Lee awoke, remembering what happened, he slowly comes to as he tries to remove the handcuffs, but to no luck. He glances around the police car, not seeing the officer but a damaged windshield with a large hole in the center, with bloody hand prints on the outside of the glass.
"Thirsty..'' he tries to move his leg, but it was painful. "Fuck, my leg.''
He looked closer, it was a large, bloody deep cut on his upper leg. He looked out of the shattered back window to see the officer lying facedown on the ground with a smeared blood trail behind him. Lee turned to the side window and grunts as he continuedly kicked the window until it falls, shattering on the ground.
"hey!'' Lee yelled, "Officer!! Are you alright? I'm still cuffed back here!" He glanced around again. "he wasn't ejected from the car..''
"He's not moving.. " Lee glanced back at him." Why did he have his gun out?''
"Maybe it was tossed from the car during the wreck..?'' Lee grabbed ahold of the window and pulled himself out, landing on the ground. He stood up, walking around the edge of the car, reaching the area where the officer is. He noticed something else, The officers Shotgun is out near the officer as well. "Need to get out of the cuffs first.''
Lee approached the officer, looking at him closely, be notices the keys are right in between the officers hand and mouth, he thinks for a second but hurries and grabs the keys. He unlocks the cuffs, dropping them. He rubs' his wrists, afterwards he searches the officers pockets fir Shotgun shells and finds one bullet. He starts to head towards the shit gun, reaching for it, until a groaning sound starts to grab his attention. The officers head raises from the ground and immediately grabs Lee's leg, making him fall back near the gun.
"Oh shit!'' he yells, looking at the officers face, seeing blood Dripping down from where his nose used to be. "what the fuck happened his face?! He's still alive..?''
Lee was shocked. The officers nose looked like it was mauled off.
There's another wound on the officers face, like as if something bit his lip and tried to rip it off, but half of his flesh was dangling from where his teeth are. Lee couldn't help but feel sick to his stomach. The officer tried to grab him but Lee immediately started to kick him off.
"Get off!!" He yelled, kicking him once more, knocking him off. Lee grabbed the shot gun and immediately loaded it. "Just STOP!!" He yelled. The officer didn't seem to listen. He grabbed Lee's leg and tried to bite him, but Lee didn't hesitate and shot the officer directly in the face.
Covered in the officers blood, he starts to freak out, he drops the gun and rises from the ground. He glances again at the officers body.
"He smells like shit, And his skin is all rotten. He wasn't.. Him. " Lee thought to himself. " just what the fuck is going on..?'' He glances around, hearing growls in the distance. He starts making his way towards a brown wooden fence he can see in the distance.
He notices someone else. "'Is that a kid..?'' He thinks to himself and hurries before more of those things, or people, whatever they are begin to come.
Lee reached the fence, he didn't wanna waste time trying to find the main gate so he climbed over the fence. He kept the pain to himself. He climbed over, noticing he was directly now in someone's backyard.
"Hopefully someone can help.'' he said to himself. He looked around the backyard, noticing an inground pool, and a tree house. "Hmm.. Seems like a kid may live here.''
he thought as he glanced around and headed up the steps to the porch, looked inside the glass sliding door. He looked inside.
No one was inside, from what he could tell. He noticed fruit in a white bowl, on the counter, and next to it, a coloring book with crayons around it. He notices the door isn't locked and slides it open. "Don't shoot. I'm looking for help.'' he stepped inside, leaving the glass sliding door open.
It was cold inside, dark a little. It was also a mess. Furniture was turned over, blood stains on the kitchen floor and wall of the kitchen, several Books were all over the place, there was a turned over bookshelf as well, blocking the way to upstairs. He heard a beep, looking around on a table, he noticed an answering machine. He kept beeping. He pushed the button.
"Five New Messages. Message one. Left at 5:45 pm, May 2nd, 2014.
"Hey, Daniella, its Summer. We're still in Savannah. Michael had a little incident with some crazy guy near the hotel, so we had to get him back to the ER and have it checked out. Anyway, he's not feeling good enough to drive back tonight so we are staying an extra day. Thanks so much for looking after the girls! I hope they have been good. I promise we will be back in time before your spring break! Please don't tell them anything about what's going on. I love y'all, be safe.''
