Anarchy

We arrived back at my fathers house as the sun began to rise in the east revealing what was once a quiet neighbored, that was now in chaos. There were remnants of the dead, and a few undead still wandering around. Most of the houses had caught fire during the night and now lay as a smoldering pile of brick and ashes. One house had the charred bodies of the family that had lived in it huddled together. Tears welled in my eyes when my eyes met the twisted face of the father who was holding the charred body of a baby. I wiped my eyes and turned my gaze to my father's driveway. There were two more vehicles besides my white car, and the transport vehicle that had carried the survivors from the armory. "News travels fast." This was the first word James had spoken since his confession earlier this morning. "I hope no one has been bitten." I took my gun off safety and undid my seatbelt, ready for anything the undead might have to offer. Sterling was sitting on the back porch enjoying the morning mist. Some of the wandering dead were attempting to get through the fence that was around the back yard. The fence was not that high, but the zombies were not all that smart either. Their arms outstretched towards us they leaned into the fence as if they just expected to go through it. Sterling nodded at us, and cleared his throat. "Glad you made it." I smiled a little bit, and pushed past him. James sat with Sterling and started taking aim at the zombies that were still pushing on the fence. I headed down the stairs, the door to the saferoom was open wide revealing a group of young adults, all huddles around a game of cards. They were not using money to place bets, but things like smokes, weapons, or candy. They looked up as I entered the room, I nodded at them but my eyes stopped on a curly haired kid wearing glasses. Our eyes met for a moment, I smiled and continued to the kitchen area where Nelda was cooking some eggs. "Are you hungry dear?" she asked as she cracked a small brown egg into the pan she was cooking in. I shook my head smiling, "No thanks, I just want a shower." She nodded and began to hum what I recognized as an old church song. Brother Todd and a few others were lounging on the couches and recliners my dad had equipped the room with, they were chatting quietly amongst themselves. I could only hear snatches of the conversation, they were talking about a refugee camp in Leeds. Leeds is a town just outside of St. George, there wasn't much there other than good hiking and quiet living. I headed for the massive bathroom my dad had built for his late wife. The shower had multiple shower heads, there was a hot tub in the corner as well. The three old timers from the armory were lounging in the hot tub telling stories.
"Aye, you were right, this is a better place." One of them tipped their pipe at me. I nodded smiling, I closed a curtain on them, so that I could shower without putting on a show for the old folks. I showered quickly, I had to get to Leeds today, and I was probably going to have to escort some of the survivors there. There was a large closet close to the bathroom, it was filled with clothes of various sizes and styles. I found a good pair of jeans and a black tank top. I also found some better boots. I left my sneakers behind for someone who might find better use with them than I did, and headed back out to see what James was up to.
On my way back through the safehouse, two more survivors walked through the door. I smiled and welcomed them shaking their hands, "Your father is a good man." The man stated as he gave me a big bear hug, and headed towards the kitchen area sniffing the aroma of fresh cooked eggs, and bacon. The group of young adults had dispersed. I headed up the stairs and heard what sounded like a game of football going on in the backyard. I was right, James was acting Ref, and Sterling was playing quarterback. The curly headed kid was laughing at them. He wasn't playing instead he had a PSP in his lap. I sat next to him glancing to see what game he was playing. I began to laugh as I realized he was killing zombies in his video game. He jumped and turned to me, and our eyes met again I felt a chill run down my spin. I held my hand out to him "I'm Amber" He smiled and said "I'm Cliff" Our hands met and I felt the chill again. It was like electricity when our hands met. He smiled and looked at me curiously. His eyes were so intense I had to look away. I set my gaze on the group, James was trying to convince Sterling that he had messed up some play. They argued playfully for a moment, then Sterling grabbed James's chin and pulled him into an intense kiss. Cliff was laughing at them next to me. When he laughed I could feel the emotion roll off him. His laugh was musical in my ears. I began to blush, so I got up and headed towards my fathers chicken coop. The chickens were scratching the ground and clucking aimlessly. I sprinkled chicken feed our for them and watched as they fought over it. James walked up beside me, he had given up trying to ref, he had a goofy smile on his face. I started to laugh at him, when I caught the eye of Cliff again. My breath got caught in my throat, so I looked towards the ground. James elbowed me, and nodded towards Cliff who had started playing his game again. "I see the way he looks at you, and you are as red as a lobster." I bite my lower lip and looked into James's eyes, "Am I that easy to read?" I smiled and started to blush again as James nodded laughing. "I can't do this right now, I have to get to Leeds, to find my dad and sister." I started but James shook his head, and said "Amber, look around you it's the end of the world as we know it. Live, Love, Laugh" He was watching Sterling now, "I am." What he said was the smartest thing I had ever heard, and it made more sense than anything else that had happened to me this far.
Before I had a chance to try talking to Cliff, Nelda poked her head out the back door "Hey I need to call a meeting." I nodded at her and headed back towards the saferoom. The others followed me laughing and goofing around in the morning sunlight. Down the stairs and in the lounging area everyone had gathered together. I took my seat at the computer desk, and turned toward the rest of the group. James and Sterling sat together on the floor holding hands. Brother Todd was staring at them, but they didn't notice. I envied James then, he didn't care what anyone thought. He was perfectly content to be with Sterling. I felt an electric touch as Cliff placed his hand on my shoulder standing above me. I glanced up at him, he winked and smiled at me. Nelda cleared her throat "This room is not meant to be lived in by this many people, I say we take a head count of all those who want to go to the refugee camp in Leeds." She was interrupted by Brother Todd who politely stated "What if they are not safe there? I can't take my children unless I know its safe." Others nodded throughout the room. I saw my chance, standing up I stated "That is completely understandable, those who want to stay here, until I can get there and confirm they are safe are welcome to stay, those who want to go with me, your guns are appreciated." James nodded and Sterling said "I'm with you." Most of the younger group jumped up and pumped their fists in the air. I turned and looked at Cliff, his eyes were glinting and he nodded at me. This nod made me feel reassured that I was making the right decision. "Nelda, I would like to ask if you would like to be in charge of this safe room?" I turned to the hunched woman, she nodded and stuck her chin out proudly. "Then it's settled, those who are going with me, pack up we will leave in an hour." The group whooped and began gathering up their possessions. I turned back towards the computer to check if we needed to rescue anyone else. Other videos had started popping up about other saferooms throughout the United States. There were people congratulating us for our ingenuity, and for helping our fellow humans. I searched for any news on the state of the States. I found a video that showed a zombie attack on the white house. The US government had fallen. "Anarchy!" Cliff whispered over my shoulder. I nodded smiling sadly.

