A/N: Well, I'll admit, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of reviews I got. Thank you to those who did review, though. I also understand not everyone is into zombies. I certainly wasn't until a few weeks ago. Hopefully I'll get better luck with this chapter.

February 2012

Edward

I knew I would always remember September 11, 2001. I remember being pulled out of class at my private middle school in Chicago by my overprotective mother, Esme, at about noon. The teachers had known about the bombing, but they weren't allowed to tell the students. My fellow students were so confused as one by one, parents came to collect their children without explanation. My mom finally told me what had happened when we got in the car and headed home. My dad was off that day, and when we walked into the house, the news on our 55 inch flat screen stared me in the face. I hadn't really understood what was going on, mostly because I had no idea how the disaster could possible affect a twelve year old child like myself.

But I was no child now, and disaster had struck again. The disaster was not born of jealousy or hate or greed of power like September 11th had been. It was pure nature, the apocalypse, but I couldn't decide which was worse. This new tragedy had certainly killed more people.

And I wouldn't have minded so much if they had actually stayed dead.

Just like September 11, 2001, I would remember that day in February 2012. And this time, it affected me a hell of a lot more.

We couldn't put a date to it, mostly because we didn't know when exactly it had started. I was in school to be a pharmacist, and I'd had two classes early every Tuesday, and each week on the same day, my dad and I would go out for sushi at lunchtime.

I opened the door to my shiny black Aston Martin, a special birthday gift from my parents months ago, and took my sunglasses from the case hanging from my rearview mirror. I was attempting to call my dad, my cell phone cradled in between my shoulder and my ear. He wasn't answering, which was very odd for him. He rarely had to cancel our Tuesday sushi dates, but he always called beforehand to let me know. I decided to drive by the hospital anyway; I didn't feel like going home if I didn't have to. I always thought living on my own would be great, a new adventure of sorts. It wasn't; I was always alone, bored, and dying to move back in with my parents just for the sake of company. All of my friends were married already, or had a girlfriend to choose over me. My only sibling was Rosalie, and she was no fun.

I drove up to the hospital, wishing I had a pass to park in the two story garage where the employees parked. No, I had to park far away and walk a whole seven minutes before finally reaching the doors. There were so many cars parked in the lot, and I knew why.

My dad had said the very day before that dozens of people came in, complaining of a virus. It wasn't just any virus, though. Unexplainably, he said the patients' skin had started to shed in some places, and their heart rates accelerated to the point that they should be dying. He said they were weak and couldn't concentrate on anything for very long, and their pupils were dilated in the extreme.

I wondered how many more people had come today, and sincerely hoped they found out what was going on soon. I certainly didn't need to catch anything.

The automatic sliding doors opened for me instantly, and I walked inside, planning on finding my father in his office. It was very quiet on the first floor, but it usually was. I took the elevator to my right, headed to the fourth floor.

When the doors opened and I stepped outside, I immediately realized something was wrong. The lights were off, as if the electricity had gone out on that one floor, and it was deathly quiet. I told myself not to panic, that something was just wrong with the electricity on that floor, so everyone moved to another floor until it was fixed.

Then I saw a light flickering down the hall. I walked towards it, holding my breath. There was the front desk where all the nurses flirted with me when I came around. I scrutinized before I got close. No one was at the desk from what I could see. Something was definitely not right, I could feel it.

I heard a few scuffling noises from far away, and noticed an emergency axe next to the staircase. Deciding it best to have a weapon just in case, I pulled up the bottom of my tee shirt and wrapped it around my elbow before breaking the glass and taking out the axe. The glass had cut me, but the shirt had stopped it from being too bad. The pain was minimal, and I was more worried about the noise I had made breaking it.

I gripped the handles with both of my hands, holding the weapon in front of me. I felt pretty silly holding an axe and creeping up quietly to the front desk. The feeling ended quickly, however, when I looked around the desk and saw a pool of blood right next to the keyboard of the computer. I held in my gasp and walking around as silently as possible. The blood was dripping to the floor, and I saw signs that whoever's blood it was had been dragged off. It was obvious from the way the blood trailed from the desk to the other side of the hall. I looked around again, hoping to find a gun under the desk. Instead, I saw a small figure crouched under the other end of the desk. Her back was to me, her arms covering her head, which was between her knees.

"Tanya?" I whispered. I had startled her, and she looked quickly in my direction. She observed the space and saw the axe in my hands before crawling out from her corner under the desk. She stayed on her knees, though, refusing to stand up.

