4:26 P.M.

It seemed forever for the zombie to bite me. I could feel it's hot breath against my face. The pressure of it laying on top of me prevented me from breathing. I didn't want to see my death so I kept my eyes closed.

Then I heard Kevin laughing so I opened my eyes. A giant German Shepard was standing on my chest, its teeth bared in a growl.

"Hi, boy," my voice shaked. I reached up and gently petted the dog. "Nice doggy." It immediately dropped its aggresivness and licked me in the face.

I pushed it away. "Okay, okay, I'm glad to meet you too." I got up and brushed the dog hair off my shirt. Kevin was still laughing at me. "Well, at least we know nothing else is here. This dog would have been eaten."

Kevin frowned. "Yeah, but we don't know if zombies will eat animals."

I nodded. But if this dog killed a zombie, woutldn't it turn into one itself?

But then I heard something. It sounded like heavy breathing from inside the closest. I took the mallet and looked back inside the closet again. I recoiled when I saw what it was.

There was a girl in there. She was crouched against the wall, her head on her knees. Her blond hair covered her face.

"Kevin! There's someone in here," I yelled. I ran kneeled down to check and see if she was alright. She had no injuries that I could see. I lifted her chin up. She just had a blank expression on her face, breathing like every breath was her last.

Kevin came in. "I think she's in shock," he said. He looked her in the eyes. "Hello?"

I shook her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

She blinked and looked at us. Then she started screaming.

"Hey, calm down!" I yelled over her screeching.

She didn't listen. Just jumped up and bolted out of the closet. We foll0wed and caught her at the door.

"Hey!" I grabbed her shoulders and Kevin put his hand over her mouth. "Knock it off!"

Her muffled screams slowly deceased and focused her eyes on us. We let her go and stood back. She was our age, blond, green eyes, and athletic build. But her eyes had dark shadows underneath them and her skin had a gray tinge; she was still wearing what she slept in and looked like she hadn't slept all night.

I never seen her before. Kevin and I knew everybody at the high school.

"Who are you?" I asked.

She tried to move her mouth, like talking was new to her. "D...Diane," she whispered. "Diane Carter."

"I'm David Peterson and this is Kevin Bradford." It seemed a little weird to be having introductions at a time like this.

"This is a small town. How come I never seen you around before?" Kevin asked.

She was silent for a few seconds before she answered, "I came from Sheldon," she whispered.

"Sheldon? That's thirty miles away. How did you end up here?" I asked.

Her face suddenly became horrified and her body began to shake. She took a couple of deep breaths and started to tell what happened. While she explained, I could understand why she was scared.

"I can barely remember. It all just seemed like a big blur." She shook her head. "I live with my dad in Sheldon. Late last night, the doorbell rung and my dad answered the door. There was a man at the door, staggering around like he was drunk. I was standing on the stairs and dad told me to call the police. So I picked up the phone and dialed. But then my dad yelled and pushed the man out the door. I ran toward him and tried to find out what was wrong. There was a huge gash in his neck."

I felt my throat tighten. It reminded me what happened to me and my mom.

"Dad told me the guy bit him. I nearly passed out, because there was gushes of blood coming from his neck." She began to whisper now. "I tried to get him in the car so we could go to the hospital, but I spent a lot of time trying to get him into the car so he lost a lot of blood. We pulled out of the garage and made it halfway down the street before..."

She sobbed and shuddered. "My father, in blind pain, jumped out of the car. I stopped and went to go get him. But..." tears were forming at her eyes, "he just got up and walked towards me, like nothing had happened. It didn't take me long to see that his neck was...broken."

Diane put her face in her hands. "His head was hanging like it didn't have a spined attached to it, but he could still walk. He walked towards me, reaching out his hands. But I couldn't help him. I was so scared, I just went back to my car and left."

"It took me awhile to realize that I was here. I just toned out of reality. I ran into this store and tried to find somebody who could help me. But the clerk behind the counter was acting weird. He lunged at me and tried to harass me. But Champ pulled him off. After that, I ran into that closet."

We were silent for a few minutes. I never thought we would find another survivor, and one's whose story is just as horrible as ours.

I finally spoke. "Why did you bring your dog?"

Diane sniffed. "I always bring him."

I guess it was the dog that killed the clerk. I suddenly smiled. "You know, your dog nearly turned me into a chew bone too."

