( Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Dawn of the Dead Franchise. George Romero does.)

Chapter 1

Three Weeks Ago

A coffee cup shattered on the front stoop of a small suburban house near the city of West Haven. It's shards flew in a rain of shattered porcelain onto the sidewalk and the lawn. Beth Wilson, the owner of the cup,(which had once been her favorite, it had a picture of herself on it and made the claim that she was the best girlfriend ever.)was in a state of shock.

She stood on her stoop looking out at her neighborhood and watched something, she couldn't quite understand, play out. In the back of her mind she could hear a voice, small yet persistent, telling her that she needed to get back into her house and lock it. Hell, throw that four hundred pound book shelf in front of the door for good measure. Yet she continued to ignore it and stood there watching this odd incident as it unfolded.

"I-I think I'm going crazy." She mumbled to herself.

Not ten feet away a man was screaming for help as her next door neighbor Kitten Howard thrashed at him and bit pieces of his body off. And, she was eating these pieces of the man! That was the part that really caught Beth off guard and had caused her to stand there stupidly staring at the whole horrible incident.

"I just came to get the paper." She reasoned with herself.

Then almost as if a light switch was flipped on, she suddenly realized what was going on. She turned and ran inside her house slamming the door and locking it behind her. She then raced for the phone to call the police department. She'd ask for Rusty, her boyfriend. She suddenly looked at the phone as if it were some kind of alien entity and put it back in it's cradle. There was no dial tone.

She ran for her cell phone upstairs, her mind racing in a thousand different directions. All the while one thought kept coming back to her. The riots in New York and Chicago, this has something to do with those damn riots! She repeatedly thought. Her hands began to sweat as she rummaged around her side of the bedroom for her cell phone.

"Where did I put that damn phone!" She called out frantically.

She grabbed desk drawers out and began throwing them on the floor digging for her phone. Paper, books, pens, and other items were thrown around the floor as she hunted desperately for her cell phone. She suddenly stopped and forced herself to calm down. Think Beth, Think hard! She thought to herself.

Outside, she could hear more screams, these newer screams sounded like they were coming from down the road. There was a loud noise that sounded like a car backfiring, but she knew that that wasn't what it was. Off in the distance she could hear sirens and more screams. She closed her eyes and managed to close these sounds out along with her sight.

"I was sitting at my computer reading an email from my mother when it rang. What did I do with it?" She thought harder on it. "I saw who it was, April's number popped up so I turned off the ring tone and let it vibrate off the desk!" She shouted happily.

She looked under the desk and, sure enough, saw the phone laying there. She grabbed it and flipped it open going to her contacts and picking Rusty's phone number. She put the phone to her ear expecting silence again, but this time she got a ring. She let it ring four times and was about to hang up when he answered his phone.

"Beth! Is everything okay?" He asked in a panicked voice.

"No, I think Kitty just killed someone on our lawn." She said.

"Kitty?! You mean soap actress Kitty? Oh man, then everything that the chief said is really true." He said more to himself.

"What do you mean?" Beth asked him getting only silence for a few seconds.

"Okay baby, listen for a second. We're going to start barricading sections of the city so that the military can come in and sweep the streets. There's something really screwy going on and I just need you to stay inside at all times. Don't go out for anybody okay?" He said.

"Okay Russ." She said.

"Another thing, don't let anybody in if they're bitten. We just got news from Topeka that that's how you get sick. Oh and I'll send someone to check on the neighborhood." He said.

"Baby?" She said.

"What?"

"I'm scared." She continued. She could hear him breathing into the phone, he sounded busy. In the background she could hear other officers yelling and talking in commanding voices. She recognized a few of the voices. She heard her ex boyfriend Drake barking orders and wondered how many police were actually there.

"Me too." Rusty said and hung up.

She set the phone down and got to her feet. A thought suddenly ran through her mind. What if Kitty decided to try and break into her house while she was up here? She shuddered and walked quickly back to the living room She peered out the window and saw that Kitty was now eating more of the man, had in fact tore him open and was eating his insides.

She closed her curtains praying that the police would make their way to her neighborhood soon. Outside she could hear helicopters flying overhead as the carnage continued out on the streets this once lovely and peaceful block. Her cell phone suddenly beeped upstairs causing her to jump. She made it up the stairs and into her room just in time.

