Tyrone
"What the hell am I supposed to do now?" It was becoming an effort to even walk around with his arm hurting as it did. It didn't help that Tyrone was stranded in this confusing place. What made it worse was that these hallways were now flooded with infected people, forcing him to sneak around, which wasn't his strong suit. "Still better than that game though." And it was true; there was no hope of winning that game. The game had started at 10:00 am sharp the same morning. It was amazing how much changed in just over 12 hours.
Tyrone saw a small group of infected coming down the hall and quickly found a side closet to hide in. He closed it as softly as he could and sat there hoping that the infected wouldn't find him here. He had broad shoulders and longer arms than most. This gave him a big advantage over others when it came to being a quarterback. His hair was short as was his stature measuring in at 5"5'. He wore his team uniform as it was the only thing that he had left to him. The uniform was a pale blue with similar purple accents. One sleeve was stained with blood from a he sat starring into darkness, his mind wandered back to the events that would lead up to this moment.
It started out during that game, the game that he could finally show the team how good he was, how good he would do as a leader. But it was the coach that seemed determined to see that dream crushed.
Tyrone could still remember his voice ringing sharply in his mind. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?" He could also still picture how much he was fuming. It still made Tyrone laugh.
"What I was doing," Tyrone replied to him in an equally angry voice, "was saving out team from another failed season!" The only difference between their voices was that Tyrone's was a lot more condescending than the coach's.
"Well you're not going to help us recover in one game by yourself!"
"You'd be right about that, that's why I have the whole team behind me." The look on the coach's face was priceless; shear shock and confusion at what he just said.
But the coach wasn't one to be defeated so easily. He quickly regained his composure and continued to hound him. "You and these subs don't have a chance against a seasoned team like those guys." It was true. Almost everyone on the team was currently a reserve for someone else. Half of the guys that had showed up were still sick, and the other half had little to no talent when it came to their designated role. Tyrone was the only one on the team that was actually healthy, and playing the role that he was assigned for. It also helped that no one else wanted to get sacked on a regular basis.
"At least I know how to treat my teammates with respect. And I don't treat my race, better than yours."
It was silent for a few moments after that. Most of the team, both white and black, was too frightened to bring that up to the coach. But if he was being heckled on his performance skills, he might as well bring up the reason the team lost most of their games; the coach valued skin colour above skill. There was a small crowd gathering in the locker room by this point.
"You're lucky I don't have you thrown off the team for that accusation."
"You're lucky I'm winning this game for you."
The coach gave a sly smile and spoke, "It's a shame there's no one in the audience to see such an amazing play." It was one of the most sarcastic voices that Tyrone had ever heard, and mixed with its condescension almost made Tyrone lose his temper. He didn't though.
It was that smile on his face that made him turn around and walk away, despite it being exactly what the coach wanted him to do. It was still a probably what saved his life.
"That's right boy, you walk away! You do what I tell you to do! That's how we're going to win this!" It was then that one of Tyrone's teammates ran past him with a look of absolute rage on his face strait towards the coach. It was the star linebacker. Tyrone couldn't get out of the way fast enough. "And what do you want." The coach yelled out at the linebacker.
The linebacker didn't answer. All he did was rush the coach, and being who he was, the coach went down like a sack of flour. The linebacker then started to ravish the coach, clawing at him and even trying to take bites out of him. The whole team flipped out. Half of them wanted to run from the room, and the other half did their best to restrain the linebacker, including Tyrone.
Tyrone heard someone from behind yelling, "What in the hell you doing man?" as Tyrone gripped the linebackers arm while his friend held the other. What frightened Tyrone was when the linebacker ripped himself from both of their grips, without either of them moving. The linebacker had literally just ripped both of his arms off.
"Damn boy!" Tyrone shouted in fright.
"I still can't figure out what the hell is going on." Tyrone whispered to himself as he shuddered in the closet. He then noticed that it was silent outside in the hallway. All of the infected personnel had wandered away while Tyrone was reminiscing. Tyrone slowly got up from his hiding spot and made his way towards the door. It creaked slightly as it opened and Tyrone froze as he waited for the inevitable rush of infected, but they never came. Tyrone didn't wait to find out if they would come around.
He slipped out of the door and banged his arm against it as he squeezed through. He suppressed a cry of anguish as he griped it in pain. "I still say they didn't do a good job at bandaging this." he whimpered as he held his arm in agony. The bandages that were on it had soaked through already with more blood.
