Troy quickly swung his baseball bat directly into the head of a father that had it's greasy slimy hands reached out for him. The father's head made a crack before collapsing to the ground. Brain and blood covered the wooden bat in Troy's hands. It took a moment for Troy to breathe and collect his bearings after killing the infected father. His red polo was getting wet around the neck and armpits from his sweat. He could see the disgusting yellow and green boils all across the dead father's arms and neck. But Troy couldn't wait any longer. He was in the middle of a fight in the center of the street leading down a residential block. It was just him, the adults, and his friends. There was at least eight more adults still moving in for him. Troy wasn't alone. To his right was Jonas who had a spear to a large old looking mother who was swiping her arms at him. Troy witness him thrust the spear's point directly into the mother's throat and yank it out as the mother tried to hold back the river flowing amounts of blood. Jonas took a few steps back to let the mother fall to his feet, drowning in blood.

To the left was a boy fighting against a wiry father with oval glasses. The boy held a fire axe and swung it into the father's chest. The mean looking boy managed to swing so hard that it sent the father on it's back with the axe still lodged in it's chest. The boy then stomped on the side of the father's head that made the neck twist until it snapped. Troy knew the boy, his name was Zane Fitzhenry. He was a punk and hardcore bully back in Patterson High School. What was left of it. Troy thought to himself. He couldn't wrap his mind around all of this. It was crazy how four days ago the whole world turned upside down when the adults started to change. Troy remembered busting down full speed with his Rhett trying to meet up with the rest of their friends. Some didn't make it. Like Rhett. Troy still had a hard time trying to admit that his best friend was dead. But it happened, he couldn't deny it. Troy was trying to run through the sideway when a woman took a bite out of Rhett's neck. Troy could barely move as he saw the blood gush from Rhett's neck down his shirt. Troy tried to go back for Rhett before another woman got to him. But then Rhett was being surrounded by more parents trying to get a bit of him.

Troy shook his head to get his mind off Rhett and focus on the fight. By now Dante was in front of him with a machete and slice a father's stomach open. He then brought the machete around and across the father's chest from the right shoulder down to it's left side. The father went limp and fell to the ground face first, dead. Troy charged forward toward a mother whose face was covered with boils and lumps that her mouth was barely visible. Troy swung his baseball bat at the mother's knee that sent the bone sticking out of the skin. The mother lowered down from the blow and growled at Troy with a hiss, trying to scare him with her yellow and brown teeth. Troy didn't waste any time. He then brought the bat crashing down on her head that cracked her skull in practically half. Blood squirted up and hit Troy in the face. It would have made Troy sick to his stomach but he was use to it now. Blood, Guts, and Organs. Nothing new now. Troy then turned to his left to see Simon with a cricket bat against a mother. Simon drove the end of his cricket bat into the mother's face causing it's nose to go inside her face and a few teeth to fall onto the street. The mother tripped on her own feet and landed on her back, facing Simon who stood over her. He then brought the cricket bat down straight into the mother's face, ending it's undead life.

The remaining four adults started to stand beside one another and stared at the five boys who were breathing hard with their weapons ready. Troy clenched his bat hard with it over his shoulder, prepared for an attack. The four remaining adults however turned to one another and then circled around walking away toward the subway staircase that they came from. "They're leaving, they know we've got them beat." Simon said lowering his cricket bat and sighing. Simon was wearing a white dress collared shirt with it's sleeves rolled up and blue trousers topped off with Converse sneakers. The boy Zane stepped forward with his axe and shouted at the adults. "Hey, freaks! Come back!" He shouted. Zane wore a denim shirt with it's sleeves cut off with khaki cargo shorts. His hair was short and black with a bit flipped up in the front. He had a tribal tattoo down his left forearm to his wrist. "It'd be pointless to go after them." Simon said quietly. Zane turned around and gave Simon a hard mean look. "They'll just grow balls again and try to kill us tomorrow. Screw you, I'm finishing this fight." Zane said threateningly to Simon. Dante then stepped up between the two, protecting his friend no doubt. "Hey, take it easy. It's the truth. We've been fighting all day." Dante said with his hand held out to keep Zane back. Dante wore a black long sleeved two pocket collared shirt with a gray t-shirt underneath. He also wore black hiking shoes and blue jeans. Jonas then stepped in with his spear held in his hand and on the ground. "Yeah dude, let's fight only when we have to." Jonas said with persuasion. Jonas wore a blue plaid shirt with a white belt wrapped around his pale blue jeans. Zane looked between the three boys and then grabbed Jonas' curved knife from it's case. Zane then turned to the four fleeing adults.

