I decided to include a reference to Billy Mays in the chapter title. You probably remember him back when he was still alive. No worries, I don't think he's become a zombie.
I figured I would include a Boomer in this chapter. Can you guess whose going to fall victim to it?
It's not Rick, of course, he's kind of a main character.
Chapter 2: Kaboom! And He's Gone!
Dale looked at Daisy with curiosity.
"You managed to find a little girl in the city?" asked Dale. Personally he was glad that the walkers didn't find her first. The thought of a child being eaten by walkers unnerved him greatly.
"We figured it would be a good idea to take her with us. Besides, I think she's immune to the virus." answered Bill.
"She is? How do you know?" inquired the old man.
"We've picked up some medical expertise from all the first aid kits we used." explained Louis. It wasn't hard for them to find for some reason.
"Maybe I should call you Grandpa." noted Daisy.
Her grandfather had probably already been eaten by zombies already, so she might as well.
Had any of her family survived?
Nearby, the female survivors of the group did the laundry by the creek, hoping to make sure that everyone was clean.
It was a good idea, considering that bad smells could attract hungry walkers.
At that very moment, Zoey spotted them.
"Do you need help? Though to be honest, housework isn't really my thing." noted Zoey.
"Welcome to my world." answered Andrea. She considered doing guard duty, but she was worried she might end up shooting a member of her group by accident.
Suddenly, Ed showed up.
The women groaned...except for Zoey.
"Who is this?" asked Zoey.
She didn't know who he was, but he seemed like a real jerk.
"This is Ed. He's been abusing Carol for years." noted Lori.
She was glad that Rick never treated her like that personally. Shane treated her well though as well, so to be honest, he seemed kind of unhappy that Rick had turned out to still be alive.
It was ironic, considering that Shane had attempted to prevent the walkers from eating him previously. It turned out to have worked.
Neither did Shane, though technically speaking they weren't actually married. She had only slept with Shane when she thought her husband was dead...and he had proven himself to still be alive.
"How repulsive." answered Zoey.
Sure enough, Ed slapped Carol in the face.
"Where's my dinner?" asked Ed.
"I'm busy!" exclaimed Carol.
Luckily, Sophia wasn't there to see it...but that wasn't the case a lot of the time.
"That was uncalled for." spoke the youngest of the four Left 4 Dead survivors.
"What are you going to do about it?" asked Ed.
Zoey pushed him to the ground and stood on his chest.
"Damn! You're stronger than you look!" exclaimed the man.
Perhaps he shouldn't be so sexist.
"Are you going to keep treating the women here as beneath you? Or do I have to get violent?" asked Zoey.
Ed noticed that Zoey was in possession of a firearm. Two, to be precise.
Perhaps it would be best for him if Zoey didn't get violent.
"No! No!" exclaimed Ed. Though he wasn't necessarily intelligent, he knew better to mess with a person who had one pistol, let alone two.
"Good." answered Zoey.
Zoey decided to step off of him.
Later, at night...
The survivors huddled around a campfire.
Ed hadn't been invited, since he had been a jerk to basically all the women.
Instead, he was by himself in a tent.
Little did they know that now was not a time to be telling campfire stories. It was more like a time to panic.
As Ed lied in his tent, he began to hear noises.
"Whose there?" asked Ed.
Was it Carol again? He was under the impression that she wouldn't want to visit him again for the rest of the night. Especially since he had consumed some wine while he was inside the tent.
Perhaps it was Sophia? Although, he wouldn't be surprised if Carol had told her to stay away from him.
But as it turned out, it wasn't a fellow survivor, but a Boomer.
"That's the fattest zombie that I've ever seen." remarked Carol's abusive husband. Just how much human flesh had he been eating?
Apparently this zombie was as disgusted with him as everyone else was, as he proceeded to vomit on him.
"Ugh! That is disgusting!" exclaimed Ed, who was now covered with boomer bile.
It was a good thing that his wife had washed his clothes earlier that day. He had ordered his wife to do so quickly.
Shortly afterwards the Boomer had vomited on him, walkers suddenly swarmed his tent.
The last thing he had heard was his very own scream...and the occasional zombie growl.
Curious, Andrea wondered if she had heard screaming.
