Chapter 3
Kaisers New Hell
I sat there very bored, this so called "date" was going nowhere fast. This pitiful excuse for a woman was blabbing on about the mall or something, I really wasn't paying attention. We were at a Bob's Burpin' Burger, I know, a pretty shitty place for a date. But she was below average looking and really my parents forced me to take her somewhere. Unfortunately for her, I could care less and would rather be at home, reading in my room. Finally, I decided to end this disaster before she started on about something else insignificant.
"Look, I need to tell you something." I looked at her with a feigned longing look.
"Y-yes?" She replied hopeful that I was about to say what she wanted to hear.
"You're below average looking, boring and quite frankly, you sound like a bitch. I do not like you, I have never even remotely liked you, and I never will. I was forced to take you on this pointless, less than desirable outing when I could have been reading or playing video games." I tore into her watching the tears form in her eyes, mixed emotions began to fill her face. "You will never find love, so stop now and don't waste your time." I finished pretty weakly compared to what I usually say, I just really wanted to go home. I glanced outside and saw my father waiting for me in his work truck.
"So that's it?! Didn't you feel any connection at all? Just that I'm ugly?" She cried out drawing the attention of the rest of the restaurant.
"Other than the feeling that you wasted my time? No not at all," I say matter of factly. "Oh stop that crying, you're causing enough of a scene without our unwanted audience seeing your face become more disfigured with your tears." Again watching her heart break into a million pieces.
"Just leave if you don't like me then! I don't even care!"
"That was the plan, I even informed my father of it half an hour ago," I looked my at my watch, "and right on time, I must say. Oh, another thing before I go, a small tip if you'd call it that, 20 percent of why this was so horrid is because of you and your predictable, drab personality. Have a pleasant day ma'am."
Past the muffled sobs and onlookers choosing whether to comfort her or shout at me, I could only hear my own thoughts swirl about in my mind. My family's image and legacy are all that matter, not some insignificant girl who wants a little fling based on a hormonal imbalance at her "fragile" stage. I exited the building only to enter my father's truck.
"What did you say this time?" My father inquired, gazing out upon the scenery I had painted.
"Nothing," I replied, bored as I rested my chin on my palm. "I merely told her what she was worth." He shook his head with a weak chuckle as we drove off
"Alright, I can drop you off at the store, but I have to go run a few errands. You can walk home from there." He said looking around.
"Fine." The rest of the drive was pretty silent, I opened my phone and began to read memoirs from WWII. The only thing that actually peaks my interest nowadays, well that plus violent video games. Chat bubbles from a few different girls wanting to hang out, to my friend's group chat. I opened it to find tons of memes being spammed by my friend Justin, who happens to always spam pictures to the damn chat. After silently laughing at most of them, I look up to see the Super Duper Mart.
"Here, you go, see you later." My father said unlocking the doors.
"Yeah, see you later," I replied getting out. Right as the door closed he sped off, the opposite direction of home. I looked around and got my bearings, it seemed a lot more crowded today, in fact, the traffic out of the city was also a lot heavier than usual, and there was scarcely any traffic coming in. I walked up to the store and took one step inside to see lines going down the aisles and to many people crowding the entrance. I immediately walked out and headed for home. I put my earbuds in and began to listen to soothing violin music, drowning out the sound of the cars and excess noise. I crossed the intersection to the side heading towards the city, by this point maybe one or two cars were heading the same direction. I kept walking not seeing the 4 police cars speed towards the city. While I was waiting at the cross section, I see this van pass by full of a bunch of kids. If I'm not mistaken, it's the Louds. Everyone in Royal Woods knows about them, either from school or them running around the neighborhood, being unnecessarily loud, heh get it?
I finally made it home and saw that no one was home, not even our pets. With my family, I'm not surprised they usually go out and for some odd reason take our pets. We had 4 pit bulls, and a German shepherd, I like to call my pit bulls my kids. On the outside, I give off a stoic, unamused individual with no interest in the trends that people my age usually set. Inside? Mostly the same actually, only when it comes to my "kids" my heart opens only a little. The only people to have seen that side of me were my family and a few good friends I had back in Oklahoma, I and my family moved to Michigan because of my father finding a better job.
