Author's Note: What had started out as a quick project for a friend turned into something much bigger, at about Chapter 3. This here is the alternate, and now official begining of shattered. Not much has changed, just enough for the story to fit together a little better (in my eyes anyway). If this is your first time opening 'Shattered' I hope you enjoy the story.
Rated fiction M (see profile for more information)
Shattered
Robert K. Anderson
Chapter 1: The End Begins
A purring sound woke Jackie Hunter. She made a low groan, and flipped onto her back. She felt something walking across her stomach up to her chest. Jackie opened her eyes to see her cat Caesar standing on her, staring into her face.
"Asshole," she muttered, plucking the cat off her and dropping him on the floor. He let out a small meow of displeasure before darting out of the room and taking off up the stairs.
She threw her covers off and stepped out of the bed. Since she had an old bunk bed she slept in total darkness. The only window in her basement bedroom bathed the rest of the room in light. So when she stood she had to blink a few times to get used to the sudden light.
Jackie glanced at her clock, noting that it was 9:30. Her stepbrother Cody, and little brother Max, would still be asleep upstairs, but her father and stepmother would be gone out to work already.
She pressed the power button on her 5 CD stereo. As the mechanics inside worked to get the CD into place she walked over to her closet. As she opened it the song 'Root of all evil' started playing from the band Dream Theater.
She changed quickly into a pair of black jeans, and a gray t-shirt with Canadian Forces printed across it. She looked into her closet again, shaking her head at the CADPAT uniform and tactical vest hanging in there, and the helmet sitting on a shelf. Only 18 and she was trained to kill.
Joining the Army reserves had been a good idea, but it had made one hell of a summer for her. Of course it hadn't helped her at school any. Not academically, she was fine in that department. It was socially that she had trouble with. What with running off to distant backwater towns for training on weekends and holidays. She also liked to wear black and gray, and some of her friends wore all black, so people had started calling her a Goth. It really didn't bother her much though; she was used to it by now. It was just weird.
What really pissed her off though were the prep girls who would weigh 100 pounds soaking wet calling her fat. She only weighed 162 pounds, and it wasn't from fat. She was 6'2, with long dark brown hair that hung down to her shoulders. Her eyes were hazel, and her body had an athletic build.
Jackie rubbed her eyes to get some of the sleep out of them. She flicked her stereo off and left her room. She wandered up the stairs into the kitchen. Sleepily she reached into the cupboard near the floor and pulled out a box of Honeycomb cereal. She went around the kitchen gathering the bowl, spoon, and milk before finally settling at the table and pouring her cereal into the bowl.
She ate her cereal in silence, watching the cat out of the corner of her eye. He was running around batting around a ball of tin foil. If only she could be amused that easily March break wouldn't be so boring.
Her friends all lived in town, and she was way out hell out here in Joyceville. Basically it was a small village on the outskirts of Kingston. She didn't drive yet, hadn't even gone in for her G1. Cody could, he was 20, had his license and had a truck out in the driveway. Unfortunately it was uninsured, and was missing some parts for it to be legal to drive on the road. One of his buddies was supposed to be helping him fix it up, but so far no luck.
After finishing her cereal and leaving the dishes by the sink, Jackie wandered into her father's office, where the computer was kept. Just beside the office was Cody's room, and beside that Max's. Jackie didn't care though, she sat in the comfortable leather chair and booted up the computer. She sat back waiting for everything to load up. When it finally did, she opened up the connection to the internet and again had to sit back and wait.
Dial-up pissed her off, but she couldn't afford the much faster DSL. She sighed, opening MSN messenger. She scanned through the list of available contacts, and saw that no one was online. They must all still have been asleep.
"Lazy bastards," she said, flicking off MSN, slightly disappointed that Caity wasn't online. She missed her. Jackie decided to go downstairs and watch some movies. Another boring day lay ahead of her.
Jackie sat in the chair staring at the blank TV screen. The power had just gone out. Now she was completely cut off from the world.
At that moment there was a loud thump upstairs. Frowning Jackie got out her seat and slowly started up the stairs.
"Cody what the hell are you doing?" she asked just before she reached the top and looked into the kitchen.
On the floor was a man chewing on the remains of the cat. Half his face was torn away revealing the gleaming white bone of his skull, and the muscles of his jaw. One eye was missing, and there was blood all over his tattered clothes.
"Holy shit," Jackie yelled out.
The stranger turned at the sound. His one remaining eye was white and clouded. He got to his feet and started running towards Jackie. She spun and ran back down the stairs. The stranger came crashing after her, and fell down the stairs.
He hit his head against the hardwood floor of the basement with a solid crack, but he was still alive, somehow. Jackie ran to the fireplace and grabbed the black iron fire poker. She let a small smile cross her face, and looked at the creature crawling rapidly across the floor with its bony hands, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. Jackie went up to it and drove the point of the fire poker through the man's skull, straight through to the floor. He stopped moving after that. Jackie pulled the improvised weapon out from the man's head, the hook pulling off a chunk of bone, and pulling out lumps of brain matter.