As he wandered through the halls, his mind wandered down a different one. It was the halls of the stadium he was playing at and he was running for his life, best friend at his side and a mob of infected at their heels. It was a mob of his teammates, the crowd that had gathered in the locker room.
Once the linebacker had ripped his arms off, all hell broke loose. The linebacker thankfully collapsed to the floor dead, and the coach was the new problem. He stumbled up from the floor and turned to look at Tyrone.
"You," He yelled, pointing at him, "this is your fault. This wouldn't be happening, if you had just listened." The coach's voice was becoming more and more scratchy and weak as he talked.
"You cannot blame his actions on me!" Tyrone had had just about enough of his coach's attitude.
"This is your fault." The coach repeated. "Your fault! YOUR FAULT!" and with a sudden burst of speed, the coach lunged at Tyrone.
Tyrone barely had time to react. All he could do was outstretch his arms and try to bere the weight as the coach sent both of them crashing to the ground. It was all he could do to keep the coach at bay. The coach was clawing and slashing at Tyrone with all the strength that he had. And Tyrone, Tyrone was losing his mind. For staring down at him was a face that looked pail from decay, a mouth that seemed to drip blood and saliva, and two lifeless eyes that shone white in the shadow of its owner's face.
Tyrone seemed to be fighting the coach for an eternity before someone tried to help him. But by then it was too late. During the struggle, the coach managed to grab hold of Tyrone's arm, and bite down hard. Tyrone let out a scream of pain that he did not think was possible as the coach's teeth sunk into the tender flesh of his arm. It was only then that someone actually helped him.
Tyrone couldn't tell who it was, but the moment that the person tried to get the coach off of him, the coach turned all of his attention to the intruder. The coach tackled the new person in relatively the same way as he had done to Tyrone.
Tyrone took the window of opportunity and lurched to his feet. He looked around for anything that would help him to remove the coach and found a helmet lying on a nearby bench. Tyron grabbed it, and swung it at the coach as hard as he could. It made contact with the coach's side and sent him sprawling to the ground. When the coach tried to get up, Tyrone didn't hesitate and struck the coach again, this time making a killing blow.
Tyrone looked back to try and help the person who helped him, but it was too late. The coach had already done his work and the man before him lay dead and bloody.
It was at that moment that a hand grabbed his shoulder. Tyrone spun around, ready to defend himself with the helmet again, but calmed down when he saw that it was his friend Amari.
"We got to get out of here man!" Amari on the other hand, was not calm in the least. "They're everywhere, eating everyone!" Tyrone had no idea what Amari was talking about, until he took a quick glance around the room. The rest of the team was either eating one another, or already dead.
"Oh damn! I think you're right!" And just like that, they were gone and running. Tyrone was in the lead followed by Amari at his heals. The chain was completed with another sole surviving teammate and the entire rest of the team.
Tyrone couldn't believe what was happening. He couldn't comprehend what was happening. All Tyrone knew was that his team had turned into a horde of flesh eating monsters, and that he needed to run. Run for your life. Run for safety. Run so you don't get eaten alive like the rest of your team.
"What in the heck are we going to do?" Amari yelled over the sound of the growing screams of people coming from the stands to eat them, and the ones already being eaten.
"I don't know!" There were now people streaming in from the stands. They had to hurry if they wanted make it out side before the rush.
"You drove here yourself, correct?" Amari seemed to have thought of something, so Tyrone thought it best to play along.
"Ya! But I don't think that the keys will do any good back in the locker room!"
"Then use your spare key you idiot!" And before Tyrone could process that Amari was correct, he went on. "You meet me by my dad's car. He always stashed a gun in there. It isn't much, but still better than nothing!"
"Fine, but make it quick!" And before He knew it, Tyrone was running away from Amari, down a separate row of cars. Tyrone could have thought to himself, When did we make it outside, but there wasn't really any time for that. There was only enough time to do what was required to survive.
It didn't take long for Tyrone to reach the car, especially when you're running for your life.
It took Tyrone mere seconds to grab the spare key under the fender and get the car running. With an oncoming wave of infected people coming down from the stadium, Tyrone decided it was better to go around the parking lot instead of through it. As it turned out, that was a much better idea. The amount of people was so massive that they would have overwhelmed the vehicle and brought it to a halt.
Tyrone found Amari charging towards him with a horde of infected nipping at his heals. Amari would turn around periodically and unload a few rounds from his dad's submachine gun.
Tyrone's mama always told him that antics would get him killed, but he wasn't about to let his best friend die in the worse way possible. So antics were all that was left.
