The Horror Squad: Mini Series
Author: T. J. Weeks; Kris Weeks
Date: 2016-06-23 14:19:17+00:00
Description: WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE & VIOLENCE!The Horror Squad: Mini Series, stories 1-7.These are the stories of the individual characters from the book & how they made it to our group.
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

THE HORROR SQUAD: MINI SERIES 1

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

The Horror Squad: Mini Series 1. Copyright © 2016 by TJ Weeks. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, email authortjweeks@gmail.com

Weeks, TJ

The Horror Squad: Mini Series 1/TJ Weeks. - 1st ed.

Title ID: 6372307

ISBN-13: 978-1534889996

First Edition: June 2016

Acknowledgments

I’d like to take the time to thank Karen Dziegiel for all of her hard work going through each of my books. My wife for all of her editing and support. Chelley Jordan and Bobbi Payton for so awesomely helping with running my pages. I’d like to thank all of my military buddies for staying by my side with their support.

Most of all, I’d like to thank all of my fans for pushing my work out there. If it wasn’t for you none of my books would have been put on the best sellers list on Amazon and I wouldn’t be up for as many awards as I get put in for.

www.facebook.com/tjweeksofficial
www.twitter.com/tjweeks6
www.tjweeks.com

STORY ONE

DONALD/HOWARD

“Good morning sweetheart!” Denson heard his wife belt from across the hallway. “You’re going to be late.”

“Late for what? Bullshit?” He questioned from his big king size bed.

He heard his wife laugh making her way down the stairs. Donald knew his ‘morning coffee’ group of Howard Manuel and Sargent Simmons would be awaiting his arrival to make their way to their jobs that they were assigned arriving back from Iraq a few weeks before.

The three lived next door to each other and their morning ritual became normal before dispersing throughout the base. They had all gone to Iraq together and remained close as they returned.

Denson hesitantly let his feet hit the floor and drug them to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and wondered if he didn’t shave today, how many people, including Sargent Simmons would chastise him.

He raised the razor to his face after spreading a lather of soap across it and drug the razor across the stubble. Leaving the bits of hair in the sink, as his wife hated, he turned the water as hot as it would go in the shower and stepped in and lathered his body with soap and knew that he needed to make his way out quickly. He stepped out and looked at the digital clock that sat on the night stand by his side of the bed. He wrapped the towel around his mid-section and made his way to the bed wishing he could crawl back in it.

His wife had laid out his uniform and stuck each sock in each of his boots; like he didn’t know that one sock went on each foot. But, he was thankful for it, it gave him less to do. He peered in his wife’s full length mirror and pretended to run his fingers through the hair that he didn’t have.

“That hair you just ran your hand through is nonexistent you know?” His wife laughed emptying a basket of clothes onto their bed.

“Yeah yeah, can’t wait ‘til I can grow the shit back out. I don’t want to shave anymore either dammit!” He stated.

“Sounds like a whiny kind of day. I love you.” She stated kissing him on the cheek.

Donald Denson had been in the military for going on four years now, he had been deployed once and now lived back on base with his wife and two children. Both usually at school by the time he had to actually get up. He had managed to land the easy job of training the other soldiers that came through for gun safety and started his day at about nine AM.

He gathered his gear and headed out. He was able to see Howard Manuel and Sargent Simmons at the end of the block with their normal coffee cups in hand as they were every morning.

“Good morning sleepy head!” Manuel exclaimed.

Sargent Simmons laughed and the three walked down the block making small talk as they did every morning.

Manuel lived with his new wife that he had married just before being deployed and had a child on the way. He was a small bit of a man and his sense of humor was uncanny. He was always saying or doing something that would normally get anyone else in trouble. He made things a bit bearable in Iraq some days. Funny thing was that he had landed the duty of a paper pusher on base after returning home which was difficult since he had to stay quiet in the office most of the time and was not the most thrilled that he worked in fairly close proximity with Simmons; however Simmons was not thrilled about it by any means either which made it fun for Manuel.

Sargent Simmons was a monster of a man, he had to have been in the Army since he was born. Everything he did was about the Army and was always about his men and women that served. He would get angry at some of us infantry boys for screwing off so much when we were in Iraq, however, once back from overseas and on base, he had calmed down a bit if he was out of the office. His wife seemed to be the only person in this world he was scared of, and his grand children were the only ones that seemed to be able to make him smile, otherwise Simmons was as straight faced and tough as they came.

The three dispersed in their separate directions at the fork in the road to take on their jobs for the day.

On this Friday, the three neighbors went on about their daily routine as normal. Denson training on how to take apart and put together guns and teaching newer soldiers how to be safe.

Manuel making snide remarks to Simmons as he went by that he ignored and paper airplanes flying across the room periodically while Simmons barked orders on what needed to be done as he swatted the planes and glared at Manuel. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

Finally the end of the day was near and the three readied to start their weekend. Manuel and Denson would make their normal plans to cook out or drink or whatever came into play.

Simmons normally wouldn’t fraternize with the infantry boys, but was seen being quite normal with his family out and about on base. His grandchildren, three children and their spouses would visit each weekend and his wife would make meals where the aroma spread through the entire neighborhood that made everyone jealous.

It was their time off of everything where they could do what they wanted unless of some kind of emergency and their families understood that, so spent as much time as they could with them.

As seventeen hundred rolled around (five o’clock civilian time) there was hooping and hollering from the men and women ready to have a relaxing weekend that entailed nothing military.

Denson made his way to his two story home, while Manuel would hit up the commissary for some weekend needs. Simmons always went straight home.

Manuel and his wife showed up shortly after Denson’s arrival home. Manuel and Denson made their way to the backyard and the women would stay in and gossip about the week and what wives did what.

“I am so glad this week is over!” Denson told Manuel taking a swig of beer.

“Me too, but I sure gave Simmons some hell today, it was fucking great. I am sure he was ready to get the hell away from me.” He laughed.

“You know, I love that guy. But after all the time we spent together in Iraq, I am glad I do not work in the same office as he does. But, it is nice to know you’re there to annoy him daily.” He told his buddy.

The two both downed their beer and began to fire up the grill. They could hear the mass of Simmons’s group from two houses down.

“HEY, KEEP IT DOWN OVER THERE!” Manuel shouted in a low growled tone.

The group got quiet.

“SHUT UP MANUEL!” Simmons yelled back.

Manuel began laughing hysterically.

“Man, he is gonna get your ass one of these days.” Denson warned.

“I don’t give a shit, it will all be worth it.” He stated back.

The wives came out to join their husband’s and brought Denson’s two children with them. Manuel’s wife was due any day. The two wives spent a lot of time together as they readied the nursery and went to appointments while the men were working.

“What the hell are you two yelling about out here?” Sadee asked her husband.

“Manuel is antagonizing the Sargent.” Denson told her. “So is that kid coming any time soon?” He asked Marie.

“God, I hope so.” As Manuel’s wife tried to navigate her way into a chair.

With the food on the grill and the four spending some time together, the sun was just starting to go down when a scream was heard from the way of the Sargent’s house.

The four looked at each other and then toward the way the scream sounded from. Manuel and Denson rose from their chairs and instructed their wives to stay put. They made their way out of the six foot wooden gate of Denson’s back yard and cautiously toward the Sargent’s home.

Manuel stood on a few bricks that were stacked near the fence and peered over into the yard. He was able to see a partial body lying in the middle of the back yard.

“There is a body.” Manuel turned to Denson.

As he turned to look back over the fence to look for others, a man popped up and was staring at him from the other side of the fence.

“What the fuck!” Manuel fell backwards into Denson’s arms.

“Get the hell off of me, what the hell?” Denson pushed him back up.

“There is a mother fucker that looks like he has been skinned back there!” Manuel said quietly remembering his military training to be quiet when the enemy was located.

“What, dude you’re drunk.” Denson told him.

A bang sounded on the fence and made Denson and Manuel jump back from the fence.

“Where the hell is the Sargent?” Denson whispered.

The two crouched down and half crawled around the corner through a row of bushes to the front of Simmons’s house. Denson placed his hand on the door knob and looked back at Manuel to make sure that he was ready in case they had to fight.

Denson slowly opened the door, still hunkered down, and stood to walk softly into the Sargent’s foyer. Manuel closed the door out of habit of training and moved in behind Denson after checking behind the door.

They made their way to the living area and looked around for something to grab since neither had bought any weapons. Denson grabbed a fire poker and Manuel grabbed the shovel that went with the set.

As they turned, they saw her at the same time, a female child laid on the floor, her face had been ripped to shreds and it appeared her mother, one of Simmons’ daughters, was trying to help her and laid only a mere few feet away appearing to reach for her child with her ribs exposed and her intestines pulled out and stretched across the floor.

Manuel and Denson stared at each other for a few seconds trying to figure out what was going on. Denson motioned for Manuel to follow him. They both rounded the corner into an oversized kitchen. A woman was sprawled on the wooden island in the kitchen. Her stomach had been ripped open and all of her insides pulled out. Her half eaten stomach had been thrown to the floor, her intestines, as the daughter, were pulled out and the two men could tell that something or someone had been eating them as small bites had been taken out of them. Blood splatter had been spewed across the walls and floors. There was no sound in the house and were wondering how many people they would find that they would need to fight. They both questioned themselves on if they needed to leave or find the Sargent.

“Where is Sarge?” Manuel asked.

Denson shrugged as he waved Manuel on. They rounded another doorway and entered a large dining area. Two more children laid at the base of the long oak dining room table torn apart. An arm of one of the children had been dismembered and dropped on the other side of the table. Tendons showed and the muscles still twitched. Still with no sign of the Sargent, Denson signaled they needed to go up the stairs across from the dining area that led to the second level of the home. Manuel nodded and stepped across, put his back against the side of the wall and nodded to Denson, both began to ascend the staircase. Denson placed his back against the railing and slid up the stairs as well, all the while keeping an eye all around.

They reached the top of the stairs to see a large amount of blood puddled into the carpet with a small trail of it leading into one of the many doors that lined the hall way. They both headed to that room, the door stood slightly ajar. Denson pushed the door open with his foot and could see another woman lying on the floor torn to shreds. The two turned all around looking for anyone that may have done all of this.

“Sarge went fucking nuts!” Manuel whispered.

“No, you sons of bitches, I didn’t!” They heard their Sargent’s voice.

The two turned quickly to Sargent Simmons standing in the doorway with a bloody knife dangling from his hand down by his side.

“Alright Simmons, just put the knife down.” Denson demanded.

“It’s okay Sarge, we are here for you.” Manuel stated.

“I did not do this to my family, I barely got away. I suggest you stand down and keep an eye out for them. We need to get over to your families to make sure they don’t get them. We need to get off base.” Simmons instructed.

Simmons turned to make his way back downstairs expecting his men to follow. Denson stood back and watched his Sargent move to the top of the stairs and then turn to wait on them. Manuel shook his head, he knew what Denson was about to do.

Denson charged at their Sargent and both of them tumbled down the stairs. Simmons still held the knife and Denson still held the poker. The two wrestled on the floor, both tumbling and tossing each other around. Denson poked at the knife and flung it away with the poker. Manuel stumbled down the stairs and to the bottom and grabbed the knife off of the tiled floor. He headed for the front door and waited for his partner. Denson punched Simmons hard and jumped to his feet. He backed up and held the poker to his Sargent’s chest.

“Boy, I suggest you back the fuck up and listen. There are people on base that are killing others. I killed two of them as they followed me into the backyard.” He explained.

“There is only one person in the back yard and it is one of yours.” Denson reassured.

“Behind the shed, that is where I hid first, then I was able to make it in the house.” He stated as Denson allowed him to stand.

Denson! Denson, look at this shit!” Manuel muttered.

Denson still held the poker toward Simmons and side stepped to the small window that Manuel was peering out of.

A man was staggering in the street and following a fellow officer. The officer stumbled and fell and was caught by the stumbling almost faceless man. He reached for the officer’s neck and bent down and bit him. He never let go and continued chewing across his chest and to his shoulder.

“What in the hell!” Denson looked at his Sargent.

“I told you, get to your families.” He told them.

Manuel reached for the door.

“WAIT!” Simmons instructed them.

Both stopped in their tracks as Simmons viewed the men out in the street and waited for the creature to finish his meal and the unstable man to wander on. Simmons moved to the small table that sat in the living room and opened the top. He grabbed a pistol and threw it to Manuel and another and threw to Denson. He took a twenty two rifle for himself and closed the table top to hide any others. He motioned for them to go and followed behind them toward the home of Denson where the two families had been left.

All three crouched back behind the bushes and slowly and quietly duck walked as the other two had before. They made their way past Manuel’s house and finally to the gate of Denson’s back yard. Denson flung the gate open to an empty back yard.

“They were back here! They must be in the house.” Denson stated heading into the house.

He carefully looked through the window in the middle of his back door before opening and saw his small daughter crumbled in a corner covering her head, she opened her eyes and peered up at her father. Denson put his hand up at her trying to tell her to stay. She sat up and put her hands out to her father and began to cry. Denson put his finger to his mouth trying to convince her to be quiet. He slowly turned the knob and popped open the door as she ran to him with tears streaming down her face. Manuel reached in and closed the door back to leave the four standing outside. Simmons stood against the door and kept an eye on the inside.

“Where is mommy?” Denson asked his daughter.

“I don’t know.” She cried.

“Where is Marie?” He asked.

His daughter shrugged, keeping her head buried in his shoulder. He held his daughter close and the gun closer. He peered into his home and was unable to see any movement. Denson scanned his yard and knew that he needed to get into his house to find his wife and son and Manuel’s wife. He had to save them and get off base as soon as possible. He ran his daughter to the small closet under the canopy of the porch where he stored his tools and placed her inside.

“I will be right back with mommy and brother. Stay here!” He sternly told her.

She whimpered as he closed the door. He ran back to his back door and clicked it open again. He tip toed through the dining area that his wife sat in just moments before they had come outside to join them, while Manuel and Simmons followed him sweeping their guns across the open spaces. He hollered for his wife as Simmons grabbed his shoulder and turned him to the couch. Sadee and Marie both sat with their chests busted open. Manuel dropped to his knees in front of his wife. His unborn child had been taken. Denson grabbed his brother in arms and pulled him to his feet.

Denson turned and bounded up the stairs to search for his son. He held his gun aimed out in front of him, ready to fire as he slowed his pace, crept from room to room and tearing up with no sign of his other child. He entered the last room, his own bedroom; his son’s torso laid on the floor with his half eaten leg and arm laying on the bed. His head had been torn off and appeared to have been thrown across the room which looked as though it had hit the wall, left a stain of blood and laid at the base of the night stand that held his digital clock.

Tears filled Denson’s eyes. He backed out and ran into someone. A half faced man stood eye to eye with him. He swayed back and forth as he sized up Denson for his next meal. It growled at him and went in for his kill, Denson held the man by his neck and pulled his gun up to only shoot him in the chest. The man continued snapping his teeth at him while he tried to fight him off. Denson could feel his arm giving out while he tried push the man far enough away to be able to raise the gun to the rotting man’s head when the man suddenly fell to the ground. Manuel stood over the dead man’s body and pulled Denson over him.

“We have a ride outside, but we need to hurry.” Manuel stated quietly.

They both took the stairs in very few steps only hitting every few. Manuel headed for the front door as Denson headed to the back. Simmons stopped him in his tracks.

“She came out and is gone Denson.” He broke the news. “Your back yard is filled with them. Let’s go!” He ordered.

Denson stopped, deciding if he wanted to stay and die with his family or move forward with his group. Simmons pulled him by the front of his jacket and pointed him toward the front door.

“GO NOW!” He barked orders again.

Denson made his way slowly to the door. Simmons took his place in front of him and snuck a peek out of the front door before opening it fully. He peered out and viewed the six Humvees and three deuce trucks filled with other service men from the base.

Simmons grabbed Denson’s collar and guided him past two women that were having a feast off of a man from their company. Denson slowed his stride and was almost pulled to the ground as Simmons continued to pull him toward a truck.

Simmons jumped into the back of the last truck and Manuel helped Simmons pull Denson up with them. Denson held onto the side as the truck vibrated under his feet. He glanced around at all the other soldiers and scanned across Manuel sitting off to the side.

He reached his hand out to him and pulled him back up to stand next to him. He wrapped his arm around his shoulder and squeezed. They stood together as the Humvees and huge trucks began to exit the gates of the base. Denson finally gained a bit of composure and began to notice that they were hitting speed bumps that he had not noticed before as they exited. He looked over the side toward the front of the Deuce truck and saw splatter of body parts fly over the top and down the sides of the truck. Some were going under the truck and out the back.

“Zombies?” Denson quietly questioned himself.

Manuel looked in all directions to see what Denson was seeing as well as all of the other men.

“The apocalypse?” Manuel questioned Denson.

As the Humvees and trucks passed some and left them alive…or dead, the men would step back without a clue as to what to do with them if they somehow got into the truck.

Soon the large group of Army men came to a stop at a secluded gas station. They piled out from the line of vehicles and into the gas station hoping for some food and drink. Some went to the side of the abandoned building and began to vomit. As others stood guard watching for any of the dead that were lingering nearby. Others ravaged the store in search of necessities. The group brought out cases of water and any food that they were able to load into their arms and began to load the Humvees and as much as they could on the trucks. They syphoned gas from the underground well and filled up their line of vehicles as well as the few gas cans that the convenient store still had and the extras that were always carried on the trucks. Simmons came around the corner with a water hose and filled any canteens that were left on any of the trucks. He unhooked the water hose and loaded it back onto the truck. Everyone loaded back up into their vehicles and moved on. There were herds that would appear out of nowhere and the only option was to hit them and knock them out of the way. They stopped at any store or location they thought may have supplies that they may need and did not look ravaged by the human eating creatures. They were able to rid a few that were present in the store easily with them moving so slow. Some even stood still for them as they approached and they would easily slide a knife in and back out of their head as they knew had to be done to zombies.

The bit of light they did have as they left the base had now disappeared. The group was getting tired and weary of what the darkness held. A few miles up, the group found an area that was secured with gates. It appeared it may have been a car lot at one time, but all of the cars had been taken. The front Humvee bumped the gate and broke it open. The convoy entered and as the last truck pulled in, Simmons jumped down, closed the gate and directed the truck to back up against the gate. The groups began to pile out and take advantage of the time to eat and drink. Some took their jackets and used as pillows to get some sleep before morning appeared while others stood guard. Within a few hours, they switched to allow all of the soldiers to sleep.

Denson and Manuel chose to guard first as they needed the moment to gain perspective on the situation. There were many men they had lost but many that had made their way to the trucks and had also lost their families as they had. Both of them were unsure how to handle all of this.

They stood against the fence that surrounded the property they had overtaken. Both grieved for their families and tried to figure out how this all began out of nowhere as it had.

Simmons walked up on them as they talked about places that were in the area and where would be safest. A few of the zombies plastered themselves against the fence without being seen and startled the three. Simmons pulled his knife and stabbed each of them in the head and let their bodies drop to the ground.

“I talked to some of the others and the only way to kill these things is through the brain just like the television shows. They are the dead that have come back to life. We haven’t figured out where it started or how, but we are in contact with some that are working on that. However, it seems to be becoming more widespread. So, if you see one of these things wandering, stab it in the head. If one of our guys gets eaten or bitten, they will have to be shot in the head or killed the same way so they do not turn into these.” He explained pointing toward the dead lying at their feet outside the fence.

Denson and Manuel listened to their Sargent in awe.

“How in the fuck can this be?” Manuel stated. “Are you telling me that this is the zombie fucking apocalypse that we are stuck in?”

Simmons nodded. Denson dropped his head with the break of the news as he thought about his wife and children being eaten by these monsters.

They peered outside the gate trying to see through the dark and hoping that there would not be any more until they were able to see them.

The sun rose soon after that, Manuel and Denson had not had a wink of sleep through the night and everyone was soon ready to move out.

Everyone switched drivers and riders and moved out of their safe area. They were all alert and on the look-out for herds. Denson drove the last Deuce in the line and Manuel rode shot gun. Simmons rode in back watching the area. A sudden bang came on the top of the truck warning them there was a group of the dead somewhere nearby. Denson scanned the area and saw nothing but abandoned cars here and there. There was a few lingering on the side of the road.

“WATCH OUT!” Manuel screamed.

Denson pulled the wheel to the right and tried to dodge whatever it was Manuel was screaming at him for. The truck veered off of the road and head on into a large group of them. The deuce bounced over them and two stuck to the front of the truck. Denson could see the men bouncing around in the back and tried to slow the truck.

“Don’t slow down! Keep going, don’t stop!” Denson heard Simmons scream at him.

Denson slammed his foot on the gas to keep the mass of a truck rolling through them. He held onto the steering wheel with both hands as Manuel grabbed the handle on the door and held on. Their eyes were both wide as they watched the dead fly past them and under the wheels of the truck. They all walked toward the truck with no clue that they were about to get creamed by this massive machine.

Denson began to smile as he could feel each bump under him. Manuel began to hoop and holler.

“KILL THOSE MOTHER FUCKERS!!! WOOO HOOO!” He screamed out.

Both laughed as they made their way through the rest of the crowd. Until a loud pop came from the back of the truck. The truck instantly began to slow down. The men in the back were banging and yelling for him to go.

Denson had the gas on the floor, but the truck continued to slow down. Steam began to pour from the front of the truck and it came to a halt with another loud pop as the remaining water from the radiator splashed up onto the hood of the truck.

Zombies began to swarm the sides, front and back of the truck. Manuel and Denson watched them run into the front of the truck and bounce off, their skin would stick to the hot metal and they would continue to try and make their way. Some of the men were just trying to stay away from the sides of the truck, some were stabbing them in the tops of their heads and making headway on getting rid of them, some were panicking and began jumping into the herds. Denson watched the ones that had jumped down stab at some and then be thrown to the ground by the group of zombies and being made a meal. Denson could not understand why they were just jumping off of the truck when the dead ones couldn’t seem to climb, they just banged up against the truck and grabbed at them. Denson wanted to help, he turned left and then right and grabbed for the handle of the door when Simmons slammed his hand on the windshield. He had climbed over the roof and stood on the hood looking in at them. Manuel and Denson jumped as they saw him.

“Don’t get out of the truck!” Simmons shouted. “Just wait!”

Simmons shouted something to the truck in front of them and guided the truck to back up to him. Slowly it backed up over zombies and anything in its way. The men that had not jumped off the back of the truck were stabbing the remaining creatures in the head to rid them from trying to get at them from the side of the truck.

As the truck backed up, it put its ass end to the bumper of the broke down one and squished two of the zombies in between the two. Brains splattered up on Simmons’ feet and their heads hung there. Their skin fell off and stuck to the front of the truck, their eyes were still wide open as if they were watching Simmons.

The soldiers from the back of the broke down Deuce climbed over the roof as Simmons instructed and stepped over the two dead zombies and onto the bed of the other truck. Simmons then hung off of the oversized mirror of the passenger side and stabbed a woman in the top of her skull. He pulled his knife out with a hard pull and told Manuel to climb out. Manuel took hold of the side and the top of the door and climbed through the window to the hood. Simmons directed him to the other truck and then went to the driver’s side and stabbed the few zombies that stood there hoping to get a bite of Denson.

“Let’s go!” Simmons yelled at his soldier.

Denson sat for a moment, looking as though he wasn’t sure what to do. Simmons leaned into the window a bit more and smacked Denson on the chest.

“Move soldier!” Simmons screamed seeing a herd moving in.

Denson began to pull his legs up to his chest putting his feet in the seat and thrust his body out of the window and up onto the roof of the truck just before a zombie ran into the side of the truck reaching for him as he hurled himself up. Denson peered down at the wrinkled face man. He looked almost normal except for the chattering teeth that it showed while he bit at the air. Denson kicked the chomping man in the head and he fell to the ground. His body twitched while his eyes fluttered open and closed.

“Good one” Simmons told him.

Denson stepped down off of the roof to the hood of the truck and across to the back of the other truck with the group that had already transferred over.

The truck started up and began to move, pulling away from the zombies that were headed towards them. Denson watched them all disappear as they went over a hill. Looking to the front of them, the roads almost started to look normal. There were not very many abandoned cars and no zombies in sight. After a few miles, the convoy pulled into a Home Depot with a row of different stores surrounding it.

“Alright everyone, we need to find weapons, whatever is in this store is what we have to work with. I need some in the Home Depot and grab what you can to hand out to your brothers and sisters that have made it this far. I need some to go into the other stores and gather food, drinks, clothes, anything you can get that will be helpful in our current situation. Be careful and get back here as quickly as you can!” A Staff Sargent yelled from the top of the first Humvee in the line.

All of the men began unloading and turning in all directions to watch each other’s backs as well as their own. They all entered different stores at the same time, everyone had various weapons they had just grabbed from their homes or wherever they were at. Some had knives, others had pieces of wood, others had nothing and could only push the zombies away for others to kill and very few had guns they held but dared not shoot as to not attract any attention. The group cleared any unwanted visitor with stabs or blows to the head. All of the soldiers exited the buildings with arm loads and headed back to the convoy loading up the goods. Denson had grabbed numerous axes, machetes and shovels that were near the front door of the Home Depot when he entered. He saw Manuel run out of another store running to the front Humvee and began handing out things to the groups that were loading up, he then jumped into one of the Humvees towards the back as a scream came from one of the trucks in the back. Denson looked back and a soldier had been grabbed by a lonely wandering zombie that made his way into the parking lot. Denson jumped in the front Humvee that he had started at to hand out weapons, as soon as it began pulling off and landed on the laps of some of the other men. They all grabbed an axe or machete that Denson had brought in with him and held them ready to jump out and strike at anything that moved outside their vehicle if they had to. Back out on the road, the trucks roared to full speed to get to their next destination. No one was sure where that would be, but they did know they were unable to stop for any long periods of time and needed to find somewhere safe. They drove into the night and into the morning, only stopping to switch drivers and fill up with gas.

