Transition, Undead

Transition, Undead: Transition, Undead Chapter 1

2009-11-13T14:23:00.000-05:00

Transition, Undead: Transition, Undead Chapter 2

2009-11-13T14:04:00.000-05:00

Transition, Undead: Transition, Undead Chapter 3

2009-11-13T14:03:00.001-05:00

Transition, Undead: Transition, Undead Chapter 4

2009-11-13T14:02:00.001-05:00

Note: Rough Draft

Transition, Undead: Transition, Undead Chapter 5

2009-11-13T14:01:00.000-05:00

Transition, Undead: Transition, Undead Chapter 6

2009-11-12T02:42:00.000-05:00

Transition, Undead Chapter 6

2009-11-02T02:01:00.001-05:00

Note: Rough Draft

Under the overpass….

Ash looked curiously at the kid that just jumped onto the platform and smiled. Blaine looked up at Ash and suddenly remembered why he was here. Ash locked eyes with Blaine as he fought the horde of vampires and proclaimed, “Enter new challenger! Haha.” Blaine broke away from the fight once again and tackled Ash to the ground, Ash was still laughing. Blaine exclaimed as he grabbed some debris from the debris that had resulted from the bike exploding, “You’re fucking insane Ash!” “Me? You’re the one fighting your own kind,” Ash said to Blaine as he grabbed him by the wrist and threw him to the ground, “you know how to fight, you could be invaluable.” “Is this the part where you offer me a benefits package?” Said Blaine to Ash as he proceeded to kick Ash in the face and send him reeling back. As Ash began to get back on his feet, he noticed that the rest of his team was not doing too well against Christopher. It dawned on Ash that although agile and strong, he and his team were evenly matched with these two considering all the combat training they have undergone, one a marine and the other a CIA agent. Ash turned to his team, “Vampires disengage combat.” He yelled to the others. The vampires looked confused, but as only a fraction of them were still conscious it occurred to the breathing that the boss may be taking the proper course of action. “As intriguing as it was to take you two on in combat, it seems that you may have us at a disadvantage. I mean its nothing that we probably couldn’t overwhelm you with in the long run, but there are too few of us at the moment to use as fodder.” Ash was addressing Blaine and Christopher. “Yeah, I was wondering about that,” Blaine began to conversate with his opponent, “How we all came about. As far as I could tell I was a fluke.” “Well yes, I guess you could say you were a fluke, but we’ve discovered a way of expanding our roster. These humans that you so vehemently protected were being tested; of course we were going to drink of most of them. But we have methods of conversion that bypass the “zombie” stage per se.” The humans in the herd were beginning to stir; Christopher caught sight of this and gave a stern headshake. It was obviously not a good idea to antagonize these creatures since the agent still had no idea where the conversation between this stranger and this vampire was going. Wait. Did the stranger just say “we”? Is he saying that he is a vampire as well? Christopher took a hard look at Blaine, he was wearing a military leave uniform that was barely hanging on by a thread and covered in dust, it looked as though his hair was buzz cut but was growing these last few weeks and getting shaggy. His uniform had burns, bullet holes, and what looked like several tears. Christopher all of a sudden stopped thinking and tries to immerse himself in the conversation once more; perhaps there is a thread of information that could be useful. Blaine continued to speak with Ash, “Zombie stage? Perhaps I do somewhat remember being something like that, but it’s all very hazy.” Ash stopped him right there, “Don’t bother trying, you won’t. We discovered the link by accident. As were hunting down another group of surviving humans we had to contend with zombies after the same target a few weeks ago, at first we had believed we had lost our food source after engaging a horde of zombies and let me tell you, those bastards are getting smarter all the time.” One of the vampires approaches Ash and whispers in his ear. “Apparently, you have met some of the members of my crew before.” “What? This is the first time I’ve ever fought vampires.” “Well according to Jordan over here, you fought them as a zombie; it seemed that your particular horde of zombies was very clever. And they had thought they had left you completely lifeless in an alley. Only explanation is that you didn’t completely perish because the vampirism was already beginning to course through you.” “Okay, so back to that.” “Oh yes.” Ash made a gesture at some of his team and they walked towards the parked cars by the overpass. They opened the rear doors of an older car, presumably the make was sometime in the seventies. Out came two humans, young, one a boy and the other a girl. Ash turned back to Blaine and Christopher, “It would seem that some humans have a genome, well I who the fuck am I kidding? All I know is they have something inside that when fed upon by a zombie changes their composition to that of a vampire.” Christopher finally spoke, having extensive lab time under his belt, “You may be on the right track, since we’re being civil at the moment I figured I may as well join in.” “By all means Secret Agent Man.” Ash smirked at Christopher as the agent continued to elaborate on his theory, “It sounds like there is a genome or a certain chemical make-up that certain people may be carrying that would change –sigh- I can’t believe I’m saying this, one undead species to another. Although honestly no one knows what constitutes undead. The reason I can say this to some degree is that some people contain certain genes that when introduced into the right environment can change their chemical composition entirely. I being a case in point, since these people are out there it must work in the same way, except now it works on a different species.” “Wow, that’s all kinds of craziness.” Ash remarks, “okay here is the deal, we will leave you be and end our little debate and fight here if you do not put up a resistance, I have gone so far as to share some of what we know. We have a plan and I don’t expect that we won’t be on opposite sides in the near future, but I call a temporary truce.” Blaine and Christopher turn to each other and nod, “agreed,” they both respond. “Awesome, look kids if you guys need some sanctuary, then you’ll probably wanna look elsewhere, because I promise although we didn’t convert these folks, there will be others whose skills we can use. Tata.” Ash smirks and runs towards one of the cars with his posse in tow. As the headlight beams begin to turn on, the cars all become visible, but what got the attention of everyone were the zombies that were chained in a large pickup truck. “That must be how they first turn them,” Blaine says to Christopher, “By the way my name is Blaine and you are?” “Christopher Ariaso, agent in the CIA.” “Uh yeah, so um, you don’t have a division that you work in?” “No, it’s a long story, but let’s say that I don’t do this because I filled out an exam, if there ever was an all around MI6 kinda guy then I guess I would be it.” “Ok guy, I strongly suggest you go talk to the civilians, they may not trust me at the moment, considering I am a vampire, although honestly, your looks don’t really look any less unsettling.” “Noted, I’ve done this a few times now.”

Agent Ariaso threw his hands in the air to signify that he was coming in unarmed as he approached the rest of the camp. “My name is not important, but I work for your government, this is indeed a rescue mission and I will be calling for transport out of here momentarily. What I need to know is if there any infected amongst you, if so please surrender yourselves now and we may be able to put you into suspended animation in the meantime. If not, I will need a headcount of all survivors to arrange for pickup.” More and more of the herd began to walk away from the spots that they were hiding or had taken cover. The ones that were holding weapons finally proceeded to lower their guard and some of them almost collapsed from the adrenaline. “I just want to extend my gratitude to you both,” a voice from amongst the crowd almost lyrical in its execution comes from a black man with graying hair and a cross pin on his collar, “God has answered our prayer and delivered our saviors from these demons. Blessed be Jah that you have smiled upon your flock this day.” “You must be the Reverend, we’ve been keeping tabs on your group via satellite surveillance. We aptly named this group “The Herd” since they were a flock being led by a Holy man.” Came the response from Christopher. “Well truth be told young man, our saving grace in the past few weeks have been from missing members of our flock.” “Oh shi….iiii,” Blaine paused and reworded what he was going to say in front of the Reverend out of respect. “You’re talking about Janice, Eric, Carlos, and Colleen yes?” “That I am my boy, have you seen them?” “Yes, I left them a few miles back. I am Eric’s cousin, Blaine.” “Blaine? Good god boy what happened to you? Eric had sent the flock on a search for you a few weeks back, we thought you were dead and here you turn up as a creature, but one on our side.” “Reverend just because I appear this way does not make me evil in any way, just throwing that out there.” “No need to defend yourself son, Lucifer was the most beautiful Angel in Heaven, I am not here to judge, only HE can pass judgment but I accept you into my fold with open arms youngin’” “You don’t know how much that means to me right now. Christopher, did you say you were arranging a pickup for these people?” “Yeah, should be arriving in about forty minutes.” “The sun is rising and I really can’t be out there for too long or else I burn, can you possibly have your people pick up the other survivors? By the way there is an extra person who saved us a few miles back.” “I’ll see what I can do kid, but the resources being used to get these people out of here at the moment seems a bit much to stretch. The government has had their hands full lately with this and the all out war in Miami.” “Jesus! That’s still going?” “It’s winding down, but yes. Reverend, I still need a headcount so we can send enough transportation and medical supplies.” “We’re on it as we speak, ah, here comes a disciple now with a list. Says here there are forty-two men and women and sixteen children. What are we going to do with the fallen bodies? We do not want them to be desecrated by the damned.” “I’m sorry Reverend, but we can only handle the living at this time, our resources are being stretched to the limit.” “To the limit? How is that with all the soldiers they have around the world and the Navy, The Marines, The Army…..” Blaine interrupted the Reverend. “Sir, I’m sure he’s telling the truth there has been upheaval in China and other parts of the world as of late, there is a good chance that our own government may find us expandable at the moment.” Christopher looked at Blaine and thought to himself about how expandable they all were if it were not for the leaks.

Blaine was beginning to heat up already as the sun was beginning to rise. “You’re breaking a sweat kid,” said Ariaso. “The rest of us are trying not to freeze out here and you’re breaking a sweat?” “Like I said, the sun. I’ve only been in this state for one day but I know this much.” Ariaso, listened to his barely visible earpiece and talked into it. “Uh huh…no go huh…how about if I go out and look for them?....What? I can’t do that!....” Blaine and the Reverend looked at Christopher with anticipation and concern about his conversation. Christopher immediately turned to Blaine and said, “You have to get out of here!” Blaine was taken aback by this statement, “Blaine, right now they have captured dozens, hundreds of these creatures and it turns out that your particular evolution is attention getting, they got most of the fight picked up by satellite feeds and realized that your heat signature did not match everyone else’s. It would be in your best interest I believe to pack up what you have and rendezvous with the rest of those kids out there. I can only guarantee sanctuary for these people at the moment. If they capture you, you may never be seen again.” “I guess hadn’t really thought this through yet, but that makes sense, I wasn’t gonna leave the others behind anyway. Thanks Chris, hopefully we’ll run into each other again soon and on the same side,” “Take care of yourself, I am about to get bitched out hardcore soon. Ha.”

The Reverend was a bit shocked and appalled by Blaine’s predicament, but decided to be civil for the sake of his flock. Blaine picked up the dirtbike and realized that there was no time to salvage it. He had to find transportation, not only was the cavalry on the way but the sun was quickly rising. “If you’re looking for a vehicle man, it seems that one of those things (no offense) left a car behind.” It was one of the herd, about mid-twenties it seemed with torn jeans and a gray t-shirt covered in stains. “Thanks man, are there keys in it?” “I don’t know, I haven’t checked. But I’ll help you look.” “Sounds good.” The two approached the car, it was a glossy black and had a bit of customization to it, it was an older American car with two doors and a V-8 from the seventies, matching most of the other vehicles in the vampire clan that had attacked them. Blaine reached for the door handle and found it unlocked, he opened the door and put half his body in the car then out. “Nope, keys are gone man. I’m guessing one of the corpses back there is carrying it on them.” As Blaine walks back under the overpass to start checking bodies, the kid that was helping him climbs partly into the car with one leg hanging out as he scopes out the back seat.” The kid gets out of the car and shuts the door. “Hey! Hey vampire guy there is a shit load of chains and hooks in the back seat.” He exclaims as he jogs to his location. Blaine gives the kid a bit of a smirk and walks directly to a corpse with its face smashed in. “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say the car belonged to this dude. The corpse was still holding a chain. “Wow, world’s greatest detective.” The two have a bit of a chuckle over the exchange. Blaine begins to notice the bodies beginning to glow red. “Gotta go kid, thanks again!” He makes a mad dash towards the car as he feels his energy being sapped from his body. Inside he is really hoping that the tint on the windshields of this car can somewhat protect him from the sun’s rays. He makes it to the car and touches the door handle. It is a chrome handle and the rays of the sun are amplified through it. First touch feels like putting a hand on a stove. He moves his body to block the sunlight and tries again, this time successfully. His back is burning fiercely and as he sits on the seat, it feels like possibly the worse sunburn on the hottest day of the year. He clenches his teeth and closes the door, then nothing. The pain starts to subside and he cannot feel the sun’s rays any longer. He cannot believe his luck, but as he begins to think a bit more he remembers that this car belonged to a vampire as well. The tint is so intense that as the sun rises it still looks like night time. Even though the pain has died down, his hand still writhes as he puts it on the steering wheel. He needs to feed again; he can feel himself weakening again like back at the farm. He thinks for a moment and runs through a list of options, he could go back under the overpass in the car and snatch a corpse, but then he thinks about the blood and how it may be coagulating in the corpse already by the lack of blood flow. After all this, he does not want to die but he also does not want to feed on innocent people. He knows he has to leave these people immediately for one because government operatives are coming and want to capture him like an escaped specimen on the Lost World, and secondly he has to spare them the bloodlust. He revs up the car and heads towards the last known location of his cousin and the others.

