Chapter 2

The corpse stood up with a bat in its hand. I charged and started to swing. I hit him in the gut, when he screamed out, "OW! What are you thinking?" I recognized that voice almost anywhere. It was Michael. He was alive! At least I wasn't alone in this messed up world.

"Sorry, I didn't know it was you. I thought you had gone out the exit." I said excitedly. He was holding his stomach as I came over to help comfort him.

"I was going to exit from there, but a Charger nearly pinned me. I would have been dead." He managed to gasp out.

I twiddled my fingers as I asked, "Charger?"

"Yeah, those things have one large arm, and can grab you. From there, they start smashing you into the ground. Their strength is nearly unmatchable. It's a name from a game I play." He explained. "I also ran past something else. It was very tall and had a long tongue. I just ignored it and ran, barely dodging behind this door when the tongue zoomed by. I closed the door and put my head down, so I could look dead."

"I saw that same tongue thing, it killed Alys." I stifled out.

"Those things are called smokers. They trap people in the air or hard to reach places and choke them out." He said. He was feeling better and walked towards the door. "If I'm right, then that smoker Jessup would have keys to his car that we could use to get away."

"Doesn't everyone have a car?" I asked in curiosity.

"Yes" he said as he walked towards the door and peered outside. "Jessup's car is a highly fuel efficient car that holds a good amount of fuel. We could use that to get the hell away from here." Without my consideration, he charged outside, putting the door into a zombies face, as it stumbled back, I exited and shoved my bat through the glass, shoving the zombie to the ground. I ran to catch up, swinging at zombies and dodging other zombies.

A door burst down in front of me and something leapt at me, instantly pinning me to the ground and sending the bat across the hall. It was tearing away at my clothes and skin. As I lay there, incapable of fighting the monster away, I knew I was soon to die. Then, Michael bunted the zombie off me and picked me up. My tattered clothes called for revenge. I grabbed the bat and smashed the bat onto the zombie's hooded head. Most of the blood was caught in his gray hood and then dribbled out in a slow, cold pool.

While approaching the Jessup smoker, he explained that the zombie on me was a hunter. They leap on a target, pinning and immobilizing its target. It then proceeds to rip and tear the victim's flesh to pieces. There was also something similar to it that leapt onto your back. It would choke you and pull you away from the group. While alone, others would surround you, infecting you.

The smoker wheeled around the corner, staring into the distance. It leapt up grabbed onto the ceiling, effectively hanging upside down. Its tongue shot at Michael, wrapping him up and pulling him into the air. "Help me! Swing… at the… creature." He choked out in pain. As I jumped up and swung, something large belly flopped me onto the floor. I stood up to see a fat zombie later called a boomer. It would vomit on you, attracting other zombies. Another similar form called a spitter would spit acid at your feet that would burn, and also slow you down partially. This form was much skinnier.

I kicked the boomer in the head, sending it stumbling back, where it impaled itself on a rail, exploding on contact. I ran at the monster, swinging wild. I managed to strike the smoker in the head, causing it to fall to the ground. Michael stood before the smoker, allowing him to untangle himself. He ran over and tore off the rail. He drove it home through an air sac. The monster exploded on impact, scattering smoke through the air. We both started coughing loudly. A horde was heading for us.

I grabbed the keys from the dead zombie. We ran to the door. Zombies were punching the glass. Another large group was approaching us from the other direction. Trapped between two sets of doors, we glanced at each other, knowing it was the end of the road.

Michael picked up a heavy box full of flares that were for a dance next week. Like we needed it now anyways. He opened it and chucked some lit flares out the shattering glass. We prayed someone would see it. Him facing the outside, me on the inside, we prepared to fight off as many as possible before death.

They charged, and we swung. There was far too many to fight. We were running around, turning around to swing. We swatted at the zombies continually to almost no benefit. We met up in the middle, exhausted with no more than ten zombie kills each. Back against the wall, zombies running quickly, we closed our eyes.

Suddenly, a loud horn sounded. All the zombies turned to look along with us. A sky blue Dodge Charger with a large spoiler and 22 in the headlights was parked on the ramp up to the school. Stepping out was a guy and a girl, with guns. The male wore a yellow short-sleeved shirt with a blue and white mesh hat. A black tattoo ran down his left arm, with jeans and dirtied shoes. He held a shotgun in one hand, a M-16 in the other, and a fire axe over his shoulder.

