At the Edge of Extinction

group of strangers trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world. A world full of zombies, canables, and other groups of survivors. Trying to seek out the truth behind the devastation.

“Shhhh... shut up or they will spot us, “whispered one of the men sitting behind the door to the restaurant. There was a small group of 8 strangers and they were hunkered down in this restaurant that had been abandoned weeks ago. Small as it was, it was enough to hide them as the small horde of zombies walked by the restaurant. Most of them were huddled in a corner of the place, except for three of them.

        There were several thousands of them in the city but they all had managed to make it to the outskirts as the mass hysteria was affecting the city. They had managed to make it into the restaurant before the small group of zombies had made it to where they were hiding and   at least for the time being it was safe.

        Some of the zombies had chunks of flesh hanging from their face. Others look liked they had been put through a meat grinder and spit back out. It was disgusting to look at. So far all they have seen are the slower moving zombies. But lord knows that there is always the possibility of them evolving. These ones were easy for anyone to get around. They were slow and stupid, always hungry for living tissue.

        “Uhhhhhhhhhhh....... “One of them moaned as it walked past the restaurant window. The three men tightened themselves closer to the door. These men were large in stature. One was tall and tanned skinned. The kind of tan that makes you think of a Thanksgiving Day turkey that has been cooked just right. His hair was as black as the night sky and his eyes were as green as emeralds. He had the type of face that could sooth even the most savage beast.

(Sounds like the kind of man that any women would want if most of the women weren’t walking corpses with their guts hanging out of their stomach)

        He was built like a body builder and his abs had a gentle ripple to it. The kind you get after you have thrown a rock into a lake. The second man was just a bit smaller than the first, but was lighter complected. He had long, flowing blond hair with eyes as blue as the Baltic Sea.  His muscles ripped through his green t-shirt. It looked like he was carrying around medium size boulders on his arms.

        The third man was dark complected and was the smallest of the three. He had the roughest demeanor. I guess growing up in Brooklyn will do that to anyone.

        “What do we do now? “ Inquired a young women who was huddled closest to the corner.

        “We wait here till the coast is clear. Until then we need to keep quiet,” Jason replied quietly.

        “Uhhhhhhhh.....” this time it moaned right in front of the door. Marcus began to tighten his hold against the door, hoping that the walking corpse would just go away so that way they could all get out of there. They didn’t want to be stuck there until this whole zombie outbreak was over. If there was anyone left to even find a cure. Aaron peeks through a small hole in the door and notices that the small group of zombies is moving away.

        “There moving off. Just sit tight for a few more minutes and then it should be safe enough for us to go, “Aaron spoke softly. They all sat there, motionless, waiting for the opportunity to leave the place. It seemed like forever as they waited for the small group of zombies to move away. Twenty minutes had gone by. Aaron peeked yet again through the hole in the door to see if anything was out there. He could not see anything. He nudged Jose to look out the window, seeing how he was the closest to it. Jose gently lifted himself off the floor and peered over the small of the window sill to see if he could see anything.

        Nothing was there. They could finally get a move on before more of them came back. The group stood up and stretched their tired legs.

        “Before we leave, we need to search through here to see if there is anything that we can take with us that will be of some use. Batteries, flash lights, weapons, food. Stuff like that. Split up into pairs and look around, “Jason told everyone.

        “What are you going to do? “ Asked Allison, the young women that had been huddle closest to the corner the entire time.

        “I’m going to stay here and keep an eye out so that way none of us get our guts ripped out of us, “Jason replied with a snide tone. Allison rolled her eyes in the back of her head as if she was going to call him a lazy a*s pretty boy.

        Allison was the type of girl that wasn’t up for all the pretty boy bull crap that Jason had displayed to her since the day they met. Allison just wanted to punch him in the mouth and call it good. Allison grew up in the south. Her parents raised her to not deal with anyone’s bull crap, mainly ones who thought that they were better than anyone else. Allison dealt with people like that all her life and she wasn’t about to deal with it during the apocalypse.

        They split up into pairs and began to rummage around for supplies. The found several guns, lots of food that wouldn’t go bad, and some batteries for their flashlights and the radio. They listened to it during the day in case they would come across a broadcast that would lead them to other survivor, although it was highly unlikely. But they had to hold onto some type of hope. That’s all they had left in this post-apocalyptic world. Hope was all anyone had left. They finished packing the supplies and made preparations to leave.

        “We need to find a vehicle of some sort, “said Marcus.

        “I’ll go outside and see what I can find. I’m pretty sure I saw a van when we came in, “replied Aaron.

        Aaron opened up the door slightly and peeked through the crack in the door to make sure the coast was clear. Aaron darted across the parking lot to the blue van that was parked on the other side. This was the van Aaron had noticed earlier when they were running from the small hoard of zombies chasing after them. Aaron jumped in the van and searched for the keys. Flipping down the visor to see if they had been placed there but he found nothing.

        “Where in the hell could they be? “ Aaron had asked himself. As he looked around, he caught a glimpse of something shinning in the sunlight out of the corner of his eye. The keys to the van were lying next to a corpse just outside of the van.

        “Crap, “he thought. Arming himself with his bowie knife, Aaron opened the door, got out slowly while keeping an eye out for more zombies. Aaron moves over to the corpse to get the keys. He bends down to pick them up when all of the sudden the corpse grabs his arm. The thing growls at him as he tries to pull away. Aaron rears back with his blade and says,

        “Die you flesh eating, rotten smelling P.O.S!!! “As he was stabbing the zombie right between the eyes, scattering blood and brains everywhere. After cleaning off his knife and putting it away, he grabs the keys, starts the van, and heads back to the door to load up the survivors.

        As Jason and Marcus stand watch at the door, the other survivors load up everything that they had found and then got into the van themselves.  All in and ready to go, Aaron steps on the gas and they speed away, hoping they could find some place that was secure.

        “What do we do now? “ Inquired Christian. Christian was a middle aged man of 40, who just a few months ago had served in the marines. He was medically discharged because he had been shot in the shoulder. He was unable to return to duty. He was of average height and still very much in shape.

        “I heard of an island that is clean from this infestation. The only thing is, I couldn’t catch the name of it because I was chased off by zombies before I could hear it, “Alisha blurted out. Alisha was a nurse and working in the local hospital when the outbreak happened. She was in charge of care for patients that had just come out of surgery. She wasn’t very tall, but she had a go to attitude that could give even a zombie a run for the money. Spunky is what her colleges called her and it seemed to suit her just fine. She too was a southern girl. Raised with a bunch a brothers, she knew how to take care of herself.

        “Did you at least hear how far it was from here?” asked Jason.

        “You’re such a jerk Jason, “Allison blurted out.

        “You know I have to agree with you Allison. This pretty boy needs to shut his mouth before one of us shuts it for him, “Alisha said while glaring at Jason.

        “Is that a threat?” Jason glared back.

        “It’s no threat, it’s a promise if you don’t start treating people better, “Jennifer jumped in snapping at Jason. Jennifer was a street fighter that grew up in Chicago. She was only 20 but had been fighting since she was 14.The argument between the four continued to escalate.

        “Shut the hell up you guys! “ Marcus yelled while turning to face the disputing group. He yelled so loud that it shut them all up to the point to where you could hear a pin drop.

        “Our lives are already tough as it is. It you want to survive this crap, you are all going to have to get along and work together,” Marcus said finishing his statement from earlier. Jason being the pretty boy he is, crossed his arms and huffed at Marcus. They knew that he was right. They unfortunately all needed to co-operate with each other. Even though it seemed that the girls and Jason didn’t like each other. They are a family now and they had to look out for each other. Several hours had gone by, yet anything that they had seen along the way that they thought had looked safe enough, was crawling with the undead.      

There would only be a few or at some of the places, a couple hundred. Aaron was starting to get tired. He had been awake for a long time.

        “We need to find a place soon. I am tired as hell and I’m pretty sure everyone else is too, “said Aaron.

(Loud Grumble) They all looked at Stacy.

        “And hungry too, “she replied in her tiny voice. Stacy was only seven. Both of her parents were ripped apart by zombie’s right in front of her. Believe it or not but it was Jason that found her. She was hiding in her parents van. As much of a pretty boy as he is, he took Stacy with him. He couldn’t just leave her there. She reminded him too much of his little sister. She was ripped apart from Jason as they were trying to get away from a small horde of zombies. He had to set things right. Another 20 minutes went by and Aaron came across a large farm house that looked deserted. As if it had been years since someone had lived there. He pulls into the driveway with the headlights off. That way if there were any zombies wondering around the old farm house, the light wouldn’t attract them.

       

 

“Stay here. Marcus, Jason, and I will go make a sweep of the house,” said Aaron as they approached the large house. He stopped the van just in front of the door. The three jumped out and entered the home, weapons in hand. Searching floor by floor, no one remained in the home. Aaron came back outside to let everyone know that it was safe enough to get out of the van. They start bringing in the supplies and get settled in for the night. Alisha whipped up a dinner for everyone since she knew that people hadn’t eaten since they had entered the restaurant. After finishing up with dinner, Aaron spoke,

        “We will check around more in the morning, “

        Aaron and Marcus bar the front and back door, making entry to the house impossible for anyone or anything. The windows were already boarded up so that was one thing that they didn’t have to worry about doing. While Aaron and Marcus stood guard, the others started falling asleep one by one. Aaron started nodding off at the door. Marcus turned to him and told him to go rest. Since he had known it had been a while since Aaron had any type of good sleep.

 

Early the next morning………….

 

        Everyone awoke to the smell of eggs and bacon filling the house. It was a pleasant smell to wake up too. Everyone felt great. They all had a good night’s sleep. The best they have had since the outbreak started.

        “Oh that smells so good, “Stacy stated as she was sniffing the air. They all get up and enter the kitchen. Allison was at the stove cooking, while Alisha was setting the table. Allison had already made a large amount of pancakes. They were golden brown and fluffy, waiting on the table for the hungry bunch to dig in.

        “Good morning everyone, I thought I would make us a nice large breakfast. I know some of us haven’t eaten in a while, even though was had a small dinner last night. This should help get everyone’s energy back up, “Allison said in an upbeat tone of voice.

        “It’s good to hear someone’s in a good mood this morning, “stated Aaron.