“I wish there was more we could have done, may God have mercy on his soul.” The Reverend says aloud as the black machine passes by. Christopher solemnly says to the Reverend, “I’m sure I’ll see him again soon and I will do what I can to get all those kids out of here.” “Thank you that would lift a terrible weight off my soul young man.” “Alright Reverend I just got word that the cavalry is almost upon us, please get your people organized and in position.” The Reverend nods and proceeds to gather The Herd,”Brothers and sisters please congregate and say a prayer for the fallen and thank the Heavens for our salvation.” Christopher watches and cannot help but imagine the brainwashing that these people are about to endure. He clenches his fist tightly and tries his hardest not to think about it. In the distance the sound of air being chopped through is almost deafening, it will only get louder. Christopher listens to his earpiece once more and runs towards the reverend. “I don’t want to interrupt you Reverend, but we need to separate everyone into nine groups, when the choppers land everyone must get inside as quick as possible, the sound of the choppers will more than likely attract zombies in the nearby vicinity.”

The instructions are passed on to the various men who will be heading up each individual group; these were all “disciples”. People are still yelling to hear each other as the noise increases and ten choppers begin to descend, Chritopher begins to guide the groups to the choppers that will be picking them up. The groups do not hesitate, they are not slow, they do not complain. In the last three weeks the members of The Herd have lost many and only the runners and the most intelligent were able to survive this long. These people are survivors; these are the survivors of the survivors. After all this, this is the salvation they were all looking towards. As group after group, person after person board the choppers in an expansive area of land, some of them look back at the corpses that are strewn about the overpass. How could this have happened? Why did this happen? These questions will linger as long as they remember. But how long will they remember any of this? “All clear!” Comes a simultaneous voice over the radio of each aerial vehicle. Children look up at their parents as mothers and fathers clutch their offspring as close as possible to them. The choppers begin to ascend, they rise above the overpass of the expressway they were under. The sight causes many hearts to sink into their chests and out their throats. The expressway is swarming with the undead. Zombies, en masse down all lanes running towards the choppers. Some of them falling and jumping off the edge of the concrete and unto the area where the Herd had just camped out. No one says a word; they cannot express the feelings that are welling inside of them at this very moment. A whispered prayer albeit different from person is uttered in multiple whispers. All that was thought from all these survivors was that in their sleep they could have been overwhelmed at any moment, and yet with all the fighting and bullets flying, these creatures never found a way down. In the dead of night in this quarantined area the air is so still that a gunshot can be heard miles away. The Reverend makes a cross across his chest and lets his head hang praising and thanking all the while that they are safe.

The choppers continue to make their way across the quarantined zone on their way to take the survivors to the checkpoint to make sure no one is infected. As the aerial vehicles make their way across the valley a child calls out to his father to look down at the ground. A giant horde of zombies are running through the bleak landscape, a little further up is a town, the burning embers still glow in the morning most of it is a smoldering mess. Acutely, the boy’s father catches a glimpse of five people walking away from the town; they seem sluggish, unaware that in minutes a stampede will be intercepting their path. The man takes the boy into his lap and away from the window. The man looks at his son and lets a tear fall with his eyes closed. He has an inkling of who these five are and cannot help but be grateful for what they have done, but now he is helpless to do anything. He whispers to himself while still clutching his son, “The Holy Kingdom eagerly awaits these heroes.”

Transition, Undead Chapter 5

2009-11-01T02:09:00.001-05:00

Note: Rough Draft

Back to the present.

No one was giving up without a fight, even though many of them had not been trained in the use of firearms. The survival instinct was too great to back down now. Not after all they had been through. The sound under the expressway was an echoed mess, bullet fire and orders were flying and resonating as though it was being processed through an aluminum pipe. The reverb was deafening but at least it let them know that they were still alive.

It began only minutes ago, but fortunately in the absence of their local weapon handlers the reverend had devised a plan. Underneath the expressway stronghold there was a wall that would block any oncoming attacks, which left three open areas that zombies could attack from. The plan was to have three night guards on each side, thus making nine members of the herd volunteer for night shift. The herd still had many hoarded supplies from the many abandoned stores and houses they ran across. Guns were definitely top priorities on the grocery list. In the dead of night, the guards made sure that no lights were on as to not attract unwanted attention, but there were enough night vision goggles to supply to the guards.

Two hours into the watch one of the guards spotted a fast moving object heading towards the camp but immediately darted to the left. The guard kept still lying on his belly adjusting the sniper scope into position and keeping his finger on the trigger. He let the others know by speaking into the wireless headset, “We have a potential target at my 10’ o clock. This was too quick to be a zombie, keep an eye out boys this may be one of the other creatures we’ve been hearing about. Do not change positions, guard your posts.” Each guard scoped the area intently; each one had different types of guns, but most was in the rifle category. There was one sniper rifle and one lucky guard commandeered a rail gun. If zombies were present they were prepared, but these were not zombies. This was a variable that was not taken into account and that made all these men nervous.

“Guys I’ve just spotted two more at my 12’ o clock. He’s right they’re fast, really fast. I think everyone should unlock safeties if you haven’t done so already. This is about to get really ugly me thinks,” declared one of the guards on the left. Almost before his words had penetrated the airwaves one of the vampires was already jumping over the three men from the left, as the one guard was still making his declaration over the headset, the other two had begun rising their rifles. But it was too late, almost as if sound had ceased for a second and time began to slow down it was apparent that it was too late. One of the creatures had made a leap over the left flank; upside down in the air he produced a chain and hook. He thrust the hook into the throat of the third guard and landed behind him. The guard was holding his throat unable to speak, he turned around in a stammering fashion with mouth gaping open begging for oxygen and that is when he spotted his attacker. The attacker had a grin that alone could paralyze, but the eyes, the eyes seemed to reflect moonlight in an eerie red. The mouth of the attacker was comprised of a multitude of jagged teeth. Before the guard could process this image the attacker yanked on the chain and ripped the guard’s throat open. This all seemed to take mere seconds, and as the other guards began to respond, the vampire creature swung his chain around to grapple the other two guards on this side. One of the guards squeezed the trigger of his semi-automatic and let out a steady concentrated stream of bullets towards his attacker. The vampire dodged the stream and leapt behind a pillar in a twirl, he had wrapped the chain around the pillar. He pressed his feet against the pillar as he was landing and pulled violently on the chain. The guard that had begun to fire was unable to stop as the jolt threw off his aim and the stream of bullets flew throughout the underpass.

Many of the herd had already awoken, but now that the bullets were screaming and ricocheting past them, they had no choice but to scramble to their feet. From the perspective of the lying on the floor, there were people rising up only to be sniped and pinned back down to the ground. This scenario had been played out before, but never with creatures that were so agile. Nevertheless, the members of the herd kept weapons nearby as they slept. Many of the mothers and fathers rolled over and grabbed any weapons had nearby as the children hid in their designated hiding spots, this was a routine that had been practiced for the last few weeks. No matter where they were to camp out for the night, the herd would scope out the area for hiding spots. The reverend had begun to bark out orders and reassure his flock that God was with them. The most religious members of the herd guided the Reverend towards the back of the passage of the pass. These five kneeled in positions to protect the Reverend as the Reverend kneeled down in a praying position and asked for strength and protection for his flock.

At the main flank to the front of the guards the rail gun was being warmed up. People were making sure the track that the gun was positioned on was in place. As they were preparing the heaviest weapon at their disposal, a war had begun behind them. Six vampires had come through the open area that one their brethren had left open to them. Four members of the herd had taken the place of the fallen guards but were without the advantage of the night-vision goggles and Bluetooth headsets to stay in communication. Between the sound of gunfire echo and screaming, communication via shouting was next to impossible. One of the members of the herd that had taken a guard position found the portable spotlight that they had been hauling and turned it towards the inside struggle at hand, hoping that this would help his brothers and sisters in their fate against their attackers.

Speeding from 5 miles down the road….

Mathias had been trying to find a way out of the quarantine for days, but had been less than successful. He had found a dirt bike on the side of the highway that he had commandeered. He had his fill of riding through the Kansas countryside only to dodge plethora of obstacles and zombies. He had managed to evade a group of vampires during his last refuel at a gas station a few miles down the road. He concentrated on riding while holding a Maglight since the dirt bike didn’t come equipped with a headlight, but it was the easiest way to evade obstacles and make a quick getaway.

As he was travelling he could not help but wonder about the strange events in the last few weeks, well besides the obvious events. It seemed when the creatures had approached him for an attack they almost seemed afraid of him. It was strange, but the more research he had been doing lately the more these strange occurrences became frequent and intense. Sometimes he would go to sleep at night and actually lay down his arms completely unafraid. He could feel the spirits of the newly deceased watching over him.

Mathias had spotted a glow in the distance and decided to ride over to it, as he took a left turn off of the main highway; the walls that had been obstructing his view revealed that this was not a glow from lights but the flicker of flames reaching out to the sky. He still decided to ride towards it, and make sure that everyone in this town was alright.

From high above….

“Agent Ariaso, we are approaching the drop zone,” came the pilot’s voice over the intercom. Christopher Ariaso felt like he had been on this chopper forever and was eager to depart. The president had delayed “cleaning” out the area at Agent Ariaso’s recommendation, the agent had declared that there was much about this area that was not yet explained and protested saying that there were many more in the quarantined zone that could be saved. From satellite footage, the herd had been tracked, but was close to last on a long list of those that could be saved thanks to the prowess they had developed with weapons and unity. The government was actually hoping to recruit some of these individuals to help in the effort to clean up and hopefully rebuild the area, everyone was aware that this could take years and that expense would be high.

The spin doctors in the administration’s pockets were not clever enough to really put out a story that could really cover this up. There had been too many leaks from within the quarantined area, including not shutting off satellite support from the major cell providers. Apparently aircards were still useful as were satellite phones. This led into major internet leaks and rumors and the administration was already under fire from the rest of the country to develop a cover that could be believable. They had no choice than to stage rescue events and brief the survivors on what they should say, or rather….will say. Christopher had seen what happened to some of the survivors after they were rescued by his team and the others he had briefed. They would take survivors from the incident and tell them that they needed to be checked for infection or any other abnormalities. Of course the survivors complied, but they had not imagined that they would IV dripped sedatives for weeks on end. To make matters worse they introduced several drugs into their system, which they claimed would alleviate the shock of their ordeal. The government doctors developed a concoction of several anti-depressants and hallucinogens to include in the IV drip. In reality, the agent surmised that this was a way to erase certain memories and let everyone believe it was merely a foggy dream, if they knew it wasn’t they wouldn’t be able to recall certain details when they would be interviewed by the media.

Ariaso snickered to himself as he thought about how his old friends would consider him a sell-out, in reality he was not a sell-out but worked for the government on his own terms. He was one of the people that could not just go anywhere and find a job at an office. No, thanks to his upbringing and traumatizing childhood in the island of Armaggon it insured that the rest of his life could be anything but normal. Christopher despised the government and what they stood for, but he figured to himself that this may be the only way of making sure that more atrocities like those on Armaggon would never happen again.

“Sir?” Christopher looked up and the soldier that was addressing him from across the vehicle immediately flinched and scoot back in his seat. “Don’t worry kid, my eyes don’t kill people,” said Agent Ariaso to the soldier. The soldier regained his composure and tried not to look at the agent’s glowing white eyes, “I apologize sir that was unprofessional. What I wanted to ask you was why have you decided to embark on this mission alone?” “Did you see all the National Guard down there? Every time we have embarked on a rescue mission we have to calm down the civilians, because they believe us to be the bad guys. And who can blame them really? We’ve had our men and women out there pretending to be cold and unjust, when people’s families are dying all around them. They may as well have sent out cyborgs, the soldiers had even been ordered to shoot on site if civilians did not comply to make examples of them. Yes, I am aware that my appearance can be unsettling as well. But truth be told, you guys just get in my way.”

As the chopper lowered Ariaso began to make his way to the exit on the side of the vehicle. He suddenly got a tap on the shoulder, it was the soldier, “The pilot said that there is an obstruction in our original drop zone, we may have to find another position.” As soon as the soldier finished speaking, Ariaso turned to him, smiled and waved goodbye. He proceeded to simply step off the copter and plummet thirty-five feet. He landed on the original designated spot and mulled there for a minute in a crouched position. He violently stood up and adjusted his black leather trench coat, he walked off casually to the last place the herd had been spotted.