There were multiple thumps in quick succession from the stairs. Jackie looked up in time to see Cody standing there wearing only his white and red shorts that he slept in. He stared at the corpse lying on the floor in a quickly spreading pool of blood, before flicking his gaze to Jackie standing above it with a gore stained fire poker.
"What the fuck?" he yelled.
Jackie's eyes drifted down towards the body of the man. The state he was in would have been impossible for anyone to have been alive, much less breaking into a house, catching then eating a kitten, falling down a flight of twelve stairs and surviving, then crawling across the floor to catch another meal. This man had already been dead before coming into this house, there was nothing else that Jackie could think of.
"I think it's a zombie," Jackie said, prodding the body with the fire poker.
"When I said I didn't want to be bored out of my skull today, I didn't expect this," he then stated.
Max came down the stairs, and stopped, stunned at the bloody scene before him. His mouth hung open, as Cody ran back upstairs.
"Get dressed Max," Jackie told him.
He nodded dumbly before walking back upstairs to get dressed. Jackie looked down at the gore covered fire poker, before running up the stairs as well. She looked at the front door, which was wide open, and closed it. She looked through the window in the door but didn't see any more zombies. There was one advantage to living out in Joyceville.
Jackie turned back to face inside, and saw Cody emerging from his bedroom, wearing a dark blue sweater, a Toronto Maple Leafs hat, and blue jeans. He spotted her still holding the fire poker.
"Alright Jake, now what?" he asked, using the nickname that her friends used.
"Dad has guns downstairs in the workshop. A rifle and a shotgun," Jackie said. Cody nodded and the two headed downstairs again for the workshop. As soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs she flicked her gaze over to the corpse on the floor. It hadn't moved so she went into the workshop.
"Where are they?" Cody asked, looking around the cluttered workshop. All he could see were shelves of paint, tools, a messy workbench, and a Jack Daniel's poster. Jackie pulled down the poster revealing a cupboard. Cody nodded slightly in response, then noticed the lock.
He was about to ask how they were going to get in when Jackie picked up a hacksaw from the workbench. She began to cut through the metal.
"Guess dad hoped anyone breaking in was stupid," she thought aloud while working.
After a few minutes of sawing the lock fell off and clattered on the stone floor. Jackie opened the cupboard revealing the 12-gauge pump action shotgun, with pistol grip, and the .22 bolt action rifle. Cody raised his eyebrows, and nodded in silent approval.
Jackie pulled the rifle out and handed it to Cody because he kept bragging about how he grew up around guns and how he was such a good shot. Jackie had always wanted to use the shotgun anyway.
"So this has been really weird. So unlike all the zombie movies we've seen. I mean we've only seen one, there was no emergency broadcast, or anything," Cody said.
"Yeah well, population is kind of light out here. Also, when was the last time we actually watched TV? All we do is watch movies or try and chat on the internet. Well, this would explain why no one was on this morning," Jackie said, thinking to herself.
"hunh?" Cody asked, slightly confused.
"Doesn't matter, hope you feel like driving," Jackie said, opening a drawer at the bottom of the cupboard revealing two boxes. One was full of shotgun ammo, and the other full of rifle ammo.
"Why? Where are we going? I think its safer to stay out here," Cody said.
"Yeah, but we only have so much ammo. Get me to the Thompson Drill Hall, I can get some weapons and ammunition there," Jackie said.
"That's on the base. You know how many of those damned zombies will be there? Lots, we should just stick out here. Besides, what about Max?" Cody asked.
"What about him?" Jackie asked right back.
"We can't leave him here all alone, and we're not bringing him with us. It's too fucking dangerous. I don't want to have to watch his ass," Cody said, voice raising a bit.
"Fine, we'll get Karen to watch him, then we go into town, grab our stuff, see if we can save anybody, and fuck off," Jackie said. The two stared at each other for a moment. Then Cody leaned forward slightly.
"You're insane⦠Let's do it, I want to cap some zombies" Cody said finally with a wild grin.
The two ran up the stairs. Max was eating a bowl of honeycomb at the table. He looked up and saw the guns. His eyes went wide with amazement.
"Cool," he said.
"Max, Karen is coming over here to watch you. Do everything she tells you to," Jackie told him.
"I know about the zombies Jake. I'm not stupid," her little brother said defiantly, with an angry look on his face.
"Yeah I wish," Cody responded for his step-sister. She couldn't help but smile a bit, and Max sulked hanging his head over his cereal bowl, long brown hair almost in the milk.
Cody raised an eyebrow then turned and left the house. Jackie was right behind him. Outside their house there were only two other houses. One was a farmer's, the other was Karen's right next door. Cody was about to go and start his truck when Jackie stopped him.
"Stay here, watch the Donaldson's," she said, nodding towards the farmer's place.
Cody looked over, noticing the broken down door. He nodded, and checked to make sure his rifle was ready. Jackie quickly ran across her yard to Karen's. Karen was a close friend of her father's, she would undoubtedly help out.
Jackie went up to the front door and started knocking loudly. For a few moment's there was no answer, then the door swung open. Karen stood there in her house coat staring at Jackie with sleepy eyes.
"Need something?" she asked.
"Karen, something has gone horribly wrong, and we need your help," Jackie said.
