Dawn of the Dead : A different tale
(Disclaimer, I don't own anything from the dawn of the dead franchise.)
Chapter 1 Woman, Hospital, The Dead
"It's easy, take a deep breath and squeeze the trigger, you'll hit the target almost everytime." Hopes father once told her when she was younger.
That was when life was simple and she didn't have very many worries. It was before the world was covered with the dead. The dead that roamed the earth. She didn't have any idea or even a theory as to why they started roaming the earth they just did in her mind and that was all she really needed to know about it.
Her dad was a gun fanatic and had collected many types of guns, all of which she had learned to use. It further helped her in the long run that he was a military man that was able to teach her minor Close Quarters Combat just before she moved into the city. He figured that she would need it since she was moving to the city.
She moved to West Haven and went to college right up until the first known attacks occured. Soon after the plague spread and before she knew it she was fending for her life. Her dad wasn't stupid though, he gave her a weapon to defend herself with despite her arguments against it. He gave her a 9mm handgun and she always kept it in her bedstand right up until the streets were unsafe to walk and the military went through.
Unfortunately she missed the one and only ride out of the city and later found out that it was blind luck that she had missed it, the whole vehicle was submerged with the dead and soon the last radio reports announced it. Then there was radio silence followed by the electricity going out in most of the city.
She ran aimlessly trying to find a way outside of the city when she ran into a little girl by the name of Rae Ann. She had lost both of her parents. Hope took her under her wing and together they managed to escape a few large groups of the dead together. Locking themselves in a convenient store along with three other people.
How and why she left it was a simple reason, Rae Ann cut her leg on their way to the store and needed medicine. They'd been living there for the last three weeks and she noticed that the little girl was getting sick. At first she thought it was the flu, but then she looked at the wound and realized that it was beginning to look infected.
It took her only a few minutes to decide that she needed to get to the hospital to get Rae Ann some medicine. She felt that she needed to keep the girl alive for her own sanity, after all the girl was her only reason for living at the moment.
She remembered the shocked looks on the faces of the others when she told them she was going and they were to stay and protect the girl.
"That isn't right Hope! I can go with you at least!" Jake said, he was the closest in the group to her own age being only a year older then her.
"I need to go by myself. What if something happens here and the others get killed? Who's going to protect her? I need someone like you to be by her side until I get back." she said.
He let her go without further argument. Hector, the oldest one there decided not to even bother arguing with her, he knew she was too stubborn to argue with. Jeff, a elementary school teacher gave her simple advice as she left.
"If you see more then three or four of them run." he said to her.
He then handed her the shotgun that was found underneath the counter of the store. She took it and handed him her handgun. He looked up at her wearily and then gave her a brief hug, he knew that there was a possibilty that she wouldn't be back.
And here she was, walking over the biggest car pile up she had ever seen in her life. It was main street the busiest street in West Haven. She walked over a smashed in Volkswagon with the driver still partially in the drivers seat. His head was mangled and his brains were dried to another car that the Volkswagon was resting on.
She shook her head and looked out at the pile up that was stretched out before her. This would take a while and she really didn't have time to spare. She began to climb around the cars stopping only once to balance on the bumper of an up turned car. Then she found an alleyway and decided to take it. She knew that it led to a less used street and the hospital was only four blocks away from there.
"Not a single one of those dead things around." she said as she climbed down from the pile up.
Just a few feet away from her was a little pizza place that she used to love to eat at. It had an oldsmobile sticking out of it. She felt a sadness creep into her as she walked past it. She shook memories of the pizza place from her mind, she needed to think only of Rae Ann and the task she was supposed to be doing.
She continued down the road for a block and then took an alleyway because of the zombies she saw roaming the streets. There were too many for her to take down with the gun she had. It carried only five rounds and it was the only five rounds she had for it. She only killed six of those things as it was and she shuddered at the thought of having to pull the trigger again.
She walked down the small alleyway past the dumpsters and garages that lined it. On the way towards the end of the alley she saw a man laying near a dumpster, the back of his head was sprayed out all over a fence. He died with his eyes open. She leaned down and closed his cold eye lids as best as she could then she journeyed on.
As she walked through the next alley she could see the solitary zombie that stood in the middle of someones backyard. It spotted her and ran towards her as fast as it could. As it approached her she hit it firmly in the face with the butt of the gun. It went down hard and she brought the butt on it's face smashing part of it's skull off. She looked at it in amazement as it's grey matter spattered across the paved driveway of the backyard.
