*Chapter Four: Survival of the Apocalypse - Where are the others like me?*

The sun has already risen on this death-stricken land. I've been travelling for a few hours and everything seems the same as it had in Philadelphia. Dead. Corpses. Walking. "Ugh..." My brain was on fire with agonizing pain. I could feel the infection continuing to spread throughout my body. My veins and muscles were aching. I could feel everything. The vibrations from the motor bike were seemingly increasing. My senses were fucking going crazy. I shook the haze from my eyes as I continued to drive this death-ridden road. My skin was even paler that it was yesterday. Feed. Oh fuck, not that again. I reached into my pocket and pulled out some pepperoni to munch on. It wasn't satisfying the rage that had seeped its way into my being, but it would help so I could get a lot further west.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the temperature was rising as well. My hair was sticking to my face as I drove. I didn't have my helmet on. It was becoming a nuisance and was only causing pain from the weight it put on my neck. As the pavement continued on, I noticed there were more dead than there had been back in the city. "What the hell? Why are there so many?" It was like they were flocking somewhere. It was as if they had turned their attention towards me. "Am I what they are looking for?" The haze that was constantly trying to take over my vision was becoming the most annoying thing I've had to deal with in a long time. It was like my vision was just coming and going. Not really enhancing like it did last night. Was it the strain of the daylight that made it harder to see?

The horde was starting to grow around me. I slowed the motorbike down and looked to the zombies. Some of them were different than the rest. There were some that had boils and seemed to be mutated. Is that what I am? A mutated beast? I certainly wasn't normal. I could still talk and walk, fight as well. It was certainly an odd predicament. I pulled the bike to a stop and watched as all the infected around me came to a stop. They looked at me with the dull glares and moans escaping their decomposing mouths.

As the minutes seemed to take forever to pass, I was soon surrounded by several of these rotting walking corpses. If I didn't move soon, there would be too many to handle. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. They didn't attack me. They just seemed to glare at me with empty stares. Did they want me to command them? I just didn't know what to do.

"There stands one..her flesh...her flesh is rotting like ours.." A voice came out of nowhere and then the zombies spread out allowing a couple of people to walk in between them. Like me, the zombies were not attacking them. They were ignoring them as if they were just like them. "Crave her.. We must devour no matter the decomposition.."

One was a blonde and the other a darker skinned woman. They both had patches of cloth covering the bites they had encountered when this all happened. "Who are you? Why are you here? Have you been bitten as well?" the dark skinned woman spoke. Her eyes were completely white and a golden hue to the iris. It seemed all unnatural. Why was this infection different for some?

I nodded in agreement to her question. "I'm A.Z. Who are you?" I questioned. I was curious but not really wanting to get friendly with anyone just yet - I don't care if they were just like me. Walking abominations among the dead.

"I'm Charlotte and this is my sorority sister, Jackie. We've been heading east away from the hell here in Ohio.." The blonde didn't seem to notice anything except what she was sniffing out. They looked just like me. Basically the infection had put us on a plane, where we weren't exactly dead and yet we were far from living. "What is it you have there?" Charlotte asked. Her blonde friend Jackie continued to sniff me over, stopping to focus on the front breast pocket of my jacket.

I looked to them and backed away, slipping a hand in the pocket and pulling out a small stick of jerky and some pepperoni. "Just pepperoni.." Jackie knocked it out of my hand and it hit the ground. "Why pepperoni?!"

I looked to Charlotte as I backed up against my bike. "It's what I've been eating to quell th-"

"The hunger?" the dark skinned woman questioned. "The undying need to eat flesh. Heh, I wish we had come up with that. We've had to..eat people. I regret eating my own little sister. It was so stupid. She and my mom...they turned into those things. I didn't even want to do it. But the hunger hit me hard. The craving for flesh. I needed it. Even as my own flesh began to decompose...I craved theirs."

I lowered my head. "I'm sorry to hear that.."

Charlotte broke out into laughter. "Oh don't be! It's what this world has turned into. It is what we must do to survive. I have even considered eating the rotting meat.. Since everyone else is gone, I have nothing.." She turned to Jackie before looking back at me. "I would even eat Jackie here if she'd allow it."

This woman seemed mad. Seemed like she had completely lost her mind. Her body had already turned into one of these zombies but her mind was still there. I understood that she had probably bitten her family members before they turned, thus killing them. That would drive anyone mad.

I turned around and straddled my bike. The groans and moans from the infected still watching as the sun passed in the sky. I looked to the both of them and began to rev up my engine. "I've got to go.."

Jackie put her mangled hand on the bike to hold it there. "You don't understand," Charlotte spoke. "You are going to be our meal starting now. Jackie get her!" Jackie started to make her move towards me but I kicked her back. She growled as her body began to morph. Her muscles seemed to be growing larger and it was entirely unnatural. But anything in this world would be considered unnatural already. Her bikini top that she had been wearing stretched around her body as she let out another roar. Even Charlotte was stepping backwards as she looked to her friend. "Wait, Jackie..what's wrong?" she questioned.

I started up the motor of my bike and swung my bat around trying to make a path for me to get through. This woman was going berzerk. It was like the infection was causing an unusual change in her. It was freaking me out. Jackie's body continued to grow out of control. I drove off just as she threw Charlotte out of the way with a single swipe of her arm. I revved the motor more as I looked in the rearview. The fucking bitch was on my fucking ass! She looked like something out of a goddamned video game. It didn't make any sense. Why was she mutating? Would I mutate as well?

I dodged a car that flew past my head as I continued on my way. "Fuck, she's a goddamn tank!" I looked in the rearview mirror and continued on. Thankfully I was able to outrun her. I would have been killed by that thing. This infection was too much. My heart was still beating slow and my breathing normal yet ragged, even though I had just outrun death herself.

Survival in this apocalypse would be tough. I'd have to avoid anyone. Everyone. Everything. But how long could I do that? I was only one person. If it wasn't the fucking survivors wanting to kill me on sight, it was the recently infected wanting to devour me. I shook my head clear of the thoughts of what could have happened and focused on what I needed to do. I'd need gas soon for this fucking bike. But even now, I'm afraid to stop. While the sun was in the sky, I'd have to keep going. I'd stop after dark. I had wondered where the others like me were but now after seeing them, I didn't even want to run into anyone else. I'll have to survive. On my own.