Chapter 1

The day it all started no one knew what was going on. A few news reports here and there, but nothing big until we heard the screams. I ran outside with my parents to see a man we did not know run up to my father a bite his neck until they were both covered in blood, he stopped screaming after what seemed like years. I grabbed my mother and pulled her back into the house. That is when the shooting started, constant fire of guns in the street and screams of horror or screams of loss I could not tell. That's when the front door opened and my father walked in. I turned to my mother who fainted upon seeing her husband whom she thought was dead. He turned to me with blood dripping down his shirt and soaking into the carpet, he walked over to where I stood. His face seemed lifeless; his eyes were bloodshot and grotesque. As I put my hand out to see if he was okay, he lunged at me. I screamed and moved back. He fell to the ground as I grabbed the fire poker from the stand behind me and hit him into the head. I couldn't stop hitting him, I somehow knew then that he wasn't alive and I had to protect my mother and myself. I dragged his lifeless body out of the house and closed the door as I saw an army man running towards me. I looked out the window, the army man looked at the house then down at the corpse, then shot my father's body once in the head then walked towards the door.

I ran towards my mother and tried to wake her up. The door slammed open and the army man walked right over to us and looked at my mother and me.

"She fainted;" I mumbled, "What's going on, my dad died then he tried to bite me."

"Are you sure she not dead?"

"Yes! What's going on?" I screamed.

"We have to go now you can come with me but we will have to leave her she seems weak and I can't risk it. We must leave now." He got on his knees beside me and looked me in the eyes. "Get up and go to the front door, I'll be there soon."

I got up, walked away from my mother, and waited as I saw people running down the street away from the screams of the city. I heard a gunshot behind me. I turned around and saw my mother's head bleeding and the man walking towards me. As he got the front door, people started walking towards my house; they were all covered in blood. He grabbed my arm and slammed the door. He pulled my up the stairs and to one of the front rooms, my room. He opened the window and looked out.

"Is there another way out?"

"Yes, out this window and slide down the drain pipe, I do it all the time. Why? Who were they? Why were they covered in blood?" he stopped and turned to me, he looked confused.

"You don't know what's going on?"

"No!"

"They said they would give people enough notice so they could get out if they wanted to." He stared blankly into space and fell to the floor.

"Who said? Tell me!" I screamed, tears running down my face.

"People are dying, everywhere. If one of the infected people bites someone then they will have fever and die. But all the people who are infected are already dead."

"I don't understand." I sat on the bed across from him.

"Okay. It all started when someone died and came back to life but… He wasn't himself, he would go and bite people, after a day or less the person he bit would die. They would have a considerable fever then would die… For a while but then would come back, but not the same. All that we know is that if you shoot, stab or damage the brain they will die for good."

"But isn't that murder?"

"You kill them or they'll kill you." I was stunned I didn't know what to do. Then I heard a crash. "They're in the house." I stared at him looking for answers.

"Go hide on the roof I will try and lead them away." I climbed out to the roof and waited.

Silence I couldn't hear anything; it had been an hour he hadn't come back. I climbed back into my room and made my way to the stairs. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I didn't recognise anything. Bodies dead on the floor blood everywhere, it didn't look like home anymore. That's when he ran towards me from the kitchen. He was being followed, by the 'infected' as he called them.

"Run!" he screamed at me from across the room. I jumped over the fallen furniture and made my way towards the front door. Not so long ago I was walking into this house laughing and playing along with my friends.

We ran out the door and towards my car. I threw him my keys as we climbed into the car. He started up the car and raced away from my house, I didn't feel welcome there anymore it wasn't the same.

"What's your name?" I broke the silence.

"James McHaddle. And your name?"

"Emily Pratt. Nice to meet you, although I hate the circumstances."

"Same. Do you have any other relatives?"

"I moved here from Australia about three years ago, my parents were just visiting me, the rest of my family is back in Australia. But my roommates, they went to work this morning can we try and get them? It's just out of the city." He turned and looked at me, he probably saw a weak girl looking for some hope.

"What are their names and where do they work?"

"Caitlin and Holly work in an editing office two streets over and Caitlin's boyfriend Jordan said he would stay with them today, in case things got weird." I looked at him desperately; we would only just fit in the car. "Caitlin has a bigger car with her we can take that."

"Okay but we have to be quick and get out of the city and get to the coast." He said putting his foot harder on the gas pedal as we sped past cars and people on the side of the road.

We got to Caitlin's office and I saw infected people everywhere, I jumped out and went to the back of the car. I had a tire iron and an axe in the back I grabbed the tire iron and threw it to James who started to hit some of the infected that started walking towards us. I grab the axe and we started to clear all of them. When I got close enough to the door I used my set of keys to open the office.

Caitlin, Holly and Jordan were all in the office hiding under their desks. There were a few extra people who I didn't know. James made his way in, closed, and locked the door, I looked at him then myself; we were all covered in blood. That's when James walked forward and explained everything again to Caitlin and the others.

"I don't believe it." Holly whispered, staring out the window.

"We need to get out of here," I couldn't sit here another moment, "How many people are we taking?"

"Well, there is Jordan, Holly, you, James, Leroy, Merle, Daryl and myself. So eight." Caitlin counted all of us.

"Well, I have my car and Caitlin's car is out back so four in each, I'll take James, Merle and Daryl. The rest go with Caitlin. We need to stay close and stick together." I took charge hoping that we could get out of this mess. The one that Caitlin said was Merle didn't seem to like what we had planned.

"Now what you're saying is stupid sugar tits, we need to get my place in the country, get some weapons, and kill these fuckers." He stood up and put his face parallel to mine. "Then how bout' you and me sit nice and cosy and start a new generation."

"How bout we get out of this office first then we will let you go, we'll find you a car." I pushed him back into his chair. "Okay, everyone done. Good. Let's go and well stop at the edge of town and talk about our options more."

We opened the doors and ran to the cars; I jumped in the driver's seat and Merle in the passenger seat, James and Daryl in the back. I didn't know if everyone got to Caitlin's car but I hoped for the best. We drove away from the city; planes flew overhead.

"Shit!" James turned around just as we saw the flash from the bombs being let off in the city. "It's really bad; we got out just in time."

I knew the city would be destroyed now, and nothing was going to be the same.