I wrote this mini-story when I was bored (thus the direction it is going in might not make sense)... So yeah, enjoy! Please note: When I refer to an anonymous person as "he" I'm actually referring to the protagonist (the main character) but I changed it now – this is the prologue of a character from my "Where Angels Lose Their Way" fanfic. (PLEASE READ IT TOO!)
The Clip
DAY 1
The pistol lay in his hands... the chrome finish made it seem like a work of art, a dark contrast when compared to the blood dripping down the nozzle and onto his hands.
He had used this pistol many times the last few days, after those things had broken from the sewers and out of no where, he and a group of friends had attempted to escape... but to no avail...
It was cold, too cold to be outside that night. The freeze seemed to take his breath away and he was shuddering from the lack of a sweater or jacket, something he desperately needed. Regardless, tonight was going to be a night he'd never forget.
He had no idea.
The plan was to take his dad's rifle up to the forest with his friends and get drunk, shoot some squirrels, trees, whatever. Maybe get laid. He had five friends, 2 guys and three girls. His closest friend was named John and he was 19, the other guy was named Matt and he barely knew Matt, only that he was 17 and was a close friend of John's, so he had invited him. The three girls, in order of age, were Janice, 16, Erika, 19, and Mariko, 20. Mariko was the same age as him, and he had to admit that he had a major crush on her ever since he had first laid eyes on her. She had brown eyes and waist-long black hair. He had secretly hoped something like this would happen sometime.
So he had "borrowed" his father's rifle, and grabbed the handgun his father had given him for his birthday when he was 18. Along with those he had stuck the 46 rifle rounds and the 4 cartons of 9 mm rounds for the pistol.
Then he had bought some beer and liquor, as well as some Coke, and John supplied the car. They had driven as far up into the forest as they could, then got out of the car and started walking into the forest, Erika and John chatting amongst themselves and Janice glancing shyly over at Matt. Matt wasn't that bad of a kid, he had brown/black hair and these freaky blue eyes, it looked like they were yellow around the pupils and whenever he stared right at you he gave you the shivers, merely because it seemed like he could tell you were lying just by looking at you.
Matt seemed absorbed in some deep thought, his hands in his jeans pockets and the eyes cast on the ground, seemingly totally ignoring Janice. The only hint he gave to her attention was that he grabbed her by the shoulder, saying, "watch it," before she tripped over a protruding tree root.
Janice was a cute kid; he'd say she was hot if she wasn't only 16. She had the oddest hair; it was so orange that it seemed to be cherry-red. Her hair went down to her shoulders and every time she walked it swayed and brushed against her cheeks. Her eyes were black, so dark that if you stared into them long enough you could quite possibly be afraid of getting sucked in.
Mariko was far ahead of the group; she had gotten to a clearing and was standing there, looking back at the rest of the group. She had a smug grin on her face and she was gently tapping her thigh with her right hand. When he got to the clearing, he knew why.
John had selected the site, and this was because a small cabin was sitting in the middle of the woods, waiting for an occupant.
"How long have you known about this place, man?" he asked John.
"Oh, let's see... a few days now," said John as he shrugged.
"Well, it's kinda perfect... thanks John," chirped Erika, her smile was more than friendly and everyone could tell what would undoubtedly happen this evening.
"So... what're we gonna do?" asked Mariko, who was looking around the group.
He swore, "Damn it! We forgot the booze," and glanced around at everyone, Mariko seemed a bit disappointed.
"Whatever, I'll get it," Matt said, heading back towards the car quickly.
"I'll come with," Janice said, stopping Matt in his tracks.
"You sure?" Matt asked, a curious edge to his voice.
"Yeah, nobody here's as close to my age... if you don't mind..." she said shyly as they headed down the path. This time they were talking to each other, both seemed to enjoy the other's company.
As they disappeared from sight, John walked over to a wooden bench and shouldered the rifle.
Of course John would remember the gun over the beer.
He, himself, dug into his coat pocket and pulled out the pistol. He aimed it at a tree, squeezing the trigger. A loud bang echoed through the forest as the gun kicked back and ripped into the tree's bark. John jumped to his feet, swearing.
"Holy shit! You scared the shit outta me!" John said as he shouldered the rifle butt and aimed at a tree. Just before he fired, however, a huge smile crossed his lips and he changed targets, aiming into the bush at an animal he had spotted. When he pulled the trigger there was a loud bang and a disgusting slish as the bullet ripped into the target.
"Yikes, I think you got it in the head," he said, slapping John on the shoulder.
"Yeah, but what was it?" John asked, walking over to the target.
When he got there, he gasped and dropped the rifle, falling over and scrambling on his hands and knees a few meters away from the target.
"What? John quit being such a freak," he said, heading over to the dead animal.
Only when he got there, John sputtered and yelled, running back nearer to Erika. He saw that the "dead animal" wasn't actually an animal, on the contrary.
It was a man.
The man was oddly red, as if he had shed a layer of skin, and the blast of the rifle had blown out the back of the skull, leaving skull fragments trailing a few feet away from the dead man. On top of that, the man was naked and had large claws on his fingers...
Something wasn't right. He could hear shuffling in the woods beyond the dead man. He took a few steps back, and then he saw them. Two men were stumbling towards him, one man was missing an arm and the other had a large wound across his stomach. Neither could have possibly been alive after the wounds they had taken.
Now the men reached out, the man with the stomach wound's guts spilled out at the movement and he had to hold himself back from puking.
"Get back," he heard himself say, pulling back the hammer of the handgun and aiming for the nearest one's head. They kept coming, shuffling and moaning now.