        “You bet. It’s been a while since I slept like I did last night. I feel great and I will feel even better once I get some food in my stomach. It’s been growling all morning and I thought it might be related to little Stacy’s stomach monster,”

Allison said as she gave a laugh. They all began to laugh as they recalled the enormous sound Stacy’s stomach had made on the trip to the farm house.

        “I can’t help it. I’m a growing girl,” replied Stacy while sticking her tongue out at everyone and laughing about it. They all needed a laugh like that. Everything lately had been way too serious. This let them remember that they could still have fun out of a bad situation.

        Allison finished cooking the bacon and eggs and sat them on the table. Everyone took their spot at the table and began to eat. They sat there for several hours, talking about where everyone was from, where they were when the whole outbreak started, and how certain people had met each other. After their bellies were full, the boys gathered up their weapons and began to search the rest of the farm for anything that might be useful for them to make the place safer. The girls decided to clean up the house to make it look livable if they were going to try and hunker down and try to make a life.

        Outside, the boys started walking around the property, checking anywhere for signs of anything out of the ordinary.

        “I saw a town a few miles back. We should go into town and get supplies to fortify the property. Stuff like shovels, wood, cement mix, and other stuff. This place could actually be safe enough if we can make it that way,” Aaron stated.

        “We’re going to have to take out a few of the seats in the van in order to get all that stuff back here,” Marcus replied.

        “I know it shouldn’t be that hard. Hey Jason, will you check the shed by the house and see if you can’t find any tools so that way we can take the seats out of the van,” asked Aaron.

        “Yeah I can do that I suppose,” Jason said sounding as if he was still trying to wake up. He looked like he hadn’t gotten much sleep. He must have been up all night watching after Stacy. Jason walks off towards the shed and enters it. While Jason is in the shed looking for tools, Marcus and Aaron finish up their walk around of the property. Then go into the house and let the girls know what the plan is for the place.

        Meanwhile in the shed, Jason is searching around and having a hard time finding anything. In a corner of the shed he spots a small tool box and goes to get it. As he approaches the tool box he hears a moan coming from the corner.

        “Crap and I don’t have my gun on me,” Jason thinks to himself. As he starts to back off, the zombie bolts after him. Jason darts out the shed door running at full speed, but the zombie is right on his tail. Jason starts yelling for the others.

        “HELP ME! Zombie is chasing after me! Someone come shoot this damn thing brains out! “

        Aaron and Marcus are the first ones to hear Jason’s cry for help. They explode out of the front door, sending the door and its hinges flying through the air. With guns blaring, they take aim at the zombies head and begin to fire. Bullets were flying everywhere.

        “Will you hit the damn thing already? I know I’ve been running through someone’s mind but this is ridicules! “Jason said panting.

        Christian catches up with them and with one shot nails the zombie in the back of the head. Sending brain fragments everywhere.

        “It’s about damn time someone killed the damn thing!” Jason said panting. Aaron and Marcus look at Christian and say in sync,

        “Show off! “

        “I wasn’t showing off. I just have actual skill in shooting a gun. Where did you two learn how to shoot? Oh, wait you got your instructions out of a cracker jack box, “Aaron and Marcus look at each other as if they were getting ready to take on Christian, but Allison had walked out and stepped between the boys to calm the situation down.

        “Now if you would like I can show you how to shoot so that way you could be more efficient and actually hit something, “Christian said directing it towards the two hot heads. They discussed it for a while and agreed that if they were going to survive that they needed to learn how to shoot better. What better training then from a marine right. Jason joined back up with the boys after he was able to catch his breath.

        “There are tools in the shed but I’m not going back in there without someone coming with me and from what I saw, I’d rather have Christian come with me,” Jason said. Christian nodded and they both went back to the shed to get the box of tools.

        Meanwhile back at the van, Aaron and Marcus are getting ready to take out a few of the seats. Allison comes out offering to lend a hand. Not wanting to start an argument, they agree to let her help get it ready. Jason comes walking up with the box of tools, with Christian following up in the rear.

        “Here are your damn tools,” Jason said throwing the tools at Aaron’s feet.  Jason turns around and walks back into the house. They take out a few wrenches and begin to take out the back two seats. Storing the seats up next to the porch, Aaron and Marcus jump into the van.

        “Christian, will you stay here with the girls while we go into town to get supplies? “ Aaron asked.

        “Of course I will. I’ll send Jason out here to go with you. It’s going to take more than just the two of you if you’re going to get items to fortify this place, “Christian said. Christian headed into the house, while Aaron and Marcus stayed in the van. A short time later Jason comes out and hopes in the van. They take off towards the town.

        While the boys are off getting supplies in town, the girls look around the house to see if any cleaning supplies were left in the house. Might as well clean up the old house if they were going to hunker down there and try to make a life for them all. After searching the house for a while, Alisha finally came across some cleaning material, a broom and dustpan, a mop, and other cleaning supplies. The girls start cleaning the house. Rooms by room, the girls make the house more livable. Allison was sweeping and mopping. Alisha was cleaning the kitchen. Stacy was picking up any garbage on the floors. Little by little, the girls were making the house look good.

        “I need a break. We have been going at this for a while, “Alisha Said.

        “Agreed, “Allison   & Stacy replied at the same time.  They all sat down on the dusty couch in the front room and began to talk about the happenings of the day. They talked about things they liked doing. People they couldn’t stand.  They even talked about loved ones that they had lost.

        “I wonder how the boys are doing, at least Marcus and Aaron anyway. I don’t care too much for Jason. Too much of a pretty boy for his own good, “stated Alisha.

        “I know right, “replied Allison.

        “He’s not as bad as you guys make him out to be, “Stacy said jumping in to defend Jason.

        “What do you mean by that?” the others asked.

        “Jason saved me from the zombies at my house. That’s how we met,” stated Stacy. She continued to tell the girls about what had happened. Looking at each other, Allison and Alisha’s outlook on Jason began to change.

        “We had no idea,”

        “I still think he’s a jerk,” said Jennifer.

        “Shut your mouth Jennifer before I shut it for you, “scolded Allison. Jennifer got up and walked out to the porch. The three continued to talk for a while, then went back to work on the house.

 

Meanwhile……….

 

        The boys took the back roads into town, avoiding the areas where they had spotted zombies, which now they called “Runners “. They reach the towns edge and sit there.

        “What do you think?” Aaron asked.

        “Well if we need supplies to make that place safe, we are going to have to go in there, “replied Marcus.

        “Yes I know this. But are we really ready to chance going into a town? “Aaron replied with hesitation.

        “We don’t have a choice. We need more than just supplies to make the house safer. We are running out of food, “Jason said entering the conversation. With intense hesitation, Aaron slowly drove the van into town. The streets looked bare, almost as if it were a ghost town. Store fronts were smashed in. glass littered the streets. Creeping their way to the hardware store, they spot a “snail”. Snail is a term they used for slower moving zombies. They moved so slow that you could just walk away from them. They pull the van in backwards to the entrance of the hardware store and enter. There were still plenty of supplies for them to fortify the place.

        “Wait. We need to check this place out before we start gathering supplies, “whispered Aaron. The boys pulled out there weapons and slowly made their way into the center of the room. Suddenly they heard a commotion coming from the back. They all looked at each other. Slowly turning towards the door, they stare at it with blank expressions.

        “Should we even bother to look?” Jason asked.

        “Well what if there are survivors in there? “ Marcus responded.

        “Just get ready. We might as well look, “Aaron stated with great hesitation. With weapons in hand, they move closer to the back office door. Marcus stood off to one side of the door, as Jason and Aaron stood in front with their guns aimed at head level. Marcus turned the door knob and pushed the door open. The door slammed up against the wall. They could see absolutely nothing in the room because it was pitched black. Quietly and with hesitation, Marcus moved his hand around the corner of the door, feeling for the light switch. A minute or two later, Marcus flips on the switch. In the middle of the room were several zombies chowing down on what remained of the store clerk.

        The floor ran red from the blood and his guts had been strung out all over the room. Each zombie had a large chunk of flesh hanging from their jaws. Drops of blood dripping from each chunk that hung down. The door slamming against the wall startled the zombies. They got up and started running out of the room towards Jason and Aaron. The first zombie out of the door was met with a baseball bat upside its head. Its brain matter and skull fragments went flying everywhere. Marcus moved away from the door just as the other zombies started coming through. Aaron and Jason start popping off rounds. Remembering the aiming lessons that Christian had taught them, their shots were aimed with precision right into the head of each one. They started dropping zombies at the door jam, brains and blood going everywhere. The boys start to relax after the last of the zombies had been put down.

(THUMP!)

        The boys jump back, preparing for another attack. They waited and nothing. They begin to move into the room, (squish, squish, squish) stepping on guts and chunks of flesh.

        “Awww man, my shoes are ruined now. These are a 200 dollar pair of shoes, “Jason whined.

        “Oh shut up you dumb s**t. No one is going to care what the hell you look like now. All their concerned about is chasing you down and eating you, “Aaron quipped at Jason.

        “If it wasn’t for the fact that we need all the man power to survive this apocalypse, I would have shot you a long time ago, “Marcus snarled, “so grow up and be a man. “ Jason stared at Marcus.

(CRASH!)

        The boys jumped yet again to the sound coming from a closet at the far end of the room.

The boys moved closer to the closet. They hear stuff moving around inside. Aaron and Jason stood by the side of the door, as Marcus gets ready to open it. Standing firm with weapons in hand, Marcus opens the door only to be surprised by what or should we say who, was inside. To their surprise, a young boy was huddling in the corner, shaking and afraid. Jason moved forward.

“It’s ok little man. We won’t hurt you. We’re not like these things that were out here. Come on out, it’s safe now,”

“What’s your name little guy?” asked Marcus as he held the little boys hand and lead him out of the closet. Grabbing a hold of Marcus to steady himself.

“My name is Bobby, “

Now out of the closet, Bobby props himself on the wall.

“How old are you? “Aaron asked with the sound of sympathy in his voice.

“I’m 9,” Bobby replied.

“Where are your parents?” asked Jason. Bobby looked down and said,

“We were running from the bad men that tried to hurt us. Mommy stuck me in the closet and said to stay here until she came back to get me. Have you seen my mommy?”

