The Infected

by ZombiesXBrainzz

When the infection finds its way into the safe zone, Aria must find her way to safety from the infection with the help of her newfound friends.

2. Chapter 2

The story of todays update: A pre-story Mini story.

I was in my room, hooking up my xbox to my tv and thinking about Team Fortress 2 (dont ask why) when all of a sudden "SHIT!" I remembered it was friday and I didn't update, "Loki you gotta move!" I moved my cat over so I could use my laptop...

The end!

Now then, I am pleased to say that this is the first update in the last 3 times of me updating that I did not have a problem with uploading that delayed me until saturday... YAY!

Enjoy!

~ZombiesXBrainzz~

Chapter 2:The Optimist

*4 years before the infection*

My sister was upset as per the norm. She was always upset about something, she was a freshman in highschool, she was having a hard time adjusting. Her weird friend Darcy wasn't doing her any favors, but at least Darcy was willing to be her friend. All she wanted out of life was for people to like her, I never understood why people didn't like her, she was friendly and she was prettier than I was... But I wasn't going to admit it to her. I was standing in the kitchen eating an apple when she came into the house, "I don't get it." She said, "Get what?" I asked through a mouthful of apple, "I thought high school was going to be different, that after I got my braces off I would be a different person, and people would see me differently." I sat my apple down, "Soph, if you're worried that people don't like you, you shouldnt go and change yourself for them." "So what should I do then?" "Keep being yourself, keep your head up, and don't give a shit about what anyone else says if it's judgemental towards you." I put my hand on her shoulder, "They're all assholes anyway." I said, walking away.

*Present*

We unblocked the door, "Where do we go now?" Zoey asked,

"I have no idea, we need weapons to defend ourselves, there has to be a gun store or something nearby."

"I'm not from around here, I don't know."

"That makes two of us, let's go." We left the building. Zoey and I managed to get to the next town over without too much trouble, there were a lot of farm fields around that allowed us to see for miles, the zombies weren't really out in the open. When we got into the town a horde of zombies came out of an alley and chased us, "Run!" I exclaimed. We ran to the end of the road, a dead end, "We're trapped!" I exclaimed.

Zoey looked around, "In there!" She pointed to a building to our left.

We both ran inside and blocked the door with a desk, I looked around and noticed we were in an office building. In the back of the building was an emergency exit, "The emergency exit is blocked." I noted,

"Maybe there is rooftop access, we can climb down on the other side."

"Good idea." We went up to the next floor. It was another floor of office cubicles, "Check it out." I ran over to a desk,

"What is it?" She followed behind me,

"You know how to shoot a gun?" I picked up a pistol,

"Sure, I mean, it can't be that hard right?"

I handed her the gun, "Good enough... just don't shoot me." I picked up a pistol too,

"Drop the weapons..." Someone said from behind us. Zoey and I turned around, in the stairwell was an African-American man, he was tall and a little thin, wearing a white shirt with a red tie.

He was pointing two pistols at us, "Shit..." I sat my gun down and put my hands up, Zoey did the same, "Look man, we're from the campus, we're just trying to get to a safe place like everyone else." I said,

"The campus? Isn't that place supposed to be safe?" He asked,

"It was, until the infection got in and all hell broke loose." Zoey said,

"We don't know where we're going and we don't intend on hurting anyone." I said.

The man lowered his gun, "Shit, I'm really sorry. I just don't know who to trust anymore." Zoey and I picked up our pistols,

"I'm Aria." I said, "This is Zoey." I gestured to my companion,

"Call me Louis, how did you get in this building anyway? I thought I blocked the exits."

"The door downstairs wasn't blocked." Zoey said,

"One of my co-workers must have unblocked it when they went to find help."

"There were others here?" I asked,

"Yeah, me and some co-workers blocked ourselves in and they left a few days ago, I assume they didn't make it."

"Well, there is a horde downstairs at the front door and the emergency exit is all blocked off, is there another way out?" I asked,

"Yeah, we made sure we had access on the roof in case we got trapped."

"Awesome. Let's head to the roof." Louis opened the door to the staircase and we walked up a few more flights of stairs to the rooftop.

The cold wind was starting to blow, causing me to shiver a bit, "Over here." Louis said, leading us over to a long wooden plank. We helped him pick it up and lay it over the ledges of the office building and the building next to it, "That should get us across."

We walked one at a time across the plank, "Hey Louis, do you know if there are any gun stores around here?" I asked,

"Sure, there is one a few blocks from here, we could definitely use some better weapons." We climbed down the back fire escape to a back alley, "This way." Louis said, heading down the alleyway.

I shot down some zombies that were following us through the alleys, "The echoing is just drawing more negative attention to us." I said,

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Louis said.

He lead us into an opened area, "Careful guys, it's a wide open area." I said, cautiously walking out into the area. There was a screech from one of the buildings,

"What the hell was that?" Zoey asked, I looked around,

"I don't know, I never heard it before." Louis said.

