A shreik of pain swept through the cold, dying night air as Johnny lay on the ground, gasping in pain. He didn't see it coming; the man just ran out of no where and bit him on the shoulder. He looked around him, seeing the dead body of his attacker who he flung into a brick wall beside him, a crack of what Johnny could only think was the man's neck. The attacker seemed strange, his skin was a pale grey colour, blood smeared over his sulken face. The man's clothes were torn with a bandolier of bullets around his torso, a holster with a pistol at his side. Not knowing what to do, Johnny crawled slowly to the nearest thing that he could use to push himself up. He found a barrel and puled with al his remaining strength, managing to pull himself up. Johnny stood, regaining his balance, the country road seeming more long and daunting even though he hads lived in this area all his life. He knew every twist and turn within a 10 mile radius but he still felt scared, a feeling that he never usually felt.

His wits in tatters, he looked around for a sign of help, in the distance he saw lights gleaming from what looked to be a tanker. Johnny pushed himself onto the road and started screaming, or what he thought was screaming. He couldn't hear what was coming out of his mouth. As the tanker got closer, it started to slow down, relief swept over Johnny like a wave. The tanker stopped, Johnny pulled himself over to its door and suddenly felt no feeling in his legs. The man in the tanker got out the other side and ran round to help Johnny. He was a middle aged man, with a brown beard and muscly arms.

"Are you alright?" the man said, his gruff voice was a shock, Johnny never having heard souch anaccent before.
"He…l…p me…." Was all the Johnny could muster to say.
"What happened" the man responded, clearly bemused by the strange scene.
"H……..e………l….." Johnny muttered, his consiousness slipped before he could finish the sentence.

The man got up, knowing that the man was gone; feeling his pulse to check didn't make him feel any better. He could hear muffled noises from around him, as though someone was lurking in the bushes beside the road. Knowing that somehting was there, he went to get back in his tanker before what ever had hurt this man got him. He went to get up, but before he was standing he was taclked. The tackler turned out to be a man, but not a normal man; this man had an animalistic look in his bright, lifeless eyes.

The tanker driver's view of the man was short lived; his consiousness was torn away from him like the man from the side of the road. His screams were swallowed by the shouts of other creatures in the bushes.

Johnny got up, or atleast his body did, he was no longer Johnny was an animal, his skin tinged with the same grey colour as his attacker, his brain felt light like a balloon. The people around him all looked the same, all standing around the tanker's lights, as though they were mesmerised by them. Johnny felt himself walking over towards the tanker, a rabid growl in his throat.

The morning news was never a delight for Tommy; it always bore stories of economic downturn and murder but today the top story caught his eye. For weeks there had been reports of missing people in the counryside and suburbs of New Jacksontown, America. These dissapearences were not connected in anyway but were all in the same town. These dissapearences seemed to spread like a disease to the surrounding towns, one being his of Berkinshaw. Over 20 people had gone missing all over town, but only today had there actually been any evidence of a link. A body, a tanker driver named Joeseph, also in the same area was the case of a missing countryman called Johnny Livenholm. The tanker driver's body was reported "as though somebody had bitten him" and "his skin was a dead grey colour". This meant that the town mayor had to take action, being the media hog that he is. The news then cut to a clip of him speaking about "how this was tragic and they would be avenged when the killers were caught". Tommy knew this was all just empty words, as long as Mayor Bismond has his power and money; he didn't care about the outside world.

Tommy was what you would call a man of many talents; he was smart, sporty and adventureous. He had diplomacy and could hold his own in a fight. He was tall, slim with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was sitting in his appartment overlooking the business district in Berkinshaw musing over his 18 year life and wondering if it had ever been this good. While he thought, he heard the T.V. talking about how the man was being examined for the casue of death.

The Berkinshaw Hospital was far from what would be considered a "fresh new look". The 60's style building was still standing, stained by time. For what it was worth, it did its job and never was questioned, until today. The staff were anxious, knowing tha they would have to inspect this new found body that seemed diseased in someway. The management was worse, thinking how this would slow up other treatments. Not once did they think of the dead body that was working its way up the 30 floor building to the top floor, Special Victims Unit & Postmortem. The Doctor that had to supervise this operation as Dr. James Finnigan, a man in his late 40's with semi grey hair and had his face stricken with sleek worry lines after years of performing make or break surgery. James sat in the operation room, waiting on the body to be sent in and the same feeling of nerves that plauged him every operation. The team of hazard disposal team rushed into theroom carrying the body, it was slightly disconseriting thst they are wearing protective suits. This made James feel as though he wasn't being told something. The Harards were very shifty aswell, not looking in his eyes and avoiding going too close to the body. This only stretched James suspicion.

