Chapter 1

'To be honest I don't know how it started. No one does. It's one of those things you just go along with and deal with. Of course this could mean the end of humanity, but I'm not willing to accept that. '

She twisted the key, locking the door and checked over the metal barriers her Father had put up over the door windows, and did the same with the rest of the windows and doors at that end of the house. Then she climbed up the creaky ladder to the attic to join the rest of her family. Her Father Anthony Young, her Mother Laura Young, and her thirteen-year-old Sister Maria, which then leaves her. Claire Young, nineteen-year-old, dark blue eyed brunette and in need of a decent shower.

"Have you secured everything, Claire?"

"Yes."

"Did you then check it?"

"Of course."

"Twice?"

"Like always, Father."

"Good girl", he said sternly. Looking at his wife like he does every night, with a hint of fear in his eyes. She then turned away to hand a lit candle to Claire, who then weakly smiled a 'thank you' to her then went to her own make-shift bed of blankets and cushions and lay down to sleep. And her family did the same.

Things have changed in the last month, a lot. Not just for Claire and her family, but for the whole world, an apocalypse is the term used mostly. An apocalypse of the walking dead, flesh eating, bone crunching, heart aching zombies. First it was just in America, and as things turned for the worst over there, and people tried fleeing the country, they spread it all over the world. I guess you could say the world is over run now in a matter of months. All our friends and other family are dead, very few are left alive, and we don't even know if anyone else is alive. They guessed they were just lucky, because of where they live and Claire's Father being a retired from the military.

You see, where they live, where Claire and Maria grew up, is in this wonderful house in The New Forest, South of England. And to get to their house, and a few others including a hotel, you must go down this long, bendy stone road, surrounded by trees and bushes and wildlife. Although in the winter living here is a pain in the neck, in this situation now, they've been fortunate. The walking dead, or zombies as most people call them, are attracted to people, living things with hot blood pumping through them, so they wouldn't go wondering though a forest to find that. Their attentions are drawn to the big cities and towns, which at first is where most people fled to for help and aid, but of course the more people that got infected, the more the disease spread.

They've been inclined in their house for about three weeks now, living the same routine each day. From distant observations, they've learnt the creatures are most active at night, and are almost weakened by the sunlight. Like it drains their energy a bit, so during the day they will usually crawl around or stay sat down somewhere, waiting for dinner to walk by.

This is a living Hell, it really is, and her parents have been planning to find somewhere else to go, maybe where there might be people. But they haven't got a solid enough plan to do that yet. Another thing they are lucky to have is guns, mostly hunting ones her Father kept from when he was a boy, but they still work, and before he left the Army he kept a few of his weapons as memories, as well as some left over ammunition. Claire's Father's is a little paranoid, and incredibly protective of his family. I guess you could say Claire inherited that from him, as whenever she sees a zombie, straight away she'll be pulling her Mother and Sister away, and holding a gun up to its face.

A disturbing thing from living in this new world is you have to adapt or die. In the last two weeks she's learnt how to aim properly and fire a gun, also how to clean it, switch safety on and off. All of that stuff. Maria is quite the opposite to her, she's afraid to even go near a gun, let alone learn how to use one. 'She has to grow up' their Father always says, to be able to survive for herself if she was to get lost. But she's refusing it all, I guess you can understand why, she's just become a teenager. Growing up is hard enough as it is, let alone all of this piled in to it as well, so she's just been keeping quiet and staying close to their Mother. But if she ever talks it will be to complain, so like before, she's still a bit of a bitch sometimes.

That night Claire was awoken to a few bangs on a window downstairs. She picked up the smaller gun by where her Father was sleeping and opened the attic door. Instead of letting the squeaky ladder down and waking everyone up, and possibly alerting more zombies, she slid the gun in to the back of her jeans and balanced herself over the square hole, poking her head down to check it was clear. Then holding tightly to the edges of the attic floor boards, Claire swung down, and landed on her hands and feet, crouched down. She was proud of myself for doing that so quietly and cat like, and she let a small smirk come across my lips as she walked to where the knocks were coming from. Pulling back the curtain steadily, she lifted the gun from her jeans and held it aimed down in front of herself. After the curtain was fully tucked back, behind the scratched dusty glass and metal bars was a zombie. An average height male, he had rugged brown hair that had dried up blood stuck in it, and its eyes were tired and weak. It had a few slash wounds across its neck, probably from where it got bit, and as it saw her it let out a loud groan, just loud enough for the girl to hear it. This was probably the closest she'd ever gotten to a zombie on her own, which was walking around anyway. A few times Claire would have gone up to a dead one to get a better look, but not quite like this. As its mouth opened, she squinted her eyes to look clearer, moist flesh was stuck between its teeth, like when you eat BBQ rips you always get some stuck in your teeth, but this was slightly more extreme. She dreaded to think who he'd munched that off of, and what part of some poor soul's body that could be.

