Molly Norton was not having a good day. This morning, she had woken up at her normal time if six A.M. only to discover that she felt terrible. This came as no surprise to the tall and lean girl, as she hadn't felt so good the previous day. She would just have to stay home from school, which in her opinion sucked, as she had a math test today that she would have to make up at a later date, and she wouldn't be able to see her boyfriend Mike Daniels. The latter pissed her off more then the former.
So, she had decided to get up anyway, check her e-mail, and do some much needed movie watching. With school on one hand, and Mike on the other, Molly had a pretty busy life. One of the bigger and more notable differences between Mike and school, was she actually enjoyed one of them.
Molly is a tall girl: about five foot eight, and she weighed maybe a hundred and fifteen pounds. She was pretty thin and willowy, and her build gave her an elfin-like quality. Her long dark, nearly completely black hair only added to her mystique and beauty. Her height helped her match up well with Mike, who was over six three. She is an only child, and lives with her father and mother, who'se marriage coundn'tve been happier.
It was maybe six-fifteen, when Molly's father left for work. He was a businessman, and had to be in pretty early. Molly's mother, upon realizing that her daughter was sick, used it as an excuse to take a quick jog to the mini-mart which was a couple dozen blocks away, to pick up a six pack of soda, which would make Molly feel slightly better. Molly's mother deeply enjoyed running, saying it was the best way to keep in shape, and had left the house on her run/errand maybe twenty minutes after Molly's father had left for work.
Molly called Mike's house, and had asked if he was home. He answered, and said that he was headed right out the door, and was going to be late. Molly told him she was sick, and he promised he'd call later. She hung up in frustration. Being sick sucked. She would have called her boyfriend using her cell phone, so she could talk to him longer, but she already knew that Mike didn't possess on of the handy devices. She had bugged him about that for ages, and he would always say he was trying to convince his dad to get one. Molly sighed. Mike's dad wasn't the most trusting guy in the world, nor did he ever let Mike take the easy route to doing anything. Needless to say, Mike rarely took Molly over to his house.
Molly toyed with the idea of calling Nick Lynch's cell phone, and asking him to see how Mike was. She didn't know if he would be anywhere near Mike, though, so it was a gamble. She smiled slightly as she thought of Nick, which in turn, Made her think of Chad Richards. Both of these jokers were who Mike considered some of his very best friends, and Molly considered them very good friends as well. The pair always seemed to be together. Almost like they were attached. Molly had joked on many occasions to them that they would make a cute couple. The looks she'd received on that comment had been priceless. In the end, though, Molly didn't call Nick, deciding to just tough it out, and wait for school to end.
Molly had spent maybe a blissful twenty minutes on the computer, getting off at six forty-five, and going back to bed. She was very tired, and could put of watching a movie until she got up again. Which was only about a half-hour later. Molly had wondered into her living room, and decided to watch "Far from Heaven" on DVD, when she heard gunshots off in the distance. Thinking it was some gang-related shooting, Molly followed her curiosity, and turned the channel to the news, instead of the DVD player, to see if they were giving live coverage of the shootout.
She could never imagine what she was about to see.
Riots. Hundreds and hundreds of people were attacking the dozens of policeman trying to control the mob. Not with any weapons, but with theirs bare hands. And it was only upon closer inspection that she realized the people who biting the policeman, and anyone else who got in their way.
The news said it was widespread; all over the place, and informed everyone to lock their doors and windows and stay inside their homes. Molly didn't hesitate. She locked every single window and door in the house, something she did rather quickly, considering how sick she felt. She would let her mother in if she ever got back. She hoped her father was alright.
The the news switched to a live feed from a helicopter over a school. Molly's high school. The Molly remembered Mike, and nearly started crying when she saw that the crazed mob were ripping apart students. A school bus in the corner of the frame revved to life, and disappeared from view as the live feed switched back to the newsroom itself.
Molly was just about the think the worst when a jingle from the kitchen brought her back to reality.
The kitchen phone was ringing.
Molly ran to the kitchen and picked up the cordless phone from it's stand. She answered it, and in a shaky voice said,
"Hello?"
"Hey, baby..." It was Mike, he sounded near tears.
Molly almost starts crying right there. "Hey." she whispers back.
"Are you okay?" Mike asked, seeming to recover a bit, and putting some seriousness into his voice.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I thought you were...All the reports on the news, I thought I..." She couldn't finish the sentence. The thought was unbearable.
"I know, baby. I thought you were too..." Mike trailed off, and Molly thought she could hear a voice in the background. It sounded like Nick's.
"Nick says lock everything." There was a pause "He also says turn off all the lights, and stay low and quiet. We're going to come get you as soon as we can."
Molly nodded, "Already locked everything. Please try to get her soon, okay?"
"Okay, good." There was a pause, and Molly could make out Nick's voice again, and a rumble that sounded like an engine of some sort.
