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Post by nina on Mar 26, 2013 3:34:07 GMT -6
Chapter 1 - ANOTHER 9 TO 5
Beep, beep, beep screams the alarm. Another nine
to five day. The sun wasn’t even up yet. ‘Who gets up this early’ she
thinks to herself as she climbs out of bed taking a moment to look back
at her sleeping log husband Sebastian. There could be a nuclear
explosion in their back yard and he still wouldn’t wake up. She has her
standard beside side table alarm clock which he gave her as a Christmas
gift on their first Christmas as husband and wife. Her cellphone is
set to vibrate as a light nudge to get her out of dream land to be just
awake enough to reach over and press on its touch screen display to hit
the snooze button a couple times before this bed side alarm fires off.
The third alarm was their 20” L.G. LCD television mounted on the wall
facing them while they sleep. They usually use it to settle down to go
to sleep. The tv has an auto off feature set for 12 midnight and an
auto on feature set for 10 minutes before her cellphone buzzes. Why
three alarms? She has no idea. Waking up to cartoon tv shows at 5:00 in
the morning and rolling over back to sleep for 10 minutes before the
cellphone starts buzzing, and hitting that snooze button a couple more
times before the final trumpet call of the bedside alarm fires of
yelling at her to GET UP! She doesn’t get to sleep in very often. Once
a week pretty much, and today wasn’t a sleep in day. She still had a
couple days left before her sleep in day. She begins work in a little
over an hour. She gets up with enough time to physically and mentally
wake up by spending some time on the computer looking up digital video
content via movies, cartoons and other such fun entertainment for the
little tech nerd she considers herself.
Giving herself a long
satisfying stretch as her eyes let go of Sebastian, she gets her house
coat on and heads to the bathroom, the first visible door outside the
bedroom. She ‘empties the tank’ and washing her mouth out with a couple
sips and spits of tap water in a small red coca cola themed cup, she
heads downstairs to the kitchen following a couple of very dim lights
plugged into the wall outlets in select locations, at the top of the
stairs, the bottom of the stairs, and one beside the light switch. She
turns the kitchen light on hearing the sounds of the wind blowing
outside their old country home. This was the second house they looked
at in their house hunt about 6 months before their wedding a little over
5 years ago. They looked at two apartments. One standard and one
up-scaled loft. The loft teased their eyes heavily but would have cost
nearly as much as a newlyweds first time house anyway..so they decided
to hold off. They had a small two bedroom apartment reserved for them
if they couldn’t find a house. But as it turned out, a really good deal
pretty much fell right in their laps one day when Sebastian felt like
taking a scenic route one day. They were going to visit friends and took
a left rather than a standard right. It was a very small town they
drove past time and time again but never took the time to look at. And
they were glad they did. Very quiet and polite community full of
families with children. They knew they wanted children one day, and
this seemed like a great place to work toward that.
This house
was at the far end of a dirt road. One of the only locations of its
kind. All the other houses were on the main road. So the fact that
this house was off the main road and fairly hidden appealed to both of
them. It was a pretty old house and came with a lot of pretty old
appliances. But a newlywed couple saw these old appliances as treasured
new appliances. They all worked just fine and that saved them hundreds
or thousands of dollars, and somehow they complimented the house very
well. There was plenty of room for guests and with their custom sound
system she made, being the nerd she is, they could listen to very loud
music or very loud movies or video games and wouldn’t disturb anyone.
They’ve even risked a couple back yard parties with loud music and
didn’t hear a single complaint from the neighbours. The wood burning
stove was fun and romantic for the newlyweds. There was a small forest
in their backyard which was part of their lot, so they were free to chop
down trees for firewood. They saved lots of money on heating bills as
well as planting a small garden in their large backyard. The two worked
very hard the last 5 years to maintain their little 3 bedroom house
with great plans of renovations to make it a better house. The greatest
advantage of the house was that it was private and worked very well for
their needs. The only real disadvantage of the house was the
maintenance. Seasonal and standard house maintenance. But, they made
it work. They loved their house and still loved each other very much
and were working very well together to begin the next stage in life.
Getting
to the kitchen, she opens the fridge, double checking the lunch she had
made the night before and then reaching for the milk, she quickly pours
herself a bowl of cereal throwing in some small frozen fruit and takes a
seat on her large computer chair to scan the internet for anything
interesting. Time fly’s fast, like it always does, and before long she
must get ready for work. Getting her uniform on and packing her lunch
up she leaves a yellow sticky note on the TV screen of the bedroom
reading; ‘have a good day sleepy head. See you tonight. I love you!’
She
gets into her 'work car' on this warm spring day. The sun was just
starting to rise in the distance making a rainbow of colours in the
sky. They have the ‘family car’ which is a 2004 red mazda sport. They
really liked the car when they saw it. The final decision in buying the
car was when the sales representative answered yes to her big question;
“Will it hold three baby seats?”.
They had this car for the
first 4 years of their marriage sharing and taxiing each other around
for whatever needs there may have been. Then, in the last year or so,
they got a good tip from a friend on a used car someone was selling for
an amazing deal. After a couple days of looking at the car and working
out their budget, and figuring out how much it would cost to get it
'road worthy' they decided to get it. The car was in excellent
condition considering the price. The car was taken to several
mechanic’s garages for hardware consideration, and each mechanic gave it
an A-plus. The seller was going through rough times and selling it in
desperate need for funds. It was a deal the young couple couldn't pass
up.
She pulls out of their dirt driveway leaving the house and
their 'family car' behind and heads down the longer dirt laneway. This
laneway called Mathers Lane was named after the first house built on
this long dirt road, which the couple knew as "Mr. Mathers". He built
his house at the end of this laneway back in the early 1900's. A few
years later, one of his kids built the second house a very short walk
from his own, which he later moved out of to move on to bigger and
better things, leaving the house vacant for a number of years, under the
ownership of Mr. Mathers. Mr. Mathers later rented it to someone who
didn't take proper care of it and didn't use it for its intended
purposes. Mr. Mathers got curious over the years as he began to notice
regular human traffic at the house. Mr. Mather's house rests on a
slight hill just outside the backyard, some ten yards or so from the
young couple's attached garage. At first, the regular traffic of people
appearing from time to time staying for minutes or hours didn't trigger
any alarms with Mr. Mathers. This was until the original house owner
dropped by to see his father, Mr. Mathers one beautiful summer day.
Father and son talked about the house for a little while. Mr. Mather's
ignorance about certain habbits of young people made him oblivious about
what was truly going on in the house. The tennants never missed a
rental payment. Never made a peep, sound, complaint. There was always
at least two cars in the driveway, which could easily hold as many as 10
cars in some kind of tetris pattern up the side of the house, and that
doesn't count parking along the wide dirt road hugging the side of the
over-grown plant life lining the entire dirt road down to the main paved
road.
Mr. Mather's son convinced his father to make a phone
call to simply take a peek at the house. Not exactly a big mistake, but
it was a little too much action for the aging and retired Mr. Mathers
and his tiny wife. They either weren't at home or didn't notice when
the first police cruiser appeared at the home to knock at the front door
to ask questions, but the did notice when two large moving vans
appeared and within a couple quick hours the house was completly
evacuated. It remained empty for a couple more years until the young
couple made a quick phone call and received 'the dime tour' of the
house. It had been cleaned up a fair bit, the police told Mr. Mathers.
Apparently the previous renters had been growing a great deal of
illegal drugs of all kinds. The cold and moist 'duneon' basement was a
perfect environment for marijuana amung other heavier drugs. While the
previous renters had a good couple years of silence, they were
apparently fully prepared for an emergency escape. There were no holes
in the walls for pictures, nor any square discolourations where a
picture might have been for a while then removed from the wall. There
was next to no dust in the whole house, considering the house was in the
country. Very few insects (which is very common in the country). The
house was just right for the two of them. They made a quick decision
and wrote the cheques. They made a couple reasonable 'under the table'
agreements with Mr. Maders regarding yard maintenance. He owned a
number of very large farm machines which could do the work of 'standard'
yard equipment in much shorter time. A large riding lawn mower, as
opposed to a push mower the two had. And a large tractor with a very
large snow blower and shovel on either end (with plenty other
attachments stored away for various use). They agreed to pay him $50
per month for full yard service. The only thing they technically had to
do was put their own garbage outside, but that was hardly difficult.
The
quick 1 minute drive going approximately 40 km/h. She turns left as
usual and begins the 10 minute drive to work. She passes several houses
on both sides of the road. Large victorian houses which were mostly
newer builds, within the last decade or two. Not like her own house
which is starting to approach it's 100 year anniversary. This was just
another nine to five shift. She gets to work at the regular time, and
after locking the car, she heads into the large building. She passes
dozens of cars already parked owned by the night shift mostly, and
others by those on her day shift which already got to work earlier than
she does. She enters through the main entrance and finds her way
through the labrynth of hallways and doors greeting a few people here
and there over hearing something about a car accident near by. It
obviously occured on a different road than the one she took. But then,
there were dozens and dozens of ways to get to this building. She gets
to her locker and equiping her work belt, her pen, making sure her make
up is just right (though very minimal) and making sure her hair is tied
back in the standard pony tail she usually has it in. She pops back a
small piece of gum and heads to what is called 'the battery room' to get
her scanner, the gun looking device with as many buttons on the top as a
standard television remote, and a screen the size of a standard smart
phone, and heads to the main office. She gets her clip board and a
print off of her daily check list and after taking a drink of water from
the water fountain, she greets a few of the guys who are early for
their shift and begins on the 'boring' part of her job.
Her job
would be on paper as "Inventory Control". Or "I.C." as the house
term. One of her longer and time consuming jobs was to walk in and out
of the long tall isles of warehouse products stacked on skids and
wrapped in industrial strength plastic wrap, scanning slots to ensure
the right product is in the proper slot. Also to ensure empty slots are
supposed to be empty. There are lots of aspects of her job she
enjoys...this one was the least favourite. But, she always made it a
point to get it done first so it was out of the way. It is quiet, it is
lonely and it is slow. So, she takes the first two or so hours to
herself as she slowly walks up and down the isles stopping every couple
steps to scan a bar code with her gun, confirm information on her screen
with the key pad and moves on to the next one. She has tried to
complete it fast in the past, but it ends up creating minor but annoying
errors. So, she does what she must do and takes her time and do it
properly. She gets to work around 6:40 am or so and by the time she
gets herself ready and begins her shift, it's about 6:50am. It gives
her that 5 to 10 minutes in the morning to catch up with anyone she
wants to have a small chit chat with before the days runs away on
itself. Today seemed like every other day. She tried her best to keep
her watch under the sleeve of her thin long sleeve shirt to help make
the time pass a little faster. She tries to time each page to about 30
minutes as she scans, confirms, and checkmarks the little box on the
sheet matching the product ID. She runs into a couple guys from time to
time she catches up with. Movies, video games, music, the odd joke and
she moves on. Today was an especially quiet day. She hadn't run into
anyone in the first three hours which was pretty rare. She didn't hear
any machines driving anywhere which was even more rare. By the time she
had completed nearly six sheets, knowing she was done with the boring
job for a while, she finds herself near the opening of one of the longer
isles.
Entering the clear and open area she notices no
machines, forklifts or 'Cats' are operating at all. No one is loading
the trucks, no one is walking around, no janitors can be seen cleaning
up the odd pieces of debris. She stands still momentarily to focus on
her hearing and still, she hears nothing. Getting even more curious,
she heads toward the one place there is always someone. The office! She
was pretty much done her inventory sweep and first break was creeping
up quick. Walking from one end of the warehouse to the other side would
easily take 10 minutes. Maybe 5 minutes if you sped walked. She finds
her way to the walkway of the loading dock. She sees a dozen or so
abandoned sit down fork lift's, which wasn't entirely uncommon to see.
Something had indeed caught everyone's attention and it started to
attract her curiosity. Had someone gotten into an accident or dropped a
huge amount of product that had everyone gathered? She slowly began
walking faster down the walk way and notices one loading door open. An
open loading door was technically a "no no" unless a supervisor is
present, and she saw no supervisor. Transport trucks are to back in and
once they are backed in, the weight of the truck presses against a
large plate on the dock door which triggers a red light to turn green on
the inside of the dock, inside the building, which signals to the
loader driving the fork lift to open the door and begin loading it. The
dock doors are supposed to be electronically locked unless the
transport truck triggers the plate. Perhaps this was where everyone had
gone. She began to seriously consider there may be an accident. But
why no loud commotion?
The closer she got, the more of a mystery
there was. She looks over her shoulder and listens intently and looks
back to the open door, and still, no one to be seen or heard. She gets
to the open door, seeing no one. That is until she begins to hear what
sounds like a gurgling cough. Her eyes sway back and forth across the
open area. Lots of transport trucks parked. None moving. Then she
hears it again, a louder grunt and cough. Taking an extra step closer
to the door's opening, she finally sees the source of the sound. There
was ED Winker. An elderly man who has been working here since the
beginning. A very respected and hard working man who everyone knows
here. He was lying on his back, his body covered in blood while he
himself was lying in a pool of his own blood. Crouched over him was
another unidentifyable person in what looked like a blue and black plad
shirt with black pants. No one she recognized but a possible truck
driver. She lets out a loud gasp and yells out, "HOLD ON!" as she
begins to crouch down to lower herself to the ground to help. The sound
of her voice triggers something in this mystery man who looks up at her
with a loud growl, Ed's intestines hanging from its mouth. At one
sight of this she loses her grip, her one foot which was bracing to
slide off the edge now pushes her back and slips landing on her butt.