"Are—are they gone?" she breathed. I walked a bit closer but didn't change my alert stance.

"Who?" I asked her. She looked terrified.

"The monsters. They took Kate, and I hid under here, hoping they wouldn't see me. There were so many of them," she said. Kate was the other desk worker, and I assumed it was her blood I was standing in.

"What happened here, Tanya?" I asked her, now anxious for my dad. What if these monsters had gotten him, too?

She shook her head frantically. "I don't know, Edward. It's a virus that's spreading like wildfire. They came in all yesterday and this morning, and then they started attacking. It's like rabies or something."

"My dad told me about the virus, but I don't think he had any idea about this," I said. I kept a watchful eye on our surroundings, still poised for anything. "Where is everyone? There's no way these…infected people have attacked everyone in this hospital. What about my dad? Do you know if he's even here?"

"I know nothing, Edward. It started early this morning, and I think I've been hiding here an hour. Dr. Cullen was here. I don't know if he got out or not," Tanya said.

I contemplated what to do next as I once again looked around. I could hear little noises here and there.

"Okay, Tanya, listen to me. Take the elevator down to the first floor. I just came from there, and it was clear. Just get yourself out. I'm going to look for my dad."

She shook her head again, tears pouring from her eyes. "I don't want to. I'm scared. What if they've come back since you've been up here?"

"Do you want to come with me?" I asked skeptically. She looked at the axe again and grimaced.

"No."

"Well, stay here, then. I can't promise I'll come back for you, though. If I find my dad, we're taking the first exit we see." She crawled back into the corner as I walked away to my dad's office. The sunlight coming in through the windows was my only source to see.

I finally reached my dad's office, surprised to find that the silver door handle was locked. I peeked into the small glass window, hoping to see him, but I couldn't see the whole room. I tried breaking the door open with my body, but had no luck. I looked around the hall one more time to make sure nothing was coming behind me. I kept hearing noises coming from another hall, but they weren't loud. I raised the axe in my hands and brought it down onto the doorknob. It took me a few more tries before I finally got it off, and I walked into the room.

I closed the door as best as I could and surveyed my father's office.

"Edward?" His voice came from under the desk, and I saw half his face peeking at me over the wood.

"Dad!" I ran to him and helped him up. His normally neat hair was all over the place, and his scrubs were torn in many places.

"Dear God, son, you-I thought you were one of those things!" I was about to ask him more when the scuffling noise got louder and closer.

That was the moment I came face to face with one of the monsters. It stumbled into the doorway behind me, snarling and growling. I couldn't even pull my eyes away. I couldn't think, frozen in place. My dad then pulled me out of my trance, tapping me and putting a finger to his mouth, indicating that I should remain silent.

The thing looked mutated, and I could see its ribs, as if something had pulled its skin off. It looked to have been once a man, but now it looked more animal than anything. Its head rolled around as if searching for something, but it didn't come any closer. I looked at my dad again, who pointed at the axe and made a swishing movement. I nodded, and pulled the axe over my head, prepared.

It started sniffing the air, and I realized that it was blind. When it caught our scent, however, it charged forward, arms rose. I met it with the axe, disbelief surging through my body.

I didn't think; I just brought the blade down on the monster's head. Blood squirted at me, coating my clothes and arms. I removed the blade from its skull with a sickening ploop as the thing fell to the ground and looked at my blood-soaked body. Panic took over.

Human or not, I had just killed a person.

"Wha—wa—wa—" I blabbered, staring at the bloodied axe. The room smelled like death and blood, and I felt bile rise in my throat.

My dad took hold of my shoulder, yelling at me. I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying. He dragged me toward the door, around the dead body.

When we reached the hall, however, my dad swore loudly and snapped me out of my trance. Not far down the hall, just past Tanya's desk, more of the monsters were walking towards us, through a breakage in the glass wall. The scuffling I had been hearing was their feet dragging on the floor. I gasped at how many there were, perhaps thirty? My dad clapped his hand over my mouth. They were walking quickly towards us. I looked at Carlisle, silently asking for a plan. He knew this hospital like the back of his hand—he had to know a way out.

He grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me back into his office. He ran to the window and started pushing it up, but it was stuck from misuse.

The monsters reached us; I held the door closed as best as I could. Four of them stood in the front, trying to claw their way through the door. One of them managed to break the door window and swatted at me. I had to lean back to avoid their teeth and fists.

"Edward!" my dad yelled once he got the window open.

"Are you crazy? You want us to jump?" He gave me a look that said better jump than be eaten!

