Yeah, yeah, yeah… I took a while… But, I got a "big" update this time! Along with this chapter, a very late prologue type thing has been added… I was thinking about adding this with this chapter, but… Meh, when you read it, you'll know why I decided to make it the first chapter. The prologue "deeply" describes the storyline, and basically alludes to what I'm going to be doing in the later chapters… More chapters like the prologue (you will see what I mean when you read it) will probably be added in, to give you some more storyline updates and such… So, read that first! Also, the summary as been updated with a more fitting summary…

Anyway, I worked a little longer on this chapter… If you notice a distinct difference in word usage and sentence structure and some dialogue… There is a reason for it… ¬¬

Yeah, so read and review…

Looking out the window, I could spot the entire SWAT team, as well as the police officers, firing their assorted weapons at three dogs, which appeared to be Dobermann. They had blood and bite marks, as a few bullet holes, all over their bodies. Along with this, parts of their internal organs and ribcage were exposed. They were very fast, and, obviously, threatening. The SWAT team and police officers were slightly scattered around the area, not keeping much of a tight perimeter.

The dogs suddenly split up, and each one darted towards one of the men. One jumped at a scrawny police officer, easily taking him down hard to the ground. The dog completely tore apart his neck area. The police officer's legs were abnormally twitching, as the dog feasted on his jugular. A SWAT team member next to the downed police officer kicked the dog off of the cop, leaving the dog on it's back. He pulled the trigger of his automatic back, with the barrel really close to the dog's face, and emptied the rest of the clip. It seemed as though the dog was left lifeless.

Another one of the dogs jumped after a SWAT member, but he swiftly rolled out of the way, leaving the dog to land right in front of another SWAT member's shotgun. The dog's snout was literally inside of the shotgun's barrel. The police officer pulled back on the trigger, leaving the dog headless, as well as lifeless.

The other dog was running far off to a police officer who was clearly alone. He was nearly bald, but the remains of his hair were a blend of gray and white. His face was wrinkled with age, but he was quite robust. The dog took three bullets from the man's handgun, as well as some of the spray from one of the SWAT team members. The police officer fired another round, barely missing the dog's face and hitting him in the back instead. He pulled the trigger back once again, but nothing shot out. He dug into his pocket for another clip, as the dog jumped up to take him down.

A few members from the SWAT team turned their attention towards this, as this was all happening slightly after the other two incidents. They desperately wanted to fire their guns, but firing would of hit the police officer as well as the dog. So, instead, they ran over so that they could hit the dog off as quickly as possible.

The police officer took his hand out of his pocket, and dropped the handgun clip on the pavement, as he was startled as he looked back up and saw the dog lunging at him. He put his left arm in front of his face quickly for defense. The dog nearly took the police officer down, as he dug his teeth into the man's left arm, pulling back on it as hard as he could.

The SWAT team member who was closest to the scene pulled back on his automatic's trigger, sending around five bullets at the dog. I saw a bunch of little squirts of blood, as the dog fell to the ground in a pool of its own blood. The SWAT member pumped his fist, obviously happy that he didn't shoot the police officer.

The police officer fell on to one knee, as he was clutching his left arm hard. He was obviously in another world of pain. From the inside of my house, I could hear him screaming in all of the agony from the dog bite. He slowly dropped the handgun to the floor, as the crew began to surround him. Surprisingly, an ambulance was nowhere to be found. I looked back at the other police officer who had his throat pulled out. Nobody was giving him attention… I guess they already gave up on him…

One of the SWAT members pulled out a radio, and started to scream into it. I couldn't make out any of the words, as the window was closed. Along with that, the house had a pretty darn good sound proof system. Only really loud sounds penetrated in, and out, of the house.

"Cannibalistic humans… Now flesh craving dogs… What the heck is going on?" Lindsay rhetorically asked.

"If we all knew, we probably wouldn't be in this mess," I said, not taking my eyes off of the scene outside.

"You think we should go out there and check on the guy?" Lindsay asked. She knew a lot of first aid.

"I think the ambulance is the best bet right now. They'll probably be here in a minute or two," I said, not wanting to get involved.