As morning approached, Denson had been switched over to drive the Humvee and was able to see Manuel in one of the Humvees behind him switching to drive as well. The two saluted to each other and took their places in the driver’s seat. The Sargents would quickly meet at each stop and share information and load back up. Sargent Simmons jogged by each Humvee slowing just enough to give the information to each group.

“Last of the gas just went in. Keep your eyes open for a safe point.” He stated as he moved back to the Deuce.

The men all looked at each other knowing if they did not find somewhere they were going to be left on foot to fend off the mass quantities of the dead.

Miles had been driven as they made the top of a hill and could see smoke stacks far off in the distance. Some murmurs from the others began as they hoped that their gas would get them that far. They all hoisted themselves up to see the many miles that would have to be driven, they all sat down crossing their fingers or saying Hell Mary’s or praying for enough gas to get them there. Denson and Manuel all drove on with the rest of the convoy while zombies would walk into the middle of the road and there was no choice but to ram them head on.

Denson’s Humvee began to slow as the herds began to thicken and finally just stopped with no way for it to push through them.

The men from the Humvee began striking the zombies from the hole in the top of the vehicle as they surrounded the truck, others jumped out from all of the other Humvees and the Deuce and began stabbing them in the skulls and striking them in the head with the random objects that they had accumulated from the Home Depot. All that had guns knew they were to not use them unless absolutely necessary.

Denson soon heard shots coming from behind him, he turned to see men falling to the ground, the zombies taking them over and ripping them apart from the outside in. He could see Sargent Simmons taking aim on his own men from the Deuce truck that he had jumped off of and shooting them to give him time to make his escape. Denson quickly laid over in the seat hoping to not be seen by Simmons or noticed by the zombies. He sat up startled as a shot rang out closer and watched his brothers in arms fall to the ground. Denson wanted to get out and help, but was afraid of the attack of zombies that seem to affect everyone that had been injured and feared his Sargent would shoot him as he had shot the others.

Simmons ran by shooting only those that were outside the Humvees and a few that were inside the Humvees which in turn allowed the zombies to reach in and take at least a bite of soldiers inside the vehicles. Simmons would shoot and then look behind him to make sure a few of the zombies had stopped for their meal that he had left them. He would then take aim on another soldier and shoot him in the leg to slow his ability to escape the same zombies that he was running from. Manuel watched the large black man continue his targeting of his own soldiers so he would not be caught and ducked down in the Humvee he had driven to that point. Manuel heard the man run by and another shot go off in front of his Humvee and a slam to the hood of his vehicle. Manuel looked up to see a zombie take a bite out of the injured man’s chest. Manuel ducked down quickly again so he was not noticed by the crazed Sargent or the hungry zombies.

Denson and Manuel stayed hunkered in their Humvees as they listened to each shot from the man they had spent so much time with overseas and back home. Each shot that rang out, they would flinch knowing one of their fellow brothers or sisters were going to be eaten and Simmons was making sure he was able to get away by killing the people that he was assigned to keep safe.

Zombies were banging into the sides of the Humvees and plastering blood on the windows as they passed looking for more to eat after they had finished with the other soldiers. Neither Manuel nor Denson knew what to do except to stay still where they were so they were not noticed. After the noises of dragging feet and bangs into the Humvees seemed to slow down. Denson raised his head to see more of them coming from behind. One of the Deuces had been tipped over and half eaten men covered the roads. Zombies that were approaching would stop, scoop the remains into their hands, stuff their mouths full and let the remanence hang, making their way to the next body. Other zombies would pass on by the already dead staring off into the distance. Denson scanned the other Humvees and Deuce that remained and caught a glimpse of someone moving in a Humvee that was two behind him. Manuel looked forward and caught a glimpse of Denson.

Denson put his finger to his mouth and waved his hand in a downward motion telling him to be quiet and get back down. Denson was able to see from the shoulders and up of the close by passing zombies. He soon began seeing men stumbling by in Army uniforms. They were the men that had already been eaten. He was able to see each name tag attached to their jackets. He finally covered his eyes, not wanting to see what his brothers and sisters had turned into. He was unable to fathom why Simmons had done this. How could he shoot his fellow men for his own escape? He asked himself.

Denson covered his head with his arms and began to sob at the thought of his fellow soldiers now being zombies that would kill him if they could find him. Then he thought about Manuel. He quickly lifted his head and saw Manuel watching out of his window as soldiers walked by. His Humvee was surrounded by zombies since seeing the movement. Denson motioned for him to lower his head back down and be quiet. Manuel did as Denson suggested.

After a while, the Army of zombies moved on from his Humvee and began dropping to their knees scooping up any remains of human flesh from the ground. Manuel was able to see his brothers and sisters of the Armed Forces do this and vomited in the floor of the Humvee as he witnessed the grotesque actions.

Night fell and both Denson and Manuel fell asleep in their safe haven of the vehicles. Both were unsure if they were going to be able to make it through this apocalypse, but they both knew they had to get some sleep if they were going to try.

As the sun arrived, the two lifted their head in search of each other. They breathed a sigh of relief when they finally made eye contact. It let them know they weren’t alone.

They scanned the area and saw more of the dead of their Army rising one by one from being killed the night before and becoming the undead. Some would walk into the wooded area, some would walk the opposite way and some came toward them. Denson felt that all they could do was wait it out, since the dead were coming back to life. The last few that laid mangled on the road rose to take their unsteady balance of a stance.

Denson began hearing shots coming from the wooded area and closer to them. Denson looked towards Manuel and back down in to the woods as a group in military line formation topped the hill and came out from under the trees. They killed every zombie that stood in their way and a few that did not. They were careful as they approached the road and turned from side to side with their weapons. They opened any Humvee with men in it that had been bitten and killed them without a second thought. They made their way up to Denson’s Humvee. Denson sat up and caught the attention of one of the men in the group.

The scruffy man approached the Humvee and flung open the door with his knife already coming forward. Denson threw up his hands and shouted at the man that may be able to save him.

“WAIT!” He screamed.

“What is your name soldier?” The man asked still holding the knife towards him.

“Corporal Denson!” He stated as he lowered his hands to the knife yielding man.

“What’s your actual name, if you haven’t noticed, you aren’t serving anymore?” He asked rudely.

“Donald….Donald Denson sir.” He replied.

“Anyone else alive in your unit?” He asked.

“Yes, in the third vehicle. My Staff Sargent Manuel is still alive.” Donald answered.

The man helped him out of the Humvee and walked to the other where Manuel was at and knocked on the window with the butt of his rifle. Manuel dropped the window of the Humvee. The man ordered him out of the vehicle and offered to let us come with them.

We accepted immediately and made our way with this squad that seemed to have made it further than we had by far.

STORY TWO

MARTIN

“You think you might have some time to sit and talk to me for a bit Martin?” His fiancée asked.

“Babe, I gotta get my shit ready to go to drill, unfortunately the National Guard thinks that being on time is pretty god damn important!” He spat back at her.

“I think a little time is important for us.” She stated standing over him as he packed.

A honk came from outside insinuating that his ride was there to get to drill. Martin leaned over kissed his fiancée and rubbed her hair away from her face.

“We will spend every waking moment together next weekend and it will be nothing but about us, we will paint the town camo.” He smiled.

She half smiled and gave a slight nod. Martin picked up his bag and headed out. She listened to the door close and the vehicle pull off from the front of their two bedroom house that they had bought just last year. She stood and scanned their small cozy house. She had thought things would be so much different. She had not wanted a military life and had thought he was done with it. All she wanted was him, she wanted some time with him, but everything he did surrounded military. Sometimes it was like she never even existed. She grabbed her old duffel bag and began to take her folded clothes from the dresser and put into the bag. Little by little tears began to fill her eyes wishing Martin could just see a minute part of her loneliness.

Martin threw his bag in the back of the small s10 truck with his buddy that he rode with once a month to make the two hour trip.

“Is yours trippin?” The man asked putting the truck in first and letting off of the clutch.

“What is it that when we leave makes them freak out so badly? It’s like they think we are leaving them forever.” Martin wondered to his unit mate.

Moving on to the outskirts of town they both began to notice a few cars sitting off the side of the road, which was unusual for the back road area they had to take to reach their destination. They noticed a group of people that had gathered on the side of the road and were walking around two of the cars. Both of the men looked at each other, but knew that if they stopped they would be late.

“Wonder what the hell that is about?” His buddy questioned aloud.

“Maybe they decided it was a good place for a family reunion, they all looked a little rough around the edges.” Holsinger joked.

They drove for a couple of hours before the small building came into view.

“Army National Guard, You can!” Martin sang out when he saw the sign.

The two laughed as the truck stopped and they gathered their gear for the weekend.

“Right on time, fifteen minutes earlier than we really have to be.” His buddy told him.

They dropped their gear on the floor as they walked in the door and made their way to the back where the rest of their unit stood.

“Hey guys what’s up?” Holsinger interrupted the chatter going on.

A few of them shrugged their shoulders, “We were told to wait for instruction.” One of the guys belted out.

“ATTENTION!” A Commander entered the room.

All of them quickly stood at attention, confused as to why a Commander just walked in to give them instruction.

“You are being dispatched to the nearby nuclear plant. You are to set up a base there to the best of your ability. Your job is to help take over this facility, another unit is already there setting up. We need to have a place that is safe and we are able to run everything out of. A partial wall is around it already, I need fencing put up to secure the location. Understood?” He asked the group.

“Sir yes sir!” the group responded, still unsure of what exactly was going on or why.

“Move out!” the Commander demanded.

The men piled through the door at the back of the building to four Deuce trucks that were already loaded with rolls of fence and supplies and two Humvees that looked as though they had been driven through hell and back.

“Sir, is this a war zone? What are we going into?” Holsinger knew he was in the wrong for questioning.

The Commander glared at him with disapproval for speaking so freely and walked over to him. He placed the brim of his hat square on his forehead.

“Because that is what the fuck I said to do, and I guess you will find out when you get there and have to fight your way through the bullshit!” He sternly advised.

Holsinger being a bit of a smart ass only saluted and pushed the Commander’s hat away from his head with his own, turned and walked away.

The group secured the supplies to the back of the four trucks and took their places in and on the back of them. Holsinger hopped into the driver’s seat of the first truck and waited for further instruction.

The Commander peered into the truck for a moment and then flung a map up to him.

“Get here! Straight here and do not stop!” He instructed.

“Aye aye captian!” Holsinger stated smiling at the man in charge.

The roar of the truck echoed across the group. The start of his told the others that it was time to go and the engines rumbled as they all started.

The Commander stared at Holsinger as he held his eye contact and pulled off.

He handed the map to his passenger and looked behind him to make sure the large group of men were all good to go.

“Where the fuck is this place and what the fuck is it?” Martin asked his unit mate that sat next to him.

The man sat quietly for a moment while viewing the map.

“It is the Nuclear Power Plant, so are we supposed to make a base here? Like wire and all?” The man asked.

Holsinger shrugged. “Just tell me where to go!” He shouted over the loudness of the truck bumping over the road.

They drove down an asphalt road for a few miles before seeing the smoke stacks covering the sky off to the right.

“Turn here!” The navigator shouted.

Holsinger took a turn on another black top and headed toward the white smoke that bellowed through the air.

“Is that where we are headed?” Martin asked.

“Yep, that’s it!” The man shouted loudly.

The group began seeing people lingering along the sides of the road, Holsinger started slowing the truck as they wandered into the middle of the road he was trying to drive down.

“What the hell are all these people doing? What the hell is going on?” He asked.

He slowed the truck to a stop and peered onto the road filled with people. He began to study the closest ones to the side of the truck when one turned to stare back at him.

The face of the well-dressed man had been half torn off. All that showed on the side that the skin was gone and the bloody bones that were holding his face together. His white button down shirt was covered in spatters of blood, the red and blue striped tie was crooked around his neck and had almost sliced through the side of his neck. His black slacks were torn at the bottom and his once shiny shoes were coated with dirt and bloodied bits and pieces of globs. He staggered towards the truck while Martin grabbed the door handle to open the door and help him. The man quickened his pace, slammed against the door and clicked it back closed. Martin quickly removed his glasses and peered down at the man through the window. He stood with his hands raised up to him and deep growling coming from his half normal face. His teeth, still intact, were brown and some looked as though he had chipped them.

“What the fuck?” Martin shouted.

“I have one over here! What do we do? What the fuck are they?” The passenger asked.

More gathered and slammed against the truck, but were not competent enough to be able to climb up or open the doors. The men watched them as they gathered around. Women and children showed themselves from the woods and began the same routine as the others by banging and growling at the men that were trapped.

“Fucking zombies, are you kidding? This is what we were sent here for and given no fucking warning!” Martin shouted.

He hit the gas and moved the truck a few feet forward, the zombies stayed where they were and then all of them stumbled forward to the sides and back of the truck trying to reach for the meals that they knew were inside. Their clumsy hands were getting caught in the crevices of the truck and getting stuck as they slammed them onto the metal.

Holsinger checked on the other trucks by turning in his seat and saw that they were all surrounded as well. There were hundreds of these half skinless and bloodied creatures that lined the roads, more were approaching and fast. Martin had to figure out what to do.

He hit the gas again, this time not letting off. He ran over the ones that were in the road and left the ones on the side of the truck reaching for the air, not caring that they were stuck but more for the humans that were inside.

The other two trucks followed and ran through whatever was in their way as well. The driver in the truck behind him had a ‘let’s get the fuck outta here’ attitude and bumped his ass end as the group of walking, staggering, stumbling, skinless fucks got thicker as the Army closed in on their destination.

The tall chain link gate was open and the tin wall that was part of the plant was somewhat still standing in most places, but looked as though it had seen better days. He squeezed the truck through the gate and parked behind a Humvee and another Deuce that were still loaded down with some supplies that had been scattered to the ground, pulling far enough in to make room for the other vehicles. The unit sat and watched a group of their own in Army uniforms surround them.

Holsinger threw his head back.

“FUCK! We are in the same damn predicament. We have to start getting rid of these mother fuckers.” He told the crew in his truck.

He picked up his radio and called the other trucks.

“Guys, zombies have to be stabbed in the head. Get after it, this is supposed to be our base.” Holsinger instructed.

“These are our own men!” A voice called back.

“No, they are not. Look one in the fucking face and tell me you want that as part of our crew.” He stated over the radio.

“Ten four.” The voice came back again.

The men began to drop their windows and were high enough up in the trucks that they were able to start stabbing them in the head without being bit. One by one, they began piling up outside their trucks and on both sides. A majority of the unit that rode in the back of the four trucks began stabbing them from there. Holsinger knew there was about ninety of them that had loaded up on the few trucks and Humvees that were there when they rolled out of the station a few hours back, he hoped the rest of his unit would be following soon and they should be able to get rid of these things with the manpower they had before they got there.

“Let’s get it clear enough for someone to close that gate at least, and then maybe clear off the rest of them, then repair fencing quick fast and in a damn hurry! No guns yet, just knives” Holsinger shouted the plan to his unit.

Holsinger thought about radioing into his Commander, but knew that he had nothing nice to say at this point. The others were leaning out the backs of the trucks and stabbing the uniformed unit that was there before them. Holsinger dug for his phone as he stabbed two of them that had grasped the side of the door. He quickly dialed his soon to be wife’s phone number while still stabbing approaching zombies as he waited for her to answer. Her phone rang twice and then the signal seemed to be lost.

He continued leaning out of his window and stabbing as hard as he could over and over until the herd that was there started diminishing little by little. The noise from the guys jumping around in the back of the truck seemed to draw in the ones from the trucks in the back. He could see more approaching from the road; it was almost like this would never end.

Holsinger began banging on the side of the truck and drawing the ones from the back of the group to his truck. Once they were all surrounding him and trying to bite into his Army issued knife is when he finally made the decision.

“Go close the gate now!” He yelled to the group.

One of the men jumped off of the last Deuce truck and pushed the gate closed, locked it with the pad lock that was still attached and ran back to the truck. Before he was able to make it fully back on, one of the men from the men that had turned zombie grabbed his leg and took a bite, pulling the muscle from his leg and chewing while trying to bring in the rest of his body. The man’s scream echoed through the yard as they veered away from Martin’s truck. The crew on that truck began stabbing at the group of dead and pull their brother to safety. His leg had been torn off completely and picked up by one of the women officers that had turned.

Her bun still sat atop her head but her uniform had been torn down the front, exposed her breasts that were covered in dirt, dried blood and now a mess of the soldier’s tendons that she had just taken a bite of that hung down and swung freely from her mouth and covered her inverted nipples. She chewed and looked around for something else to eat when she finished with the partial leg she was lucky enough to get. Another woman that was naked from the waist down grabbed the other end of the leg and began chewing the ankle, splitting the tendons with the bare chested woman.

She walked away once her meal had been taken and began looking for something else. One of the men from the unit jumped off the truck and stabbed her in the back of the head, he began screaming as he stabbed hard into three more of the dead that were coming towards him.

“GET BACK ON THE TRUCK YOU STUPID FUCK!” Holsinger yelled from the front.

The man continued his angry killing of the herd, one by one they began to pull him down and fell on top of him. His angry yelling became screams of pain and agony as they took gigantic bites from his flesh. Some men covered their faces, some stood and watched in horror and some began to vomit at the sight of their own being devoured.

The group stood quietly for a moment as the zombies decided that there was nothing left to eat and began to move on to the vomit from the soldiers that were not able to take the sight. They grabbed handfuls and smeared it across their faces trying to hit their mouths. When the zombies would stand erect after the consumption of human puke, soldiers would quietly stab them in the tops of their heads. No one screamed or yelled, they just stabbed them.

The killing escapade continued for over four hours, finally the horde  diminished to a few dozen and all were far off around the plant or outside the gate, not realizing that just a few feet over from where they were outside the fence trying to get in, the fencing/wall was torn down.

They all took a short breather. The men that were in the back of the trucks were finally able to sit down and relax for a moment. They dropped their heads as if they had been beat. Some cried and shed tears for their fallen soldiers, some stared off into space.

Holsinger was able to open his door and step out of the driver’s seat. He stepped down onto a pile of the dead, his foot rolled off of one of the heads, it tore off at the neck of a man and rolled off of the pile, Martin’s foot slipped with it and he fell ass first onto the grotesque mound. He jumped up and slid his hands across his back side to wipe off any of the grossness that may have gotten on him. He hurried to the truck behind his.

“Everyone okay? Guys, talk to me, don’t look defeated. These guys have fucked with the wrong unit!” He stated running to the next truck. “Hey, let’s get this place secured, grab that damn fencing!”

They all peered at Martin like he had gone nuts. But obeyed by slowly jumping down grabbing the fence as others walked to the broken down wall and began to drag it away, the others began to push up the chain link fence they had brought and stabilized it with the steel pipes. They placed the bent up wall back behind their chain link and secured it the best they could with what they had. With the noise, the zombies that were at the gate began walking that way and started banging on the fence they had just put up. The men backed away and waited to see if the group was going to be able to break through. They could see the fence bowing in towards them a bit, but was secured enough that it did not allow them in. They all gave each other a thumbs up. After a few minutes, the zombies moved on and began to limp in a different direction.

Holsinger made his way to the fence, hearing the growling of the persistent ones that had stayed there. He glared through the fence for a few moments wondering if it was necessary to kill them since they were unable to get to him from there and decided that it would be less to kill later. He stabbed his knife through the chain link, and one by one took them out in the forehead. They would fall and Martin would grip his knife, it would slide back out and he would do the same to the next one, until the remaining few were lying dead at the gate.

Some of the men had listened to Martin and decided they would not be defeated by these things and began to walk down the fence line and put up the rest of the chain link where needed; while some still sat inside the trucks or on the back looking as though there was no point in doing anything.

“Y’all need to get the fuck up and help the fuck out. There are plenty of us assholes that just destroyed these bitches!” He gave them a pep talk.

Most of the men raised their heads and stared at him as the thought finally entered their minds that they may have a chance to overtake this place they had been sent to. They all began to look around to see all that they had to work with.

Far to the left was the power plant, which appeared to be locked up tight, but smoke still spilled out of the smoke stacks. Far down to the right was a school where Humvees sat and a huge truck that looked to still be loaded with goods from the unit was there before them. There was so much land, they all knew it would take time to clear out all of the zombies, but hoped they were able to do it.

“We have lost quite a few men, but I need the remainder of you to get started on this fencing wall bullshit, let’s do the same as we have, and put up our fence and then if there is any wall remaining that has been torn down, put it up behind it for a little more security. I need a few to go check out the plant and see what needs to be done to keep it going.” He instructed.

Some started to jump out of the beds of the trucks and others just sat there. Holsinger stood there and stared at them waiting for them to move then began pulling them off of the trucks to the ground. He forcefully pushed them towards where they needed to go.

“Let’s go mother fuckers! Don’t just stand by and not do shit!” He screamed at them.

Holsinger turned to make sure that the gate itself was secured and then began to make his way to the Humvees that had made it in before his truck had and instructed them to go park the vehicles somewhere out of the way and check out the surroundings of their new base.

Martin suddenly heard bouts of screams as he gave his instruction to the rest of the unit. He ran to toward the blood curdling sounds, turned around and ran back towards the trucks as soon as he saw what the noise was about. A mass of them were making their way towards him from the huge roll up door like an avalanche of snow. His men had opened the biggest door of the place and apparently the workers had already been taken over. He scanned behind him looking for any of his men that may have survived; all he was able to see was his group lying on the ground in front of the door and right inside the building.

“FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!” Holsinger screamed as he ran.

He jumped into the closest truck he was able to get to and hollered to all of the men that were already out.

“Enemy Six O’clock” Martin yelled.

The men began to run his way, some jumped up on the truck with him and some ran past him ready to take on the horde coming at them.

They swung their weapons through the crowd that roamed in their direction and Martin could see numerous knives come up into the air and blood splatter as they came down. He heard screams that made him close his eyes knowing another brother was lost. He hoped that his group was able to come out on top as they had before, but knew that numerous men had been taken from his unit.

The dead ones that made it through without being bludgeoned in the head were taken care of by Martin and the group that had joined him on the truck. It felt like forever they were up there stabbing and pulling their knives in and out of the heads of those trying to defeat them.

Martin became angry at all of the screams he was hearing.

“This is it!” He thought. “I am taking these mother fuckers out!”

He grabbed the M4 that laid on the front seat through the window of the truck, took aim and shot over and over. He knew that it would attract more, but maybe they would stop losing so many men. One by one they fell to the ground. Martin heard more shots being fired from behind. There was no time to see who was helping or who had followed his lead; as long as the dead were dying, he didn’t care.

The pack was dropping like dead flies being swatted with a fly swatter. He was thankful someone followed his lead and was willing to help him scatter the brains of these assholes.

Finally, the bulk of them were dead with only a few lingering that were able to be taken care of by the ones that survived on the ground. With all of the zombies from the plant taken out, Martin was able to see all of them spread across the ground, as well as his Brothers in Arms that had been taken by the horde. Martin looked around and realized that there seemed to only be about twenty men of his unit left.

Now he dropped his head feeling defeated. Thoughts ran through head like water through a faucet. He had to figure out how to save the rest and not have them killed. He knew that he was going to have to find help. He refused to let these dead assholes win over the Army.

“Okay, let’s move the vehicles we haven’t been able to move over along the fence line and get them out from in front of the gate. We have our two Humvees and four trucks. There are a couple of trucks and two Humvees up ahead by that school.” Martin suggested.

The men began to head toward the vehicles and start the ones that would and began to move them to where Martin had advised. A few of the trucks seemed to be broke down and only one of the Humvees wanted to start. The ones that would not start were just pushed off out of the way. Martin stood at the gate and watched the clearing of the vehicles when he started seeing movement throughout the mounds of zombies that laid on the ground.

Martin watched for a moment before finally realizing that the movement was his men. A few were starting to sit up and some had figured out how to stand.

“Hey they are alive!” He screamed at the others.

He began to run towards the few that were moving as they clumsily stood and turned toward him and started to make their way to try and walk. The two that rose to their feet began to limp at him and reached their hands out to grab him. It was only once they were within arm’s reach, Martin noticed that they were not asking for help, they wanted him for a meal. He fumbled for his knife and stabbed the first one in the head as it grabbed for his hand. The second one fell towards him, missed and smacked its face on the hard dry ground. It lifted his head back up to him, his jaw bone had come off and laid at Martin’s feet. He closed his eyes and placed the knife at his forehead.

“I’m sorry brother.” He stated to the already dead.

He slid the knife in the top of his head and pulled it back out.

“What the hell are you doing, those are our brothers!” One of the men shouted as he ran up to him.

“Well, you go check them out!” Martin told him.

The man walked over to another heap of movement in uniform and tried to help him up to stand. He placed his arm over his shoulder and pulled him up. He grabbed his jacket to hold him up and help him walk.

“No man left behind Holsinger!” the man blurted out with a smart ass tone.

He looked over to view his Army mate’s injuries when the man chattered his teeth at him and gripped firmly around his upper arm and began to pull him to him. Its mouth wide and coming at him. The still human compadre of Holsinger jumped quickly into action and ducked out of the way before he was bitten and let his once brother in arms fall back to the ground.

“WHOA! What the fuck!” The man backed away.

