Zompocalyptia

Chapter One: The Meeting

Everything is spinning. There's blood dripping down my arms, as I get up. The table was burnt, a hole was charred and showing from where the bomb was. As I searched around looking for any survivors, Bill Moss, the commander was dead, blown in two. His reanimated corpse-like legs were twitching; his abdomen was crawling and moaning towards the Locos leader Corey Priestman, who was unconscious. My M5 was on the other side of the fence, rendering it useless against the stench.

The advisers were alive; they were getting up off the ground and twice as bloodied then I was. As I rushed towards the Stench that used to be Bill, which was at Mr. Priestman's feet, I had to think of what to use. As there were sharp shards of burnt wood, I picked up the nearest piece and plunged it into the Stenches chest, it was shaking around as the bloody puss came out. One of Bill's survival rules the 'double-tap' was in effect. I grabbed a second piece of wood and plunged it into the Stenches head. Blood sprayed out as the Stench ceased to move.

The other advisers rushed over to their leaders, Jessie Alestin of the Tribe Circus, got up. She had burnt hair as if she was next to the searing flame, her face was darkened with coal stains, and her clothes were tattered and bloodies with torn parts of her shirt and pants that had been singed off. She scowled at me as she nodded, notifying me as the new commander of SafeHaven.

My hand leant down to Corey as he grabbed it, pulling him up. As we began to count our numbers of people that survived the blast and that weren't bitten by the Stenches, we realised that Mitchell Goulburn had a bite mark on his leg. It was not fresh. The mark was more like scaring tissue that looked as if it was around a couple weeks old. At first I considered it was a form of mutation or that he was bitten by one of the first Stenches a couple of days prior to the meeting. He was pale and gasping for air only claiming that it was a coyote bite. Sweat was dripping down his face as if he had been caught out, his followers had backed away, abandoning him and leaving him for the Stenches.

Jessie and Corey both looked at me, leaving the decision to me to choose either to kill him and end his misery, or leave him for the Stenches as he would be one any minute. I chose a third option. I opened the fence and walked over to my M5 on the ground; I grabbed it and passed it to him. Tears poured down his face as I reassured him for our survival, only that he now had to face it alone. I told him to kill as many Stenches as possible, and before becoming one himself.

As Mitchell got up and walked away, Jessie walked over and had a negative attitude to what I had done. She mentioned that it was an 'idiotic' decision I had made and that it was a waste of ammunition. Although my M5 had an estimate of twelve bullets remaining in it, I had quickly argued back that it would be less a worry to no longer having him and that it would be useless to waste ammunition on his death, but for the deaths of the Stenches he could kill.

The land around us began to darken. The golden glow of the sun shining onto its landscape, it's a calming thing to see. As much as we like it, it was our alarm that the Stenches would be coming. We all rushed to get to the metro station; the sun was diminishing faster every minute that passed. As we rushed down the steps, flickering lights lit up the hallways from the remaining power that was left in the grid. A few Stenches roamed the tracks on the route that we had taken on the way to the meeting.

When Corey and Jessie looked at me, I readied my weapon, a pistol that one of the advisers passed to me for my protection. It had the letters D.D on it from the tribe Demon Dogs written on it. From the fumes of gas in the air I then realised that it could blow us all up, we had to make a decision and fast since the Stenches were stumbling towards us. We had to fight them, close combat style, as I knelt and pulled out my combat knife out of the back of my shoe.

With all of us ready and with small knifes or sharp objects we ran past the Stenches, getting a few stabs in their heads and still being able to run past the slow moving number of them. As we rushed through, Jessie spotted that two of her advisers were caught; their screams filled the tunnels with an eerie ring, alarming more Stenches in the area. Jessie kept on trying to turn back for them but Corey persisted that she should leave them for the greater being of their tribe.

