Tap

Tap.

Leon Charbonneau tapped his metal baseball bat twice on home plate before raising it over his shoulder. He was on the field outside of Rosemount High School.

The pitcher nervously shook so much he nearly vibrated. Everyone had heard rumors of Leo's thousand-pound swing, but this particular student hadn't seen it up close yet.

Leon wore a black long sleeve shirt and black camouflage pants. On his head was a black baseball hat with a flat bill pointed upwards, he also wore a dark green zip up and dark green Combat boots. Let's just say he was a little hot in the sun.

The shaking male gulped audibly, brought his arm back and threw the baseball dead straight.

Leon smirked, although he already had his confident smirk plastered over his face prior. He clenched his bat and brought it forward, making an ear-splitting, metallic crack.

It flew high over everyone's heads, not making a traditional arc but rather just going up at a direct angle without sign of slowing down.

Leon casually held his baseball bat in his left hand as he strolled over each base slowly. Everyone on the other team groaned as he brought in the loaded bases.

Leo walked past the bench and the fence towards a small group of males outside. Without noticing, he still hadn't put down the bat.

"Leo, my man! That shit was tots cray!" One of them walked forward, fist-pumping Leo. He wore a long jersey down to his knees that covered his sagging jeans.

"Thanks Seth." Leo panted, smiling.

"But-" Seth interrupted. "You missed him." He said sadly.

"What-"

"I'm disappointed Leo, you were supposed to 'accidentally'" he made air quotes."Hit the little bitch that refused our offer"

Of course it hadn't been much of an offer, do our Calculus homework for the semester or I'll beat you isn't exactly a good example of free will.

"Seth I thought you were kidding! You can't expect me to do that, I could kill him!"

"Do I ask you to think?" He asked venomously.

"Seth-"

"Do I ask you to pity little bitches?" He pointed at Leo.

"...no" Leo answered hesitantly.

"Then do what I ask you and you might go far!" He poked Leo between the eyes with his extended finger before walking away with his posse.

Leo looked down sadly, his face losing his trademark smirk. He could smirk doing anything, even if it was illegal, but he didn't smile when he let Seth down. Seth was the only one who accepted him, and he needed to make it up to him.

"Leo." He called after a second, motioning for him to come over.

"I'll give you a chance to prove yourself. Come with us, do what I say, and I'll forgive your failure.

Leo smiled and caught up to him.

000

Sidney was lucky; she was at a gun range when it started.

"Better take these." Sidney's older brother Grant handed her newly bought pink ear protection.

She smiled brightly at Grant when she took them; it was the little things like getting pink that made him so awesome.

She raised her handgun to eye level and aimed it at the target at the end of the range. She held her breath and slowed her heartbeat, minimizing the shake of her hand. It stood still over the middle, and she pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!

The target automatically slid down the range until it was right in front of her face.

Sidney smirked, her shots had blown a large hole in the middle, they had all hit within two inches of the bullseye.

"Not bad sis." Grant said, letting out an impressed whistle. "But now it's my turn!"

Grant smirked as he grabbed his Remington 700, setting the tripod stand on the booth

that separated him from the other shooters.

He raised the scope to his eye, leveled out, and pulled the trigger.

Crack!

He flailed back the bolt and shoved it back in without looking away from his scope.

Crack!

He did the same thing again. He fired the entire clip, reloaded, and shot in perfect tune, like clockwork.

The target was brought up and Grant smirked largely, his hole was barely bigger than the hole a single bullet makes, he had hit all of them perfectly.

He replaced the target and got set up for a second round, but he never got the chance to shoot; at least not at a target.

000

"Here's the deal." Seth began as he told his cliché of his plan. "Word has it this kid is in the nurse's office, he sleeping. But here's the catch, he was delivering test answers for a teacher." The group responded loudly, loving the idea.

"So we go in to visit our little 'buddy' and steal them?" a group member asked eagerly, to which Seth nodded.

These guys were almost always hanging in the halls, so they knew the closest way to nurse's office, getting there in ten minutes. Seth had advised that Leon keep the bat "just in case".

They looked in through the door window to look for anyone, but it was empty save the patients.

Seth opened the door and went right to the nerd in question's bed. Leo studied him, he looked strange. His right shoulder was wrapped, but it was quite obvious that the skin around it had turned gray and infected. The wrapping on one place on his shoulder dipped in, as if a chunk of it was missing.

"Hey there Buddy." Seth sat down on his bed, and the boy just moaned. "I'm going to borrow these, do you mind? Just let me know." Seth smiled viciously as he reached under the bed and grabbes the test papers from the boys bag.

The student's body writhed and he hacked up blood. Alot of blood, all over Seth.

"You son of a bitch!" Seth yelled, desperately wiping it off " Leo, kill him!" He commanded, but Leo never heard him.

"What the fuck..." Leon said slowly. The student's shoulder wound spread over his body. All of his skin turned grey slowly, his fingernails darkened to black. The student flashed open his eyes, they were a milky grey-white, his pupils looked in opposite directions and didn't focus on anything; they just sat there.

In a swift motion surprising for being bed-ridden so long, the student took a chunk out of Seth's shoulder. He actually bit it and ripped of a mouthful off, it was disgusting.

Everyone but Leo rushed to Seth's aid. For one of the first times ever, Leo froze. He never froze, never; but all of this just had him rooted to the spot.

People eating people, what the hell was happening? Leo pondered.

Seth groaned, and everyone cried out as he stumbled up, looking the exact same as the student. The student jumped out of bed and tackled another group member, eating him also.

