Hey, guys! Some of you probably know me from my stories, Destiny and Because of You. While working (with a sore hand), I also became sick. So, I had the past two days off. I was working on some chapters for my other stories when I came up with another story idea. This one. With the help of my friend, Bella Marie Whitlock, I think we'll be able to make this story come alive.
*WARNING* This is rated M for Mature. There will be violent and graphic scenes as well as some scenes of sex. I do not advise anyone under 18 to read this. You choose to read this at your own risk. If anything about this story bothers you, I suggest putting it down.
*Disclaimer* Twilight's character's belong to Stephenie Meyer. The story line belongs to Bella Marie Whitlock and I.
If you are still reading this, I applaud you. I have some more information for you. This story will mostly be in Bella's point of view. Every few chapters, there will be one written from a different character's point of view before switching back to Bella. Also, I'd like you to keep an eye out for "Meet the Characters" at the end of the chapters. It will come in handy!
With further adieu, I present you with Before the Dawn. Enjoy!
Chapter 1 - First Steps
I groan as I start to regain consciousness, I find that I'm quite disoriented. I try getting up, however I can't move. There is something securing me in place. I try to open my eyes but there is a crustiness sealing them shut. I'm able to free my right hand and I scrub at my face. Blinking a few times, I realize that I'm upside down. Trying not to move myself too much, because I do not know the extent of my injuries, I look around slowly. I am able to determine that I'm in a vehicle and being held in place by the seat belt. There is broken glass scattered around me and dried blood smeared on my right hand. My left hand is tangled in the airbag. How it got like that confuses me. I'll need a knife or scissors to get free.
The ringing in my ears won't stop. What is it from? How do I stop it? I shake my head and try to ignore it. I can worry about the ringing later. Right now, I have to get out. I squint looking out of the broken window. It's dark out, that much is obvious. I can see multiple cars on their sides or upside down. A lot of them are on fire. In the distance, I can hear a car alarm blaring because something is against its steering wheel.
A shuffling sound catches my attention. I look for the source of the sound and see feet walking by an overturned truck that is on fire. "Help," I croak, barely audible. I try clearing my throat to call out again. I blink and swallow hard. Dear God, that hurts. I open my mouth to voice my plea when something else grabs my attention.
A person is crawling out of a beat up car. I realize it's a little girl coming out of a busted back window. She looks about six years old. The little girl has blood running down the side of her mouth and ash covering her clothes. "Mommy!" She cries, frantically looking around. The shuffling stops, so I peek over to where I last saw the feet. The person who belong to the feet is turning around and heading towards the little girl. That must be her mother. "Mommy! Where are you?" She cries out again. The person walks closer to the little girl. "Do you know where my mommy is?" The little girl attempts to ask as the person comes into view.
The person doesn't stop. He or she keeps walking up to the little girl. They don't even acknowledge her question. "What happened to your arm?" The blonde girl asks with wonder in her voice. The only response she receives is a groan. Are they upset she asked the question? My eyebrows furrow. "Can you help me find my-" the girl starts but then abruptly begins to scream bloody murder.
Not knowing what is happening, I start to panic. I use my right hand to claw at the seat belt holding me into place. The seat belt clasp releases, which makes me fall onto the roof of my overturned truck. My hand is still stuck in the deflated air bag. The girl screams again, but it dies out into a gurgling sound. A soft thud causes me to look over. The little girl's lifeless body is sprawled out on the ground. I gasp at the sight. The fire from the cars are dancing off of her glassy eyes. A chunk of her arm is missing as well as her throat. It looks as if a bear ripped it out.
My eyes grow wide. I clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming when I see the person throw itself onto the little girl. It starts pulling and ripping at her clothes before sinking it's bloody mouth onto the girl's stomach. The tearing of her flesh makes my skin crawl and I feel myself turning green. I swallow the bile rising up in my throat when the creature begins pulling at her intestines. I put more pressure on my mouth because I don't want to attract any attention to myself by making noise as I throw up.
When it is finished with the little girl, it stumbles to its feet and shuffles away groaning. I look back to the little girl's body with tears in my eyes. Seeing her like that makes me realize I can't stay here. That thing might come back at any minute. Propping myself up onto my knees, I begin tugging at the airbag with my free hand. After a few attempts, I try biting through it with my teeth. Finally getting my left hand free, I poke my head out of the broken windshield. Looking around, I deem it safe enough to get out. Standing up, I clutch my head as the ringing makes itself known again. Once standing, I can't believe my eyes!
Dozens of cars are scattered up and down the street. Bloody bodies litter the ground. I shakily cover my mouth and let out a soft cry. Upon seeing all of this, it triggers a memory as to why my ears are ringing.
"Madeline," I whined, pulling my favorite blouse out of the washer. My once white blouse was now stained pink. A lone red sock sat at the bottom of the machine. I groaned. "Maddie, you can't do the wash by yourself You mixed the whites in with the colors! Now everything is pink!"
Maddie pulled the thumb out of her mouth. "Sowwie, sissy. I just wanna hewp. You awways do evweyfing." I rolled my eyes as I picked up my little sister and tossed her into the air. She squealed in delight as I caught her in my arms.
I brought her face to mine and nuzzled her nose. "Princess, I love that you want to help, but this is too much for a kid to do by herself. I'll tell you what, you can help me do it from now on, okay?" I asked her.
She nodded eagerly. "Uh huh! Uh Huh!
"Alright, let's get you something to eat before I have to leave for class. Mom should be home in a few." I held my sister close to me as I walked into the kitchen. "Here, you can help me by getting the milk and cheese out," I said as I put her on her feet.