"Excuse me, why are you in those suits" one of the doctors asked. Janice was her name and she was a trainee.
"Be____" was all that was audiable, as the peircing scream of Janice masked it.

The manhad been brought in, the man who was dead, lunged at Janice and bit her in the neck. Bolld gushed everywhere as she cringed in pain. James could not fathom how sore that must have been. The man then lunged for one of The Hazmats but then he stopped before he landed on him, staring at The Hazmat with his milky white eyes. The Hazmat was shocked, clearly relived as he was not dead but still dreading why he stopped attacking. James then saw it, he didn't expect it, nor would have ever want to expect it. Janice who had been until then bleeding on the floor had gotten up, eyes the same milky white colour as the man who had bitten her. Her expression was blank, faded and dull as though she was not aware of anything around her. That calmness faded, slowly she began to breath faster and harder and then with a sharp wail she lunged for another Doctor, biting him aswell.

James did not wait around to see what happened, in the confusionhe slipped out of the ward and ran for the lift. The room that he was just in was sound proof and had smoked glass for safety and welbeing purposes, the silhouettes of bodies tumbling to the ground, four shapes of what he assumed were The Hazmats. They went lopsided, like a puppet hung from a peg, his gut, swollen with fear, told him that they weregoing through the same transfomation as Janice.

James couldn't get that image out of his head, the pale, grey skin that seemed to illuminate in the light, the lopsided expression as though her brain had frozen and the milky eyes, which gave a deep impression that they were watching everyone in the room. He was thinking of this as the elevator door opened, he ran in and saw as the door was shutting, the door of the Examination Room burst open and the creatures sprawled out. He could see The Hazmats; they lunged at several people in the ward. James could see their faces through the protective helmets; they had the same eyes' skin colour and expression, an expression of blunt rage and agression.

The lift doors opend and Jmaes stumbled out, his heart pounding. He didn't know what to do, knowing that by now most of his work mates would be one of them by now. He ran out of the hospital front doors and made his way up the street, ignoring the calls from the receptionist,a silence then a shriek of pain then a growl. James knew that the city was doomed so he made his way back to his home to gather up his family. They were the only people he was concerned with.

Tommy awoke from his nap, wondering how he dozed off, his train of thought crashed suddenly when he heard screams coming from outside. He went over to look at his window and didn't belive what his eyes were seeing. People, both men and women, sprawling from the town's Hospital, sprinting along the streets and tackling others around them. Tommy could see pools of blood start to appear on the ground, as though they were biting the passers by. Tommy was sick in his mouth; repulsive images were appearing before him in his seemingly peaceful hometown, he didn't know what to do, he decided to stay in his house, maybe whatever it was wouldn't notice him. Then he spotted the irony in his statement. Groups of four of those things had seen him and were striding over to his appartment front door; he could just see the door opening and a high pitched scream that attracted two or three of the things. He thought it must have been Mrs Pilchard, the land lady. A tear fell from his eye, landing on the floor ontop of an old newspaper, he liked Mrs P, she was always very kind to him, cleaning his room every two days and she treated him like a son. Anger replaced the sadness; he wouldn't let that get the better of him. Tommy went over to his door and barricaded it with what he could find, drawers, a wardrobe and two chairs. He grabbed the only weapon that he had in his house, a fire poker and waited at the door in the middle of his room.

Muffled cries echoed around the appartment block, all the Tommy knew is that if he was next, then he might aswell go down fighting. He waited, not knowing when those things would come, only still standing by the shear fact that there was a slim hope that he could survive. After ten long minutes that seemed like hours, a sound like a fist hit his door, then aother, then another, then another. Tommy thought that whoever had been killed before hand must have not put up a very good fight as they seemed to be more than fifteen outseide his door. The drawers shook and tilted, taking the chairs over with it, leaving only the wardrobe to to hold the door. Tommy clenched the poker and waited, cracks starting to appear in the wardrobe. The wardrobe gave way and the door snapped as the creatures poured in.

