"A nationwide pandemic is causing aggression and cannibalistic behaviors to those infected. Do not approach anyone harboring these strange activities. Lock your doors and stay quiet until further notice. Please call in your sightings," a female voice rang through the old radio that was situated on the kitchen counter. It blared an alarm that made all of the residents in the house cringe. The message repeated itself before Darry lowered the volume. The family of five looked incredulously at the radio before the two adults scrunched their eyebrows together in concern.

"Was that for real?" Soda asked.

"A virus that causes cannibalistic behaviors? That doesn't seem possible… It must have been a drill," the father reassured.

"Then wouldn't they have said so?" Ponyboy asked, crinkling his nose.

"I think you watch too many movies. You should be fine. The virus would be stopped before it could reach us."

The mother patted Ponyboy's shoulder. "Get ready for school or you'll be late."

Ponyboy nodded and grabbed his backpack. Darry, Soda, and Ponyboy left their house and walked to the middle school where the youngest was dropped off. The three said their goodbyes before Soda and Darry left to the high school.

As soon as Ponyboy stepped onto the campus, he made a beeline to his home room class to avoid any conflicts with other students. Whilst pushing through all the prepubescent students, he couldn't help but notice that the virus was the talk of the whole school. There were students who were nervous or scared, students that didn't care at all about the news, and students with ugly grins who were making jokes about the virus. Ponyboy rolled his eyes and plopped down in his desk near the back of the room. Ponyboy took out his book to pass time until the first period started.

Everything was good. The day was like any other day (besides the whole virus fiasco): bland. Sometimes, Ponyboy wished that something eventful would occur, but nothing happens in Oklahoma besides tornadoes, earthquakes, and bipolar weather.

Around the end of the school day, everyone was anxious about escaping the building that might as well been a jail. More and more glances were shot towards the clock, eyes begging for the time to go faster. There was less than a minute left—even the teacher stopped lecturing—but the bell didn't ring. Instead, there was a blood curdling scream that silenced everyone. Goosebumps arose on Ponyboy's skin. The scream continued before it suddenly stopped. The intruder alarm went off after a moment, causing the students to jump out of their seats. Besides the startled jump, everyone was too shocked to move. Their eyes were trained on the door.

The teacher snapped out of her daze and rushed to her desk. She pointed to the walls of the room, deciding that hiding under the desks was too revealing, even if there were no windows that showed the hallway and the windows that displayed outdoors were built high to prevent anyone from peeking inside. "Hide against the walls and stay there. Keep silent," she instructed, grabbing her keys, locking the door from the outside, and flipping off the light. She ducked under her desk, visibly shaking.

Ponyboy pressed his back against the nearest wall. His body was tense and stiff, eyes wide with fear. Ponyboy shut his mouth until his lips turned white from the pressure. Everyone in the class was terrified. A majority of the students were sobbing uncontrollably, unable to keep silent. Ponyboy was close to that point as well. He kept strong, even though he was the youngest there, having skipped a grade in elementary school.

They might have stayed there for a half an hour. No one checked the clock to see how much time has actually passed. The only sounds were the chocked sobs and the blaring alarm. Then a pounding hit the metal doors. The students who could see through the thin window on the door screamed, earning a hush from the teacher, but it was too late. Whoever was outside knew there were students present in the classroom.

The banging shook the room. The intruder must have been weaponless—which was dumb, if Ponyboy could say so himself. The window cracked before it shattered, and skin-torn hands reached through, groping the air. Groans and growls filled the room, causing everyone to scream again.

The arms flailed, hitting the doorknob, opening the door from the inside. The intruder stumbled in and Ponyboy had the chance to see its face. His heart stopped.

The person wasn't really a person at all. Their torso was torn open, ribs visible to the eyes and chunks missing from its limbs and neck. Their eyes were a glassy white, and their lips were missing, showing their teeth. They reeked of rotten flesh. The sight made Ponyboy throw up in his mouth.

It turned its eyes to one of the crying girls before charging at her. She screamed even when teeth tore a chunk out of her shoulder. Her flesh separated like it was rubber. The intruder dug its fingernails into her stomach, ripping it apart, before eating her organs.

'Cannibalistic behaviors,' was the only thought that passed Ponyboy's brain.

Students scrambled out of the classroom and Ponyboy followed suit. Tears were welling up in his eyes from fear. Ponyboy ran outside the school, not even paying attention to the police officers who were about to enter the school, even when he was called after.

He ran straight home in a frantic manner, crashing through the door. "Darry! Mom! Dad! Soda!" he called out. Of course, no one was home. Everyone was in school or at work.

Ponyboy rushed to the phone, spinning in his dad's work number. In a couple of rings, his father's boss picked up. Ponyboy didn't wait for the person on the other end to greet him.

"Can you get my dad on the phone?" Ponyboy asked, voice full of panic.