“They are turning, have you not seen zombie flicks stupid ass!” Martin laughed at him.

Martin walked over to the Army zombie that was reaching for his buddy and stabbed him in the top of the head. The creature’s hands and head drooped to the ground, as Holsinger pulled out his knife, the zombie twitched as he fell hard and Holsinger stuck it back in for good measure just to make sure that he had hit his brain.

“I…I Thought you were trying to kill our unit, sorry bro!” The man told Holsinger apologetically.

“You have to be careful with these things, always watch your back and your friends’ backs. Always stay on your toes.” He explained to the small group that was left.

“We need to see what the other unit brought in before we got here. Let’s start unloading all this shit and get it somewhere, maybe in a safe place that has none of these shit heads in it. Maybe check out the school. First, I would suggest that we at least get the fence secured that is nearby. The far off fence we can get to later, we can see those ones coming, and we just don’t want any creepers creeping up on us. All we can do is what we can do.” Martin explained.

Martin watched as the men actually started acting like the Army and not some pussy military boys. The men began to move in line formation with knives drawn, each one turning slow circles with each step they took looking for the slow walking, torn to pieces sons of bitches that wanted to eat them. As they would get to a broken down piece of fencing, two would stand guard while the others pieced it back together with the chain link fencing they had brought and the others had brought in before them.

Once they reached the nearby school, the fencing turned from the tin wall that surrounded the plant to a four foot chain link that was supposed to keep in the children at play; apparently no one ever thought of keeping out zombies. The small group unwound the rolls of six foot fence and put it up behind the small fence to double the security.

They made their way to the front school doors, they all hesitated as they wondered what would be inside.

One of the men held up one finger, then two, then three and threw the double steel doors open. All of the men half crouched and began to walk through the entry way. Army cots were still folded up and leaned up against the wall of the hall way. Boxes of MRE’s were stacked inside the door from floor to ceiling.

“Doesn’t look like these guys made it too far in. Keep your eyes open.” One of the men suggested.

The group of eight men cleared the first two open doors and left them open so that they would know that they had been in there. The third door of the hall way was closed. One of them grabbed the handle and turned to make sure he had some back up. He slowly turned the knob and pulled the door open, as a crack of light was allowed to enter the room, a loud bang sounded from behind the door and the man was pushed from the door way. Three men escaped through it and lunged at the knife yielding men. One pierced his knife through the eye of one that tried to take a bite of his face, as the next zombie attacked him from the side. The soldier that was pushed to the floor, crawled over and dug his knife into the nape of the zombie’s neck and rolled him off of his friend. The third zombie appeared to have backed another against the wall and he had dropped his knife as he was hit by the massive man in uniform that decided he was hungry. He wrestled him as he came in for the kill pushing him back with all of his might. The zombie suddenly crumbled to the floor like his legs were not even there. The bones cracked as he hit and his head bounced hard enough it spurted brain matter onto the Army boots of the man that was about to be eaten. Holsinger stood behind the fallen zombie, bloody knife still held up in the air.

“No man left behind, you okay?” He asked the man that was a smart ass to him earlier.

“Yeah, I think so.” He stood up off of the wall.

There was a blood spot on the wall behind him as he pulled away.

“You’re bleeding brother, let me check it out.” Holsinger stated.

“Nah, I’m alright!” He stated back and pulled away.

As he turned to make his way back through the doors they entered, Holsinger could see a blood stain on the back of his head. The zombie had gotten to him. Holsinger knew what he had to do and dreaded it since he was still considered human at this point. He scanned the small group of men, each dropping their heads and taking a step back as Martin’s eyes grazed over them.

“Assholes.” He whispered.

Martin walked up behind his brother in arms, he reached to the front of him and slid the knife across his neck and let him drop to the cement slab that led back out to the school yard.

He looked back at the group, they all turned and showed their backs to him.

“He would have just turned, don’t you think we have enough of them to deal with?” Martin asked them to their backs. “I can’t help that all of y’all have no nuts to take care of this shit. I want to live.”

One by one they turned around. They all nodded and headed back to their duties. They cleared rooms one by one. Martin headed back to the front gate to watch for any dead or survivors. He figured there would be more of the Army sent or someone would see the smoke from the smoke stacks that still blew up into the air.

He began to secure the gate more than it was by tightening the links that looked worn and decided that a tower would be the best thing to build there. He scanned the trucks to see if there may be anything to build it with and was able to find very limited building materials. He began to build a small room on the side of the gate to at least have something there for him to hideaway in if necessary.

The few that were left from his unit came barreling out of the front doors of the school and zombies followed directly behind as Holsinger set up the last piece of wood from a truck that had been brought in before they arrived. He quickly grabbed his knife and headed their way. Some of the zombies had already gotten to a few of the men that were clearing the building, only three were running through the yard. Zombies fell tripping over the threshold of the doorway, some made it over them and kept on walking toward the men. Two of the men stopped and turned once far enough out. The first man that stopped began to put his blade into the first zombie that reached out for him, the other man that stopped froze as if he was glued to the ground and made into a statue. His eyes got big and he just stood there, a zombie was able to pass by the first man that was trying to rid the yard of them and bit into the one that stood still in fear. He dropped to the ground without making a noise. There were no screams or grunts of pain from him. Holsinger watched in terror wondering why he would just stand there and give up like that. Holsinger ran over and began the normal stabbing of the others that were surrounding his brother. The last of the three still ran across the large field like he was running a marathon.

The two remaining tried their best to put their blade in and pull it out in time for the next one to attack. There were still more coming and Holsinger knew that they would be dead in a matter of minutes. He hurried to the gate and grabbed his M4 and while running back to his last partner left began to shoot at the mess of them heading out of the door with hopes that his brother was able to stab the others. Holsinger prevented the dead from coming anywhere near the others that surrounded his only help and kept them in his peripherals. He side stepped as he shot trying to make it over to help. He came within arm’s reach of the group that surrounded his only friend and halted his shooting to stab a few of the others in the head. He then shot some that were making their way outside and then went back to stabbing more next to him. This same routine went on for ten minutes until Holsinger heard his brother scream. Martin looked over his shoulder and saw a woman attached to his hand with the knife in it. He dropped his knife as two more bit him on each shoulder and another that had crawled to him had bitten his thigh. Holsinger continued shooting; finally with only one or two stragglers staggering out of the building, he turned the gun on the ones that were in the process of eating his last remaining cohort and shot them, as he did, he also shot his brother in the head to assure that he would not come back as one of them.

He ran to the remaining that exited the building and stabbed them.

This was it, he was on his own, all of his unit had been taken by zombies. He couldn’t believe it. He peered around the area and then down the hall of the school. He noticed quickly that the hall way was empty of any zombies. He ran to the steel doors, closed them and secured the deadbolt lock on the two doors. He looked behind him to make sure none had heard him from down the hall and came out of any of the opened doors. He turned and slid his back down the doors of the now secured facility. He knew that there were probably more of these things behind these closed doors, but for now he was going to rest his weary mind and figure out his next move now that he was all alone.

After being up and using so much energy, Martin had fallen asleep against the doors. He woke to a loud bang down the hallway. He jumped to his feet and readied himself to kill. He walked slowly down the hall way and peered into the classrooms with open doors before passing them. He would place his ear against each closed door. If he heard nothing, he would move on without opening it. He made it to the other end of the hall way and locked the two doors that led outside. He scanned outside through the rectangle windows that were in the doors and saw only a few zombies that wandered through the open land.

He crept back down the hallway and knew that at some point he was going to have to open each door and rid the zombies of his new locked safe haven.

The first door he came to had the name Mrs. Knight written above the door in laminated pictures of pencils. He again placed his ear up against the door. With no noise, he lightly tapped on the door with his knife and listened again. He cracked the door open and placed his foot against the bottom of the door. He looked around to the opening and peered inside. He did not detect any movement, and opened the door a bit more to see more of the room, still with his foot against the door, he opened it a little more. With the door now open enough for someone to enter or exit, he moved his foot and placed his back against the door frame. He scanned the room and waited for one of these fucks to lunge out at him. A few seconds passed before he moved into the room, he closed the door behind him and made the perimeter around the room. He opened the one closet door and closed a window that was open and latched it.

“Clear!” He said to himself.

He opened the door back to the hallway and left that one open to show that he had cleared it as the others had been at the beginning of the hall way.

He went to the next door across the hall and proceeded with the same routine as the first room.

This one had Ms. Lauren written in laminated bubble letters down the side of the door. He placed his foot against the door and clicked it open just enough to see inside. He then tapped his knife on the side of the door. Massive weight hit the door and pushed him back, he held his stance and pushed back. The man growled like a rabid dog and pushed harder. Holsinger pushed it with his foot to keep it stable. He still had a small crack in the door to be able to see the man. He peered around the door while trying to keep his weight against it. The man was a massive hunk of flesh that stood at least five inches over his five foot ten height. He slid his foot back an inch at a time as the man pushed, Martin lured him to the crack in the door, He placed his knife below his chin and pushed upward with the might that he had left from trying to keep the door closed. The large man stumbled backwards and came at the door again. Martin fell back this time when he hit it and the door bounced off of the wall and hit the man in the face but did not slow him at all, he limped toward him. This particular zombie wore a t-shirt and blue jeans that were unzipped and pulled down around his ass and his massive cock swung freely, it came at him like he had not eaten in days. Holsinger steadied himself against the wall and straight armed him like a quarterback in football. He jumped as the man tripped over his own feet and stabbed him in the top of his head. His knife stuck and Holsinger’s feet swung through the air as the dead man hit the wall with his already bloodied face and slid down it. Martin ended up sitting on the man’s back. He grabbed his knife with both hands and pulled it out of his smashed skull. He took a breath and released the adrenaline that was rushing through him when he felt a hand grasp the back of his neck. He jumped and grabbed the hand and twisted as he had been taught in the Army. It was a woman with a dress pulled up around her neck. She pressed her ass against him as Martin turned her wrist over so she was backwards and her face away from any part of him. He thrust the knife into the back of her head and let her fall face first onto the man that attacked him first.

“That is probably where you were anyway.” He breathlessly stated.

He made his way back over to the door, scanning the room assuming that they were the only two in the classroom since they appeared to be doing things that they shouldn’t.

He knew finding them behind the closed doors of the classrooms was a possibility, he just wasn’t ready to be finding fucking zombies, he thought as he laughed to himself.

“Fucking zombies.” He said out loud shaking his head.

Martin cleared the rest of the rooms as he had before, only finding three more throughout. All of the doors were now open, including the bathrooms.

He began to open a box of the MRE’s that had been left behind and laid out a cot in the first room closest to where he had entered. He needed to rest and plan in case no one else was sent or no one ever found him.

Martin knew that he was going to have to go to the plant at some point, for now he would be building his energy back from the killing that he had done and fueling himself for more killing of the rotten ones.

STORY THREE

LISA

She stared across the dark bar at the couple that sat in the corner; they kissed twice and then his tongue looked as though it was bulging inside her throat as it made its way down like a lizard.

“Glad I ain’t gotta deal with that bullshit no more.” She stated to the woman that sat next to her. “Got rid of my extra weight a few years back, he was nothing but trouble anyway.”

The woman next to Lisa pulled the last drop from her bottle of beer and set it on the bar.

“Guess I just don’t need someone’s tongue that far down my throat to feel loved.” She laughed patting Lisa on the back and walking out.

“Another beer and then I will be out of your hair.” She told the bartender.

It had been a hard day’s work at the warehouse that she had managed for the last eight years. She had been one of the only two women to be promoted to management in the company ever, and the last one had been under the desk of some higher management one too many times and had been recently fired.

Lisa had gotten the job at the warehouse by accident. Her ex-husband had been a real prick and she had gone through some hard times. She found that he was cheating with many different women, he had told Lisa she shouldn’t care and she would be staying with him no matter what he did. She was happy when he decided to leave her for another woman eight years ago with some prissy little bitch named Sadie.

He left her and her son Ty to fend for themselves. She had not worked in almost a decade except for odd jobs here and there, but was ready to take on the world when her piece of shit left.

After that she had run across a man at a bar that she was part time waitressing at that was bitching about an employee that could not run his warehouse. Lisa had joked wth him that she could do it better and he hired her. Sbe proved herself right and has been there ever since.

Lisa had always been the independent type and tough as nails. She loved being outside, shooting guns, fishing, things like that and had always loved to drink and hangout. Her husband seemed to like all of those things more than she did, and began doing it without her after a few years of being married and liked doing it with other women besides her.

Her son Ty was the first and foremost part of her world and now at twenty one years old, he was still the center of her world. They both lived together in a small two bedroom house that had been cheap enough for her to get when her husband left and was perfect for the two of them to make it through life, so that is where they stayed.

Ty was now attending college for a business degree and helped his mom pay bills with the part time job that he worked. He had always been proud of his mom and how she handled things when his sperm donor left when he was thirteen, she never missed a beat at taking care of things. He had never seen her cry or have a meltdown, she picked everything up and moved on without batting an eye.

Lisa over saw at least a hundred and fifty employees at her job, she was known as a hard ass work horse in her field and the employees never dared buck her system. However, her sarcastic attitude and smart mouth like a sailor put the work atmosphere at ease even though she was the boss. Lisa was loved by the whole facility, she would joke and make remarks to the guys about not working hard enough. They all knew that they could always joke back with her but also knew that they were able to go to her with any issues they had including personal ones.

“Alright, I gotta get outta here, I got an appointment with my boy today to do some shootin’.” She waved to the bartender.

Everyone waved to her from the bar stools, knowing they would see her back soon, since she stopped in every few days to unwind after work.

“Hey there boss, are we that bad that you gotta drink?” One of her employees asked as he entered the bar and held open the door for her to leave.

“Hell yeah, y’all are the reason I fucking drink asshole!” She joked back with him.

“Have a good one boss!” He told her.

Lisa waved her hand behind her.

Lisa made her way to her red four door Ford f-150 that she had bought a few months ago. She was proud that she was able to do that while helping Ty through college. She had made it all these years without that no good prick and was proud to show that off and she had done it all on her own.

She pulled out of the parking lot and drove a few blocks down into the parking lot of the shooting range. Ty sat in his small sports car waiting on her. She pulled up next to him and smiled her huge smile at him. She hopped down out of her truck and waited on him to unload the guns.

“Hello my son!” Lisa belted out.

“Mom, what is it with that damn cowboy hat?” Ty asked her.

“It isn’t a cowboy hat, it is a cowgirl hat. Get your shit straight boy!” She joked.

Lisa was barely able to tip toe and reach her son as she walked over to kiss his cheek. Even with her heeled boots she only stood a small five foot three. Her blonde hair surrounded her smooth skin that made her look as though she was not even old enough to have that big of a kid.

Ty was tall like his dad and stout. His broad shoulders covered Lisa’s small frame, but his wavy dirty blonde hair made him look as sweet as a teddy bear. Lisa had done a good job at raising Ty to treat people with respect and to not be like his father. She had taught him the ins and outs of how to treat a lady as well as other people. She wanted him to be tough but considerate enough to understand that others had feelings and consider those feelings. She wanted him to be mature enough to take care of himself but be thankful if others offered to take care of him; and she had done all of that.

Ty was all of the things that she could ever hope for in a son and was at the top of her list when it came to the love of her life.

Ty closed the trunk of the car and handed her a wooden box with ‘LISA’ engraved on the top.

“What the hell is this?” She asked.

“Usually people open gifts to find out what they are.” He used his sarcasm he came by honestly.

“Smart ass!” She smiled.

She opened the small box to show a pink and black nine millimeter pistol.

“Are you fucking kidding?” She shouted. “This is the one I was looking at in the gun shop. Ty this shit was expensive.”

“Yep, but I got a new job and it is something you wanted. I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done to sacrifice for me. I got the job I applied for as the safety coordinator with the city and I am running the business side of the department budget. It is a lot more pay and I can help with a lot more now, you won’t have to work the extra shifts you do.” He explained.

Lisa removed her hat and pushed her hair away from her face as she turned the gun over in her hands and put it back in the box. She peered up at him with tears in her eyes and put her hat back on and pulled it low.

“I am glad I raised such an awesome son. Thank you.” She stated almost crying.

“You did a great job and I am glad I make you proud. Love you Mom. Now put your damn hat on right, suck it up and let’s go shoot it!” He put his arm around her neck and pulled her to the entryway.

This was their getaway time, some days there were hours spent at the gun range. They went there so often that they were able to just walk in, go to the back and begin their escapade of shooting targets without anyone even saying anything more than a hello or showing them a new gun they had bought.

Ty opened his gun case to his new .308 and readied it to start sighting it in. Lisa carefully placed her new small engraved box on the table and opened it. She loaded the ammo that came with it and turned to her son.

“So how does it look?” She joked throwing her head back and holding her gun with both hands.

“It looks great on you!” Ty laughed at his mom. He quickly grabbed his phone and pushed the picture button on his phone to capture the moment, and to blackmail his mom later for looking so girly.

“I love it!” She flipped the gun back and forth in her hands.

She placed her earmuffs on her head, aimed at the full length body paper target down the way and shot. She shot a few more times while getting the feel for the recoil and then pushed the small button to allow her to view her shots from close up.

“Not too bad.” She stated to her son in the small booth next to her.

Ty leaned his head around and viewed her shots. “Mom, you can’t shoot everyone in that spot all the time.”

“There is a head shot, I don’t shoot them all in that area, just the men.” She spat back jokingly at her son.

“You’re scary sometimes.” He pulled his head back to his side and pulled the trigger of his gun.

Both guns had been shot numerous times and they decided that they had done enough for the day.

“Food?” Lisa asked her son.

“Sure, I’ll buy.” Ty told her.

“I’m down for that shit!” Lisa joked.

They headed to their favorite Mexican food place and sat in their normal spot at the back in a booth.

The waiter brought them their regular chips, sauce and beer.

“Just the way I like it, beer to end my day!” Ty stated to the waiter.

Both of them ordered and talked about Ty’s new job and the craziness going on at the warehouse.

They headed home and laid on the couch, full from dinner and relaxed for the next day’s adventures.

“You excited to start your new job tomorrow?” Lisa asked her son.

“I think so, a little nervous.” Ty admitted.

“You are going to do great, I am very proud of you son.” Lisa patted his shoulder.

“Thanks Mom. I’m pretty proud of you for all the BS you have had to put up with from me over the years.” He laughed.

A knock sounded at the door as they laughed about the things Ty had got himself into. The two looked at each other and Lisa got up from the couch.

“Hold on Mom, no one ever comes around here this late.” Ty stated as he grabbed her small pink pistol he had just bought her off of the kitchen counter and stood back a bit. “Go ahead.” He stated with the gun by his side.

Lisa opened the door to a breathless man.

“Please help me!” The man shouted.

Lisa looked at him and back at Ty.

“Get the fuck outta here buddy!” Ty approached the door with the gun out in front of him.

The man put his hands up in the air and stumbled back down the two steps of the porch.

“I just needed some help to get away from these fucking things. Fuck you to then asshole!” The man stated before running back to the street.

Lisa closed the door and locked it and peered out of the peephole in the center of the door.

“This neighborhood has gone to shit since I was little. We are going to look for a new place.” Ty told his mother.

Lisa shook her head as she backed away from the door and watched Ty place her gun back in its case.

“I like my little house, I have worked hard for it.” She expressed.

“I know, but you got screwballs like that coming to your door. What are you going to do when I move out and something like that happens?” He asked.

“When are you moving out?” Lisa questioned worried.

“Not soon mom, but eventually I imagine I am going to not live with my mommy.” He joked.

“I am headed to bed.” Ty kissed his mom on the cheek.

Lisa laid down on the couch to finish the show that they were watching and dozed off. Ty woke her the next morning with a plate full of greatness.

“What is this for? Bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes. What the hell did I do to deserve this, and if I keep doing it can I get more?” Lisa joked.

“It’s the weekend and I’m hungry. I just knew you would kill me if I didn’t make you some.” Ty laughed as he sat down with his plate next to her. “Why in the hell are you sleeping on the couch?”

“I fell asleep watching that show from last night.” She stated with a mouthful. “Now about this moving thing you mentioned last night.”

“Oh God mother. Get off of it, I am not going anywhere right now.” Ty rolled his eyes.

Lisa half smiled at the thought that she would not have her little boy at some point, when a bang sounded at the door like a gunshot ringing into the air. Lisa jumped at the loudness almost dropping her plate.

“What the hell was that?” Lisa whispered.

Ty handed his plate to his mom and went to pull the gun back out of its case and stood for a moment expecting someone to bust through the door. The only sound that was heard was a scratching sound coming from the door.

“I mean did someone just throw a dog at our door and now it wants us to let it in?” Lisa questioned the sound.

“I don’t know Ma, stay here.” Ty instructed.

As usual, Lisa didn’t listen and grabbed the loaded twenty two rifle that she kept in the corner, and followed behind her son. He approached the door and tried to peer through the peep hole, but something was covering it.

“Get the fuck out of here asshole! Ty shouted at the door.

The scratching intensified and got louder and another bang sounded over and over as though someone was hitting the door and then suddenly stopped.

Ty flung the door open and held the gun at eye level. No one was there, but blood was smeared across the door, which explained the peephole.

“Ty watch out!” Lisa shouted.

He backed away as a man crawled through the door way and reached for him. Ty shot one shot in the top of the man’s head. The man fell to the floor in a heap with his arms still reaching forward. His hands looked as though someone had skinned them with a knife and had dirt and blood caked under his fingernails. Ty was unable to see his face with his forehead implanted onto the floor. Ty reached down and turned the dead man over and jumped back quickly.

The face was a dark brown and wrinkles covered the man that made him look like he had come out of the Michael Jackson Thriller video. His t-shirt had been torn down the front and laid open to bare his concaved chest.

“What the fuck is that?” Ty questioned.

“Uhhh, a fucked up looking mother fucker, who apparently needs another drink after his bad night.” Lisa laughed.

“Mom, call the damn cops.” Ty instructed.

Lisa picked up her phone keeping an eye on the man and dialed nine one one.

“Dispatch, what is your emergency?” The woman asked.

“My son just shot a man that tried to crawl into our house, he is laying in my living room floor and he looks as though he has been beaten or something, can we get someone out here?” Lisa asked her.

“Yes ma’am, we have had a more than usual amount of calls today, what is your address and we will get someone over.” The dispatcher calmly stated.

Lisa provided their address and hung up. “They will be here when they can. She said they have had a lot of calls today.”

“Guess we are stuck with some dead guy in our living room until the stupid ass cops get here.” Ty backed away from the corpse.

The door still stood wide open and both Lisa and Ty held their guns for a ‘just in case’ purpose of someone else deciding they needed to be in their house.

Ty peered out of the door and walked over to it hoping the cops would be pulling up any second. He saw a man in the neighbor’s yard bent over and quickly pulled his head back inside. He furrowed his brow and stuck his head back out to scan the area again. The man was in the middle of the yard next door with his back to him, he was on his knees almost as if he were praying. Ty could see his arms moving but was unable to see what exactly he was doing.

“Come look at this shit.” Ty turned to his mom.

Lisa walked over and stood behind her son and looked in the direction he had been staring. She saw the man and tilted her head a bit.

“What is he doing? Is he…eating?” She questioned.

“Mom, what the hell is he gonna be eating in the front yard of the neighbor’s house?” He laughed.

The man sat up straight and lifted a knee to steady one foot on the ground and stumbled to try and catch the other. He stumbled forward and began to limp as he walked away from them. A bloodied mess laid on the ground where he was and was spread out. Bits and pieces of blood covered the place where he had risen from. Ty made his way quickly out of the door and towards the man that was slowly getting away.

He lifted the pistol, “Hey!” He shouted.

The man turned just as Ty approached the mound of remains on the ground. Black fur was spread in the grass and mixed in with the guts and head of a cat. Ty backed up from the cat and jerked his head up to look at the man. He had the remaining guts hanging from his mouth and some swinging from his hand dragging the ground and was now walking toward him. His skin was a dark brown color and he showed his bloody, fur filled teeth to him. His gums receded back and allowed his teeth to have more places for the fur to stick to. His hands were wrinkled from the dried and fresh blood mixed with it and he dragged both his feet making a path in the grass back to him. Ty tripped over the small bushes that separated their property from the neighbors, he shot up to his feet as he watched the man shuffle closer to him and stumbled backwards again on his butt. A shot rang out and the man fell face down across the mangled cat that he had been eating.

Ty peered back to the sound of the shot and saw his mom standing in their front yard with his .22 rifle shouldered and still aiming through the scope.

“GET INSIDE!” Ty hollered to her.

“You get your ass inside!” Lisa hollered back dropping the gun.

The two hurried in the house, moved the dead man out of the doorway and slammed the door. Lisa locked it and stood against it like someone was going to try and get in.

“What the hell was that?” Ty asked his mom.

“Well, son. It appears it may have been a zombie.” Lisa said with no tone to her voice.

“Fucking zombie’s eat people, not cats mother!” Ty shouted out.

“They eat anything Ty.” Lisa stared forward and slid down the door to sit next to the dead man on her floor.

“Mom, what are we going to do?” Ty wanted plans.

Lisa sat for a moment and ran the situation through her mind. She thought of places that would be safer than her home.

“The school!” She shot up from the floor.

Ty backed up slowly as she ran to the back of the house. He waited and she ran back past him to the gun cabinet and opened it with the keys she had gotten from her room. She purposely stuck the wad of keys in her pocket and began unloading every gun they had and all of the ammo to the floor.

“Start loading them all!” She hollered at him.