He climbed through the window first, landing on the cement roof of the first floor. I knew once I let go of the door, they were going to catch me before I could climb through the window. Sacrificing my only weapon, I jammed it between the two door handles and ran to the window. It wouldn't hold for long, but I hoped it would give me a few seconds to climb through.

I cut my stomach on the window lock as I got through it. It wasn't deep, but I could feel the blood soaking into my shirt as I fell on the roof, and I knew I had just given them more ammo to find us with the smell. Carlisle pulled me back onto my feet and we broke into a sprint just as the things started breaking the window to get to us.

The closest building that we could jump to was the employee parking lot, and when I looked down at the ground, I saw that more of the monsters had escaped and were running amuck. Cars in the visitors' parking lot were being damaged and I thought of my baby, defenseless and too far for me to save. And I had just paid for a new set of rims!

We reached the end of the roof and surveyed the distance we would have to jump to get onto the parking lot. It was a far jump, but certainly one I could make. My father took a deep breath.

"You jump first," he said. I did without problem, but the exertion caused my wound to rip more. I grasped it in pain, telling my dad to be careful.

When he made it over safely, we started running down the parking lot. My dad was parked on the first floor, and we were on the third.

The beasts were here, too, flocking to the smell of my blood and the sound of our footsteps. We dodged and outran them, but there were so many. If even one of them got a hold on us, we were done for. It was lucky that they weren't crowded together, though; they weren't very strong apart, but together they were like a hive of killer bees.

Just a few more steps became my mantra, and I repeated it until I finally saw Carlisle's car.

My lungs screamed in agony, and my calves were on fire. I could only imagine how my dad felt. He was in quite good shape for his age, but that didn't change the fact that he was old.

My dad threw the keys to his Mercedes to me. "You drive! My heart can't take much more!" I nodded, looking behind me. They were everywhere. I unlocked the doors when we got close enough, and prayed that we would be able to drive off before any of them tried to get in. If they could break the glass doors to the hospital, they could certainly break the windows of my father's car.

I jumped in, ignoring the seatbelt, and put the pedal to the metal before my dad had even closed his door. He curled up in the seat, covering his head and hyperventilating. I drove around to the exit, running over a few of the…things in the way.

Once I was sure he was okay, and his breathing had leveled out, I had to ask my dad.

"What the fuck is going on?"

He didn't answer me, instead reaching beneath me under the driver's seat. He emerged with a gun to my delighted surprise. He rolled open the sun roof and stood on the center console, firing shots off at the ones following us. He didn't sit back down until we got onto the highway. My hands were shaking, but my mind was starting to calm down.

"Dad, what happened? I saw Tanya when I walked in, but she couldn't explain everything."

"I don't know, Edward. I worked until about eight last night because there were so many people coming in with a virus. I told you, didn't I?" he asked. I nodded, not taking my eyes off the road. "Well, after I left, Dr. Gerandy, the brain surgeon, do you remember? Well, he called me and said some of the patients had gone absolutely crazy. They'd gone blind and their hearts stopped beating. They were supposed to be dead! He said he even moved some of them to the morgue, but there were so many. He said that a bit later, though, one of them reanimated. It came back to life! And it bit him before he could restrain it. I asked him if he wanted me to head back and help out, but he insisted that they could handle it, that it was no big deal.

"So, when I went in this morning, there were so many more and they just kept attacking, Edward. Gerandy…I watched him die, Edward! And then he got up and lunged for my throat! He didn't bite me, though. I think that's what causes it, the bite. It's not airborne; otherwise I'd be one, too, right now."

"Why didn't you just go home? Does anyone else know about it?"

"Yes! I made sure to call the police as soon as I knew how dangerous it was and how fast it was spreading. By the time we knew we needed to abandon ship, it was too late. There may have been five of us not infected. And they were everywhere; there was no way I could just run out through the front doors. They even started attacking other patients. The policeman on the phone said he would try to get SWAT to come. He said to wait in a closed space and hide until they came. So that's what I did. When you broke into my office, I thought it would be one of them. I completely forgot it was our sushi Tuesday, son. But even if I had remembered, my phone got pulverized."

"So they never came investigate?" I said incredulously.

"I don't know. I'm afraid it has spread farther than the hospital, Edward. We need to get home quickly. We'll get your mother and your sister and we'll leave as fast as we can."

I took the fastest way I knew home. When we got to our neighborhood, I noticed other households packing suitcases into cars. I wondered how many people knew about the disaster, and just how bad it had gotten since yesterday.

