I was originally going to post this chapter on December 3rd which is the one-year anniversary of when I published the first chapter of this story, but then I decided that you guys have waited long enough. (Two days early? How generous.)

Also, will the guest who posted Jeffy is the god Zeke has been talking about please make yourself known because that is the funniest review I have ever seen.

Also, thanks for the 17k views.

By the way, I changed the rating of this story back to T. I decided that there won't be any serious sexual content.

The Doom

Chapter 1: A New Beginning.

Several months before the Blast.

Fifteen-year-old Kyle Murdoch had been planning it for months. Standing tall and proud over all the guns he'd acquired, no hint of emotion on his face. He was going to make every other school shooting look like a fucking joke. He couldn't wait to see all the kids run around like baby chicks being chased by a hungry fox. He couldn't wait to see the looks on their stupid faces as they bled to death, the utter disbelief at knowing that they were going to die, and Kyle was the one responsible for their eventual departure from this stupid fucking planet.

Kyle didn't really have a reason for planning the dastardly deed. No one picked on him, no one had ever said anything mean to him, no one even paid him any attention (he just felt like doing it). Well, come tomorrow he was going to be all they thought about.

The teen then gathered the weapons and hid them under his bed, out of sight. Only he'd know they were there. Then he crawled into bed without a care in the world. He didn't even care if he lived or died tomorrow, his main goal was just to kill and maim as many nerds, jocks, sluts and teachers as possible tomorrow.

He closed his eyes and was out in a matter of minutes. He didn't dream, only darkness surrounded his mind.

Then, a light began to fill his dark vision, shining through his eyelids. At first, he thought it was the sun shining through his window.

Kyle's heart skipped a beat. Was it time to get up? Time to wreak havoc on this shitty town?

Nope.

He slowly opened his eyes to find that the light belonged to flashlight, a flashlight attached to a gun that kind of reminded him of an MP5

Kyle was confused at first, but as his mind slowly began to defog, he realized what was happening. Beyond the light was a dark figure wearing a helmet and some kind of tactical outfit.

The jig was up. Someone had snitched on him and called the police. His planned was ruined.

As he was led away in handcuffs, passed his upset (and scared) parents, he swore he'd get revenge. Shooting up a school was too easy. He knew he'd end up to going to some kind of prison. God help this miserable world should he ever escape. Now, he didn't just want to kill his classmates, he wanted to kill everyone.

A few more weeks after The Clash.

The clear and crisp blue sky was a stark contrast to the dirty, wrecked, destruction-ridden town that was once calm, quiet and peaceful. Now, it looked like a tornado had gone through it. Cars were overturned, windows were shattered, and some buildings had burnt down, leaving charred remains that once served a purpose; be they banks, restaurants, offices, family fun centers. They used to be someone's livelihood. They used to be places people would go to hang out at and have fun and live their lives. Now they were abandoned and forlorn. Begging the question that if things turned back to normal – whenever that would be, (normal meaning no more killer adults) what would become of these places? Would they be nothing more than monuments leftover from when life was simple? When kids didn't have to fight the people that built these places. The people who loved them and told them that they would always protect them.

That was a question every kid wondered if they'd even live long enough to see.

Currently the only sound in Royal Woods was the sound of small footsteps coming from a small group of ten kids and the caws of crows that hovered in the air like a bad omen. Heck, everything was a bad omen: The dried bloodstains on the ground, the rotting bodies of the young and old, even the fact that the local Waffle House was closed… permanently.

One kid, however, failed to take notice. Instead he breathed in the air and exhaled like a person in an air freshener commercial sucking in air as though it were clean and not filled with death.

"Do you smell that? That's the smell of new beginnings," the boy said raising his arms level to his shoulders and turning to face the other kids who were with him.

"Are you sure it's not just your weed?" Another kid replied, sarcastically.

"I wish," he responded. "I ran out of that stuff weeks ago, now the only thing I can get high on is life."

A brown-haired, slightly short, but athletic girl at the head of the group shushed them. "You don't want to draw any of them out, do you?"

