A/N: Hi guys! Thanks to all of you who are reading this story right now, I'm so happy because of you all :) I hope you like this chapter! Please let me know what you thought of it!
Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all of this. No infringement intended.
Inspired by The Walking Dead.
Leah let out a startled gasp. I was frozen with fear. My dad stepped on the accelerator.
They could hear the car, they slowly walked towards us, but we were faster.
My father drove out of the yard and onto the street. There were people we knew, countless neighbors and familiar faces standing on the side of the road.
How could something like this happen?
As we pulled up to the town center there was nobody in sight. I looked up to the left at an apartment building and saw curtains shaking.
"Dad, there's people up in the building," I unbuckled my seat belt and grabbed at the door handle. His eyes were aimed on the police station. "We need to help them."
I could tell he was conflicted. He wanted to see what was happening but also wanted to help the people.
"You go to the station, I'll go help them." I offered, once again beginning to pull at the door handle.
"Wait," he said, "take this." He grabbed a gun from his feet and handed it to me. It was a simple glock, one that felt comfortable in my hands.
"Okay."
"Any one of these things you see, shoot and don't hesitate." I nodded my head. "Leah, I want you to stay in the car with Gracie, okay?"
My sister nodded her head and wiped away a lone tear.
"Let's go."
We opened the doors and quietly shut them, hearing the click of the locks behind us. My father headed towards the police station, gun raised high. While I headed towards the apartment building.
The door was cracked open as I walked up, I lifted my gun and took a small step into the building.
"Please, help." A voice whispered to my left. I turned and saw a boy no older than 12 standing there, scared out of his mind. I nodded my head and he scampered up the stairs. I followed behind him, being the quietest I could.
He led me to an apartment on the third floor, pushing the door open and pulling me in.
There were a total of six other people inside the room. All scattered throughout, all scared.
"The first thing I need to know, has any of you turned into one of the things?" I asked, making eye contact with everybody in the room.
"Into the walkers?" The boy asked, I nodded my head and they all shook theirs in response.
"Okay, good. Now, has any of you been bitten by one?"
A man stood up from the floor, walking towards me.
"None of us have. But our neighbors...I watched them get bitten and they're still in the building."
At that exact moment I heard the noises outside the apartment door. The low moans and gentle groans of the undead.
I made sure both locks on the door has been locked, and then the man helped me in pushing a desk in front of the door.
"I need you all to listen to me. We need to find weapons, anything can work. You need to be able to protect yourself. I need you all to pack clothes and food, all the food you have. Now do you have a car?"
The man nodded, "Yes. We have two minivans."
"Where are they?"
"A block or so towards the North."
I thought for a second, "Alright, we'll worry about getting you to your cars after. Right now our first concern is getting the things you need. But I think noise attracts the walkers, so be as quiet as you can."
Everybody hurried into action. A couple of the women found bags and headed into the kitchen while the men scoured the apartment for anything that would work as a weapon.
I grabbed a backpack off the ground and headed into the bathroom. Ripping open cupboards and drawers, I grabbed all the medicine and bandages I could find, tossing them into the backpack. I did the same in the other bathroom before looking in the kitchen. When I couldn't find any other first aid items I zipped the bag and handed it to the boy.
"You need to always remember this bag, okay? If one of you gets injured or sick it may help you the most, I need you to protect it."
He nodded his head and pulled it onto his back.
"I think we've gathered all we can." One of the men said as he walked over to me. I looked around at the bags they had laying on the floor stuffed to the brink.
I walked over to the door and crawled on top of the desk, peering out of the peephole I could only see one of the walkers a few feet from the door.
"We need to kill the one that's right outside." I told them as two of the men moved the desk away from the door.
"How?" One of the women asked, holding her child to her bosom. I looked around at all of their faces. They didn't understand what was happening, they didn't know what the world was turning into. All they knew was that they had seen a creature bite into their neighbor and now that neighbor was standing outside their front door looking for someone to bite into himself.
"We have to kill it."
Everybody looked around nervously, hell I probably looked just as nervous as them. The only time I'd shot guns was when I was in a shooting range, with my father by my side, shooting damn paper. Now I was going to have to shoot a person. Well, someone that used to be a person.
"Have you killed one?" Someone asked me, I shook my head quickly.
"No, but I guess I'm going to at some point, and that point seems to be now."
"Do you know how to shoot?"
I nodded, "Yes, I learned when I was about ten years old, so I'm good with a gun." I turned away from them and faced the door. Raising my gun in front of me and holding it steady.
One of the men seemed to communicate with me, he picked a knife up before walking to the door, unlocking it and slowly beginning to turn the handle. He backed away from the door as it opened inch by inch.
The walker outside the door slowly turned in a circle to face me. Skin was hanging off of its body, and its teeth snapped unconsciously. Then it began to move. Taking slow shuddering steps towards me.
"Oh God." I whispered, trying to work up enough courage to shoot it.
I pulled the trigger. The sound bounced off the walls and the bullet drove right into it's heart. But it kept moving. I shot again, this time it's stomach, and it kept walking towards me.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." My voice was shaking, my whole damn body was shaking. I was going to die.
The hands clawed at my skin, it was so close I could smell its rotten breath. I kept pulling the trigger, walking backwards with this thing trying to bite at my face. My knees hit the back of a table and I thought this was it, this was the end.
"Help me!" I cried out, willing for anyone to pull this thing off me, to not let it bite into my skin and turn me into one of them.
