Prologue: Road to a DEAD End

The surroundings flew past in a blur of colours. The young woman's vision was hazy because of the tears filling her sapphire blue eyes. Her hands gripped the steering wheel firmly as she pressed the gas down to the floor, wishing the car would go faster.

She had no idea what was happening, and frankly, she didn't care. Her mind was set on one thing; protecting her family.

She had been at home with her daughter, who had gotten the flu, watching TV when it happened. The TV screen, which had been showing an episode of How I Met Your Mother, had switched to white for a moment, just to be replaced with a live news report informing of the supposed mass slaughter going on in the city. All citizens had been given strict orders to stay inside no matter the circumstances, and stay away from people.

But, of course, Caitlin Stone would have none of that. It had taken her less than five minutes to get dressed, stuff her daughter into the back of the car, and leave straight for the city.

She didn't have much of a choice on the matter, she thought. Whatever the case may be, she couldn't just abandon her husband.

Thirty-one years old William Stone was a high school teacher at Heritage High School in Lynchburg, Virginia. He had always been very dedicated to his work as English teacher and football coach. If you asked people what they thought of Mr. Stone, you were almost guaranteed to get a positive reply. He was a good man, and Caitlin was a lucky woman.

The blonde let out a sigh of relief as the John Lynch Memorial Bridge came into view, but as she got closer, the seriousness of the situation really became clear to her. The next couple of hundred meters of the road in front of her was blocked by a long line of cars, and just by the bridge stood a barrier of police cars.

A horde of people had gathered by the police cars and seemed to be arguing with some police officers.

Upon realizing there was no way she'd be able to drive across the bridge anytime soon, Caitlin clutched the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles became white. She let out a growl and squeezed her eyes shut, preventing the tears from running down her cheeks.

"Mommy?" a soft voice whispered from the back seat. A small cough escaped the little girl's bright pink lips. The sound of her seven-year-old daughter's fearful voice forced her to calm down. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, glancing back at the girl through the mirror.

"Yeah, sweetie?" she said in the calmest tone she could muster, at the moment.

"What is going on? Why are you so worried?"

Heck. How could she possibly explain this to a little child? She wasn't even able to wrap her mind around the situation herself, yet!

"I don't know, Matilda, but it's important that you do as I tell you until we find daddy, can you do that?" she questioned, her voice trembling a little. The girl in the back seat nodded her small head, making her brown curls bounce slightly.

They sat there in utter silence for a while, Caitlin hoping for the queue to start moving across the bridge, but she had no such luck.

She pressed the power button on the car radio and turned up the volume.

"…The sudden killing pandemic is spreading in record speed. We have yet to find out what has caused this incident, but in this moment, military forces are being sent out to regain control in the cities," the woman's voice uttered, slightly rushed.

"The conditions seem to be the same in Russia and England, but we have already lost most contacts with Germany and China. The situation in the rest of the world is still unknown, but we ask of you to-"

Her hand shot forwards, hitting the off button. The car turned quiet yet again.

How could this have happened so fast? It was all fine earlier this morning, and now… Now people are being killed in the middle of the street. Now, they are closing off roads to secure parts of the town from whatever's going on.

Now she might never see William again…

She took off her seat belt and shoved the car door open, and then she went to the back and picked the girl out of her seat, setting her onto the ground. Intertwining her fingers with her daughter's, she started marching towards the bridge in a quick pace that the little girl could barely match on her short feet.

She had no idea what to do next, call for a cab, hope a bus would pick them up, walk, but there was no question in her mind; they had to get to the other side of that bridge.

Upon arriving by the police cars, one of the officers noticed them.

"You two, step back! They'll kill you, get away!"

At first, Caitlin had no idea what he was babbling about, but then she took a closer look at the mob just before her. Their skin had a sickly grey tone to it and their clothes were ripped and stained with red. As one of them turned against her, she saw that its eyes were rolled back, only revealing the white in them, and its mouth was left half open, covered in blood.

The man, or whatever he was, staggered closer to them and the little girl let out a shriek of fear at the gruesome sight. Caitlin covered her eyes and pulled her closer, not knowing what else to do.

The crooked man leapt at them, baring his teeth and Caitlin shut her eyes. Just as she felt the body crash into her own, she heard a loud bang. Slowly letting her eyes open, the limp figure lying by her feet revealed itself to her. A bullet was buried deep into his skull and approximately twenty meters away from her stood a police officer, the gun in his hand still aimed in the direction he had shot.