Sickness filled her stomach as the smell of decayed flesh hit her nostrils but she managed to wait out the nausea that tried to force itself into her stomach. She walked on to the end of the alley and then went left down Washington and Sixth street. She only had two more blocks to go and she dreaded the next two blocks. The street the hospital was on was a moderately busy street and she knew she would more than likely run into more zombies.
The gravel behind her crunched and she turned around just in time to see a zombie shamble in the opposite direction. It probably smelled the blood of the recently killed zombie. She felt the nausea rise in her stomach again as she thought of it going over to the dead to feast.
She walked on going across a sidewalk that was lined with discarded money, toys, and car keys among other things. She even saw an unopened envelope addressed to a woman from a man. She bent down and picked it up putting it in her pocket, it was something to read regardless of what it was and what it had in it.
She had three other letters in her pocket, one from her dad just before the whole zombie thing happened on this side of the states. He told her to be careful and to use the gun if she happened to see someone that wasn't quite themselves. He also said that he loved her and that she was going to be okay. It was almost like a premonition of some sort.
She never wondered if he was okay, what would it help? She just left the very thought of it out of her mind. Especially when she was doing something important. If her mind was distracted by things like that then she could get bitten and that would be bad.
Her mind did start to wander though, it started to wander to the beginning of this endless nightmare. The dorms were closing permanently and the dean had sent everyone still there to an auditorium for a last encouraging speech.
"By now most of you know that there has been an odd phenomena of sorts in the world for about a week. It is showing no signs of letting up and in fact as most of you know from watching CNN, it is actually spreading to the western states and will soon be in our very city. I have come today to tell you that this is merely a hurtle in life and we can overcome it. Man will prevail over this as man has prevailed over everything that has been thrown at him." He stopped and wiped a tear from his eye.
"Unfortunately it seems our military is losing ground to these things, but rest assured we will win this. I am also here to let you know that everyone can leave whenever they please, go home to your parents and tell them how much you love them. The dorms will be closing in two days, what you do in that time is up to you."
She went to the nearest phone and called her dad, he was living in Kansas. He never answered the phone, but that was how it usually was. She tried four times to call him and finally on the last call he answered. He sounded out of breath.
"Daddy?" she asked over the reciever.
"Hi honey, whats going on?" he asked her.
"I'm scared, they said that the plague was going to reach us in a few days, they've closed the dorms down and have asked us all to return to our homes and wait until this whole thing blows over. I want to come home dad, I'm scared." she said in a voice that was unsteady.
"Honey if you can make it home then by all means come home." he said in a concerned fatherly tone.
"I'll try daddy." She said.
"I should tell you though that everyone is leaving in our farming community though." he said.
She felt a heaviness hit her in the chest, it was then that the reality of it really settled in her mind.
"What are you going to do?" she asked her dad, in her heart she knew that what he was going to say before he even said it.
"I'm going to make a stand here. This farm has been in our family for three generations and it's seventeen miles away from the nearest town. I'll be safe and if you can make it home you'll be safe too." he said.
"I'm going to call and see if there are any planes or busses that leave the city. If not I'll try to get there some other way." She said to her father.
After a brief goodbye she hung up the phone and began making preparations. She packed her bags and made a call to the airport unfortunately they were closing the airport down due to difficulties. The busses were all caught in traffic on there way out of the city and there wasn't a train that wasn't already packed.
She stayed there deciding that in a few days something would come up, a bus would be ready or something. But it never happened and that was when her roommate came in with a bite wound on her hand.
Her roommate was a boyish looking girl by the name of Jennifer and she was attacked by a patient that was at the hospital she was working at. She was training to be a nurse and had actually been going to school to become one. Within a few hours her breathing had slowed and by that night she was one of those lifeless creatures.
Hope had come into the dorm room to get some luggage having decided on leaving by hitch hiking, it was dangerous but she would try anything to get home. she went to her bedside to get the gun when Jennifer reached out and grabbed her. At first she thought that Jennifer needed help, that she was choking. It sounded that way by the gutteral noises she was making. She turned around and Jennifer lunged on her knocking her into the bed. She screamed out in panic and grabbed the pistol pushing Jennifer back.
"Don't move Jennifer, I will shoot if I have to!" She screamed at her dead roommate.
