Ch1: The Invasion
Kairi stared out of her bedroom window, watching as the leaves gently brushed against each other in the slight breeze. She was trying to figure out what else to write for her journal for school. She grumbled in irritation. "Ugh… Summer classes…" she thought, "The price to pay for a higher education! What kind of life is this?" A loud grumble erupted from her abdomen and she quickly held her stomach. "Oh fuck, I haven't eaten at all today. What time is it?" She checked the time on her laptop and realized it was two in the afternoon. She's been up for about an hour and a half. "God damn it, I need to get my sleeping schedule back to normal." Kairi exited her room and headed downstairs to where the kitchen was. She hoped that her grandmother bought more groceries, but as she opened the refrigerator door, there was nothing in there. The only things that occupied it were cheese slices, baking soda to keep some of the food fresh (a little fact her grandmother told her the day before), some milk that isn't enough for a bowl of cereal, and some week old take-out. "Ew! Why haven't we thrown this shit away?" She grabbed it and placed it in the trash, which was now full. Rolling her eyes, she pulled out the bag and took it out front to where the still full trash can waited for the garbage truck, which, oddly enough, hasn't passed by. It usually passed by in the morning to collect people's garbage. Weird.
As she headed back, she noticed that the front door was wide open. Did she leave it open? Then she noticed that her grandmother's car was parked clumsily on the driveway. "When did she arrive?" Confused, Kairi entered the house and looked around "Grandma?" A moan came from the kitchen and a thud. Kairi ran to the kitchen and saw her grandmother leaning over the counter in pain. "Grandma! Are you okay?" She was clutching her left arm, and was sweating profusely. Kairi gingerly touched her shoulder, but she felt hot to the touch. "Grandma, what is going on?" She was breathing heavily now, but managed to mutter a few words.
"I was bitten."
"What? By who?" Her grandmother groaned and she fell over onto the floor. She began to shake violently as Kairi knelt down, looking around, not knowing what to do. "Oh fuck, oh fuck, grandma!" Kairi grabbed her cellphone resting on the counter and dialed the emergency number. It rung a few times but no response came. She dialed a few times, hands shaking uncontrollably as her grandmother continued to groan and shake, but no response. Whimpering and tears suddenly spilling from her eyes, Kairi decided instead to call her best friend, Sora, to take them to the emergency room in his car. The phone rang twice before he answered.
"Hey Kairi!" His voice sounded chipper and there was some pop-punk music playing in the background.
"M-my grandma is shaking violently a-and she's in pain!" Kairi's voice quivered and she was on the verge of sobbing. "I-I called the emergency number, b-but no one would answer!" She covered her mouth as she began to sob.
"Oh my god! I'll be there immediately! Don't go anywhere! I'm on my way right now!" He hung up, and Kairi, now hiccuping, knelt by her grandmother again, who stopped shaking, and is taking shallow breaths. She was now cold to the touch but is still sweating. Standing up, Kairi ran to her grandmother's bedroom on the first floor and grabbed a blanket. As she walked out, she realized that she left the front door open and went to close it quickly, but was suddenly rooted to her spot when she spotted someone stumbling through. This person looked sickly, no, worse. They looked dead. "No, it can't be," she thought. The person groaned and some liquid that looked like spit mixed with blood and mucus dripped own. They reached out and lunged towards Kairi, snapping their mouths and groaning louder. Kairi stumbled out of the way but the person turned around and continued to rush towards her. "Who are you? What are you doing?" Kairi demanded, sticking out her leg to trip the person. The person fell hard, dislocating their jaw. No cry of pain, not even reaching up in shock, the person turned around to look at her, crawling towards her, groaning. Freaked out, Kairi kicked the person on the head and it flew off, blood splattering everywhere. She gasped loudly and stumbled backwards, falling down to the ground and scooting back. The body went limp, with putrid smelling blood oozing from the neck. Kairi gagged and threw up what little she had in her stomach.
She stood up, legs shaking and stumbled towards the kitchen, only to discover that her grandmother was standing up now, revealing a bite mark on her left arm, which was dripping with the foul smelling blood. She was twitching and her skin was pale grey, bruising up. Slowly, she lifted her head, still twitching unnaturally, causing Kairi to gasp. Her eyes were glassy and the whites were slowly turning yellow. Small, pained noises were coming out of her mouth and she stared at Kairi with an expressionless gaze.
