Prologue: Across the Street

Zoey was more than uncomfortable. She was scared. Scared for her life. Scared for her friends' lives. Scared to be outside with all of these zombies roaming around. At least, she thought, we haven't been alerted any zombies for a while so we're safe… for now.

Zoey had three others with her in the group of survivors. Louis, the kind store manager she had met a couple weeks ago, and had found fighting off zombies in his hardware store. She had helped him hold off the zombies, and he decided to accompany her, as the hardware store was no longer safe. She liked him, he was nice, sensitive, and a well-to-do kind of guy. He could be a pansy at times, but it was endearing to Zoey.

Next in the motley crew, Bill, the old 'Nam vet', that has been there for "old people day" at Zoey's college. She and Louis had found him being choked to death by a Smoker several hours ago. They saved him,he thanked them, lit a cigarette, and became the self-appointed leader of the two. Neither Zoey nor Louis refused his leadership, and were happy to have someone with combat experience leading them. Zoey looked at Bill as somewhat of a father figure, now that her father was Infected and gone. Zoey stopped herself from thinking about that a lot. Absently, she looked at his cigarette and the irony of his near-death experience made her laugh out loud.

Finally, there was Zoey's least favorite person in the world, Francis. He pretty much broadcasted that he was the biggest asshole in the world. Zoey couldn't think of anyone she ever met, or will meet, that would be a bigger dick than Francis. She hated everything about him, his blatant disregard for the law, his tattoos which were from a local biker gang, or the fact he hated just about everything. The only thing Francis didn't hate was leather, which he himself proclaimed, after Bill rhetorically asked if there was anything he doesn't hate.

After Zoey had laughed at the irony of Bill's peril and his smoking addiction, the three looked at her quizzically. "I think we just might have a crazy here, fellas" Francis said as he turned to the other two. Zoey glared daggers at him.

"I'm just fine in my head, dickwad."

Francis smiled and added, "and a sassy nutso at that."

That got Zoey going. She was about to spit venom at Francis when Bill sighed at the childish behavior and said "Let's get going people, we aren't gonna get out of the city by standing here bitching at each other." Francis grinned sheepishly at Bill while Zoey still fumed at Francis' jibes at her.

They walked on down the sidewalk, coming to an alley on the side. Since the road in front of them was blocked by police barricades, they took the alley.

"Jesus, I don't like the look of this." said Louis. Zoey could sympathize with that. The entire alley was littered with the bodies of Infected and survivors alike.

"Hold up." Bill held up his fist, as a hand signal, an old habit from his military days. Bill walked over to a corpse and dug in his fingers as something took his interest. Zoey walked up to him to see what it was. His hand came out of the corpse with a green, slimy goop on his thumb, index, and middle finger. "Haven't seen anything like this before", he commented.

"Don't let that stop you from smearing it all over yourself." sneered the resident asshole.

Yeah, thought Zoey, I don't know anyone that could challenge this guy for Dick of the Millennia Award.

She caught a whiff of the green goop and it smelled terrible. Zoey had once taken a face full of garbage as a freshman in high school. This was worse, and she was a couple of feet away. She turned away disgusted. Zoey smirked when she saw Bill smear the green goop all over Francis' biker jacket.

"Ugh, this stuff stinks!" Francis whined.

Serves you right, asshole, thought Zoey.

"They're changing" Bill stated matter-of-factly.

That was when the group heard the mournful sobbing.

"Oh my God," said Zoey, "someone's still alive!" Zoey and Bill shared a look and went to check out the source of the heartrending cries.

It was coming from a door on the building to the right. Zoey tentatively opened the door. "Hello?" she quietly asked, "Is anyone there? We're still alive. It's O.K. to come out." Suddenly, she saw a dark shape against the wall. Slowly, she shined the flashlight at the "person" so as not to frighten them. As the flashlight rose painfully slow, it revealed bare, skinny legs, a tattered skirt, and hands with really long fingers. As Zoey was about to shine the light on the "person's" face, lightning flashed. Bill faltered and realized what the "person" was.

He quickly turned to Zoey and ordered "Light. Off." Zoey did as she was told. Since Bill assumed she didn't see the full figure in the lightning, or didn't know what a Witch was (Bill guessed the former) he whispered "Witch." Although Bill couldn't see it in the dark, Zoey blanched. They were slowly backing away from the source of the crying, when the shit hit the fan.

