"Have a good day at school dear!" Mom yelled to me, like she does every morning. Tell me that your parents do that to you, tell you the same thing everyday even though you know, by heart, what they want to say to you? If they don't, you're lucky.

"Thanks mom." I replied, also like every other day. But this day, I wish I had told them I loved them, because I would never see them again. So they would never know. But hey, you can't rewind time. If I could, then the horror never would have happened.

I got out of the car, a beat-up 1957 hatchback, and walked up the sidewalk to my high school. There was Joanna, waiting for me like she does everyday. Joanna was tall, almost as tall as me, with beautiful blonde hair and bright green eyes. Those eyes would light up your life every time you looked into them, it was amazing!

"Yo, Joanna!" I called. The one last time I would actually be happy today would be when I saw her. I ran up to her and kissed her.

"How are you today?" She asked.

"I'm great now, thanks." I said. We started walking up to the school but something drew my attention. It looked like a guy was walking, no stumbling, up to the school. From the way he staggered, he looked drunk. I thought I heard him moan in pain too.

"Hey, d'you see that guy?" I asked Joanna. She looked at the guy and an expression of disgust went over her face immediately.

"Don't you think they should keep drunks like that away from the school? He's really creeping me out." Joanna replied, trembling slightly. I took her hand and we walked a little faster.

We walked into the school and went to our lockers. We shared adjacent lockers so we saw each other a lot during the day. Unfortunately, the only class we shared was Math, the class that neither of us liked. Why, you ask? Because we couldn't talk at all. Ironic, huh? The only class where we can sit and talk to each other, and we're not allowed to talk! Seriously, Mr. Waters can be such a pain! He stands up in front of the class and lectures for about an hour, and we sit and take notes the whole time. If anybody speaks, they'll be out of the class before you can say "tangent".

A bell rang and I looked at my watch, five minutes to get to class!

"7:45?! Wow, I was later than I thought! I gotta go Jo, se ya later!" I kissed her on the cheek and bolted to class. I got in the door just as the bell rang. Then I realized I went the wrong way.

"Wrong class again, Mr. Kerrick?" Mr. Loper said, grinning. He was such a sarcastic teacher, but he was my favorite. He taught U.S. Government, but he was a riot! I enjoyed his classes so much. But right now I was supposed to be in English. This was the second time I ended up in Mr. Loper's class instead of Ms. Hendrik.

"Yeah Mr. Loper, could I have a pass?" I asked, trying not to sound desperate, Ms. Hendrik was gonna kill me if I didn't show up for class soon. Mr. Loper looked like he wanted to say something sarcastic, but probably knowing what my situation was, he didn't.

"Alright Mr. Kerrick, but if you come in here again at the wrong time, you'll be getting more than a pass from me." He responded.

"Thanks sir, I'll see you in class later!" I called over my shoulder as I ran to class.

Luckily, I didn't run into any other teachers on my way to class. Which was odd, because there were always teachers roaming the halls to catch people who were late early on in the morning. I looked out the window, and stopped dead. It was that damn drunken guy, about fifteen feet away from the window! His back was to me, but from the way he was staggering, I knew it was the same guy. I shook my head and made a mental note to tell the principal as I dashed off once more to English.

I opened the door to the classroom…and there was Ms. Hendrik, standing right there in the doorway. She started applauding as I entered the room.

"Congratulations Mr. Kerrick, for being the biggest idiot this class has ever seen. Going to the wrong class twice in a row, you've set a record! Everyone, clap for Mr. Kerrick!" She clapped, and the rest of the class too, as I went off to my seat grinning. After that, the rest of the school day went smoothly. I said good-bye to Joanna at the end of the day and we both went home. That was when I heard the news report at 6:45 PM, the one that would change my life.

"There was a fire today at the local Umbrella plant, caused by reasons unknown. Five people were killed and more than twenty injured. Six of those Injured are now in critical condition." The newscaster said. Yep, Umbrella, the Umbrella, the company that created the T-Virus in that video game, Resident Evil. I was as shocked as anyone when the town announced that Umbrella was opening a plant in town, because anyone who had played Resident Evil knew what the name Umbrella meant. But we all thought it pure coincidence when the name of the corporation was revealed. We knew that it had nothing to do with the T-Virus at all.