"Do you have you cell phone?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, I do." Molly responded, thinking of the small device that she kept in her room on her nightstand.
"Good." Mike said
There was another pause.
"Okay, babe. I need to go. I'll call again, I promise. We'll be there as soon as we can." Mike whispered to her, "I love you."
Molly choked back tears, as she pushed her dark mid-back length hair from her pale face with a shaking hand, "I love you too..." she said very quietly, hoping this wouldn't be the last time she'd ever speak to her boyfriend.
The the phone went dead. Mike had hung up. Molly was now on her own until they called again. Molly sucked it up.
"Don't cry. Don't break down." She whispered to herself as she hung up the phone.
Thinking of what Mike had said, Molly quickly flipped the kitchen lights off. She then went to every single room of the house, making sure every entryway was locked, every curtain pulled, and every light turned off. She also went to her room to retrieve her cell phone.
After about five minutes of frantic lock down, Molly slowly returned to the T.V. to see the horrors of the world outside. She could hear gunshots, some off in the distance, some very, very close. She could also hear screams. Every few seconds there would be either a gunshot or a scream. It took her nearly a half hour of sitting and watching the end of the world on the T.V. screen, and hearing it coming in from the outside world, to get even somewhat used to it. Molly turned down the T.V. somewhat, fearing the noise would attract those things.
And then Molly remembered that she didn't feel so good. She was just thinking of how she would handle herself moving around outside being as sick as she was, when her cell phone began to ring. It had been nearly forty-five minutes since the boys had last called her, and she was feeling even sicker with worry.
She snatched the phone and answered it, "Hello?" she said loudly and clearly.
"Hello, Molly?" the calm soft voice of Nick Lynch greeted her from the other end of the line.
"Nick?" Molly breathed.
"Yeah. Are you okay?" He was right to the point.
"Yeah, I'm alright."
"Do you have a weapon?"
"No, I don't." a stab of fear hit her. She didn't have any protection. Suddenly, a new stab of fear plus a bit of worry hit her, "Is Mike okay?" She asked, a little louder then she would have liked.
"Yeah, he's alright. So's everyone else."
Molly breathed a sigh of relief, "Who's 'everyone else'?", she asked curiously.
"Alright, it's me, Mike, Chad, and three girls, Ashley Roberts, Tracy Carter, and some girl named Ali. Havn't gotten a last
name from her yet, though she's in our grade, I think...We're all okay. Me and Mike are in his house right now, Chad and the others are out in the bus."
"What bus?" Molly asked, perplexed.
"Oh, they're was a school bus." Nick said simply, "It was right there, and we kinda jacked it. It's kinda why we're alive. We got lucky."
Molly breathed another sigh of relief, and then asked, "When are you coming to get me?"
"When we can. Turns out there's a lot more guns here then I expected, we need more time to prep. We're about to get the others in here to help."
Molly breathed out, "How long will that take?"
"I don't know, Molly."
Nick paused, "How bad is it there?"
"I don't know, I closed all the blinds. I can't see outside." Molly replied. "There's a lot of gunshots and screams, though. And they sound really close."
"Alright." Nick considered this. "Molly, very slowly, go to one of the windows, and peek out please. Very slowly and very quietly. Can you do that?"
Molly nodded, then realized that that couldn't translate over the phone. "Yeah." she replied several moments later.
"Okay, be very careful. These things seem to go berserk when they see people. Normal people, that is..." He trailed off.
Molly very slowly creeped to one of the windows, and slowly opened, the blinds, hearing gunshots and screaming the entire time. The blinds opened just the slightest, and revealed something that Molly would remember the rest of her life.
There was a man, no, one of those things, in her yard. He was covered with blood, and had a few flesh wounds that looked like sections of him had been torn out. He was crouched over a body, eating it.
Molly nearly screamed when she recognized the body, as the remains of her mother. Still wearing her blue jogging uniform and everything.
Molly started crying right there.
"Molly!" Nick said urgently. She didn't reply. She just stared at her mother's body being eaten, completely frozen to the spot.
"Molly!" Nick said louder.
Molly tried regaining what was left of her composure, "Ye..Yeah..?" She answered weakly.
"What's wrong, what did you see?" Nick was calm and collected, and it was contagious. Molly felt herself calming to the point of being able to communicate again.
"Molly." Nick said again upon receiving no answer, "What is it?"
"It's my mom. She's...She's...One of those things...It's..It's eating her..."
Nick was silent for a moment.
"Molly," He started, "I need you to look around. How many of those things are on your street?"
Molly didn't answer. She couldn't tear her eyes from her mother, who was still being eaten by this insane man.
"Molly. This is important. I need to know what to be ready for. We're coming to get you soon. I need to know what's there. I need to know how many of them they're are, Molly."