Aaron, Marcus, and Jason look at the carnage on the floor. They noticed a women lying dead in the middle of it. Head bashed in. Sadness hit their chest like a ton of bricks.

“Sorry little guy, the bad men got your mom. There’s nothing we can do about it now so you can come with us. You’ll be safer,” Jason said tenderly while whipping tears away from Bobby’s eyes.

“Well Bobby, what do you say about getting out of here huh?” asked Jason.

“Ok,” said Bobby in his childish voice. Jason took Bobby to the van, while Marcus and Aaron continued to load it with supplies. As they are loading the supplies in the van, Jason looks up after getting Bobby settled in and sees a horde of zombies getting close to the van. But these ones weren’t just walking, no, they were running.

“Uh guys, we need to beat it like a red headed step child! These things are running,”

“What’s running?” Aaron asked.

“The zombies are running! These aren’t the snails that we are used to. These things are fast,” replied Jason. Aaron looked up.

“Holy crap!” Aaron shouted as the runners were getting even closer. Jason ran to the back and helped them heave stuff into the back.

“Ahhhhh!” Bobby screamed. The boys look up and see the horde of runners slamming into the van, trying to get at him. Each one of them trying harder and harder to reach him. The boys jump in and slammed the doors shut. Even more of them slamming against the van now. The van rocking side to side as they hit the van, smearing blood all over the sides.

“Come on and get this hunk of junk running before we become these things next Thanksgiving Day dinners!” Marcus shouted. Aaron jumped in the driver’s seat and tried to start the van, only to find that it wouldn’t start.

“Stupid P.O.S!” Aaron roared, slamming his hands on the dash. Suddenly there was a shattering of the passenger window. A runner tried grabbing Marcus to take a chunk out of him. Marcus moved away and began kicking in the runners face. Making blood, teeth, and snot fly all over the inside of the van, till finally the runner collapsed to the ground.

“Get this thing going!” yelled Marcus.

“I’m trying!” Aaron yelled back. Aaron pumped the gas pedal a few times and the van started with a loud roar. Aaron stepped on the gas, smashing and running over anything that got in his way. Finally free from the horde, they relax, leaving the horror behind them.

 

Back at the house…

        The girls were still arranging things in the house. Stacy was off exploring the rooms, trying to find something to entertain herself. She was quite bored just sitting around doing nothing when the others were busy. Stacy wondered into, what looked like a child’s nursery. Small sized bed covered in plastic. Dresser covered with what looked like years of dust and a large vanity chest sitting at the end of the bed. Stacy walked over to it and opened it. As she opened it, dolls and small toys covered the entire bottom. She pulled out one that looked very fragile. The doll was porcelain. Its face painted with light colors, shades of blue and red. It was dressed in a lacy white dress with a white bonnet. Stacy’s excitement grew as she played with the doll. Down in the so called living room, the girls were finishing up.

        “I wonder how the boys are doing. They have been gone a long time,” Allison said in a concerned tone.

Just then, the sound of a beat up old van came tearing into the drive. It stopped violently near the porch, throwing gravel everywhere. Everyone that was inside came running out to see what all the commotion was.

        “What the hell happened?” asked Christian.

        “Why don’t you take a look at the freaking van and that should tell you what happened, “replied Marcus.

        “All I see is blood all over the van and a smashed in window, “Christian replied in a smart allic attitude. Jason stepped in to ease the tension between the two of them.

        “We were gathering supplies in the hardware store in town when we were attacked by runners, “

        “Runners? “The girls said in unison.

        “Yeah, runners. Those damn zombies are running now, “stated Jason.

        “That’s not good, “stated Allison.

        “Noooooo….. You think, “Marcus snorted back.

        “Hey watch the attitude Marcus. Just because you almost got eaten by a walking corpse doesn’t mean you have to take it out on everyone, “Jennifer said in retaliation.

        “Blow me, “Marcus grunted. Jennifer moved closer to Marcus, ready to put her point across to his face when Christian stepped in.

        “Marcus got cool your head before anyone else wants to beat you down for your attitude, “Christian ordered. Marcus slammed the van door and stomped off into the house.

        “What’s got his panties in a bunch?” asked Jennifer. Just as she was asking the question, little Bobby stepped out of the van and stood behind Jason.

A shocking look came across her face as she finally understood why Marcus was so hung up.

        “This is Bobby. We found him held up inside a storage room inside the hardware store. We couldn’t just leave him the seeing as his mother had been taken from him, so we brought the little guy with us, “explained Jason.

        “Hi Bobby, my names Jennifer and this is Christian. The other three standing on the porch are Alisha, Allison, and Stacy. You look hungry, would you like something to eat. We still have plenty of pancakes left over, “

        “Oh pancakes!” Bobby said excitedly. He grabbed a hold of Jennifer’s hand and the two of them went inside.

        “Poor kid, “Jason said in a sad tone, “he had to be by himself for several days in that place. How he managed not to get eaten alive is amazing, “

        “I hear you on that one. That kids a brave one, “Christian responded back, “well we better get these supplies unloaded and start working on building up a wall,”  

        Jason opens up the back door to the van, revealing everything that they were able to gather for the hardware store. It had everything from shovels and nails to cement and bolts. Christian goes to the shed to see if there is anything they can use to put the cement into to mix it with water. Off in the far corner of the wall he sees, what looks like a portable cement mixer with a pouring spout.

        “It must’ve been someone in construction that lived here. Oh well, we are in need of it now, “Christian mumbled to himself. He dragged it out to where the boys were putting up post and wall so that way the concrete could be poured between them.

        Meanwhile inside, Bobby sat at the table, scarfing down every serving of pancakes that were given to him.

        “How long has it been since you have had anything to eat Bobby? “Asked Jennifer.

        “A few days I think. I don’t really know I was in the closet for so long that I lost count, “Bobby exclaimed with a mouth full of food. As Bobby continued to eat up the rest of the pancakes, the girls asked him questions about how old he was to where he lived before the outbreak. After Bobby finished, Alisha took him up to a small room with a twin bed in it. Bobby ran into the room and plopped down on the bed, as if exhausted by a long day of play. Within a few minutes, Bobby was passed out. Alisha gently shut the door behind her and went downstairs to see what everyone else was doing. Jennifer, Allison and Stacy were still in the kitchen. Marcus, she assumed, was still cooling his temper from the morning’s confrontation. Alisha walked to a near -by window to see the boys working on the barrier. It seemed like for now they had a safe place, for now they had a place to call home.

 

 

Chapter 2

        Jason and Aaron continued to put up post and wall, as Christian poured the cement in between. Several hours had gone by and the boys had gotten a good portion of the barrier put into place. Allison walked out of the house carrying drinks and sandwiches for them to eat.

        “I figured you guys might be hungry by now so I brought you out something,” Jennifer said while handing over the tray.

        “Good cause I’m starving,” replied Jason and Aaron. They stopped for a while to eat there sandwiches and drink there water. Jennifer turned and walked back to the house. After a brief break, the boys went right back to work. They kept working for several more hours. It was around 8pm when they decided to call it a day and head into the house. By this time Marcus had come back from cooling off and was inside talking with Allison about Bobby.

        “Marcus, will you take first watch tonight since you were not here to help with the barrier?” asked Christian.

        “Yeah I’ll do it, “Marcus stood up, meeting Christian toe to toe as if they were about to go at each other. Christian leaned over to whisper in Marcus’s ear,

        “If you EVER pull that crap around those kids or those girls again, I will kill you myself. It maybe the zombie apocalypse out there but we are going to try and live like normal people. Trust me if you do that again, it isn’t the zombies you’ll have to worry about killing your sorry butt. Do I make myself clear?”

        “Yeah I hear you,” Marcus replied in hesitation. Marcus grabbed his 12 gauge and walked out the door to start his watch shift.

        “What did you say to him?” asked Jennifer puzzled.

        “Oh, just a little reminder of how to act around women and children even though the world has gone to s**t, “smiled Christian. Stacy giggled causing everyone else to laugh.

        “I think it’s time we all heading to bed. The boys and I have an early start in the morning to try and get that barrier done, “stated Christian. The boys walked up stairs and into separate rooms, each of them falling asleep as soon as they hit the bed. The girls all slept in the same room. There room had two sets of bunks beds, which made it easier for them to move around in.

        Meanwhile out on the porch, Marcus pulled out his wallet and looked at a picture of his sister, Joyce. Aaron and Joyce were engaged to be married. 

{Marcus is going into a memory}

        Marcus was out of town on a business trip when he got the news that his best friend Aaron and his sister Joyce were getting married. By this time the two loved birds had been engaged for almost a year. Joyce just didn’t know how to tell her big brother that she was going to marry his best friend. Marcus’s cell phone rings.

        “Hello?” Marcus answered.

        “Hi big brother. Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but I know how you are about me and I just didn’t know how to tell you, “Joyce said sobbing.

        “It’s ok sis I forgive you. I just might have to kick Aaron’s butt though, “

Marcus said with a chuckle.

        “Will you be in town for the wedding in a week?” Joyce asked.

        “I’m heading that way as we speak little one, “Marcus replied.

        “Ok I will see you then. Love you, bye. “Joyce said cheerfully and hung up the phone. Marcus hung up his cell and continued his way back to Brooklyn for his sisters wedding. A week later they were all gathered together to watch Aaron and Joyce get married, when all of the sudden, out of nowhere, zombies started attacking people at the wedding. Aaron grabbed Joyce by the arm as they ran for the truck parked in front of the church. Marcus wasn’t too far behind and jumped in the back of the truck as it sped off. Aaron looked at Joyce,

        “Are you ok?”

        “I can’t get this scratch to stop bleeding, “Joyce said.

        “Let me see it sis,” Marcus replied as he stretched out his arm for hers,

          “This looks bad Aaron, we need to get her to a doctor,”

        “Already on it,” Aaron said with a quickness   in his tone, but before they could reach the hospital, Joyce turned into a zombie and went after them, making Aaron  swerve all over the road and trying to fend off  Joyce at the same time, the truck when off the road and into a ditch. After a minute or two, both Aaron and Marcus wake up from a brief black out, only to find that Joyce had been ejected from the car and had snapped her neck on a tree.

        “You were supposed to protect her Aaron!” Marcus yelled.