The kid shrugged. "They'd have shown their green, ugly faces by now. I think we're safe."

"For now," another kid who was also near the front of the group responded. "You can never be too certain."

"And you can never live your life constantly on edge over everything. Take a moment to smell the flowers." High-on-life kid responded.

"What flowers?" A random kid asked.

"I don't know. I'm sure they're around here somewhere. You just gotta maintain a positive attitude and keep searching."

"I wish I had your positive attitude, Shade," another boy at the front of the group who had a shaved head said.

The boy whose name was Shade Walker smiled. "The only person whose stopping you from getting that attitude is yourself, Brock."

Brock shrugged. "I gotta be constantly worried. Can't get too lax as a leader, you know. Even slightly lowering my guard can prove fatal. All it takes is one mistake to screw everything up."

"Is that really how you want to live, though?" Shade asked.

"If it means everyone else gets to, then yes."

A plastic bag scuttled across the ground, blown by the light breeze. Some kids stopped and froze when it first emerged but then chastised themselves once they realized they were nearly startled by something that was normally used to carry groceries.

"Brock's right," another kid spoke up, a kid wearing a brown, hoodless jacket and wielding a club that he'd made his weapon of choice after ditching his hammer that he was so fond of. No one knew his real name everyone just called him Speck. "All it takes is one of these things. One smart one to organize a group and launch an attack. If that happens, we might not be as lucky as last time."

"Well, they should know better than to fuck with us," the girl at the front of the group said without showing any emotion on her face – just pure determination. She was clutching a spiked club that kind of resembled a baseball bat and scanned the area, daring anything to jump out and attack her. Her name was Lynn Loud and at four feet, eleven inches; weighing in at a little over 100 lbs. she was not one to be messed with. After all, her brawn more than made up for her size, and if you messed with any of her siblings you'd be lucky to walk away with only a black eye and a few missing teeth. "All of us combined have probably killed more than the entire population Royal Woods."

Whether that was an exaggeration had yet to be seen. The fact remained though, they'd killed more than their fair share of grown-ups. More than they were comfortable with. One of the worst parts were the restless nights after they'd battled that large army of grown-ups. Every living soul in Royal Woods had pretty much been in a committed relationship with PTSD. The countless times kids had woken up screaming was evidence to that. Several kids decided to go sleep in different rooms of Royal Woods Elementary School because they couldn't take being woken up twenty times a night. There were a little more than fifty surviving kids in that school, none of them had decided to leave the school and go live somewhere else. They hadn't encountered a dangerous adult in weeks, just the occasional straggler. Even then, you couldn't be too careful around them. Even a near-dead shark will fight and bite to its last breath.

The group reached an intersection. Speck knew where they were, they were near his dad's hunting shop. Speck recalled when he'd been chased off by that large adult with the sledgehammer – The Tower, as he was called, and had been forced to abandon the shop and all the useful items that were still inside: guns, knives, food, hunting supplies. All gone because Speck had dropped the key and had been unable to find it the few times he'd returned here in the weeks following the battle with the large horde of greens, as the grown-ups were called. He figured it was gone forever. Maybe it was for the best, he didn't think he could go back and there and face his dad's corpse. Speck hoped no other kids had been forced to kill their parents.

"Heads up," someone said, and everyone looked to see a green straggling in the road. It looked more like a walker from the Walking Dead than one of the intelligent greens that could move agilely and wield weapons, which was a good sign.

Lynn looked around. A lot of the kids seemed hesitant to approach the green, while others looked to her, as if she were solely responsible for taking it out after what she'd said a few moments ago. She then met her older sister Luna's gaze. She was looking at her expectantly as well, with the hint of a smirk at the corners of her mouth. Luna was only with the group because Lynn had eagerly agreed to go with all the volunteers out into the danger zone to look for supplies, too. Lynn may have been tougher and stronger, but Luna was still her older sister and anytime she went outside, her older sister was certain to be by her side just as she had a few weeks ago when Brock led that expedition to the farm. She was the only sibling that was with her at the moment, as the others were back at the school. Safe and sound.

