FIRST BLOOD
qui·e·tus: /kwīˈēdəs/ noun - death or something that causes death, regarded as a release from life.
It all started with a few fucked up stories on T.V. Stories of people eating each other, stories of the dead walking just like one of those messed up horror movies. At first Olivia thought it was just some druggie's experiment gone wrong—like they mixed krokodil and bath salts and it resulted in some sort of zombie thing. But then the stories started spreading; you couldn't flip to any station without the headliner being about the biters. This time Olivia thought it was just a joke—like the War of the Worlds prank in '38. Frankly, she went on disbelieving right until she saw her very first walker. Zombies? That was something that only happened in movies!
Olivia and her brother, Anthony—Tony—had been at a diner in Intercourse, Pennsylvania; the town they had been staying in. They had been travelling the country together and couldn't resist staying in Intercourse to replenish their funds—at times they had the maturity of a fourteen year old, pubescent boy.
They had just been sitting down to lunch when all of a sudden there was a huge commotion out on the street. A horse from a horse and carriage ride was spooked and was rearing up. People were screaming and running around like it was Black Friday. Tony and Olivia had leapt up to see what was going on and that was when they saw the dead man.
It was limping towards the hoards of screaming people—fresh blood dripping from its slack jaw. Its skin was an ashen grey, and eerie yellow eyes shown out from its skull. It was missing an arm but that didn't slow it down.
"What the fuck?" Tony yelled, grabbing Olivia's arm—not sure whether to yank her away to safety or for his own comfort.
"Is that one of those zombies? Like the ones on the news?" She asked, horror in her voice, watching as the biter limped forward through the streets—trying to catch one of the fleeing people. Olivia couldn't believe her eyes. This had to be some kind of joke.
Tony nodded—his eyes never leaving the thing. "What the fuck?"
They stayed there in the diner—frozen as the dead man continued to limp around the now-empty street. There were others; also holed up in buildings unsure of what to do. Slowly, the zombie raised its head and began sniffing and turned its head towards the diner. Olivia realized it could smell the living as it began limping towards them—nose in the air.
Someone screamed next to her, and a waiter hurriedly shushed them up. Tony grabbed the door—slamming it shut. "What the fuck!" He was at a loss for words.
A man next to Olivia swore. "We shoot it in the head! That's what the news was saying. Shot in the head, they're sure to stay dead!" He was screaming.
"Well, you got a gun on you, then?" Olivia snapped, turning to the older man who shook his head vehemently. She was terrified but put on a brave face. "Good thing I do." Dad had taught her and her brother's to always pack heat, and she knew better than to ignore his advice. She pulled out her glock and joined Tony by the door, as the dead man got closer. "Fella back there says a shot to the head does it."
"Give it here then, I'll take care of it." Tony snatched her glock out of her hands and swung open the door—delivering a precision shot to the thing's forehead. He had served overseas and knew his way around a gun fairly well. They watched as the biter fell backwards to the ground—thick blood leaking from the bullet hole.
Once all the commotion had died down, the siblings hurried home to their rented house on the outskirts of town. "We got to call Jared." Tony said and Olivia agreed. Jared, their baby brother, had been in Atlanta, Georgia working through his third year of residency with his heart set on surgery. It had been a while since Tony and Olivia had talked to him—there had been a fight last time they saw him, nearly two years ago. "If he knows what's best, he'll get the hell out of dodge."
But he hadn't answered the phone and his cellphone was out of service. A fact that unnerved Tony and Olivia. They had heard from the news that Atlanta had been one of the first cities hit. Intercourse was a small town. If even had a couple of Biters… what was a big city like Atlanta like? They could only hope that Jared got out while he could.
"We have to go there." Olivia told Tony after the third call went to voicemail.
He nodded. "We'll leave tomorrow morning. How bad do you think this is? Should we stock up on supplies? Loot the stores like in the movies?"
Olivia rolled my eyes at her big brother. "It was only one rotter, and it was awful slow. How bad could it be?"
Despite her indifferent demeanor, Olivia barely slept that night. She woke at the sound of every little noise, gripping the cool metal of her gun under her pillow nervously. At one point she thought she heard helicopters and gunshots.