The screech was louder this time, like it was almost on top of us, a blur flashed across my line of vision right on top of Zoey. It was a zombie, but it wasn't like a normal zombie that was chasing us before, this one was stronger and it leapt like a frog. The zombie was clawing at Zoey, "Get it off of me!" She exclaimed, Louis elbowed the zombie off of her and we both started shooting it.

It fell dead after a few shots, "Zoey!" I ran over to her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... I think so." I helped her up.

She was bleeding, "We should get you fixed up." Louis said, "Do any of you two have a first aid kit?"

"No, I haven't seen one around since we left the campus." I said,

"There should be some at the gun store, will you make it till then?" He asked Zoey,

"Yeah... I think so." She groaned,

"C'mon, we better get going before she bleeds out anymore." I said,

"This way." Louis took lead.

Louis lead us to the store, "Here it is."

"Hopefully there are still decent weapons inside." I said.

The windows were broken out and it was dark inside, "Watch your back." Louis said,

"Got it." I opened the door slowly and walked inside, there didn't seem to be too many weapons left inside, "It's clear." I said and grabbed an assault rifle off of the shelf. Louis walked in with Zoey following behind, "Help me look for a first aid kit." I said, walking behind the counter. The display case was empty and wiped clean, I checked the drawers, "Shit..." I stood up, "Find anything Louis?"

"I found some medical tape and a gauze pad, but not a full first aid kit."

"Hmm, those could help but we need some rubbing alcohol or something for a disinfectant. I'll keep looking." Louis sat Zoey down to help her. I went into the back office, "Hmm..." I opened up some cabinets, there were some boxes of ammo and a couple of flashlights. I grabbed everything and threw them in my bag. Inside the desk was a bottle of pills and some rubbing alcohol, "Perfect." I grabbed the items and left. Louis and Zoey were talking when I came back, "Guys, I found some rubbing alcohol, some pain pills, flashlights, and a shit ton of ammo." I handed the rubbing alcohol and the bottle of pills to Zoey.

She took them and started cleaning herself up, "Well, there wasn't much weapons to choose from, but at least we found something." Louis said,

"Yeah, they're better than just pistols, though I suppose we should probably keep the pistols just in case." They nodded.

Zoey stood up, "Are you okay?" I asked,

"Yeah, I feel fine now."

"What do we do now?" We all stood around, no one said anything, nobody had a plan. I looked at them, "You wouldn't happen to know if there are anymore safe zones around would you Louis?"

"No... I hadn't hear anything around, the only thing I heard about was the campus but I never made it out there in time."

"Damn..."

"Do you think that there's somewhere in the city that might have something on where there are safe zones, like a map or something?" Zoey asked,

"It wouldn't hurt to search around."

"Let's go, but stick together." Louis said, taking the lead. I didn't mind that he was willing to be the leader for now, I wasn't one for leading, I'm more of a follower. Louis lead us into some buildings around town, there wasn't much of anything left behind, "Find anything?" Louis asked,

"Nah, nothing." I said, closing a closet door. We regrouped in the lobby of the hotel,

"It'll take too long to search all of these rooms." Zoey said,

"Yeah, and besides, there's a minute chance that we would even find anything in them." We looked at Louis, "Should we keep going?" I asked.

He looked from me to Zoey then down at the ground, "Hmm..." He rubbed his chin in thought. After a few seconds of thinking Louis finally spoke up, "We should keep moving, we don't want to stay in one spot for too long." We nodded and walked out of the hotel.

We started to head out of the town, we didn't know where we were going but the hope was that we would find something soon. I shivered as the wind started to pick up, the sun was setting behind the trees, "We better find a place to stay, I don't want to be stuck out here at night." I said to the others,

"Come on, I know a place we can spend the night." Louis said, leading us down a side road. We climbed over a fence into a backyard of a small white house, the windows were boarded up, but Louis moved bored over to reveal a door, "In here." Zoey and I went inside.

Louis blocked the door behind him, "How did you know about this place?" Zoey asked,

"This is my house... Or it was before shit hit the fan." He walked past us into the living room, Zoey and I followed.

I sat in the corner, Zoey and Louis were already asleep, but I couldn't. There were too many things going on in my mind that kept me up. With a sigh I opened up my backpack to grab out my blanket when a small piece of paper fell out with it. I grabbed it and turned it around, it was the picture of my family when we were on vacation down in Panama, the one I grabbed from my room. I gave a small smile, but it made me sad, I wished I could grab a phone and call my parents and let them know I was okay and I would be home soon, but I couldn't. It was hard to cope with the fact that this was life now, the world didn't belong to us, it belonged to the monsters. With a sigh I wiped the tears off of my face and hugged the picture, "Goodnight guys..." I turned off my flashlight and went to bed.

