Confrontation
The bugs' singing rang out through the woods. The smell of trees, pine needles, dirt, and various types of fauna filled the air in a beautiful, relaxing way. A gentle breeze came by, just barely having the force to disturb the long grass and wild flowers that grew there before negating it's entirety. The hot summer air was prominent throughout the wood, and the sun beat down on the accumulation of trees, forming little shady spots of bliss, safe from the sun's rays of heat. It was in one of these idyllic spots of coverage where a small, lonesome tent was pitched, being olive of color and tucked into the wood well enough to where, unless someone or something was absolutely looking for it, it couldn't be seen.
And inside was a young lady, being eighteen of age, and fast asleep. Her body was fair, not being too skinny, but far from even being in the slightest bit heavyset. Her face was painted with a galaxy of freckles, and her hair, the color representative of autumn leaves and sunshine, was parted into two different braids, both of which were coming loose, spewing shining, copper locks here and there. Dressed in a worn, black and grey flannel shirt and tight jeans, the woman inside slept easy, being sure to regain her energy before continuing her journey any further.
A Monarch butterfly flew onto the tent, perching itself for a rest before continuing on its merry way. A caterpillar was munching away on a leaf, leaving an imperfect pattern on the side that was far from incomplete. All was quiet, letting the girl sleep in peace.
That was until a twig snapped.
The girl shot up out of her resting place, putting herself on two feet with a rather large bowie knife in hand in the blink of an eye. Slowly, breathing heavily, she opened the tent, watching with piercing, teal eyes through the slowly opening tent zipper for anything that she could determine as dangerous. Upon unzipping the tent door to the bottom, she stuck her head out, evaluating anything that might have been out of place from the last time she saw the forested woods. Although there was no immediate threat, she heard the disturbance of leaves and earth; a rustling coming from somewhere outside of the tent.
Cautiously, the girl moved out of her tent in search of any threat to her safety. She moved quietly, the knife in her right hand was raised, ready to strike at the first notice. As she walked stealthily forward, eying over the bright green leaves and grass for her target, she could hear the rustling becoming increasing closer. She crept on, maintaining her secrecy by avoiding stepping on any leaves in her heavy, steel-toed work boots. Slightly, but notably so, the rustle became louder and louder as she neared a rather large bush, big enough to provide whole body coverage.
And then silence.
The noises stopped. Nothing but the songs of the birds and the bugs were heard, and all was peaceful once again. A bead of sweat rolled down the left side of her face as blue eyes scanned the area where she was sure the noise was originating from in the first place. A sense of adrenaline kicked in, causing her pupils to dilate and time to slow down as she took another step towards the bush, and this time, bringing her boot down onto a weak twig, causing it to snap.
A brown and black fur-ball came sprinting from the bush, hopping as fast as it could away from where our heroine stood. She, in response, yelped slightly and flailed her knife aimlessly in the air, coming in contact with nothing as the rabbit ran away, hoping to never be found again.
The redhead, now happy that no one was around to see her little act of cowardice, chuckled quietly to herself, letting a shy grin spread across her lips as she wiped her brow.
Holy cow, that scared the Hell outta me. I fought things that could kill me, and I about pee myself over a little rabbit? The girl let the grin spread across her freckled cheeks even more as she enclosed her knife blade in the sheath on her thigh. Some survivalist I am.
The girl turned around to head back to her tent, but instead of seeing the beautiful trees and warm sunlight that she had grown accustomed to for the last few days as she gathered supplies, she met face to face with a shambling corpse of the undead.
The corpse, or zombie (if you will), was not a fresh turn. It was still wearing clothes, sure, but the flesh around its head and neck were all but falling off of the corpse entirely. Dressed in camouflage and with a backpack on, this corpse already had its arms outstretched previous to it and the girl's sudden confrontation, and therefore had an advantage as it grabbed a hold of her arms before she had time to react.
Struggling to get free, the redhead wrenched her arm downwards, trying to break free from the corpse's grip. Grunting and huffing to achieve freedom, she finally pulled her arm free, bringing most of the corpse's own arm with it, effectively ripping it from its body. It was then that the girl managed to unsheathe the knife on her thigh, and bring it upwards in a swift motion, driving the blade through the bottom of the corpse's skull and all the way to the brain, stopping it cold as it's teeth were just a mere inch or less from the her face.
