Introduction

Anyone alive would never forget the moment their lives had changed forever. To this day nobody ever knew what had started it, the only certainty were the horrors they had experienced since that fateful day.

Cassandra was sitting at her desk, working on her newest script for a TV series that was in the pipe work, concentrating on the character development throughout the first season of the show. She often worked as a writer for films and for television, the rest of the time she wrote novels.

Life was great; Cassandra had an apartment in an upmarket area of Las Vegas, her own car and no debts to speak of. Sharing her home with her younger sister, who was studying to become a pathologist, had been the best decision she had made in years. They had always been close but now they were the best of friends too.

The phone started ringing but she ignored it, busy with the work in front of her. Whoever it was could leave a message and she would get back to them. Little did she know that it was the most important telephone call she was ever likely to get. The last call she would ever receive. A couple of hours later her sister had barged through the front door, locking it behind her and pushing the couch in front of it. She deposited several bags on the floor, ran to turn off the stereo that was blaring in the background and headed for the bathroom to fill the tub with water.

Cassandra stood up, worry etched on her face as she watched her sister scramble around the apartment, terror plastered on her face, her hands shaking as she did so.

"Louise, what's wrong?" Cassandra asked her, walking behind her into the kitchen as she emptied the cupboards of every pan and large container they had. Opening the taps she filled every single one with water. She didn't answer her sister, pulling her knife drawer out Louise withdrew two large stainless steel meat cleavers and placed them on the counter.

Cassandra watched her as she entered into her own bedroom and grabbed the signed baseball bat she had on show above her bed before she returned to the living room and placed it on the couch where it was easily accessible, finally running into Cassandra's own room. Kneeling besides the bed she opened the gun safe they had under the bed where she removed the Glock G30S from its case along with the two clips of ammunition.

"Louise, stop! You're scaring me. What's wrong?" Cassandra asked as she reached towards her sister and stopped her, giving her a gently shake.

A sob escaped the young woman's throat, "You didn't answer the phone. I thought you were dead."

Unable to understand what was going on, Cassandra asked her gently. "Why would I be dead? Louise you're shaking. Tell me what's wrong!" the last remark much more forceful than she intended it to be.

"The dead are rising. All of them, they're coming back to life. I was at work when some CDC guys showed up and told me to step away from a new body that had just come in. Next thing I know the corpse stood up and grabbed me. One of the CDC men managed to get it off me but it bit him. It actually bit him! It took a chunk out of his arm and wouldn't stop." Louise explained, her voice rising to the brink of hysteria. "I stabbed it in the head with a scalpel and it finally dropped dead again. Then the CDC guys starting yelling about contamination and infection and the dead rising again. Most of them ran off to get away from the guy that had been bitten but I stayed with him. He told me they had been having reports for the last 24 hours of a sickness that's spreading. Anyone infected though a bite or scratch or anything, they get sick and die and then they come back to life, like Zombies. Cassie, there's real bloody Zombies! That shit you write about... it's real!"

Now Cassandra was shaking. This was her nightmare come to life. Zombies were the one thing that truly terrified her which was why she had chosen to become a horror writer that dealt with that subject, using it as therapy.

"No, it's no possible." She said, with a quivering voice. Tears sprung in her eyes.

"It's all over the TV and the radio. The police department is deploying SWAT teams all over Vegas; the army is putting blockades all over the main roads. Anyone they suspect is infected they shoot on site.I called to warn you but you didn't answer." Louise shouted at her sister, and then panicked as she covered her mouth with her hands, glancing towards the front door. "We need to be quiet. We need to stay in and survive this until the government gets it under control. We have water and I stopped at the shop on the way here. I grabbed a load of tinned food and other long life stuff."

"We need to warm Mom and Dad." Cassandra said in a panic, reaching towards the phone. A busy tone echoed through the line.

"I already tried, the lines are all busy. Everyone is probably trying to do the same thing. I sent Mom a text on my mobile telling her that we are OK and explaining what's going on. They will be OK Cassie. I know they will." Louise told her older sister as she hugged her.
They cried for a short while, fear and worry getting the better of them. From the streets bellow sirens echoed, people screamed and gun shots kept going off.

Terrified they both decided to reinforce the front door, already they had the couch but they dragged the armchairs over as well and piled them on top of it. Next they turned the TV on to the news station, the volume as low as they could whilst still being able to hear it.

Shutting the curtains was the next order of the day, ensuring that nobody could see them from the streets. They ran into their respective bedrooms, changing into clothes that were suitable for a quick exit. Both wore jeans, hiking boots, a short sleeve t-shirt and a leather coat that Cassandra said would help protect them against bites.

All these years of thinking about a fictional zombie apocalypse had to be good for something so she scanned her memory for all those important items and information that, although fictional, she knew might help them survive.

Grabbing their backpacks, which they used at weekends when they went hiking in the desert, they stuffed in it a change of clothes each, hairbrush and other essential hygiene products. All the money she had in the house went into her pocket, along with her bank card which she didn't think would be much use. Running into the kitchen she placed a bottle of water and two cans of food into her bag in case they had to run off quickly, at least they wouldn't be empty handed. Slipping her Glock into the waistband of her jeans and the clips into her back pocket she handed one of the cleavers to her sister who was sat on the floor, her bag already by her side. Bending over she placed the same items into her sisters bag and handed her the baseball bat whilst she held the other knife in her hands.

In silence they sat, too afraid to move. Outside, in the corridors of the building people screamed, children cried as their parents dragged them down the stairs and into waiting cars, trying to escape. More and more troops started pouring into the city, the streets now void of tourists. Only those desperate to reach their homes and families, or searching for food and weapons to protect them, were outside. More and more people were bitten and killed, torn to shreds by these walking dead.

The SWAT team shot down anyone they encountered that had been bitten but survived, leaving the bodies where they were. Their barricades were destroyed before night fall, the rush of people and cars pushing past them.

They tried to ignore the sounds and smells of death but it was hard to do when it finally pounded at their door. Cassandra grabbed her chopper, moving soundlessly towards the source of the noise. She looked through the peep hole and saw one of her neighbours, a nice man in his fifties; chunks were missing out of his face and body. His clothes were covered in blood and shredded, there was no doubt he was one of the undead. He banged and banged at the door, turning the handle trying to get in, groaning and sniffing at the door as he did so. Cassandra stood there, in the darkness, watching him until he left to look for other bodies to devour.

Returning to her sister Cassandra hugged her, tears running down both their faces. They grabbed the covers from their beds and made a small space on the floor where they could hold on to each other, too afraid to be far from the only other person they had left. There they sat in darkness, alternating between watching the scenes outside their window and listening to the news, hoping for a sign that this nightmare would come to an end.

That sign never came. Over the next few days things only got worse and they were never able to contact their parents...