Everything in her hands falls on the floor. Two dirty hands appear and
grab her foot pulling her down while the dirty mouth of this crazed
bloody maniac bites down on her steel toed work boots. She pulls back
with her two hands and other foot in a quick match of tug of war and
slides free. She gets several feet away from the door's opening when
the bloodied face barely appears over the bottom lip of the open door
growling and biting out at her, its arms waving frantically trying to
climb up but with nothing to grab hold of. Staring to grab her thoughts
for a moment she sees a man appear from behind a truck walking toward
the open door. She screams out for him to run away until she notices he
seems to be walking as though his feet weigh twice as much as the rest
of his body. Like he's struggling to keep his balance. Was he drunk?
His face and hands and most of his clothes were covered in blood. It
takes in a few seconds to get to the doors opening as a third appears
crawling from under another truck. She gets to her feet fast and begins
a fast sprint to the office door. As the door comes in view, she sees
Frank, one of the supervisors. He has the magnetic door to the back
offices open slightly. He looks back and forth until he finally sees
her running at full speed. He waves her down calling for her to hurry
up. Was something chasing her? Or was her services in need? She
didn't want to bother looking behind her as about half way between her
and Frank, another man appears from behind a couple large stacks of
boxed product. She slows quickly in her footsteps to a stand still.
Frank suddenly drops his look of urgency for a look of loss as he stares
at her, while she stares at the flimsy man who is now walking slowly
toward her. Despite Franks calls for her to run, she stares at this
man, his head seems to be limping down near his right shoulder. The
opposite side of his face is pressed in as though it were smashed by
something. By all rights its neck should have been broken...but it
keeps walking.
It walks closer and closer to her, struggling to
walk as it seems very excited to see her. She doesn't recognize him at
all and doesn't understand why he's approaching her. He gets within
arms reach not responding to her look of fear or any of her threats to
leave her alone.
"This is you LAST WARNING!" She cries out
taking a couple steps back. The man takes yet another leaning swipe at
her. She takes a gentle breath as time seems to slow a little. She
holds her arm up, blocking the on coming swing and using the other hand,
tight with a strong fist to punch the man directly in the sternum as an
attempt to wind the man and warn him to back off. Though to her
surprise, it has no effect on him. Like hitting a punching bag. All it
does it knock him back a step from the pressure.
"I'm a red
belt in Tae Kuan Do, I'm not afraid to hurt you if you don't back of
NOW!" She commands. He takes another step toward her. She considers
all the warnings she's given him, and tired of the conflict and
confusion, she twists to her side slightly and kicks his knee cap very
hard. She hears a loud snap like the breaking of a thick bunch of tried
pasta, his feet sweep underneath him and the man falls, banging his
head off the side of a large metal safety rail. Its head intents and
cracks and he falls limp hitting the floor as blood from his head slowly
oozes out onto the floor. Frank, looking wide eyed. He can't beleive
what he's just seen, waves her to the door. She finally reaches the
door as something catches Frank's eyes from behind. She turns just as
she's in the doorway, and sees the two men have now found a way to climb
up from the loading door and are slowly heading toward them. Frank
gently but assertively pushes her into the hallway while shutting the
door. It shuts with a loud CLANK as the magnetic lock takes over. He
tries to open it a couple times with no avail.
"They wont be
able to get through without a magnetic key", Frank says holding up his
security key. He walks past her asking her to follow him. "Are you
ok?" He asks, she responds with a nod which he doesn't see with her back
to her. The two pass a few doors; an windowless office, the nurses
office, male and female bathroom, another door leading to a staircase to
the second floor and finally the back office. Frank opens the door and
invites her in and closes the door behind them.
"Nina," Frank says walking past her, "Have a seat...we're dealing with something right now."
Nina,
resting against the door, looks into cluttered room, at first glance
sees about six people and someone on the table. She closes her eyes and
takes a deep breath. Opening her eyes again she finally does a head
count. She sees two office people, Debora and Kyle, both sitting on
plastic chairs. Ted and Paul, who are higher ranked supervisors are
frantic trying to get someone on the phone. Kelly stands beside the
table holding the hand of Joanna who lies on the table breathing heavy
with a cloth wrapped around her arm soaked with blood.
"Some
maniac bit Joanna's arm. I hit him over the head with a broken piece of
wood but he got right up and came after me," Kelly says then nodding
over to Kyle, "Kyle happened to be right there and the two of us pulled
Joanna back here".
"How long ago?" Nina asks.
"Just after shift
started," Kelly answers. Nina calculates in her head she would have
been just started working at that point and wouldn't have heard any of
it.
"Where is everyone else?" Nina asks. Kelly shrugs as Joanna goes
from heavy breathing to sudden silence and a very slow exhail as her
body goes limp. Kelly stares at her calling her name out a couple times
as Debora and Kyle turn their attention to the now dead Joanna lying on
the table.
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Post by ZombieHero on Mar 26, 2013 19:17:31 GMT -6
So glad you brought this with you
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Post by nina on Mar 26, 2013 19:22:30 GMT -6
Zombie hero
thanks! I've actually got some good plans for this. I'm planning on submitting a new chapter each week (typically Saturday nights - Sunday mornings). I've already finished chapter 8 and have pretty awesome plans for where it's going.
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Post by nina on Mar 26, 2013 19:25:35 GMT -6
Chapter 2 - NOT ANOTHER 9-5
Nina lets out an exhausted sigh leaning
against the door as whimpers from Kelly begin to break the silence in the
room. Debora and Kyle both look up to
the sobbing young blonde in her torn jeans and dirty baggy sweat shirt
partially covered by her neon orange reflector safety vest.
“Kelly...” Debora says rising to her feet
and walking around the table to comfort her.
“What the fuck is going on around here!”
Kelly screams. Ted and Paul turn their attention to Kelly who’s cries are past
a simple whimper but a full out wail.
Paul, the highest ranking supervisor on the shift gets to his feet. He walks slowly to Kelly wearing his standard
black work pants and black golf shirt.
He also rests a hand on Kelly to comfort her as the two ladies hug. Nina hears Kyle offer her the now vacant
seat. She looks over to him, his long
hair tied up in a pony tail stretching just past his shoulders. His mouth curled up in a polite smile
stretching his brown mustache. Typical
dirt on his face and hands, from moving dirty boxes on the shipping dock. She slowly shakes her head looking back
through the window her head was resting on.
She sees nothing down either end of the dark hallway.
“Nina,” She hears Paul’s voice call out to
her. She turns to meet his eyes. “What happened out there?”
Nina tells her quick five minute
story. Paul goes wide eyed and
disappears back into his office followed by a series of foul words. Nina’s curiosity gets the best of her as she
walks past Kyle, who’s still looking up at her and watches her pass. She enters the office, which is normally
invitation only. The only people who
ever get the chance to step into this office is if you have a very important
issue to resolve. Be it an accident, a
problem with another co-worker, or want to talk serious business of some
sort. All other items of interest go
through the immediate supervisors. Ted,
who’s still trying to get someone on the phone, was one of those
supervisors. While it felt rebellious
and illegal to walk through this door she’s only ever peered through and seen
people chatting in, she soon finds her way standing an arm’s reach behind
Paul. He leans against a ledge staring
out the large window. The window is
about six or so feet from ground level.
Which means none of those things would be able to bang this window
broken and get in. Besides that, there
is nothing of interest near the window which they can see. Taking a stronger look, Nina looks beyond
Paul and out to the parking lot filled with transport trucks for the most part
and a few of these weird people. They
walk as though their feet weigh too much or as though they were carrying too
much. Either way, it was very obvious
that something was wrong with them.
Besides the fact that they want to bite you when they get close to you.
“What are they?” Paul says out loud. Not to anyone in particular. Maybe just talking to himself.
“Paul,” Ted calls out. Paul walks in haste to Ted, nearly knocking
into Nina. In a strange reflex Nina
hasn’t felt in a while, she finds herself quickly backing up before Paul gets
close enough. Within seconds, a flood of
memories playback in her head of the years she spent in self-defense
courses. She first tried the ever
traditional Karate which didn’t work out.
She tried it for the “one month free”, but felt the instructor was
either too pushy or something else. She
couldn’t put her finger on it but he seemed to be on an addenda of some
sort. As though he were trying to
recruit too many people at once and trying to make them into master ninjas
within that time and expecting them to absolutely sign up afterwards. That didn’t float well with her and she
didn’t even make it to her last free week.
The instructor called her cell phone multiple times a day demanding an
explanation. She finally went in person
to explain the classes weren’t what she was looking for, even though she was
slightly enjoying them. But the pace was
way too fast and she also didn’t like how aggressive and angry the instructor
always seemed. Despite multiple offers
he gave her on the spot. Discounts,
“give new memberships, get one month free”, and other such offers which she
agreed were quite generous...she was still uneasy about it all.
It was telling this story to a friend when
she was recommended to another self-defense class called TAE KWON DO. She had never heard of it before, but after
going with a friend for a couple classes to watch on the side benches, she was
almost sold after the first class. She
was able to negotiate a free month with a refer a friend promotion and after
that free month she signed 6 cheques and handed them over. The classes were about half the size of the
karate class. The pace was much more
comfortable. You progressed as you passed tests. She was so motivated and tried very hard that
she found herself climbing the belts one by one. She went to a couple tournaments. The first one she had to pay for, and she did
so well, her instructor offered to pay her next one. While the challenges and fights were pretty
fun. She won, she lost, (won more than
she lost), but she had a LOT of fun!
But life catches up on you and soon other
priorities begin to surface and despite some generous offer, she had to decline
future tournaments, though she maintained her weekly classes. She managed to get up to a RED BELT, seconded
only to the glorious black belt. She progressed
well and really enjoyed it. But soon,
life became too busy and she found herself disappointing people who invited her
to parties or other such events. She
couldn’t be in multiple places at once and it broke her heart to have to say
“no, I’m sorry, I can’t...I have something going on that night”. She was involved in a homeless shelter, Tae
Kwon Do, volunteered at a troubled youth center. She was involved in multiple Church events
through the week; yard work, painting, cleaning, organising events,
volunteering at an elderly home down the street with the youth group of the
Church. She really enjoyed being busy,
busy, busy, until she began to notice the number of times she was asked to go
out with friends and she had to say no.
“But can’t you do that another night?”
They’d ask. And after more and more
“No..”, she finally snapped into reality to recognize some things may have to
go. They weren’t easy decisions, but one by one over time one volunteer
operation after another slowly slipped away.
From a weekly event, to a bi-weekly, then once a month then every other
month. She started finding time to catch
up with friends and found many of them had boyfriends and girlfriends. She herself had more than one offer. She had
gone on dates, even in the busiest times of her life. But she wasn’t interested in much more than a
friend. That wasn’t as satisfying to the
date. She gave up some pretty good
opportunities and looking back sometimes she wonders if and how it could have
been different. And that’s how she met
Sebastian.
Her heart stops. Sebastian!
He had a day off today, but did he know what was going on? She immediately reached in the lower pocket
of her orange safety vest and pulls out her phone. No texts, no messages, no missed calls. She
presses CONTACTS and scrolls down to his name and presses the CALL button. It rings for 30 seconds and the voicemail
starts up.
“Sebastian...are you there? Are you safe?
Do you know what’s going on? There is some seriously weird stuff going
on outside. Please prepare some safety
stuff for the basement room. Something
tells me we’re going to need it. Call me
back as soon as you can. I love
you!” She hangs up.
Somehow in her moment of daze, while
re-living some of her past in seconds, she now hears Ted’s voice in the other
office.
“Sounds like there are more and more
reports of this all over. There were a
few calls this morning. Car crashes and
more. Then talk about some crazy people
attacking other people. They couldn’t
talk long. Their lines are packed. Took me half an hour just to get someone, and
she didn’t even help me much. Then the
line was disconnected. Dunno if she did
it or if I did it or what...”
Suddenly all attention is disrupted as
light moans and groans are heard in the main room. Kelly, who is frantically crying on Debora’s
shoulder wipes her eyes as she slowly turns to look at Joanna. Her chest is slowly lifting up and down,
though her body remains motionless.
Kelly, releasing herself from Debora steps over to the table. All eyes are on the table.
“Jo?
Joanna?” Kelly nearly whispers.
