The park bench was abandoned even before the plague.  Then, when the zombies walked with flowers in their hair and fallen leaves trailing after them like so many lost puppies—the sense of emptiness grew.

Every day, Sharon would come and watch the newly risen dead walk.  They would hang around the bench she sat on like flies around rotting meat. 

“A Time of Loneliness,” by Varian Ross

My short zombie story is now published in Horror Tree’s Trembling with Fear series! I wrote this back in 2014, and it finally found a home. The inspiration for this story was a picture of an abandoned park bench, and the artist zombie character sprang to life from there.

Stephanie Ellis, the editor of Trembling With Fear, describes it as “one of the most beautiful and touching zombie stories I have ever read. This tale brings back the humanity to those often thought of as nothing but rotting flesh, reminding us that maybe, just maybe, there is something still left behind.”

You can read “A Time of Loneliness” here [link]. (It’s the second story.)