When Darin got home, his mom had been at work. He went about his usual business, doing his homework, playing videogames, etc. He had gotten a little freaked out while playing Resident Evil, and decided to call someone. He tried his grandma first, there was no answer. Darin had been a bit of a panic-attack, so he fended off his nervousness and tried to call his friend Garret. No one he called was home. He knew he shouldn't worry, however, his mom hadn't been home or called and it was already 8'o'clock. Darin didn't think much of it, suppressing a feeling of dread, telling himself it was nothing. Burbank was completely safe. It had the best police force in LA, which made him feel that much safer. There was nothing uneasy in Burbank. Nothing at all. BRIINNGGG The phone rang, scaring him shitless. Probably mom calling to say she went out and got a drink with Natasha or something like that the sound of his own, cynical voice soothing his ravaged nerves. "hello?" he said picking up the phone. "Darin? … it's Jeff. Please, come… over. I think your gonna want to see this." Jeff Gonzales, his good friend said shakily into the phone. "Dude? Are you okay? What's wrong?" "JUST GET THE FUCK OVER HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Jeff snapped frantically. "And Darin? …bring weapons." He said calming down. "…Okay. But my mom's not home. If she gets home and finds that I'm gone, she'll have a heart attack!" Darin said, a little scared. "Darin, listen. Your mom probably ISN'T coming back, ok? Now just GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!!!!!!" Jeff yelled, a tinge of frustration mixed in with the fear in his voice. Darin had heard sirens and gunshots earlier, but for Christ's sake, this was LA! That's common place here! But something about Jeff's tone, and the sirens , gave him the definite impression that something was very, very wrong. He stuffed a guitar case with anything he could find that could be of any use to him; his baseball bat, a butcher knife, a mallet, and a paintball gun loaded with marbles, and stuffed his cell phone in his pocket. He went outside, everything looking a little weird. A couple dying fires, some people shambling around, not your average Burbank that's for sure. Not sure what his next move should be, he walked up to the closest man, who was wearing a suit and tie, he seemed ragged though. "Ummm excuse me, but… what's going on? Are you ok?" Darin asked him, a little unsure of himself. "Urrnnnnggghhhhhhh" the man complained. Darin looked at him a little closer, and began to notice the blood stains on his clothes, his cadaverous, grey skin, and the smell. The man smelled like a bowl of rotten fruit. Sounds familiar eh 'Dary'? Rotted skin, bloody clothes, smells like shit, fucking DEAD eyes, JESUS CHRIST RUN YOU STUPID SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "No…" he breathed. Resident Evil 2, Dawn of the Dead, House of the Dead 2 his mind babbled. "grrrrraaaaruuuoohhhhhgghhh" the man insisted. Darin backed away, suddenly aware that a crowd was closing in on him, thousands of decayed, cold, gray, dead hands, countless soulless dead faces, waiting to fucking devour him-" FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!" Darin yelled, his trance broken by the chorus of desperately hungry moans, and gurgling howls, he broke into a sprint, ducking through the crowd, running down Pass avenue. Darin kept sprinting through Burbank, fueled by adrenaline, he didn't stop. He ran for all he was worth, until he felt his knees were close to giving way, and suddenly, he recognized a street sign. Keystone. That was Jeff's street. He made his way down the suburban road, less of those creatures, they were fairly easy to dodge. He got to Jeff's house and knocked on his bedroom window. "Jeff? Are you in there?" he whispered into the glass. Jeff opened the window, letting Darin inside. Jeff was sharpening his collection of Katanas. Something was pounding at the door to his bedroom. "It's Dad. He… he ate Mom!!!!!!! Darin we gotta get out of here." Jeff explained, his face stained with dried tears. "Jeff? What about Angelica?" Darin asked shakily. "Oh God! Anje'! She was still at choir practice when I left. Darin!! We HAVE to save her!!!!!" Jeff said urgently. It didn't occur to Darin that this might not be the best course of action, but even if he'd thought about it, he wouldn't have cared. He just wanted to get out with his life. And- oh God