Ty did as he was told and sat them to the side as he got them loaded. She ran to the kitchen and began loading food into a trash bag and ran it over to the door. She took a case of water and placed it next to the food and then quickly grabbed some of hers and Ty’s clothes and put them in a back pack and threw it onto her back.

“Alright! Stand guard with a gun and I am going to throw this shit in the truck. I will take as much as I can on the first run and then we will both go on the second.” She instructed.

“Mom, let me go. I can run faster.” Ty stated.

“Ty, I have read the books on how these things work. I need you to stand guard. You are a better shot, shoot them in the head if they come close.” Lisa picked up an armful of the guns.

Ty opened the door and let his mother out and watched her run the few feet to the driveway, she opened the door and threw the guns behind the seat and ran back to him. Ty waved the gun back and forth looking for anything moving besides his mom. No zombies were in sight as she made her small trip. She barreled back into the house.

“I didn’t see any of them.” Ty informed her.

“Maybe we have caught this at the beginning and there isn’t any right now but that one. But there will be. Grab everything and let’s go!” She spat at him.

The two gathered the rest of what was left and bounded out of the front door and to the truck. Lisa ran around to the driver’s side and threw the food into Ty, she took off the back pack and threw it into the backseat and hopped up into the truck. Just as the door slammed shut, a woman slammed up against her window. Lisa jumped and backed her head away from the window peering into the empty eyes of the old woman that lived across the street. Her skin was already a dark grey and blood covered her mouth showed she had already had her first meal.

“She has been turned for a while. We have to get out of here.” Lisa dug the keys out of her pocket.

The truck started and Ty grabbed a gun from the back seat.

“No, we are okay in here.” She stated as he tried to point the gun at the old woman. “If you shoot out my window, they will be able to get in. Think Ty!” Lisa pushed the barrel from in front of her face.

Ty lowered the gun to point at the floorboard and sat back in his seat while watching another crawl across his mother’s St’ Augustine grass towards them.

“Yeah, we need to go!” Ty’s face turned white.

Lisa backed up and hit the woman that stood against her truck with her side mirror. Her head flipped over the mirror and her body dropped to the ground. Ty gagged and leaned over to putting his head between his knees.

“Don’t you throw up in my fucking truck!” Lisa directed.

Ty sat up and leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Yeah, just sit there.” She stated to her son.

Lisa pulled forward down the small residential street and eased her way to the intersection. She stopped at the stop sign and then wondered why she was stopping. She lifted her foot off of the brake and then back on as a man stepped in front of the truck and placed his dirtied hands on her hood. He chomped his jaws and looked right at her. He then reached his hands out while he opened and closed his fists. Still moving his feet, he slowly slid across the hood and stumbled as he reached the side of the truck. Once out of the way, Lisa hit the gas and watched the man spin off of her truck. She turned left down two other streets and to the four lane highway.

She came upon what looked like a traffic jam but was just the highway littered with cars that she was unable to drive through. She backed up and drove onto the grassy shoulder of the and drove on.

“Where are you going?” Ty asked as he hung on to the ‘oh shit’ handle at the top of the door.

“The school; if anything we can at least clear out a classroom of these fucks and block the doors and windows. Maybe make our way to the cafeteria at some point. Should go to the damn bar, but there isn’t anything but those damn peanuts there.” Lisa wished.

Limping, bloody, dirty and old looking people, if that is what you can call them, began emerging from where the cars sat on the highway into her path on the shoulder. She dodged them at first and then had no choice but to hit them. The brush guard on her truck made hard contact with them and threw them up onto her hood. Ty covered his face as they rolled onto the windshield. Lisa slowed the truck and let the one that had stuck to the brush guard fall off. She ran over the zombie and kept going at a slow rolling pace.

Ty began to see them wandering through the woods off to the side, some of them were trapped in the vines from the trees, some had been stabbed by big branches and laid on them still alive reaching for the sound of the vehicle that was passing by them. Others were walking or limping slowly through the trees.

“They are everywhere.” Ty stared off into the wooded side of the road.

“That is how the apocalypse works.” Lisa told her scared son.

“You’re not scared?” Ty asked.

“I am destined. I will be scared later.” Lisa admitted.

They continued on, striking zombies and pushing them out of the way. The school was still quite a few miles away and a ding sounded from her dashboard.

“What the fuck is that?” Ty asked.

“Gas.” Lisa stated.

“You’ve got to be kidding?” Ty grunted.

They were finally able to drive up onto the highway.

“I still have about thirty miles until I am completely out of gas, if I remember right, there is a gas station up ahead.” She told him

They soon took a small access road on the right. A gas station came into their view. Once in the parking lot, both glanced in all directions with no sign of zombies. Lisa rolled the almost empty truck to the gas pump and once in place, the truck died before she could reach down and turn off the ignition.

“I guess at least we made it. Now to hope we can get some gas.” She stated still looking all around them.

“I thought you had thirty miles to go and why the school?” Ty asked while he helped look for the zombies.

“I always said that if anything crazy like this happened, I would go to a school. I thought about going to work and locking up the joint, but there are too many entryways. I thought about the jail, but convicts are there and who wants to deal with zombies and convicts. So the school was the safest place to go, but the nearest one is more than twenty miles away these days. They tore down all the schools you went to that were close. Anyways, let’s get some gas and get back on the road to it.” She was ready to go.

Lisa handed Ty a knife she pulled from under the seat in front of him and pulled another one from under hers. Lisa pulled the handle to open her door as did Ty. Both stepped out, pushed their doors with ease and softly clicked them shut. Ty started walking towards the store before Lisa whispered out for him to stop.

Ty turned as a zombie approached from the side of his mom. Ty ran towards the zombie and stabbed the man in the top of the head and pushed him to the ground. He dropped to his knees, angry with the man for trying to get to his mother and stabbed him multiple times in the head and face making him unrecognizable. He moved from his head once there was nothing left to stab and continued stabbing the man in the body. He bludgeoned the man to no extreme. Lisa hurried to her knelt down son and grabbed his arm on his way down to stab the man again.

“TY STOP! Get inside now!’ She quietly demanded.

Ty looked at his mother then at the group that was headed their way. He caught his feet and hurried with his mom into the store. He pulled the glass doors closed just as a small approaching woman slammed into it and pushed it. Lisa held the door steady and Ty locked it allowing the woman to only bang on the door with her tiny hands. The woman had a flowered dress on and her hair was long and appeared to once have been flowing and beautiful, but was now stringy and dirty. Her face was concaved and only her sunk in green eyes showed any kind of life that my still live inside of her.

Ty stood face to face with the woman before Lisa pulled him back.

“Help me make sure there are none inside, then you can stand and stare at your new love.” Lisa joked.

“Funny Mom.” He turned to follow.

They made sure all of the aisles were clear and then walked towards the bathrooms. Lisa pushed the door open and let Ty in, he turned from side to side and made sure there were not any out in the open. Lisa came in behind him and pushed open the first stall door as she held her breath waiting for something to shoot. It was clear with no zombies inside. She pushed the second door open with her foot to a woman that sat on the toilet with her pants down. She had a large bite mark on her thigh and looked up when the door swung towards her. Lisa held up her gun and aimed at the woman.

“Wait!” The woman screamed.

Lisa dropped her gun and peered at the woman trying to figure out if she had been bitten why she was still living and had not turned.

“You have been bit, yes?” Lisa asked.

“Yes, but I am okay.” She told Lisa.

“Mom?” Ty said in question form.

“No, you are not okay, you’ve got life fucked up.” Lisa raised her gun and shot her in the head.

“Mom, she was alive!” Ty shouted.

“She was turning, her skin had already begun to fade and turn, she was drooling and all. She was a goner anyway. I would rather get rid of her now than have her fuck with us while trying to get our shit together here.” Lisa admitted.

“You are kind of a bad ass when it comes to this. Where the hell did this come from?” Ty asked.

Lisa half smiled at her son as she walked towards the next bathroom. She felt bad for killing the woman, but was not taking the chance of one of these bastards getting her or her son. She was going to kill any and all that was a zombie or possibly become a zombie.

Ty opened the door this time. Lisa readied her gun to shoot and went in and turned a three sixty to scan the bathroom. The only stall was already open and nothing was in it but a toilet full of crap.

“Huh, no one in here, but it figures a man would leave a toilet full of shit.” Lisa turned and walked out.

Down the hall was a closed door marked ‘Employees Only’.

“We aren’t employees, and it is already secured off, so let’s leave that one. Let’s find something to drink.” Lisa turned Ty.

They both walked back out to the store portion and back to the coolers. Ty opened the door to grab a Coke and Lisa made her way to the beer. She pulled out a six pack and popped a top, not bothering to break the plastic ring and downed the whole can.

“Hell yeah, let’s kill some zombies!” She let out a laugh.

“Really.” Ty muttered.

“Not really, just wanted a beer, and they are still pretty cool. I am going to need a few of these bad boys.” She stammered.

Lisa grabbed three thirty packs, two in each hand and one under her arm and set them by the glass doors. She went back and grabbed three more thirty packs and stumbled back to the door with them in her arms and stacked them on the others.

“Well, my drinking habit should be good for a bit.” Lisa joked.

“What the hell is wrong with you woman. We are in the middle of the apocalypse, and you are joking about shit. There is something seriously wrong with you.” Ty told her.

Lisa laughed as she grabbed a handful of cigarette packs from behind the counter and stashed them in all of her pockets. She grabbed a handful of lighters and then started down the aisles to find food.

Ty had already found bags to put things in and began stuffing the bags with chips and sweets and the typical convenient store foods. Lisa did the same until she came to the small packs of medicine. She grabbed another bag and began swiping all of the meds off of their hangers into the bag.

She then tied the bag and placed it on top of her beer and went back for more. She began filling bags with Gatorades and other drinks and then with jerky and the few granola bars that were nearby.

“I think we are good son, let’s figure out the gas pumps. You used to work in that store, how in the hell do these things work?” Lisa questioned.

“It is usually just a simple button, the power seems to be on or at least on a generator, so let’s try it out.” He stated.

Ty went behind the counter and tapped on the touch screen a few times.

“There we go, should be all good.” He told her.

Lisa peered out the door and looked for anything that may notice them trying to sneak out or that they may draw attention to by unlocking the door.

“Damn, your girlfriend is gone.” Lisa laughed.

Ty glared up from his squatting position as he gathered the bags.

Lisa held open the door and followed him out holding only two of her thirty packs since she had to be able to shoot. Both of them placed the goods in the back of the truck. Ty moved around to begin pumping gas and Lisa went back for the rest of what was gathered by the door.

She made her way out with everything else and put it in the truck and walked around to her son.

“There isn’t much gas here, it may only be a few gallons.” Ty told her.

“We will take what we can.” Lisa rang out.

Ty pumped the remaining drops into the gas tank and walked around the truck. He began rummaging through the bags to find something that he wanted while Lisa popped the top on another beer. When she lowered her can, the woman that was at the door of the store stood behind Ty.

“Ty duck!” Lisa screamed.

Ty didn’t understand until he turned to see the long haired woman standing behind him and dropped to the ground. As he dropped and Lisa fumbled get a gun and aim it, the woman dropped with him. Lisa ran around the truck, gun ready to fire. It was too late, she had already bit into the side of Ty’s face and was going in for another bite. Lisa put the barrel of the gun to her head and pushed her away and fired. Her brain splattered across the pavement and her body fell where it was knelt as it ate part of her son.

Ty laid on the cement staring at his mother moaning with the pain from the zombie woman they had just joked about.

“Son, no!” Lisa hollered.

“Mom, go.” Ty mumbled.

“I can’t leave my son here to die like this.” Lisa stated.

Ty’s eyes closed as the blood poured from his face. Lisa knelt down next to him and picked his head up and held it against her chest.

“I love you Ty, you are my everything, I can’t do this alone.” She cried.

“Please hurry, just go.” Ty mumbled again.

Lisa laid Ty’s head on the ground and kicked the body of the bitch that had taken her son from her.

She rounded the tailgate and got into the truck. She turned the key and slowly drove away. She watched her son in the rearview mirror as his lifeless body laid rolling back and forth in the parking lot and then faded out of sight.

Her tears filled her eyes making her unable to see. She wiped them away as she drove and tried to compose herself to where she would at least be able to drive. She sat up straight and pulled a cigarette out of one of the stashed packs she had and opened it. She took a drag off of the first cigarette she had had in hours and blew the smoke out of the window. The tears began to well back up and she rolled the window down further to let the wind in to dry her eyes. She had to move on, she had to get somewhere. She wasn’t sure why since her son was now gone, there wasn’t much point, but she pushed on.

The sun was going down faster than usual it seemed and she pressed the gas further to the floor. She was able to drive on the highway now and made it up to eighty miles per hour before topping a hill and being able to see the school that she was hoping still stood and was not inundated with zombies. The smoke stacks appeared from the power plant that was far off from the school and she was confused of how it was still creating smoke.

Lisa figured her beer was still somewhat cold, maybe the smoke just had not gotten all the way out of the stacks yet or maybe they had generators like the store.

She stepped on the gas even more, she was doubtful that she was going to get stopped for speeding. Her truck hit the bottom of the hill and began to sputter.

“No you stupid ass!” She spat at the truck. “Shit!”

The truck died and she let it roll as far as it would go, which was nowhere near where she wanted to be. She could see another hill and assumed there were a few more after that since the school had looked like a small speck when she as at the top of the last hill. She pulled to the side of the road and began to remember all of the cars that were in the middle of the road earlier in her trip and figured at least she had made it further than they had.

She sat for a moment and looked over to the passenger seat where Ty should be.

“I can’t believe I let him die.” She stated to herself.

She closed her eyes and remembered all of the goods she had in the back of her truck. With no sign of zombies in her area, she opened the door and began to unload the bags from the back of the truck and put them in the front. Not knowing what was going to happen, she wanted to make sure that it was all safe. Once the food was in, she decided that the beer would be able to fit as well and loaded it in the front floorboard. She got back in and closed the door. She pushed the button to lock all of the doors and wondered if maybe the fumes would let her start her truck. She turned the key and the truck started up. She quickly put it in gear and easily stepped on the gas. She made it to the bottom of the next hill and the truck slowly began to climb the asphalt. Making it halfway up the hill, the truck began to sputter, she moved her body to shake the whole truck hoping that it would slosh the gas enough to make it to the top and allow her to roll down. She made it to the top and realized that it was flat road from there, she stomped on the gas and the truck lurched forward and died. She allowed it to roll and was able to again see the school. At least it was a little bit closer. She pulled to the side and sat in the truck and lit another cigarette, knowing that it was not safe to have her window down, she rolled it up and only left a small crack to let out the smoke. She peered at the food next to her and realized she had not had anything to eat in hours. She grabbed a few things and opened them and began to eat. She knew that she would need the energy in the morning at first light, because she would not be going anywhere in the dark.

She laid her seat back as far as it would go after flicking her cigarette out of the window. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

She woke the next morning with the rain tapping on her window. She jumped at the noise and sat up straight. She turned in all directions looking for zombies, trying to remember if it had all been a dream or reality. She scanned the woods next to her and then remembered the long haired woman taking a bite of the only thing she loved in this world and having to leave him behind.

She wiped her face with her hands and grabbed the bottle of water she had opened the night before. She took a swig and placed the capped bottle on the dashboard and searched for her cigarettes. She lit one and tried her luck on the truck starting. She tried twice with no luck and decided that walking was going to be her only option. She grabbed for her back pack and took out the clothes inside of it. She pulled out Ty’s clothes and pulled them to her face, she could smell him and missed him terribly. She began to fill her bag with a few items of food and some water and Gatorade bottles. Maybe she could find a vehicle that did work and come back for the rest of her belongings.

She wiggled the bag onto her back and scanned her surrounding area again. Feeling a bit safe with no sight of zombies, she opened her door, looking around again after the click of her door opening. Still no sight of any, she stepped out and grabbed two of her guns and her knife and closed the door softly.

Lisa began pounding the pavement and headed towards her destination.

On her way she had only seen one asshole that she easily stabbed in the head. She was starting to get tired from the sun beating down on her, when she heard the rumble of an engine. She squatted behind a car that had been left and saw a truck come into view. She stood hoping the dead didn’t learn to drive yet. She waved and the truck stopped.

“So where ya headed?” The smart ass question came from the driver.

“Anywhere safe.” She stated.

“Jump in back, we are headed the same place.” He offered.

“I have some things in my truck a few miles back, you think we could go back and get them?” She hoped.

“Too risky.” A voice called out from the truck.

“I have beer and I will share.” Lisa expressed.

“Beer! Hell why didn’t you say so. A beer is what we all need!” A man sat forward showing himself. “Bingo fucking bango!” He yelled.

“Shut the fuck up with that bull shit.” Another voice sounded out.

“Damn how many of you assholes are in there?” Lisa took a step to peer inside.

“Jump in, we will go back, but you are killing these fucks if any come up.” The driver stated.

STORY FOUR

KAREN

“Paris was great honey. I had so much fun.” She stated to her husband Dan.

Dan’s job took him and Karen all over the world. He was a highly requested lawyer for almost ten years now. Anywhere that he went, Karen went with him. She did all of his secretarial work and kept up with all of his books and scheduling. Even though she had so many different skills that she had learned over the years. They were soul mates and both loved being together as much as they could. Their life was lavish and they liked it that way.

This most recent trip was to Paris to defend a man that had been accused of murder, Dan had gotten acquitted. Which made him a large amount of money.

Karen had been well taken care of by Dan since the day they were married twelve years before. She never had to work except for Dan, and always took care of everything for him. All he had to do was take care of her and she always returned the favor tenfold.

“I am glad that I can take you with me, I am not sure what I would do without you.” Dan told her.

“Speaking of, dinner is ready.” She told him across the large dining room.

Their house was a five bedroom three bath. They were the ones on the block that had the extravagant holiday parties and Karen was the perfect hostess. She always decorated in the perfect ways and had the perfect food.

Karen was a very small framed woman, she was dirty strawberry blonde with the cutest body anyone could ask for. If you were allowed to see her without make up and high heeled shoes, you were of the privileged sorts. Karen was the perfect looking woman that every woman was jealous of. She always wore jeans and cute shirts and heels to match. She never looked a bit out of sorts since she represented her husband everywhere that she went. Everyone knew who she was.

Karen had always been obsessed with reading horror and that was what took up her time when she wasn’t working for her husband, she never passed up a good horror novel, no matter what country they were in.

Karen was the absolute woman of perfection and everyone knew it; however, she was also a stubborn headed kind of woman. She rarely took no for an answer when she wanted something and did not put up with any bullshit from anyone including her own husband that learned that very early on in their relationship.

Karen and Dan ate their dinner of T-bone steak, asparagus and baked potatoes with rolls for dinner. Karen had picked out the two hundred dollar bottle of wine to bring out the flavors just perfect.

Both were jet lagged from their trip the day before and decided that bed was the best choice for their Saturday night.

They climbed the white carpet covered spiral staircase and headed to their master bedroom. Karen sat on the oversized couch that covered the back wall while Dan sat with his feet up on the ottoman in the fluffy chair in the corner. Both relaxed for a moment before finally undressing and crawling into their California king sized bed. The huge comforter covered them both and hung down the sides. Their Egyptian cotton bed sheets kept them comfortable and able to sleep off their fatigue.

The next morning, both were well rested and Karen made breakfast while Dan was able to actually sit and do nothing but watch her.

“You know you are very beautiful.” He told her from their breakfast nook.

“You must still be tired.” She laughed.

“Nope, I am wide awake. I am so glad you married me.” Dan stated.

Karen smiled at her husband and walked over to set his plate in front of him. She sat across from him and grasped the pineapple chunk that had fallen off of her plate to the glass table.

Dan reached over and fed her a piece of kiwi and then took a drink of his orange juice.

“So, my next case is in Texas. Are you going to that one?” He asked his wife.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I?” she asked.

“I didn’t figure you would want to go down to Texas, it’s just a few states away and I will only be gone a few days.” He explained.

“I would love to go. There are some awesome things in Texas.” She stated. “When do we leave?”

“Two days and we will be staying until Friday night.” He explained to his wife.

“Sounds great.” Karen smiled.

The two finished their breakfast and decided that today would be their lazy day of the week. They sat for the day and watched movies they had missed over the last few weeks while in Paris.

They ordered take out and ate on the couch, which they only did on their lazy day weekends that they were home. It was one of Karen’s favorite times with her husband. Dan would turn off his phone and they would spend the day together.

The next day was Monday and they readied themselves by packing for Texas. Dan had his one bag and two suits hung next to the door. Karen had her three bags of clothes, a make-up bag, her almighty shoe bag and a bag with two extra outfits for those just in case purposes.

“So, do you have enough?” Dan laughed as he saw the stack of bags.

“I really don’t think I do, but I will make it work.” Karen put her finger on her chin trying to decide if she needed to take another bag with her.

Dan nodded his head and widened his eyes at his wife’s stack of bags.

“Okay, well we leave out tomorrow morning. I have to get this case in order beforehand. I will be in my office.” He kissed his wife on the cheek before heading down the hallway.

“I will be right here on the couch. I am going to read for a while.” She let him know.

The two went their separate ways and Karen woke to her husband carrying her up the stairs.

“Dan, I have told you to just wake me up if I fall asleep.” Karen smiled.

“But you are just so damn cute.

He flirted.

Waking the next morning, Karen popped out of bed and hollered at the top of her lungs.

“TEXAS HERE WE COME!”

Dan raised his head and looked at his loud wife and dropped his head back to his pillow.

“Come on babe, let’s go let’s go let’s go!” She bounced around the room.

Dan loved his wife, just not in the mornings.

Finally out of bed, Dan was ready.

“Well, let’s move out.” He stated grabbing some of her bags to load up.

He placed all of the bags in the trunk of the black Cadillac and the two headed to the small airport where the private jets of the well-off were kept. A valet worker loaded their bags onto a gold rolling cart and took the keys from Dan. Both were well known at the airport, the man knew their exact routine and did the same as he had all the other times before. Another man took the cart and headed to the gate of the private jet they would be loading onto while Dan tipped the man that took his keys a twenty dollar bill.

“We will only be gone a few days this time.” Dan told him.

The man nodded and walked to the driver’s side of the Cadillac and drove it into the parking garage.

Dan took Karen’s hand as they walked through the airport. Dan shook the hands of men he had met throughout the years and even some colleagues that were just getting back from a trip. The man had already loaded all of their bags and they walked through the small tunnel to the jet that awaited them.

Dan handed him a ten dollar bill. “Thank you Mr. Dziegiel, have a nice trip.” He bowed his head to him with thanks.

“What town are we landing in?” Karen asked.

“A place called Terrell, it was the closest one that had a private airport.” Dan told his wife as he sat on the tan leather love seat. “But the town we have to go to is fairly small from what I understand, but well off in the money area. I am defending a cop that screwed up and is being sued for all kinds of different things, so we will see how it goes.”

Karen walked to the fully stocked bar and made them both a drink. She poured her usual beer into a frosty mug and made Dan a double shot of scotch on the rocks.

She removed her heels and sat Indian style next to her husband.

“I am ready to get to Texas and enjoy some sun, I loved it when we visited before.” Karen stated.

“We will get there a lot quicker than we did to Paris, thank goodness. That was a horrid trip.” Dan stated.

“Guess I don’t mind the trips. It’s fun to have to find things to do.” Karen laughed.

“Yep, dancing and singing at the top of your lungs definitely keeps the whole jet entertained.” Dan joked, blowing her a kiss.

“Hey, it makes time go by. Shut the hell up. I can’t help it if you aren’t any fun anymore Mr. hot shot lawyer.” She told him.

Almost within minutes of take-off, they landed. Karen watched out of the window at the sun shining bright and almost blinding her reflecting off of the white cement runway.

They stepped out of the jet and down the stairs. This airport did not have the tunnels that they were used to back home, but Karen was happy to be out in the sun.

“Yaaay, sunshine!” She belted out. “We need more of this back home in Washington.”

Dan shook his head and smiled at his wife as she threw her hands in the air and turned circles trying to capture the sunlight and take it with her.

Once inside the airport, Karen grasped her composure and suddenly took on her professional face and walk, looking like the sexy secretary/accountant of a famous lawyer.

A limo waited for them outside, their bags already loaded up and the door stood open waiting for them to enter. Karen slid in and Dan sat and slid over next to his wife. Karen pointed out all of the places that she needed to go while they were there as Dan read the local paper they had waiting for him in the limo.

Soon they arrived at the hotel that was closest to the courthouse Dan would be working at for the next few days. It was a large beautiful older building. Karen looked out of the window and up to the top of the building.

“This is like the one we stayed in when we were in Athens last year.” Karen stated. “It is archaic.”

“I hope it is less expensive.” Dan stepped out of the Limo and pulled Karen behind him.

They climbed the steps to the revolving door and walked across the area rug that covered most of the lobby floor.

“Mr. Dziegiel checking in.” He stated to the plump woman working the counter.

“Your room is ready sir.” She handed him a room keycard and directed him to the elevators.

The small acne faced boy followed close behind with their bags and pushed the button for their floor. Dan and Karen followed the young man to their door at the end of the hall, Dan slid the key in and opened the door to a huge foyer of fresh flowers and baskets of fruits.

“I love Texas!” Karen belted out walking to the baskets of fruit and tearing in.

Dan laughed and tipped the high school kid as he unloaded the bags.

“You are so weird Karen.” Dan told her.

“I mean who doesn’t love damn fruits from Texas! The other places don’t do this shit.” She said.

The bell boy looked at her and smirked a smile at her being so blunt.

