New York City, September 2023

Day 1 of Infection

Morning

A small one-story house stood alongside a line of similar houses in a quiet neighborhood. A small one-car garage at its side with a wide white door. A small yard of grass in the front and a short stone walkway to the porch. All around it were houses of similar design.

Inside a bedroom, a hand shot out and pushed an alarm clock off the nightstand next to a bed. The sound of the alarm clock hitting the ground with a crack. A groan came out as a head of black hair rose up off the pillow. The young man that was in bed looked down at the floor. He saw his alarm clock broken on the ground, and with a grunt of frustration, he got out of bed.

A voice called from outside the bedroom door. "Yo Percy! Grover and I are heading out. Don't forget to put the bat back in the garage."

Percy grunted in response before grabbing a shirt and some pants for work. As he was getting dressed he heard the sound of two cars leaving the house. Getting into his clothes and walking into the kitchen to make himself a bowl of breakfast. Percy looked at the bat that his roommates mentioned and let out a deep breath. "Fucking sucks we didn't get that signature from Negan last night."

After making himself a bowl of oatmeal to eat. Percy looked at the time and saw it was already 9:30 and he had 15 minutes to make it to work. Running outside as fast as he could and locking the door. Percy made his way to the car and started to speed down to work.

A small restaurant with faint lighting and wooden furniture all around. Percy let's put a deep breath of boredom before looking at his phone. 'Only thirty minutes I can make this.'

"Excuse me, waiter!" A large man with a protruding belly shouted from across the room. He appears to be the only one to come in and eat at the time. Night has fallen at this point and it's been a long day for Percy.

Percy walked over with a tight smile on his face. "Yes sir, is there a problem with the meal or would you like more water?"

The overweight man turned a little red in the face. "Yes, actually there is a problem. You see, I order a burger with mustard and fifty-one sauce. There's no mustard and it's missing the sauce. I won't pay for a half-made meal and I won't eat it." The man threw his hands all around him.

"I'm terribly sorry about that sir. Let me go back and get that fixed and I'll take it off the bill for ya."

"Good and you can tell those cooks of yours to learn how an American makes burgers."

"Right away sir." Percy walked away holding the plate. Percy made his way to the kitchen before stopping and looking around. He saw no one was paying any attention to him. Turning to his left he shit himself into the bathroom.

A few minutes later Percy comes back to the table holding a plate with a burger on it. He smiles and places it down in front of the large man and stands off to the side. "Again sir, I'm sorry they forgot your food order. I made sure it would never happen again."

"Thank you, I wouldn't want your boss to know you people don't do your jobs." The pompous man took a bite of his food and a look of contempt came upon his face.

"No issues with it I hope sir." Percy had to bite the inside of his cheek. In a weak attempt stop himself from smiling.

"Nope, there's no issue. It tastes great." The man chuckled as he enjoyed his food.

Percy looked at his watch and saw his shift was over. He walked away so he couldn't get a call to come back. Reaching the punch-out machine Percy grabs his sheet and puts it in the machine. With no pause, Percy slams his hand down and punches out. Grabbing his keys off the rack next to the machine, Percy raced out the employee entrance.

Percy reached into his pocket and took his phone out. He read through the texts he missed while on shift and saw someone share a post with him. 'A message from Yew, I'll check it out later'. As he walked to his car he paused for a moment when he felt as if he was being watched.

Percy turned to look around but saw no one there. "Must be my imagination, I should get home quickly." He muttered. Percy got into his car and started the car. As he pulled out of the parking lot and drove away he connected his phone to the car speaker.

Percy quickly dialed one of his roommates as he drove. After a few moments and a call that was not answered, the person picked up.

"Percy, do you know what you forgot to do today?" The voice questioned.

"Sorry, G-Man I was in a rush and there was terrible traffic getting to work."

"Oh no, I'm not listening to G-Man right now. It's Grover time, you can't talk your way out of this."

"What did I do this time?"

"You left the lights on inside. Do you have any idea how much power is gonna run us now?"

"Right, right I'm sorry. I thought I turned them off, okay man."