"Well?" Luna said, her grin was evident now on her freckled, slightly dirty face. It had been days since her – or anyone – had access to a decent shower. The elementary school they'd stayed at didn't have any showers and if someone was really desperate to clean themselves, they'd have to use water from a sink, or go to one of the nearby houses to try their showers, and no one was that frantic. Her dark-brown hair had also grown out of its pixie cut stage, thus, giving it the appearance of a teenage boy from either the late 1970's or the early 80's.

Lynn shrugged. "Don't mind if I do," she said, and began to walk up to the green like a person going up to bat during a baseball game.

"Careful," Brock said, as the young jock hastily, yet cautiously made her way over to the adult. If she heard him, she didn't acknowledge it.

The green slowly turned to her, it was a scrawny male with a long beard and overalls. There was no urgency in its movement, as if it were turning to an unseen noise rather than to someone who was about to bash its head in.

Lynn readied herself and the green lowered its head and reached out towards her, lunging at a snail's pace. She swung the bat as hard as she could and sent the green spiraling away.

"Home run!" she yelled. Everyone shushed her, but she ignored them and walked briskly back towards them. "What? Afraid I might attract more of them?"

"Yes," everyone said.

She smiled. "Good."

"This isn't a game, Lynn," Brock said, sternly.

Lynn shrugged again. "Whatever you say."

Brock sighed and told everyone to continue on. They were almost to their destination.

Luna put a hand on Lynn's shoulder. "Nice battin' sis."

Lynn smiled. "It was nothing." Which was half true. Sure, these things were no longer human, but maybe Brock was right; this wasn't a game, these things used to be human. Lynn wondered how she'd feel if someone went up to her father and yelled Fore! Before hitting him with a gold club, for example. She couldn't let herself get carried away, but at the same time, it was like a means of escape. Everyone had a coping mechanism, hers just happened to be treating everything like a game.

Her friend Cooper appeared beside her now, wielding a baseball bat with nails driven into it. He was wearing a red t-shirt, black basketball pants and white basketball sneakers that were brand new only a few months ago but were now stained dark gray from constant exposure to dirt, trash and blood. He had a smirk on his face.

"You come to complement my skills as well?" she asked, meeting him with a smirk of her own.

"Kind of," he said.

"Well…?"

"Good job."

"It was nothing," she repeated, like killing something with a club was no big dead. "It was like swatting a fly."

"That's kind of what I wanted to talk about," Cooper said. His tone changing, sounding slightly serious.

"Huh?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Well," he began, "after all the things we've done and grown-ups we've killed… do you think things will ever go back to normal? Like… do you think it's all over?"

Lynn raised an eyebrow and turned to Luna who was listening in on their conversation. She had a trepid look on her face. The jock turned back to the black boy and said. "If I've learned anything from my thirteen years of being alive, it's that nothing truly ends. That our lives are a never ending series of seasons, years and sagas. As soon as one thing ends another begins. Be it a person or an event. We always gotta be prepared. This won't end until every last one of these greens are dead. Even if we manage to accomplish that, we're gonna have to work on rebuilding society. Think about how long it took humanity to get where it was; I'm talking machines, medicine and electronics. All that crap that made us top dog, separated us from the animals. At this point, we might as well be cavemen, because that's we're we are right now – okay, maybe not as far back as the stone age, because we still have tools and knowledge. But no adults to implement them. Just us kids."

"Dang, sis," Luna said. "That's rather profound of you."

Lynn shrugged. "Give me some more credit. I've matured pretty quickly these last few months."

Cooper spoke up again. "I just want this to be over with, y'know?" I want to focus on being a kid. I want to goof off, but it looks like that ain't gonna happen; not today, not tomorrow, not next week, not even next year. I'm going to have to make peace with the fact that my childhood innocence is over. I'm pretty much an adult now. No parents or teachers to tell me what to do. Seeing as though the disease affected everyone sixteen and older, I could very well be a senior citizen."

Lynn chuckled. "You don't look that old to me."