Tyrone only had seconds to act as he barreled down on his friend. Tyrone reached over to the passenger door and unlatched it. When he looked back onto his friend, he was surprised to see how close he was to him. On a split reaction, Tyrone spun the car around into the other direction and the passenger door was flown open. This action also brought Tyrone's car to a complete stop.
Not two seconds after, Amari vaulted into the seat and screamed, "GO! GO! GO! GO!" while he fired some more shots out the side.
Tyrone listened and slammed on the gas, spinning the tires for a split second. But before the horde could catch up to them, the two best friends were gone from the parking lot and down the highway, trying to think of any way that they could get out of this.
"So what now?" Amari asked panting from his run.
"Now?" Tyrone echoed, " Now that we're out of the immediate danger, we need to get to safety. Any ideas?" Tyrone had absolutely no ideas of where in the world would be safe. As far as he knew everywhere had been overrun by infected beings.
Amari sat in the seat looking out the window, clearly deep in thought, as Tyrone headed for the highway. To try and pass the time, Tyrone turned on the radio not thinking that there wouldn't be anything on. What did come out of the speakers made both of the former football players both remorseful and depressed at the same time.
The radio broadcast was as follows.
"If there is anyone out there, please help me. I've locked myself in the radio station with no way of getting out. My team…my team is either dead or dying. I don't want to join them. Please If anyone can hear this, call the military. They will know what to do. Just…just please. Send help. I don't want to die I- OHGODNO. Their breaking in! Please! Please help! HELP!"
Tyrone turned the radio off at that point. Both he and Amari knew where they needed to go, and it was unfortunate that nothing could be done for the person on the other end of the radio. Tyrone was heading for the nearest military outpost that was an hour away.
There was a long silence before anyone spoke. It was Amari who spoke first in a shy, sad voice. "What ever happened to the guy that was following us?"
This took Tyrone off guard. He had completely forgotten about him. Tyrone didn't respond with a proper answer, all he said was, "I guess we have to find a new team now." In a similar voice as Amari. Amari gave a small nod in reply. It was silence until they made it to the military outpost.
"Why did we have to come here?" Tyrone murmured to himself as he stammered into what was supposed to be a safe-room. Fortunately, it was void of any infected. Tyrone wasted no time in barricading the door he came in with a massive steel bar. It must have weighed 400lbs by his best estimate. When the bar was in place, Tyrone turned around and slid down the door. He looked across the room at the other door and decided that it was secure enough without his assistance. There was alone filing cabinet leaned against it. If necessary, he would be able to move it on his own. Exhausted and out of options on what to do, he slipped into out of consciousness and back to a few hours ago when he and Amari came to this out post.
It took them a few hours to get to the compound. There were several crashed cars and overturned vehicles that had to be avoided. There were several times when the car had to turn around and drive on the other side of the road because of a massive pileup. It didn't matter though, there were few other cars on the road, if at any. When they finally did reach the compound, it was crawling with solders. It looked like they had been stockpiling resources as if they knew this infection would make it despite CEDA's best efforts. What frightened both Tyrone and Amari the most however, were the bodies.
Scattered all around the compound were hundreds upon hundreds of bodies.
Fortunately there was a path of sorts to bypass the mounds and into the front gate. They had to exit the vehicle near a lot with others, not all of them as pristine as theirs. At the gate they were greeted by an unfriendly solder with an angry set of eyes. "Have you had any direct contact with the infected?" He asked in a gruff voice.
"Na man. I haven't had a single hair on my head touched by them bastards." Amari appeared extremely defensive in his response. The guard picked up on this as did Tyrone. However it was Tyron that seemed to be more alarmed by the response. "We'll see." The solder said with heave scepticism. "What about you?" He asked looking at Tyrone.
"Well…" he started, but decided that actions were better than words. Tyrone presented his arm. The guard nearly had a heart attack.
"Holly hell boy! Johnson!" He yelled into the compound. "We've got an Alpha-Charlie over here!" After only a short few moments, the entire compound turned into a beehive, all sorts of people rushing in and out, wearing all different sorts of outfits from military outfits to full quarantine suits.
What happened next was so fast, Tyrone couldn't have known. All he could tell was that he was being dragged down a hallway by some of those people in hazmat suits with being escorted by military men with rather large guns.
He ended up in what felt like a prison cell. It didn't look like one though. There were many benches scattered about the room, most of which were being used for beds, and the beds were over crowded with two or three people. Everyone that was in the room was either crying in agony or wandering around aimlessly. The only 'normal' people were more of those hazmat guys. The only way in or out of the room was a massive red iron door.
