NOTE: The idea for this story came from xconversegirl99x's story "Another Way Out", please head over and read it, because it's a great read! Although most of this writing is my own, I credit all my ideas to her.

The meat eaters surrounded the house; trying to bang down the door where I'd taken shelter. What were these things? And why were they trying to bite me? I'd been running here for three days straight and encountered a few of these creatures, but never had a chance to see them up close.

I looked outside the glass on the door, studying them closely. They had flaky skin with green flesh in certain spots; dark circles were under their dull red eyes and small yellow teeth showed in their mouth, making them look like my grandparents when they smoked. They seemed to live for one purpose only; kill the living. I shook my head. I have to keep running, I though to myself, there has to be someone who can help me! Grabbing a knife on the kitchen table and going through the back door quietly, I ran towards a sign reading 'Welcome to Georgia' and sighed in relief. Maybe someone here could help.

Running through the empty streets, I looked around at the cars that had been left behind. They were packed and ready to go, but I guessed that plans changed when the meat eaters arrived. I noticed, however, that one car had people inside of it. Inside the boot was a large, dark toned man in a purple coaches shirt and brown sweatpants. He held a large rifle in his hand, with a strange bottle on his belt. Another man was under the bonnet, trying to fix the car. He had a light tan complexion and a tight yellow t-shirt with dark blue work pants. A blue hat with an image of a tow truck sat on his head and he grabbed the hat with frustration. I'd say the car was beyond repair.

A dark toned woman then came from the side of the car. She had large, golden-hooped earrings and wore a pink Depeche Mode t-shirt with black jeans. An axe was strapped to her back and she held two small pistols. Lastly, another lightly tanned man came from the drivers seat and stood next to the woman. He wore a flash, white suit with a blue shirt underneath, top button undone to allow small, black chest hairs to show. He looked up then and noticed I was standing there. Pulling out a large shotgun, he warned the others about me and loaded his gun. I placed my knife on the ground and put my arms in the air, in an attempt to show I wasn't a threat.

"Whoa, d-d-don't shoot! I'm not one of those things… w-whatever they a-are." I stuttered, shaking like a wet dog when it dries itself.

"You don't know what those things are?" The man in the suit said silently, lowering his gun and walking towards me. I lowered my arms slowly.

"Yeah. I've been running for a few days to find help, all the towns along the way have been cleaned out."

"Wow, that's mighty impressive! Those thangs are scary." The man with the hat chuckled, and I picked up a southern accent in his voice.

"Thanks. So anyway, what are those things?" The group looked between themselves, ready to break the news to me.

"They're… zombies. People started feeling ill and the hospitals started to flood with the sick and hurt. Nobody knew what was happening until people started going crazy. Evacuations have started to remove the healthy, but they only stay for a day or two and then leave." The large man spoke, looking to the ground. I couldn't believe this was happening. Were we really in a zombie apocalypse?

"Where are you guys heading?" I looked up and said. Maybe I could stick with these people. They were better than nothing.

"We were trying to find the evacuation point. These radios told us to head to the hotel rooftop and there'd be a helicopter waiting." The woman smiled, holding up her radio to show me. "Would you like to join us, sweetie?"

I spoked quickly in relief, "Yes please! That would be fantas-"

"Hold up!" The suited man interrupted, "We don't even know you're name. How can we trust you to come with us?"

"I'm Hayley, and quite frankly, I don't have a reason to hurt you people. You can trust me."

"That's 'nough for me! And Ellis, the name's Ellis." The man in the hat said, shaking my hand roughly. I laughed and patted his shoulder.

"It's nice to meet you, Ellis."

"My name's Darnell, but my friends call me Coach. Guess y'all can do the same." The large dark man said, patting my back.

"And I'm Rochelle. It's nice to meet you too." The woman smiled. Looking back at the man in the suit, he sighed.

"The name's Nick. Welcome to the team kid." I shrieked, embracing him in a hug.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You won't regret this, I mean it!"

"Yeah, yeah, just stay away from me." Nick grunted, shoving me off him. I shrugged and sat in the car, asking what our plan was.

"I guess we should head for the hotel. Don't want 'em leaving without us." Ellis said, starting to jog away.

"I'm with the man, let's go!" I shouted, following quickly behind.

As we ran towards the hotel, I looked around at the new group I had joined. Coach was a very straightforward thinker and had some great ideas. Rochelle was sweet, almost motherly, and seemed to care about everybody deeply. Ellis was funny and seemed to be a bit thick sometimes, but he made up for it in his bubbly personality. Nick would take some getting used to, as he was a bit of an arse. But I liked that about him, because he takes no crap from nobody.

Pushing through the large doors, we made our way up twenty floors to make it to the roof.

"Shiiiit, I'm stuffed! Can we take a break?" Coach puffed, holding his knees.

"Come on Coach, maybe the helicopter, maybe it's made of chocolate!" Nick laughed, getting a smirk from Coach. As we broke through the door, a sight made us all sigh.

"No fucking way…"