LEFT 4 DEAD ANTHOLOGY     Contents    I - LEFT FOR DE AD II - IN FEC TED IN THE BA YOU III - CHAN GE IV - THE BE GIN NING IS THE END V - DE ATH BY DE SIGN VI - AN UN FO RE SE E AB LE DAY VII - CO LONY VI II - DE AR DI ARY IX - IN FEC TED X - THE MAN WHO FO UGHT         

I - LEFT FOR DEAD        The ambient lighting dialed in, shedding a cool, but comfortable light in the white walled room. A woman, about middle age sat with pen and paper in hand, recorder on the table, at the ready. She wore a conservative and unthreatening white blouse, and a partially unbutto-ned p-coat. She looked at him with admirable but suspicious eyes. This man had done it, what everyone else who didn’t escape had tried. And all failed. Except this one. Now she had the chance to understand how he had done it, what made him different? Just then she noticed her-self looking at his hip.        “What?” He said, pointing to his gun. “This?”        “Well…I can’t help but wonder why you need it.” She said soothingly.        “Mary, that’s your name right? Mary?”        “Yes.”        “This is part of me, this saved my life, this is as essential to my continued survival as my very beating heart.”        Mary was taken aback by this, and startled, he had said it with such intensity and aggressi-on that she couldn’t help but feel intimidated. She looked for a moment into his steel blue eyes, cold, efficient, determined. Immediately a tingling, cold feeling crept up her spine and settled in her chest. And she knew, this man was a killer.        “So, you seem like a man of action, no nonsense…” She couldn’t help but stutter a bit, he was making her nervous.        “Not always.”        She paused for a moment, unsure of what he had meant.        “Not always?”

        “Not…Always… That’s what I said.”        She couldn’t help but smile because this man obviously hadn’t understood what she meant.        “What do you mean, Not always?”        Again there was a pause, he merely looked at her, analyzing.        “I mean, I’m not always a man of action, sometimes I contemplate, and I froze once.”        “You froze…” She repeated, not sure what to make of this.        “And then I died.”        “Well you obviously didn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting here.” This petty attempt at humor was instantly mistaken, and she could visibly see the rage begin to gather in him. Every muscle in his body tightened, and he lost a bit of color in his face. And then it was go-ne. She glanced at the camera man, sitting a few feet away that had become nervous in that moment. But in the next, one could feel the tension leave and the man relaxed again. The ca-meraman sat back, visibly sweating, and relieved.        “I do wonder… How someone like you makes it past childhood.”        “Excuse me?”        “You escaped did you not? Maybe you lived eastward? Or maybe you’re foreign, and don’t seem the grasp the fact that this is not something you joke about.”        She found herself breathing heavily looking around the room as if to find an exit, when she noticed this she remembered what had landed her this job, she had a cool head for hot situati-ons. But nothing like this…Not like this, something was different. Maybe it was the circums-tances. Maybe it was the loaded Colt .357 Magnum holstered inches from what she could only assume was a madman’s hand. Maybe it was his eyes, His eyes! As far as she could tell he hadn’t blinked, and he always seemed to be half staring half day dreaming, like he wasn’t all there. It seemed like minutes passed, she decided just to let the blatant insult go and move on.        “So…uhm…How did you die.”        “Would you mind sitting in a different chair….I don’t like Maplewood…”        She gave him a sideways stare, wondering if he was serious, but ultimately determining that he was not one for jokes. She motioned for the cameraman to give her his chair, and he instantly ablidged not wanting the chilling stare of this man on him for any longer than abso-lutely necessary.        “Is this better?”        “I died, because I froze, and I froze, because I was weak.”

        “How where you weak? You look like a strong man to me.”        And indeed he was, lean and built, like that of a hardened war veteran, and for good re-ason, he had survived something far more tramatic.        “I was weak because I could not protect all that I cared about. I let them down, and so, I had nothing to live for, and I died. He flat lined.”        “Who’s this he?”        “EVERYONE!” At this point the man burst out of his chair and sent it clattering it to the floor behind him. At the same time Mary jumped up and out of her own taking a few startled steps away.        And he was calm again.        “Bryce, Dustin, Casey, myself.”        The sound person who had flattened himself against the wall at the first sign of action hesi-tantly, fearing for his life, picked up the chair and put it back behind the standing man, then retreated to a safe distance. Without even looking at him, the man sat down, and after a few moments so did Mary.    She leaned in, showing her compassion and interest.        “Tell me…What happened to them.”        At this moment his eyes went from half focused to completely gone. A haze seemed to ha-ve gone over them. He sat back in his chair and breathed deep. Then waited for a moment.        “It starts out like everyone who has a plan about this sort of thing expects it to. You see so-me things on the news but you dismiss it. Then you start to see the signs, the birds all leave the dogs bark and throw themselves at the walls until you let them go. All you hear is the wind, and you can feel...Something…Is coming… So you sharpen your machete or you dig the old crow bar out of the garage, but still you don’t full accept it. But then…then, quaranti-ne is declared in your area, and you know…This is real. Now you clean and oil your gun, and go to the meeting place you have with your team. Hopefully they will have seen the warning signs.”        He paused for a moment seemingly contemplating whether to go on.        “And they had, and I was so relieved. When I arrived at our sheltered forest hideout, there they were. Safe and unbitten, seemingly uninfected. As soon as I walked into the camp I felt tem all brief out at once, relieved that I had made it out alive as well. We all shared a long, happy embrace, my good friend Bryce, my best friend Dustin, and his wife Casey. All was well for the moment. So we counted out supplies and went over our priority checklist, exc-hanged petty jokes etcetera. And that’s where we stayed, for an entire month if I counted the days correctly. But as expected we were running low on food by this time, of course we were never low on water, we had chosen a spot close to a fresh stream. And so it was decided that we would go out for a scouting mission, find some food and see if the ordeal was over.”

        Mary sat wrapped entranced by his story and his eyes, unable to take notes or look away.        “We made our way out of the forest, it was impossible for anyone to find out camp if they had not been there…So we weren’t worried about theft or ransacking. Everything was as we had left it. Quiet, silent even. Eerie in every sense of the word. We walked through city stre-ets deserted; the flaming cars you always see in the movie had burned out long ago. We didn’t bother trying to clear buildings, from a survival sense that would be foolish. Let some-one else stick there neck out for the greater good; we were only there for each other. Finely we arrived at a promising spot, a once super market. Without a word we bypassed the fruits and vegetables and meat, which by now gave off a horrid odor that would wake god. And he-ad strait for the canned goods, beans, soup, peaches. Anything we wanted we took. We were relaxed, we could spend more time hiding in the forest now where everything was pristine, away from the apocalypse which we were sure had encompassed the entire world.”        Again he reminist for a moment.        “Unfortunantly….Before we would even reach the door again there was the sound of a ter-rible scream as one of THEM came bursting through a display window and befor we could even act was on top of casey vomiting and beating her. Dustin was first to act, He yelled so-mething like “Son of a bitch!!” bringing his crowbar around with great force, the thing went limp and fell to the ground a few feet away. Instantly Dustin and Bryce where at her side and I was standing there trying to take it all in. I knew what was going to happen, but Dustin wan-ted to believe she was fine. He was trying to reassure her in her hysteria. And then she started to convulse and scream about the burning. Burning she said “I’m burning!” She started to through her arms around and hit Bryce and Dustin, the held her down and she merely thras-hed about for a few moments then looked directly at Dustin with bloodstained eyes turned, and coughed blood directly into Bryce’s face, who fell back screaming clawing at his eyes and mouth. And then he went on about the burning. Before we could even react she had rol-led over and now with a free arm, wrapping it around him and biting him square on the neck. And there was I, I knew in that instant that everyone was infected but me. Dustin didn’t make a sound, just looked at me, then at her, in utter shock and amazement as if to say “What’s happening, this isn’t how it was supposed to go.” And there I was standing over the 3 people I cared about most in the world. Now all convulsing and 2 of them screaming. Dustin just lay there letting the virus take hold, before bringing his pistol to his head and ending it right the-re. And that’s when I died.”        The focus came back to his eyes and he sat there quietly. Mary, looking back, now able to move again. She fixed her hair and gave a polite cough. Took a quick glance at her notes and realized she hadn’t written anything. Looked over to the tape recorder, which was rolling still. She put down the notepad and folded her hands in her lap.        “Tell me what you mean by that, in what way did you die.”        He looked back at her analyzing again.        “I…Did not die.”        She looked at hi quizickly.    

    “But you ju-“        He interrupted her        “Jack died.”        “Excuse me?”        “Who I was died there.”        “Then who are you.” She had put on a serious face. Jack chuckled for a moment.        “I am Jack.”        “But you just said jack died.”        “Who says he didn’t?”        She paused, stunned and unable to think of anything to say.        “I stood there unable to move, entranced still frozen. Casey began to stand up unsteadily and I looked at her, she looked at me…Screeched. She ran at me an din the same instant I brought this up and fired a single round through her brain.” He said pointing to the .357.        “I turned walked over to Bryce, stepped on his chest and did the same. And then I was alo-ne. And everything was silent again.”        Silence filled the room and Mary felt she could hear the screams he was describing, she shuddered.        “No one that was left behind survived. Not intact. We are all lifeless, or in an asylum so-mewhere drinking sedative like water. We are all different now.”        Then he looked directly at her, his eyes piecing her soul.        “We died there.”    

THE END            

II - INFECTED IN THE BAYOU  

    Deep in the woods stands a small church littered with the usual Wednesday night crowd of dedicated worshipers. The pastor stands in the front preaching to his flock, as if it were any other Wednesday service. He takes out a handkerchief and wipes the sweat off from his shi-ning, bald, head. The church is dimly lit and most of its small pews are barely filled, but the Pastor delivers the service as though he is preaching to hundreds of people. The Pastor, in mid-sentence discussing the goodness of Christ, he notices a small girl he knows as Crystal slowly enter the building. She holds the door to the church wide open with one hand, her dark

hair covering her face mysteriously. The rain behind her sounding like millions hands clap-ping.        The pastor leans forward and greets the girl cautiously, " Why hello, Crystal. Did you co-me alone, where are your parents?" The little girl stands there in her flowered dress, soaked from the pouring rain. She does not respond with either words or a gesture. The Pastor clears his throat and asks another question, " Are you all right my dear?" This time he gets a respon-se from the little girl, though it its not what he expects at all. He is startled when Crystals starts giggling softly, each giggle growing louder and louder until it reaches full blown hyste-rical laughter. By now the whole church has their eye on her, wondering what has overcome this quiet little girl. With closer examination the Pastor notices blood on the upper half of her blouse.        Crystal takes a few unsteady steps forward and lets the heavy door slam behind her, muf-fling the sound of the rain. People in the pews start to lean toward her to try to get a glimpse of her face. Her hair and clothes are dripping wet, with a mixture of rain, thick blood, and sweat. Still laughing hysterically she takes one step closer to the man of God. With each step, Crystal begins to laugh louder, each footprint she makes stained red with deluded blood. She appears to have no wounds from which she has bled. The pastor still leaning forward reaches out his hand to her.        "Are- are you all right, little miss? Come here and tell me what's the matter," asks the Pas-tor, a little shaken up at this point. The girl takes one final step toward him, until she is at arms length from the Pastor. Laughing so loud that her voice cracks with a high pitch yelp, she tilts her head up to reveal a menacing grin stained with blood. Her eyes are bloodshot and filled with furious anger. Her hands clench and relax repeatedly as if having a temper tantrum with the desire to destroy everything in sight. With a sudden ferocity she leaps for the Pastor, grabbing his hand, and pulling him toward her. He stumbles over the podium and comes face to face with this little monster. She leans closer and forces their noses to touch. The Pastor's face is that of a terrified old man, and as Crystal stares him directly in the eye, he sees not the face of a sweet little girl, but that of a demon.        The Pastor’s knees have now begun to tremble with a fear he has never experienced in his life, he dares not make a sound as if he was standing in a Lions' den. Her grip is tighter than any man's and her stare cold, vacant, and empty as space. The crowd has drawn back in terror and surprise. Stunned by sweet little Crystal being so hostile towards the Pastor she has known all her life. Lightning strikes near the church unleashing a thunderous boom as if it were her cue.        With her nails digging into his arm, she begins choking. After several seconds of coughing she opens her mouth and vomits all over the Pastor's face. The vomit is full of meat and thick with blood. It has a stench unlike any other smell he had experienced and the Pastor himself vomits all over his robe. The pastor falls back as her nails dig into him scratching his hand. The pastor screams with absolute horror and tries to clear his eyes. Crystal turns her attention to the crowd and lets out a primal howl. She grabs a fat woman wearing a big straw hat in the front row, and bites her throat, the blood gushes out profusely into the air. She lets go of the woman and immediately jumps over the pew to an old man who is trying desperately to get up and out of the church. Crystal grabs him with one hand and his cane with the other. She te-ars the cane away and smashes his wife with it the wake of her yanking motion. She pushes the old man down, dropping the cane, to punch him repeatedly in the face and throat.