Tyrone was approached by one of those people in the hazmat suits when he was practically thrown into the room. "Sir, if you could follow me." She said helping him up. She ended up leading him over to a med station. "Are you injured in any way?"
It took him a few moments to answer due both to the rate at which things were happening, and because the question was muffled because of the hazmat suit.
"Just, my arm." He said presenting his bite wound.
The woman helping him seemed almost disappointed when she saw the wound. "I can see why they want you in here." She quickly got some gauze and some disinfectant. It burned like nothing else when she applied it to Tyrone's wound. "This is only to kill any type of infection that would come from the bite. Unfortunately," She looked at him with more sorrow then he had seen today and told him what he had feared. "Nothing we have done so far has been able to combat the Green Flu… I'm sorry kid." And she simply gave his shoulder a quick squeeze and move on to more people that were coming in.
Tyron sat there on an unused cot speechless for several moments. He couldn't believe what he had just been told. Nothing to combat the Green Flu? He thought to himself. She had basically just given him a death sentence. WORSE than a death sentence. He was going to turn into one of them.
The next few hours were spent in turmoil. He laid there on the small cot and thought of everything he had ever done and even stuff that he wished he had; similar to how they say your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die. It was nearly a constant stream of people brought in and taken out. Some people that were brought in were taken back out almost immediately. Some people died, and others were deemed 'safe' and taken out to be put in a different room. Others were taken out and gun fire could be heard shortly after. Tyrone never moved.
It was after what seemed like hours that something happened. And it was not something good. It started out as some screaming, but that was sometimes heard before the gunfire. This was different. This was screaming when no one had been taken out of the room. Tyrone knew something was amiss at this. He got up from his cot and approached the door. He couldn't see anything through the door of course but he could still hear. Then it happened.
There were people outside, Tyrone assumed to be guarding the door, and they were in a panic themselves. "What do we do?" The one asked in a panicked tone. "Shoot now and don't ask questions!" The second voice hollered back. Then gun fire could be heard. It was so sudden and close that Tyrone jumped back from the door.
It wasn't long before the entire room fell silent as its occupant listened to what was going on outside. No body moved. Everyone was scared. Even more so than they were before.
The door suddenly swung open and a single soldier plowed through. He tried slamming the door behind him, but was stopped when several arms came bursting through the opening. "Someone Help me!" He yelled at no one in particular. Tyrone quickly threw himself at the door in an attempt to close. Several others took example and also started to push on the doors. It wasn't long before all of the hand and arms in the crack just, fell off from the pressure in a bloody mess. Everyone was quick to get as far from the door as they could and the sounds could be heard of several people vomiting at the sight of what happened.
"Thanks kid." The soldier said through heavy breathing.
"The hell happened out there?" Tyrone asked terrified.
"I don't know." The soldier took a deep breath. "I don't know. The only thing I can think of was the new bus load of people we got from Eatonia. They come from where those people were being treated. They were supposed to be clean Damnit!" He grabbed Tyrone by the collar of his jersey and shook him in frustration.
"Get off of me!" Tyrone protested as he shoved the soldier back. He then wiped himself off as habit. "Look," Tyrone spoke to the soldier in a calm voice, calm as he could manage in this situation. "Is there any way to combat this situation?"
The soldier thought about it for several moments before he came to a grim conclusion. "Guns." He spoke still trying to regain his breath. The adrenalin in his system was starting to wear off. "Lots and lots of guns. And I know just where to find them."
"You can't do that!" A voice spoke up from somewhere in the room.
"You're talking about killing those people." Another chimed in.
The soldier looked into the room to find the source of the voices and gave up quickly. "I don't know about you," He spoke in a somewhat sarcastic tone. "But what's out there, is not people anymore. Those people are fully infected and will not hesitate to rip you to shreds."
Tyrone knew what he had to do. "Guns you say?" He spoke softly to avoid turmoil in the room.
"Lots of 'em." The soldier spoke back in a similar manner.
Tyrone brought his hand down his face and nodded. There was no turning back now. "Everyone! Listen up!" He turned and yelled into the room. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to die hiding in a room waiting for those things, out there to finish me off. I'm going to go down swinging. Anyone who wants to do the same should follow us to where he says these guns are." Tyrone wasn't waiting. He knew most of the people in this room were heavily infected as he was and an attack from inside was not going to end pretty.
"Let's go." Tyrone said. "And if anyone turns, don't hesitate…That includes me."