Cooper scoffed. "I feel like I've aged one hundred years over these past few weeks. I mean, how long has it been. One month? Two months? We could all be past the life average life expectancy now."

Lynn shook her head. "I don't plan on dying anytime soon."

Their destination began to come into view; the Royal Woods Supermarket which was called Super Mart. The parking lot was still filled with cars that once belonged to shoppers who were most likely going about their day, unaware that a meteor was about to change everything. None of the cars seemed useful. The kids wondered if they'd ever find out a way to make them useful again. That meteor rendered them useless and unable to work. The only thing they'd used cars for in the last month or so was making car bombs that played a huge part in defeating that horde a few weeks ago. Wow, no one could believe they were able to pull it off. The adults outnumbered the kids and almost had them beat, but the kids were smarter and had better weapons. No doubt if Speck hadn't killed the adult he claimed was in charge of the horde, none of them would be alive.

They were now standing in front of the doors to the supermarket. They were all shattered and glass littered the ground. There were dried spots of blood on the jagged shards and red footprints leading away from the doors. There were no footprints leading into the store so that had to mean it was safe. Right?

Luna and Lynn remembered the last time they were here. Lincoln had convinced their mom to let him do the shopping so he could buy cereal called Zombie Bran (zombie, heh heh) and when they all found out that he was going they decided to accompany him. The thing is, when a boy and nine of his sisters are involved, even something as simple as a trip to the grocery store can turn into an escapade. Lincoln was just trying to get some cereal, but his sisters just had to cause a commotion that ended up getting them all banned from the store.

Of course, they all felt bad that they'd prevented Lincoln from getting his Zombie Bran after he'd worked so hard to save enough money for it, that they all went out and got him some.

Standing back in front of the store, no adults in sight, it was nice knowing that there was no one to stop them from entering. Not even a vigilant store manager.

Brock banged his weapon, a metal baseball bat, against the metal frame of the once automatic doors. The sound reverberated through the eerily quiet store.

"PENIS!" Shade shouted, his voice echoing through the store as well.

Some kids shushed him, while others snickered.

"I guess it's empty," Brock said. He threw a glance over his shoulder at the others. He put up a tough and fearless front, but everyone knew that there was no way you could walk into a new, uncharted location without feeling a little nervous. It was light outside, but the store had plenty of dark places to hide.

He took out a flashlight and stepped through the automatic doors and the rest followed a few steps behind. He shone the lit flashlight all over the place, its white orb chasing the shadows away. Something didn't seem right about the place. Speck walked beside him.

"You notice something off about all this?" Brock asked the kid who was wearing a brown, hoodless jacket despite the fact that it was fairly warm outside.

"Yeah," Speck said. "Nothing's out of order." Despite the floors being stained with blood and some debris of clothing and bones, all the shelves were neatly stocked full of food, they expected the place to be picked clean, but instead, not a single item was out of place.

"This is weird, dude," Luna said. "Who would take the time to keep this place organized?"

"I don't know?" Brock said. "I'll bet it's because the disease struck in the blink of an eye. No one had a chance to loot it, or something like that."

It made sense. This was their first time back here since the world went crazy, which had to mean no one else had been here since the start as well. Why else would there not be any greens in sight? Even the one they did see looked like it hadn't eaten anything in quite a while.

"I say we get while the getting's good," Shade said. "There's no telling when we'll find a place this stacked again."

Brock agreed. He went over to a shopping cart rack and picked one out. "Everyone split into groups, get a cart fill it with as many non-perishables and whatever else we'll find useful and meet back here once it's full."

Everyone nodded and went about their business. The store was big, but it wasn't big enough that splitting into small groups would be too dangerous.

Luna, Lynn and Cooper picked a cart to use among themselves and went over to an aisle near the end of the store, close to the produce section. The stench coming from the rotten meat was awful, but it wasn't the worst smell to ever fill their nostrils. That honor belonged to the smell that resulted in the culmination of hundreds, if not thousands of dead bodies that surrounded the school once the clash with the hordes of grown-ups had ended.

