Watch It Burn

A Walking Dead Fanfic

For Shan'ika, from your Preshi

Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum

Chapter 1

Watch It Burn

My name is Keith. Before the end of the world, I worked as a registered nurse for NIH. I spent my workdays healing the sick in a medical-surgical unit. Whether through luck or destiny, that job saved my life.

You know the whole "seemingly ordinary day" cliché? That's bullcrap. If something really big is going to go down, something truly catastrophic, you'll know it. Everyone will know it. People in the city, people in the country, everyone. Animals, too. The birds and the deer, dogs and cats, the fish in the river, they know it too. You can feel the intensity in the air, not to mention hear all the people losing their minds. Most of the time, it doesn't even reach the people who freak out the most. Most of the time.

You can usually see the ledge; it's just a question of whether you can stop in time. When I came home that day, the day where we finally reached that ledge, everyone knew something was up. They hadn't quite reached the breaking point, but it was coming up fast.

I came home that day, took off my scrubs and changed into a t-shirt and jeans. I opened up my computer to check my e-mail. I was humming along to "Frozen Sleep" by Malukah when I saw the message from my employer marked urgent.

To: All NIH employees

From: Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.

Subject: Urgent information: potential epidemic

Biomedical professionals at the Centers for Disease Control recently identified a new disease. Very little is known about this disease; the area where it was first observed has since gone silent due to unknown circumstances. However, it has been ascertained that:

The disease is most likely spread through bodily fluid, especially blood, saliva and any form of discharge. Despite the limited methods of transmission, the disease also appears to be highly contagious.

The initial symptoms vary, but usually include extreme fever and an altered state of consciousness. These symptoms invariably result in death, although the amount of time between the point where symptoms first appear and the point where the individual dies varies greatly.

After the death of the individual, brain activity somehow starts up again. The individual somehow becomes re-animated, and exhibits very few higher cognitive abilities. The re-animated individual also displays severe aggression and cannibalistic tendencies.

No treatment has been found that is effective against the disease.

Due to the incredibly dire nature of the situation, all NIH staff are asked to move towards a large population center for protection, preferably one with a NIH campus or facility. They are also asked to be cautious around anyone exhibiting symptoms matching those of the disease. Please visit the NIH website for more information, including instructions about what to do if you suspect you have been infected with this disease.

I stared at the e-mail for about half an hour before I could collect my thoughts enough to know what I was going to do next. It was so confusing and horrifying and it made me want to scream. So many thoughts were pushing against each other, trying to get my attention, and nothing was able to pass through the bottleneck until I was finally able to calm down and focus. When I was finally able, though, it was clear to me what I would do.

I got out my phone and started writing a text as fast as I could. I sent one to all my contacts in the area:

S about to HTF; gather everything and everyone you value. Get somewhere safe. I will be leaving the city near the where 270 crosses the Monocacy.

Then I texted Pablo, my friend from Montgomery County:

We need to leave; gather a group, meet me at the weigh station between here and there. Stay safe.

Next I texted my friends from out of state:

Something bad is coming. Stay away from population centers. Forming a group; will try to text my location if we settle down and I can find a method; conserve the battery on your phones.

Finally, I texted Sharon:

Coming over. Be ready for hiking several days, also possibly bring something that can do some damage. Will explain soon. I love you.

It disturbed me how well prepared I was for this. Yet what young boy doesn't think about what they would do in the zombie apocalypse? Maybe my friends and I were weird, but we did it all the time. We had read all the stories, seen all the movies, and played all the games. We knew how it went down. It scared me, but I knew what I was doing.

I grabbed the shard of flint my Grandpa had given me off my desk. Then I went over to the wall by my bed and took down the picture of Sharon I kept there. I put them both in a backpack, and then went downstairs to fill it with granola bars and water bottles and zipped it up.

From there I went to the garage. I needed a weapon. Up on the wall above the lawnmower, I had a large branch-clipper. I had only really used it once or twice. I wasn't much of a "manicure all the hedges" guy, but every once in a while there were things I just couldn't ignore. So it was still in very good shape.

