Chapter 3 - Chaos

"It is absolute chaos all around the country as the CDC has confirmed at least 1500 outbreaks of an infection that is bringing people back from the dead and attacking others. These individuals are extremely hostile and will attack whoever they see." A reporter on TV was describing what was going on. She had an armed guard with her wielding a handgun, and occasionally he would fire a round or two, I assume killing any infected that came towards the crew. The TV then switched to an infographic shortly before the power cut out entirely.

"Looks like the power's out" I pointed out to Carley, who was busy trying to call her family.

"I can't reach my family" she said in tears, "I don't know if they're ok"

" Well there's no point in staying here. If we want to find out we should get out here and get back to Georgia. Your mother lives in Macon, right?"

"Yeah. Downtown Macon."

"Let's get out of here" I grabbed my bag and led her outside, where the hall was full of bloodstains and several bodies. I wanted to puke. We quickly walked towards the stairs and I saw it. A little girl, couldn't have been older than 5 or 6, with a pink dress and blonde pigtails. She was dead, her intestines splattered on the floor. That sensation in my stomach came out as I got sick right next to her body. And I cried. The tears came out and didn't stop coming. I saw Mia in her, when she was younger. Carefree and innocent. It made me think that she could be gone, too. And the rest of my family. I wanted to see them again. Just one more time. I got up and wiped the tears from my face. "Sorry. Let's go." Carley sympathetically nodded and kissed me on the cheek.

We reached the stairs and started making our way down. By the ninth floor I could hear raspy moans above and below us, and my suspicions were confirmed when one of the infected dropped down from a higher level onto our level. Luckily, the impact from landing on his head shattered his skull, killing himself. I shook my head as we continued downwards from our buzzard encounter. At floor 6, we had our second encounter, a woman in this zombified state who was at the bottom of the stairs. She slowly stepped up the stairs, only to be Spartan Kicked by Carley. The zombie hit her head on the railing, which disoriented her, but she got back up. This prompted me to kick her once more, and then Carley finished the job by impaling the zombie with a high heel she pulled from her bag. "I knew those were worth the price I paid" I remarked.

She giggled "You always did have good taste" We hurried down as more groans echoed from above. I fumbled through my pockets and found my keys. We finally reached the lobby, and it was chaos. What was once a peaceful lobby turned into what looked like a war zone. Several bodies and tons of blood caked the floor and walls. The woman who was bit earlier in the afternoon stood near where she died, with a noticeable chunk of her throat missing, and her stomach ripped open. She immediately noticed us and started stumbling over. Without saying a word, Carley and I dashed for the door, avoiding the woman's arms swinging at us, hoping to catch us.

We made it out to the parking lot and what we saw was not Myrtle Beach. Buildings were on fire, people were screaming and running. I could hear automatic gunfire several blocks away. Was it the military? I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out. I saw a familiar face in the panic. The woman who was maimed in the parking lot several hours ago was still crawling around, this time with notable bites on her arms and shoulders. She was also missing most of her right cheek and forehead. She was also right behind my car. "Carley…" I began, "Stay close. There's a lot going on right now and I want to you to be safe. We're gonna make a break for my car."

"Ok baby. I want you to be safe too. Don't do anything crazy." Carley looked at me concerned.

"Ok on three. One. Two. Three!" We started running. As fast and as hard as we could. I was impressed she could keep up with me, but I guess that's what adrenaline can do to you. I unlocked the car and we got in, the both of us panting heavily. I locked the doors and we were safe for the time being. We just sat there, neither of us speaking, just catching our breath and regaining our composure.

"You good?" I finally broke the silence. She nodded and kissed me on the lips.

"Let's get to Macon. I have a bad feeling about this." Carley lets out. "I don't imagine it's much nicer in Georgia"

"Right" I agreed with her. I started up the car and slightly revved the engine. Upon putting the car in reverse and backing out, the car noticeably bumped over something. I pulled out further and saw I ran over the woman from earlier, my tire went right on her head.

"I'm sorry" I whispered quietly and drove off. Neither of us spoke much during the drive. Interestingly, the highways were not packed, and it was a pretty easy drive to Georgia.

Of course, Carley's suspicions were correct from earlier. Georgia was worse off than South Carolina. The numbers of infected tripled almost immediately as we crossed the border. To make matters more fun, military personnel closed down major roads, and we were forced to use back roads to get into Savannah. At that point, I couldn't travel anymore. I checked my watch, it was 11:37.

"Maybe we should find a place to spend the night." Carley suggested. "We can't keep driving. The both of us are exhausted and it's still several hours to Macon." I blinked twice and immediately started to feel more exhausted. She was right. There was no point to continue during the night.