"Are you Mr. Curtis's boy, by any chance?" the man asked after a moment.

"Yes! Please, just get him on the phone…quickly."

The phone went dead before his father picked up. "Ponyboy? What is it? Why are you calling?" he asked. He heard chocked sobs from Ponyboy. "What happened?"

"Cannibal…affected by the virus… attacked my school. I saw one rip a classmate up. They looked wrong, Dad…" His sentences were fragmented and hard to understand, but his father was able to piece the information together.

"What? Are you sure?"

Ponyboy nodded, but realized his father couldn't see him. "Yeah."

"Are you home right now?"

"Yes."

"Okay… Stay there. Lock yourself in your room. I'm going to pick up everyone and come get you. Do not let anyone in the house, am I clear?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, I'm going to hang up now…"

The phone died and Ponyboy put the phone down. He scurried to his room, closing the door shut and hid in his closet. Ponyboy curled in a tight ball as the events replayed in his head.

An hour later, his family swung open and called Ponyboy's name. Ponyboy ran out of his room, running towards them.

"Are you alright?" his mom asked. Ponyboy nodded.

"We need to call in," the father said, picking up the phone, but there was no need. Police cars sped past their house, sirens blaring. A second later Two-Bit swung open the door with wide eyes.

"There you guys are. Things are bad out there, man," Two-Bit said, eyes wide.

"What's out there?" Soda asked.

Two-Bit looked sick. "Chaos."

"What do we do?" Ponyboy's mother asked.

"We need to evacuate," the father answered.

The mother looked appalled. "We will not! This is our home!"

"We will come back home. We just need to leave until everything is back to normal. Right now, we are not safe."

"What about the others?" Darry asked, referencing their friends.

The father thought about it. "Let's quickly find them and leave. Do you know where they are?"

"Steve and Johnny are probably at school. Dally, well, who knows what's Dally's doing."

"Okay. Everyone, in the car. We get them, we get out."

The family and Two-Bit rushed in the truck, not even thinking about packing their belongings. They drove back to the high school where students were being evacuated already. Johnny and Steve were already grouped together with confused expressions. They scurried over once they saw their friends.

"What's happening?" Steve asked.

"The virus," Soda answered.

"We need to find Dally," Darry informed.

But before any of them could leave, a building exploded and everyone ducked out of instinct. People around them started to scream as pale humans with glassy eyes ran towards them, talking them to the ground, tearing them apart. Ponyboy couldn't rip his eyes from the people who were chewing up the screaming humans. The tearing of the flesh was the same as his classmate.

Ponyboy was pulled backwards and tugged to run back to the truck. The truck was cramped, with some having to jump in the bed. Their eyes were all wide at what they just witnessed.

"We're going," Ponyboy's father declared.

"What about Dally?" Johnny asked.

"We can't go back. It's too dangerous."

"We need to go back!" Soda said.

"What about our families?" Two-Bit asked from the bed.

The father scrunched his eyebrows together. With a loud sigh, he turned the truck around. They left the truck in front of Two-Bit's house to evacuate his family, but when they walked inside, they were pushed back again. Two-Bit's family were not the same anymore. They were infected. His parents and sister ran towards them, but Darry slammed the door shut. The infected banged on the window.

For once, Two-Bit wasn't cracking a joke. His goofy smile was no longer there.

"Oh, Two-Bit, I'm so sorry," Mrs. Curtis said awkwardly.

The window shattered all of a sudden and Two-Bit's mother grabbed Mrs. Curtis, pulling her closer. Mrs. Curtis tried to pull away, and almost did, before teeth sunk into her neck. Ponyboy screamed before he was shoved to the side into Soda's arms who looked just as shocked as Two-Bit when he found out his family was infected a minute ago. Their father rushed forward and tried to rip his wife away but, more arms reached through the broken window and grabbed him, sinking teeth in him as well. The infected crawled out of the window for better leverage. Blood covered Two-Bit's parent's body as they dug chunks from Mr. and Mrs. Curtis who had stopped struggling.

"We have to go!" Darry ordered, looking blankly at the occurrence. They pulled their attention away, and rushed back to the truck. Darry took the truck off of park and hit the gas petal, speeding away from the horrors they left behind.

o-o-o

This chapter was a mess. Don't worry. It'll become smoother when there are less characters. Dally, as well as the name of the "infected" will be in the next chapter. This might be rough for me because I am used to first person stories. Even though this story will be mostly following Ponyboy, I will follow some of the other characters when needed. I do plan on writing a sequel, but instead of it being based off of The Walking Dead, it will be a crossover. In that story, it will completely follow whatever characters are left.

When reading this, you are recommended to ask questions. Your generic expectation of this text is already character deaths, I can tell. Yes, there are, but I won't say when they will die or who will die. The question really is 'if' they are dead.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders.