**

"Alex, those were kids. Adults I could understand, because there are some seriously twisted people in this world, but making kids play along? No way. That was not a setup."

After the shock had worn off from what they'd just seen, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin had reacted. They had joked about it so often, even stating that they had a response plan for the inevitable, but they really weren't sure how to proceed. They always thought it would be like a plague, rolling across the land, not that they would witness the beginning of it. Sabin had run to the door and locked it, then moved around to every window and close every curtain. As Sabin was doing this, Shelley was thrashing about in the kitchen. He was gathering all the non-perishable goods, torches and supplies he could find that he thought might be useful. After running it all upstairs, he had looked for any weapon that he could find. He ran upstairs again, this time with Sabin behind him, turning off all lights downstairs as he went.

They ran into Sabin's study and locked the door behind them, turning to face each other.

"TV," Shelley said, picking up the remote and turning it on.

"Internet," Sabin agreed, pulling out the chair so that he could sit down and started to check the news sites.

It seemed that on every channel and every news website, they were talking about the brutal attack that had happened in Maybury State Park. But the Guns saw no mention of how the attackers had mysteriously multiplied, and when the footage was replayed – with the longest discretionary warning that they had ever seen – how they attackers were mysteriously wearing the exact same clothes as those attacked a minute before.

They were discussing what it could possibly be, neither wanting to be the first to say what they were both thinking, but they could come up with no alternatives. After a moment of silence between them, with the TV still replaying the screams of the egg hunters, Alex Shelley took a deep breath.

"So then... zombies?" He said it in a professional manner, as if they were discussing what they were going to do during a promo or in a match, as if it wasn't the most absurd thing he had ever said.

Sabin looked at the TV again, saw the woman rising and then the footage cutting to black, bit his lip and nodded. "Looks like, yes."

"Then we need to figure out what we have, what we need to get. Even if we need to get out before it gets too-"Shelley stopped speaking mid sentence as an ambulance drove by, it's siren sounding clearly. They looked up at each other, horror etched on both their faces. They ran to the window, threw it open, stuck their heads outside and looked down the road at the hospital. It seemed quiet now, with the ambulance driving away from it, but if it was what they thought, that would change quickly. The hospital would become a hot zone for death and destruction."Chris?"

"Yeah?"

"How long since that first attack?"

"Can't have been more than twenty minutes."

"And what was happening last night?"

There was a pause as Sabin thought about it.

"We already need to be out of here, don't we?"

Bringing his head back into the room, Shelley considered. "Maybe we're overreacting. Maybe we should wait and see...well, what there is to see? But keeping an escape route open?"

Sabin bit on his lip while he thought about this. "We can get the car in the garage, and then we don't have to go outside to get to transportation."

In the end, the Guns played "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to decide who would go outside. Shelley lost, so he ran outside as Sabin locked the door behind him and opened the garage door. When Shelley was safely back upstairs, Sabin sat by the window, watching the street below, and Shelley tried to find anything new on the news.

It was several hours before it happened. A few minutes after midday, Sabin and Shelley were both sitting by the window, trying to figure out a realistic plan for what they would do. When they saw the person shuffling down the street from the direction of the hospital, they couldn't take their eyes off him, just waiting to see what he would do. He seemed to just shamble along, uninterested by anything going on in the otherwise empty street. It wasn't until there was a high pitched squeal from a house a few along and over the street from Sabin's. The sound was quickly followed by laughter, clearly from a child with too much chocolate and sugar in their system, and it was a sound that should have been commonplace, not causing any issue. But upon hearing the sound, the man seemed to change. From a nearly comical shamble, the head snapped up as the Guns had seen earlier in the day, it emitted a sound almost like a snarl, and ran at the house.

It hit with full force, making the door shudder, but could not make it move farther than that. It hammered and howled, desperate to get in, leaving red smears on the immaculate white door every time the hands connected. A silhouette could be seen moving through the house, clearly heading towards the door. Both Guns thought briefly of distracting the creature, luring it away, but in a moment of cowardice neither would ever wish to admit, they stayed silent, fearing for themselves more than neighbours.

The creature had moved along the wall, away from the door, and lucky for the family within, away from the windows. The Guns, watching from the window, hoped and prayed silently that the creature would lose interest and move along. But they could see all too well what happened. They watched as the silhouette finally reached the door, as the clearly angry man opened the door, his finger outstretched to chastise the person banging on it. They watched as the creature heard the door open and set up the man, his screams drawing the other neighbours out; as the creature moved on from the man as soon as he was dead, to the other neighbours. And then, finally, as the attacked man rose, his throat torn open and arm hanging uselessly at his side, turned into the house, and then darted up the stairs.

Sabin very slowly pulled the curtains shut, trying not to attract any attention. Then he turned his back on the street and the neighbours dying below, looked at his tag team partner, and very calmly said "We have to get the hell out of here".

**