Chapter 4: Finding the Dead

The car begins to go slower and slower. Everyone starts feeling the road get bumpier. Trent pulls the car over and makes sure the area is clear. Everyone gets out of the car and Trent realizes that when the student was firing his gun, he shot the wheel. Trent spits on the ground "Hurensohn (Son of a bitch)! This car isn't moving anymore" Jack thinks for a bit and looks at Trent "Can you hotwire a car?" Trent gives a big smile and nods. Then Trent opens his car's trunk revealing an array of weapons including: a crowbar, multiple knives, dual cleavers, machete, and a bow. Jack grabs the bow analyzing it in awe and sees some arrows putting them in a quiver. Nicholi stares at Trent in disbelief and says "What the fuck! You had these weapons on you the whole time and you didn't give them to us?!" Trent shakes his head and says "They were in the trunk which I couldn't reach until now" Nicholi goes back to the backseats of the car grabbing a few guns and making sure they are loaded, then he grabs the machete. Brittney grabs the many knives and one of the cleavers putting it away. Trent grabs his crowbar with a grin and looks at Jack "Hey get that cleaver, you need something up close" Jack nods and grabs the cleaver, putting it away.

Trent grins and says "Alright now we all have weapons best if we head out to the station, no?" Jack nods still enjoying having a bow with him again. They begin to walk off towards a new car and Brittney runs up hugging the car and starts saying again and again "This one, this one, this one, this one!" The group looks confused and questions her then she says "It's a big car so it can hold all of us and our weapons…plus ITS PINK!" The group looks at each other and starts laughing. Trent gets in the car and hotwires it taking a few minutes. The group sits all comfortably in the SUV with plenty of room. Trent turns on the engine and then suddenly there is a loud THUMP, as a zombie suddenly hits the window. Nicholi takes out his machete and lowers the window to stab the zombie through the head before ripping it out and they drive off quick before more show up.

The group was nervously shaking as they drove off and the silence was broken when Nicolle finally spoke up "Okay I just made a realization" suddenly everyone but Trent looks at her and she says slightly with pride in her voice "We have this bright pink car in the middle of this grey and ruined city, normal humans always get attracted to bright colors and this goes for most animals. So why didn't huge hordes get attracted to this?"

Taylor then adds "Also that zombie didn't do a thing until Trent turned on that engine which made the start up sound, so maybe they are-"

Nicolle finishes her statement "They only rely on hearing and they can't see anything."

Taylor looks at Nicolle slightly annoyed and pokes her cheek a couple times and mutters "derpy derp"

Nicolle gets slightly annoyed and grabs her finger and pulls it back until it hurts. Taylor hisses and pulls her finger back. Jack lets out a sigh "Well that gives us some breathing room; if they can't see us then we have a more even playing field." Nicholi nods in agreement and says "Well then I guess they won't see my bullets flying towards them."

Brittney leans forward to Jack and asks "Hey what are we gonna do for food? Eventually we need food and water"

Serqi then adds "Yes and we also need to worry about shelter and medical supplies in case one of use gets an injury other than a bite."

Taylor then says "Don't forget we also have to find our families in this wasteland"

Jack thinks a bit as they drive then answers their questions "Alright, after we get to the police station we will head out to find our families, after we split up to do that we will rendezvous at the local hospital which we will clear out and take medical supplies there. When we do that we will get food at abandoned stores and stuff, maybe a Walmart." Jack chuckles and looks at Trent and Jack say "uh Trent if it wasn't for your car we wouldn't be alive right now so we will look for your family first. Trent doesn't even look at Jack and says "I have no Verwandtschaft (relatives), I moved here from Germany to become an engineer and my parents both died in a plane crash while flying over to visit one day." Everyone in the car goes silent for many minutes after that. They finally reach a building isolated from its neighbors and on the front it reads in nice big letters "Los Angeles Police Department" and Jack grins as everyone exits the now parked car.

Jack looks at the others and says in a quiet tone "Alright now we have no idea what is inside so here's the plan, from now on nobody will make a sound. No screaming, no talking, no nothing. Just follow the group and to warn us just tap us. Everyone got that?" the group nods and they start running towards to the station which was oddly quiet enough. They began slowly sneaking into the building, their weapons drawn and then Jack stops the group when he sees a lone walker coming in their direction so he takes out his bow and pulls back an arrow. He begins thinking about when he got his first perfect shot.

Jack was still a young boy and his grandfather was teaching him archery like how many Native American fathers did for generations. Jack aimed his bow and shot the arrow. He missed completely. His grandfather said to him "Jack calm yourself, do not think of the red in the center or you will surely miss it as red will bring your anger and fury, you must focus on the white rings around it and hit the location inside the center of the white. Jack then did as told and fired hitting his first perfect shot.