        “I was trying to Marcus. I didn’t know she had gotten hurt until we got into the truck, “Aaron replied back.

        “That’s no excuse. I will never forgive you for this……………EVER……..

{Marcus starts to refocus on the present}

        Marcus sat in the chair thinking about his sister. The only important thing he ever had in his life. He was startled by some rustling in the woods. He jumped up, pointing the shotgun in the direction of the noise, only to see that it was a deer moving through the brush. He sat back down and began to think of his own self. His own plan is to survive. He didn’t care about anyone else anymore. About an hour later, Jason came down to take over for the rest of the watch. Marcus went upstairs and laid in the bed for a while, staring at the ceiling. After about 10 minutes he finally fell asleep. Around 9am, Christian came knocking on the door.

        “Good morning sunshine. Time to get up and start working on that barrier,” Marcus moaned as he didn’t want to get out of bed, but he knew if he didn’t, then they would just keep banging on the door anyway. By this time the girls had already been up cooking breakfast and little Bobby had been sitting at the table eating like a normal person. They all sat down to eat and have a decent conversation. Marcus stayed quiet. After filling themselves with scrambled eggs and bacon, the boys went out and started working on the rest of the barrier. Bobby and Stacy went exploring the house and the girls decided to go for a walk just around the property to see if they could find anything interesting.

        As Jason was digging up a spot for a post, his shovel hit something metal. Confused, he dug around it so he could be able to remove it from the soil.

“Put it aside for now. We don’t have much left to do on this barrier,” Christian said. Jason laid it off to the side and continued to work on digging the post. A few hours later, while Christian was pouring in the last of the cement, Jason went back to retrieve the metal box and take it to the porch. The boys joined him and together they went through the contents. Inside were newspaper articles, video tapes, and other assorted items of interest. Jason picked up one of the articles and started to read it. Jason’s face went from interested to terrified in seconds.

“What’s wrong Jason?” asked Aaron.

“These are all articles on how this whole thing started, “Jason replied in a horrified tone. The boys could do nothing but sit there and stare at each other.

        The boys stop building the barrier for a short moment to sort through the box containing the news articles about the infection. With each article they read, they not only began to understand but became horrified by the information they had obtained by it. Not wanting to read anymore till they were around everybody, the boys put away the articles and finished working on the barrier.

        By the time dinner was ready, the boys had finished their work for the day and headed back to the house, box in hand. The boys sat quietly at the table, eating what was made for dinner and not putting up a fight. After they had finished, the boys went into the living room and sat the box on the floor to finish going through its contents.

        “Some of these articles don’t go into too much detail about the infection or how it even started. Most of them just say that the undead where going around eating people and that the infection was spreading at a seriously fast rate. “Christian exclaimed. Jason, still searching through the box, came across a video recording.

        “Hey, maybe this will have something on it,” Jason said while holding up the video.

        “How are we going to watch it Jason? Plug a cord into our butts and hope that any fart that comes out will play it, “asked Aaron.

        Jason glared at Aaron.

        “No need to glare, Jason. Aarons right. For one there is no TV in the house and for another there isn’t any power yet. We have yet to find any generators, “exclaimed Christian. Looking disappointed, they all continue to sift through the box. An hour or so went by when Marcus spoke up.

        “We need to find someone that has more insight on this. Maybe someone can give us some more details on how it all got started to begin with. Most of these articles aren’t giving too much detail. Which is something we are going to need if we are going to survive this thing, “

        “Exactly, these are defiantly not mentioning to much about it,“ agreed Jason.

        “Where the hell do we even get started?” asked Aaron.

        “Well, maybe if we keep rummaging through this box, we will find an address or something, “Marcus blurted out. Christian picked up the box and dumped the rest of the contents onto the floor. The boys sat there and scrambled through the news articles until Jason came across a small, folded up piece of paper.

                        Dr. Robert Killjoy

                        Doctor of Biological Engineering

                        963 Killian Ave. Ste. 603

                        Reaperville, AZ 66301

        “Maybe this guy knows something, “Jason stated as he read off the address to the rest of them.

        “Reaperville? Never heard of that city before, “said Christian.

        “Do you still have your maps Christian?” asked Aaron. Christian sat there and scratched his head for a moment.

        “I think so. I’ll have to search through my back pack and see,” Christian replied. Christian then went up to the room he was sleeping in and began to search through his backpack. Aaron, Marcus, and Jason all continued to read the articles, hoping that there would have been more to them. Time had faded them so badly that all they could make out was something doing with a spider. Moments later, Christian returns, maps in hand. Christian unfolded the maps and laid them down on the floor, so that everyone could look at them and find the city of Reaperville.

        Searching over every part of the maps for hours, the boys finally came across the city.

        “That’s almost a week’s drive from here.  It could even take us longer if there’s stuff blocking the road, “stated Aaron.

        “Guess we had better figure out who is going and who is staying. We also should start getting supplies rounded up then while we are at it, “stated Marcus.

        “Let’s get all this put up and have a meeting with everyone in the morning. I’m tired and it’s getting late, “said Jason.

        So the boys stuff everything back into the box and head to bed.

       

  

                                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

        Up bright and early the next morning, Aaron pulls everyone into the living room to discuss what they had found in the box and that there is a need to find out more about what was going on in the world. Aaron told them that they had planned to leave and find out more about it but that they would be gone for over a week. Aaron also stated that they would need to discuss on who will be going and who would be staying to help finish the fence around the place. An hour or so went by and they had finally figured out who was the best fit to go and who stayed. Aaron, Marcus, Christian, and Allison would go, everyone else would remain behind.

        The group gathers up supplies and loads them into the van. Aaron turns to Jason and says,

        “Try to locate a generator in this place. We need to get heat going in here soon, winter is coming and its already starting to get cold,” Acknowledging his request, Jason shakes Aarons hand and finishes helping them load it. The four pile into the van and drive off, hoping that they can make some good time with the early start. Aaron and Marcus are in the back of the van, while Allison and Christian are in the front. Christian start s talking to Allison, trying to pass the time.

        “So what did you do before all this crap started? “

        “Not much of anything really, I was working at a veterinarian’s office before I had lost it due to cut backs in the budget. I guess you could say that I was in between jobs,” replied Allison “how about you, what did you do?”

        “I was a sniper in the Marine Corps and I had just been out only a few months from a medical discharge, when this all started,”

        “No wonder your such a crack shot with a gun. You think you can shoot out Jason’s unwarranted smart allic attitude for me?” asked Allison.

        “Maybe if you gave me a good area to shoot at, like maybe the empty space between his ears, “laughed Christian.

        “Oh my god you can laugh!” blurted out Allison. Christian glanced over to Allison and they both started to laugh.

        “Feels good to laugh again, even if for a short period,” Allison remarked. Shaking his head in agreement, the two continue to talk about the old days and the kind of things that they used to love doing. Meanwhile in the back, Aaron and Marcus sat there in silence. Finally Aaron spoke up.

        “Marcus, I’m so sorry about Joyce. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t regret what happened to her. I wish I could have been…..”

        “Aaron, there’s nothing you could have done and I realize that now. What’s done is done and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your my brother and always will be. Even if, by chance, you happen to turn into a flesh eating maniac and try to eat my brains, “Aaron cocked his head to one side and gave Marcus a weird expression. Marcus tried not to laugh but with Aarons expression, it was seriously hard not to. Aaron joined in and the both of them sat there laughing. Christian looked in the rear view mirror to see what all the commotion was, only to see both of the boys laughing. A moment or two later, the van comes to a stop. In front of them were several vehicles blocking the way.

        “Looks like we are going to have to get out and move them,” said Allison.

        “Looks that way,” replied Christian. They all piled out of the van, standing next to it for a few moments, deciding the best way to move the vehicles. Considering there were a few big trucks amongst them.

        “Maybe one of us should just try pushing them off the road with the van. If we do it right it won’t hurt anything. While we move them, two of us can look through them to see if there is anything of use. One of us can drive the van to push the cars and the other one can be the lookout for snails or runners, “said Christian. Agreeing with him on his idea, they decide who does what.

        “Let’s get started then, “Aaron said. Marcus and Aaron move to one side as Allison gets behind the wheel of the van. Christian keeps an eye out. Allison starts to inch closer to the first car and gently touches bumpers. She slowly moves the car out of the way. Aaron and Marcus start there scavenging hunt through the car. After about a half hour of moving vehicles out of the way and scavenging through them, they stop for a break.

        “We can’t stop too long. Remember we still have a long trip ahead of us,” Christian spoke up. They each pull out a bottle of water and drink it. Just then they hear a rustling in the trees. They all stop and stare, waiting to see what jumps out. Just then a snail walks out of the trees. Figuring that it was only one of them, Aaron pulls out his gun and puts a bullet in the zombies head. Hearing the sound of the shot, more snails come out of the trees.

        “Oh crap! What the hell did you do Aaron? Ring the dinner bell letting every snail know we are here? “Marcus blurted out as a small herd of them come at everyone.

        “There’s too many of them. Quick get back in the van,” yelled Christian. One by one they pile back into the van, but just as Allison was trying to get into the passenger side, she is grabbed on the shoulder by a snail and it takes a massive chunk out of her shoulder.

        “ALLISON!!!” The boys yelled. Christian pulls out his gun and shoots the snail in the head. Aaron pulls Allison in and the speed off.

        “Hang in there Allison, “Marcus said in a gentle tone.

        “You know what you have to do Marcus, so why don’t you just get it over with,” Allison asked as she held pressure to the bite.

        “Cause we are not out of danger yet,” replied Christian. Fifteen minutes or so down the road, Christian pulls the van over, figuring that they were safe enough to handle the current situation.  He stops the van on the side of the road and hops into the back to see if there was anything he could do to help. Allison on the other hand knew what needed to be done and wasn’t going to back out of it. No matter how hard the boys tried to convince her otherwise.

        “Marcus, this has to be done. It’s only a matter of time before she turns and you know this. One of us has got to take care of this and now,” said Christian. Marcus looks at Allison with sympathy in his eyes. Allison looked at Marcus with pain in her eyes as she brushed his cheek with her hand.

        “Take me to the woods and hand me a gun. I’ll do it myself so none of you have to have this on your shoulders,” Allison said. Marcus picked her up by the arm and walked her to the forest edge and sat her down.