She leans in, resting her hands against Joanna’s arm. Joanna’s eyes open to a milky white, her
pupils barely visible. Kelly begins to
call out to Joanna in an excited whimper. She starts to giggle and sound
relieved and leans in farther for a generous hug. There are mixed faces among the room. Ted, Paul, Kyle and Debora ...partially
uneasy and slightly relieved. Kyle pipes
up,
“Uhh..Kelly,” He says slowly getting to his
feet about to say something else when Kelly suddenly lets out an ear piercing
scream. Her whole body tightens up. Blood begins to free flow from Kelly’s neck
like water escaping from an eve’s drop.
Everyone in the room takes multiple steps back, some banging into things
on the wall. The noise catches Joanna’s
attention and she lets go of Kelly who’s gargling screams turn some stomach’s,
besides the view of her bleeding from a half exposed neck. The on-lookers don’t know whether to help her
or run. Run past the table with the
bloodied Joanna now in a sit up position.
Joanna is the first to dart toward the door and in her panic, misses the
growing puddle of blood, slips and falls hard on the floor and screams in pain
from the impact. She begins to crawl
while whimpering and crying toward the door.
Joanna finds Kyle first and without warning, the 200 pound 60 year old
woman leaps off the table, pushing the table closer to the door and lunges at
Kyle with the power of an Olympic wrestle.
Kyle has no time to respond, and freezes in the commotion. Joanna bites hard into Kyle’s cheek, he
screams in pain and his body goes limp.
His screams die immediately as the force of the large woman knocks him
down, smashing his head off the counter and flops to the floor. More blood spills onto the floor as Joanna
begins biting hard, pulling mouthfuls of flesh from Kyle’s upper torso.
Ted and Paul scream in horror and run into
Ted’s office, joining Frank, screaming
for Nina to follow. Nina stands in a
daze staring at the horrific scene before her.
She doesn’t hear the door as it shuts hard, which distracts Joanna yet
again and she looks up to see Nina, standing in the middle of the doorway of
Paul’s large office. Joanna growls loud
springs to her feet and though she is only a few wide steps away from Nina, she
charges at her like a wild animal. Nina
somehow comes out of her daze to see the over sized Joanna, covered in blood,
her blubbery body bouncing like jelly.
Nina’s Tae Kwon Do trained mind comes back to her in an instant, despite
the number of years it’s been since she’s had to use it. Like taking a long break from riding a
bicycle, it’s a skill you never really lose, but just get a little rusty at
until you get back on it, Nina’s first reaction is to use both of her fists to
thrust hard into the woman’s chest but at the last second she realizes that
would be like punching a horse right now and wouldn’t do much good right now,
if anything. On a measure of desperate
action, she retaliates with lightning fast reflexes and windmill’s her arms
wide, blocking the fat woman’s out stretched arms reaching toward her. Nina swipes her arms fast and simultaneously
side steps out of Joanna’s tracks.
Joanna runs right past Nina and knocks into Paul’s large desk with a
loud bang, crash and grinding of the desk sliding on the ground the momentum
stopping as it hits against the wall.
Joanna screams loud, turns to face Nina again and a little slower this
time begins to hobble toward her. Nina
can’t see Ted and paul looking at her through the window of Ted’s office, but
they do see Kelly sit up slowly. She’s
pale and pasty looking and seems to head straight for Debora who is cowering
under the table.
Nina makes a quick decision realizing these
things don’t behave in the same way humans do.
They can not be reasoned with nor can they be communicated with. She has two options. TRY and subdue this very large woman, or do
the other less favourable option. Kill her.
As Joanna gets within kicking distance, Nina tenses her foot slightly
and with a quick flick of her knee aimed at Joanna’s knee, like a bow reaching
back and releasing, Nina kicks the side of Joanna’s knee. And with a grotesque crack and poping sound,
Joanna folds over herself and lands hard on the ground as Debora begins to
scream. Nina turns to see Kelly ripping
Debora’s stomache apart with her hands and mouth. Nina acts quickly recognizing the
pattern. Joanna seemed to change into
one of these things within minutes of her death. And while Kyle still lies still, Kelly also
turned within minutes. That meant Kyle
would come back any second. She turns to
Ted and Paul through the window who are obviously not willing to participate at
fighting back. She motions for them to
lock the door. She quickly runs to the
large rectangular table, her ancle suddenly grabbed by Kyle who looks at her
with milky white eyes. She yanks free
easily enough and grabs a metal knife from the counter and turning back to Kyle
as he tries to get to his feet groaning lightly. Nina kicks him quickly on the side of his
face knocking him to the floor with a hard thud. She points the knife blade straight to his
head as though it were a sniper rifle.
She reaches back behind her head and exhailing gently, she throws the
knife which spins a full 360 and sticks directly into Kyle’s eye socket and
sinks deep into his head. His body falls
limp.
Joanna growls as she begins to crawl very
slowly out of Paul’s office. Nina turns
to Kelly and Debora, Kelly still feeding on hands and knees. Nina walks quietly up to her and using her
foot, pressing down on Kelly, pinning her on the ground, and with a quick snap,
kicks her other foot against the back of Kelly’s neck, at the base of the
skull. Kelly is motionless. Counting down the minutes and seconds, Nina
drags the heavy table as best she can, tips it over, landing on the origin of
this carnage, on Joanna’s head. Joanna’s
movements slow, but still struggle. Ted
opens the door and using a baseball bat in his office, he pulls the table from
over Joanna and brings it down a couple times on her head until her body stops
moving.
“We gotta get out of here,” Ted
concludes. Nina looks back to Debora
just as Ted runs over smashing her head multiple times until it becomes nearly
unrecognizable.
The four head out into the hallway to see
some of the monsters who were chasing Nina clawing at the door Frank opened
up. They turn the other way heading to
the door leading upstairs.
Opening this door, they get to the second
floor where a large metal, windowless door stands shut, while the stairs keep
climbing to the third and final floor.
Frank approaches the door despite objection from Ted and Paul. Nina already on the first couple steps
heading up.
Frank puts his ear to the door and after a
moment he shrugs as though he hears nothing.
On the other side of that door were the offices. The ground floor was the warehouse, the
second floor was the offices and the third floor was the cafeteria and locker
rooms.
“It’s a heavy duty industrial metal
door…it’s meant to block out sound!” Ted points out as Frank presses his
magnetic pass on the black box hanging on the wall. Ted screams, “NO!” and begins to back away as
though he knows something no one else knows.
Sure enough, Frank is knocked back as the door flies open from the
weight of dozens and dozens of mangled office workers covered in blood and
missing chunks of their bodies flood out of the door way into the stairwell.
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Post by nina on Mar 26, 2013 19:27:58 GMT -6
CHAPTER 3 - THE ESCAPE
Frank is swallowed by the flood of dead pople pouring out of the doorway. It takes less than a few
seconds before they are over flowing on the landing and continue to pour
out. Paul, who hadn’t quite made it to
the landing yet turns to run back down the stairs, but is very quickly burried
in the bodies as they avalanche down the stairs. They begin to pile up and climb up stairs as
Ted and Nina being to race up the stairs, nearly escaping. They push hard with their legs and pull hard
with their arms on every step, grabbing the arm rails, using every ounce of
strenth they have. They finally make it
to the top of the stairs. The third
floor, cafeteria. The little black box
on the side of the wall, inches from the door handle has a little red light on
it. The LOCKED light. Ted hurries in his pockets for the magnetic
key but is unable to find it, as the dead people have now made it to the
landing just a dozen or so stairs behind them.
Their growls and screams and grunts echo in the stairwell like an audience
at an obnoxiously loud rock concert. The
sound is numbing to the ears. Ted beings
to panic and punch at the door, trying to kick the door knob. The window on the top part of the door has a
metal mesh in it. It would be impossible
to break it and get through it before this
mob behind them got to them. Nina
presses her hands in a couple pockets until she finally feels the flat plastic
card in one of her tummy pockets in her vest.
She presses her body against the wall, the magnetic energy transfers
through her vest to the black plate with a gentle beep. The light turns green, and Nina grabs the
door handle and pulls the door open slightly as Ted pushes her out of the way,
she hits the wall with a thud. Ted gets
the door open, and runs through. For a
moment, Nina is sandwiched between the door and the wall, the dead people
nearly up the stairs at this point. She
takes a gentle breath. Despite
everything her brain is trying to tell her…this is no time to panic.
The door is heavy, and if it shuts close again, it’ll
require the key again to open it. She
didn’t have time for that. Holding the
door handle tight, she swings around the door quickly, grabbing the other side
of the door handle with her free hand, using the momentum of the twist as leverage
as she kicks the closest dead phycho path dead in the chest which knocks it
back. But with the momentum of the other
dead climbing the stairs, they merely push him right back up. She manages to slidethrough the door opening
just as the multitude of dead beging to push against it. And though she herself is on the other side
of the door, her hand still holds the door knob, she is knocked to the ground
by the incredible force of the door shutting under the pressure of the bodies
pressing on hard. The door shuts loud
and while she stares at the window, while it gets darker and darker, with
dirty, partially bitten faces growling and biting at her through the glass, she
backs up slowly staring.
A moment later, she gets to her feet as she begins walking
to the large cafeteria when she begins to hear a gentle cracking sound. Looking to the door, the window on the door
begins to crack slowly. She realizes she
doesn’t have much time. The room she
stands in is a small dark room with a couple vending machines and an elevator
which goes to the other two lower floors.
A little farther on is the large cafeteria, which seems quiet. And she wonders where Ted went. She hastely but cautiously walks to the
opening to find about six dead people walking toward something she can’t quiet
see. They haven’t noticed her. Straight down the side of the room she is on
is a door leading to the locker room.
The locker room where she would take a different door to sneak
past. That must be where…
She pauses a moment and hears Ted’s voice coughing and
gaging. She finds a mop and leans it
against the wall on a 45 degree angle.
She kicks the lower part of the mop, breaking off the mop head. It doesn’t
attract the monsters. Taking this long
pointed make-shift spear. She slowly
heads toward the accumulating group huddled over what she can only figure is
frank. She gets behind one that hasn’t
gotten to the group yet and with a quick thrust, she stabs him through the base
of its skull. It falls instantly sliding
off the spear. The next closest is too far away. It has just reached the group and begins
eating the body on the floor. Ted’s
voice has stopped making noise.
On her count, there are seven fighting for a piece. She slowly approaches nearly ready to take
another out, when the sounds of her cell phone blasts off. Her heart skips a beat as the seven turn to
make eye contact. She swings hard at the
first, the closest skull to her. The
impact of the stick crushes its skull.
She swings the other end of the make shift staff across the face of
another. It whips back losing its balace
and falls over. The first to make it to
its feet gets stabbed through the eye, falling on two behind it.
“Gotta be quick,” she thinks to herself as she Golf club
swings another who got to their feet in the knee. Its knee snaps like a twig and it falls to
the ground causing another to stumble.
She quickly runs to the first fallen and thrusts the spear in its
skull. That’s five left. Four, just getting to its feet, she swings
hard to the back of its neck at the base of its skull. Its head twiches back with whiplash and a
loud snap as it falls to the floor.
Three lying on the ground struggling to get up. One by one she crushes their skulls with the
mop shaft. And with the final thrust,
she downs the dead man with the broken knee.
She breathes heavy for a moment making sure nothing is
moving. Coming back into reality, she
begins to hear the muffled but loud dead down the hallway behind her. She reaches to her phone which has stopped
ringing at this point. She trots gently
to the large windows covering the far wall over looking the parking lot. A few cars have ran into other objects, other
cars and more dead bodies than she thought she would see. Lots of more of these wobbly creatures. Blood plots and trails in random places.
Pulling her phone from the vest pocket, she sees Sebastian
has tried to call her twice and there are two voicemails. Without checking the voicemails, she calls
him back immedaitely. The phone rings a
couple times before he picks up.
“Nina?!” His paniced voice calls out on the other end
“Are you safe?” She answers.
“Am I safe?” Sebastian counters. “Are YOU safe?”
“Yes. I don’t know
what’s going on, but there are a lot of crazy people eating each other. I don’t understand.” Nina responds.
“The news is all over it.
It’s very chaotic out there,” Sebastian continues. Nina begins to hear more and more cracking
from the door in the hallway.
“Sebastian, go into the basement. Fill up the room with a week’s worth of
supplies. More if you can. I’m on my way home right now!” Nina begins to calculate how long it may take
to get to her car, then to get home.
Chances are if this parking lot is this bad, that means the roads may be
even worse. She has had to walk home
more than once. It sucked every single
time. She can do it in about an hour, a
straight walk. Chances are things would
delay that. “Gimme two hours tops.” She
says as he begins to say something which gets lost somewhere in her ear as an
over powering crash whips her around.
The growling gets louder as the dead pour into the cafeteria.
“Two hours!” She says
hanging up and puting the phone back in its pocket, sprinting at full force for
the door leading to the exit. Bursting
through the exit door, she finds herself in a long hallway she’s only been in a
couple times. One side of the wall
covered in company stuff stapled to a very large board spanning the entire
hallway. The other side of the wall, a
long cascade of windows providing strong natural light. At the far end of the hallway is a door
leading to a stairwell, which would take her directly outside to the parking
lot. Just before getting to that door,
are two other doors, leading to the locker rooms. Which was her first ‘private’ escape. But between her and these doors are two more
creatures. They notice her and start
hobbling toward her. She runs at the
first in a slight zig zag and with a baseball swing, she smacks it in the head,
knocking it over. She continues to run
and swings at the second, its arms reaching out to her. She snaps its wrists and makes it stagger
from the force of the hit. She kicks its
knee hard, sending it to the ground. She
sprints at near top speed coming to the door.