But I pulled the trigger one last time up into its chin, and then it stilled. Blood splattered all over my face and chest but the thing wasn't moving anymore. I pushed it off me and stood up. My legs shaking and my eyes burning with tears.
"We need to leave." I whispered, already moving towards the door. I ran down the stairs not giving a flying fuck what kind of noise I made. As we got to the second floor, a thought came to my mind.
"Were you the only people still here?" I asked, facing the man that seemed to be in charge of them.
"Most people fled, but I guess some could still be here."
I nodded, "Head out of here, if you see one, don't hesitate to kill it. It seems like you have to hit it in the head. I'll meet you down there in a while, if you want try and reach your cars. Goodluck."
I could tell they didn't want to leave without my protection, but after jerking my head towards the stairs they took off. Each one with a thankful look in my direction.
I walked the hallway slowly, trying each door handle. Most were unlocked, which I didn't even try to open. If it was unlocked, they weren't trying to protect themselves so they were either gone or had turned and I didn't want to run into a family of walkers by myself.
The door on the left end was locked. I knocked quietly. I heard a couple of steps before the locks clicked and the door swung open.
"What is happening?" The woman cried as I walked into their apartment. I looked around before deciding that it was only the two of them.
"You need to stay safe. Find all of your weapons and food. You have to kill these things and the only way how is my aiming at their heads. I don't know what is happening, all I know is that I'm trying to stay safe and everybody else needs to as well. If you have enough food for a while, I suggest staying here. Maybe everything will blow over and get better, and you won't be risking your life leaving this place. But if you don't have very much food and you have a car and think theres another place that would be better, you can go. All I know is that you can't let these things bite you."
I looked between the two as I stopped talking. The man was standing behind the woman, rubbing his hands up and down her arms, trying to comfort her.
She controlled her tears and he stilled.
"We don't have much food, and we don't have a car."
I took in a deep breath. "What are your names?"
"I'm James and this is Jessica." James was a typical American boy with a buzzed head and bright green eyes. Towering over my 5'3 frame, he had to be well over six foot. Jessica was about my size, a couple inches taller, with a pale complexion and dark blue eyes. Her long hair was tied up in a bun, but it was beginning to fall out.
"I'm Bella, you guys need to pack your stuff and you need to hurry. You're coming with us. Pack clothes, all the food you have, first aid, and weapons. I need to get down to my family outside, but we'll wait for you. Please hurry." I turned around and peered out the peephole, happy when I didn't see any of the walkers. I opened the door and slipped out, running as quietly as I could down the hall and down the rest of the stairs.
When I got outside, I couldn't see the people I had helped, so I hoped they had stayed safe and got to their cars. I ran towards my fathers truck, and when Leah saw me she unlocked the doors so I was able to jump in quickly. Thank God my father had a big Jeep that could fit five people comfortably, with plenty of room in the back for bags.
"What happened? I saw a group of people run out of there but I didn't see you."
"I found more people, a couple, their coming with us. Where is dad?" I asked, turning my attention towards the police station.
"I don't know, he hasn't come out yet. I just hope everything is okay in there."
I rolled my eyes at Leah, of course he was fine. It was dad after all.
A couple minutes later, I watched as James and Jessica ran out of the building towards our car. I unlocked the door and Leah scooted to the far side so they could get in easy.
James pushed their three bags into the back before letting Jessica in first and sliding in after, shutting the door and letting me lock it.
I smiled at them, "Welcome back. This is my sister Leah and her daughter Gracie."
"Nice to meet you," Jessica paused, "well not really, because of the circumstances, but thank you so much for letting us join you." I waved her off and turned back towards the police station.
It was starting to worry me that my father hadn't come out yet, not even poke his head out the door and give us a thumbs up or anything.
"I'm going to go find dad." I told Leah and the others. Grabbing my gun off the floor and sliding it into my waistband. I readjusted my hair into a high pony tail, and took a deep breath before unlocking my door and sliding out.
I didn't give any of them a chance to join before I took off running towards the station. The door was unlocked, I gently pulled it open and slipped inside. There was nobody around. That in itself was worrying. Usually there were at least twenty police officers sitting around at their desks. But there were no walkers so that was the good sign.
I slid between the desks as I walked farther into the station.
"Dad?" I whispered every couple of seconds. Praying that he would hear and come find me.
"Dad?" I called again, turning left to head towards where the meeting room is.
"Bella? Is that you?" My dads voice quietly asked from behind me. I whipped around and smiled when I saw him standing there. I headed towards him, hugging him before pulling away and looking around.
"What are you doing in here still?" I asked, nodding towards all the empty desks.
"I searched the whole station for people. I couldn't find anybody. I don't know where they went but this place is dead. So I went to find guns, I thought we should get as many as we could to be safe." I looked at the bag on his shoulder, the bag packed with guns. I rolled my eyes but knew deep down that we would need all of those.
"No sign of Sam or anybody else?" My dad shook his head sadly. I sighed.
"Let's get out of here," he said as we started walking towards the front of the station. Exiting the front door, we jogged towards the car, getting in quickly when we could see the meander of the walkers up ahead.
"What's the plan?" I asked after introducing my father to our newcomers. He scratched his beard and looked outward at the rotters coming our way.
"That's the way we need to go. We should go check the safe area that they were going to make, but the only way to get there is through them." He nodded at the undead who were about a hundred yards away.
All of us simply put our seatbelts on.
My father pressed down hard on the accelerator.
"Here we go."