Kevin laughed again and Diane smiled a little, patting her dog on the head.

"Champ can be a little overprotective sometimes," she told us. Champ barked in agreement. I think.

"Well I'm just glad we found someone else alive. We thought we were the only survivors," I said.

Diane nodded. Then looked distressed. "Just what is going on? Why are people acting so strange?"

Kevin shrugged. "We have only a shrewed idea. Apparently, everybody has turned into zombies."

Diane just gaped at him. "Zombies? Are you serious?"

I was confused. I thought it would be obvious. "Yeah. Zombies."

Diane just shoke her head. "I think you guys have watched to much TV. Zombies are not real."

"Listen you smart-ass," Kevin threatened. "Zombies are real. That's how daddy was able to stand back up. He was getting up to eat you."

Kevin crossed the line with that one. I punched him the shoulder.

"What?" he demanded.

"That went to far," I said.

I turned back to Diane. What color was in her face drained away. She looked down at her feet and began to cry again.

"Look, I'm sorry for what happened to your dad," I said gently. "But were just the same." We explained our stories. When we were done, Diane was speechless.

"I had no idea."

I said, "Don't worry about it. The important thing now is to stay safe until help arrives."

We spent the rest of the day digging out items we could use as weapons and finding something comfortable to sleep on. We tried to avoid the counter, where the clerk was. But there might be something important back there. Sucking in a deep breath, I went behind the counter and began searching. The clerk didn't store any weapons, but I did find something useful.

"Hey guys," I called out. "I found a television."

Kevin and Diane hurried from the back room with bubble rap that are used to wrap the store lights in. I placed the tv on the counter and turned on the power. All I got was static. Diane found a pair of rabbit ears from inside a drawer. I plugged them and made some adjustments.

The first channel was six and all it had was the emergency broadcast on. I switched it to eight. There was a reporter with a police officer on the screen. The caption at the bottom said they were reporting from a town in Wyoming.

"Reports are coming in from every city in the world that people are being attacked and killed from what seemed to be rioters from yesterday. As strange as it sounds, there have been reports from certain cities that these people are dead. Right here with us is Sergeant Grimes of the Creek County police department."

The camera focused on the officer. He looked exhausted. He even had a couple of gashes in his face. "Look, we don't know if these people are dead or alive. The point is that these people, these zombies or whatever, are killing everybody they come in contact with. The can't seem to reason or even understand speech. They also seemed to be high on something because we cannot slow them down with mace, clubs, or even bullets. The only weakness they have is the head. Any major trauma to the head will make them go down." He then looked nervous. "Just like zombies."

The camera went back to the reporter. "How is the situation here?"

The officer lowered his eyes. "We had to terminate a lot of people here today who were 'dead'. But the situation is becoming under control here though. The problem is, I recognize some of these people. It's hard shoot someone because one person who was 'dead' was an officer. And another was the mayor's wife. And a couple of hours ago, I had to eliminate kids I gave a seminar to the other day about drugs. It was one of the hardest things to do." The officer looked back at the camera. "We even lost a couple of officers because they couldn't-"

I turned off the tv. I didn't need to hear anymore. The others looked like they were about to faint. I walked over to the door and stared out at the setting sun.

"Okay, just what are we supposed to do now," I asked Kevin and Diane.

They didn't say anything.

"I mean, how are we going to survive? There are outbreaks in every city and nobody can do anything to stop it. Those cops on tv seemed to have a handle on things but what about everyone else?"

Kevin walked up. "Look, let's not worry about it. It's late and we can't think clearly if can't get any sleep.

I looked back outside. It was getting late and we did have a long day.

"Alright, let's get some rest. Diane, are you going to...?"

Diane was asleep on the floor on top of the bubble wrap with Champ was right beside her. She was even beginning to snore.

"I guess she hasn't slept in awhile," Kevin pointed out.

I yawned. "Kevin, you better get some sleep. I'll stand guard."

He looked at me. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." At least I think I was.

"Okay." Kevin unrolled a couple of tarps. When he hit the floor, he was asleep instantly.

I found the light switches and turned them off. Then I found took a swallow of another soda and a energy pill to keep me up. I grabbed the mallet I used earlier and found the softest spot on the floor. The sounds of my friends snores were sort of comforting against the silence.

I just hoped that the night of horror was over.