I pulled it down off the wall and brought it inside. Then I got a screwdriver and started taking off one of the blades. After about ten minutes or so, only one of the blades was left on the pole, forming a makeshift spear. I wrapped the base of the other blade in duct tape, forming a sort of sidearm. I put the newly formed knife in my backpack and carried the spear out with me. I was just about ready to go when I peered across the street.

The Ciao family wasn't home.

I could barely believe what I was doing. My younger self would never have done something like this. I had changed so much over the years; it was almost like I had become a completely different person.

I walked between the trees that hid the entrance to the dirt pathway that led behind the Ciao residence. I looked around to make sure no one was watching. I jumped up, missing once or twice, but I eventually caught the top of the fence blocking me off from their house. Struggling a bit, I pulled myself up and over.

Once I was in their back yard, it got a lot easier. I took the stairs up to the patio and took a deep breath. I knew I had to work quickly, or else I was screwed. I wouldn't have been doing this at all if I hadn't known that the Ciaos might not be around to care anymore.

After I had collected myself, I picked up my spear and hit the butt against the glass door. It cracked a bit; after a few more whacks, I was able to make a hole large enough to get into the house.

I had chosen to loot this house for one reason and one reason only; I knew that Mr. Ciao was an avid gun collector. Right next to the door was a scoped rifle and some ammunition. Even though I felt bad for breaking in, I immediately knew this was going to pay off well.

Searching through the rest of the house, I found three shotguns, two more rifles, and more ammunition for each. I also found a short bow in the basement, along with a quiver of twelve arrows. I slung the bow over my shoulder, along with the quiver. Then I strapped the guns together with some rope I found, then wrapped it all in a towel and attached it to the backpack.

Despite the dire circumstances, I couldn't help but grin as I remembered a joke from a book I read: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". According to the fictional guide, the single most important piece of equipment for a traveler to have is a towel. I hoped that was true; if a towel could help me survive the coming storm, I would go loot "Bed, Bath and Beyond" in a second.

It was amazing I had gotten this far. I was working fast, but my hands were shaking. Heart pounding in my chest, I went back out the way I had come. I thought I heard sirens, but then in this area, especially at a time like this, they could have been going anywhere. I made my way back over the fence, being careful not to damage any of my supplies. Once I was back on the ground, I used a different part of the path to get back to my house. Once I had, I got into my car. I had one more errand to run, and then I would leave the city behind. Hopefully before it was in ruins.

It took me about fifteen minutes to get to Sharon's house. Those minutes felt like so much longer; normally it would be because I was so excited to see her. I wish that had been the case here.

She was waiting for me in the driveway. She was wearing hiking boots, jeans and a sweater. There was a can of Mountain Dew in her hand, and the other held a small black backpack. I stopped the car to let her in.

"Whatcha got?" I peered into the bag as she unzipped it to reveal an axe and a few more cans of soda.

"Really? That's all you're gonna bring?" I looked over at her skeptically, although it was really hard to be mad because of her cherubic face.

"Well you didn't give me much of a heads-up! It was my first instinct; it was all I had time to get!" She acted all pouty, but I could tell I hadn't actually offended her. "So what the hell is this all about? Are we going camping or something?"

I sobered up quickly. "Not quite. Something's going wrong. I got an e-mail from work saying that there may be some kind of epidemic. This is going to sound crazy, but… it sounds like zombies."

She laughed nervously. "Right, great joke… Seriously, what's going on?"

I sighed. "Look, that's what it sounded like. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe they're wrong, whatever. But cities are already falling; you can check the news. People are on edge. Whether or not it really is zombies, there definitely is some disease that has the potential to kill us if we stick around large groups of people. Bodily fluids spread it, so if we keep away from other people, we should be safe. Does that make more sense?"

