1
It Begins
As I watched what was the biggest news on TV, I was in awe. A zombie apocalypse has just been formed by a secret lab in the icecaps up by Nunavut in Canada. I lived in the United States of America, so I figured we might be safe for now. Since it was a virus, the CDC had to send some scientists up north. After a few days, I decided that if it spread, I might as well be prepared. I ran to my local grocery store, Sav-U-More, to get some good food supplies that would not spoil. I then went to a local pharmacy, Prescriptions Galore, and grabbed some painkillers and bandages. When I walked in my house, my friend, Randal was sitting on my couch staring at my TV. Randal was a trained medic. I lived in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Abington to be exact. I placed my buyings on my countertop, which was made of black colored granite, and walked toward Randal. I sat next to him and watched the TV as well. Northern Canada as well as Greenland were infected with zombies. Randal was completely silent. "So," I said, "What do you think we should do?" I knew what he was going to say, but I didn't really care. "Stock up, get more survivors, and barricade the house." I told him I already got some food and meds. We split up to get more friends for our survivor group. I ran towards my neighbor, Jermaine, and told him about Randal and I's plan. He agreed to help and went to Sav-U-More to get more supplies. Jermaine was a window washer down in Wildwood. As I drove to Pat's house, the military was setting up a quarantine area. They let me pass after I showed my ID. I was a Private First Class in the military. I picked up Pat and drove back to my house. Jermaine, Randal, and my buddy, Talbot were all here. We started to set up barricades by the windows, doors, and other openings. After an hour, we were done. We checked the news and the virus was spreading so fast, Philadelphia was already infected. Within fifteen minutes, we in Abington were infected, except for us of course. I grabbed some weapons from my closet and gave them to all of my friends. I had an assault rifle, Randal had a 9mm pistol, Pat had a shotgun, Jermaine had a sniper rifle, and Talbot had a grenade launcher. We all had pocket knives as well. Our first zombie encounter occurred at 10:15 in our first night. Pat and I were on patrol when a zombie stumbled onto my property. I crouched and took him out with one bullet to the head. That's how you took out a zombie. After a few more hours, Talbot, Randal, and Jermaine went on patrol. They didn't encounter any zombies. In the morning, zombies were surrounding our house. We grabbed our supplies and booked it towards the forest. When we reached the edge of the forest, there was a prison there. We waltzed in unnoticed when I saw bandits killing the occupants and the zombies. We hid and started to press towards the bandits. There were seven of them. Randal, Jermaine and I would take out the four within the building. Talbot and Pat would take the remaining three patrolling. We snuck in, and ran into a hallway. Randal went in he door to my left, Jermaine to my right, and I pushed forward. I ran into one of the bandits immediately. I stabbed him in his gut, and he turned around, in pain. I slashed across his face, and he crumpled to the floor. I felt like I should loot his body afterwards. The room at the end of the hallway said "Management". It was open, and there was a man smoking a pipe. I didn't see him before. They might be many more bandits than I thought. I walked in and locked the door. He didn't seem to mind me. "Well, glad to see you," he said. He turned in his chair towards me. He had a heavy Russian accent, a maple wood desk, and some papers and a lamp on it. He told me to sit in another chair he had. I reluctantly listened. His daughter walked in. He told me her name. It was Yulia. He started speaking Russian to her. She walked out and the man turned to me. He turned on a projector and played a clip. It was about his group of bandits. I watched and got pretty interested. I then decided against it. If we were killing the bandits, why would I join them? He got out of his chair and walked towards me. I stood up. He pulled a revolver out of his pocket. "Going to run?" he questioned. I didn't respond. I didn't want much interaction. He put the revolver down and shook my hand. "Maksim," he said. "Jake," I responded. He sat back in his chair. He handed me a paper. It was a contract. He wanted me to join his bandit group. Randal ran in with a gun pointed right at Maksim's head. I got up. Maksim grabbed his revolver and pointed it at Randal. I walked out of the room. Randal followed. He started whispering to me. He wanted to shoot him. I told him if he did, I would shoot him, so he would die either way. I told him to keep walking. I walked back in the door. Maksim put his gun down, and locked the door. Once again, he handed me the paper. I pushed it back to him. "Do you not want in?" he questioned. I