A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of Reign of Chaos. This story is loosely based on Resident Evil. The only thing I am really taking from that series is the creatures. Just to be on the safe side however, I do not own Resident Evil or claim to.
A/N: Do understand that I wrote this years ago and I'm just now going through it to review and edit. I simply never got around to posting it. So as the chapters go along, they will get better, since I do believe I am a much better writer than I was back then.
A/N: The characters in this story are based off real people I know and have contact with almost daily. I will not claim that we are portrayed exactly as we are or that I am the main character. I hope you enjoy this story, there will be more to come if I get some good reviews.
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It happened so fast, most people didn't even have time to react. Every dead person whose brain hadn't been destroyed came back to life. Of course it was nice to see my grandfather after all that time, but it wasn't nice when I had to kill him to protect my own life. Also, anyone who was bitten or died after the initial resurrection would become one of them, whatever they were exactly.
I suppose I should start from the beginning, before everything went to hell. Before my teenage innocence came to an end and I had to become a monster or become dead…
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"CANNON BALL!" I said before jumping in the pool. I opened my eyes and peered out through my goggles. Patrick, my best friend, and I had finally gotten so tired of our eyes hurting that we got some small goggles to wear. We also got a pair for his little brother Johnny who often came with us to the pool. He wasn't there with us this time which we both took advantage of, talking about things that were obviously not for young ears.
We had been going to that pool ever since the beginning of summer, the summer before our senior year. The first time I went, I almost drowned 5 times. It had been so long since I had last been swimming, I couldn't make it from one end of the pool to the other without feeling tired. Now, we could both swim from one side of the deep end to the other and back without even having to take a breath. We often threw a bottle filled with water in the pool and would race to the bottom to see who could find it first. In the water, it was almost invisible.
After I came for air, I leaned back and floated along, watching children play in the shallower part of the pool. An arm wrapped around my waist and I was dragged under suddenly. Knowing who it was, I just waited them out, knowing I had more air than they did. After a couple of seconds Patrick jumped off the bottom and made a mad dash for the surface. I was tempted to grab onto his foot but I was getting short on air myself. I made my way to the surface and gasped for air while laughing and trying to get to the side of the pool.
I punched Patrick in the arm when I got there but he didn't even flinch. I looked over to see him starring in the opposite direction. He pointed toward the city of Aberdeen. I thought he was trying to trick me so I just continued to look in the other direction. Then I noticed everyone else was looking that way too.
When I did turn, I was surprised to see a huge cloud of smoke was hovering where Aberdeen was.
Aberdeen was in no way a small city, but nothing compared to larger cities like New York or even Charlotte. Its population, however, had been growing at an exponential rate making overcrowding a huge concern.
"What the fuck is going on," I said, not able to remove my eyes from the smoke.
"I don't know." Patrick replied as he jumped out of the water and grabbed his cell phone. The children had been hustled away by their parents already, leaving us alone in the pool. Without the constant chatter of children, one could make out faint sounds coming from city. One that sounded almost like a female screaming.
"Yea, do you see it? ... Are you sure it's real? ... But how could ... I'll be there as soon as I can!" Patrick hung up on his mom and jumped out of the pool..
"What's going on?" I said, having already gotten out and started drying myself off.
"You're not going to believe this. But from what my mom told me, dead people are walking the earth." He quickly started to tie his shoes.
"Dude will you stop fucking with me, what's really going on?" I finished putting my dry cloths on.
"I don't think she was joking. Her voice…she sounded scared…" He put his cell phone in his pocket and started walking toward his jeep. "She said to come right now. So hurry the hell up."
(He's probably fucking with me, maybe they have a party or something planned.) I thought while putting my own cell phone in my pocket and running to my own jeep. Sadly, I couldn't have been farther off.
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Over the summer, Patrick and I had spent most of the money we earned on our jeeps, Fixing them up for going off road. It was a good thing we had too.
When we reached Aberdeen, it could only be described as a war zone. Dead bodies littered the street. Most were burned or missing a few body parts. Cars had been crashed into buildings, light poles, and ditches. Explosions were heard all over the city. We parked before the main highway and got out of our vehicles. The smell of burning flesh was all over in the air. Half the city was on fire.
