Jason
It's a normal average day.
I'm driving down from my home in Chicago to visit my childhood friends. You see, my name is Jason Grey. I'm a 27 year old graphic designer. I used to live in the suburbs, but I wasn't about that life. I wanted to live in the city. There were so many events, people, and opportunities. There were different kinds of food and music everywhere, and I loved that. Every month I venture down from the city to the burbs, just to visit them. It's sort of like a pact; to keep our friend ship alive. I used to live right next door to my friends. Imelda, who is now 17, is my closest friend. The age difference between us is a bit weird, but not nearly as weird as Eve's and mines. Eve is 14, so the age difference between us is 13 years. We are a bit strange, but who isn't right?
I got a call from my little sister, Rachel. She is 10 years old and lives with my parents. My step-dad is an American, and my mother is Chinese. Rachel is a half blood and we are only half-sisters. I am fully Chinese. Only Eve and Imelda know this, but my parents weren't the best kind of parents. I was very skeptical about having Rachel live there, but after therapy they got better. My dad used to be an alcoholic and my mother used to hit me a lot. It wasn't like endless torture, but more like I used to get slapped a lot. No matter what they did to me I loved them, and after Rachel was born, it was sort of like they decided to start over from square one, without me.
"Jiejie Jiejie! I heard you are coming by us"
"That's right. Do you want me to visit you?"
"Of course! *Bang*"
"Rachel, what was that?"
"I don't know. A bunch of people are scratching the windows."
"What do you mean?"
"Darn teenagers. Rachel stay here, I'll tell them off. Okay Dad."
"What's going on" I almost swerved off of the road, my heart was beating. It couldn't be that could it? I heard screaming from the other end of the phone.
"Jiejie! Our neighbors are eating Daddy's arms, what should I do?!" My worst nightmares have come true. The grimies are here.
"Rachel, listen to me, don't go to Dad, just lock yourself in your room! Don't let anyone come in" My voice was panicky and hoarse.
"Ouch Jiejie! They are biting me! Jiejie! Jiejie!" I heard an ear piercing scream before the line went dead. It's finally happened.
My fingers were trembling as I dialed in Eve's numbers. Cars began to swerve off the road. The people inside came out tattered, limbs missing, and bloodied. Other cars tried to avoid the oncoming grimies but failed and crashed as well. I managed to avoid the collisions and held the phone up to me ear. Eve, Imelda, please be safe!
"Hello? Jason?"
"Eve! You need to get out of your house now. I'm not joking, there are grimies everywhere!"
"Yeah right! How far away from the house are you? Imelda is here"
"Eve, I'm not joking. I swear to God this is serious. Now you need to get Imelda and get out of your house. I'll be there in 5 minutes! Please just trust me"
"Fine. We will meet you down in 5."
Eve hung up the phone. I prayed to the God I only ever so slightly believed in. Please let them be safe!
...
Eve
I hung up the phone and stood up off of my bed.
"What was that all about?" My friend Imelda rose off the bed as well.
"Jason told me that there were grimies."
"What? She can't be serious."
"She sounded serious"
"You know how she is like; she is probably just trolling us."
"Maybe so, but we have to get ready anyways, so let's just dress up"
My name is Eve. People always tell me that I am a gullible person. That is totally true. I can't risk the fact of not believing. This has made me an easy target to pull pranks on. I am 14 and in 8th grade. My friend Jason is coming down from Chicago to visit. We always agree to meet at my house, the reason because my family is pretty easy going. Sometimes their words can be harsh, but they are still family. Imelda and I were still in our pajamas, so we changed. Imelda put on her brown leather jacket, a grey v-neck, and a pair of jeans.
And me, I wore a white and black striped hoodie. Then I put on some grey leggings and slipped over them some black short, and put on my white leather jacket. I know what you're thinking, a white leather jacket? It waas UGGAT uniform. We all had a different color leather jacket.