I unlocked my door and went straight to my room, and found everything as I left it. My books were neatly organized on a small brown shelf, next to them was a nightstand overshadowing my bed, which was neatly made with a red sheet set. My closet was organized with my shirts in front, jeans afterward, and finally my JROTC uniform. My boots, shoes and various footwear were lined up at the bottom. The walls had WWII posters depicting soldiers, tanks, and planes. Above my bed was two different posters, both of them had images of my favorite vehicles. The first being a German heavy tank, the Tiger I, the second being a German dive bomber, the Stuka. I walked over and laid on my bed, kicked off my shoes and pulled out my phone. Checking Facebook there were a lot of live videos of something going down in the city, I decided to watch one of them, but it cut out right as I tapped on it.
"Well then, so much for that." I tossed my phone across the bed and sighed, today's been one hell of a day so far. Hung out with a less than desirable female, then had to walk home and almost get run over twice. Seeing how I didn't eat anything on that outing. I got up and went towards my kitchen, once there I scoured around the pantry to find something to fill my stomach. I saw noodles, crackers, oatmeal, cake mixes, cookie mixes, so nothing really to eat there, I went to the fridge to be greeted by a similar sight. Veggies, lunch meat, leftovers, fruits, again nothing to eat.
"Why the hell don't we have anything to eat?" This is my curse, a kitchen full of food only to not find something to eat. Finally, I decided on heating up a frozen pizza. I went to put in the toaster oven when I heard the alert from my news app blare from my room. I decided to ignore it as it was probably another amber alert. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the idea of kidnapping or kids running away, but what the hell do they expect us to do? Suit up and scour the land searching far and wide to find little Johnny? Yeah, no I have better things to do. After about 5 minutes I get my pizza out, I grab a bottle of Coke and head towards my room. As I walk through the living room I can see flashing lights zoom past the house. And even the rotor sounds of a helicopter overhead. What the hell is going on? I glance at my phone as I enter my room to see my phone blown up with messages from certain acquaintances, my school, and the alert; Which wasn't about a missing kid, but something far worse. I go to check the messages, which are all on the lines of, "Are you okay", or "Do you know what's going on" I open my phone and go straight to the news alert to see a horrifying scene. The city was full of mass panic and chaos. Police and SWAT lining the streets and buildings, take shots at people stumbling towards them. After a few minutes of watching this, I could see the National Guard rolling into the city only to swarmed by a mob of people, so much for fire support. As I kept watching enthralled by the chaos, I didn't notice the sirens beginning to blare.
"What the fuck?!" I begin to gaze around my room, my pizza is cold and the coke is untouched. On my phone I go to the contacts to try and call my parents, only to find that the signal has been disconnected. "No phone service, no way to reach my parents...great." I put my phone down and go out to my living room to check the news on the TV. I turn it on to be greeted by the loud commotion, and chaos.
"We are here downtown Royal Woods and what seems to be happening is, well quite frankly Zombies. We have no idea how it got this bad as quickly as it did, but the streets are filling with zombies. At the time we currently don't have much information on them-, OH GOD, WATCH OUT!"
Gunshots were then heard followed by the camera falling and screaming. The news reported took off away from the where the cameraman was only to be hit by a car. As she flew out of the picture the camera was violently shaken causing a crack to form over the picture. Legs stumbled past towards what I'm assuming was where the news reported landed. Then the picture cuts out completely. I sat there in awe, "This is actually happening, zombies." I said out loud my face full of mixed emotions, fear, and grief. Finally, gives me a reason to take my guns out in public and use them.
I go to my footlocker back in my room to retrieve my...where the hell is my weapons?! I had quite a few weapons in here, granted they were WWII rifles but still. A weapon is a weapon. After scouring the room and not finding them, I decided to try my father's room. He has to have something in there. Why the hell would my guns be missing, whenever I find out who took them, I'm going to raise some hell. I went out into the hall and started towards his room but stopped dead in my tracks by the sound of glass shattering. I slowly turn around and peek into my room, fearful of what I might see, to find the window above the bookshelf broken and someone crawling through. The figure stood up and showed what they really were, a fucking zombie. I felt my heart skip a beat, trying to move my feet wouldn't respond. What the hell? Me, scared? I'm supposed to be the strong one, the one who isn't afraid of anything. As I stood there frozen watching the zombie come closer I could see the better detail. What looked like a relatively fresh bite mark rested on his neck. Long bloody claw marks covered his arms and chest, and one if feet looked as if it was crushed. His face was unknown to me, probably a neighbor. But his eyes were bloodshot and the pupil filled his entire eye. Blood seeped from his nose and ears, and his mouth was missing a few teeth.