        The pastor then begins to go into convulsions on the floor, his eyes rolling back into his he-ad as he continues vomiting all over himself. People are now trying to flee as quickly as they can and get out into the rain, meanwhile, the little girl continues on her rampage, brutally kil-ling five others, unable to break free of her grasp. Her current victim is a little infant no older then eight months old. She smashes him up and down as if he were a doll. The pastor has stopped convulsing just as she finishes up with the unfortunate babe. He stands up and hisses like a rattlesnake warning its prey. They both run towards the door, the cynical child in front and the decrepit old man following close behind. Yanking the doors open to reveal the tre-mendous rainstorm, one could barely see the thick bayou. Cars and trucks are parked to the left and the right, and everyone that was previously in the church is now scrambling for their life, trying desperately to make it to their vehicles before the little girl and the Pastor can grab them.        The pastor sprints towards a blue pickup truck where a fat driver and his two young child-ren sit. The man slams the door shut, locking it. "Pastor Rasterik, what are you doin'?!" yells the man with a thick Cajun accent. The man does not get a reply, only a fist coming towards his window. The glass shatters, imploding all over the man. The Pastor, who’s hand is now a bloody pulp, reaches in and grabs the mans collar. The children scream in terror, crying as they watch their beloved Pastor attack their father. "Get out children! Run! Run-Ru-" the man is cut off by the Pastor biting face, tearing a large chunk off with a slow, painful rip. The last thing the children heard from their father was a loud and horrific scream followed by a thick, bloody gurgle.        Meanwhile, the car that Crystal has focused on has gotten away. The driver, a single mot-her of three, breathes a sigh of relief. She is safe- at least for now. Crystal turns her attention to two children, a boy in overalls with red hair and his twin sister wearing a dress much like Crystal's, she shudders and thanks God that neither of them were hurt.        Back at the church, another one of Crystal’s victims emerges from the church doors. Cove-red in blood and yearning for the taste of flesh, he runs at the children of the father who was maimed by the Pastor. They run into the woods as fast as they can. Running and crying, they can hear the desperate cries of the other churchgoers and the animal like screams of the rabid people behind them.        "What's going on, Jake?" asks Jenny as she jumps over a log and splashes into a giant pud-dle. The water so deep that it hit her right below the kneecaps, the deep water does not slow either her or her brother.        "I dunno, Jenny, but let's keep goin'!" replies Jake as he stumbles over a root and lands face first into the mud. "Don't stop Jenny, I'm right behind you!" He quickly gets up and is once again at full speed, not allowing the monsters a chance to catch up to him and his beloved lit-tle sister.        They run and they run, just as their father had insisted before his untimely death. Weaving in and out of trees, the creatures behind them slowly gaining on them. In the distance they can see the general store. They see a dim light and hope that the store is still open. The rain begins to pour down with more force and Jenny can barely see Jake, running two feet away from her. She can feel her heart pounding; slamming into her chest. Tears start flowing down her face as she quietly mourns the loss of her father, but it is unnoticeable to Jake due to the

rain. Without realizing it, in her grief she has slowed and allowed Crystal to gain on her and grab her long pony-tailed hair.        With a thunderous might Jenny is yanked off her feet. The back of her head fills with a burning sensation. She lays, shocked, on her back in a puddle of mud. Her eyes go fuzzy and she can barely breathe with all the water in her face. There is more tugging at her hair as the stronger-than-life Crystal drags her through the mud and right beside her is another infected man. Jenny starts to scream, but her brother is already there ready to do anything to save his sister. He has a log in his hands and swings it at Crystal's face. It knocks her jaw clear out of place, blood spewing out of her mouth as she falls momentarily to the ground.        "Get up! Get up!" hollers Jake as he pulls Jenny to a standing position. Though slightly da-zed, they both press on. Jake drops the log and they begin to run at a full sprint once again. The store is now within reach and they see that it is indeed still open. They breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly scramble through the door.        Alerted by the bell on the door jingling to signal the arrival of customers, the clerk looks around the corner, and seeing the two children, greets them. "Hey Jenny, hey Jake. Church get out early today?" He then gets a better look at the children, drenched and crying, Jenny’s hair a tangled mess mixed with what appears to be blood. "My God! What has happened to you two?!" He runs around the counter and kneels before children, "Jesus Christ, what happe-ned? Where's your father?" Jenny replies, trying to catch her breath, "Daddy's... I think Daddy's dead," she wipes the blood from her nose and takes her wet dress and tries to wipe the tears from her face and begins to sob uncontrollably.    "That's ridiculous, if your Daddy's dead then who is that at the door?" The bell to the door has once again jingled, and their bloody father has walked in. Part of his neck is torn open with an eye partially out of its socket. "Holy Shit! What the Hell happened, Bill?!"        "Mr. Garrison, I- I don't think it's Dad..." says Jake as he grabs his sister's hand, pulling her towards the backroom. They run in and peer through the small window watching the exchan-ge between Mr. Garrison and the man they once called Daddy.        " Bill? Bill. Bill! " Mister Garrison walks up to the children’s father, trying to see what has happened. To his surprise the man lunges at him. Mr. Garrison, a slender, quick man, tries to dodge past this rabid beast and run for the backroom, but to escape the well-built father pro-ves to be impossible. He is immediately tackled and Bill smashes in Mr. Garrison's face with at least a dozen rapid punches. Two more people, one Crystal and the other the man she had infected come into the store. Her jaw dangles as if hanging by a thread, searching and smel-ling the children’s fear. She instinctively knows the children are somewhere nearby. Se-emingly unfazed by her lack of the bottom half of her mouth, she knows the children are hi-ding in the back room. She and the two men who she arrived with run to the backroom door, leaving Mr. Garrison in a puddle of blood, bones, and brains.        Behind the back door the children have pushed a desk and and office chair as a barricade against these vicious beasts. They look around and realize there is nowhere to go except the cooler, which is straight ahead of them. Jake looks around and grabs a sweatshirt that is han-ging off the back of the office chair. He looks at his sister and hands her the coat, " Put this on, we're goin' into the fridge."    

    They walk into the cooler, and immediately can see their breath. Jake grabs all of the soda and milk containers and places them in front of the door making another barricade. He piles them as high as he can reach, realizing that if the larger men outside broke through the first barricade, this one wouldn’t be much harder to break through. He places the crates three con-tainers thick against the door hoping that will be enough, then he and Jenny both run to the corner looking for cover. They hide behind a stack of milk crates, an obvious place, but it wo-uld have to do.        Not too long after they have reached the cooler, they hear a loud rumble come from the ot-her room, they know immediately that the first barricade has been broken. Suddenly they see their father's face through the double layered plastic window within the cooler door. He be-gins to thrash and punch at the door and soon the window is covered with pulpy blood. The weak barricade slowly crumbles, delaying the inevitable. With one strong push there is three infected beings standing in front of the two young children. Their father takes two steps for-ward leaving a small gap between them. After a slight pause, the other two moves in, pausing as if they are enjoying the suspenseful moment, delaying the children’s demise for self-satis-faction.        Jake stands tall and yells, "No! No Dad don't!" This breaks their trance and infuriates the small riot. This small act of bravery leads to his gruesome and painful demise. While the men are distracted with Jake, Jenny quickly slips out of one of the cooler doors between the soda racks. She is all alone as she runs out of the store anxious to find someone, anyone, who can help her. She sees several more monsters running her way and knows she has a long night ahead of her, running into the unknown.    

THE END            

III - CHANGE        It was strange, really, the way it happened. It was the greatest discovery of all time, proof of extra-terrestrial life. In late 2009, a meteor fell from the sky, it was massive. Though most of it burned in orbit a large chunk remained. They salvaged the meteorite and brought it to a top secret lab for study. Famous scientists revealed that it contained the remnants of what lo-oked like virus. They were hailed as the greatest scientists and visionaries of the century.        ‘Don’t forget Serge, you were one of those scientists.’ His thoughts were so overpowe-ringly loud in the cold, dark steel and tile room. ‘You were one of the greatest men alive, Ser-ge Fitz Gilbert, supervisor of the Meteor Research Team.’ Serge was a tall, slender man. He had short blond hair with a receding hair line. He wore black framed glasses, a white lab coat, a light blue button up shirt, and black pants. He sighed in the darkness. He wished he could have seen it coming.        After the fossilized virus was discovered, members of the team started to become ill. First it was just Leanne Petroski, but then Doug, Borris and even Marie came down with it.        ‘Leanne was the first to change though; she stumbled into the lab one morning, half awake. I told her to go home, and she looked up at me.’ Serge shuttered, ‘I’d never seen something so terrifying in my life.’

        ‘Her eyes, they were pure red, filled to the brim with blood. After the initial scare of seeing her like that my senses returned. I tried to get her to sit down and she started thrashing, she threw me into a door and started to run at me, in the panic I ran inside and triggered the emer-gency locking mechanism, which locked her out.        ‘Through the tiny pane of bullet-proof glass on the door I could see the chaos that ensued inside the lab. I was only saved because of this damn airtight, bullet-proof, sterile prison of a room. I almost wished I had died.’ Serge shook his head, ‘Don’t say that, you’re glad to be alive, and you’ll find a way out of here too.’        It was unlikely though, when he had triggered the emergency lock, it locked him in. It was meant to be used to contain any kind of hazard inside, not keep them out. Someone would ha-ve to activate the release mechanism, and that was the problem. There was no one alive - Well, uninfected - outside the room to do it.        Serge had been trapped there for God-knows-how-long. Luckily though, whoever used this area had a stash of food under their desk, but that would only last so long. And when the po-wer went out a part of Serge felt as though he was just delaying the inevitable.        He lay down to try and gets some sleep when from the hallway he heard a strange noise. He was startled; he was so used to hearing nothing that it hurt his ears. He got up to see lights waiving passed the thin window in the door. A glimmer of hope flashed to life then spread li-ke a wildfire until Serge could feel his soul burning inside him again.        He ran to the door and slammed his face to the window. What he saw made him want to cry out in joy. It was a squad of soldiers, in full gasmasks and Kevlar, equipped with rifles. They searched the darkness, and just as Serge was about to cry out to them something moved in the darkness. All their lights focused in that direction, they revealed a group of infected lab techs. Serge was horrified; he hadn’t seen an infected individual that badly mutilated before. He’d only seen the early stages, once the power went out, they were hidden in the darkness. The infected made the first move, charging the squad. They got to the first one before they could even fire off a round. The soldier was overwhelmed, he collapsed, being pummeled and bitten to death by a group of psychos.        Finally the other soldiers started firing, a few of the infected dropped to the floor but the others charged full force. The squad of four was quickly reduced to one desperate man. He fi-red hastily until his rifle ran empty, he cursed and threw it down right as the last two infected rushed him. He was able to draw his pistol right as they got to him, they jumped on him. They fell against the door, out of Serge’s view. The noise was ungodly, moans and the sound bodies colliding. Finally two shots rang out, Serge stood at the door, stunned. He felt his soul extinguish again.        The soldier stood flimsily, holding his shoulder. Serge’s soul was burning brighter than be-fore; he knocked hastily at the door. The soldier was startled, instantly turning and aiming his weapon at the door.        “It’s alright! I’m not infected; I’ve been trapped in here!” He screamed through the door.    

    The soldier was struggling to stand. He braced himself against the door and grabbed the re-lease lever to the door. He began to pull, but he couldn’t summon the strength. He collapsed to the floor, and began to convulse. Serge recognized his behavior, it was the beginning sta-ges of infection, in a moment the soldier would be just another infected roaming the darkness.        Serge turned away from the door and slid down against the wall. There was no way he was going to get out now. The only people he’d seen since this whole thing started were just sla-ughtered right in front of his face. He was just wishing for death to take him at this point. There was no reason to live any longer. What were the odds that they’d send another squad down?        Suddenly he heard a moan, then the sound of flesh against metal. Serge cautiously stood up, peering through the glass. The infected soldier was now standing at the door slamming his entire body against it. There was no chance he would breach it, as much as Serge was ho-ping for it at this point. Serge stared for a few moments then turned away. He walked to the other end of the room and sat against the wall and closed his eyes. It was near impossible to get sleep in the first place, but now that the soldier was persistently slamming his face against the door it was going to be impossible to even imagine sleeping.        What seemed like years passed as Serge leaned against the wall. He began to uncontrol-lably shake. He was going mad. He stood up and started slamming himself against the cold metal walls. He sobbed inanely and cried out, his face finally impacted hard enough to knock him unconscious, he fell back onto the tile floor as blood trickled from his nose.        Serge’s vision went from pitch black to blurry amebas. It finally focused again and the world seemed to stop spinning. He sat up, slightly oblivious to what he had done. He looked down and noticed a small pool of his own blood surrounding him. He figured he’d probably broken his own nose. He took off his lab coat and rubbed it against his nose. He winced in pain, ‘What the hell was I thinking?’ He wondered to himself.        Then he came to the realization that it was quiet again. He could not longer hear the sound of the infected soldier banging on the door. He cautiously stood up and moved to the door. He looked out to see that the area around the door was empty again, except for the dead soldi-ers and infected. He sighed, slightly relieved but also slightly distraught. His stomach grow-led up at him. He put his hand up to it and walked toward the desk.        He kneeled down and opened a drawer. Inside were a few empty bags of chips and a box of snack bars. There were also several bottles of water, both opened and unopened. He grab-bed a granola bar and ripped the wrapper off. He sunk his teeth into it eagerly. For a moment he felt almost happy, but the pure ecstasy that was the granola bar ended abruptly when all that was left in his hand was a tiny crumb. He grabbed a bottle of water and twisted the top. It released a plastic crackle as the seal around the cap broke. He gulped it down for a couple se-conds and then sat back, exhaling.        Serge decided that he needed something to occupy his mind. He grabbed a pen and piece of paper from inside the desk. He held the pen in his hand, it felt awkward and unwieldy. He touched it to the paper and began trying to write, ‘she sels see shell by te sea sore.’ His hand began to cramp. He scowled, furious. He squeezed the pen and tried again, ‘She sales sea sheles by the sea shore.’ He screamed, “Fucking hell! Why can’t I do this!?”    

    He threw the pen against the wall and crumpled the paper up. He couldn’t contain his rage, he shrieked, standing up quickly. He flailed his arms before picking up the chair and smas-hing it against the wall. The leg of the wooden chair rebounded off the wall, colliding with his nose. The blood began flow from his nostrils like a faucet. He yelled in pain and began to beat at the wall, his blood, saliva and tears running down his face and onto his clothes.        Suddenly, from behind him came a knocking at the door, Serge whirled around quickly. His senses came to him; he wiped his face and walked slowly toward the door. He couldn’t see the window, or what was on the other side of it yet. The knocking grew louder and then a voice broke through the air, “Is anyone in there?!”        Serge was almost frightened by the voice. He rushed to the door and looked through the glass. Another squad of soldiers stood staring at him through their masks. “Hey! Open up, we’ll get you out of here!” One of them shouted.        “The lock is out there! I’m trapped in here!” Serge yelled to them.        The soldier looked around for a second before noticing the handle. He pulled it and the hiss of compressed air confirmed that the door was indeed unlocked. The soldier pushed the door open and stood before Serge. “I’m Corporal Merethil, I was sent to recover any survivors.” He stared at the bloody man before him, “Uh, what’s your name?”        Serge was caught of guard; conversation had become a strange thing to him. “I-I’m… Ser-ge, Serge Fitz Gilbert.” He said softly, “Is it… Is it safe out there?”        Corporal Merethil nodded at him, “It’s safe. We had quite the clean up job on our hands, but it looks like everything has turned out okay.” He motioned toward the door and his fellow squad members. “C’mon, it’s about time you got back up to the surface.”        He put his arm around Serge and led him out of the room. Serge became increasingly ner-vous. He hadn’t seen the rest of the lab in ages. It was torn to pieces, bodies lying everywhe-re. He began to sweat. He clutched his hands tightly at his side. They turned a corner which Serge recognized as the staircase to the outside. The outside. Serge began shaking uncontrol-lably. “No…” He said under his breath, trying to break free of the Corporal. “No!”        The leader of the squad held on tight, “Don’t worry, it’s safe. It’s safe.” He said, trying to calm Serge. He calmed for a moment, but just as they passed through the threshold from the darkness into the light Serge couldn’t take it anymore. He cried out, temporarily blinded by the sun, he used all his strength to break free. His hand found the holster on the Corporal’s waist. He pulled out the Glock 17 screaming, “It’s not fucking safe out here! It’ll never be sa-fe!” He pointed the gun at Corporal Merethil, “You’re trying to get me fucking killed!”        The soldier raised his hands, and the rest of the squad turned, raising their guns at Serge. “Wait! Wait! Don’t shoot him!” Yelled the leader, “Serge, come on, put the gun down, its fi-ne!”        “No! Don’t fucking tell me what to do! You’re going to get me killed! You’ll kill us all!” Serge screamed, slobber jumping from his mouth. His face was contorted with pure anger and fear.    