Inside the Armory

We climbed down two sets of stairs, following Sterling who didn't say a word the entire time. We walked down a long hall with about four rooms all with windows. Sterling didn't even glance at the windows as he passed, but James and I couldn't help but look. Some of the windows had bloody hand prints, or just smudged blood on them. One was covered in what looked like the green goo, the Brett zombie had tried puking on us. I squinted against the goo trying to see what was in the room. I could make out a large figure, it had its back towards me. I tried looking closer to see what it was, I had an idea, but I didn't want it to be true. "Is that?" James started, but as he spoke the figure turned revealing the puss covered face of a zombie. "Hey Sterling?" I called stepping away from the glass and hurrying along the hallway after him. He turned slowly at the end of the hallway, looking down he took a deep breath as if preparing himself for a hard explanation, "The woman in that room, was human four hours ago. Those rooms, were our patient rooms. I thought I could set up a refugee camp." He looked up with tears in his eyes, "But, most of the survivors were bitten, or scratched. The woman in that room had been vomited on by something that looked like she does now." I heard a sharp intake of breath, as James stepped back to peer into another patient room. This room had a beheaded zombie strapped to a hospital bed. There was blood everywhere as if who ever had removed the head, used a chainsaw, or something like that. I felt a scream get stuck in my throat, as I saw on the floor the still moving head of the zombie body. "Is it?" I started, but Sterling had unlocked the door at the end of the hallway and held it open for us. His eyes had turned cold and grey again. "There's about 12 of us left." He said as we entered into a large basketball court. Sleeping bags littered the floor of this room, and there were small groups of people all looking at us. "It's not safe here kids, we been trying to get a rescue party to help us, but I don't think anyone is coming." A little old man wearing a set of blue overalls that had blood splattered all over the front. He was smoking out of a wooden pipe, something that smelt like stale tobacco. He was sitting with a group of about three old men all in overalls, they were passing the pipe around. "I think we should wait till daybreak to leave here, we will be able to see whats coming better." I turned to James and Sterling, "Will this place hold for another couple of hours?" He looked doubtful and then looked back towards the hallway with the undead petting zoo. "I don't think their rooms will hold till tomorrow, we have a transport vehicle all loaded up with supplies, but I can't convince some of the people here to leave." He nodded towards the three smoking buddies. I nodded and headed towards them.
"Do you mind if I smoke with you?" I asked sitting on the floor next to their camping chairs. "There isn't enough!" The man who had spoken to us first said as he held his pipe away from me like a small child with a toy. "Well thats ok." I said pulling my pipe off my keyring and setting it up for a good hit. I loaded it with the last of my thunderphuk. The sweet savory smell of the herb filled the area and engulfed us. The old man sniffed the air, and looked sadly at his own stale pipe tobacco. I took a hit holding it in for a moment, allowing the smoke to fold over the three. The other two were watching my pipe as I offered it to the greedy old man. He looked at me dumbstruck "Girl, I thought the world had forgotten how to share, and had forgotten how to be civil to one another." He gingerly held my pipe and took a little puff. He exhaled loudly as a look of happiness spread across his wrinkly old face. He handed it back to me "Thank you." I passed it to the other two older men, holding my hand out to the man I said "I'm Amber, I am here to rescue you."
After I had successfully doped up the three unwilling passengers, we headed for the hallway to take care of the zombies that had been locked up there. I attempted to open one of the doors, but the zombie threw itself against it so hard I thought it had ripped the hinges right off the wall. I retreated back to the basketball court, where Sterling and James were catching up."So what happened to Joe?" Sterling was saying, but quickly stopped as I walked up. I sat down next to them and in a low voice, so the others wouldn't hear me "We are going to have to find another way out, or figure out how to sneak past them." I looked between them, hoping one of them would come up with a solution. James stood up and stretched his neck, he popped his knuckles, grabbed his machetti, and headed towards the door. I looked back into Sterlings cold grey eyes, he looked hopeless. I smiled at him as I got up to follow James, "Come help us kill some zombies." I winked at him as I grabbed my hatchet from my belt. He looked at me with frowning eyes, then got up and followed us. As I entered the room James was picking his zombie of choice. He paced back and forth in between a zombie wearing a military uniform, and the room covered in green goo. He had decided on the green room when I stopped him saying "Wait, last time I killed one of those ones, it exploded, and alerted the horde, leave this one for last." He nodded and entered the room with the dead soldier in it. Sterling and I watched through the blood splattered window. The zombie turned slowly, and began to frenzy itself. It growled through blood covered teeth, it seemed the monster was drooling blood, it ran down it's chin and onto the floor. James took up a defensive stance against the charging zombie. He stepped out of the way running his blade along the zombies stomach. He had sharpened it so that as the zombies weight pressed against the blade it cut the flesh like butter, the zombies stomach fell to the floor with a wet plop. It turned its angry eyes to James and attempted to charge again, but it tripped on its intestine and fell on its face. James took his chance and embedded his blade in the monsters dome. It twitched a little as it died, this time never to get back up. He pulled the machetti out of the dead soldiers head and wiped it on the zombies already bloodstained shirt. Exiting the room he dipped his head towards me as if to say, your turn. I turned to a very angry girl zombie, she looked to be about 15 or 16, same age as Artesia. I felt a twinge of fear almost as I entered the room and readied my hatchet. The girl turned to look at me with glazed over eyes. As I looked into those sad dead eyes, I wondered if Artesia was still alive or not. I turned the blade part of the hatchet away from the teen zombie, she bared her teeth at me revealing braces with little pieces of flesh dangling in them. She took her first step towards me, I raised the blunt end of the hatchet and brought it crashing down on her head as she stumbled towards me with outstretched arms. As the hatchet fell I felt her skull give way and the hatchet sink into her brain. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she fell. All the air whooshed out of her as she did. I threw up. I didn't expect her head to just crush so easily. I was shaking as I exited the room. I pulled my pipe out and smoked the last bit of blackened spice. Exhaling I tried stopping my hands from shaking I sat against the wall across from my zombies window. I sunk to the floor still shaking slightly. "This  is our rescue crew? She can't even kill a zombie hardly!" Sterling was looking at James with angry eyes, James shrugged "she is better with guns" He offered his machetti to Sterling, but he refused it popped his knuckles loosened up a little and entered a room with another soldier zombie. As he entered the room and before the zombie could even turn to look at him he punched it in the lower part of the zombies head. The zombie fell to its knees with an angry groan. Sterling looked surprised, that it hadn't knocked the zombie out, he kicked the zombie to the ground, and with his combat boot stomped the back of the monsters head. The skull gave way, almost too easily and the zombie stopped moving. Sterling wiped as much of the blood off his boot as he could. Stepping out of the room he looked at me with his cold eyes and said "THAT is how you kill a zombie." James laughed and handed me his boot pistol, it was a small revolver. I checked to make sure it was loaded took it off safety and tapped the green window. The monster hurled itself through the window with a loud crash. James and Sterling  stepped back towards the door, James had his Machetti at the ready for in case I couldn't kill the beast. I jumped back towards the stair well, I raised the gun, at the monster that had started making its way towards me. "Cover your ears." I said as I pulled the trigger. The zombie exploded with an earth shattering BOOM. Sterling's mouth fell open in shock, and James whooped. The door behind them yanked open to reveal the startled eyes of a few of the other survivors. We heard the electric fence start to zap lifeless bodies as the horde attempted to push their way through. "We need to go...NOW" James jumped towards the stairs turning long enough to catch the keys for the transport vehicle out in the yard. I ran back for our weapons and to gather the rest of the survivors. Sterling and I herded them out to the roof, where James had backed the transporter up to the ladder. I took aim at a few of the zombies who had started to climb their dead comrades to get in. I handed Sterling Jame's rifle, and he started shooting the oncoming army of the undead as well. "I have an idea" I jumped from the roof to the roof of the transporter, then to the roof of the van, climbing in the passenger side I honked at James to let him know I was going to lead them away. He shook his head at me, but I pushed my foot to the floor, and drove through the now dead electric fence dragging the bodies of the fried dead with me, the zombies turned to follow me, and I thought I would be able to get their attention, when the barbed wire from the fence wrapped itself around my front tires and popped both of them. The van lurched forward as the anti lock breaks set in. I was going to fast to keep control of the vehicle and it rolled onto its side. I of course hadn't put my seat belt on in the heat of the moment. I lay there for a moment wondering if I had died, but then I heard the roar of the transporters engine, and the blasting of guns. At least I had saved them.
After a moment my side started to ache, where I had hit into the shattered window, and road. I realized I was alive, but not for long if I didn't get the hell out of this van. I could smell gas leaking and a small electric wire sparked lighting the back seats on fire. I began kicking at the shattered windshield frantically. This van was going to explode if I didn't get out. The window fell to reveal the grinning faces of the zombies I had chasing me. the tried clawing their way into the van, I heard gun shots and the zombies went stiff and fell revealing bullet holes in their foreheads. I crawled out of the van, cutting my hands on the glass, and twisted metal. I felt James's grab the back of my shirt as he heaved me up to my feet. I felt blood trickle down the side of my face from where I had hit my head on the window. "Thanks" I said meekly as he dragged me back towards a waiting hummer. "Where are the others?" I asked trying to turn around to see if they had gotten away." He hoisted me up into the passenger side without saying anything. He pulled himself into the drivers side and shifted the vehicle into first gear. It jumped to life making me dizzy with how quickly it moved. I looked at James, studying him for a moment. He looked pissed. His usually twinkling eyes, were cold and set on the road in front of us. The van exploded behind us in a ball of flames. I flinched at the sound. After about 10 minutes of silence, James cleared his throat, the sound startled me, I turned to look at him. Tears were flowing down his cheeks now. "James?" I asked as I leaned over and wiped a few of his tears from his face. He sighed looking away from me. "Amber, there are some things about my past, that people would probably not like if they found out about it." He rubbed his eyes, and turned to look at me with sad eyes. "Sterling knows about some of it, but I don't want him to turn them against me because of it." I studied him trying to decide, what it was that he was going to tell me. He looked miserably at me, and said "Amber I'm gay."