She presses hard opening it and to her shock, finds the stairwell
completely empty. The growls behind her
have passed through the cafeteria into the long hallway. She races down the stairs, floor by floor
hearing the echo’s of her footsteps banging on the stairs as she slowly gets to
the door at the bottom. She peers
through the window at the carnage. No
easy way to her car. She begins to
wonder if she will even make it to the car.
The burst at the top of the stairs alarms her. They’re coming!
Opening the door, she takes a few steps out scanning the
area for anything threatening, when when something catches her eye. A lone sit down fork lift. Its operator missing, but it’s still turned
on. No one near it, she darts for
it. Taking a seat, she puts it into gear
by pushing the primary level forward and pressing hard on the gas pedal. The machine revs up and punches forward. Nina swirves past obstacles and the dead,
hitting a couple in the ancle with the forks knocking them to the ground. The closer she gets to the main parking lot,
past the loading zone she more dead she sees.
She raises up the forks about 4 feet high and speeds on. The noise of the machine also attracts lots
of attention. She speeds up catching a
couple on the forks like shish kabob.
Then another, and then another.
The safety screen attached to the mast of the fork lift provides
sufficient safety from the reaching hands…but heavily disrupts her view. She sways a little to look past and between
the dead growling for her as she continues to avoid as many obstacles as
possible. She sees her car in the
distance. One of a few cars
untouched. Other cars are partially
driven and crashed into other cars or poles.
She now wonders how she is going to get out of the fork
lift. The moment she removed her foot,
the machine will activate the break and slow to a quick stop. With but moments to think, she pulls the make
shift spear from behind the seat and wedges it between the gas petal and the
roof of the fork lift. She slowly
calculates when she needs to jump. At
the speed she is going, she needs to get a good landing or she will seriously
hurt herself. Watching her car come up
closer and closer, she finally jumps for it.
She lands on her feet, but the momentum keeps her going and she falls
quickly. She hugs herself and rolls a
few times and eventually stops. She
takes a moment and gets to her feet. Very few dead are in this far part of the
parking lot. But that’s starting to
change thanks to the new commotion she made.
Looking down the parking lot, she has caught the attention of the
several dozen walking dead as they hobble toward her. Her left leg is stinging. Clutching the leg, she feels her keys. She must have landed on them.
She pulls her keys out and takes a gentle breath. It’ll be a couple minutes before these
creatures get to her. She has time, she
thinks to herself. She unlocks the door
and quickly gets in, locking herself in.
She turns the car on and puts it into gear just as the first dead man
makes contact with the car. Pressing
firmly on the gas pedal, the car begins moving and pulls out of the spot. She avoids obstacles yet again trying to
swirve out of the way of cars, the dead and other obstructions.
She must drive past the front door to get out of the parking
lot. While driving past, she sees the
flood of dead which were chasing her have already made their way out and are
covering the parking lot. She manages to
get out onto the main road, which is
also surprisingly empty. Taking
advantage of it, she hits the radio and heads home.
About half way home, she finds herself at the new
intersection and she stops the car immediately, and well before getting to the
intersection. The intersection is
completely smothered with cars and a chaotic scene of more dead…dozens of them
attacking a road littered with people in all directions. |
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Post by nina on Mar 26, 2013 19:29:17 GMT -6
CHAPTER 4 – The Fight To Get Home
The car hums gently, the brake pedal pressed in hard. If she stayed too long they would definitely
see her. She scan’s the area quickly and
notices the construction on the left side of the road. There is far less traffic down there. Living and dead.
She puts the car in drive and slowly drives over the grass. There is no curb on this road. Much like a high way, it turns from road to
rubble to grass. She drives softly to
mix amung the other cars. Mostly likely
owned by the construction crew. With the
car parked and no visible threat, she turns the car off and takes a moment to
see anything she needs. She looks for
her lunch then realizes she left it in the cafeteria back at the warehouse. Rolling her eyes at herself she quietly gets
out of the car and presses the lock button from the inside door and gently
shuts the door. The keys slide out of
her fingers and into her front left pant pocket, and she begins to tread
slowly. First thing’s first, she must
find a weapon. Based on her experience
with these things she understands there is no talking. They seem to want to kill and eat, and that’s
it.
The passes by many large machines. They’re unoccupied and many of them are
turned on. No traces of blood. In fact, she stands for a moment and suddenly
feels normal. If it weren’t for the
screams carried by the wind on the other side of the construction site, she
would only feel out of place for being in a construction site without proper
safety gear. She has her steel toed
boots…but giggles at the thought of missing the yellow hard hat. Passing one machine after another, the
screams getting louder, she is taken back when a loud growl followed by a loud
bang startles her. A dead man in his
construction uniform is locked inside one of the machines. He punshes and bites at the glass holding him
in as he frantically tries to attack.
She takes a few steps back when the large machine begins to drive
forward. It was a large tractor with a
large arm and scoop. The man inside must
have pressed something or pushed something.
The machine was picking up speed and starts making louder noises as it
scratches against other machines beside it.
The sound is horrible like metal scraping and pulling and oddly enough
seems to drown out the screams. At least
in the immediate area. As the large
tractor leaves its spot, it leaves a large open gap. Some of the dead, and the living have been
crushed by the machine, their remains now spead out on the ground and
road. The dead now look into the vacant
spot to see Nina slowly backing up. The
five or so dead begin hobbling toward her.
One oddly enough b egins a light run and falls after a few strides but
continues by crawling slowly getting to its feet.
Nina doesn’t waste time.
It happened so fast, but she is now at a full out sprint running at a
clearing behind all the machines. She
looks ahead maping out the area in her mind knowing how to follow the road to
get home. The road has houses along
it. But it would take about five minutes
to get to each house. One could stand on
the front porch and see the house next door, down a ways. There is nothing between each house except
field. Lots and lots of field. The field is interrupted by a forest. But the trees are so far back they almost
look grey in the distance. The odd
farming machine, tractors, trucks, hay, sprayers can be seen here and there.
If she walked uninterrupted, she would be home in about
thirty minutes. But she can’t walk. She’s being chased by a small group of
murderous cannibalistic monsters who were once human but are now something
else.
Out of the construction site, up a slight hill, she is far
off of the traffic jam. She can see
people like little black dots in the distance moving around like cockroaches
crawling in a tight area. How long will
they last? How many are there? How many will escape? What will they become?
The field’s have turned into large brush mixed with
trees. The bushes are getting thicker
and much harder to crawl through.
Browsing each house she walks past, walking just outside their back
yard, some seem clean and some have been effected by this strange phenomenon
with their windows broken and blood in places where blood shouldn’t be. Nearing one such cleaner looking house now a
shorter walk from home she finds a small hatchet. A wood cutting axe. It rests on a large flat tree stump, blade
stuck in the wood. A small pile of wood
stacked close by. She grabs the hatchet
and waves it lightly, like a drum stick testing its weight. Nodding approvingly she holds it to her side
and begins walking again and suddenly hears a loud scream through the bushes.
First turning her head and seeing nothing, she then darts in
the direction of the scream like an olympic runner shooting for a gold
metal. Jumping over logs and blasting
through small tree branches and bushes, she hears the screams getting louder
and more frequent and a faint sound of words.
Quickly enough, Nina comes to a small clearing where she lays her eyes
on a horrific scene. Two dead, one man
and one woman reach up a small tree at a screeming female teenager while three
others are huddled together around someone else.
Nina begins to calculate.
Take out the first two at the tree, but she will have to run past the
small group which are distracted by what they’re doing on the ground. But these three will be much easier to take
out, but this girl is in a panic and may do something stupid. Against her better judgement she interrupts
her sprint toward the attackers and screams out, “HEY!” waving her arms. She finds a baseball sized rock and throws it
at one of the dead hunched over hitting it in the back. The impact does nothing to it but gets its
attention. Then with more screams, soon
all five look to her as the girl begins screaming for help. Nina’s eyebrows cringe together at the
‘captain obvious’ plea for help. Of
course she’s going to help. That’s why
she got their attention. The girl keeps
screaming at the creatures. One of them,
the woman, goes back to the tree. Nina
keeps screaming loudly to get their attention and tells the girl to shut up
which she either didn’t hear or she’s too much in a panic to obey. The first three have nearly made it to their living
meal as nina gives a wide swing to the first and lands it where the shoulder
meets the neck. The blade was much
sharper than expected and carves down through half the chest getting
stuck. The Body falls quick and hard,
taking the hatchet with it. Nina steps
back and gives the handle a quick kick knocking it out and making it bounce past
the next two dead creatures. Both men in their mid 40’s covered in blood. “Think hard, think fast Nina,” She mumbles to
herselef as she takes a gentle, yet deep inhail, holding it for a moment then
releasing it with a loud whail thrusting her foot against the hip bone of the
closest. It does minimal, but the force
knocks it back a few steps and nearly makes it fall over. Landing her foot to the ground, her back
facing the other she maintains her spinning momentum bringing her other leg
high in the air snapping dead on against its jaw which snaps like a twig and
hangs off the skull. It takes a couple
steps back.
Nina reaches and grabs its arm and using her body weight
performs a tomonage, pulling it onto her as she falls back, thrusting her knee
against its pelvic bone, flipping it over her and onto its back. Her feet in the air, she kip’s up, pushing
herself in the air using her hands and arms, landing on her feet. She’s starting to realize more and more these
things don’t go down like regular people do.
She finds a fallen tree branch near by and breaks off a piece of it
about the size of a drum stick. She
slowly approaches the dead man who is trying to get to its feet and presses
hard with her foot against its chest and drills the stick through its eye
socket. A strange black substance ozzes
out smelling worse than a sewer. She
returns to the other and after multiple kicks to the chest and head it finally
topples over and falls to the ground.
Nina quickly retrieves the hatchet and brings it down hard landing it in
its open mouth separating its jaw and lower skull from the top of its skull.
The dead woman is still trying to get to the girl while the
dead male is almost at Nina. She
approaches him slowly and gives him a quick spin kick to the left ear. The impact knocks him on his side then he
rolls a little on the tiny hill. Aiming
for the neck, Nina brings the hatchet down hard severing it completely. Blood squirts out hard spraying in all
directions smelling of filth as the blood pressure slows it turns from a spray
to a drool and drains from the body down the tiny slope. The skull still snapping at her. In her discust, shekicks it, soccer ball
style, though her steel toed shoe merely crushes the skull on impact like a
cheap vaas. And while the skull
catapults away, it explodes in mid air flying in multiple pieces landing in
multiple more.
Nina screams for the attention of the woman who eventually
turns to look at her and her bloody mess.
The girl is clean of the dead filth and the dead woman observes Nina
with intrigue trying to identify food or familiarity. Nina turns the hatchet and gives a strong
swing smashing the blunt end into the skull of the woman. The impact sandwiches her head between the
hatchet and the tree. It falls apart
breaking in multiple fragments as her body falls to the ground.
The young girl who is no longer screaming but rather
breathing very heavily with a terrified look on her face makes eye contact with
Nina. There is silence for a moment
until Nina finally calls out;
“What’s your name?”
“J-Jassi,” She answers with a nervous stutter. Nina seems confused. Apparently Jessie was too main stream of a
name for her parents, so they decided to
throw life a curve ball with a twist on a standard name.
“Do you live around here?” Nina asks.
“No,” Jassi replies.
“I was here visiting my b-boyfriend,” She looks to the mangled body on
the ground.
“I’m sorry. But
listen, we don’t have much time. These
things move slow, but they MOVE and they collect very fast. I live just down the road, come with me and
I’ll keep you safe,” Nina helps her down
as a few growls are heard in the distance accompanied with sounds of snapping
twigs and russling bushes.
“We have to go!” Nina says darting away from the sounds. Jassi following quickly behind. The two come to a small clearing with a small
house on a small hill.
“This is where I live,” Nina says. There are eerily no dead walking about. The two sneak to the front door, Nina using
her key to unlock it. She lets Jassi in
and closes it behind them. She calls out
Sebastian’s name a couple times and some thumping from the basement up a set of
stairs followed by an open door reveals Sebastian. The two hug and peck on the lips quickly as
they exchange their stories.
Sebastian was getting his breakfast ready watching a movie
on TV when it cut out to an emergency news show. They were reporting on a riot in several
nearby large cities. There were warnings
to stay in your homes and keep safe. He
tried to call Nina’s cell phone a number of times and got voicemail.
Sebastian continues his story and is interrupted by Jassi
who’s looking out the living room window.
The three stare out and see what looks to be a small handful of dead in
the back yard heading toward the house.
In the distance, there are several dozen in a farmer’s field also
heading straight for the house.