"Yeah, hopefully," Lindsay said. My cell phone started to vibrate loudly on the nightstand by my bed. I picked it up, looking at the caller identification, noticing that it was Colomb who was calling.

"It's Colomb," I said to Lindsay and Cyram, sounding quite excited. I still had my eyes focused on the police officer, but I couldn't see anything since most of the crew was crowded around him. Two SWAT team members were over by the other body, one was kneeling down next to him, and one was standing on guard. The cell phone vibrated once again in my hands, reminding me that I had a call. "Dude, what's up?"

"Bird?" Colomb asked on the other side of the phone. His voice was low, and he was breathing heavily.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" I said, sounding concerned.

"One of those bastards broke into my house," he said. It sounded as though he just opened up a door.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, hoping to hear, 'No, I'm just out of breath,' or something like that.

"Yes… He bit me twice," he said. I could hear cars in the background. God dammit…

"Shit, man… Shit… Are you outside? How did you get rid of him? Where is he?"

"I'm coming to your house right now… I called up the ambulance, but they wouldn't be able to pick me up for another ten or so minutes," he explained. Damn bastards…

"Alright… Alright… Which route are you taking?" I said, picking up the revolver off of the bed.

"Main Street," he said. I could hear that his feet were shuffling along the pavement… Not a good sign…

"Okay. I'm coming," I said, getting up from off of the bed.

"What? No… I'm okay… I got a knife," he said.

"A knife? You'll kill yourself. Don't worry, I'm coming," I said, picking up the bullet case.

"You will kill yourself coming here… Don't worry… The main roads are full with cops and shit," he said.

"I'll be right back," I said to Lindsay and Cyram. They both shook their heads in an affirmative manner. Hope they heard the conversation...

"What?" Colomb said on the other line.

"I was telling them I would be back," I said to Colomb, leaving the bedroom. I walked swiftly through the hall, into the living room. I noticed that Lindsay's suitcases were still in the living room… I decided it would probably be best to forget about them now, and go to Colomb. I went out the front door, being sure to close it.

"No… Stay there," he said. "It's too far… And too dangerous…"

"It's too far? It's four blocks away. And, just as you said, the roads are full of cops," I said, walking down the small flight of stairs. I heard a loud siren, as an ambulance turned up my street, zooming up past me. I suppose they show up quicker for the force… Can't really blame them, though… Wonder how many casualties there have been thus far?

Colomb started to speak, but not on the phone. Perhaps a police officer stopped him?

"Bird… Bird?" Colomb said quickly.

"Yeah, I'm on Main Street now," I said, turning the corner. The sidewalk here was a little crumpled, and tainted with flames and blood from the crash a few hours ago.

"Turn around… The cops are taking me to the hospital, along with two other people," he said.

"Ask them if I can go with you."

"Why the fuck do you want to come?"

"I want to make sure you'll be alright," I said, spotting a crowd of people two blocks away. I began to jog towards the scene. I heard Colomb talking to the police officers, but couldn't make out any of the words yet again.

"They said there isn't enough room. I'll call you when I get there," he said. "I gotta go now."

"Alright… Call me," I said, slowing down to a stop. I heard him hang up his phone, and I did as well. The small crowd of people two blocks away disappeared into the police car, and they drove away, not passing me. "God, dammit," I said aloud.

I turned around and began heading back to the house. Sure hope Colomb makes it… Wonder if they even have a cure for this virus, or whatever the hell this is, yet… Well, I'm sure they do… Why else would they take him away? Perhaps research? Whatever that means, anyway…

I turned up my street, and quickly noticed that the ambulance was already gone. However, the SWAT team truck was still parked in front of my house. I couldn't see if the police cars were still there or not. Regardless, all of the dead bodies, including the dog's, were nowhere to be found.

The SWAT team members were now surveying the area, walking up and down the street. Alert for the worst. One of the members was walking my way, and immediately pointed his gun up at me. I halted as he slowly walked towards me. He was looking at me for any type of zombie-like actions. He lowered his gun down to his side when he noticed I was human, and began walking towards me at a normal pace.