2 miles west of where the herd had stationed….

The small town that Janice had originally encountered the vampires was in flames thanks to the order from their leader, Ash to torch the place with Molotov cocktails. Now Janice, Eric, Blaine, Carlos, and Colleen spent the last few minutes devising ways to get out of this. Blaine was the first to try not knowing the limits of his newfound abilities. Apparently vampires were extremely susceptible to fire. He crashed backwards after trying to run through the flames. “I just need a minute to recover,” Blaine said. Eric ran into a local shop to find a fire extinguisher, but to no avail. He had spotted one on the other side of the flames within the store. The fire was burning out of control faster and faster by the minute. The town appeared to be very old and it had seemed that some of the old historic wooden buildings had been preserved to show off the town’s history, whatever it may be.

Eric and Janice looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity, flames dancing behind them, they did not speak but simply walked towards each other while sweat was profusely dripping off of them they held each other. They locked glances once again and as they kissed a propane tank blew somewhere in the background. Time ceased to exist at this moment and there was so much the other wanted to say to the other. This was it, after all the zombie slayings and near misses, this was it.

The other three looked at each other confused and slightly disgusted at the same time, they were not going to give up without a bit more of a fight. But therein lied the problem, there was nothing else they could do. The fire had begun in a wide circle but was quickly closing in on them; everything they tried to touch was scorching to the touch. Chuolleen could feel herself growing faint and Blaine felt the energy leaving him at an accelerated pace. Carlos saw that Colleen was beginning to sway and caught her, he brought them both to the ground slowly as he held her body in his arms. “Shh, we ain’t gonna go out like this,” Carlos tried to reassure her, but he knew it was a useless gesture.

Blaine stood up after recovering like he said he would and stared through the flames, he swore to himself that he saw something, but did not say anything in case the heat was messing with his eyes. But then he saw it again, a light it was difficult to make out because of the brightness of the flames, but Blaine could see it. He then saw the light move and shut off. He panicked and began to yell over the loud crackling, “Hey! In here! There are people in here. Help us!” No response, the rest of the group looked at him. “What? I saw someone or something. Its not like I have a cuddle death buddy to die with, I’m not giving up,” Blaine then continued shouted again at the possible figure he saw through the flames. “There are innocent people in here. No zombies with us!” Again, no response. Moments went by and finally just as Blaine was about to yell again. “Hang on, I’m trying to figure something out!” The voice came from over the crackle of the flames. “See? I wasn’t just seeing shit,” said Blaine to the others as they began to get up and focus on the direction of the voice. “Fuck! I don’t see anything I can do!” said the voice from the other side. But almost as soon as he said that a brighter light came from beyond the flames as the fire seemed to be parting to form a path through it. There was a silhouette of a younger man that much was obvious. As the flames kept parting it almost seemed as the figure was sprouting glowing wings and as the “wings” spread so did his arms. Upon closer inspection, the wings began to take shape into those of faces and human bodies. The shapes began pouring from him and onto the flames, they were holding back the fire so that the five may pass through.

The five all looked at each other and without a word began to walk through the walls of fire. “Please hurry up,” said Mathias, “I can feel them weakening.” That was the cue for them to stop admiring this miracle and dash towards their savior. Colleen was the last to pass and as soon as she came through Mathias collapsed on the floor and all the spirits that were holding the flame leapt into the air and back towards his body, even as he looked at them while panting his eyes were glowing a bluish white. “Okay, let me catch my breath and we’ll exchange pleasantries in a moment.” Mathias continued to breathe heavy, Eric kept staring at him and exclaimed, “You’re the kid my friends shot at a couple weeks ago!” Mathias quit breathing heavy for a moment and let his vision adjust to get a better look at the kids he just rescued. “Haha, that you are,” Mathias chuckled, “you fucking bastards should be a bit more careful, if you had shot me I wouldn’t be here now. The only thing that worries me is that I ended up where I started again, between all the roads ending at the quarantine and the fact that all the scenery looks practically the same I keep getting lost easily. Have you guys been travelling on foot the whole time?” Janice answered, “Yes, we have a large group of people that we have been trying to keep alive and make it out of this f’d up situation. And speaking of which, we have to get to them right now.” Janice stood up and immediately fell back to the dirt. “You probably need some water and rest before any of you can go anywhere,” Mathias lent his insight, “I’m guessing the fire really took a lot of you, in a few more minutes you probably would have passed out, one thing is for sure you need to get away from this fire now if you have any chance of recovering because I’m beginning to feel it too.”

Blaine got up just fine and looked at the group on the ground, “For the most part I feel okay. Hey kid I wanna thank you for what you did, not matter what kinda freaky shit that was. I’m curious to know what it is and your name, but I think that will have to wait, I need to borrow your bike and go after those survivors before the vampires finish them off. You guys need to find a safe place, if it seems impossible or its too late, I will bring back supplies. But I need to go now!” “The name is Mathias….and what about vampires? Whatever dude, just go. Take the walkie out of my bag, I have a radio receiver, turn it to channel three, we’ll try to find a vehicle with fuel and catch up.” “Awesome, thanks man I’ll meet up with everyone soon.” Blaine hopped on the bike and Mathias said, “Don’t forget the flashlight; I don’t have a headlight on that thing.” “Don’t need it, I can see in the dark.” Mathias revved up the noisy dirt bike and travelled in the direction of the herd hoping he was not too late or that the members of the herd would not shoot at him because he is a stranger and or display vampire traits.

2 Minutes before Blaine’s arrival…

Agent Ariaso had arrived at the last known location of the herd under the pass, so far they had not moved. As a matter of fact a battle was under way, bullets were ricocheting and echoing within the location. And as Ariaso arrived a stray shot ricocheted off of the spotlight and it began to pivot out of control. Agent Ariaso was catching glimpses of the ensuing horror, At first it shone on a vampire climbing the wall of the overpass with a male victim who was screaming before being decapitated, the lighted tour of horror continued as the light careened down to a woman with a shotgun who shot a vampire point blank in the face, but he still managed to rip the flesh of her face before collapsing to the ground. Ariaso thought to himself, if they are strong enough to keep moving after that blast then they are probably strong enough to get up momentarily.

This was not a foreign concept to him as he was brought up on Armaggon where he had witnessed many inhuman creatures who could do things that were not supposed to be possible, himself included. Armaggon was an island in the Bermuda Triangle where the government had its hands entangled with various phenomenon throughout its history. At the time his name was Kid Kaos and he was a fifteen year old with a chip on his shoulder. During that time, he realized that he could use fifteen percent more brain capacity than normal human beings; his body was adept at channeling the energies around him thus lending him the ability to channel those energies into blasts from his hand. He was a lot more agile and could see in the dark. This is the reason he had asked the others to stand back, although now he felt like he bit off a bit more than he could chew. Zombies were one thing, but these creatures were just as agile as he was and judging by the glow in their eyes they could probably see in the dark as well.

Without any further hesitation he stood for a second and gathered up the energies around him and proceeded to dash forward leaving a swirling dust cloud in return. As soon as he reached the elevated pavement he leapt up in the air and produced a sword from within his trench coat and proceeded to slash in a downward fashion cutting the arm off a vampire, the vampire creature turned around in shock only to see Ariaso swinging his sword horizontally and cleaving his head in half. The body stood there for a moment with a tongue still wriggling in the air, then a steady stream of blood gurgled from the esophagus no doubt blood from a recent victim as the body fell stiffly to the floor.

Ariaso stood in the middle of the ensuing chaos tuning out all the bullets and screaming as he began to walk towards his next victim slowly, all sound seemed to fade as he began to charge the energies around him and into his sword. This was a little trick he found a few years back with the help of government trainers. Not only could he charge his hands up, but now he was able to do it with objects as well, thus creating a hot butter knife effect. The swirling glow was all around him, but his pace did not deter others from losing concentration and focusing attention on him. There at the end of his designated path was a group of vampires that had decimated a number of humans as they lay in a pile. The vampire creatures spotted Ariaso making his way to them and began to rise up from where they were kneeling while feeding on the corpses. They had hate and disdain in their eyes, but before they could make a move, their attacker had dashed forward and was off the ground slashing at them. As Ariaso landed he kept his sword pointed up towards the air and twisted his legs in a fashion where he could rise up easily from the ground. He twisted up from his landing spot and parried at two of the vampires and then continued at the other two while the others were distracted with their wounds. One was already down from the initial attack and it was just theses four to go. As he slashed at the other two something unexpected occurred, they were able to dodge him. For anyone else this would not be unusual but the agent was used to being the fastest thing around. It would seem that these vampires were just as fast. He thought to himself as his thoughts raced faster than anyone could imagine. In one fluid motion he flung his sword into one of the pillars and grabbed one of the vampires in a trajectory where the sword would pierce her head, he then jumped and twirled onto the pillar in a fashion where the sword was underneath him. He pulled it out of the pillar and slashed upward and towards another vampire. He finally flung the sword to the ground in an angle where it would bounce and spark to only fly up and strike two vampires that were running his way. All of this was conjured up in one thought. This was the final part of his mini plan. As the vampires were still connected by the blade that had been thrust into them, Ariaso took this opportunity to charge his hands and reach for the heads of these creatures, with one hand on each he let the energy flow and let go into their craniums to see them explode as though they had been stuck into a microwave oven.

Being proud of his handiwork he looked expecting that he taken a large number of the creatures out, to his detriment there were was another two dozen rising from what seemed like the shadows. Everything had gone quiet and the spotlight shining on the cold concrete only made the environment ever so ominous. One of the vampires stepped forward and stepped on the head of a human on the ground that was reaching for a hand pistol, breaking his neck. The vampire calmly walked to Ariaso adjusting his fingerless gloves, cocking his head to the side and smiling. “I just arrive and this is what I have to look forward to? Instead of getting down and beating down a few humans I now have to deal with a freak?” The vampire grabbed another that had been clutching to a walkie talkie, “When you said it ‘was on’ you didn’t mention any of this, I had five others that promised to be a good time. I left them to burn in a town nearby.” He threw the other vampire to the ground and proceeded to stomp on his neck till the flesh would not hold together anymore. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it and inhaled with great pleasure as he focused his attention back to Agent Ariaso. “Well, well what are we gonna do now. Oh heavens where are my manners? My name is Ash and yours my dear friend?” Ariaso contemplated whether he was going to answer his question. “The name is Ariaso, Agent Christopher Ariaso. I have a question as well. What the fuck are you?” Ash began to laugh as did all the other vampires. Behind them you could see the human survivors trying not to make any noise as they began to reload their guns, but stopped when they realized they had been spotted. One of the vampires looked at them and she waved her finger in a ‘uh uh’ type fashion.

“Well, since you were so courteous and forthright with your question I can only offer this, I have no fuckiing clue. If I had to guesstimate however I would say that we were um….bloodsucking creatures of the night.” Ash looked at Ariaso expecting a reaction, but he did not flinch or have any trace of fear in his eyes. “Vampires.” “Ah yes, vampires. Sounds a bit silly doesn’t it? Here we are on the cusp of modern civilization and here we are a group of ‘vampires’, but I guess its no sillier than calling those brainless creatures ‘zombies’ and although I would like to offer insight on this precarious situation we face all I can say is….I like it. Now, now my good man the question remains as my colleagues and I are, pardon the pun,” Ash looks down at the fallen vampires, “dying to know what you are.” “All you need to know is that I am not completely human, nor am I related in any way to whatever you are” “No, of course not. The glowing eyes didn’t give it away or anything and remember we are….vampires. Say it with me class….vampires. Haha, well I can’t say that I’ll miss our little repertoire, but there are people that are in need of our attention and we can’t let you spoiling everything in the Agent No Fun zone.” With a flick of his wrist and a point of his finger all the auxiliary made a dash for the agent. Leaping to and fro and others running right towards him. Right at that moment a buzzing engine could be heard and as the attack commenced a dirt bike flew without a passenger into the fray hitting vampires in mid-air only to impact into the spotlight. The dirt bike engine blew apart and sent the apparatus careening along the cement. A new challenger jumped onto the elevated concrete and glanced at Ariaso then at the vampires. “Well, guess I’m on your team.”