“Did you prepare the basement?” Nina says
“Yah, got a week or two’s worth of supplies down there,”
Sebastian says. Nina realizes they
didn’t have time to inventory check. She
tells them to go down as she runs to the front door and opens it a crack. If they were coming in, they were coming in. She didn’t want them to break the door
down. It would be a useless door
then. At least if they open it, they can
walk around and eventually leave. They
would be safe! She moves hastily
beginning to hear their growls. Where
did they come from? How did they get
here so fast? They came from the
opposite direction that Nina and Jassi came from. Nina opens the basement door, leaving it open
just a crack and at the bottom of the stairs, turns and heads through a small
door leading to a small storage room and a washer and dryer. Both have been unplugged. Both Nina and Sebastian learned a while back
that even if appliances and electrical devices are plugged into the wall
sockets and turned off, they’re still drawing electricity, even if extremely
little. It looked as though Sebastian
unplugged pretty much everything in the house and even turned the circuit
breaker off. If any power surge blasted
through the lines, there is a terrific chance their house would be unaffected
or minimally effected. She smiles with
pride at her husbands’ efforts. Beside
the washer and dryer is a little cubby with shelving on it, a basement pantry.
The house is an old house. And the
basement was meant to be cool or even cold.
It was the perfect temperature to preserve food. In the winter it could be used as a freezer
in some parts. During the summer, it
could be used as a very reliable cooler.
That helped save money on freezers and refrigerator operations. They learned they could keep more than three
times the amount of food that a normal family could eat, and they could keep
most of it in the basement where it’s cold enough. Sebastian was smart enough to put the glass
containers and glass jars in the storage under the stairs. The door to that storage was very well
hidden. It was designed to look like a
wall, but easily pushes and slides. They
installed it themselves. Everything else
was in metal containers.
The two of them aren’t “tree huggers”, but they are health
and energy conscious. They have found
easy ways over the years to buy smart, eat smart and store food smart. They have enough food to last themselves months,
easily.
The now empty shelving beside the washer and dryer isn’t
actually shelving at all. It was built
to look like shelving, and it lives up to its appearance. But the actual purpose of the cubby, which
they discovered after they moved in and got settled, was a hidden entrance to a
hidden room just slightly larger than a typical master bathroom.
They put a futon mattress on the floor and had plenty of
candles and other necessities in the room.
There was a strange hole in the center of the room which somehow joins
with the piping of the chimney. Someone
was either burning something in this room, or needed a very unique ventilation
and used the smoke from the wood fireplace to hide the smell. It confused them very much, but they didn’t
feel the need to investigate it. They
were able to burn a couple candles to get enough light and the minor smoke it
made wouldn’t be caught on the ceiling, but rather escape through the tiny golf
ball hole. It also helped with oxygen a
little. The room was small, and a little
stuffy. But it was safe. It’s very protected and hidden.
From light growls to loud footsteps, the three of them could
hear as one by one the uncountable dead were filling the house with some loud
bangs to be heard and loud crashes. It
sounded like the house was going to cave in on itself at times it was so
loud. The growls could be heard from all
over, even just outside the hidden door which got knocked against a couple
times. There must have been so many dead
they were crashing into each other and into items in the house. The three kept extremely quiet, waiting
patiently as the dead flooded the house.
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Post by nina on Mar 26, 2013 19:30:58 GMT -6
CHAPTER 5: What’s next? Nina
wakes up in the very dimly lit room. She is alone. Panicked for a
moment, like waking from a bad dream to find yourself inyour own
basement, she finds herself surrounded by all the items she
remembersseeing when she got in the room; Lots and lots of food and
water and otheremergency supplies. The room is quitewarm, but she is
indeed alone. That isuntil the sound of a loud grunt, which sounds very
much like Sebastian isheard, muffled, through the ceiling followed by a
loud THUD. Getting
to her feet, she creeps slowly out the door to seeher basement, though
very unfinished, in a heap of a mess. Random body parts thrown here and
there. Most of the body parts are internal. It all looks like a few
human bodies explodedfrom the inside and splattered in all directions.
The smell is putrid and makes her gag and dryheave. She covers her
mouth and nosewith her sleeve then runs back into the room for a basic
face mask. She puts on two of them and begins to headdeeper into the
basement. She scans ittwice and finds nothing threatening, then hears
another grunt, a light thud,then a louder thud of something heavy
landing on the floor upstairs. She
climbs the stairs knocking on the wall in mores code;S.O.S. – S.O.S. –
S.O.S. progressively louder so whomever is up there, thoughshe guesses
Sebastian, knows she’s coming. She keeps herself on guard and enters the
kitchen from the top of thestairs. Two more bodies lie on top ofeach
other, their blood trailing up the wall and across the floor. In the
next room, very loud, Sebastian’svoice lets out another grunt and a
cracking sound is heard, followed by yetanother thud. Growls can now be
heardupstairs as loud foot steps are heard thumping toward the house’s
main staircase. Something could hear this noiseand was coming down.
Nina takes a couplelight and quick steps to the room with all the noise
and she sees Sebastianusing a Machete to chop into a dead woman’s
skull. He has covered himself and the room withblood and other
unidentifiable specs of human parts. He
breathes heavily as he slowly stands to his feet. They make eye
contact and she smiles withpride at this gentle man she married. Inthe
decade she’s known him, she has never seen a hostile action, a harsh
word,a loss of temper. He has always been avery gentle, kind and sweet
man with a sarcastic sense of humor to matching herown. The two feed
off each otherheavily; Fighting for the remote, teasing each other,
jugging jobs in thekitchen. Preparing meals often turnedinto small
playful food fights and intimate moments. And here he is bashing in the
face of thedead. She didn’t know he had it in him. Her
smile of approval reassures him of his actions. Their eye contact is
interrupted by the slowthumping of more dead making their way
downstairs. The thumping is too irregular to identify acount.
Sebastian’s eyes dart up to theceiling as though trying to see through
the walls to the top of the stairswhere the sound is coming from. And
in aquick fluid motion, Sebastian throws the machete to Nina,
underhand. Nina watches it spin slowly in the air andtimes her reach as
the handle nears her. She reaches out her hand and catches its handle
and turning to thestairs begins to see the feet first, then the legs,
and the torso, and finallythe rest of them. Only two, but thereare
definitely more up stairs, but she has to start with these two. She
waits until they are down the stairs sothey can’t reach for her and fall
on her. Once on level ground she gives a quick slice across the closest
one’smouth which is wide open. The machete,sharp as a razor, cuts the
upper head right off. It falls to the floor hard. The second one, a
little too close behindgets a quick and hard side kick to the chest. It
stumbles back and hits the front door which Nina now realizes isclosed.
Sebastian must have closedit. Not a big deal right now. She
takes a couplewide steps forward, walking over the body before her and
stabs the creature inthe skull. The blade slides through themonster and
cuts into the front door a couple inches. Its body weight pulls it off
the bladeslowly, its decayed brain matter spills out onto the floor
with a smell ofterribly spoiled food. More
solid thuds can be heard in almost metronomic fashionupstairs. She
hastily, but cautiouslyheads upstairs. The After a dozen steps,she
comes to a small landing with a left turn. She sees nothing but a wall
at the top of the stairs. Continuing up, mud and debris on the
carpet,she finds herself at the top of the stairs. On her immediate left
of the short hallway is their master bedroom. Beside that is a spare
bedroom which Nina hasbeen using as a game room. The computer,large tv
and gaming systems all sit in the corner. They’re out of her view with
the door beingshut. To her right are two more doors;One leading to a
bathroom, the other leading to a third and smaller bedroom,which the
couple turned into a library. Oneof Sebastian’s many passions is
reading. While Nina can sit in front of a TV with a controller in hand
and playvideo games for literally hours on end. Sebastian can sit in his
expensive lazy boy leather recliningchair. All
the doors were closed. The thumping sounds were louder at her right.
She then heads to the thumping sounds to findthe bathroom door wide
open. Variousstain colours are smeared along the wall. Some small
cracks and holes have appeared in the wall in places wherecracks and
holes weren’t before. Justhow many dead creatures were stuffed within
this tiny space? She wonders. She
gets close enough to the door opening and gently peeksin using as
minimal exposed body as possible. A dead teenager, lying in the bathtub
struggling to get out, his handsand legs are waving frantically.
Shetakes the machete and swings it like a baseball bat against his head
slicingopen. Back into the hallway two moredead appear. Confused, it
was empty a momentago, she backs up into the bathroom. Aloud growl gets
her attention as she bumps into a dead man. She turns to see three
dead in the bathroom. She tries to scream for help, but nothingcomes
out. With a quick reaction toavoid their arms reaching out to her, she
leaps out the window, landing androlling on the angled garage roof.
Shemanages to stop herself and get to her feet. In the ground all around
her is a sea of the dead. More and more dead begin pouring out of
thewindow as they start closing in on her. She has nowhere to go,
nowhere to run. Again, she bumps into something. She turns and sees
Sebastian, most of his face chewed off, and coveredin blood. He lunges
in toward her andsinks his teeth into her neck. Shescreams in pain and
pushes him off. Nowbleeding uncontrollably, she tries to find an
opening in the sea of the dead,and finds none, as another grabs her, and
another, and anther. She is covered in dead as they bite andravage her
body. The pain and agony anddarkness stops as she hears the voice of
Sebastian trying to calm her down. She
struggles to fight him off, and getting to her feet shefinds herself
backed up into the corner screaming and readying into a fightstance
ready for any oncoming attack. Before her, in a very dimly lit room is
Sebastian, covered in blood, thepalms of his hand pointed to her trying
to calm her down. Jassi nowhere to be seen. “What happened?” Nina whispers loudly, her last memory washiding out in this room while the dead ravaged her house. “I can tell you…or I can show you,” Sebastian says knowingshe would rather see it. Sebastian
takes her hand and pulls her out into the openbasement explaining the
dead destroyed their house. She had been out for just over a day. The
dead slowly moved out of the house afterabout twelve hours. They waited
anothertwelve hours before checking things. Therewere a few of those
things walking through the house still, but Sebastian wasable to take
them out with a baseball bat in the basement. Nina’s eyes water and
over flow, the tearsflowing down her face as they walk through the
house. The doors have all been destroyed off thehinges, all forms of
organization from pictures, to shelving and furniture havebeen
destroyed. There are smears ofblood and body parts all over, some
recognizable and some not. Sebastian explains he pulled the
bodiesoutside and threw them behind the wood pile. The
couple have a wood pile cleanly stacked for use in theirwood burning
stove to heat the house in the winter. Odd dead bodies lie sporadically
throughoutthe distance. One of the only untoucheditems is a clock in
the kitchen, just above arms reach. Arms reach for Nina anyway. Her
five foot five inch height limits herstretch. Sebastian’s Six foot
height canreach the clock with a stretch on his tippy toes. The clock
displays ten minutes after two. The thick clouds outside hide the sun. Nina falls to her knees at their front porch. Sebastian crouches down beside her. “What’s happening?” She says, “The
radio said to stay in your homes and stay out ofsight. There was
supposed to be somekind of instruction to come, but the message keeps
repeating. Then the batteries died. Jassi took off, I have no idea
when, she justleft.” Sebastian responds. The
two linger on the front porch feeling defeat and lossand confusion.
Nina takes in a deepbreath and after another moment of silence, she
pipes up “So…what’s next?” |
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Post by nina on Mar 26, 2013 19:31:28 GMT -6
CHAPTER 6 - A Good Start
Sebastian
and Nina walk silently back into the house. Looking at the mess made
by the dead, it almost resembles the after math of a college party that
got out of hand, minus the unidentifiable matter sprayed about. Nina
finds one of the wooden dining room chairs, a set of 5 given to them as a
gift from Sebastian's parents. The two have always found themselves
closer to Sebastian's side of the family. Once a dating couple become
engaged and start closing in on the wedding date, they soon come to
understand difficult decisions must be made on how to divide themselves
amongst family.
Nina's
start in life was fairly below the bar compared to a standard family in
areas of finance, togetherness and support. Most holiday's and special
family events were spent together for the most part, as some sort of
superstitious tradition. The rest of the year was pretty much
independent. Very little socializing or accountability. Sebastian's
family on the other hand have been much more warm and open. Nina had
moved out on her own at a very young age, not by her own choice, but by
circumstances beyond her control. Being on her own with very little
bills to pay and a pretty good job earned her a lot of free time and
flexibility to enjoy life. Life was pretty carefree and busy at the
same time. It wasn't until she was in her early 20's that a friend of
hers, named Amy, invited her to a family barbecue. It was one of those
'invite the neighborhood and all your friends' kind of party. She
didn't want to go at first, but saw it as an opportunity to catch up
with Amy, since she hadn't seen her since the good ol' high school days.
Amy's brother Paul also brought a friend; Sebastian. Nina found
herself playing with the young kids. Sebastian also found himself
becoming a play toy to the children. They climbed on him and knocked
him down and tickled him and had a good fun time with him. Nina chased
the children and got chased by the children, leaving the parents to
mingle amongst themselves, watching these two strangers have fun with
their children.
