Infectious | Teen Ink

Infectious

April 9, 2015
By Gam3nder, South San Francisco, California
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Gam3nder, South San Francisco, California
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Favorite Quote:
"You never lose, you only learn"
Morgan-


Death: man’s worst fear. Just the idea of being deceased brings the human mind to a state like no other. Reincarnation is against the laws of physics. It challenges religion; the belief of an afterlife has no meaning. Some say God is finished with us. Others believe that hell is full. The truth is that nothing will ever explain the outbreak. This world as we know it is gone forever.
  

 

Chapter One            Feb, 23 2078 7:24 AM
“You’re late get up,” my mom yelled. Dang it, it was 7:25; the bus leaves at 7:30. Again I was late. I usually always make it to the bus on time. All I had to do was throw some clothes on and get my backpack and run out the door. I ran to the bus ready to leave. “Good morning,” the driver said.
“Good morning,” I replied. I grabbed my phone; I always like to play video games even when I knew I wasn't supposed to at the time. I was very interested in video games it was like a chance to be someone or something I could never be in real life. A lot of people in my life never understood that. People have their way of taking a break from life, not worrying about anything, just time to themselves and video games were my way of taking a break from life.
School had always been an issue for me I always got into trouble. So my parents put me in a private school. It worked I haven’t gotten in trouble for a while now. I’ve learned that life is much easier if you just follow the rules. Since then I had gotten myself back together I told myself that I would never go back into that pit. Now I have a job, an awesome family and awesome friends. My parents helped save me from myself and that’s why I promised that one day I would pay them back in one way or another.
I had lived in South San Francisco my whole life. I knew the place like it was my own back yard. I live in a small neighborhood that only has two road entrances. So it was kind of secluded. I had friends all over the neighborhood and one of them is my best friend Ricky Sandino. We have known each other for basically our whole lives. Ever since kindergarten we have hung out. Some of our favorite things to do were using our airsoft rifles and playing basketball. He loved video games almost as much as me. We started playing video games at probably three-years-old. So, we obviously got pretty good at them. Sometimes we would say that we could beat any pro gamer, even though we knew that we couldn't.
Ricky had an awesome lifestyle compared to me. He could do almost whatever I couldn't. He would go places that I couldn't. Do things that I couldn't. But I never really cared, we were still best friends. We loved zombies. They were a man’s worst fear. Sometimes we would see a house and say that would be a perfect house in a zombie apocalypse. But of course we never thought they would be real. We even planned escape routes, places to get supplies, and tons of other things. Costco we said always did have the gates that could block off zombies; there were massive amounts of food, clothes, electronics, and more in that store. But that was always Ricky’s idea. I would say that we should head to the hills were there were less people. We never really got to think that much about it so we never agreed on what to do.
Ricky had tons of things that could kill a zombie. We hid things around the neighborhood that would be useful if we got cornered or something. Items like bats, hand shovels, metal poles, and other things. All of our zombie plans never were actually real. They were just mostly ideas. But they were plausible ideas. I knew a place where i could get a machete so I was never really worried about anything. The machete was a lot better than any homemade weapons. The ideas of weapons were limitless; we could use almost about anything to kill a zombie.
Ruddy Cruz was another one of my friends; he was the type of person who always showed off. He was on a football team and he was just one of the coolest guys in the whole school. He loved sports. Zombies were not his thing.  Because of that we never really included him in our ideas. But he was always on our list of people who could join if he wanted to. Once the bus reached our school I was almost passed out because I was so tired.
“Bye, thanks for the ride,” I said.
As I walked to my class, I bumped into my friend, Josh Baker. He was a nice dude. He was about 16 (the same age as me). He loves to skateboard and play soccer. “Sup, Josh?” I said.
“Aw, nothing really. Did you hear the news about the doctors who found a cure for cancer?”
“No, when did you hear the news?” I said with a look of disbelief.
“Last night. They said that it took them ten years to finish it.”
“So, it is a complete cure, nothing else?”
“RING! RING!” the bell rang. I ran to my classroom so I wouldn't be late. Late was not one of the things that I did. I’m always on time. “Good morning Mr.Colgan.” “Good morning Chris” he said while typing on his computer. Mr.Colgan was my 1st period teacher. Homeroom was the easiest period of the day we never did any work. Ricky leaned towards me. “Chris, meet me after school.” “Why?” I said. Ricky didn't answer.
After school, I met Ricky at the tree right outside our school.  “You know that house down the street?” Ricky said.
  “The creepy one?” I said with confusion.
  “Ya, tonight I, Rudy, Kevin, and Josh are going to go in.” Ricky said
  The house four houses down from mine have been abandoned for as long as we can remember. There are rumors that this couple who lived in the house had a horrible fight. The husband got so mad he thrusted a knife in his wife’s stomach. They also say that anyone who is in the house at 8 O’clock can watch the fight take place. Then after the husband kills his wife he runs toward you and disappears right before he can stab you.
As me Rudy, Ricky, josh, and Kevin crossed the street we stared at the two story wooden house that was before us. With its chain around the door handles and a sign in the window that read “QUARINTINE.” “Why are we doing this again?” Kevin said.
“It’s not like we have anything better to do anyways.” I said while shivering.
“This is really creepy.”
“Shut up Kevin!” Kevin was the type of person that wouldn't let you do anything bad or scary without giving you a hard time.
“How are we going to get in?” Josh said.
“Um…. Let’s go around back.” We walked in between the houses to get to the back yard. It was dark and wet. There were two double doors into the back of the house.
“Well who’s going to open it?” I reached for the handle.
“That was weird.”
“What?”
“The door was unlocked.” I said. We walked in as quietly as we could even though we knew no one was in the house. The floors creaked with every step.
“I think we should go back now.”
“If you want to leave go by yourself.”
“But it’s dark out?” Kevin said. We walked into the main living room. It was a dark, dusty room with two windows that were boarded up. We continued to the kitchen.
“Wow, why the hell are all the cabinets open?”
“I don’t know, maybe someone else was here.”
“Doesn't that mean that they could still be here?”
“Ya, so.” I knew that it could mean that they were actually still here. I tried to show no fear because if I had fear we all did and then we would have never gone in the first place. We headed towards the stairs. There were a couple of broken staircases that were so dark it looked like a black hole.
“Careful, I don’t want anyone falling in one of those empty staircases. This house is already creepy enough.”
“SWOOSH!!”
“Who else heard that!?”
“Kevin, do you even know the definition of quite.”