She tore into the plastic clear wrap covering the fruit and pulled out a banana. She peeled it and seductively put it in her mouth as she turned to her husband.

“You’re right, who doesn’t like fruit.” Dan joked.

The two put their belongings away and decided to take a look around the town. They made their way down the elevator and to a popular Italian restaurant a few blocks down. The host sat them in a dark romantic corner and brought them a bottle of their house wine.

The two sat and drank and spent well needed time together before ordering their food. After their meal they walked back to the hotel and got comfortable in the huge bed and watched TV.

The next morning with their requested morning wakeup call from the front desk, the curtains opened automatically and beamed sun in at them.

“Oh hell no!” Dan covered his head with the blanket.

“I fucking love this shit!” Karen squealed.

She jumped out of bed and ran to the window to overlook the town. “Dan get the hell out of bed and go take a shower, maybe that will make you happy to have some sunshine in your life you big grump!” Karen exclaimed happily.

“Coffee.” He mumbled still under the blanket.

Karen started the small coffee pot and watched him crawl out of bed and stumble to the bathroom. She dressed and did her normal routine of make-up while watching the buzz of the morning rush from the high up window and excited to get out in it, even if it was just over to the courthouse.

Dan, finally awake enough and ready to go. Karen glanced in the mirror and ran her fingers through her hair.

“One of these days you may want to try a dress on for a professional lawyer situation.” Dan stated.

“Why, I like my jeans. I’m not the damn lawyer.” She shot back.

Her heels clicked across the expensive tiled floor to the door.

Dan grabbed his coffee and briefcase and headed out behind her. He watched Karen practically run down the hall anxious to get outside. He followed slowly and arrived to her holding the elevator door with wide eyes that told him he was not moving fast enough for her.

“Sorry!” He said turning to face the front of the elevator.

“You better wake your ass up, I don’t have to stand in front of this judge, you do!” She stated.

“Yeah yeah.” He muttered.

They walked out of the revolving door, down the sidewalk and across the street. Karen led the way up the courthouse steps, inside to the metal detectors, set her small bag down and walked through. Dan set his briefcase and coffee down and followed suit.

“Mr. Dziegiel, long time no see.” One of the guards reached out his hand.

Dan shook his hand, “How ya doing bud?” He rhetorically asked.

“Okay, some weird things happening here this morning, we have already had to kick one guy out. He was going a little nutty and wasn’t even on trial.” The guard explained.

“Great.” Dan rolled his eyes.

Karen and Dan made their way to the courtroom the case was assigned to and Dan sat at the table, Karen behind him in the audience section.

She handed him papers with the information on it that he needed for the case and then sat back taking in the creative architecture of the courtroom.

“All rise. Court is now in session.” The Bailiff stated.

The whole room stood and waited for the judge to sit down. The judge picked up a stack of papers and called the case.

“My client seems to be missing your honor.” Dan stated. “I would think that he should be here any minute.”

The judge peered up at him from the papers in annoyance that he was being made to wait. Just then the doors opened and in walked his client. His clothes quite tattered and definitely not court worthy.

“Sir, is that the way you come dressed for court?” The judge belted out.

The man dropped his head and sat next to Dan. Karen looked up as he leaned back in his chair and noticed a huge stain on the back of his button down shirt. She furrowed her brow and looked back down at her paperwork. She ran through scenarios in her mind of what may have happened to the man as the judge called a short recess to allow the man to clean up.

Dan turned and looked at his wife with raised eyebrows.

“Maybe he ran into a pack of zombies and had to fight them off before he got here.” Karen whispered and sat back smiling.

“No more zombie books for you.” Dan said out of the side of his mouth back at her.

Karen laughed out loud as the client walked back through the door not looking any better than he did when he left out.

The court proceeded even though the judge was not happy that he had not cleaned up before coming back to court.

They went through the normal routine of case status, offense, etc. and rescheduled for the next day.

“What is wrong with you man? You can’t show up to court like this. You have to look professional.” He told the man on the way out.

The man didn’t say anything, he just stood and looked at Dan. The man seemed to be in a trance of everything going on. When he would not answer any of Dan’s questions, he told him he would meet him later for dinner and walked away with frustration.

Karen followed her husband and tried to keep her small high heeled feet going as fast as Dan’s were.

Once to the hotel, Dan began ranting about how stupid people are and how this was a wasted trip. Karen laid her hand on his shoulder as he plopped down onto a chair.

“Okay, why don’t we go see what the deal is with him? Call him and let him know we will meet him at the small diner in the lobby.” Karen suggested.

Dan handed her his phone and she dialed the number he had for him. She left a voicemail, hoped he would receive it and managed to get Dan a drink before they decided to head down.

They reached the lobby at five forty five and found a tall round table that seated four. They each ordered a drink and waited for the man to show up. At six thirty, he walked through the door, he had not changed clothes and now appeared to be sick looking. His hair looked as though he had walked through a tornado and his skin was a pale grey. He sat down and sweat beaded his forehead.

“I’m sorry, I am not feeling well.” He told Dan.

“Apparently, but we have to get this done or you can just go to jail.” Dan told him.

“Maybe the best idea.” He said.

Dan shook his head and pursed his lips at the man while rubbing his chin as he tried to decide on if he should continue the case.

The man stood and quickly grabbed the table. His face was turning even paler and he bent over a bit as if he were going to throw up. He rose back up with a fast motion and turned to look at Dan with angry eyes. He lunged at him and grabbed Dan’s neck with his hands and leaned into his face with his own. His mouth wide open, Karen grabbed the hair on the back of his head with both hands and threw him to the ground. The man laid there for a moment and rolled his body over. He squirmed on the ground looking like a worm that was not able to go anywhere. He seemed to have problems controlling his legs and finally just turned back over on his back. His eyes shot up to Dan and his hand reached out to him again.

His face was turning a color instead of the grey it had been taking on earlier. Dan and Karen watched the man as a waiter came to his aid and pulled Dan’s client up to stand.

The waiter leaned in and wiped the man’s shirt off and tried to straighten his clothes, when he went to stand straight again the client leaned over and bit the muscle on the top of the waiter’s shoulder and ripped it out with ease only using his teeth. The waiter screamed in horror, which created a domino effect of the diner.

People jumped from their seats and began running and screaming. Some ran out of the hotel, some ran back to their rooms and some just seemed to run in circles not sure where to go.

Dan stood for a moment not believing his eyes and watched the muscle hang from the man’s mouth. He chomped a few times and let the muscle drop to the floor.

Karen reached out to Dan and tried to pull him backwards away from the situation. But Dan’s feet would not budge.

“Dan!” She screamed at her husband.

Dan turned to look at her as the man took a step and lurched forward. His face hit Dan’s chest and he bit down. Dan backed away quickly and pushed him back to the ground before placing his hand on his chest and pulling it back full of blood. A horrified look came across his face and he fell backwards. Karen grabbed her husband under his arms and began to slide him across the floor and out of the diner. She was finally able to get him to the lobby and laid him on his back. She removed his hand that he had grasped his chest with once again to look at his injury. The man crawled towards them while Karen tried to save her husband and took a bite of Dan’s leg. Karen lifted her foot and placed the heel of her shoe into the side of the man’s head and pulled it out as Dan’s scream pierced her eardrums.

She turned to see her husband in agonizing pain. She looked around for a cart to try and put him on and get him out of harm’s way. There was no one around to even help her, they had all left without thought of anyone but themselves.

Karen stood and tried to pick her husband up, but could not shoulder the stout man. She rubbed his face and kissed his forehead as she pressed him against her. “What am I going to do?” She asked herself.

She ran to the counter and grabbed the stack of white towels. She reached for the pocket knife that she usually kept in her pocket and realized she had left it upstairs. She took a towel placing it under his hand on his chest and wrapped another one around his leg. She looked around trying to figure out how to save her husband and noticed that the revolving door was spinning, but did not see anyone come in.

“Hello, can someone help me please?” She hollered through the hotel hoping someone had come back.

She was made aware quickly that someone had come in. A large woman that sat in the corner earlier waiting for a rich man to notice her was standing almost on top of her.

“Ma’am please help me pick up my husband and get him to our room.” She requested.

The woman stood over Karen without saying a word and reached down for her, pulling her up by her hair and had almost guided her forehead into her mouth when Karen figured out what was going on.

“No fucking way!” She shouted at the obese woman.

She uppercut the woman in the chin and her grip loosened. Karen wiggled herself away from the woman and between her chubby legs and stood behind her. The only weapon she could reach was a letter opener that laid on the front counter of the lobby. She plunged the letter opener into the woman’s skull from behind and watched her fall forward. Karen jammed the letter opener all the way through with her foot and ran it into her husband. She knelt beside him.

“I’m sorry, I love you.” She said.

She turned and ran to the elevator they had come down in. She pushed the button and the doors opened. She stepped inside and pushed the button to their floor as the doors closed. The elevator jolted a few times and then the doors opened up. She made her way to their room and removed the key from her back pocket and opened the door. A noise sounded that made her flinch and turn. A man stood a few feet down the hall staring at her and then began a swaggering walk towards her. She jolted her head to the side and crinkled her forehead with a bit of confusion at his legs that looked to be broken at the knee caps and his strange limp before she scanned up to see a bloodied bearded man coming at her.

“Oh fuck no!” She hollered as she slammed the door just as he got to it.

She had to push hard to secure the door and lock it while he pushed back. She could hear him outside as he growled and lunged at the door trying to open it. Karen began gathering her things and realized there was no way she would be able to take everything. She quickly began condensing to one bag.

She took her make-up and shoes and only a few of the outfits she had bought and stuffed them carelessly into the biggest duffle bag Dan had brought for his things.

She contemplated on just staying in the room, but knew that if this is what she thought it was, she would never live being up on the top floor and not able to get out. She had to get somewhere safe; somewhere with exits and supplies, and most important…weapons.

She looked out the window, with the duffle bag hanging off of her shoulder and watched as others were being attacked. She looked at the lay of the land and the buildings that surrounded the hotel and could see a huge building far off in the distance with smoke bellowing out of the top. But it was far.

“That is where I need to go, I need to get to that place. It still has people there running that thing.” She said to herself.

She wondered if and how she could make it there, while wishing for the limo to pick her up and take her. She assumed that those days were over and that wasn’t going to happen.

“This is it, suck it up and be the strong woman that you are!” She said to herself.

Karen had been raised with a slew of boys, had been through the military, on hikes for days through mountains, rain forests and deserts and knew what it took to survive. She was ready. Surely she could deal with this, she assured herself.

Karen slowly opened the door to the sudden quietness of the hallway and peered into the hallway. The silence was eerie, but she took the chance anyway. She tiptoed out and toward the ‘stairs’ sign, pushed open the door to the coldness of the stairwell and heard nothing. She slowly let the door close behind her and hoped she had not just made a huge mistake by taking the stairs. She decided that taking off her heels would be her best bet of not attracting any of the monsters. She removed her shoes and held one of them in the air by the toe, ready to strike at anything that came at her.

She made her way down what had to be thousands of stairs. She opened the ground floor door and made her way through a small tunnel that had an arrow marked ‘Parking Garage’. Karen nodded and moved as fast as she could with the heavy bag attached to her. She came to a glass door, she could see cars parked all around the enclosed parking garage. She scanned the area and came across a line of limos and without thinking, opened the door and bee lined it for them.

Running in her bare feet, she could hear scuffling to her right and instantly realized she had never even looked for trouble. She made it to the first limo in the row and to the driver’s door. When she turned to the sound behind her, there stood a man in a chauffer’s uniform, grumbling and growling. His dead cloudy eyes staring at her. She was a snack to this oversized man. She raised her shoe and hit him in the side of the jaw with the heel. It stuck into his skin that had turned an ugly shade and looked as though it had partially been ripped from his face and hung swinging. She grabbed it again and pulled hard and came back down, this time in the side of his skull. She was sure she was not going to be able to get her shoe out this time but tried anyway as he fell to the ground. She cringed as she placed her bare foot on the side of his face and pulled. The shoe came out and Karen fell against the limo. She steadied herself, shook the bloodied goo off of her shoe and slipped it back on her foot.

She tried the door of the limo and it was open, she bent over and looked inside to see it was empty. She removed her bag, threw it inside, sat down and closed the door. She knew the limos always kept a hidden key inside, so she ran her hand under the dashboard as she had seen chauffeurs do before and came across a small box that was mounted. She leaned down to try and figure out how to open it. She pushed a small black button and the top popped open at her from the side. A gold key sat inside, she placed the key in the ignition and turned. The limo started up. Karen squealed with excitement, locked all of the doors with the push of a button and let out a sigh of relief. She moved the seat up and guided the steering wheel down to where she could see over it. She put it in reverse, quickly popped it into drive and hauled ass around the small turn that led her out of there.

There was more going on in the streets than she thought there would be. She had hoped that everything was just inside and around the hotel.

People wandered into the streets looking for their next meal. Karen was thankful she had found the car and was safe. She had no idea how to get where she wanted to go, but was going to drive in the direction of the power plant she saw over the city earlier.

She dodged men, women and children; weaving in and out of other cars. Suddenly her days of the military ran through her brain. She remembered having to dodge explosions in front of her vehicle trying to save those that had been injured. This time, she was trying to be the one to not get killed. She drove out of the center of town after running over numerous of the already dead, and dodging the ones she could to not destroy her only means of escape. The skyscraper lined streets turned into streets bordered with small homes and matching mailboxes. She slowly drove through looking for any survivors. She looked left and then right while trying to drive. The small neighborhood was strangely empty and Karen was hesitant to stop and search but wanted to help anyone that needed help. There could be housefuls and she was just driving by without helping. She slowed the limo when she came upon a two story blue and white Victorian home. She pulled in front of it and stopped. She looked at the house and the ones that surrounded it looking for any movement from the living.

This was her job at one point, she was to search out the living, save them and return them home to their families. She had gone into enemy fire to do that, and found it strange she could enter an area taking on fire, but was leery of getting out of her limo and into these houses. She couldn’t take the chance, she had to keep moving if she wanted to survive.

She smiled to herself as she thought about her husband telling her that she could not read anymore zombie stories. She wished so much she could have saved him. She wondered if she had given up too easy. But, knew that it was going to get nothing but worse.

The sun was disappearing behind the trees surrounding this quaint neighborhood. She let off of the gas and let the limo roll down the small well paved road watching the house disappear from her view.

Tears began to well up and she turned to focus back on the street. Without pressing on the gas, she slowly crept and suddenly heard a bang against the side of her car. She slammed the brakes lurching forward from the sudden stop. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a child, she didn’t want to but knew she had to see if it was dead or alive. She slowly turned her head and a small child stood with his face pressed against the window. He could not have been more than seven years old. His eyes were covered with a film of some sort, his skin drooped from his face and swung back and forth as his small mouth opened and closed leaving drool on the window and smearing it with every grind of his teeth showing her that he was capable of taking very small bites of her. She closed her eyes and let off of the brake. The car rolled forward and the small child fell and rolled under the limo, she felt the very small bump and groaned as she could feel his body collapse under the back tire. Karen closed her eyes feeling as though she had just murdered a child.

She pressed on the gas, wanting out of the neighborhood, afraid that she would have to experience more zombie children. She came to a road where she was able to go right or left only and decided that left was a better choice since turning right looked as though it would take her further into the neighborhood. She drove down a small road that dead ended into an access road and onto a highway. Karen took the access road. Two cars flew passed her but she stayed at a steady pace since the cars were going so fast that she knew they would be dangerous if they didn’t slow down. She watched the sides of the highway and in front of her as she passed the posted speed limit of seventy as she entered the highway and looked at her speedometer only at fifty five. She slowed a bit more hoping that she would not run into anymore of the dead ones that were quickly coming out of the woodworks now that dark was coming on.

She saw a sign letting her know about a rest area up ahead. She took the small exit and stopped in front of the small building assuming there were bathrooms inside. She had read enough zombie books that she was sure dead would be inside and she should not go in, but she really needed to go.

She took a big breath in and pushed down the nerves that were floating around in her stomach. She opened the door and pushed it closed but did not let it latch. She leaned herself on the car and took off one of her heels wishing she had a better weapon for zombie destruction. She limped her way on one heel up onto the sidewalk and into the entryway marked ‘Ladies’. A line of stalls were ready to be used, some had the doors partially open and some closed. Karen went into the first stall and locked the swinging door. She pulled down her most expensive Miss Me jeans and sat down. She tried to move forward a bit on the seat so the splash would not be so evident. She breathed out, thankful that her bladder had held out through all of the scares she had dealt with. It felt like forever that she was peeing. She grasped a small amount of toilet paper and pulled up her pants. She lifted her foot out of habit and pushed the handle to flush without thinking.

The toilet made an echo through the bathroom when a high pitched squeal came from somewhere inside the bathroom matching the tone of the toilet that was still flushing.

“Shit!” She whispered.

She bent over looking under the stalls. She saw two high heels standing to the side of her stall. Karen stood up and looked up to the ceiling wondering what her next move needed to be.

She stepped her bare foot onto the toilet seat and carefully placed her heeled shoe on the other side of it. She leaned over the top of the stall and looked down upon a short haired woman. Her heels dragged across the cement floor as she ran into the side of the stall wall over and over. She would stumble each time as she bounced off. Karen’s shoe slipped as she tip toed trying to raise her hand over the stall to kill the woman and she grasped the side. The woman peered up and grabbed Karen’s hand. Her dirty hands grasped Karen’s, she showed Karen the desperation of needing a meal and was pulling hard smashing Karen’s hand into the top of the wall. Karen jerked her hand backwards and the woman fell as she couldn’t catch her feet with heels on. The woman then realized she was able to crawl underneath. Karen placed the heel of her shoe on top of the woman’s head as she stuck it under the wall and hit it with her other hand, losing her balance and falling forward on the woman. Karen’s small body head butted the dead woman’s and she was able to pull her legs into her stomach and squeeze herself out from under the small stall doorway but not without listening to the skull crush and bubble like sounds coming from the woman that she had just killed.

Karen rolled and stood quickly looking for more. She debated on if she really needed that shoe, but she bent over once more and yellow liquid poured from her cracked open head. Her shoe just laid on top of the mess. She grabbed her shoe and ran back to the limo.

It was dark and Karen leapt into the seat and closed the door. Breathless, she grabbed the steering wheel and threw the shoe covered in the woman’s brains to the floorboard of the passenger side. As she did the glove compartment popped open. A revolver bounced against the door of the small compartment.

“Really?” She reached for the gun. “Loaded and ready for me to use and now I find it.”

She stuck her hand deep into the dimly lit area and pulled out the rest of the contents. She laid it on the seat, bullets and a candy bar is what it held.

Karen shook her head as she knew she should have searched the vehicle before. Her thought process was not as it should have been. She began to look through the console, she pulled out two small Gatorades and another candy bar. She opened the Gatorade, chugged it and then moved on to one of the candy bars. All the while the gun laid in her lap.

She sat watching the night sky, knowing the beasts came out and would be walking around looking for food. Finally her eyes drifted closed and she woke to the sun peeking over the horizon and lit up the sky. The dead still wandered the area. She waited for two of them to pass in front of her then started the limo. The ones that were near enough to hear her start it took notice and quickly turned heading back her way. She was not giving them the chance to get to the car and hit the gas. She moved out onto the highway and drove until she got tired. She had to pull over, she didn’t want to stop, but knew she had to. She scanned the dashboard and saw that she had a little over a quarter of a tank of gas, but had to find something to eat besides sugar. She had already opened the other Gatorade and was only taking sips.

Karen pulled to the side of the road and stretched her legs out, she placed her hands behind her head and stretched them over her head, the gun fell to the floorboard and she quickly bent over to pick it up. When she sat back up, a man stood face to face with her in the windshield. Karen jumped and raised her gun and shot through the windshield. It shattered all over Karen and the man reached in towards her. Karen shuffled her feet and pushed herself over the seat to the back of the limo. The dead man pulled himself into the limo and his head pounced onto the driver’s seat, he raised his head and peered around clumsily. He was unable to move his body that was half in and half out of the vehicle. She made her way to the bench seat that covered the back, she raised the gun again and shot him in the head.

“How fucking stupid Karen!” She whispered to herself.

She sat for a moment and gathered herself. She could not believe that he had startled her enough to shoot out her only safe haven from them and now she had given them full access to her.

She looked at the man that laid in the awkward position he did and tried to figure out what to do. She opened the back door and stepped out into the grass on the side of the road. She gripped the gun tight in her hand and ducked down behind the door before standing up. She was barely able to look over the roof of the car. She scanned the road and looked for anymore that may wander her way. She had to get her bag and move on down the road without a vehicle. She just didn’t think she was willing to remove the man from the driver’s seat, so she walked to the front passenger door, still with only one shoe on and opened it with a ghastly smell hitting her in the face. She gagged a bit before grabbing her bag and closing the door. She lobbed the bag over her shoulder and removed her other shoe throwing it to the ground. She walked barefoot in the grass to the top of a hill. She had headed in that way because of the huge smoke stacks that she was able to see from the hotel; and there they were, the smoke bellowed through the air.

She continued through the still cooled grass. She wished she would have brought the bit of Gatorade that she had left since she was starting to get thirsty, but moved on.

The sun was coming up and starting to get hot. The grass was becoming difficult to walk in with her bare feet. She had only brought heels and moved on without stopping to put them on. She moved closer down into the grass toward the tree line that provided shade. She knew it was probably not the best idea, but wanted the shade to shield her feet. She walked on starting to lose strength and had to take a break. She stopped when she found a large tree that she was able to see all around. The zombies seemed to be scarce at this point so she sat down against the trunk removing the bag from her back. She rubbed her feet, pulled some of the cool green grass from the shade and pressed it onto her face to cool herself down.

She had to get somewhere before dark and the sun was getting high. She jumped up and grabbed her bag. She walked on in the shade until she found a horde that was moving through the woods on the side that she was walking on. She stopped dead in her tracks and stood still. She didn’t move a muscle, hoping that the group would move on without notice of her. No such luck.

One of them raised his eyes and his nose to the air as he dragged his feet through the broken branches of the area. He turned towards Karen, sniffing her out like a bloodhound dog. She could tell he was able to smell her. She had to do something, she had to move before he got too close.

Karen took a step and he turned his head towards her. She broke out in a full sprint and ran up the hill. She saw the smoke that billowed getting closer.

“HELP!” She cried hoping that someone at the location would hear her.

She kept running never looking back at where the man was, afraid that the group had followed him. She ran to the road and screamed, knowing she did not have the weapons to kill without attracting a herd.

She came to a gate without breath and with burning feet from the hot asphalt. She banged on the padlocked fence and then began to climb wincing at the pain of the chain link cutting into her feet.

The gate suddenly swung open with her attached to it.

“Well, hello. Nice to meet you, I’m Holsinger and you are on my fence because…?” He half laughed at the woman.

He took her by the waist and lifted her down and closed the gate just as the mass of zombies fell into the fence line.

STORY FIVE

MILISSA

“Good morning my angels!” Milissa called out to her grandbabies that stayed the night with her.

“Good morning Grandma, is Mom here yet?” Her youngest granddaughter asked.

“She will be here later to get you, come on, breakfast is made.” Milissa told the mommas girl.

The three little ones rose from their beds and rubbed their tiny eyes. Milissa smiled at them stretching their muscles in their cartoon covered jammies she bought them the day before.

“You better hurry, your cinnamon rolls are getting cold.” Milissa told her crew.

All three of them looked at her and then at each other and jumped out of bed pushing each other to get to the kitchen. Milissa held up her hands and let them pass before following them at her own pace downstairs.

Milissa picked up a napkin and handed it to her grandson that had icing smeared across his cheek.

“Y’all act like ‘yall have never had food. My gosh, slow down!” She told them.

“Your cimmanon rolls are the best Grandma!” The full mouthed oldest said.

“Cinnamon honey.” Milissa corrected.

The four sat at the small breakfast table and ate all that was on the plate from the middle of the table. Milissa knew that it probably wasn’t the best idea for them to have so much sugar so early, but they were going home soon, and she was Grandma. She could feed them what she wanted, was her outlook.

“I knew I smelled sweetness!” A deep voice came around the corner.

“GOOD MORNING GRANDPA!” The three jumped from the table to hug his legs.

Richard patted them all on the head and led them back to the table to finish the rest of their breakfast.

“An empty plate?” Richard asked his grandkids. “You didn’t leave any for me?”

“They were really yummy!” His youngest granddaughter belted out. “See I cleaned my plate.”

Richard kissed his wife on the cheek and skimmed his finger across her cheek.

“Good morning my honey bear.” He whispered.

Milissa smiled at her husband of thirty years and rose to let him sit down. She grabbed a plate from the oven and sat it in front of him full of more cinnamon rolls.

“HA! Grandma made me my own CIMMANON rolls.” He said like he knew his granddaughter said it.

Milissa laughed at him knowing that he was the one that kept her saying the word that way.

“Stop that, she needs to learn how to say it.” She warned.

Richard waved his hand in the air and took a bite of the warmness.

“Guys let’s go wash up and brush our teeth and get dressed before mom gets here.” Milissa instructed.

They all abided and raced to the stairs arguing of who got to go first into the bathroom.

Milissa leaned over and kissed her husband’s forehead, “Happy Anniversary babe.”

“Oh shit! Is that today?” Richard questioned.

Milissa stared at him blankly for a moment before turning and walking away without a word. She started gathering dirty dishes and placing them into the sink.

“I’m kidding you know. I have reservations at a special place at seven sharp, I need your best dress put on and for you to actually be ready at six. Maybe then we can be on time.” He laughed.