The soldier nodded. "Here." He said handing over a second rifle. Tyrone hadn't noticed that he had been carrying two. It must have been his buddies from outside. "And for the record, you probably could have made it big in the army."
Tyrone didn't care about compliments right now; he wanted this thing over with. Tyrone checked in the clip to make sure there was still ammo and, happy with the results, made one final gesture. "Open the door." He commanded to the soldier. Everyone inside the room started to shout at once but it was too late. The door started to open slightly and many of the same arms reached into the crack as before.
Tyrone was ready for them and opened fire into the open space. He heard many screams followed by bodies dropping. When he ran out, he and the soldier swapped places quickly. When the soldier ran out as well, the sounds from the hallway had stopped.
Wasting no time, Tyrone headed to open the door so that he and the soldier could actually leave. Tyrone wished he hadn't. There lying on the floor in front of the door, was a soul face he recognised. Amari. Amari with pale white eyes the shone in the dim light and blood foaming from his mouth. He stared at his friend for what seemed like forever. Did I shoot him? He thought. Or was it the soldier? Or was even alive when he got shot? That wasn't important right now. What was important was getting some safety.
After he and the guard had reloaded with the last two clips, they quickly hurried out the door, followed by about half a dozen people. The door slid shut as everyone was done leaving. Clearly those inside thought it would be safer. After that, everything went to hell. Half of the people turned while they were not even half of the way to where the guns were supposed to be kept, and ended up killing the other half of the people. While Tyrone was fighting off the attack from behind, the soldier tried to defend from an oncoming wave of infected. Tyrone was successful, but as soon as the guard heard clicking coming from his gun, he knew they were in trouble. The soldier didn't even hesitate when he heard that noise. "DAMNIT!" He yelled as he threw his gun to his side and sprinted head first into the remaining few infected. All Tyrone could hear was a definitive, "RUN KID!" as the soldier was charging at the infected.
Tyrone was already halfway down the hallway when he heard the scream of the soldier from behind him. He passed the door to his first holding room after about a minute of nonstop running and kept on running. There was screaming and yelling coming from inside. The banging on the door didn't convince him to slow down either. He thought of all the people that were inside. All of them were probably dead now.
It took another few second of running to turn the corner and find an empty room. Tyrone got inside and closed the door, sliding down it when he did. He prayed that nothing would find him in there. The door didn't seem like it would hold up to much.
It was only then that he noticed the state that his arm was in. The bandages were turning a bright red and there was a shooting pain going up and down his arm. "They didn't bandage this very well." He mumbled to himself. He waited for the pain to go away before he decided to find safety.
Tyrone woke to the sound of banging on the second door. "Is anyone in there?" A loud voice asked from the other side.
Still out of it, it took Tyrone several moments to get up. "Their coming! Let us in!" It took all of Tyrone's strength to heave the cabinet out of the way. He was assisted by the person on the other side throwing himself at the door.
As it turned out, it was more than one person at the door. A group of three people staggered inside. Two of them were very badly injured. One of them had a makeshift crutch attached to her knee, and the other looked like he was going to pass out.
Once all three of them were inside, he help a very large man move both the filing Cabinet amongst other things in an effort to blockade the door. The woman helped place the kid down on a couch. The place must have been a rec room of some sort as Tyrone started to look around.
"You honestly didn't think you come out of that uninjured?" The woman asked the kid as she readied some bandages and other supplies from a med kit from her back.
"This coming from the 'Damsel in Distress.'" He gave a small laugh that quickly turned into agony.
"Quit it you two. Sam, fix Dillon while I take care of the entrance." The man said as he continued to heft anything large enough in front of the door.
The woman, Sam Tyrone assumed, glared at the man and stuck out her tongue before returning her attention to the boy. This was when Tyrone decided to make himself noticed.
When the man started to struggling to push a desk, Tyrone came up beside him and together they moved it in front of the growing mass that was blocking the door.
"Thanks kid." The man said to Tyrone. He then sighed heavily and wiped his brow. He went off and grabbed two chairs for the two of them to sit on. "The name's Jack." He said sitting down and extending a hand.
Tyrone took the chair and copied Jack's actions. "Tyrone." He said shaking hands. He looked over to the couch to see Sam doing her best to treat Dillon. "So what happened to them?"
Jack put a hand on Tyrone's shoulder and said simply "It's a long story."
Tyrone nodded and leaned back in his chair. "I have a feeling it's going to get longer." Tyrone mumbled to himself.