Claire now needed to decide how to deal with him and cause the least amount of noise. She couldn't shoot him, as obviously that would make way to much noise. So she crept to the kitchen in the next room, the zombie followed from the outside around the house, she searched in the drawers that had been unopened for almost weeks. The girl pulled out the biggest chopping knife she could find, and held a couple of others in her hand, and went to the back door, where the zombie was now waiting at. She took a few deep breaths before unlocking the door, she knew if her Father, or anyone in her family, woke up they'd kill her for not alerting anyone. The zombie knew now she was going to open the door, and his groans got louder in excitement and anticipation.

Quickly, Claire swung the door open, and the zombie fell towards her. Almost automatically she thrust the large knife forward and in to the unwounded side of its neck, leaving the knife deep in its saggy skin. It toppled a little to the side, its arms just missing her, and fell in to the washing machine. She thought she'd done it, and killed it, but his hand rose to the knife and shook it around a little, as if it was trying to wiggle it out its self. Instinctively the smaller knives in her hands came forward and in to its head, one lodging in another part of its neck, a second in his cheek and the third loosely in its temple. She stepped back against the wall and watched it wail and fall dizzily. Her eyes fixed on the fleshy figure.

"Claire! What the fu-?"

"Dad?.. Shit!"

"Anthony?"

"Mummy!"

Fuck. Claire had woken the whole freakin' family up now. Her Father had his axe he'd recovered from the shed a while back and swung it high up in the air and brought it down hard in the middle of the zombie's head. Laura and Maria were about to rush in when the saw the blood from the zombie splatter on Claire through the doorway. Both their mouths dropped open and Maria hid behind her Mother. After Anthony had pulled his axe out of the lifeless zombie's head he turned to face his eldest daughter, anger written across his face.

"Claire! What the Hell do you think you were doing? Letting this... this thing! In to our house! Risking yours and our lives! Thinking you can take on this thing on your own!" He shouted, getting right up in her personal space.

"All right! I'm sorry! But if you don't quiet down we'll have a whole heard of zombies outside."

He carried the axe in to the kitchen, stomping his feet on the way, and washed the blood off of it in the sink. Laura handed her a damp cloth before taking Maria back up to the attic to try and get back to sleep. Claire wiped the blood off of her face best she could without a mirror, scowling at her Father as he then drained the sink.

"How many times do we have to go over this, Claire?" He asked quieter, keeping his back to her.

"We don't, but you just insist on it."

"There's a reason for that, and you know it... or am I going to have to explain that again too?" He dragged on sarcastically, turning to face her and leaning against the kitchen counter and crossing his arms.

"No, you don't need to, Father... I was only trying to handle it without waking anybody up. Obviously I failed, but I only had good intentions. I know none of us has had a proper night's sleep, and I was just trying to get rid of one zombie. It was no big deal", Claire looked down at the floorboards before adding on, "And I could have handled it on my own."

She heard him breathe in heavily as she muttered that last thing. But he restrained himself from saying anything back to her and turned away back towards the lounge where the attic was, taking the axe with him.

"What about the zombie?" She asked him quickly.

"You and your stubbornness can sort it out in the morning!"

'What a dick' she thought to myself, 'I wonder where I inherit that stubbornness from then?'

That next day after removing the corpse by their back door, and ignoring her Father, Claire had an emotional moment on my bedroom. Sometimes she'll just go and sit in there at any random time of day and just stare at everything, replaying the memories in her mind, knowing all of that is now gone. Of course she'd usually end up crying while being in there; her family have learnt not to disturb her when she's contemplating in there. And she'd respect them back when they occasionally do the same.