“Richard, I don’t have a best dress, everything I have is old as hell.” Milissa said wiping her hands.

Richard stood and leaned around the corner of the kitchen and brought a large box back to her. A red bow flopped to the sides of the box and the white shiny wrapping paper shined under the kitchen light.

He handed her the box, “Happy Anniversary, present number one.” He stated.

“Number one?” She questioned.

Richard smiled and let her ponder on that for a moment. Milissa slowly sat down and began untying the bow as she watched her husband wondering what he was up to.

She tore the wrapping paper across the box and pulled the top off. A black glittery cloth showed in the box. She looked at her husband and pulled out the contents. She stood and held it up. It was a black dress with glitter across the bodice and a flowing bottom.

“Richard, really? You got me a dress? I have never had anything like this.” She teared up.

“I know, now you do. I am real stupid on shoes and shit, so I was hoping you had some shoes and maybe some jewelry to go with it.” He stated watching his wife.

“Richard, thank you. I absolutely love it. Where are we going?” She asked.

“No ma’am. That is surprise number two.” He turned and started to walk away.

Milissa was in awe over the dress and how well he had done picking it out.

A knock sounded at the door as Richard passed by it on his way to the living room he popped it open, knowing that it was his daughter at the sound of her shouting good morning through the closed door.

“Hello dear.” Richard said from the couch.

“Good morning Daddy, Happy Anniversary!” She belted. “Where is Mom?”

Richard pointed to the kitchen as he kicked his house slippers onto the floor and put his feet on the couch.

“Mom!” Her daughter squealed as she walked in and saw her mother holding up the dress.

Both quickly ran upstairs past Richard to pick out accessories for the evening.

All of the children giggled with excitement as their mother made it to them.

Milissa was excited and began getting ready at four o’clock that afternoon. She sat in front of her old vanity of her grandmothers and looked into the mirror that Richard had replaced in it years before for her.

Milissa’s hair was a dark brown and straight as a board. She had not worn make up in quite some time and was not sure what the hell she was going to do besides put on the phenomenal dress her husband had gotten her. She took off her glasses and set them on the old wood. She lifted her hair up past her neck thinking that she could pin it up, she let it fall back down to her mid back and took a heavy breath not sure of what she could to make herself look sexy for her husband of thirty years.

She began to pull strands of her hair up and bobby pin it to the sides and back of her head. She warmed up her rusted curling iron she had not used in years and began curling the small tendrils that fell off of to the sides. She sprayed and moved her head from side to side with each curl that she completed. She smiled as she completed the last curl and turned her head from one side to the other to watch the spirals bounce around. She picked up the can and sprayed all around to make sure that they stayed.

She sat up straight and felt great. She opened a small make up bag that she had not used since her daughter’s graduation. She poured it across that small vanity table and began picking out the things that she needed. She powdered her face and blushed her cheeks, she smeared some eye liner across her bottom lids and eye shadow across her top, she chose an earth tone lip gloss and lined her lips with a bit darker of a pencil. She leaned back and peered into the mirror. She quickly stood and looked at herself in the mirror.

“Wow!” She said to herself.

She grabbed her glasses and slipped on a pair of red heels that she had stashed away in her closet, she put on the red bracelet that her daughter had picked out and a small string of red pearls. She glanced at the clock that sat on Richard’s side.

“Ha, five forty five.” She said out loud with a laugh.

Milissa walked down the stairs carefully, making sure that she could still walk in heels. She held onto the rail and rounded the last step to the tile in the foyer. Richard stood at the kitchen doorway with two glasses of wine.

“I just about dropped this wine on your carpet. Milissa you look amazing!” He told her from across the room.

She smiled at the grin that spread across his face. She felt so proud that he loved her as much as he did, and had wanted to show him how beautiful she could be after thirty years of marriage.

Richard brought her the wine and handed her a glass.

“A little toast before we head out. I have loved you since the VERY first moment I saw you. Even though you shunned me away, I still tried every day, and was so excited when you finally said yes to going out with me. I still love you the same as I did then and am thankful that you decided to spend your life with me. Thank you.” Richard raised his glass to his wife.

Milissa clinked her glass to his and took a small dainty swallow. She stared at her husband in adoration and could not believe that they had been together for so long.

“I love you.” She stated to her amazing man.

“I love you too, drink the rest of your wine though, because we are going to be late.” He demanded.

“So are you going to tell me where we are going?” Milissa asked as he started opening the front door.

“Nope. But I will tell you I need you to get in the car.” He pointed to the street.

A white limo sat at the curb waiting for them.

“Richard, we can’t afford this right now. But damn that is awesome looking.” Milissa smiled.

“I called in a favor.” Richard shot back at her and smiled.

He took Milissa’s hand and guided her down the step to the sidewalk and to the limo. A man in a white uniform rounded the front of the car and opened the door for them. Two glasses of champagne waited for them inside along with some soft playing music. The seats were white, the carpet was white, along with the fully stocked cabinet of liquor.

“I’ve never been in a limo before, this is amazing!” Milissa almost cried.

The limo left and headed out of their small old timey neighborhood. They finished their glasses about the time the limo stopped. Miliissa peered out of the dark tinted window.

“Richard, this is where we had our first date, I mean the name is different, but it’s the place.” She looked back at him.

“Well, it is now some kind of fancy place that you have to have reservations to get into instead of the small diner, but I figure we can overlook the fanciness.” He laughed.

The door to the limo opened and Richard slid out and reached in to help his wife out. She stood and smoothed her new dress and wrapped her arm around his.

“Mr. Stockholm reservation.” Richard stated to the maîter’d.

“Yes, sir, your table is ready as you requested.” The man led them both to a back table.

The man pulled a chair out for Milissa and allowed her to sit before handing them both a menu. Both of them laughed as the man walked away, since neither could read the French menu.

“Can I take your order?” A man with a thick accent asked.

“You will have to excuse us, we are unable to read the menu. Can we have a good bottle of wine and how about two of your best dishes.” Richard stated to the waiter.

The man nodded and went on his way. A short time went by and the man brought them a bottle of wine and poured it into their glasses.

“Our special is what I have put an order in for. It will be like your American food, with a bit of French twist. Okay with you sir?” He asked.

Richard nodded and thanked him. Soon their plates were sat in front of them both with a piece of chicken covered in a white sauce, asparagus spears covered with an orange sauce and potatoes that were sprinkled with some kind of spice that they could both smell right away.

“Thank you, it looks great.” Milissa assured the waiter.

Richard and Milissa sat together enjoying each other’s company; which seemed like forever that they had done since both worked almost nonstop to keep up with trying to pay off their house by next year to be able to possibly follow their plan of retiring soon and traveling the country.

“Thank you for this Richard.” Milissa stated taking her last bite of luxury from her plate.

Richard smiled at his wife and blew her a kiss across the table.

The waiter offered them dessert and brought them their bill after they declined. Richard paid for their meal and pulled out a small box and sat on the table in front of his wife.

“This is my last and final surprise until we get home that is and I can get you out of that dress.” He stated.

Milissa opened the box to a diamond ring.

“I already have a wedding ring Richard.” She stated.

“I know, but it has gotten old and you needed a new one. I want to get that one maybe melted down into something and have it made into a necklace or something and you are to start wearing this new one. I am sorry that I have made you wear that small one for so long because my love for you is so much more than that.” Richard admitted.

Milissa took it out of the box and put it on top of her other ring and straightened her arm out in front of her.

“Richard I love it!” Tears streamed from her face.

The two rose from their table and headed back to the waiting limo. Richard opened the door and both climbed inside and waited for the limo to start moving. The two shared a passionate kiss as they waited, once things got a little heated, Richard knocked on the small window that separated them from the driver with no response. Richard and Milissa tore themselves away from each other. Richard exited the limo and walked around the front and knocked on the driver’s side window. There was still no response, Richard opened the door and the white uniformed man was not there. He peered around the street and was unable to spot him. He went back and opened Milissa’s side.

“Let’s grab a cab. Not sure where this douche bag went.” Richard reached for her hand and led her out.

Milissa began scanning her phone to call for a cab and they began walking down the sidewalk. She called for a cab and gave them the address that they stood in front of next door to the restaurant.

“It’s on its way.” She told Richard.

Richard nodded and still scanned the area for the prick that had left them with no ride.

Milissa laughed at his crinkled forehead that said he was annoyed. “It’s fine babe.”

The cab ride home they were like two high school kids not able to contain themselves. Richard’s hands roamed all over his wife and he realized quickly that she had nothing underneath her new dress which enticed him even more. He paid the cab and picked his wife up and carried her to the porch. He set her down and fumbled for his keys.

Milissa heard a noise coming from nearby and turned to the street and watched a man walking in the glow of the street light. He was dragging both his feet and stumbling.

“Guess we haven’t had as much to drink as that poor guy.” Milissa laughed.

Richard turned after unlocking the door and peered at the man, he was quite concerned with the man as he stumbled through the middle of the street.

“Maybe we should call the cops, or get him out of the street or something, someone is going to hit him.” Richard expressed.

“Well, I’m not going to get him in these heels. Let me change and I’ll be right back.” Milissa headed in the house.

Richard pulled the door closed and watched the man stumble around a bit more then run into the pole and turn around. Richard stepped off of the porch and headed for the man. He figured he would at least lead him off the street and maybe try and help him home.

“Hey buddy!” Richard shouted.

The man turned towards him and began to shuffle his feet his way. The shadows fell over his face as he made his way out of the light from overhead.

“Let me help you man.” Richard grabbed the man’s shoulder and tried to stand him up straight.

The man stared up at Richard, his face was horrific; the skin had been peeled from his forehead and part of his skull showed, parts of his hair had been ripped from his head and bald spots were over the part that had not been peeled off, his neck had a slice across his neck and his head flopped from side to side as he tried to keep his focus on Richard. His nose had been broken and pulled over to the side of his face. The man finally gained a bit of balance and slowly leaned forward, he opened his mouth that showed horridly jagged dirty teeth and tried to make his way to Richard.

Richard placed his hand on the man’s peeled skin and pushed him backwards. The man fell to his knees and leaned forward again to try and take a bite out from Richard’s thigh. Richard kneed the man in the face and made his way back to the house.

Milissa came out onto the porch.

“Call the cops.” Richard stated dusting off his dress pants.

Milissa pulled her phone out and dialed for emergency and handed Richard the phone.

“Yes, there is a man in the street that is badly hurt and possibly drunk or something. I tried to help and he tried to attack me.” Richard stated. “2682 Herring Street is the address.”

He hung up the phone and handed it back to his wife.

“He tried to attack you?” Milissa leaned over to see the man squirming in the street.

“Yep, he looks like he has been pretty badly beaten.” He explained.

The two stood on the porch and watched the man, hoping that the law showed up before another car came down the street. Milissa stood close to Richard concerned about the poor man.

“Should we try and drag him out of the street?” She asked.

“Nope, I tried to help him. He tried to bite me; we don’t know if he is homeless or what.” Richard told her. “You aren’t going out there either before you even ask.”

Milissa put her hands up in agreement.

A police car drove up with his blue and reds lighting up the neighborhood. They turned on a spotlight attached to the car and shined it on the man.

“Did you call?” The officer shouted.

“Yes sir, be careful with that one!” Richard advised.

The cop pulled his gun and advised the man to stand and turn around and put his hands interlocked behind his head.

The man laid on the ground still squirming.

“SIR GETUP!” The officer shouted again.

The man didn’t make any effort to move except for moving his legs. The officer walked to the man with his gun aimed at him, He rolled the man over with his foot and jumped back quickly.

“What did you do to him?” the cop shouted at Richard.

“He looked like that when I got to him sir.” Richard informed quickly.

The officer reached down and grabbed the man by his arm to try and help him stand. The beaten man’s mouth turned and bit the officer’s hand.

“Son of a bitch!” The officer hollered.

He backed away and holstered his gun and grabbed his hand. Another squad car pulled up and two officer’s got out with guns pulled.

“What the hell happened?” The driver asked.

“He fucking bit me!” The first officer on scene yelled. “Be careful!” He warned them.

The two new officer walked to the man and glared down at him. The torn apart man laid on the ground, his jaw opened and closed while he lifted his head up towards them. With each thrust of the man’s head, the two officers backed up a step trying to figure out what to do.

“Ambulance?” One stated.

“Yea, we need one anyway.” The other sent him on his way.

The passenger hurried to the car he had just came out of and called for an ambulance on the radio from the car.

“On its way. You okay buddy?” He asked the hurt officer leaned up against the hood of his car.

The hurt officer nodded his head.

The two newly arrived officers stood closer to the man than they wanted to be.

“We are going to have to cuff him.” One said to the other.

They both looked at each other and one pulled their cuffs while the other held his gun on him.

“Alright, turn him over.” The driver stated.

“Why me?” The other asked.

“Cause I’ll have to cuff him.”

The first officer reached down and grabbed one of his hands and bent it up to have him turn him over. The torn apart man’s hand broke at the wrist and the crack echoed through the night.

Milissa and Richard winced with the sound that the break made.

The officer dropped the man’s hand and backed away in horror.

“Pick his ass up off the ground and we will just cuff him.” The officer suggested.

The officer that had taken his hand earlier, grabbed him under his arm and started to lift him from the ground. The still chomping man’s shoulder popped loudly and the officer dropped him back to the ground.

“I’m done!” The officer backed away.

Still lying on the ground, no one was sure what to do with him at this point. He rolled over to his stomach and seemed to have a bit more control over his legs; he looked almost like a newborn calf trying to figure out how to use them, but it was control none the less. He rolled against the pole that held the street light that Milissa had initially found him under. He used the pole as a bit of leverage and pushed his back up against it and his wobbly legs finally made themselves under his body. He stood for a moment to make sure his legs were going to hold him up. He took one step and stabled himself, and then took another step. He stopped for a moment and focused his eyes on the two officers that stood in front of him. He quickly gained more confidence and took two more steps towards them. His broken shoulder swung freely by his side while the broken hand attached to the other arm flung through the air at the men that stood in front of him. His pace quickened as he gained more control of his legs. The officers stayed a safe distance from the man and shouted at him to stop. The man would not do as he was told and was warned that they would shoot.

One officer warned him one last time and shot the man in the leg. The now limping man continued toward them. The other officer aimed and shot the man in the shoulder and watched him fall backwards from the force of the bullet. The shot man now didn’t move. The officers both crept over to the man. The driver of the car leaned down and reached over the man’s face to place a finger on his neck to feel for a pulse. The man’s eyes opened and his head lifted off the ground and bit the officer’s wrist. The officer fell to the ground and scooted away from the man that has now injured two officers. The ambulance was pulling up with sirens blaring.

“Shoot him!” The fallen officer screamed.

BOOM! Sounded through the air.

Milissa and Richard were already backed into their doorway ready to close the door and take cover in case a shootout took place. They both ducked and covered their heads. Yelling started in the streets after the gun shot went off. Milissa and Richard looked back up at the man’s head had busted open and its contents had spread over the street.

The ambulance driver jumped from his vehicle and ran to the shot man; the passenger of the ambulance ran to the first officer that had been bit and then to the second one.

“This one first!” The EMT screamed.

He picked up the officer that had been bitten on the wrist and led him to the back of the ambulance while the other EMT headed to the one that had been bit on the hand and took him to the ambulance as well.

Milissa, Richard and the shooting officer all stood at a standstill now; none of them sure on what to do.

The officer looked at Milissa and Richard and the crowd that had now gathered in their front yards watching the action unfold.

Screams suddenly sounded from the back of the EMS truck where the two officers were being tended to. All of the groups, including Milissa and Richard, backed away and into their homes and instead peeked out of their windows at what was causing the screams.

The two EMS workers ran into the dark from the back of their truck and the two officers emerged together. They turned and began walking through yards of the nearby onlookers. A man came out with a shot gun to question what was going on and no answers came from the police. The man with the rifle pulled out his gun and began explaining the situation loudly to the emergency dispatch. The two officers turned towards the man speaking with volume and took him down to the ground before he could drop his phone and raise his gun. They each took a bite from his arm that had held the phone and proceeded to move to his other arm. His wife ran to the road and begged them to stop. One of the officers rose and placed his bloody hand in her hair and bit a chunk from her face. She fell to the ground with piercing screams of agony.

“Oh no!” Richard stated in almost a whisper.

What! What is this Richard?” She asked her husband.

“This is the real thing, the real turning of zombies.” He stated in the same tone as before.

“No fucking way!” Milissa said with disbelief of her husband.

“Look at what they are doing Milissa, tell me this is not the beginning?” He questioned.

Richard and Milissa continued watching from inside their house as more and more people came out to help and were bitten by the officers or the man that had called for other law enforcement and soon the woman would turn.

“Go get all the guns from under the bed, call the babies and tell them we are on our way to get them. We need to get the hell out of here.” Richard instructed.

Milissa ran on her way to do as told. She brought all of the guns and laid them on the living room floor in a row with the ammo. She then called her daughter who was confused on the situation but readied herself and her children anyway. Richard loaded two pistols and grabbed two of their largest kitchen knives out of the drawer and a hatchet from the chopping block and stuck them in his back pack by the door, he loaded the ammo and grabbed the rest of the three guns that laid on the floor.

“To the car quietly, understand? If anyone comes near you, shoot the fucker in the head.” He told his wife handing her a pistol. If something happens to me, you just go; go to somewhere that looks safe and there are other humans, but make sure they are not these infected screwballs. I love you.”

Milissa’s eyes wide, she nodded with understanding of what he was saying. Richard opened the door as quiet as he could and stepped onto the porch with a gun in one hand and his other arm filled with the rest of the guns and his back pack hooked to his shoulder.

“Let’s go.” He whispered.

Milissa followed close behind her husband to the car and opened the car door quietly. He made his way to the driver’s side and put the bag in the floorboard of the driver’s seat, he put the guns over the front seat into the back and slid in. Both of them closed their doors with ease as to not draw any attention. He flipped down the visor and the keys fell into his lap. Starting the car and looking behind him, Richard realized he was blocked in by the ambulance and had to back out and go across their yard and off of the curb. The small white Ford Taurus bottomed out as the front tires went over and a few of the ‘already turned’ focused on the noise and started heading their way. Richard hit the gas and spun the tires to get off of the curb and took off down the small road. Milissa covered her eyes as he fish tailed the car around a corner to get away from the chaos as quick as possible. Richard steadied the car and placed his hand on Milissa’s leg.

“It’s fine babe.” He assured.

Milissa removed one hand and saw that they were on the highway. Richard slowed to the normal speed limit, Milissa spoke from under her other hand covering her face.

“Where are we going?”

“To get the kids, but we should have gotten gas before we came home the other day.” Richard told her.

“So are these things everywhere, or just in our neighborhood?” Milissa asked.

The car sputtered some and came to a stop. “What are you doing?” Milissa asked.

“Out of fucking gas!” Richard stated in defeat.

Richard dropped his head while Milissa pulled out her phone and began searching for her daughter’s name.

A busy signal sounded through the receiver and Milissa pulled the phone away from her ear. She tried again and got the same response.

“No phone service.” She told him.

“Figures.” Richard said.

“We are gonna have to foot it. Her house is a few miles outside of town, Let’s get after it.” He ordered.

The two exited the car, Richard took hold of the bag he had loaded down and placed the pistol in the front of his pants, he grabbed two of the rifles and handed the other to Milissa. He fumbled into the bag and handed her a knife as well.

“Come on!” Richard demanded.

Milissa walked around to her husband as he started walking towards their daughter’s house on the outskirts of town.

“See that? That plant is where we need to make our way to. It is going to be the safest bet at getting away from this shit.” Richard informed her.

Milissa nodded and walked on. The sun was up and they were at least able to see now. Richard stopped mid step and put his hand across Milissa’s chest beside him. A man shuffled from the side of the road and tried making his way up the small hill, he fell twice and then decided that crawling would be easier. He stood when he made it to the asphalt and stared at both of them. Neither of them moved a muscle or even breathed, apparently that did not make a difference, the scrawny man made his way to them and reached for Richard, Richard hit him in the head with the butt of the rifle he carried. He fumbled his bag from his back and withdrew a knife. He stabbed it in the weak looking man’s head while he was still lying on the ground. He pulled it out and wiped it on the man’s shirt.

“How do you know that was one of them?” Milissa asked.

“He definitely wasn’t normal. You kill whatever is not human looking and he was unhuman looking.” He explained.

Milissa nodded and they walked on. They were able to see some of the men and women that had turned off the side of the road that didn’t notice them as they hurried past and some that did that they were able to just outrun and move to the other side of the road. They rounded the corner to the small country dirt road that their daughter lived on.

“I know you are tired of walking babe, but just a few houses down and we are there.” Richard told her.

Both began to run as the single wide trailer came into view. The front door stood open and they could hear one of the children violently crying.

Richard walked in first looking around to find the rest of his family. He yelled all of their names while Milissa stood at the doorway. Richard found the only grandson they had hunkered in the corner of the first bedroom with their youngest granddaughter laying on top of him chewing at his neck, the screams echoed through the room and the little boy shifted his eyes to his grandfather and reached his arms to him. Richard pulled his eyes away and then back to the two on the floor. He ran to his grandchildren and cut a slice into the small girls head and pulled her off of him. The boy stayed where he was and bled profusely from being bit multiple times by his sister.

“Where is Mom?” Richard asked.

The little boy was only able to scream in pain. Richard told his grandson to stay there and he would be back; he knew that there was no possibility of saving him. He walked out of the room and closed the door.

“Was that my babies?” Milissa asked.

“Two are gone Milissa, we still have one granddaughter and a daughter somewhere to find, let’s worry about them.” He told her and pulled her to the other end of the house. “If they have turned they are going to have to be taken out, do you understand that? They will not hesitate to take you out.” He explained.

Milissa knew what he was insinuating and knew that is what he did to the others. The two opened the door where they hoped the others were hiding when their daughter jumped from behind the door. Their last grandchild laid on the bed torn to pieces, her body was scattered about the room and blood covered their daughter’s face. She had remanence lingering from her mouth and growled as soon as she made eye contact with them. Without thinking Milissa raised the pistol and shot her daughter in the head and then dropped to the floor next to her.

“Oh my God!” Milissa shouted.

Richard grabbed her and pulled her away and led her out of the door.

“Remember, the plant is where we need to go.” Richard stated.

They made their way quickly through the wooded area behind the small trailer. They pushed branches and trees out of their way and watched for any movement around them. The tears filled Milissa’s eyes at losing all of her grandbabies and her one and only daughter. They came upon a small path that led through the woods and began to follow it, hoping that it led to the road. Milissa walked in front of Richard so that he was able to keep an eye on things from behind and on the sides.

Milissa saw the top of a truck up ahead and turned to her husband behind her to point it out.

“Richard, look the road!” Milissa pointed in front of her.

Richard nodded and pushed her from behind to keep going. She turned one last time and smiled and took a few more steps when she heard her husband wince in pain. Milissa turned to see a small woman’s stringy hair laid across her husband’s face. Richard had already dropped to the ground and the woman had taken a bite out of the top of his head. Milissa lunged at the woman and knocked her off of her husband, she reached for the knife that she had put in her back pocket and stabbed the woman four times in the head. She peered at Richard and he had no sign of life. She felt his chest and there was nothing. She had lost the one and only person that was able to help her through this mass of bull shit.

“Richard, please!” She whispered.

She scanned the area and up to the road to look for more that may jump out to try and get her and saw no movement. She looked back at her husband and begged for him to wake up. She lowered her forehead to his chest and cried. Richard’s voice ran through her head. “If something happens to me just go!”

She remembered his words and took herself from the ground, she grabbed his backpack and the pistol he had in his hand, she gathered the rifles he was carrying and stuck the butts of them into the backpack and zipped it up to hold them secure and ran up the side of the hill to the road. She looked around and saw no movement of life at all from anywhere. There were numerous abandoned cars but no people, she could see the smoke from the plant and quickly headed that way. She stopped and scanned through each empty car for keys or anything she could use. She found one that had a half full water bottle in the floorboard; she grabbed the bottle and opened it and chugged the contents before wondering if that was the smartest idea with all the weird shit going on. However, she needed something to drink. She moved on and found an old bag of opened chips in a truck that had the window down. She grabbed them and grabbed a few and stuffed in her mouth. The Cheetos were stale and some even soggy, but at this point she needed something to put in her stomach. The taste made her gag and she almost threw them back up, but she held them down and searched the vehicle for something else to drink. A bottle with a few swallows of soda laid in the floor board. She grabbed it, opened the bottle and took the drink. She could feel a bit of moisture come back into her lips and a tad of color coming back into her face. She needed more.

She moved from vehicle to vehicle taking half eaten things and half drank bottles and using them to her own advantage; all the while keeping an eye out for apparently people that would use her for a meal.

She had seen one so far and she ducked into the car she was next to where she ended up finding a small back of twizzler licorice and an unopened bottle of orange soda. Both were hot and the twizzlers had been melted together, but she laid quietly over in the seat and took a bite anyway and washed it down with the hot soda. The walking dead man passed on by her and back down the small incline into the woods.

Milissa kept on her track to keep her hydration and energy level up until finally reaching a hill. She was able to see a fence far off that surrounded the huge plant that was pumping steam into the air. There were not anymore cars on the road until you got to the fenced area. It looked to be hundreds of miles from her. She thought it was a bad idea to have nothing to hide behind and be out in the open and scanned the area she was in for a better route. Her only options were the woods off to the side of each road and the open road itself. She had to choose.

