Chapter 3: Disease

The first thing I notice is the smell. The awful stench of something rotting. The second thing I notice is how thirsty I am. I've heard that most people can go for little less then a week with out water. Well my throat feels like I just broke that record. I open my eyes and look around. I'm in a hospital. The machines that should be monitoring my heartbeat and such are off. I press the button to call the nurse. No one comes. Looks like the powers out, which probably means that nobody's here, but why? This is a hospital people don't just up and leave. I sigh. Well I'm not going to get any answers laying here. I sit up. Then set my feet on the floor. I try to stand, but fall on my side. Right, muscle reconstruction was in my dream. In front of me I see a set of drawers. Gotta be something better to where then this hospital gown. I open the bottom drawer, and find my shoes and gloves along with a note that says: "Nice of you to wake up" Heh. I bet Knuckles wrote that. I put them on and ditch the gown. I cough. My throat burns. Right, water. Kinda need that to live. I crawl to the sink next to the bathroom, and drink out of the faucet. It may be tap water, but that's more then enough for me. After about two minutes of nearly drowning myself I finally feel better. I think I can walk now. I take a step, and nearly face plant. Come on, I've ran hundreds of miles without breaking a sweat, I should be able to walk without falling. I take another step. This time I'm able to keep my balance, but just barely. A thought occurs to me. I look to . the heart beat monitor It's completely blank, and the light's off. Okay the power went out, but isn't there supposed to be a back up generator? I decide to dwell on this later.

I limp toward the door, and head out to see if I can't find some help. The hospital seems to be completely empty. I make it to the nurses station. There's not a soul in sight. To bad I could use a snarky Hispanic nurse right about now. Oh, wait, no, She's Dominican... I've been watching too much T.V. I look to a sign that says "Cafeteria" With an arrow pointing further down the hall. My stomach growls. At the very least there'll be some food, at most there might be someone who can tell me what's going on. I continue to limp down the hall. I finally reach the cafeteria. For some reason there's a chain wrapped around the handles of the entrance. Why would somebody chain the door? I remove the chain, and open the doors. I'm met with a horrifying sight. I've watched horror movies, played freaky video games, and read scary comics. So unlike the characters from those stories I know what it is my sense of sight tells me I'm seeing, but my sense of logic tells me is impossible. Zombies. I stumble back landing on my butt. The noise calls the attention of one of the undead who slowly starts shuffling in my direction. Note to self: if you see a hastily barred door don't open it. Also RUN!

I quickly get up and, dash off at supersonic speeds. And by dash I mean limp with much vigor, and by supersonic speeds I mean at a snails pace. And yet I can still out shuffle, the defiance of reality chasing me. Unfortunately I was so focused on the zombie that I didn't notice I had limped into a dead-end. It became abundantly clear when I collided with a wall. And there I was, cornered by a zombie, and with no way to defend my self. The monster was about five feet away when a knife came flying out of nowhere, and landed in the zombies head. The eight inch blade went straight through the zombies head, and stabbed into the wall to its right, pinning the zombie. Then a human walks into the hallway and approaches the creature while saying: "Freakin' brain-munchers trying to kill a guy after a nap." He leans against the wall, and points to the zombie while saying in a lecturing voice: "You should have learned some manners my friend. if you had, we wouldn't have had this problem." He held a stare at the zombie for a minute before saying. "I swear it's like, in one ear..." He yanked the knife out allowing the zombie to fall to the floor. "...and out the other."

He approaches me. I must admit, I'm a little nervous. This guy's twice my height, he was just talking to a dead body, and he just bulls-eyed a head from at least ten feet away with a combat knife that's just a few inches short of being a short-sword. And now he's kneeling down in front of me, and offering his hand. This allows me to get a good look at him. He's Caucasian with short black hair and blue eyes on an angular face, and is wearing, black jeans, a black T-shirt, black leather jacket, you-guessed-it fingerless gloves, and sneakers. He also has a pistol strapped to each thigh, and apparently a knife sheath strapped to the back of his belt. This guy looks he could kill me without looking, but he just saved my neck, and he's the first living thing I've seen all day so I don't think I have much choice. "If you're asking yourself weather or not you should trust me the answer is no" I arch my eyebrow at him. "You just met me, you have no idea who I am, I'm well armed, and we're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, which means I could be any form of crazy." This guys pretty smart. "However I just saved your life, which means that, at least at the moment, I plan to keep you alive, but you have no idea if it's out of good will, or if I have sinister plans for you later on. But for the moment I'm offering to help you, and give you shelter. So the wise course of action would be to follow me, but to keep your distance if possible, and be prepared for the chance that I turn on you." That actually makes perfect sense. He offers his hand again. I take it, and allow him to pull me up keeping an eye on his other hand. Once I'm standing he lets go of my hand. "Alex Anderson." I strike my famous pose and say:

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the-"

"You know the whole saying your name twice thing isn't catching on as much as you might think." "But Its my catch phrase."

"Really? I thought your catch phrase was 'Let's show them the super power of teamwork."