“Ya, it means that…..”
“Sarcasm.”
“Oh,” Kevin looked towards the floor like he was a dog that just got called a bad boy. When we reached the top of the staircases there was a hallway that went left and right. On the left was the bathroom. On the right were two bedrooms.
“Come on this way.” We took the right turn. Josh had put his hoodie on and pulled the strings as tight as he could.
“BOO!” Ruddy jumped into the air.
“He, he!” Kevin giggled.
“That was not funny!”
“Guys Shut it.” I whispered while peeking down the staircases. I saw two men standing over a table that had two dead possums laying on it.
“What are we going to do with these?” one of the men said. He was a tall thin man that looked he hadn't eaten it a week. He was carrying two dead gutted Possums.
“Bring them to the basement.” The second man said. This man was short and pudgy. He had a deep voice and a scar on his left cheek that looked like an animal had scratched his face. The skinny man walked towards us with the possums in his hands.
“Hide in the bathroom now!” I whispered. Kevin and josh ran into the closet of the first bedroom. I Ricky and Ruddy ran into the bathroom. As we ran to the bathroom, Ruddy knocked over a pile of boxes. The skinny man stopped and walked towards the bathroom. He grabbed the door knob and started turning it.
“TING, TING, ting, ting” josh had thrown a nickel into the first bedroom. The skinny man turned around and went into the first bedroom. He looked under the bed, behind the dusty curtains, and then he went to the closet. He turned and opened the door he looked in the closet. He saw nothing. Josh and Kevin had hid behind the hanging clothes. The short man walked into the first bedroom.
“What are you doing?”  “I told you to bring them downstairs!”
“But I thought that……….”
“Excuses, excuses, just bring them downstairs!” both men walked down the stairs and into the basement.
“OK, guys we need to get out of here.”
“Ya, we really should go now.” Kevin said with a face that looked like stone.
“Oh, let’s see what’s downstairs in the basement?”
“Are you insane? No, we need to go.” I said
“It’s almost morning anyways.” After we got back to my house we all agreed never to go back by ourselves.
The next morning I woke up to the smell of fresh batch of bacon.
“So how was your trip last night?” My mother asked with a calm but obviously upset tone.
“How do you know these things?”
“Well you boys kind of left a dirt trail leading from the front door.”
“Oh, wow.” I said
“Your bus is here.” She said
As I boarded the bus Josh, Kevin, Ruddy, and Ricky were waiting for me at the end of the bus.
“So, how did your parents handle it?” I asked.
“If you consider a half-an-hour lecture handling it then they handled it fine,” Josh said. When we got off the bus we all went off to our different classrooms. After school all of us met up at the library. We wanted to see if there were any books on locks so we could figure out how to open the locks in houses and other locks. We knew we couldn't get any real lock picks because they were illegal without a license.
“Hey, guys I think I found something.”
“What?’ Josh said with anticipation.
“There’s a whole entire book on locks”
“Chris, come here.”
“Ya,” I walked down the aisles looking for them.
“Who has a library card?” we all looked at each other.
“Great, now no one has a library card.” Kevin walked towards the front entrance.
“They’re having an all-night movie.”
“OK, that’s perfect. Let’s go to the all night movie then we can look at the book.” After every one got their stuff we waited outside the front door. Josh had gone to the store to buy some things to eat.
“So, how exactly are we going to do this?” Ruddy asked.
“I told you already, once it gets dark we go and watch the movie for five minutes then we all go to the back of the library.” I said while playing a game on my phone. Four hours passed while we just sat there playing video games. Once it finally got dark we walked into the library.
“Kevin, come on.” He just sat there. Once we figured out he had headphones on josh went over and scared the daylights out of Kevin. We all swore he jumped two feet in the air that day. Ten minutes after the movie started all of us went to the bathroom one by one. When all of us finally got there we all got out of the stall and headed to the back of the library. Once we got there everyone sat down and waited for me to open the book.
The next morning I woke up to the librarian’s janitor, Pedro. He was one of our friends he never let us gets into trouble. We all knew him since we were little.
“You kids should hurry up and leave before the library opens.” He said with a deep Spanish accent. Josh and Kevin had already left.
“So, why are you guys here today?” Pedro said.
“We were just looking at a book but we don’t have a library card so.” He looked at me like I was nuts. He usually always looks at me that way anyways but I never asked. After me Ruddy and Ricky left Pedro locked the doors.
“That was weird the library is open today.”
“He probably has to finish cleaning anyways.” I said as I looked back at the library. We started walking down the street to the bus stop. Josh and Kevin were sitting on a bench.
“What took you so long?”
“We've been here forever.” Kevin was staring into nowhere. Josh waved his hand in front of his face.
“Wake up, dude!” Kevin was still staring at nothing. Ruddy slapped him in the back of the head.
“SMACK!!!!”
“Ow, what was that for?” we all just stood there and stared at him for a second.
“You were like gone or something” I said.
“So, you smack me!?”
“That was totally Ruddy.” Ruddy had his back facing towards us.
“Ruddy!” he turned around.
“What was that for?” Kevin yelled.
“Aw, who cares were going to miss the bus.”
Kevin glared at Ruddy.
Once I got home I was exhausted.
“Hey dad.” He just looked at me. I walked to the kitchen and opened a can of chicken noodle soup.
“So how was your day?” Mom said
“Good.” I walked to my room with the soup. I jumped on my bed and turned on my Xbox 5. An hour later I passed out.
“CHRIS, Ricky’s here!” my mom yelled. I just moaned.
“It was 7:00 am on a Sunday,” I thought in my head. Ricky walked into the room and picked a shoe up and then he threw it at me
“What!!” I groaned.
“We’re going to the tree house, come on.”
“I’ll be right out.” I got dress and combed my hair.
“Why are we going so early?”
“You’ll see.” Once we got to the tree house which was at our local park. We all looked at the creepy house as we walked by. I swore that I saw someone starring out of the window, but I doubted myself because no one else said anything. Once we reached the park, we climbed into our tree house.
“Chris, come here.” Ricky said.
“Wow, what the hell happened?” It looked like something tore a hole in the bottom of our tree house. It was weird because it looked like someone used their teeth. I saw a tooth on the tree house floor.
“Look at this.”
“Why is it sharp?” Kevin said.
“I don’t know.”
We walked to the library with the tooth. Once we found the tooth that’s when things got weird. The tooth was a human tooth but it was sharpened somehow.
“So now we have a sharp human tooth?” Ricky said.
“Yup, were going back to that house, now!” I said
  We walked to the house at 9 o’clock.
“OK guys, same as last time.” We walked into the house through the back door which was unlocked. We walked towards the basement door.
“Do we really have to do this?” Kevin whispered.
No one else said anything. I reached for the doorknob. I slowly opened the door.
“What do you see?”
“There’s a light down there.”
“OK, Ricky and Josh come with me.” The three of us walked down the stairs.
“This will never work,” The skinny man said
“No one asked you frank.” The short stubby man said. As we walked down the final steps we saw things that we could never forget.
 

