The air smelled of dust and fear. She had hid in her cellar, after hearing the recent news and had taken all her prized possessions and possible weapons with her. She sat there, silently watching the news on the computer. They talked of "Apocalypse" and "The end of the world" and all she thought to do was hide. She sat there, silently for a few seconds. Then the computer gave a beep and died, closing her last window to the horrors of reality.

There was one outlet in the wall of the cellar, and the computer would be her only connection to the outside world, so she needed the computer charger. She opened the door of the cellar and she took a breath of the gray outside air. It was anything but fresh. She looked at the once busy suburbs of Washington DC, and saw cars on their sides, buildings wrecked and empty, and vacant streets. Except they weren't completely vacant. A man stood, unmoving in the middle of the street. She climbed out of her cosy cellar and went to the man.

" Do you know what is going on here? My phone stopped working, I couldn't call 911," she spoke as she approached the man. Suddenly the man's neck twisted, in a way the girl knew wasn't humanly possible, and his wretched face and white eyes faced her. His skin was peeling, his mouth was open like a drooling dog, and his neck looked like a newspaper run over by several cars and trucks. A long, hollow moan came out of his yellow lips, and his thin arm reached for her neck. She gripped the cold, peeling arm, thrust it away and ran.

She opened the front door and ran to the kitchen table. She picked up her car keys, and ran back out the garage door. She opened her car and got inside. The digital screen on the dashboard showed the man,coming slowly towards the car from behind. An alarm went off, signifying that she was going to hit someone, and she should stop backing up. She didn't care, she knew whatever it was that was behind her, it was no real human. She felt a cold, unsettling feeling as the man's body slammed hard into the car, and she backed up speedily out of the driveway. She slammed the gas pedal down, and with a screech she sped down the empty street.

She drove, not knowing where to go, or what was going on. She thought of calling her friends, but all the phone lines were down. There was no way she could communicate to the outside world. Wait a minute, she thought. She turned on the radio, and changed channels until she found one which wasn't drowned out by white noise.
The voice on the radio spoke, "Here we are in Washington DC, with the President. We are discussing the zombie epidemic that has broken out in the city here recently. What do we know about these things Mr. President?"

" We know they aren't alive. And we know they can spread their disease to others, we don't know how."
" And how are they not alive?"

"Our medical staff has tested them, and they have no pulse, they simply aren't alive. Yet they are still wandering the streets, infecting innocents and wrecking havoc."

" What do you think might have caused this?"

" We don't know."

" What should somebody do if they see one?"

" Fire has worked to kill them, but a shot to the heart or the head can work too, we think."

" Thank you, Mr. President. So stay inside your homes, lock your doors, and be sure to contact this number if you have seen any zombies in your area. 645-908-8764, that's 645-908-87-". She turned the radio off. Gee thanks, give me a phone number I can't use, she thought. She didn't have any guns, or anything that could light things on fire. She was defenseless. She stopped the car and waited for her inevitable death, tears welling up in her eyes.