"Whatever, are you coming back now?"

"Yeah, I'm pulling up now." Percy ended the call. He pulled his car up to the curb and turned the engine off. As Percy stepped out of the car a loud crash could be heard behind him. Spinning around to face the sudden noise he sees a party happening across the street. One of the windows was just broken by the rowdy partygoers. 'Great Luke is having another party.'

As Percy turned to walk to his front porch, the sounds of steps followed behind him. He didn't think too much about it and made his short walk inside.

From behind a woman's voice called. "Hey wait, Jackson!" Percy turned back around. He was starting to get annoyed with how many distractions were stopping him from going inside. He saw a beautiful blonde girl standing in front of him. A California tan and amazing gray eyes, with a body most women would kill for. She was a true beauty in the eyes of many people.

"What's up umm Annabeth right?" Percy asked as he mentally patted himself on the back for remembering her name.

Annabeth had a face that showed she was already annoyed with him."Yeah, We went to the same high school right, what have you been up to?"

"Oh you know, been here and there. I work down at McPalmer's. That's been nice and now I share a house with my roommates." Percy said proudly.

"That's nice to hear, I remembered you having some outside issues in the past. Happy to see you catch a break. Everyone needs that from time to time."

"Yeah, so what are you doing around here?"

Annabeth just pointed behind her to Luke's house. She sighed as she looked at it with a trace of shame on her face.

"I love him but the parties are getting to be old. I just want to sleep sometimes." She said quietly to Percy.

Percy nodded in understanding. The parties kept everyone awake, especially on the weekends. "We all feel the same way. You don't think Luke will change that will he?"

"These parties are important to him. You know what, maybe you could come over. It would be great to see you there." Annabeth stepped closer to Percy. She reached her hand out and let it linger on his arm for a moment.

Percy looked around for anything to get him out of this awkward situation he found himself in. As Percy begged for anything to step in, a voice from the front door of the party called out. "Hey babe! Are you coming in yet, aren't you cold out there?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes and turned around. "Yep, I'll be right there." She shouted. Letting out a huge breath of air she went back to the party.

"It was nice seeing you Percy, maybe we should get drinks sometimes." She said as she walked away.

"Yeah, maybe we should." Percy shuddered at the encounter. He knew Annabeth was attractive but she gave him weird feelings. Thinking it could have been just the setting he made his way inside. Turning the doorknob to the house and walking in Percy could tell Grover to clean up a little bit. Especially since neither he nor their other roommate Jason are good at it. Percy saw the photo of the three of them being cleaned and out on the mantle above the fireplace. All three of them stood outside the house when they first moved in with proud smiles on their faces. Percy and Grover stood with a really tall blonde guy.

Jason, the last roommate, wore glasses and had an athletic build. He often spent time with his girlfriend lately and hasn't been around too much. Percy didn't mind it, but he was a little upset that his cousin and one of his best friends were leaving. His girlfriend Piper wasn't the worst person. She is a very kind person who always cares about helping whoever is in need, and she has no problem speaking her mind either. She met Jason when they both were at the gym and they just hit it off really well. She has spent plenty of time over their place but both Piper and Jason wanted their own place.

Percy looked away from the picture and made his way into his room. He threw his work shirt off of him and onto the bed as soon as he walked in and made sure to put a clean shirt on. Grabbing the remote to the tv in his room and sitting down on the bed that faced his tv and turned the tv on. Percy reached over to his bed and grabbed a controller from the nightstand next to his bed. With a small beep, his Xbox turned on and he started to relax by playing some video games.

Looking at his friends list he saw Grover was online and playing games. Joining his voice party, Percy sat up, placed his headset on his head, and was ready for a night of playing video games and relaxing with his friends.

"Percy, you know you said you were pulling up like 15 minutes ago?" Grover questioned as he was playing games on his end.

"Trust me I thought I was too. Annabeth from across the street was talking to me. She recognized me from high school." Percy adjusted his headset on his head.

"Weird, she never talked to us before, well not since middle school. Even then she started to hang out only with Luke. Makes sense now that they're together." Grover looked at a picture of him and Annabeth when they were little.

