Year Of Death

Hello! This will be my first story posted her on . I'm quite eager to hear some responses and I hope you all enjoy this story as much as I did writing it. Please, enjoy!

This story is based on the zombies of Dawn Of The Dead but with different characters, storyline, etc. Starts off a little slow but should then come at you guns blazing.

Chapter 1: A City In Crisis

6:15 P.M. Los Angeles, California. November 23rd 2007.

Parker glanced over at the clock. Every time the second hand moved from one line to the next Parker would pray that time sped forward. His eyes rolled in his head as he looked at his computer. Pointless work assigned by his boss sat on his screen, unfinished. He ran his hand through his brown hair and waited for his time to leave... Time only seemed to move slower. Parker sighed before being startled by the ring of his phone. He looked at the number and noticed it was his wife. Quickly he flipped open the phone.

"Hello dear." He said in an almost monotone voice.

"When will you be home?" She asked, seeming eager.

"Around..." He glanced over at the clock once more seeing it was 6:17 pm, "7 o' clock."

"Okay..." His wife said. Her voice seemed depressed.

"Is everything alright Mary?" Parker inquired as he went to open up on his internet browser to pass the time.

"Yeah, of course, everything is fine." Mary's voice was once again sad and depressing.

Parker shook his head. He had been with his wife for 7 years, she couldn't hide her emotions this late in the game. "Honey. Please tell me the truth. I know you're lying."

There was a pause which Parker knew was Mary trying to decide whether or not to tell him the truth.

"Well..." She paused once more. "It's just that I don't get to see you much, you leave for work at 5 in the morning and don't come home until 7. That only leaves us about 3 hours to talk and have our alone time, and, considering how tired you are most of the time, that time is usually shortened!"

Parker could tell his wife had been thinking about this most of the day. "Sweety," he said in the sweetest tone he could muster up, "I'll try to come home early tonight. We'll talk all through dinner and I'll stay up as long as you want me to so we can catch up. How does that sound?"

"Do you really mean that!?"

By the tone of her voice Parker could tell he had just made his wife extremely happy. "Of course."

Parker quickly finished off the conversation with his wife and ended it with a big "I love you." He went back to looking around on to see if there were any new stories worth checking out. He did this until about approximately 6:30 which was when one of his employees came running up.

"Parker! Parker!" He heard, the voice sounding very familiar. "Parker I gotta tell you something! It's important!" Following the voice was a man. Matt. He was approximately 5 foot 9 with short black hair. The man looked fit and seemed more on the muscular side for someone his age.

"Parker there is a news report you have to see. Come to the employee's lounge." Matt said quickly, almost rushed.

"What is it?" Parker said, bored.

"Just come with me, it's important!"

The two quickly got to the employee's lounge where it seemed everyone in the office had gathered. They were all staring at a small television mounted in the top right hand corner of the room. Parker looked around at everyone in the room. Every single employee was silent, their jaws were dropped and their eyes were wide.

"What in the world is going on..." Parker whispered before getting shushed by most everyone in the room as a news reporter came on screen.

"Hello, this is Jessica and welcome back to Channel 8 news." The woman said, her face serious. That was odd, normally news reporters had at least a hint of a smile. Something was wrong. "We're back reporting on the mysterious amount of murders happening across many areas of L.A. which are now spreading to other regions of California. Reports have come in of people killing others randomly and preforming cannibal acts such as the eating of flesh and also the eating of human brains."

A shiver quickly ran down the spine of Parker as he looked around at the others, noticing many of them moving uneasily.

"It has been reported that anyone in the area of L.A. should get out now and move east until the situation is under control." The woman paused as she listened to someone talking into her ear. "This just in, we now have a way for you to identify the individuals that are committing these gruesome murders. They appear to have pale skin color with red or purple veins protruding out of their skin. Their faces seem to lack any emotion and appear blank. One witness claimed that the people look almost exactly like the undead. He called this a Zombie Invasion."

"A Zombie Invasion!?" Someone shouted. "How is that even possible!?" There was now a buzz about the room as everyone gave their opinions on the matter.

"Again," The woman on the television said, "if you live in the L.A. area you need to evacuate east as soon as possible, this is for your safety."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Everyone was thinking, Parker as well. He looked to Matt who was also in thought. In an instant everyone ran for the door, pushing and shoving to get out. They ran down the stairs to get to the main door. Parker followed in the back, frantically pulling out his phone to call his wife.

He quickly called the house. The phone rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. No answer. He called once more. The same thing happened. "Shit." Parker yelled as he put away his phone. His blood began pumping faster as his heart beat increased, he was worried.