She was silent for a second. "Yeah… yeah, I guess so. Less people always sounds good to me." She shot me a smile. It helped a bit. "So where to anyway? Are we gonna go hike on Sugarloaf Mountain, or…"

"Actually, it's not as much of a hike as a… journey on foot, for lack of a better term. Remember how I mentioned less people? We're gonna ditch the car out by the Monocacy, meet up with a few friends, and then get moving on foot. There are lots of people on the highway, not to mention traffic that will slow us down."

"Yeah, but won't your 'friends' count as people? What it one of them is sick? Won't they just slow us down?" I could hear the concern in her voice.

"Well, I can't just leave them to die. Besides, it'll only be a few, even if everyone comes." I could tell she was getting a bit scared now. I reached over and held out my hand. "Hey. Sharon. It'll be ok. Don't worry. I would give my life to protect you."

She sat for a second, almost like she was holding her breath, and then sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of."

At this point, we could tell 270 was going to essentially be one long traffic jam. The majority of the cars weren't moving at all. I could feel the fear, a thick, unstable energy in the air. It was like someone was drowning the world in amphetamines. Everyone had one thing on their mind: getting as far away as possible. Thankfully, we didn't have very far to go. By the time we had to bring the car to a full stop, we were almost to the river. Instead of staying in line, we pulled over and got out to hoof it the rest of the way to the rendezvous point.

As we got out of the car, I reached into the glove compartment to grab several roadmaps, as well as some maps I had printed out from Google that showed directions to some of the places I had visited around recently. I also opened up the trunk and got my medical kit I kept for emergencies. I checked inside it before putting it in my backpack. I still had a pretty good supply of antiseptic wipes, bandages, gauze, antibiotics and ointments, as well as some medical scissors, a pair of tweezers, and some spare cloth for making slings. Once I had zipped up my backpack, we started walking.

When we finally got there, I was glad to see that both my brother Miguel and my friend Maxwell were there. Miguel's friend Rachel was also there. I sped up a bit, trying to get to them quickly so we could start moving away from the city. As I approached I called out to them. "Have either of you seen Julia?"

They turned to look at me, Maxwell shaking his head. "Sorry, she hasn't shown up. I just got here and found Miguel, and we haven't really seen anyone else since." I nodded slowly, trying to process everything.

"Well she's the only one missing… I guess we'll just have to hope she's ok. Let's get moving." I started walking, but Miguel stopped me.

"Dude, what's going on? Why did you send that text? Where are we going?" I could see he was confused. Despite being the younger brother, he had often been more confident than I was. I put my hand on his shoulder, tried my best to reassure him.

"I barely know either. I just got an e-mail from work, and I think that the city isn't the best place to be right now. So we're going on a, I don't know, a hike. Come on, it'll be an adventure, like the ones we used to read about, or in the stories mom told us." I smiled at him, but I could tell it wasn't doing much to help. I just turned around and started walking, motioning for the others to follow.

I could hear Miguel trying to get my attention. "That doesn't make any sense! Just come back here and tell us what's happening!" I just kept walking.

"Trust me, guys!" Under my breath, I added, "And pray that you don't see what I'm running from."

We tried our best to keep away from other people while still having access to enough landmarks to tell where we were going. That meant keeping the highway in sight, but staying pretty well away from it. It was still hard with all the smaller roads coming off of it, but we managed to keep away from other groups for the most part. That is, until I almost got shot in the face.

We were walking through the forest when I walked around a tree and saw the business end of a pistol in front of my face. I probably would have died a second later if I hadn't called out the name of the person holding it. "Julia, it's me! Don't shoot!"

She hesitated, and then lowered the gun. As she did, I saw recognition spread across her face. "Keith?" She said in her heavy Belgian accent. "Oh god, I almost shot you… I'm so sorry; I'm just so on edge! It's so good to see you!"

I nodded. "It's good to see you too; when I got to the rendezvous point and you weren't there, I feared the worst…" I noticed the people standing behind her. There was an African American woman and a Hispanic man, as well as a small Pitbull Terrier who seemed to be following them. "Introductions?"