That was all Leon needed to start swinging.

He kicked everyone out of his way, bringing his baseball bat over his head. He swung it down and curved to the left, just like normal baseball, and connected with the student's head. Let's just say baseballs aren't the only thing Leo can send flying.

He watched Seth tackle a cliché member and infect him as another rose.

Infection, that must be what is happening. Seth wasn't Seth anymore, he was a carrier, he was the disease, not Seth. This was the diease...

As the last group member fell, all of the things rose, turning to the last person in the room.If they are eating each other, this disease, it wasn't them. There was no going back for them, they had changed. Seth would want him to remember him normally, his old self.

If they are eating each other, this disease, it wasn't them. There was no going back for them, they had changed. Seth would want me to remember him normally, his old self. Leo repeated it, reassuring himself.

Leo decided killing his friends was the hardest thing he had done all of his life.

He burst out of there, bat now soaked in blood, without a scratch. He looked down into the courtyard and watched two infected teens tackle another, and it too soon rose.

"This is happening everywhere," Leo spoke outloud for the first time in awhile. Leo's smirk that had been absent too long returned to his face.

"These bastards want a fight?" Leo snickered. "Hehe, well they're about to get a fucking war!" As if on cue a student that was infected stumbled towards him, he swung his bat around 360° and obliterated its head.

Leo bolted down to his locker and grabbed his backpack, dumping out everything. He set down his baseball bat and frantically searched through it.

"C'mon, c'mon, where the fuck is it!" He yelled as he searched through it.

He smiled as he found both of them, a black digital watch and a touch screen phone that was fully charged. He threw them in his pocket and on his wrist, slung his pack over his shoulder and bolted outside. He met infected on the way, which he dispatched without mercy. He had no problem with that, they weren't human, and if he didn't then they would eat him, simple enough.

He climbed over the school's gate with ease and ran towards his house; he needed to find his family on O'Brien Avenue.

000

Far down, by the target and at the end of the range, a figure stumbled into view.

He was obviously drunk; he stumbled and groaned as he ran into the targets.

"Get off the range, retard!" Grant screamed, very frustrated. Similar outbursts could be heard all along the line

The figure just groaned and stumbled around more. Sidner started to hear a strange noise, drumming almost. It was dull and barely audible, but it was definitely real.

One shooter finally lost it and shot a handgun. He didn't aim at the man, hell no, he dry fired it. Just a warning to get the fuck off of the range.

The drunk man stared towards the source of the sound, and then stumbled his way, jaw slackened. Sidney noticed that the drumming got slightly louder.

"Grant, what's happening?" Sidney asked, no one had ever gone on the range before; the man's behavior just seemed so alien.

"I don't know, but if he comes close we are leaving." He stayed firmly, he wasn't going to let anything happen to his little sister, and a drunken man in a room full of firearms wasn't exactly safe.

The man never slowed, so Grant handed her his gun bag and took hers himself. Sidney noticed this; he always took his own bag, always.

"You wanna fight tough guy?" The man who had shot challenged. She looked towards Grant as the drumming got louder. Suddenly, he thrust the 700 into her hands.

"Get out!"

"What? Grant I-" I was cut off by the sound of breaking metal. The door at the far end of the range broke open, and more men stumbled in.

Wait, those aren't men, there are women and teenagers, and they aren't drunk, their... Sidney's thought trailed of as the first "drunk" man came into view.

His skin was dry and grey; all around his eyes were deep black sockets. His jaw was slack, but it was covered in a red substance. His shirt was covered in the same red substance.

What s that on its shirt and jaw? Sidney thought. Wait no, it can't be.

It was blood.

"Leave now! If those things come out before I do leave without me!" Grant commanded as he raised her handgun, now with a full magazine. She didn't hesitate and bolted outside as fast as she could.

Sidney doubled over and panted. What was wrong with those people? They must be injured, that would explain the blood and the stumbling. But why were their jaws bloody? Sidney shuddered, not wanting to think about it.

She put the rifle strap over her shoulder and put in a fresh magazine.

The blood couldn't be from other people. No, that was stuff from the movies, it was because they were injured. They couldn't be. No, she wasn't thinking that, Grant was still in there.

She raised the gun higher and scanned the area around her. Once Grant burst out of there they would high-tail it out of here and forget it ever happened.

But then the gunshots started. They downed out the loud moans of the things.

No, if their shooting, that means...

It didn't make it any better when the yells started. Full grown men screaming and crying, calling for their moms and begging for them to stop. Their screams of pain haunted Sidney to the very soul, she would never forget them.

No, no, no, no.

The door burst open and a figure burst out.

"Grant!" She called out hopefully. The figure stumbled away from the door, revealing itself.

It was a "thing", but that wasn't what made Sidney cry.

In its mouth was Grants severed hand. She knew it was for sure. He lost his middle finger at the first knuckle in an axe accident.

She raised her gun and blew the fuckers head off. After she worked the bolt, she ran. She didn't know where, she didn't know what her plan was, but she here more of them, so she just fled.

She cried. The tears came in torrents, soaking the front of her tan shirt. She didn't just cry, it wasn't little sobs, not a couple tears, she screamed faster than she could take breath in, taking sharp choke-sounding pants. It was terrible, if anyone had seen her, they wouldn't know what to do. Her emotions were on overdrive, as if someone had turned off Niagara Falls, and then turned them back on, the water being her emotions.

She ran down O'Brien Boulevard towards the same avenue, not knowing what else to do.