"I don't like our chances of anyone opening their doors for us. I think our best chance is to get to my house, but that might be another half hour or so. Try to get some sleep." She sighed and turned on her side. I turned onto another back road to see a military blockade, with several dozen soldiers wielding assault rifles and other weapons. One soldier signaled me to advance forward, and I came forward until I pulled up right next to him.

"Are you trying to get through?" The soldier asked. I noticed his name tag read 'Henderson'.

"Yeah, I'm trying to get to my parents' house on the outskirts of Savannah." I looked around and saw some of the men running around to set up for something. What was going on?

"We can't let you through. There's a situation going on and we need to close off these back roads. The best you can probably do is take some other roads. Here, I'll give you some directions" He started telling me what roads to take when I heard screaming behind us.

"They're coming!" Someone yelled out as the soldiers got in position. Henderson opened the car door and led us out towards the barricade. Carley and I were lead to a tent and were told to wait until, further notice. Carley held onto my arm as indistinct conversations went on around us and gunfire rang out. I guess they were coming. A doctor came up to us to inspect us.

"Any bites or scratches?" We shook our heads. "Fever, nausea, anything like that?" We looked at each other and shook our heads. "Good. Seems like everything's all right for you guys." The doctor scribbled something on his clipboard and started to turn around.

"Wait," I stopped him before he left "What's going on?"

"Well, I suppose you already know the big points, you know, people coming back from the dead, biting people, killing them. Well, the CDC already has at least 350,000 confirmed deaths because of this in the span of about 12 hours. And that number is rising fast. They're working on finding a cure, but they need tissue from the subjects. The thing about the virus is that those infected start to decay at a faster rate, and the virus starts to break down your body slowly. A bite hastens the process at which your body breaks down, and leads to drastically high fevers to the point of death, and thus turns you into a walker. The issue with the tissue is that samples they've obtained break down too quickly for the people at the CDC to study and thus, it's difficult to find a cure. It also doesn't help that if they bring in a live subject, someone important ends up bit and then they're dead. From the looks of things, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better." The doctor rubbed the ridge of his nose and sighed. "You guys should probably get some sleep. It looks like you're beat. I'll come back to check on you in a couple hours." He exited the tent without saying another word.

"We can't stay here" I whispered to Carley. "We need to get to my parents' house"

"But it's a half hour-long drive" Carley whined. "It'll take us all night to get there. And not to mention if those biters are out there. So on top of the long walk, we might die. If we stay here, we know we're safe." She yawned. "And besides, I'm tired and you look like you're gonna pass out. Please baby, get some sleep."

"I'll sleep when I know I'm safe. I don't trust this setup. Something's gonna happen. I just have a bad feeling." I yawned as well and felt myself dozing off. "N-N-No…. I can't" I went out cold right on the cot.

I awoke maybe an hour later to gunfire, which was odd, because there was gunfire going on all around me when I fell asleep. But this was different. I could hear the bullet fly past me, like someone was shooting at me. Well, I was half right as a walker dropped dead right in front of me. Fucker would've bitten me in my sleep. I looked up to see a massive man in combat gear wielding a smoking handgun. Carley jolted up with a gasp and nearly screamed when she saw the dead walker.

"Baby it's ok. It's dead." I grabbed her and slowly rubbed her back. She calmed down but was still breathing heavily. I slowly stood up and crept towards the opening of the tent to see what was going on.

It was horrifying. The walkers kept coming, and the soldiers' numbers were dwindling. I could tell this would be a losing effort at this rate. The shouting and gunfire was getting less audible as time went on. I looked for my car, which was covered in blood and guts and brain matter, bullet holes in the windshield and body. Well, there goes $60,000.

"We have to get out of here. It's not looking good." Carley was already up and standing nervously. She didn't want to be here and I had to get her out. I quickly led her outside the tent and saw a man get ripped apart less than 10 yards in front of us. The defense was not going to last much longer. I looked around for options, anything that we could do. I spotted a rifle laying on the ground near a mangled corpse. It looked like a soldier's but the walkers got him good. It looked like maybe an M4, but in the faint streetlights I couldn't be sure. I looked over at Carley. "I'm gonna grab a weapon and some ammo and then we're getting out of here. Wait in the tent and don't come out." She nodded quickly.

"Be careful. There's a lot of them." She gave a quick peck on the cheek and ran in. I lightly jogged across the road and picked up the rifle. My suspicions were correct, an M4 with a magazine that was about two thirds full. That couldn't last me long. I looked through his vest to see if he had any more magazines. Jackpot. He was carrying 3 more full mags. Suddenly, a hand jolted up and grabbed my arm. His hand. My eyes met his and I saw he turned right in front of me. I swore to myself as I shook his grip and shot him in the head. I collected the mags and dashed back to the tent.

