I almost couldn't believe it when it happened. Heh, it looks like the creator of Resident Evil was right. That T-Virus thing, it may not exist, but the fact that some . . . some man-made chemical thing can bring the dead back to life. That they got right.
It all started a few months ago. Small towns started to grow . . . quiet. Eerily quiet. No activity coming into or out of the towns. And anything that did enter the town never came back. Soon, the government got concerned. They sent in SWAT teams . . . but it was already too late to save anyone. The SWAT went in, and, just as everything that went into the towns, they never came back out.
Whatever had happened to those towns, started happening to the surrounding towns, to the cities, and, eventually, to the entire state. And then to the surrounding states. Soon, America was silent. Nothing. Still.
Only one little town was untouched, a small town nestled within the mountains. And that's where I am now.
I've been here for three weeks, hiding in a cabin with my closest friend, and a wolf hybrid we found at an abandoned junkyard. We named her Kira.
Kira, Sky, and I are trapped here. There's plenty of food and water, but it's only a matter of time before it runs out. It's thirty degrees Fahrenheit . . . and dropping. Good thing there are plenty of warm clothes for Sky and I. I'm worried about how long Kira will hold up.
"Kal," I hear Sky whisper. She motions me to the window. "I . . . I think I see something moving out there." I peek out the window.
"Where?"
"There." She points to a dark blob stalking towards the cabin.
"Dammit," I curse, loading my rifle. "The temperature alone should have frozen them solid!" I feel Sky grip my shoulder.
"There's nothing we can do now, Kal. Just stay calm." I glare at her briefly.
"Stay calm, Sky?" I question. "How can I be calm? Those things murdered our families, in case you've forgotten!"
Silence.
"I know that."
"Then how can we be calm at a time like this, when our sanctuary is gone?"
Pause.
"Kal."
"Yes?"
"It's Anson."
Anson Anthony was your typical high school jock. Tall, handsome, muscular, medium length dark, flowing, wavy hair . . . Ahem . . . You get the point. Overall, a gorgeous man, and actually quite smart too. But what I wanted to know, was how he survived all of those-oh god, I can't believe I'm actually going to call them this-zombies back home?
"Kal? Kal!" Sky was shaking me. "Should we trust him?" Her eyes looked at me, pleading.
Don't let him in. He could be pretending.
Oh, really Sky? Look at him. Gorgeous as ever. And zombies aren't gorgeous.
Kal, please!
Kira was growling. Anson was at the front door. But was he alive? Dead? Undead and hungry for brains? Sky was still looking at me with those blue, pleading eyes. Kira looked at me for a moment, then went back to growling at the door.
"Kal, what do we do?" Sky asked.
A knock.
"Hello? Kal? Sky? You guys in there?" Anson asked the door. Kira snarled, barked menacingly, and growled. A shift from behind the door. He'd backed up. "Kal? Sky? Seriously! Let me in, it's freezing out here!" A pause. "The boys and I are freezin' to death."
And . . . there it was. Aren't men's privates the most important thing to them in high school and college? As Sky and I knew, it was to Anson. Sure as zombies walked this earth, he'd lost his virginity. Lord only knows how many women he's slept with.
"Kal! Sky, please!"
I sighed. "I think we should just let the poor sap in, Sky. And if he is a zombie, and if he is pretending-which is highly unlikely-we get to enjoy the pleasure of blowing his head off." I smirked, then opened the door . . .
Just as we expected-and to our utmost disappointment-Anson was not a zombie, and he was indeed freezing out in the thirty-degrees-and-dropping cold. He smiled and hurried inside with Kira snarling and snapping at his heels.
"Thanks, you guys," he said, shivering near the fire. "Man, I've been trying to find you guys since Cali fell. You two split that place fast." Sky stood near him, pistol only an arm's reach away.
"We knew we had to get away. Though, it did help that Kal knew the Resident Evil movies inside and out."
