A Cruel, Undead World

~ Chapter 5 ~

Déjà Vu

Tervu Infection Outbreak Active for: 0 Years, 0 Months, 0 Weeks, 0 Days, 01:07:05.

The situation in Tervu is one no one should ever have to deal with—especially some thirteen, fifteen, and eighteen year old kids. Salmon pushed her slightly feathered, short brown hair away from her right ear as she held the phone up against it. The phone was dialing, but instead of the normal ring of a pending call, it made the same noise it would make when the call dropped. Confused, she tried again; there was no different outcome.

"The damned phone won't work!" she shrieked and discarded the phone, and it landed next to Jasmine.

"Here, maybe there's something wrong with that number…I'll try my parent's phone." She picked it up and the other two watched anxiously as she punched in the numbers. With the phone next to her ear, they waited for what seemed like forever, only to be disappointed by the same tone.

"The phone lines must be down or something…" Alex thought aloud, but it did little to comfort the girls.

"Well now what are we supposed to do?" Salmon crossed her arms angrily, facing away from the others. They stayed in silent contemplation for a few more moments—until they heard a loud scream from the living room. Startled, Salmon hesitated, then opened the door and ran toward the living room with the others on her heels.

The sight in front of them was not pretty. An infected neighbor must have banged on the door, causing the brother to open it and before he could close it again, he was attacked. His deceased body lie on the linoleum floor, while the struggling cousin tried her best to get away from her predator. Salmon yelped as she sprang into action, grabbing the attacker and pulling him back. Close by, Jasmine yanked Salmon away just before the neighbor was about to bite her. Salmon looked passed the zombie, finding her cousin lying next to her brother—dead. Anger rising in her veins, momentarily forgetting the danger and the abuse her brother and cousin both put her through. She was about to throw herself into the zombie, but before she could, they saw a flash of black and the infected was pinned to the ground by a tall man. The two thrashed around until the man pulled a rather large pocket knife and pushed the blade deep into the zombie's eye—piercing its brain and stopping its advances. Panting, the man stood and turned to face the children. Salmon released a long breath of relief.

"Mr. Elison!" she cried, and unable to stop herself, walked up and hugged him. Obviously uncomfortable, he awkwardly pat her on the back. Matt Elison was Salmon's downstairs neighbor, and a kind gentleman who was on his way to his sister's wedding party (thus the black tuxedo) when he heard the screams from upstairs.

"What is going on?" he asked them as the young girl released her grasp.

"Nothing short of a zombie apocalypse." Jasmine explained simply. He raised his eyebrow, but didn't question further. Glancing between Jasmine and Alex, Matt turned his attention to Salmon.

"Where are your parents?"

"At work…we can't get a hold of them!"

"We can't reach my parents either." Jasmine added.

"I've noticed something wrong with the phones too…I chalked it up to a problem with the connection, but I guess it's something more sinister. Alright, I can take you to your parents…we can take my car." He offered, and they were about to leave when Alex cried as something grabbed his foot. Salmon's deceased brother had propped himself up and latched his slimy, bloody hand on Alex's ankle. Acting fast, Jasmine turned and kicked as hard as she could, catching the brother just below his jaw and forcing his head back so far it cracked; he once more lay limp on the floor, and didn't stir. Leaving again, Salmon lagged behind, staring at the corpses of her cousin and brother. A single tear left her eye for the dead, and when she saw her cousin twitch, she forced herself to leave them behind and shut the door behind her.

In his gold, compact car with luxurious interior, they buckled in and Matt backed out of his parking space and began driving towards the exit. However, once they turned the corner and could see the outside, they found a large metal gate blocking the exit. Matt slowed the car to a stop by many parked vehicles and told the others to stay as he got out and had a look outside. He walked up to a fellow neighbor and asked about the situation.

"They won't let anyone out! They say it's too risky and the government orders every apartment complex in Tervu be closed down!"

Matt returned and locked the doors, seeing as many people were running by the car to the gate.

"Can we go through it?" Alex asked, leaning in from the back seat beside Salmon. Matt shook his head gravely.