    “Just put the-” Serge fired a shot straight into the Corporal’s face. He let out a groan as he fell limply to the floor, his blood spraying onto his comrades who were taken by surprise.        Serge hastily fired 7 more shots; three found their mark in the chest of one of the soldiers, the next two stuck another. The last two bullets struck the final soldier, once in the arm and knee. The soldier was quick to fire back, but Serge shot at almost the same time, striking the soldier in the neck, the soldier gargled and fell. His shots were not in vein, one ripped through Serge’s right arm and the other struck him in the stomach. Serge stumbled backward and trip-ped down the staircase. He slammed into the floor at the bottom and he felt his wrist snap. He shrieked in pain before climbing to his feet. He ran back to the door where it had all began and pulled the lever triggering the emergency lock mechanism. He collapsed into the room as the door closed behind him. The door hissed again, its airtight seal coming back into effect.        Serge let out long, heaving breathes. He pulled himself to the wall, blood smearing on the ground behind him. He propped himself up against it. ‘I can’t… I can’t… I can’t…’ He said over and over in his mind. His breathing pace increased. The blood trickled from his wounds in what seemed like a never ending stream. But he knew it was coming to an end, and it was growing closer every moment. The pain pulsated through his body and he cried out. He clo-sed his eyes and his breathing slowed, then stopped.        ‘I… can’t…’    

THE END            

IV - THE BEGINNING IS THE ENDIntroduction

        Religions said it was the Devil him self who summoned this day, that he spawned wretched ideas into the minds of Pity full Humans. Poisoned them to think beyond Minds creation.. Craving for knowledge... Indeed, it is a Humans instinct to learn more and more, but when should the craving stop?    There are certain things in this crazed world that need to be left unseen.    But, as what was thought, the Devils doing had succeeded, and not even the Guardians of Heaven could stop him... This was when Man created a second Palace for Hell...     

Chapter 1 - The Finding         My name is Joe Henson. I am 34 years of age and I was born in Britain. I am an EX-Mili-tary a soldier and I served 8 years in the Middle East. I used to be a Scientist for 5 years and my job involved finding solution's to diseases. After serving in the military for 8 years I final-ly decided that I wanted a different career, I wanted to be an Archaeologist do to various re-asons. One of them was my dad being one.        The year is 2045. December 2nd. Location - Germany, Berlin.    A team of archeologist's scattered from around the globe were assigned to a dig site to ho-pefully discover a new breed of dinosaur fossils. Among them was my self.    

    It was a cold and windy day. After digging for hours we finally hit something hard... We removed the snow what was covering it and expecting to find a Dinosaur bone, we didn't... Instead we found the roof of something strange. We removed even more snow, and finally it became clear what this object was. It seemed to be a bunker like building. After looking aro-und for several minuets I saw that there was an iron frozen door which had snow covered all over it. This was truly a discovery so I thought. Even more archeologist's were called to this assignment and even expert scientists.    Finally we got the door open.         There were some very strange things in this room, it looked like a very old Laboratory. There was old machinery all over the room and tables which had lots of documents on them. However, the writing was written in German but luckily I understood the language... After hours of searching the bunker there was one room that stood out to me which no one had explored yet. The door was already broken and had big holes through it. I walked through biggest hole and stepped into the room. As I looked around I saw something that looked very peculiar... This disturbed me for the rest of my days.    There was a human body inside a glass shaped tube. Lots of wires were holding the body up. It was obviously dead. I looked around and there was more glass tubes with bodies in. I couldn't take it anymore, I had to get out, in all my life I had never seen something as well... Frightening as this.. My instincts told me to get the hell out of that room. As my face looked very shocked while I was walking fast to get out of the bunker. Everybody noticed the look on my face and saw what room I just came out of. They assumed that I had found something in that room, which I did. So the rest of the Archaeologists and Scientists went into the room... I heard one of the scientists say "Call Dr.McPhill in a startled voice" After I was out of the bunker I took a deep breath... I decided to go home and get some rest... But I couldn't sleep.... All I could see was that dam glass tube appearing, and disappearing in my thoughts... After hours of trying to get to sleep I finally drifted away. I woke up the next morning and I was very tiered and confused.. My phone started to ring, I was wondering who is could be.     

2 - Politics of the Devil        It was a message that said "All Archaeologists and Scientists who were assigned to the Dig in Berlin are requested to meet at D.M.F for a urgent and important meeting"    D.M.F stood for Dr.Mcphill.Facillites. It was his office of studies where he kept all of his findings and information. It was basically a multi-billion pound laboratory. He was the one who assigned me to this dig... He is a very known and famous scientist.    As I arrived there I entered the room where the meeting was being held, there was lots of people in it. Most of them were from the dig... As I was sat down Dr.Mcphill began to speak he said... "Ladies and Gentlemen, yesterday, in the afternoon on December the 2nd, we found something that will be a new revolution. This will be put down in the books of glory. In that lab we found test tubes with bodies of male and female humans in... Near the tubes were do-cuments written in German. These documents have a date written on them. The date says "March/11th/1940" The documents had written recordings about testing special liquids on diseased German Soldiers which would change there DNA pattern. This was at the times of when World War 2 was active. After searching even more we found more documents which were hidden under the floor of the lab. The documents state who, and why German scientists were doing this. It states that it was Adolf Hitler himself who assigned those German scientist to do this. We assume that Hitler was trying to cure his soldiers from all diseases known at that time. And as ridiculous as this sounds, he was even trying create, if you will the perfect super human soldier. He was trying to dramatically increase there stamina, fatigue and fit-

ness over 100 %. He was trying to change the overall molecular DNA structure of a human. This would make a perfect war machine IF used in the wrong hands. If he succeeded in doing this, none of us would probably be here today. Along side those documents was an old fashi-oned surging which had some sort of liquid in it. Now our expert scientists have studied this liquid all night and have discovered with the help of our technology that Hitler had found a cure for all diseases... But stated in the documents his scientists didn't think accomplish this due to the lack of there technology at that time. If we can use this liquid and modify it we co-uld may put an end to disease.        "As we speak, literally the world now knows about this discovery and most of the populati-on supports this. However lots of religious groups think that it is wrong to tamper with Gods creations and we should stop. But the E.U.S.O.H (EUROPEON SOCIETY OF HEALTH) ha-ve themselves requested and have approved to test this liquid on animals what have diseases. The First test will start tomorrow at 11:PM on 3rd of December" Thank you all who has hel-ped in this marvelous discovery and may science help save the world from disease and even death."     

3 - Unleashing the Lead of the Hell        Deep down inside of me. I was worried that the E.U.S.O.H approved D.M.F to test this li-quid on animals. How do they know for certain it is safe... What if something goes wrong? Well.... I will have to wait and see. Anyway, I should get my self home and try to get some sle-ep...        I woke up the next morning with a sickly feeling in my stomach, the kind of feeling you get when you had exams for school... At least I actually got some sleep this time... As I was get-ting out of bed I heard a strange noise downstairs... It was loud enough to startle me. I crept downstairs just to be sure.... As I approached the top of stairs and looked down I saw a figure at the bottom.. There was a silhouette of a man. I knew this because he was breathing and panting heavily because I realized that it was the dead body which I saw in the glass tube in-side the bunker. I rubbed my eyes to make sure that I wasn't seeing things. I could now see its face clearly... It was pale and had veins protruding from his skin... His eyes were red and bloodshot and its pupils were fixed...Its teeth were crookid and decayed but were very sharp... I was petrified, I didn't know what to do So I just froze in shock....It then opened its mouth as wide as it could and screamed! It sprinted stumbled up the stairs towards me!    !BEEP! !BEEP! !BEEP! "ALARM CLOCK 10:30 AM" I woke up warm and sweaty and re-alized it was just a nightmare.... For few moments I felt that I couldn't even look down the stairs because I was so frightened.. I finally got my self together and went downstairs and got my self ready to view the test to be done.    I arrived just in time for the testing to start.. Lots of scientists were in the room, ready to start the test. They were going to test the liquid on a Rat which had a surveyor form of Rabies and was going to die in a matter of days. One of the scientists firmly held the rat in its hand while the other scientist injected the surging into the rat, injecting the liquid into it.. It took about 10 seconds to inject it into it. The scientist gently placed the Rat back into the Test Ca-ge. At that point the Rat seemed Dormant... It was doing nothing aside from breathing he-avily. There was a moment of silence in the room while everyone was waiting to see what wo-uld happen. After a minute or so the Rat stood up on it's 4 little feet and started to look aro-und. Before the Liquid was injected in the Rat, it's fur had patches of grey all over it due to the Rabbies... However after the liquid was injected into the Rat, its fur started to rapidly change into it's formal black fur. It's teeth were no longer yellow and on the verge of rotting

but they turned almost a white colour, a healthy looking colour. We were all baffled... I could not believe what I just saw... It felt so surreal...The Rat started to run around in its Cage and carried to do so for hours, obviously it was drinking lots of water at the same time. After ho-urs of studying on the Rat it was nearly time to call it a day for all of us... It was 1:30 AM and the Rat was still running around in its cage! It was remarkable that it did not even have to re-cuperate!...    There was only me and one scientist left in the room because the rest of the scientists went home. The scientist was just finishing his recordings. As he was moving lots of paper I heard him say "OW". I immidently reacted and asked him what was wrong. I assumed that the Rat had bitten him... But it didn't, he just got a paper cut from folding his papers in half... He had finished his recordings and had to put some more water in the bottle for the Rat.. As he put his hand over the cage I noticed that a drop of blood fell from his finger tip where the paper cut was. The drop of blood fell on top of the glass cage. Suddenly the Rat seemed to know that there was blood somewhere... Foam started to come out of its mouth. It fell on its back and stopped moving.... The scientist came back with the refilled bottle of water and asked what had happened in a panicked voice. I replied with a "I....I don't know...Foam just started to come out of its mouth and it just fell on its back". I didn't know what else to say.... The sci-entist opened the glass cage and carefully took the Rat out of it... The first thing he did was check its pupils. He put the Rat close to its face so that he could see its pupils and suddenly the Rat yelped loudly and bit the scientist on his face     

4 - The Lead of Hell Unleashed        The scientist screamed in pain and threw the Rat against the wall. He fell to the floor kic-king and shouting... There was nothing I could do... The only thing I could do was ring an Ambulance... I tried to keep the him calm by firmly holding him to the ground so that he co-uld not harm himself. I noticed that his pupils were dilated and started to turn bloodshot... His skin looked like it was aging and his teeth seemed to be getting sharper... Foam started to come out of his mouth... Suddenly I remember that his face looked the same as the man I saw in my nightmare... I knew this wasn't good. The Ambulance finally arrived. 4 Medics rushed into the room. 2 of them tried to restrain the scientist while the other 2 tried to put him on a stretcher. The scientist suddenly stopped moving, just like the Rat did, he just looked Dor-mant but was breathing heavily... The Medics looked at each other very confused... At that point, I knew what had just happened. When the Rat bit the scientist it infected him with the liquid what was injected into it. This caused the scientist DNA structure to change rapidly ca-using him to change into what Hitler was trying to do, to create a war machine. However, this has not made him healthier and fitter. but it has made him corrupt. I remember when the Rat saw the drop of blood on it's cage, it went mad for it. The same thing will happen to the scientist when he...I mean when "it" wakes up. It will kill anything for blood, turning it into a bloodthirsty frenzy... I yelled out to the Medics "GET THE HELL OUT HERE!", I didn't have enough time to explain what has happened to the scientist, they probably wouldn't believe me anyway. But it was to late, the scientist woke up and was already transformed into a monstro-sity of hell...It opened it mouth and screamed! It threw itself out of the stretcher and in rage it was hitting and biting the 2 Medics. The other 2 Medics tried to restrain it but it just throw them of him... I had to get out! I ran out of the building as fast as I could. I could only hear shouting and screaming as I was running out. I ran to the car park and unlocked my Van. I tried to put the key in the ignition but I kept dropping the keys because I was in panic and shock...I could still hear the screaming. Eventually, I got the car started. A soon as I was about to leave the car park and approach the road, I saw the 2 of the medics running out of the building heading for me! I put my foot down on the accelerator and got the hell out of

there. Luckily they didn't follow me. I thought to myself what should I do!? I had to go to the nearest Police Station. But what could I say.. That there are Zombies! I had no choice I had to tell them what had happened...     

5 - Arrival of the Corrupt        I arrived at a Police Station and rushed inside. I push people out of the way to get to the counter. The Head Chief of Police was there. I didn't know what say to him... So I just told him that there has been a murder at D.M.F. I told him that 4 Medics and a scientist has been murdered. He looked at me and said "What!" He put his mouth to his Microphone and said " All Police to D.M.F, 4 people killed use force if necessary. I suddenly heard sirens of Police Cars heading to D.M.F. He then said to me, "BANG!" I jumped out of my skin! We all rushed out of the Police Station to see what the noise was. It was 3 police cars, they were tipped over on there backs and behind them was the infected people from D.M.F. One of the Police Men crawled out of the car window in pain.. One of the infected liturley jumped on top of him, te-aring him to bits and the others were ripping the police cars to try to get to the other Police Men...There was a lot of screaming and panicking outside of the Police Station. The rest of the Police Men rushed out to help the others... But it was no use.. They were already infec-ted... There was now even more infected people. The infected charged straight at the other Police men. The Police Men were shouting "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING" "I, I, I DONT KNOW! JUST FIRE!!!" There was nothing they could do to stop them...Citizens from the Po-lice Station ran to there cars and drove away but some fled on foot. However, I had no pro-tection on me what so ever. I knew that I need a weapon to keep me alive so I ran into the Po-lice Station and luckily found a Pistol and some ammo next to it. I ran back out of the Police Station and got into my Van... Again, I put my foot down on the pedal and got the hell out of there! I was heading for my House which was about 15 minuets away. As I was driving more Police Cars flew past me, there most of been at least 20. I also noticed a news van following the Police Cars. I finally got home. I got out of the car and unlocked the door and then loc-ked. At that point I just fell on floor... I felt like crying, but I couldn't.. It was like I had no emotions because of what I had seen.. I wasn't sure what to do... I went in the living room and put the television on. The news was on and Dr.Mcphill was talking to the press. There was lots of reporters and they were shouting at him to get answers. He was talking to one of them, the reporter asked "What kind of foe are we against" "We don't know but we believe it is so-me kind of infected Human with the abilities beyond ours" "How do we stop them" We don't know, the only hope we have is to capture an alive Infected and experiment on it. But to find a cure... It could take months, maybey years" "What went wrong with the testings" "Aga-in...."We don't know...." I turned the television of and throw the remote control at the televisi-on. I knew, I JUST KNEW THAT SOMETHING LIKE THIS WOULD HAPPEN! DAMMIT!!! Right... I have to think straight I was part of this problem, so now I have to be part of the so-lution. I have to gather as many survivors as I can and try to evacuate them out of the city and if not the country. This is where my Military skills come into use... May God guide us through these dark days....     

