Renoa: By the way, Wymondham is pronounced Windom. Also I'm so happy to say that this is my first chapter of my new story. I hope you guys like it... Oh and thank you to my beta reader: GodPen... Much appreciated :) ...
Walking down the empty back road, everything seemed the way it should. An old concrete road, lined by tonnes upon tonnes of trees and bushes, with the odd, misplaced house. The only thing missing was the sound that you would normally hear, especially in the countryside. The cars smashing speed limits above me on the bridge, which was part of the duel carriage way. But everything was deadly silent, not natural at all. If this were a normal Thursday evening, I'd think it would sound pretty reasonable to say that it should be quiet. With the majority of the general public inside the huge nightclubs, thanking the Lord for their every pint. It's student night after all and drinks are cheap. But this was no ordinary Thursday evening.
I looked around, making sure I was alone. 'Check.' I couldn't help but mentally tick things off of my list in my head. I sat down silently, my back against the wall, underneath the bridge. I slung the black rifle off of my back and pulled my knees up to my chest. 'This should be a good place to rest.' I thought, 'after all, can't get much better in this day and age.'
I'm on a mission of my own accord, to find somewhere that isn't infected, or to find survivors like myself. It's not going to be easy, although escaping was. Come to think of it, the government could have stopped this before it spread into the United kingdom. There was plenty of warning, but no, now we have to save our own sorry selves.
I guess its safe to say that we all need a plan, the survivors that is, and we need to try and find out what's caused this.
No one expected anything like this to happen, especially with the world's advancement in medical sciences and technology. But I guess everyone makes mistakes, right?
The panic all started, on that fateful Thursday afternoon.
*Flashback*
I walked through the short, second floor corridor of the college. Everything was buzzing with a positive energy, like normal. People passed me in the corridors, flashing toothy grins at me. I'm a friendly person, bit of a gaming freak, but oh well. Life goes on. I stopped in the corridor and turned to face the door on the right. 'I made it, and with a minute to spare.' I thought, whilst I walked to the door and opened it with ease. I walked inside and the atmosphere hit me. It was an overwhelming atmosphere, everyone was shouting at one another. I couldn't make much of it out, apart from a few words.
"Game." One person shouted. "Guns." Said another. "Graphics." Yelled another.
I liked all three of those terms. Well, a game isn't a game without the word game, especially role playing games. Guns and weapons make the games more interesting, and the graphics makes them worthwhile. Well, you do need to be able to see the game properly, right? Anyway going off subject here, better get back on track.
I walked over to my partner for this subject. I've known him since, just before college started. He's eighteen, same age as me, after all, we were born in the same year. Haha. I pulled the seat out and sat down slowly. I have a headache, I'm used to quiet classes, not noisy ones. I looked at my partner, to see him reading. 'Unusual.' I thought, blinking a few times to make sure I was awake. 'He never reads, especially at college.'
"You know that's cheating right?" I aimed the question directly at my partner. I couldn't even remember his name; after all, the only names I can remember are in stories, programmes and games. But his hair, a beautiful blonde colour with spikes. His face was perfect and dreamy. Ok. Ok. Stop fantasizing, and get on with it.
He looked at me with a cute, pretty-boy smile. "What did you say?" He shouted over the noise, raising his eyebrow when I didn't answer.
I slammed my bag on the table, grabbed my notebook and pen, and scribbled ´You know that's cheating right?´ I finished the question and slid it over to him. He read it, and nodded in my direction. This really annoyed me. What's the point of playing a game, if you're going to read a walkthrough for it first? I ripped the page out and shoved it in my bag.
"Come on, silence, please?" The teacher nervously asked. Everyone kept shouting about what happened the night before, football and just their general lives. I looked up from face planting the desk. The teacher gave me a pleading look; she knew I was scary at times. She proceeded to nod at me. 'Hah, she's given me permission to shout.' I thought, whilst looking at the other students. This was protocol, if the teacher couldn't shut them up, then she would let me do the honours.
"SHUT. THE. HELL. UP!" I bellowed across the room filled with about twenty students. Instantly the room went silent and everyone looked in my direction. I raised my eyebrow, everyone looked away and quickly scuttled to their seats. I smiled at the teacher, willing her to start our fourth period, Mathematics.
She walked over to the giant interactive white board and started to introduce a video to us.
I zoned out and started to write notes to my partner.
Me: Hey, what's your name again? :/ Sorry. 3
Partner: Haha, you make me laugh. Sting, you think you can remember this time?
Me: Uhh. Haha. Yea, I guess. So I didn't hear, what's this video about?
Sting: Mathematics in the working industry. It's on TV, not a video. LOL. Videos are outdated.
me: Ohh. ok. Thanks. Hey, wanna go out sometime?