Now he shot the arrow which went straight through the zombie's skull stabbing into the brain killing it. They moved forward and climbed the flight of stairs. They saw a glass room filled with zombies in police uniforms all hitting the glass and it slowly began cracking. Jack and his group rushed forward and when they opened the door and slowly closed it behind they all heard and saw the glass shatter and the horde move out of the room. They climb the last flight of stairs and see a room filled with files and calls. They look around hoping to find something within this room. As they split up and search the room Nicolle was walking looking to her sides with a very paranoid expression when she bumps into someone she looks forward seeing a zombie about to bite into her and she was about to scream when she remembered what Jack said and held it back and she awaited for death in this matter of seconds. Then she sees the zombie fall over with a bat stuck into it and Taylor pulls out the bat with the nail stuck in it and grins while Nicolle scowls outside but really on the inside she is very thankful to Taylor. They searched around more and more hoping to find something. That's when Jack found police records titled "Z-Day" He raises a brow and begins reading the many calls and reports throughout the day but something was missing, he looked through and it states that they were all coming from a building on Arc Ave. where his father's building is located. But for some reason the building is not mentioned. He is scared to even think that his father may have become the first one of those things that caused all this. He shivers at the thought but he knows where to go next. He heads to find the group and whispers "Alright lets go back down and get the hell out of here." They started rushing along the hallway and into the staircase then as they went down there was a loud scream of a woman and the group ran opening the door to the same room from before with broken glass on the floor. They look and near a corner is a man shooting at the zombies holding a woman next to him, he was wearing a police officer's uniform. Quickly Nicholi started firing his guns at the horde and drove them toward the group. Jack shot multiple arrows into zombies while Taylor and Trent rushed into the group hitting many of the zombies with their crowbar and baseball bat. Then the police officer grabs his shotgun and aims at the last 5 zombies running toward him and he yells "Die you mother fuckers!" he shoots his shotgun causing an explosion of shrapnel to fire ripping the zombies apart. Everyone looks around to make sure the floor is clear, and then they approach the officer.

The officer takes off his hat and places it on his chest is a saluting stance "Thank you all, if you hadn't shown up then me and my wife would be dead. Jack approaches the man shaking his hand and they begin to talk.

"My name is Jack, me and my friends came from University"

"Pleasure to meet you Jack, my name is Thomas Miller, this is my wife Mia."

"So do you know what happened exactly?" Jack asked

"I was working in the office when I got a surprise visit from Mia, that's when I started getting tons of calls everywhere of people saying there were humans eating humans and cases of cannibalism all over Los Angeles."

"What happened to the station?" asked Nicholi

"When we started getting calls lots of cops were sent out to the city so only a few were left here. Wasn't long before many came back with bite injuries." Answered Thomas

"We can guess what happened afterwards" says Nicolle

Thomas nods and starts looting bodies and looks around the office and brings them a bag of guns. Nicholi looks through these guns with a creepy grin along with Nicolle. "These are amazing!" exclaims Nicholi, Thomas nods and says "I'm sorry I can only give you that portion of guns, I plan to go with Mia through the whole state and find some survivors. If we can find any then we can maybe make a military to fight these bastards." Mia gets up grabbing a couple pistols from the bag loading the bullets in. Thomas laughs "I didn't even know you could hold a gun" Mia giggles "Well you learn a thing or two when you're bored." Thomas leads the way for the group to leave the building into a garage.

Thomas takes out a couple documents and gives them one. "This is a map of Los Angeles and it details where the streets and such are, when you find a building that's infested with these things color it red like how I did for the police station. If you can find an area that is actually being secured by survivors then color it blue. I'm going to travel across the state and gather an army of survivors and when I come back I want you all to have a detailed map of every area infested and secured." Thomas explains. Jack nods knowing very well that this is going to be a large task here in a city as big as Los Angeles. Thomas points to a part of the map and explains "This is the western half of the city and this building specifically is actually my house. A friend of mine named Josh Coupe was visiting from England and was staying at my place. He has plenty of guns and he has more than enough experience, go there to help him secure the area." Jack nods studying the map and finds his father building and points to it and says to Thomas "I checked the police records and it says that the first sightings were on this street, but didn't say which building so I guess this area is very unsafe." Thomas nods and then Mia comes up to them. "God I really thought the next war U.S. was gonna face would be republicans trying to invade another middle east country" Mia says with slight laughter in her voice then she continues "I guess this is the one war we didnn't expect" Jack chuckles "That sounds like it would make a good name for a book or something."

Jack takes the map and heads with his group into one of the larger cars where they stored the weapons and were ready to leave. He turns right back to Thomas and Mia "Are you really sure you don't want to come with us?" Jack asks. Thomas and Mia look at each other and laugh as Mia holds his arm next to her and she says "We could go with you and help us survive a little longer but we need to get an army together to let our species live another good thousand years." Thomas smiles and says "Don't worry about us Jack, we will be fine. Just make sure my friend Josh is ok and make sure your friends stay safe to." He tips his police hat and walks off with his wife to another car and stuffs their weapons inside their car. Jack goes to the passenger seat of his car and Trent puts in the key and asks "Where to next?" Jack smiles and right before he speaks Nicolle yells "Oh my god I forgot!" Suddenly everyone stares at Nicolle who then explains "I forgot my boyfriend was still at Winterfall because he got an F on a test and stayed back there!" Taylor immediately remarks "You have a boyfriend? Who is stupid enough to think THAT'S attractive?" Nicolle gives Taylor a stink eye and says "Please Jack take me there, I have to know my sweetheart is ok" Jack nods and says "Alright Trent go to this high school here" he says pointing to the map and continues "Then after that you can drop me off in this building, I need to see if me and Taylors parents are ok. Trent raises a brow and asks "You two live in the same building?" Jack shakes his head and explains "Taylor's parents work for my dad; he is a business leader so they all work in the same building. It's actually how I and Taylor became friends in the first place." Trent grins and starts to drive out of the station and they drive into the city heading to Winterfall High school to find Nicolle's boyfriend and then it's off to Jack's father's office building.