Story time, story time! And a new story at that :) Amazing how a week ago i was buried in the snow and now its warm(er) and melted away...

A lot had happened this last week, some bad, some good, but we are here now and thats all that matters.

Also, if you have never read King Lear, it is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays and you should read it... but get the No Fear Shakespeare... thats the way to go.

Alright, I'm out, I have laundry to do... Lots and lots of laundry...

Enjoy!

~ZombiesXBrainzz~

Chapter 1: The Journey With a Destination.

"The subway can take us straight to Mercy Hospital." Louis said,

"Might not be a bad idea to get off the street." Bill said, I walked over to a crate that had an ammo stash and some weapons sitting on top of it. I noticed I was low on ammo so I reloaded for the journey. Bill looked at us, "Everyone ready?"

"Yup." I confirmed,

"Let's do it." Zoey said.

I opened a door that led down some stairs into an apartment, zombies were standing around in the kitchen we shot them down before proceeding forward. A faint cry echoed through the building, "Shit, it's a witch, turn off your lights." Bill said, I flicked off my flashlight, this must have been like the zombie we ran into in the alleyway earlier.

I rounded the corner to a hallway that led to a back bedroom and a bathroom, to the left was a staircase, sitting on the bathroom floor was a bottle of pills and a pipe bomb. I put the pills in my bag and the pipe bomb in my belt loop, "Cool." I said and turned around. Everyone was gone, "... Guys?" I looked around, "Uh oh." They weren't in the apartment, "Guys!?"

"Aria, where'd you go?" I heard Louis call out.

I headed down the stairs and sighed in relief when I found the others standing in a bedroom, "Shit, I thought I lost you guys."

"Don't run off and you wouldn't have lost us." Francis said,

"I didn't run off, I picked up a bottle of pills from the bathroom and you guys just kinda vanished."

"Oh."

"Shh... Quiet you two." Bill said.

The crying was louder than it was when we were upstairs, "She's close." I whispered, there was another sound, almost like a gurgling noise, "It's one of those fat zombies." I said,

"Watch your backs." Bill said, taking lead. We walked through another apartment and through the kitchen before approaching a hole in the floorboards.

The crying was louder now than ever, almost as if the witch was right on top of us. I didn't see her in the hole so I knelt down to see if she was at least out of our way. I fell forward into the hole, doing a somersault and landing on my back on a pile of boxes, "Dammit." I groaned and looked up to see the others looking down at me, Francis was standing where I was standing moments before, smirking. I glared at him, "Francis, you asshole!"

"It was an accident."

"I'm sure it was." I started to get up when I heard a growling to my right. In the kitchen the witch was looking right at me, she was growling and starting to get up, "Shit, shit, shit!" I shuffled myself back towards the wall so I was out of her sight, "Guys, the witch is right in the kitchen." I whispered up to them, "What are we going to do?"

"Stay there, we'll figure something out." Bill said,

"Hurry!" The witch started crying again, which I think was good because that meant she wasn't growling at me. I could still hear the fat zombie gurgling, "Shit, I'm going to die here." I muttered to myself. From behind me the fat zombie burst through the wall like he was some kind of Kool Aid Man, "Aah! What the hell?!" I backed away from the zombie and kicked it back, allowing myself to back away a little.

I pulled out my pistols and shot the zombie, it exploded splattering blood all over the wall, "You okay down there?" Louis asked,

"I'm fine, and I think I found a way out of here without disturbing the witch." I said, looking at the exit into the alley.

The others dropped down and quickly came over to me, "Good thinking." Bill said, leading us out into the alley that we had just came from.

I found myself looking at the scrap metal that was once a fire escape, thinking about that tank that was dead under there, but what if it wasn't dead? What if it came out from under the rubble and killed all of us? I didn't want to think of the 'what ifs', we were here now, and we were alive, and that's what I had to keep in mind. I turned towards the others, "This way." Bill said, leading us away from the apartment complex. We walked through the mostly empty alleys until we reached the main road again, "Through here." Bill led us into the building next to us.

I walked into a room to the left, on the far wall was a first aid box, I opened it up to find one measly bottle of pills in it, "Really?" I rolled my eyes and grabbed it,

"Whatcha find?" Francis asked,

"Just a bottle of pills."

"I'll trade ya." He held out a pipe bomb to me.