Outside, they heard Louis let out a steady stream of profanity followed by hurried footsteps, shouting "THEY'RE COMING!" Louis appeared in the doorway, and his flashlight (as if Providence itself were mocking them openly) shined directly on the Witch's face. It faced him and Zoey's eyes shot wide open and she screamed "RUN LIKE HELL!" as the Witch rushed at them. Bill slammed the door in its face and turned to fight the zombies. Louis had been "assigned" the duty of holding the door shut. He completed his objective easily enough, as the door stayed shut as the Witch's claw slammed through the door. Louis didn't take kindly to the Witch trying to spill his guts and sprayed it with bullets from his Uzi. Francis had been actively defending the group from the zombies approaching from the way the survivors came. Bill was defending the other entrance to the alley. Francis had finished defending the one side of the alley and came to help Bill. It was lucky he did, as at that second, another Smoker grabbed Bill, which Francis took out with a single shell from his shotgun. Then, Zoey remembered she had an ace still up her sleeve.

She yelled "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" and threw the pipe-bomb. It was as if everything went in slow-motion in that second it took to throw the explosive. It flew into the air with its red, flashing light, and obnoxious beeping, luring the Infected to it. The Infected took the bait, and ran at the device, enraged at the thing. It only took a few seconds and then the explosion came. After, there was a bloody mist, but no Infected. That was much more preferable to Zoey.

The sounds of a helicopter, drew all attention away from the previous fight. Louis, hope returning, ran after the helicopter, shouting "Hey! Down here! We're not Infected! Down here!" Across of the top of the alley, unheeded by the survivors, a small, quick, dark shape bounced off the walls. As Louis ran into the street, still shouting his hopeful, but vain, mantra, the Hunter took it's chance and leaped at Louis. Zoey was just coming out of the alley when this happened. Zoey shoved the Hunter off Louis and shot it over and over with her handguns until Louis killed it with a headshot, and it landed on the car behind it.

The car alarm went off.

"Oh, this is gonna get bad." Bill said to no one in particular. The chorus of shouts, screams, and battle cries from the Infected answered him, as hundreds, if not thousands poured out from all sides, everywhere they could come from, except the alley behind them, they came out of. They were all eager to silence the annoying sound of the car alarm and take care of the meatbags that had set it off.

Louis, slightly hysterical at seeing the number of zombies, stated "This can't possibly get any worse."

He was wrong.

Crashing through the police barricade, going through the Infected like a bulldozer, tossing a car like it was a pebble, was a Tank. "You have got to be kidding me." Louis cursed their bad luck. He turned to Bill. "Run or shoot?" He asked. Bill didn't respond. "RUN OR SHOOT?" He asked, slightly more frantic.

Bill replied, "Both."

They ran and shot. The survivors ran into an alleyway across the street from the previous one, shooting down the zombies in their way and the ones chasing them. Louis spotted a ladder as they turned a corner in the alley, which lead to a fire escape, that led to a roof. "To the roof!" he exclaimed. "Go, go, go!" ordered Francis as he turned around to hold off zombies. Zoey was the first to go up and lost track of the others until she reached the top of the ladder. By the time she reached the top, Louis was up on the fire escape, and Francis had just dodged the Tank's most recent punch, assisted by Bill who distracted it while Francis climbed up. Finally, it was Bill's turn to climb, and as he turned to the ladder, a head exploded next to him, as Zoey called for him to climb, she would hold them off. Bill started to climb, only to be followed by the Tank, desperate for a kill by now. The fire escape started falling apart as the weight of the Tank was too much for it to bear. Bill made it up on the roof, but Zoey was still firing at the Tank trying to deter it. It was in vain, but before it could reach her, the fire escape finally gave way and started to fall off the building. Zoey knew it was now or never. She ran towards the building as the fire escape detached. She jumped but fell just short, suspended in mid-air for half a second and she screamed her would-be-savior's name, as she fell. "Francis!" She braced herself for the fall towards her end. But suddenly, either gravity turned off, or she stopped in mid-air and she felt warmth on her wrist. Francis had grabbed her wrist just in time, and stopped her from falling.

Francis had saved her life.

He pulled her up with a slight heave and was assisted by Louis as Zoey got on the roof. Louis felt immense relief and voiced as much. "We made it! I can't believe we made it!"

Bill took a drag of his cigarette as he said "Son, we just crossed the street. Let's not throw a party until we're out of the city." The sudden realization stunned everyone as they saw he was correct. All that drama, survival, and primal takeover, was just crossing the street. What would escaping the entire CITY entail?

Francis had had enough. "I hate this city." He complained. Zoey, despite herself, agreed with him.

Maybe Francis wasn't so bad after all.

A/N: Alright guys, Chiir0n here. I have recently gotten some critique from Godzillafan93, one of my favorite authors on FanFic and have changed some things in the chapter. I noticed I have some follows and getting several reviews in only a couple weeks' time. This is beyond my expectations and makes me glad! Thanks to all who have read and are reading my story right now. To my future readers, PLEASE REVIEW MY STORY, LOVE OR HATE, ALL I WANT IS SOME CRITIQUE!

Thanks (in advance to my future readers),
Chiiron