Felix Johnson woke up from his sleep in a violent fit. His eyes quickly scanned the empty classroom in the darkness and his left hand dropped to his thigh where a 9mm laid resting in a holster that he had strapped to his leg. He pulled it out quickly and stood up with practiced ease that he had acquired over a period of time. He held the gun at the ready and made his way cautiously to the door. He undid his homemade lock and pushed open the door quickly and hopped back ready for anything that might try to force its way in. He let out a small breath of relief as the doorway was empty. He stuck his head out the door and saw that the long hallways of the school were just as dark and empty as they had been when he had gone to bed. He flipped on the flashlight attachment he had added to his pistol and walked slowly towards the doors that led to the outside world. He undid the lock that kept the push doors securely in their place and walked outside. The doors had once led to an open area with railings, but Felix had boarded them up long ago. He slowly made his way to the stairs and looked down. It was still empty. He took the left side of the stairs down, he had put grease on the steps of the right side as an added protection. He turned and looked down the rest of the small stairwell and saw that the large metal doors that kept the entrance to the stairs was still just as secure as he had left it. He sighed relaxing and slid the gun back into his holster. He rubbed his eyes gently and yawned. He hadn't had a good night sleep since the incident that had turned most of the planet into insane flesh craving monsters. He could see through the cracks in his boards that the sun was beginning to rise so he decided it was no use trying to get back to sleep. Felix walked down the rest of the stairs and used the small key hanging around his neck to open the door off to the left of the large metal one that he kept closed at all times. He pushed it open and closed it behind him as he walked out onto the deserted campus. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. He could still remember how he had hated most of the kids that went to school there, but now he would kill to have them back. Now most of them were either gone or part of the large ash pile a few miles away from the campus. He chuckled as he thought about the plans the he and his friends had made back when the world was normal. They thought that they would be ready for the end of the world if it happened, but none of them could have known that the virus would have killed them off before they even got a chance to fight back. Yet for some reason Felix hadn't caught the first stage of the virus and had been one of the unlucky few who where now forced to live in a world dominated by mindless monsters, fighting for survival every second of the day. He heard a soft groan from behind him and the shuffle of running feet and he quickly tossed himself to the side as a rotted corpse missed ripping him in half by mere inches. He hit the ground and rolled back to his feet reaching for his gun. The corpse turned with and inhuman jerk and stared at him for a moment before Felix but a bullet in between it's eyes. The corpse fell to the ground in a large heap and was still. Felix took a few deep breaths still in shock and stood up. He shook his head and scanned the campus for any other corpses that might have been roaming around and when he was satisfied he was safe he slid his gun back into its holster. "Well, this is one hell of a way to start off the day." He murmured to himself.
Felix has dumped the corpses body at the same place he had dumped all of the other ones and set it on fire. At least that way it wouldn't attract others of its kind to an easy meal. Felix took inventory of the few things that he had managed to scavenge from the nearby town as he did every morning. When he was satisfied that he was sufficiently supplied for the moment he nodded and left the class room that he had designated as a storage room. He walked down the long hallway his footsteps echoing all around him in the silence. It wasn't easy being alone, but the other alternative was being dead. He had never really trusted people to begin with, and he was confident that his decision to fend for himself was what had kept him alive after his family had succumbed to the disease. He often wondered where they were now, whether they had been put out of their misery when the National Guard had been called in, or if they were still roaming the streets somewhere in the town. He continued down the hall to a slightly smaller room and slid the key off his neck and unlocked it. The room was dim just like the others, but this had a small electric lantern in the corner. Felix walked over and flipped it on and the room was bathed in a bright white light. Hanging up on the walls on hooks were several guns that Felix had managed to scrounge up when the National Guard had been wiped out only days after their arrival. He still remembered sneaking into town that morning and finding that all of them had become food for the hungry monsters. He had taken what equipment he could from them and burned their bodies. He didn't see the point in letting them turn, it was just a waste of ammo. He pulled one of the hunting rifles that he had taken off a dead hunter a few miles from the edge of town. He had tried to make a last stand from his house, but it hadn't ended too well for him. He slung the rifle over his back on a strap that he had attached to all of the rifles and one of the tactical shotguns that hadn't been totaled in the panic of the assault. He grabbed a small box of ammo out of a bag that he had next to the lantern and turned to leave. He flipped off the lantern and closed the door making sure to lock it behind him. The last thing he wanted was for some scavenger to somehow stumble upon his weapons and steal them all out right from underneath him. He left the hallway and made his way back to the stairs where he had had his close call that morning. He made sure to double check the surrounding area before letting his guard