I could use the pills for a 'just in case' situation, but I was already hording a bunch of pills and after seeing Zoey use one of those things I wouldn't mind having one of my own, "Alright."

We traded the items, "Merry Christmas." He said, sticking the pills in his pants pocket.

Francis and I joined up with the others in a main lobby area, Louis had a bottle of alcohol in his hand, "Is that any good, I could use a drink right now." I reached for it,

"It's not for drinking." He said pulling it away and sticking a rag into it, "I'm creating a molotov cocktail."

"But... that's just a waste of perfectly good..." I examined the bottle. It was some kind of off brand whiskey I had tried once before and nearly died from, "Oh god, never mind, that shit sucks." Louis rolled his eyes and pocketed the bottle.

Bill lit up another cigarette, "Come on, the subway is just down the street." He walked out the door.

The area we walked into was almost like it was an open area but it wasn't the road was just abnormally wide. There was a burning semi truck to our left, and a car in front of us next to the entrance of the subway, "Look, there's a safehouse ahead." Zoey said.

I heard the growl of a smoker before being grabbed and dragged toward the car, "Help!" I struggled to get free but its tongue was too strong. The smoker started clawing at me, "Aah" I screamed. The zombie was shot off of me but in the process someone had shot the car, the alarm was breaking my eardrums as I tried to get up from next to the car,

"Are you okay?" Louis said, helping me to my feet,

"I'm fine... I think I'm deaf though." I picked up my gun and started shooting the zombies that came at us. The car alarm was screaming in my ear, it was almost unbearable being in close proximity to it. I tried to focus on what I was doing but I was just getting a headache instead, "Get to the safe room!" I exclaimed, pointing to the entrance of the subway. The others nodded and we ran down the stairs, shooting the zombies in front of us. I stopped and let the others get inside, shooting anything that ran at us. Everyone was inside so I ran after them, closing the door behind me before the zombies could come in as well.

Francis and Louis blocked the door with some crates, I sat on the table, hoping that we could sit and rest for a few minutes. My feet were killing me and my leg was starting to hurt, it was the only time we had gotten a break all day. I rolled up my pant leg and unwrapped the wound. It was all red and warm, I wasn't sure if it was getting infected but it still hurt like hell, "Ah shit, subway looks full of zombies." Bill said, looking out the exit door.

I sighed and pulled my backpack off of my back to grab some supplies out of it. Francis approached me, "Mind if I have a look?"

I gave him a skeptical look, why did he want to be nice to me? It's like one minute he's nice and then the next minute he's like an annoying kid, "Uh yeah... Go ahead." I handed him the supplies,

"Don't worry, I've treated a bunch of gunshot wounds before, and besides, it's my fault you were crippled in the first place." He dabbed a cloth with some hydrogen peroxide and put it on the bullet wound. I winced in pain but stayed still, "Sorry..." Francis muttered. I think he genuinely felt bad for shooting me in the leg, I couldn't say I was mad at him as much as I should have been.

Bill looked around at the group, we were all soaking wet and looked like we had been through hell... Which we basically had been. He sighed, "Let's take a break."

I nodded, "That sounds like a great idea."

I sat down on the floor of the safe room, exhausted and in so much pain, at least there was a bathroom I could use for some privacy. As gross as that may have seemed, I really had to pee. I went in and closed the door, flicking the flashlight on so I could see what I was doing. It was almost too quiet to use the bathroom, I felt like the smallest sound of the pee hitting the toilet water would make the zombies just appear from nowhere... and what if they came from inside the toilet, like, from the sewer? Ew! I quick finished my business and grabbed some toilet paper, and that was when I noticed the horrors of being a woman. I groaned, why did it have to happen now? Of all the times it had to happen, it had to be during the apocalypse. Now I was just a walking blood bank, bleeding out of every possible area on my body. I searched my backpack, "Come on, I have to have something in here." I shuffled everything around. I found the stash of tampons at the bottom of my bag, "Oh thank god." I breathed in relief and grabbed one out of the bag. After the whole procedure I threw my garbage away in the small can and washed my hands thoroughly, "This is, so gross..." I muttered as I kept washing. There was light snoring when I came out of the bathroom, everyone was sound asleep. I sighed and sat next to Louis, letting my eyes slowly close.