"Yeah weird is a word to describe it. Do you think Jason is going to come and play tonight or is he too busy with Piper?"

I think he said he was gonna come here tonight. You got to accept he's leaving the house though Percy. He's already stressed as it is."

"I know that it's just tough. It's been us three for the last 3 years. I don't want to get a weirdo here."

"Well, we did get a request- oh" Grover was cut off by the sound of Jason coming online and joining the call.

"Hey guys, hope you guys haven't been playing without me for too long," Jason said as he adjusted his headset.

Percy with a grin on his face just laughed. "Nah man we didn't wait too long but I guess Piper also says that right."

"Fuck off Perce. I see the place is clean which means Grover ended up doing it again." Jason shot back quickly.

"I swear I thought about it and was gonna do it. Anyway hope online we got some zombies to kill man." Percy shouted.

The three of them laughed and each one of them focused on the game. Within minutes they were completely unaware of the world outside. Only a few hours go by and the sun has set with the moon above them.

"So here's my issue with the new Zombie World, it starts just like any other zombie movie. The guy wakes up in a hospital and he's alone. Walks around and finds no one but zombies. It's the standard." Percy started.

"Now hold on but the zombies weren't really zombies in this one. It was mutants that eat flesh. They're not the dead brought back." Jason continued.

"Though they couldn't be in the sunlight right, so then why didn't the survivors use UV spotlights that they got from the labs? It would have made it super easy to defend their house." Grover finished the ramble.

All three of them laughed before taking a deep breath. Jason looked at his clock and read the time. "Shit! It's already nine, Piper is gonna kill me." He exclaimed as he rushed to get his shoes on.

"She won't kill you, Jace. She loves you too much." Percy started to laugh as he listened to his friend fumbled around.

"It's so cool you're moving in with her. You get to be close to her all the time now!" Grover said excitedly.

Percy laughed and continued to play the game before he opened his mouth. "Yeah well the only way for him to get real close to her is to do push-ups. What is it, 15 push-ups for a hug?"

"Wait, really I thought that was a joke you made up last month after you walked to the apartment." Grover started to laugh.

"Shut up you two, at least my girlfriend isn't too busy saving trees to come over once a while." Jason shot them both down. He was starting to get really pissed off with these two.

"Hey Jace, how many laps does it take to have sex with her, if you beat her record can you do it in the ass?" Percy said quickly and he started to laugh himself off of his bed.

Jason angrily threw his headset off his head and onto his bed. He stormed his way to his door and opened it. Making his way to Percy's room he threw the door open and tackled his cousin.

"Grover- h-help. Jason is going crazy!" Percy shouted into the microphone.

"But he's not moving, his character is standing there," Grover questioned. He was confused about what Percy meant.

"Not in the game, in real life!" Percy tried to push Jason off of him

"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Grover pondered for a second before realizing what was happening. Grover stood up and ran into the room, he saw the two cousins fighting on the floor and had to pry them off of each other.

Jason moved away from the two and went outside the bedroom. "Okay fuck you guys, this is one of the reasons I'm leaving. You need to accept I'm happy with Piper and stop being a fucking kid about it." He shouted.

Percy just turned away, not wanting to face his cousin's face since he was right. Percy did feel the need to grow up, but everything was going too quickly for him. He turned a little to face his cousin and gave a small nod to the two others.

"Okay I'm gonna head out now, you guys do whatever." Jason walked over to the counter to grab his keys. He had already packed a bunch of stuff the night before so he could move some stuff in tonight. Percy and Grover followed behind him when all three of them heard the sound of a doorbell going off.

"Percy, I thought you said ten not nine?" Grover quickly whispered. Jason shot them both a look.

Jason sighed and put his hand to his face. "You guys ordered food?"

"That must be the Zillow guy. Grover, I thought you talked to him." Percy said as he walked over to the front door.

"Who is that guy?" Jason asked as he was being pushed out the back door by Grover.

"Don't worry, we are getting another person to fill your spot since you're leaving. So to find someone we put out Zillow. It's fine Jace, this is just an interview to see if he is the right person." Percy called out.