Her roommate ran towards her and she pulled the trigger. She saw a small hole form in her roommates head above her right eye. The girl fell to the ground lifelessly and Hope also went to the ground on her knees crying at what she had done.
She tried to call the cops but the phones were dead and it sounded like they were busy outside. She could hear the steady crackle of gunfire all over the city. Twice she heard loud booming noises and the earth shook beneath her feet.
She didn't have anywhere to run except to the deans office where she found both the dean and his secretary dead. Suicide, both of them, he swung by his office fan and while she lay on the floor with a prescription pill bottle in her hand. They had to have been dead for at least seven or eight hours.
And that was how all of that went, she didn't leave the city and now she stood in front of the hospital looking darkly at the front doors.
"All I have to do is find the pharmaceutical area and get some penicillin for Rae Ann." she whispered to herself.
She grabbed the straps of her backpack and walked into the building. Inside at the lobby she saw a dead nurse laying on the floor, her head was partially eaten and her ribs were sticking out of a torn area of her uniform. She walked down a hall to the left and began rummaging for anything that might be of use. All she managed to find was a handful of bandages that might be useful later on.
she continued to the end of the hallway until she reached a door that led to the stairs. Once inside she walked up a floor and then searched the area. To her it was extremely quiet and that scared her. It was a place of death, there should have been at least one zombie, but she hadn't seen one yet. At the end of the right hall she found the pharmacy.
She leaped over the counter and began to rummage around for penicillin and painkillers of all sorts. After filling the backpack with some items she hopped the counter and was on her way when she heard gunfire from one of the higher floors. At first she was going to just leave, then she recognized the sounds. It was a machine gun of some sort and that meant either the cops or the military. Relief almost swept over her but then a thought occured to her. How many were actually up there, maybe it was just one and if so he might very well be dead.
She climbed the stairs slowly, her shotgun ready. She lamost reached the top when four police men came bursting through the door. She screamed out at the suddeness of the situation and the men stopped what they were doing. They all looked at her in awe, almost like she was something they had never seen before.
"Another survivor!" a man with a crew cut said.
"Let's get going! Run people run!" another one said.
They ran down three sets of stairs before they finally stopped and the only reason they stopped was to block the door with a heavy shelf. A handsome officer approached her and smiled, he had blue eyes and brown hair.
"I am so glad we are not the only survivors!" he exclaimed and hugged Hope roughly.
"Where did you come from lady? Why were you in this hospital?" The oldest officer asked her.
"I came here for medical supplies for a little girl, she was cut a few weeks back and now the cut is infected. I have to get back to her or else she could die!" she said and began to walk back to the entrance.
"Hey lady, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here, it's way too dangerous to go out there!" the handsome one said.
"But Rae Ann!" she started to protest.
"Sorry but he's right, it would be a bad idea to go out there right now." Crew cut said.
"I'm sorry I let you fellas down." a wounded officer said.
Before anyone of them realized what was happening he stuck his revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger. His body kicked once and then went limp.
"Ah no, Kenny no!" Crew cut screamed out.
"Get him covered up now!" Gray hair said.
They threw a curtain over his body after retrieving his weapons. Handsome walked over to where Hope stood and then stood next to her.
"He was bitten when we went looking for survivors upstairs." he explained.
She tugged at a handful of her light brown hair trying to figure out a way she could sneak off without them knowing. The medical supplies she held did no good to her if she didn't have little Rae Ann to use them on. She began to pace worried about the girl more then anything else.
"Sit down lady!" Crew cut barked.
She sat down almost mechanically. She didn't need this right now, the whole trip stopped short by these cops that wanted to stay in the bottom floor a hospital.
"Look we'll be leaving here shortly but right now we need to take a rest, we've been on our feet for almost two days straight and we are all tired." Gray hair said.
"Whats your name?" Crew cut asked her.
"Hope." she said.
"My name is Mike, the old guy is Victor, and the pretty boy is Drake." Mike said to her.
She stood up again and begun to walk towards the door. Mike ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm. She flicked his hand off of her arm and then grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back. A technique her father had shown her.
"I'm leaving, if you want to follow me that's fine. I have to make sure that Rae Ann gets this stuff. I'll give you some info about her. Shes six years old, she has blonde hair and blue eyes, both of her parents are dead. She depends on me as much as I do on her. If any of you think you can stop me from going back to the store to get her then your all wrong. I'll shot you anyone of you if you try and detain me." she said in a voice that was slowly losing control.