Chapter 2
March 2, 2078 9:57 PM

 

“What the hell is that?” Josh said.
“I don’t know and I don’t want to find out.” as we walked upstairs we heard a growl in the basement. Josh had slipped on a step as soon as he heard it.
Kathunk!
“What was that?” the skinny man said. He ran up the stairs.
“Run!” Kevin yelled. The skinny man chased us out the front door. Once we went through the front door doorway I froze. Josh ran into me and everyone else fallowed. Then we all stopped and just stared at what we saw.
People were getting tackled to the ground and torn apart, Cars crashing into trees and poles, screams coming from every direction.  It was mayhem; it wasn’t long until one of those things saw us.
It stopped attacking its victim, looked at us, got up, and started walking towards us.
“Um, guys.” Kevin said. We looked towards his direction. As soon as we saw that thing we ran. We started towards my house.
“Come on!” I yeld. I grabbed the doorknob to my house and twisted it open.  My mother layed on the ground, with one of those things on top of her.
“No!” I kicked the thing in the face as hard as I could. It rolled over on its back and started to get up. Ricky grabbed a lamp from the table and swung it like a baseball player right into the head of the thing. Its head cracked.  This time it stayed on the ground.
I layed next to my mom, holding her hand. My friends looked around the house. They couldn’t find my dad or sister Carson anywhere. Once my friends got back, I was still with my mother.
I slowly pulled the curtain that was on the ground over her body.
“We have to go.” Ricky said.
I stood up and wiped the tears of my face.
“Ya, let’s go.” I said.
We continued walking down to look at everyone’s house.
“Ricky and Josh come on.”  We walked towards Josh’s house. Once I picked the lock we continued. We walked into the main living room.  We had stopped and looked around.
“Nice house.” Ricky said
One of the things came from around the corner and collapsed onto josh.
“No, get it off; get it off!” he screamed. Ricky and I both lifted it off of Josh. After that it came towards me.
“Oh, crap.”

 

It lunged towards me. I darted to the side making the creature pass me.
“Give me something, anything!” I said
Josh tossed me a poker from the fire place. Once it came at me again I jabbed the poker into the creature. It went straight through its body.
“What the hell,” I yelled. Wondering why it wasn’t dead.
It continued towards me. I thought I was going to die. Every step it took, I thought about my life
“Is this really how it’s supposed to end?” I thought in my head.
SHINK!
The creature’s mouth closed and it tumbled to the ground. All three of us looked towards the dead creature with a butter knife impaled into the back of its skull.
“You know what I just noticed?”  Ricky said.
“What,” i turned towards Ricky.
“They only die when something destroys the brain.” He continued
“Ya, I was starting to notice that.”
“So always go for the head.” I said.
Once we got back to the others it was around 6:30. We decided that it would be best if we got somewhere safe for the night. We got some sticks that we found just in case we needed them. We found a house that had its door unlocked. It was a really old house there was glass everywhere, wood was everywhere, cobwebs covered the ceiling.
“We need to check for biters first.” 
“Ya, but what if……”   josh stopped. We heard a metal object fall to the ground.
Ricky and I got our sticks ready. We slowly walked towards the kitchen. There was a table flipped over in the middle of the room, windows were broken, and there was a trail of blood that led from the entry way to the kitchen. We fallowed the trail. We put our backs against the wall. I peeked around the corner. There was a top half of a body crawling towards us.
I picked up a piece of wood that was left on the ground and threw it at it to get its attention.
“Go around the other side of the kitchen then, wait for my signal.” I told Ricky
I came out from cover and got its attention. It slowly started crawling towards me.
“NOW!” 
Ricky ran towards the biter and speared the biter in the back. I got my stick and ran it through the biters head. 
“How did this even start, one day were watching a movie the next were killing...........whatever these things are!” Ricky complained
“I don’t even understand this; these things are like zombies or something.” I said
“But these things can’t be from a movie?”
“So if these are from things that humans made up, someone had to do this. It couldn’t just become exactly like a movie.”
We walked up the stairs to the bathroom. I turned on the water and washed my hands and face.
“Chris come here.” Josh yelled.
I walked to the bedroom. I saw josh holding a book.
“What?” I said
“This is a note book that explains everything, it’s like someone knew this was coming.”
“Let me see.” I said
I sat down on the bed next to Kevin who was already sleeping. As I continued reading it really was like someone knew this was coming. It explained everything. The book read “ROTrs (Reanimated Organic Threats) can only be killed by destroying the brain.”
“So that’s what they’re called, ROTrs” I said
“How do we even know if this is really what they are?” Ruddy said
“Got any better ideas?”
No one said anything.
“Exactly,”
The next morning I woke up to a gunshot.  I looked around to make sure everyone was here. I slowly and quietly walked down the stairs. I grabbed my machete from my back pack.
“Help, Help, Please!”
I ran towards the scream. 
“Hello!?” I yelled as loud as I could.
“Please!”
“Where are you!?” I said
I continued running down the street.  I stopped and heard something coming from a hardware store. I got my machete ready.
“Hello.” I whispered
RHAAA!
A ROTr came at me from the side. I swung the machete and cut straight through the ROTRs head. Then he collapsed to the floor. I saw a person laying on her side. I slowly approached her.
“Mam?” I said quietly
I reached and grabbed her shoulder.  She rolled over and started to crawl towards me. I slipped; my back against a shelf.
RAAGH!!
I grabbed a pole from the ground and put it in between the ROTR’s mouth. They were a lot stronger than you would think. I struggled to keep its mouth away from me but it slowly got closer and closer. I saw a knife near my foot. I tried to get it with my shoe. The ROTr moved its leg and the knife slid across the floor.
“No!” I said under my breath
My left hand slid off the pole. The ROTR fell to its side. I grabbed its head and banged it against the floor as hard as I could over and over until it stopped moving.
Once I got myself back together I stood up and looked around for anything that would be useful. A grabbed a backpack off the back of the ROTR. As I threw bottles of Aspirin and Tylenol the sound of a gunshot came ripping through the air. As soon as I heard it I ran back to the house.
I barged through the door breathing heavily.
“Are you ok?” Ruddy said while looking at me funny.
“You guys heard the gunshot right?”
“Ya,” Ricky said
“Ok, I’m not going crazy. But anyways we need to get out of the city because the more populated areas have more ROTR’s,” I said.
“Don’t we need supplies or something?” Ricky said
“We are not going to Costco,”
We got all of our stuff together and Continued walking until we got to the outside of our neighborhood.
“Guys, this might be the last time we will see our homes,” I said.
“Ya,” Kevin said while looking at the ground.
We continued walking until we got to Hicky Blvd. We all looked down the street; the hills were black, cars on fire. Bodies layed on the road, zombies roamed around, it looked like Hell on Earth.
“Wow,” Ruddy said.
“We need to go through that?”
“Unless you want to go through there,” I said while I turned around.
There was a military road block that was overrun. Soldiers were on the ground, some being eaten. ROTRs were everywhere. Hum-V’s were on fire. There was even a man was screaming from the inside of a tent. 
“You want to go through there go yourself. Let’s go guys,” I said
We started down the road, into Hell itself.