She pushed the limp body of the corpse to the ground, yanking the blade free from her attacker's skull as it fell. Breathing heavily, the girl stared at the body that lay still on the ground, still in shock of the terrifying, near-death experience. Finally able to control her breathing, the redhead grabbed an old rag from her back pocket and wiped the blade clean of blood before sheathing it once again. Letting out a sigh, she dropped to her knees, flipping over the body before opening the backpack that somehow remained intact.
It wasn't always like this: having to scrounge and scavenge for food, water, shelter… Everything. Just last year everything was fine, and business was usual in Arendale. The smell of freshly baked loaves made it's way from the baker's oven to the outside air, causing the people outside to come in. The bustling cars and people made their way to and from work, just as they would for the remainder of that week. The mall would be full of people buying the latest in Norwegian fashion, or dining in the food court to rest their weary legs and refill their empty stomachs.
But it was until ArenScience Industries decided to attempt to come out with a new kind of vaccine, something revolutionary that could help treat cancer if it was found within a certain time range that everything was peaceful. Tests needed to be ran for the vaccination to be approved, and so far the results had been just what they were hoping for. They tested the medicine first on rats, injecting cancerous cells into the animal before countering them with the vaccination itself. After a few days of testing, the rat was cancer free.
They moved the testing on to dogs, giving the animal the same procedure. The same results came in from that. All was looking good for the future of ArenScience, and the news of this new vaccine traveled all over the world. But the news would travel again, however, and this time it wouldn't be in a way that anyone would favor.
ArenScience was finally allowed to star using the medicine on humans, and within just a day of announcing the availability of the vaccine, there were patients lining up outside the doors of hospitals everywhere. Everyone who could have gotten the drug did so, and went home that day with the knowledge that they were bound to be cancer free.
But that knowledge quickly turned to doubt as reports of sickness rang out from everywhere, and all of them claimed ArenScience was the cause.
ASI quickly countered these statements, replying via social media that every symptom that anyone could be experiencing was normal, and that the body should confront these symptoms and would return to normal in just a few days time.
But just a few days was all the time that the vaccine needed to turn people into carnivorous, cannibalistic demons that knew neither friend, nor family.
The first report was from an autopsy in Texas, stating that a man, "died two days prior to this recording, but has henceforth risen and is beating furiously at the door of his compartment in the morgue." Many more cases, some being gruesome, whereas some being more disturbing, confirmed the statement made in the autopsy. People were coming back from the dead and were attacking people.
The army became involved, shuttling people to "safe zones" where they could remain secure until the armed forces could exterminate the undead threat. There wasn't much resistance from the corpses, but a new discovery was made: a bite from one of the undead will turn a victim into one of the undead as well. This discovery just so happened to be found when an injured soldier was brought back to a safe zone to be treated.
After being sedated and patched up, the injured soldier was left unattended in a medical tent, the door unlocked and free to open at the slightest push. Unable to scream or call for help due to the sedation, the soldier turned, and managed to find its way into the commons area of the safe zone under the cover of the darkness outside. Before the turned soldier was found, he had already bitten more people than the infirmary could hold. Days later, those people turned as well, following the same pattern as the corpse before them.
This happened all over the world, and soon there was no place left that was safe for anyone.
Except for here in the woods where this mysterious, redheaded girl managed to find a can of spam, which she hoped was still edible, and a can of instant mashed potatoes in the backpack of the corpse she had just laid to rest.
Taking a long look at the cadaver on the ground, the girl let out a sigh before getting up and pulling an Oakland A's ball cap out of her back pocket and placing it on her head.
"Thank you, friend," she said, juggling the two foodstuffs as she talked. "Maybe now you can finally rest in peace."
She turned away from the body, and went over to her tent, stepping over sticks and baked leaves. She reached her abode, grabbing her backpack and shoving the food inside before closing the bag. Looking up at the tent, she let another faint smile creep across her lips.
"Well tent," the girl giggled to herself. "Looks like we're gonna hit the road again."
She spent most of the day walking through the woods, being careful about where she stepped and keeping an eye out for anything she could attempt to kill for food. Although it wasn't much, she had a recurve bow and a quiver attached to her backpack that held four arrows that were still in good condition. She used this weapon sparingly in fear of damaging her precious arrows, but when she did use it, it was to kill game. Any kind of undead opposition would have been dealt with by either a knife, or as it was a few weeks ago, a gun. She had lost her pistol in a quick escape from another close confrontation, and left behind some now necessary food.
She made up for her losses, however. In her travels since then, she had come across the bow (found on a deceased corpse which had been dispatched by someone or something else), found more supplies than she had found in prior weeks, and even found a larger knife than the one she owned, but decided to keep the one she had due to it's effectiveness and durability thus far.