"Sorry about that… Didn't know if you were one of them or not," he said in a normal accent. He was about my height, his skin slightly tanned, brown eyes, and I couldn't tell if he had any hair or not due to that helmet he was wearing. Always loved the SWAT uniform…

"That's alright… I would of done the same thing," I said, chuckling.

"Yeah, town is going crazy… Anyway, what are you doing out here?" he said, getting back to his job.

"I live in the house your truck is parked by," I said, pointing up the street. By lifting my arm up, my shirt lifted up as well, revealing the gun I had in my left pocket. He noticed the gun, and didn't even bother to look back to where I was pointing.

"Let me see that," he said, nodding at the revolver.

"Sure," I said, pulling it out of my pocket. I handed it to him, and he took it with his right hand.

"Nice gun," he said, looking at it from all angles. He aimed the gun to the side with one hand, and pretended to shoot it. "Real nice."

"Thanks… Got it a few years ago… Didn't think I would need it for this, though," I said, as he opened up the chamber.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he said with a chuckle. "I see you've shot three bullets… How many did you kill?" he said, shutting it and looking back up at me.

"Three," I said with a grin, taking the gun back.

"Wow, nice job! You should join us!" he said, laughing.

"I've always thought about that… Been one of my ideal jobs as a teenager," I said, laughing with him.

"Oh yeah? It's not that hard to get in… Just need good aim and good team work, along with a crap load of patience," he said.

"So I have been told… Well, if you need me, you know where to find me," I said, signifying that I really wanted to leave.

"Alright, dude. Stay sharp," he said, saluting. I gave him a salute as well, and then headed up to the house. I looked back, as he started to walk down to his post, which seemed to be the corner of the street. I could spot six other SWAT members scattered along the street. There were at least four more, but they could be in backyards, on the other side of the street, inside a house, anywhere. I started to jog up the street, since I already wasted a few minutes talking with that guy. Didn't want them to think I got in a battle or anything like that…

The other SWAT guys just nodded at me, as I made my way up the block. I ran up the steps, into the house. I was greeted by Lindsay and Cyram both in the living room, sitting on the couch. Cyram had the knife grasped in his hands, and Lindsay was sitting with her arms folded two seats away from him. Lindsay jumped up out of her seat, having a slightly delayed reaction to my entrance.

"What happened?" Lindsay asked, nearly running over to me.

"Colomb is being escorted to the hospital by the police," I explained.

"Is everything alright? Why are you breathing heavy?" she said, examining me closer.

"I ran home… Everything is alright, none of the bastards were around," I said, trying to knock off further suspicion.

"Alright, alright… Well, dinner will be ready in ten or so minutes," she said, turning out of the living room.

"Bah…," I said under my breath. "Be right back," I said to Cyram, as I exited the living room. I think he muttered something under his breath, but I couldn't make out any words. As I entered the hallway, I looked back and noticed that Lindsay was testing the taste of a piece of pasta. Should be ready soon…

I entered the bedroom, and noticed that the curtains were put back to their normal positions. Lindsay was a sort of neat freak, so it didn't surprise me as much as it should have. I went to go kick my shoes off, but quickly thought twice about it. What if something else happens? You wasted precious seconds last time, and could have caused death of your friends, just because you didn't have shoes on… Pity…

I kept the shoes on, and opened up the closet door, looking over my shoulder at the clock as I walked in. I took two steps into the closet, and immediately tripped over the pile of shoes. I landed flat on my face, with a loud thud. As I fell, I didn't get a chance to put my hands out in front to protect myself, since everything happened so fast and I wasn't paying attention to what was in front of me. Nice one!

I let out a soft grunt as I ascended from the floor. I put my right hand to my face, and noticed that the left side of my lip was bleeding. Wasn't much blood, but it was still bleeding.

"Son of a bitch," I muttered to myself, as I got into a full stance. I kicked the pile of shoes three times, as I got all of them out of the closet.

"What was that?" Lindsay called out from the kitchen.

"Nothing… Just dropped something," I lied to her. Well, I wouldn't really call it a lie… I did drop something… Though that something was myself

"Okay," she called out from the kitchen, much lower this time.