James was half way down his streat when he got an emergantcy call on his pager, requesting all hospital employees to leave the hospital and get out. James blessed that, Joe; the cleaner must have sent it out to warn everybody. Then reality hit him, there was no way to escape, whatever those things were they were tearing up the city behind him and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He reached his appartment, it was on the otherside f the bolock as the hospital, backing on to the ones facing it and connected to them. James prayed that heis family were alright. He fumbled with the lock until he noticed it had been forced, this brought a pain to intense that James' eyes watered. He cautiously opened the door a peered in, instantly wishing he hadn't. The room was destroyed; blood covered the white walls, furniture ley broken in heaps and most to his disgust, his wife, Melinda, was strewen in a corner, bite marks in her neck. He knew what had happened and he didn't want to stay and see it happen again to the women he loved. James, regret streaming from his heavy heart, went to the dresser that was lying in a wreck in the kitchen, took out his hunting knife and walked back over to his wifes dead body.

"I am so sorry Melinda," he said, crying. "but you always said of you were in suck a bad state then I had to do what hurt the most"

James closed his eyes and stabbed the body in the chest, then to make sure the head, knowing that a blow to the brain would kill any creature. He stood back and sighed, still crying and turned away to search the appartment block. He was about to go down the stairs when he heard crashing noises and somebody screaming, not like one of those things, but a normal healthy human, instanly, almost impulsively, he ran up the stairs to the source of the noise.

Tommy screamed and stabbed the first person in the room, eh yelped as he opened his eyes to see his victim. He was a human certanly, but his skin was a pale, sluggish grey colour with little to no life lift in him, his eyes were milky white, gazing blankly now that he had been stabbed, one more swung at Tommy, he ducked and stabbed it by chance through the head, blood poured over the him as he yanked the poker out and just managed to avoid the third as it lunged aimlessly towards him. Tommy stabbed the third then the fourth attacer who has clumsyly copied the previous one and fallen to the same fate. Two more came rushing at him, he slipped in the blood and they toppled over him, landing straight through his window over looking the carnage in the street, Tommy heard a dull crack which he knew instanly meant of them were streaming in the room and Tommy was finding it hard to keep up. Eventually he fell over; gasping for breath as the creatures came hurdling towards him. He thought it was over, then he heard a mans voice and crying of the things falling over to their death. The man joggeed over to Tommy and spoke to him as though he was genuinely worried for a total stranger.

"Are you allright he said?"

James rushed up the stairs and ducked behind a wall, the floor was awash with blood and he knew from the unlucky ones who had lived here. The first room to the right he saw had people running into it, on closer inspection he saw that they were those things from the hospital, James knew that he had to see what was happening, somebody could still be alive. He stood up and charged into the crowd, swinging his knife.

James swung his knife for the first one, slashing its head wide open, the second and third followed with the same death. Only three more remained and they were about to swarm the room, he took three giant slashes that made the last ones keel over and die with a grunt and a thud as they hit the floor. James scanned the room; the first thing he noticed was a man on the floor. Worried that the man may have been hurt or bitten, he ran over and spoke with an aurua of worry.

"Are you ok?" he said.
"Who are you?" The man asked.
"I'm James, what's your name?" James asked
"Tommy, and yes im fine." Tommy replied.
"Were … y… y…you bitten?" James stuttered.
"No, this isn'y my blood" Tommy replied, checking himself to make sure.

James pulled Tommy up, both of them visibly shaken by what happened.

"We have to get out of here, were gonna die if we don't" Tommy moaned
"Yes, but first we have to find a way out." James replied.

Both of the men sat and thought, both thinking of a solution to this problem. That task was one that not both of them, maybe even nobody in the world, could complete. After a long pause, Tommy spoke, choosing his words carefully.

"No…. we should wait, look around town for survivors and find supplies and weapons" he said slowly.
"That sounds like……" James thought for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea. "……..a good idea" he said finaly.
"Well then we should go now, whatever it is that's happened, most of hit the city must have been hit by now" Tommy stated.
"Right, well we'll gather food here and then set off, id bring that," James said, pointing to the iron poker that Tommy was about to throw away."You're going to need it"

James and Tommy set off, they started by looking around the appartment block that they were in. Most of the rooms were deserted or had nothing in them, only the corpses of the victims of whatever those things were. Eventually, they came across Mrs. Pilchard's store cupboard and found, right at the back, one M1911 Pistol and a Winchester Shotgun, Hung up behind some boxes. Mrs. Pilchard always told stories of before her husband died, they would go out hunting. She kept the weapons as a reminder of happoer times.

"Mrs. P always was prepared for anything………." Tommy said, half talking and half thinking.

They started to leave their normal lifes and get pushed into a different world, a darker one with no rules. They had to find out what caused this. How long it would take them, they didn't even know.