Rescue

After Nelda had cooked us all a big dinner, we decided to sit around and swap stories. There was a family of four, who had escaped a Church full of zombies from Parowan, Nelda escaped a retirement home. She did not strike me as one who would have needed to have been in an old folks home. She could cook, she could move, she was still sharp as a tack. "Nelda, if you don't mind me asking, why were you in a retirement home?" I asked after a short pause. "Well, I couldn't take care of my husband by myself anymore, he had Alzheimer disease." She looked down for a moment, "He passed away this morning, almost everyone did." The man who had escaped the church put his hand on Nelda's shoulder giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Thanks Bother Todd." Nelda smiled sadly at the ceiling trying to hold tears back. "God still has work for you, don't give up yet Sister Nelda." He responded getting up and grabbing his scriptures, "Anyone, who wishes to pray with me, you are welcome to join me." He knelt in a quiet corner and began to pray. His wife and two young daughters joined him, kneeling in a circle and holding hands.Nelda pulled her chair into the circle, smiling apologetically. "I can't kneel anymore, but I would still like to pray."
There were seven survivors who spent the first night of the zombie Apocalypse in the very first safe house. We had all suffered a loss, or many losses. Even though we came from seemingly different worlds, we were all thrown together, but by what? I couldn't get that thought out of my mind. I couldn't sleep not knowing the cause for the dead coming back to life. Was it judgement day as Brother Todd had put it in his prayers? I finally gave up trying to sleep and headed for the computer, maybe there was some news of how this outbreak started.
I had left the youtube page up where we had uploaded our safehouse announcement. It was up to 1800 views all across the world. Was the entire world overrun with zombies? And if it was, how are we supposed to survive 8.5 billion dead people who all want to kill us? I had begun to feel hopeless as I browsed morbid stories of how Americans all across the U.S were fighting for their lives, and losing. The comments on my video were almost 3 pages long, but one stood out to me like a beacon of flashing red lights, it read:
"If you get this in time we need HELP We are stuck in the Armory on Bulldog Rd. They are all pounding on the doors and windows, I don't know how much longer our barracads will hold...Please Help us"
They had sent this message 15 times since 9pm, I glanced at the clock it was only 11pm we might still have time. As I was thinking this they sent another comment letting me know for sure that they were still there. I carefully made my way back through the sleeping bodies of the survivors who had made it to the saferoom. I shook James gently, whispering in his ear, "We have a rescue mission on our hands, are you in?" I could see the small night light, we had found for Brother and Sister Todd's girls shinning off his eyes. He nodded and began getting up quietly. We carefully picked our way back out to the main area of the Saferoom. "So whats this about a rescue mission?" James asked yawning slightly as he began lacing his combat boots up. I pulled up the page with the Help notes, showing James. He nodded again and grabbed his weapons readying  his weapons for the upcoming battle. "You are going to need the van." We both jumped at Brother Todd's sudden break into our silence. "I can't promise to come with you, my wife would have my head." He handed me a set of Ford keys. "Just be ready to let us back in." James stood up, and threw his belt on. Looking at me now he asked, "Are you ready?" I took a deep breath and nodded "ready as I will ever be."  We walked to the door and said our goodbyes to Brother Todd, in case we didn't make it back. I handed my keys to him, "Here for just in case, but we should be back in an hour or less." He nodded taking the keys and shutting the door to the safehouse. We headed out front where Todd's Van was parked next to my car. It had a little bit of a lift to it, and a large push bar on the front. James walked around it exclaiming "Now this is a vehicle for a rescue! Can I drive?" I threw him the keys and jumped in the passenger side. He whooped and jumped in the front seat, starting the van, he backed over some zombies that had started shuffling our way. "Ok where are we going?" He asked slowing down a little, to swerve towards a few zombies who would get too close. I gave him directions to the Armory and we set off to go rescue some survivors. Most of the businesses along the way, were either catching on fire, or already burned to the ground. The bowling alley, I had grown up going to was nothing more than a smoldering pile of rubble and ashes. There were a few zombies stumbling around the rubble as if they were just as shocked as I was, that it was gone. It took us about 20 minutes to arrive at the surrounded armory. We stopped a little ways back, we needed a plan. We ran a few plans around like drive by shooting till they were gone, or perhaps park against the door and load the survivors up that way. We were still running some ideas around in our heads, when in the fences off yard connected to the building, someone flicked the lights of a hummer on then off. We looked at each other for a moment and began rolling up to the gate at the fence. James turned his headlights off then on. The fence began to open. I grabbed my shotgun and rolled my window down. "Get us in, I will keep them out." I nodded towards the zombies that had been alerted by the scraping of the gate against the gravel. I climbed through my window and to the top of the van. I picked the closest zombies off, and kept them at a safe distance while we waited for the gate to finish opening. As soon as it was open enough for James to fit through. As soon as we were in, he jumped out of the van and took out the remaining zombies with a rifle that Brother Todd had traded him for his shotgun.
As soon as the gate shut we headed for the hummer, that had flashed its lights at us, but whomever was inside had left for safer ground when they opened the gate for us. James sat on the running board of a large transport vehicle and reloaded his weapons, I paced around the yard, looking for weak spots in the chain link, or for any signs of life. Ten minutes passed, I headed back where James had sat himself. He was sharpening his machetti, while looking around. "Someone had to have opened the gate for us." He spit on his wetstone, and ran it the length of the blade as if he were creating art. "Found this wetstone on the floor board of this truck." He explained shrugging as he ran it along the length of his blade again. I headed towards the building looking for some sort of door. There was a yellow ladder suspending from the roof of the building. "Hey I'm gonna go check it out." I called back to James as I yanked on the ladder to test its stability. I hate ladders, not because heights scare me, but because I know it will hurt if I fall down. As I climbed I looked over the yard looking for any possable signs of zombies learning how to hop fences. I heard a loud click as I was doing so, and it seemed for a moment that the fence had light up. I looked down at James, he was looking around at the fence as well now. He pocketed the wetstone, and headed for the ladder. "Hey hurry up and get up there, I don't wanna be in the yard alone too long." He was looking up at me with a worried look now. If the people we had come to save, were zombies or almost zombies, this electric fence would stop us from escaping. I hurried the rest of the way up the ladder. Pulling myself onto the outer ledge of the roof, someone or something grabbed me and flung me to the ground. The only thing I saw was the sadistic glint of the barrel of a gun in my face. I raised my hands slowly, "Um...Hi we got your message, we are here to help." There was a pause, then a deep cold voice said, "We?" At that moment James clambered over the side of the building, cursing under his breath. "Yea we, now show your rescuer a little more respect than that Sterling."
I looked between the man who was holding a gun to my head, and James. The cold voice responded "How do I know you aren't infected?" "Well, for one, we drove here, I haven't seen any zombies who can drive yet." He put his hand on the barrel of the gun, and pushed it down. Helping me up, I asked "You know him?" Laughing he responded "Yea, we served in Iraq together." I was a little dumbstruck, I had no idea James had been military. "I'm Amber." I held my hand out for Sterling to shake, he looked at it coldly then turned and walked through a door. "Well he's just a ray of sunshine isn't he." I looked at James as I said this, I could see his eyes twinkle with amusement, but all he did was nod his head and follow him inside.

