I used to sorta hate this story, but I've warmed up to it over time


"Matthew."

The name was important to Xandra more than ever now. She had thought it was a prank when the Emergency Alert System announced a civil danger warning related to her boyfriend, but now things were serious.

 

"Matthew Birmingham is approximately twenty-one years old, measures approximately six feet tall and 153 pounds. He has pale skin, black hair, and brown eyes. He was last reported wearing a white dress shirt, a black blazer, a black tie, black pants, and combat boots. His behavior is reported to switch between regular human behavior and strange, vampiric behavior. If you see a man fitting Matthew’s description, do not interact with him and immediately report to the police."

It had been two weeks since the announcement, but still the words boomed in Xandra’s head like lightning bolts. She had dated Matthew Birmingham since high school, but now that this was happening, she felt as if she had made a horrid mistake by ever loving him.

Matthew was a very strange boy who claimed that he was able to talk to animals and read minds. He was also an excellent pianist, and always managed to look dazzling no matter what he wore. He was handsome in a rugged way, which Xandra loved most about him. He spoke in a transatlantic accent, which was incredibly strange, for it was an artificial accent and nobody had spoken that way for many long years, and even in its heyday, it was only used to be actors, which led Xandra to believe that he may be a time-traveler.

"I thought that the virus that took out humanity would either kill us or turn us into barely-sentient flesh eating monsters," she whispered, sitting on the edge of her bed and soaking in what little she could of the sunrise through the barricaded window. "Well, vampire clone-boys are a little better, but why did they all have to be Matthew specifically?"

Wondering what to do next, Xandra scoured the book she had written years ago on tips to survive the apocalypse and bound together with her brother Jacob’s book on zombie apocalypse survival. Oh, how she missed him.

Just days prior, she had called him to check in if he was okay, just like she did thrice a week since the apocalypse began. And over the phone, she heard him transforming, his groans of pain slowly turning into those of pleasure, and the way his voice morphed, which was still etched deep into her skull. It was like an auditory car crash; she desperately wanted to hang up the phone, but she could not bring herself to do so.


Jacob’s book explained how a zombie virus would work, and the front cover had a lenticular photo that shifted from a boy to a zombie depending on how you looked at it. She’d had it since she was eleven, and it was a gift to her from him, who’d had it since he was eight. She faintly remembered that there used to be a poster inside of the book, and the poster from the book was on his door for many years.

Her survival tip book was a lot more plain. It was a spiral zebra print journal, and the first page read "APOCALYSPE SURVIVAL TIPS" in bold black marker. She began to turn the pages, thinking about how much simpler life was when she was fourteen.

"Blades are better than guns because they don’t need to be reloaded," read one of the tips. Other tips said "Nowhere is safe, only safer," "Remember you’re trying not to lock yourself up, you’re trying to keep out the infected," "If you try to watch something to keep yourself from getting too depressed during an apocalypse, keep the volume low," "You won’t be needing a bulletproof vest," and "Make sure to knock before entering a building."

 

These were all very good tips, but in the midst of this all, Xandra began to wonder if these tips were still at all helpful if instead of zombies, they were vampiric duplicates of your boyfriend. And the worst part was that Matthew Prime had killed himself last week, when the virus was declared a national emergency. He had pledged that if an apocalypse ever broke out and he was infected, Xandra would have the honor of killing him so he would not hurt those that he loved. Never in a million years did he ever think something like what was happening now would ever happen, so the only thing he could do was take the easy way out.

Xandra looked at her television and remembered that the world was still trying its hardest to function properly even though the "death toll" was now in the millions. She was glad that her cable still worked, but she had larger concerns now. She turned on the television and watched the news only to learn that cases were now popping up in multiple different countries and the president had announced that he would move the government to an underground bunker to keep themselves safe. Never in a million years would have anybody thought that humanity would end with everyone becoming identical vampire boys.

 

"Oh god, its spreading all around the world," she murmured, wishing she could cry out, but it was an apocalypse; she had to stay quiet or else she was the next target.

The apocalypse is even worse when the infected aren’t brainlessly moaning and screaming, but instead begging you to let them in, claiming to be your dearly beloved, thought Xandra.

Wiping away her tears and shaking her head, Xandra decided that she would leave the house and see what was going on outside, although the government had decided against it. She could just make up the excuse that she was fetching some supplies if anyone tried to stop her. But an encounter with a clone of her boyfriend would be far worse, so she had to stay hidden. He could recognize her lavender hair from anywhere, so she had to try and hide it. She’d cut her hair like the survival book told her to do, but for now, she would put on a black hat.

Sliding on her favorite pair of boots, Xandra left her apartment and wandered the hallways. She was on the verge of giving up and letting them bite her, for she felt as if she could not live this way much longer.

To cheer herself up, she allowed a funny thought to come to her mind.


What if I bit one and he turned into me?


She smiled a little, and then regressed to her serious, miserable self again. It was a deathwish. She decided to look around the apartment halls that she aimlessly wandered through. The apartment complex had not yet fallen into a terrible state of disrepair, as it had been only a little over two weeks since the original outbreak and the world was still spinning as it usually did, although with large struggle.