Transition, Undead Chapter 4

2009-10-30T19:28:00.001-04:00

2Weeks Ago…

“We are facing a crisis in the Midwest region of the country, the population has been infected at an alarming rate. In a week we have set up one of the largest rescue team that was ever imaginable. We have clinics set up clinics all over the Midwestern borders and have sealed off a strip along five states.” A man in his early fifties finishes his sentence and takes a sip of hot coffee out of a cup emblazoned with the presidential logo. “We have two major situations happening in this country at the moment, the incident in Miami and the incident in the Midwest. We have dispatched a major portion of our National Guard to enforce marshal law in the Miami area and have used most of our FEMA resources out to the Midwest, we are stretching thin. Many of our volunteers and employees have been infected with what many are calling “Drain Bramage Disease” this is a losing battle. How many more are we willing to sacrifice? I know this will be a tough call and one that anyone in your power would not envy, but we have to consider the alternative.” From behind his desk there is a man with his hands holding his head up with silvering hair disheveled, the worry lines in his face and his face becoming paler by the second indicate that this may be one of the most difficult decisions that anyone will have to face, millions of lives hang in the balance on a single decision. He looks up at the secretary quizzically, “Scorched Earth? This is your solution? You want me to condemn millions of lives on a whim? This situation has been going on for only a week, this is not the solution I am taking until we have exhausted all resources.” “Sir, we have no more resources at the moment.” “Then keep the area quarantined until we have more resources, we will need more operatives in the area.” “I believe we have someone that may be of assistance, I brought him along as a suggestion to keep things in control.” The sentence is barely audible yet clears enough for everyone to hear, “This is Agent Ariaso, and he is a survivor of the Armmagon incident and an indispensable asset to the CIA.” The head of CIA opens the door from the office and calls forth someone waiting in the lobby. A younger man with long hair and a trench coat with a CIA badge enter the room slowly with head down. He slowly begins to raise his head toward the president. The president has his hand outstretched, but suddenly takes a step back as he realizes that this young man has eyes that glow white. The young man looks at the president and sneers a bit, “You know, for being the most powerful man on the planet you don’t know shit about your country.”

Somewhere in the Midwest…

“Check. Check. Ok, it’s September twenty-ninth and I am freezing my ass off at the moment. I took this assignment for some extra cash, but I really need to reevaluate my head. My name is Mathias Freeling and I am a professional photo journalist, ok maybe not professional but it’s what I majored in.” –click- He stops the voice recorder in his hand as he surveys his surroundings, the young man with long brown hair and brown leather coat is situated on a catwalk while kneeling. –cla-click- “I was sent out here a few days ago and have been documenting the aftermath of the event that transpired here. I was sent here by Jonathon Mingard, author of “Pandora’s Cradle” and all around supernatural enthusiast, if you know about the situation here then you’ve probably heard that it was a virus; my boss doesn’t seem to think so. Apparently he thinks this is all a foretelling of the upcoming Mystic Empire, whatever that means. Hmm….I just realized that I have no idea where I am at the moment; I had managed to evade soldiers from the National Guard and other volunteer agencies to get through quarantine somewhere around Topeka, Kansas. I have been walking for days, have even jacked a few vehicles but have not seen a single sign telling me where I am. Then again, I suppose I wasn’t paying attention. This has all been highly interesting; apparently a week ago some folks had begun to act a bit insane until people tried helping them. Well, those people were surprised when chunks of their body had been ripped out by their former comrades while trying to help. Guess it doesn’t always pay to be a Good Samaritan. Anyhow hundreds of people seemed to be infected with whatever was causing this and went on a rampage. Local authorities tried to stop them, but it seems that bullets don’t really do a lot of good unless you aim for their heads. Like in video games I guess. So suddenly the “zombies” are stopped and you have thousands upon thousands of corpses lying all over the Midwestern belt of America. Well, as weird as that was. Clean-up crews come around to begin picking up the bodies, but within a day the bodies began to move. Oh neighbors, friends and family members began to proclaim that this was all a miracle and moved the victims to the local hospitals and clinics to get checked out. Well, all the doctors and nurses tell the families and friends that these people are probably brain-damaged from the lack of oxygen that day. Mind you, this is before they decided to do blood work and check the vitals. Haha, the real surprise came when they ran tests. Blood, what blood? These were not humans that did not have an active circulatory system nor were the organs functioning properly. You know when the chemical composition of an organism changes many times it is no longer the same species. Well here we are with a whole new species. Of course the government comes in to conduct more tests on these individuals and some of them get carted off to labs nearby. Towns and cities are in a panic about contagion and many people refuse to go to work without answers, others go out in surgical masks. Another surprise greets them when they go down to their neighborhood bank or store. Not all the corpses had been picked and now these bodies are walking again. The strange thing besides the walking is that these reanimated corpses go about to doing the things that they are used to or in the act of what they were doing before they died. Hell, some people came home to the walking dead, awesome. But this is where we are basically at now. In the last few days I have seen a butcher cutting nothing on a cutting board till he noticed me and began to chop at his finger. I have seen an old lady watering the lawn and walking in a lake that used to be her front lawn. I have snapped up some awesome pictures. Now I fear things have gotten a bit more real. It was only a matter of time before these creatures needed to eat. Well, many people had lived with the undead for a week and had figured that their loved ones had been struck with a horrible virus that infected the mind. Well these compassionate people were the first to go. It seems these things have a hunger for human flesh. My theory is that if they do not have the means to keep their bodies going then they must need to absorb the nutrition of others that have it; they seem to primarily have a soft spot for…brains. Yes, I know it sounds stupid and clichéd, but I’m just reporting what I’ve seen. There are other people that knew that something was wrong when they looked into the eyes of these creatures and saw nothing staring back at them. Many people had a chance to leave before the government quarantined off this massive area, but many people were not aware of the inherent danger. Well here we are, I have been avoiding these creatures which has been easy to do thus far and have been looking for a way out now. It looks like I may have gotten too far in. Did I mention the quarantined area is huge? Five states have had major portions blocked away. I can only imagine that this has been a major inconvenience to the rest of the country, never mind the fact that this is area is the biggest supplier of food for the country. Ok, so you’re probably wondering why a supernatural enthusiast has sent me here when most people would believe that this all a biological meltdown. Well, when all those people “died” what do you think happened to their energy? Their soul if you will? At first no one really thought anything of it, but the people that made it out before the quarantine mentioned that these creatures had a blank stare. Jonathon immediately began to read old texts and other information about this epidemic and apparently this may have happened before. But, we’ll get into that later. The point is that he assumed that these individuals may have really died and the reanimated corpses were just that. This bag that I am carrying is stuffed to the brim with ghost hunting technology and let me tell you, at night there is no need for infrared. There are confused ghosts everywhere I turn. The level of supernatural occurrences is off the charts and I really have to find a way out and report. A few days ago this may have been easier, but the creatures have been on the prowl now and I have to find high ground at night to rest, they don’t seem to be determined enough to climb. At least not yet, the creatures seem to be displaying higher functions all the time as they begin to hunger more. I have been following a group of them that I have aptly named The Accountant, The Supervisor, The Marine and a few others. They seem to be travelling in a pack, so far it doesn’t seem to be a conscious thing but more of ‘I’ll keep walking and I’ll follow whatever gets my attention’ kind of thing. Anyways back to the spirits, I have tried to record on this thing a few times but my recordings in the morning are a static garbled mess. I am assuming the energy is disrupting electronics, at night. Street lights flicker as do the lights from apartment buildings. Televisions are constantly showing snow in the middle of programs. The survivors that make it out at night and during the day are freaking out when they come face to face with the former friends and loved ones. So now everyone stays inside and cowers in fear. It seems as though they are just waiting to die. Marshal Law is in effect here but not enforced heavily, troops have been stationing themselves further and further away from populated areas. There have been rumors that I have overheard of groups of people congregating and arming them to take on this threat, maybe I can join them. I have talked to soldiers but they leveled their guns up to my face and told me to go home, I even tried explaining that I am not really from here. Luckily, people have been kind enough to share food and water with me as I travel, but they won’t let me spend the night. I don’t blame them; you never know who is infected with what I guess. We have spirits and zombies all over the place here. I dare you to show me a scarier place on earth right now. I will be setting up some equipment shortly to catch more spirits and document what is happening here. The spirits do not seem to be in any human shape at the moment; Jonathon tells me this is normal during the beginning. Luckily my aircard still works in my laptop and able to communicate that way, although cell phones have been knocked out. No doubt to keep the rest of the country from panicking when people decide to call and report what is going on here. Maybe it’s even to stop the world from knowing. Whatever, I wonder what kind of bullshit cover story they have been feeding the nation? ‘It seems that everything is under control and the inoculations have been a resounding success, back to you Terry….’. Wait….” -click- Mathias spots individuals on the ground running towards something. “These are not zombies,” he says to himself and propels off the catwalk. A large group of individuals are running down the street armed, suddenly they open fire on a group of the undead. “I wonder where my little group went?” He says to himself referring to The Accountant and the others. He begins to make his way to the armed group, but they mistake him for a zombie and begin to open fire again, they barely miss and Mathias runs to find cover. They realized their target just ran and evaded the bullets, they figure this was not a zombie and begin calling out, “Sir?” comes a voice from a girl in the group calling out, “We’re sorry we did not realize there were others out here. Sir? We mean you no harm, we are aware that you do not pose a threat, my comrades and I apologize sincerely.” Still no response, Mathias had continued running, ears still ringing from the gunshots. “Fuck, I gotta be a bit more careful when dealing with psycho gun wielding zealots.” He thought to himself as he found another catwalk to hide and possibly spend the night.

“Well, I don’t think he’s coming back,” said Eric as he turns to Janice. “We have to be a bit more careful in the future, you never know if we just spooked what could have been a valuable asset to this group.” Eric signals with his gun that the rest of the group is secure enough to travel in this direction. A lookout two hundred-and-fifty feet away sees the signal and instructs the herd to keep moving.

Three blocks down the road….

A girl sits kneeling on the ground with the body of her father in her arms. She is crying and nuzzling her face in his chest. He was attacked a few hours ago and she knows that this may be dangerous, but is her father and she wants to hang on to whatever is left of him for as long as she can. She is overcome with grief that she has no regrets if she dies tonight. Her father was the final family member in the area that had not been infected or died. Every night since her mother “died” this girl has been visited be the spirit. She can tell during the visits that her mother is not alone as the others begin to throw things around or make quite a bit of noise. Three nights ago she had seen her older brother outside of the living room window, she could only see the silhouette at first but as she got closer she could make out his face, she cracked the door open and suddenly he charged for the door, he was no longer human. During the incident with the door she had been knocked to the floor, but before her brother could feed off of her the father came in with a pipe and knocked him out the door. As her brother kept scraping at the door he seemed to be drawing more attention from the surrounding zombies as they began to approach the house. The father instructed her to grab whatever she could carry as they had to flee the house. They went out the back door and ran all night.

A few hours ago the father had defended his final offspring from three zombies but was bitten in the process. He managed to take down the three but not before being injured himself. The injuries were fatal and he died only twenty minutes later. Colleen did not want to go on, seeing loved ones as zombies and ghosts was just too much to bear for anyone. And now she would be alone. Still clinging on to her father she began to finally survey her surroundings, they were inside of a building, it seemed that the room that they were in was an apartment, it was difficult to tell in absolute darkness. The only light was coming from a boarded up window behind her where beams of moonlight shone through. In the shuffle she and her father had ducked into this apartment, there was no back door. It was something she began to notice, something inside of her was telling her that she did not want to die after all, although she would be alone and haunted her survival instinct had began to kick in.

Now that she was looking for a way out if she had to, her father in her arms began to move slightly. It was only a matter of time before he joined the ranks of the undead. She put her father on the ground and stood up. She kept staring at his body and began to wonder to herself what her next move should be. The corpse began to rise up slowly, it could have been the lack of substantial light, but it seemed as though he was being raised by strings. The way he moved seemed impossible, completely unnatural. She backed away at the sight slowly not realizing that her next move could spell the end. As she backed up into a pile of boards and nails that were used to block off the windows in the building. Apparently the building had been condemned some time ago. The floor began to give way under her heel and as she fell backwards into the old planks of wood, old nails dug into her Achilles heel and behind her thigh. It was painful, but at the same time the placement of her injuries made it virtually impossible to use her left leg.

Fortunately her “father” had made no gesture of attacking. It seemed that this corpse was still in the first phases of the transition. As the walking corpse walked towards the left wall an afterimage of her father was left behind. This was in fact, not in after-image but a very confused spirit. It was her father and apparently he does not realize that he is dead until he stares at his body walking away from him. The spirit cannot maintain his energy composition much longer and the image that Colleen is staring at begins to distort into a torrent of disturbing emotion. From the side of the head of the apparition is another screaming face, eyes rolled up. Obviously scared, what seemed to be a body at the beginning begins to dissipate into something inhuman. The sounds are disturbing and horrible. The zombie corpse finally turns to see the spirit that is writhing in emotional torment. The corpse lets out a guttural growl; the walking body does not feel the restraints of it and unhinges its jaw during the growl.