I passed the piece of paper over to Sting, who read it and started writing back.
Suddenly, the TV made a loud static noise as it re-tuned into something new. It made everyone in the class jump to attention. Everyone stared in silence, including Sting. As the screen flashed multi-coloured, displaying a message. The message read: An emergency broadcast, from the Department of Health.
'Oh, goody, more of this Mad Cow Disease? or Swine Flu?' I thought, at the same time the multi-coloured screen transformed into a single male, who looked like a news presenter.
"Hello Great Britain. My name is Bene, and I work with the Department of Health. A disaster has broken out in central France. We advise people to be aware and take precautions. We are working towards finding the cause of the disaster and then, in time, finding a cure. Here is our correspondent over in Paris. Over to you, Sally." The presenter said with a calm voice as the camera switched over to his correspondent.
'What the hell is going on? What disaster?' I thought as the female began talking on the screen.
"As you see this has spread across the entire country. The cause is unknown." She went silent as the camera panned the scene behind her. 'Carnage.' I thought. The screen was showing us the moving corpses of people. Their eyes rolling into the back of their heads, mouths open, blood dripping everywhere, decomposing flesh falling from their bodies and they were walking on what seemed like broken ankles. A sudden wave of nausea washed over me.
"ARRGGGHHHHH!" A scream. The camera quickly turned back to the female. Everyone in the class stared at it in horror. A corpse had dragged itself over to the woman presenter and mauled the top of her right arm. The presenter dropped to the ground. "GET OUT OF HERE NOW." She screamed, obviously frantic. But who wouldn't be?
The screen went black. It resumed the programme about math's in the workplace. Everyone started to talk. I turned to Sting. "So what do you think?" I asked curiously, meaning the emergency broadcast that was just shown on the TV.
He smiled at me, his charming lady-killer smile. "I would love to go on a date with you." He leaned his right cheek on his hand and stared at me. And I mean, really stared. Creepy much.
My mouth dropped. 'I'm pretty sure I didn't say date.' I thought, whilst slowly closing my mouth. The spikey, blonde haired Sting ran his left hand through his hair, in an attempt to make me fall for him. "Ok, that would be great, but I meant the broadcast?" I asked, slightly unsure of what his reaction would be.
"Hahahahaha." He laughed so much, I just didn't understand it. 'What was he laughing at?' I thought, confused at his actions. "I know you meant that, just answered your question first." He paused and started to think. I raised my eyebrow at him, wondering what he would say next. "Zombie apocalypse, huh? Might as well start buying running machines and put them around my home, so they face it. The zombies will walk on them and slide straight off. Well, if they are anything like the ones in games." He just looked at me, taking his face away from his other hand.
I burst out laughing. 'Surely it's not a zombie apocalypse.' I thought, 'that's ridiculous.'
"I guess that was funnier than I thought, huh?" He asked rhetorically, whilst he slid his arm around my neck and pulled me closer to his body for a hug.
'He's so gentle,' I thought, 'but I wish he wouldn't do that, like I'm fragile.' I sniffed his shirt; it smelt beautiful, like fresh linen and roses. Such an elegant smell. He let go, and I was reluctant to move away from him. But I had too, if not I'd look like a fool. We started smiling at each other like Cheshire cats. "So... o...our date?" I stuttered at the same time as realizing that I said date. 'Oh, crap. I screwed up.' I thought, trying not to let it show on my face. I looked at the clock to hide my tomato coloured face.
"Alright, lesson over, have a good day." The teacher called to us all as we left the room.
"You have any more lessons?" Sting asked in a somewhat innocent voice. "I was thinking that we could go grab coffee now?" Suddenly he went really shy. I've never seen him go shy before especially not around me. I mean we're best friends, and we tell each other everything.
"Coffee, huh?" I raised my finger to my chin and looked at the ceiling. Postponing my answer and making Sting rather nervous. "Sure." I smiled at him, wrapped my arm around his and we began walking. His nervous face makes me smile; it's so sweet, just like a scared puppy.
*The coffee store, Starbucks*
We walked to the counter, one person in front of us. Suddenly, Sting pulled me to the clerk. "Uhh, Cinnamon Latte, please." I asked the clerk, quietly. I turned to look at Sting, indicating that it's his turn to order.
"Same, please." He shyly asked. I smiled at him. 'It unusual for him to be shy in a shop, it's kinda cute.' I thought as I searched my bag for my bankcard to pay. Sting placed his hand on my arm, as I pulled out my card. He shook his head and handed the clerk a twenty-pound note. I stared in disbelief.
