June 15, 2009: Manhattan NY

CLANG!

"WHAT THE FUCK" I said

"Rise and Shine beautiful". I looked up into the eyes of my friend Jonny. Jonny had a slight build, skinny and always wore that strange trucker hat and blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His blonde hair stuck out from under his hair and stopped right before his eyes, which seemed more amused after he rudely awakened me. He was holding a pot in one hand, and his favourite metal bat in the other.

I looked around the room and saw others also getting up thanks to the racket Jonny made. I quickly picked up my assault rifle near my bed, fastened the strap and proceeded to the bathroom. I turned on the faucet and rubbed the cold water on my face.

I looked in the dirty mirror hanging above the sink, and saw a changed face. My light brown skin had turned golden from the kiss of the sun, my hair was long, and one strand stretched over my eye. I was muscular, not Olympic weightlifter muscular, simply toned. My light brown eyes stood out against my dark brown hair. After that, I then came back into our barracks to slap Jonny in the back of the head.

"Hey man, not my fault, Rick says he has something for us and he says to get the whole base up for something, I don't know."

"Ok, ok tell him I'm on my way." I quickly shook my other squad mates awake. There was Homer, sleeping in a corner, hugging his shotgun like a teddy bear. Homer was an average man, averagely built and short, spiky brown hair, dressed in a pair of jeans and a tight black shirt.

"Homer" I said, shaking him, "HOMER" I screamed in his ear.

"AHH Huh what?" BANG. His shotgun went off, making a hole in the wall the size of a fist. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" screamed Josh, already up on his feet, M14 raised and primed to fire. Josh was one of those guys who was real prissy before the start of it all. He used to be in an expensive private school till the virus hit. Even though he'd been in an elaborate school filled with "nerds" Josh fit into the category of athletic, with a slight build and massive forearms.

The virus. I recalled the events of the past 2 weeks. It was the last month of school and I'd been as happy as a kid in a candy store. School had ended early because of some health problem in Manhattan. I sat with my best buddy, Jonny, on my couch. There were also my girlfriend Stacey and Rio with Jonny.

"Hey babe you want something to drink?" I asked.

"Yea that would be great" said Stacey "And Rio too" she added with a smile.

"Alright 4 drinks coming up, Jonny gimme a hand will you bud?"

"Sure thing boss" piped Jonny.

we were halfway done making root beer floats ever when we hear screaming from the living room. I look at Jonny, who looks back at me, and then we look to the door separating the kitchen to the Living room. Jonny grabs my metal bat from near the exit to the deck, while I grab my grandfather's old Swiss army combat knife. We open the door into a horrible and gruesome scene.

Standing in the middle of the room was a creature. It looked human, but it had blood dripping from its mouth and claws. Standing near the couch was Rio, screaming as if it would save her. And finally, at his feet was the mutilated corpse of Stacey, my girlfriend. In a rage, i charged the creature, only to get its claws rake across my face. I fell to the ground with a thud, the force from the fall causing black spots to appear in my vision.

The creature slowly walked towards me, towards Rio, but away from Jonny. In those seconds I saw somwthing, something that brought me to look at the creatures face. And from there I noticed i was looking into the light brown eyes of my older brother. His face was horribly mutilated, in some parts the skin was literally falling off. His clothes were torn, but they still bore resemblances to the Christmas button up shirt I bought for him.

It only took Jonny a moment to cross the space dividing them and whack the creature across the back of the head. The creature seemed to think about something, then registered the blow to the head and fell to the floor with a wet smack. Shaken i got to my feet, went to the cupboard in my living room and opened a drawer.

After extensive searching I pulled out a small pistol. I walked over to the creature, which was still visibly shaking his head; the blow must have severed the connection to his spine, and pumped 2 shots into its cranium. Then, I dropped the smoking pistol, fell to my knees, and sobbed.

That was my first encounter with a zombie, my first interaction with the X Virus. I thought back on that day and shivered, because that was what changed me, what brought me to this. I snapped back to reality to hear Jonny hollering my name and screaming to hurry up. I picked up my rifle, checked the small apartment that constituted for the teams "barracks" and left to catch up with the rest of my squad.