It was pitch black now. The locked wooden door was in front of us, the sound of Stenches closing on us with no light, some without hope. An adviser passed a torch over; the Stenches were a few hundred metres away. I had a pack of C4 in my ammunition bag, next to the keys for the door. I grabbed them both, passing the keys to Corey and telling them that they had to return to their safe havens, that we had to make a stand here for the Stenches in L.A, I also told them to travel in pairs.

I knew that I was going to be travelling alone. Since it used to be me and Bill we had a chance but me against the Stenches in the tri-state area, I have minimal chance. Since I have to take an alternative route and travel down another station then to SafeHaven. I said my farewells and if that I survived I'd contact them. Corey passed me his R4-U1 machine gun; it was the latest machinegun before the virus hit.

I disbanded from them as the Stenches got close, the torch that I got from one of the Demon Dogs' advisers shone upon thirty to forty Stenches closing the entrance with them. I rushed down another tunnel; it was filled with dead corpses and Stenches alike. It was hard to jump over them. A few times I would lose my bearings and almost fall over, eventually I tripped. The C4 dropped and flying out of my hand as I fell. It landed, arming itself upon impact. The timer had thirty minutes and counting. I now had to hurry, forgetting about everything else as I was rushing up the stairs of the station that I was nearing.

Chapter Two: Sanctification

The streets were filled with Stenches. I aimed the R4-U1 at the Stenches, firing with rapid succession. As they got closer my hope was diminishing, for I too was going to be Stench meat and eventually one of them myself. My clip ran out, changing my weapon quickly and shooting the closest Stenches with the remaining ammunition of the pistol. The sound of Stenches was getting louder in the station below. I kicked the trashcan that I was leaning on down, down the stairs, tripping the Stenches.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a car. It was black and it had spikes on its bulbar, squashing and impaling the Stenches it drove towards me, I jumped in, my heart racing as I went to thank the person for his or her act. It was Mitchell, he was no longer pale and he didn't seem to have any symptoms of the virus, I was wrong about what the bite was and I apologised to him about it.

As we travelled through the Stench infested city I told him that we needed to get out of the L.A district as it was going to be blown up in less than twenty minutes. He pressed a button, two mini guns popped out of the hood and as he pressed a second button the seat which I was sitting on, changed into a man able turret with two additional mini guns on it. I fired spraying hundreds of bullets at the Stenches in the streets behind us.

Time was ticking down; we were out of the CBD and closing in on SafeHaven. The guard posts were in sight, they were shooting around us killing the Stenches that followed. The gate opened as we drove in, breaking and turning just before the steps of our congress building. Mitchell and I laughed as we looked out onto the city before it blew up. The force blew the car, flipping it several times and landing on the driver's side. Mitchell was knocked out. His was bleeding from his head.

I too was bleeding much more now, my right arm broken and the bone hanging out of the skin, my chest had a cut reaching all of the way across to my lower ribs. From my knees downwards covered in blood, and some of my ribs were cracked. I screamed in pain as I pulled myself out. I could smell gas as I got out of the broken remains of the car. Mitchell opened his eyes as I shouted at him to get out. He raised his thumb and smiled at me just before the car blew up, incinerating Mitchell in the process.

People rushed over to help me as I screamed at the loss. They also had guns to fend off the Stenches that were trying to get in as the gate shut tight. I proceeded to get up, as much as it hurt. I limped to what used to be Bill's office. I could see with one eye, it was swelling up as I limped in the office, then to the radio.

I called out to the others, and told them about Mitchell. I was addressed by Jessie, who seemed to be nicer to me as she was talking, about L.A now being a crater. The remaining Stenches were the ones that were around the walls of the safe havens. Corey addressed that he was on his way to me and that the civil tunnels were unaffected and we were still able to traverse through them.

As the radio cut out I stumbled to the window and called out to the people of SafeHaven. I mentioned to them that Bill was dead from a bomb, that I was the new commander. Also that L.A's Stenches have dwindled to a few in numbers and that this is a battle that will be won.