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The drive from his home in Brookwood took about an hour most mornings. He would wake at 4.30am, then head to the Brookwood main sorting depot. Mail to Eatonu came in just one small sack and took only 10 mins to sort into order. After that he would bundle them up with his never ending supply of elastic bands and put them into his delivery bag. He would then hook his postbike to the back of his land rover, using the mounts he had purchased last year for a riding holiday around europe.

The drive was pretty simple that early in the morning, with mostly large delivery lorries for company on the main roads. Eatonu was accessed by a long dirt road surrounded by a dark and spooky looking wood. Eatonu itself was one long main road with houses either side. At the top end was the local shop, a small local garage and a pub called "The last supper". This was a postmans dream come true and no way was Eddie going to mess up.

It was a friday morning and Eddie had got to eatonu about 6.30am, he had took a detor on his way to have some breakfast at a greasy spoon just of the motorway. Just like every other day, he started at the top of the village first, delivering to the pub and garage. Then getting Mr simpson to sign for a large brown package mailed to his shop. The early morning sun had a strange way of making the village buildings glow in an eerie redish way. Eddie always thought this to be strange, but today it seemed more darker, like the walls were washed in blood, the sun rays were casting long shadows across the main street.

He moved quickly from house to house slipping letters through each door, being carefull not to wake any of the sleeping residents, slowly closing each gate as he left the finely groomed gardens. Finaly he came to number 1 Eatunu main,an old red brick house at the end of the dusty road. The last letter was for Mrs betty Graceland. Eddie stroled up the cobbled garden path and came to a halt at the large oak front door. He lifted the letter box slowly up and slid the letter through.

The pain shot up his arm sending him tummbling backwards, landing on his back he gave out a small child like yelp. Looking at the source of his pain, eddie could see that a large chunk had been taken out of his hand removing the skin and meat between his thumb and forefinger, blood began to ooze down his arm as he lifted it above his head to slow the bleeding.

He slowly got to his feet and listened for the dog. But there was no barking or yellping, nothing but silence came from the old oak door. The pain in his hand was fading into a throbbing sensation now. He held it against his stomach to stop the bleeding, then with a shaking free hand he slowly lifted the letterbox and peeked inside.

No dog was visable, but there was an old lady marching straight for the door. Before Eddie could stand up straight, the door flung wide open, leaving Eddie crouched on one knee looking up to the wrinkled face of a gray haired woman, standing hand on hips with a stern look on her face.

"And what in the devils name do you think your doing? You some kind of peeping tom are ya?" she said.

"No, no, nothing of the sort. Im your postman," Eddie replied as he stood up straight, now looking down on the frail old lady.

"I was posting your letter and i'm afraid your dog took a nasty chunk out of my hand, look" He turned his hand over to show the gaping wound.

The old lady looked down at his bleeding hand and for what seemed like an eternity just stared at the open wound. She lifted her gaze up to Eddie, "My poor dear, i'm so sorry, that looks mighty painfull. Please come in and i'll get you a bandage for that bite, ill have it fixed up in no time".

"Oh, sure that would be real kind of you. I probably need to go get it checked at the hospital. you never know what you could catch from animal bites."

"ANIMAL, Franks no animal my dear, he ain't violent either. He was probably just hungry, thats all" The old lady seemed anoyed that Eddie had called frank an animal. Eddie could just imagine the dog wrapped in a knitted blanket in the old ladies arms, big eyes looking up at its loving master, as she spoon fed it a nice tin of dog food. That made him grin.

"I never meant it like that, im sorry. I had a dog myself once. i suppose they become like family after a while." Eddie stutted a little feeling slightly embaressed.

"Its ok young man, Frank is my family. He has been with me for years now. Please come into the room and i'll get that bandage for you."

The old lady led Eddie through the dull hallway into a small room with two old brown leather chairs facing an open fireplace. Pointing to a chair the old lady walked through a set of old fashioned salloon style doors into what looked like a kitchen.

Eddie sat down on a the faded leather chair making sure to hold his hand tight into his stomach as not to get blood on the patch work carpet. He looked around the room looking for his attacker. But there was no dog in here, neither was there a dog basket, and the carpet had no traces of dog hair anywhere. Eddie thought that strange.