        “Marcus it’s going to be ok. We knew that it was only a matter of time before one of us got bit. Just sucks that it had to be me that is all,” Allison stated in a joking tone, “now hand me the gun and walk off.” Marcus looked at Allison with tears in his eyes as he leaned forward and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. Allison, feeling the love in his kiss, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back. After a moment of kissing, they brake off and Allison says,

        “I don’t know what that was for but it was wonderful thank you Marcus.”

        “I love you Allison, I just didn’t know how to tell you. With everything that’s been going on I couldn’t tell you,”

        “I’m glad you did. Now go, I don’t want you to see this. I will love you always Marcus and I will watch over you where ever it is that I am going,”

        Marcus stood up and reluctantly walked away. As he was walking back to the van, a single shot rang out. Allison had done it, Marcus thought. At least now she won’t come back as a zombie. With that in mind, it made him feel a little better but not as much as he would have liked to feel. This is the second women he has lost tragically. The first one was his sister, who had gotten bit on her wedding day and now Allison. In which he had fallen in love with the short time that they had gotten to know each other. Even going through the apocalypse he still had managed to fall in love. After his last relationship, he didn’t think he could. Not with how bad his heart had been broken.

        As Marcus approached the van, Aaron spoke up.

        “Are you going to be ok Marcus?”

        “I wish I had told her sooner. Then this wouldn’t have happened. It should have been me. It should have been me. “

        “Marcus, there is nothing you could have done. It just happened and there is nothing that can be done about it,” said Christian.

        “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW CHRISTIAN!!! HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW IF THERE WAS ANYTHING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE ABOUT IT? ONE OF US COULD HAVE BEEN THERE. WE COULD HAVE KILLED THE DAMN THING BEFORE IT HAD EVEN GOTTEN CLOSE TO HER. SO DON’T GIVE ME THIS CRAP ABOUT NOTHING COULD HAVE BEEN DONE!” Marcus snapped back.

        “Reign in your horns cowboy before I knock you the hell out. There is no reason for you to be snapping at me for your little girlfriends’ accident and if you don’t quit yelling, you are going to bring more of those b******s down on us like a herd of cattle, “ Christian yelled back. Marcus balled up his fist and swung at Christian. Christian moved out of the way and then clocked Marcus in the mouth, knocking Marcus flat on his a*s.

        “Now if you are finished acting like a god damn child, we need to get a move on before anything decides to catch up,” Christian said. Spitting out the blood in his mouth, Marcus gets into the van and puts his hands on his head, sitting quietly. Aaron and Christian jump into the front and they drive off, making off towards Reaperville.

Back at the farm……

        The kids were out in the yard playing with each other as if nothing was going on in the world. Like the world had never changed. The girls and Jason sat out on the porch, watching the children play. They were all soaking up the sounds of laughter coming from Bobby and Stacy. It had been a long time since anyone had heard the delightful sound of any child laughing and playing. They had all been too busy watching their backs or trying to just stay alive. Alisha and Jennifer sat on the porch swing, talking about the good old days and what they used to do in their everyday routine. Jason kept a watchful eye on the kids as they played. Stacy and Bobby chased each other in the yard, playing tag. Jason stood up to leave,

        “Where are you going?” asked Alisha.

        “Marcus or Aaron had asked me to see if I couldn’t find a generator somewhere around here to see if we couldn’t get some power for the house,” Jason replied, “will you keep an eye on the kids while I look for it?” Both girls nodded as Jason walked back into the house to search the one room no one had looked into yet, the basement. It had been nailed shut, so they figured it best not to go down there, but if there was a generator for the place, then that’s where it would have to be. Jason armed himself with the hammer that he had been using on the fence. He walked over to the basement door and began to undo the nails on the boards that were keeping the door shut. As he was about to take off the last door, he heard noises coming from the other side. Figuring that the hammer wouldn’t be enough protection, he grabbed the baseball bat that one of the girl’s was using before they had found the house. He also grabbed a flash light that little Bobby had with him when he was found hiding in the closet at the hardware store.

        Jason slowly removes the last nail on the board and gently sits the board up against the wall. He then slowly turns the knob and opens it. As he did, a cat comes zooming out of the basement, scaring the s**t out of him.

        “Stupid cat,” Jason chuckled to himself after his heart started beating normal again. He turns on the flash light and begins the decent down the small flight of stairs. He reaches the bottom, scanning the room with his light. Nothing but boxes filled the room. He kept scanning the room hoping he would find something.  As he was scanning, his light shined on something metal. Jason walked over to it and the closer he got, he noticed that it was a door knob leading to another room. He tried opening the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Jason kicked on the door, it creaked. He kicked on it again and again it creaked. Jason kicked it a third time and the door flew back off the hinges, causing it to break into splinters up against the back wall to the room. Jason’s face turned to disgust as he smelled the odor of rotting flesh coming from the room. He scanned the room and found several dead bodies on the floor. There flesh had all but been ripped from their bones and was rotting away on the floor. Their organs had been flung all over the place and the walls were covered in blood as if someone had gone completely psycho and decided to play surgeon. Jason backed out of the room and hurled next to the door.

        “They must have been over run at some point and locked themselves down here. Christ it looks like a horror movie in there,” Jason thought to himself. Turning his attention back to the bodies, he walked in and began to whack the skulls with his hammer, making sure that none of them would come back, even though it had looked as if they had been dead for quite some time.  He wasn’t taking any chances. After he got done bashing skulls, he continued to look around the room and in one of the corners he noticed a good size generator. He walked over to it and checked it out, looking to see if it needed anything to work. Noticing one of the dials looked like a gas gauge. It was on a quarter.

        “Not much gas in it but let’s see if I can’t get this thing fired up.”  Jason primes the gas and then switches it on. As first it was loud, sounding like a steam engine going down a railroad track, but after a while it quieted down. So quiet in fact that it was like it had never been turned on at all.

        “Ahhh! Now we will have heat for the house,” Jason said. He picked up his hammer and the baseball bat and hurried back up stairs. He walked out onto the porch covered in the blood from bashing in the skulls.

        “What the hell happened to you?” asked Alisha.

        “You want to good news or the bad news?” asked Jason. The girls both looked at him with a puzzled expression.

        “Uh, the good news I guess,” said Alisha.

        “Well the good news is, I found a generator downstairs in the basement with about a quarter of gas in it so we are going to have to use it sparingly till we can get some more gas. Bad news is and this is why I am covered in blood, there were some bodies in the basement. So I bashed in their heads just to make sure that they wouldn’t come back to feast on our skin. It looks like they have been dead for a while though. Still, I wasn’t going to risk it. Especially not with these kids here, “

        “I didn’t know you cared so much about those kids. You don’t look like a child friendly type. But then again nothing in this world surprises me now,” said Alisha. Jason stood there and glared at Alisha, as if to say you don’t know much about me then. They all continued to sit on the porch, watching as the children continued to play and run around without a care in the world. Jason sat there, staring. Something was bugging him about the newspaper article that he had come across with they had been looking through the box. Something about it wasn’t right. Jason stood up and went into the house to find the box. As Jason entered the house, he walked into the living room and found it sitting on the table, right where they had left it. He opened it up and pulled out one of the articles and began to read it:

                   In the news today:

At the University, in Reaperville, Arizona, at the Laboratory, of Dr. Zanko and Dr. Killjoy plus 4 other scientist are working on a cure for one of the worlds’ most incurable diseases, Malaria. It’s advanced form of the virus, to be exact. Dr. Zanko explained to this reporter that this new strand of Malaria had mutated and evolved over the years. One of the newest symptoms is causing victims to enter a zombified state and become highly aggressive. As I spoke with the Doctor about his work, he had this to say,

“We are trying to work on a cure for the new strand of the malaria virus. With extensive research, we may have finally made a breakthrough on a cure. We have been testing our test antidotes on the Hobo spider. This spider is non aggressive and there for makes a perfect candidate on trying out the antidote. With initial injections, the spider had shown all good signs. This may have been the break through that we have been looking for. Although it is not a definite yet, and more research is needed, we still continue to have high hope and expectations that this will be the answer to our prayers,”

At this time, this was the only information that the good Doctor was willing to provide for us. The only information that we could get on the doctor was that he studied at Reaperville University in the field of Pathology for years and while taking this course, developed an interest in the Malaria virus. We hope to talk more with the good doctor soon in hopes to get more information about his research as it continues to gather more results.

        “A Hobo spider?”, Jason asked himself, “ Now why in the hell would they even test it on one of those nasty things anyway,” Jason put the article down and sat in the living room for a while, pondering about what he had just read. Jason started to wonder if Aaron’s gang wasn’t wondering into a massive group of infected undead….

 

                               

 

Chapter 4

        Day 5 of the journey to Reaperville and the boys are still quiet after Allison shot herself. Marcus stayed to himself in the back, as Christian and Aaron were in the front watching everything passing by. They were still 3 days out from the city and running low on fuel. They needed to find fuel and fast. A few miles down the road, they come upon a few cars off to the side of the road outside a small town. They looked like any of the other vehicles that had been abandoned. Christian stops the van and the boys get out. Marcus wonders off to gather supplies from the cars, while the other two try to siphon gas from them. All that Marcus could find were a few canned goods and a small amount of ammo. However, the other two had better luck with the gas. To them it looked as if the people had left in a hurry. Not worrying about what they had left behind. Aaron and Christian get back to the van and begin to put the gas in. As Marcus was walking back, he heard moaning from behind him. It was a group of runners and they were closing in on him fast. Marcus puts a tight grip around the backpack straps and begins to run for his life. Marcus starts yelling at the boys to hurry up. Aaron looks up to see what he was yelling about and see Marcus running like hell towards the van with a small group of runners right behind him. Marcus was thinking to himself “Oh Crap, Oh Crap!” Marcus tries to put more speed into his run. Aaron and Christian finish up with the gas, jump into the van and start it up. They start moving towards Marcus. Aaron opens the side door to the van and as they get closer, Marcus jumps in and slams the side door, as the runners start to bombard the van at their full speed. They were slamming up against the van, like hail stones the size of basketballs. Leaving bloody hand prints and guts all along the van. Almost as if they were marking the van as a target. The runners surrounded the van, making it hard for the van to move.