I glare at him. "Shut up I was fifteen."

"You're sixteen."

"That's not the point."

He and I stare each other down for a few seconds, then he says:

"How about we drop this, and focus on getting out of here." I nod.

"So, do you have a plan?"

"There's a warehouse that me, and a few others are holed up in, a few blocks south of here. Unfortunately this hospital just so happens to be in one of the more populated areas of the city."

A question pops into my head. "That reminds me is this still Central City?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I know the area pretty well I might be able to help us get there quicker."

"Thanks and all, but everyone's pretty much memorized the layout of the city."

"You may know how to get through the city, but do you know how to go over it?"

"Parkour and all that? Yeah."

"Oh"

"Let's just go. I'm pretty sure everyone's tired of us standing in this hallway talking."

I look around. "There's just the two of us."

"I would say something to contradict that, but I need you to think I'm sane. So I'll keep the fourth wall intact for now. Let's go."

He starts walking down the hallway. The fourth what? Ah never mind. I follow him.

We make it back to the nurses station. Then he stops me, and looks at my legs. "How'd you injure yourself?" "I didn't, I just woke up from a coma, my legs are a little weak." He snickers. Then starts yelling... at the ceiling. "Guy in a coma wakes up to a zombie apocalypse. Where have I heard that one before?! You could at least try to be more original!"

I hear growling. I think the zombies in the cafeteria heard him yelling, and decided to have lunch. Alex looks down the hallway, and sees the oncoming horde. "Oh, real mature!"

He yells as he pulls out his guns. They're one of the few models I recognize. I'm pretty sure they're called Beretta's. He starts firing while yelling. "Boom-lay Boom-lay Boom! Boom-lay Boom-lay Boom!"

Then says to me. "You, cripple-hog, hide behind the desk."

As much as I hate being called cripple I don't have much choice. So I crawl under the desk while making sure I can still see Alex. This guy clearly his some serious fighting experience. When the horde got close to him he holstered his guns, and pulled out his knife, apparently he's left handed, and attacked them using some very complicated looking techniques, all the while maintaining his odd sense of humor. "Whoa people, I know I'm insanely handsome, but please one at a time."

He pins a zombie to a desk, and stabs it in the head. Then pulls out the knife, and stabs another one to his left. "Jeez you guys are the craziest fans I've ever seen! And I've seen sonic-passion!"

"Sonic-what?" I can't help but ask.

"It's this fansite about you, and your friends. I saw a few pages out of it one time, and some of them, one in particular... Let's just say comparing Amy to her is like comparing someone you met on the street to someone who regularly sneaks into your house, and watches you while you sleep."

"I find that unlikely."

"Trust me, if you read some of the stuff they have on there, you would never, ever, complain about Amy again. Ever."

Finally the last zombie was slain. Alex walked over, and helped me up. "I can get us out of here, but we need to make it to the garage."

"Right."

"How's your leg doing?"

"I think I can walk, but I'm not going to be running any marathons any time soon." He smirks. "Okay let's go then."

We start walking down some nearby stairs, being sure to stay alert. I start talking to pass the time, and to cool my nerves. "So what where you doing here in the first place?"

Alex continues to sweep the stairs below us as he answers. "I was supply hunting, it may be overrun, but the hospital is still the best bet for medical supply's, and as you clearly saw, I can handle myself."

"Yeah that's another thing I wanted to ask. Where the hell did you get training like that?"

"I used to be a government agent, but I quit right before things got out of whack."

I take another look at him. He couldn't be older then 18. "Your kinda young for that aren't you?"

"Said the sixteen year-old super-hero."

"Point taken."

We finally make it to the garage level. Before we leave the stairway he says to me. "Keep your voice down. They're attracted by sound"

We walk into the garage there are a few walkers in sight. He turns to me. "Stay here, and stay hidden. I need to get something."

Wait what!? "Shouldn't I go with you?"

"It'll be faster if I just run there, and come back. Don't worry I'll be back in a minute."

He runs off, quickly, but quietly. An impressive feat when in a parking garage. I hide-er tactfully withdraw, behind a nearby car. Suddenly I hear moaning. I look to my right to see a zombie crawling out the passenger side window. Uh, make that half a zombie. It falls out, and lands rather forcefully right next to me, causing me to... let's just say the zombies know where I am now. The half-zombie grabs me by the ankle, but I manage to kick it off. I then crawl up to the roof of the car. There's a huge horde heading in my direction. What the- There wasn't nearly this many of them two seconds ago! I don't have any choice. I yell for Alex. The walkers keep grabbing at me, but I 'm able to just barely avoid them. Suddenly I hear an engine roaring. An armored truck with a snowplow attached to the front comes smashing, through the horde. It screeches to a stop not ten feet away from me. A hatch opens on the roof, and Alex climbs out with a shotgun strapped to his back, and holding two SMG's. He starts firing at the group around me. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, people give the guy some room to breathe."

He starts shooting at the zombies gathering around his truck. "Aww are you guys hungry? Here have some nutritious bullets!"