"This…this just doesn't make sense." I looked down to find that I was standing next to a body. It looked to be a young man in his 20's but with the amount of burns on his body, I wasn't sure. A movement caught my eye.
"THIS GUY IS ALIVE." I shouted before grabbing his hand and holding it. "Are you alright? Sir, SIR!" The man opened his eyes and looked at me. They seemed…cold…
"Is he alright." Patrick said after making his way over.
"I don't know, I…I cant feel a pulse…" The man's head slowly started to lift. "What is it, speak man." The man opened his mouth. Before his hand grasped mine and started to pull it toward his mouth. I tried to pull my hand away but he just held on harder. "GET OFF ME YOU FUCKER!" I yelled before kicking him in the face. His grip didn't loosen.
Patrick grabbed on to my arm and pulled with me. All was seemed to be doing is helping him up. I started kicking him in the armpits hoping that I would break something. Even after breaking his arm, he was still holding on. "Patrick, grab the machete out of the back of my jeep, HURRY!" I kicked him in the face again, trying my hardest to keep him away from my hand. Patrick came back with the machete and stood in front of him. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR, CHOP HIS FUCKING ARM OFF." Patrick lifted the blade and cut off his arm at the shoulder. I jumped back and threw his arm away from me. Panting, I reached over and grabbed the machete from Patrick.
"You saved my ass there. Just what the fuck is wrong with these people." I looked over and noticed that the man was still moving. "And why the fuck aren't you dead."
"Guess she was telling the truth...but how..." Patrick asked while walking over to the body and kicking it, only getting a gurgling moan in return.
"Well there's only one way to find out for sure." I slowly walked over to the man and raised the machete.
"What are you doing?" I answered him by driving the machete through the heart of the man. Even after a minute of me twisting the blade, it was still alive.
"Guess that answers our question. And to think, we had actually imagined what would happen if something like this actually ever occur. I…I didn't think it would be like this." I said, looking around the street at all the dead bodies. I raised the machete and brought it down as hard as I could on the mans head. It finally stopped moving.
"This is just to much to believe." Patrick leaned against his jeep and rubbed his temples. "There has to be more of them. We should go now." I nodded and we both got back in our vehicles and got onto the highway.
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I picked up my cell phone after the 3rd ring. "Hello?"
"David, are you alright." I sighed in relief after hearing my mom's voice.
"Yea, we are on the highway right now heading towards Patrick's house." Shots could be heard from the background. "What's going on there!"
"Your not going to believe this but dead people are coming back to life."
"I know." I said dodging a car that was burning near the middle of the road. "Aberdeen is a war zone right now." I said before explosions on the other side of town emphasized the fact.
"We are at your aunts house right now. The gate seems to be holding them. Your dad brought all of his guns so we have enough ammo to last us for a while. David, please be careful. We will try to come and get you as soon as we can."
"No don't try, just worry about yourselves, I can handle myself. DON'T COME AFTER ME. I love you bye." I hung up the phone and pulled up next to Patrick. The amount of debris had lessened as we made our way out of the city. Amazingly we hadn't run into any zombies. I rolled down my window and signaled for Patrick to do the same. "Where are all the zombies!"
"I don't know, maybe they are…there…" I looked in front of use to see the entire road blocked by zombies. They seemed to be making their way toward the housing residences outside of the city. Since hardly anyone actually lived in the city, it made sense. We turned on our headlights and gasped at the size of the group. It had to consist of hundreds of zombies. They covered the entire road and even off into the woods farther than we could see. I called Patrick and turned on my speaker phone.
"Turn on your speaker phone." I said after he picked up. "What do you think we should do?" Some of the zombies had noticed use and were starting to come the other way.
"Lets plow the bitches down." He said. I looked over to see he had a big smile on his face.
"Alright, lets do it." I reached down and turned on my CD player. He noticed and did the same. I had Breaking Benjamin in and it was playing Blow Me Away from the Halo 2 soundtrack. I sat there and revved the engine as the song on the disk started to get harder. My sub woofers were already hitting hard, drawing the attention of all the zombies to us.