"What are we doing here?" Cooper asked.

"I don't know?" It was Lynn who answered. "I guess it's just an old habit. Whenever my mom would take me and my family here, I'd always go to the meat section. Gotta have that protein."

"Well it looks like it's gonna be a while until we have a chance to eat meat again," Cooper said, then he looked down, somberly. "It's gonna be a while until we get a chance to eat a lot of the foods we took for granted."

Lynn put her hands on her hips and nodded slowly.

A small group of three girls walked past them. "I don't know what you expect to find back here," one of them stopped and said. "It's rotten. Can't you tell?"

The trio met their gaze. "I know," Lynn said. "I just wanted to make sure."

"I don't mean to sound impudent," the girl went on, "but it's been a long time without electricity. Anyone with half a brain would know that all meat is long past it's sell-by date." She had a small smirk on her face by the end of the sentence that Lynn wanted to wipe off… with her fist.

The young jock held her gaze, the girl looked familiar, she tried to place her face.

"It's Stacey, right?" Luna asked.

The girl nodded.

Now Lynn remembered, this girl showed up at the high school when Brock and the rest saved them.

Luna continued, "Then what are you doing back here?"

"I'm gonna go look in the backroom," she said. "There's bound to be lots of food back there."

"Well, maybe you should just go do that, okay? Don't worry about us." Now it was Luna who had the smallest of smirks on her face.

Stacey's face dropped. She looked like she wanted to say something else but instead tipped her head and went along with the other girls who were with her. Luna waited until the sound of the shopping cart Stacey was pushing was out of earshot before turning back to Lynn. "Is it me or does it feel like some people have it out for us?"

Lynn shrugged. "Don't let it bother you, people will always be hating."

"Why would Stacey have it out for you?" Cooper asked.

"People don't exactly hold us in high regard," Luna answered. "I wouldn't be surprised if someone told her about some of the things that had happened over the past few weeks, before Brock's group showed up."

Cooper began to wonder. Was she referring to the fact that her younger sister Lana had gotten a lot of kids killed when she led them on that failed strike against the adults. No. Why would Stacey give a crap about that? "I think you're just being paranoid," he finally said.

"Pretty sure everyone's paranoid," Luna answered and then she began to push the cart into another aisle and stopped when something caught her eye. She smiled.

Lynn noticed this. "What?" she asked and then looked to what her older sister was fixed on. She didn't know how to feel about it.

They were in the aisle with the all the alcoholic beverages. Luna went over to a bottle of Jack Daniels and held it up, studying it. The bottle had a security cap on it, but Luna was sure she could figure out a way to remove it.

"What are you doing?" Cooper asked, accusingly.

"What?" Luna said, innocently. "People are gonna need to unwind, somehow. Plus, I'd hate to see such good alcohol go to waste."

"But you can't drink alcohol," Cooper said.

"Says who?" Luna smirked.

Cooper opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.

Lynn watched her older sister put the bottle of alcohol in the cart. She'd always suspected Luna had been drinking, even before the world had changed. All the nights she spent out with friends, all the times she'd come home late at night, then she'd stumble up the stairs like walking up them was the hardest thing in the world. Most of the time she wouldn't even bother and just crash on the couch. And when her sisters tried to confront her about it, she'd just deny it and –

A sudden high-pitched scream sounded through the entire store. It sounded like it was coming from a different room. The three kids snapped their heads toward the sound all at once, frozen.

Lynn gripped her spiked club tight and Cooper raised his bat. Luna gripped her weapon, a hatchet and forgot all about the bottle of Jack Daniels she was holding.

They saw Brock briskly rush past them at the end of the aisle followed by a few other kids who didn't seem to have his confidence. That gave Lynn all the incentive she needed, and she quickly bounded after them. Luna dropped the bottle of alcohol, it broke but didn't shatter, and went after her younger sister. Cooper followed as well.

