — The Other Side

That night, I couldn’t sleep.

I kept thinking about the forest.

About the old cars.

About the Zombies trying to escape.

And about the words one of them had shouted.

I don’t want to live here.

I went outside.

My Zombie followed me.

I looked at it.

“Why don’t you want to go there?”

It said nothing.

“The forest.”

Still nothing.

“What is there?”

It looked toward the trees.

Then it whispered:

“They don’t want you to remember.”

“Who?”

It didn’t answer.

I stepped closer.

“Who doesn’t?”

The Zombie looked directly into my eyes.

For the first time, I saw something that looked almost human.

Fear.

Then it said:

“Don’t let them reach the other side.”

“Why?”

It looked toward the forest again.

Then it whispered:

“Because they will remember.”

“Remember what?”

It didn’t answer.

Suddenly, somewhere deep inside the forest—

an old car engine started.

We both turned.

The Zombie grabbed my hand.

“Run.”

I looked at it.

“Where?”

It pointed toward the forest.

“With them.”

I couldn’t understand.

“You want me to go into the forest?”

“No.”

It looked terrified.

“I want you to remember.”

Then the lights of an old car appeared between the trees.

And behind it…

something was following.

Something much bigger.

Something neither the humans nor the Zombies had created.

Something that had been waiting in the forest long before we arrived.

And for the first time, I realized the truth:

Maybe the Zombies weren’t brought here to control us.

Maybe they were brought here because someone was afraid of what we would discover.

Author: Jean de Dieu NSHIMIYIMANA