 


CHAPTER 3

March 6, 2078 11:26 AM

We continued down the road cautiously.
“So we are going to need supplies,” I said.
“The store right down the road they might have stuff down there,” Ricky said
“Ya we’ll try there first.”
Once we got down to the store it was havoc.  The stores windows were broken, ROTR’s everywhere.
“We’ll go through the back,” I said.
We walked slowly towards the back of the store trying not to get any ROTR’s attention. Once it was all clear we ran towards the back entrance. It was awful, the smell of Zting trash filled the air. Two big red doors led to the storage room of the store.
“Kevin, you stay with Josh and make sure we don’t get ROTR’s behind us,” I whispered.
Ruddy got upset.
“Who ever made you in charge in the first place anyways!?” Ruddy yelled.
“Not know we need to get out of the city nothing else matters!” I said.
“How do you even know what’s going on” Ruddy said
“I don’t, now shut up!”
“Guys,” Kevin said.
“Tell me to shut up!?”
“Ya I did what the hell are you going to do about it!?” I said
“Guys,” Kevin said again
“You want to find out!?”
Ruddy swung at me. I ducked; I pushed him and he hit the garbage bin behind him.
“Try to hit me again?!” I said
Ruddy got up and swung again; I moved back, he swung again this time he hit me right in the jaw.
F@#K!!
I was furious. I swung at Ruddy hitting him right in the nose. He fell back and landed on his rear. Blood poured from his nose. I continued toward him ready to strike again.
“Stop!” Josh yelled
“Why the hell are you guys fighting, you’re going to end up getting all of us killed; we need to work together if we want to live; we not might make it even two blocks but we have to try; now stop,” josh said.
I looked at josh for what seemed like forever until I held out my hand to Ruddy and pulled him up. Kevin ran into the store.
“Kevin!” I yelled
“Um Chris?” Ricky said.
I turned around to see 30 ROTR’s walking towards us.
“Get in the store!”
We all ran in. it was a dark gray room with no windows the floor and walls were concrete. It smelled like fish. 10 foot high shelves filled the room.
RRAAGHH!!
The ROTR’s started banging on the doors the glass broke on the door. The locks screws fell to the floor and the doors busted open. We ran into the store. All the shelves were empty.
“So much for the supplies,” I thought.
“Where do we go!?” Josh yelled
“Come on!” I said while running towards the front exit.
Once we got to the doors I pulled them they were locked. Ricky found a broken window. As we ran out the window a piece of glass that was still on the window frame slit Rudy’s arm open.
“AAHH!” he screamed
Ricky and I pulled him up. He was unconscious either because he lost a lot of blood or he was in shock. As if it was a miracle a white truck with a metal fence drilled into the frame of the truck to protect the wind shield came into the parking lot with two men in the bed of the truck with rifles. It honked and stopped several feet in front of us.
As Ricky and I put Rudy into the back seat of the truck a man got out of the passenger seat. He was a averaged sized man with a black beard and a black fishing hat on. He had a pistol in a holster on his right side; he was wearing a green and white plaid button up shirt and blue jeans. He looked like he was in his early forties. He helped us get Rudy into the backseat of the truck.
“Just get everyone into the truck,” the man said.
He    even give me time to say anything. The two men got out of the truck and started to pick off the ROTR’s. Kevin and Josh got into the bed of the truck. The truck driver honked and the two men with the rifles jumped back into the trucks bed. We drove off towards the hills.
“What happened to him?”  The driver said. He was Caucasian man with a clean shave. He looked about 23. He was wearing a white T, blue jeans and had sun glasses on.
“He cut his arm open on a piece of glass,” I said
“We have an Infirmary at our camp,” he said
“Where’s your camp?”
As I asked we pulled up to a gate with two soldiers behind it. They opened the gate. There was a road that led down to a shopping store it was at least two stories tall, it had two soldiers behind sandbags with MGs. The road was all fenced around from where the road met El Camino Real to the entrance of the store. Two soldiers pulled chains on the other side of the gate that led into the store. It slowly rose higher and higher until it was half way to the top then the truck drove slowly into the store. That’s when I noticed that the store was Costco.
It was completely rearranged; crates made a path for vehicles, they had made parking spots with crates; when we pulled up to another gate that was in the building. A soldier walked towards the end of the truck.
“Step out of the truck please,” He told us.
He was wearing a black Gas mask. With a camouflage hood that was attached to the rest of his hazmat suit over his head.
“That’s a US Navy EOD M45 Gas Mask with an AX class filter” Ricky whispered as he stared at the bed of the truck. He knew everything that was military related.
We jumped from out of the back of the truck. We all jumped out of the truck. The soldiers told us to line up against a wall. There was a wall made out of wood. It had yellow foot markers on the ground facing towards the truck.
“Put your feet on the yellow footprints,” the soldier said.
I turned to face the soldier
“Have you seen my sis…?” I stopped
“On the prints please” he said again
I backed up onto the prints. Once everyone else was on the foot prints a man in a white hazmat suit came out from the entrance station with a back pack sprayer. The soldier handed us face masks. I pulled the mask over my face and slipped the bungee string over my head. It was a tight mask; it made everything have a tint of dark green.
“Hold your arms out from your sides,” the man in the white suit said
He started to spray us with some kind of disinfectant. My arms burned and it felt like a shower with the hot water all the way on. After all of us got sprayed they took our masks and led us into the store through a metal chain link gate.
There were at least 50 people in the store. Some wearing masks, People layed on the floor, others had tents. We headed towards the cafeteria. It was obviously makeshift.
“What the y have Mac and Cheese,” Kevin ran to the food. None of us had eaten a real meal in at least a week. Josh and Ruddy headed towards a group of girls. Ricky and I just stood there not knowing what to do.
“Try to relax man,” Ricky put his hand on my shoulder and walked away.
I walked towards the restrooms and sat on a bench in front of the men’s room with my head in my hands.
“Why?” I thought
“Did we deserve this?” I continued thinking.
“I’m being way too hard on myself,” I thought.
Right as I was going to get up a little girl came out of the bathroom stopped and ran to me and gave me a huge hug. She looked up at me; I couldn't believe my eyes,
“Carson?”
 