Cedar City

The ride to Cedar City took us about an hour. We didn't see any other vehicles on the road there, in fact we didn't see anyone living or dead. The first little town we come to as we enter Cedar City is Enoch. My father lives in Enoch, so we headed to his house to see if he had survived the recent outbreak. We drove down the main street, the streets were littered with zombies. My heart began to sink, look how many people didn't make it, what if Tay and Mike hadn't made it? I shook the thought from my mind, they were both strong willed like me, and if I can survive they can too. I grew up in Enoch, so I recognized some of the undead as we passed. I pointed out certain members of the Church, and teachers that I had once hated. I couldn't hate them for what they had ever done to me now, now all I had to do was survive long enough to find Tay, and Mike. I turned down the street I grew up on. I almost felt a twinge of sadness as I looked at what it had become. Most of the houses were burnt or burning down. I pulled into my old driveway, but dad's car was not there. "He must be at work, I will have to try to call him when we get inside." I took the keys out of the ignition and reloaded my shotgun. I took a deep breath and James and I nodded at each, and stepped out of the car. "The back door is always unlocked." I started toward the back of the house. The zombies here were still slow, nothing like the crazed mob we had run from earlier. I opened the garage door and ushered James through, it was pitch black in the garage. I fumbled for the door knob to the house, finally finding it I opened it slowly for just in case. Light was streaming in through the open windows. I took the safety of my gun and began searching the rooms. From the looks of his house it seems he left in a hurry. I began to get hopeful that someone in my family might still be alive. Last we searched the basement. When I had left the basement was unfinished. I moved out of my fathers house when I was 16 years old, though. Dad had apparently finished the basement and had equipped it for a nuclear bomb strike. He had placed heavy metal slats over the windows and built a huge metal door at the foot of the stairs. There was a room filled with canned goods and emergency water supplies. He had a generator installed, that ran off the heat that was created by his wood burning stove. The man was a genius I had to hand it too him. We could survive months down here, but why did he leave? He had a computer hardwired in one of the corners, with backup batteries in case of a power outage. I accidentally bumped it as I was walking past to check to make sure the windows were latched. The screen clicked on with a family picture from when I was 13 or 14. Dad had left a document open on the desktop, it read:
To whom it may concern,
You are welcome to my supplies and my home, all that I ask is that you open the door when I get back. I am off to St George to find my youngest daughter. If I should not return, then I only ask you replenish the stores, and keep the place clean, so that other survivors may use this room as a safe haven from the growing horrors of the end of the world. God be with us.
Michael Kelly
His words brought tears to my eyes, even in a zombie apocalypse he wants to try to help others. He truly was the most amazing person I know. "So this is a safehouse." James grabbed a piece of paper and began drawing a crude drawing of a house with a + sign in it. "Do you think your dad would mind if I spray painted this on the garage door?" I looked at James for a moment, realization growing on my face, he was right my father was right this whole thing is bigger than just my family. We had to at least try to help our fellow Americans, if there was anyone left, if there were survivors, we were going to need as much help as we could get. "We have some work we have to do." I grabbed James's drawing and headed for the big metal door. In the garage we found some orange spray paint cans. Outside we took turns one person sprayed a very large "safehouse" symbol on the white garage door, while the other person kept watch over the zombies. As soon as it was finished, the sun was sinking low in the sky, so we headed in to spread the word of the Enoch Safehouse. Strangely the internet was still up, so we were able to see what was going on in the world. There were reports of the dead coming back to life, and that people should stay in their houses, and try to avoid all contact with the infected, the usual warnings that associate a zombie outbreak. There was no news on what caused the viral outbreak, but scientists announced that there would be no cure, and there is no vaccine, because the virus mutated so quickly. Dad had a webcam, so instead of typing I decided to do a video tour of the safehouse.
"Hi, my name is Amber Ruth, I am a survivor. If you are close to the or in the Enoch area, there is a safehouse. Look for the safehouse symbol on the garage door. (I zoomed in on the crude drawing James had made) We have food (I showed the store room) and Safety (I showed the metal window slats, and large metal door) If you are in the area and need a place to stop for the night, please don't hesitate, There is enough here to last for months. All we ask is that you keep it clean, and if you can leave something of use behind with you, so that the next person might find it useful." After a moment pause I added, "Good luck out there."
I uploaded this video to youtube, and within 2 hours I had 16,000 hits. Not long after, we heard the back door to the house opening. James looked at me "Do you think zombies can open doors?" Before I could answer, someone was knocking at our big metal door. I looked at James with surprise as I grabbed my hatchet and headed to the door. "Are you infected?" I asked knowing it was a stupid question as soon as it left my lips. "No" replied a timid voice. I pulled the heavy metal door open to reveal a group of about 7 survivors huddled together in the stairwell. "We saw your video online, is it really safe in here?" I stepped aside allowing the ragged group to enter. The timid voice belonged to a little old lady who looked about 75, she smiled at me and held her hand out to me. "I'm Nelda" she said as she shook my hand, she had a surprisingly strong grip for a little old lady, she was a little shorter than me. "I'm Amber" I said as I smiled and shook her hand. I was surprised to see this many survivors.

Escape

After burying my mum and our dogs, James and I barricaded ourselves in my bat cave. Since I usually slept during the day I had a piece of wood specially cut and upholstered to match my room cut for my bedroom window. Since the bat cave was the only room without window access, we decided it was the safest. Also with that piece of wood in place the outside world could not see if I had lights on or not, so we didn't have to worry about attracting any undead visitors. We decided to refresh our knowledge of zombies by watching a few of Romero's masterpieces. In Romero's works, his zombies ran, and we had seen today that our zombies don't. At least not that we have seen this far. In some of his earlier works the dead did move like mechanical beings, James came up with a theory that the recently dead must be stiffer than those that have been dead for a little while, i.e. rigor mortis. We both agreed that this must be what the problem was, and decided to stay on guard for the faster moving zombies. We decided it would be a good idea to at least make a plan for if we have to stop in Cedar City. Hopefully the freeway was going to still be open, but with the chaos we had decided to take the back road to Cedar. We needed to stop and get gas, and grab a case of water and some other supplies. I had worked at the Ernie's Truck Stop, so I knew how to authorize the pumps outside. Being around a gas station I didn't want to use any guns, so we had to get some good melee weapons for just in case. After outlining our brilliant master plan for escaping our hometown, we headed to bed.