"Really?" He looked at me, golden brown eyes sparkling in the firelight. "How did it help?" I sighed. Was he really that stupid? Wait . . . I did just say he was kinda smart, didn't I? Maybe this is flirting . . . or ignorance.
"Get plenty of guns and ammo, shoot them in the head, run like hell if you're outnumbered, get to a place with strong walls, and preferably strong doors," I said nonchalantly. It was common knowhow to shoot zombies in the head. No matter how much it hurt to do so.
Zombies are undead, hungry undead, that want to eat and kill you . . . then you become one of them, and the cycle continues until there is no one left alive. You must kill, or re-kill in our case, in order to survive. The zombies are no longer your loved ones. They will not recognize you, and try to stop the other zombies from eating you alive. It just doesn't work that way. As much as we would like it to, it just doesn't. I had to kill my family and Sky's. Lord knows what Anson's been going through on his way up to the mountains. But the fact that he's alive means that there are others.
Perhaps the government has set up safe houses around the country. Then again, those safe houses would only be for government workers (if they were that lucky), political figures. Undoubtedly, they would have all the comforts of a mansion: Servants that wait on them, hand and foot, fresh water to drink and bathe in, fresh meat, dairy, and produce to silence their bulbous gullets. Hell, for all I know, they might have a freakin' gym, pool, steam room and sauna!
If there are other safe houses, they must not be lasting very long. It's always been the same with every shelter that's ever been put up by the government. They start out strong, helping a few thousand people. But when more start pouring in, the government starts to pull back their money, little by little. The shelter starts to turn people away because they don't have enough money to house the over-occupied shelter. Then, to the government's joy, the shelter finally shuts down, unable to house anyone else any longer.
It took me a few minutes to realize I was mumbling to myself, clenching my fists so tightly, I swear they would start bleeding any second. I furiously brushed a few thick bunches of brown hair behind my ear and stalked off to my bedroom. Kira followed, her ears pressed against the back of her neck like she'd peed on the wood floor or chewed up another pillow on the couch. As I sat on my bed, Kira nudged my legs, gazing up at me with her beautiful green eyes. I smiled, unable to resist a dog's (or a wolf hybrid's) puppy dog eyes, and ruffled the fur behind her ears.
"He ticks me off too, girl," I said knowingly. She hated Anson as much as Sky and I did.
Maybe she saw him as a threat. Maybe we should too.
Sky came in a few minutes later. She had that same concerned look on her face, her eyes were still pleading, her body language suggesting she wanted to turn back time and make everything normal again. Didn't we all? All those left, that is.
"What happened to you back there?" she asked, sitting beside me. I just stared at Kira, moving my hand from behind her ear to underneath her chin.
"Just remembering my hatred for the government," I replied. Kira's hind leg beat against the carpeting.
"Anson said there are safe houses . . . but they're closing fast."
"And that doesn't surprise you?" Sky smiled and shook her head.
"No, it doesn't surprise me that they're closing because the government is cheap and greedy. He stayed at the building in Nevada. Remember?"
How could I forget good ol' Nevada? Good ol' Nevada, where we almost got eaten by a bunch of zombies, where we nearly drowned in a casino while running away from said zombies, where I nearly died from jumping off a ten story building. Yep, good ol' Nevada. Good times.
"That place is still standing?" I looked at Sky now. She had relaxed and was smiling again. I liked her smile. It was contagious, and it make the situation at hand seem to fade away for a moment while we laughed a poor joke that had been told a thousand times.
"Apparently. I questioned Anson, and it was the same building . . . at least to my memory."
"Don't ask me about the building," I sighed, "You won't get anything out of me. You know that fall cost me half of my memory." She nodded.
"I know. The worst part about it is that it took memory from random parts in your life." I nodded as Kira jumped on the bed and snuggled against my side. She loved Sky, but favored me most of the time. Sky was always more of a cat person anyway. She smiled anyway and pet Kira, silent for a moment. Sometimes, silence was always the best answer, the best solution.