"Hello?" She asked quietly.

"Beth, this is Holly from the firm. I'm just calling to let you know that no one is coming in today. Your boss said to tell you that as soon as this thing blows over we'll be back in. Don't worry about pay either, we'll all be getting checks for the hours we have to miss. Anyway, hon' are you okay?"

"I'm..." Beth wondered if she was okay. Considering what she just saw a few seconds ago, she figured she might need therapy after all of this was over. Other then that, she was fine.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just freaked out." She said.

"Tell me about it, the traffic into West Haven is terrible! Hold on, somebody further up the road is fighting with someone else. What on earth! Oh my God! OH MY GOD!" Holly suddenly screamed.

"Holly?! Holly!" Beth screamed into her cell phone.

She listened to Holly for two more minutes before the connection was lost, it sounded like someone was trying to get into Holly's car. Beth clutched the phone tightly in one hand and began to fidget with her hair with the other.

"I'm losing it." She moaned. Then a thought flashed into her mind, brief yet strong enough to make her snap back into reality.

"My sisters and brothers!" She said.

Beth dialed all three numbers and got no answer from any of her siblings. It made her increasingly stressful morning that much more so. As a way to temporarily forget about it, she decided to see if the TV had anything about the sudden oddity that was now beginning to infect this part of the world. She flipped the television on and saw much to her surprise, a live action news report.

"This is Trish Morris reporting live from downtown West Haven. We're here talking to Sgt. Mears about the barricades that are being set up throughout the city. Sir could you please fill us in on why the police are building these barricades?"

Beth saw a man with graying hair look at the screen. He looked cautious, nervous, and even more stressed than she felt. In the background she could see squad cars parked in front of a street as well as several swat vans. Police were running back and forth shouting things to one another. She caught a glimpse of Rusty.

"We are building these barricades to stop the rioters from getting inside the main areas of town. As well as hold them off until the Military arrives. This is a state of emergency and we think that it is very important for all of the viewers to stay inside their homes and keep their windows and doors locked until a police vehicle comes to pick you up." He said.

"You said the Military will be arriving? Does this have anything to do with the recent rioting activity that has spawned throughout the nation?"

"We believe it does have something to do with that at this time. We were also informed that it might be something a little bigger then people just rioting. We were informed by the police department in Topeka Kansas that these people are somehow infected with some kind of virus. They claim that a bite from the rioters will infect others. That is why I urge you to stay in your homes and lock all windows and doors. We are trying our best to send protection to the surrounding areas."

Just then a cop yelled something out, and the reporter ran for cover. The camera continued filming the incident and to Beth's horror she saw hundreds of rioters wandering towards the street her fiancée was trying to barricade.

"Fire!" Sgt. Mears shouted.

The camera began to shake around, due to what Beth figured was the camera man running for his life. She watched as a wave of rioters fell to the ground dead and others, even with bullet wounds, began to trudge forward. The camera man, who was now hiding behind a vehicle, was now filming a graphic scene in which a man with half a face was attacking an officer.

She felt the urge to call Rusty and tell him to get home, but knew he wouldn't answer the phone. A tear rolled down the side of her face as she watched the carnage unfold on the TV. Just as it was getting a bit too violent, a group of decidedly bloody rioters began to walk slowly towards the camera man.

She heard him let out a curse from under his breath, and then Rusty jumped in front of the man. He unloaded his assault rifle into the crowd of people and was then over run by them. The last thing she saw before they cut off the live footage was her fiancée being torn apart by the group of people.

The news cut back to the anchor man who was frantically rummaging for some new papers to read from. He looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She walked up to her TV and with a numb finger, pushed the off button. She then walked back to the couch and sat down, all thoughts of how her family might be were gone from her mind. She sat there like that for more than an hour trying to decide what to do. Her only source of protection was now gone.

"I'm all alone now." she mumbled.

Silence was her only answer. Then someone began to pound on her door. She jumped at the sound and carefully walked over to it, looking out of the peep hole. Kitty stood there covered in blood, she was trying to get in by pounding her head up against the hard oak. The skin on her forehead began to split open as she slammed her head against the door.

Beth Wilson began to scream in terror.

(And that is the beginning of part 2, Next chapter will involve the survivors of the first story and how they got off the side of the mountain.)