"They aren't letting anyone go, and the bars are too thick to simply drive through them." He sat in thought, watching the management of the complex try to settle the chaos. When he saw a gun pulled, he knew it would be ugly, and backed the car up and nearly hit a couple people in the process.

"Where are we going?" Jasmine inquired, grabbing on to the edges of her seat for dear life.

"I don't know." He told her.

The two brothers had found themselves in some pretty grave situations before, but none quite like this. They wondered around while panicking people ran by, taking no heed to the lonely and defenseless boys. Maybe they thought it was safer to just keep walking, or maybe they were giving up, but they continued to walk with no regard to what was around them. Absent mindedly, Phillip tugged on Travis' shirt, like he would when he was a small child and wanted to be held. Travis took Phillip's hand into his. Their eyes only looking ahead, they didn't notice that a teenage girl had stopped in her tracks to watch the two boys. She was hurriedly making her way home to her father when she noticed them, and something about the hopelessness in their faces made her pause. Curiosity took over, and she walked to them; but the boys didn't heed her attention until she physically stood in front of them.

"Where are your parents?" she yelled over the disorder around them. They didn't answer, just stared back with a blank stare. Normally, she didn't put herself out there to strangers. A need to help these children came over her—so strong was this feeling that she couldn't move away. Instead, she knelt in front of them to be eye-level. She gave them a small grin.

"My name is Emily, and I'm going to take care of you two, okay?" she told them. The older brother said nothing, so hurt by people who were supposed to care that he didn't trust this new teenage girl. The younger, though, blinked a couple of times and released his brother's hand; he approached her and raised his hand to the left side of her face, cupping her ear that was more pointed than the other. She in turn, took his hand in hers and slowly brought him closer, giving him time to reject if he wished. He did not, and she picked him up and held him close against her chest with one hand. Extending her other hand, she reached to the thirteen year old boy. He hesitated, but with a reassuring look from his little brother, he took her hand and let her drag him toward safety.

Wielding two colt pythons, she walked carefully through the abandoned mall. The repellent was beginning to wear off, causing some of the infected to attack her. A whimper caught her attention in the child playground at one of the far sides of the mall. Walking closer, the whimper was being emitted from a grown man, who cowered in the play set. Tapping the structure with her gun, she made the man jump in fright.

"Don't eat me!" he shouted, but then realized she wasn't a zombie. "Who the hell do you think you are?!" she grinned at him as she leaned up against the structure, eyeing the wife-beater.

"Me? I'm more interested to know who you think you are."

"Don't play games with me, bitch!" he threw a punch at her, which she easily dodged and grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back and throwing him against the slide.

"Oh, you don't like games? I do; games make life entertaining. Let's play one now, I'll ask you if you saw a man with a black cloak anywhere near here, and I'll spare your life."

"Let go of me!" he screamed over and over. Making a tsking sound with her tongue, the woman moved her hand to the back pocket of her jacket. Inside, she grabbed a shot with a full vial. She turned him around and stabbed the man in the eye, making him screech in pure agony. The liquid drained one millimeter at a time, until the vial was only 1/10ths empty. She removed it, and let him fall to the floor, twitching.

"Wrong answer." Turning, she leaves the squirming, dying man behind; his skin was beginning to harden and he looked like a human-butterfly with no wings as he froze into a cocoon. It only took seconds for the cocoon to begin to bubble and form new shapes, a couple of which starting to look human.

The race against time had begun, and the neighborhood was filling with more and more zombies. There seems to be more zombies than there are residents in this entire neighborhood…where could they possibly be coming from? Lana thought to herself, taking another plank and setting it against the mostly-covered window so Kenny could hammer it in. The house was quiet as the four had set to work; they had to be quick if they didn't want these zombies busting in. The doors leading inside the house were covered, and now remained the windows they deemed hazardous. Most of the windows on the second story were uncovered—so if the situation got worse, they could pick off the infected from above.

Unable to bear the silence any longer, Kenneth cleared his throat and started conversation.

