CHAPTER ONE

I remember exactly where I was the day it all began. I was sitting at home watching TV with my sister, Lucy. My parents were in the kitchen cooking for a family dinner.

"Lucy, I need to you nicely order the bread basket, alright?" Mom came in and handed her a straw basket and several rolls. "Make it pretty."

I watched as Lucy placed the bread so it fit the basket perfectly. She was always so good at ordering things. She hummed the theme song from her favorite cartoon, and I smirked. Even if she got on my nerves, she was pretty adorable.

"Brittany, please make the couch pillows look nice," Dad poured some soda into cups. They were really going all out to impress our family. When they got like that, it was best not to argue. So, I did as I was told and I made the living room look fancy. I sat back down hoping to enjoy some more relaxing.

"Mommy," Lucy yelled. "When will everyone be here?"

"Any minute now," Mom stirred the bowl of mashed potatoes. "Brittany, also get out the dishes. We're running late."

As I thud back to the ground, I heard screaming. "What was that?"

"Maybe it was the television," my dad suggested. "Brittany, please just set the table."

"I'm going," I walked to the cabinet, but I heard another scream. "Guys, that's not the TV."

"Someone help us! Please!"

"It's outside," Lucy pointed to the window. I ran over to look outside, and that's when I saw it.

My grandmother was being chased by one around her car. My grandpa was pulling out his pocket knife to kill it from the inside of the car.

"Oh, please! Get it away!" she screamed.

"How do you kill it if it's already dead?" my grandpa yelled back.

"Oh, my God," I whispered. Right then, my parents came over to see what was taking me so long.

"What is that?" Dad gasped.

"It's going to kill my mother!" Mom shrieked. "Seth, get the gun from the safe!" My dad quickly ran into their bedroom to get one of his handguns. Lucy and I watched in awe at our grandparents attempts to reach it. Don't give up, guys! I tried to yell, but it was stuck in my throat.

Suddenly, Dad ran out with his gun. Mom burst into tears and told him to save Grandma. I watched as he ran out and shot it in the head, and it fell down. Grandma and Grandpa ran up to the porch and hugged us all. My aunt, uncle, and cousins came out from the back seats of the minivan. All four of my cousins, Xander, Leda, Mark, and Chloe clung together. They were sobbing, and they came to us too.

"Do you know what that was?" gulped my grandma. Mom hugged her tight as they both cried.

Lucy piped up, "It's a zombie."

"How is it possible for them to be real?" we all sat inside. Dad and my Uncle, Toby, both took guns to guard our house from the zombies.

"I saw them on a cartoon on TV," Lucy explained. "They're dead that came back to life to try to eat you."

"Kathy, you let your youngest daughter watch a cartoon like that?" Grandma pressed her lips together and glared at Mom.

"Now is not the time for a parenting lecture," my aunt, Karmen, interrupted. "The point is, if there is one, there is more. We need to start preparing."

"She's right," Xander, who was my oldest cousin, agreed. "Soon we will lose the ability to use any electricity. We need to get food and protect each other."

"Lucy, how do the zombies go away?" I turned to my sister.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "It's just a show, it's not real."

"We need to figure it out," Leda said. "But the first step is getting supplies. We still have cars, and Aunt Kathy and Uncle Seth probably have gas in their barn. We should raid the all-purpose store."

"Raid?" Grandpa spoke up. "Why would we need to raid it?"

"If there are zombies, we need to get supplies," I shrugged. "Maybe there's no civilization left." Suddenly, we heard several gunshots. All of us ran to the window to see what was happening, and Dad and Toby were shooting tons of zombies!

"There's so many," whispered Mark.

"Maybe they're attracted to sound," Karmen gasped. "We need to use silent weapons. Bows, knifes, swords."

"Baseball bats are what they use in the show," Lucy said as she rummaged through her toy box. Before we could ask what she was doing, she pulled out three bats.

"Perfect for temporary weapons," Xander took one. "Some of us will need to stay home when we go to the grocery store. Lucy, Mark, and Chloe definitely are going to be staying." All three of them groaned. "Guys, you're the youngest. You could get seriously hurt."

"Fine," Mark agreed. Lucy and Chloe nodded.

"Who will be going to raid and who is going to stay?" I asked.

"There's no time for that now," Leda took a bat from Lucy. She pointed the bat toward the window, "Our dads are going to get killed!"

"You kids will, too, if you go out," Grandma pulled Leda away from the window.

"We'll be fine, Grandma," Leda handed me a bat. Then, all three of us went outside.

"Get away!" Dad yelled as he shot down a zombie. Its head lolled back and it crumpled to the ground. He looked to Toby, who was shooting but not killing any. "It needs to be in the head!" He focused back to the zombies and continued shooting.

"Noise attracts them!" I yelled. "Don't shoot!"

Dad and Toby hesitated, but brought down their guns. "Get them in the brain! We've decided that that's what's making them come back to life."

"Come on over here, zombies," Leda yelled. "Bring it in, ugly!" Soon, the zombies started walking toward us because of the yelling. When one got close, Xander smashed its head with the bat. Blood sprayed everywhere, and I thought I was going to puke. I needed to protect my family, so I too smashed a zombie's head. It fell to the ground and I yelped. Leda joined in and we killed them off.

For a moment, we all just looked around at the dead bodies. They didn't even look like people. They had blood covering them, patches of skin had been torn, and they had the most hideous eyes.

"We need to get supplies now," I broke the silence.

When we got back inside, the little ones were covering their eyes and crying. I thought to myself that they were going to need to get used to this. We would probably walk inside covered in blood on a daily basis from now on.

"Let's break into groups," Grandpa said. "This is much worse than I thought. We need all the weapons we can get."

"Luckily for us, we come from a family of hunters," Mom smirked. "We have plenty of guns and knives in the safe."

I followed Dad, Xander, Toby, and Grandpa into my parents' bedroom. Dad unlocked the safe and pulled out weapons. I finally got to see all the guns we had. He passed one gun and one knife out to everyone who didn't already have one except me.

"Excuse me?" I cleared my throat. "Missing someone?"

"We can't have too much noise, so you can't use a gun. If you use a knife, you'll have to get close. You're only 14, I don't think you can handle that," Dad closed the safe. "You can use your bow. You'll need to reload on arrows frequently, but hopefully we can pick some up at the all-purpose store."

"Okay," Toby checked his bullets. "Let's go."

We pulled into the almost empty store parking lot. I got an arrow ready and pulled it back just in case. Everyone else readied their guns.

We walked through the doors.

It was way worse than we were expecting.

Zombies in cashier uniforms limped around. Zombies in regular clothes were there too. There were hundreds. I gulped. How did they even get so many here? Is this where it all started? We were going to die. We were going to die. We were going to die.

"How will we ever get stuff with them here?" whispered Xander. "They'll kill us."

"We need to kill them," Dad walked backwards and we followed. "We'll kill them all off and grab anything we can get."

"I'll make the first shot," I pulled up my bow. "None of them will notice." I took a breath and released. The zombie fell to the ground, and others collapsed around it and began eating it. I covered my mouth.

"Disgusting," Grandpa shook his head. "Let's take them out." Almost in unison, they all shot at random zombies. Others began stumbling toward us. Quickly, I aimed at a female when I realized I knew her. She was my partner in my science class.

"Emily," I whispered as I brought down my bow.

"Brittany, shoot it!" Xander hissed. "It's going to kill you!"

I raised my bow as tears filled my eyes. I shut them just as I released my arrow. I heard a thud, and I knew I hit her. I know because that's where I aimed. I killed her.

No. She was already dead.

Now she was free.

~End Of Chapter One~