When
the food was ready, Nina and Sebastian, had made some new little
friends, and they all wanted to sit together on the little playschool
picnic table. Nina took a small stool, but Sebastian played it up and
looked like a big kid himself trying to sit on the little picnic table,
making the other kids laugh at how big he was sitting at such a small
table. And as the hours went on, and the energy level of the children
slowly expired, family by family, the house slowly emptied. Nina and
Sebastian found themselves lying on the large trampoline in the back
yard that summer night, looking at the very clear night sky. Somehow
the hours between dinner time and mid night zoomed in a span of minutes.
They impressed each other with their personal stories of hobbies and
life. They both shared similar interests for the most part, and
intrigued each other with how well they seemed to click. It was when
summer turned to fall that Sebastian had asked Nina on their first date.
The two had seen each other at random parties through the many months.
They would meet up, chat and become pretty good friends. Nina's mind
was on other things and was taken back a little bit when he asked her to
a movie. They had gone to lots of movies with mutual friends. Even
sat beside each other many times and shared pop corn and drink. Their
other friends, singles and couples, watched as the flower between them
bloomed.
While
traditionally, most people meet, date, and get intimate and become a
sexual relationship, these two found stronger appreciation in each
other, rather than societal expectations. They set out the challenge
early on; no kissing, no touching, only get together in a group setting,
and see what comes of it. Both of them have seen too many couples get
together and break up after months or even a couple years. Sometimes
children become involved, and that's no fun for anyone. Nina and
Sebastian challenged the status quo of traditional relationships. If
they could maintain a strong friendship for several months, then...and
only then, they would consider taking it to the next level. And that
next level was Sebastian asking Nina for a quiet walk in the park one
late summer night. The weather was still pretty warm with a refreshing
cool breeze. They walked beside each other, making it a point to bring a
loaf of bread to feed the ducks. They found a park bench to chat, then
found a small playground where they each took a swing and gently sway
back and forth. It was at that point Sebastian asked if she felt it was
time to become a couple. Her reply was quirky as usual, "A couple of
what?". And while her relationship with her immediate family wasn't
very close or strong, they had met Sebastian a few times. Sebastian had
invited Nina to several family events ranging from Church to actual
holiday's. His family had taken to her like a daughter. His older
brother Blane and Sister Lena had shown her the ought most respect and
curtsey. They were all just about the same age, within a few years.
They all shared many of the same hobbies and humor.
The
couple agreed to talk it over with his parents, the idea suggested by
Sebastian. And it was the following weekend, late Sunday, after Church
and after the day was pretty much over. Sebastian had whispered to his
father he wanted to talk to him and mom about something important. And
while the sun was down for the night and the four of them sit in the
living room, Sebastian gave a little speech about where the two felt
their relationship going and asked their parents blessing to be
considered a dating couple. Traditional and modern couples agree
together and start dating together and slowly let friends and family
know as they go. Sebastian comes from a slightly more traditional
family. Modern in all ways considered, but with a strong respect and
admiration for the family unit. Most families, like Nina's family,
don't hold sacred to very much. They don't share in much and don't do
much together. Nina had been welcomed into a new family. Something she
had to get used to. Celebrating birthday's again, with gifts, friends,
presents, and fun. She hadn't celebrated a birthday since her mid
teenage years. Sebastian and his family brought to life something Nina
hadn't experienced in a very long time. A sense of family, a sense of
care, a sense of meaning, a sense of love. It was this family that
taught her not all families need to repeat their past. Nina had been
scared that she would end up becoming like her parents. The dead beat
couple who taught her all the things not to do. Determined to change
things, she spent time making sure she would make the right decision.
The
two dated and courted for about four years. Making certain to keep
their hormones in check. Most couples vent their hormones and let their
hormones control them. And when those couples break up...it's a bad
break up. Nina and Sebastian were determined to keep the focus of their
relationship something else. Something stronger than the two of them.
Should a standard couple, married or none married, take away all
physical contact...what do they have left? Most couples wouldn't last.
These two were determined not to become a statistic.
But
statistics might not matter now. Something was happening beyond
understanding. Like a bad dream you can't wake up from. Like a
cataclysm of Biblical proportions. An unexplainable phenomenon.
Something they weren't prepared for and didn't know how to proceed.
The two sit in a lengthy silence with only their hard to capture thoughts to them.
"Did you try to turn the power back on?" Nina asks.
"More
than try...I actually used it for a few hours. It seemed to fully shut
off about two or so hours before you woke up. I cleaned up what I
could of the bodies in the house, then tried the radio. I boiled a few
eggs and tried to cook some meat real quick. Only made it through about
half of what we have. We can probably make a fire somewhere if we're
careful," Sebastian says.
"We
need to think heavily about security," Nina says. "I had to leave the
car at the big intersection down there where the construction is.
Nothing important is in there. I locked the car doors anyway Not sure
if there is much of a need to get the car right now."
"the
'family car' is in the garage. I made sure the alarm was off. Don't
need that thing firing off attracting unwanted attention". Sebastian
adds.
"What about
the phones?" Nina asks. Cell phones were probably going to be
unreliable. But land lines draw their power directly from phone lines.
Wireless phones are dependent on electricity. So, while they each have
a cell phone, and a wireless phone with 4 docking stations through the
house, they also have a land line in the kitchen.
"I
tried calling as many people as I could think. It's just voice mails,"
Sebastian says as a ring suddenly echo's through the house. Both their
heads dart toward the kitchen, Nina's reflexes tuned much stronger than
Sebastian is first to her feet as she lightly skips to the phone. She
picks it up answering; "Hello?". Sebastian's father, Charles, is on the
other line.
"Nina?
Thank God. Are you two safe?" Charles asks. Nina simultaneously puts
the receiver on the counter while pressing the speaker button so
Sebastian can hear.
"We're as safe as we can be considering what's going on. What IS going on?" Nina asks as Sebastian finally enters the kitchen.
"We
don't know. It's happening all over the place," Charles and his wife
Julia are one of those conscious people. They eat very healthy, they
keep active, they even go as far as using solar power and have a fair
sized wind turbine in their back yard. There are others like them who
are very obsessed with being prepared for an emergency. Charles and
Julia aren't obsessed as other people are, but they are cautious and
ready for something to happen. Whatever that something might be. They
would have electricity and food and shelter and safety. "The TV went
off the air hours ago Our phone line cut out for a couple hours, but
then it just came back on. Where are you two?"
"We're
at home," Sebastian answers. "A huge bunch of those things pretty much
destroyed our house. Looks worse than a frat party in here,"
"Smells about the same though," Nina adds.
"Listen
you two. We're heading for the family cottage," Charles offers. The
family cottage. This is a fortress if there was ever to be a fortress.
Charles was fortunate enough to be born in a family where the parents
were very smart workaholics. Charles parents are very smart business
people. They have always owned at least one business and invested in
several others. As a couple, they made enormous amounts of money. But,
they were also smart about what to do with it. While they have always
been a family strong in the Christian faith, they never looked at their
money as an excuse to be lazy or qualify themselves as deserving of
luxury. They live a very humble life. As a matter of fact, you could
meet them on the street, at a mall or anywhere else, and they look just
like everyone else. Their house was a very modest house. Not very big,
but could easily host a family party. They used a greater portion of
their earned money toward mission work in their community and around the
world. They have helped build Churches, schools, libraries. Helped
restore parks, playgrounds and get homeless shelters and soup kitchens
on their feet. They were the kind of power couple which influenced
Charles and Julia to be the amazing parents Nina saw in them. The kind
of parents she didn't have. The kind of parent she wanted to be.
Charles' parents had purchased land far up North in Canada to build a
large cottage for the family to enjoy when the grand children started
appearing. What they didn't realize was the land they bought used to be
an old saloon a couple hundred years ago. Back when society settled
things with guns rather than words. Digging into the ground was
exciting the day when a few odd artifacts were found buried and
uncovered. Items like silverware and locks and buckles. Even very old
and very valuable coins. Charles and his whole family would take turns
through the summer traveling up to the cottage for a week or two's stay.
They had a fully private area with a large yard and a private beach.
It was almost too good to be true when Nina saw it for the first time.
The ultimate get away. Plenty of room for the family. Completely self
sufficient. Then the decision came to expand the cottage, under ground.
It took a lot of extra funds which was easy for Charles' parents. But
they made a large extra space under ground, hidden from regular view.
It was the place the family could go if they needed to be safe. That is
where they needed to go.
"The
cottage?" Sebastian pipes up. It made absolute sense. Why didn't he
think about it himself? He makes eye contact with Nina who has a strong
look of relief.
"Well...it's
not like it's just down the street. It's going to take a day or two to
drive down there. And that's even IF the roads are clear. Which they
probably aren't. Have you talked to anyone else yet?" Nina asks
Charles.
"Yes.
You're the last two I've been able to call. I made sure my favourite
kids got up there first before I called you two," Charles says with the
same sense of humor as his son Sebastian.
"Ok
then," Sebastian says. "The cottage it is. It probably wont be easy
getting up there. It's a good start. Be careful!" |
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Post by nina on Mar 31, 2013 3:41:43 GMT -6
Chapter 7 - A dangerous plan
Sebastian and Nina sit together on the love seat they bought together when they got back from their honeymoon. The love seat faces the over sized window facing the larger part of the yard with the best view of any possible on coming threat. It's been nearly one full week since they talked to Sebastian's father about the plan to go to the family cottage. They knew it wasn't safe to leave immediately.
Day one of the infection was chaos and disorganization everywhere. Oddly enough the sky has been grey the entire time. The next couple days were still very dangerous with groups of dead traveling about. Sebastian and Nina chose to Bug In. They realistically had everything they needed in their house to last them a very long time. After doing a full inventory, they calculated, between the two of them, they could easily last a couple months. They spent their days watching carefully and staying out of sight. There was no identifiable pattern with these creatures. They were completely dumb and void of any reason what so ever. One happened to get caught in a bear trap set in the back yard. The two tried for a while to communicate with it, try to figure it out. But there was nothing. Animal traps they had in the basement were now put to use all across the yard and field. Some of which went to waste as some animals got caught and became a meal to the dead. Sebastian and Nina quickly learned to check the traps very frequently.
Watching the field's from the garage roof top and from the windows inside the house, they discovered one small positive sign. With each passing day, there were less and less sightings. It was about a week before they decided they had been cooked-up long enough. They kept out of sight as much as possible, but the odd time they ran into some small trouble, they worked together to dispatch the creature, or creatures fast. Nina taught Sebastian a little about self defense with long weapons. They passed the days playing board games, cards, doing puzzles they had in boxes collecting dust. Electricity died after about the third or fourth day. When two full days past without any sightings, they decided it was time to go looking. They spent a day walking through the little town they live in. The little town had a population of about 2,000 - 3,000. To anyone not familiar with the little town, it was a short cut between the city and the highway. There was a decent amount of traffic through the town at times. Then other days, you could play a great game of street hockey for hours and never have to move the nets. The main street of the town was decorated nicely with large attractive, new houses spreading down the mile or two long road. There was a little mini mart strip mall on one end of town which had a pizza place, a gift shop, a variety store, a post office and a small restaurant. Following past the strip mall, adjacent the main road was a good cluster of houses in a small maze of streets. It would be very hard to get lost in the maze. You could drive a couple blocks and hit the dead end, which is an enormous field. You would have to intentionally drive in circles to get lost.
The young couple first walked down their long lane way. It was a little bumpy like a child's roller coaster, but it was completely straight. You could stand on the end of either side and see all the way down. The lane way was lined with large trees on both sides, like obedient soldiers standing guard. The only clearing was at the far end where the two houses rest. Nina's and Mr. Mathers. Both of these houses were pretty destroyed on the inside. Despite searching, Nina and Sebastian were unable to find either Mr. or Mrs. Mathers. They only hoped the two were out with family and some how escaped before the real threat began.
Walking cautiously down the lane way. They had walked this road more times than they can remember. For the joy of a calming walk, just the two of them. Or walking with friends and family. The joy of this walk has now turned into a walk of fear and exhilaration. At any moment, they expected a snap of a twig or a loud growl. The sky still grey, not even the wind blows, the trees are motionless, as though scared of drawing attention to themselves. Soon, their house vanishes behind them, covered by the trees, they were now in unknown territory. While they know the area, things have changed too much now and they have no idea what to expect. The two finally reach the end of the lane way bringing themselves to the "secret" entrance. If you weren't looking for it, you would easily miss their lane way.
Approaching with extreme caution, they observe their surroundings. The wave of the dead did more damage than expected. They seem to have very little understanding of obstacles. The road signs are bent, the garbage bins stretched down the street have been torn apart, their contents spilled about. Every house within view seem devastated as though abused by an angry mob after an intense sports game. Windows and doors broken, blood smeared in various places, dead bodies lie on the ground in partially or very devoured. Yet not one single motion anywhere. No dead walking, no animals, no birds, no wind. The silence is nearly ear piercing. Neither of the two make a noise. They each carry with them a weapon; Sebastian, a bat. Nina a gardening claw on a long wooden pole.