"So…is this the first outbreak you've been in?" Lana narrowed her eyes, refusing to look at him as she held the plank up.

"I was one of the fortunate ones—until now I suppose." She told him, with an edge to her voice.

"Well, you didn't miss much. Though if you were in one of them, you might have seen just how badass I am." Lana broke her concentration and dropped the plank. It made a loud thump on the ground and she glared daggers at the man who was only a few years older than her.

"Listen, we don't have much time. Let's just get this done." Trying to hide the blush that was starting to creep along her cheeks, she stopped down and grabbed the fallen board. He shrugged.

"Who says we can't do that and get to know each other? If we're going to be surviving an apocalypse together, we might as well be friendly." She shushed him. "What? It's not like I'm asking for se—"

"Quiet!" she interrupted. They stood perfectly still for a minute, and through the window, they could hear the grunts of an injured zombie. Straining their ears, they could tell that the zombie was still being attacked.

"Someone's outside!" shocked, Lana sprinted to the staircase, skipping steps as she made her way up. Not believing they would make it in time, Kenny didn't hurry as much, and when he entered the room he saw Lana leaning out the window.

Outside was a young man, and wielded nothing more than a baseball bat. He swung with as much strength as he could muster at the approaching zombies.

"He's not going to make it out there!" turning, she grabbed a sniper that was placed by the window for a similar moment, and shot the ones around him. It took a moment for the man to realize where the shots were coming from, but eventually he caught a glimpse of Lana. When a path cleared, he took the chance to run onto the lawn.

"The door is blocked..how are we going to get him inside?" Lana wondered aloud, glancing around, trying to find something to give her an idea. Kenny thought as well, and came up with the idea of a rope. With Lana's building, it was possible to stand just outside the window, so Kenny voluntarily crawled outside and waited. Lana left and then reentered with a rope in hand. She tied it to the bar that hung curtains, and handed it off to Kenny. He took the rope, and threw it down to the young adult. He was nearly there when the rope's weight became too much, and the bar broke away from the wall; Lana, who was standing right below it, was slammed in the head by the metal and collapsed. The rope began to drop, but Kenny grabbed hold and howled as the rope burned his palms and fingers. Kenny used the gutters to keep himself steady, and was sweating as the other climbed up the side of the house and finally grabbed the gutter and hoisted himself up with some help from Kenny. Pulling the rope with him, Kenny jumped back through the window with the blond. He threw the rope aside, and ignoring his throbbing, bleeding hands, he examined the unconscious Lana.

"She needs first aid…" he looked up at the eighteen year old, who's eyes were bright blue, but a large scar over his left eye had made the outer edges of the iris turn white. Without further instruction, he left the room and ran into the other two, who gave him one of the few first aid kits. Bringing it back, he walked in to see Kenny had laid the sleeping beauty across his knee, and was keeping her head elevated and using a ripped portion of his shirt to slow the bleeding.

With the first-aid kit, Kenneth cleaned the gash and wrapped her head. He, with the aid of the other man, picked the girl up and placed her on the bed. The man looked at Kenny.

"You should clean your hands…they look like they hurt…" Kenny had barely even noticed the aching pain, too focused on helping the woman.

"I'll be fine…" Not taking no for an answer, he grabbed the remains of the first aid kit, and began wrapping his rope-burned hands.

"Thank you…for saving me…" Kenny glanced at him.

"You're welcome…so…what's your name, kid?"

"Derik…Derik Harrison."

"Well then, welcome to the survival club, Derik."

A/N: I am so sorry this chapter is late! I was at a place with no connection, and I just got it back! But here we are, still no important deaths to report! I hope that hasn't discouraged you all, because only fate can decide who dies. Anyway, I want to thank rebeccajoleneaumanwilson, roseimagine, Rebellion598, nightsky44, MeeMeeCandy777, HectorLives, Ebitch, and UntitledObstacle for such wonderful characters and contributing to the story! I am still accepting more characters, as I haven't decided on a limit yet. Please review with suggestions on how to improve! I can only make it better if you tell me how!