The next thing that happened occurred so fast that no one really had time to react. The horde of people darted forwards, running down the barbed wire fence that Caitlin hadn't noticed before now.

They threw themselves at the police officers, sinking their teeth into their limbs as the men screamed out in agony. Some of them attempted to shoot their attackers, but despite being hit by several bullets, they kept going.

Caitlin's first and best idea was to run. She turned in the opposite direction of the bloody massacre and started sprinting, dragging Matilda along after her.

Suddenly, the little girl fell flat on her face, making her mother abruptly stop and twirl around. She was about to pull the girl to her feet again when the scene became clear to her.

One of the people, no, they couldn't be people, had grabbed a hold of her leg and pulled her down. She tried kicking the creature as the screamed wildly for her mother to save her, but before Caitlin could do anything, the creature sunk its teeth into her flesh.

The blood spewed from the big gash and the brunette coughed up great amounts of blood. The creature crawled forwards and bit into her right arm, ripping out parts of the muscle in the process.

A huge pool of blood spread around the girl as her screams slowly died out.

"No… Matilda. Matilda, please, please don't die, please…" she muttered, tears streaming down her face in a steady flow.

Her daughter was dead. She was gone forever. This… this monster had killed her and there was nothing Caitlin could have done to stop it.

What the hell was going on? Could this really be happening? Could the world really be turning into this?

She had lost her daughter. She didn't know what was happening to her husband, for all she knew he might be dead already, as well. If that was the case, would she still keep fighting? Would she still want to live in a world where all her loved ones were gone?

The answer to those questions was no.

As she pried her gaze away from her daughter, who was lying dead on the ground, covered in her own blood, she saw one of them making its way towards her.


Greetings, everyone! Thanks for taking time to check out my story. This is a new project that I'm doing to improve my writing skills. I will be working on it in my very limited amount of spare time. I'm normally a person who runs out of inspiration quickly, but I'm having a good feeling about this particular story. I will not promise anything, but I'll do my very best to continue this project, alongside with everything else I have to do.

So, I'm not really sure how well the prologue turned out… but my writing skills aren't the best, just so that's said. I kind of left it as a cliffhanger, simply because I don't yet know if I'll have Caitlin survive or not. Her husband, William, is a teacher at the school where this story plays out, so he will be a part of it, but probably not a main character.

This story will be taking place in Lynchburg in Virginia and starts at a high school on the first day of the apocalypse.

Anyway, I would be extremely happy if you chose to send in an OC for this story, so here are the rules and the submission form:

Rules:

1. No Mary Sue's! People aren't perfect and original characters with flaws are far more interesting to write.

2. This is not a first come, first serve. I will choose original, well developed and realistic characters for this story.

3. Please PM me your OCs. It's far easier to keep track of and I won't risk having this story deleted because of rule breaking.

Submission Form:

General

Name:

Nicknames?:

Gender:

Age:

Birthday:

Ethnicity:

Bio

Personality: (be very descriptive, I need to make these characters act)

History/Background:

Family:

Friends:

Pets?:

School: (Were they popular, did they like school, were they in any school clubs, etc.)

Sexuality:

Hobbies:

Talents:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Fears:

Favourite Colour:

Favourite Food:

Favourite Season:

Appearance

Height:

Weight:

Body Type:

Skin Tone:

Eye Colour:

Hair Colour:

Hair Style:

Others?: (Anything you'd like to add. Description of their face, details such as scars, piercings and tattoos, cup size for females, etc.)

Clothes:

Fighting

Primary Weapon:

Secondary Weapon:

Other Weapons?:

Fighting Style: (Both against the living and the undead)

Stats (Rank from 1-10)

Physical Strength:

Mental Strength:

Speed (running):

Stamina:

Agility:

Dexterity (how quick they are at doing things; picking locks, arming a gun, etc.):

Close Combat:

Aim:

Plot Related Matters

Reaction to other survivors:

Reaction to zombies:

Open to romance?:

If yes, what kind of person would they fall for?:

Is there anything you'd like to happen to your OC?:

How would you like your OC to die?:

Anything else you'd like to add?:

And there you have it. Send in an OC if you please and as always; reviews, critical response, questions and suggestions for future chapters are much appreciated!

Until next time.

-Monica