Brock reached a set of double doors that led into the backroom of the store. He stormed through them and was met with darkness, he shone his flashlight towards where he heard a commotion and was greeted by the sight of a bloodied body coming towards him. He raised his bat but quickly realized it was a girl. She was one of the girls who grouped with Stacey, her name was Nina, she was wearing white clothes that were stained red, and had a crazy look in her eyes.

"Nina," he called out and went to her, she collapsed in his arms. "What happened?"

She was sobbing. Tears were streaming down her face, washing away the blood that was seeping through a wound on her forehead. She lifted a weak, trembling hand towards something and Brock looked to see a body being dragged away. By now more kids had entered the backroom. Brock gingerly helped Nina up and led her to some other kids. "Take her outside and look for a First Aid Kit or something," he told two kids in particular, they nodded and led Nina away.

Brock angrily looked back in the direction he'd seen the body being dragged away and gripped his bat.

"We should get outta here," Shade said, taking a few steps back.

"No," Brock simply said. "Nina wasn't alone. Stacey and Bria were with her too, they could need our help." He looked at everyone, there were twelve kids that had gone with him on this expedition, so thirteen altogether. Nina and the two kids were away, Stacey and Bria were missing, so that meant it was eight of them against an unseen enemy. They all looked unsure. He tried to see who looked the least scared. Speck looked eager to help, as did Lynn. He asked Speck and Lynn to follow him. They both nodded.

"I'll help too," Luna spoke and stepped up.

"Same here," Cooper then said.

Brock nodded and then told the others to wait outside the doors to make sure whatever was in the room didn't escape. They all nodded and hurried out of the room.

Brock aimed his light at the floor. It was stained with blood, dry blood. Which meant that other people must have previously died here. He then slowly rose the light. There were several piles of boxes that were stacked higher than his head. It gave the room a maze-like appearance, it was rather disorienting, but Brock was able to keep his bearings about him.

"This way," he said and began to walk slowly but surely to where he'd seen the body being dragged away. He and the others were cautious as they passed by the stacks of boxes, making sure nothing would jump out at them. Soon, they reached and slowly peered around the stack where Brock had seen the body being dragged away. He saw a pair of legs sticking out from behind another stack of boxes. Brock recognized the shoes of the person. It was Stacey.

"Stacey," he silently called out.

No response.

He called out again, a little louder this time.

Still nothing.

"Is she…?" Cooper couldn't even finish his sentence.

"Only one way to find out," Brock responded.

He slowly made his way towards Stacey. Vigilantly looking out for the unseen danger. If whatever was responsible for hurting Nina was still in here, there was no way he was going to leave here without making sure he killed it.

Lynn was right behind him, practically breathing down his back. He had to hold out an arm to keep her from getting any closer. He admired her aspiration to help, but no way was he going to let anyone get ahead of him. He was the leader, no was else was going to die on his watch.

He was only a few feet away from Stacey before he spoke again. When he got no response again, he braced himself for what he was about to see. But he wasn't able to because as soon as he started to peek around the stack a large shape pounced from behind the same stack and roared.

Everyone screamed as Brock stumbled backwards, nearly falling over. He aimed his flashlight up and caught a quick glimpse of the culprit. It had green skin (of course); short, black hair that resembled a faux hawk; a thick mustache that angled downward; and glasses with cracked lens'. It raised its right arm, it was holding a weird-looking hammer that Brock had never seen before.

Brock swore and leapt backwards as the green swung the hammer down. The teen ended up backing into Lynn and both he and her fell backwards. The green began to storm forward, roaring and raising the hammer again. Luna and Cooper quickly helped Lynn up while Brock struggled to get up.

The green began to swing the hammer down again, Brock braced himself. Just then, Speck swung his club and knocked the hammer out of the greens hand it bounced off a stack of boxes and landed back in front of the furious grown-up. The green roared and snatched it of the ground while Speck helped Brock to his feet. The green lunged at them, but Brock managed to knock down one of the many stacks of boxes onto the adult, burying and pinning him to the floor. They seized their chance to escape.

They made it outside the double doors where Shade and two other kids who'd waited outside still remained, frozen in place, too scared to run off.