The moaning and growling coupled with the high pitched sounds of the apparition begin to attract other zombies in the area. As the zombies begin to walk towards the commotion, Mathias trails them from the rooftops. Taking pictures he realizes with his zoom that there is a girl on the ground and she is bleeding, obviously not a zombie. He wants to do something, but he is unarmed. He remembers at that moment that there is still a militia of kids with guns. Thinking to him of how he can get their attention and not be shot in the process. Mathias produces a flare from his bag that he had been saving for escape. “Well, there are stores all over this valley that I can ransack; besides if they save her maybe I can talk to those people.” He thinks to himself and promptly lights the flare and tosses it in the street where it is sure to capture the eyes of The Herd.

“What the fuck is that?” Carlos points to the light in the distance. “I think someone is trying to signal for help.” “Can we really just throw away more ammo?” Eric replies, “then again, you did just haphazardly shoot at some black random stranger.” “Jesus, let that shit go.” Carlos answers. “Eric, everything reloaded?” Janice asks. Eric nods. They pick up weapons of choice and go to work. Running down the street they pass another group of zombies who have obviously found victims, these people cannot be saved now. They keep running towards the flare. A zombie marine peeks out from behind an alley almost looking longingly at the action. When they get to their destination they can see the zombies starting to flood in from the doorway. Eric spots Colleen’s leg, “Ok, I think we should approach this from the back of the building, I can see where the girl is. She seems to be pinned by something, but it doesn’t look like the zombies have begun to attack her yet.” The rest of the group nod in agreement and make their way to the back of the building.

Meanwhile inside Colleen’s father’s corpse is still writhing in remorse. As soon as the others begin making their way in, they spot the spirit and react just as the first corpse did. It is a cacophony of horror. Colleen can hardly see anything and her vision is fading faster. She has tried to get up a few times now, but the nail attached to her tendon is hooked in and as she tries to move she feels the muscle tearing a bit more, thus making the appendage even more unusable. Suddenly one of the zombies stops and looks down at Colleen when she tried moving, half of the zombie’s face is missing and she can see the inner workings of his jaw as he moans towards her. Without warning, the body of her father grabs the half-faced zombie and shoves him to the floor. Apparently the instinct to protect has not entirely left this vessel yet. As more and more zombies begin to struggle with the corpse of the father, the spirit cannot maintain form much longer as there is too much commotion disrupting his energy and he dissipates screaming with arms outstretched to his daughter.

Colleen, Eric, Carlos, and a few others situate themselves behind the apartment. It is on the first story so they are able to look in through the boarded up window. “Hey, hey girl in there. Hang on we’re gonna get you out, but you gotta do what we say!” Carlos yells over the moaning of the creatures. “And….” The creatures quiet down as they hear his voice behind the window. Several of the zombies begin to make their way to the window. “Ok then, fuck it!” Carlos lets his semi-automatic do all the talking from this point on and lets the bullets rip through the boards of the windows. The others take their cue and follow suit.

From Colleen’s perspective bullets are flying through the room and corpses are falling to the ground. She makes sure not to move no matter what as she does not want to get the attention of the zombies again. Bullets continue to pierce the wall in an upward angle. The group being aware of Colleen’s position makes sure not to shoot low. The bullet holes appear to be little beams of light as the moonlight shines through each new one. Like stars coming into position to create a new universe. It is beautiful and terrifying all at once. Colleen knows it is only a matter of time before her father falls like the rest. He seems to be disoriented and making noises, for Colleen these noises are beautiful, it may not be her father anymore, but even without speech she recognizes his voice and a single tear rolls down her face.

One of the corpses lands next to her, at least a top half does. It was shot down the middle and while the legs kept moving, the body was too structure unsound to support the upper weight. The half zombie landed next to her and she could not help but yelp when half-face looked straight up at her. It was hard to tell because of his face, but he almost seemed to be smiling as he started to drag his carcass along the ground. He grabbed her leg and yanked it away from the nails that had hooked into her. He had used such strength that her leg was now completely ripped open and bleeding fast. The other zombies that had been shot, but not fatally wounded awoke from their stupor and fixated their gaze on this victim. The father zombie with the unhinged jaw was not going to allow this to happen and started to stamp his feet on the other zombies. He made his way in front of Colleen and began to fight off the oncoming onslaught. She could not understand what he was saying, but even though this walking corpse was saving her now, eventually the hunger would take over.

The others outside noticed that the zombies were no longer in their line of sight. They stopped shooting when Carlos raised his hand and Eric procured a high-wattage flashlight. They shone the light through the window and the bullet holes and realized that they were looking at the backs of the zombies approaching the victim. Carlos kicked in the wall that had become weakened by all the bullets that had pierced it. Stucco, plaster, and wood went flying through the room as several zombies turned back at the blinding source of light. All of a sudden almost instinctively the group put away their heavier weapons and all secured their handguns. As zombies began to stumble their way, they all squeezed their triggers almost as this exact situation had been orchestrated. Colleen’s “father” kept fighting the half-faced zombie as the zombie climbed up him like a serpent with two arms and grabbed his unhinged jaw to rip away from his face. Half-face once again reached for the “father’s” face and went from under his jaw where pools of blood were spilling out and outstretched to the “father’s” brain. He yanked it out and tasted it. He spit it out, and her father’s body began to topple towards her, so too would this demon zombie. She clenched her eyelids as tight as she could while still flailing her arms. Then nothing, Carlos had grabbed the half-faced, half-bodied zombie and tossed him up in the air with one arm, while firing his handgun at the same at it.

Carlos stomped on the corpse and shot it in the head a few more times. When that was over it seemed the rest of the group had all been doing the same thing in unison as they all had their handguns pointed toward the ground and stepping Captain Morgan-like over all the remaining zombies, this all became clear as the smoke began to clear as the guns cooled off. Colleen’s father’s corpse had fallen in a position where his dead eyes were staring up at her, the corpse had begun to exhaust gas and at that final moment where she locked eyes with it she could hear her name being whispered. She looked away in terror and sadness and could see the white light of an apparition leaving the room once more.

“Hey girl, you alright?”Carlos outstretched his hand towards her. She looked down at her leg, “Oh yeah, right.” He took off his over shirt and ripped in half to try and stop the bleeding. “We’re gonna have to cauterize that. By the way, you weren’t bitten were you?” He was trying to have a little fun with her to lighten the shock, but it was to no avail. He gently picked her up from behind her knees and the back of her neck to create a cradle. “It’s all gonna be alright, I promise.” As they walk out from under the rubble of what used to be a wall, the rest of the group made their way back to The Herd, there a doctor would tend to her, although they would have to camp out for the rest of the night.

From atop the rooftops, Mathias had been surveying everything, -click- “There is hope after all.” –cla-click-

Transition, Undead Chapter 3

2009-10-30T12:14:00.001-04:00

Note: Rough Draft

The Herd

Now…

The sound of footsteps hitting the floor began to slow down and breaths were being taken in high quantity, inhaling the oxygen supply at a higher frequency. Some were holding their breath to listen, but they could not stop the sound of their hearts pounding out of each of their ribcages. Minutes passed by with several people hunched over never looking at each other focusing on the heaves of their chest. Finally, there was a silence among the wheezing. A silence, no more stampeding footsteps behind them. Some of the herd found a wall to lean on under the overpass. The others found three foot columns and everyone began to finally relax and slide down to a sitting position.

“Eric?” a girl’s voice broke the silence. “Eric? Where the hell is Eric?!” No response. Most of the herd looked up and made a faint attempt to look around, but no reply from any of them. Inside they did not care, if they did not know someone as a family member, they simply did not care. The girl kept looking desperately for her friend among the people slumped over on the ground, she looked cautiously at the people with bandages and the wounded to make sure he was not in there. He surely would have responded by now. Nothing. “Carlos, where is he? What happened?” Carlos, looked up and shook his head, pretending to be sorry. “Janice, there were a few that fell behind, Eric may have been one of them.” “If you saw some of the others fall behind why didn’t you tell anyone?” “Do you really think any of us would stop when it meant certain death? Are you out of your mind? You know how we roll here, if there someone you want to be saved you hold their hand during the run. It’s what we’ve been doing for the last three weeks girl.” “But…you were holding onto me” Carlos looked down and whispered, ”Yeah.” In truth, the two boys had shared a strained friendship. There was always a rivalry, for the last three years there had been a rivalry and it was not always over a girl. But nonetheless, in the past few weeks his friend had really come through for him. Carlos was not sure he could be the same caliber of friend for him.

Janice stood by the overpass with one hand on a column and wind blowing her light brown in her face. The determination, she was going to find him. Even though Janice had only known Eric a few years that was enough for her to deeply care about him. She enjoyed standing up for him, it made her feel strong. It was a good feeling. There was also the fact that she had grown to despise most of the members in the herd, so in reality she had no reason to stay with them any longer. Carlos shimmied up the wall and began to walk behind Janice. “I know what you’re thinking, you’re gonna go after him. What’s going to happen when all you find are pieces?” The girl pulled her elbow to the air and let gravity accelerate it into the boy’s gut. As he held his aching belly, she jumped off the rough cement onto the dirt path below her and began walking.

A girl with jet black hair approached Carlos on the edge of the overpass, “Are you alright Carlos?” “I’m fine Colleen, but Janice is a whole ‘nother story. She’s gonna get herself killed if I don’t try to help her, she has no weapons or anything. She’s as good as dead.” “So are you if you try to follow that crazy bitch, but if you go, I’ll go.” “Why?” “To make sure you don’t get beat up by her again!” Colleen laughed for a good minute and a half before Carlos began to turn away. “Wait,” Colleen said to Carlos, “I want to go with you because I care about you both. Two weeks ago I would’ve been dead if not for the three of you. I owe you and I’ve grown to give a fuck.” Carlos chuckled. “Well then, let’s grab our shit before she gets too far.” Carlos was still talking to Colleen as he began to grab his bag and the girl with the raven hair began to follow suit. They knew they may not might make it, but it was not safe anywhere anyhow. Janice could still be made out in the distance.

Janice was not afraid, although of only medium build she could carry the bags without breaking a sweat. Good thing since she had been walking for a little over an hour. The Herd had to find safe ground before stopping, that was the protocol. The walking with these bags was not a factor however, Janice had been raised on various military bases all her life where she had met her childhood friend, Blaine. Thanks to her upbringing she had spent quite a bit of time on the gun ranges during her teenage years. As she proceeded to keep walking she could see silhouettes out of her peripheral vision, Janice proceeded to pick up the pace a bit more, she had to find a wall or shelter where she could make sure her weapons were loaded, the last time she could remember she had tasked Eric with loading the gun, he was good at that. It was too bad he was terrible with firearms. All he could handle was a handgun. But that was enough to get them out of a few scrapes over the last three weeks. She spotted a school bus knocked over on its side. She didn’t even want to imagine what had happened here. Apparently no one died here; there were no bodies or blood. She kneeled down by the overturned vehicle by the bottom where she figured she could use the tires as defense. She opened up the bag and picked up a .44 Magnum, something portable like this should suffice in case she had to run. She unlocked the clip and checked for ammo. Apparently the gun was fully loaded and oiled. Thankfully Eric had come through because at this very point the silence had broken by breaths and footsteps. Then…they stopped, she could hear thumping reverberating off the walls of the buildings of the small town. This was different.

Back under the overpass, the herd was contemplating the next move they should be making. An elderly black gentleman stood up to take center stage, he apparently was the self proclaimed leader and it seemed that none of the others had any qualms with it. “Ladies and gentleman of our esteemed survivors group,” he always began speeches just like this, “it would seem that eight of our own have left us, three of them have taken a sizeable amount of our ammunition and guns. On top of that, two of these individuals were the most experienced with firearms. Now is the time more than ever to stick together, we could of course continue on or we could wait for our brothers and sisters to return.” The attentive group knew that the reason they had stayed alive for so long had been in large part to Carlos and Janice. The man had wound down his speech and the herd decided to spend the night under the overpass. The first wave of guards had begun covering all the open areas. It was cold. This was going to be a long cold night for everyone.

Colleen and Carlos were making their way in the direction that Janice had been heading. Dusk had begun to color the skies and it would be night soon. This was no time to talk; they had to be attentive to their surroundings. In the time since the incident broke out, there was hardly ever a time of silence. The creatures were multiplying at an alarming rate. As they reached what seemed to be a main road they could see the lights of a nearby town. No doubt the street lights were still running on a timer. All of a sudden shots rang out in echoes. It had to be Janice.

In the dusk it was difficult to see, surroundings seemed to be a haze, Janice could hear footsteps on the roofs of the surrounding buildings. There was a slight whistling sound, then the clang of someone landing on the upper side of the bus. Janice spun around wildly and fell backwards with her Magnum in the air towards the sound. Behind her more individuals landed, some in a slide. She still focused her attention on the bus, knowing that this was a trap of some sort. Could the zombies really come up with a plan? Moreover could they plan a trap? There had been talk of intelligent zombies. But these creatures were agile. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the dark now. There. She caught sight of a shadow staring right at her; she squeezed the trigger and let out a shot at the figure she was targeting. She would have tried to target but the recoil from the handgun at the position she was sitting caused her to slide back slightly. What really caused the trouble was the muzzle flash. The entire immediate area went white for a second.

