The Walking Dead: Just Stay Alive
Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot
Spring Break. This is the time of year that every college student looks forward to. It's the time of year that they can let loose. They can go party or hang with friends and do whatever they want for a whole month. But this year, things are a little bit different.
Jordan Bradford, a college junior, walked over to the window of his home, yawned, and watched as the daily army patrol strolled past his house. They looked over at him, nodded, and continued walking. Jordan nodded back and looked out into the distance, where he saw the skyline of Charlotte with smoke plumes rising above the city. It was a chilling sight. He looked at the city for a few minutes before turning back towards the radio sitting on the coffee table in his living room.
"Day 17 of the outbreak. The Mexican government has collapsed. The world Western Hemisphere is on the brink of total economic collapse-"
"Shit, man. This is heavy." Jordan sighed.
"Watch your language, young man." Stacy Bradford, Jordan's mom, warned. She was short, blonde, and had bright blue eyes, which wasn't anything like Jordan, who was tall, with sandy brown hair, and had eyes that were green in color. He just laughed and replied with, "I'm a college junior, the government is on the verge of collapse, and I'm still getting scolded by my mother about cursing. Something's not right about that."
"Son, listen to your mother." Jordan's dad, George, warned. "But I do agree. Honey, give the kid a break. He's 20 years old."
"A 20 year old who should be at SCHOOL. Spring Break ended two days ago. Why is the army keeping all of us in our homes?"
"Mom, haven't you been listening? There's been an outbreak of some sort. Army doesn't want anyone getting infected that doesn't have to be." Jordan retorted.
"What infection? What does it do?" she asked.
"Hun, we don't have an answer. The government won't tell us anything. They just keep saying that people are getting sick and dying. That's all we know for sure." George replied. Suddenly, a loud crash echoed throughout the house, followed by a scream. George and Stacy ran into the next room, while Jordan calmly walked back over to the window. He stared out at the city skyline again, watching as smoke rose above the buildings.
"Claire! Miles! What happened here?" George asked, looking down at the broken glass on the floor. Miles, the youngest Bradford child, was sitting on a chair clutching his foot as Claire, the middle Bradford child, walked back into the room with a broom and dustpan.
"Um... an intense game of catch." Miles answered in a sarcastic tone.
"We were just playing. He ran into the bookshelf and the vase fell over and shattered. He cut his foot on a shard of glass. It's not a big deal." Claire explained.
"Mom! Dad! We have company!" Jordan yelled out.
"Who is it?!" George yelled back.
"One sec!" A few moments passed and Jordan yelled, "The Douglas'!"
"Yeah, let them in!"
Jordan opened the front door of their house and three people walked in. Andrew Douglas, Jordan's best friend, came in first. He was slightly shorter than Jordan, with dark hair, olive skin, and eyes that were so brown that they were nearly black. He went to high five Jordan before saying, "What's up, dude?"
"Nothing much, man." Jordan replied. "Hi, Mrs. Douglas."
"Hello, Jordan." Mrs. Douglas replied coldly. She looked almost exactly like her son. Following her in was the younger son Eddie Douglas. He looked exactly like his mom and brother. Jordan found it amusing how much they all looked alike.
"Hey Alison!" Stacy said walking into the room.
"Boys." George said nodding at the two. The three adults took a seat in the living room as Jordan and Andrew walked through the hall. Eddie went running looking for Claire and Miles, pushing past the two.
"It's crazy out there, isn't it?" Andrew said.
"You're damn right it is." Jordan said with a chuckle.
. . .
Two houses down from the Bradford Residence, an old man had passed away. However, it wasn't recently. The old man had passed away in his sleep about three days ago and no one had noticed. Army officers never entered a house unless they got a call giving them information on someone passing. No one lived with the old man so no one can report so he was left there. Due to the epidemic spreading world wide, the old man's skin color had turned from sickly pale white to a decaying moldy green. His eyes shot open and they were a puss white color. He let out a sort of groan and rolled out of the bed and fell to the floor. There was a knock at his door and the now undead old man began to stand up and slowly hobble towards the noise.