Guess they don't get dental service in hell. The worst of it was this low raspy growl he let loose. Opening his mouth ready to tear me open and devour me. I don't want to die. No, not yet. I still couldn't move however, he was but a few inches away when the thought that stirred my body came to me. The thought of my friends back in Oklahoma laughing at me for being a weakling getting scared at something like this. Definitely not my proudest moment. Finally, my body responded to me, I put my hand up to his head avoiding the mouth that would surely mean my end. I pushed him back to the best of my abilities, to then 'spartan' kick him in the chest, knocking him on ass back into my room. I quickly ran to my father's room to find the gun safe closed and locked as it should be. I put in the combination, after spying on my father put it in so many times I have it burned into my memories. I open it to find one gun and one box of ammo. I wonder if he knew what was going on and just left it for me. No, because if he did he would have taken me with him. So why is there only one in here then? The sound of the zombie trying to get up brought me back to reality. Right worry about that later.
The gun in the safe was a PLR, a modified AR 15. It has a shortened barrel, no stock, a thirty round mag, a red dot sight and an assist on the bolt instead of a charging handle. I took that and grabbed the box of ammo which only had 20 rounds in it. "Shit," I went over and leaned against the wall right next to his nightstand. I began loading the rounds watching the doorway waiting for the undead fucker to come through. About five rounds in he came crawling into the doorway. His mouth agape growling at me, clawing his way towards me. Instead of wasting a round on him, I grabbed the lamp off of the nightstand right next to me, went over and attempted to bash his head in. It would've worked had he not grabbed my right ankle, forcing me to start attacking his hand. I began to bash the lamp onto the undead limb, but even with all of my might, he wouldn't let go. He started pulling himself towards my foot, inching ever closer it was then I realized that I didn't have my shoes on.
"Shit!" Finally, as his mouth was in reach of my foot I took the lamp and forced it down onto his head, and to my surprise, nothing happened. "FUCK!" I became frantic and began to pound his head harder and harder until I felt a sharp pain erupt through my foot. This is the end before I even left my house, I died, pathetic.
Then I realized how stupid I was and saw that the zombie had already died and the pain in my foot was the lamp breaking three of my toes. After taking a breather and getting over seeing blood and brains all over the floor I got up and hobbled into my bathroom. I had to patch my foot up somehow. I pulled out the medical kit from under the sink and opened it up to find one popsicle stick and a small ass roll of bandages. Really? This is all I have to work with? I thought to myself. I broke the stick into three pieces, put each piece under the broken toes and did my best to wrap each one tightly. I discarded the box seeing as that's all it was at that point, and stood up, which was a very bad mistake. More pain shot through my foot and up to my knee. After letting out a quiet yelp I reached into the mirror above the sink and took all three bottles of aspirin. Downing 5 right then and there, I stored them into my pockets. Then a new thought dawned on me, what footwear am I going to wear. I limped into my room to decide, doing my best to avoid the broken glass, I sat onto my bed and gazed into my closet. The only thing that would probably fit around my toes would be my boots. So I grabbed them and attempted to put them on. The left went on fine, but the right was a bitch, this is where I screamed out in pain. And after an agonizing ten minutes I finally got the boot on, the pain ever so present, unfortunately. I'm very glad that I'm the only one in the house, the embarrassment of me crying out would be worse than the pain.
I went back into my father's room to grab the PLR and finish loading it. After which I made it to my kitchen, secured some water and pop tarts, "This is what I'm reduced to, not even a full day and my toes are broken, along with my pride, and I'm going to survive off of pop tarts. Wonderful." I looked back into my house one last time before going out the back door to embrace this hell on earth. Before I could get my whole body out of the house, I was greeted by five zombies… "Son of a bitch!"