"Let's get out of here!" Cooper urged.

"No!" Brock said, firmly. "There's only one of him and eight of us. We can handle him better out here."

They heard heavy footsteps rapidly approaching. Angry footsteps, like the footsteps you'd hear from outside your room when a parent was approaching to discipline you.

Finally, the green bursts through the door, like the Kool-Aid man busting through a wall. Only instead of a pitcher of cherry Kool-Aid he was wielding his bloody hammer. He continued to roar and swing his hammer around in circles like it was a sparkler.

All of the kids screamed and backed up, one even ran away. Brock stood firm, though. Th adult was in a fury, no rhyme or reason to his swings. Luna and Lynn recognized the adult. He was the manager of this store, even in his state of disarray he had refused to leave this store. It had been his whole life, and he wouldn't let these hooligans ruin it.

Brock waited until the green swung his hammer in a direction away from him and then sprang for the attack. The adult wasn't fast enough to react and was taken down with one swing of Brock's bat.

An almighty meaty and metallic bonk filled the kids ears and the adult fell, the store he was so fond of was now the place of his demise.

Brock hit him again and again for good measure, it wasn't until brain matter began to ooze from his crushed skull that the boy was satisfied.

They all stood around and stared at the corpse. The commotion had died down and was replaced by the sound of everyone's heavy breathing. Speck then stepped forward and picked up the hammer that the adult was holding, the dead green still had a good hold on it and Speck had to pry his fingers from it.

He studied it in the dim light. "Well here's something you don't see every day," he said, rather amused.

"What?" Brock asked.

Speck showed everyone the weapon. "Do you know what this is?"

"A hammer?" Brock presumed.

"Not just any hammer," Speck said. "It's a stunning hammer."

"Huh?" Brock and everyone else had confused looks on their faces.

"Back then, whenever people slaughtered animals and livestock they'd always hit the animals on the heads with hammers or mallets to knock them unconscious before doing the deed."

Everyone winced. "That's sick," Luna said.

Speck shrugged. He couldn't deny how messed up it was, but at the same time, it reminded him of how before the world changed, everyone would just buy and consume meat products without thinking about what the ultimate price was for said products. It was something everyone blocked out of their heads, just like no liked to think of famine, disease or wars at different countries. If it wasn't affecting them then they didn't care. Only now, everyone cared. No one could turn a blind eye to anything anymore. If they did it could very well cost them their own lives.

"So, you're saying this man was slaughtering kids like cattle?" Brock said.

"It definitely looks that way."

Everyone just stood frozen. This was just another grim reminder of the world they lived in. That no matter what, they would be nothing but prey to these adults and the only way to change that was to kill them before they themselves, were slaughtered.

"Let's go check with the others," Brock said, trying his best to keep his voice firm. He walked away, and the others followed. Speck remained at the back of the group. He took one last look at the tool in his hand and then threw it aside.

Up at the front of the store. They met the two kids, plus the one who'd run off earlier, standing in front of Nina, looking down at the girl pitifully, an open but unused First Aid Kit lie next to them.

"What are you doing?" Brock said to the kids. "Don't just stand there. Help her."

"We can't," one of them simply said. "She's dead."

"How do you know?"

"We just do," the other one answered. He didn't sound upset when he spoke, just disappointed. After all the death every kid had seen, a lot of them had grown indifferent to it.

Brock swore and shoved them aside. He checked Bria for a pulse and sure enough there was none.

It was quiet for a few seconds before Shade broke the awkward silence. "What should we do?"

Brock stood up and sniffed before finally speaking. "Help me put her body in a cart. Then we'll go retrieve Stacey's body and try and find Bria's. We'll bury them when we get back. But first we have to get this shopping done.

Luna and Lynn looked at each other and then went to help Brock recover the bodies. No doubt they'd hug their siblings just a little bit tighter when they got back to the school.

Several miles away.