The crowd of employee's made it to the entrance. They all quickly opened the door and headed out. Parker followed Matt as they headed for their cars. Looking around Parker noticed his car had been smashed. Somehow the hood of the car was destroyed and pounded inward. He watched Matt run for his car and quickly yelled his name.

"Matt!" He yelled, trying to get the mans attention. "Matt, my car is destroyed, can you drive me home? My wife isn't answering the phone."

Matt looked back for a moment watching Parker. He then looked to his car and yelled, "Sorry Parker! I have things to do to. I'm really sorry!" He ran to his car, got in and drove away, leaving Parker there.

"You fucking asshole!" Parker screamed while throwing a rock at Matt's car. Oh how easily humans can betray one another in a time of crisis.

Only 3 other employee's had their cars damaged in some way. They all began to run on foot to their homes, Parker figured he'd better do the same.

As the man made his way home he noticed shops with their windows broken, trash cans knocked over, debris everywhere. It was chaos. People ran in all directions, trying to get to their homes and loved ones. Parker ran faster, he was getting even more worried for his wife's safety. It was on his way home that he noticed his first zombie.

The zombie looked to Parker, its eyes blood shot and almost turning a black color. Red and purple veins were making themselves dominant all over its body. The zombie was crouching over a body, obviously dead, and had its right arm in its mouth. Blood was pouring down the zombie's body, covering it's mouth, chest, hands and dripping onto the ground. The zombie stopped chewing on the flesh of the arm and roared to Parker as it slowly began to rise.

That was all the motivation he needed to begin running. Parker's legs began moving as fast as he could possibly move them. His adrenaline had kicked in and now his heart was beating twice as fast as it was before. Parker's speed increased as well, allowing him to outrun the zombie. The good thing was that he was close to his house, only about 3 minutes until he reached it.

"What in the world was that?" Parker thought as he ran. "There is no way that could've actually been a zombie... Zombie's are in movies, not in real life!" That's when the panic kicked in. Parker began sweating and worrying about everything. But he was relieved when he saw his house.

Parker took a step up to the door. He grabbed the door knob and noticed the door was unlocked. He slowly pushed the door opening while yelling for his wife. "Mary!" He yelled. "Mary I'm home, we need to get the hell out of here! Some crazy shit is happening!" He waited a moment. No response. He was going to go upstairs when he heard a loud bang on a door coming from their bedroom. The man ran to the locked cabinet he had downstairs. Parker unlocked the cabinet and pulled out his Beretta M9. Quickly he turned the safety off and rushed upstairs.

"MARY!" Parker yelled. "Mary answer me!" He moved into his room and looked to his bathroom door. It was closed and blood slowly dripped off the doorknob. Parker's breathing became quicker and his heart began to beat insanely fast. Adrenaline pumped throughout his system and he was able to hear everything much clearer, his eyes saw everything much clearer. He listened for what was on the other end of the door and heard what he thought was breathing.

"Mary..." He said in a raspy voice. "Mary, please open the door." Parker's hand gripped the bloodied doorknob. Warm blood smeared onto his hand as he attempted to twist the knob. Parker held the gun defensively and prepared to fire. He slowly pushed the door open and looked around the bathroom. There was blood all over the bathroom. The mirror. The sink. The bath tub. The toilet. The counter. The floor. Everywhere. On the ground laid Mary, his wife. Parker looked in awe at his wife as she laid there bleeding. There were bites marks on her whole body. Her neck had a chunk of skin taken out and was revealing the inside muscles, tissue and bones. Parker had to restrain himself from being sick as he took one step closer to his wife, tears beginning to form in his eyes.

Suddenly Parker saw his wife's eye open. It was bloodshot and her normal beautiful blue eyes changed to a menacing black right before his eyes. His mouth dropped a she began to moan and groan, but not in pain... in anger... in fury... in hunger. Parker took a step back. "Mary. Mary what's wrong?" He didn't realize how dumb the question sounded at the time, he just wanted his wife back.

The woman began to snarl now. Parker now realized she was turning. He began to sob now, his face getting covered in his own salty tears. He watched his wife begin to rise. She got up and looked at him. Not with the love and care she normally looked at him with, but with despise, anger, and hate.

"Please no..." Parker began to say as he cried. His shoulders heaved as he weeped. His kness began to shake and he had to grab the counter to keep himself up. More blood covered his hand now as he looked to his wife. He knew what he had to do, but he couldn't do it... it was too hard...

"PLEASE MARY! PLEASE!" He cried out. She began to snarl more fiercely and walked closer to him. He held the gun out at her but his arm quickly fell to his side as he realized he couldn't fire. She got closer, and closer, and closer until...

BANG. BANG. BANG.

End of Chapter 1.