We moved over to the end counter, to wait for our drinks to be prepared. "You got a number?" He asked to end the awkward silence. "Here's my number." He passed me a piece of paper with an eleven-digit number on it. I looked up into his eyes and smiled.
"Your lattes." A female voice said quite boldly. We grabbed our lattes and walked over to a table. We sat down opposite each other, not sure what to say, settling on simple foolish grins.
*An hour of silence later*
RING RING.
Sting's phone rang and he quickly answered it. He motioned that he would be right back, whilst walking outside. I sat there, sipping on my second latte. 'That's strange.' I thought, poking the table with my little finger.
"Hey, look, it's that game nerd." Yelled a female voice across the shop. I turned around and saw the worst person I could see. My older brothers, slag of a girlfriend. "Why don't you go play your stupid games, you little freak." She shouted at me. Turning to her friends she said, "I can't believe Zeref is HER brother."
With that I instantly shot up, walked up to her and stopped. "Your problem is?" I asked nicely, I don't want to fall out with my brother over some chick.
"Your face, you stupid bitch." She replied. I lost it, my emotional barrier had been ripped away exposing me to harm. Something deep inside me snapped. I clenched my fist by my side, raised it and swung towards her face. My fist collided with her nose with such force; it threw her to the ground. She laid there for a moment deciding whether to play on it or not. 'She's such a drama queen.' I thought.
I turned around to see a police officer. "You're under arrest." He stated. I accepted it and was walked out of the shop, past Sting and into a police car. The driver started to drive, the long drive to Wymondham police station.
*At the station*
I've been shoved into a cell. Three brick walls and the fourth wall are bars, the opposite side is a bland wall, the other side of the corridor. Inside the cell was a simple steel toilet, a metal frame bed with a small mattress and a thin blanket. 'Good thing I can't feel the cold that often.' I thought, whilst thanking the Lord. I must have sat on the bed for about an hour waiting for something to happen. I'm not sure though. I caught an overwhelming whiff of rot in the air.
"Hey, time for your interview." Said a police officer, walking up to the locked bars keys jingling. I opened my eyes. I must have been asleep. I'm not sure how but that's just me. I looked sleepily at the officer, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "WHAT THE FUCK!" He shouted, as something grabbed him from behind. He turned fast to face his attacker. Suddenly, his attacker bit into his throat.
Thinking fast, I ran to the bars. I grabbed the keys from his right hand and his baton from his left side. I jumped back as blood sprayed all over my clothes. The officer dropped to the floor in a fit. I slowly walked up to the gate, shoved the keys into the lock and opened the gate quietly. I instantly smashed the corpse around the head with the baton. His blood sprayed up the corridor wall and he fell to the ground, completely disabled. I noticed a gun in the officer's holster, and took it. I whacked the officer over the head, so he wouldn't jump up and start attacking.
I ran down the corridor to where they shoved my belongings. I went into the room and grabbed my things. Noticing several weapons stacked on the shelf. I opened my bag and shoved the weapons into it. One gas powered AK47, a handgun, and another baton. Not much, but it'll do.
I found Sting's number in the front pocket of my bag and used the phone in the room to call him.
On the second ring he answered. "Hey, are you alright?" I whispered. "I'm at the police station, where are you?" "Hmm, ok. Meet me at the Moat at 7pm tomorrow. Ok?" "Bye." The phone call ended, I put his number back into my bag, and ran out towards the front desk.
*At the front desk*
No one is here. That's strange, how could this thing have spread so fast? Blood was splattered up nearly all of the walls, and bodies lay on the floor, completely lifeless. The smell of blood made me wretch. All I could my tongue could feel in the air was the sickly scent of metallic taste. I noticed some car keys behind the desk, grabbed them and ran out the door to see which car it fit. After trying five cars, I finally found the right one. A standard issue police car, all I needed to do now, was find an army base and steal a tank. I jumped in, threw my bag into the passengers seat and stomped the gas pedal. Round roundabouts, down roads, and up hills until finally, the car ran out of petrol. I threw the handbrake up, grabbed my things and started to walk down the road. Two miles on, I find myself sitting under a bridge, thinking that it's too quiet for my liking. So that's how the past few hours have been. I really need to find some kind of light or another car, cause if not I'm screwed.
'I've still got twenty four hours until I have to meet Sting.' I thought. 'Might as well relax for a bit.'
"ARRRRGGGHHHH!" I heard a loud scream coming from a nearby bush. 'What the fuck was that?' I thought, jumping up suddenly, running over to the bush with my AK47 ready to fire at any target. I could smell the rot again; this time it was tainting the pure country air. I ignored it and remained vigilant.
Well, it wasn't much, but it's a start hey? Hope you enjoyed it, please rate and review. Much love Renoa-Hime... x