Nervously, Allison unlocked the door and slowly opened it. The first thing that hit her was the horrible smell. As she swung the door open wider, she saw bodies on the ground in front of the store. She gasped; it pretty much took all her resolve not to scream. There were two bodies from what she could see. They were covered in blood, and the bodies seemed to be of a middle aged couple.

The thought of running back into the room seemed very appealing. 'I just can't sit here...' she thought to herself. She noticed her hands were shaking. She willed them to stop, but it only seemed to make the shaking worse. She slowly walked from the behind the counter, the gun in her hand outstretched, and towards the entrance of the store. She stopped at the entrance and looked around. It looked like there had been a riot. Glass was shattered, mall products were strewn about, and benches were overturned. Among the clutter there were even more bodies. Off to the right she saw a blonde woman standing there.

Wondering why she was just standing there, she slowly walked towards the woman, though keeping her distance. In what she thought sounded like the meekest voice in the world, she spoke.

"H...hello?"

The woman slowly turned. Allison screamed at the top of her lungs as she saw the woman's face. Her lips and left cheek were gone, as if they had just been ripped off. Blood and saliva dribbled down the woman's jaw as she slowly advanced on Allison.

"GET BACK!!" Allison screamed. Completely ignoring her outcry, the woman kept walking towards Allison. Allison nearly forgot she had a gun.

"Get back, or I'll shoot!" Allison yelled, stumbling backwards. The woman continued to ignore her, her mouth slowly opening and closing, as if anticipating the taste of the young girl's flesh.

Allison considered herself a compassionate person. She didn't even really like stepping on bugs. But whatever had...happened to this woman, Allison was scared enough that she didn't care. She pulled the trigger and with a loud BANG the gun went off. Unprepared for the recoil, Allison fell backwards and landed hard.

The shot had gone wide and had hit one of the few intact windows. The glass shattered and sprayed across the floor. The zombie didn't even blink and kept its focus on Allison. The zombie was only a few feet away from her.

"Nooo!" Allison screamed. The zombie started to hunch over to get on top of Allison. Scared out of her wits, Allison shoved the barrel of the gun into the zombie's face and pulled the trigger.

The force of the bullet had completely blown half of the zombie's head off. It fell to the side in a crumpled heap and didn't move as blood gushed from the neck and intact half of its head.

Allison stared for all of two seconds, thanking god that the zombie and none of its...gore had touched her. Crying, she ran back as fast as she could for the backroom of the gun store.


It was pretty dark as Ryan moved through the alley. His hands kept itching, and it was really starting to bug him. He looked closely at his hands under a street lamp. What looked like two large scars stretched nearly over the entire width of the palm of each hand. He didn't remember how he got them. Hearing a moan from behind him, he kept moving.

After a few more feet he came to a fire escape ladder. He climbed up onto a dumpster, then jumped the small distance and grabbed onto the ladder. He quickly climbed up and made it to the top of the five-story building. He walked to the north edge of the building.

The first thing that caught his eye as he looked out was just the total destruction that littered the streets. A small group of five or six people were crowded around a body, eating what they could.

Suddenly, Ryan heard a roar off in the distance. He wasn't sure why, but he felt...something. Like he was drawn towards it.

He scratched his hands again.


Kenny had grabbed a kitchen knife before leaving the house with Samantha. He wasn't sure what he could really do with it; he wasn't that big, but it was better than nothing.

Looking out into the street, it looked like a war zone. Cars were overturned, glass and trash littered the street, and small fires went unchecked. Luckily, it seemed as if no one was around.

He squeezed Samantha's hand as the slowly left the house.


Samantha held on tightly to her big brother's hand. She was really scared, and not having her mom or dad around didn't help. She really wanted to go back and hide in the closet, but she also wanted to make sure that her parents were okay. The street seemed eerily quiet, except for a far off moan.

They walked a few houses down to her aunt's house. She started forward, but was pulled back by her brother's grasp on her hand.

"We have to see mom and dad," she whispered at him. She looked from Kenny back to the house. The front door was off its hinges, and there seemed to be some blood on the front step.

"We...can't," he answered after a few moments.

"But mom and dad might be inside!" she said, speaking louder.

"Shhh!" he hushed her, looking around as he did. "It doesn't look safe." He paused for a moment, as if thinking. "Mom and dad would kill me if anything happened to you."

"But..." she started again. Kenny pulled on her hand as he started walking away from the house, with her in tow.

"Let's go, we have to find someplace safe. Maybe find a policeman or something." Samantha thought about her dad's friend Barry. He was with the police department. Maybe he could help?

"Well...okay..." she said as he quickened the pace.


A few blocks away, Claire fought her way through some back allies behind a gun shop. Leon was walking up the steps of the back entrance of the police station. And Jill was asleep in a cathedral, infected, as Carlos watched over her.
It's mission was nearly complete. It had only to heal itself, then it could destroy the remaining S.T.A.R.S. woman. But there was something else nearby...something that it felt...was a rival.