Milissa moved off to the side of the road, but stayed outside of the tree line. She began the rest of her journey to the plant in hopes to find life and safety. She was leery of being on the side of the road and so close to the woods, but she watched and listened carefully with each step she took. She viewed the woods on a constant basis and kept an eye over her shoulder. She had her knife ready since she learned that noise attracted these zombies.

Milissa heard the leaves crack to the side of her and stopped her slow strides. She looked over and saw a man twice her size. He was coming straight at her, he busted through the branches with ease and appeared to be able to control himself rather well, unlike the one from the street at her house. His arms were looked like watermelons attached to his shoulders, his head was bald and skin had been torn from walking through the woods. He was bare chested and looked to be a well-built man.

Milissa peered at him and ran the thoughts through her mind of what in the hell she was going to do with this massive man approaching. She was not going to be able to reach his head to stab him in the head. She grabbed the pistol from the front of her pants. She aimed it at him and pulled the trigger. The man was close enough that she felt the ground shake as he hit. She was glad that she made the choice that she did, because it is then that she realized how big the man actually was. His hands were the size of her head and he could have easily just crushed her.

She scanned the area to see what she may have attracted with the noise of her gun going off. She saw two that were headed her way and made a beeline for the road above her. She ran as fast as she could toward the plant. A woman and child were on the road and she tried to side step them when the woman grabbed her shirt. She sliced the woman’s hand and looked down at the evil looking child. Its eyes were glaring at her while he took another step towards her and opened his small mouth to take a bit. Milissa closed her eyes and lunged the knife forward and into the small boys head. She opened her eyes and pulled out her knife, the child fell to the ground with a thud and tears escaped her eyes. She was angry at the world for making her kill children and for taking her family. The woman still came at her with blood spurting from where her hand should have been, she poked Milissa with the bloodied part and growled at her. Her hair was so matted that it looked as though she had not washed it in years. Milissa steadied the knife and quickly slid it into her temple and pulled it out. The woman fell on top of the child she had just murdered. Milissa continued on her way. The breath had diminished and she was unable to run any longer, she slowed her pace to a fast walk while she breathed in through her nose and out of her mouth. She did not want to deal with these things anymore.

She was so close, she could hear the noise of people talking from behind the fence when three more zombies made themselves known by a low growl of hunger coming between her and the fence. The adrenaline welled inside of her and she screamed with a raspy growl of anger and ran toward the three coming towards her. She pushed one to the side and thrust her knife into another’s skull and tackled the other one to the ground. She began stabbing it in the forehead as its blood splattered onto her glasses. She jumped up quickly sure that the other one was making its way near her. She turned just as it fell to the ground. Milissa stepped back and looked around and back at the zombie that she had not killed and laid dead, then up to a man that stood with a bloodied knife over the fallen zombie.

“Well, that is one way to take them out.” He told Milissa.

The man walked over and stuck his hand out to Milissa.

“I’m Martin, gate guard at this here palace.” He joked.

“You’re real?” Milissa asked before putting out her own hand.

“As real as they get. You okay?” He questioned her.

“Everything okay out here?” A bearded man appeared around the fence line.

“Yeah, except we are out here with no coverage, sooo you gonna come in here so I can lock this gate back, or stay out here with these dead guys?” Martin asked Milissa.

She followed the two men in sat down inside the fence and began to cry with thanks for safety. The two men let her have her moment and took her to get cleaned up. Milissa had made it to safety.

STORY SIX

RACHEL/SILVIA

“I can’t believe it has already been a year!” Rachel told her best friend. “We have actually lived a whole year without our parents, done with school and made it.”

“I think we have done pretty damn good on our own right out of high school. I am glad we decided to do it together.” Silvia stated taking a bite of her fantaboulous food.

“I’m glad we decided that Red Lobster is where we wanted to celebrate.” Rachel said with a mouthful of shrimp.

Silvia laughed at her friend that she had known all of her life.

“Apparently your manners have escaped you over the years.” Silvia joked.

The two laughed about her comment.

Silvia and Rachel had grown up together since they were babies. They were born two days apart, lived on the same street since they were born and had been inseparable since they were born. They had always ended up in the same classes together when they were young and always changed their schedules as they got older to be in the same classes in high school. They had been through boyfriends and school drama, along with the joys and adrenaline of sneaking out of the house and lying to their parents to go to a lame party that they ended up leaving early from.

Last year, they graduated high school together and moved out of their parents’ house that same day into their two bedroom, all bills paid apartment. It had been a whole year. Both were going to school; Rachel part time to be a pharmacist and Silvia had taken on veterinary school. Both had plans and goals taped to their living walls and crossed them off as they accomplished them. They were set, they were going to be successful women in the world and nothing was going to stop them. They had both sworn off men until they were through their first year of school and decided that they would support each other, work and save money. They also decided with all of bullshit in the world they wanted to be stable before they began those parts of life.

It had now been a full year since they had moved out and they had made it through semester finals and their birthdays were in the next few days. Tonight was their night to celebrate. Dinner at Red Lobster together was their celebration. Next, was a couple of guys they knew from school that had invited them out for a drink. Neither of them was old enough, but the guys were sure they could get them into the club and promised to buy them drinks all night.

“Bathroom?” Silvia asked.

“Yes, need to make sure I look somewhat presentable after stuffing my face.” Rachel agreed.

The two finished their meal, paid the bill and made their way to the bathroom. They stood next to each other in new dresses they had just brought. Rachel’s red straight hair flowed down past her shoulders and went perfectly with her new short black dress. She wore a dark blue choker to bring out her blue eyes and found the cutest navy blue heels to match. Silvia’s blonde hair was piled on top of her head and pinned so that just a few of her natural curls fell down around her face. The new red dress she had picked, made her look like she was worth a million bucks.

“Selfie!” Silvia rang out.

The two stood with their faces cheek to cheek and snapped a picture with Silvia’s cell phone.

An older woman walked out of a stall and began to wash her hands.

“You kids will never know what life is really like, all these damn selfies!” She stammered as she walked out.

The two laughed at the old woman and took another one.

They hugged each other and agreed that they were ready to go.

“Let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get into.” Silvia joked.

The streets were lined with cars waiting for a red light as they stepped out. It was a warm night which was perfect since both of their dresses were a bit short. They both tiptoed quickly across the street in their high heeled shoes and over to Rachel’s high school graduation present of a black Camaro.

Rachel backed out and headed a few blocks down to meet the guys.

“Here we go!” Silvia stated opening the door.

The two tall, dark and handsome juniors met them at their doors and both offered their hands to help them out of the car.

“Well HELLO LADIES!” Rachel’s date belted out.

“Hello gentlemen.” Rachel stated back with a small curtsy before she closed her door and locked it.

The foursome walked around the corner of a building which was bumping with music and stood in the line at the door.

“ID’s?” The big man asked at the door.

“These are our dates Ricardo.” Silvia’s date explained.

The bouncer moved to the side and allowed them all to enter. Rachel and Silvia looked at each other and cocked their heads to the side and raised their eyebrows at each other with surprise at the guy’s connection.

“Guess we chose the right men for the night.” Rachel stated grabbing her date’s arm that was sure to make her night unforgettable.

Once inside the night club, the men took drink orders and left their ladies at a bar table. Rachel and Silvia grabbed each other’s hands and squeezed, both smiling from ear to ear.

Rachel sipped her margarita as soon as it was sat in front of her and Silvia downed her beer from the bottle.

“Dance?” The two men asked.

The girls rose from the table and led the men to the dance floor and began to dance more risqué than they had ever danced before. They rubbed on their dates with their bodies and ran their hands on their own, both hiking their dresses up just enough to leave something to the imagination.

After a few songs the group moved their small party to a couch in the back of the club. Silvia and her date quickly made it known that PDA was going to be part of their night. Rachel moved a bit slower with her date. He wrapped his arm around her and rubbed on her bare thigh a few times before leaning over and kissing her lightly on the neck. Rachel could feel the tingling throughout her body but held back on the excessive PDA. She peered over at Silvia and her date’s hand was already up her skirt and hers held his bulge.

“We will be right back.” Silvia looked over at Rachel.

Rachel smiled and was happy she had a little more room on the couch. She scooted over a bit and shook off the want to do the same.

“What’s your major?” Rachel asked him.

“Psychology. Yours?” He returned the question.

“Chemistry, I am going to be a pharmacist.” She answered.

“Are you from here?” She asked.

He shook his head no as he drank the remainder of his beer. “We are both from up North, we have been friends since grade school and decided to come here together for college.” He explained.

“That is funny. Silvia and I have grown up together as well.” Rachel smiled at him.

“You are a bit more reserved than your friend.” He stated.

Rachel smiled and dropped her head in a bit of shyness. The man lifted her head with his finger. “I like that.” He said before kissing her softly on the lips.

“Want to dance?” He asked.

Rachel nodded and they headed out to a slow song and he held her close and swayed to the music with her. He was the perfect gentlemen.

They soon made it back to the small couch where Silvia and her date had returned.

“Did you have fun?” Rachel questioned.

“Yep a blast!” Silvia squealed.

Rachel smiled as the men offered more drinks and headed to get them.

“He was great and it felt so good to be back in the swing of things again.” Silvia expressed to her friend.

Rachel smiled. “Did you know his major is psychology?

“That is what you found out? How about does he have a big dick?” Silvia questioned.

“I would rather have a big mind than a big dick.” Rachel spat back.

Silvia laughed. “Same old Rachel.”

The two men sat down and handed them their drinks and went back to basic conversation for a while.

“How about our place for a nightcap?” Rachel questioned. “I have some rum that is to die for.”

The guys looked around both of the girls and nodded to each other.

“Follow us!” Silvia rang out to them.

The girls walked them up the stairs and into their small apartment. They began making some drinks and handed them to their dates. Silvia and her date didn’t last long in the living room and headed to her bedroom. Rachel sat sipping on hers for a few minutes before her date removed her glass from her hand and sat back down next to her. He kissed her neck, then her cheek and then back down to the bit of cleavage that showed over the top of her dress.

“You are absolutely awesome.” He stated as he ran his hands down her body.

Rachel leaned back accepting the compliment and gave him access to what he wanted. He ran his hand underneath her dress and gently pulled on the string that covered her hip. He pulled it down just far enough to rub everything he wanted.

“Let’s go to my room.” Rachel offered.

She led him to her room and shut the door. The next morning was Rachel’s birthday. She laid on her bed still covered with her sheet and stark naked underneath. Her date was gone as she had expected, because men were just that way. Her bedroom door opened and in walked the man she had spent a glorious night with.

“So I saw on your calendar that it was your birthday and wanted to do something special.”

He handed her a mimosa filled wine glass, and sat down with a plate of strawberries. “Happy Birthday.”

Rachel sat up and stared at the man in confusion for a moment.

“Thought I left, huh?” He asked.

Rachel shook her head as she sipped the mimosa and set it to the side.

“Is it okay that I am still here?” He asked.

Rachel nodded again. He smiled and fed her a strawberry. The two sat in bed and ate the rest of the plateful before Silvia barged in singing Happy Birthday at the top of her lungs.

She smiled as she realized that she was a little busy still celebrating from last night and Silvia made her way out of the door.

After a shower and dressing, the two made their way out to the living room and saw the gentlemen off on their way. Rachel and Silvia talked about their wonderful night and in the midst of the details a scream sounded from the end of the hallway.

Rachel and Silvia jumped up and ran to open the door. Both stuck their heads out to peer down their small hallway and saw a man bent over a woman that laid on the floor.

“Hey, you son of a bitch, get the fuck off of her!” Silvia screamed down the hallway. “Call the cops Rachel!”

Rachel ran for the phone and dialed up emergency. She plugged one ear with her finger to be able to hear the dispatcher over Silvia still yelling at the man. Rachel stood by the small dining table and furrowed her brow as Silvia ran to her room and back out with a bat. Rachel followed her to the doorway and watched Silvia run down the hallway, without hesitation hit the man in the back of the head. He fell to the ground and she stood over the woman that laid bleeding on the tan carpet covering the hallway. Silvia reached down to feel the woman’s pulse and the man began to stand and towered over Silvia.

“SILVIA!” Rachel screamed as the man reached his arms over to her and she ducked while turning and hitting him in the legs with the bat. The man fell again, Silvia hit him in the head again with the bat and kept swinging until he was unrecognizable.

Rachel explained to the dispatcher what was happening and waited for a response on what to do when her phone suddenly lost service. Rachel peered at her phone and all of her bars were gone. She tried to call back and the emergency number would not even ring. Rachel ran to the window hoping to see squad cars pulling up, but what she did see confused her.

Two women were walking towards a man, he was screaming and held his hands up in front of him as he coward behind the side of a truck. The two women walked straight to him and grabbed each of his arms and bit into them. The man screamed as his head moved from side to side and tried to pull his arms free. A child joined in as it slowly and calmly walked up to the man dropped to her little knees and bit him on the chest. All three drew their mouths back from the man for a moment before going in for another bite. One of the women turned her head after a second bite and looked as though she was scanning the area. Rachel pulled her head back from the window hoping she did not see her watching them. Rachel went to grab the set of binoculars that Silvia kept near her bed to watch the handsome man across the street sunbathe nude on a regular basis and went back to the window. She peeked around the curtain to make sure that the two women and child were not noticing her and pulled the binoculars up to her face. She scanned the area and ran across the mess they were making of the poor soul. The man’s face had frozen into a feared look.

“Oh God, it’s him!” She whispered.

It was Rachel’s date from the night before. A bouquet of flowers laid at his feet and his bloodied remains propped up against the truck tire. The two women went back in several times for more bites of her date and the child still snacked on a piece of flesh that hung from its mouth.

Rachel pulled away from the window again and backed against the wall. She slowly walked to the door and rounded the corner to the hallway.

“My phone won’t work, but I got a hold of them and hopefully they are on their way.” Rachel told her friend.

“She is gone.” Silvia stated walking back down the small dimly lit corridor.

“You mean she is dead?” Rachel asked.

Silvia nodded as she entered and closed the door.

“Oh shit, come look at this.” Rachel requested.

She handed her the binoculars and pointed at the two women and child. Silvia pulled the binoculars up to her face.

“Oh shit!” She stated still watching them. “Is that the guy from last night?”

“Yep.” Rachel replied.

“What the hell is going on?” Silvia questioned.

Two cop cars sped up to the group and the officers jumped from their car. The two women rose from their kneeling position and headed towards them. Even from their third floor apartment, they were able to hear the cops yelling at them to stop, but the women kept moving forward. The officers fired and shot the two women and knocked them off of their feet. One ran to the man laid at the tire of the truck and picked the child up and ran with her to the back of the car. The other held his gun on the squirming women on the ground.

Both of them began to get up and head toward the man holding the gun again. He backed up as he yelled again and he fired two more shots and hit them both again knocking them off of their feet again. The officer at the back of the car, cradled the small girl, then screamed and dropped the child to the ground. He grabbed at the side of his face and rolled himself across the trunk of the car leaving a trail of blood as he did.

The child scurried under the car, made her way out from under the front side and back over to the man that had already been torn to shreds and began feasting again on his innards.

“Go lock the door” Silvia stated.

Rachel ran to the door, before she was able to close it a man was trying to push it open. Rachel screamed and tried to push the man out of their apartment and close the door. He pressed his face through the small opening as far as he could. Rachel was smashing his face and could hear the bones cracking as she forced the door shut. The man stuck in his hand and tangled his hand into Rachel’s hair and groaned loudly. He pulled her to the crack in the door before Silvia ran to the door and tried to help push it closed. The man was stronger than they were, he gave one good push and threw Rachel and Silvia to the floor. He growled at them and headed in their direction. Silvia and Rachel scooted backwards and to the front side of the couch. The scarred face man peered at them from the other side and made his way around the couch as they both grabbed each other’s arm, caught their feet and headed out of their apartment.

They closed the door behind them and ran to the end of the hall. They threw open the heavy metal door and let it close behind them. Rachel looked up and Silvia looked down the flights of stairs that led throughout the building.

“Up or down?” Silvia asked.

“Down, we don’t want to get stuck here. Maybe we can make it to the library next door and see who is there that can help.” Rachel suggested.

The two began running down the steps and breathlessly stopped at the door marked ground.

“We don’t know what is out here, so be ready to fight.” Silvia stated with her hand on the door.

Rachel nodded and got herself ready to run. Silvia pushed down on the silver handle and released the door from its strike plate. She slowly pushed the door open and peeked outside. She scanned both ways and saw some people walking but they weren’t trying to hurt anyone, they were walking slowly but looked normal.

“Let’s go!” Silvia stated.

She pushed the door open all the way and ran out of the door. Rachel followed behind her but was cut off by a man and woman that looked as though they had been living in the streets for months without a shower or food. Rachel swung and hit the woman in the face and the man grabbed her arm as she reared back to swing again. He leaned in to take a bite of Rachel. She kicked his knee, it easily buckled under him and he released her arm and fell on his stomach, he growled loudly at her and reached for her foot, she kicked hard and struck him in the face. She could feel the bones crush through her shoe; the woman had made her way back over to them and proceeded to growl with anger while coming at Rachel. Rachel ran back into the door and closed it with a slam. Silvia had already ran on without her, expecting her to be following close behind.

Rachel closed the door wondering why these all of the people so far were not following her through the doors and running after her if they were so set on hurting her as they had others. She stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked up. It was the only direction that she had to go. Rachel stood for a moment and contemplated her situation. She began to leap up the steps and stopped at the third floor door. She tried to decide on if she wanted to try going back to the apartment where she had locked in the man and see if maybe he had been one that was able to move on or if she needed to go up further and see what was there.

Suddenly the door flew open and a woman came flying threw it.

“Are there zombies down there to?” The woman asked with wide eyes.

“Zombies?” Rachel questioned.

“Yes, fucking zombies, they are all over up here, eating everyone!” She explained to Rachel.

Rachel had always heard that one day the zombie apocalypse would happen, but always thought it was just something for horror fanatics to hold onto to have something to talk about. Rachel was pretty sure this was one of the horror fanatics. She laughed a bit at the woman and watched her run down the stairs.

Rachel opened the door and scanned the hall way before stepping into it. The dead woman and man were still lying at the one end and two more bloodied bodies laid at the other. She could see a man standing over one of the dead bodies with his back to her. She quietly took a step into the hall way to see what exactly he was doing, maybe he could help her. She accidentally let the door shut and it made a light click, he turned his head slowly towards her and then his body, his skin was dirty and blood splatter covered his face, his hands fell to the sides of him as he bounced from wall to wall. He growled a low moan at her and opened his mouth and closed it again and once Rachel was within arm’s reach of the man, he placed his arms across her shoulders and pulled her into him like he was getting ready to hug her neck. He again opened his mouth wide and leaned in. She could feel the drool hit her neck and she pulled back. She flung the man’s arms off of her shoulders and ran back through the door, Rachel ran up the stairs as she heard the door squeak back open and slam shut. She peered down to the level below and watched the man come out. He scooted his feet forward and bumped off of the railing and fell down the flight of stairs. He was moving but only to push himself down another flight of stairs.

Rachel started her run up the stairs again, she stopped at the sixth floor and listened for a moment. She opened the door and squeezed through a small opening of it, she peered down the hall way of the sixth floor lightly knocking on doors. She rounded the corner to another hall way and two men and a woman stood in the hall way blocking her way. Rachel knew that these people weren’t normal, they were disgusting looking and had no feeling in their eyes. Their clothes were nasty and they all started scooting their feet towards her. Rachel ran back down the hall and through the door she came through and closed it as quick as she could before hearing them start banging on the door. She started making her way up the stairs and had to sit down to rest. The adrenaline running through her and the energy she was putting forth had tired her, and now a bit of anxiety had set in with the belief that the apocalypse was indeed upon them.

Rachel rubbed her hands across her bright red hair and wondered if Silvia had made it or if she had come back to look for her. She leaned over and began listening to the flights below for Silvia shouting for her. But there was nothing. She heard groaning and banging on doors.

Rachel stood and started her climb up the steps slower than she had before to save her breath. Every few steps she would hear a door from below slamming. She would yell down asking if anyone was there and would never get a response. After the third try of yelling for someone, she gave up. She just began to listen and kept taking steps one at a time to make it higher.

She heard another door slam, then a loud echoing growl and then a low toned scream that sounded like a man that was being killed. She rounded the last floor flight and had one more flight to the roof. A man came around the steps at the same time she did and came face to face with her. His bottom jaw had been removed and his cheeks were sunk into his face. His top teeth showed broken and chipped. His arms were outstretched trying to reach her, but he seemed to not be able to figure out how to lift his feet or to get down the steps at her. Rachel backed away from them and back down to the level she had been on and watched him fall forward trying to make it to her. He was on the small platform she needed to get on to make it to the roof to see what was going on.

She sat down and listened to the angry zombie wanting to get her and began to cry. A few moments passed of the echoing growls, Rachel gathered her thoughts, got up, stepped around the man and partly over him to avoid getting attacked again while headed up the flights of stairs.

Rachel let out a big sigh, again wondering where Silvia had gone to. She thought maybe she had come back for her and made her way up the stairwell and was on one of the floors or maybe had made her way to the roof to look for her off the side.

Rachel hurried to the door marked ‘Caution Roof’.

She pushed open the door and scanned the area. There was no one there, which surprised her. She figured there would be more people that would have been stopped by this mass of dead people walking around and make their way up there.

Rachel closed the door and made sure that it latched and placed herself in a corner avoiding looking over the edge of the building for now. She pulled her knees up to her chest, propped her head against the wall and fell asleep. She woke up to a scream echoing through the air. She jumped up and looked around, she quickly realized it was coming from below. Rachel looked over the side as a woman ate another woman.

“These are fucking zombies!” She stated to herself. “How in the hell did this happen?”

She watched person after person get chased and eaten by others. She stayed quiet, trying not to draw attention to herself. It was starting to get cold and she wished she had had time to grab her jacket. She pulled her arms into her shirt and continued watching people get ate, then come back to life, stand and slowly make their way around the small courtyard in front of her building. Rachel peered around to see if there was any way to get off the roof besides going back down the stairs and was only able to find a drain pipe that went from the top to the bottom of the building. She thought she would be able to climb or slide down it, but did not want to risk getting seen by any of these assholes eating people. She walked around the rooftop trying to find a warm spot to sit for a while to wait for the killers to clear out and she had a chance to run. A generator had kicked on in the corner and was warm to the touch. Rachel sat down next to the big silver box and leaned up against it. She fell asleep with the bit of warmth from it. She woke as light hit the sky and roamed the roof to see if there were any clear spots to get down from. Other roofs were clear and she wished that she was able to get to them and maybe make it down to the ground to make a run for it without making the noise of sliding down the drain pipe, but she knew she would fall in between the buildings if she tried to jump across. She placed herself back at the entrance to the roof and soon crawled over to the generator when the wind kicked up and it started raining. Rachel covered herself with a piece plastic she had found on the other side of the roof that was attached to one of the newer air conditioning units. It was like a huge piece of saran wrap, but it worked. She kept moving around the generator each time the wind changed.

Later that day the rain stopped and Rachel made her way around the roof again. She soon saw a group that had climbed to one of the other roofs nearby.

“HELLO!” She called out.

“Show yourself!” A man’s voice yelled.

***

Silvia had run out of the door and had barely made it passed two of the zombies that stood to the side waiting for something to alert them that a meal was waiting. She didn’t know they had planned on Rachel being their meal. She just kept running. The fear had built up of being killed and she was ready to get to safety.

She ran past a man that was bent over a woman, but didn’t stop him from whatever he was doing as she had back at the apartment. She just kept running. Once she reached the library steps, she turned to make sure Rachel was ready to find safety in the library. Silvia was alone.

“Rachel!” She hollered. “Rachel! Where are you?”

Silvia spun around in circles looking for her best friend. While turning in circles, she didn’t notice the three slow walking ones moving toward her. She spun one last time and her head buried itself into a man’s chest. The smell was unbearable and made her pull away quickly. She covered her nose with both hands and backed away running into something. Silvia turned quickly and came face to face with a young woman that looked like she could have been about her age if she wasn’t so dirty and wrinkled. The woman lurched at her and grabbed Silvia’s shoulders and leaned in to her, Silvia screamed and pulled away back into the other man who wrapped his arm around her neck from behind. Another man charged at the two faster than the others were moving. Silvia quickly ducked down and away from the grasp of the other man and away from the open mouth of the faster moving one. She ran up the steps and into the library, Silvia slammed the library door and watched out of the small window on the door. The three that were trying to attack her tried to stumble up the stairs, but only fell back down. Silvia turned and watched for whatever may be lurking in the library. She scanned the foyer and into the large room with shelves of books covering the walls.

“What in the hell is going on.” She whispered to herself.

She slid down the door to sit and sobbed at the thought of her friend being eaten by these monsters.

Silvia soon heard shuffling from one of the rooms off to the side that had computers inside. She jerked her head up and scanned to her right. A young boy sat in a chair in front of one of the computers. He wore a red and white striped shirt and small white converse tennis shoes. He glared at her through angry sunk in eyes. The black around his eyes made him look sad and sick. His cheek bones sunk back into his face and he growled a low growl at her. His lips were blue and his skin had turned a gray color that set off the green his eyes shot back at her. Silvia watched him rise from his chair and try to walk, he tripped over the untied shoe laces and fell. He pushed himself up with his dirtied hands and tried again. Looking like a newborn, he slowly made his way toward where Silvia sat. She turned her body and scooted backwards.

“It’s okay little boy!” Silvia put her hands up to him.

He dug his dirt filled nails into the worn brown carpet that covered the floor and pulled himself closer to her.

“I’m not going to hurt you, please don’t hurt me.”

