WEEK ONE

ELLIE SAT ON HER OWN at the end of an empty row in the frigidly large lecture theatre. The drone on zeroth law became static noise as her mind wandered over more irrelevant subjects. She burrowed into her jacket, crossing her arms across her chest while her fingers twirled her pen in impatient circles. Twenty more minutes of this snore fest and she could finally grab a burger from the student cafe next door. Her phone lit up in front of her and she leaned forwards to pick it up from the table.

RILEY: lol people are going psycho in keynes

ELLIE: ha take a video and put it on youtube

She let out another small sigh and stared down the several empty rows of benches to the front of the theatre. Thermonuclear dynamics had never been more boring, especially when it was taught by Mr Griffin. This was the only lecture she had that particular day, so she'd have some free time later. She pondered on dropping by town to do some shopping and whether Joel was free to tag along. Her phone started to vibrate spastically in her right hand.

RILEY: holy shit something's wrong

RILEY: WTF PEOPLE ARE EATING EACH OTHER

RILEY: DEAD PEOPLE COMING BACK TO LIFE

RILEY: HOLY FUCK

ELLIE: ha ha very funny riley

RILEY: I'M NOT JOKING ASSFACE GO OUTSIDE

Ellie shook her head in disbelief and started to type out a reply when the fire alarm started ringing all around them. Mr Griffin stopped speaking mid sentence and everyone looked around in either exasperation or utter relief. Ellie started to shove her stationary into her bag when the doors to the lecture theatre slammed open. One of the science faculty administrators stumbled into the room, his hair mussed and streaks of blood staining his white shirt. Someone screamed from the front bench and a few people jumped back in surprise at his appearance.

"Get out of here!" he shouted. "Everyone leave and go back home right now! Barricade yourselves, wait for help!"

"What's happening?" Griffin asked.

"There's some kind of outbreak, people are dying and coming back to life, they-"

The doors burst open behind him for a second time and a woman with tattered clothes lunged at him. He fell to the floor screaming as the woman bit into his neck with a squirt of blood. Chaos ensued as several students screamed and fled. One of the boys she knew as Adam tried to pull the woman off the man but she bit into his arm instead. She seemed manic, grotesque and inhuman. The back door of the theatre opened nearby and Ellie turned around in fear of more attackers. Instead, she saw Hunter looking around the room. He stopped when he finally caught sight of her and started waving frantically in her direction.

"Hey, come on! Let's get out of here!" he yelled over the cacophony from the front of the room. Griffin had started hitting the murderous woman on the head with a brass figurine.

Ellie didn't waste time to witness the outcome as she darted towards Hunter and fled from the scene. They ran down the halls of the college towards the main entrance, and she skidded to a stop when she saw a boy getting hit by a car. His body flew ten feet into the glass wall that surrounded the reception area, shattering it on impact. She let out a short scream as the boy landed at her feet, bleeding profusely all over the floor.

"Oh, my God!" she gasped. "What the hell just happened?!"

"There's no time," Hunter grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the exit. "We need to get Riley and Joel, then get the hell out of here!"

"Wait, what's happening?!" she yelled as they went out of the building. People were screaming nearby, and she swore she could hear snarls from some kind of rabid animal.

"There's no time," the older man repeated as he led her towards Keynes College.

She tried to find an opportunity to survey their surroundings, but it felt like she had just stepped into a warzone. All she was acutely aware of was the panic on people's faces as they ran aimlessly away from who even knew what. Cars were honking loudly, more shouts and screams, then the crazy people. She saw one of them attack another student, all but throttling the poor kid to the ground and clawing maniacally at his face. Why weren't people helping him?

"Hey!"

Ellie slammed into the hard tone chest of her childhood friend as he grabbed hold of her shoulder to stop her. Riley was standing beside him with a look of terror in her dark eyes, and droplets of blood clearly decorated her face. Joel exchanged a glance with Hunter and they started walking quickly down a dirt path that led to the back of Emory University where the old church stood.

"Can somebody tell me what the hell is happening?" she demanded angrily as Joel pushed her along.

"Didn't you read my texts?" Riley responded. "I'm being completely serious when I say that the dead are coming back to life and attacking people."

