Chapter 1

The Perception of Reality

"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves." - Viktor E. Frankl

She awoke to the sound of explosions, the surface she laid on shaking and trembling from the impact. She jolted upright into a haphazard sitting position, thoroughly disorientated and bewildered.

Blinking a few times she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark since apparently it was now night time and she had no fucking idea where she was.

She was considerably startled when she realized she could see a long line of cars and she's not talking a basic car jam, no, this was miles and miles long. To the side there was a view of a major city with smoke billowing into enormous mushroom clouds.

With that image burned into her brain she grasped that someone had just bombed a highly populated city. Her next thoughts led to terrorists but when she glanced up she recognized the helicopters as American grade.

Boeing AH-64 Apache.

They were the backbone of the militaries attack helicopters, carrying a variety of missiles and rocket pods. Why would the military have attack helicopters in the air if there was a terrorist attack on the ground and could lead to potential citizen casualties?

That's just it, there wouldn't be.

There wouldn't be since there were no other helicopters in the air that could be identified as the enemy, that left one possibility.

The military had just bombed their own people.

She felt her stomach drop and her breathing started coming in pants, a shiver passed through her as she took everything in. She couldn't comprehend much more than a strong sense of betrayal that stung.

The people meant to protect us had just attacked us.

That's when the screaming started.

She snapped out of her daze and realized that she was surrounded by hundreds of horrified people. Most of them still had their eyes glued to the rising smoke while covering their mouths with their hands, disbelief littering their faces along with some tears.

Then it was like someone had just snapped their fingers and suddenly everyone was running, shrieking, and shouting. Mostly for their loved ones and the safety of their cars but a select few grabbed bags shoving items into them without care and took off into the trees surrounding the highway.

Well, thats one way to do it.

She attempted to stumble to her feet only to stagger onto all fours, she frowned in confusion. She hadn't thought she hadn't been that affected by the scene in front of her but her body didn't seem to want to listen. She tried again only to realize she felt an enormous pressure on her back and her balance was absolute shit.

Where the hell was she anyways?

How the fuck did she get here?

She was tempted to ponder these questions further but with the way people were rushing and screaming it was hard not to get caught up in their panic too. Anxiety gripped her chest as she reached out her hand to the car beside her for support.

Only what she pressed against the car door wasn't a hand.

It was a paw.

She stared at it for approximately seven seconds in absolute befuddlement and confoundment.

What the fuck?

She flexed her fingers and watched in morbid fascination as the paw flexed too. In precise attunement with how she had attempted to move her fingers.

Horror and fear hit her deep in the gut.

What the fuck was going on?

Someone let out an ear piercing screech right next to her, making her flinch horribly and glanced over only to see that the women wasn't even near her. The woman was hunched over about fifty feet away from her on the pavement even though she swore the woman had been standing right next to her when she screamed.

Something that she can only classify as a zombie was tearing into the female's neck. It wasn't like those horrible makeup effects you usually see in movies. No, this looked fucking real. She could see a grey film covering it's sunken in eyes, pus oozing here and there, jaws gaping and clenching over torn bloody flesh.

It's skin sagging and discolored from decomposition, it's hands more like claws as it ripped into her shoulder mercilessly. Blood drenched it's face and mostly covered it's chin, dripping and spreading onto it's shirt that looked absolutely filthy.

The worse part was the smell coming off of it like a heatwave. It smelled like death, shit, vomit, and piss all mixed together into a perfect puke inducing concoction. Intertwining with it was a sharp acrid scent that subconsciously she recognized as fear, it was so strong that she could taste it on the back of her tongue.

Her stomach flip flopped and she was pretty sure she looked green quickly fading into a pasty white as she clenched her jaw shut.

Blood poured from the woman's wound as she fought for freedom, but the thing just bit even further into her shoulder and pulled, muscles and ligaments tore away from her body in strings of blood and gore.

This time she felt the bile rise into her throat as she tried to gain control over her gag reflex before anything escaped from her mouth. She started trembling and she was pretty sure she was in shock. She could only stare as the woman eventually fell to the ground losing the will to fight. The thing payed no mind to her movements as it continued to consume her ghoulishly.

Her face the perfect picture of agony and pure unadulterated terror. Eyes glazed and unseeing as the woman reached towards her, perhaps in an attempt to seek help but she was frozen to her spot on the cold asphalt. She could only watch as her hand eventually fell limp onto the ground only twitching every once in awhile when the thing tore into her, blood gushing into a puddle underneath her body.

Her eyes no longer glazed with horror but sightless as she stared into the abyss we call sky. Her breath that had once been deep adrenalized pants had ceased completely.

Her scent of fear that had permeated the air so thickly she could have swallowed it faded into the scent of death and stillness.

The woman was gone.

She didn't know how long she just sat there watching the thing eat her but all that kept replaying over and over in her head was the woman's hand stretching out to her. Everything faded around her, the screams, the sounds, the gunfire, and all she could see was the woman's hand and a faded blur of her face.

The pain and terror she must have felt…

Dread was heavy in her gut but at the same time relieved that the woman's agony was over.

Or at least she was until she saw the hand twitch particularly hard before her fingers started clawing at the asphalt.

The world snapped back into painful focus when she was struck with a slight horror at the thought of the woman still being alive when just moments ago she was certain she was dead.

The woman's mouth opened wide before snapping shut, she repeated this action a couple more times before a low growl emitted from her throat.

Hot and cold flashed through her body when she realized that the women had become the same thing as what was still eating her.

Dear god, this is a fucking zombie apocalypse.


Well, I know that I haven't posted in forever, and the works I'm supposed to be adding onto have given me horrible writers block and then I decided to rewatch the walking dead and this shit popped into my head. I'm planning to update every Monday. Hope you enjoy~