When morning finally came, it brought the apocalypse with it. They had loaded up their '70 Chevy Caprice with every gun they owned—rifles and shotguns, their Dad liked to go hunting with before he died—and every non-perishable they could find. They had decided on stocking up on supplies just in case and as they drove into town it was like walking into a horror movie. There were cars abandoned everywhere—some of them burning from crashing. Cars had smashed into buildings, into street lamps, into other cars. The road was littered with debris and the air smoldering with ashes. Rotters limped in between the damaged cars.
Olivia found the bodies to be the worst. All around there were Rotters grouped and feeding frantically from the intestines of some poor bastard. Blood was splattered everywhere and ravens were circling above. She gagged and slunk down in her sear—averting her eyes and taking deep breaths as they drove past the carnage. She could smell the stale flesh already.
"It's only been one night, right?" Tony asked bracingly as he swerved around an abandoned car—catching the attention of the dead. This wasn't the first time he had seen such levels of chaos before, it wasn't as shocking to him as it was to Olivia.
Olivia nodded numbly. "Holy shit. How the fuck did this happen? They move so slow."
"Rule 1: Cardio, eh?" Tony said, trying to make a joke but it just sat there in the air, unsettling them. "The news said it only takes one scratch."
They drove in silence. How had this happened? Why wasn't the government doing anything? This had to be some kind of nightmare, Olivia told herself. She'll wake up tomorrow and Tony will make fun of her for watching too many scary movies. But, when she pinched herself, she was still sitting in the Caprice. Rotters were still everywhere. People were still dying. She wanted to puke and cry all at the same time. Her breath was coming in painful to her chest. Tony reached over and put a calming hand on her arm but she cringed away. How pathetic was she—having a panic attack? Grow some balls, Liv.
"Bunch of them are following us." Tony mumbled after a while, looking in the rear-view mirror.
"So speed up." She whispered back condescendingly and he did, leaving the Rotters in the distance. "We need to fuel up. Maybe fill up a couple of jerry cans while we can still pump gas. Take all we can get from the store?"
"You got any money?"
"You think we're going to need it?" She snapped back looking at all the debris and bodies.
Tony sighed ignoring his sister's irritable mood—he was used to it. "I honestly hope so. Do you think this is going to last long?"
"You mean; is the apocalypse permanent?" Tony nodded. "Look around Tony. Seems pretty end of days to me. If the Government was going to do something, they'd have done it." They both winced as the car crunched over broken glass and what they prayed was a speed bump.
"Suppose we'll take it day by day then." Tony said optimistically. "Focus on findin' Jared."
"We will find him, Tony." Olivia reassured him, before flipping on the radio—only to find static. "How the hell did this happen overnight?"
"Maybe a hoard of 'em went through?" It was a suggestion but neither of them believed it. Yesterday everything was fine and dandy and today the town was leveled. Things like that don't happen without a warning. "Flip around a bit. There's gotta be somethin'."
Olivia played around with the radio as they continued to drive to the store. Occasionally they would pass another car—filled with living people and it made her give a sigh of relief. They weren't alone. Finally, as they pulled into the parking lot—where there were dozens of other cars filled with other looters, she managed to get to a transmitting station. "—Martial law is now under effect. Citizens are urged to go to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where camps are set up to offer food and shelter. Further questions will be answered there. Do not approach the living dead. If you are bit, there is no hope. A shot to the head is the only thing that will stop the dead. Try to keep quiet, noise attracts the dead. Citizens are urged to remain calm. Shelter is—" it repeated and Olivia cut it off. Tony and her sighed at the message—it told them nothing.
"Guess we should get in there before everythin' is gone." Tony grumbled wedging the door open and grabbing a rifle.
Olivia quickly grabbed her glock and followed after him. Luckily, there were no Rotters around—her guess was that the majority of people were focused on fleeing and the dead had followed them.
"Want to split up in there? Cover more ground?" Tony questioned, as they got closer to the doors—grabbing a shopping cart.