I was in high school again, it was weird, I was still my 23 year old self but nobody seemed to notice. The students just kinda walked past me like I wasn't anyone important, but I was important, I was Aria Vanderbilt, nobody ignores me! My friends from high school passed me by, not even acknowledging me, "Guys?" They didn't say anything to me, they didn't even look at me, "Hey!" I ran up behind my friend Cadence and grabbed her shoulder, "Why aren't you guys talking to me-" I turned her around, only it wasn't my friend anymore. The zombie snarled at me and tried to bite me, "Shit!" I pushed her away, the whole student body was turned into zombies now, they were surrounding me. I found an opening and shoved my way through them, "I gotta get the hell outta here." I said, running to the exit. The door wouldn't budge, "Dammit..." The gym, I could exit through there. I grabbed the fire axe off of the wall and started hacking my way through the zombies. More kept coming, like they were just spawning out of nowhere, in one of the classrooms I heard someone yelling, I recognized it as my sister's voice, "Sophie?" "Aria! Help!" I ran into the classroom. The scene changed though, instead of being in the classroom I was in a hallway, it was dark except for one light that dimly lit the area. I carefully stepped further in the room, I didn't have a choice, the door was gone now. I could hear whispers though no one was around, "Soph...?" "Ari...a..." She sounded hurt, "Sophie?" "Why didn't you help us Aria?" Another voice said, it was my friend Jamie, "You didn't come back Aria... We're all dead because of you..." Sophie said, "No, I didn't... I couldn't get home in time." I was looking around for them but the room was empty still, the light was flickering above me, "It's all your fault Aria..." My mom chimed in, her voice was a mixture of motherly and sinister. It was all my fault, I should have been home with them, I could have saved them, "All your fault." The voices said in unison, but it wasn't just them, it sounded like everyone I knew. They were getting louder like they were closing in on me, I was freaking out, I didn't know what to do. It got so loud that I thought they were right on top of me, "STOP!" I shouted and the light went out. Everything was silent, not a noise was heard except for my heart beat pounding in my ears 'thud', 'Thud', 'THUD'. I thought it was over, that I was on my own until I heard a snarl, the light flashed on, causing me to go momentarily blind. In front of me was a zombie, but this zombie had the familiar face of my sister, "S-Sophie...?" She tilted her head as if she understood me, but she was more interested in something else. She growled and started coming after me, I didn't have any weapons to defend myself and I don't think I could have killed her if I tried, so I backed away from her, "Shit!" I turned to try and run but I was blocked by my zombie friend. The others started coming through the wall towards me, I had nowhere to go, I was trapped. I backed against the wall, "Get away from me!" I screamed at the zombies as if it would make them go away. Sophia grabbed at me and bit me in the neck, the pain had felt all too real, as if someone was actually biting me.

I jolted awake and looked around, everyone else was asleep, "Oh thank god, it was just a dream." I sighed in relief. I thought about going back to sleep but after that little nightmare I couldn't even consider it. Instead I quietly unzipped my backpack and rummaged through what I had in there. On the bottom of the backpack was a book that I had put in there for some book project for an English class that I didn't do. I grabbed it and observed it, the title read 'King Lear', "Shakespeare? Gross." I put the book back in the bag, I didn't care much for reading, that was Sophia's thing.

Next to me Louis stretched, "How long have I been asleep?" He yawned,

"Couldn't tell ya, I just woke up." I could hear the rain still coming down on the roof, "At least it doesn't rain in the subway." I said,

"We aren't staying in the subway forever."

I shrugged, "I'm more of a short term thinker, forget about the long term."

He looked at my bag and noticed the book, "What book is that?"

"The Kamasutra." I said with the straightest face I could give,

"What?!"

"Nah, I'm kidding, it's Shakespeare." I handed it to him.

He examined it, "Oh man, this one's my favorite." He started to read it,

"Knock yourself out." I said, grabbing a bag of chips from my bag.

The others were soon awake and ready to go, "Alright folks, this subway should take us straight to the hospital, and we can get out of here." Bill said, grabbing some ammo for his gun,

"I hate subways." Francis said.

I looked out the door at the subway, there was a hole in the floor and a pile of debris was on fire, lighting up the area. In the hole were a bunch of zombies straggling around, "Finally there's something we can both agree on." I muttered to myself and opened the door.