As Percy and Grover went to let in their new possible roommate, Jason went to his car. After making sure everything was in and secured, Jason smiled a little at his friends' antics and left the house in his car.

Percy and Grover opened the door to see their visitor. Standing at the door was a young man around their age with black hair that fell to his shoulders. Brown eyes and a round face that had some dirt on it. The young man wore a long jacket and some jeans, with some brown boots.

"You must be Ethan, super happy to meet you in person," Percy said with excitement.

"Yeah," Ethan murmured. Percy looked around and didn't see a car or any other form of transportation.

"Okay well, you can come in and sit on the couch if you want or a chair it's up to you," Grover said quickly and made his way to the living room.

Percy stays behind as Eatha moves past him to follow Grover. Before closing the door Percy feels that strange feeling again that he did back at his job. After closing the door, he peered into the living room and saw Ethan choose to sit in a chair while Grover sat on the couch.

"So let's get started. First, do you have a form of income Ethan?" Grover pulled out a pen to write down his answers.

"Yes."

"What do you do for a living?" Percy asked as he adjusted the way he sat.

"Art."

"Like painting art, trading art, or something else."

A small groan was the only response Percy got to his question.

"I'll just write down art then. Thank you, Ethan." Grover cut in.

"Right…well just give us a second to grab some water, we'll be right back." Both Grover and Percy stood up and walked around the corner of the hallway. Disappearing from sight the two turned and saw Ethan just sitting still.

Percy stood up straight and pulled Grover closer to him. "Dude, what the fuck is wrong with this guy?"

"I don't know, he came from Instagram you know how weird those people are already." Grover started but was cut off by Percy when he went to give Ethan another look.

"He's gone."

"What! How could he have left we didn't hear the front door open."

"I don't know man, but look he's gone." Percy took a few steps into the living room where they left Ethan. Grover followed behind him with cautious steps.

Grover and Percy swept the room and couldn't find where he went. Grover moved around Percy and made his way to the bedrooms. Percy decided to follow him and started to call out for Ethan.

"Hey Ethan man, we love that you want to take a look around. But you could have waited a bit till we said we liked you!" Grover gave Percy a sharp look.

"Really man?"

"What it's common courtesy to do that right?" Percy shrugged.

"You're not wrong there," Grover muttered. He took a couple more steps into one of the bedrooms.

Neither of them noticed the large shadow looming behind them as it made its way closer to them.

Jason sat in his car at a red light while he listened to the radio. Tapping his hands on the steering wheel and bumping his foot up and down. As the right turns green and Jason starts to go a car comes sailing out from the other lane and cuts him off. Almost crashing into him in the process.

Jason slammed onto the brakes shoving all the weight to the front suddenly. "Hey watch out you fuck nuts!" Jason screamed. He let off the brake slowly and got back to making his way to Piper's house.

A soft beep could be heard and a basic ringtone came through the car's speakers. Jason let out a deep breath before answering.

"Hey babe! How was your day?" Jason cursed quietly as the light turned red.

"It's going okay, quick question for you. Did you happen to look at the text I sent you yet? My dad sent some paint samples to see what we want in the kitchen." Piper's soft voice came out over the speakers.

"Not yet, I didn't get a chance to really look at any texts tonight. I'm sorry, why don't you tell me what you think about the colors." The light turned to green and Jason started to drive again down the road.

"Well the first color is a soft blue that would go well with cabinets." Piper started to talk but was cut off by another call coming in.

"Hey can you give me a quick minute here I got another call coming in." Jason quickly said and he apologized as he took the call.

Jason took the call and heard the sound of someone fumbling with the phone. He sighed as he waited for his two roommates to say something.

"Oh shit he actually picked up! Jason, you have to get back here right now." Grover shouted into the phone.

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

"No time the guy from before is trying to kill us! You have to- Wait Percy said if you don't come back and he dies he will haunt you. Also he said hurry the fuck up and get your ass here!" Grover yelled again.

Jason groaned, "Grover, tell Percy I'm not gaming the rest of the night!" Jason hung up the call in a hurry as he tried to call Piper back.