She nodded and turned halfway towards her group. "This is my sister Bella, my friend Kevin, and his dog, Po." She said, pointing out each member of the group. Bella and Kevin waved, and Po barked at us.

"You brought a dog?" I said incredulously. "Doesn't that seem like a bit of a risky choice, given the situation?"

"Hey! He's a good dog, and we couldn't just leave him behind!" She looked towards my group. "What about you guys?"

"Oh yeah… you remember Maxwell from anime club… and this is my brother Miguel, his friend Rachel, and Sharon." The members of our two groups greeted each other. I turned back to Julia. "We were going to meet up with another group from Montgomery County. You guys wanna come? We'll probably do much better if we can pool our resources."

She nodded. "Of course. The more the better, right? I brought lots of toilet paper!"

I paused for a second. "Toilet paper? Seriously?"

She gave me a very serious look. "Hey, we all use it! What are we supposed to do if we run out?"

We kept walking, making our way through the forest and farmland. It was fairly easy to keep the road in sight without being seen ourselves. Most of the people on the highway were only focused on where they were going. In general, when people focus, it becomes very easy for them to miss things right in front of them.

Sharon, Maxwell and I took the lead, with Kevin, Bella and Julia in the back and Miguel, Rachel and Po in the middle. We were able to cover a surprising amount of ground, and soon the city was several miles behind us.

As we got closer to Montgomery County, the terrain become much more rough. We ended up climbing a lot of hills, but despite this we were still moving pretty quickly. I ended up using my makeshift spear as a walking stick to help me move along, and some of the others picked up fallen branches for the same purpose.

As we reached the top of one of these hills, we stopped to take a breather. Suddenly, came over and tapped my shoulder. "Keith… what's happening?" I was confused for a second, but then she pointed to the highway and I saw what she meant. The glow of the highway cast a warm light across her horrified face.

The highway looked like it was burning. It was hard to tell exactly what was happening from where we were, but it seemed like there were fires all along the road. We could just make out the people who had abandoned their cars, running about. I wasn't sure, but I thought I could make out screams carried on the wind.

Sharon tried to catch her breath. "Keith… what's going on? Why is this happening?"

I looked over at her. I tried my best to look calm, but it was almost impossible under the circumstances. I probably looked like I was trying to swallow a brick. "I don't know. I don't know what's going on. But I know I'm going to do everything in my power to keep us safe, ok?" She nodded. I tried my best to smile, and then I tightened my grip on the spear in my hands. "Come on. We have a lot of ground to cover."

Night had fallen by the time we got to the weigh station. The stars were obscured by a layer of clouds and, in many places, smoke. The darkness made it even easier to use the trees for cover as we slowly moved closer to the road.

Maxwell spotted an abandoned truck that we were able to fit behind while we waited for the other group. There were people running all over the place on the road, but thankfully few of them decided to move towards the trucks. There were wrecked cars everywhere, and most of the ones that weren't broken down had been abandoned. People were rushing in between the cars like water flowing between rocks. Most of them were just running away, groups or individuals trying their best to keep it together and survive. There were a few clusters, almost clots, of people who weren't running. Some people were taking advantage of the chaos, trying to steal things from the cars or the people between the cars. Most of them were shouting, to each other, at each other, at other groups, to no one in particular.

After about ten minutes, Sharon tapped my shoulder. "Keith, we need to leave soon. The others are getting restless, and I really don't blame them. If we wait around much longer then we're practically asking to be spotted. Let's just leave while we can." I could see the desperation in her eyes; she was practically pleading with me.

I tore myself away from her beautiful green eyes to look out at the hellish red flames before me. I couldn't leave Pablo behind in that. But I couldn't let us become trapped in it either. Finally, I nodded. "Fine. In about five minutes we'll-" I stopped as I saw Pablo running towards us, along with a thin girl of about the same age. Seeing this, I spoke up a bit. "Never mind, I see him. Be ready to leave in about half a minute."