They decide to check the strip mall first, most of the windows are broken partially or completely with small patches of clothing stuck to various sharp objects. Sebastian motions to be careful about the broken glass on the ground. They begin by walking up and down the walk way looking through the windows. After one quick sweep and another couple stronger sweeps, while also watching the road's behind them, they slightly lower their guard when they accept they are alone. They start with the variety store on the one end and comb through each store one by one. To their surprise, there is far more useful items than they expected. But considering this is a small town, and it looks like all its inhabitants are either gone or become the dead and are now herding elsewhere, they begin to feel officially alone in this little town. They leave the stores in the condition they found them. They still have plenty of supplies at home. On a quick look of the store fronts and in the backrooms, the two could easily live off the supplies in this strip mall for a year.
The silence of the strip mall gives them enough confidence to explore the rest of the residential area. They have taken walks through the neighborhood several times in the past. They tried to take a walk once or twice a week for an hour or so. It was a great way to clear their mind and get exercise. Sometimes it lasted more than an hour with great conversation. Other times it was more about silence and enjoying the outdoors and the warm sun and cool breeze. It takes them about two more hours to walk through the streets and find absolutely nothing. Finally ready to head home as the sky begins to darken, they get about a block away from their hidden lane way, when they hear a distant whistle. They both turn to look down the main street to see nothing. The whistle calls out again, this time in a more recognizable direction. Nina points out a flashing, either by a flashlight or a mirror in one of the houses. The two walk to the house, but stop at the drive way. The front door opens and a teenage boy appears waving them in. Nina and Sebastian walk up to the front door, watching in all directions to ensure there is still no threat. The teen waves them in a panic,
"C'mon, what're you waiting for? Get in!" The teen demands. Nina and Sebastian enter the house, the teen closing the door behind them.
"What the hell were you two doing out there? Don't you know what's going on?"
Nina and Sebastian make eye contact then look back to the teen. There is silence for a moment before Sebastian opens up,
"Kid..." Sebastian starts,
"It's Lyle!"
"Ok, Lyle. I'm Sebastian, this is my wife Nina. We've been hiding out in our house just down the street the last few days hiding, just like you have been."
Nina turns sensing someone else in the room. A skill Sebastian hasn't learned. Standing in a large opening to another room, staring at the three in the lobby is another teenage boy, his arm wrapped up with a bloody gauze. The boy introduces himself as Ian. Based on Ian's clothing, Nina identifies him quickly as a member of the Mennonite community down the road a ways.
The Mennonite community was a large and organized. A very tight knit group. Their rules are extremely strict. They allow outsiders on a limited service basis. Mostly for trading goods, but those who prove themselves are able to socialize and interact with them. Nina and Sebastian are two individuals who have been fortunate enough to be let into a generous portion of their inner community. At first it was Nina who was visiting their market to buy fresh food on a weekly basis, usually on the weekends. That kept going for a good year or so then she found herself chatting it up with one of the Mennonite teenagers about a need for adult supervision at a particular youth event. Nina was only more than happy to find out more information. While not a Mennonite herself, Nina shared much of their beliefs as far as God and the death of Christ is concerned. She just didn't share their sense of extreme modesty and lifestyle. It didn't take her long though, to be brought into a council meeting and she expressed her interest to become a leader amongst the teenagers. Sebastian found himself before the council as well and before they knew it, the two were volunteering once a week, mostly on the weekends, helping out with youth activities and projects.
Then it moved to twice a week when Nina would help the women with other duties of making and fixing clothing, food preparation and childcare, while Sebastian found himself helping chop wood, tend to the horses and help with maintenance on their buildings.
While they were seen as outsiders by some, considering they wanted to become involved but not convert to their Mennonite faiths, others welcomed their contribution with open arms.
Nina was both confused and intrigued at what she was seeing. A lone Mennonite boy at the house of a none Mennonite boy. Ian read her glance like a book.
"We were walking through the forest, just messing around y'know? Then we heard this noise. It was like the sound of death. I don't know what it was," Ian begins
"When!" Nina snaps out. Ian looks back at her with confusion and intrigue.
"It was early. Real early. Like even before sunrise. It was still pretty dark, but the sky was like that dark blue colour with a pinch of yellow. The sun was just about to come up. It was pretty dark, but we could still see stuff. We were just messing around in the forest..."
"We who?" Nina asks
"My brother and his friends. They were throwing rocks at this tree and making echo sounds y'know? Then we heard it. So we went to check it out and there was this guy there and he was covered in..." Ian's voice begins to whipmer. Nina walks over to him slowly and dropping to one knee she makes eye contact with the boy.
"It's ok. Can we take you back to your family?" Nina asks. The boy nods.
"Ok," Sebastian responds. "It's a dangerous plan...but we're going to have to take you boys for a drive".
"Not out there eh?" Lyle protests.
"Do you have a better idea?" Sebastian inquires.
"Look man, we were just out there this afternoon. The road that leads to St. Thomas' Mennonite community is covered with those things. We already tried to walk it. You get out of town, and head up Fischer street. There's a cop stop road block and that long road full of the car lots and that bed and breakfast 'n stuff? Yah...they're all over there."
There is more silence. Nina finally stands to her feet, looking out a window recognizing it's gotten darker outside.
"Yes...it IS a dangerous plan. But we leave tomorrow morning!"
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Post by ZombieHero on Apr 1, 2013 20:45:43 GMT -6
Mennonites. Excellent!
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Post by nina on Apr 5, 2013 21:13:45 GMT -6
CHAPTER 8 - The Deal
Foot steps thumping down the stairs slowly breaks the silence as the two teenagers meet up with Nina and Sebastian at the front door. No words are said, just open the door and exit. Nina and Sebastian have already done their rounds and found the way clear. It's a relief that there are no dead around, but it amplifies the fear of the unknown. Where were they? What were they doing?
The four exit the house, not bothering to lock it and head the ten minute walk to Nina and Sebastian's house. Despite Lyle's objections, Sebastian insisted on taking the car. It wasn't too loud, but it was certainly going to cover enough ground and get them out of a tight fix if needed.
Getting the car was the easy part. Everyone piled in, there was a pre-made cooler in the trunk with food items which required very little preparation; crackers, bottled water, peanuts, vitamin bars, juices, fruits and vegetables.
Their best guess was the dead had scavenged all the meals they could from this area and were now moving on to a more populated area. Did the dead know where they were going? Did they have any ounce of memory left to know where the city was? Would they wander aimlessly?
Traveling out of their small town got them to the main road which connects all the major towns and cities in the region. They cross the road, still seeing no dead in sight, but instead, the effects of the dead are seen everywhere. Debris covers the streets, mangled corpses lie in random places. Cars are in ditches or wrapped around telephone poles, some cars still smoking from a long burning fire. The sky still grey, the four keep driving, swerving around the obstacles left by the dead.
They drive about ten minutes down the road before they find their first attention grabber. In the distance is an mistakable human, stumbling around like trying to balance on ice skates. The closer they get they are able to identify it as one of the creatures. It hobbles along the side of the road. The boys cower in the back seat while Sebastian drives past it, though Nina was very tempted to open her door to smack the thing. But it wasn't worth denting the car, or risking injury by swinging at it with a bat through the window. Though in the rear view mirror it can be seen picking up a little bit of speed waving its arms in the air. It has obviously seen them and is now coming after them. But it soon vanishes in the distance.
A few more minutes down the road they begin to see more in the distance. Not on the roads, but off in the fields. One or two at first, then more and more. Some bodies of animals and humans are seen here and there on the road and the parts of the field which are not covered in tall grass or plant life. What was so appealing about the open field they wondered. Unless these were the last of the lone stragglers which hadn't met up with the mysterious heard which vanished days ago.
A few more turns and long roads later they finally find themselves passing by a giant road sign reading; St. Thomas Mennonite Community Living. This sign is surprisingly clean of any signs of the dead. No blood, no holes, no cut up parts. They drive slow as to draw as little attention as possible. The roads are clear, the wind is motionless. They take a couple turns and find themselves at the city hall and exiting the car, head in.
Sebastian opens the door very slowly knocking gently as he enters. The four find themselves in a giant lobby, similar to a Church lobby. There is no one in sight, but rumbles of a loud mur mur is heard down a hallway. They shut the door behind them and head for the noise. Getting to the inner chamber doors, they slowly open it up letting out a violent burst of yells, screams and cries as a couple hundred men, women and children scream, yell and argue amongst themselves. The sound blasting through the door is almost like a heavy gust of wind knocking Sebastian into Nina who holds her grounds and pushes against him so they both don't stumble back against the boys.
All the noise comes to a pretty fast stop once the four are noticed immediately
"Ian!" A voice calls out as a bearded man in his forties leaps from his chair, his black wool felt hat nearly flies off his head, runs and embraces the boy.
"Who are you?" A much deeper voice calls out from the center of the room. An old Amish looking man points a large wooden judges hammer toward them. Nina steps forward to talk, but Sebastian speaks before she has a chance to,
"I am Sebastian Gardener, this is my wife, Nina. We found your boys hiding in a house, in a town just down the street from here. We thought we could bring them back here-"
"You have brought Ian Barkman back. We surely thank you, but this other boy..." The man with the wooden mallet says looking at Sebastian as though he were wanted for a terrible crime.
"No, This is Ian, he lives in the town. The boys were-" Again, The man with the hammer interrupts Sebastian
"Affairs outside our community do not concern us. The boy's father will deal with the boy. You three must leave immediately. There is no place for you with our people!" The crowd begins to mur mur quietly at first, then almost like an angry mob, they begin to verbally rage at the three. Nina takes a deep breath and takes a couple steps forward, stepping in front of Sebastian letting out a light beginnings of a word before someone jumps in before her.
"Saint Thomas," A younger woman appears from the corner causing the hostility to submit. She walks before the man with the wooden mallet remaining silent and staring at the floor. Mr. Thomas, shaking the wooden mallet as though practicing for a strong wham against the desk top then slows his hand, rests the mallet on the wooden surface and looks to the young woman.
"Mrs. Friesen, you may speak," Mrs. Friesen gestures a little curtsey and turns to face the couple.
"This is Nina and Sebastian Gardener. They came to us about two years ago. Nina at first, came to our Saturday markets buying fresh fruit and vegetables. She came to our markets every Saturday for almost a year. There was a young pegan man who was stealing, and Nina caught the young man. You youself, Mr. Thomas was there. You gave the young man to the authorities when Mr. Peters and Mr. Toews escorted him to our community gates where the Citizen police took him. You yourself, Mr. Thomas thanked miss-er, Mrs. Gardener for her kind deed and confessed we needed more help with the young people outside our community. It was after that time that Mr. and Mrs. Gardener began attending our Sabbath gatherings every Saturday, after approval by the committee and have helped our community grow and helped keep our young people safe"
Mr. Thomas's face slowly changes from anger to a look of humility and embarrassment, then back to anger.
"Yes, I remember that," Mr. Thomas begins. "But that does not excuse them for this catastrophe. Our family have been cursed. They have been turned into abominations! This is the works of the devil because of the sins of the pegans outside our walls!" The crowd begins hollering at the couple, Lyle has already ran outside.
"Please hear me good people!" Nina steps in calming the people down. "It is not just you who have been effected by this...whatever it is. It may be our immediate city, it may be our regional area, it may be bigger. We don't know. What we DO know is, these things are dangerous and we must protect ourselves from them and deal with them while we can! We have-"
"Deal with them?!" Mr. Thomas interrupts, "No, no Mrs. Gardener, we don't have to deal with anything. We live safe behind our community walls. If you hadn't noticed, we have an eleven foot tall, three feet thick brick wall. Our main gate is cast iron and weighs more than five hundred pounds between the two of them. It's meant to keep intruders like you out!"
"Our loved ones have come back!" A voice calls out and all eyes turn to an older white beard man with black pants, white shirt, suspenders and black hat to match. His large belly jiggles as he thumps down the stairs of the five level theater seating rectangular room. "We just put down my sister Mary not two weeks ago, God rest her soul, and she come back. So have half the other family in the graves. They were buried three feet into the ground and they come right back up!" The crowd yells out in agreement.
"They came at our gate, banging away," another man in his late twenties gets the crowds attention. "Had to be five or six of them. We could not talk to them we could not reach out to them. They bit my poor Marcus right in the arm. He's been in with Doctor Loewen since yesterday morning with this terrible fever,"
Nina and Sebastian perk up.
"Have any other of your community been bitten?" Sebastian asks. The man holds for a moment and looks to Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas gives a frustrated look of defeat.
"No," He finally answers, the crowd lets out a deep sigh and gasp. "No, we can't hide this anymore. Our families who have come back have been kept in Farmer Krol's barn where it is dark and the spring river he has there seems to keep them calm. But any noise of any kind agitates them. We have about four bitten. One, about a week ago when it all started, one more, an outsider, who needed our help and two just yesterday, the Mowen boy and your Son, Jett" Mr. Thomas makes eye contact with Jett.
"Do you know where they are right now?" Sebastian asks.