Two hours ago, back at the farm….literally

After Eric hands Blaine the shells for the shotgun he begins to take a defensive stance in the doorway to gain a vantage point on the oncoming onslaught of zombies. Eric runs back into the kitchen to grab the machete that his compatriot had been wielding as a lookout previously. Carefully he steps over the head and body of the man and grabs the weapon to the side of the decapitated carcass. Eric still cannot believe what is transpiring, in the first week of all this happening he had been on a mission to find his cousin who was coming back to the states on leave. He could never find him and that’s when he joined the Herd.

Eric dutifully runs back to Blaine who obviously has made some progress. The wave of zombies that were coming over the hill has slowed down. As Blaine squeezes out one last shot and begins to reload, he stops for a second. Something is amiss, Blaine knew there were more of them then he could have possibly shot down. Then he heard it, they were surrounding the house on a all sides, it was no longer viable to simply stand in the doorway. Running footsteps were coming down the hallway from the rear of the house. They were coming from the backdoor that Blaine had broken through when he began to attack. He could not let anything harm Eric, all he knew is that when he saw Eric, something different had emerged as though he just gone through a third transformation. On top of that he needed answers.

Eric also thinking the same thing, he needed answers. He was not about to let these things get in the way right now. He grasped the machete firmly and ran down the hallway. He made a leap through the air and let his blade come down on the neck of the first zombie. After he landed, the second zombie got blown back by a shotgun blast as Blaine covered him. Still crouched on the floor from the landing, the third one began to ran towards him, he let his blade do the fighting as he just let it out to pierce his oncoming attacker, to no avail. The zombie seemed to not even be phased by the stab. Eric got up from his crouch and kicked the zombie clear in the chest. Eric grabbed the machete in the creature’s intestines as it reeled backwards. After possessing the weapon he went to strike at the zombie’s neck, but it was still moving and managed to only cleave up the side of his face. It was almost like getting it stuck in a tree mid swing. Eric tried to draw the weapon back but instead pulled the creature toward him as it wriggled on the floor. The creature was on the ground grabbing air and moaning frantically, Eric thought to himself that he must’ve hit some kind of nerve or something that impaired the motor functions. Not waiting around to find out. The creature that was now by his feet grabbed his leg. But before the creature got a good grip, Eric retracted his appendage from the creature’s grasp and used that same leg to stomp his face in.

“We have to leave! We’re running out of bullets!” Blaine yelled out to Eric as he began to head to the door. Eric grabbed his machete and began his run to the outdoors. Blaine made it outside and hoisted his gun in an attack position. “God, I can’t see a fucking thing out here. Its so bright, so fucking hot!” Blaine was exclaiming with his eyes squinting. Eric looked in disbelief at his surroundings , it had been a really overcast day all day and the weather was actually quite cool if not a little cold. Eric looked at Blaine and was about to say something, but began to notice that his cousin was exuding some kind of steam or smoke. Blaine was gritting his teeth. There was obviously something wrong with him, but what? It was at this moment that Blain’s neck had begun to catch a flame. “Don’t shoot! I’m taking you somewhere a bit cooler.” Eric said as he grabbed Blaine and led him to the side of the barn where it was shady. “Eric, what the fuck is happening to me?” “I don’t know you seemed to catch fire or something.” I think I feel a bit better, lets go.” “I really don’t think that’s a good idea, you should probably stay here. I led you here because you seemed to be really hot.” “Well, it is hot.” Last time I checked it was October in the Midwest. It is not hot. If anything I’d say the weather is dipping to the sixty degree mark.” What the Hell?” “And on top of that the sky is completely overcast. Blaine, I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, but you seem to be prone to the sun’s rays, like a vampire.” Blaine began to laugh out loud, “Seriously, like a vampire. Listen to yourself that’s insane!” “Bitch! You were a zombie just a little while back! How the hell is that so far fetched!” “Whatever…” Blaine ran back out to the heart of the attack, but began to fall. He couldn’t even hang on the shotgun, the metal burned him. Eric ran towards him and dragged him back under the shade. Blaine looked up at Eric, still squinting and said, “Okay, you may have something there.” Then he proceeded to collapse. Eric ran back into the field to collect the shotgun. He ran back and began to rummage through Blaine’s pockets for ammo. Blaine suddenly looked up at him with red eyes. He lunged towards Eric and knocked him to the ground. Eric still clung on to the gun. It seemed as if Blaine was about to bite into him again. Eric managed to prop the gun up and jammed it into the mouth of his cousin. There was no possible way he could of done this before. Blaine had grown weak and slow. Eric looked up at him, “You know I don’t want to do this, but if you try anything right now I will not hesitate to pull the trigger.” Blaine’s eyes seemed to go back to normal for a second as he got off of Eric. He snatched the gun away from him and pointed it towards Eric, he then unlatched the loading mechanism and emptied the barrel of the depleted shells. “You should probably make sure that this is loaded before making threats, just saying.” “You were going to kill me!” Yeah it seemed that way, I think you probably get away from me at the moment, I still don’t know how to control this completely. I still can hardly see and my body feels achy and on fire.” “You probably need to feed on something to restore whatever is wrong with you.” Next to them came a rustling. And there was a sound, but not a zombie. A cow was watching them and had begun to turn around slowly to walk away. Blaine and Eric looked at each other. Eric nodded his head in approval. Blaine went after the cow and let his instincts kick back in. He jumped on top of the cow as Eric looked away, the sounds that were coming from that direction were enough to warn him not to look as the sight was probably worse when accompanied by the sounds. Blaine began to walk back wiping his mouth with his sleeve. Eric looked at him and proclaimed, “That was fucking horrifying, thank you for that.” Blaine just smirked.

It just dawned on them that they had not been attacked by zombies the entire time they had been out here. “I’ll go out and look,” Eric said to his cousin, “you probably stay here.” Blaine had no objection. He picked up the gun and a handful of shells. As Eric began to walk back into the field he could hear the sounds of splintering wood and shattering glass. It must be coming from the house he thought to himself. He ran half speed towards the sound and saw that the zombies had been swarming the house. They had found something as it seemed that they were feeding on something. Of course, the bodies in the house were still there. Eric ran back to the barn to tell Blaine the good news.

As Eric explained to Blaine their good fortune, it was apparent that Blaine was thinking. He then shared his thoughts, “You should probably go Eric, I’m stuck here till it gets dark.” Eric looked at the sky and said, “Actually that won’t be very much longer, dusk is coming in about an hour. We’ll leave then, besides it will be safer to travel with someone.” Blaine could not disagree with that logic. They decided to pass the time by sharing what had been happening in these last three weeks, unfortunately Blaine did not have much to share, but Eric filled him on the developments.

The present, back in town….

The muzzle flash went off in quick succession like a strobe light to the contrasting darkness. Janice missed her target as it quickly darted away. “There is no way this is a zombie”, she thought to herself. Behind her she could feel the presence of others, she figured this must be her time as she began to place her weapon to the ground and turned slowly to face her demise. She adjusted her eyes to meet up with her would-be attackers. There was no one there, where could they have all possibly gone? Nearby she heard voices, voices she recognized. There were both male and female voices. One of them was definitely Carlos.

“Janice!” Carlos called out in the middle of the town square. Could this be the reason that the creatures retreated, Janice thought to herself. Carlos and Colleen kept scouting the immediate area, although there was still light in the town they used the flashlights to peer into corners, they did not want to be caught unawares by a zombie. Janice followed the direction of the voice and began to walk briskly towards it, albeit cautious. She had to get to them and warn them as fast as she could, but she could not shake the feeling that this may be a trap. She wanted to call out to them, but knew that this may be exactly what they want.

Colleen peered into alleyways with her flashlight and gun at the ready as did Carlos. Unfortunately, Colleen made first contact, as she shone her light into the darkness she spotted two eyes staring back. She began to back away slowly and looked behind her desperately for backup. These eyes were not those of a human or zombie. It looked like a zombie, but there was intelligence and understanding in them, especially since it smiled and looked up. As Colleen looked up during her walk backwards she could see figures darting swiftly on the rooftops. Carlos was oblivious to the impending situation as he looked in an alley opposite of his partner’s. As Janice backed up she ran into something solid. She turned around swiftly with her hand on the trigger. As soon as she made visual contact she did not hesitate to begin firing. The leader of the group dressed in flannel cried out in agony as the bullets tore through his flesh. He quickly began to run away from the automatic fire and towards shelter. He did not just run, but he crouched and used his arms and hands to gain extra momentum with which he used to jump up the side of a building and then towards another wall to use as a means to get on the roof and keep eluding the bullets.

Carlos of course heard the gunshots as did Janice, they both began to run towards the sound both making sure the safety off of their armaments. Colleen could not stop firing her weapon as she was in a state of fear and shock until her ammo gave out. The last bullet took out the last remaining light in the vicinity. There were pairs of eyes glowing all around her, she dropped to her knees in exhaustion and shock. Until a beam of light cut a swath through the darkness and straight line to her face. Her attackers were momentarily surprised as they turned their attention towards Carlos. He squeezed the trigger and let out a few rounds in the immediate vicinity to let everyone know that he means business. Janice was right behind one of the creatures and was able to briskly lay her gun behind the creature’s head and without hesitation blew a hole in its cranium.

“Janice? I thought we were supposed to be the ones saving you. Hah.” Carlos smirked to her and nodded, they once again put attention on the group of creatures in front of them, but one by one they began to leap out of range. As they looked around aimlessly looking for targets, they realized that they were only regrouping. The two ran towards Colleen to make a barrier between them and her. “I don’t need protection right now, I need a gun.” Colleen said to the both of them as she outstretched her hand. Carlos dug into the bag and procured a .45 and ammo. “Its loaded, but keep these in your pocket just in case. Make sure you can see straight again before squeezing off the trigger again.” Carlos advised her. They waited for what seemed like an eternity, although only a few minutes had only passed by. Down the main strip of the town they could see two figures walking towards them. As they came closer to their location the three of them got ready to open fire when they could get a clear shot. Just a few steps closer. Suddenly they had enough of a visual to begin firing. “Hold your fire!”

It was Eric and what looked like Blaine. Janice did not hesitate to run to the boys with arms wide open. But before she could get to them there was a the sound of a bottle shattering, then the burst of flames in between them. Although easy to sidestep, there was a voice on the rooftops that stopped everyone in their tracks, the voice belonged to supposed leader of this tribe. He had a walkie-talkie in hand. “Kids, I gotta admit that I’ve had a rousing good time with the lot of ya, but it seems that I’ve got run.” Skrshhh-“there are at least forty of them at last count.” Came the voice from the walkie. “It seems that we have a buffet lined up for us cowering underneath an expressway. Wait, you don’t know them do you? Oh dear, this could be bad after all, you should probably go and help your friends, but you know what? You hurt me, I mean really hurt me. Here’s a parting gift for you….five? Whatever, DROP THEM!”

All of over the rooftops of the main strip there were figures, and in instant the sound of falling, shattering glass was deafening. Flames immediately began to engulf the town. The five looked around desperately for a way out.

Underneath the expressway….

Shots rang out from all sides as the nightwatch caught sight of the attackers. Families found shelter behind pillars and the rest of the willing and able grabbed whatever weapon they could. As moments kept passing the sound of gunshots began to wane and so did the flash. The creatures were breaching the camp and the massacre was well under way.

Transition, Undead Chapter 2

2009-10-29T17:01:00.002-04:00

Note: Rough Draft

One Week Ago

He was holding his side, not wanting to look down. He could feel the warmth and the moisture. There was a long squelching sound which was drowning out all other noise. As he brought his head up off the floor he could see shoes shuffling in front of him and then large combat boots landing in front of his face with the feet turned away from him. There appeared to be a struggle, but he could not make out the shouting, it was all so muffled. Except for the goddamn ringing, all he could hear were the thumps of footsteps. His vision was getting blurrier by the moment, the legs and feet were stumbling in his direction, but then another pair intervened. Feet went flying off the floor and an entire body replaced as it smacked and bounced a bit off of the tiled floor. His vision was fading to white now and he began to stick his finger in his side where the wound was. The pain brought him back, but vision was still less than ideal. He finally mustered the strength to look at the wound. He slowly moved his hand away as the mucus laden blood peeled away to reveal a wound. He could not tell how big it was since it kept oozing out bodily fluids. He assumed it was blood. Suddenly there was a face, a face covered in dirt, grime and blood. A girl’s face, whose matted hair was draping over his field of vision. He could not make out the words that she was mouthing, but no matter, the shock had begun to set in and the world went white again.