"Sure. You go to the sporting goods section, grab what you can. I'll head to the pantry. Meet in medicine in ten minutes?" She decided, also grabbing a shopping cart.
"Sounds good, kiddo. Be careful. Could get a little nuts in there."
"Back at you, Tony."
As they entered and went they separate ways she noticed other groups of people loitering around. There were bodies of Rotters scattered around the isles. As Olivia suspected, she wouldn't be needing cash—there were no cashiers working. She had to laugh; a few of the looters were smashing open the tills and filling their pockets with money. What they needed it for now she had no idea.
Olivia bypassed some women grabbing fruit and got to the pantry—filling the cart with any non-perishables she could get a grasp on. There was surprisingly a lot on the shelves still—the nice thing about being in a small town hit so suddenly.
After ten minutes her cart was full of granola bars, cereal, canned food, and water bottles. She pushed the heavy cart to pharmacy, pulling another empty one behind her.
Tony was already there throwing first aid supplies into his already full cart. He nodded as Olivia approached and began shoving supplies into her empty cart. She quickly headed to the feminine hygiene section and began grabbing what she could—Tony would make fun of her, but they would come in use.
The cart was nearly full and Olivia looked over at the pharmacy. "I'm going to go back there. Get the good stuff." Tony nodded as he shoved condoms in the cart (Olivia rolled her eyes at him—he wouldn't need those).
The door was surprisingly unlocked and Olivia began stuffing drugs into her bag. She had moved onto the 'E' section when she heard groaning. Panicked Olivia spun around to see a Rotter emerging from behind a shelf. It dead eyes were trained on her as it shuffled over to her. It was wearing a white coat—the pharmacist. He must have been bit by a supposed customer.
She let out a startled scream and fell back in her shock—jarring her shoulder harshly against the shelf she had been raiding and causing pills to fall to the floor. She began crawling away from it as she frantically fumbled at her side for her glock. It picked up it's pace and Olivia only managed to fire off a round into his head before it grabbed her. His thick gooey blood spilled onto her shirt as he came crashing down on top of her. She let out a disgusted scream; trying to push him off. It had stopped moving—a small relief.
"Olivia!" Tony yelled as he came crashing into the room.
"Tony!" She sobbed—terrified. "Get it off, get it off, get it off!"
Tony rushed forward and yanked the biter off and Olivia jerked away into the corner, grasping my knees as she cried. "Holy shit, Tony." She sobbed.
Tony was silent as he fired off another round into the thing's head. For good measure and as punishment for attacking his sister. He then rushed over to Olivia's side and yanked her into his arms. "You're okay now, Liv. Did it bite you?"
She shook her head as she cried into his shoulder. He stroked her hair and rocked her back and forth. "You're okay." He mumbled repeatedly. Tony squeezed her tightly—reassuring himself that she was okay. That had been too close.
After what felt like years Olivia finally stopped crying. Still shaken, She pulled away. "We should probably go." She hiccoughed—wanting to be anywhere but here. She looked awkwardly at the ground—ashamed of her meltdown. She felt weak.
Tony jumped to his feet and helped her up, giving her hand an assuring squeeze. He darted about grabbing and throwing seemingly random drugs into the cart—Olivia helped him. "Let's go grab you some clothes."
They hurried out—their filled carts in tow—and grabbed an armful of clothes. Olivia changed in the bathroom and scrubbed her arms raw as she stared at her too pale complexion. She was beating herself up over her hysterical crying session. The world was ending—it was no time to freak out. She could almost hear her Dad sneering at her 'Toughen up, girl. I ain't got time for sniveling babies'.
When she felt somewhat clean Olivia joined Tony and they stuffed all of their stolen goods into the Caprice—somehow leaving room to see out the back.
"You okay?" Tony asked giving her arm a squeeze.
"I'm fine." She snapped, more to herself than Tony. He shot her a tortured look and she softened her gaze. "I will be once we find Jared."
He stuffed himself into the driver's seat and nodded. "Then let's get a move on."
Hold on Jared. We're on our way. Olivia promised to herself as she frowned out the window—trying to get the feeling of dead flesh out of her mind. Just hold on.