"Would you like a drink dear? tea or coffee?" The old lady called from the other room.

" No thank's ill be just fine" Eddie shouted back.

She appeared at the saloon doors holding a small green first aid kit in her small hands, "Lets get that hand wrapped up for you, it must be very sore".

" Thanks,that would be great.I hope you dont mind me asking, but where is your dog"

"What dog?"

"Oh yeah sorry, i mean where is Frank" Eddie felt his face flush.

"Franks no dog my dear, he's my husband, and he's right behind you" The old lady said pointing an old boney finger towards the doorway leading to the hall.

Eddie wasn't sure he had heard the old lady correct, but when he turned and saw frank stood in the doorway, growling and slowly walking closer, his insides felt like they had been put into a tummble dryer on full spin.

The small old man was stood naked.Shoulders hunched over, one arm was missing at the elbow, the bone seemed to have been snapped in half. And his skin was sagging from his skinny body. His mouth was wide open with spit dribbling down his chin. Blood was smeared round his torn lips. it was Eddie's blood. His eyes were pure white and set deep in his face. Chunks of skin were torn from his bald head revealing his yellowed skull.

Eddie jumped to his feet, and out of instinct picked up the large steel poker that was hanging on a hook at the side of the fire place.

"What the **** is wrong with him? What the fucks going on?" He screamed, looking towards the now grinning old lady.

"Thats Frank, my husband. I'm so sorry he bit you, but he is awfully hungry dear" She said showing her lipstick smeared sparkling white, false teeth.

Eddie looked towards Frank just as he lurched forward with arms stretched out and teeth bared. Eddie wondered if franks teeth were false too, but he didn't want to find out.

The poker swished through the air, it connected with a sickening smack into the skull of frank, sending shards of bone and flesh flying into the air. But frank kept coming at Eddie,still growling and gnashing his teeth as he grabbed the postmans shirt, trying to pull him in for a taste of his nice warm flesh.

As a kid Eddie had liked watching old horror movie's, and he realised now that Frank was a zombie, he had to be. In the films the only way to kill them was to destroy the brain, but this was no film, this was real life. Eddie began to think this was one long nightmare, just as the old mans teeth clamped around his arm. A hot painfull sensation shot through his body as Frank ripped of a lump of flesh and began chewing on it.

In what seemed like a split second, Eddie grabbed the mans head and with the other hand he rammed the poker into the old mans mouth and forced it out the top of franks head. Scewering the brain like a sish kebab.

Frank slumped to the floor, twitching for a moment before his body came to a halt.

"You stupid bastard, what have you done? What did you do to my frank?" Screamed the old lady as she ran towards Eddie holding a large kitchen knife in her hand. She looked just as crazy as Frank Eddie thought as he threw a clenched fist into her weak old jaw.

It all happened so fast Eddie didn't see the knife drop to the floor, and he never saw the way the old ladies jaw had snapped to one side sending her false teeth into the wall, just as her head had swung around making a snapping sound when it went past the point it should have stopped at.

All he could see were two dead bodies lying in front of him. Who would believe his story.Even Eddie had problems making sense of it in his mind, he felt a cold sensation rush through his body, his eyes felt hot and his vision began to blur.

He left the dead couple where they had fell, and walked out into the garden closing the oak door behind him. Eddie felt a horrible tight sensation in his stomach, his mind became hazy as the sunlight seemed to burn his eyes. He began to slowly walk to the end of the cobbled path towards his bike.

All Eddie could think about was food. Meat in particular, nice warm tasty meat. Spit started dribbling down his chin as his mind closed from the real world around him.

He could only see vague shadows as voices began to hurt his head. Jumbled words that he couldnt really understand began Whirling around in his mind.

"Get ........h e l p"

"You.......buddy........doc.........blood"

"Lay........ down......."

"What........here"

"What the...........no......help"

Eddie couldn't see where the words were coming from. His vision was just a bloody red blur now. But he could smell the warm meat around him. He could feel the pain getting stronger in his stomach the more meat he could smell. Fresh meat.

The pain left eddie as soon as he ripped the throat from the helpfull neighbour. Blood gushed onto his wild face as he began tearing into the mans chest cavity, ripping the still beating heart out and devouring it whole, letting it slide down his throat and into his screaming, hungry belly......