However, as Jason was driving he noticed that the call didn't go through. His phone's signal went down and he lost all bars in the phone. "What the fuck? Okay that's strange I always have service on the drive." Jason looked down at his phone again really quickly before he glanced up at a dark figure walking into the road. Jason slammed his foot on the brake but it wasn't enough, the car hit the figure and sent the body into the air a few feet. The body rolled over itself on the ground until it reached a dead stop. Jason started to feel like his chest was going to explode as blood was covering the front of his car. Quickly unbuckling the seat belt and running out of his car Jason came upon the body. Streaks of red ran from the front of the car to the body, staining the road. Jason could see the flesh of the person was a sickly gray color to it, as if the flesh was already dead. Jason didn't see the hand twitch as the fingers moved stiffly.

"Grover where's Jason, tell him to hurry the fuck up and get his ass over here now," Percy shouted as he held the door to the bedroom shut. It turned out that Ethan was in the kitchen and got behind them. Percy luckily turned around quickly enough to see Ethan lunge at him and tried to bite him on the arm.

Grover threw his phone onto the bed in the room and threw his hands on the door to help Percy. "He hung up on me! Percy Jason thought we were talking about a game." Grover started to rant about Jason not taking them seriously. Within a few moments, Percy threw his hand up to let Grover know he needed to stop. "Grover listen to that, he stopped banging on the door."

The two stood there in silence as they noticed Percy was right, Ethan had moved away from the door. The two stood in the room looking around for what they could do. Percy sat on the bed and grabbed Grover's phone, "Try calling Jason again." He handed the phone to Grover and watched as Grover dialed the phone. Grover just pulled the phone away from his ear and shook his head. "I have no service now, so we're on our own." Percy nodded as he stared at the floor.

Grover walked to the other side of the room and looked around for something they could use to defend themselves.

"Hey Grover, can I borrow your phone?"

"Umm sure why?"

Percy just hummed a little before answering, "I want to check my theory and make sure I'm not crazy." Percy grabbed the phone and turned the camera on. He took a few steps to the door and grabbed the handle. Turning it slowly he pushes on the door slightly, he could see down the hall was Ethan who just stood at the end with a low groan being heard. Ethan's head was hanging down staring at the floor where a pool of blood and other body fluids were dripping from his mouth.

As Percy pushed a little more on the door a loud squeak could be heard from the hinges. Ethan's head shot up and stared directly into Percy's eyes for a split second before he charged at the door. Percy used the camera on the phone to take a quick photo of Ethan's face. As the flash went off Percy slammed the door shut and grabbed the nearest heavy object to barricade the door. "Shit, fuck, bitch." Percy let a line of swears out as he held his chest to calm his breathing. Grover made his way to Percy and reached out but Lercy waved him away. "I'm fine…I'm fine. He just moved quicker than I thought he would." The two took a moment to get themselves together.

Grover started to move around as his stress was going through the roof at this moment. "Ok so you took a picture of the guy, what are you going to do?" Grover questioned Percy's actions moments before. Percy just smiled a little before looking at the photo. His smile started to fade into a line on his face before it turned completely into a frown.

"Percy?"

Percy's head turned to face Grover, his eyes held a little fear, disbelief, and maybe some crazy in them. "Grover look at this and tell me I'm wrong." He showed the photo with a shaky hand.

"I-I don't think you are." Grover stated with the same look in his eyes.

"Shit."

ANs

New story… I had this thought for a while and this has been in the works for a while. I have always loved zombie media and recently played through a ton of zombie games and watched films. I have had this story sitting in my drafts for a while. At this moment I can say I got two other stories cooking and I apologize for that. If you want to interact with me and other authors follow the discord link below, it's my personal server and it's where I keep updates regarding updates and other interesting stuff. Also check out the podcast I host with my beta for Ranger of the West, Bailey (Macdog123) awesome podcast partner and knows his stuff.

The link for the discord is /5PMBq2z3tX

Podcast: Writers' Workroom

Can be found on Spotify, YouTube, google podcasts, and soon other platforms.