"The Walking Dead – The Scarlet Blair Edition"

Chapter 1 - Armageddon

My name is Scarlet. Scarlet Blair. And I am alive. Why is this so important you ask? It is because I'm surround by dead people. And not just any dead people. I'm surrounded by the walking dead.
It has been over a year since this all started. I was on my way home from classes. When I heard the radio switch to an emergency broadcast. It advised everyone to stay calm, go to their homes and lock their windows and doors. So I drove as fast I could without getting stopped for a ticket. I was in a hurry to check on my brother, Gabriel. He was only four and was at our neighbors house while I was at school. I didn't trust our mother to watch him anymore. Not since dad died.
Dad was a fire fighter. A good one. He died saving a little boy from a house fire. He ran in found him and as he was running back for the door the house collapsed on top of them burning my father. The boy lived somehow, my dad was a hero. A dead hero.
I was lost in thoughts about that night, memories of my mom screaming and crying and waking up later that night to find her in the bathroom with her wrists pouring blood. Ambulance lights, doctors, and strangers trying to talk to us all a blur. She lived but she was never the same. Mom took to drinking after that. She was an angry drunk. Always throwing things and screaming. Then she'd break down crying as she apologized. It was nights like this that I'd take Gabe outside and we'd sleep in dad's truck.
It was thinking about all these things that I often thought about when I hit him, or rather it. I thought it was just a person that had jumped out into the road but when I got out to see if he was alive I realized he wasn't but he was still moving, going crazy, his legs were been broken and yet he still came after me as though he felt no pain dragging himself across the ground. I jumped back in my car and backed up flooring it and running him over.
This time I drove without thinking, faster than before, I got to our neighbors and ran up beating on her door screaming, "Gabriel! Gabriel where are you?"
Maria our neighbors daughter was the first to open the door she had frightened look on her face, "Scar, what's wrong?" she asked in earnest, "Haven't you heard?" I gasped, "Haven't you seen them? Where is my brother?"
She moved out of the way to let me in the house "In the living room, Scar, you are scaring me what's wrong?"

I ran past her and found him in the living room playing with his army men, grabbing him up and holding him close I looked at her, "If you want to stay alive you will get your family, get all your things and come to my house as fast as possible. I ran over a dead man on my way home, Maria, he was dead but he was trying to grab me. He was already dead when I hit him but he was moving!" I hugged Gabriel sobbing my eyes out, "Maria dead people aren't staying dead, just before that the radio sent out an emergency broadcast telling everyone to stay calm and to stay inside, I think something bad is happening...I don't know what...but Maria I have this feeling that everything is about to change. We have to go now."

She looked at me dumbfounded and jumped when she heard someone outside scream, sirens started sounding all around us and we heard gunfire.
"Now Maria! Get everyone to my house now! Forget your things we will get them later!" I screamed as I ran to the door looking out, I could see police cars and ambulances flying by, I looked down the road and saw one of the dead things chewing on our older neighbor Samuel's leg.
He was an elderly man, hardly able to get around. We checked in on him every few days to make sure he was okay. He had no family, never got married, never had kids, didn't have siblings, and his parents were long dead. Tears pricked my eyes and I shook my head, "Get it together Scarlet, move."
I grabbed Maria's fathers pistol from the cabinet by the door where I knew he kept it hidden and waited by the door with Gabe. I could hear Maria calling her mother Rosa, her brother Carlos, their Abuela and her father Miguel who had run inside from the back yard where they'd been getting ready for a bar-b-q, "Sígueme. Tenemos que ir a la casa de Scarlet, que algo está mal, no estamos a salvo.", Follow me. We have to go to Scarlet's house, something is wrong, we are not safe.
My Spanish was as rusty as Maria's had grown but I knew she was afraid, I could see her father run through the house to his gun cabinet he unlocked it quickly pulling out a shotgun and handing it to Carlos along with a duffel bag that I'm sure had more guns and ammo in it. Next he grabbed a glock that he handed to Maria, a .45 that he strapped to his side, another shotgun that he handed to his wife, and two more duffel bags.
I'd always known Mr. Alvarez was paranoid because he and my father were the same way. My dad had bought our house specifically because of the panic room hidden below our basement, it was like he'd always known that one day the world would go to hell. After we moved in he and Miguel had instantly struck up a strong friendship and had fortified our panic room to be able to house both our families for extended periods of time throughout just about anything.
Once everyone was armed and I had Gabe securely attached to my side we started outside and across the Alvarez's front yard. I looked over at our house, it felt like it was miles away even though it was less than 200 feet from their front door to ours. Moving slowly in our group I was able to really look at the madness around us, there were undead abominations scattered up and down our street. I had been hearing reports of people getting sick and dying for almost a month now but I had always tuned them out. I was beginning to regret that.