She looked at the photos from past holidays to India, the Bahamas, Mauritius and Egypt, even a few of the colder places like Austria, Italy, Poland and France. Claire love travelling, well loved it. She's going to miss that advantage.

She had an especially hard time this afternoon, she was thinking about a very close friend of hers, Chelsie. She was a very special and unique girl. Chelsie had a gift where she could light up a room, make everyone laugh and love her. Claire was quite the opposite, when she'd enter a room hardly anyone will notice. She had known her since she was thirteen when we had to sit next to each other in their first year of Spanish, with that horrible Spanish teacher with a name who no one could pronounce. They used to always give each other the answers in tests and doodle in the back on their work books. Then when they had PE together they'd kick ass in Badminton, Claire only hoped that she was lucky enough to not return as a... zombie.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Maria came rushing in, Claire turned to her annoyed but before she could say anything Maria spoke first.

"C, c, Claire! There's... There's people... outside! Real people! Daddy's talking to them now!"

"What the Hell are you talking about?" she said standing up and walking towards the door where her Sister was slouching.

Maria took Claire out the front door of their house to see their parents and several other people stood talking in a hushed tone. Anthony turned to her and beckoned Claire to come forward and meet everyone. She counted eight other people standing in their garden.

There was Simon Holden, he was in his mid forties and was the owner of the hotel that also lied down that wooded road our house is situated on. He was very kind and formal, and looked a lot like the man who portrayed Iron Man with the way he shaved. A few months ago she could have told you who he was, but she'd forgotten. Simon then introduced them to his twin sons, Nathan and Charlie Holden, twenty-years-old and completely identical, and both very good looking. Like models almost. They both winked at Claire with opposite eyes, which made her smile and strangely enough their hair looked like it had been purposely messed up it looked so cute. She will definitely be talking to them if she get the chance.

The fourth person was Alec Walsh, a young American real estate agent, and he was supposed to be on holiday here in England with his pretty little blonde fiancé Fiona Horvath and her eight-year-old daughter Maisy. Straight away Claire saw a possible friend for Maria, there was a five year age difference, but Maria doesn't always act her age to be honest.

Then lastly was this friendly elderly couple, Terry and Maribella Harveys, both in their seventies and both incredibly charming. Claire would definitely like to talk to Maribella properly; she has the prettiest shade of red in her hair and the friendliest of smiles.

Simon explained to her Father what his and the group's plans were. They'd agreed to drive on a tour bus that was abandoned at the hotel up to London, why London puzzled her Father, but after Simon explained that it was the Government's fault things turned to Hell, going up to London after them would make sense. It's not like they're doing anything important living like they have a prison sentence down here.

Claire's parents allowed the small group to stay the night in their home, all the men slept in her old bedroom, and Maribella, Maisy and Fiona slept with Claire, Maria and Laura in the attic. That evening they'd fed them all, not a lot, but enough to last them for a while. Food was scarce now-a-days with all the food companies and farms having been deserted or infected.

The next morning Claire awoke to the sound of cooking utensils clanging together and muffled talking. Looking around the attic, she was the only one who appeared to still be up there, climbing down the ladder she found all the women, including Maria, Maisy and Terry cooking breakfast. She smiled and said good morning to them all, then was told by her Mother to go help her Father up in the garage. A short walk through the house, garden and driveway enabled her to find her Father, Simon, his sons and Alex, or Alec, she couldn't quite remember which, working on the bus. Nathan and Charlie quickly offered to show Claire around the bus, not that it probably took a lot of skill, while the rest of them were gaping at the engines and God knows what else. Looking at the twenty-year-old twins made her know straight away she's never going to get their names right, but at least their company will be much appreciated.

Luckily the bus was a Double Decker, and a dark blue sort of colour. It was pretty muddy and had some scratches on it, but you can't expect anything to be perfect now-a-days. Both took one of Claire's hands each and led her up the steps, all the curtains on the windows had been pulled across and taped up, making it pretty dark, but the slight gaps of light coming through made it easier to see what's what.

"So Claire, how old are ya?" Nathan asked.

"I'm nineteen", she answered, looking at the small collection of books on a few of the seats.

"Perfect age" Charlie then cheered.

"Right? Well, err... Can you both show me around here like you offered too? I'm sure you've all come up with, like, rules and things?"

