I LIVVVVVE! After who knows how long, I finally am once again uploading a fanfic. It has been way too long and it's time I got back into it. So….Without further ado...
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The sun shone brightly in the blue sky, his red Nike's slamming the pavement with each step he ran. His blond hair blew in the breeze, the green, squat building in the distance that was the bowling alley coming into sight. Memories of the bowling alley came to Rob's mind as he neared it, like the time he made out with his girlfriend in the bathroom, and then the time he and his buds spilled cheese all over the manager. That guy had been so pissed. All Rob and his buddies could do was laugh as they ran out of there. The memories dissolved before his eyes as he ran, right arm swinging quickly back and forth, his left hand held firmly onto the katana sheathed on his left side tightly within his leather belt to keep it from slipping while he ran. The second he reached the framed double doors, Rob quickly forced them open and then closed them shut, pushing against the strain of the hydraulic press of the door stoppers.
Swiftly he locked both sets of the double doors with a quick flip of the door lock switches. As he did, a hundred dead, rotting hands clamored against the window desperately trying to grab at the only living piece of flesh that was available. The blonde haired young man gasped with breath hitting his lungs hard. He paused, forced to catch his breath against the door frame of the second set of double doors, his chest heaving up and down. Finding some strength in his already fatigued legs, Rob stood up and went further inside, locking the second set of doors as well from the zombie hoard that now covered the entirety of the first set of four door entrances, the dead freaks pounding at them to try and break in. He knew it wouldn't take them long. Lord if only everything had been like it was before.
The world had been about average twelve hours ago if you didn't count the weird Asian boy trying to steal from everyone's mailboxes outside the apartments every morning. He woke up to the white walls and tan carpet as usual and proceeded to the identically covered living room. He passed by the Japanese flag hanging near the entrance to his kitchen, and picking up the remote to the TV, the one thing others thought normal in his apartment. The 65' inch flat screen, LED 3D Samsung TV; among all the Japanese memorabilia in Rob's small one room, one bathroom apartment, this was truly the centerpiece. He turned on CNNHD like he did every morning (except on Saturday when he slept in), and watched some fluff piece come up about weird medical cases being reported across the East Coast. Still half awake, Rob paid no attention to the newswoman. He soon got up and headed into his bathroom to shower down and properly wake up. As he did, the news story on the TV began developing.
All across America, no longer just bound to the East coast, medical cases featuring people having dead looking body parts began to start cropping up and spread like the plague it seemed to be. Also, curiously where each new case was called in, the area's were no longer able to be reached several minutes later, said the news anchor sitting undisturbed in her studio. Of course, she didn't notice the dead looking man behind him, which suddenly grabbed her off camera. Rob showered until he finally felt woke up, and proceeded to get out when suddenly he heard a banging sound coming from the front of the apartment. It sounded as if his front door had just been forced open. Most people in his apartment complex or near it who had met him knew better than to break into his house because not only did Rob own several katanas, which he practiced with regularly in his favored style of samurai swordsmanship martial art called Eishin-Ryu Iaijutsu, but he also was a certified black belt in aikido.
Quietly Rob turned the handle to his bathroom door and snuck out, clad only in a blue towel wrapped around his waist. Entering the short hallway that separated his kitchen on the left and his living room on the right, he caught a shadow of movement coming from the right. As he approached the entrance to the living room, Rob was distinctly aware he could hear breathing of sorts, hollowed out and mellow against the high pitched ringing of the TV, which reminded him of a screaming victim in a horror movie. Peeking around the corner to check for the intruder, Rob came face-to-face with a half eaten face, blood pouring off its cheekbone, exposed muscle tissue allowing a dangling right eye to wave about aimlessly.
"Holy crap!" Rob screamed as he bolted backward, slamming into the wall behind him. The rotting, dead-looking woman reached at him, but with swift movement Rob grabbed her/its forearm. His left hand was on the upper inside of it towards the elbow and his right hand grasped on the outer part of its wrist. He twisted it and dodged under the thing's armpit, the reeking smell hitting his nose like a wave of nausea after a roller coaster ride. He proceeded to perform his martial art move and pull the arm over his shoulder causing the female looking thing to roll across his living room, slamming into the wall with great force. Rob briefly thanked the Lord above for those Aikido classes as he bolted to his room and grabbed his sharpest, best quality katana from the stand bolted to the top of his bed frame.
He ran back as it began to get up. Rob drew the sharp sword from its black lacquered sheath, the feel of the brown leather wrapped handle feeling firm and tight in his grasp. The blade's polished folded steel shone in the morning sunlight pouring through his apartment windows, his sun-blocking curtains having fallen down after the thing's impact into the wall. With a steely gaze, he watched this thing come up off the floor. Surely no one who looked so weak and so wounded could do anything but lie in a bed and die. Rob stood with sword ready as it approached with a slow gait.