just stared at him. He got the message. There was a banging on the door, and he opened it. It was Yulia. She walked in and sat in his chair. Maksim locked the door and sat in a third chair. He spoke Russian to Yulia and she turned to me and evilly smiled. "Get up," she demanded. Her accent was not in anyway Russian. She might've grown up here. I did as she said and she unlocked the door and told me to come out. I followed. She led me towards a dark room. We walked in and she closed the door. She turned on a light. She sat in one seat and motioned me to sit in the other. I did. "So," she said, "Name?" I responded the way I did to Maksim. "Age?" she asked. "Is this some kind of interrogation or something?" I asked angrily. She responded with a laugh and a yes. She shook my hand and introduced herself. She told me she would be right back and locked the door behind her. After a minute or two, she walked back in. She told me to get up and follow her again. I followed her and she led me to a cell. She as quickly as I turned, swiped my rifle and aimed it at my head. She commanded me to follow her and, if I wanted my life, I would have to, and I did. She led me to her room and locked the door. She shoved me to the ground and tied me to a chair. "If you move or make noise," she said, "You're so dead." I nodded. She left the room and locked me in. I was able to take my pocket knife out of my pocket, and cut the rope. I used it to pick the lock on the door. I snuck out and found my group outside. I told them about what happened, and they suggested we take over the prison. We ran in guns blazing at anyone we saw. We rounded the corner, and there were Maksim and Yulia. Guns aimed. Yulia at me, Maksim at Randal. Talbot fired his grenade and we jumped back. The two dove towards our direction. The grenade exploded, and only Maksim was injured. Randal hopped up and tackled Maksim to the ground, which made him lose his gun. I slammed Yulia against the wall, and kicked her gun away. "What do we do Jake?" Randal asked. "Imprison them." I responded. We put them in cells and confiscated their weapons. We cleaned up the bodies around the complex. A lot of zombies were coming, because of the noise we made. I gave jobs to all of us. Randal was going to patrol and was assigned as our medic. Pat was going to go on patrol as well. He would be our close combat specialist. Jermaine was up in the guard tower sniping the undead. He was going to be our sniper. Talbot was going to be our explosives specialist. He would keep watch over the perimeter. I was the commander and warden. We continued our jobs and at night, we all sat by the desk in the management room. I suggested they all get rest and I would keep watch on our captives. After a few hours, Yulia woke up, and walked to her cell door. She plopped down next to it and looked at me. I sat near her, not too close, and asked her if she needed anything. "To get out of this cell," she stated. I replied with a no, and explained why. She looked at the ground and apologized for what she did to me. I didn't interact with her, and stood up and walked away. The next morning, a truck pulled up to our encampment. Everyone got in their battle stations. There were two men inside the truck. They hopped out and Jermaine took out the passenger, and I neutralized the driver. I ordered Pat and Talbot to take the supplies and park the truck in a safer place. We now had a vehicle. I asked Jermaine to clean up the bodies. When I walked in, Maksim told me about a place in the prison he didn't explore yet. He said if he told me where it was, he would be set free. I didn't even bother negotiating, because we would find it on our own. A few minutes passed and Jermaine and Randal trotted in. I discovered a door I didn't see before. I asked if they would explore it with me. We walked in and there was a deserted cell block. But there was one cell that was occupied with a human. "Help!" he shouted. I helped him out and checked him for bites, but nothing showed. I directed him to our cell block and put him in a third cell. His name was Matt Fernandez. He wasn't pleased to be back in a cell, and continuously banged on his cell door. Within a day he broke both his hands and was worth nothing. He asked us to put him down, and we did. He didn't last long. "Can I have some food? I'm starving!" Yulia asked. I have her some of our rations. After a few days the prison was being overrun with undead and we decided we would ditch it. I asked it Maksim or Yulia wanted to tag along, or they would probably turn. Maksim responded with a death threat, and I knew he wouldn't come with us. Yulia, decided to part with her father, and join us. I decided that we should talk while we were on the road. We all hopped in the truck. There were three areas. The driver area, where Randal and Pat were, the seating area, where Talbot and Jermaine were, and the back, with the supplies, were Yulia and I. We chatted for awhile. She told me about her