The author's comments:
Hope you guys enjoy. I haven't posted anything because I've been really busy. I have over 100 pages complete. I hope to slowly gain fans as i post more chapters and please, please give me suggestions ideas and opinions in the comments section. Thanks everyone who has read my work.

“Carson how did you......”
“Remember my friend Nicky?” Carson said
“Ya,”
“When I started hearing the screaming I ran all the way to her house, we hid in the closet after……” she stopped.
I looked into her dark brown eyes, tears started to roll down her cheek. She wiped them away and continued.
“Nicky’s dad attacked her mom, there was blood everywhere,” she stopped and put her head on my stomach. It felt like forever, just holding my sister after all that had happened. I still had to tell her about mom and dad, I couldn’t do it.
“Where are mom and dad?” she asked
“They got separated from us on the way here, there fine though one of the soldiers said that they were at another camp at the mall,” I lied
“So we will see them right?” Carson said.
“Ya, we will,” I said

“Have you seen Chris?” Ruddy said
“Ya, he’s at the bathrooms,” Josh said.
“I’m going to go see him, see Ya,”
“Bye,”
As Ruddy walked towards the bathrooms another truck pulled into the store. People ran towards the gates to see if anyone they knew was still alive.
“Is that Carson?” Ruddy asked pointing to Carson who was sitting on a bench eating.
“Yup, I never thought I’d see her again,” I said.
“Well um, I’m going to see if there is anyone we know coming in,”
“I’ll go with, Carson come on,” I said.
We walked up to the fence. Someone jumped from the bed of the truck tackling a soldier.
RRAAGH!!
The soldier kicked and yelled as the ROTR ripped through his suit and tore his throat apart. I covered my sister’s eyes. My friends and I had gotten used to the gruesome truth of the world now, it was what you had to accept or face a similar fate as the soldier who now lay on the ground motionless.
A soldier kicked the ROTR, three other soldiers with hazmat suits pinned the ROTR on the ground as the fourth soldier pierced the ROTR’s brain with a combat knife.
After putting my sister to bed I walked to the next tent where my friends sat waiting for me.
“How long are we going to stay here,” Ricky said.
“Don’t we need to get to the forest anyways?” Josh said.
“I know, we have to think, we still need to figure out a way to get out of here,” I said
I sat down on the bed thinking.
“We might be able to go on a supply run, but Josh would have to do it, he’s the oldest,”
“How we just got here; it’s not like they’re going to let me go on a run?” Josh said.
“We’ll talk more tomorrow,” Ruddy and Ricky stood up.
“Seya tomorrow,” Josh said.
Ricky, Ruddy, and I went back to our tent.
“I got top bunk,” Ruddy climbed the short ladder to his bunk.
I tossed myself onto the lower bunk. I couldn’t stop thinking about the lie I had to tell my sister, it was eating at me from the inside. I chuckled, remembering that there was probably someone out there with that same thing literally happening to them. Before I had the chance to feel bad about the lie, I was fast asleep.
I woke up to someone else’s alarm clock.
“I’m up, I’m up!” I yelled.
“What?” Ruddy said
I sat up,
“Danm it,”
“I know I wished it was a dream to buddy,” Ricky said.
I glared at him,
“Smart a$$,”
I was unusually grumpy for some reason. I then thought that most people would be kind of grumpy after their first day in a zombie apocalypse.
We all met in the cafeteria. It took me a while to notice that everyone was waiting for me to say something.
“Come on, it’s seven in the morning,” I complained.
“The first run is in an hour,” Ricky said.
“Just go to the truck they use and get in it and tell them you’re not getting out until the run is over.” I said.
Josh got up and went to the main office.
“What are we going to do now we have the whole day” Kevin said.
“Some kids found paintball guns in the back, let’s check it out.”
“I swear if you shoot me in the crotch I will punch you in the face,”
We all had a smirk on our face. Kevin looked at us.
“Shut up,”
We walked to the storage area. A sign read “Authorized Personnel Only”
“I'm going to wait out here,” after Kevin read the sign.
“Fine Ruddy you and Kevin keep watch out here,” I said as I handed him a G-Stem I had found in a drawer from the person who had lived in the tent before me. Now day’s people were given an ElectRx nervous implant that could connect your brain waves to any authorized G-Stem or other ElectRx device within 50 meters. Kind of like Wi-Fi when it was popular but much simpler.
“Send me a text if someone’s coming” I said.
“Ya, hurry up,” Ruddy said.
“Come on,” Ricky, and I went through the double doors.
When we walked further down the hall way, the path made from crates and food boxes forked two separate ways.
“Which way?” Ricky said.
“Two ways, two of us, I’ll take right, ‘I said and started to walk.
“I go this way then,” Ricky started to walk left.
As I was walking I forgot that Ricky had no way of communicating. It took me a while but I chose that my friends are more important than some paintball guns. I turned around and started to jog back.
Kling, Kling!!
“A guard’s coming hide!!! “The text read
“Crap!” I thought.
“I got to find Ricky,” I spoke into the g stem which automatically wrote down what I said. I waited until the screen said message sent before I put it back into my pocket. It took longer than usually to send but that’s what I expected since the last broadcast from ElectRx Corp. was well over two weeks ago.
I continued to jog down the aisle looking for my friend. Once I got further down the path
I saw Ricky digging through a bin. I walked over and saw a whole bin full of ElectRx Airsoft rifles.
“Oh, crap….. That’s a lot of Airsoft’s,” I said as Ricky pulled out a Desert Eagle VS6.
“No way,” I grabbed a small yellow ball with a pin sticking out from the cap that was attached to the ball.
“An Airsoft grenade,” I said while we all stared at it.
“There’s a ton of them,” Ricky said as he pulled another box adjacent to the one in front of us.
There were at least 30 grenades.
CLICKING
“It’s the guard,” I whispered.
Ricky and I crawled into the shelf that had the box of airsoft rifles in it. Ricky slid the box in front of us. I saw a plastic sheet behind us.
“Ricky,” I whispered.
He turned around and helped me pull the sheet over us. Then we froze.
CCHHCHC!!! Assistance needed in sector four….…… Unit 436 assistance request received inbound.
The guard’s headset said. He put his hand on the side of his headset and spoke,
“Unit 284, requesting cleanup crew in section 2S,”
CCHCHCHC!!! Unit 284 request received please await confirmation…
Confirmation accepted cleanup crew #437 inbound to section 2S
The guard noticed the bin of Airsoft rifles and took his hand off his headset and onto his gun. He walked to the bin and pushed it to the side.
“Cleanup crew 437 awaiting orders,” the man in a white Hazmat suit said as he stood with his hands to his side and eyes facing forward focused at nothing. There were five other men in white hazmat suits.
“Level 4 cleanup,” the guard said as he pointed to the left of us.
A ROTr was tearing apart a rat. We never even noticed it. We finally noticed that we felt like we were safe here even though we knew we weren’t.
“Yes sir,” the Cleanup crew leader crew said.
The guard pulled out a Beretta M9A3 that had a silencer on it and pointed it at the ROTr.
TSSSSSSST!!!!
The ROTr fell onto its side with a hole in the back of its head. The cleanup crew went over to the ROTr and put him in a white body bag. Two men lifted the ROTrs head up to slip the bag over its lifeless body. They then picked the bag up and put it on a cart putting a cover the bag so not to make people panic. Another man sprayed the floor with the same disinfectant that was used on new comers. After the cleanup crew left the guard looked around before leaving.
“He’s gone,” I said
“Finally,”
“Now all we have to do is bring the Air Rifles to our tents without the guards noticing,” I told Ricky.
We pushed the box to the side and crawled back out. The area were the ROTr had been was spotless it didn’t even smell.
“Pick as many air guns you want,” I said.
Ricky picked the Desert Eagle Airsoft and tried putting it behind his back in between his waistband.
“AAHHH, cold!” Ricky yelled.
“Dude, the guards can hear us easily
VVVVVVVVVVVV!!!!
I pulled out the G-Stem out of my back pocket of my jeans.
“Guards left,” the text read.
“OK we need to hurry the guards left,” I said.
I pulled out a Sniper Airsoft.
“Oh my….” I drooled over the make believe weapon.
“Look what I found,” Ricky walked around the corner with a gym bag in his hands.
“It’s not going to work,” I said while digging through the bin of Airsoft’s.
“Look,” Ricky walked up to me and put the bag down on a shelf. He lifted the bottom of the bag and it came off.
“We can put the guns under the flap,” Ricky said with a big smile.
I looked at him and slapped him on the back. We grabbed at least 30 airsoft’s and dumped them into the bag. Ricky put the bottom on top of the guns. Then he grabbed a bin of clothes from the lost and found outside the storage and dumped that on top of the gun’s lid.
“Let’s go before the guards come back,” I said
We slowly walked out of the storage area and headed towards our tents with our heads facing the ground trying not to get any attention. Once we got to our tents it was already 1:00 PM.
“Well how many did you guys bring?” Ruddy asked.
“Like well over thirty,” I told him.
Josh unzipped the bag and pulled out the clothes and dumped the guns out.
“Everyone each gets six Airsoft’s,” I said out loud.
After everyone got their airsofts, we headed to the roof.
“Come on before someone notices us,” I said.
We were behind a tent that someone had pitched up. It was about eight feet tall so no one could see us until we got to the higher part of the ladder.
“We have to go one by one,” I told the group.
“Who wants to go first?” Ricky said.
Ruddy stood up and started to climb up the ladder with a Airsoft R700 on his back. We all went up one by one after Ruddy. I pulled the M110 Airsoft off of my back and pulled down the bipod and let it rest on the edge of the roof.
“Guys these are military grade ElectRx Metal Airsoft rounds, they’ll go straight through the ROTrs skull,” I said
Ruddy pored a handful of rounds into a magazine which automatically lined up due to the magnets in the clip. He slid it into the rifle pulled back the bolt aimed and fired.
The round burned through the barrel gaining speed, a small popping sound went through the air as the metal round whizzed through the air hitting its target square in the temple, cracking the skull and sliding into the pink flesh of the ROTrs brain tissue. The ROTr fell onto its knees and face first into the pavement below.
Everyone was staring at the ROTr that layed there motionless.
“I think we just found a replacement for guns,” Ruddy said.