"That's crazy," Ellie frowned in consternation. "That's not possible."

"I saw it myself, Ells," Joel told her quietly. "One of the cadavers that was just brought in... it jumped up and killed a student. Tore his throat out and started eating his face. We tried to kill it but nothing worked. Then the kid with the chewed off face woke up too, attacked more people."

"But he was really dead? Like gone?" she blinked several times in confusion, trying to come to terms with their new situation. It was hard to swallow a truth like that, but everyone was definitely scared of something right then.

"His throat was torn out," he stated plainly.

"It has to be some kind of disease, I guess," Hunter said as he grabbed a wooden board lying on the side of a building. "Some form of rabies?"

"Whatever it is, it's dangerous," Riley said with a hard edge in her voice. "I heard gunshots earlier."

Ellie turned the corner of the church first with the others on her heel. Somebody grabbed hold of her again, pulling her roughly to the side and through the wooden door. She felt clawed hands dig deep into her skin with sharp nails and she let out a cry of fear. A feral snarl tore through the air, wet and gurgled with blood. She looked up into the mangled face of the bishop, the soft tissue in his cheek dangling through a wide gaping hole. He was missing an ear, his eyes a milky white, teeth snapping to sink themselves into her flesh.

Hunter pulled her away quickly as Joel stepped up to shove hard at the bishop. He fell backwards, impaling himself through the chest on the broken side of a pew. Instead of stopping, the bishop started to flail his limbs around despite the jagged piece of wood sticking out of his torso. They stopped to stare in gross curiosity until they heard more deranged groans drawing closer.

"We need to go now," Riley said before they hurried away.

That had been her first encounter with the walking dead.


PRESENT

Ellie crouched down low as she exited the door to the back of the building, creeping her way towards an abandoned blue car. She hid behind it quickly, shuffling towards the front end to peer over the side of its headlights. There were only three drifters in the alleyway ahead of them. The opposite end of the alley led out to the main street where the horde was wandering about, and it was also blocked off by a fenced gate. It might not hold if too many of those dead things kept pushing against it, but it would give them ample time to get away.

Joel joined her a moment later behind the car, a bag holding the radio slung over his shoulder. He looked over the top of the car hood and glanced back at her with a quick nod. They both held SKS rifles in their hands with the bayonets extended. Ellie nodded back and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She still hated looking at those things, especially when they had been mutilated or decayed beyond all hope. It still boggled her mind how they were able to move, let alone attack living humans.

She rushed out from behind the car, holding her rifle up in the air to stab the first drifter in front of her. It had already turned around when it heard her footsteps approaching and the blade sunk into its eye. Joel was right behind her, slamming the butt of his own rifle into the side of the second drifter's head. It fell heavily to the ground and he struck it down into the cement with a loud crack. Ellie turned to find the third one shambling towards her, and she had to step aside to avoid its outstretched arms. She quickly smacked it with her gun and stabbed it through the eye again with a disgusting squelch of soft tissue.

Joel darted forwards when they were done, stopping right in front of the metal gate. A few drifters on the other side caught his scent and started to make their way towards him. Their snarls sounded harsh and revolting to her ears, rotten teeth snapping as they drew closer. Joel took out the radio and placed it on the ground in front of them as they rattled against the fence. He switched it on and trashy pop music started to play loudly from its speakers. Grinning in amusement as more drifters started to head their way, he turned around and cocked his head back to the building.

They quickly ran inside and shut the door, hurrying to grab their things from the hallway and racing to the other end of the apartment block where the car was. The shiny black Impala greeted them after Joel rolled the garage door open. Its engine purred to life under his touch as Ellie manually rolled up the garage door. A couple of drifters were still in the area and they turned towards her. She ignored them and jumped into the car, then Joel stepped on the gas pedal. They drove out into the now empty street, racing towards the CDC on the other side of town.


AUTHOR'S NOTE

hi guys! thank you so much for reading this story. i really hope you like and enjoy it. if you do, please leave a review to support my writing and tell me what you think! i love hearing from you and it totally makes my day! the next few chapters will go through the first five weeks of ellie with her friends, but we'll also meet glenn soon yay!