…they’re getting faster”, A male voice barely audible. Where was he? “…no, we’re getting slower.” There was a female voice now. He could still make out where he was, he could barely open his eyes. He tried moving his right arm, but the pain was unbearable, yet he could not express his discomfort. He again tried to move an arm, this time the left one. There he could feel material, very rough, very old and worn. As he moved his hand up the material he began to decipher that this was probably an old recliner. He again tried to open his eyes, but he could feel his eyelids resisting and twittering faster than he could comprehend. “….at we need are more reliable weapons and a place to-“ “Shh, I think he’s trying to wake up. Carlos? Carlos? Carlos?” He began to focus on his name and the fog was starting to lift, his head felt heavy and began to hurt. “Oh thank God Carlos you’re awake. AWAKE!’ He knew the girl was not shouting, but everything came into such clarity at once that all senses were working in tandem to torture him. He held his hand up to indicate that he needed a minute. The girl and boy looked at each other and smiled knowing that their comrade was okay. He found the handle located on the side of the chair and set the recliner back to a sitting position. It was jolting and he almost fell out. Apparently he had not used his legs recently. He felt dizzy and disoriented and then he began to look around him and could see people in the kitchen with papers arguing about something. In the hallway there were others with mechanical parts and guns that they were carting between the rooms. A girl waved at him and smiled as she was moving across the hallway. The voices of people were beginning to mesh together like a fourth grade orchestra of chaos. The clinging and clanging of metal and crinkling papers were too much for him to handle. So he made another effort to get up off of the recliner, he steadied himself and clung on to everything he could as gravity demanded that he kneel down to its presence. The girl and boy grabbed him from each side under the arms. The only direction he could give was a barely audible, “outside.” The two helped him walk to the front door and out the lanai. As he took a look about the world presented in front of him, he shrugged his helpers off and began to walk forward. His eyes could not believe what he was seeing. This entire neighborhood had been ravaged.

In the time that this encampment had banded together they had seen many towns and cities fall to pieces as citizens began to transform and maim they’re own kin. But this, this was different. Houses all around seemed to have been torn asunder, the creatures they had been fighting could not have possibly been this coordinated or strong, in all of their battles with the undead they had always seemed vulnerable.

Five miles away….

Moving slowly without a direction is the only thing he knew. Well, not really. It was more of an instinct, a need if you will. He had grown so hungry yet he did know how to satisfy it, as a matter of fact this creature did not have a single thought in his head. At least not anymore. There were his compatriots who were easy to dismiss, they were all wandering in the same general direction. Two weeks had passed like this, of course they were unaware. But on this particular night, things were going to change.

Zombies are what the living were calling them and it would be hard pressed for anyone to disagree, they sure fit the description. Mindless creatures that used to be living human beings feeding on the flesh and/or brains of the living. First there was the awakening, then this. Walking. Just walking. It was at this precise moment that it became clear to one of the zombies in the pack that this was not the way he wanted to spend all his days. So, he stopped. Then, the others stopped.

Two weeks and it had been easy enough to survive if you knew how, but what is this? To the casual observer this may be little more than erratic behavior, but to the survivalist this was doomsday. If these creatures began to develop a system then it was only a matter of time till they began to formulate strategies. But I digress, no one witnessed this. Well, no one except for yours truly. Oh but they will…and soon.

In the first week when they began to awaken and later on would be become hungry, these undead creatures would possess speed, but as another week elapsed the decaying living corpses began to hang back and take life a bit easier. It was not like they were not able to run still, but their bodies told them to conserve energy. Nature in all its undead glory was now providing instinct to the recent living dead.

The first that stopped was a tall former man, he was decaying a bit less rapidly then the others in the pack, his former occupation may have consisted of a business nature perhaps accounting. White button up shirt was now missing three buttons in no particular order. One suspender was still fastened tightly while the other while the second was hanging off his lower arm. It was this arm that he commanded his pack. Did he know what he was doing? Probably not, but commands were issued nonetheless. Gargled gibberish is what came of his mouth. The others listened, they did not understand, but they listened anyway. Apparently, as the leader began to grow smarter so had the rest of the pack, but only slightly. There was still the matter of running into inanimate objects and the pesky instinct to keep walking into them until they were turned by the object or would collapse from lack of nutrition.

Unfortunately for the living there were a few more surprises this evening such as three of the creatures observed where they were heading and carefully avoided objects, particularly sharp ones. And when we say carefully, we mean awkwardly stumbling out of the way, but these were zombies and from what the world had seen of them thus far this would be graceful.

To an observer such as myself I could not help but bathe in the irony of the current situation. What appeared to be a tall lanky accountant that more than likely had been stepped on for much of his life was now calling the shots in death. He commanded from all walks of life such as the portly gentleman in the business suit, quite possibly his former boss. A shapely woman with a broken heel and a mean disposition, and finally the third of his newly baptized generals, a Marine. Even in the state he was in the Marine still managed to walk with an almost unnoticeable slouch. I believe this would be good posture among the rest of them.

Ahead in the distance there was a crashing sound, the lead zombie raised his arm slowly and pointed in the direction where the sound was coming from. It was not a stern point, more like as if a slow child had become hyper and interested in something. The marine was the first to respond and to my amazement dashed to the scene. As he approached the corner of the darkened street. He could clearly see fresh corpses strewn about. Eyes adjust to the darkness and you something feeding in the dark recesses of a building. What seemed odd is that some of the corpses seemed to be in precarious positions and the others seemed to be hanging off of the fire escapes of the buildings. These creatures were not know for brutal strength or even agility.

As the Marine stared at the chaos that was enshrouding him, the echoed flopping of the others in the pack were catching up. The accountant, the club girl, and the supervisor were the next to catch up on the scene. At that moment, the air took on a different feel. Subtle footsteps were landing. More of the undead it would seem, could this be a more advanced evolution of the zombie nation? The thing with these creatures is that were not decayed at all, but you could see that there not alive either. The pigmentation of the skin was dull on every single one of them. All five of them had emotionless eyes, but that was the best sight you were going to get because in a flash they were moving. Surrounding the pack as they kept running circles around them. Was that….laughter? One of them jumped at least ten to fifteen feet in the air and perched himself off of one the fire escapes in the building. “They’re zombies, not even worth the effort. But I have to admit I am still a bit famished.” All this was being said in a manner of someone speaking with a grin. And yes, these creatures are speaking.

Another of the creatures jumped off a nearby wall and propelled himself at the club girl zombie. “Well, well, where have you been my whole life?” There was echoed cackling throughout the empty streets. The zombie girl was knocked off her axis and went sliding down the asphalt. The creature mounted the struggling zombie and began to mock her by groaning just like her. Once again more laughter. “Although I will be hungry in about an hour, lets not spoil our last night with retard strength flailing.”

The creature seemed to change in appearance for a moment before the killing blow, but I realized it was not him but his eyes. A glow, a paralyzing stare. The girl had quit struggling and was torn asunder in less than a minute. As the others creatures were observing. The accountant had begun to move towards a female creature that was still smiling in the sight she had witnessed. As the accountant began to build up speed, the female jumped up and avoided the attack. She landed gracefully in her designer boots. “There are better ways to pursue a girl handsome.” In a blur she had raised her arm in a forty-five degree angle and disemboweled the zombie with one arm. She lifted him up in the air as groaned, almost as if it was a cry. Behind the female creature four zombies had heard the cry and were dashing towards her. She let the accountant slip off of her arm and focused her attention on the impeding attack. Behind the charging zombies two other creatures glided down from the shadows of oblivion and grabbed a zombie each. They jumped back in the air with cargo in tow. Flailing legs were all you could see. Then suddenly a crunch and the legs went stiff then drooped. The two lower bodies crashed back down to the ground. As the creatures ran along the walls of two opposite buildings on each side of the street and repeated the process with the other two remaining zombies. The female in the Gucci boots turned her attention back to her prey who was still on the ground. In the moment she glanced, the accountant had spun off the ground and hit straight in the jaw with such a force that it had unhinged her maw. The accountant now wobbling back to his feet went back in a hunched position, stepped back with arms still drooping toward the ground and lunged again. He let inertia take over the movement of his arms. While still in the air, he let them come back down with a forced fury and knocked the Gucci girl down to the ground. Her face hit the asphalt with an unprecedented violence. There was no bounce, more of a crack. There was blood spewing on the ground where her face would be. The accountant let his guard down thinking that he had won and went in for the kill. Gucci turned her body to give her arm some freedom and caught the accountant in a dive. She managed to grab his head. She could not see thanks to the designer sunglasses embedded in her eyes. But nevertheless she managed to swing his entire body off of the ground and in an arching movement she head into the ground next to her. It has to be said that will not be getting up without a head, his head had exploded on impact

In the background of this scene there were zombies being mowed down and being thrown into buildings as if a bulldozer and catapult had merged into one and began to attack. Unlike that unholy matrimony there was nothing but blurs that went in and out of the zombie pack. There clearly had to be at least seventy zombies at the height of the pack’s membership. There were two generals left. The supervisor and the Marine. The portly supervisor ran humorously warding off his attackers, two of the creatures ran up on both sides of the bigger zombie and failed at lifting him up off the ground, but they did succeed in restraining him on each arm. The supervisor began to run in place and disturbingly began to move in a fashion that was supposed to shrug his attackers off of his appendages. It seemed to be unsuccessful at first, but he kept rocking from side to side and managed to lift a creature off of the ground, while the other was being pressed down. The zombie continued this movement once more and on the third try had managed to begin running with attackers in tow. He rocked side to side once more and slammed one creature to the ground then the other with the built up momentum. Still running he turned one hundred and eighty degrees to face the creatures, he never stopped running. As the creatures began to lift their heads off the concrete they realized this was possibly the last sight they were going to see and could not help but to crack a smile at the silliness of this. The supervisor made a running jump to land his elbow on the creature’s head. It was such an impact that he proceeded to bounce off of the first creature and on to the second with his other elbow. In the end there were two bodies lying perpendicular face down lying in craters of blood where their heads would have been. Now just fragmented skull and flesh. The supervisor managed to get himself off of the ground, but something was wrong. Both his arms hung to the side but began to slide out from where the elbow was and it seemed that they just stopped short of completely falling off as if jolted by a rope keeping them in place. The supervisor then lunged back towards the ground and in the process the two lower arms went flying from behind like a rocket launching into space and ejecting the boosters. His face dove into the puddles of the former creature heads as he began to feast. He gurgled on till a creature plunged his fist into the supervisor’s back and ripped out heart. It made no difference. He turned sharply at this creature and then forgetting he only had nubs for arms proceeded to fall backwards not getting up again. He continued to flail like a bug on its back.

The other creatures had made short work of the pack as expected. There was one zombie that had refused to go down. The creatures turned their attention to the commotion in the alleyway, about 15 of them began to gather in the entrance to the back alley. At that moment one of their colleagues was savagely thrown out through the entrance towards them. They all paused for a moment and dashed into the heart of the action. In the middle of it all was the Marine and three of the creatures. They began to encircle the zombie slowly, they had never seen a zombie move this fast. One made a mad dash toward the Marine, he swung his arm outstretched solidly thus knocking the creature into a window. The second and third paused and proceeded to launch a double attack. The marine caught them mid-dash and proceeded to slam both of their heads into a dumpster. Before the Marine could continue his attack, the flock of creatures descended upon him. Hands and nails were protruding through his body and everytime one time one came out another organ was lost on his body. The marine finally stopped struggling and as the creatures were going for the final blow. Thumping running sounds permeated the air like hearing it though a tin can.

A large body came barreling down the pathway and into the creatures that had begun to feed on the zombie. The supervisor plowed through the crowd like they were merely weighted cardboard cutouts. During his run down the alley he managed to stomp on the Marine. It seemed the creatures had become disinterested in the Marine and proceeded to follow the supervisor out the other side and down the street.

One day later…

A herd of survivors moves throughout the streets of the abandoned city. Corpses are strewn throughout in every which direction. They were too late to save anyone. Carlos knew that something was amiss with these killings, but would only confide in Eric and Janice who could see it too, but they dared not upset the herd. As they continued to take point a very large zombie was running in place at an angle. He was without lower arms and was howling hauntingly while being propped up by a moving truck. There were no bodies surrounding him. Only body parts. It was early in the morning and the sun was still making its way across the land. Carlos shrugged and pulled out a sawed off shotgun and poked it deep in the zombie’s temple and squeezed the trigger. Headless, the creature’s body landed against the truck and slumped forward as it spewed. “You couldn’t have used something less messy? It smells horrible!” Eric commented to Carlos. “Messy, maybe. Satisfying? Definitely. Do you have any idea how much therapy that just saved me? I almost died man.” Carlos, stared a bit longer then proceeded to walk away. Eric was still staring, then he began to look away as the sun was coming in. From the corner of his eye he could see things exploding and bursting into quick flames. “What the Hell was that? Where all the body parts?!” He ran to catch up with Janice and Carlos.