He then hooks the machine-guns to his belt, and pulls out the shotgun. He leaps off the truck, and starts charging in my direction while blasting away. "Boom-chacka-lacka! Boom-chacka-lacka!"

He hops up onto the car, turns his back against me and crouches. "Get on!" I hop onto his back, and put my arms around his neck, while saying. "You tell no one of this, okay?"

"Whatever."

He pulls a grenade out of his belt. "You should always eat plenty of fruit for a healthy diet, here have a pineapple!" He chucks the "pineapple" into a group at the front of his truck. After it detonates he starts running back towards it... across the heads of the zombies. "How are you doing that?" I have to ask. "I'm just that awesome!"

Of course what was I thinking? He leaps off the last zombie, and lands on the top of the truck then drops through the hatch.

Everything that's not the driver section of the truck consists of cabinets, drawers, and buttons. Except on the right side which has a rather large gun rack, and work table. The guy has a freaking chain-gun! He presses a button closing the hatch, then walks over to the driver seat. "You can get off now." I let go and sit on the passenger seat. He puts his shotgun away, then takes the wheel, and puts on some rock music. The music player says "Rawkfist-Thousand Foot Krutch" He floors the gas, sending us literally plowing through the horde. "'Scuse me! Pardon me! Coming through! No time for autographs! Gotta make it to the convention!" He says grinning like a deranged wolf. It's official. This guy scares me. We finally make it out of the garage. He continues driving south for a few blocks then talks into a radio attached to the roof. "Open gate 'C'" I see a garage door open. He swerves through the gate. As we drive through a back ally I hear a loud screeching noise. Alex heaves a large sigh. "I keep telling the guys to oil that thing, but noooooo. Why would we want to do that, it's not like zombies are attracted by noise or anything." He stops at a large double gate, then starts talking into the radio. "Alex Anderson plus one at the back gate." There are some clicking noises, and the gate opens. He drives into what appears to be a large warehouse.

The gate closes behind us, next thing I know there's a shotgun barrel pressed up against my head through the window. I look over to Alex. He gives me an uneasy smile. "Sorry, standard procedure."

"Out." A familiar voice says to me. I open the door, and slowly climb out., then turn to come face-to barrel with Shadow. "Shadow! Your alive!"

"Yes I am, now stay where you are while we check you for bites." Some Chipmunk girl in a blue vest walks up to me, and starts looking me over. After about a minute she finally says: "He's clean, not a drop of blood on him."

"Yeah well, hospitals you know? Always so full of germaphobe's." I say as Shadow finally lowers his shotgun. "Glad you made it."

"Back at ya."

"Listen I need to take care of something real quick, and I'm sure Alex wants to show you around, so let's catch up later okay?"

"Fine."

Alex walks up to me. "So ready for the tour?" I nod. He starts walking toward the back of the building. "As you can see we here at Apocalypse Shelter have a wide variety of options for passing the time, including: loading ammunition, separating scavenged supplies, and preparing food that will make people suddenly have religious fasts. We also have plenty of out door activities as well such as: Gathering supply's, Searching for survivors, and good old zombie slaying."

And now for a limited time only, you can-" There's a crash from the roof. We look up quickly to see some form of zombie I've never seen crashing through a skylight. "LEAPER!" Alex yells as he draws his guns, and starts shooting at the intruder. Unfortunately the thing seems to live up to its name, as it easily dodges his bullets by jumping around at quick speeds. "Chaos Control!" I hear Shadow yell the words of power, which causes the creature to slow down in mid-air. "Thanks Shads." Alex says as he shoots the creature in the head. Suddenly there's a banging noise at the gate. "What!? How'd they get in?" I ask.

"'C' Gate must have jammed, don't worry we should be fine so long as-." The banging suddenly gets way louder. I clearly see the gate shaking. "-they didn't bring any...heavies. Well that's just great." The gate burst open, and what appears to be every zombie in the city. Alex raises his pistols, and starts... lowering them again. "You know what, I'm actually tired of zombie killing. I should get back to what I'm supposed to be doing."

I look at him in shock. "What do you mean!?" He looks a me, and smirks. "It's time to wake up Sonic." "Wha-" He points a pistol at me, and fires. Then everything is black.

Authors note:

Hol-ly crap I'm not not dead.

I realize a little less then three months is about average when it comes to most Fanfic authors, but it's still far to long in my book, so... sorry about that.

Also I'm kind of in the process of moving right now so the next story may come out... whenever hopefully not to long.

Now as for the chapter it self:

As Alex more or less stated in the chapter the beginning of the chapter did resemble the Walking Dead show/comic series. Sorry about the lack of originality.

Alex is my fan character which is funny cause I when I began writing here I promised myself I wouldn't use fan characters, but at least he not a recolored hedgehog who is somehow inexplicably related to Sonic, So I consider that a step up.

This is pretty much Alex's test story now so. Like him? Hate him? Think he's a bit nutty? Don't like fourth wall Jokes? Let me know.

Until next time see ya.