The next morning we awoke to breaking glass as one of the undead attempted to get in through my boarded off window. We began getting up, and looking for useful things around my room to take with us. We grabbed my laptop, so that we could keep up with what was going on in the world, flashlights, my mountain climbing gear, for just in case and all. And a few of my favorite knives out of my knife collection, oh and the machetti. James took a particular liking to my military issue Vietnam war veteran machetti. I had found it in a box with some dead relatives uniforms and medals. We grabbed all of our supplies and headed out into the dying little town we used to call home.
I pulled up to the first pump at the abandoned truck stop. cautiously I grabbed my shotgun and belt and equipped myself to go in and turn the pump on. Some of the glass on the south set of doors was broken. The morning sun glared into the remaining windows around the building making it impossible to know just who or what was inside. I took a deep breath and headed inside. The cash registers were open and empty, the cigarette rack was in shambles. Most of the racks around the store had been pillaged or knocked over. I stepped behind the desk and peeked behind in the kitchen area for any signs of life...or death. There was bloody handprints on the freezer as if something had tried getting in. It crossed my mind that somebody might still be in there. I closed the closest register and hit the buttons to authorize the pump outside so James could start pumping our gas. At this particular moment I wished I had a walkie talkie. I cautiously headed back towards the freezer, I knocked quietly "hello?" I tried opening the door, but it had been locked, or blocked off from the inside. I turned around and grabbed a case of bottled water, and a case of Pepsi, because life is better with Pepsi. Heading back out towards the car, I noticed a set of legs behind one of the end caps. They hadn't moved yet, but where there is one dead body, there are usually more, so I headed out to drop the cases off in the trunk. James looked at me questioningly. "Thought I found some survivors." I said as I unlocked the trunk. The one bad thing about my car, is that you have to take the keys out of the ignition, in normal circumstances that would not be an issue, but say we had to get away and fast, then I would have to fumble with they keys and pray I don't drop them. So far though non of the roaming dead had noticed us there, we were being quiet so as not to disturb them. A few of the closer ones had started staggering towards us. "Hey I want to go in and find something to eat." James said as he hung the gas hose back up, and grabbed his guns. I nodded put the keys back in the ignition and headed back inside with him. Tapping him on the shoulder as we entered I pointed to the unmoved legs. He nodded and headed towards them lifting his gun up and taking the safety off. I turned around and scanned the store for any signs of movement behind us. James exhaled a sigh of relief as he edged around the end cap to reveal a headless corpse. "Looks like we weren't the only ones who wanted to get the hell out of dodge." He said as he grabbed a case of Snickers candy bars, and headed towards the freezer. "Hey, there might be someone or something in there, be careful, and grab me a cold Pepsi please." I headed towards the back laundry room. I grabbed a couple first aid kits, for just in case, but if these zombies are like those in cinema, a first aid kit won't help anyone who gets bitten. I also grabbed some toilet paper, because you never hear about survivors needing it, but you just know eventually you will have to go to the bathroom, it would be much safer to just do it out in the boonies. I walked back out towards the exit, only to have my way blocked by a huge mass of what used to be a man, named Brett. when Brett died he weighed in at about 500 pounds. "Holy Shit..." I started looking at what he had become. He had large puss filled sores around his face and arms. His shirt must have gotten torn during his battle for his life, I could see more of the sores where the shirt had torn away. He made a belching noise as if he really did not feel all that good. I didn't blame him he smelt like something that came out of a sewer. He had seen me I could see he had started to get excited, he began belching and dry heaving. "Oh Fuck...James!" I called out hoping this monster hadn't already found him. "James! I could use a little help here..." I started, the zombie in front of me began retching as if it were having some sort of seizure, its fat rolls mashing against each other. A few of the sores began popping releasing a fowl green liquid. The zombie looked up at the ceiling and all the retching stopped it became still for a moment I raised my gun fumbling with the safety. The Brett zombie threw its head forward in one giant movement so quick I thought he would fall on his face, and threw up all over the floor in front of me. I heard a scream of the zombies outside as they all started moving towards the truck stop doors. I pulled the trigger and an earth shattering explosion was all that was left of the Brett zombie. He had exploded as if his entire body had been under an emense amount of pressure and I had taken a pin to his balloon of a body. There were Brett pieces on the walls and ceiling. I slipped and almost fell on some of the Brett on the floor. James came running in through the south doors, "We need to go...NOW!" he said as he rushed through the door with his guns drawn. "They can run now" His last words made my blood run cold. I had hoped it would have taken longer than that, but since we are probably some of the last people alive in our little town, they had to adapt to feed. This thought was even more frightening. And what of the Brett zombie, the minute he threw up, it alerted the other zombies. I pumped my shotgun and grabbed the supplies I had gone back there for and ran towards the front door. There were zombies pressing themselves against the unbroken glass around the store, trying to claw their way in. Thank god for James, he had our doors open and ready for us and we dove in. I had the car started and in drive before either of us could even close our doors all the way. "Roll down my window." James had an excited boyish look in his eyes as he brandished his shotgun. Now in a normal car, he should have been able to do it himself, but my car lacks window buttons on all the doors but the drivers side. When my sister and I were kids we pushed them in, just to be destructive. Now that the car is mine, I kinda wished we hadn't felt a need to be so destructive.
"You're speeding." James broke the silence as we drove through our home town. Most of the buildings were on fire, and there were zombies along all the sidewalks. We pulled up to the only stop light in town, I had to slow down enough to get past a rolled ambulance, and to make the turn. Around the corner there was a zombie strapped to an upturned gurney dragging itself along towards a group of zombies that were feasting on a mangled body in the middle of the intersection. They were eating the bodies of the zombies we had killed the day before! I had never heard of such a thing, but I guess waste not want not.

