The five survivors finally reached safe house. Chris felt secure behind the steel doors. He sat down on a chair in the corner and looked at the four other people that had become his family.
Kelly was Chris's childhood friend; he had known her since fourth grade. Their relationship was a bit strained during high school, and they hadn't seen each other in four years, but when they met up at a safe house in Los Angeles it was like nothing had even changed. She was a bit of an airhead, but she was reliable, and Chris couldn't think of anyone he'd rather have with him during a zombie apocalypse.
The other three, however, Chris had never met before. They were three brothers from a town called Mushroom Hollow. Chris had never heard of the place. Like Chris and Kelly, the brothers were vacationing in L.A. when the infection broke out.
The youngest of the three Text brothers was Ted. Ted was truly a sight to behold. Chris couldn't stop staring at his head, which was horribly disfigured. The top half of his head was gone, and the bottom half was horribly stretched out. He had only four, bizarre, curly hairs that stuck straight out of his head. On top of his strange appearance, he was cripplingly retarded. According to his brothers, his I.Q. was only four. Chris didn't want to believe that, after all, he wouldn't be able to function with an I.Q. that low. But Ted was no ordinary person, as proven by his freakish Smoker tongue. Needless to say, Ted wasn't allowed to hold any weapons.
The middle child of the Text family was Fred, quite possibly the laziest asshole who ever lived. He did nothing but complain about the current situation and eat. Chris suspected he was hoarding food. Apparently Fred has been mooching off of Joe's money and food since the day their parents died, not working a day in his life.
Which brings us to the eldest child in the Text family, Joe. Joe had become the de facto leader of the group, making plans and deciding where to go. He had a strong aura of leadership around him and he didn't take any bullshit. A side effect of putting up with Fred and Ted for so many years. He was also the only person on the entire planet who could pull off a mullet without looking like a complete redneck.
Ted had found a fridge in the safe house. He opened it up and, to his delight, found that it was filled with different kinds of cheeses. He promptly started using his tongue to clean out the fridge. Kelly cracked up.
"Joe, your brother is the coolest person ever," Kelly said.
"Aw thanks, I feel loved," Fred replied.
"I was talking about Ted, douchebag. No one likes you." Kelly said.
"Tell you what Kelly, if we survive this, you can keep him… Hey Ted! I found you a new best friend!" Joe called out. Ted ignored Joe, for he was still completely focused on the cheese in the fridge, which was rapidly disappearing.
"He's delighted. Any chance you can take Fred too?" Joe asked.
"Why would I ever do that? I could just empty my fridge, burn all of my money, and have Chris come look down my shirt every five minutes and get the same effect." Kelly said.
"I don't need anyone to take care of me, I'm not retarded." Fred said.
"OK Sir Self-Reliance, then how come you've been mooching off of me for all of these years?" Joe inquired.
"Why would I ever get a job? Those Cheetos won't eat themselves you know!" Fred replied.
"Maybe if you had a job, you could buy all the Cheetos you want! You could make a house out of Cheetos somewhere far away from me!" Joe yelled.
"Come on guys, fighting will get us nowhere!" Chris yelled. Joe sighed and looked at the group.
"Chris is right. I think that's our cue to turn in for the night, we can get moving in the morning. Let's see if we can find some sleeping bags."
The four sane people started looking around the safe house for supplies. The place was small, with only a single room in the back. Kelly opened the door, inside was a small bed with a closet in the back.
"Dibs!" Kelly said. She walked to the back of the room and opened the closet door. As soon as she opened the door she was pounced by a Hunter. She started screaming for help. Joe ran in with a shotgun and killed the Hunter, while Chris helped Kelly up.
"You alright?" Joe asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Bastard ripped my favorite hoodie though…" She looked over her shoulder and saw a pile of sleeping bags in the closet.
"Well, on the bright side, there are some sleeping bags for you guys to use." Kelly said as she pointed to the pile. Joe, Chris, and Kelly carried the sleeping bags out to the main room, where Ted was enjoying some Lincoln Logs he discovered and Fred was rummaging through Chris's bag.
"What are you doing?" Chris asked. Fred turned around, his faced stuffed with food. Chris punched Fred in the face.
"That was the last of my food!" Chris yelled. He pulled his pistol out of its holster and pointed it at Fred's head. Fred screamed, barely audible with all of the food in his mouth.
"MMMMMFF JOE MMFFF!" Fred yelled. Joe walked over and grabbed Chris's wrist.
"Calm down Chris, I'll give you some of my food." Joe assured. He then looked at Fred, and told him that if he kept causing trouble that he was sleeping outside with the zombies. Fred nodded, and Joe turned around and started walking towards Ted. There was a pile of cheese sitting next to Ted's Lincoln Logs. Joe picked up some cheese and threw it into the bedroom.