down. He walked over to the small truck that he had gotten from one of the deceased teachers and slid into the driver's seat. He reached down and grabbed the key from its hiding place under the seat and revved up the truck. It took him only a few minutes to get to the town line. He stopped the car a few yards off the main road and made the rest of the way on foot. The corpses might be stupid, but they could still tell the difference between the living and the dead. If he drove the truck through town he would be bogged down and swarmed in a matter of moments, but going on foot he could take the small trails he had created in relative stealth. This was the sixth time he had come to the town this week and he knew the corpses and their patterns. He had noticed that even the dead fell into a daily routine after awhile and he made full use of it to his advantage. He crept silently to the first building and slipped in through the broken window that he had smashed out a few weeks ago. It was a small shoe shop that was on the verge of going out of business when The Event broke out. Felix had taken a nice pair of boots from the store after his sneakers had been ripped to shreds tearing through rubble only a week after The Event. He brought up the rifle and looked through it's sights out onto the street. It was just as crowded as ever he noticed, as the dead meandered back and forth throughout the street groaning and shuffling past each other endlessly. He slipped the rifle back over his shoulder and walked to the back of the store were a small flight of stairs lead up to the roof of the building. He pushed open the door to the roof silently and scanned it for any trace of the corpses. Then he walked over the edge of the building where he had positioned a large sheet of metal to cross over to the next building. He stepped on it cautiously and when he was sure he could put his full weight on it and walked quietly across to the other building. It had been a small law firm that had done fairly well back in the 90's. He walked across the roof over to the fire escape that lead down to the ground and climbed down it. He quietly made his way down the alleyway to the small patch of trees that would lead to the supermarket. He crouched down low and quickly darted across the tree line. The doors to the supermarket had been stuck closed after the power to the city had been shut down during the martial law that had erupted soon after The Event broke out. The glass doors had been broken when the riots started and most of the store had been looted, but when the infected rioters got inside with the uninfected ones, chaos broke out and a lot of things had been left behind. Felix pulled his pistol out of its holster and flicked on the flashlight illuminating the dimly lit store. The windows let in a good amount of light, but it was still hardly enough to give Felix piece of mind. The scattered glass on the floor crunched beneath his boots as he slowly checked each dark corner in sight. Then he made his way back to the freezers in the back of the store. Luckily the store had a backup generator that provided it with enough power to keep the freezers running. He turned the large latch that opened the door and walked inside. He was instantly hit by the wave of cold that swarmed out of the freezer. He took a deep breath of the frigid air, happy to be free of the scorching summer heat, even if only momentarily. He walked to the back of the freezer and browsed through the boxes of food until he found what he wanted. Food had stopped becoming a luxury and had become a basic survival need. Felix detested liver, but it was one of the only meats that had survived the raids. He tossed a few cans of it into his bag and turned to leave when he heard something crash outside. He quickly brought up his pistol at the ready and made his way out of the freezer quickly closing it behind him. He followed the sound of the crash to one of the nearby isles that had once contained magazines. One of the racks had fallen over on its side and was now lying on the ground. Felix looked around quickly searching for anything that would explain why it had fallen over. Then a grunt erupted from behind him and he quickly spun around in time to see one of the corpses charging at him. He set his stance to fire, but his foot got tangled up in the fallen rack and he fell to the ground just as the corpse flung itself at him. It went sailing over his head and crashed to the ground in a heap. Felix quickly stood up and realized that he had lost his gun when he fell. His pistol was lying on the floor a few feet away and the strap of his rifle had gotten snagged on the rack and was now pinned underneath it. He made a mad dash for the pistol, but the corpse was already back up on it's feet and charging at him. Felix scanned the ground for anything that he could use, knowing that he couldn't get to his pistol and fire it before the corpse was on him. Then he spotted a small crowbar lying on the ground. He lunged for it and as the corpse swung at his head and missed by mere inches. Felix brought the crowbar up fiercely and swung it like a baseball bat at the corpse's head. The sharp end of the bar sunk into the corpse's head with a sickening crunch. Felix let it go and the corpse stumbled back the crowbar still sticking out of its head. It glared at him for a moment as if knowing that he was going to die. Then it fell back to the ground and twitched violently for a second before going still. Felix took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down. He had just had a close call and he knew it. That could have easily been him on the ground, becoming lunch for the corpse. He reached over and yanked the crowbar out of the corpses head and wiped it on a nearby rag that had been taken from the bathroom department. He looked it over and slipped it on a strap of his cargo pants. Then he walked back over and collected his weapons and his bag of food. His trip back to the shelter went without incident and as night began to fall he turned in for the night, more than ready for a good nights sleep.