He couldn't help it, he freaked out... he pulled the trigger. With a loud bang the head of the nearest walking corpse exploded wetly, sloshing the ground around him as the body fell to the ground.
The other corpse kept coming, causing him to take a step backwards. He kept stepping backwards, counting his steps before he fell over something.
"Damn," he swore as he hit the ground.
The corpse was nearly standing over him when he heard a second gun shot, this one from behind him. The shot caught the corpse in the neck; sending the body reeling back and making it collapse. This gave him enough time to stand again and run backwards.
His first view was of John standing with the rifle aimed at the corpse. John wore an angry glare on his face with Erika cringing behind him. Then he noticed something.
"Where's Mariko?" he asked, worry entering his voice.
"Well... I dunno man, maybe she's inside," John said, keeping the rifle aimed at the corpse while he reloaded it and slammed the lock home while he watched the corpse.
He ran inside, kicking open the door in desperation. There she was, curled up on the couch with her knees pulled up to her chin, tears streaming down his face.
The cabin was nicely furnished. But a large couch occupied the center of the cabin; this was the couch Mariko was crying on.
"Are you alright?" he asked, sitting next to her and hugging her.
"I... I guess so. I wasn't hurt or anything... just scared," she said, clinging to him as she cried on his shoulder.
They both jumped to their feet when they heard another gunshot and Erika scream. When they ran outside the corpse was closer to the cabin and another large bullet hole was bleeding in the corpse's chest.
"What the hell?" He asked.
"Well... the thing just sorta got up again, man," John explained, ramming another rifle bullet into the barrel and slamming the lock shut. The corpse started to get up again, as if to prove John's statement.
"What the fuck?" He said as he aimed the handgun at the corpse's head and pulled the trigger. The head exploded just like the one before it and Mariko screamed as a dribble of gore smacked him in the face, running down his forehead and across his nose to fall off the chin.
The corpse stayed dead and John started for the trail.
"Where the fuck are you going John?" he yelled. John stopped in his tracks and turned around.
"We've gotta get outta here! You think that if we report this they'll believe that we didn't kill these men? Damn it, man! We've got one shot to the head in one guy and two rifle shots and another shot to the head with the other guy! We're screwed, man!" John started freaking out, grabbing Erika and starting to head for the trail.
"Don't do this man! We both know these aren't human! How many more could there be out there?" he said.
This seemed to register, because John turned white and stopped in his tracks, looking back at corpse. Then John turned around and walked back towards the cabin. When he got there, another thought entered his mind.
"What about Janice and Matt?" John asked.
"He should take care of her... he seems like the kind of guy to do that. Hopefully they can make it back," he answered.
They went inside, one of them watching the door at all times. After a while everyone could hear shuffling somewhere in the woods. He grabbed the pistol and John took up the rifle, each of them choosing a side of the door.
"Please be Matt and Janice, please be Matt and Janice, please be Matt and Janice..." he could hear John chanting, as if those words would make a difference.
"Go!" he shouted as they both ran out the door, swinging their guns up and aiming in the direction of the shuffling and watching for any signs of life.
They saw the shufflers, but they weren't living.
Ten more of those walking corpses were walking along the path, dried blood caked their mouths and hands and they shuffled along, some missing arms, other's had gaping holes in their bodies. All of them seemed hostile.
"Great... pick and shoot," he said as he aimed at the nearest one's head.
Pulling the trigger he saw the head explode, and then John fired and another corpse's head exploded in a fountain of gore. He aimed and shot again; another corpse fell to the ground, this one with a bullet in the groin. John shot another in the head. He shot another in the chest. Before long a majority of the corpses were on the floor, however a few were standing again, the only ones with heads were able to get up and continue, moaning and reaching for them.
Suddenly they heard a voice behind them and the roar of an engine as a military hummer bearing a segmented star with the letters "S.T.A.R.S." under it. Inside were a few men, each wearing a uniform bearing the same logo.
Two of the men, armed with assault rifles, jumped out of the hummer and fired on the corpses, while another man motioned for the group to enter the hummer. They did this happily when more walking corpses started pouring out of the woods. The two men were overwhelmed and they had to leave them behind, one of the men threw out a few grenades, which exploded and took the men and some corpses with them.
The hummer wheeled out of the forest, leaving the pack of corpses moaning and shambling after it. Once the hummer was out of the forest they came to a bunker, where they stayed for the night. The men gave them each a room and they met up with two seemingly lost friends. There lay Matt and Janice, cuddled up together at the foot of a bed while a soldier sat near them, his hands on a rifle that lay in his lap while he watched the door.
A man in a bright blue "S.T.A.R.S." uniform with the military markings of a captain greeted them.
"I'm Captain-Major Steedes. From the looks of you guys, you've run into Umbrella's "projects" we like to call them zombies since they fit the description so adequately. We found these two," he motioned to Matt and Janice, "in a tree with around twelve zombies under it. We killed the zombies and they came down, however they haven't left each other's company since," Captain-Major Steeds said as he walked back inside the farthest room and sat down on a rickety wooden chair and began cleaning his pistol.
He sat down on a bed, Mariko sitting next to him and cuddling up, blushing as she glanced at Matt and Janice. John and Erika stood in a corner, John still holding the rifle in his hands while they talked in hushed whispers.
After a few tense moments, everyone was ordered to go to sleep, that the "S.T.A.R.S." soldiers would stand watch as the "civilians" slept.
Thus ended the first day of the most horrifying few days of "His" life....