school and her life and other things like hobbies. She grew sleepy, and almost broke down over leaving her father. I comforted her as best as I could and gave her a hug. She hugged back. After a few minutes, she fell asleep on my shoulder. I didn't want to move her, because I felt bad that I left Maksim at the prison the turn into a zombie and rot until he found us again. Unless he was killed before that. Hours passed and we made it to a new area. An unboarded, undefended mansion. We moved our supplies into the new house. Randal and I checked for any signs of zombies, but there were none. We settled and we put Yulia on the couch, as she was still asleep. Talbot petitioned that we imprison her again. I immediately responded with a no, and everyone stared at me. Randal and Jermaine agreed with me, especially because she was the youngest one here, and the only girl. We rested for an hour or two, before starting our work. This time, we had different jobs, and we had Yulia on our side as well. Talbot and Pat would patrol hourly. Jermaine would snipe. Randal would give updates on the virus, I would look into cures and start research, and Yulia would be my assistant. I got started on how the virus changed you. Jermaine killed a zombie and I took some blood samples. I asked Yulia to get me my microscope and some disinfecting spray. I examined the blood samples and they looked pretty nasty. It was green and had a changing color. I used some disinfecting spray, and looked at it again. It was blue. I squirted some more on it and it was back to red, but a weird shade of it. I asked Yulia to take a look. She analyzed it for a few seconds before popping back up from her view of the blood. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this," she said. I called Randal and wanted to see his thoughts. He had the same reaction. I walked downstairs to grab a snack, and everyone was already eating dinner. I sat at the head of the table, and Yulia sat in one of the other open chairs. We then heard a banging on the door, and I opened it. It was a young woman. She asked if she could come in. I pondered in my head for a few seconds. It was already a risk having Yulia here. I outright slammed the door in her face and walked back to the table. Nobody questioned my judgment of my actions. We had a long conversation at the table. It was about what we should do in case of the zombies, or shamblers getting in. All of us barricaded every door and window on the premises. We were now much safer. I decided to take a patrol by myself when we finished. It was almost dusk. I walked around the mansion numerous times until Yulia came out. "What are you doing out here?" I questioned. She just shrugged her shoulders. She then looked at me, like she was sad. Her blue eyes shown in the moonlight and her brown hair blew in the wind. She then asked me a question I didn't expect to hear. "If the group gets split up, will you take care of me?" I was silent. I was actually surprised to her say those words, because she was only two years younger than me. I looked at the sky, said a prayer, and looked back at Yulia. "Yes," I responded. I gave her a hug and told her to head back in, for I didn't want anything to happen to her, especially after what I just said. After some more walks around with no activity, I came back in. Randal and Pat were watching TV, Jermaine was cleaning up the table, Talbot was covering for Jermaine in his sniping position, and Yulia was sitting on the stool next to Randal drawing a picture. I walked in and sat next to Pat. The only place not infected in the USA was Hawaii. I put my head in my hands and walked up to my research lab and sat down. There was a couch in here so I would probably sleep in here as well. I laid down and tried to get some rest. I drifted off soon after. My dream wasn't a normal one. I dreamt I was one of those zombies out there, walking until they die again. It was short-lived though, because I awoke to Yulia walking into the room. "Sorry," she said "I didn't mean to wake you up." I lifted myself off of the couch and walked up to my research. "Don't be," I replied, "I shouldn't have gotten carried away from reality." I threw out the samples from earlier and reset my microscope lenses. I walked out of the room and Yulia followed. Jermaine was back upstairs, and Talbot was watching TV now. I asked if I could see Yulia's drawing. She let me. She was a great artist. Much better than me as well. Soon after, Hawaii was a shambler state, as was the whole country. I decided to tell the guys and Yulia to get rest, while I would guard for the first half of the night. It was an uneventful couple hours. Pat and Jermaine took my place on guard duty. I walked up to my research area, and Yulia was sleeping on my couch. I smirked and trotted downstairs and slept on that couch.
End of First Chapter. I have some of the second chapter done, so I'll take suggestions for the third chapter when I finish uploading the second chapter.