THE END            

V - DEATH BY DESIGN    

    I gazed around letting my eyes adjust to the fog. There was a pond on my right with debris floating all across the surface. I could see that the pond was surrounded by trees. It was surp-risingly bright at this time of night, yet I could not see the moon. As I looked around, I noti-ced in the pond, there were people! It looked like they were holding onto a log.    "Hey! Are you alright!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as I started moving towards them. They didn't even register what I said, as though my voice was as quiet as a whisper. The pond was very shallow, not even up to my knees. I thought this was odd for a pond, but I forgot about it as I looked at the two people in front of me.    They were both women with long sinewy black hair and a frail frame. They were wearing torn tank top shirts and ripped pants. The woman on my left had cuts and gashes all across the back of her arms and legs from what I could see. The woman on my right was angled to-wards me, but her hair was hanging down in front of her face, so I could only see the cuts on her arms and hands.    The fog around them began to clear and I realized they were not holding onto a log... it was a mans body! I suddenly became very terrified and did not know why. Until I saw the woman on my left violently jerk the mans head back and rip his throat out with her teeth.    As I took a step back, I heard a slurping sound from the woman on my right, as she was pulling violently on the mans leg and ripping pieces of his thigh off with her teeth."They ha-ven't noticed me yet!" I thought to myself. Both of them stopped and slowly turned their he-ads to look at me, as though they read my mind!    They looked at me with eyes that sunk into their head and were black as night. I could see teeth through their ripped and torn lips. The woman on the left lunged at me with her closest hand. I rolled my left shoulder back to get out of reach. But I jerked so hard that I fell to the ground and had to scramble back to my feet.    Running as fast as I could to get away from them. When I turned around to see where I was going... I was in a log house? I could not stop to think about it, I could hear the women get-ting closer behind me! There was one door in the room and as I grabbed onto the handle and opened the door. A grotesque, headless, man swung a axe into my neck!        Mark jolted up to a sitting position breathing hard and sweating. He looked around to see where he was at and noticed his two brothers were still asleep in the car with him and that it was still night outside. "It was only a dream" Mark let out in a sigh. It has been four months since the zombie epidemic occurred. Mark, along with his two brothers, his sister and a close friend were the only ones to survive out of the original group.    They have been surviving by living on the streets. Sleeping in cars, abandoned houses, or trailers. Mark, gazing out his window, shifted as he saw a person coming from the alley ac-ross the street. He slowly slid down into his seat and shook his brother Craig, who was sle-eping next to him in the back seat. Craig is bigger than everyone else in the group and the ol-dest brother. He is average height with a husky build. He used to always joke, yet these past few months have made him more serious. "What do you want?" Craig said in a groggy voice. Mark motioned for him to be quiet and pointed over his shoulder towards the alley. Craig re-alized what he meant, they have been living like this for months now. Slowly they pulled out their weapons. Mark had a standard pistol. While Craig had a rifle, with a scope attached. Craig took aim for the alley and waited patiently for a clean shot.    The silhouette stepped out into the moon light and he saw that it was Jarred! "Guys, its me!" Jarred voiced as loud as he dared, but it was loud enough for the others to hear. He lo-oked around to be sure it was safe and then jogged across the street to the car. Mark and Cra-ig both sighed in relief. As Mark rolled down the window Craig said "I almost shot you!" in a harsh whisper. "Well good thing you didn't!" Jarred laughed. Jarred is a bit taller than the rest and has a lithe like figure. He is normally the one to scout for the group and fit through small

windows to unlock doors. He is also the first one on watch tonight with Tonya. "Have you se-en anything nearby?" Mark asked to Jarred "I did see a group of infected about two blocks east, but thats it." he replied. Mark gestured towards his brother "Craig, wake up Brian and lets get moving. This place is getting more and more dangerous." As Craig shook Brian to wake him up, Mark asked "Where is Tonya?" Jarred looked behind him "She went to the apartment buildings about 3 blocks west. To see if she could find anything to eat for us." Mark nodded "Alright, well lets start heading that way and get her." as he grabbed his back pack and baseball bat.        The small hallway was very dark and there were doors on both sides. She was breathing hard and looking for one that was not locked. Tonya's brown hair was matted to her head by blood and every door she touched left blood stained hand prints. She could hear the infected getting closer. "I gotta get out of here!" she thought as her mind was racing and the adrenali-ne in her body was pumping. She slammed into every door she passed in this huge apartment building and found herself tripping over things she couldn't see. Her lungs were on fire from all the running and her legs were weak.    As she slammed into the next door, it gave in, and she fell to the ground with a loud thud. She closed the door quickly and locked it. Listening for the footsteps of the infected. As the footsteps got close and passed by. She realized they were not close enough to see her go into the room! She breathed a little easier as she leaned against the wall holding onto her sword. She looked down at the gun strapped across her shoulder and knew that she was out of am-mo. It was a nest that she found, a gathering of the infected and she used all her ammo to get away.    Before she could truly rest.. she heard something shift in the room. As though something was being dragged. Thats when she realized it was extremely dark in the room and could ba-rely see her own hand. The adrenaline started pumping again and her heart felt like a hammer in her chest. "I cant go back outside, theres to many." She thought, yet there was something in here with her! The sound grew closer and she smelled it. The putrid stench of dried blood. She swung her sword in front of her wildly, moving forward with every swing! Hoping to hit whatever it was that was getting so close. In the middle of one of her swings, her leg hit so-mething and she tripped onto a glass table that shattered. Pieces of glass stabbed into her arms as she tried to catch herself. She let out a cry of pain and rolled onto her back. Her left arm was almost severed by a piece of glass and she could feel her blood pouring down her arm onto the floor.    As something grabbed onto her leg she realized her mistake! She missed the infected cause it was dragging itself across the floor! It bit into her foot so hard that it tore through her shoe and into flesh.Tonya, Screaming wildly and kicking with all of her strength could not get the zombie off of her. She reached for her sword but could not see it in the dark. So she tried to push herself up with her left hand, but didn't realize how bad it was and her arm folded in half. Mind numbing pain shot through her arm and her head felt heavy.. as she blacked out.        The group was heading in the direction of the apartment building. With Brian in the lead, Mark and Craig taking up the middle, and Jarred in back. Brian had his shotgun pressed to his shoulder, ready to kill anything that came around the corner. His hawk like face very serious and his eyes looking at every shadow like it was an enemy. The alley was tight with huge bushes on both sides. It being in the middle of the night without lights did not help much eit-her.    "Did you guys hear that?" Brian asked as he moved forward. They were at the end of the alley when the bushes on the right shook and Brian opened fire! Sending all 5 rounds into the bush, tearing it in half and making a hole in the fence behind it. Everyone was tense and hol-

ding their breath.. waiting to see what would come out. A squirrel ran out the bottom, it had been climbing in the bush and thats what made it shake. Brian sighed in relief "Alright, we are good." he said as he motioned for the others to push up behind him. As he started to pull the shotgun shells out of the pouch on his waist to reload. A zombie lunged at him from the left and grabbed his arms with frightening strength, while biting into his neck and jerking vi-ciously. Brian screamed out in pain and looked like a rag doll in the zombies grip. The infec-ted yanked his head back, tearing out one of the main arteries in Brian's neck.    Still holding Brian's arms out wide, it gulped the flesh and blood down its throat with a sic-kening slurp sound. As his arms were being held and his blood gushing down the side of his body, Brian was helpless and he slumped to his knees. Mark, yelling at the top of his lungs, was the first to open fire on the infected person. Strafing to his right to get a better angle on the zombie and aiming down his sight, he opened fire. His first couple of shots made the zombie stagger and drop his brother. But none of them were strong enough to kill the zombie. As Mark moved aside, Craig kneeled down and and steadied his gun. Looking through the scope, that he had adjusted for the alley and waiting for the right time to shoot. When he saw the zombie stagger backwards from Marks shots. He knew this was his chance. He slowly squeezed the trigger and the high caliber bullet found its target. Mark heard the loud rifle fire and he watched as the left side of the zombies head blew apart.    By the time the zombie fell over and hit the ground. They were all by Brian's side and re-alized how much blood was spurting out of his neck onto the ground. "Brian!!" Mark cried, as tears fell down his face and he grabbed his brothers hand. Craig came up close and grab-bed his other hand and told him "You know what we have to do." Brian nodded slowly, as he was gasping for breath, and squeezed his brothers hands. "Mark.. Let me see your gun" crac-ked Craig's voice. Mark, still overcome with emotions and barely able to keep himself up, handed him the gun. Jarred came over with tears in his eyes and said "We have to get mo-ving, I don't know how many more are around." Craig nodded and put the gun to Brian's head and said "I love you bro!" and Mark echoed those same words as Craig pulled the trigger.        After the loss of Brian. They were more eager to find Tonya, but they couldn't help but think the worst had happened to her. They were on a street filled with cars that were burnt and tipped over... all of them looking like they just come from a chop shop. "What if she is already dead!" Jarred said, thinking that it would be bad if they went looking for her and mo-re of them ended up dead. "We are still going to look for her! No matter what you say!" Mark replied in a very angry tone that left no room for argument. "I care for Tonya to. But we can't let one person get us all killed!" Jarred said in a quiet tone. Reminding the others that they are in danger and need to stay alert.    Craig was the only one not speaking. He was staring to his left at something that didn't se-em to be a normal shadow. The other voices drowned out of his head as he stared at that sha-dow... something was there and it was hunting. He knew it was hunting! After months of li-ving on the edge you soon realize whats predator and whats prey... Craig felt like prey right now. "Guys!" Craig said in a whisper, but he didn't get a reply. He looked forward and reali-zed that he was a lot further behind them then he had thought. "How long have i been stan-ding here?" he thought and he looked back over to the shadow. It was no longer there!!    His heart started to pound and his adrenaline was rushing through his body so fast it made his hands shake. Can he make to the others in time? Will they be able to make to him in time? He was out of options, he knew they were being hunted! "RUN!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. He started to move towards the others when he saw the shadow jump out from behind one of the over turned cars in the street. He put his rifle up in front of him to catch the jaws that would have found his throat. He fell to the ground under the weight of the attack. The be-ast was so powerful, he heard the wood on the gun crack and it took all of his strength to hold

onto the it. He twisted his gun to move the jaws of the beast aside hoping to slide out from under it. He yelled "Run!!" one more time, looking in the direction of his brother and friend. Thats when he knew he was dead, as he saw the second beast lung at his face.        The other two turned around just in time to see something jump on top of Craig. Mark star-ted to run back. But he was so far away. How did he get so far away!! Then another one of those beasts jumped out in the middle of him and his brother. Mark realized that it was a dog, warped and twisted by the infection. He could see its teeth dripping with blood and half of its face was missing. They were truly frightening to be around because they could move at such high speeds and could break bones with their jaws. Again Craig yelled "Run!!" and all Mark could do is feel helpless and distraught as he saw another dog lunge at his brother and crush Craig's face.        Jarred grabbed Mark by the shoulder and yelled at him to run. He only had to ask once. They both ran at full speed. They could also see the apartment! "Its right there Mark! Thats where Tonya went" Jarred panted as they ran. The apartment was to their right, about fifty yards away. Looking back over his shoulder he could see the dog getting closer and that one of the other dogs that was on Craig is now coming after them. "I think is see the door to the stairs!" Mark yelled as they got closer too the building.    As he got closer, Jarred noticed movement on one of the fourth floor balconies. "Is that Tonya? or is it a zombie?" Jarred could not tell from this distance but he told Mark what he saw. "Then we are going to the fourth floor!" Mark said as he veered towards the door. Mark was the first one to the door by a good thirty feet and held the door open for Jarred."Come on man! the dog is right behind you!" Mark yelled to his friend. But as Jarred got closer to the door he saw something else to the right.. a pack of zombies were heading towards corner near the door! He couldn't make it in time.    "Mark close the door! Zombies on your left!" he cried. As soon as he heard what Jarred sa-id. Mark slammed the door and and locked it. "They didn't see Mark." Jarred thought as he veered sharply to his left, in between the apartment complex.    "I will lead them as far away as possible and find a place to hide." is what he planned on doing. But he didn't know that Tonya was here earlier... and that it was a nest of zombies. No more than ten feet to his left, a zombie lurched out of one of the doors and caught Jarred by his left arm. He felt the tear in his arm as the zombie bit down. He kicked with his right foot and yanked his left arm free and fell backwards into a roll. He came back up ready to fight or run.. when his head got yanked back and another zombie bit into his right shoulder. He scre-amed out in pain and tried to shake him off.    He didn't notice that the first dog caught up and lunged at his throat. Jarred's screams were muffled by the blood filling up in his throat and all that came out was a gurgled moan. The last thing he felt was cold as his eyes closed.        His heart was thumping so loud and hard he felt it in his neck. "How many zombie went by the door after Jarred?" Mark thought. Then he heard his friend scream out in pain and listened as it turned into a gurgled cry. Mark sat there, paralyzed by the fear that he was all alone. "All of them have died! What the hell am i going to do!" then he remember that Tonya is still he-re! Some where in the building. On the fourth floor! He checked the clip in his gun and saw that it was empty. He slid his back pack off and searched through its contents. There was no more spare ammo. He threw the gun aside "Worthless piece of crap!" and looked into his pack some more. He found a flashlight, not something that he was looking for but it will help. Food, clothing, and a small blanket. Nothing else he can use to help him find his sister. He

tosses the back pack aside and picks up the flashlight and his baseball bat. "This will have to do" he grumbled as he worked his way up the stairs to the fourth floor.        "Didn't Jarred say he saw movement on one of the balconies?" he thought as he got close to the door. So he did not open the door right away, for fear of zombies being right outside. As he looked through the window on the door, he noticed that it was a small hallway on the other side. Not seeing any movement, Mark opened the door quietly and stepped into the hall. It was a very dark place and he could smell blood every where. He listened carefully to see if he could hear anything. Nothing... no shuffling feet or deep breathing other than his own. Mark put his bat down beside him and tentatively turned on his flashlight while covering it with his hand at first. He slowly moved his hand away and could not believe what he saw.    There were bodies strewn up and down the hall. Some with their heads ripped off, while others were missing limbs. As he scanned the hallway, he noticed hand prints leading away from him on some of the doors. As he got closer to inspect he saw that they were recent! So-meone must have been running and hitting these doors. What if it was Tonya!! He went back and grabbed his baseball bat and started following the hand prints. He got half way down the hall when he saw that the hand prints stopped on one door. He started to reach for the handle but stopped himself. "Whats that sound?" he thought as he moved closer to the door to listen. It was a slurping sound. Much like the same sound he heard when Brian was killed! He ste-adied himself and gripped his bat tightly. He kicked the door in with his right foot and scan-ned the room quickly with the flashlight.    There was a book case on his right that was remarkably in tact. Three feet into the room is a couch with a large back to it. To the left he could see a small kitchen and blood all over the counter and floor. He saw a blood trail leading from the kitchen to the couch, but since the couch had such a high back to it, he could not see around it. Then he noticed that is where the noise is coming from. As Mark moved around the couch with his flashlight he saw somet-hing. It was Tonya!! Her face was at the very edge of the couch and she was laying in the glass from the table she fell on. As he scanned her with his flashlight he saw her left arm was almost completely severed and that she was in a pool of blood. As he scanned further down her body he saw what had been making the noise. A zombie had been eating its way up her leg! "Ahhhhh!!" He yelled and dropped his flashlight and swung the bat up over his head and dropped it as hard as his muscles would allow on top of the zombies head. He felt the bone crush under the weight of the blow. It sounded like he just crushed a watermelon. He felt the blood splatter all over his body and knew that the zombie was truly dead. But he didn't care. He kept pumping his arms up and down to smash the bat down on its head. Fueled by the ra-ge of seeing his sister being eaten by this thing. By the time his rage played itself out, there not much left of the zombie to even know that it was humanoid.    Mark dropped his bat and fell to his knees cradling his sisters head close to his own and crying. He started to rock back and forth as he spoke "I love you sis! I love you and Brian and Craig and Jarred with all my heart!! What will I do without you!" his tears came down and his shoulders bobbed from the emotional stress.        Mark, drowning in his sorrow, did not realize that Tonya had opened her eyes... until she bit into his neck.            