The author's comments:
Just a small chapter.

March 7, 2078 6:32 pm

It was dark and the groans of ROTrs were everywhere. I could feel my heart beat, I thought about stopping to catch my breath only to remember what lied behind me. The dark Redwoods reached into the sky glooming overhead blending into each other as I ran by.. The footsteps of ROTrs weren’t far behind. An old log cabin boarded up came into view; I kicked the door open and slammed it behind me, sliding an Oak 2x4 in front of the door onto the metal brackets. The wood creaked and cracked under the weight of the ROTrs bodies. I looked around for a window or another way out knowing that the door wouldn’t hold much longer. I banged on the wooden barriers covering the windows; they wouldn’t budge; only to find out more ROTrs were out the window do to the sound. I pulled the carpet to find a latch; I pulled and fell back onto my rear end.
I climbed into the hole in the floor, the front door creaked loudly and bursted open. Several ROTrs fell only to have more trample their bodies. I climbed down closed the hatch and slid the deadbolt into its catcher. The banging told me that the ROTrs were right above. Once I got down the ladder there was a network of tunnels. I walked down the tunnel; I hit a three way fork. Right has always been my lucky choice, I headed down the right tunnel. I heard a scream not far behind me. I chose to run; I ran and ran finally noticing I wasn’t getting any closer to my destination ahead. I heard the scream again but this time it was right behind me, a woman in a white dress walked closer and closer to me as I ran in place. I stopped and turned around ready for her to pull a weapon out. I looked closer and noticed that the woman in white had no lips only sharp teeth. Before I knew it those teeth that had once been clean white had red liquid covering them, I lifted my hand up to my neck pulled it away from it again. My was covered in that red liquid I fell to the ground, then everything got black, but it wasn’t a plain black. It was black with sparks in it.
“Is this death,” I asked myself.

The author's comments:
Enjoy!