I moved to the edge of the group and urged Pablo to join the rest of the group. Once he was fairly close I risked calling out to him softly. "Who's your friend?" They both seemed fairly well prepared; he had a sub-machine gun in his hands and a shotgun strapped to his backpack, which looked to be pretty full from what I could see. The woman had a machete in hand and a shotgun on her backpack as well.

"Oh yeah, you haven't met her yet! This is my girlfriend, Maria." It looked like everyone was about ready to get moving.

"Yeah, I would start official introductions, but we were just about to make a run for it. That highway is looking pretty nasty, yeah?" I motioned to the still-burning road and adjusted my backpack a bit.

He nodded. "True. Where are we going?"

I started away from our place behind the truck, making sure that everyone was sticking together as we moved into the woods. "At the moment? Away from here. We'll figure out specifics later."

We kept going for about a mile before it seemed safe to stop. We only had to cross one road; beyond that, it was mostly farmland and forest. We decided to set up camp at the first suitable spot we came to; unfortunately we didn't have much of a camp to set up.

"So let me get this straight. Not a single one of you thought to bring a sleeping bag or a tent?!" Sharon was irate, speaking louder than was probably safe given the circumstances.

"Look, you didn't have the sense to bring one either!" Miguel shot back. "It's your fault as much as ours." He took off his backpack and walked off a short way. "I don't know about you guys, but I can just use my backpack as a pillow. See you all in the morning."

I sighed and tried to help bring some semblance of order to the group. "Normally I'd just say that's Miguel being Miguel, but really it's probably the most any of us can do. I say everyone should try and get some sleep so that we can keep going tomorrow. I'll take first watch, and I'll wake up someone in a few hours for the next one. Agreed?"

Most of them nodded, although Pablo spoke up. "I'll stay with you. If you fall asleep out there, we're all screwed." I nodded, and everyone else started settling down. As they did, we moved to the edges of the group and got in place for sentry duty.

After about ten minutes, I was bored out of my skull. ADHD and staring into the same dark, boring stretch of forest do not mix well. I moved over so I could talk to Pablo.

"I feel so much sympathy for every guard I've ever killed in a video game. Ever. This is so. Damn. Boring."

Pablo grinned and shook his head. "Seriously?"

"Pretty much. It takes attention I don't have, man." I settled down a bit and sighed. We sat there for a moment, staring out into the dark. I thought I could see smoke at some points, or perhaps the flicker of flames on the horizon, but I couldn't be sure.

Eventually Pablo spoke up. "It's weird how even with all this going on, we still hang on to video games and stuff like that."

I nodded. "Yeah, it is… the media has become so important in our daily lives. And zombies have become a big part of the media. Remember all those jokes about preparing for when the zombies come? All those times we talked about what we would do when it happened, just for fun? 'Hypothetically'?" I paused for a bit. "It kind of feels like… do you think we brought this on with obsession? We think about zombies so much… do you think that has something to do with all this?"

Pablo turned to look at me directly. "Dude. You're insane." He laughed a bit as I grumbled at him. "I don't think that has anything to do with this. Most likely, it was just some stupid mistake. Just knowing about zombies doesn't make them exist."

I nodded some more. "I know, I know." Another pause. "It seems like in all the movies and stuff that have zombies, nobody has ever heard of one. We seem to know a lot about them… at least this way we know we're not in some nerd's TV show or a book or something." We both laughed for a bit at that one. We talked for a bit more, passing the time. Nothing came for us. Yet I was still a little bit afraid of the dark, especially now that I knew there really was something out there to get me. Eventually we decided that our watch had ended, and we woke up Julia and Bella for the next shift. Once they were in place, I went over to lie down next to Sharon. Despite the fear taking root inside me and the discomfort from the dirt I was lying on, I felt safe with her, and I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in the space of a few minutes.