Xandra ran down the emergency stairs and made sure nobody else could see her clearly. All they saw was a blur of black, brown, and purple. Thank god that they didn’t set off any weird alarm,

 

Outside, the streets were empty, and the Matthew clones that wandered were acting surprisingly normal, not even noticing her. The way the rising sun clashed with the view of the city piqued Xandra’s interest, but she returned to reality once she remembered that the clones could recognize her at any moment and try to harm her while she’d be too busy appreciating the sunrise. Some were patrolling the streets looking for survivors, and one was sitting all alone on a bench with two other Matthews, just staring at the sky.

 

"Hm, they don’t seem to be affected by the sun like I thought, those ones over there are just sitting on the bench," she murmured, quietly unsheathing her knife, "That’s strange, I thought a vampire would die if it was exposed to light. It’s good to know that its not safe to come out during the day either."

 

One of the Matthews on the bench turned to her, and she rapidly swung her knife to intimidate him, hoping that he would not be able to recognize her as his girlfriend.

"Xandra, it’s you," cried the Matthew clone. She allowed a tear to drip down her cheek and a slight smile to creep upon her, briefly forgetting that this was not really Matthew.

"Please join me Xandra. You are safe with us, after all, we’re all yours now, and you always did wonder what being a boy was like."

"Poor thing," she whimpered. "You’re not even really him. You were a person too once! You had your own personality, a family, maybe friends, and..." as she continued on, her voice got more emotional and she began to choke on her own tears as the clones of Matthew got out of the bench and started to corner her.

 

"Do any of you even remember who you used to be?" she hissed under her breath, just loud enough for them to hear.

 

The clones stared at each other, as if they were talking without speaking.

"Why would we need to? We feel better this way anyways," they all said in unison, continuing forth.

"The man you’re based on said I could kill him if he ever became a vampire and wanted to hurt me!" she hissed.

"We don’t want to hurt you, we’re trying to help you."

"Well, you’re not helping at all, and I’ve got a knife right here so I can tear you guys apart if I feel the need to."

Now all the clones nearby were fixated on her. Great.

"We’re surprised that you didn’t choose a stake."

"Well, did I have to?"

"No, but that is how everyone else has tried to kill us."

Xandra looked behind herself, and saw even more Matthew clones ambling towards her. Her fate was sealed. Her very own boyfriend would essentially kill her. But maybe she could change that.

 

She stabbed one of the clones in the stomach, and only a small amount of blood leaked out, not harming him much. She tried to cut off another’s head, and he just looked at her sorrowfully and put it back on.

In the heat of the moment, she asked "Did the stakes work?"

"No," one replied, unbuttoning his shirt and showing her a gaping hole in his chest. She pushed him away and punched another as hard as she could, sending him against a wall and leaving him unconscious.

"Why did you do that to me," they collectively cried. "We do not mean any harm, we only wish to improve your life."

The guilt was enough to make Xandra capitulate to the clones. Now her fate had been sealed. She knew that there was nothing to do except drop her weapons and wait for them to overtake her. Her

"Then do what you have to," she sympathized. "If you’d give your life to save mine, why shouldn’t I do the same?"

 

One of the vampire clones picked her up and another slowly bit into her collarbone, trying to make it as painless as possible. It was even worse that they didn’t realize that they were actually harming her.

"Stop!" she cried, trying to reach for the clone biting into her neck. "You’re trying to excuse harming me as devotion, and the real Matthew’s dead! He died so I’d feel better killing you guys knowing that you weren’t really him!"

But it was too late, and all the clone did was look at her with a surprised expression upon his face. She could feel the blood draining from her body, and she began to shake like a wet kitten on a cold winter’s night. A strange sensation filled her, a mixture of pleasure, pain, and ticklishness all throughout her body, starting on her chest, and spreading to her legs, making her weaker by the second, as if she could collapse at any moment.

"Matthew, please say you’re sorry," she quietly sobbed.

 

"I’m sorry," one faintly replied, massaging her shoulders with one hand and combing through her darkening purple hair with the other. Her eyes widened in surprise as a clone apologized for him. Her skin grew pale and her mind went numb as she became painfully aware of all the ways her body was changing, and the voices of her boyfriend grew louder in her head, trying their hardest to comfort her as she changed. But still she felt betrayed.

 

When it was all over, the new Matthew clone decided to go back to the bench and look at the sunset with a few other clones, where they communicated telepathically with one another about the loss of his identity, continuing to comfort the clone. As the sun continued to rise, the memories of the new copy’s life as Xandra began to slip away, and he was on the verge of loudly sobbing, with only his new "brothers" able to comfort him.

"You will feel better soon, you can always cry with me," one whispered to him.

"I still love you, said another.

The clone tried his hardest to remember his past life, such as his childhood memories, the names of his friends and family, and anything else to help him. But it was all growing blurrier by the moment, and there was nothing he could do except cry until he forgot why he was crying.

He hugged the other clone, allowing his head to fall into his own chest, and passed out for a few moments. At least the nap would be a way to ease the pain of the loss of himself.

When he awoke, he was a hazy mess overcome by the need to infect others. Tears still stained his eyes without reasoning, but he had other things to focus on now. There were people on the street, cautious as ever, and cars zipping through the city, as if life was still perfectly normal.

"I think we have a few good targets, they collectively thought, getting up and getting ready to subject anyone they saw to the same fate they had been subjected to.