VI - AN UNFORESEEABLE DAYMorning

    

    Again, for the eighth time, the broadcast is interrupted. Another person has been reported missing, this time a twenty year old man. Bill and Christine Finn are eating a breakfast of eggs and toast: the eggs, runny and laden with peppers, the toast with a skilled dash of butter. Christine speaks first,    “What do you think is going to happen if these kidnappings increase?”    “I don’t know. Police will put all their effort into this and probably start a large scale inves-tigation soon. Capital is having a fit.” Bill puts down his fork.    “You know, yesterday, this new recruit to the mill; great kid, and only been working for a month, didn’t show up yesterday. He didn’t answer the phone when we called. Last night I saw his name on the list of missing persons.”    “Be careful, Bill.”    “Don’t worry about me, Christine. I’m worried more about you.”    They kiss and Bill dons his old Marines jacket and pockets his keys, wallet and cellphone while Christine cleans up the plates. Before the TV is turned off, the Chief of Police is at a podium on stand making a formal declaration amidst a flurry of photography.        The shrill screech of the alarm causes ears to ring. The alarm was a message as clear as crystal. Wake up. 6:00 AM. Jack Leer sluggishly pulls himself up with sheer force of will. Turning off the alarm was another thing. “I shouldn’t have gone to that damned party.” The alcohol is still in his system and now needs to be drained. By the time the alarm shuts up on its own, Jack is already in the shower and stretching his muscles. At twenty-five the lean Va-ledictorian thought he would be the man surfing down a mountain back to a bright hotel, a mug of hot chocolate and a hotter secretary; not slaving away under an idiotic, report fanatic manager.    Clean shaven and wearing the usual white collar dress shirt, black dress pants and one of five ties, Jack checks his answering machine and prepares a cup of an extra strong brew of coffee. “No sugar please,” he tells himself but pours in two packets of sugar and a bit too much milk. “Bombs away,” and he drains the coffee quickly in several gulps. The answering machine pings: “Hey Jack. I have today off so I’ll be coming by later. Love and Hearts. End of Messages.” On the news more headlines regarding the missing persons. “This is getting fucking annoying. Idiots can’t do shit.” Jack grabs his keys, jacket, wallet and cellphone and locks the front door of his apartment behind him. This makes the number of people missing nine for the week. In total for the month: thirty.        In his old Ford, driving down the streets of the city Bill notices how empty the sidewalk is. Cars are packed as ever but no one is walking and everyone is silent; not a single radio is on and no one is talking. Somewhere off in the distance screams are followed by sirens. The so-unds seem to echo through the street, turning around corners and twisting guts.    The cowards have already fled the city, looking for places where the body count is lowest, leaving the people without the option to run; alone to themselves and even more afraid. Just a crime wave everyone kept telling themselves. Every face tells the same depressing message, “Shit, I wanna leave, forget this… Damn it! What the fuck can I do?” Even Bill thinks so, in fact he has been looking at a place in the country, but damn it, it was bought yesterday.    Turning the corner of Stone and Miller the sudden four car collision ahead almost causes Bill to rear end the taxi in front. It was a wreckage of steel, glass and fire; completely bloc-king the intersection. A fire truck manages to squeeze up to it and men in yellow suits jump out to clear the way. Shit. Bill manages a lucky u-turn and drives back home. The same look is seen on every face he drives past. “What the fuck is going on?”    

    At the other side of the same intersection, Jack also manages a u-turn in his Mitsubishi and is too heading back home. I wonder if I can use this as an excuse, Jack thinks to himself. Jack has one hand on the steering wheel and the other calling the office. “Uhh, Hello? Yes Karen. Umm, I can’t come to work today because of this huge accident… No, I wasn’t in it; but I can’t get around… yea the Miller-Brick intersection… So who else is at work?... That’s it?!... Damn. Okay then. have a good day.” Jack couldn’t understand why he said “have a good day” because this was obviously the worst day for anyone. Jack’s cellphone lights up. A mes-sage from Samantha: “I’m at your place right now. You need to come. Hurry.” Another scre-am rings through the air sending chills down Jack’s spine. “Damn!” He rolls up his window and speeds up.        At home Bill greets his wife. “Why are you back so soon?” “A pileup blocked the way and I felt like coming back.” “I’ll prepare some lemonade, alright? Sit down.” Instead of sitting down, Bill walks over to his locker. In it he takes out his old handgun and checks the magazi-ne, eight rounds. He puts on his belt a pouch holding four more magazines. After a few se-conds of looking at the black gun and remembering, vividly, every time he used it he holsters the weapon. A heavy feeling has come onto him and for a while breathing was a little bit dif-ficult. “BILL! HELP!” At the front of the house, the door is busted and barely hanging off its hinges and stumbling to his wife was one of the skinny neighborhood thugs wearing a hoodie and jeans. “Hey! Get out of my house!” Bill has the punk’s attention and when it turns to Bill, its chest is exposed and a large kitchen knife is sticking out. “Holy Shit! Hey son, take a seat. I’ll call the ambulance, don’t worry. Christine, pull yourself together and call for help.” His wife runs into the kitchen, and Bill takes a step towards the boy. It snarls at Bill and clamps its jaws. The arms are outstretched and reaching for Bill. “Hey, fuck off!” “Bill, the line is not answering. I’m getting nothing.” Bill kicks away the boy who loses balance and falls down with a slop and landing on the knife, the tip has broken through its back. “Shit.”    “Bill, look! In the back yard!” More people have broken down his fence and smashed his windows. “Shit. Christine let’s go!” The both of them run out onto the porch and down the steps. Down the street Bill sees another thug, but with a mac-10 in his hands. He opens fire on several people and gunned them down. Bill and Christine crouched, ran to the Ford and got in. The thug heard the sound of the engine starting and yelled at them to get out. But hi-ding behind a nearby SUV a woman with long matted hair grabbed onto the guy around his neck and bit him. The thug screamed out loud as Bill accelerated the Ford as fast as possible; a few bullets snap the back window and the rear view mirror explodes while more bullets po-und the steel door of the bed. The clock on the dash board reads twelve o’clock.    

Afternoon        The old grandfather clock in his room chimes for the start of the afternoon. And a figure in the dark shuffles around the room…    Jack is racing to reach his apartment; he’d rather not spend another minute outside. An am-bulance flashes by just an inch from grazing the Mitsubishi. The stores he passes are looted and people are running with TVs, stereos and money in hand and are ducking into alley ways. Some are rushing to hit the other stores and others are fighting with bats and crowbars, poles and fists. Some have tried to stop Jack’s car and a windows is broken. They all had a scared face on. They scream, yell and verbally abuse. Speeding cars are going into headlong collisi-ons, smashing their faces together and the countless shards of glass glitter the sidewalk. And the wounded.    Samantha’s car! Jack rushes up the stairs of his apartment, leaving the car off but doors wi-de open. On the third floor, fifth room from the stairs, his front door is blasted from the lock

and the room is dim. “Samantha?” The grandfather clock in the living room chimes. “Jack?!” He flips on the light switch. The room is empty and trashed, he had been robbed. “Samant-ha?” “Over here.” Samantha’s head pops up from the window; she’s on the fire escape. Sa-mantha brushes away her long, black, curly hair and slips inside the apartment. “I just came in when hell broke loose and I locked the door. Then some people broke in and took some things from your apartment. I only had a few seconds to climb out of the window. Are you al-right?” Samantha grabs him and looks him over. “I should be asking you, any cuts or bru-ises?” “I’m fine. But it is mayhem on the streets.” Stomping, hurrying feet on the fire escape prompt Jack and Samantha to shut the windows and draw the curtains. “Jack, I can’t call my family. I don’t know what is going one. No one is answering; do you think they are okay?” “I don’t know.” “I need to go see them Jack.” Jack grabs his hair and turns around, his eyes dar-ting left and right trying to think things through. “Ummmm. Okay! Let’s go. Grab your bag and put everything we might need in my backpack. Then we’ll drive to your parents place and stay with them until this blows over.” Money, water bottles, a change of clothes, pas-sport, certificates, snack foods, a few eating utensils and two kitchen knives. “We need to stop by my place for my things too.” “I know. We’ll start heading to your car later when things die down.”        In front of Bill and Christine the second dead end. More contorted and splayed cars. An ig-nited car rams head-on into the jeep following Bill, propelling it through the light pole and dipping into the corner shop. Molten figures of people inside swaying and drooping. The Ford is blocked in. “Shit, people have gone mad!” “Let’s get out Bill, we’re stuck, Salina’s house is not far off, we can walk it.” Bill draws his gun and holds it tight. “Chris tine, get up on the sidewalk these SUV’s are real high, anything can crawl underneath. And be as quiet as you can, don’t talk unless you really have too. Follow me.”    The carnage is on full display on almost every surface. Blood is stained on cement, street corner light poles are bent over, and windows are blown out, fire from most every car. An oc-casional arm drooping over an edge or bent over body. A few of the bodies were lying on the-ir backs grotesquely disfigured with their clothes ripped and skin a cold marble white that is webbed over with black and purple lines; and faces look chewed over and becoming sickly, dark red stumps. Missing flesh here and there is common. Why?    Cannibals? There’s movement on the edge of Bill’s eye. Behind the tinted window of a car. Bill signals to Christine to circle around and away. They cross through a black iron gate under an arch and they end up on the apartment grounds. “I don’t know Salina’s room num-ber.” “We’ll cross to the front office then.” The sky has long been cloudy and grey. A woman still in her night gown stands in a doorway. Her long hair is drooped over; covering her face, but the obvious puddle of blood dripping from her mouth makes that fact unimportant. Jerks and twitches across her body. Bill draws the gun and aims. “Please move.” Just one shot, one drop of rain, one dead, one dying and one more. And another, and another, and another.        On the first floor the ground is left riddled with trash. Abandoned TV sets, safes, furniture. Money is strewn all around, and down the block a dirty, unshaven, old man in rags picks up as much as he can; by habit he pushes along a shopping cart laden with soda cans. Samant-ha’s car has been broken into; the glass was bashed in from the outside and her papers, pens and coupons tossed around the seats. Jack seats himself in the driver’s side of the Honda, and starts up. The gas tank is half full.    “We’ll need to refill the gas tank at some point, Samantha.”    “I know of a place down the street in some crowded neighborhood, I think it’s going to be empty there so we can grab some lighters and chips.”    “You mean steal?”

    “Unless you want to leave some money on the counter.”    “Grab a twenty from the ground.”    “Oh my god, Jack.”    When Samantha reached down to grab some bills a shadow under the Honda shifted to a side. “Here, forty dollars, you can leave a tip.” Out of fate or some form of sheer luck or un-luckiness the shadow latched on a rail of the car and is carried along; dragged over glass shards, asphalt and shrapnel.        Christine knocks on the door of Room 367. No answer. Bill hands over the boy to Christi-ne and takes a chance to pound the door three times. “Herbert are you in there? It’s me, your uncle Bill. Open up if you’re in.” Footsteps at last and the unbolting of the door, three bolts in total; Herbert cracks the door open just a thin sliver. “Stop your damn horse playing, and let us in.” The door opens up all the way revealing a short and chubby man, his unkept hair is cut short, smells hint at needing a bath and the Cheeto stains on his t-shirt are old. Slob. Herbert eyes his Uncle and Aunt briefly and checks the hallway, satisfied. “All right come on in. Who’s the kid?”    The little boy, around seven, unconscious in Christine’s arms was found earlier in the main office. On his upper arm, just past the shoulder, the woman from earlier had bitten him. The boy had just popped out from inside the office, when the woman jerked around and rushed at him, Bill fired a shot into her back but it did nothing to slow her down. A hard kick to the ribs Bill managed to get the woman off. Some doors broke open and more people stumble out, and instead of fighting Bill grabbed the boy and ran, letting Christine go first when she found Herbert’s apartment number.    “A boy we found downstairs. How have you been holding? Where’s your mother?” “Fine, went shopping.” Bill looks out the window and sees a slew of the pale faced people wande-ring aimlessly around. “What the fuck?” A black SUV is swerving and rampaging through the groups, smacking into several people before disappearing from view. Some had managed to grab hold of the SUV and began clawing at the windows.    “Hey! What the fuck! The kid is bleeding.” Turning his attention from the outside Bill walks over to the boy and looks over the bite.    “Yea, he was bitten down at the office; do you know where the First-Aid kit is? Christine check the bathroom, I know Salina always keeps one around.”    “Are you fucking stupid? He’s gonna turn on us and fucking kill us!”    “Shut up Herbert! He is dying here. Go grab the First-Aid kit and a damn towel!”    “You fucking retard, he gonna become a damn zombie! Kill the son of a bitch!” Herbert grabs the gun from Bill’s holster.    “Herbert, I am going to kick your ass if you don’t give me the gun right now.”    “No way, don’t you know what those things are? They’re fucking zombies, undead. If you don’t move right now I’ll fucking shoot you, I’m not going to die because of your stupid ass.”    Bill quickly grabs the gun with his left hand and jerks it to the side and with his right hand delivers a solid punch to Herbert’s cheek right when he pulls the trigger.    On the couch the boy is starting to shake. His chest convulses on an interval and the spasms are increasing. Herbert is crying and rolling on the floor holding his scream in and Bill holsters the gun again and straps it in. Christine found the First-Aid kit and is pouring al-cohol on the bite with one hand and picking up the gauze with the other. Herbert forgot to check the safety on the gun and didn’t realize the magazine was still empty. Herbert mumbles something but it comes out an incoherent mess, most likely about the boy and zombies. “I told Salina that you’re fricken spoiled and lazy. Idiot.” Down the hall, the sounds of several shuffling feet.    

    Shit. Shit. Shit. Runners. They came up from the sides and latched onto the car, their teeth snapping and bloody. The glass is cracked from the pounding fists. To the left of the sprawled half naked mass on the wind shield stands a concrete wall and before long the wall centers it-self. “Jessica, watch out for the wall!”        The door is cracking at the bolts, splintering. “Shit, you guys brought them here.” “Herbert shutup and get your fatass over here and push!” Instead the tub dashes for his room passing by Christine, going to help, and the epileptic boy on the sofa. Rotted and bony hands claw at the door and erupt from every cranny. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! “Help! Help, get him off me.” Behind Bill the boy has latched onto Herbert. Shit! “Move Christine!” Taking a step back Bill launches all his might on the door pressing everything on the other side up against the wall. “Let’s go!” Bill rends a gap between the crowd before anything could react and drags himself and his wife through and down the stairs. His shirt is torn to shreds.        “Jack wake up. Hurry.” Thud. Banging, banging and more banging fists. “Please Jack.” “Samantha?” The world is red. No. It’s just blood in his eye. And the blood on the wind shi-eld. Even when pinned by the car and the wall, the bald man still scratches and scraps at the hood of the car. “Jack we need to get out. I can’t open the door from my side.” “My head… Shit. Where to?” “Those apartments over there, look at the metal gate and the door’s open.” “Okay I’m ready, on the count of three we’ll run.” “Now!”    