"You said store right?" Victor asked her.
She nodded and then let go of Mike. Victor called for him to go there along with Drake. They discussed something in private for a moment and then they all approached her.
"Look Hope, we were going to go with you no matter what, we just needed a breather is all. When we reach your store we'll get your kid and then we'll all get out of this city. How's that sound to you?" Victor asked.
"It sounds good." She said and began to go for the front doors.
With that they all gathered around her and went out the front entrance. She back tracked all the way back main street before she opted to go a different direction then the one she previously went. Mike stopped her only once for a cigarette and then they went off to the convient store.
"Are there anymore people with you?" Drake asked her.
"Yes three others, Jeff, Jake, and Hector. They're watching over Rae Ann." She said.
"It's just the three of us, there were originally five of us, but, well you saw for yourself back there. We're getting whittled down to nothing." Drake said.
They walked in silence for a while, all of them lost in their own thoughts. Drake thought back to when he lost his fiancee Trisha. A brief image of her dead body flashed through his mind and he stopped for a second closing his eyes tight trying to erase the memory from his mind.
"Are you okay?" Mike asked him.
"Yeah, just bad memories." He replied and then started walking again.
They walked on until they reached a small commercial area. It was there that they saw a fire and heard several gunshots. Hope felt panic grip her as she realized it was coming from the store that they had been hiding in. She felt her feet began to move underneath her as she ran to the store. She felt her mouth opening and closing as she screamed out the word no. Drake grabbed her and pulled her back, she fought with him trying to go forward into the pit of zombies that congregated to the front of the store.
She saw everything perfectly, every minute detail. The cracks in the sidewalk, the nikes one zombie was wearing, the thick black smoke that was pouring out of the store. The fire that was glowing behind the apartment that was above the little shop. Drake held her back from all of this as she screamed.
She kept at it though, squirming in his arms trying to get away. She hit him in the groin purely by accident and that caused him to let her go. As she approached the building she took aim with the shotgun and fired into the crowd of zombies. Two of them fell to the ground dead from head wounds. A third reeled back from the attack, a flap of skin tore free from the scatter shot.
She fired into the crowd again and again, not doing very much damage. Suddenly she felt Drake grab her again and he ran backwards with her in his arms. They jumped into a truck that was near by and he locked the doors.
"Get down, they didn't see us yet!" he said.
"Rae Ann! No! Why?" she cried out in anguish.
"Shut up! They won't find us if we stay quiet!" Drake whispered harshly into her ear.
Suddenly Drakes radio crackled to life, and he muffled it as best as he could.
"This is Victor, just wanted to let you know we're holed up in a van two cars down from you. How does it look that way?" Victor asked.
Drake peeked his head up and saw several zombies going in their direction. He lowered his head and grabbed his M16.
"It doesn't look good!" he said and then looked at Hope with a hateful stare.
"Thanks, now we got a bunch of these things coming our way!" he said heatedly.
"Drake, we're hotwiring the vehicle, we'll swing by and pick you two up before too many of them come at us." Victor said.
Hope closed her eyes and saw the splintered front door in her mind. Was it possible that Rae Ann and the others were dead? She wanted to believe they were alive and well but she knew it wasn't possible. One of lifes tougher lessons in this new world, she guessed, was not to get attached to anyone emotionally. She closed her eyes even tighter when she heard the van pull up to the side of the truck they were hiding in.
As they opened the door to the Truck to get into the van they heard a noise, it was another gunshot. Then they heard someone scream out of the window. Hope looked up in time to see Jake waving a blanket out of the smokey window. Tears streamed down her face as she saw this, it meant the possibilty that Rae Ann was alive after all. Then the zombies slammed into the side of the van and they almost got pushed over.
"We got to get moving or else they'll knock this vehicle over!" Victor said.
He started to drive it down the road and then turned it around hitting some of the dead on the way around. He drove it right up to the window that Jake was hanging out of.
"Quick they're breaking through the door!" he screamed inside the building.
They all heard the splintering wood somehow, they even heard grunts and little shrill cursings as the people in the upper apartment of the convienient store fought off the dead. Hope felt panic rush to her head, this could be it for them. She was looking up when she heard a scream coming from inside of the building, then a steady POP! POP! POP! as the gun went off multiple times. She fainted when she saw Hector fall out of the window, one of his arms dangling by a thread and bite marks all over his body.