[ WP ] It is the zombie apocalypse . The zombies are classic stupid and slow Romero zombies . They have one important difference , though : they laugh . They constantly chuckle to themselves and burst out in good natured guffaws and cackles when they spot the living .

The greatest joke, perhaps, was appreciated not by the living, but the undead. 
 
 `` What a joke this is, is n't it?'' Muttered Ed, in-between laboured breaths. He wore a smile on his face, not of happiness, but of hopelessness. 
 `` I guess it's them who'll be having the last laugh.'' 
 
 He bit his lip, wincing at the pain as he nursed his broken leg. Sarah could only watch him in his dismal state as she panicked, thinking of what can be done. 
 
 `` Do n't talk like that!'' She retorted. 
 `` You give up too easy!'' 
 
 She looked around their surroundings, with a more discerning eye this time. The seconds passed, and the silence seemed to calm the both of them. The night winds were blowing with a stillness that was too odd for actual comfort. 
 The man and the girl had taken shelter in an old farm shed. Four diminished wooden walls surrounded them, one with a boarded up window adjacent to the locked doorway. Above their heads, a sort-of attic, stored with bales of hay and farming equipment. Barrels and other containers filled up the room here and there, proving to be useless as Sarah checked every one. Not one corner in the building had anything of value. Medicine, first-aid, even a single weapon - out of the picture. All that was left to do was to play a long and dreaded waiting game against a storm that may or may not come. 
 The girl settled herself next to Ed, whose back was against a shelf, legs outstretched, the broken one glistening a dark red in the moonlight. 
 
 `` Nothing here, I take it?'' He rasped wearily. The colour was draining from his face. 
 `` No.'' Sarah replied. She looked solemnly at the travesty that was Ed's right leg, and flushed. 
 `` How'd you even let that happen! If you had been more careful with that jump -'' 
 `` I was as careful as I could have been!'' He interrupted. 
 `` I thought I could've made it. I thought... I thought.'' 
 They fell silent. Ed looked up to where the moon shone down on them, and Sarah thought about the moments before. 
 
 They were on the run. A legion of flesh-eaters were after them, monsters yowling in the dark. At a glance, the horde had numbered over several scores, no more than a hundred. Ed and Sarah, about fifteen minutes prior, broke into the woods as they made their escape, arriving at the edge of a cliff, overlooking a small farm out in the country. The closest building, the shed, was just beyond a stretch of cornfield. Sarah was the first one to move, making sure not to miss a step as she made her descent down a patch of rubble. The laughing forest behind them gathered in ferocity, and Ed made the jump, the mistake that put them where they are now. 
 
 The moon was full tonight. The eye of some unfeeling nocturnal creature loomed over the country. Ed could n't help but laugh as he thought about this. The girl jumped at the sound. 
 
 `` Ed, what are you doing?'' 
 `` It's the goddamn, joke, Sarah!'' He said, with a defeated smile, as if he had settled upon a realisation he pondered over. 
 `` And I am the punch line.'' 
 
 A great maniacal laughter sounded out from what must have been the cornfield. One by one, the shambling dead things emerged from the dark stalks, shivering in their hoots and giggling. Their eyes were aflame with a paradoxical hunger. Sarah made a quick glance and turned a deathly pale at the sight. 
 
 `` They're... they've found us.'' She managed to say. 
 `` You best get out of here, then.'' Ed called from where he sat, too exhausted to move. The storm outside was beginning to build. A pounding at the door had just begun. 
 `` Up into the attic.'' Ed advised. 
 `` Out the roof... you'll make it.'' 
 The one last look he gave her set her into motion, and she made her ascent up the ladder into the attic, wordless and never looking back. By the time she disappeared from his view, the zombies had broken in, with grins that matched his own. 
 
 The last thing he ever heard was the cackling and the howling of a sea that swallowed him whole.