*8 years before the infection*

"Aria! Look what I can do!" Sophia said, I watched as my 10 year old sister did a back walkover, "That's great Soph..." I said, not taking interest in her childish whims. I was 14, too old and too cool to be seen with my elementary school sister. She kept doing it though, it amused her and kept her from annoying me. Our parents pulled into the driveway, "Finally..." I muttered and got up off of the got out of the car, "Here's a pizza for dinner." Mom said, handing the pizza box to me, "Mom, dad! Wanna see what I can do?!" Sophie asked, coming over to us, "Not now Sophia, we have a lot of work to do." Dad said. Sophie sighed, I opened the pizza box. The pizza was a supreme, just the way I liked it, "We got a supreme like you guys like." Mom said, "But I don't like supreme, I like pepperoni, Aria is the one who likes supreme..." Sophie said, "Then pick off the toppings okay, quit being ungrateful Sophia." My mom said before they both headed inside. I looked down at the pizza then down at my sister, I felt bad, I could see that Sophie wanted to get our parents attention, but never got it. I got an idea, "Follow me." I said, "What?" "Come on." I grabbed her hand and we went inside. I sat the pizza on the kitchen counter, then grabbed my dads car keys, "Aria what are you doing?" Sophie asked, "We're getting what you want." I grabbed some money out of my purse, "We can't take dads car... That's stealing." Oh Soph, so young and naive with her morals, "It's not illegal if we're family, besides, we're going to get cheese burgers because that sounds a lot better than pizza." We walked out the door.

It was a fun time, I didn't care even if we both got grounded for what I did, at least I got the worse end of the punishment. That night I was heading to bed when Sophie called me into her bedroom, "Aria..." She whispered, "Yeah?" I walked in, "Thanks for what you did today." I leaned against the doorframe, "Well, I think you deserved it, and mom and dad were being assholes today." Sophie laughed, "It's whatever though, we got to spend together." She nodded, "Yeah..." We sat there for a second, "We should probably go to bed." "Right, night." I left her room.

"Aria... Aria are you awake?" Somebody was shaking me,

"Huh?... Wha-"

"Shh..." Zoey covered my mouth, "I think I heard something outside." She whispered,

"Yeah, there are zombies outside, you're gonna hear something." I whispered back,

"No, this didn't sound like a zombie, this was different. It sounded like a low growl."

"Okay..."

"We should check it out."

I sat up, "You can't be serious."

"What?"

"You want us to go out in darkness in a world infested with zombies to check out a noise? I don't think so, but please, feel free to go out and check on your own, I'm going back to bed." I curled back up under the blanket,

"C'mon Aria, what if it's the military?"

"Zoey, military vehicles do not growl."

"What are you two talking about?" Louis asked,

"Shh, there's something outside making a growling noise and it might hear us."

"You said that it could be a military vehicle." I said,

"I was just saying that to get you to go with me."

I rolled my eyes, "We are not going out there." I said, "It'll be a suicide mission."

"I'll go on my own then, I don't need your help."

"No one is going anywhere alone." Louis said, "If it bothers you that much Zoey then maybe we should check it out. Worst case scenario it's just another zombie."

I rolled my eyes and threw my blanket into my bag, "Fine." I got up and grabbed my gun, "Let's go see what it is."

"Cool." Louis said, grabbing his gun.

We walked outside into the light of a full moon, "Okay Zoey, where is this noise you were hearing because I don't hear anything." I whispered as to not attract the zombies that may have been around,

"You don't hear it?"

"No."

"It's over here." She walked over to the left of the house, Louis and I followed behind. She climbed over the fence into a parking lot of a business,

"Zoey..."

"Shh... Over there!" She pointed across the parking lot.

At first I didn't see anything, but then I noticed an arm waving around, it was a muscular arm and it definitely wasn't human, "Is that a zombie?" I asked,

"Let's go see."

"NO!" I stopped Zoey, "Zoey, your sense of adventure is going to get not only you killed, but us as well."

"I don't need a lecture from a pothead, I can take him on anyway."

"No, no you can't." I was just going to brush off the fact that she called me a pothead, it was true anyway.

She rolled her eyes, "Fine let's just go back to the-" There was a gunshot and a loud roar. The zombie came out from around the corner of the building, only, this wasn't a normal zombie.

This zombie was a towering stack of muscles, it didn't even charge at us using its legs, no, this zombie carried itself using its arms, "Run!" I exclaimed. The others didn't hesitate, we were gone. It came after us, it was slow but it was going to do some damage if it caught up, "Shit, we have to shoot it or it's going to kill us!" I said, shooting at it as I ran. They started doing the same, there was another shooting sound, someone else was shooting too. It caught me off guard for a second, but that second was enough for the zombie to catch up to me and punch me. I went flying down the street and landed on my back, rolling for a few feet. The wind was knocked out of me, it was nothing new to me because it happened to me numerous times during volleyball, but the punch was a new sensation. My glasses fell off my face but I could make out the shapes of Louis and Zoey and the zombie falling dead to its knees.

A blurry figure approached me, "Are you okay?" An unfamiliar rugged voice asked, I looked up and saw the man standing over me holding out his hand to help me up.