The man's neighbor usually came over to deliver food. They opened the door with a spare key under the mat and looked around the old house.
"Mr. Wilson!" the young lady yelled out. She took a few more steps into the house and looked around the kitchen. She set down the tray she held in her hand full of leftovers from the other night and stood there a minute.
"I just came to drop off your food. I'll be going now." she said out loud. She walked out of the kitchen and back out to the hallway. She passed by an open door and saw the blankets thrown around a bedroom. She slowly creeped into the room and looked around.
"Mr. Wilson?" she asked. A loud, disgusting growl was heard from behind her. She quickly turned around only to be tackled to the ground by the undead old man. She struggled to keep him off of her but he was just too strong.
"What are you doing?!" she asked in a scared tone. The old man's dug his teeth into the lady's neck, ripping her skin right off as blood began to gush out of her neck. She began screaming and crying because of the pain.
. . .
Jordan and Andrew stared out the window as they watched army men run to one of the houses on their block. Andrew squinted his eyes as Jordan shook his head.
"What do you think happened?" Jordan asked.
"Maybe someone is sick." Andrew said.
"They never hurry like that one someone is sick. Someone must've died." Jordan tried to reason.
"If you say s-" Andrew almost finished saying as they heard multiple, heavy knocks on the front door. They gave each other a confused look and stood up from where they were. They peaked out into the living room with Claire, Eddie, and Miles running up behind them.
"Listen. We have to get you guys out of here. The area has been compromised." an officer said.
"What do you mean compromised?" Mrs. Douglas asked.
"We've just had something unexpected come up. Now please come with me." The army officer led the two families out of the house and quickly walked in the opposite direction. Jordan felt a tug on his shirt and looked down to see Miles pointing to the left. He looked up to see army men running into Mr. Wilson's house and gunfire could be heard.
"Come on. It's okay." Jordan said, pulling Miles along. Multiple people were running towards the house with guns in their arms and Andrew looked around confused by the whole commotion.
"What exactly is happening?" Andrew asked.
"Yeah, what the hell is going on?" Eddie asked, following up his brother.
"Please no questions. I'm working on getting you to the next safest place I can."
Jordan looked down a street to his left to see what looked like a person slowly standing up. They began to slowly walk towards the group, but they had a very noticeable limp.
"Hey! Shouldn't we help them out?" Jordan asked. The army officer looked and held up his gun. He began to release fire on the person and blood began to spurt out of the person's body as they were hit with bullets. They let out a low growl and continued to limp towards them as the officer began to panic.
"Shit, shit, shit." he said pulling out a knife. He stabbed the person in the neck once, only to have it growl louder. He pulled the knife out of the neck and stabbed it in the head, causing a dark liquid to come squirting out, and the person dropped to the ground.
"There's nowhere safe left. Come on quickly." he said running for the large military transport vehicle. He pulled down the ledge and motioned for the two families to get in. Jordan looked up to see people already loaded in the vehicle. He helped up Miles and Claire, then waited for his parents to get in. He let the Douglas' get in and finally he jumped in himself. he sat down on the edge seat and looked around at the people there with them. He recognized all of them. He felt a tug on his shirt and looked down at the army officer.
"Kid, I need you to remember one thing." he said as the engine started.
"Um okay…" Jordan said confused.
"Just stay al-" the army officer began to say before he was tackled to the ground by what looked like people with decaying skin. He heard the man scream as the military vehicle pulled away from the town.
In Memoriam:
Mr. Wilson
Young Lady
Army Officer
Sneak Preview:
The large vehicle continuously ran over any people who stood in the way of it. Jordan, Andrew, and the rest of the people in the back felt sick as they looked back to see runover humans, with guts and blood splattered all over the road.
"I'm going to be sick." Claire said. The truck began to slowly stop in the middle of the road with no explanation.
Co-written with DiligentWriter