When we walked into the house, my mom grabbed us both in a violent hug. I felt her tears on my neck as she sobbed.

"I was so worried that I would never see my boys again!" she cried, finally letting us go. My dad wiped her tears and whispered soft words of endearment. I gave them their moment and walked into the kitchen. There were suitcases scattered everywhere, and canned food covered the table.

"Edward!" my sister, Rosalie, came down the stairs quickly and hugged me, something she hadn't done in a very long time.

"I'm guessing you know about what's going on?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "It was on the news early this morning, but they didn't make it seem like a big deal. But a few hours ago they said everyone needed to evacuate out of the city. But Edward, they won't tell us what's going on, only that it's an emergency and we all need to leave." Her big hazel eyes were round with fear, and it was clear she'd been crying.

"Shit, they won't even announce the reason?" I said. Our parents came in then. Esme had the same questions as Rose.

"What's really happening, Carlisle?" Mom asked. He looked at me and surveyed the wreck that had become our house, undoubtedly thinking about how much our lives were going to change.

"The virus I told you about last night…well, it's spread like wildfire. At first, it was just killing people, but they—they—"

"They didn't stay dead," I finished for him. My mom gasped. "I went to pick up dad at the hospital for lunch and the place had been completely wiped out. They started attacking us."

Rose sat down on the table. "Like—like—"

"Zombies," my mom concluded, her voice laced with disbelief. She was the only one courageous enough to actually say it. I nodded, remembering all the zombie horror movies I had watched in my lifetime. They were always so much fun and exciting. Now they didn't seem so great.

Without another word, my family started packing everything important into bags in my mom's SUV. I went into the living room and turned on the television, trying to find out just how much was being kept secret.

They were lying by omission. Not once did the news broadcasters talk about the zombies. All they talked about was the virus and how it was killing many people and we were advised to leave as soon as possible to avoid infection. I knew this wouldn't go over well with many people, and no one would really listen unless they knew the truth; they were going to be attacked. As for the hospital, all that was said was that it was no use to go because there was no cure and the hospital was full anyway.

Later, when we were ready to leave, my mom and dad wanted to take one car so as to not lose anyone. I insisted that we needed two cars, just in case one of them broke down. My dad offered to let me drive his car, but I wanted my Aston Martin. They ignored my request, but I bitched until they finally agreed to bring me to the hospital to grab it.

After picking up my dad's mom, our only other living relative, we drove to the hospital to pick up my car. My mom stared at the zombies in disbelief, trying one more time to talk me out of it. My dad just handed me a gun once we were close enough to my car.

There were a few that had gotten out of the hospital and employee parking lot and were now wandering around the visitor parking lot, but none were remotely close to my car. When I got to my baby, I noticed a few scratches on the hood, as if someone had climbed on it, and the back passenger window was broken. I thanked heaven that it wasn't as bad as it could have been, and climbed into the driver's seat. My family was waiting for me at the gate.

Once on the highway, I was finally able to breathe again. I ran my fingers through my hair and looked back at the city disappearing. Then something in my rearview mirror caught my attention.

"AHHH!" I screamed, ducking my head to avoid the decapitated hand that shot out at me. It caused me to swerve, and I looked up again to see the zombie in my backseat lean forward and snap his teeth in my direction. With my left hand on the wheel, I fisted my right and punched his nose as hard as I could with my position. It shot him back and gave me a few seconds to grab the gun I had placed on the passenger seat. I put a bullet through his head, and I was elated for a second until he keeled over and I saw the bullet had punctured my leather seat and was full of blood. "Fuck!"

I shook my head to bring me out of my memories. We still hadn't found out how the infection started, but we were sure that it was all over the world. For a while, Australia had been the safe place, but before we could even develop plans to head there, the virus had reached there, too.

Over the course of two months, my family and I had stayed in various places before finally settling in Brazil. South America had not been hit as hard and had more survivors than North. We collected many uninfected people and found the hotel, which was already occupied by many people, mostly soldiers who had the great idea to go there. The steel wall had already been built, and we decided this was the best place to stay for the time being. It became the closest thing to home we had had in a long time. In the beginning, there had only been about fifty survivors staying there, and most of them either spoke Portuguese or Spanish. My dad convinced me that I should make a recording that stated that we had shelter and food, and hopefully more people would come. I did a week after we got settled in.