One father that was badly infected was moving slower than the rest due to a broken ankle. Zane then stepped out and pulled it's other ankle from underneath it. The father landed on it's face hard with a loud thud. Zane then pulled the knife up while kneeling down to the father. He grabbed the father by the hair and pulled it's head back. The father gave a groan and moan trying to get out from under Zane. But then Zane brought the knife across the father's throat. Blood started to flow out of the slit throat of the father forming a puddle. The boys around Troy watched in shock and confusion. Zane then brought the knife straight into the father's temple, ending the groaning. Zane freed his knife and walked back to the boys. "That one needed to be put out of his misery." Jonas slowly took back his knife and back into the case clipped on his pocket. Troy couldn't care less at all. In his own opinion, he was glad that he killed it. One less adult to worry about out of the thousands in the city. Troy didn't know much about Zane, but he eventually pieced together a few things. He knew that he was a thug and constantly getting in trouble at school for fights. Troy, however, was pleased to see that Zane was in their group. He was a merciless fighter. He'd need him. The next best was Dante followed by Jonas. That's why he asked Dante and Jonas to come along even though he knew that those two and Simon would volunteer to come with him. "Well, forget about it now. Let's keep heading to the convenience store. Only gonna fight if we have to. Jonas and Zane up front. Simon and Dante watch our backs. Start walking."

The boys were heading to a convenience store down a few blocks from their hideout to scavenge some food and supplies. They moved in a slight jog in the middle of the room. None bothered to keep quiet since the adults would have seen then before they heard them, plus the boys could simple run around them. Or kill them if they had to. The street was covered with scattered trash, blood, luggage bags, and abandoned cars. The cars were usually out of gas the moment the world was slightly informed about the disease that caused everyone older than sixteen to either die or become flesh crazed freaks. Some called them in Troy's group, "freaks." The name fit them decently. Troy hated the adults. Life was going perfectly for him, then all of this happened to him. Now he was living on the streets with his few remaining friends scavenging for food and fighting on a daily basis. He was at least starting to sleep normally again. The first night that he was on the run, he couldn't sleep. Troy cried in his sleep. He kept thinking of Rhett. Watching that teacher bite his neck open. Whenever Troy tried to think of Rhett, instantly he saw him being eaten. It took effort to remember all the better times before the outbreak.

It started so slowly but it happened all right in front of him. The news would talk about one or two bizarre incidents were adults were going mad and eating someone. Troy remembered hearing about a case where two parents ate their two children while the youngest called the police. In the end the two parents were so crazy that the police had to shoot them to avoid anymore harm. The two children were dead. Eaten. It was practically only three weeks ago? Troy couldn't remember. However things were strange about this disease that the news kept talking about; boils, bleeding sores, itchy eyes, and more painful symptoms. But it was only happening to adults. Everyone under the age of sixteen wasn't affected. Like some sort of immunity. Few parents would die from the disease after a short period of time. Those were the lucky ones. The rest slowly turned into freaks. The flesh hungry mutants that were once our teachers, roadside workers, politicians, plumbers, and doctors were trying to eat us. They were dumb and slow depending on various things. If they were recently infected, hardly deteriorated, and young those were the hardest to fight. They could move fast, have more common sense, and fight back harder. The older, more deteriorated, and unfed they were; the easier to kill.

He thought of how everything went from bad to worse in between nights. Gas stations were being attacked by scared families. In Troy's apartment, his neighbors were all trying to leave and head to the countryside. However Troy's Mom wouldn't his Dad take them away. She figured it would be a better idea to keep them there. That's how Mom always was, Troy thought to himself again. Always making the decisions thinking she knew best. He wished his Dad would have took charge for once though. It would have been better to of left the towns and all the people around them. He thought of some neighborhood kid named Alito who left with his parents suddenly in one night. Gone. They disappeared in a flash. Time was harder to trace now of these days. There wasn't anymore cell phones, TVs, computers or any of that. It was back to the stone age where man had to strive to survive. More like boy had to strive to survive. Troy thought to himself as he walked with his baseball bat over his shoulder. Troy was doing well though. His group maintained a good supply of food, water from a well under their hideout, and decent other kids.