"CHEESE!" Ted yelled as he ran into the room after it. Joe slammed the door behind him.
"Hey Chris, can you hand me that chair?" Chris obeyed and gave Joe the chair. Joe propped it up against the door handle, locking Ted in.
"Sorry Kelly, we can't have Ted roaming around out here. He'll do something retarded, like open the safe room door for a Tank or something." Joe explained "If you want you can sleep between Chris and the wall. I assure you that Fred won't try to rape you."
"Fine, but I'm sleeping with my gun just in case." Kelly said as she got into her sleeping bag. Joe shut off the lights as Chris and Fred got into their sleeping bags.
"Rest up everyone, tomorrow's gonna be a long haul." Joe said.
Chris tossed and turned in his sleeping bag, he couldn't sleep. How could he? There were hordes of hungry zombies just outside the safe room doors waiting to get a piece of him. He may have been nabbed by Ted last time, but what if it was a real Smoker next time? What if no one was around to save him? He had seen all of the horrors awaiting him the previous day. His spine could be snapped in half by a Charger, he could painfully burn in a puddle of Spitter acid. His mind raced with all of the different kinds of infected. But he kept focusing on the Witch. Her haunting cries rang through his mind over and over again. He had seen a man get ripped to shreds by a Witch, Chris was thankful at the time that it wasn't him who pissed her off, but now he had come to the realization that there were more Witches than he could imagine, and even one wrong move around them could cost him his life. As he was thinking of this, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Chris nearly jumped out of his skin; he turned around and saw that it was only Kelly, who looked extremely concerned.
"Jesus Christ, you scared the hell out of me!" Chris whispered, not wanting to wake the others.
"Sorry," Kelly whispered, "Are you OK? What are you still doing up?"
"How can I sleep? There are zombies outside! They could find a way in at any moment!"
"Chris, calm down. They're not gonna come in here. We're gonna be fine." Kelly said.
"I'm just so afraid that I'll lose you again…" said Chris.
"I'm not going anywhere Chris. We'll be together from now on." Kelly assured him as she put her hand on his. Chris smiled; Kelly knew how to make him feel better. Whenever Chris was around her, he felt like everything would be OK, no matter how horrible the situation was. Kelly smiled back at him, but that smile quickly turned to a frown.
"Listen, do you hear something?" Kelly asked. Chris listened carefully to his surroundings. He could hear a rumbling in the distance. His eyes widened in terror. They both got out of their sleeping bags and stood up. The rumbling was getting more intense, they could feel the room vibrate. They heard a ferocious growl in the distance.
"TANK!" Kelly screamed. Joe and Fred got up out of their sleeping bags. Fred walked over to the safe room door.
"You guys sure?" Joe asked. Kelly nodded.
"Yeah, I see him," Fred said. The Tank came to the safe room door and tried to punch it down, but he couldn't.
"Hah! Idiot, score one for humanity!" Fred said. The Tank walked away from the door. Fred looked puzzled, usually Tanks wouldn't stop until either their prey was dead or the Tank was. Just as Fred peeked through the safe room door the Tank burst through the wall next to him. Fred screamed like a small child and ran away as the Tank barely missed him.
"Forget the supplies! Get out of here!" Joe commanded. Chris and Kelly pulled the metal bar off of the other safe room door and ran out, followed by Joe and Fred. They all started running for their lives. Joe stopped for a second for a roll call. One, two, three, four… someone was missing. Joe realized in horror that he had left his brother back in that room alone with the Tank.
"Shit! We forgot Ted! Does anyone still have their gun?" Joe yelled.
"I do!" Kelly replied as she pulled out her pistol and ran back into the safe room. The Tank had punched through the door that was holding Ted back and was about to crush him. Kelly unloaded a clip of ammo into the Tank.
"Go!" Kelly commanded.
"Me need cheese!" Ted said as he started picking up his cheese pile. Kelly dodged a blow from the Tank and grabbed Ted by his shirt collar.
"We'll get you more cheese! We need to go!" Kelly said. The Tank was blocking the door, and they had nowhere to go. The Tank started charging toward them. All of a sudden they heard a large shotgun blast; the Tank stopped and turned around to see Joe holding a shotgun unloading all the ammo he had into him.
"Kelly, Take Ted to Fred and Chris!" Joe said as the Tank started coming after him. Joe led the Tank out through the hole in the wall it originally came through, while Kelly took Ted out the door and back to Fred and Chris, who were running towards the safe room.
"Fred! Watch Ted for a minute! Chris, come with me!"