"Yeah... yeah, there's a few", Nathan said appearing in front of Claire.

"Rule Number One... err, always leave the toilet clean", Charlie muttered.

"Yeah? It's the basic sorta stuff, ya'know, common sense", the other one said, grinning childishly.

"Okay, well what about sleeping arrangements?"

"What do ya mean?"

"She means where do we sleep, dumb-ass", Charlie said, punching his Brother playfully in the shoulder.

"Oh yeah, we just sleep where ever really." Nathan blushed a little, he seemed kind of cute when he was embarrassed, but in a child like way. Claire walked up the twisted steps to the upper level of the bus, it wasn't any different to the downstairs but there wasn't a toilet and it had more supplies stored towards the back. Charlie and Nathan followed behind her, both checking out their sandy brown hair in the dim reflection on the windows.

"So did our Dad explain to you what we're all doin'?" Charlie questioned, sitting down facing Claire and his Brother, who both then did the same and sat opposite him.

"Um, yeah. You're all driving up to London to look for help and answers."

"You got it!" Claire nodded and leant back, pulling one of the grey blankets back to look out the window. She wasn't really expecting anything to be there, but at the angle she was at, she could see in to her neighbours garden and front porch. It was pretty disgusting, a few infected and human bodies were scattered around and there were blood stains on the inside windows. Her family and her knew they hadn't made it, or if they had they'd left without anyone knowing. But that conclusion was unlikely.

"We should be getting back to the house, it's not safe being out here, even with the walls and fences around the place", She said bluntly, standing up to walk away. The twins nodded and followed her; she guessed they didn't have any more pick-up lines to test on her.

Later that evening the new group had meeting. Maria and Maisy weren't there; Laura and Fiona had already gotten them to sleep and joined them. Simon and Anthony were automatically appointed the group leaders for the journey; they both had the experience and were much wiser.

"I've been thinking about this for the most part of today, and I propose that we leave at the break of dawn tomorrow", Simon began.

"Shouldn't we have more time to prepare? I mean, that bus is all well and good but have you thought about every angle of each possibility that could happen to us out there?"

"Yes, Anthony, I have briefly thought it over. There are many abandoned petrol stations around, I'm sure a few stops will give us a full tank of gas. We can even empty any remainders from cars left behind. We have enough food to last us a little over a week, and I'm certain we'll still come across more along the way."

"What about guns? Ammo? We only have the two, that's hardly enough", Alec butted in.

"Isn't there a gun store in town?" Claire spoke up, swallowing to clear her voice, "And next door, we've heard gunshots coming from there. We could sweep over that place? I'm sure that place will have food too, and some extra blankets, petrol, everything. We all know those people were wealthy, so their more than likely to be stocked up on everything." Nearly everyone nodded in agreement with her. She felt strangely proud, she didn't know why; it just made her feel more part of the group.

"That's a very good idea... Claire, isn't it?"

"Err, yes Sir."

"Sorry, getting old."

"Why'd you call him Sir?" Nathan asked.

"Because she was brought up that way", his Father quickly corrected, saving Claire an embarrassing explanations. She had no idea why she did call him Sir. Simon was rather similar to her Father, and he had always preferred to be called Sir. Old military memories.

"Okay, it's a plan. Tomorrow morning Alec, Simon, his boys and I will sweep over that house, and then in the afternoon we'll all leave in that bus and stop outside the city. Then we'll discuss how to get to that gun store." They all nodded except Claire.

"Wha?... What about me?" she said sitting up. Anthony looked over at his daughter as if her hair had turned green.

"You're too young to come with us."

"What! I'm nineteen. Charlie and Nathan are only a year older... Right?" They both nodded, looking at her wide eyed and grinning.

"That's not the point. It's not safe for you to be out there." Every bodies heads were turning from Claire to her Father as each of them spoke, as if it we were a tennis game.

"What is it you have been teaching me and Maria since birth?"

"Survival, common sense-", Claire cut him off, knowing his list could be going on for a while.

"And what is our main aim in this new situation?"

"Fine... You can come, but you are doing as you are told!"

"Don't I always", she said with a small grin.

"Of course."

"Can I carry a gun?" Claire was pushing her luck now, but it was rather fun.

"No, we only have the two. If we have enough after searching next door tomorrow, then fine."

"Yes!" She whispered under her breath.