Cassie!!!!!! That's right. They had to save Cassie. "Jeff? We… we have to go get Cassie." He said, in a trance. "Not before we find Angelica and secure a way out of here!" Jeff snapped. "I'm GOING to save her whether YOU come or not!!!!" Darin said, waking up. Jeff raised a katana to his throat. "So are you willing to risk your life on this?" He asked, dangerously. "What do you call this?" Darin retorted, raising his paintball gun. "And what are you gonna do when you run out of ammo? Put on a fucking infinite weapons cheat? This isn't Resident Evil man. This is reality. Ok?" Jeff warned him. A tear of rage escaped down Darin's face. He couldn't bare the fact that he was leaving Cassie in the middle of a necropolis, but he had no choice but to go with Jeff for the time being. Jeff lowered his sword. "There's a gun shop near here. If we can get to it, we might have a better chance in this hellhole." Said Jeff. "GRRAAAAAARRGGHHHH!!!!!!!" Jeff's former father howled at the door. "We gotta get the hell out of here, that door isn't gonna hold much longer." Jeff breathed. "Right." Darin agreed. They jumped out of the window, landing roughly outside. "On three…" Jeff said, still trying to sound calm. His efforts were in vain. The terror in his voice leaked out, practically screaming for attention. "One…" he said, ignoring the two zombies that began reeling towards them. "Two…" Jeff kept counting. More of the dead things began shambling in their direction. "THREE!!!!!!!!!" at that moment, several things happened at once. They left the relative cover of the bushes outside, Darin had the paintball gun out and began firing, not looking or caring where the shots went, dashing towards Magnolia. Jeff's katana flailing, ready to behead anything and everything that came near him. A million thoughts ran through his mind; his mom and where she could possibly be, what could've happened to Burbank, and most importantly; how they were gonna get out of this city. They arrived at the gun shop, which seemed empty-"FREEZE!!!!" a voice snapped. The two boys looked for the source and found it almost immediately. A man standing at the counter, looking even more shit-scared than they were, holding-oh thank God!! Weapons!!!! A 12-gage shot gun. "Who are you!? What are you doing here!??!!?!" he demanded. "We're human! Don't shoot!" Darin yelled urgently. The man breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry about that. I thought you were one of those… those things." He explained, on the edge of a nervous breakdown. "What the hell happened here???" Jeff asked incredulously. "Hold on." The man said, locking the door. He turned back to them "I don't have a clue. By the time I figured out something was wrong, this whole town was crawling with zombies!" He said, the fear mounting in his voice. "But you kids should be safe here. I'm not letting my guard down for a second." He finished. Jeff and Darin looked things over, seeing a Colt Python, and a nine millimeter Beretta. Just as they picked up the guns, the front window crashed open, a horde of zombies tackling the gun shop owner, devouring him, before he could do anything, a shot firing off knocking one zombie's arm off. his gurgling screams still audible, and then they died down, and he was very, very dead. The zombies turned to them stumbling towards them. Jeff and Darin both used up a full clip on them, Darin, knowing something about zombies, being a fan of Resident Evil, tried to overcome his pure panic, fear… terror and aim for their heads. Jeff did the same. The four creatures were now more dead than they had been. Darin looked at the slaughter in front of him, suddenly taking everything in. Okay, here's what happened there, buddy. Burbank, your home town, is fucking Raccoon City reborn. You just watched a man get EATEN ALIVE at the tender age of 13. Fun day huh? Darin stared at the pot-bellied man's half eaten corpse, and proceeded to puke his guts out. He simply couldn't accept what he was seeing. Darin suddenly had an in appropriate thought; Jesus Christ! That all happened almost EXACTLY like Resident Evil 2!!!!!!! He felt his knees giving way. "Darin? c'mon, were not safe here…" Jeff trailed off, suddenly hearing a chorus of deathly moans from the street, the window he suddenly realized, was easy access. Jeff pulled Darin to his feet. Darin followed along, in shock. They left through the back door, and left the slaughter house formerly known as "Guns 'n' Ammo-gun shop".