"God dammit," I whispered to myself again, as I wiped more blood off of my lip. Ignoring the bleeding, I shuffled to the end of the closet, where the spotlights were shinning brightly on the open safe. I looked inside, and noticed that the suitcase full of money was still there, locked. Also, behind the suitcase, there was a black shoe box. The black shoe box held all of the ammunition I had, the holster for the revolver, the case the knife came with, and the brace I had forgotten before. I picked up the box, and took it with me as I left the closet, I put the box on my bed, and placed the shoes back on the shoe rack… Once again.

Leaving the shoe box on the bed, I swiftly made it out of the bedroom, and into the bathroom. Gladly, nobody bothered to look as I went in. I turned on the sink, and started to wash the left part of my lip off with cold water. I did this for a minute or so, licking the blood off as I went. For some odd reason, the taste of my own blood satisfied my taste buds sometimes… To make this trip to the bathroom useful, other than to wash the blood off, I relieved myself, and washed my hands.

The clock turned to 7:00 P.M. just as I re-entered the bedroom and picked up the shoe box. I exited the bedroom, and headed towards the living room. Cyram was still in the same spot on the couch, sitting in silence, twirling the knife in his hands.

"You could of put on the TV you know," I said, sitting next to him with the shoe box in my lap.

"Well, I thought I wouldn't watch the news until we were all here," Cyram said, finally taking his attention off the knife.

"Who said you had to watch the news?" I said to him, opening up the shoe box.

"Well, that is the only thing I would be interested in right now… What's that?" he asked, pointing at the box.

"It's the treasure chest!" I said, showing him the cases of ammunition that were inside, along with the two holsters and the brace. I didn't count the cases myself, but there looked to be about a dozen cases of ammunition in there.

"That's a lot of ammo you got there… Stocking up for something?" he said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I predicted that one day zombies would roam the earth, destroying everything in their path… And I would be the one with no ammo or anything, and die by their undead hands… So, I bought all of this," I said, laughing with him.

"You never know," he said, pulling out one of the cases, and examining the six bullets that it contained. I started to do a quick count, and counted eleven cases, including the one in my pocket, and the one in Cyram's hand. Off by one… But, originally you did have twelve…

"We got sixty-nine bullets to work off of… Shouldn't be that hard, eh?" I said.

"Sixty-nine?" he said, laughing.

"Yeah… Eleven cases that have six bullets each, plus the three I have in here," I said, picking up the gun and waving it in the air. A few seconds afterward, I noticed that he was probably laughing at the number.

"Ahh… Yeah, but why do you have this much?" he questioned.

"I go to the shooting gallery a lot," I explained.

"Why in the hell didn't you ever tell me?"

"What, do you think my part time job is assassinating people?" I said, laughing.

"You never know," Cyram said with a grin. I heard the sound of the pasta being tossed in the kitchen.

"You're right… You never know… Well, dinner is almost ready," I said, closing the box and getting off of the couch. I took the revolver with me just incase, but didn't take any of the cases with me.

"How do you know?" Cyram asked, getting off of the couch as well. I didn't bother to answer him, as I entered the kitchen.

"Oh, I was just about to call you guys in," she said with a look of a surprise on her face as she turned to me.

"What can I tell you… I'm telepathic!" I said laughing.

"I haven't heard that one before!" she sarcastically said.

"Yeah, yeah… Well, what do you want to drink?" I said, opening up the refrigerator.

"I'll take water," she said.

"What about you, Cyram?" I said, grabbing a root beer can and a water bottle and putting them in on the table.

"Sprite," he said, walking in. I grabbed one out and gave it to him. There were four chairs on the circular table that was in the middle of the room. The chairs were made of a dark brown wood, and had two arms rests. There were cushions where you would rest your arms, back, and sit on the chair. I sat down in the comfortable chair, resting for a minute.

"Alright, who's first?" Lindsay said, pulling three big plates out of the cabinet that was right above the sink.

