George A. Romero is the zombie movie Godfather and since this story is in the Dawn of the Dead category he owns all undead freaks in story.

Survive

1

Run

Small and insignificant, a simple droplet of salt water generated from the caramel skinned pores of a young man. The sweat did not seep out from his body due to nervousness or fear. The young man was just unfortunate enough to have been born and raised in the small city of Hollywood, Florida where temperatures can cause high perspiration levels inside the human body during the summer months. The droplet was so small on the tip of the man's nose that he did not notice it. His mind was too focused on the figure roughly twelve feet in front of the brown dumpster he was crouching behind. The sun had begun its descent behind the tall buildings of the city, preparing to shine its light on the other side of the world and the young man was growing impatient.

Air vacuumed into the man's lungs through his nostrils, the slight expansion of flesh and cartilage causing the droplet to detach from the tip of his nose and splatter with a slight thump onto a tin pan that had long since fallen from the overfilled dumpster. For a split second, the man's eyes averted from the figure he spied on, the quiet sound shattering into his ears and shocking his nerves. As his vision rose back to the opening of the trash covered alley, the figure had vanished from its original spot.

"Shh…" Before he could finish swearing to himself the figure, blurred by the failing light and shadows from the alley refocused into a pale, bloodstained, middle-aged man covered in a shredded business suit and several bite wounds born from human teeth. With no time to react, the young man found himself starring up at the sky, struggling to keep the older man's teeth away from his body. His head banged off of the pavement sending him into a daze for a full second that seemed like a lifetime.

***************

"Kevin…Kevin!" A young girl's voice flowed into a young man's ears.

Kevin Durnest, sat up on his bed, a cell phone clutched lightly in his right hand. "Yeah?"

"Were you listening to me?" The girl asked with a hint of comical suspicion in her voice.

"Cindy, when do I ever not listen to you?" Kevin replied innocently.

"Mm-hmm…" Cindy Washington grinned through the phone. "What was I just saying?"

Kevin glanced around the room guiltily while turning the volume on his television down. "Umm…uhh…your butt looking big?" The gasp Kevin got for a reply was all the answer he needed as an agitated voice followed the sudden intake of air.

"Sunsets! You goof! How could you mistake my…" Another gasp shot into Cindy's lungs. "Do you think my butt is big!?"

Kevin hesitated for a moment, cautiously planning his next response. "Come on, Cindy. I'm black, of course I think your butt's big, it's in our genes to visualize large round shapely asses on hot women." Michael cringed as he waited for Cindy's response.

"Aww…Kevin." Cindy giggled. "Now I really wish you were here to see this sunset with me…that's the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me."

"You know…" Kevin said after sighing in relief. "I never really got the whole romantic sunset thing."

"Oh it's not just about romance." Cindy explained. "I still can't believe you've never seen a sunset or a sunrise. You have to see one! They're two of nature's natural treasures."

"Don't worry; I'll see all the sunsets and rises you want when I get up there." Kevin assured her.

"Oh I hope so…I can't wait to see you." Cindy said affectionately.

***************

I can't wait to see you…I can't wait to see you…I can't wait to see you…The echo of Cindy's voice silently drifted to the back of Kevin's mind as the yellow dry blood stained teeth of the man on top of him snapped towards his neck with an instinctive fury. Struggling with the man was similar to trying to lift a bloodthirsty lion off of him. Kevin risked reaching out with his left hand trying frantically to grasp anything that he could use to aid in his escape. His fingers graced the greasy end of a metal pipe that was nestled against a junked car battery. Kevin grabbed the pipe and swung with all of the strength he could spare towards the crazed man's head.

Free of the death that nearly ripped through his flesh, Kevin scrambled to his feet, tightly gripping the pipe with both hands. He quickly decided not to wonder what the grease on the pipe was and darted out of the alley, too concerned with escaping the maniac behind him to remember the reason why he ducked into the alley to begin with.

"Ah…fuck." Kevin said with deep disappointment after sliding to an abrupt halt, unconsciously dropping the pipe.

Hundreds of widened dilated eyes locked on to the live warm flesh that emerged from the alley. The flesh hungry mouths oozing with drool below them sprung open releasing nerve shattering screeches. Seconds later the crowd of cannibalistic civilians was running across the street towards a potential meal. Their arms stretched out and their upper bodies hunched forward, their very essence of being was drawn to the live meat only a few yards away.

Kevin instinctively began backing away only to be reminded of the flesh eating man he left in the alley behind him. "Mother fucker, god damnit!" Kevin turned and ran as fast as his legs would carry him down the street weaving in between the broken abandoned cars. Some of the vehicles were still filled with dead partially eaten people that awoke, reaching out through shattered windows towards the fresh meat that breezed by. The automobiles seemed to vanish as they were overlapped with hundreds of multicolored bodies covered in multicolored clothes.

What the fuck is going on… What the fuck is going on… What the fuck is going on!? The words buzzed inside Kevin's mind almost drowning out the inhuman roars behind him. His body suddenly turned to the right and instead of a fleet of vehicles, his eyes scanned a line of buildings that formed a small shopping plaza. Tired and terrified, Kevin darted into the plaza, picking up several more cannibal predators along the way towards a Winn Dixie grocery store. Kevin fell back after his face slammed into the automatic shatterproof glass doors that failed to open.

"You gotta be fucking shitting me!" Kevin shouted while rubbing his nose. "Hey!" He pounded on the doors after standing up. "Let me in! Help!" Kevin banged frantically on the doors for a handful of seconds before the loud screeches and footsteps pulled his attention back to the more pressing situation gathering behind him. "Ok…" Michael said while pressing his back to the doors. "I'm guessing telling you all to go to hell isn't gonna help me out any…is it?" He sighed at the silent glare he got from the hungry monsters. "You fuckers are probably here cause' there wasn't any room left anyway…" Kevin closed his eyes and waited for his painfully gruesome end.