March 8, 2078 2:46 AM


“Chris, you awake?” Ruddy said
I turned my head only to find out that I was looking at the night sky on the roof of the Costco complex.
“Freakin, nightmares,” I said out loud.
“Ya, I think all of us have nightmares now days,”
Ricky commented while loading another handful of the metal pellets. He had major bags in his eyes.
I ran over to the container of military grade rounds, it was almost empty.
“What the hell, this was full, Ricky?” I said.
I looked over the roof to see at least 40 ROTrs dead on the ground.
“Do you even know how to use it?” I said
I went over and grabbed his air rifle the red indicator light was on.
“You made it overheat, danm it!” I said
In pulled out an ElectRx auto-screwdriver. I sat down and opened the case for the Air rifle.
The words “NexAtra M-2” written across its smooth metal surface. I missed the old times were you could sit outside and not be attacked by mindless flesh eating machines.
“Wow,” Rudy said to Ricky
“Why didn’t you just stop and pay attention,” Kevin also said.
“Leave him alone he didn’t know,” I told Kevin even though if Ricky made fun of him he couldn’t defend himself he was defensless.
“But it was a red light right In front of his face, how does that not mean something bad?” Kevin said.
My grip slipped on the handle of the auto-driver and the NexAtra slipped and fell on to the floor loose screws rolling ever where. Everyone looked away from me except Kevin.
“JUST SHUT UP KEVIN!!!!” I yelled loudly.
They all knew how moody I was when I was working on a project. Kevin knew too. After the incident on the roof no one talked to me for at least a couple of hours until Ricky walked into the tent while I was working on the NexAtra air rifle.
“I just wanted to say thanks again for being on my side on the roof,” Ricky told me.
“You’re literally my best friend what else was supposed to do,” I smiled
“I know, they can be a-holes sometimes,” I put the rifle on the desk and turned around to face Ricky.
“Can’t we all be a-holes sometimes?” I pulled out the G-stem and started to play a game. I could never stare at someone when there talking.
“Ya, I guess, but anyways we'll be on the roof, there’s no more rounds by the way,” and he walked out of the tent.
I got up to get some food. I noticed that a bunch of guards went running to the gates. A familiar face came into view. It was Josh; he had blood covering his hands and arms.
“What the,” I thought.
I started to run up to the main gates, they were locked.
“Of course there locked,” I told myself how dumb I was. I didn’t linger on the thought long, as the rest of my crew came to the gates.
Two guards raised their rifles at Josh.
“No, he’s with us,” I yelled at the guard, he didn’t move or stop aiming.
“Units 12 through 19 perimeter breach; I repeat perimeter breach!” a guard said into his headset.
Around 30 soldiers came from around the corner of the building. Some kneeled while aiming and some stood. A MK-2 Auto Sentry also as people know it the Peacekeeper a 6- foot robotic guard on treads equipped with 2 MGs on both arms, a shock launcher, anti-tank missiles, and this model has a flamethrower with a 10-foot spray range also it is on a swivel mount so you wouldn’t want to try sneaking up behind it.
“Why the hell do they need so many soldiers for one person?” Kevin said.
“I don’t know?” I said while shrugging my soldiers, I had a mad tone in my voice and Kevin noticed.
“But they only use sentries for major problems,” Kevin said.
“Maybe they are just really over protective,” I told Kevin
“Come on; how many guns does it take to kill one……,” Kevin stopped.
AAAHHHHHH!!!!
A person ran from the cafeteria with a baby in her hands.
“ROTrs in the cafeteria!” the woman yelled.
As soon as the woman had stopped talking a ROTr came from behind her and bit right into her shoulder, tearing a muscle that was covered in red blood straight from her tendon. More ROTrs came from the cafeteria. Some dropped to their knees and started to feast on the woman on the floor. The scream has been covered by the sound of gurgling from the woman’s lungs which were now filled with blood I assumed. A second later she layed there motionless; with the beasts chewing on her flesh. Her baby was protected by its mother’s body covering him.
“Crap, the baby!” Ricky said.
“We need to leave now,” I told my group while grabbing Ricky's arm
As we started to find a way through the gate ROTrs filled the cafeteria, no more than a foot away from each other. Guards kneeled while firing their rifles dropping ROTrs like flies. Ricky ran towards our tent which was far from the cafeteria.
“We need our Air Rifles,” he said
We all fallowed him knowing there was no way through the fence.
“Is the bag still in the tent?” Kevin asked
“Ya, it’s under my bed,” I said
Once we got to the tent I looked under my bed and grabbed the bag.
“All of them right?” Rudy asked
“Ya,”
We got all of the air rifles but kept some Barrettes and a Desert Eagle. We left the tent and the guards had started to get overrun.
“Emergency exit?” I looked at the group.
“This way; come on,” Ricky said.
We fallowed him to the storage area.
“It’s down here,” Ricky said while we jogged behind him.
“Where is Carson?” I yelled.
“We can’t Chris, we just can’t,” Ricky said while looking at me
“NO!! We are not going to leave her here, not again!!” I told the group with a straight face. I ran the other direction looking in everywhere. After a couple of minutes Costco was completely infested with ROTrs guards and civilians alike. I almost gave up until I saw Micheal and Nick weaving in between the ROTrs with someone on Nicks back, it was Carson.
“Nick!!” I yelled in their direction which was the worst mistake I had ever made. As soon as I yelled over 15 ROTrs walked towards me.
“Meet us at Alcatraz its safe there!” Nick yelled.
He was gone before I had the chance to say anything.