6:00 PM        Jack, Samantha, Bill and Christine charge into the lobby of the complex. Their paths con-verge and they head up several flights of stairs towards the roof.    “Look Bill, a couple.”    “Are you guys okay?”    “I’m a little bit bashed up. Where are you going?”    “This way up the stairs.”    Behind them runners are quickly gaining. Bill turns around and whips out the gun. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. One tumbles down the stairs on her back. Another with a white blood sta-ined t-shirt and torn jeans staggers and slumps down against the wall with more blood stre-aming down his forehead. One bullet rips a cavity in the heart of a business man. The next flight of stairs has blood streaming down the steps. “Bill up there!” Jack grabs at the short Asian man and throws him over the railing. On the ground an old woman stares at the group of four people, unable to move, her body quakes from blood loss. Bam. Bam. Bam. More and more are crowding up the steps. Dozens and dozens, all dark and grey skinned. Christine slips on a step coated with blood. “Hey lady! Samantha, help me pull her up.” Christine struggles to her feet, but she is tired. Bill flings an empty magazine at the nearest person and knocks the woman on the head, falling off balance she crashes into the throng. “Shit!” Jack can see clearly the mass of bloodshot eyes. Closer and closer. With a yell Bill pulls back his foot and kicks into a head.        Run. “C’mon Samantha.” Jack grabs hold of her shoulder and pulls her with him up the stairs. “Hold on, what about her?” Jack pulls at the arm harder and Samantha doesn’t strug-gle. Bill continues to yell as he tries to fight off the horde and soon all Jack can hear are yells of pain. They reach the top of the building and break through the door to the roof. Thick, massive plumes of smoke reach high into the sky. Facing away from the setting sun the dar-ker walls of buildings light up from gunfire. In the distance a helicopter lifts off from a Fortu-ne 500 company and desperate people cling to the landing bars. Some are kicked off and fall

down, and one man, who saw the door behind him break, open jumps off the roof to fall short of the bar while his coworkers are slaughtered. The deafening rings of alarms cover the creak of Jack and Samantha’s own door being opened.    

THE END            

VII - COLONY        Log Entry Created: August 4th, 47 AC (After Colony), 1308 Hours    Burst Transmission Received on August 7th, 47 AC, 1448 Hours    Origin: Theta Andromeda, Colony Ship XXVII (Freya)    Comm Buoy ATH3001-52# receiving…        Decoding…. Complete. Rendering in Chronological order.         Transcript Begins -    

Entry 1        “This is Corporal Blake Thornton, Medic of the 45th Freyan Colonial Defence Garrison… we’re under attack by a massive invasion of… something!”        [Entry is interrupted by a metal creaking, and machine noises. There are several loud, hol-low thumps. It sounds like a vehicle is being rocked.]        “They’re coming… if I survive this, I’ll give a full sitrep. We don’t have much time, so I beg whoever’s out there listening… please, send help! Corporal Blake out.”        [End Entry 1]    

Entry 2        “Corporal Blake, Medic of the 45th Freyan CDG again. I’ve survived so far. I’ve been lucky. They… they haven’t learned how to climb stairs. I… I should explain the situation. Two weeks ago, we experienced an unexpected meteor shower. We lost a few hundred colo-nists, and more were dying from the loss of atmosphere we were leaking like a sieve… We had to find a planet with an oxygenated atmosphere, to replenish our supplies. We found one at Theta Andromeda.”        “Basic scans didn’t show any life on the planet, and we thought the scrubbers would get everything that the scanners didn’t pick up. The Brass should’ve run the screening process properly. But I guess we were desperate. We took in all the oxygen we could.”        “I don’t know exactly what happened afterwards. I think, maybe the meteor shower was carrying some sort of weird virus, or cosmic radiation or something. It reacted with whatever was in the air we took on. I was on duty when the first cases came in. Private Jenkins came in with a bleeder, yelling about some idiot gouging him for no reason. I patched him up and sent him to the bunk for some rest. When I checked his vid-corder, I recognized the corpse I’d

tagged from the accident, walking towards Jenkins. He’d died from the cold when the life support went out in his section. But… here he was, walking again.”        “I went to check on Jenkins. His situation had deteriorated suddenly. He was running a ri-diculously high fever, nothing I’d ever seen before. I immediately declared quarantine for him, but by that time it was too late. All the victims who’d died were suddenly running riot… and they were spreading-damn!”        [Entry is interrupted by sounds of movement, and apparent loud moaning quickly cut off.]        “Looks like one of them found their way up here. Where was I… oh, yes. The dead were walking again. I mean, literally. All the dead bodies I’d helped identify were suddenly up and about again. It was all over the media. My CO received orders from HQ to perform riot cont-rol duties. I went out with one of the units, and I was the only one dressed in full battle gear. My squaddies ridiculed me… they’re… they’re all dead now, or worse. I’m not proud for surviving though.”        [Several soft sounds can be heard in the background. The entry is interrupted by sounds of movement and several gunshots.]        “They’ve found me again. I’ve got to keep moving. The rooftops are my only safe refuge now. Corporal Blake out.”        [End Entry 2]    

Entry 3        “Corporal Blake here. I… don’t know how things have come to this. Our comm. net’s down… I can’t patch through to fleet command, I don’t even know if we’re the only case! But… but I can’t let this thing spread. Whatever it is…”        [Entry pauses, presumably as the Corporal is ensuring his safety.]        “Whoever’s listening, I should fill you in on the events that transpired. After we’d encoun-tered the mob of… zombies, that’s the only thing that’ll describe it... It was a bloodbath. We’d brought non-lethal weaponry, tear gas, light barricades, the usual. Fat lot of use that was. T…They just overran our lines like we weren’t even there. Morgan went down first, with some of the most… horrible… things we’d heard. That squeal… screaming… like a pig at a slaughterhouse. I don’t think he was even thinking like a human anymore. The loudhailer he was carrying… maybe that had something to do with it. They came at the rest of us soon after. None of the weapons we’d brought were effective.”        [Entry pauses as heavy breathing ensues. Cause unknown.]        “I… I tried to get some of the injured back to the transport but I knew it didn’t matter. I just… well, nobody’s going to charge me for cowardice now. I just needed an excuse to run.”        “I just hid there. For hours. I heard the commotion outside. Could hear my squaddies scre-aming for help… slamming on the door… crying, begging. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t open

the doors to save them, or they’d come in too. I admit it, but all I’m doing is delaying the ine-vitable.”        “I stayed in that transport for nearly a whole day before I got into the driver’s compart-ment. It was a horrible sight. I’ve seen battlefields less ugly than that. Most of my unit was scattered across the floor… walls… the transport itself… but the things had gone.”        “I… dared a peek outside. The place was an abattoir. But that wasn’t the worst thing. The bodyparts that littered the area were… alive. They were freaking moving on their own! I tho-ught I’d only seen these things in horror vids, but these were real.”        “Something grabbed me. I freaked out. Pulled it off me… shot it with my pistol till my clip went dry. It was Pvt. Jaeger’s hand. I recognized the engagement ring on it. It had come alive too… I think it had been holding on to the door frame when the owner was separated from it… oh God.”        “They came, a tide of the dead. They swarmed around my transport like I had a beacon on me. I slammed the door shut, crawled into the driver’s bay and slammed on the accelerator. It wasn’t like in a tracked vehicle, where everything gets pulped. They just… crunched, and splattered when I hit them. And it was bumpy. I… I must’ve been screaming, because… my throat was hoarse by the time I regained my composure. Anyway, I found myself outside the base…”        “Damn. I think they know I’m here. They’re gathering around the building. I’ve got to go. Corporal Blake out.”        [End Entry 3]    

Entry 4        “Corporal Blake again. I… I’m nearing the Bridge. I’m safe for now, so I’ll continue whe-re I left off.”        “I entered the base. I was sure there’d be survivors in the secure compound. But then I saw the gates… there was nobody left alive inside, I was sure. But I needed supplies. I braved one of the barracks. They had an armory and a small storage depot.”        “I gathered my supplies without incident. I think I ran over most of the zombies near the front gates, where everything went to hell… maybe everyone got called to the front. I chec-ked in on Jenkins next. Maybe I could learn something.”        “These things are intelligent, the bastards. Jenkins was… well, one of them, for want of a better word. But he wasn’t like the mindless… husks. Jenkins had been taken whole… I think the only reason why they could pick his brains was because it was still alive when they took him. The bastard tried talking to me. I have an audio log here…”        [Begin playback of Audio Log, attachment #00811-A]        “…ghmm…gruugle… go…. Let… you…me-we…us… go-out-free…”    

    “Screw that, you sonuvabitch! What the hell’s going on out there!? Who’re your friends!? What do you want from us??”        “…bitch…. We…. Are not… no gender-sex… We… require survival… we want-request-demand… free… Colony…”        “What? What colony!? You bastards want this colony!? You can’t have it you freaking bodysnatchers!”        [Sounds of containment breeches being released. Several gunshots. The thump of somet-hing hitting the ground. It is presumed Corporal Blake has shot the former Pvt Jenkins.]        [End Audio Log.]        “They’re smart. They must be some sort of micro-biotic intelligence. Whatever they are, I can’t let them off this ship. I’ve decided to scuttle it into the nearest sun. So far Jenkins has been the only really intelligent one I’ve seen. The rest must not have figured out much about us yet. I can’t risk that.”        “So far they haven’t learned how to climb stairs or ladders yet. I’ve been using that to my advantage. I’d decided to head to the bridge, chart a course into the nearest sun. I… I don’t believe there’s any other safe way of doing this. I’m almost there, and I’m making this log as my eulogy. It’s not safe here. I’ll be back. Corporal Blake out.”        [End Entry 4]    

Entry 5        [The entry begins with several loud, indeterminate sounds. It resolves itself into the sounds of something being scraped along the floor, then a voice.]        “Come on you bastards! Get some of this!”        [Several Gunshots]        “You’re not taking me alive! You’re not taking me at all!”        [Several loud shots can be heard. Corporal Blake is apparently using a rifle. A pattern of running, shooting, and taking cover ensues for several minutes. The entry is cut off abruptly after a loud and particularly ear-splitting sound hypothesized to be Corporal Blake scraping against a rough surface.]        [End Entry 5]    

Entry 6        “Corporal Blake again. I’ve just managed to dodge most of the remainder of the 12th Fre-yan Colonial Marines. Damn it, some of them must’ve been infected live. They’ve learned how to SHOOT! -*deleted expletive*-ers are getting smarter now! Suddenly they’ve all lear-

ned how to run and throw rocks at me! They must be communicating somehow, without our vocal organs.”        “I’ve found a safe spot for now, and I’m watching them. Some of them are putting things into their mouths… the ones still intact enough, anyway. It looks like some of the host bodies are faring better than others. I think… they’ve latched onto the concept of eating.”        [There’s a pause, then a sound made by Corporal Blake.]        “Yech, ohh…. God! They’re eating their own dead now! Hold on… if they’ve realized they need food and they’re huge colonies of smart bacteria… damn, they’re consolidating their forces! Time’s running short. I’ve got to get to the bridge before they learn how to fly this thing!”        [Sound of boots striking the floor in a run. Entry ends.]        [End Entry 6]    

Entry 7        [Entry is similar to Entry 5. It appears Corporal Blake has accidentally set off the voice re-corder again.]        “Captain? Is that you? Show yourself!”        [There is a hum in the air. Presumably Corporal Blake is in the maintenance shafts leading to the Bridge area.]        “…gurgle… Captain… is us.”        “Not you too! Damn it, is there nobody alive on this ship!?”        “… we are… alive.”        “Don’t give me that shit, you assholes! You killed everyone I know and care about, take over their bodies, and now you’re talking zombies!”        “…we… bring… life… Zombies… we do… not under-stand…not dead…”        “Life!? You’re all rotting corpses! You’re already dead! You’re all -*deleted expletive*-ing dead, you hear me!? You’re all dead if I have to kill you all myself!”        [There is a wet, rhythmic gurgling sound. It is conjectured to be laughter.]        “…ghar ghar ghar ghar… not…. possible… we are… many…”        “Now you’re laughing! -*deleted expletive*- this!”        [A single gunshot. It is drowned out by the sound of the humming machinery.]    

    [End Entry 7]    

Entry 8        “It’s me again. I found a system monitoring terminal. I’m patching in.”        [Soft feedback sounds of a keyboard being used. A breath is sucked in, several soft curses are uttered.]        “Number of detected lifeforms… 12,000… God damn it, it’s going down fast! There was a population of 1.2 million on this ship just a few days ago! I… I should… no, whoever’s liste-ning, please, listen well. There’s no hope for us. Even as I speak that number’s counting down fast. None of us are going to make it out of here alive. I’m almost at the bridge. Listen, I just shot Captain Matsumoto, commodore of the ship… I hope they don’t learn what’s go-ing to happen to them. 11,820… God save us all. Corporal Blake out.”        [End Entry 8]    

Entry 9        [Heavy breathing. Combat Suit sensor data shows elevated adrenaline, endorphin levels and heart rate, but also heavy loss of blood and deteriorating vital signs.]        “This… is it. I’m done for. But I made it. They’re pounding on the door. But they won’t get in. I’ve sealed the controls. They’ve learned so fast since they got here. I got blindsided by one of them. They’ve learned to use these bodies as if it were their own. They’ve learned how to run, damn it all, and tackle like a football player!”        [Laboured breathing. Sensors show vital signs are falling. There is the sound of cloth drag-ging and the input of data.]        “There. I’ve locked in the… coordinates to the sun… and locked out all users. These are my… final… words… urgaah! You will not take me!! Not yet!”        [Vital signs show abnormal spiking and elevated core body temperature. Signs of the pur-ported Contagion are present in Corporal Blake’s body.]        “If anyone out there can hear me… please… we cannot let this contagion spread! Bombard Theta Andromeda… with Pyron Bombs, destroy its atmosphere! There is… no hope left for Freya… don’t let us… die for nothing… the colony… we…”        [There is a nearly inhuman scream that goes on for fifteen seconds before Coporal Blake’s vital signs flatline.]        “We Are… Colony.”        [End Entry 9]        Colony Ship XXVII’s (Freya) destruction visually confirmed by Colony Escort Fleet Cru-iser USC Eventia

    No escape pod launches detected. No survivors recovered.    Damage estimate: Complete Loss of Colony Ship XXVII (Freya)    Meteorite Samples recovered under level 4 Biohazard Quarantine        [Coded Message forwarded to Earth High Command, Pax Intelligence]        [Estimated cost of loss of Colony Freya: 13 billion galactic credits]    [Estimated revenue from harvest of containable biological warfare agent: 36 billion galac-tic credits]    [Priority G-X-001-41A confirmation received]    [Dispatching Special Tasks Biohazard Research and Recovery team to Theta Andromeda]        [Records Classified: Top Secret]    [Archiving under ####-XX####]    

THE END            

VIII - DEAR DIARY        I was lying on a cold metal floor, with no idea how I got here. I couldn't remember who I was. My head hurt bad, the pain was almost unbearable. I had to do something about it, or el-se I would've gotten insane.    I got up, and looked to see if anyone's around. The place looked hostile, and there was no-body in sight. Everything was dead quiet.    I reached a medical lab, where I found some morphine, and made use of it. The drug cal-med me down, enough so I can focus my mind on a different task.    I went looking for other people, when I suddenly heard a bang. Followed by another, and another.    It seemed to be coming from a deeper level, so I went in its direction. I soon reached the source of the bangings. It was coming from a big vault-like structure. But what is making that noise? I decided to open the door, being fully aware that whatever is inside might not have the best intentions.    It was like I've opened death's door. There were horribly mutilated bodies lying in a big puddle of blood, with small pieces of flesh floating. But the bodies were very much lifeless. I stepped into the vault, and spoted three persons, wearing lab coats. Two male, one female. They didn't appear to pose a threat, though the scenery posed a sharp contrast.    "Thank God. We thought we'll never get out of here.", said one of them.    "I told you it was a good idea to bang on that door.", noded another.    "What's your name, kind sir?"    "I.. I can't remeber my name. I woke up less than an hour ago, on a floor. Something must've blacked me out. I can't remeber anything about who I am, or what I'm doing here."    "Well, my name is Dr. Rick Nauman, and these are Dr. Megan Richmond, and Dr. Michael Harp."    Megan: "Your head was hit pretty badly."    "..don't say. I manged to find some.. painkillers, but that won't hold me for long.. Anyway, what is this place? Where am I?"    Megan: "You're in the former Salem Nuclear Missile Silo, now known as The Hive Faci-lity."