Home

I pulled into my drive way, shutting off my car I turned to James "We will stay here for the night, and tomorrow we will head south. I want to keep at least one gun with us, but leave the rest out here." I set my belt in the back seat, and removed my 9mm, checking to make sure the safety was on. I took a deep breath preparing myself for what I might find. "You know...she might not be your mum anymore..." James was looking sympathetically at my realization that I might have to kill my own mother. I took another deep breath then stepped out of the car.
I took the safety off my gun, and headed towards the house. As we walked up I noticed the front door to my house was open. My heart began to sink at this sight, there is no way one of the neighbors didn't at least try to get in. "Mum?" I called in through the screen door. "Do you want me to go..." James started but stopped as mum staggered into the kitchen. In her hands was the mangles form of one of her little black dogs, she had a strip of furry skin hanging from her mouth. As if losing interest in her little snack she dropped the little body with a wet plop. She took one step towards us I raised my gun with shaking hands, tears began welling in my eyes. I started to choke up as she took another step towards us. I pointed the gun at her head closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. I heard the splatter of mum's brains on the cupboards behind her, and her her body fall to the floor. I turned and pushed my face into James's chest allowing the tears to flow freely. He ushered me into the house locking the front door behind us. He led me to the living room, where the mangled body of mum's other dog lay. "Ch-Chilli?" I called my dog uncertain as to what I would find. But Chilli never came. "Who is Chilli?" James asked picking up my gun from the living room table. "She's my dog, I am going to go look outside for her." I got up wiping my tear stained face. James nodded and followed me to the back door. "Chilli?" I called again looking around the back yard. I saw a grey figure in the farthest corner of the yard. I heard her cry a little when I started walking towards her. As I got closer I noticed the bite mark on her back, she was shaking and whimpering. I began to cry again as I fell to my knees. How could this happen? "Do you think dogs can contract the virus?" James was looking at my poor Chilli with sympathy and fear. "I don't know." I whispered, Chilli was licking my hands and wagging her tail feebly. Her whole body stiffened for a moment and she exhaled a long sigh as if to say goodbye. I stepped back slightly waiting to see if she would come back. We waited for 10 minutes before we gave up on the idea of a zombified Chilli. I grabbed a shovel and began to dig a hole. I was not going to just leave my family like this. James also found a shovel and helped me dig 4 holes. I placed Chilli in the second biggest hole making sure to put her favorite toy with her. Then I placed mum's two dogs in their own little graves. Last James and I drug my mother out on her favorite rug. I crossed my mothers arms and put pennies on her eyes. I shrugged at James saying "I just want her to be at peace." He nodded stepped back for a moment to give me a few moments. I have never really prayed to any God, or any idea of higher power. I call myself pagan, but in all reality, I worship myself. I had no idea what to say, if there was a God, why would this be happening? A notion entered my head for a moment, that maybe we are being punished. Maybe this truly the end of the world.

How it all Began

The onset of the Zombie Virus in my home town and how I survived.
Yes I am writing this in the past tense as if it has already happened, because in my own mind, it has. I once had a dream about what I would have to do to survive a zombie Apocalypse here in Beaver Ut. In order to do so I have to explain how my life was before the virus.