Felix would have loved nothing more than to have a good night's sleep, but it seemed that fate had other plans. He awoke suddenly just as he had the night before and yet again scanned his room. He pulled his pistol out of its holster and yet again went out into the hallway. As he opened the door that would lead to the stairs though, he heard footsteps. He caught his breath and brought his pistol up. How the hell did they get through the door, he thought to himself. He slowly and quietly made his way to the stairs. As he reached them he could make out a figure in the darkness. He flipped on the light on his gun and pressed his finger on the trigger, but something stopped him from firing. Standing in his crosshairs wasn't a corpse, but another human being. "Freeze!" he called, "Don't move or I'll shoot!" the figure stopped dead in it's tracks. "Alright, now turn around and let me see your face." He said trying to appear calm. The figure slowly turned around and Felix saw that it was a girl. She had short brown hair and a pair of piercing green eyes. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked. The girl shook her head slowly. "First, you answer my question: Are you gonna shoot me or not, because I don't feel like playing 20 questions if you're just gonna shoot me afterwards." She said. Felix kept a steady hand and shook his head. "No, I'm not going to shoot you as long you answer my question: Who are you and why are you here?" he said. The woman sighed. "That's two questions you know." She chuckled. Felix loosened his grip on the gun a little more, deciding there was no point in treating her as a serious danger. If she did try and attack him he would have more than enough time to put her down. "Okay, really, do you want me to shoot you?" he asked in a voice that showed his confusion. Here this girl was at gun point and she was making jokes. "Listen, why don't we just put the gun down and have this conversation in a civilized way?" she asked shrugging. Felix smirked in the darkness and lowered the gun. "Alright, but first you gotta get rid of any weapons you have on you right now." He said. The girl looked at him like he was crazy. "Hun, think about what you just said," she chuckled, "would you really get rid of your weapons when you've got a guy with a gun ready to shoot you?" Felix rolled his eyes. "Listen, I'm not going to shoot you okay?" he asked her. The girl took a few steps forward. "I'm I'm supposed to take your word for that, huh?" she said. Felix shrugged. He had to admit she had a good point. "Touché." He said sliding his gun back into his holster. "There, now that's much better." The girl said. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a fire would you, I'm freezing."
Felix had made the small fire pit in preparation for the winter in a few months, but he figured that it would do well to test it out ahead of time. He had found hundreds of matches throughout the town, and fire wood was by no means in short supply. He had made a small ring out of large rocks and lit the wood. The classroom was tall enough so that the fire wouldn't touch the roof, and well ventilated enough so that the smoke easily drifted out into the night. The girl sat on the opposite end of the fire warming herself and sighing in relief. "My god, that is soo much better." She said rubbing her hands next to the flame. "You have no idea how cold it is out there at night." Felix sat there running his eyes over her checking for anything that she could use as a weapon. She had on a large hiking pack that she had left off to her right, but she also had on a large coat that covered most of her body. She could easily have something hidden in the folds of it. "So" Felix asked, "are you going to answer my questions, or are we going to sit here all night doing nothing?" the girl nodded. "Yeah sorry, its just been so long since I could relax, that I guess I got a little carried away. My name's Amalia." She said extending a gloved had to him. He took it and shook back. She had a strong grip. "And as for what I'm doing here" she said lying down on her pack and looking up at the ceiling, "I was trying to find a place to stay for the night and here I stumble across this perfectly fortified building. It was a little too good to pass up." Felix nodded. "Well, just for the record my name's Felix. How did you manage to get past the door?" he asked. Amalia grinned. "Well, being able to pick locks has its perks nowadays." She said. Felix just looked at her for a second. "You picked the lock on my door?" he asked shocked. She nodded. "Yeah, my dad wasn't exactly involved in the most legal activities and he passed on some of his tricks to me." Felix nodded more than a little impressed. "So Amalia…" he said. She cut him off before he could go any further. "Do me a favor and just call me Mal. Amalia's just a little too girlie for me." She said. Felix nodded. "Okay then, Mal have you heard anything from anybody recently?" he asked. Mal sighed and sat up. "Well, I was working on the hope that Vancouver was still around, but no, I haven't heard anything recently." Felix nodded. "So what's in Vancouver?" he asked. Mal yawned and rubbed her eyes. "Well, if you believe the reports they've got a zombie free compound up there. Food, shelter, protection, the whole shebang." She said. Felix had heard stories about Vancouver before the radio station went dead for the last time, but he had figured that it had gone to hell just like all the other "zombie free" zones. "So how can you be sure that this place is still standing?" he asked. Mal shrugged. "In all truth I can't, but really what else have I got to rely on. I mean, you