[Prologue] Happy Birthday
'Happy birthday.' Mason spoke to himself with a soft voice behind the wheel of a worn Ford Fiesta 1.3 he bought three years ago for his own birthday. The green color had faded since then and the paintjob was filled with scratches. The right headlight was broken since a few months, but he did not have the money to fix it, nor the energy to actually get it fixed.
Him saying happy birthday to himself was the only person to speak the two meaningless words to him in the last four years. And he was the only one to blame for the situation being like it was. His parents kicked him out of the house with a good reason. He made a mess of his school and ruined his life by spending all of his money on cigarettes and alcohol. He remembered starting to smoke and drink three night after his grandfather passed away. He loved him like he loved no one else. And his grandfather loved him. As a kid they went fishing. Every Sunday. He supported Mason on the sideline every Saturday as he ran across the pitch to kick the ball into net. Mason's eyes filled with tears by just thinking of his grandfather. He always felt like the man was the only person who really understood who he was and cared about him.
Mason never knew his grandmother. She passed away two years before he was born, at the age of 57. She had problems with her heart since the day her mother gave birth to her, but made the best of her life and managed to surprise every doctor she had ever seen, by living as long as she did. Most of the doctors thought she wouldn't reach the age of twenty.
The streets were an empty mess of wrecked cars and dead bodies. Creatures with fresh blood and human meat dripping from their lips were trying to get into Mason's moving car, but fell on the asphalt as soon as they hit the side of the moving vehicle.
Six days ago the world got hit by a destructive mutation of the well-known flu. Humans who got infected by the first phase of the disease died within twenty-four hours after their infection. A few hours later, a part of their brains was reactivated. But the damage of a
non-working body caused them to behave like the creatures on the road were doing right now. The reanimated human beings started to feed on their own species. The bodies of the living dead showed slight signs of decay while they were ripping their friends and family apart with their bare teeth.
Phase two of the destructive virus was the aftermath of the first day. It seemed like people who weren't hit by the first phase were not infected by the virus for now, but that didn't mean they were safe from harm. The moment you got bit, or even scratched by one of the monsters, meant you were done for. Soon they would start showing symptoms of the mutated flu. In the end it had the same result as the first phase of the outbreak. You passed away within days, only to come back as one of them. Most people did not know what to do, me among them. It went really bad in a short amount of time. Whole families were torn apart without them even knowing. One person in your house just had to reanimate while the rest was sleeping for chaos to commence.
Mason tried to stay in his small apartment as long as possible, but he quickly ran out of food and clean drinking water. The electricity died as well. He deeply wished he still had alcohol to consume, but no bottle has entered his apartment since two and a half years. The damage it had done to his life was the reason to never drink and smoke again. Almost starving himself to death, wishing his life would end as quickly as possible, he remembered the words his grandfather spoke to him at half time on a rainy Sunday afternoon when he was playing a terrible match.
"Keep your head up, young man. No matter how bad things are going, or how dark the world may seem, remember I'll always watch over you. No matter what. My spirit will guide you through times you need it the most."
It gave him courage and strength to actually give the changed world a chance. A chance to survive and makes his grandfather proud. If he quitted now, he was sure the man he loved would feel disappointed up in heaven, and wouldn't welcome him with open arms as he always used to do.
Mason never believed in God or the afterlife, but since his grandfather passed away he always felt there something special. He had the feeling he was being looked over by his grandfather. Steered to better directions when he was slipping away. Maybe the outbreak was his way to him a new chance at life. A better chance.
'So where do I go from here?' he thought. He lost his family years ago as result of his actions, so they weren't an option. They wouldn't want him to show up after years, and neither did he want to show up. He never really had friends, only people he knew. Barely knew. His current location was about six hours south of Atlanta. The big city was not a place you wanted to be right now. Even he knew there would be hundreds, maybe thousands of skin ripping creatures there. He decided to just keep going and see where the drive would end up eventually. He thought of driving until the car ran out of fuel.
He turned on the radio to distract his mind from the creatures wandering on the road. An automatic message was broadcasted, calling for a worldwide state of emergency. The message was spoken by a man with a deep, raw voice. He told people to look for shelter, canned food and bottled drinking water. He told people to keep calm and wait for the military forces to deal with the current situation. But there was no military force to help them. Neither was there a law to keep people in line. People didn't stay calm. The human race was scattered across the globe. The United States of America had fallen to ashes, just like the rest of the world. From now on, it was a survival of the fittest.
'Happy birthday, Mason.' he spoke to himself. ', Welcome home.'
…
After a long time of thinking about anything to put on the paper, I decided just to start writing an idea I've had since a few months. The Walking Dead is one of my favorite series and probably the one I'll have the most fun with writing. But it's not only going to be the Walking Dead. I'm even more of a fan of Sons of Anarchy, so there might just be a few characters from that series that will appear in my story. Characters from the 100 and Z Nation might appear as well, but it'll of course be a Walking Dead themed story.
Characters that will be used, might be different than how you know them from the big screen. I try to keep some truth in the characters, but there can be changes made to how they behave and act in situations.
For now, Mason will be the only character made by me in the story, but I always keep the option for new OC's available. You never know.
If you like (or did not like) the story, please write a review. It will help me a lot with progressing the story and knowing what to do different or with mistakes I've made (which I can then fix of course haha) (Please, keep the reviews clean. I'm open for critique, but there's no reason to swear or whatever)
Thanks for reading the story and putting energy in doing so. It means a lot to me, knowing you spend time of your life in something I made.
Goodbye for now,
Ramingo (or Ramon, if you want to use my REAL name)