SSDD

I heard the dull shuffling of my mum wandering around the house, I glance up at my clock 12:30. I knew it was time to get up, but I just had this feeling that today was going to be a bad day. I stretch reaching for my four legged best friend Chilli, but I knew she wouldn't be there, when mum is home she wakes up early to cause mayhem with mums dog grooming business. I emerged from "the bat cave" as my mum has dubbed it, blinking at the light that was streaming in through the window. It was a beautiful day outside, blue skies not a single cloud in the sky. "Holy shit it's alive" my mum stared at me disapproving of my lifestyle of choice. "Yea, I decided I had to pee." I responded yawning. "Your dog has been acting weird." she pointed towards my grey pitbull who was hiding in the corner giving mum the look of death. "Did you yell at her today?" I asked bending down to pull lightly on her bat ears. "No, all my dogs did no shows today." Mum threw the dog grooming magazine on the table, as if to try to make me understand what an atrocity this was. I just laughed and grabbed a bowl of cereal, and headed for the living room. Mum followed me complaining that she was not feeling good. I just shrugged her complaints off, mum seems to always have something to complain about. I turned the TV on and began flipping through the channels, on almost every channel there were reports of civil unrest and riots. Especially in the bigger cities, Las Vegas seemed to have the worst of it so far though. Seeing this I grabbed my phone and texted my brother, who lives in Vegas.
"Hey are you alright? Whats with the rioting?"
I waited for a bit, but he was probably at work, so I was not too surprised to not receive a message right away from him. I finished my morning routine of breakfast and cartoons, and decided to head to the post office to check to see what new herbal incense had arrived for me today. Normally Chilli is ready to go with me anywhere, including to hell she loves to smoke, and therefor loves going to the Post office to see what we are gonna smoke next. I threw my shoes and a hat on, and called for her, but she didn't come running up to me. Instead she had found a way to hide herself by wedging herself under the china cupboard. "Mum are you sure you didn't kick her or yell at her?" I asked this time a little more urgently. "No I don't know whats her problem, my dogs are fine." She pointed to her two little Brussel Griffons that were constantly in her lap. I shrugged grabbed a leash and drug my poor dog out of her little cozy hole. She decided once we had gotten outside that out here was way safer than in there any day, and snapped back to her normal self.
As I walked out to my car I noticed an ambulance at the next door neighbors house, they were wheeling him out on a gurney. "Hmm I hope he is ok." I mumbled as I buckled my seat belt checked my mirrors, and started my car. In my rear view I could have sworn I saw Mr. Next door sit up and turn towards me. I turned to look, but the whole gurney was gone. I shrugged and assumed they had already loaded him in. Pulling my car into drive I slowly edged my way out of my driveway and heading down the street towards the post office. My ride was uneventful, besides the screaming sirens of police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks. I did think this was odd, but it was the full moon, and with all the civil unrest people must be going crazy. For once there was parking at the post office! I was pretty excited about it, but that excitement soon died when I walked into the Post office.
They were closed! at 1pm in the day they were closed. It was blasphemy I was aggravated, but there was an envelope with some spice in it for me in my box, so I didn't stay angry with them for long. On my way out of the post office, I saw the little old lady who lives on the south side of me staggering her way to the baseball diamond, that is behind the Post Office. I did think this was odd, because I had never seen her stagger, or even limp, but then again she was old, so I didn't pay any attention to her. Heading home, the sirens had seemed to stop, in fact the whole town was like a ghost town. All the stores were closed, there was no one on the road and the church parking lot was packed. Then it hit me, it's Sunday! Thats why everything is closed. After coming to terms with my lack of knowledge as to what day it even was I headed home, it was time to get ready for work

Zombies!

I left for work at about 2:45, arrived at an empty and locked front office at 2:52. I headed for the back door, usually if Pam decides to go somewhere, she will leave that door unlocked for me. Heading towards the back door, I noticed that a few of the doors to the rooms were open. "Hmmm this is odd, where is Pam?" I spoke out loud because it helped calm my nerves. Making my way to the front desk, I found a gruesome scene in Pam's office. There was blood everywhere, no bodies, just a lot of blood and signs of a struggle. "Hello?" the word almost got caught in my throat. I grabbed my cell phone and noticed Mike had texted me back he simply said "Not Good" I had finally reached a healthy level of panic at this, because all the blood, the strange happenings it truly was Not Good. I dropped my bags and ran to the front office while calling Pam's cell.
No Answer
I don't know why but I had decided to keep the front door locked until I could figure out what was going on. I logged onto the camera system here at work, searching for some explanation. In the videos I watched as a very strange homeless man staggered up to the front desk. Pam was surprised by something in the man's face, because she jumped back into the wall, and grabbed a phone. The man had began trying to pull his limp body onto the counter to get at her. She put her hand out as if to tell him to stop. There is no sound in our video system, so I couldn't tell what she was saying. The man stopped as if understanding what she had told him, he looked at her and looked at the counter, then down the length of the counter to where it opens. She looked really scared at this man, She must have been robbed I was telling myself as she started to run towards the back room, I watched the man stagger behind her as she knocked things down in front of him to try to stop his pursuit, she ran out of the scene and off the cameras view. My hands were shaking as I attempted to zoom in on the mans face, I could almost see it, when the power went out. It honestly frightened me, I was not expecting it to do that, that is when I heard a shuffling from the back room.
Slowly I peeked around the corner, and sighed with relief when I saw Pam had tripped on some of the stuff she had pushed out of the way, "What happened? Are you...Ok?" I asked as she struggled to pull her limp body off the ground, at the sound of my voice she snapped to attention and looked at me with lifeless eyes. Her face was bleeding, she was missing parts of her cheek revealing white leering teeth, that she snapped at me and released a bone chilling shriek. "Oh Fuck" Was all I could get through my paralyzed lips, I knew I had to run I had to get away, but I couldn't move I couldn't stop looking into her blank eyes. She threw herself towards me, falling again, thats when I noticed she was missing her legs! "Oh Fuck, Oh Shit!" I knew I needed to run, jumping over her I ran back towards the safety of my car, the safety of my life. I grabbed my bags that I had left at Pam's office door and almost ran right into the man that had frightened Pam so much. Now I could why she had been scared, he was missing one eye, and had blood all down the front of him, he was carrying a severed leg, Pam's leg. I choked out a wild scream, and pushed him into one of the huge laundry baskets running towards the back door. I could hear him grunting and struggling to pull himself out of the basket, and Pam pulling herself along the hallway between the offices, and the laundry room. She moaned as if every movement still pained her. I yanked the back door open blinding myself with the afternoon sun and rushed towards my car. I threw myself into the front seat and started my car. Reaching for my seat belt, the stress of the events I had just witnessed all hit me. I began to cry but was interrupted by one of the housekeepers, only this housekeeper was missing an arm, and had the same sightless eyes as Pam. Screaming I shoved the car in reverse. I didn't even look when I pulled out. I was too busy looking at the zombies that were stumbling after my car as I turned around and kicked rocks at them heading towards home. I grabbed my phone and called my brother. It range once...Twice...and on the third ring he picked up "Hello?" He sounded like he was out of breath like he had been running. "Thank god you are alive! There are fucking zombies here!" I could hear him laughing as he said "There have been fucking zombies here since last week, where have you been?" At this his phone lost service. "Hello? HELLO?" I was panicking at this point. I had never really thought about what a zombie apocalypse could do to my psyche. I felt like I had lost touch on what was really happening. I had to calm myself down, so I could come up with a plan. I pulled to the side of the road, and pulled my new shipment of spice out of its envelope. It wasn't much, but just a little Thunderphuk Chronic, could calm an elephant down. I loaded my little mini pipe, that hung on my key chain and took a good hit. Now under normal circumstances I would never smoke and drive, but seeing as how everyone is dead, there is no one to worry about hitting.