Once I reached the door were Ricky and the rest of the group waited for me. Rudy pushed the metal bar, it didn’t budge. Then he kicked it multiple times as hard as he could, the metal bar fell off and the door slid open. A ROTr came in from the opened door. Rudy pulled out his air pistol and shot a round straight into the ROTrs brain; it fell to its knees and leaned against the wall motionless. We all pulled our pistols. As we walked out we were at the back of the store. There was a fence about 15 feet ahead that lead to the end of the parking lot then it turned right and around the building and out of view. On our left the cement roadway lead to El Camino Real also were the fence ended.
“There’s a trailer park over the fence!” Rudy said.
“Ya, fine, come on,” I told the group.
We headed to the fence when ROTrs busted from the door behind us. We climbed the fence as fast as we could. Ricky and Kevin had already made it to the other side of the fence, while I was covering them with my pistol. Once Rudy got to the top of the fence I pushed his back and he tumbled over to the other side of the fence. I started to climb the fence when a ROTr grabbed my pant leg. I tried to pull but its grip was to strong. I got my other foot and bashed my heal into its face until It let go. I then tumbled over the fence deciding that a few scratches and bruises were better than getting a chunk bitten off you.
“Holy Crap!” I said.
They chuckled; I always had a way with saying the most ridiculous things in the most ridiculous times.
“We still need to get down the hill” I said.
We slowly walked down the hill into the trailer park. It was gloomy; the sun had not risen yet, fog covered the valley. A ROTr walked slowly down an alley. We hid behind a trailer as it slowly walked past unaware of its fate. I pulled out my Barrette and aimed down the sights with a quick pull of the trigger a quiet cling echoed through the air as a small metal ball left the barrel and slid through the air hitting its target in the shoulder; clean through.
“Danm it,” I whispered.
The ROTr turned around and started to stroll toward us. Another cling from behind me lit the ROTrs forehead with blood and it collapsed in front of me. All the noise around me was muffled only whispers that seemed not to be part of any known language, I stared at the ROTr. The vision in front of me was clear as day but everything else around me was blurry my friends were trying to get my attention but at that time I didn’t know or care. I just wanted to forget everything and wake up from this nightmare.
“Chris…Chris, you ok?” Rudy asked, it took me a while to reply.
“Ya I think so,” I said as the world around me came back.
“OK we need to find somewhere to stay for the day,” I continued walking.
Once we found a suitable trailer we busted the door open and held our pistols ready. We continued in checking all the rooms.
The ROTrs prefer the sunlight for some reason, we assumed it’s because they couldn’t see as well at night.
After we checked all the rooms we boarded up the windows with wooden planks from outside; nailing them to the inside of the trailer. We put all our stuff down and settled in. the place was nice for a trailer. There was a small kitchen with cabinets surprisingly full of canned food, a small bathroom at the end and a bed at the other end. I took the couch facing the kitchen. I grabbed my backpack full of ammunition, a semi-auto Air Rifle with Variable Fire Switch, and some pellet grenades and put it in an empty cabinet that was under the couch. I pulled my shoes off and layed on my back staring at the ceiling. I couldn’t stop thinking about josh, we never should have told him to go on that supply run. He would be here right now if we hadn’t. I tried to forget about it but it was still deep inside me hiding.
“We are still heading for the hills right?” Ricky asked.
“Ya we did your idea and look what happened,” I raised my hands to state that I was talking about all the stuff around us.
“It’s not my fault were here!” he said.
“What…. We would be safe in the hills right now if we just left Costco after they fixed up Rudy!” I told rick while I sat up.
“Then why didn’t we do it then?”
I sat there unable to reply. Ricky got up and went over to the cabinet to get something to eat acting like nothing had just happened. No one else was paying attention. Rudy was on his G-Stem playing a game and Kevin was passed out right next to Rudy.
I pulled out my G-Stem to see if anyone was on Facebook. If anyone I knew was still alive this is how I would know, also I can talk and share stuff with other survivors. There was actually a lot more survivors than you would think. It’s probably because of all those Zombie movies, right before the Apocalypse Zombie movies and shows were a huge thing. Every one talked about them at school.
I could find people updating their profiles; pictures of ROTrs started to cover all the pages. People changed their names also, things like ZombeHunter321 or XBlowinZHeadsoffX. Some were really stupid but funny. I met this girl online she was amazing the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She accepted my friend request about a week ago. She lives in Daly City not far from where we are. I told her that I would find her even if I died trying. It was just one of those times when two people just click. She told me she loved me more than I loved her. When she told me that the memory of my mom came back, finding her on the ground with that thing on her. I hadn’t told the guys yet, I think they should have a better reason to fallow me. I’ll find one, one day.
“Well…I’m going to sleep now,” Rudy said as he turned off the light.
“I hate how we have to start sleeping during the day now!” Ricky said loudly.
“Shut up!” I whispered. Ricky covered his mouth with his hands.
“Idiot,” I said and then turned over so I was facing the wall. Then I closed my eyes and fell into a much needed sleep.



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