Chapter 1

A 15 year old teen was sitting in his room, playing a game, Halo: Reach. Assassinating a red right out of teleport on Hemorrhage, the teen's mother walked in with a load of folded laundry.

"Bryce. Put these away after your game." She told him.

"Sure thing." Bryce answered before getting killed via Wraith. "Shit."

"Language!" His mother shouted.

"Sorry." Bryce answered back.

After his match, Bryce did as requested and put away his clothes while still talking in Xbox party chat.

However, just as he finished, Bryce heard a yell through his mic. It was one filled with fear.

"Who the fuck are y- heey!" One of Bryce's friends began screaming in agony on the other end as sounds of something squishy and wet filled the headset. "Help! DAD!" The boy screamed.

A sudden and loud boom through the mic made Bryce jump.

"Zach!" Bryce could hear his friend's father. "You're bleeding!"

"She fucking bit me!" Zach shouted through grunts of pain. "She bit my arm!"

"Jesus." Zach's dad said softly. "Alright, come on! We gotta get you to the hospital!"

The last thing Bryce heard was the shuffling of feet before silence.

"D?" Bryce said softly to his other friend in the party.

"Yeah…"

"What the fuck was that?" Bryce asked.

"I don't-" the door to D's room was heard bursting open.

"Pack your clothes, we're leaving!"

"Wha- but dad!"

"Now, Daniel!" Daniel's father shouted. "Only the essentials!"

"Is that blood?" Daniel asked.

"It ain't mine."

"You're covered in it…"

"Daniel!"

As the party was left with just Bryce, he walked over to his window and immediately saw a man get dragged down by another. The man fought for a bit before the other man savagely tore into his throat with his teeth.

Bryce stared in shock as his breathing began to quicken.

"Bryce!" Bryce's mother barged into his room, her left arm bleeding heavily. "Pack your clothes!"

"Mom, you're-"

"Now!"

Rushing out of the room, Bryce's mother headed into the master to retrieve her husband's handgun from the end table before packing her own suitcase. Grabbing a photo that showed a blonde man with a red beard, she kissed it before putting it in the bag. Opening her bedside drawer, she retrieved a set of dog tags and put them on, tucking them between her breasts before leaving the room.

Rushing downstairs, the mother and son began stock piling food before heading outside.

A family of 5, in another part of the neighborhood, was also packing to ditch town.

"Shaun! Sarah!" The father shouted for his kids, a set of fraternal twins. "Trisha!"

The three kids rushed downstairs with loaded bags.

"The car's ready." The mother said as she rushed inside, tossing the keys to her husband.

He caught them before hurrying his kids to the door.

"What the fuck do we do, Mercury?" The mother asked her husband.

"What we can, Lilly." Mercury responded before taking the driver seat.

In one other house, a man with lengthy blonde hair stared out his bedroom window.

"Damn." He said softly as he saw a man get eaten by a woman. "She's a man eater." The man sang as he brought a blunt to his lips.

Blowing out the smoke, the man turned around when he heard footsteps.

"Hey, Jaime-" he stopped as he noticed his roommate looked a little… off. It definitely wasn't the flesh dangling from the corner of his mouth. "You good man? The edible kicking in, ain't it." He chuckled to himself before hearing Jaime growl. "Oh, shit…" the hippie said softly. "You're not good, are ya?"

Jaime responded by fast walking towards him in an almost drunken fashion.

Picking up a chair from the kitchen, the hippie used it to keep distance between himself and his roommate.

"Hey, man. You ain't like those things outside, are ya? Cuz that would fucking suck."

Jaime pushed into the chair mindlessly, causing the hippie to stumble back into the counter. The force of impact made the hippie knock over the knife holder, causing a few of the blades to scatter.

"Jaime, man!" The hippie pleaded with his friend, desperation evident in his gaze. "Snap out of it! It's me! Skim!"

The next moment was a blur as Jaime pushed forward and impaled himself on the chair legs and going in for a bite.

When Skim regained his senses, he looked down to see his roommate dead on the floor and his own hands covered in blood.

Throwing the butcher knife down, Skim brushed his hair out of his face, smearing blood everywhere.

"Fuck! Fuck, what just happened?! Fuck!" Skim began rushing around, gathering his things. "Gotta leave! This shit ain't funny, man. It seriously ain't funny."

Looking back at his roommate, Skim noticed multiple stab wounds in his back and one in his head.

"Jesus, I-" Skim couldn't finish as he puked all over the floor.

Peering out the window again, Skim saw a man raise a gun at a woman. He shot.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four, five, six.

"Just fucking die!" The man shouted before shooting the seventh bullet into the woman's head.

Skim moved his gaze to his roommate, noticeably staring at the knife wound in his head.

"Gotta go for the brain." Skim said softly.

Armed with his knife, Skim loaded a bag full of supplies before hitting the road. This included a hefty supply of weed. Before he left, however, he glanced at a golden trophy. Above it was a boy standing in a martial art stance.

Out on the road, Bryce was counting the bullets he and his mother had.

"How many?"

"Forty-seven." Bryce answered.

"Ok. We're gonna head to the pawn shop."

"Why? We need to leave. We-"

"We're gonna take the guns they have, and melee weapons, and we're gonna stockpile." His mother answered. "Everyone is trying to evacuate, and that means every road out of town is gonna be gridlocked! I'm hoping, at least. Because I can tell you, this shit is not gonna end. Not anytime soon."

Arriving at the pawn shop, the place was vacant. Rushing inside, Bryce began grabbing knives, swords, anything sharp and taking them back to the car.

On one trip, one of the creatures tried to attack him.

"Shit." Bryce dropped his weapons except for a sword. "Mom?!" Bryce shouted as he began to panic. "Mom!"

Rushing out of the shop, Bryce's mom shot it in the head.

"Gotta go for the head, Bryce." His mother informed him. "Here."

Handed a pistol, Bryce stared at it before tucking it in his waist band.

Stabbing one of the dead ones, Skim took it down before skidding into the parking lot of a pawn shop, nearly losing his balance.

Skim noticed a car in the lot. Heading over, Bryce emerged from the back seat, gun in hand.

"Whoa!" Skim skid to a halt as he raised both hands, dropping his knife. "Not a deadite!" Skim shouted.

Bryce's mother rushed out, noticing Skim.

Bryce's mother made her son lower his shaky hands before he accidentally shot.

"Deadite?" Bryce's mother repeated the word.

"Yeah, like the reanimated corpses in Evil Dead." Skim explained.

"Evil Dead?" Bryce's mom repeated.

"Yeah, it's sort of got a small fanbase. Not really popular." Skim added. "Cool if I lower my hands?"

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry." Bryce's mother apologized as she realized she'd been sticking him up this entire conversation. "Grace."

"Skim." The two shook hands as Skim noticed Grace was bleeding. "One bite you?"

"Bite?" Grace asked. "No. I fell on my knife."

"Ow." Skim gestured to his bag. "I got some stuff to stitch it up for you."

"You a doctor?" Grace questioned.

"No. A lot of home accidents and little income. Either debt or learn a survival skill." Skim made a scale gesture with his hands, tipping it to either side. "I'm not the best, but I need experience if I'm gonna get any better."

Grace pondered his words before gesturing to the car. "Hop in. Patch me up when we get safe."

"Yay." Skim made a quick chirp before hopping in the back.

End of Chapter 1