Survival

I could feel the fear and panic ebb from my mind as the euphoria of the smoke crept in. I had to go and get my mother and find somewhere safe for her. Then I had to go find my Little sister Artesia, and my brother Mike. They both live south of me, and they both live in highly populated areas. I needed weapons, and I needed supplies. I put my car back into drive and headed towards the local pawn shop and the local gun shop. The town was in chaos now, it seems that even when people are sick they still go to church for fear of the lord. It seemed ironic now that all these good Mormons were burning inside their church. I heard an explosion from somewhere inside the church as it started to collapse in a pile of rubble and flaming zombies. I could see people running from the flesh eaters, and masses of the undead feasting on the living. It was pretty horrifying to see. I pulled up to Clarence's Gun and Pawn, he always has cool older guns and well just cool guns. The door was open, and a small handful of young men were grabbing as many guns as they could carry, they all stopped to look at me as I walked in as if expecting me to be undead. "We aren't stealing these." One of the young men looked at me hopefully. "It's ok because I am." I told them as I grabbed a 12 gage shotgun from one of the gun racks. They all chuckled and went back to what they were doing. I found a 9mm and .45 that I liked and a good belt to hold them on. It had extra slots for my shotgun shells and extra spots for clips for my pistols and the AK-47 I had found. I also grabbed myself a camping hatchet from the upstairs sporting goods area. I made my way back downstairs to see the last of the young men leave and head for the gun store. I followed suit yelling after them, "Hey wait up, safety in numbers and shit." They all laughed as they stopped and waited for me to catch up. "I'm James." the young man who was worried I was going to turn him in for stealing guns held his hand out to me. Shaking his hand I told him my name, and told him my master plan for survival. "Well..." he looked at me thoughtfully, "I guess I ain't doing anything better, do you mind if I travel with you?" I searched his face to see if he was joking, but he looked dead serious and a little hopeful. "Sure, I wouldn't mind the company." I said after a few minutes pause. The gun shop showed less promise than the pawn shop, there were zombies in there, lots of zombies, and the pawn shop didn't have any ammo. We hid just outside looking in through the broken front window, "So what's the plan?" James asked looking at me with wide frightened eyes. I thought for a moment and pulled out my pipe. "You are getting high?!" James looked at me and then down at the pipe. "Yea" I said taking a big hit and handing it to him with the lighter. He looked at it for a moment then took a little hit. Coughing he handed my pipe back to me as I stood up, exhaled and yelled "Hey over here come and get me you stupid zombie fucks!" All the zombies in the shop turned and began to stagger after me. "Alright go get some bullets and come kill these mother fuckers so I can get some ammo too." I began slowly backing away from the shop leading the staggering moaning undead out into the street. As soon as the last zombie drug itself from the shop the, James and the others ran in grabbing as much ammo for their chosen weapons as they could. A young man with wild curly brown hair was the first to come running out of the shop, firing off rounds from an all black AK-47.  He fired almost a full clip into the chest of one of the zombies. It severed its body in half leaving this zombie crawling towards him dragging its entrails behind it. He fumbled with his gun trying to get it reloaded, he began backing away, but tripped and fell on the curb. He began to scream, he closed his eyes and looked the other way holding his hands out in front of him as if to hold the bloodthirsty monster at bay. I grabbed my hatchet, running between zombies ducking and weaving I jumped, swung my hatchet severing the half corpses head clean off its shoulders. I grabbed his gun and shoved the clip in turning and shooting the remaining zombies in the head. Breathing heavily, I sat down heavily next to the kid, and handed him his gun back. He stuttered but I think I heard the words "Thanks". I pulled out my pipe took a hit and handed it to the kid, "I'm Amber" I said as I exhaled. He took the pipe gratefully and took a huge hit "Chad, but my friends used to call me Giggles..." he trailed off looking up at the cloudless blue sky, "or at least they used to..." I patted him on the shoulder, and got up to go find myself some ammo. "Are you ok?!" James ran over to me checking my body for wounds. I shook him off saying "Yea, but I need to get some ammo, beheading is tough work." I laughed at this, and started looking for ammo for my guns of choice.
I said goodbye, to Giggles and the other young men, and headed back towards my car with James. "Ok what do we know about these creatures?" I said scanning the world around us for dangers. "Well if they are anything like the movies, you have to shoot them in the head, or kill the head." James said uncertainly. "Alright lets try something" I said making my way towards a zombie that was across the street from my car. I took the safety off my shotgun and aimed for the zombies legs, it blew one of them to bits knocking the zombie down. It was still for a moment as if it had passed on, but then it started to move again. Its movements were mechanical, almost as if they were not really the person they were, but a shell of what they used to be. I remembered the same movement, from my step mother when she would get really drunk and take her pain pills. It was like the lights were on but nobody was home. I pushed the zombie onto its back with the barrel of my gun and aimed for its chest. It Blew a hole the size of my fist in the zombies chest, but it kept on trying to get at me. "Alright, already." James said shooting the zombie in the head, and ending its life as a flesh eating undead being. James looked upset, like seeing the zombie in pain, or what a zombies perception of pain is, hurt him. He turned away from me to hide his eyes "I don't like the idea of them suffering, they were once our town's people." He sounded very emotional at this. "I'm sorry." I turned him around and looked into his cold blue eyes. I could see pain there, as if his day was as bad if not worse than mine. Who knows what he had to go through to get to this point in his life. He was a survivor, we all were now.