        “Just gun it and run them the hell over,” yelled Aaron. Aaron presses down on Christian’s leg and the van shoots off. Running over the zombies and squashing them like ants. With every runner they ran over all you could hear was, “thump, thump, thump,” At times you could hear the sounds of bones breaking as the van ran over a head or two. Some of them even popped right off the runners’ corpse itself.  Not knowing if there was more hiding somewhere in the woods, they continued to speed off towards Reaperville, in hopes to find out what the hell was going on. About 15 minutes later they pull up just outside of the small town and sat there. Pondering whether or not they should even attempt to stop for more supplies. Not knowing if they were going to get bombarded again. Not really wanting to take that chance either but they needed more supplies, enough to get them to the city. After pondering on this for a while, Christian edges the van closer to the town. Deserted and in ruins, it didn’t look like there was anyone there. Not even a runner or two. They slowly make their way to a small gas station in the town, keeping a close eye out for any signs of activity, either undead or living. They stop at a gas pump and sat there for a moment, waiting to see if anything comes at them. Not seeing anything come their way, they get out of the van and raid the store for anything that they can use. Christian fills up the gas tank, while Aaron and Marcus load the van with the supplies that they had snagged from inside. After loading it up, Aaron caught a glimpse of a couple of fuel cans sitting on the side of the store. Taking his weapon with him, he heads back towards the cans. As he reaches the cans, a snail lunges at him. They both fall to the ground and Aaron’s weapons falls away from him. Trying to hold the snail from biting him, Aaron looks around for something that he could use to bash the things brains in. Just a few inches away he sees a wrench lying on the ground. Holding the snail, Aaron reaches for it. It was just out of reach. Aaron pushes the snail off of him with all his strength, knocking it to the ground. Aaron crawls quickly to the wrench, grabs it, and smashes the head in just as the snail began to fall back on top of him. The snail lay on top of him, lifeless. Pushing the snail off, he stands up and gathers up the two gas cans and returns to the front where Christian was just finishing up. Aaron put the cans in front of Christian.

        “Thought we could use these,” Aaron said. Aaron gets into the van and relaxes, trying to catch his breath from fighting off the snail. It seemed to him that the snails were getting stronger. That didn’t seem right. All this time they had been easy to fend off. This one however, seemed to have evolved with more strength. That wasn’t a good thing.  Now not only did they have to worry about the runners, but they now had to worry about the snails being stronger. Twenty minutes later, Christian loads the cans into the van and shuts the doors. He jumps into the driver seat, starts the van and they begin to make the rest of the journey to the city. Aaron sat quietly for a while thinking about how much worse this could possibly get. Although he really didn’t want to think about what could possibly be worse than the two types of zombies already. After a while, Marcus spoke up.

        “Are you ok Aaron? You have been quiet since we left that little town. Not only that, but your shirts covered in blood. Did you have a run in with a snail?”

        Aaron not knowing how to break the news to them sat there for a moment. Then mustering up the nerve, spoke:

        “Yeah I had a run in with a snail back there. When I went to the back of the building where I saw the cans, one of them attacked me. There was something different about this one though. It seemed……stronger. It took me a while to even get the damn thing off of me. I was still able to get it off and kill it obviously, but it seems as if their strength is growing.”

        “Stronger snails aren’t good. That could possibly mean that the runners will be getting faster and neither is a good thing. We need to be more careful now with this new information. God only knows what we may encounter in the city now. Maybe when we get to the city we should find weapons with more power,” said Christian.

        “Agreed,” they all said in unison.  After discussing their plan for when they reach the city, they begin talking about their past more and what they used to do in their spare time. As the hours rolled by, they would laugh at each other. Some of the stories that were told by Christian were funny as hell. He was telling them stories about some of his fellow Marines in boot camp and how some would do something so stupid that it would get most of them in trouble a lot because they would be laughing too much. He said that at times they would be doing push-ups all day because they couldn’t stop laughing. For instance, one of his buddies decided to put itching powder on their drill sergeants’ toilet seat and watched him scratch his butt all day.  Or how another one crept into their drill instructors bunk, put shaving cream into his hand, tickled his nose, and watching him (while videotaping it) slap himself in the face, leaving shaving cream all over his face. Boy did that wake there drill instructor up and he chased there a*s half way across the base for it. Aaron couldn’t stop laugh and neither could Marcus. Once Marcus caught his breath, he began to tell them a story about Aaron. Marcus said that at one point they had all gone out to dinner and had some really spicy Mexican food. They went to a movie afterwards and right in the middle of the romance movie they were watching, Aaron let out a seriously loud fart. It had gotten the whole theater to laugh but then a few minutes later everyone is getting up and running for the exits.

        Apparently they never knew Aaron got really nasty gas from spicy food. Aaron was laughing even harder. After a minute or two, Aaron finally caught his breath and began to tell the story about Marcus scaring his mother. Aaron began to tell them about the time they had all gone to see Scream 7 and how they had managed to get his mother to go with him. Marcus had bought the costume earlier that week for a prank for someone else. When they had gotten back to his mothers’ house, Marcus had gone up stairs to the bathroom and put on the costume. A few minutes later he yelled for his mother to come up and help him fix the light bulb because it had blown out. With light bulb in hand, she walked up stairs towards the bathroom, opened the door, and out jumped Marcus. His poor mother screamed her head off, running down the stairs and straight out the door. It took them a few hours to find her. Marcus had scared her that bad.

         All three boys were laughing so hard they found it extremely hard to breathe.  For several more hours, they told each other stories about themselves and the stupid stuff they did. While they were all talking, Christian spotted a garage just up ahead.

        “We should check this place out and if it’s clear, park the van inside and rest for the night. At least then we will be a little safer,” stated Christian. They all agreed and Christian inched the van closer to the garage. He stopped it and they all got out. They begin searching through the place, making sure it was safe enough for them to pull the van in. Not seeing any signs of life or otherwise, Christian pulls the van inside while the others keep watch at the door.

        As soon as the van is inside, the boys pull down the garage door slowly, so that way they don’t ring the dinner bell for any of the undead that may be around. Once on the ground, the boys lock the door and relax in the back of the van. Aaron pulls out a couple of the canned goods and passes them out to Marcus and Christian. They sit there and eat, still telling stories and laughing. After a half an hour or so, the boys lay down in the van and pass out for the night. This had been the first night since they left the safety of the farm house, that they had even felt remotely safe. Throughout the night, the sounds of crickets and the moans of the undead filled the air. The wind blew gently through broken windows and doors. Making it sound like music which had long since been around. If that would have been the start for the recreation of music, then this would have been Mother Nature’s finest work. Well, that is except for the moaning of the undead that is. That’s just not something that was intended by Mother Nature. As the boys lay there sleeping, the sun begins to peek through cracks and crevices in the walls of the garage. As the light beams through, Aaron wakes up and begins to stretch. A moment later, Christian and Marcus both wake up, stretching.

        “Morning sunshine’s, hope you slept as well as you could with all the noises going on throughout the night. I know I slept like a bump on a log,” Aaron stated.

        “I think we all slept pretty damn well considering,” replied Marcus.

        “Well, let’s get some food in our stomachs. We have to get moving as soon as possible if we want to make some good time getting to the city,” said Christian. Marcus grabs the food and hands some to the other two. Half an hour of sitting there feeding their face and talking, the boys get ready to head out. Marcus and Aaron go to some windows to check for any zombies that may be lurking around. It looked clear, so the boys went back to the garage door and open it. Christian had started the van and backed out. The boys jumped in and off they went. Still had 3 more days to go, 3 more days of moving cars out of the way and rummaging for supplies. Even though they hated rummaging for food, they knew that this was how it would be from now on. This was how they were going to survive. This was how life was going to be.

 

                                            Chapter 5

 

        Jason sat on the floor with the contents of the box scattered in front of him, reading each and every article that he could make sense of. Most of them were hard to read. Most had words missing. Most of them seemed so jumbled that they weren’t even worth reading. As Jason was reading them, he was deep in thought as to why someone would even test something like this on anything. Why they wouldn’t make sure that every safe guard was in place to make sure something like this never happened. To make sure that it would never spread to the world. From what Jason could remember, he thought that they had always had safe guards in place to prevent an outbreak of infection or diseases. It was something that the government made mandatory. Stuff like this had to go through so much red tape that it would have looked like a Christmas gift wrapped up so many times that it would take hours to unwrap. Apparently no one was thinking that day or didn’t even care. Humanity was already in a state of chaos before, but now they are at the edge of extinction Leave it to scientist to disregard everything in the name if science. Jason continued to sift through the articles. He came across a list that someone had been keeping on what types of zombies there were, or at least the ones that this person had come across. It also provided some sort of explanation as to what they were. Jason looked over the list:

1.   Snails à slow moving, easy to get by.

2.  Runnersà faster, harder to out run but not impossible.

3.  Fat Boys à Filled with acid and explosive compounds. Have a hard time maneuvering and very slow

4.  Stalkers à watches its victims before attacking. This one is smarter than the first three.

 As Jason continued to read, he noticed some notations, which read:

        For the time that we have been running for our lives from these things, the few encounters that I have had with these runners, I have begun to notice a slight change in their strength. They seem to be growing and it’s getting harder to fight them off. I have tried to stay away from them as much as possible and I highly suggest that anyone that comes across any of the runners to use a crossbow to defend themselves. I’ve seen what happens when one of these evolved runners gets a hold of someone. It’s not pretty………   

        Jason began to worry about the gang heading for the city. There was no way of contacting them or no way of letting them know what he had discovered. Jason stepped away from the articles and the box. It was getting late and there was much to do around the place to make it even more secure. They were hoping that this would be the last place that they would have to move from. Jason wanted so much to believe this, but with the newest information that he had gotten from the articles, he wasn’t sure if that was going to be possible now. Jason heads to his room and plops down on his bed. Thinking about everything he had just found out. As the thoughts raced through his mind he begins to doze off.