"Stop where you are, or I'll cut off your head!" He shouted loudly, hoping to alert someone, anyone, to his predicament and would call 911. But this thing didn't stop. Rob swore he saw see pieces of brain sticking out from fractured parts of the exposed skull as it neared. He gagged a little in his throat as it got within striking distance and showed no signs of stopping. Rob took a step back, giving himself room to maneuver. Suddenly, the dead woman lunged with a moan and he reacted instinctively with wide eyes. As the body fell to the floor and its head rolled off into his kitchen, Rob stood breathing heavily. It had taken some mental strength to do what he just did but he felt himself falling to his knees, sword still clasped in his hands.
Tears streamed down his face as he could only stare at the dead body. He had never ever done something like this to another human being before, taking their life, though he had practiced self-defense for years. Rob's stupor was suddenly interrupted by a noise coming from his left. The TV was still on CNNHD, looking at a now empty newsroom. He turned his head and thought to turn the TV off, but then the screen shook as someone adjusted the focus of the camera in the studio. Suddenly a man stepped around the corner, but mistakenly made the camera zoomed in on his face so he couldn't be made out clearly. Then he spoke.
"H-hello? Whoever is out there, my name is Daniel Jackson. I'm a worker here…in the newsroom. Oh man…this is a massacre." The camera suddenly went off his unfocused face to turn the camera and look at the dead bodies in the newsroom. Some of them looked just like the one he had killed. The man's voice seemed nervous as he continued his broadcast.
"I-if you're getting this, you need to know! These things, whatever the fuck they are, are dead! We were getting reports of people being bitten by these things and then certifiably dying. Then they got back up like it had been nothing. Oh shit, it's like the fucking apocalypse! The dead are rising from their graves!" The man's voice was becoming very shaky, very panicked.
"I don't know who you are, where you from, or if you can see this, but get the hell out of there and find someplace safer! These things break through solid wood doors like its nothing! Don't feel remorse for em, even if they look like your best friend! That's how they get ya…they eat you alive while your crying at getting to see your grandma alive after ten years." Riveted, Rob couldn't look away from the screen. This was a once in a lifetime broadcast. One the likes most never see. It was a broadcast on how to survive the impending doom.
"Stay away from the cities, these things spread like the mange on dogs! You'll be overrun in cities! Get out of town while you can and find someplace away from everyone! If you're not infected and can hear this, my name is Daniel Jackson, remember who it was who told you how to survive!" Suddenly the camera dropped to the floor, and all Rob could see now was Jackson's shoes as they took off to the door in view of the camera. He got a fleeting view of Jackson's back as it took off and slammed the door shut. Then nothing, all was quiet from then on. Rob sat motionless for a while. Was this really happening? He'd seen crap like this in every zombie apocalypse movie ever written. He chanced a look outside his windows.
His eyes gazed as he saw more people, no, those things wandering the streets in a dead stupor. He watched as another man got attacked by two of them. Rob looked on as blood spurted out of the man's neck like a fountain and then watched as he fell to the ground with the two monsters on him, eating him alive. That had been the last piece of evidence his brain needed. He had gotten together some survival gear and brought his best sword with him, the 150 fold steel blade with a brown leather wrapped handle and a black lacquered sheath hung in his belt now.
Rob turned around in the bowling alley to survey his surroundings. There was cheap blue carpet everywhere that went half way up the walls only to give in to a lighter blue wall and ceiling. The bowling lanes in all their polished wooden glory seemed untouched despite the apocalypse occurring. His eyes caught movement and saw two zombies, one wandering alongside the arcade games, and then another walking on the opposite side of the place near the snack bar.
"Might as well get this over with." Rob spoke with a tone of finality, as if he was unsure he'd be alive in the next few seconds. This was the code of Bushido, to face every moment as if it might be your last, yet to not fear death in the slightest. He put his fingers to his lips and whistled, loudly. The two zombies immediately reacted and started running right towards him. He drew his sword and held it in front of him in a relaxed pose, his arms to his sides, the sword leaning out towards the zombie running at him from the arcades. This one was first up on his kill list for the day. The once-human being ran at him full kilter, his arms reaching out to tackle and try to devour the living person.
Rob suddenly raised his blade above his head and just as the zombie got in range, he stepped forward with his right foot and brought it down at an angle from the right to the left. Its head, neck and half its torso exploded in blood and guts as half its body rolled off the top of its body, its lower half falling to the ground useless. Rob then turned about on his left foot and saw the other one about to jump at him. He lowered his sword along the ground and lowered his own body as well. The zombie leapt, defenseless in the air as he swung upwards, straight through the skull of the undead creature, carving off a good chunk of his trachea as well, blood and sounds of croaking escaping the throat before it collapsed. Rob stopped and then went to the head of the first zombie and used his katana to put the point into the victim's skull. He just had to be safe and sure.