"G-Grandma?" Kairi shook where she stood as she watched helplessly as her grandmother limped forward mindlessly, looking around with her now fully yellow eyes. The pupils remained black, and again, her senseless gaze fell on Kairi.
Suddenly, she screeched loudly and lunged towards her granddaughter, the senseless gaze turning into hunger. Kairi screamed, and dodged out of the way, falling against the railing to the stairs, where she saw more people walking into her house, moaning loudly, limping quickly towards her, with the same hungry gaze her grandmother had.
It dawned on Kairi what was going on. She never expected it would happen. All of the shows, the stories, that one survival book a classmate let her read at school, she thought it was all fake, all fantasy, never to come true, but here she is, surrounded by a small group of them, rotting, violent, and hungry. The thought ran through her mind over and over again before she finally accepted what is happening.
It's an apocalypse of the undead.
Her grandmother grabbed her arm as Kairi began to head upstairs. Without thinking, she kicked her on the chest, sending her falling backwards, knocking down another zombie who was the older woman who lived two doors down. Kairi dashed to her room, locked the door and began to look around for a weapon. The only thing that remotely looked like a weapon was a giant key replica from her favorite game about unlocking the good in people's hearts, so she grabbed that and prepared herself for a possible battle. "Come at me, rotten meatbags!" she thought, positioning herself in a fight stance. That's when she remembered, Sora was supposed to be arriving soon! "Shit! He's possibly defenseless, I can't let him enter the house. He can be in danger!" Kairi looked around but realized that she left her phone downstairs so she wasn't able to give him a warning. "I know! I'll go outside and warn him. Wait… I'm stuck here… I can't go back out because the zombies are out there… Oh grandma…" Tears began to creep up again, but Kairi shook them away. "What can I do? What can I do…?" She looked out of the window and got an idea. She grabbed her backpack and started to pack some essentials, from some change of clothes to some hygiene products. She grabbed the key again and opened up the window, kicking the screen off. Right under her door was the roof of the garage, which sloped in two directions, so she had to be careful with her escape. As she began to climb out the window, there was banging on the door and loud groans, moans, and shrieks. Quickly but carefully, she set her foot down on the roof and found a solid footing before she set her other foot down. She crouched down and began to carefully crawl to the front of the roof to see if he arrived. There was no sign of his car so she just quietly sat there, patiently hoping and waiting for him to arrive, watching as some zombies began to enter the cul-de-sac from the only entrance there was.
That's when the zombies knocked down the door to her bedroom and began to trudge to the window where Kairi exited her room. Panic began to rise up and she looked around, looking for a way for her to get down safely and out of the way of zombies. That's when a black car ran over some zombies and zoomed into the cul-de-sac, dangerously making a loop at the end and screeching to a stop in front of her house.
"Sora!" Her feet slipped from right under her and down she went on the side, landing on the ground with a loud thud. The giant key landed right next to her as she groaned and tried to get up. Some of the zombies that were entering the street started to hobble towards her quickly as she grabbed her weapon. They never reached her, however. A wooden bat hit one of them on the back of the head and rendered them immobile. A boy with brown spiky hair and bright blue eyes knelt down by her grabbing her arm and helping her up.
"Kairi, are you okay?" he asked, looking at her with worried eyes. She nodded, but her picked her up regardless and hurried to his car before more zombies surrounded the area.
"Sora…" She began to sob as Sora began to drive away from the street.
"What is it, what's wrong?"
"She turned into one of them. She's one of them," Kairi covered her face and began to sob uncontrollably, her body shaking with the pain of having her grandmother taken from her. "I-I was almost a goner… If it wasn't for you I probably would have been devoured by those abominations." Sora gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white and his breathing became ragged. "Thanks to you, I'm alive…" Sora glanced at her from the side and his heart dropped when he saw the tears falling from her eyes.
"I couldn't believe my eyes when I found out…" Kairi looked at him as he kept looking out onto the road. "I was just listening to the latest single from that band I told you about. Then you called me. I was so worried, I thought that she was having a seizure or something so I ran as fast as I could to my car when I see a bunch of these walking around. When they saw me, they began to walk towards me, groaning and shrieking. They were fast, but I was faster. I went back in and grabbed my bat, and began to hit the ones who were too close to my car. I left the complex and ran some of them over. I drove as fast as I could, and good thing too, because I came just in time." He looked at her and smiled. "You're safe… Though I'm sorry about your grandma… I wish I could have helped in some way. I really liked her. She was like a grandma to me." More tears spilled and Sora scrambled to make her feel better. "I see you have that giant key I got you for your birthday. What's it called? A keysword?"