"Me!" Cyram exclaimed, nearly jumping out of his seat. The seat he sat it was closest to the sink. I was sitting closest to the back door… Just incase. The SWAT squads probably wouldn't be able to go into backyards. I suppose it could be for privacy issues, but still. I suppose zombies walking around, killing people fails to diminish stupidity and ignorance…

"This enough?" Lindsay asked Cyram.

"Yes, thank you," Cyram said, sitting back down. I didn't look at Cyram's plate as I got up and walked over to where Lindsay was serving dinner. I took one of the two plates, and handed it to her. She began to pour rigatoni into the plate. Rigatoni is a form of pasta that is shaped like a cylinder, but its hollow. Rigatoni with meat balls is my absolute favorite dish that anyone could make me.

"One or two?" she asked me, referring to the meat balls.

"Just one," I said. She put one on the plate.

"Anymore sauce?" she asked.

"No, that's good," I said. I never liked a lot of sauce on my pasta.

"Okay," she said, handing me back the plate.

"Thank you," I said, going back to the table. I sat back down into my seat, and put my plate on the table. I was starving, since I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast, which was around noon. But, normally when ever I am starving I don't eat as much as I think I could. Lindsay got herself a plate, served herself, and sat down in the seat across from me, with Cyram on her left. We all started to savagely dig into our plates. We ate quickly and pretty much silently, with bits and pieces of small talk. 'So, what do you do? Where did you come from? How'd you get here?' You know… Bullshit. But, I didn't mind it at all. All I wanted to do was eat and get my mind off of certain things, though that could be the wrong thing to do. Focus on the problem and find a solution… Forget about the problem, and let it all fall down on top of you… I'll go with focus on the problem and find a quick, yet adequate, solution.

"Well… That was amazing," I said, finishing up my plate. Lindsay and Cyram still had some left in their plates. They were nearly finished, though.

"I must agree," Cyram said, finishing off the last piece of pasta, about a half a minute after I finished.

"Aww… Thanks, guys," Lindsay said, finishing her plate up. I picked up my plate and fork, and put it on the left side of the sink. Lindsay picked up her plate, along with Cyram's plate, and put it on the left side of the sink.

"I have to use the bathroom," Cyram said, getting out of his seat.

"Alright," I said, as he left the kitchen. I followed Cyram with my eyes, as he disappeared into the bathroom, shutting the door so lightly, that it didn't even make a noise as it shut.

"You should probably cheer up your friend… He seems a bit mellow right now," Lindsay said lowly, as she started to do the dishes.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," I said just as low, crushing the root beer can and tossing it into the recycle bin.

"Play one of those video games with him… I'll do these dishes and watch you guys afterwards, I guess. Make sure it is one that he could succeed in, you know?" she said, as I crushed the Sprite can, placing it in the recycle bin.

"Yeah, I get what you mean," I said. Lindsay's water bottle still had some water left, so I left it in it's spot.

"Good. I don't suggest watching the news with him… Unless he really, really wants to. But I wouldn't expect that… Hmm… What could we do… We could watch some movie later on tonight, right?"

"Sounds like a plan. Well, let's hope nothing else bad happens tonight… Or tomorrow… Or the next day…," I said. I heard the toilet flush in the background.

"Yeah, this crap needs to end," she said. Cyram exited the bathroom about thirty seconds after.

"Hey, Cyram, want to play some HALO?" I asked him, as he entered the kitchen.

"Uhh… Sure," he said, after thinking for a moment. What the hell was he thinking?

"Alright," I said, walking past him into the living room. I heard his footsteps following. I walked over to the plasma, dropping to one knee so I could go in the display case. I pulled out the XBOX Three, and two controllers. HALO Four was already in the XBOX. That is a really bad habit…

"Are we going to do one versus one or campaign?" Cyram asked, as I plugged the wires into the plasma, and the electrical output.

"Campaign. Unless you don't want to," I said, handing him his controller.

"Campaign sounds fun," he said, sitting down on the part of the couch that was closet to the television.

"Alright then," I said, sitting beside him. "It's game time!"

I decided to end this chapter with basically no cliffhanger type thingies! Tell me how it is…

It probably won't be happening much… But, I thought this was a good spot to end this chapter

More to come…