The child only growled at her and pulled himself even closer. He grabbed her shoe and tried to bite down. Silvia drew her leg back from the boy and pushed herself further away from him. She made it to a chair and climbed up into it and pulled her legs close to her body. The little boy crawled to her and pulled himself up to stand and went in for a bite of her leg. Silvia kicked him hard in the face. He fell backwards and hit the corner of a library table with his head. Brain matter covered the table and then seeped onto the floor as he fell. Silvia jumped from her chair and ran up the stairs to find another room full of books. Silvia looked around and saw a small cabinet. She ran to the cabinet and opened the two doors. She pulled all of the books out and put herself inside of it, pulled the two small doors closed and sat quietly inside. She cried herself to sleep.

She awoke to noise of a group of people. Silvia stayed quiet in her little hideaway and stayed that way until she didn’t hear any other noise. She slowly pushed the door open and slid out, she was dirty and hungry most of all. It must have been hours that she had been stuck in that small cabinet. She wandered quietly through the sleeping bodies, found a bag of food, grabbed it and ran to the stairs. Not knowing that one of the men had seen her. She tried to make it down when she felt a hard knock on the back of her head and everything went black.

STORY SEVEN

BOBBI

“Bobbi, you are going to be late for work if you don’t move your ass!” Jason screamed from the living room. “I have to get going too, let’s move out woman!”

“Oh hell, hold your horses, I’m coming.” Bobbi hollered from the bedroom.

She jogged down the hallway still trying to slip on her white shoes that she wore with her scrubs. Jason held the door open for her and laughed at her as she hopped on one foot down the stairs still pulling on the heel of her shoe. Jason locked the door and hurried to the Toyota Camry that had become their only car since their truck had bit the dust.

“Sorry honey, they just called and said they needed me to do some runs for someone that didn’t show. It’s extra money we can use to get your truck fixed.” She explained.

“I know, I just can’t be late.” He backed out of the driveway and pulled away from the small two bedroom house.

“Just slow down at my office and I’ll jump out.” She laughed.

“Smart ass!” He replied to his wife.

Jason worked at a local distribution warehouse and had just made manager. Bobbi was a home health care nurse; she drove around in a company car and checked on the elderly that were not able to take care of themselves. She absolutely loved her job, except when someone did not show, they called her to cover. But they could use the money right now, so she was trying to be thankful after coming off of a sixteen hour shift the day before. Jason grabbed his wife’s hand and squeezed.

“Sorry babe.” He stated. “This manager position should help a lot once I start getting the pay for it next week.”

Jason drove as fast as he could down their small county road, hugging the turns and finally making it to the main highway that led into town. The sun was just coming up over the busy little town as they hit their first red light.

“I hate these damn lights. I wish we could just stay out in our little country abode and not ever have to come into town.” Jason frowned at the other cars getting to cross the intersection.

Jason smiled as he got to depart from a standstill and made his way to the parking lot off of the small highway. She smiled at him and leaned in to kiss his cheek before he stopped near a red and white small car in the parking lot by the main office of her work.

“I love you Jason.” She said.

“Love you too.” He smiled back at her.

Bobbi and Jason had been together for going on nine years. They had gone through trials and tribulations throughout their entire marriage from their first house together burning down to Jason having cancer and just becoming cancer free as of last year. Bobbi worked through his entire treatment and hardly saw him as he went through the process of ridding his body of the deadly disease that she had seen take so many of her patients.

She jumped out and headed inside to grab some keys and a list of her stops for the day. She rushed out to the car and jumped in and pulled off in a hurry. She was only six minutes behind the girl’s schedule that she was covering for and needed to make up that time somewhere.

Her first stop was an old man that was not able to walk and sat in his wheelchair a majority of the day. Bobbi served him his medication and helped him to stand a few times from his wheel chair so that his lower body did not deteriorate away. She helped him with exercises for his arms to strengthen them and was done taking his vitals and giving him his weekly ‘once over’ eight minutes early. She thanked him quickly and said a sweet goodbye, got back in her car, she headed to her next stop and made it three minutes before she was supposed to be there. She hurried in to the elderly woman’s house, checked her blood sugar, provided her with her insulin shot and made her a bite to eat. The poor woman had children, but they did not come by or help with her care except to pay for the home health she received. She sat for a few minutes and talked to the sweet woman, knowing that she only had conversations with the cat that roamed her house. Bobbi cleaned out the litter box before saying another sweet goodbye and headed out. She made her rounds through the day using her best bed side manner, listening and helping with what she could, even though she was only supposed to be doing the nursing part.

Sixteen minutes ahead of schedule, Bobbi arrived back at her office, filled out the paperwork needed for the patients that she had seen that day, turned it all in to the office and headed out to wait for her husband.

She sat on a small bench outside the door and pulled a piece of beef jerky that one of the elderly men had given her earlier that his son had made. She took a small bite as she started to feel the effects of not eating all day. She watched a small slew of birds take a bath in the cement bird bath that decorated the grassy patch in the circle driveway in front of the office. They twittered their wings and chirped as they splashed water on each other. Bobbi laughed at the playing birds and took another bite of her jerky as she saw her husband turn into the parking lot and head to the front of the building.

“Sorry I’m late.” He hollered through the open window.

Bobbi plopped in and laid her head back on the seat and closed her eyes.

“So glad this day is over.” She heaved a sigh of relief.

She slid her shoes off in the floorboard and handed Jason the jerky from her pocket.

“What is this?” He asked.

“One of my patient’s sons made it for him and he insisted I take a piece. I haven’t eaten all day, so I snacked a bit on it. It is actually rather good.” She explained.

Jason bit a piece and handed it back. “Pretty good, taste like deer jerky.”

“I don’t know; how was your day?” She asked.

“Good, the guys are getting used to me being the boss I think, they may not like it but they are dealing with it.” He admitted.

“That’s good.” Bobbi muttered becoming a little too relaxed in her seat.

“Hungry?” He asked.

“Well, duh, starved!” Bobbi shot back without opening her eyes.

“Running by to get burgers then, you good with that, or you want to cook me a five course meal?” Jason joked.

“Screw you!” Bobbi laughed.

Jason drove to the nearest burger joint that had a drive through and repeated the same order they got any time they ordered burgers. He drove through and paid the woman at the window and sat the bag in Bobbi’s lap before driving off. Bobbi instinctively put her hand down to hold the bag of food while reaching inside it with her other hand to take a fry. She held one out to Jason and put the other in her mouth.

“Mmmmmm…food!” Bobbi muttered still chewing.

Jason pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street filled with the after work traffic. He turned off of the main road and onto the two lane highway heading to the edge of town.

“I am so glad we don’t live in town.” Jason gassed the car to get away from any traffic.

Bobbi opened her eyes to the familiar pine trees that edged the side of the road. “Me too babe, I love riding through and looking at the calmness of the countryside.”

“I have said before, we need to just open a road side market out here by the house and we would never have to go to town.” Jason wished.

“Yep, and hope that we make enough to pay the house payment.” Bobbi laughed. “I can make some of momma’s old homemade pies and you can carve out some of your home made stuff from wood. That would be great.”

Jason and Bobbi both laughed as they thought about the possibilities of doing the things that they loved and making money off of it all. They had always wanted to do something like that. Bobbi knew that Jason’s talent was going to waste just sitting in their garage and only selling a few pieces here and there on the weekends at the local flea market a few miles from their house.

Jason built things from wood that Bobbi had never seen anyone make. They were beautiful carvings of animals and decorations. She loved watching him create things from his mind and thought that his talent should be more than just something he did as a hobby. She tried to work as much as she could with the hopes that she could make that happen for him.

“I really want to try and get some of your things into that new little antique store in town that just opened.” Bobbi told him.

“I don’t know Bobbi, I am not sure they would want things I make.” He modestly responded.

“Anyone would be happy to have all of the stuff you make, it is absolutely beautiful and I think it would really sell.” She stated.

They drove in silence for just a bit while Bobbi continued to rest her eyes

Jason suddenly hit the brakes and veered off to the shoulder of the road.

“Did you see that?” He shouted leaning forward as they came to a stop.

Bobbi caught the dash with her hands and glared over at Jason.

“What the hell babe?!” She shouted.

“Did you see that man?” He looked behind them.

“No I saw a pine tree coming at my face though!” She shouted and slapped him on his arm.

“There was a man in the middle of the damn road.” He stated.

Jason backed out of the grass and back onto the road and continued backing up to where he saw the man.

“He was right here.” Jason scanned the area.

“No guy here hon.” Bobbi stated insinuating that he was seeing things.

Jason turned his head from side to side and back behind them.

“I swear, there was a guy here.” He stated.

“Let’s go home honey. I think you need to lie down.” Bobbi laughed.

“Bobbi, I am serious.” Jason assured.

Bobbi began to look around the car as well since Jason was so adamant. She was able to make out a small silhouette of a man far in the distance walking through the field on the other side of the two lane road.

“There.” She pointed.

Jason squinted looking at the man and they both watched him fall and get back up and start walking again.

“No we are not going to help him, he is fine, looks like he has a destination, let’s go home babe.” Bobbi begged.

“That was weird.” Jason admitted.

He shook off the strange feeling of the man and put the car in drive. He took one last look at the far off man and touched the gas to move forward. He turned back to the road just in time to hit the brakes again. Bobbi flew into the dashboard.

“DAMMIT JASON!” She yelled.

Bobbi sat up and a woman had appeared on the hood of her Camry.

“What the hell?” Bobbi questioned reaching for the door handle.

“Bobbi, stay in here.” Jason stated.

He reached for his door and popped it open as the woman clawed the windshield. Her nails were dirty, her face was distorted making her look like some kind of monster instead of a woman. Her hair was knotted and looked as though it had been matted by a substance and stuck to the side of her head. The sun dress she wore appeared to at one time have been white with light colored flowers printed across the top.

“JASON NO!” Bobbi grabbed his arm. “There is something not right. Stay in the car.”

The woman’s wrinkled skin tore as her neck gave way from the weight of her own head and hit the windshield. She peered back up at Bobbi and blood streamed down from her forehead across her crooked nose and dripped onto the car. She lifted one of her arms again and let it drop on the windshield again. Bobbi and Jason heard a loud pop and a bone protruded out of her elbow. The woman continued banging with her other arm and began baring her disgustingly yellow teeth at them.

“Get her the fuck off of my car!” Bobbi hollered.

Jason hit the gas hard and then the brakes again. Bobbi readied herself so that she would not head butt the dashboard again. She watched the woman slide backwards off of the hood and hit the ground in front of the car and roll a few feet. The woman shook her head and started to stand.

“Go!” Bobbi hollered to her husband.

Jason stepped on the gas once again and tried to go around the nasty woman that was now half standing. Bobbi grabbed the wheel and prevented him from going around her and hit her head on. The Camry rocked from side to side as it made its way over the woman’s body.

“Bobbi what the hell are you doing? We can’t just kill people and drive off.” Jason stated.

“Keep going!” Bobbi took her hand from the wheel.

Jason did as he was told and kept the car moving. He slowly decreased his speed as he pulled over once they were out of sight of the now dead woman that laid in the middle of the road.

“We have to clean this off before we get in trouble.” Jason suggested.

“Jason, there was something wrong with that woman.” Bobbi told him.

Another man scooted past the car, dragging one foot behind him. He seemed to look their way but was not stopping. He passed by them and stared forward. His gray beard had been covered in blood.

“Mr. Jones?” Jason questioned.

“That isn’t Mr. Jones anymore babe. Something isn’t right. Let’s get home now!” Bobbi demanded.

Jason pushed on the gas and drove a little ways before starting to see cars that had been abandoned. There were three more of the stumbling people that were walking across the road and down into the woods lining the highway. Jason turned off onto the small dirt road that led back to their house. He swerved to miss a woman that was wandering in the middle. He didn’t stop in fear that the woman might be like the other one and climb on top of the car. He pulled in the small driveway and pulled up in front of their one story, two bedroom cottage that they had bought after their house fire. They were both happy with where they were living until they realized that crazy people were surrounding their house.

“There are a lot of them behind the house, but I think we can make it in the front.” Jason stated.

“Jason, I think this is the apocalypse, we have to be careful.” Bobbi explained.

“Like fucking zombies?” He queried.

“I think that is exactly what they are. What else could it be?” Bobbi asked his opinion.

Jason peered at the clumsy hoard walking towards them.

“Let’s go now, to the house!” He instructed.

Bobbi and Jason both jumped from the car and ran full sprint up the two steps to the door. Both of them were thankful they didn’t have to lock the door being out in the country and barreled through it. They turned and pushed the door shut. Bobbi turned the deadbolt just as a loud thump echoed through the house. Bobbi jumped back from the door and tripped on the small rug covering the entryway into the living room and fell backwards while Jason ran to the window in their small den that overlooked the porch.

“Oh Shit!” He hollered.

Bobbi stared at him as he started to back away from the window. A loud thud echoed again, but this time from the window Jason stood in front of. Jason stretched his hand to the window and jerked one of the curtains over to cover the rumbling glass from the strikes from what was hitting against it. He quickly did the same with the other curtain on the other side and then ran to his wife who still sat on the floor.

“They have surrounded the house, go get the gun and the shells. We have to be quiet. They know that we are in here, they are trying to get in.” He explained.

Bobbi nodded her head to her husband and slowly and quietly made her way to her feet. Jason held her arm to make sure she was steady and lightly pushed her towards their bedroom to go collect what he had asked for.

Bobbi rounded the corner of their bedroom door and grabbed the six shells from the gun rack on their wall and took the gun off of the rack. Her shaky hands had a hard time steadying the handful of shells; she quickly put them in the pocket of her scrub shirt and held the gun with both hands as she walked it back down the hallway.

Jason took the gun and she handed the shells to him one by one as he loaded the gun.

“My knife is in my sock drawer.” Jason told her.

Bobbi walked back down the hallway, avoiding the small spots that creaked when you stepped on them. She brought the knife back to Jason and laid it on the couch next to him. She sat down, not knowing how they were going to handle all of this.

“What are your plans?” Bobbi asked.

“This is just in case one of them gets in the house somehow.” Jason told her. “Otherwise, we stay here and wait it out for them to find something else that they are interested in.”

“Then what?” She asked him.

“I guess we load up and find somewhere to survive.” He stated.

Never had either of them imagined the apocalypse would happen and they were both quiet for a moment while trying to decide on what needed to be done.

“What about that school a few miles up the road? There would be food, I am sure that it would be locked up and they wouldn’t be able to get in there. We could break in and set up there.” Bobbi suggested.

Jason nodded in agreement as he went and peeked through the small opening through the curtains. The man remained on the porch standing still and then suddenly turned his head towards the window and then back to view the yard. He took a step and fell down the steps, his face hit the sidewalk and exploded on impact. Blood went everywhere and the rest of the body slammed to the ground. Jason pulled the curtain back a bit and peered for more that were waiting. Two were rounding the corner of the house and both headed towards the road. A scream echoed out from behind the house, Bobbi jumped and ran to the back door. Her neighbor across the alley in his backyard had just been bit from behind by a woman.

“Jason, it’s Mr. Blare from across the alley!” She belted out.

Jason ran to join Bobbi and looked out of the window. “It’s too late, he has already been bit.”

The woman raised her bloody mouth up from Mr. Blare and chewed the skin that had been torn from his neck. She went in for another bite and followed Mr. Blare’s body as it fell to the ground and lifted her face up again, a muscle from his neck swung from her mouth. She chewed vigorously while reaching in to the open wound and pulling out more and bringing it to her mouth. She watched her surroundings as she ingested their neighbor.

Jason turned slowly and walked quietly to the hall closet. He grabbed an old duffel bag, he walked back to the bedroom and began stuffing some of his and Bobbi’s clothes into it. Bobbi soon followed.

“What are you doing?” Bobbi asked.

“We are getting the fuck out of this crazy shit. We have to go somewhere safer than here.” He answered.

Bobbi began helping pack. She bagged the basic necessities and then moved to the kitchen. She began gathering some food and bottles of water and took them back to the bedroom and stuffed it all in the bag. Jason zipped it up and hurriedly moved to the front door. He unlocked the door and placed his hand on the knob, he looked over at Bobbi.

“I love you honey.” He whispered. “We are going to run to the car, I need you to hurry and get in. No matter what happens, get somewhere safe is our goal.”

Bobbi nodded and took a deep breath. Jason cracked the door open and looked out. There were no zombies visible in the small area he was able to see. He slowly opened the door a little more until he saw movement in the road. He stood for a moment to make sure that he had not drawn attention to them.

“Ready, one, two, three, GO!” He whispered.

Bobbi and Jason flung the door open and sprinted to the car. Jason ran to the driver’s side and Bobbi was in the passenger side before Jason closed his door. He threw the bag in the back and reached for his door. Before he was able to close the door, Mr. Blare appeared in the open door. His face was a strange color and his neck had been half torn. His head hung to one side, his jaw moved back and forth and the squeak of his teeth grinding was piercing. Jason slammed the door closing Mr. Blare’s head in the door. Bobbi screamed as she reached over to help Jason pull the door. Their once nice neighbor, growled louder as the door tore through the small amount of skin that held his head to his body. Jason pushed the door open just enough to use both hands to slam it closed on the man one last time. His head came off and fell to the floorboard inside the car. Jason kicked his feet and pushed himself to stand in the car. He then pulled his feet up in the seat and sat for a moment to decide what to do.

“Open our damn door!” Bobbi screamed.

Jason pulled the handle and opened his door. Bobbi grabbed Mr. Blare’s head by the hair, she leaned over and tossed the hunk out of the vehicle.

Jason put his feet back into the floorboard and closed the door. He turned the key and started the car. He backed out and hit the brakes when the driver’s side tire hit a bump.

“That was his head wasn’t it?” Jason asked closing his eyes.

“Just go!” Bobbi yelled.

Jason spun the tires and backed the rest of the way out and headed down their road. Bobbi and Jason scanned the area as they drove, numerous people ran through the streets and zombies ran after them.

“Don’t stop, we can’t help them.” Bobbi instructed. “Just drive.”

Jason did as he was told and swerved as a man walked in front of them holding a child. He brought the child to his mouth and dove into its midsection to take a bite. Bobbi covered her eyes and brought her face back up with tears sliding down her cheeks as she felt the car go straight.

After a few more miles, a girl stood on the side of the road waving her arms.

“We have to stop.” Jason stated.

Bobbi glared at him and shook her head. Jason pulled over, ignoring Bobbi’s silent words.

He stepped out of the car. “Are you okay?” He asked her.

The girl walked to his side of the car and it was then that Jason saw the bite mark on her arm.

The teenage girl made it to the door. She grabbed Jason by the collar of his shirt and bit his cheek. Bobbi screamed and played tug of war with the petite girl that had just turned. She pulled on Jason’s pants and tried to pull him back in the car. The girl kept a grasp on his shirt as she leaned in and took another bite from his face.

Bobbi watched as blood dripped down to her hands that had a death grip on his jeans. She let go as soon as her husband’s blood hit her hands. She peered up at the teenage girl and the two made eye contact. The girl let go of Jason and started rounding the door. Bobbi knew she had to do something. She was not going to die by some brat teenage kid. Bobbi turned herself and kicked her husband out of the way of the door, leaned over and quickly pulled the door closed before she was able to make it around Jason.

She jumped over the console and into the driver’s seat, she popped the gear shift into drive and slammed down the gas pedal. The car thrusted forward and fish tailed as it took off down the road. Bobbi turned the wheel one way and then the other trying to gain control. The car finally straight, Bobbi took a huge breath in and puffed her cheeks as she let it out.

She had made it far enough that she couldn’t see anyone at all on the sides of the county road. Cars sat abandoned that she had to dodge, but no movement of people were visible.

Bobbi pulled the car over to the side of the road and stopped. She put her face in her hands and began to sob, ran her hands through her short red hair and back down to her face. She had to gather herself. She could not give up. Even without her husband now. She had to save herself. She decided to go along with her plan and head to the school.

She put the car back in drive and pulled back onto the road. She drove slower than she had earlier trying to rid her view of any zombies. She just wanted to get away from them. She wanted normalcy. She drove to the end of the county road and turned onto the small highway that would eventually lead to the school.

She contemplated stopping to eat and get something to drink since she was starting to feel light headed. She needed something to give her a bit of energy. She drove slowly and watched the sides of the road, she could see them moving in the woods. There were some that were stumbling, tripping, falling and some that were walking almost like normal humans. Bobbi was not taking the chance to stop and see if they were still human. She drove on until the sun was almost down. She pulled in to a little rest stop that she had used before to eat her lunches in between her appointments. She stopped and locked the doors before turning the car off. She leaned back in her seat and breathed for a moment. She opened her eyes and was only able to see blur in front of her eyes. Her blood sugar was off, she could feel it. She felt behind her for the zipper of the bag and pulled on it. She felt around and pulled out a bottle of the water she had brought with them and some of the snacks. She closed her eyes as she opened a small bag of the cookies and put one in her mouth and held it there for a moment. She took a swig of the water and remembered the one bottle of juice she had and reached back to search for it. She felt the ridges of the bottle she was searching for and quickly pulled it to her and opened it. She took a swig and swallowed and then another. Her eyes became clearer and the dizziness began to subside. That very moment, Bobbi knew she would be able to make it.

The sun was completely gone, and the normal street light that lit up the small area on those late nights that she worked, was not shining. She became a bit scared and quickly flipped on her headlights. Directly in front of her car, stood a man. He had to have been well over six foot tall and looked as though he had eaten plenty in his life time. His clothes were covered in bloody particles that Bobbi figured were from poor souls that had been attacked by the man and never stood a chance. She slowly put the top on her juice and slowly laid it in the passenger seat without taking her eyes off of the large man. The man seemed to be looking straight at her and she did not want him lunging at her car. She started the car and slowly moved her hand down to the gear shift between the seats and put it in drive. She turned the wheel to the left and hit the gas. The man took one step and was back in front of her car. Bobbi had no choice, she kept going. She hit the man’s knees with the bumper and he fell onto the hood. She stopped quickly and he rolled off. She hit the gas again and her right tire went over his body. He was big enough that her car felt as though it was ten feet in the air. The small Camry made a big bang back down to the ground. Bobbi kept her foot on the gas and kept going. The adrenaline ran rampant through her body as she tried to get as far away from the big man as she could.

She slowed the car once back on the highway and away from the rest area. She felt as though she had just ran a marathon and tried to slow her breathing back to normal. Tears flowed without her wanting them to and her vision became a bit blurry.

“Suck it up bitch!” She said to herself.

Bobbi knew that the school was only a few more miles up and off the highway down a small road. She hoped that it was not covered with these assholes to where she could not get in. She drove cautiously, swerving around anything that was in the road and around other cars, hoping that she would not damage her car any more than it already was.

She knew that if she did not take some more sips of her juice that she would start feeling the effects of her low blood sugar again. She grabbed her juice with one hand and slowed the car to a crawling speed. She began to wonder about all of her patients and if they had made it through or if they had turned. She felt terrible for not going to check on them. She had put so much time and effort into them to keep them alive for their families and it was all worthless now with the apocalypse among them.

A large green sign came into view that read ‘County Road sixteen’. She questioned if she should stop, or move on with hopes that her sister Jennifer had thought about going to the school as well. She wondered if she was able to get her nephews to safety. She turned the wheel to the exit and made her way down the small county road where her sister lived.

She pulled up in front of the small yellow house and sat for a moment. She waited to see if there was any movement and trying to decide if she wanted to get out and go get the only family she had left. Five minutes had passed and there was no sign of her two nephews or her sister. Had Jennifer even been there? Bobbi wondered. She didn’t dare honk or make any noise to draw attention to herself. She slowly backed out and closed her eyes with a quick prayer that they were safe.

She made her way back to the highway and moved on. The highway seemed to open up where there were no cars blocking the road and very few zombies lined the wooded area of the sides of the highway. Bobbi slowly made her way over the rolling hills of the highway and the school finally came into view. Bobbi was bit confused since she didn’t remember a wall or that tall of a fence that rounded the school or a gate. She had remembered picking up her nephews from a rounded driveway that you just drove into; there was no way now to get into the school without going through a tall gate.

Bobbi pulled up to the gate and sat there in the dark. Her headlights glared off of the chain link. Bobbi was unsure if she should get out or take her chances by climbing the fence or just stay where she was.

After a few minutes a flash light shined inside the front windshield of her car from behind the fence. Bobbi rolled down her window just enough to stick her mouth up to the opening.

“Please help me!” Bobbi muttered through the small opening.

“Name?” The voice questioned.

“Bobbi, please help me.” She stated.

“Turn off the car and get out. You can come in, but do it quickly.” The man demanded.

Bobbi turned off her car and looked in all directions around her car. She turned off the car and opened the door and without closing it ran toward the fence and where the man’s voice was coming from. The gate opened slightly and Bobbi slid through.

“Thank you, oh my God, thank you!” Bobbi said.

“My name is Martin.” He stated as he shined the light up and down Bobbi looking for bite marks.

Bobbi knew what he was looking for and held her arms out for him to view.

“I haven’t been bit, I lost my husband on the way here and I figured the school would be safe since they lock it up when they leave.” She explained. “I am distraught and lost without my husband, I can’t believe that he is gone. What am I gonna do?”

Martin walked around her and gave her a once over with his flashlight and came back into her view.

“Looks like you are good to go. We have taken over the school and the plant. We are military and have some civilians here that have helped take over this area. I will take you somewhere to clean up after I lock backup.” Martin told her.

“Thank you for letting me in. I am so thankful.” Bobbi stated to her savior.

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