Lee glanced at a family photo that was on the table, next to the answering machine. It was a guy, presumably the husband, the wife and two girls, the picture frame was engraved, "The Crawford Family". The family was Caucasian, they looked to be Russian maybe? The girls, were being held by their parents . The brown haired girl was in her mothers arms, and the blonde naked girl was in her dads arms. The mother has Red shoulder length hair, and brown eyes, the father had Brown hair and blue eyes. The parents seemed to be in their mid to late thirties. The girls seemed to be at least two in the picture.
The girls have to be at least eight or nine by now right? They must have other pictures somewhere around the house.
Another message played. Message two. Left at May 6th, 11:45 am 2014
"Omg!! Finally! (panicked) I don't know what's going on, I don't know if you have been trying to reach us; all the calls are getting dropped. They won't let us leave and aren't telling us anything about Atlanta. Please. Please, PLEASE. Take the girls and leave the city, go to Marietta, they said its safe there, I have to get back to the hospital, back to Michael. Please let me know you're safe!!!''
"She sounded sad, and was crying.''
Message Three. Left at May 7th, 2014 2:45 pm
"Hey, I haven't heard anything from you. Please get back with me. PLEASE. (Tearfully)
Message Four. Left at May 7th, 2014 6:45 pm
"Girls. If you can hear this, call the police. That's 9-1-1. We love you. Both of you. We love y-
The message ended.
"Oh god.. I hope whatever is going on gets fixed… " Lee said to himself. He then heard girls voice that sounded staticky, but couldn't find It right away. He ran into the kitchen, but didn't realize he ran and slipped directly into a puddle of blood, sliding and hitting himself against the fridge, it looked recent. Was someone actually in the house still? Maybe alive? Badly wounded but still alive?
Lee quickly rose from the blood stained floor and hurried, looking through the drawers and cabinets and after searching for 10 minutes he finally found a walkie talkie.
"Daddy?'' a soft voice spoke.
Lee went to the glass door. Looking outside to see if he could see anyone. "Hello?'' he answered back.
"You're not my dad..''
"No. I'm not. But I'm not a monster either.''
"..you need to be quiet..''
"Who is this..?"
"I'm Sierra, and this is my house. "
"Hi sierra, I'm Lee. "
"hi.. " she sounded shy.
"Where are you? Are you okay?''
"I'm okay, I'm hiding, with my sister. They tried to get us. But were hiding until our parents come home.''
"Where are your parents?''
"They took a trip to Savannah i think. Where the boats are. "
"how old are you both?'
"were seven… how old are you?''
"I'm thirty-seven. "
"Oh.." The girl got silent.
"Why not come down?'' he asked. "you and your sister?."
It got quiet, neither girl responded. Lee tried talking again to get a response back but nothing. Then immediately. The girl yelled, getting Lee's attention.
"behind you!!!''
He was confused at first until he heard a groaning sound, then felt someone behind him. It was a girl, she seemed to be at least seventeen. There was a bite mark, on the left side of her neck. Covered in blood, she reeked of death. Like a dead fish to be exact.
She growls and tries to attack him, but he pushes her to the ground. As he tries to run away, he slips on the puddle of blood and hits his head on the counter. His vision is blurry, but he can vaguely see Daniella crawling toward him and he kicks her away.
Lee yells. " AHH!"
Lee gets up and tries to run, but Daniella grabs his leg and trips him. He punches her away as she attacks again. Two little girls run up to the glass door and opens it, the blonde haired girl is holding a hammer. Daniella attacks again and Lee pushes her away, continually kicking her in the head and crawling backwards.
He glances at the Girls.
"Here! Take it!" He grabs it from her and without hesitation, he immediately starts bashing Daniella's head in with the hammer. Repeatedly until she's not making any groaning sounds. No growls. Nothing. He takes a finale blow to her head, straight in her left eye. Permanently killing her.
He doesn't say anything and realizes he just killed a person, in front of two little girls. Both girls are quiet and In shock.
"I..I think she was a monster.." the brown haired girl spoke softly. The other girl remained behind her sister, not speaking. She was scared and hiding. Lee felt guilty, for killing an innocent girl and in-front of two girls, children.