(Jason’s dreaming)

        The boys are running for their lives in a school. Runners and snails behind them, it was one of the biggest herds of undead that they have seen yet. The runners where inching closer to the boys. They were becoming faster now.  They boys head for the closest room and hurry inside. Aaron slams the door and the other two begin to barricade themselves inside. They knew at this point that they wouldn’t be able to get out the way that they had come in. There was too many of them out there now. Too many to try and fend off. Aaron looks out the window and sees an opportunity. They open a window and try to figure out the best way down. The window ledge was just big enough for them to go onto and they would climb down the water pipe at the side of the building. One by one the boys exit out of the window. Just as Christian was climbing out the window, he was grabbed. The runners had finally busted through the door and grabbed a hold of his arm as he was leaving the window. They pulled him back in and began tearing him limb from limb, splattering blood and body parts everywhere. His guts were flung upon what would have been the teachers desk. His heart had been flung towards the back of the room and had landed in the sink.  Two of the runners were feasting on his lungs as if they were eating an apple all the way to the core. A snail was chomping away at his liver, eating it like an onion. As each of them ate a part of Christian, blood dripped from their mouths and the rest of it pooled out all over the floor. The boys knew know that there was nothing they could do for him now. They keep climbing down the water pipe. They reach the bottom and begin to run again. They were closing in on another building and out of the door jumped a runner and lunges at the boys……..

        Jason wakes up in a cold sweat. Hoping it was only a dream and nothing else, hoping that it wouldn’t come true. Jason laid there for a moment before he started drifting off again. He was finally able to get back to sleep after he pushed the dream from his mind. Trying to give him some peace. He knew that the boys would be able to handle themselves, but he still couldn’t help it but to worry.

Morning comes and everybody is downstairs, talking. Supplies were running low and the boys weren’t supposed to be coming back for a while. Someone had to go for a run. Jason was the only one that would be able to go. The kids where still too young and untrained on how to defend themselves. The girls were too busy watching the kids, making sure that they wouldn’t get hurt or into trouble. Jason told the girls that he would return by nightfall. Jason left his gun with the girls, took up a baseball bat, and headed out the door. He knew he had to come back in on piece for Stacy. That little girl was depending on him now to take care of her. She would expect him to come back to her. He was her father now. Jason kept walking till he came across a small convenience store. Jason entered the store and it had looked like no one even knew it was there. It was boarded up on the outside. Jason loaded up several shopping carts, tied them together, and began to walk back home. Hoping that he wouldn’t come into any trouble along the way, it would be a shame to lose all the supplies that he had gotten. Slowly moving along at first to make sure he didn’t attract any unwanted attention. He began to pick up the pace.

Luckily the carts didn’t make much noise as he ran. He should be safe for now. Jason continued to make his way back to the place. Just as he was reaching the end of the drive, a runner jumped out of the wooded area and started after him. Jason started pulling the supplies even faster and started to yell for help as he got closer to the house. Alisha came running out with gun in hand and began to take aim. She couldn’t get the shot in just yet because they were still too far out. Alisha started running towards the gate. She stopped at the gate entrance and opened it for Jason. As she did, Jason began to get closer and so did a clear shot for taking out the runner. Just as Jason passed the gate, Alisha took a shot. The shot hit him in the shoulder, knocking him back a bit but it quickly recovered and began running again. Alisha took another shot, hitting him in the other shoulder this time. Jason let go of the carts, grabbed the gun from Alisha, and shot at the runner, nailing the runner right between the eyes. Jason handed the gun back to Alisha. He suggested that they put the runner’s blood and parts all along the fence. It might work for a small amount of time keeping the undead away. They had already been at this place for a month or so already and they had hardly seen any undead. He told Alisha that it was just another precaution to help make the place more secure. Alisha thought it was a disgusting idea but while Jason was taking the supplies to the house, Alisha began work on the fence, spreading out the guts and blood from the newly killed runner. She thought to herself about the snails that where next to the generator.  She went into the house and down into the basement. She began to drag them outside and use them for the fence as well. A few hours later, she had finished covering the fence with what blood and guts she could get from them. She went back into the house to wash up. She was beginning to smell like a cemetery. She went up to the bathroom, took off her clothes, and got into the shower. While she was in the shower, she heard shooting and shouting going on downstairs. She quickly got out of the shower, got dressed, and dashed downstairs to see what all the noise was about. Bullets started whizzing by her head as she headed to where Jason was crouched down. 

She ducked down and moved next to him.

“What’s going on?” she whispered.

“We have a group of people out there trying to get into the house and take what we have. They are NOT going to get in here even if I have to kill every single one of them!” Jason replied in an angered voice. Jason began to yell out the door at them.

“You are not getting in here! I’ll kill every last one of you!”

“And who’s going to stop us, you and a bunch of puny little girls? Good luck mate but I think you are out-numbered,” one of them shouted back.

“We maybe out-numbered, but I can guarantee you we can shoot a hell of a lot better than you!” Jason yelled back. The group outside began to laugh at Jason’s response. Alisha was getting irritated and took the gun from Jason. She stepped into the doorway.

“Aww. Look at the little girl boys. She’s going to try and shoot us with that big gun that she has. She couldn’t hit…….” A shot rang out and down he fell. At the doorway they saw smoke coming from the gun that Alisha just fired.

“Anyone want to test me again?” Alisha said snidely. They started shooting again and Alisha dived back to the side. Alisha and Jason kept firing. One by one they kept going down.

“That’s 3 for me,” said Jason.

“I hate to brag Jason, but that’s 5 for me,” chuckled Alisha.

“That’s not fair. You won’t beat me,” Jason said back. They kept firing. Finally figuring that they weren’t going to be getting anyway near the house, the last of that group began running. Jason and Alisha run out of the door after them, shooting at the rest of the stragglers.  As they stopped at the end of the drive, Jason thought that the last one was too far for them to shoot at.

“Just leave him. He can’t do any more damage now,”

“Like hell I’m going to let him go,” Alisha said. She grabbed one of the rifles that the group left behind, took aim, and shot. The bullet nailed him in the back of the head at 350 yards. Jason looked at her, stunned. She returned a look, smiled, and began to walk back to the house.

“Let’s just hope that’s didn’t ring the dinner bell for the undead. I don’t feel like becoming a zombies dinner just yet,” said Jason. Jason and Alisha start walking back to the house, when all of the sudden they hear an ear wrenching scream.

“That’s Stacy!,” Jason yelled. Jason started sprinting like a cheetah going after its young to protect it. A moment later, Jason sees Stacy running from a fat boy. This was one of the zombies that was on the list that Jason had found earlier.

“Stacy, get out of the way so I can shoot it,” Jason yelled. Stacy kept running as the fat boy was continuing to chase after her. They ran into the garden that they had planted months ago when they had arrived at the farm. Stacy tripped on one of the shovels left in the garden and broke her ankle. Seeing that the zombie was getting dangerously close to her, he raised his gun and fired. The bullet hit the zombie in the head and it exploded, sending acid everywhere. Stacy screamed even louder. Jason ran over to her and noticed that some of the acid had hit her in the upper leg. Stacy had passed out from the pain in Jason’s arms as he carried her into the house and laid her down.

“Let me go get Jennifer. Maybe she can help and I’ll go get something to clean the wound and something to brace her ankle once we reset it,” Alisha said as she ran into the kitchen and then down into the basement. She told Jennifer what had happened. Jennifer ran up the stairs to where Jason and Stacy were. Alisha was in the kitchen getting water and rags; then went into the bathroom to get supplies to clean Stacy’s injuries. Alisha came into the room. Jennifer began to clean the acid burn. Alisha reset Stacy’s ankle and bandaged it in splints so that way it could heal. A moment later, Jennifer spoke up,

“I don’t think there is much more we can do for her. The burn was sever and there is no telling if she’s going to make it Jason,”

“Don’t you tell me that, don’t you dare tell me that she’s not going to make it. She’s a strong little girl and she will pull through,” Jason held Stacy’s hand and sat there by her side. Alisha and Jennifer walked into the other room and began talking about Stacy’s condition.

“There’s no telling if she’s going to make it or not, but we already know that people turn from zombies biting you. There’s a chance that she could be infected now because of that acid burn. Even though it exploded, there was still DNA in it. I’m no scientist but I’m pretty sure she’s going to end up like them,” said Jennifer.

“You would think Jason knew that. Why is that little girl so important to him anyway?” asked Alisha.

“Because she reminds me a lot of my little sister,” Jason said while entering the room. Alisha and Jennifer turned and looked at Jason. The girls felt so bad now. Thinking about how it would have felt to have a sibling.

“What happened to your sister?” asked Alisha.

“I watched her get torn apart by my parents after the infection started,” Jason replied.

“That’s horrible. Now I can see why you are so protective of her,” stated Jennifer. They sat there for a while talking and the girls were trying to convince Jason that it was only a matter of time before she turned. Jason was still in denial and didn’t want to hear it. He stormed off back to Stacy and sat there, waiting for any sign that she would make it. He knew in his heart however, that the girls were right, it was only a matter of time before Stacy would turn. But for now, he would sit there and hope that it wouldn’t happen. As a day or two went by, there still was no sign of Stacy getting any better. As a matter of fact, she started to show signs of turning. Jason watched as she tossed and turned in her sleep. Jason called in Alisha and Jennifer to look at Stacy. They both had a shocked expression on their face.

“It looks like she is turning into a zombie, but how is that possible? I thought someone didn’t turn unless they were dead,” asked Jennifer.

“Maybe the virus is evolving. But I didn’t think it could evolve that fast. Maybe whatever they were working on, had a fast evolutionary genome,” said Jason.

“Who knows, but if that is the case, we are all screwed,” said Alisha as she continued to watch Stacy. Stacy’s skin had started turning white the last couple of days they had been watching her. She was constantly moaning in her sleep from the pain, both the burn and the broken ankle. They moved away from Stacy.  They stood in a different door, watching her from a small distance. It was only a matter of time now. As they stood there, Stacy started to wake. They stood there quietly as Stacy rose from where she was laying, her back turned to them. She was looking around as if she was lost, then all of the sudden she looked at the trio and stared. It was almost as if she was trying to remember them. They knew that it was highly unlikely that she would, but something was different. They knew that she had turned into a zombie, yet she didn’t attack them right away like most of the zombies did. It was like she still maintained her intelligence. If that was the case, the trio knew that they would be in a major amount of danger. After standing there locking gazes with the trio, she began to walk towards them but then stopped. In an instant as if to say something, she let out a horrifying yell and ran the other direction out the door. Jennifer and Alisha ran after her, as Jason stood there emotionless. Now not only did he loose his little sister, but he lost Stacy, the little girl he had saved from a horde and began to grow very fond of. Jason was still trying to process this as the girls came back a few moments later. They told Jason that they had chased her down past the drive but after that they had lost her. Jason stood there listening, but in the same time began to lose his sanity. He had lost two very important people in his life; he couldn’t take any more heart ache. Jason pushed pass the girls, went down the porch stairs and started running towards the woods. Jason had lost it and now he was on a war path to killing every single one of the undead by himself. The girls didn’t know if they would ever see Jason again or if they would come across Stacy again. All they knew is that there was a new kind of zombie out there, a thinker, and that meant bigger trouble for trying to survive.