Twelve-year-old Roxy Townsend ran through the streets of her destroyed and forlorn town, tears were traveling across her face and past her ears because of how fast she was running. It had all happened so fast. One minute she and her friends were all feeling truly alive for the first time in over a month. No adults had been spotted for days, they had plenty of food and fun little activates to get them through their days. Everyone was getting along at the small bar that she and her fellow survivors had managed to stay holed up in. But then those teenagers… those monsters, had ruined everything. They'd come out of nowhere, slaughtered everyone without hesitation or remorse.

Which just left her. She'd managed to barely slip past a few of them without being noticed, but when a pack of adults had appeared out of nowhere, her cover was blown. Now she was being chased by a group of angry teens and a pack of hungry adults.

Roxy wasn't wearing any shoes when the teens had attacked and all she had on her feet were a pair of socks that were now dirty and filled with holed at the bottom. Her soles were all cut up from running on sidewalks and pavement, and her sides were hurting from all the running she'd been doing in the last couple of minutes.

She stopped and caught her breath when she was sure she was a good distance away from her pursuers. Resting her back against a mailbox, she panted as quietly as she could, afraid that any breath would alert those monsters to her position. She shut her eyes tight and managed to fight back the bile that was rising in her stomach.

She took some more deep breaths and fought back the visions of her friends being slaughtered. The panic in her chest began to rise again and she suddenly felt reinvigorated to start running again.

Run.

That's all Roxy wanted to do. Run away and get as far away from this place and those people as possible. She broke into another sprint and rounded a corner to a shop when suddenly a body filled her entire vision and a sharp stinging pain filled her stomach. She let out a small gasp and her legs went limp. Before she could collapse to the ground. The body in front of her grabbed under her arm with one hand to keep her from falling and stepped back.

She looked up to see a pale, grinning face looking down at her. It was a boy. Sixteen by the looks of it, which couldn't be possible. Roxy's group had deduced that the disease affected people over the age of fifteen, turning their skin into a sickly green color. So either this kid was older than he looked, or was somehow immune to whatever turned the grown-ups into monsters. He had a shaved head, dark-brown eyes and was wearing dark clothing.

He leaned in and whispered. "Didn't run fast enough."

Roxy then looked down and saw that she'd been stabbed. The older boy then removed the large knife from her and let her fall to the ground.

Tears were flowing freely from the scared, injured girl as the older teen wiped the blade on her pants, then put it back in its sheath. He then grabbed Roxy by the hair and began to drag her away. The girl could do nothing but stare up at the sky as lines of darkness began to circle her vision and swallow it up like a black hole.

Which it did.

Roxy had only known the bliss of the abyss for a few precious moments before she felt herself being lifted up and then slammed down on something metallic. It sounded like a car hood. Roxy gave out a small cry but was still powerless to move. She just wanted this all to be over.

She heard what sounded like a seal barking in the distance, which was weird because they didn't live near a zoo.

Suddenly more teens were looking down at her, all of them just as sinister looking as the one who'd stabbed her. Some stepped aside as a girl with brown hair and hazel-colored eyes appeared and looked down at Roxy with a look that seemed to display sympathy.

Roxy just looked at her with what she was sure were pleading eyes. The girl lifted a hand and rubbed Roxy's cheek with the back of hand like a mother would to a sleeping child.

Roxy whimpered, but the girl just softly, shushed her. "Don't worry, sweetie. It'll all be over soon.

The twelve-year-old heard the sound of something being scribbled on paper, then heard the boy who'd stabbed her ask if someone was done writing it down. Whatever "it" was.

"Yeah, I'm done," the person responded.

"Good," the boy with the shaved head said and then turned his attention back to Roxy and, without missing a beat, took out a machete and brought it down on Roxy's neck.

The little girl was conscious and aware of everything as her head rolled down the hood of the car and then slammed down on the ground. She blinked a few times, her vision becoming blurry from the tears, she wanted to bring a hand up to wipe them away but couldn't feel anything from the neck down.

And then she couldn't feel or see anything at all.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was a little shorter than most, mainly because I'm just stalling for time until The Doom arrives.

I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible. Not sure when, though. Because like I said, I'm stalling.