Imelda, Jason, and I have created a group specifically against the grimies. We call ourselves UGGAT 'Ultimate Girls Grimies Apocalypse Team' grimies are what we call the humans that turn. We aren't the only ones in the group. My friends from my youth group are in it too; Esa, Chava, and Gwen. We are a pretty diverse age group. Jason is 27, Imelda is 17, Gwen is 26, Chava is 12, and Esa is 15. It's kind of funny how well we all get along. Imelda grabbed her belt, but this was no ordinary belt. They acted sort of like suspenders. I always joked about how she could fit a gun into those.
I clipped on my belt which held a lot of pockets on it. It is not a fanny pack! It is just a belt. I carried tiny stuff like my Chap Stick and cell phone in there. I swung my backpack across my shoulders and Imelda slipped her satchel on as well. We ran down the stairs into my living room and put our shoes on.
I saw my mom staring at the TV.
"Hey mom, Jason is picking us up!" I told her. She turned around; there was blood all over her mouth. She began to slowly walk towards me.
"M-mom?" I heard her make low growling noises as she trudged over.
"Eve, hand me the lamp" Imelda kept her eyes locked on my mom.
"I can't have you do that! You'll kill her!" My mom grew closer with every passing second.
"You have to! She is a grimie. Jason wasn't lying this time. Now hurry!" My fingers trembled as I grabbed the lamp and handed it to Imelda. I closed my eyes and heard a yell. When I opened them again I saw Imelda standing over the lifeless body of my mother.
"Imelda! You killed her!" Tears fell down my face like a waterfall. I kneeled by my mother's corpse.
"I had to! We would have died if I hadn't!" I heard more low grumbles from across my house. I forgot that my mom wasn't the only one that was home.
My grandpa and 3 year old cousin stepped out from around the corner. They had the same lifeless expression as my mom did. Imelda showed no signs of mercy as she ruthlessly bludgeoned my family's heads. *Crack* *Crack* the sounds of their skulls opening. When she came back, she was covered in blood. In fact, it seemed like I was the only one who wasn't.
"You just killed my family!"
"I had to! Now don't scream. You know that screaming attracts the grimies."
I silenced my sobs to muffled cries. The corpses of the people I grew up with were splattered everywhere. Imelda took our bags and began to fill them with food, water, and clothing. It didn't even look like she cared that she just murdered three people.
"Eve, get the baseball bat." I went to the garage and grabbed a baseball bat. It was steel, and wielded enough force to crack someone's head open. Of course, I knew that that was what we were going to use it for.
Jason pulled up in her red jeep and we hopped on. I grabbed my cell phone and called Chava, we were supposed to meet them at a frozen yogurt shop.
"Hey Eve!"
"Chava, this is not a drill, there are grimies everywhere. We are heading down to the shop. Get all the canned food you can and hide in a car, we will be there soon"
"What are you talking about?"
"Chava, this is not a joke. Imelda just had to kill my mom. Just get all the supplies you can and get in a damn car." There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment.
"I got it. I'll do as you say." She hung up the phone. Jason tried as best as she could to steer the car to the frozen yogurt shop. Please Chava, just hang on!
...
Chava
I hung up the phone and looked to my friends across the table. Esa was happily eating her frozen yogurt and Gwen was buying me one.
"What was that all about? Eve seemed all angry." Esa questioned.
"She told me that the grimies were here." Her face filled with terror.
"She wasn't serious, right?"
"I think she was."
Gwen sat down and adjusted her dress. "What's going on guys?" Esa looked at her with a straight face and said, "Grimies"
I heard a low growling noise come from the back of the yogurt shop. I tucked my hair, dark and course as it is, behind my ears. "Guys, I'm going to check it out" The two looked at me; their faces were frozen with fear. I stayed on my toes and quietly made my way to the back of the store. There was a big knife on one of the shelves. I grabbed it and went deeper within.
The low hums only got louder as I drifted further inside. Then I saw it. A grimie was eating the store clerk who Gwen had just paid a few seconds ago. I took my opportunity and brought the cold blade down upon the monster. It squealed for only a second then dropped dead. I retrieved the blade from the monster's head and brought it upon the dead manager's. No need to risk the time length of his transformation.