Obviously whatever had happened wasn't something to be ignored. People were screaming and shooting at the things coming after them, chest, leg, shoulder, but nothing seemed to slow them down for very long. They weren't exactly fast per-say, more like relentless.
We moved quietly trying not to draw attention to ourselves because no one seemed to notice us, they were all too focused on the dead things or the sirens. Once we reached my house we went in and locked the door. I ran through the house looking for our mother, Gabe was with the others. I found her upstairs cowering in her closet with my dad's axe and a bottle of whiskey. "What are you doing? We have to get to the panic room mom, now! Leave that behind."

I grabbed the whiskey and stuffed it in the back of her closet as I pulled her to her feet, luckily it was early enough in the day that she wasn't in her usual drunken stupor.
I locked all the windows, shutters, and storm doors my dad had added on and then we made our way to the basement. After securing the basement door we all filed one by one through the hidden entrance to the panic room.
Our dad had concealed the room to appear as a bookshelf in the library of our finished basement. It took a special key to unlock the door and a different one to lock it back. A stairway went down into the ground leading to another door. This was the panic room.
Finally locked more than fifty feet below the ground and with at least ten feet of the space between us and the outside world being concrete and reinforced steel I finally felt we were at our safest. I turned to look at the other seven people who had packed into the room with us. Their faces were enough to tell me how scared they were.
After a few minutes I sat down and looked at Miguel, "What do we do now?"
Miguel looked at me, "First I'd say we need to figure out what's going on out there. Do you have any idea what those things were?"
"I'd say that at one point they were people, but I don't know what happened to them. I don't know why they are eating other people. I sure as hell don't know why they weren't dying when I saw people shooting at them. I'm just glad that we are all here together and that we are alive. I saw one of those things eating Samuel, I didn't know what to do though so I didn't do anything, I just hope to God he is okay. We are lucky to have this place. I don't know why my dad wanted to build it but I am glad he did. He made it stronger. We have water, air, ventilation, food, weapons, and the safely of no one knowing where we are. I swear daddy was preparing for Armageddon and I think it has come."
I looked at my mother who was crying on a couch at the far end of the main room. "Sam, Samantha...," she ignored me and continued crying, "woman!" I almost yelled "Get it together now. Think of your son, think of me, I know you haven't been in your right mind these last six months since dad died but we need you, Gabriel needs you. You have to pull it together. I know...it's not easy, you lost dad, but so did we. We lost a father and you seem to either have forgotten that or your just so lost in your own grief that you don't care. Whatever it is, it needs to end today."
She looked at me her eyes puffy and red as I scolded her like a child and then she straightened up, "Just give me a day Scar, please, I just need one day." She shook like she was cold.
Turning away I looked at Abuela, "Let me show you to your room..."I motioned her to follow me and she did. None of this had seemed to phase her, I made a mental note to talk to her later on about it. I walked to the far end of the room and opened a door that led to a hallway with many doors branching off into different rooms. I held the main door open for Abuela, I followed her through after a minute and led her to the room closest to the door. I opened her door to show her good-sized room with its own bathroom off the back of it.
I flipped on a light, "Dad made sure this place will have power and water even if all main power grids fail, we are on our own well, there are solar panels, and the water wheel in the river in the field." I could feel everyone else's eyes on me from out in the hall. "Dad has us stocked down here for years to come if we need it. Pray that we don't."
I continued on down the hall to the next room, "Miguel and Rosa this is your room" I opened the door and kept walking, I named everyone off as we went down the hall, "Carlos your on the left side, Maria yours is on the right side, I'm next to you there is a room for Gabriel," I looked at him," You can stay with me for now if that would make you feel better." He grabbed my hand and held tight without saying a word. "And mom, your next to Gabriel. Past our rooms is a kitchen, a weaponry, a library, an underground greenhouse, and the storeroom. There is even a stairway leading further down to a fully sound proof training range. We have extra rooms down separate locked hallways if anyone else we trust seeks out shelter."
I turned around, "I don't know what's going on out there, none of us do, but I do know that dad was prepared for it. We should have enough here so that we don't have to leave for a few years at least if things are that bad outside."
"We can try to get some of our things when everything dies down a little. For now I think we should all just try to get comfortable, I'm going to check the TV and the radio and see what the news is saying."
I walked out of the room trying not to show how scared I was, Gabe needed me to be strong. I knew I didn't have to lead our group alone which was a relief I had Carlos and Miguel, they were both strong and smart and would be able to help me if we got in a pinch, but for some reason I felt responsible for everyone. I'd know them since I was a little girl, they were all like family. I had to protect them.

Jamie here, okay so I'm new to the whole fan fiction writing thing, I haven't written anything in a long time and it has been even longer since I wrote anything of this caliber so I do apologize if it seems a little off. I hope you enjoy my writing and the style in which I write. I may be a little rusty at first but I hope you will bear with me! I look forward to reading comments and building my writing through constructive criticism with my writing!