Troy looked back to Simon and Dante who were in the back. They were talking quietly trying to ease the mood. Troy liked his crew. The Scouts. Zane however was the extra muscle to ensure they'd be okay in a fight. Simon was still being himself. The wise guy who was decent in a fight. Simon was the kind of guy who practically always had a clear head and usually knew what should be done. Tough decisions was sometimes brought to Simon to make a conclusion. Even though he wasn't the greatest of fighter, he was a good thinker. Plus he was usually volunteering to help out with anything he could. Simon had a black and red backpack that was going to be used to carry their supplies that they scavenged. Jonas ahead of them with Zane also had a backpack. His was a weird green and yellow color. Both of their packs were for little kids in elementary school but they would do just fine in their cause. Their style at fighting was working in partners, like a tag team. Jonas would strike from a distance with his spear, then Zane or Dante would go in for the kill with their blades. Troy and Simon however could keep their flanks under control with their clubs and with knives to finish the job that the clubs couldn't do.

Troy looked to Jonas who was using his spear like a walking stick. It was from an ornamental steel fence that happened to of been loose from a car being rammed into it. Jonas treasured it extremely well. He sharped and cleaned the ornamental sharp tip every night it seemed. Troy couldn't deny that he was a bit jealous. It was very lethal and an effective weapon. The small curved knife in Jonas' pocket was a karambit. It looked like a raptor's claw from the Jurassic Park movies. It could easily pierce through bone if aimed at the right angle. Plus Jonas would sometimes hold it in one hand and the spear in the either. Wasn't the best of fighting styles but it would do if there was too many adults or freaks attacking at once. One time Troy remembered Jonas thrusting his spear into a mother and then bringing his knife right into her head before she could even get a hand on him. Jonas was cool guy to Troy. He talked like a skater dude and looked like one too. But he was real laid back guy who wasn't lazy even though he seemed that way. Back before the world died, Troy heard that Jonas was a bit of a ladies man.

Then there was Dante who was still watching his surroundings with his hand across his chest on his machete's handle. The machete was called a spear-point. It was an absolute perfect blade for fighting freaks. It had a sharp tip, 18 inch blade and 23 inches total, weighing only one pound and a half. Dante said it was called a "jungle saber." Troy wished he would have found that machete before Dante though. They had found it when they were scavenging a small diner that was being used as a hideout by other kids. But Troy's group didn't show up soon enough. The kids were already all dead or trying fending off the superior number adults. In a matter of a few minutes Troy's group managed to take out the remaining freaks and save the five remaining kids; Jeff, Makayla, Hannibal, Gordon, and Annabel. The boy Gordon would later of been killed during a scavenging run with a few other kids. As payment for Dante saving the one girl Annabel's life, she let Dante keep her friend Vick's machete. Apparently the boy Vick never even got to use it, Troy heard the leader Jeff say. The boy Vick was waiting for the perfect moment and used his club until then. Now it was Dante's. Dante respected Annabel's offer and kept it at his side almost every moment of the day. Dante was very skilled with it as well. Dante once charged into three adults and took them out in a matter of seconds. Zane still had him beat since he got a kick out of killing freaks. Dante was a great guy. Back in school he was even on the track team and was a hell of a runner. He knew what was best for everyone and somehow always had this instinct on how to react with surviving and everything. The perfect survivalist.

The only thing that helped Troy get through the problems these days was Kylee. She had been with him practically every minute except when he left with the boys to scout for supplies. He didn't like the idea of leaving Kylee. But he had to. If he didn't go with the boys, he'd seem like a coward. He couldn't do that. He was their leader. Kylee looked up to him and so did a few other kids. Troy thought about the rest of the group back in the café several blocks away. Jeff, Eddie, Tyler, Colleen, Sacha, Otto, Paige, Jade, James, Makayla, Robert, Eli, Katherine, Annabel, Hannibal, Quincy, Lance, Felicity, Nancy, Peyton, and most importantly Kylee. Troy had placed Kylee in charge but left Jeff in charge of security. Troy then took a moment to wonder how the rest of the group was doing. The girls should be cooking their dinner while the guys work on fortifications. Troy thought how they must be doing.