But when I heard the report, I panicked. I knew that a fire in an Umbrella plant always spelled disaster. I got ready for the worst. That was when I heard the crash. No, two crashes, both downstairs. I heard a groan, and then another, both from the directions of the crashes. My mom shouted at me to stay away from them, while my dad tried to get downstairs to the gun safe. The zombie was in the way though, and it got him. Me and my mother watched in horror as it ripped him apart. Then the other zombie ran at us, and it got my mother. I didn't even scream. What good would it have done anyway? I ran at the door to the basement, but a zombie rushed me. I ducked and its flailing arms went right over me and I ran right under its legs. I flung open the door to the basement and bolted down the stairs, mentally running over the combination to the safe in my head.

"17-29-11…come on dammit!" I yelled to myself as I tried the combination again. This time it worked, and I grabbed the shotgun and the two 9mm my dad kept in there. I ran back up the stairs, almost forgetting about the zombies, and out the door. Then I realized, in my panic, I had forgotten my cell phone. I'd need it before the day was over. I dashed upstairs to my room and grabbed the phone off my desk, flipping it open as I ran back downstairs past the undead monstrosities. I dialed Joe's number as I escaped the horror that had been my house.

"Pick up dammit, PICK UP!" I yelled into the phone as Joe answered.

"Hello?" I heard Joe say.

"Joe, get out of your house! It isn't safe!" I shouted to him.

"Are you alright man? You sound weird." Joe responded.

"Did you hear me you moron? GET OUT OF YOUR HOUSE!" I screamed.

"What's wrong with you man? Is something--" He began, but he was cut off by the sound of breaking glass.

"JOE, GET OUT OF YOUR HOUSE NOW!" I screamed even more loudly at him as he screamed. I had no idea if he had heard me, but I started running in the direction of his house as if my life depended on it. Mine didn't, but his did. I had no idea if he was safe, but I prayed that he was.

I didn't run into much on my way to his house, but I did notice that there were a few houses with broken windows, but there were no screams emanating from them, so I figured that there wasn't anyone alive inside them. The two 9mm kept coming out of my pocket, and twice I had to stop to keep them from falling onto the ground and drawing attention to myself, or misfiring. The last thing I needed was for me to accidentally shoot myself. Finally I saw Joe's house up the street, and to my horror, I saw it surrounded by zombies. There was no way that Joe made it out of there alive.

"JOE!" I shouted, just to see if my friend would answer. To my surprise, and great joy, he did.

"I'm over here!" I heard him yell form atop a tree. There were two zombies at the bottom, pawing at the tree like dogs that had treed a raccoon and were begging for their masters to shoot it. I took aim and fired at the zombies. One of their heads was blown clean off and the other merely fell to the ground. I knew from experience, and hours spent playing the game, that it might get back up, so I waited for it to stand. It didn't, so I ran over to the tree and yelled to Joe to get down.

"Come on man, we need to get out of here. You know how to use a gun right?" I asked, helping him out of the tree.

"Yeah, my dad showed me a while back." He panted, jumping down and running alongside me.

"Good, take this. You're gonna need it." I handed him one of the 9mm and two loaded clips.

"That's all you got?" He asked, sounding worried.

"Unfortunately. All my dad kept in the safe was four clips, and the other two are for the other gun, assuming we find anyone alive who can use it." I said, and we ran away from his house.

"Hold on man, I need to take a breather." Joe said, and we stopped. I kept the shotgun raised though, in case anything made a move. I noticed Joe looked…empty. Not that I could blame the kid, he'd just lost his family, like I had lost mine. It was a tough ordeal for someone to lose the people they loved, but it wasn't his fault. He had to get out of there, or they all would have died. I told him this, but he just stared back at me. Finally though, he shrugged and we continued on our search for survivors.

"Come on, we need to find out if anyone else made it out of their houses. We need to get in a group and stick together. That way those freaks won't be able to get us all at once." I told Joe. We walked down the street some more, and heard someone scream.

"Let's go!" I shouted.