The girl wore a red hoodie with a white undershirt. Her jeans were tucked down into her red throwback, high-top sneakers. Her brown hair was dirty and matted to her head. In one hand, an AK-47, the other was a silenced submachine gun. Over her shoulder was a katana blade.

The boy tossed the shotgun my way and the girl threw the submachine gun towards Michael. I caught the shotgun one handed and slipped the bat back into the slot. Michael placed the bat in his backpack and whipped up the submachine gun. We both recklessly opened fire into the crowd of zombies to save our own skin. The others guarded the car and waited for us to get in. Michael approached first, crawling into the furthest seat, while I piled into the outside seat and placed my backpack between my legs. The other two packed in and hit the gas pedal. We peeled back off the ramp and onto the roads.

While we started out of town, the man said, "Hi there, my name's Ellis and this is my girlfriend Zoey. We saw you throw out that flare and decided to come help. We were heading west to New Orleans. Who are you?"

Michael introduced us both. Ellis nodded and kept driving. We didn't speak much after that. Zombies were all over the road. Several Chargers and Boomers were trying to stop the vehicle. Ellis focused on driving while us three shot at them. "Now remember, you have to kill Boomers before we get close to them. Their explosion could throw us off the road."

We started gunning them down. I received a hunting rifle and Michael got the M-16. We both leaned out, blasting zombies into bits. One Charger hit a bus in front of us. As it rolled across the road, we had to swerve to dodge it and then again to not run over a Boomer. We were back out on the basically cleared highways. But, we were running low on fuel. We saw a gas station off the highway and stopped there. Ellis rolled down the window and heard crying.

"Fun," he said as he grabbed a Molotov from the back seat and stepped out of the car. Michael walked up to him and stood next to him, looking around.

"This gas station got closed down a long time ago. The owner was dodging taxes. We might find some fuel around here, so be careful." Zoey was still in the car, watching over it. I joined the others, curious of seeing where the crying was coming from. We approached the pumps. They were dry, as expected. We went into the station to see if something was in there. The crying got louder as we opened the door.

Ellis walked in first, seeing a girl lying on the ground, crying. "Maybe she's hurt." I said as I ran up to her.

"No, that thing's a Witch, she'll tear up apart." Michael said as the girl looked up, growling. I turned to run, but she got up much faster and put me down. She was screaming like a banshee. I hail of bullets from a M-16 and a desert assault rifle pelted the Witch. She slowed only slightly; her claws had already torn into my flesh. I was thriving in pain, unable to move my arms. Soon, the battered Witch slowed to a stop, slumping to the ground next to me in a puddle of our blood.

Ellis and Michael ran over to pick me up. As they carried me out, I saw a couple of gas canisters behind the counter. I coughed out, "Behind the counter. There's some gas." Ellis turned his head, then continued off to the car. They placed me inside, with Zoey already treating me up. She didn't speak much. The other two returned minutes later with the cans. We started to pour the gas into the car, when I heard a loud, deep growling.

"Guys, something's coming." I screamed as the growl rose to a roar. A large monster charged up the ramp to the car. "Taaannnkkk!" Ellis screamed as it ran up the hill. A Tank was similar to a Charger. It had two giant arms, extremely buff and bare chest. It could take a ton of rounds before stopping.

We immediately opened fire and cleared the vehicle. It ran past it, without sending it tumbling. I ran for me and I limped for the gas station. I was barely moving faster than it. I cleared the gas station and fired a round at the pumps, hoping something might be remaining. The bullet pierced the pump and sparked. A small explosion erupted from the pump, sending the Tank into another pump, which also exploded.

Covered in flames, it screamed in rage and turned away from me, smashing into the store after Ellis and his girlfriend. Michael and I blocked the exit, sending bullet after bullet into the dying monster. It was running at the two. A pipe bomb exploded next to it, sending the near empty shelf down onto it. As it growled its last breath, we looked out to the road. Zombies were sprinting after us. We ran for the car, pouring the gas in a fast as possible. We gathered into the car and cranked. The zombies were about to pile onto the car. We ran over a group and drove back onto the highway.

"Holy shit! This is all… real." Michael said as his hands quivered in fear. We passed a road sign that said, "Now leaving the Savannah, Georgia city limit. Come back soon!"

"I'm never coming back here." I said as I began to slip on a new shirt, this one was another plain workout shirt, gray with the words Savannah Softball on it. I sat after that, quietly minding my own business as the sun began to set.