Chapter

1

I am C. Rucker, better known as Stroke. If someone called me by my real name, I'd either kill them on sight or mortally wound them. I don't like my name, nor did I like my family.

I am a fifteen-year old guy who's a bit shorter than average. While others my age were about 5'11 to six feet, I started to stop growing at 5'4. Which also meant a lot of girls were taller than me, which is less than ideal. My curly-ass hair made things much worse, so I eventually decided to cut it military-style, which barely got rid of the curls.

I wasn't entirely scrawny, though. My baggier clothes hid my relatively fit body. One time, a buncha' assholes, I guess some would call them bullies, challenged me to one of those ounching machines. I was annoyed that they threw my phone out of my hands while I was reading, so when it was my turn to hit the machine, I went all out. The numbers skyrocketed and eventually slowed to a stop at eight-hundred fifty-two. The biggest guy in their group only got to a four-hundred. So from then on, they didn't interact with me at all, prefering to use others to. bully me so they wouldn't get hurt.

But they didn't come out of there unscathed, one of my very few friends videoed that scene and sent that shit everywhere. I kinda lost my reputation as a scrawny no-good kid, but from then on nobody wanted to pick a fight with me.

Unfortunately my demeanor raised rumors that I might have been in a gang or one of those yakuza from Asia. Not that I wouldn't be in one, but those don't actually exist like that. Gangs are more of just groups of immature idiots having some fun. Sure they break shit, but they also take the punishment and help each other like brothers. Same goes for yakuza. That's the aspect I'd always admired.

Hell, when another guy who was rumored to be in a gang came up to me proposing we make a gang ourselves, I snatched that offer like a chocolate chip cookie on Christmas mornin'.

But our little gang got reputation eith just the two of us, and eventually we began seeking out new members in case of rivalries.

That led me to meeting Kailey and Leo. Kailey was once a good student, but when her parents began arguing daily, she ended up acting out in desperation for her parents to agree on something for once. In short, she failed. Her school life was ruined so she dropped out. She'd ran away from home and I'd found her sleeping under a freeway. It took some convincing, but I took her to me and Jack's, who was the other guy who helped make the 'gang', hideout.

Kailey's mouth hung open like a pufferfish when she realized our 'hideout' was just a public library. She was convinced that we were an actual gang like in movies and we either have an abandoned building as a spot, or a mansion.

Jack had walked out and saw us, his reaction was, "So you two lovebirds done yet? It's starting to rain harder." Of course, with that Jack Smirk on his face that nearly had me punching his lights out.

Kailey was oddly more embarrassed than annoyed, "N...no. We're just f...friends." She shivered as the wind blew, her being wet from the rain made her ten times colder.

I took off my jacket, which thanks to the leather exterior was completely dry, and laid it over her shoulders, "Use this. I've got a spare inside." I glared at Jack, who was having the time of his life cackling and cracking jokes like a madman. "And you, not a word about this. We got boxes to unpack lets go."

Jack never allowed me and Kailey to just be in the same room without him making life so damn annoying. But his bubbly attitude and completely contradicting vibes made me glad to be his friend.

A few days later Jack came back to the library with a relatively small guy. He looked a lot like Jack, same auburn hair, matching facial structure, the only major difference was the size. Besides that, they were the same guy. Jack introduced the shivering kid as his younger brother Leo, who he'd found hiding in the corner at a orphanage near where he used to live. Apparently, their mother got angry and just left Leo to fend for himself, which was difficult given he was ten, when she found out Jack had left home permanently and found friends. Crooked ild witch.

Kailey managed to crack through the boy's quiet shell and finally managed to get him to talk.

"Hey, Leo. You feeling alright?"

"Y-yeah. I... I'm fine." he meekly replied, "I'm sorry I'm being such a-"

He always stopped talking completely and refused to speak when I walked into the same room as him. Poor kid, he must be scared. But no matter what I do or how much Kailey and Jack insist that I'm safe to be around, he still never got comfortable around me.

The old librarian, a old lady with a kind heart, had let us use the library as sort of a home. She knew all of us quite well, as we'd all been frequently coming here since we were kids. I honestly liked the place, it was calm and quiet. The books might've been old, but they helped me educate Jack, Leo, and Kailey until they could write and read properly. As for the mathmatics, I taught them what I learned that day in school, as I was the only one who still went.

But about two years after we all came together as comrades, a disease started going around called the Green Flu. Leo got sick nearly immediately. Jack soon followed, but the disease didn't affect him as badly, his pain came from being unable to help his brother as he writhed in pain.

That all leads me to the current seconds as a zombified Leo was sinking his already-bloodied teeth into my arm, which stopped him from attacking Kailey.

Author's Footnote:

"This is a backstory. Hence the end of the 'chapter' being the start of the infection. There should be the next chapter right after, but is being a asshole so lemme know if it's not workin'. Peace"

- Author, aka shdoodsYT