DEAD RISING: PATH TO NOWHERE.
Aaron Swoop was a shy young man; only 20 years old, but he was not afraid to stand up for what was right. Well, he had one problem, he was now dealing with zombies. Trapped in the Al Fresca Plaza of the mall, with his best friend Burt Thompson trying to keep the zombies out of Weber's Garments. How did he come to this place? Well here is his story.
It was nearing the end of September in the town of Willamette, Colorado. Aaron Swoop was trying to help a man load a ATV into the back of a delivery truck. As the two of them loaded the ATV, three men slowly came stumbling around the corner of the building.
"Hey, do you guy need something?" asked the man, but all he got from them was moaning. So he went to see if they were alright.
"Maybe you should leave them alone man, I mean they look really drunk," Aaron warned. The man however paid no heed to the warning; he really should have listened to Aaron. Suddenly, the three men lunged at the man, who lost his footing. Soon the three men began to tear him to shreds.
Aaron stood there, shocked at the man frantic shriek and the sound of shredding flesh. "Help me!" the man cried, but there was no help for him, because Aaron took off running down the street.
By the time Aaron had gotten to the main street, he saw that the towns people were going crazy. People were running in all directions, some were eating the dead and some of the dead were getting back up and attacking the living. Then Aaron saw something that almost made his heart stop.
His father stumbled out from behind a car, holes ripped through his cloths. Parts of his flesh was missing around his neck, chest, legs and face. He kept moving toward Aaron with his white eyes locked onto him.
"Dad, you can't be alive... you're a zombie!" he choked on his words, as his father drew closer to him. Just then Burt Thompson came up behind Mr. Swoop. With a mighty swing with baseball bat, he smashed the skull of the zombie killing it.
Burt looked up at Aaron who was sitting up against the wall, sobbing and screaming. "Wake me up, PLEASE!" rushing over to his friend, Burt swung his bat into the head of another zombie that was about to grab Aaron from behind. CRACK! The zombie fell backwards as its head exploded from the force of impact it received from the bat.
"Aaron, snap out of it," Burt begged as he bashed another zombie in the head. "We need to get out of here." Aaron looked at his friend, his face frozen with shock at what had just happened. "I don't want to die," he cried.
Burt quickly helped Aaron to his feet, it would be unwise to stay in the street, but were could they go? They could try and hold up at Burt's place, but that would do you no good with zombies all over the place, but the mall, now that was different.
"Aaron, we will go to the mall, find a place to hide and wait for help to come," Burt said calmly, Aaron nodded. "But what will happen if they get into the mall? What then?" he gasped. It was scary to think of being trapped in a mall with thousands of zombies.
Burt frowned when he saw how scared Aaron was, so he tried to comfort him. "Look your my best friend," he said as he bashed another zombie in the head that got in their way. "I will be there for you like I did when Brett Styles picked that fight with you for no reason." Aaron remembered that day and Burt had to go to the doctor for standing up to Brett.
Aaron started to calm down now, but he was still afraid of the zombies that were around them. As the two of them ran down the street, the sunlight began to go down, and that would prove very hard to see the zombies in the dark. By the time they found a place to hide, the sun was already setting and the zombies began to act a little strange.
"Look, we can hide in that store," Burt said pointing to an hardware store. Aaron agreed to hide there because there was only three zombies wondering around the outside of the store. Burt killed each zombie quickly and quietly. Once inside the building, Aaron collapsed from stress and hunger.
"Aaron!" Burt gasped, "are you alright?" Aaron looked at him, breathing deeply taking in air as he caught his breath. "Yeah, I'm just tired... that's all."
Burt breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, I'm going to find something to eat," he said leaving Aaron in the back of the store. When Burt got back with some candy bars, the two tiered friends sat very quietly, as so not to attract the zombies stumbling around outside the store.
"Burt, do you think that your girlfriend is alright?" Aaron asked as scooted closer to his friend.
"No, she's not alright..." Burt whimpered sadly, "she was killed by those damn zombies. I saw them tare her apart." Aaron saw how sad Burt was. "I'm sorry, Burt."
The next morning, they awoke to a loud explosion. "What was that!?" Aaron shouted grabbing his ears. Burt ran to the window and saw that the gas station had gone up in flames across the street, but turned his gaze to the sky. "Aaron, there is a helicopter heading toward the mall," he said smiling with excitement.
Aaron and Burt didn't waste time seeing if the coast was clear, but there was no real threat, because most of the zombies had already gone to the mall during the night. When they reached the mall, they saw that the entrance was filled with zombies. "Stay behind me," Burt ordered, Aaron did as he was told and stayed behind his friend.
Burt cut through the zombies all the way to the security door; only to find it welded shut. "Great! Now what do we do?" Aaron asked looking around at the zombies coming toward them. Thinking fast, Burt remembered something. "Weber's Garments," he said, "it is the only store that has no windows, we could make a barricade and hold out against the zombies."
Aaron was not so sure that was the best idea, but he was going to stay with Burt. So the two of them headed to the Al Fresca Plaza. Along the way, Aaron grabbed what food he could, while Burt got the things to make the barricade. When they were done, the two tired survivors waited for the zombies leave, but that never happened.
An hour went by, before some ripped down the barricade. Burt and Aaron turned to see a man with camera hanging down at his chest, he looked like he had been killing zombies, but then he could have killed some poor soul.
Burt grabbed his bat in a fit of rage. "Damn it! Just what I need! Another crazy person harassing me!" he shouted. The man took a step back as Burt rushed him. Aaron watched as his friend was beaten back by the man.
"Just leave me alone you son of a gun!" Burt begged as the man grabbed his bat and took it away from him. "Knock it off you little punk!" the man shouted angrily, "I'm not here for a fight. Just listen to me."
Burt looked at him, but still waited for the man to finish him off. "You win! Do whatever you want, talk to me... Kill me, whatever." By now the man was beginning to lose his cool. "Listen to me. I came to help you guys. I can take you to someplace safe," he offered helping Burt to his feet.
Burt and Aaron excepted the offer and fallowed the man to the roof where he led them to the security room. Before the man could leave them there with the other people in the room, Aaron turned to the man. "Wait, who are you?" he asked.
"Frank West," he replied with a smile before he left them with the other people who were most likely other survivors.