Thirty feet away….

The marine began to twitch in the alley.

Transition, Undead Chapter 1

2009-10-29T03:29:00.001-04:00

Note: Rough Draft

Now

All they could do was run. Run as fast as they could. A large group like this looked like a herd changing directions as if seen through a nature documentary. And like those documentaries it was always the weak that would fall behind, tire out, or fall. These victims would be the unwilling saviors of the rest. The predators were coming.

They may not be quick, but they were efficient. They did not stop to catch their breath. They did not get thirsty, they only hungered. This was the driving force for their actions; the hunger was the only thing that they needed to satiate.

The prey, the stragglers were getting up to pick up their pace. Eyes darting back and forth for a way out. The adrenaline was beginning to wear thin and it was difficult to think. They could hear the predators approaching. Mindless groaning, cold decaying eyes, they knew the hunger was their undoing. These creatures, their hunger was everlasting. For weeks they have seen their friends being devoured and torn asunder. Were they to share the same fate?

The creatures did not know the relevance of time, but every once in a while they recognized objects and individuals, perhaps from their former life? All they knew is that they must feed, the pain and anguish was too powerful to resist. No, time was of no relevance for the need. They knew that their numbers were growing, but that was of no consequence. The herd they were hunting looked like them, but did not act like them. They needed them to keep them…”alive”. Their own bodies were growing weaker and weaker the longer they did not feed. As they roamed the countryside they could see their own stuck in corners and other obstacles, but they did not help, they could not. They were hungry.

The stragglers had found hiding spots when running by a nearby farm. This was their chance. The five of them had a chance to escape. Wait, only five? Was there not more? Although still human and filled with emotion, they had not created a bond strong enough to bring them to risk their lives for strangers. At this point in time, a bond was forming with the five. Five versus countless legions. The chances were slim, but they had thought processes on their side. They had the intelligence to outmaneuver these….”zombies”? Strangers and loved ones alike out to kill them and their ilk. The human race had diverged into two species now. What was happening? Could these really be the Halloween creatures we used to go see at the cinema? There had to be an explanation. But now was not the time for answers.

One “zombie” caught the trail of their prey and began to make their way up a steep hill leading to a farm house. The rest caught on that one of their own had begun to stray from the pack and followed suit. They did not hunt in packs but were easily led. They had no direction. Just, the need.

The five had passed by a barn first were they were able to break in with tools that had been strew about the farmland. Expensive tools dropped about as though they had received news and left it all behind. As they pried the doors open with pitchforks and other devices of manual labor they came upon a cubby full of weapons. Had the farmer not tried to protect himself? All that mattered now was that they had a way of fighting back. The barn was too difficult to make a stand in. They needed an escape route in case the plan did not come together. The farmhouse up the hill had a backdoor, there was the escape.

As the creatures began to ascend some of them began to fall and roll back to the base of the hill. Some of them had not fed lately and it was taking a toll on their bodies. Their bodies did not heal, their bodies did not produce blood. This is why they must feed. Food, common food, had no effect on their bodies. They could not digest. Thus, as only the fresher creatures could make their way up, it was these that were strongest, fastest and most dangerous.

The five had come up with a battle formation within the farmhouse. By the passage to the front door there was a staircase, creating a perfect vantage point for a rifle when the door was open. In the hallway by the stairs was a clear shot by the door. And in the kitchen by the other side of the entrance, the large window created a highly defined panorama of the top of the hill. This would be the lookout armed with only a machete. The one on the stairs had a pump rifle. The two in the hallway were armed with shotguns. And there was one more stationed upstairs in the bedroom window, armed with only a handgun. Let the fight begin.

As the first of the creatures made their way up the hill they could see the farmhouse and these fresher abominations still had a bit of intelligence to realize that this must be a trap. Does not matter, their bodies drive them and their insatiable hunger longs for the flesh once more. The door was closed at the time, but beyond there was a muffled yell and shots rang out. Holes were being blown through the door and walls. The five had let them as close as comfortably possible and then began the assault. Zombies walking and sprinting as their compatriots lost limbs, heads and other vital appendages.

These individuals were not well versed in weapons and had these been an opposing army of humans they would have surely perished. The girl on the stairs with the rifle nearly snapped her wrist with the first shot, but as the adrenaline once again took over her exhausted body she shook off the pain and kept firing. Unfortunately for everyone involved, reload time was exceptionally slow, but thanks to the planning made by the young man in the front of the hallway with the shotgun, they had devised to take turns firing. A consistent rate of fire had suppressed the oncoming attackers. This young man had dreamed his whole life of a situation like this, but he was weak. Ever since he was a child he been plagued with health problems, but had imagined scenarios such as these in his fantasies. Although to be fair, he was a much better shot in his dreams.

Head after head, torso after torso, they were falling. Yet they pressed on, pain meant nothing to them. Mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, they all fell the same. The lost structure meant nothing, the must press on, they must feed. But as the group kept marching along to oblivion there was one. There had always been this one. And little by little, words began to form in his mind. He stopped and looked down at his uniform and began to mouth the oath of the United States Marine Corps. Why? He stopped, he ducked as the buckshot and bullets flew by. And then, there it was, or more accurately was not. The hunger for flesh was no longer there, he now thirst. What did he thirst for?

None had noticed the creature that had suddenly stopped and fled to the left of their flank. As a matter of fact, they could hardly see as the dust kept being picked up by the destruction they had created, the dust and gunpowder was blinding. Eyes were tearing up but they could not stop, not until every last shape in the line of fire was eradicated. The blur and the sting is overwhelming mouths gaping open and exhaustion setting in. The guns were getting heavier by the moment. The reserve adrenaline they were running on was beginning to take a toll on their bodies. Eric, the dreamer kept on reloading his shotgun, but kept dropping shells. In the state he was in, he was only loading one chamber of the double barrel. The weight finally took its toll as he shot not realizing he was angled too low and shot the floor in front of him. The buck and splinters from the hardwood floor hit him in the face and knocked him to the ground. Fortunately for Eric, as he was being knocked through the air his head narrowly missed the buck that flew by his head, although some of his median length hair had been singed. The gunman behind Eric could make out that his comrade had flown back, but did not stop firing. The fear would not let him stop. No matter what happens he must keep firing.

The creature in the Marines uniform made his way to the back of the farmhouse. He moved so quickly that he felt as though he were gliding along the ground. He waited a millisecond before breaking open the backdoor knowing that the boom of the guns would mask his entrance. As he made his way down the hallway that was the hub of the house he saw a young man flying back towards another with a shotgun. The Marine had to pause for a second as this all seemed as though in slow motion. Every detail from the hair being singed to the floor breaking apart and flying as the same buck blew apart the wooden shrapnel in the air, splintering it further. Without another moment as the rear gunman was reloading, the Marine grabbed him by the throat and ripped him from his kneeling spot. Everything was still in bullet-time as the clothes from his victim rippled slowly from the upward force of his grab and without hesitation bit into the victim’s jugular spilling his blood onto the floor.

The man in the kitchen began to turn as the shots began to wane in frequency, but before he could completely maneuver his head to the inaction, there was a whoosh of air as though falling and he saw his feet from a side view. Vision became dim and he could see his body involuntarily twitching as a creature with a mouth caked in red lapped up the life source gurgling from the base of the neck of the body that was once his. The girl on the stairs witnessed the atrocity and before she could command her body to move, her body had made the choice for her, and clumsily began to run up the stairs because she could not stop looking.

The creature passed by Eric’s body, he would obviously be the last since he was the least to give a fight at the moment. He glided up the stairs without a jilted motion and caught her ankle during her hasty run up the flight of stairs. As he squeezed his arm thrust behind him in one motion and her body hit the wall behind the stairs before she could scream. She slid down the wall with her head on the floor, she could not move, she could not speak. Her fear welled up inside knowing at the angle she was looking and her leg dangling over her face that her neck and back were broken. She could not run away, all she could was await her fate and make peace with “God”.

When he was climbing the hill earlier he had observed where the gunshots were coming from before making his way to the back of the house. No doubt his previous training had a hand in the strategy, so he knew there was someone in the second story bedroom floor facing the front of the house. Something was awry however since he no longer heard gunshots coming from the room. He made his way up, but began to ponder this development when shot rang out through the door and into his abdomen. He was injured and at that moment the true rage set in. Everything went red.

The woman in charge of the upper flank had been listening to the rhythm of the shots to decide when she should fire and reload. Then alarmingly the ringing of silence began to billow through her head. Through the ringing she heard the faint thumps on the staircase leading up to the room and realized something was coming, not realizing the thumping was her friend stumbling up the stairs then being thrown by an unknown force. She sat and teared up while she was deciding to use the handgun on herself or hang on to the last vestiges hope of saving her life. She went with the latter and began to shakily point her gun at the bedroom door with her back against the window. The thumping had stopped and she squeezed off the trigger and let the shots fly through the door. There was an angry groan from the other side and she kept firing realizing she had hit something inhuman. Then as she squeezed the trigger one last time the door burst open as though a battering ram at mach speed had hit it.

The frenzy lifted him through the air and through the door and onto the left wall. The woman still had her weapon pointed at the frame of where the door was. She was still aiming and pulling off shots as the splintered door was still particles in the room. Time seemed to travel one frame at a time and the hang time on the far wall was much too long for gravity not to have taken its laws into effect. He jumped off the wall and toward his victim before she even realized what had happened.

Eric, began to open his eyes, but the sting was still there. He reflexively began to rub his eyes, not caring that his hands were covered in dust and powder. His face hurt and as he ran his hands down he was stopped by the debris that had been lodged in his skin. He put his hands to the ground, palms down and slid up with a gasp. He pulled the shrapnel from his face and thanked the Heavens that they had not gone too deep. His face was wet, obviously bleeding; he instinctively got up and made his way to the kitchen where saw a roll of paper towels on the counter. Rubbing his eyes he did not see the lookout’s severed head on the floor or the headless body hugging the wall with arms outstretched and knees bent. His prioritized acquisition of the paper towels was fulfilled after stumbling his way through the kitchen. As he wiped his face the horrid vision became clear. He had been slipping on blood and had tripped over a head! He ran back towards the hallway to grab his weapon and escape for it must be too late for his company. And as he bent down to grab the gun an outstretched arm was grasping ammo in its hand. There he was, the rear gunman and against the wall head looking straight at him ,back folded over her head. Eyes were moving and mouth was twitching wanting to speak. A horrible fate. He knew he could not save her, he had seen enough TV to know that the body could not be moved. He grabbed the gun and behind him was a figure standing. The weapon was grasped with both hands and he did not know what got into him, but he lurched his arms in the direction behind him with all of his body weight. One hundred and seventy-five pounds multiplied was the force at which he lunged. The butt of the gun impacted with a face, and the individual’s neck whipped violently backwards as his limp body arched to the floor. Eric fell backwards in the other direction; it felt as though he had hit a brick wall. Making his way up he heard groans behind him, and it struck him at that moment that the zombies were still approaching.

His neck snapped forward violently as he lunged up from the knock to the head. The rage had dissipated after the last drink, but now he needed to heal again, he had to drink again to get his vision back. He at that moment remembered the victim that was pinned against the wall as he picked up her limp neck and ripped her off the floor. Her body was dead weight, but he lifted her effortlessly as he bit into her wrist and jugular. His vision came back instantly and in his sight was his attacker, the attacker should’ve been the victim. How fortuitous, the kid had his back turned to him.

Eric was facing the approaching wave of monsters; he looked down at his gun only to realize that he had busted the loading mechanism. He had to pick up another weapon and make a run for it out the back door, it was his only chance. The zombies had finally locked on to their prey and had begun to pick up the pace, others were sprinting his way. He turned wildly only to come face to face with his would-be attacker. In that instant, the world slowed to a crawl as jumped away from the creature in the uniform. He was different than the others, he retained some of the same features but his flesh was not decaying and he was much faster as he matched Eric’s movements flawlessly. In the blur one thing became crystal clear; he was as good as dead.

“Eric?” the creature questioned as the boy squinted in anticipation of his own end. Eric then fully opened his eyes and stopped to look up. How could this be? “Blaine?!” Eric surprisingly asked not expecting an answer. Could this be a hallucination? The creature observed the boy a second longer then dashed to the floor and scooped up the shotgun of the fallen rear gunman. “Let me show you how to shoot this shit.” The creature said as he took aim at the approaching legion and began to fire. “Get me more shells!” He shouted at Eric over the deafening shots. The kid grabbed the shells and decided to grab the rifle on the staircase. “Here!” In this surreal moment the only thing that mattered was survival, the answers would have to come later.