    "What happened here?"    Mike: "Zombies, that's what happened."    Rick: "Well, zombies had breached the upper levels of the facility. Many took refuge here, but were already wounded, and had to be sacrificed, resulting in what you see here.."    "So, YOU killed these people?"    Mike: "Calm down. There is no way to revert the effects of infestation by a zombie.. We did what he had to do. It was necessary."    Rick: "My friend, I imagine this must be very confusing to you, but I must insist that we get to the communications chamber, and call for help."    "Okay.. Let's go."    Right then, we had no guns, or any means to fight back, in the event of an unpleasant surp-rise..        I was beginning to feel more and more tired, as we climbed each level.    "How much further?"    Rick: "Just one level up!"        In the end, we reached our destination.    "Is this it?"    Rick: "Yes."    Mike: "Let's check to see if the radio is still working corectlly."    "Well?"    Mike: "That's a relief. Everthing seems to be working good. I'll attempt to call for an emer-gency evac."    "Ok."    Mike: "Mayday, mayday. This is The Hive station, do you read?"    A voice responded..    Operator: "Yes, we read you. What's the situation down there?"    Mike: "Zombies have raided us. There are only 4 of us left, including me. We request im-mediate evac."    Operator: "Well, then we can't evac you if the LZ isn't safe."    Mike: "I think the zombies have left. Please, sir, you have to help us, you have to get us out of here!"    Operator: "That can't be correct, but ok, damn it. We'll send in an evac squad, stay put."    The doctors cheered at the sound of these words, though I remained hesitant..    "Don't get on your high horses yet, people."    Then, we had nothing left to do but wait for the cavalry.. with or without zombies lurking here.        Megan and Rick came to attend me with the long requested medical attention, while Mike stayed by the radio.    Rick: "Is your memory doing any better?", he asked, while cleaning up my wound.    "No. I still can't remeber a god damn thing.."    Megan: "I'm gonna ask you to stay still.. This might hurt a little."    "Ahhh.." Having alcohol torn on an open injury to the head, is not exactly the best thing that can happen to you.    Megan: "That's it. You're bandaged, and good to go."    I took a look around, for something that may trigger my memory. I couldn't find anything, but I did find an empty jurnal, and a pen, so I decided to document my experience, up to this

point. As I wrote the first few lines, my memories started to catch-up with me. And they we-ren't memories of cheer..        "I remember.", I said, without much conscious thought.    Upon hearing this, Rick rushed me with questions.    Rick: "What do you remember?"    And almost more "generous" than a patient under hypnosis, I spilled everything..    "My name is Adam Saul, I had a wife and a little girl. Both burned alive, to avoid infestati-on. Now.. I have nothing."    Rick: "Oh my.. And what are you doing here?"    "I am responsabile with the security of level 2."    Rick: "Adam, what happened?"    "Security breach. Zombies, came in out of nowhere. We weren't ready for them. Every-body was running away, in panic. They slaughtered lots of people, at will."    Rick: "What happend to you? Why were you lying on that floor?"    "I.. was hit hard by one of the zombies, and passed out."    I could tell from the way he acted, that Rick was having frightening thoughts, going thro-ugh his head.    He lift my bandage a little bit, and stared at the wound for a couple of seconds.. enough to reach his conclusion. He signaled Megan to get out of the room, and resumed talking to me.    Rick: "Oh my God.. Adam, listen to me, there is a fair posibility that you have been inf.."    Before he could finish that sentence, I felt a huge pain in my abdomen, as if my intestines were torn apart, and I throwed up blood all over the floor.    I was feeling sick and disorientated.. But after I recovered from this, I realized that Rick ran away.    That old bastard was gonna let me here for dead, while he's making his way to the chooper.        "They're not leaving me here.."    I now knew level 2 better than anyone, so I made my move, and sprinted to catch them.    I managed to get there, just a few moments ahead of them..    "What happened? Why did you leave your patient, doc?"    Megan: "Oh God.."    Mike: "Listen, we can work this out."    "It's beyond that, now.."    As I finished that sentence, I dropped to my knees, and almost felt the pain of death..    Rick: "Are you, eh, alright?"    I looked into his eyes, and said "..now.. you care to know, doctor?"    I noticed shadows moving little behind me. There was horror on everyone's faces..    Mike: "Adam? Just relax, ok? The chooper is right outside. Let's get ourselves rescued, al-right? Help us, please!"    Then, I felt a foreign pressence, trying to take over me..        I made contact with another consciousness... The Director.    He immediatly put me on my feet, and guided my actions more throughly than I ever co-uld.    "..it is done.", the bloodshed was over.        I rushed into a toilet, and crashed on the floor.    I'm looking at my hands, and see pieces of my skin starting to fall, like from a puzzle. By now, I lost all my hair, and dropped more weight, than I did in my entire life.

    Yet, my mind is free, and I'm left alone, for now..        My arm is getting tired. I think I'll stop, now.    

THE END            

IX - INFECTED        I liked some of the blood of my hand... How the Hell could I have been bitten? I holstered my still smoking 357 and pulled back my left sleeve to get a better look at the wound. My left hand stung, but the pain was nothing compared to the shock of disbeleif than ran down my spine and twisted into my stomach. The deep gash and teeth marks beneath my thumb throb-bed as it oozed more and more blood. It didn't look too bad. I can't imagine seeing this as mo-re than a minor wound... But I've seen others turn from less. Barry cut his ankle jumping over a fence then got infected blood in by it kicking over a dead infected's sitting corpse.        I wrapped up my left hand as best I could. Luckily, he didn't get my good hand. I looked at the poor bastard laying slumped against the wall, with chunks of his brain matter settling into the already stained carpet. I still don't know how this happened. I've fought my way out of hundreds of situations, the luckiest of which consisted of me pushing my way through a hal-lway full of infected without so much as a scratch. We lost Marry and Joel that day...        "Ron!" a feminine voice called from outside. "Was that a gunshot? Are you okay?" I was pulled back to my senses standing over a dead zombie in the bedroom of some stranger's ho-use.        "Yeah, I'm fine." I yelled back. "Found the owners of the place. Looks like a suicide pact gone bad in here" Judging this from the dead broad in the bed, and the familiar packs of go-vernment issued cyanide pills on either night stand. The vacant right side of the bed, and the capsule next to the open package lead me to beleive that I had been killed by a coward.        I wrapped my hand up as best as I could to try to conceal the wound, then attempted to continue my search of whatever I could find. I stumbled around distracted and unfocused. My chest was heavy. I felt as if I needed to greive for my soon-to-be-taken life. I fought back my tears then suddenly sobered up.        There's no way I could be infected. Barry was sick almost imediately after he made con-tact. Besides my hand, which had now dulled to a simering sting, I feel fine. I pulled my jac-ket sleeve over my hand, then proceeded out of the mostly unsearcged house, into the day light.        Katie was waiting for me out on the sidewalk, with the wind blowing her brown hair across her face. I aproached her then she swung her arms around my neck and kissed me.        "You had me worried there for a sec. Did you find anything interesting?"        "You know, it was awefully depressing in there. O'l hubby didn't hold up his end of the bargain and was left to feed on his woman for the rest of eternity- Or at least until I walked in

there and popped his head like a cherry." If we hadn't all learned to be morbid, we would ha-ve all gone insane weeks ago. "Where's Lance and Babe?"        "They're in the two-story across the couldesack." She pointed at the ONLY two-story on the street.        "Which one is it? I'm still not sure." I said sarcastically.        "Come on you doof." I winced as she took my hand. She didn't notice.        A tall, masculine black man with a shouldered twelve guage, and a short beaming hispanic male emerged laughing from the front door, betweem the carrying a large blue ice chest.        "Alright. what have you guys found this time?"        "let's show'em, Babie!" The latino smirked, setting down his end of the load. Babe follo-wed.        "I hear ya'." said the 6'6" black man in a pitch which was just sharp of the brown note.        They opened the chest. It was chaulk full of full unopened bottles of "Bourbon, Whiskey, Gin, Some other stuff, and," Lance picked up a bottle of %100 agave "tequila!"        "You are such a stereotype, Lance." Katie remarked noticably unamused.        "Awe, but we gonna have a party tonight, bruthas! Whoop!" Babe said. They closed the cooler victoriously and continued proceeding towards the truck.        "How many houses we got left on this street?" I asked getting back to business.        "Just the two at the end of the street." Katie replied. Her job on these raids is to stand in the street and keep look-out while people like me Babe and Lance searched the houses. We don't worry about it too much anymore, but we used to sometimes get pinned in houses by packs of wandering infected. Most of the infected that are left are trapped inside the houses now and even then they are few in between. We still have the threat of bandits who occaisonally like drive by and jack our loot.        The last two houses came and went, uneventfully. We didn't find anything too exciting. Lance found some clean underwear, good for him.        The sky was bright orange by the time we started heading back to base. Katie was driving, I rode shotgun, while Babe and Lance rode in the bed, guarding their precious booty.        It was beautiful. The sunset. Heading west, it was all I could see except the silhouettes of abandoned cars and the Phoenix skyline in the distance. It, for a moment, took my mind off of me hand. I felt the greif coming back and began to wonder if this were the last sunset I wo-uld ever see. I could feel the tears coming and the emotion built up in my chest... ...but then I realised-        "Katie, pull over now."

        "What's the matter?" She asked- I vomited. All over the dashboard and the floor between my legs.        Katie swerved, and almost completely lost control before she stopped the truck.        "Holy shit, man!?" Screamed Lance from the back of the truck as I opened the door and fell out onto the still VERY hot asphault. I raised myself to my hands and knees and began to vomit some more.        "Oh my God, Ron, are you okay?" Asked Katie from the driver's seat almost in a panick, clearly shocked.        "Nobody ever listens to me!" Exclaimed Lance. "My Nana always told me to never eat fo-od out of a deformed can. It means it's bad, but they still serve it up for us anyway!"        "You gotta let it all out, brutha," came the low, soothing voice of Babe, "If ya' got food po-isoning, it's best to let it all out."        By this time I was dry heaving. three heaves in a row, nothing came up. On the fourth he-ave, I got a mouth full. I spat it out. It was blood.        I picked myself up and carried myself back to my seat. I was already covered in it, so I didn't worry about sitting in a seat stained with my own fresh puke. After reasuring every-body that I was fine, we set off again for the camp.        I remembered that son-of-a-bitch back in that bedroom. What a low-life peice of scum. He had his wife kill herself and just sat therelike a coward and let the airborn infection get him? That fucking peice of shit! Because of his sorry little bitch ass, to cowardly to kill himself, le-aves his wife to die alone and subsequently dooms, of all the people left, me, along with him, and his god-damned peice of shit virus... I wish I could have been there to kill him myself.        The light was nearly gone; only a sliver of daylight remained. We pulled into what used to be the parking lot of a supermarket. Now it was a fortified outpost in hell. Chain-link, razor-wire, watch towers, and spotlights, all lined the parimeter of the complex. inside, are tents and makeshift buildings which people reside in and try to run as close to normal lives they can.        There are a few hundred of us. Three or four hundred something is what I think I heard last count... Some people come and go in small groups. Some come permanantly and some go with hopes of finding something better. Some of those return, and some don't. Whether they perished or actually did find something better, it doesn't matter to us, because for us, this is as good as it's gonna get.        We get running water from pumps that pump water out of a nearby cannal. Taking no chances, we filter all of the water we use. The electricity works from a combination of wind, solar, and gasoline powered genorators. I used to think gas would be in short supply, but the gas siphoners always come back with tank loads every week or so they go out.    