However, the other survivors didn't seem to notice.
They were busy roasting marshmallows on a campfire.
Carl was by his mother's side.
Rick decided to examine his surroundings if he saw anything suspicious.
As much fun as it would be to roast marshmallows on a campfire, he figured that in a world full of hungry zombies, one should never take their safety for granted.
Shane was sitting by Lori...and was happy that Rick wasn't sitting next to Lori.
"Has anyone seen the toilet paper?" asked Amy.
Toilet paper turned out to be the least of her worries.
Suddenly, the Boomer that had killed Ed earlier vomited on Amy.
It turned out Rick was right not to take their safety for granted.
"Scratch that. Has anyone seen the paper towels?" inquired the younger sister of Andrea. She was going to want a long bath after this.
Amy wasn't sure why the zombie wasn't trying to eat her...but apparently this zombie was already well-fed.
And yet, something told her that she shouldn't be celebrating just yet.
Of course, Zoey's reaction also gave that sort of implication.
Zoey gasped in alarm, and her eyes widened with fear.
"What's wrong?" asked Amy. This walker didn't seem dangerous...all it did was vomit on people. Sure was unpleasant though.
But as it turned it out, it was.
"That Boomer just vomited on you! We need to wash you off, now!" exclaimed Zoey.
"Why?" asked Amy.
Nearby, the walkers began to notice the lady who was covered with such a delicious appetizer.
They began to close in on her.
"OK, I get it! Grab the paper towels!" exclaimed Amy.
Zoey nodded and went to do just that.
"Did one of the scary stories we told at the campfire just come true?" asked Daisy.
"Basically." answered Carl. It was a good thing his father had told him how to use a gun. It was only for emergencies, of course, but now was definitely one of those times.
Fortunately, Rick shot the Boomer before it could do any more harm.
Unsurprisingly, it exploded into a shower of zombie bile.
"What...just happened?" asked Rick.
Perhaps it would be best if they shot it at a distance. Hitting it with an axe would have the same effect as if it had vomited on them.
Nearby, Louis and Francis began to shoot the zombies.
"Everyone get to safety!" warned Louis.
"What's the big deal? We'll only need about a dozen bullets to take care of these walkers at the most." answered Jim. They just died so easily.
Suddenly, a Hunter pounced on top of him.
Before Jim knew what had hit him, the Hunter slit his throat with his claws.
"Jim!" exclaimed Jacqui.
Shortly afterwards, a walker bit her in the neck.
She succumbed to blood loss almost instantly.
Andrea gasped. It seemed that her friends were dropping like flies.
Fortunately, it seemed that they were regaining control of the situation.
Perhaps they wouldn't suffer any more casualties.
Merle was having an eager time fighting off the walkers.
"I sure as hell ain't becoming zombie food!" exclaimed Merle.
"Merle, try to stay focused." warned Daryl. Losing focus could get you killed in this sort of world.
Dale wondered if they should have Merle be a part of their group.
T-Dog didn't seem to like him for one.
And he probably wasn't going to mourn Jacqui's death, either.
But he was helping them fight off the zombies, so he wouldn't object for the time being.
Glenn shot the walkers with his pistol.
He was lucky he was fast on his feet.
For some strange reason people compared him to someone called The Scout.
But who could that possibly be?
A few hours later...
Fortunately for the survivors, they managed to kill all the walkers that had attacked them. Fortunately, there weren't too many of them to handle, especially with Francis, Zoey, Bill, and Louis on their side. They were basically zombie killing machines.
However, their safety in the woods was questionable at best. They didn't know whether there were more walkers or not. Either way, it would be safer if they didn't stay in the same place for too long.
Perhaps there was another Boomer lurking in the forest somewhere. Being vomited on a zombie was disgusting in itself, but the fact that it attracted more walkers meant that they could potentially end up with a horde on their hands.
Morgan had warned Rick of the dangers of a horde, and he turned out to be right. He had also warned him of the dangers of car alarms. Before they were useful for preventing theft...but now they were stealing people's lives.
Speaking of which, Rick wondered how Morgan was doing. He seemed to be able to survive the zombie apocalypse so far, but on the other hand, he hadn't found any other survivors to help keep him alive. It was just him and his son.