I soon learned the languages of the people who had made the hotel into a safe house, and spoke those into the radio as well. Soon, we started getting new survivors almost every day. Most came in packs; some were just a few lucky souls. A few times we were forced to kill a newcomer who had tried to hide his bite marks. Those were the hardest times.

I became friends with an old Mexican soldier, Jose, and his wife, Abby. They had four young children who I'd grown fond of. Jose had numerous guns and weapons, and one day he showed me how to use them all. He even trained me how to fight, and later on I got to join the men at the top of the wall who shot as many zombies in a day as they could. Bullets were as precious as water, and I knew when we ran out there would be much trouble. So we couldn't miss a single shot.

It wasn't exactly fun, but it was better than being dead. My life was focused on one thing, just like the rest of us: survival. Nothing else mattered. I did my best to save the people who were here. Killing was second nature to me now; I didn't even think about the fact that those we killed were once mothers or fathers or children or siblings. At first it had been hard, especially when I saw someone who looked to have resembled my mom or my father or Rosalie when he or she had been human.

And then at some point, I didn't feel so human anymore, either.

One day in early June, I was on duty in the tower above the wall, watching. I saw a new caravan coming and alerted the other men from my walkie talkie. They immediately started the routine of letting them in, and I peered through the periscope of my M24, waiting for the zombies to crowd around.

I shot one off the roof of one of the campers and a few more trying to climb over the fence, keeping in touch with the other men so we didn't waste bullets shooting the same target.

"Disparo agradable, Edward," Jerold said to me. I chuckled and thanked him.

I watched as the newcomers exited from their campers and Hummers, wondering where they were from. I couldn't really make out their skin or hair colors from so far away. I normally was not this curious, but they had more survivors in their group than most. I looked at the other snipers along the wall below me, checking to see if they had it. They'll be fine for a minute, I thought, and moved to the other side of the cramped tower to get a better look.

I knew Jose would have my head for this; I was not supposed to move from my position at all while on duty, but curiosity had me by the throat and was bribing me with a surprise.

I looked down at them from the reinforced Plexiglas, but they were still just little dots. I brought the rifle to my face and looked through the periscope again, this time for much different reasons.

First I saw my dad. He shook hands with a burly looking Native American man. I looked at the others quickly. By the expression on their faces, I could tell they were relieved, and the thought brought a smile to my face, knowing we were the reason for these people's sudden happiness.

I started turning back to the Native American man talking to my father, sure that he was the leader of their group, but through the magnified glass, something else caught my attention.

The first thing I saw was her ass, not because I was trying to, of course, only because that's where my line of sight was aimed when I moved the gun.

It was nice and round, but not big, covered by tight jeans. I couldn't help but zoom in more. She had a hand propped on her left hip and made her curves jut out more on the right side. I dragged my gaze down to long, slender, feminine legs.

She turned sideways while I brought the scope back up again, wanting to see her face and hoping that it was as perfect as the rest of her.

Uncontrollable, I let my eyes survey her long, elegant neck, and then her face. She was looking at something, so I only got a three quarter view, but it was perfect. She was perfect.

Her long brown hair was in a ponytail, pulling it away from her pale, heart shaped face. I could even see the light blush that tinted her cheekbones. Then her big, brown doe eyes swiveled up to me.

I ducked like I'd been shot, embarrassed. It wasn't until I was on the ground that I realized that I was way too far up for her to even see me. I slapped a hand to my forehead and tried to slow my stupid, erratic heartbeat. I rolled my eyes at myself and walked back to my post, ignoring the urge to look at her one more time.

What the hell did I do that for? I kept thinking. I felt very rude for having stared at her ass for so long, and then I got mad at myself for even caring. I hadn't looked at any girl's ass since before the virus spread, nor had I really wanted to.

I tried to shrug it off to the fact that it had been almost a year since I'd gotten laid. But the idea made me uneasy, not because it had been so long for me, but because I didn't want to think of her like that. It was as if thinking of her being a toy, a piece of ass, was a sin. It angered me to the point that my face got hot and my heart sped up again.

"¿Está bien usted? Suena raro, Edward," one of the men said on the walkie talkie.

"Soy fino," I lied.

Edward Cullen, you are crazy.

A/N: Okay! This chapter made me happy! I got the translations from freetranslation . com, so I'm sorry if they're not perfect.

Disparo agradable –Nice shot

¿Está bien usted? Suena raro. –Are you okay? You sound weird.

Soy fino. – I am fine.

Anyway, add me on twitter Bethanie818. I will update Stranded soon and No Such Thing as Love as well.

Next chapter, Bella meets Edward!

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