The sound of breaking glass caused his head to turn and Rob's eyes widened as he saw the horde outside had broken through the first set of doors. He had to make tracks and fast. Swiftly he slung the blood off his blade and in the same move sheathed his sword in classic samurai fashion. Swiftly he ran through the seats down some short stairs to the bowling floor, moving along it to the door at the back of the lanes of the left side. The door had an EXIT glowing green above it. Unfortunately someone was stupid enough to have locked it. Rob angrily kicked the door.
"Who the hell locks an exit door?!" He growled in frustration as he moved around looking for an exit. The only other way out of the building was up a yellow ladder on the wall leading to the roof about 10 feet away from the main entrance Suddenly the sound of glass breaking caught his attention as the zombies busted through the last set of doors that were protecting him. A bunch of the monsters fell on top of each other, clambering to move forward. Of the 50 or so zombies that had broken in, ten were lying on their faces trying to get up. Rob looked around, his options very slim except to go out fighting with style. Suddenly he caught a glint of light in his eye and noticed the bowling lanes next to him shining brightly from the lamps above.
Rob stared at them for a moment, and then grinned to himself as he got an idea. Slowly he stepped out onto the bowling lanes, keeping his body close to the places where the pins normally sat. He watched the zombies slowly advancing this time, not having pinpointed his location yet despite now moving into plain sight in the middle of the lanes. Once he stood in the middle, Rob whistled again loudly. Surely he seemed bent on suicide as the zombies immediately reacted to the noise and began rushing towards the lanes. Five seconds went by and to Rob it seemed to go in slow motion as the zombies reached the lanes.
Suddenly the first seventeen that had run out onto them slipped and landed face forward or on their backsides, thanks to the wax that was still on the lanes from its last polishing. Like a scene from a cartoon, Rob stood with his sword out and watched as the zombies continuously tripped over themselves trying to reach him. Rob continued to stand still, waiting for them to draw closer at their snail-like pace. Finally one managed to crawl close enough to him to reach out to touch his boots. He responded by taking his black steel-toed boots and stomping down on its head as hard as he could, crushing the exposed skull, brain juices and blood leaking out beneath his feet.
The others began to draw closer and Rob began moving away to the right of the lanes, swinging his sword once and clipping the nose of one zombie, sending it reeling against the masses behind it. The monsters continued to try to reach him, but a slippery floor mixed with a group running never mixed. Rob was now gaining distance from the horde quickly thanks to his boots non-slip soles and his cautious walking.
Finally he exited the lanes, sheathed his sword, and began heading up the carpeted route to the main entrance. He would have enjoyed picking off the zombies one by one all over the lanes, but he knew better than to drag a fight out, because it could invite more to show up. Rob turned around a support column near the end of the lanes and moved briskly for the exit. He looked at the stumbling horde still trying to get to him, and then turned to look at his way out to find it blocked. The blood drained from his face as another massive horde started pouring in, walking at a fast pace towards the place where he had whistled earlier.
"Aw Hell," he accidently said out loud, due more to surprise than fear. The zombies then turned towards his direction. Rob had only one choice now. He ran towards the yellow ladder bolted to the wall, leaping over a set of chairs attached to the floor. The zombies picked up their pace as well, their moaning and groaning getting louder as well. Rob reached the ladder first and began climbing and seconds later the horde reached the bottom of it, one of the freaks grabbing at his boots. Rob growled in frustration as he kicked the offending monster in the face and then proceeded to climb up to the roof hatch and open it. He swiftly climbed out and looked down to the monsters hopelessly trying to climb up the ladder, some without limbs. Rob smiled as he laughed down haughtily to the monsters.
"Ha! That'll teach you to mess with me you freaks!" He laughed again and again at his good fortune of having gotten away just in time. He slammed the hatch shut, letting it automatically lock from the inside. As he turned around he quickly had to reach down to stop the kid sized zombie from taking a bite out of his stomach.
"Grrah!" Rob screamed as the thing grabbed a hold of his leg and wouldn't let go. He didn't even think as he brought his fist down onto its forehead, stunning it long enough, for him to hold onto its shoulders, then reach his other leg up and kick it in the chest, forcing it back. He then drew his sword one more time and this time brought it down on top of the zombies head. The blood and brains that came from the neatly sliced head was massive. It was almost like looking at a medical slide of the half of a brain except that his cut wasn't nearly as pretty or straight looking. Rob breathed heavily once again, adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream. He dropped to his knees once again, this time out of loosing stamina.
Rob looked at the zombie he had just killed. Suddenly his eyes widened as he realized this was the Asian boy that had always tried to steal his apartment's mail. How he had gotten over here or why he had ended up a zombie on the roof Rob didn't know. He moved off his knees, still clutching his sword as he maneuvered to sit down and just catch his breath. Rob looked down at his legs. Torn up jeans had protected his legs from getting scratched up and probably infected by zombie hands. He saw an air conditioner unit nearby and moved to sit back against it, looking up at a blue sky. It was just one of what would be many more typical days of surviving zombie hell.