    As far as living goes, most people have to chip in. The most common jobs don't require le-aving the camp and maintain it from the inside. A large portion of us, including myself, syste-matically raid the surrounding neighborhoods looking for medical supplies, unspoiled food, guns and ammo- whatever we can use. An optimistic group of people have recently began trying to raise a farm in a field just a few miles from the camp. Honestly, I don't think they're going to come up with much, but since they're not hurting anybody and we can support them, they're ok by my book. And of it works out for them, then hell, it'll make all of our lives easi-er.        As far as the smallest number of us go, they just wander around aimlessly, just like some of infected out there, alive, but somehow dead inside. They just live enough to be alive, but sometimes they manage to find ways to kill themselves. It's not unusual to find one of these lot dead with shards of glass shoved into their wrist, or on the sidewalk after plummeting off a building. Most don't blame them for anything. I wouldn't want to live through what these people have lived through either...        It was dinner time. We talked with the other raiding parties about what loot was recovered from where and whether or not they killed any infected. Some stories were obvioulsy exage-rated, as one of the men bragged, "This one came out of the closet at me! No joke, she must have weighed three hundred pounds! It knocked my gun out of my hand, and I was lucky I grabbed my knife, because this fat bitch had me on the ground biting for my neck! So what do I do? I stick that pig in the side of the head!"        There was a day where events like that were an everyday thing for me. That was when it was just me Barry, Marry, and Joel. Then we found Pete and Katie. Then we ran into Babe, Glenn, and Lance, who, in turn lead us to this encampment.        I began to feel sick. Barry, Glenn, Pete, they all became infected for some retarded reason or another. But how could I? Aren't I different some how? There is no way I can become in-fected. I am me! I have a history! I love Katelyn Morris... My name is Ronald Everwood... I survived this long to go out like this!?        "Hey, Ron!" a voice from down the table came, "You've hardly touched your canned veg-gies!"        "If you'd have seen him on the ride back today," interrupted Lance, "You wouldn't blame him!"        "Excuse me..." I said, leaving the table, heading towards the restroom.        "That's it! I ain't eating anymore of this shit!" I heard Lance yelling as I left the tent. I ente-red the supermarket heading towards the restrooms. It was vacant in here, because the indoors were used mostly for storage of perishable items, not to mention the place was usually kept dark, and these days, you learn to avoid dark indoor places.        I found the restrooms and began to open the men's room door when I heard someone thro-wing up in the ladie's room behind me. My heart sank. It couldn't be her. the odds are way to low. I stepped inside the mens room, and just before the door closed, I saw her flowing brown hair whisk through my crack of vision. I sank to the white tile floor. There has to be an expla-nation. We both ate the same food, maybe we've got the same sick! Maybe I am immune. In

the beggining, they said everybody would get infected with the airborn strain, and a good number of us survived. Now they say nobody is immune to the direct contact strain, and I am the first to confirm they are wrong! Even if I did get infected, there is no way it could spread from my blood to my saliva that quick!        I doubled over and threw up. I don't want to imagine Katie going through this.        This is all my fault. I was not cautious enough when I entered that house. I knew I was bit-ten, but I didn't tell anybody. I carelessly let her kiss me when I left the house. And now, I ha-ve compromised the security of the camp and put everybody at risk and doomed the person I love most. I don't want to imagine Katie going through this. This must be what hell is like...        I must tell somebody-        As I tried to get up, every gut in my body turned inside out. The pain was excrutiating be-yond what any words can explain. I reached for my gun, but it wasn't there. in desparation I plowed my head into the walls and floor praying to strike a mortal blow before it was too la-te. I screamed in agony as I began to vomit blood into my hands. I rubbed my bile soaked hands into my eyes to block out the light, the fucking light! The stinging pain lessened the agony. As I regained my vision, I was looking at my hands. My horrible, horrible hands, they just irritate so fucking much! I begin to knaw on them, chewing through the bandage on my left hand, and removing the pinky on my right.        My teeth! They began to... I don't want to say hurt, because they didn't... They felt irritated, in such a way that the only way to sooth them was to bite. I bit as hard as I could; my teeth began to crack under tho pressure of my jaw, but I need more! I bit off my tongue and began to chew on it. The pain didn't bother me as much as the pain in my teeth didn't go away. I tri-ed to swallow it, but I choked and coughed it out onto the floor. Is I began to tear the flesh off the back of my arm, I heard the water in the sink running. That little fucking hissing sound... insceasent... irritating.        I smacked my bloody fists against the faucet to make it shut up, but all it did was get lo-uder! I saw my face in the mirror. My eyes were bloodshot, and blood oozed from my mouth. I hated it. I ran my head into the reflection and the glass of the mirror fell to the counter. As the last shard pinged into the sink, I heard the door open, I shot my eyes over to the source to see Lance standing there with a bottle of his tequila in his hand. We made eye contact and both of us were frozen.        It was completely silent. I couldn't hear the sink. Another insceasent noise began to overta-ke it. The sound of him breathing... His heartbeat... I cound't take much more! If he couldn't stop pissing me off, I knew I had to silence him myself! Then I heard the son of a bitch blink. That was it.        I sprung at him. He dropped his bottle and turned screaming to the door, but just as he grabbed the handle, I took him down by his legs and brought him to the floor. I climbed on top of him holding him stomach down to the floor. I beat his back with my fists, and as he screamed I bit his neck. The feeling of tearing his flesh away momentarily quelled my irrita-ted teeth.    

    I heard his pulse changed and his breathing stopped momentarily. It didn't annoy me as much so I got up off him and left looking for another way to please my teeth. I found my way outside through the back of the store. There I helped myself to a couple of the drifters. The first one saw what I was, but I took her down before she could scream. The second stumbled upon me and the first, but he kneeled and begun to sob loudly and didn't resist as I kicked him onto his back and tore out his throat.        I can't say how many I went through, but none of them helped my teeth. There was one person however, who saw me and right away, she begun to scream and run. I chased her down and put a stop to her fairly quickly. By this time, some of the loners I had infected were up and searching for remedies of their own hells.        We began to make our way tent by tent, infecting sleeping man woman and child alike. Up until then, it has been rather quiet. Then the alarms started blaring, followed shortly by guns-hots.        Following the sounds of the screams, we made our way to the meal tent, where Lance had been busy attempting to satisfy the hunger in his teeth. Judging by the screams and gunshots outside, there were quite a few infected around here.        A few men ran into the tent and aimed their guns at us. I, filled with fear, ran out the oppo-site entrance, as they opened fire. The spotlights were all truned into the encampment now. Running from shadow to shadow, I made my way back into the supermarket to escape the lights. Once inside, I heard a familiar woman's scream. It was Katie; and she wasn't infected.        How could that bitch do this to me? I'm in hell and she's over there trying to avoid us? I'll fucking infect her myself!        Aching with rage, I made my way through the nearly pitch black store following the so-unds of her screams and the pattering feet and growls of persuing infected.        I heard three gunshots, then silence. If one of those other infected has gotten her...        I aproached a lit doorway. in the light of the door lay three dead infected. In the doorway itself stood a security guard.        "I think I got them all," he said with his back to me as I aproached, "You're safe now." He turned just in time for me to wrap my left hand around his neck and I grabbed his bottem jaw with my right hand.        He tried to scream as he dropped his gun to try to pry my fingers from his neck. I let go with my left hand, then grabbed his upper jaw. It took all of my strength to pry his jawbone down, tearing it from it's socket, the slamming his skull, crushing it into the wall.        I then turned my attention to the sobbing woman in the corner. Her breath, heartbeat and wimpering had to stop. Then she said, "No, Ron, Not you too!" I slowly aproached her, bi-ding my time, trying to calculate how sweet tearing her flesh from her bones would be. Then she said, "How could you, Ron? I love you!" I stood over her, saliva and blood dripped from my mouth. I began to reach for her, then she said, "Ron, I'm pregnant."    

    For one glorious moment, I became human again. I could remember how wonderful life was before the outbreak. I rememebered the day we first met, and how we used to laugh and try to enjoy ourselves on our day off. I remembered comforting her as she cried the day Barry killed Pete after he became infected. Even now, as I am about to kill her, she still loves me and is even going to bare my child...        I tried to say her name... "Haaaayeeee..." but I had no tongue...        "I'm sorry to do this to ya, brutha..." came a low, soothing voice from behind, and that was the last thing I ever heard.    

THE END            

X - THE MAN WHO FOUGHT December 3rd 2008Sturgeon bay, WI

        Christian awoke with a pain in his right leg it was finally almost healed up from his motor cross accident but still ached once in a while. Christian slowly rose out of bed and checked his phone, it was 10:38 A.M. and it was freezing but he had to get his ass moving he had an hour to get to his girlfriends house it was their 1 year anniversary and he would not be late. So Christian hopped in the shower, grabbed a piece of toast, and made his way out the door. He almost got into his car when he remembered he had to bring his dog because his parents were out of town visiting distant family members, Christian opted out of the trip for obvious reasons. So Christian walked back into his house and started yelling aurora! Where are you girl? C’mon we gotta go! He walked into the kitchen, Checked the living room and made his way up to the master bedroom and saw aurora sprawled out in the blankets c’mon girl get yo-ur lazy ass outta bed, aurora groaned got out of the bed stretched and they both made their way down stairs and outside. Aurora made it to the car 3 times faster mostly because she was three years old and hyper. But was the most beautiful German shepherd he had ever seen. They both jumped in the car and it rumbled to life and they pulled into the snow filled road.        Christian checked the time 11:30 A.M. “nice” he said just enough time to get there. Chris-tian accelerated to 60 mph on the highway a stupid thing to do in winter but who cares? I ha-ve somewhere to be Christian thought to himself, 20 minutes passes and aurora was getting tired of being in the car,’ just hold on girl were almost there, getting bored himself Christian turned up the volume on the radio ‘nothing but static” “Damn” Christian said he slammed his fist down on top of the radio and a shaky voice came on there is a virus………….Everyone dead……………. Then just more static “god damn piece of shit Christian said. He wondered what that broadcast was? Probably some new weird talk show "whatever” he said to himself. Now they were getting closer to Christians girlfriends house, Christian pulled off the highway onto a series of country back roads they passed the trailer park where they lived 10 years ago, then aurora suddenly freaking out barking and moving around rapidly Christian tried to calm her down but it was no use she was in his way and the car started swerving and sliding side-ways on the icy roads, and then the car tires caught a grip on the asphalt and the car flipped three times landing upside down Christian slammed his head on the steering wheel during the crash and felt dizzy. And struggled to stay awake he reached over and touched auroras tail she looked over at him barking and whimpering trying to get out ‘thank god your alive girl’

he said and reached over and unsnapped his seatbelt Christian fell upside down and landed on his neck and pain shot down his spine ouch! God damn it! Christian then kicked the side win-dow hard with both his feet he felt an intense pain in his bad leg he screamed with pain he then kicked it again it started to crack he kicked it once more then it shattered. He slowly crawled out with aurora behind him then aurora took off into the blizzard barking Aurora! Aurora! Christian screamed fuck! Christian started to run but felt tired and weak and fell onto his knees blood dripped from his forehead into the snow. Then Christian heard a man scream and run out of the woods that were next to the road, he was covered with blood he stopped 20 feet away from Christian sniffing and snarling his eyes and mouth were filled with blood, ‘what the hell”? Sir are you ok? The man ran at Christian. Christian slammed his right fist in-to the mans neck and the man staggered back. Christian then picked up a rock and when the man came back at him he smashed it into his face the man fell and Christian smashed the mans head in with the rock. Christian then dialed 911 but there was no answer he tried again after 6 rings a woman picked up screaming and yelling for help, in the back round Christian heard the same type of snarling that the man that attacked him made, then Christian dropped the phone and now understood what the man on the radio meant, Christian had never been so scared his family, girlfriend and friends were probably all dead and his best friend aurora was gone to… so Christian grabbed the baseball bat in his backseat and started walking.        Christian had trouble walking not only because of his leg but because he was walking in snow up to his knees, he spotted a farmhouse and headed toward it.. ten minutes later he reac-hed the house outside was a parked police car ‘oh thank god’ Christian walked over to the squad car it was locked which meant the officer was inside. Christian wondered up to the do-or and opened it and walked inside ‘hello’? he yelled Christian then proceeded into the kitc-hen ‘oh shit! The kitchen was a mess the table was tipped over and all the dishes were broken all over the floor and laying on the floor was a man in a police uniform. His face was mutila-ted with bite marks and scratches, he laid there motionless. Christian slowly approached the officer he was dead. Christian noticed the glock in the mans right side holster ‘sure beats the hell out of this baseball bat’ Christian knelt beside the officer, unsnapped the holster and took the gun. Christians heartbeat started increasing he loved guns and this gun would keep him alive. Christian also took the officers badge it may be useful. Then a thud upstairs made him jump Christian pulled the sliding action back on the glock and watched the .40 caliber round smoothly enter the chamber. Christian found the staircase and slowly walked up it at the top was a woman in a nightgown throwing and braking stuff she was covered in blood, Christian started shaking she spotted him screamed and ran at him with her arms out Christian raised the pistol and fired. The bullet clipped the side of her head and she fell to the floor screaming Christian walked over and fired another round into her forehead. the screaming stopped. Christian ran down the stairs the officer was gone…and the front door was open Christian ran outside to find the officer standing by his squad car fumbling with his keys "holy shit"! Chris-tian yelled the officer turned to face Christian ‘what’s …what’s happening to me? Who are you? Ahhhh! My head! It burns! Why are you doing this to me? Ahh! The officer started slashing and running and his last words were ‘kill me’! Christian raised the pistol and fired four rounds into the mans face the man fell against the police car and slid down it now he was dead. Christian took the extra clips for the pistol off the officer, popped the trunk of the squad car to find a bullet proof vest and an m-16, Christian hung the badge around his neck pulled the charging handle back on the m-16 got into the squad car and started it.        20 minutes later… Christian hit the 80 mph mark as he went straight into a crowd of infec-ted on the highway the radio in the squad car was going crazy with radio chatter from officers all over the city calling for backup, screaming….and then one of the officers acknowledged

the U.S. Military’s arrival . they set up a checkpoint on highway 57 that’s where Christian would attempt to get to. As dozens of infected made their way under Christians car it caused it to start spinning out of control how ironic? Christian thought a car accident was how it star-ted and it would be the way it ended.. the car flipped once but landed Christian got out firing in every direction 3 shot bursts from the assault rifle caught an infected in the face, 4 more dropped, Christian slammed a fresh clip in and kept firing but then was struck from the side by one, Christians head got slammed against the squad car he then was being attacked by the man Christian grabbed the infecteds neck trying to hold him back Christian frantically searc-hed for his pistol, found it put it in the infected mans mouth and pulled the trigger. Brains blew out of the back of the infecteds head and then Christian blacked out only to be awoken by rapid gunfire Christian opened his eyes to see a group of soldiers in gas masks killing anything that moved one of the soldiers started walking towards the squad car turned the cor-ner Christian lunged and grabbed the soldiers m60 barrel and tried to pull it away, the soldier was stronger, he took a few steps back and aimed the gun at Christians head Christian started yelling im not infected! don’t shoot! Christian noticed the soldiers eyes wonder down and lock onto the badge hanging from his neck. Are you a police officer? The soldier yelled while still holding the gun to his face yes! Christian yelled the soldier lowered the gun stay close and move fast the soldier yelled! Yes sir! Christian said. Christian could barley keep up with a heavy vest, bad leg and deep snow. The infected seemed to come from everywhere running at the group of soldiers they were highly trained firing constantly, the infected never even ca-me close with the combined force of m60’s m4’s and tactical shotguns the infected didn’t ha-ve a chance but one infected was extremely fast it blindsided the commanding soldier knoc-king him to the ground it tore his gas mask off Christian ran to the infected woman hit her in the face hard with the stock of his m-16 she flew backwards and then was shredded by hund-reds of rounds. Christian helped the commanding soldier up and asked him if he was ok. ‘im fine’ he replied’ Team! Listen up were calling for pick up! Clear the LZ! The soldiers formed a circle and started firing. Infected women, children, and men were torn in half by shotguns, assault rifles and grenades the commander clicked his throat mic Charlie alpha this is fire te-am 7 requesting immediate evac over! A woman responded fire team 7 request granted E.T.A 3 minutes "copy" the commander said and continued firing Christian felt exited he might get out of this and maybe even find his family! Christian now determined fired as many rounds as he could ripping an infected’s knee caps apart then turned and shot an infected man in the face then focused on a crowd of infected Christian then heard the helicopter then saw it.        It flew over firing tearing dozens of infected apart with its chainguns, there was no more infected in sight just shredded infected bodies. The chopper landed the back hatch opened a few of the soldiers covered the chopper well everyone else got in Christian was relieved but then felt his m-16 pulled from him. He felt strong arms grab hold of him and push him to his knees and a restraint tied his wrists “what the hell are you doing’? Christian yelled. “calm down” the commanding soldier said its just a precaution We have to make sure your not in-fected. “I understand” Christian said, ‘good’ the soldier said. Christian was seated by a win-dow which Christian used to rest his head on, the helicopter took off, Christian exhaled he co-uld finally relax. The helicopter flew over a city there was fire and destruction everywhere, “Jesus” Christian said and he couldn’t help but wonder how much longer he would have to fight to keep his life.    

THE END          

        

                                                

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24/11/2008