I went back to the front of the store and saw Gwen and Esa hugging each other.
"It's okay guys, I got them." I began to walk towards them, their faces fell.
"Cha Cha, did you really kill that man?" Esa asked me.
"I had too, it really was a grimie."
"This is real, isn't it?" Gwen stared off into space.
"Yes"
Esa, Gwen and I began loading can after can into her van. Gwen is the only one of us here that can legally drive. Within 20 minutes Jason, Eve, and Imelda arrived.
"You guys got the food?" Eve jumped off the side of the car and ran over to us.
"Yeah. Where are we going?"
"Right now, to the woods. There are not many people there."
Esa and I piled into Gwen's van while Eve and Imelda jumped into Jason's jeep. We drove for about 20 minutes before stopping at a forest preserve called 'Mickenly Woods'. No cars were in sight. We stepped outside and stood in a circle. Imelda was standing next to me. She is the only person in the group that I don't really get along with. It didn't really seem like she wanted to get along with me either. She gave me a cold glare and I turned my head. There's no need to show her that she is getting on my nerves.
Jason took the lead as usual, "Okay guys, we are going to head over to Eve's Dad's house."
Esa looked up "Why there?"
"My dad is a sword collector. He is working at the Juvy up north, so he won't be there." Eve tried to hide her concern for her Father, but it wasn't working. She was so easy to read. Gwen started patting her on the back whispering, "It's okay"
"Good then. Chava and Imelda, you guys will sneak into the house and get the swords. Chava will grab the swords and Imelda will kill any grimies." Imelda and I looked at each other, hatred filled our eyes.
"Why do we have to do it?" Imelda asked
"Chava has to do it because she is built for this kind of thing, and you are the only one of us right now that is capable of killing the grimies." Of course I was built for the task. I was short, skinny, and very tan. Under the cover of night, I was invisible. Not to mention that I was one of the best cross country runners in the state of Illinois. I was perfect for the job. I looked at Jason. "I understand." Jason gave me a slight smile and a nod.
"Afterwards we will venture down south. Winter is coming, food will be scarce." We all raised our left hand and saluted Jason. UGGAT is officially underway.
Imelda and I slipped through the back door and made our way upstairs, to the bedroom. There were so many things in there that I couldn't even fathom. Swords were hung across the wall, knives were delicately lined up under some glass, and the whole place was littered with computers. I'm not even kidding, there must have been like 7 laptops.
"I'll get the swords, you take the knives." Imelda started ripping the beautifully made weapons off of the wall. "Wait! Leave one incase Eve's Dad comes back." She left one sword on the wall. While walking down the stairs, I saw a grimie at the bottom. Surprised, I screamed. Imelda immediately rushed forward and took out a sword, decapitating the monster. She then immediately looked back at me and gave me a bad look. "Screaming attracts the grimies. Don't do that again." We walked out together, Jason started her jeep and we went back to the forest. Not many people were around Eve's Dad's house. He kind of lives in a small town, not a lot of people lived there.
We took inventory of our plunder. There were 8 Japanese swords, 4 medieval swords, a double ended spear, and 12 daggers. Jason started to distribute the weapons.
Imelda got the double ended spear, 2 medieval swords, and a dagger.
Eve got the most swords of us all. She was very accustomed to them, since her dad used to show her how to use them. She received 5 of the Japanese swords. They were all different sizes. She also got 4 daggers.
I received 4 daggers and one medium sized Japanese sword. I know the long ones were called katanas, but I wasn't quite sure what the others were called.
Gwen and Esa both got 1 katana and 1 dagger each. Neither of them was accustomed to fighting, so they didn't need as much as Eve and Imelda did.
Last, but not least, Jason gave herself 2 medieval swords and 1 dagger.
None of us actually thought that the Grimie Apocalypse would actually happen. We had always just joked around about it. Now, people were dying, and there was no way out of it. We set ourselves on a journey down south. We are heading from Illinois to Georgia.
Jason looked at us and calmly stated "Welcome to Hell, population, us."