 

 

 

Chapter 6

        The boys were just a few hours away from the city now. Their hopes in finding out the truth about what had started this all were getting stronger, but yet they were expecting not to find anything. If they knew anything from experience, there would only be a city full of undead. They had their doubts that anyone was alive. Most of the cities when the outbreak started were over- run by hordes and of course it would be most people lived in the city. The boys pulled off to the side of the road to have lunch. It was only another hour before they finally reached the city. As they sat there and had lunch, they were wondering how everyone was doing back on the farm. It had been over a week since they left and being that there was no way to communicate with anyone anymore, they had no idea of what had happened. They discussed the journey from the farm to the city. They talked about everything that they had seen on the way. Massive amounts of abandoned vehicles with minimal amounts of supplies. Fuel was easier to come by than provisions were. Still it made them wonder that with all the cars they saw on the way, if there were another group of survivors out there. It had been almost a year since the outbreak started and all they were familiar with was the group that they had been with, stuck in the little restaurant all those months ago. They had gotten to know each other pretty well. In fact some of them started to develop a bond with others in there group. Marcus and Aaron had gotten closer. Christian was starting to think of the boys as his own sons. Hell, the boys were even starting to respect Jason, as much of a pretty boy as he was. Even the girls were starting to develop a sisterhood between them. It was if they had all found a place to belong again and it felt great. The boys knew that they had to get what information they could and try to get back to their new family. They finish up there lunch and begin the final stretch of their journey. Mile after mile they make their way to the city. As the hour started coming to a close, the boys take notice that the outskirts of the city was sneaking up on them. Christian stops the van and parks it on the road.

        “We need to check and see what it looks like before we even go into the city,” as he pulled a pair of binoculars out of his bag. Agreeing with Christian, all of the boys get out of the van and they each take a look through them.

        “The place looks empty. Do you think it could even be empty of zombies too?” asked Marcus.

        “Highly unlikely.  Come on man, you should know by now not to take an empty place like this to be empty. How many time have we run across a scenario like this and end up getting jumped at by runners,” stated Aaron.

        “Yeah, your right,” replied Marcus.

        “We are going to just have to take it slow through the city and just keep our eyes peeled. As we are going through however, maybe one of you should try and find an empty van. We could load both vans with any supplies that are here. Lord knows they will probably need them by the time we get back,” said Christian. Marcus volunteered to be the one to find another van. Christian stopped to let Marcus out. Marcus started walking as Christian followed behind slowly in the van. A moment or two later they stumble across a large van. Marcus cautiously opens the door and slides into the driver’s seat. The owner left the keys in the ignition, made it easier to take it.  In single file they work their way through the city, stopping at every place in town and taking what supplies they could. They found some more guns and ammunition. The boys also found cloths, so they grabbed a bunch of them. The oddest part about all the supplies that they had found was the food. The boys came across a supermarket, went inside, and to their amazement, it looked like no one had even touched the place.

        The boys thought that maybe this place was ground zero for the infection. Maybe everyone left in such a hurry that they didn’t care about it. So the boys gathered what they could and loaded it into each one of the vans. A few hours had gone by before they were done gathering. It was already four in the afternoon and they still haven’t found the place where Dr. Killjoy was. The boys talked about finding a garage there in the city to pull the vans into and sleep for the night. Another couple hours had passed by before they came upon the garage. It was boarded up. At least the windows were, but they still had access to the main garage door. Aaron jumps out and opens the door slowly, hoping that it wouldn’t make any sound, but to no avail. When he raised the door it was so loud that you could have heard it opening from a mile away.  The boys hurried to put the vans inside. They didn’t want to be outside just in case any nearby zombie heard all the noise. They were lucky this time, this time nothing seemed to close by. They turned off both vans and kicked back. Before they went to sleep for the night, they all made sure that the doors where secure. Feeling that everything was ok, they jump back into the van and went to sleep. They had a lot to do in the morning so they went to bed early. This night seemed strange. They usually heard noises coming from the undead or some sort of noise that they had come accustomed too. Not this night. This night was quiet, a little too quiet.  For most often when it was like this, there would be a small horde hanging around somewhere, but before they entered the city they didn’t recall seeing any zombies at all. The night began to fade and the sun started to shine. The boys awoke only to be accompanied by an uneasy feeling about being in the city. They couldn’t put their finger on it. After they finished breakfast they began to look for Dr. Killjoy’s office. The boys quietly open the garage door and then load up into the vans. They start driving down each street trying to figure out which office is his. As they drive down the streets, going further into the city, they noticed that more and more of the buildings were boarded up. Not knowing the full extent of what had happened, they keep searching. They come upon what they think looks like the University where the doctor would be doing his research. The boys sat in their vans in front of the school, pondering what their next move should be.  They cautiously get out of the vans, weapons in hand and begin to make their way up to the school entrance. Noticing that the front door had a chain around the handles, the boys look for another way to enter the school. They walk around the school and as they did, noticed that one of the windows was open. They quietly walk up to the window and peek inside.

        Certain that the cost was clear, they start climbing through the window, one by one. Aaron is the last one through the window and as he finishes climbing through, accidently knocks over one of the desks that he was trying to avoid. The boys sit there motionless for a few minutes, making sure that the noise wasn’t heard by any unwanted company. Finally deciding that it was safe to move, the boys eased their way to the door of the classroom. Aaron took a peek out the doors window. There was barely enough light to see into the hallway but Aaron didn’t see anything. Aaron slowly opens the door and the boys make their way down the hallways.  As they passed the classroom doors, they noticed that some of them were chained shut, as if to stop something or someone from coming out of them. Marcus slowly peeked into one of the windows and noticed that it had a small horde of zombies in it. Marcus quickly but quietly sunk back below the window, hoping that he had gone unseen by the zombies.

        “No wonder some of these doors are chained shut. There are zombies in them,” whispered Marcus. As the boys slowly move away from the door, they here a clinking sound down the hall. They stop for just a moment to see if anything was coming towards them. Just then, the chained doors started to rattled extremely hard.

        “OH CRAP! We need to get out of here now! That clinking noise alerted the snails in these rooms.” yelled Aaron with extreme urgency. As the boys get up and start running, the doors burst open and out- come the snails from several different class rooms. As the boys pass each room, the doors busted open and outcome more zombies. This time there were runners joining in on the chase. There was something different about these runners, they were faster than any the boys had seen and they were catching up to them inch by inch. It was almost as if they would be closing in on their heels. The boys decided that it was time to find an empty classroom and barricade themselves inside, so they could at least have a few moments to figure out an escape plan. By this point, the chase had already headed up to the second floor of the school and the boys didn’t know for certain which rooms had zombies in them and which ones didn’t. Aaron decides to just pick a door and runs in. Marcus and Christian run in behind him and Aaron slams the door shut. He leans against the door with all his might, while the other two get things to barricade the door closed. They knew that there was way too many of them to try and fight off now. They wouldn’t be able to go back the way that they came, so they would just have to figure out another way. The boys look around the room. They couldn’t go through the ceiling because the ceiling tile wasn’t meant to support body weight.

        They would end up falling into the herd and being eaten to pieces. So they decide to look out the window and see if there would be anyway of escaping that way. Marcus notices a drain pipe on the side of the building and points it out to Aaron and Christian. Agreeing that this was the only way out now they try quietly opening the window but as they did it made a loud creaking sound.

        The zombies at the door began pounding harder. Knowing they didn’t have much time left, they began filing one by one. Just as Christian was exiting out the window, the door was busted open by runners and they charged after him. Luckily, Christian was able to get out in time and the boys worked their way over to the pipe. As they reach the pipe, Aaron pauses for a moment. Marcus, knowing they didn’t have a whole lot of time, nudged Aaron,

        “Let’s get going. God only knows that runners heard that window opening a mile away. We need to get some place semi safer,” stated Marcus. Aaron, now refocused on climbing down the pipe, the other two followed right behind him. As Aaron stepped onto the ground, he heard a door bust open a few feet in front of him. Aaron pulled out his weapon and waited. Out of the door steps Stacey. Aaron stairs at her with a what the hell expression. Stacey stairs back. Marcus and Christian finally reach the ground only to see the expression on Aarons’ face. Aaron pointed in Stacey’s direction. Marcus and Christian turn to look at Stacey. The four of them stood there, staring each other down. Just then, Stacey takes a step forward and screams. She then turns away and runs off. The boys stood there for a moment, puzzled. While they were standing there, another door bust open and out comes the huge horde from the school. The boys take off like a bat out of hell towards the vans. The horde was close behind them. As they were running, two of them pull out keys. They had to run through the alley behind the school to be able to head towards the front. They ran across the courtyard to reach the street, the horde still hot on their heels. They each reach the vans and jump inside. They lock the doors and struggle to get the keys into the ignition. As they struggle, the undead slam up against the van. Pounding and leaving smears of blood all along the van. Some of them even started pounding their heads upon the sides, leaving brain matter behind each time they struck. Between them pounding on the van and them leaving guts everywhere, the boys manage to start up the engine and began to peel out, trying to get out of the horde that had surrounded them. After a few moments of forcing their way through the horde, the boys finally managed to break free. They speed off, putting more and more distance between them. Feeling as if they have enough distance, they slow down and restart their search for the good doctor.  They continue driving, passing endless abandoned streets. Each filled with burned cars and lifeless corpses. None of them had realized the extent of things until they had reached this city. They knew it was bad and they knew that people had run for their lives, but they had hoped that at least one city would have some form of life still left in it. They sat there motionless as they passed each street. All the while looking out for another school.