Giggling in delight, she took off towards the fridge. I went to the pantry to grab out some elbow macaroni. When I came back, Maddie was standing in the middle of the kitchen holding onto the milk and cheese for dear life. The cheese started slipping out of her hands, so I grabbed it from her and placed it on the counter. She put the milk on the floor while she ran to get her step stool. I put the pasta into a pot of water and waited for it to boil.
When the noodles were finished, I drained the water and opened the milk. I poured the desired amount of milk into the pot. I opened the cheese and grabbed two hands full of cheddar cheese and threw it in the pot as well. Maddie had the big wooden spoon in her hand. "Ready to stir, chef Maddie?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" She cheered happily.
I wanted to help her get to a better vantage point so, I picked her up and placed her on my hip. For a three year old, she was very light. She placed the spoon in the pot and began to stir. There were a few times where I had to help her stir, but she practically did it all by herself. My mother got home just as we finished dishing it out. I sat with Maddie at the table and ate while I looked through my phone.
My cousin Emmett posted on Facebook about being in Colorado. I was really jealous of him for that. I've always wanted to travel, but I was stuck in Seattle. My mother couldn't find it in herself to leave the state of Washington after my father passed away two years ago. We originally lived in Forks, Washington where my father was the police chief. After he was killed in the line of duty, my mother needed to get away. She did not want to get too far, because she also wanted to be close to father. When she moved us, we went to Seattle in the middle of my senior year. Maddie was only a year old, so she doesn't remember life in Forks or our father.
When she first turned three, she began to ask about him. When she asked we told her a little bit about him. We told her how strong and handsome he was. We told her how he died protecting people. She called him a hero and her knight in shining armor. Our mother cried at that. I gave Maddie a picture of him the other other week to keep in her room. Sometimes I'd find it under her pillow when I cleaned her room. Other times I would find it on top of her pillow as she drifted off to sleep when I tucked her in.
After mother moved us to Seattle, I decided I was not going to apply for college. I wanted to go into the police academy like my father, but mother forbid me from doing so. She brought out the waterworks, which of course had broken me in two. She cried about how she lost our father to the force and how she doesn't want to lose a daughter too. So, I stayed in Seattle. I applied to colleges all over Washington and got accepted into North Seattle College, where I was in the midst of my sophomore year. I chose to study law. As I thought about college, it made me realize I needed to be on my way or else I'd be late for class. I rushed to finish my food, so I could get to school on time.
As I headed to the door, the news made me stop. Usually, I didn't watch the news because it is mainly all about celebrities. But this story had a flashing red headline and a beeping sound to draw attention. Which was rare. They were showing a video on repeat. In the video, you could see a man attacking another man on the street. There was a lot of blood but no weapon. I furrowed my brows as I moved closer to the screen to try and catch what the reporter was saying. However, I didn't get very far as my mother turned it off. "Stupid people and their drugs. That's what LSD does to you. Go on, Bella. Get on out of here or you will be late for class. I don't work as hard as I do to pay for your tuition to have you skipping class!"
Doing as she said, I left the house with only my wallet and a notebook. I didn't need much to go to class. I only had one tonight. I hopped into my Ford Explorer and backed out of my driveway. When I got to campus, there were people buzzing around and rushing to their cars. Confused, I walked up to the nearest fleeing group of people and stopped them. I asked what was going on.
"Look, a woman attacked a man and started eating him!" The girl all but shoved her phone in my face. I watched in horror as the man's cheek was torn off by the woman.
"People need to lay off the drugs!" I exclaimed. That's what my mother said it was. It was most likely that these people were on drugs. What else would make a person act like such a psychopath?
"Didn't you hear? It's not drugs! It's zombies." A boy yelled in my face. "It's been happening all over the city the past two days! People have been dying and coming back to life. They've been attacking other people and turning them as well. There is talk that it's only in our city, so they want to bomb us now to wipe it out. Didn't you notice the people evacuating the city while you were driving? We just found out, that's why we're leaving campus!" The boy waved his hands around frantically.
I gasped and turned on my heels. I ran to my truck and sped out of the parking lot. I had to get home to my mother and Maddie. We had to get out of the city. I was halfway home when an enormous and loud crash startled me. Then right away another crash happened and I peeked into my rear view mirror. I watched in horror as explosion after explosion went off like dominoes. Bombs were being deployed all around me!
An explosion a few miles ahead made jerk the wheel and lose control. In a split second, my car was rolling. My head snapped to the side and hit the windshield with a painful crack. That was the last thing I remembered before the blackness overtook me.
Seeing the damage from the bombs, roots me in place. I can't believe the government would do this to so many innocent people! By the looks of it, it seems as if their bombing didn't even work from what I experienced earlier. That little girl was murdered by zombies. Fucking zombies! Does that mean the neighboring towns will all have zombies, too?
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I look around. I'll need to find myself a weapon. From what I know about killing zombies, you have to go for the brain. Killing the brain means killing the zombie. Easy enough. Right? Let's just hope they're as slow as they are portrayed in video games and movies. I also know I need to stay on the move. Staying in one place for too long can be horrendous. Especially if they start to form a herd. Then we'll be in huge trouble! Thank God for all of the zombie based video games I played on my Playstation 4. I never thought I would need to know how to survive the zombie apocalypse.
Looking at a nearby sign, I realize I am a few miles away from my house. I can do this. I just have to get to my mother and my little sister. We'll pack some stuff and head to a new town. Hopefully they won't have any zombies. Picking up a metal pole, I begin my hike home.
*****Meet the Characters*****
Name: Bella Swan
Age: 20
Likes: Reading and playing video games
Education: Sophomore in College
Relationship Status: Single
Current turn on: The strong, silent type
Current turn off: Stinky feet
Height: 5' 4" (and no, that doesn't make her vertically challenged)
Weight: 105 lbs
Size: 2
Currently: Alive and freaking the fuck out at the moment