Putting the jeep in 4-wheel drive high, I slipped it into drive and squealed the tires as I took off toward the group. Patrick stayed right even with me as we started to hit the first couple who had noticed us before. The grill guards knocked them down without any problems and the lifted suspension made sure we didn't get caught up on them..
After we hit the main group, our front tires didn't touch the pavement as we ran over zombie after zombie. About half way through the group, a zombie made it up on the hood and started beating on my window. I smiled at him before swerving to the left making him fall off and knock down a few others. After a few more seconds we made it through. I looked over at Patrick who was obviously having fun. However, we both knew that it was not going to be fun if those things reached his home. I stopped the jeep and pulled it out of 4-wheel drive before speeding off towards his house.
About 10 minutes later we arrived. We got out of our jeeps and looked around. All the vehicles were gone. Patrick pointed toward the door, which had a yellow cross on it. "That must mean they have been picked up by the army or something." He said before getting back in his jeep. I got back into mine and noticed that my low fuel light was blinking. Odd considering I had filled it up before we went to the pool. I got back out and looked under the jeep and saw that the fuel tank had a huge gash in it.
"Shit the gas tank is busted." I said, kicking the side of my Jeep and muttering curses.
"Get in, we don't have time to stop." I nodded and grabbed my machete and got in his jeep. We drove off, taking a back road that no one hardly lived on. We rode in silence for a while before I decided to say something.
"So, where do you think your family is?" I asked.
"I don't know, but I believe they are alright. I'll call them once we get to the dealership. My phone is almost dead." I pulled out my own cell phone. It was on the last bar of energy.
"Mine is too. So I guess we are going to go ahead with the plan?" Patrick nodded as we turned onto the highway again. Most of the bodies that had been laying on the ground were now walking around.
"Hold on." Patrick said as started swerving around cars and zombies. We made it to the turn off on the road McBrayer Dodge. The entire road was covered with cars and debris. "Now what do we do. There's no way I can get through that." I looked around.
"Go down that hill right there, we can drive on the grass until we get to the building" I said pointing towards it. Patrick reversed and went down the incline on the side of the highway. After dodging some trees we made it to the pavement. The front part of the dealer ship was in ruins. A car had went off the road and hit the others causing a huge explosion. Most of the glass in the front was busted.
"Ill unlock the gate," I said opening the door and jumping out. I got in front of the vehicle before I noticed them. Over by a burning car, a large group of zombies had went inside and drug the bodies out of the car and were eating them. I stopped in my tracks and couldn't bring myself to move. The sight was so gruesome, it made me sick. One of the zombies noticed me there and dropped his feast of a person's arm. He started slowly limping over to me. Tears started to cloud my eyes as I looked at this tortured soul.
"DAVID WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Patrick yelled from out of the jeep. The zombie was my grandfather. Still in the suit he was buried in. His skin was a sick greenish tint. He was covered in blood and the worst thing was, I knew it wasn't his.
I fell to my knees and whispered a silent prayer; just wishing everything would go back to normal. When I looked up, he was still there, getting closer. I clutched my machete tightly in my right hand as I stood up.
"I'll do this for you." I said. It felt like I had to justify my actions. When he closed in within a foot, I pulled the machete back and sliced his head in half diagonally. His body fell to the ground. I stood there with my eyes close, still having hope that this was a dream and that I would soon wake up from it. Once again when I opened my eyes, it was still the same chaotic view.
"Ill kill them…I kill them all…YOU HEAR ME YOU BASTARDS, ILL KILL YOU ALL." The zombies abandoned the dead bodies and started walking towards me. "Oh, do you want fresh meat, is that it. WELL I'M RIGHT HERE." The zombies opened their mouths and extended their arms toward me. I charged towards them. I jumped in the air and brought the blade down on a young woman's head. The blade didn't stop until it reached her neck. I took out two older men by cutting the heads off. The last zombie tried to lunge for me. I dodged to the right and stabbed it through the neck bring it to the ground. I pulled my blade out and started stabbing it in the head.
I was still stabbing long after it stopped moving. I didn't stop until my arm was so numb I couldn't even lift the blade. My vision was becoming foggy before Patrick dragged me inside the building. I tried to stay awake as long as I could but when I heard the clicking of the door lock being slid into place, I let the darkness overtake me.