look like you've got a nice little place set up here, but what are you gonna do when you run out of supplies. I mean, I get this place has got a lot of stuff on hand, but I mean eventually its gonna run out. These guys up in Vancouver have got a thriving city going. Crops, electricity, a steady flow of fresh water, I mean they've got what it takes to keep themselves alive for a really long time." She said. Felix sighed and yawned also. "Well, I guess we'd both better call it a night huh?" Mal said laying her head on her pack. Felix nodded in agreement and laid down and closed his eyes. No less than two minutes after he closed his eyes Felix was startled by the sound of one of his homemade alarms going off. He had tied a large group of cans along the edge of the campus to indicate if a corpse happened to stumble upon the campus. It wasn't a full proof idea as that morning had proven, but it was still a solid idea. Mal quickly sat up and looked over at him. "What was that?" she asked. Felix grabbed his gun out of it's holster and flicked on the light. "Alarms, it looks like we've got company." He said. Mal stood up and followed him out the door. Felix quickly walked over to one of the boards that had a larger gap in it so that he could see out. He inhaled sharply when he saw how many of them there where. He usually never saw more than one of two corpses in one spot, but now there must have been at least 30. All inside the campus and making their way to the large metal door that was on the stairs. "Son of a bitch!" he yelled quickly hurrying off to his gun room. Mal took her own look out the window and he saw her go slightly paler. "My god…" she trailed off. "Felix, I hope you've got a plan!" she called after him. He quickly unlocked the door and hurried inside with Mal right behind him. As he flipped on the lantern she couldn't help but grin. "How the heck did you get your hands on this much firepower." She asked excited now. Felix yanked the shotgun off the wall and tossed it to her. "When they called in the National Guard, they got pretty much wiped out. Their assault rifles were all bone dry of ammo, but the other guns seemed to work fine. I took what I could and scrounged around for the rest." She nodded and pumped the shotgun loading a round into it. Felix slung the hunting rifle over his shoulder and hurried out of the room. Just as they came out there was a loud crash near the stairs and Felix turned just in time to see at least ten of the corpses come barreling up the stairs. Half of them slipped back to the bottom on the grease he put on the stairs, but the others came up without any issue. He fired the rifle and the first one of the pack flew back with only half a head. Mal quickly rushed up next to Felix and aimed at the nearest corpse. She fired and the body fell to the ground, its head nothing more than a few bits of flesh. They quickly ran further down the hall trying to get a better shooting point. Felix had dropped a bag of marbles that he had grabbed shortly before they left the room and the corpses fell quickly to the ground. Felix turned on a dial and fired off three rounds that all found there mark. He heard Mal curse as the boards of one of the windows behind them was ripped off in a loud crash. She dropped the shotgun and reached behind her back and pulled out two blades out of her coat. They were both about a foot and a half long each and seemed to be made out of a light but durable metal. She sliced at one of the oncoming corpses and cut it's head clear in half with ease. Then she turned to the next one and sliced off one of it's outstretched arms before decapitating it in a quick strike. Felix fired off a few more rounds at the oncoming corpses and they all fell to the ground in heaps of flesh. When the gun ran out of ammo he tossed it aside and drew out his pistol. He fired quickly and precisely at the corpses and they dropped one by one. He dropped the empty clip to the floor and slapped in another one in less than a second. As the smoke cleared Felix saw that no more of the corpses where coming up the stairs. He turned back to Mal, who had five corpses of her own lying on the floor. She sighed and tossed her blades aside. "Well that was fun, huh?" she said obviously tired. Felix let out a few quick breaths to calm himself down then went to make sure that all of the corpses where really dead and not just faking. When one of them moved as he kicked it he planted a quick bullet into its head. Mal shook her head and looked over at him. "I've never seen that many of them in one place before, why do you think they came after us like that?" Felix shook his head. "No clue," he said, "But whatever the reason staying here isn't an option anymore. They know I'm here and if they had caught me on my own, I would have been an easy meal." Mal grinned. "So I guess you owe me for saving your butt huh?" she said. Just then another of the corpses flung itself through the broken window and made a rush at her. Felix fired quickly more out of reaction than thought and the corpse had it's brain splattered against the wall as the force of the bullet drove him into it. Mal just sat there realizing that she could have easily just died. "No, I'd say we're pretty much even." Felix said grinning. Mal turned and looked at the corpse that had almost torn her in half. "Well I'm glad you find this humorous, I could have been killed!" she said. Felix shook his head still smiling. "Nah, I've only known you for a few hours and I can already tell you too stubborn to die." He said looking around at the carnage. Then he looked back at her. "So, what was that you were saying about Vancouver?"