Managing to find supplies was now the only means of survival. She hadn't run across anyone, well, anyone that was living, since she evacuated out of her home town. Chances of finding something of worth in the wooded part of Arendale was slim, but it didn't matter to the girl at this point. Her backpack, complete with semi-full quiver and rolled up tent on the top, rattled as she walked. Cans connected with each other, and various other items that were in the bag clinked and jangled with each step.
It was getting darker, having walked for a few hours with only taking breaks to take care of a few stray undead before heading on her way again, and the girl knew she would have to find a place to set up camp once again.
She sighed, and looked around for a nice, concealed area to pitch her tent once more, but something in between the leaves caught her eye. A structure of some sort was barely seen maybe 50 feet away from where she was now. She pulled the flashlight from her belt and clicked it on in the direction of the construction, just for a mere second to not give her position away if anyone else was in the vicinity.
Sure enough, there was a building there. Smiling, the girl placed her flashlight back onto her belt, and made her way to the building.
It was small, the sign outside reading "Oaken's Trading." The place was secure, according to our heroine's deduction after walking around the premises twice and seeing no holes or other means of entry other than the front door. Matter of fact, the place looked practically untouched.
I actually get to have a roof over my head for a night. I could probably even start a small fire. The girl's eyes closed as she smiled, thinking about the cans of food in her bag. I might even cook some beans tonight.
Carefully she went, making her way to the front door of the trading post and opening it up as slowly as she could, knife in hand. The door was weathered, and the shrill creaks that it emitted cut the silence like a knife. The redhead cringed as the noise rang out, knowing that if anyone or anything was in the building, it surely had head that.
It wasn't until the door was fully open when she heard a noise in response.
A soft pit-pat noise, followed by a bit of scraping, made its way throughout the silence, causing the redhead to tense up. This was no rabbit this time, and she knew that she had to be ready for a fight. Mentally steeling herself, the girl raised her knife in a pose to where she could strike with ease.
The noise became louder but this time it was followed by the din of a breath as it was exhaled loudly.
Now, in plain sight, the girl finally saw what had been making all the noise in the first place as it stepped out of the darkness of an adjacent room, and into the small bit of light that shone from the girl's flashlight.
Putting her knife down, she saw a large, white husky with piercing grey eyes sit down in front of her with such a stance that it almost looked regal, pampered even.
Smiling, the girl sheathed her knife and stepped towards the dog with an outstretched hand, causing the husky to tilt it's head sideways, as if pondering who this person was in his humble abode.
"Come on, don't be shy," she said, smiling and keeping eye contact with the dog. "I'm not gonna hurt you."
She was just inches away from the pup when it suddenly turned aggressive, taking a step back and lowering his ears as if he was ready to pounce. That was when she heard the creak of the door once again.
She began to turn, her adrenaline kicking in and losing all sense of time, letting her hand find the hilt of her knife, but before she had a chance to even face the other way, she felt the cold, hard steel of a gun barrel on the back of her head.
"You have three seconds to take your hand away from the knife and put it behind your head," said a stern, but imperial female voice from behind. "Otherwise this room will get a new coat of red paint."
The redhead breathed out, trying to relax herself. Then, in a flash, made her move.
Without any further hesitation, the redhead pulled the knife free from her scabbard and spun around, knocking the barrel of the gun away from her head with her free hand. Now facing her assailant, she thrust the knife forward, sure to hit her mark.
The gun-wielder responded by delivering a second pistol, held in her other hand, to the redhead's temple, dropping her cold. Standing above the redhead was a taller, blonde haired girl in black clothes. Her body was fair, and her skin was pale, complimenting her blonde-white hair as it was pulled into a singular braid on her left shoulder, extending halfway down her chest.
The husky was still growling, and the blonde made eye contact with the pup, smiling as she reached into her pocket.
"Here you go, Olaf," the blonde said, throwing a small bone to the dog, causing him to cease his growling and wag his tail happily. "You're getting better at this 'innocent dog' role."
The blonde girl looked down at the unconscious body that was sprawled on the floor, and let out a sigh.
"Alright then, let's get to it," the blonde said, walking past the husky and petting his head as she did so. "Have you seen my rope anywhere by any chance?"
Alright guys, that was the first chapter. I understand that you might have gotten a little tired of me not using names, but that'll change in the next chapter, so don't worry. c: I think I'm going to have a lot of fun writing this one, and I hope you guys will enjoy it! Thanks for reading, and I'll get to work on the second chapter!