Kairi smacked his arm softly and gave him a small smile. "It's called a keyblade, and it is the best thing ever." Sora grinned and kept looking forward. Kairi looked out of the window and watched as they drove by some zombies. "Where are we going?"
"To my apartment, it's probably safer there, and also I need to tell Riku what's going on. Actually," Sora pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialed Riku. The tone rang a few times then someone answered the phone. "Riku? It's Sora. Are you and Roxas at the apartment? Just arrived? I know, it's insane. I'm with Kairi. How is it over there? Really? Someone is blasting music? Why? You two should get out of there as fast as you can! Already on it? Okay good. Let's meet up at the usual spot. Kairi and I will get some supplies. We will. See ya." He hung up and looked at Kairi. "So there are a lot of zombies at the complex because someone is blasting music and they're stuck for now. Let's see what the situation is at the store and try to get supplies. I'm positive it's hell though."
He drove directly to the grocery store, but it was insanity. People were running everywhere, cars were trapped within each other, and zombies were grabbing people and biting them, some swarmed and began to feast. They both gasped and Kairi looked away as they witnessed catastrophe happen. Sora began to reverse the car from the area and drove away from the grocery store. His mind raced as he wondered what to do next. "Fuck!" He tapped the steering wheel, racking his brain for ideas.
"How about going to a restaurant?" Kairi suggested, pointing at some restaurants that were now abandoned. There were some lingering zombies here and there, but it looked like it was something they could handle. Sora nodded and slowly drove up to a seemingly abandoned fast food burger joint and parked. They both stayed in the car, surveying the inside from the windows and spotted two zombies inside. "So how are we going to do this?"
"We both go in with our weapons and take out the zombies quickly and quietly, get what we need and get out of here," Sora glanced at Kairi as she nodded.
They quietly exited the car and cautiously walked towards the back of the building. Sora nudged open the door and peeked inside, baseball bat ready to hit any zombie. Kairi kept to the back, constant looking over her shoulder for any sneaky creepers, clutching the keyblade replica tightly. They entered the kitchen area of the restaurant, the lights still on, the smell of something burning hangs in the air as they notice burnt burger patties sitting on the grills, and fries that sat in oil for far too long continued to sizzle. How it hasn't caught on fire, they have no idea, but Sora turned off the burners, and grabbed a fry that were set aside for an order. He made a face that said it was cold, but he shrugged and grabbed some more. A counter separated the main lobby of the restaurant and the kitchen. The zombies have not noticed that they have entered the premises, so they began searching for food and any other supplies. Kairi set down a backpack she found in the empty break room and began to fill it with some of the food she found. Sora noticed and began to add some non-perishable foods in the bag. He quietly sneaked past the zombies and into the bathroom with his bat and began to look for a first-aid kit.
Kairi began to organize the items in the backpack to make more room when she heard a loud thud coming from the bathroom. The zombies snapped their rotting heads towards the noise and began to trudge in the direction of the noise, letting out some quiet groans. Worried, Kairi looked around for something to get their attention, or to distract them away from the bathroom door. She settled with hurling a pot towards a window, which let out a loud crack as the bottom edge cracked the window. The zombies began to go the other way as Kairi began to sneak past them and into the bathroom.
Sora was on the floor, clutching his head, groaning in pain. Kairi knelt down beside him, "Sora, Sora what happened?" Her voice quivered as he hesitantly removed his hand from his head and there was blood staining his hand. Gasping, Kairi looked around for something to cover the wound and grabbed some paper from one of the automatic paper towel dispensers. She wet the paper and knelt down again, lifting his head and gently placing the damp towel on his wound. "What happened?" She asked again, but his response was drowned out by the sound of the bathroom door being slammed open.
A/N:Hello dear readers! I know it has been the longest time since I have updated this story. Life happened, but I do intend to finish this story.
HOWEVER
I am restarting this story, still being the same, but better written with some concepts changed.
I'm currently working on the second chapter, so hopefully it will be up in a few days.
Thank you for reading! 3