Maybe it would be best if they left the forest and looked for somewhere more secure.
"I didn't think gathering around the campfire would turn out so violent..." noted Andrea. One minute they were roasting marshmallows and the next they were trying to avoid being eaten like marshmallows.
"Well, the fact is, we've suffered a few casualties. Jim and Jacqui are both dead...and so is Ed, but I don't think any of us really cared about him." noted Lori.
"I sure didn't." nodded Carol. He had been abusing her before the zombie apocalypse. Chances are the zombie apocalypse would have made it worse. Perhaps it was good that he was no longer with them.
Sophia actually seemed relieved by her father's death. Besides, she didn't like his alcohol-scented breath. Why did he drink so much anyway? Was booze really that refreshing?
"It would be a good idea if we prevented them from reanimating." noted Rick. They didn't want another walker attack in their near future...though they had suffered minimal casualties.
Carl nodded. He was pretty sure that none of them wished to be a walker, anyway.
Fortunately, he had a knife for such an occasion.
Using the knife, he stabbed Jim and Jacqui in the head.
It made him feel uncomfortable...but he doubted Jim and Jacqui wanted to become zombies. Cannibalism was frowned upon in most societies.
Carol decided to do the job with her husband herself.
She seemed to enjoy the job, as she chopped Ed with an axe multiple times. More than was necessary to prevent a reanimation, that was for sure.
Zoey noted to herself that revenge was sweet.
Sophia wasn't sure whether she should watch or not. Perhaps she was better off with her dad being gone. But who would be the father figure in her life now that Ed was six feet under?
Andrea was very grateful to Zoey for saving her sister.
"Is it just me, or is the virus mutating? There was something off about the zombie that vomited on my sister..." questioned Andrea.
She didn't recall walkers being so...fat.
"That was a Boomer. They vomit on their victims, which causes zombies to swarm them." explained Francis.
And to make matters worse, they vomited on them so much that it induced temporary blindness, making it all the harder to fight off the zombies without help from other survivors.
It had happened to him a few times and it was never fun. And in addition to the blindness, it increased the risks of being attacked by other special infected. They seemed to pay attention whenever that happened.
"Was that why Ed's corpse was covered in vomit?" asked Carol. She found that to be most unusual. Normally a walker didn't vomit on its victims before killing them, it just ate them without any seasonings.
"Most likely." answered Zoey. Considering how disgusting of a person he was, she found his ultimate fate to be somewhat ironic.
She also explained about the Hunter that had leaped upon Jim. Apparently, they could leap like kangaroos. And compared to other zombies, they were rather quiet.
Generally, it was best to stay together if they heard one growling. Otherwise, they had no real way of defending themselves from them.
Lori wondered if the zombies were getting stronger.
If so, this could make surviving the zombie apocalypse more difficult.
It was weird. Back in the early days of the outbreak, there were only weak zombies that shuffled around.
But nowadays it seemed that the zombies had adapted to hunting prey.
Fortunately, it seemed that there was a lab nearby that they could enter to find safety.
"Maybe it's our lucky day." noted Sophia.
"Maybe..." answered Carl.
But something scared him about that place.
The survivors didn't know what exactly people had been studying in that lab.
But there was a person inside.
They would need to ask him if he would let them in.
"Can you let us in?" asked Daisy.
Jenner thought about this for a moment.
They could be hostile survivors. He wasn't a psychologist (he had chosen a different career, which was being a scientist), but he knew that zombies drove people crazy.
But considering he already had a death wish at that point, it didn't really matter to him.
"I warn you, once I close the door, it's not going to open again." warned Jenner.
The survivors shrugged and asked him for shelter anyway.
Reluctantly, he accepted.
Personally he wondered why they were trying so hard to stay alive.
It simply perplexed him.
Little did he know that he would find out the reason soon...
You probably noticed that I changed the casualties for the walker attack a bit. I figured that i should take creative liberties like the TV show writers did. That's why I didn't kill Amy...I still killed off Ed though because nobody really likes him, am I right?
Any suggestions as to what characters you would like to appear? I figured I would add my own original characters but canon characters are certainly welcome. I already know at some level what characters I'll feature in this fanfic but I'm still open to ideas.
In the next chapter...our heroes are going to try avoid being blown up.