"Come on. I've got a gun but they're getting close" I hissed to Carley with a hint of urgency to my voice. She got out and we ran as fast as we could, as far as we could. We didn't stop until we couldn't see any walkers around us, and we took refuge behind a car, where we caught our breath. I looked around the area, which had decent lighting given how late it was. "How much battery does your phone have?" I asked Carley who was desperately trying to make a call, to no avail.

"87%, why?"

"I know the area, we're only a 15 minute run from my house. Only issue is the lighting is terrible. If we run we can make it, we just need to see where we're going." She nodded and turned on her phone's flashlight. Another minute of catching our breath and we were off again. As we were running, it was rather quiet in the suburbs. The occasional scream from a walker claiming a new victim would ring out through the night, but otherwise the raspy moans were the only sounds you could hear. Most of them were behind us, but several appeared in front of us when we were several blocks from home. I pulled out the rifle and quickly dispatched them with ease.

"You really know how to use that thing" Carley remarked.

"Well it's not too difficult. Just point and shoot. Honestly it's kinda a cool feeling. Like a video game" I began before I was cut off my many moans behind us. Carley turned and gasped as a mob of walkers was gaining on us, too many for us to handle at the time. "Nevermind that, let's go home" She was way ahead of me.

We finally made it home, completely dark. I tried the door, but no use. Whoever used the door last locked it up, but I remembered something.

"Carley, we need to go out to the side."

"Why?"

"I'm gonna help you over the fence. The lock on the back door is busted and Dad never fixed it. I'll give you the M4 for the moment but all you need to do is unlock the fence."

"Yeah let's do it soon. I can hear them coming." She was right. They were maybe a block away, but time was of the essence.

I tossed the rifle over the fence. "You're next. Ready?"

"Ready"

"Ok 1, 2, 3" I boosted her over and I heard the thud of her landing on the grass followed by the lock being undone on the fence. She let me in and locked it behind us.

I opened the sliding glass door to my house with no issue whatsoever. Dad's laziness paid off. "Let's do a sweep of the house, make sure no one's a walker."

"I don't hear anything" Carley pointed out. "So far so good"

"Yeah you're right" I walked into the living room, empty. Guest room, empty. Bathroom, empty. "First floor's clear" I slowly stepped up the stairs towards the bedrooms. The creaking of my footsteps the only noise in the house. I reached the top of the stairs and turned first to the room Mick and I shared. I slowly creaked the door open and aimed my rifle. Empty. We turned around and looked toward my parents' room, we quickly stepped over to it. We opened the door and looked. Also empty. My stomach felt queasy as I feared the worst. That left one room. Mia's. I turned the knob and inhaled quickly. I quickly opened. Nothing. No one was here.

"Ian…." Carley began

"I think they're gone" I said quivering. "Unless," I ran downstairs.

"Where are you going?" Carley whispered.

"The basement. There's nothing down there but it's the only other place they could be." I opened up the door from the kitchen and prayed they were there. "Mom, Dad? Mick? Mia?" I called out. I heard a noise from the basement. I slowly stepped downstairs, and Carley followed with the light. The first thing I saw was a giant blood pool, a blood trail leading to a body. Mick's. He has a bite mark on his forearm and a bullet wound in his head. "No… Mick…." Carley shined the light towards the back, and what I saw killed me. My parents had turned. Mom had significantly rotted more than Dad. She must have turned first. I paused as tears welled up in my eyes. The tears rolled down my face as I did the one thing I never should have had to do. "I'm so sorry" I whispered through the tears. I pulled the trigger twice and heard the thuds of bodies dropping. And then there was silence.

"Is Mia down there?"

"I don't think so. I don't hear anything." I bolted downstairs. But that was it. Mia was nowhere to be found. "Nope. She's not down here. She could be still alive."

"Ian, I think that's a longshot. I wouldn't bet on it"

"Stop. Don't say that. She could still be alive. Damn it!" I roared as grief overcame me, and I broke down. I held my head in my hands and cried. My family was gone. I don't know if I cried for 5 minutes or 5 hours. I just sat there and cried. I'd never cried like that before in my life for anything at all. Carley rubbed my shoulder and suggested we go to bed. I looked at my watch and it read 3 AM. I got up and we went to bed. I led her to my room and I fell asleep knowing the only person I had left was in my arms. I had to keep her safe. By any means necessary.