Molly nodded again, forgetting that Nick couldn't see this action. "Okay," she said softly, tears running down her cheeks. She did a quick look around what she could see of her street. She counted seventeen of those things, including the one that was still eating the body of what not an hour ago, was her mother. The things were just wondering around in the street, and on lawns. Not having anything to chase or anything better to do at this time.
"Seventeen." She said quietly into the phone.
"Thank you, Molly." Nick said softly. "Now I want you to close the blinds, and sit down. Do not look out the window again, okay?"
"Okay." she whispered.
"Molly, stay quiet, keep all the lights turned off. Do not go anywhere. You hear me?"
"Yeah..."
"You promise me?"
Molly nodded a third time, recovering fairly quickly, "Yeah."
"Okay, good. Mike wants to talk to you."
There was a pause, and then Mike's voice came over the phone. He sounded a bit scared, but he seemed mostly okay. "Hey, babe. How are you?"
Im...Im okay." Molly answered, lying for his benefit.
"Okay, Nick says don't move, and wait for our call, okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay. We need to get Chad and the others now...I love you.."
Molly swallowed hard. "I love you, too."
There was a pause.
"Stay safe, baby."
And then silence.
Molly hung up the phone, and she turned away from the window, and sat on the sofa in front of the T.V., watching the apocalypse live and uncut. It was over an hour before the boys called again, and it was an hour that went by pretty much unnoticed by Molly, who at this point, was pretty numb to the world.
Her cell phone rang, and she mechanically picked it up and flipped it open.
"Hello?" she said very softly, eyes still on the T.V. where they where still doing live coverage of the extraordinarily bloody attacks, and the police's seemingly futile attempts to stop the creatures.
"Molly, it's Nick. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, kinda..."
"Are you still inside?"
"Yes..."
"Do they know you're in their?"
"No."
"Good. I need you to check the window again, and tell me how many of them their are, okay?"
"Okay..." Molly got up, and slowly walked to the window, and peeled the curtain back, not really wanting to see her mother's mangled corpse again, but wanting to help Nick out even more. She looked out the window, and her eyes widened. Her mother was gone from the spot where she had lay just an hour previously, leaving only bloodstained grass, and a few feet of what looked like intestine behind.
"Molly?" Nick's voice brought her back from her shock.
"Yeah..?" She muttered into the phone. She couldn't have a breakdown now. Not this far into this thing. Mike and the others were coming to get her.
Molly told herself to hang on.
"Molly, we're coming to get you right now. We'll be there in a few minutes. How many of them are out there?" Nick said, taking a leader-like voice that seemed to fit him pretty well.
Molly did a quick count of the crazed figures who where intelligently shambling around on her street, all the while telling herself everything would be fine. That all she had to do was stay quiet, and somewhat relaxed. Not exactly the easiest task, considering the circumstances.
"Twenty-nine." She said, making sure the count of the creatures was accurate.
There was a pause, as Nick considered the number.
"Okay, Molly. I need you to go get dressed into some sweats or jeans. Preferably both. Sweats under, and jeans over that. Make sure you cover up your arms and legs. Oh, and tuck your hair into your shirt. These things grab on to anything they can get ahold of. Oh, and no jewelry, okay?"
Molly nodded, taking in all the requests. "Anything else?" She asked, trying to take her mind off the world around her and focus on the task at hand.
"Get a backpack, and empty it. Keep it with you. And make sure you're dressed how I asked you to be, alright?"
Molly nodded again. "Alright."
"Good. We'll see you in a few. We'll be in a bus. Do not come outside until we call you, alright? Stay inside, even when we show up, okay?" Nick sounded a touch nervous.
"Okay..."
"Okay, get ready, and wait for our call."
Molly nodded a third time. "Alright.", she confirmed.
"Good, see you in a few." Nick said, trying to sound reassuring.
"Kay..." Molly replied.
The the phone went dead, and Nick was gone. Without even waiting, Molly ran upstairs, ignoring how bad she felt, and began putting on the clothing Nick had asked her to. She then began emptying her backpack.
Molly would be ready to see Mike again in just a few minutes.
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So, you get to finally find out who Molly is! And it only took about 300 words. The story itself is now over 20,000 words now. It's a milestone. I'm hoping people will actually read this when it starts getting REALLY long. I'm gonna have to make my intro in the first chapter longer, because I think Im boring too many people. Damn... Just for the record, is this story too slow? I'm trying to paint a picture here, and not just write a "shoot 'em up" type of story...Unfortunantly this seems the be wasted on people who aren't into this sort of thing...Ill have tp speed it up and shorten the chapter length, I guess...Again, big thanx to sanchez C. and Figure14 who've been with this for forever.
Anywho, hope y'all who've been with me this far are having fun!
Oh, and I created a C2 community for other zombie loving people, much like myself, so if you're interested in that kind of thing, you should subscribe to it. I'm trying to make it as big as possible.