He remained silent until one asked him. "Is she really gone…?"
He couldn't deny what he had just done.
"Yes. But she was already gone before me." Lee tried to explain.
"S-she was sick… for days. Running a fever and coughing.. We tried to leave and she wanted to rest for one more day…. But then she didn't wake Back Up… when she did.. She tried to attack
Us. We ran and hid in the tree house. She couldn't reach us there." The brown haired girl said
"Well, I'm sorry about your babysitter. I'm Lee. "
"I'm Sierra, " the brown haired girl spoke. "I'm Jaida.." the blonde haired girl said softly.
"Look… I know You guys want to stay here. But you need to come with me."
"But why? Our parents will come back." Sierra spoke. "We have to stay."
"But if you stay, more of those things will come. You guys don't have food. Or water here. Do you?" Lee asked. He looked at both of them. Waiting for a response.
"We can leave them a note, telling them we will be safe and that you're being taking care of. I will look after you both Until they come back. But we can't stay here. We need to find a safer place."
They didn't seem to like the idea of leaving behind their home, but he made a few good points. No food. Or water here. It could be more of those things around the house too. But the thought of leaving a note for their parents may help ease their minds.
"Okay." Both girls agreed.
Dear Mom and Dad,
We are okay. We love you and miss you. Daniella got sick.. she's.. In a better place now. We have a new babysitter.. He seems nice. His name is Lee. He says we have to find a safer place. A place with more people. People who can help.
We will be close by.
Love, Sierra and Jaida
The girls wrote a letter to their parents and left it on the counter. They each only took one thing they cared about. Sierra, her walkie talkie and Jaida, a portable small CD player with black headphones.
"Alright, let's go girls. Grab my hands, and don't let go. Stay close by. Understand?" Both grabbed a hand of lee's and left their home, hoping to return one day.
The trio left during day light, as they headed out the front gate, they could hear other people. Men. Actually talking, Before opening the main gate, Lee peeked over the gate, it was two fair skinned teenagers. A black haired boy, had to be at least eighteen and the other had to be close to his age.
Lee gets up; Sierra and Jaida open the gate. They approach the two men.
"Hey, man!!" Lee called to him. Both of The men turn around, startled.
" Holy shit!" The black haired teenage exclaimed.
The brown haired teenage yelled."Don't eat us!"
"We're not gonna hurt you."
" Phew, thought for a second you and the little one were both gonna give us the chomp. I'm Shawn, Shawn Greene."
"I'm Chet by the way"
"What are you guys doing?" lee asked Shawn.
"Just., Trying to get home, this neighborhood's a disaster. Are you trying to get outta here? Because you should be. Those things are all over the damn place. I haven't seen anything as gnarly as this neighborhood since downtown Atlanta, fifteen miles back."
"Do you know what the hell this is?" Lee asked calmly.
"No idea. So you've seen them then?"
The blacked haired teenage looks behind him at a dead person.
Lee spoke" You could say that; We really need help."
The girls smile at him and Chet.
"We shouldn't be out in the open like this. How about you help us clear the way and we'll take you and your daughters out of here, and down to my family's farm. It should be safer there." Shawn stated.
"oh uh, I'm not their dad. I'm…just some guy."
Shawn "Some guy? "Shawn noticed what you said
" Yeah. I'm looking after them for now"
Shawn "well, Let's get going. Staying put for too long is a mistake."
Lee nods and turns to the girls. He got down on his knees to their level to talk to them.
"Don't worry girls, it's only for safety. I promise, we will come back here, and check to see if your parents have came back or if they left anything." the girls smiled. He rose to his feet.
"We gotta go! Those things are coming!"
Shawn starts trying to push the car, along with Chet, Lee and the girls.
Shawn yelled. "Lee, quick! Let's go!"
Chet crouches behind the truck, hiding from the approaching undead. Once the car is out of the way, Shawn gets into the driver's seat of the truck.
"Get in!!" Lee yelled
Chet jumps in the truck-bed, Lee gets in the other front seat, and the girls sat in the middle looking out the back window. The four drove away from the ensuing herd.
"For just "some guy," it seems like you've saved a bunch of lives today." Shawn noted. He seemed to be appreciated of lee's help, and the girls.