"That is no concern of yours. You have abused us of our time quite long enough. You're going to have to leave!" Mr. Thomas demands.
"You're going to have to kill them!" Nina objects. The crowd roars in horror.
"Get them out of here, NOW!" Mr. Thomas yells blasting his wooden mallet on the table, the sound fills up the room and instantly quiets the entire room, as though it were the mute button. The faces of the people look very angry. Their faces say more than their words would. Four men walk up to the couple and point to the door. The couple go quietly. They know there will be no hostility from these people, but they also know the time is ticking for this large group of people. Nina and Sebastian saw more teamwork with these people than a power pyramid. They had to convince them somehow.
The six walk through the main lobby, One of the men open up the front door. Sebastian and Nina are escorted through the front door and into the front porch, the stairs leading down to the main dirt road. The road is circular with buildings lining it. Between each building is another road, as the spider web of roads expand through the community to various buildings, shops, homes and more. A young woman stands in the middle of the circular area. A large tree surrounded by benches and wooden pegs for tying up horses. The woman is facing the tree but has the attention of all six at the front door.
"Who is that?" Sebastian asks.
"That..." One man answers, "Is the outsider. I guess she's feeling better," He walks ahead to approach her. Nina realizes she has once chance to save his life.
"NO! Don't!" Nina shouts but she's held back by one of the men. "Let me go, you don't know what you're doing." The man remains silent, holding Nina's arm while the other man is now a few steps away from the outsider. Nina acts quickly and grabs the elbow of her captor, pressing her thumb very hard into the inside of his elbow bend, the man lets out a loud howl. Nina leaps the five or so wooden steps and begins a full out sprint to the man and the woman outsider, who's attention turns to the howl. The group all at once sees the orange and yellow complexion, her eyes completely milk white, her front half almost completely covered in blood, a small piece of flesh of some kind hanging off her lip as she draws it in her mouth like pasta. She lets out a loud growl and lunges toward the man who is now within arms reach of her. Nina tackles the man, the woman trips over them both, landing on them and sinks her teeth into the man's arm. He lets out an ear piercing scream and Sebastian notices two more dead, two younger boys come shuffling from between two buildings. Sebastian and one of the three remaining men race toward the three on the ground while the other two men run back inside the building, shutting the door.
Nina has a hard time fighting off the bodies pinning her down. The man pushes the outsider off while chomps away at her mouthful of his arm which is now bleeding terribly. Nina rolls away just as Sebastian is there to grab her and pull her up.
"Did you get bitten-"
"No!"
The two men struggle to get to their feet getting blood all over each other as they pull each other to the city hall. Nina starts off an all out sprint to the car which they left unlocked and left the alarm off. She opens the trunk and pulls out a baseball bat, and a machete. She Takes a few steps to find Sebastian closer to her than expected and she throws him the bat and races to the two boys who are also covered in blood with parts of their bodies bitten off. Sebastian gives the woman a swift swing to the head before she can get to her feet. The force knocks her to her back like a rag doll. She is motionless for a moment then turns back for more. Sebastian brings the bat high above his head and brings it down hard onto the top of her skull which breaks and splits open. The woman falls to her back twitching and clawing at the air with more gruesome sounds. Sebastian gives another heavy swing, aiming for the same spot, missing it almost completely but landing hard on her shoulder, which snaps like a small twig, her shoulder and head flinch as the now mangled corpse moves slower. Without aiming, Sebastian swings a golf swing blasting the corpse in the face, nearly spot on the nose. Her face collapses inward and her body goes limp as it's given a couple more blows to the face reducing it to something unrecognizable.
Nina, charging at full speed leaps at the closest boy and lands a very successful and powerful jump kick. It flies off its feet knocking itself into the boy behind it. Both bodies fall down, exactly as Nina calculated it. She lands the machete into the skull of the first boy, he falls limp. She holds one foot on the boy, pinning them both to the ground. With one free hand, the other boy reaches for her. She grabs his hand and with a quick swipe, cuts off his hand. Black ink like liquid pours out. She pulls the first boy off and uses her foot to pin the hand-less boy down. Again, it reaches for her, and she cuts off its second hand as Sebastian is now at her side. It snaps at her, banging its head against the ground trying to reach her with its mouth. She quickly steps off, grabs the bat and gives it a hard swing to the knee, destroying its knee.
The couple then hear a burst as the crowd of two hundred or so pour out of the building. All eyes are on them and the boy who struggles to his feet but is unable to stand and struggles heavily to crawl. There is silence and awe as the crowd looks on.
"YOU SEE!" Nina lectures as Mr. Thomas gets front and center. "This isn't something you can control. These aren't people anymore. You have been hiding behind your walls without knowing the full threat you're in. Sure you're going to be safe for a little while, but if you get enough of these things together, a five hundred pound gate will fall and crush anyone on the landing end. You aren't safe here!"
Silence continues until Mr. Thomas breaks it, "What do you suggest?"
Nina looks at Sebastian and looks back to the boy and finally thrusting the machete into his brain, he stops moving. Nina looks back to the crowd.
"I have a deal for you..."
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Post by ZombieHero on Apr 8, 2013 22:13:36 GMT -6
I love my weekend zombie story eddition!
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Post by fandjango on Apr 10, 2013 14:46:03 GMT -6
I am going to read this. It looks interesting.
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Post by nina on Apr 14, 2013 4:57:42 GMT -6
CHAPTER 9 - Bad Timing
Mr. Thomas glances at Nina with intrigue and insult. He glides his fingers through his beard a couple times breathing heavily.
"What kind of deal," Mr. Thomas finally lets out, partial sarcasm and partial desperation. "You two are outsiders here. What could you possibly offer to us? Perhaps you may share some insight on this mystery involving the dead?," Mr. Thomas gnarls. Nina takes a deep breath before continuing. She is more and more realizing she is not going to be able to reach these people with the same common sense as she would with a person outside this community. More so, this Thomas. He seems to have these people wrapped around his finger.
"Sebastian and I are in no place to challenge your way of living. We understand your history. We have participated in your Church for a little over a year. We have come to know many of you by name; your interests, your hobbies and talents-"
"YES!" Mr. Thomas interrupts. "You are willing to eat the bread, but not willing to make it. You want to join our events, eat our food, socialize with out youth, corrupting their ideals, but not willing to join our Church family."
"May I continue?" Nina firmly glances at Mr. Thomas. He waves at her as though swatting at a fly. Nina expresses the struggle the world has faced the last week. She explains what happened to her that morning in the warehouse. The multiple near death experiences she dealt with. The sacrifices she made to ensure she could make it back to Sebastian alive.
"Sebastian and I have a plan to offer you security, stability and enough room and food for your whole family without any intettuptions from the dead. The building where I work is about a half a day travel. There is more than triple the space-"
"DO you realize what you're saying? Look around you. We are safe here. We have safety and security. Are you asking us to leave the place we have called home for centuries. The place we have raised generations in. We are one of several Mennonite communities all over this region. You want us to just abandon our way of life? Abandon everything we know?"
The crowd begins to get uneasy.
"No. What I'm saying is," Nina takes a breath. "You're NOT safe here. A man was bitten and you brought him into your city hall. He is going to die and he will come back just like all the others have who have been bitten..." Nina pauses a moment. "Where are you bringing the bitten and wounded to?
"They're with Dr. Loewen," a voice calls out answering the question, as Thomas seemed to neglect answering. A middle aged man presents himself before the crowd. Mr. Thomas glares at the man but remains ignorantly silent.
"Dr. Loewen is our only doctor in the town. He has two students who are also in his office down that way,"
"Show me!" Nina says beginning a light jog in that direction. The man, followed by a few more men begin chasing down the street. The first man introducing himself as Duncan leads Nina and the small group of men to a stone built building with a wooden medicine bottle hanging from a chain above the door. The door is closed, but the large window has been destroyed, blood covering most surfaces. Two of the men run to the door yelling for the doctor.
"BE QUIET!" Nina orders, but the men ignore her and burst the door open, though it only opens about half way. The first man trips over something falling to his face, vanishing into the building out of sight. The second man stumbling but keeping his balance stands then covering his face, falls to his knees mumbling something inaudable.
"If you're too loud..." Nina begins as a loud growl is heard behind them. A young man in what was once a clean cut shirt and pants and bow tie hobbles toward them. His abdomen completely exposed and open, his insides half hanging out. "You have to get it in the head!" Nina calls out.
The men lightly mur mur and repeat the young man's name, unable to accept what their eyes are seeing. None of them take action, just standing there dumbfounded. Nina lets out an annoyed grunt and walks quickly toward the boy until one of the men stop her.
"What are you gonna do huh?"
Nina makes eye contact with the man, "If we don't kill him...he will kill us all."
"You want us to kill our brother?"
Nina shakes her head in disappointment and frustration.
"Have you not seen anything that happened in the last twenty minutes? This thing, whatever it is, it's contageous. Transferred by bite, by saliva, by blood, I have no idea. But every single person I've seen get bitten becomes one of these things once they die. It's just a matter of time. Now let me go!"
The man refuses and pulls her back behind them all as the group begins to slowly back away from the on coming threat.
"Are you kidding me?" Nina pushes the man out of the way. He retaliates with a quick back hand which Nina very easily dodges, grabbing his hand, twisting his arm, kicking the back of his knee, knocking him to the ground. The dead man now reaching for them, a few feet away. The other men reach for her. She grabs an arm pulls it in to her thrusting her knee into a chest, throwing one down. She spins to high kick another in the chest. The two remaining pause in their steps at her speed and technique. She stands facing them both in a standard fighting stance waiting for their choice. They run to help their fallen brothers. She turns quickly to the dead man who is now within arms reach. She thrusts both her fists into its chest knocking it back several steps. She knows it wont be enough, but needed to buy a little time. She reaches for the machete from her leg side sheath, but rememebrs it was left in the skull of the boy she just killed.
"Oh shit," She says to herself realizing she's weaponless. Looking to the front door of the doctor's office, she takes a full out heavy sprint to the building, the dead man follows her slowly. She gets to the building within a few quick steps. She leaps at the building running up the side a few steps, pushing off hard, bringing her foot around blasting the wooden medicine bottle sign hanging from a chain above the door, destroying it to pieces, and landing carefully. Quick thinking, she takes the larges and thinnest piece of wood she can find. She holds it over her head like a crazed drummer holding a drum stick and staring, focusing very hard at its head, she swings hard, the wooden shard flying through the air straight like a spear, not spinning or waving. It travels a mere seven feet on its own and lands directly in and through its left eye, exposing just a couple inches of the wooden stake. The dead man stops his pursuit, his legs giving way, he falls to the ground, the impact of his face hitting the ground forces the wooden stake through the back of its head as it releases one final force of air from its lungs which dies out quickly.
The four men, now on their feet stare at Nina disapprovingly.
"You're going to regret having done that," One says as they all begin to walk away. Nina turns and inspects the broken window. Lots of blood in the dimly lit room on the other side. A dead body lies sandwiched between the wall and the door. Duncan struggles to get to his feet unable to understand what is around him while the other man stands in the doorway.
"You said there were two students?"
Both men are silent.
"COME ON GUYS! Wakeup! We are in real danger here. There is one missing student, and there is a man in the city hall who is bitten,"
Duncan whimpers as he exists the building, stepping over the body of the doctor.
"You, miss, need to understand something," Duncan says, "We here at St. Thomas Mennonite Communiy Living actually appreciate life. We appreciate the living. We appreciate innocence and family. Something has happened here which no body understands. But we, as a family will still work together. We have much to do, but we must consult with the council,"
"Can we search for the missing student?" Nina asks. She receives no answer as the men head back to the City Hall. Nina remembers Sebastian is with the town's people. She looks at the ground, at any possible foot steps. There are multiple, but none leading off. She enters the doctors office apologizing to the doctor who lie on the ground for breaking his sign. His face is broken like a ceramic doll which fell off a shelf. He's sitting in a pool of his own blood. Just before him is a large medicine bag and a frying pan with blood on it. Looking at the cast iron frying pan and to the doctor, it looks like someone hit him hard and multiple times. He must have turned. That means there is most likely one living student somewhere around here. On a farther scan of the room, Nina finds a door at the back. Walking cautiously, she notices strong signs of a struggle. Items from a medical cart are spilled over onto the floor, she picks up a clean looking seringe, holding it close walking to the door.
"Hello?" She calls out knocking on the wall, no response. She calls out again, no response. Grabbing the door knob and slowly turning it and opening, the light, dim as it is, begins to pour into the dark room. She keeps it open a crack at first, fully prepared for anything. But still silent. She pushes the door open, the light exposes most of the room. A supply closet full of medical supplies, and behind a set of shelves sticking out from one corner of the wall is a set of legs covered by pants and a pair of shoes on the ground. Someone was lying on the ground. Nina knocks harder on the shelving hoping for a twitch or some movement, but nothing. She didn't know how much time she had, but she had to move quick. Taking more steps toward the legs, they slowly reveal a torso and then a full person, a young woman hunched over against the wall either dead or sleeping. She has a considerable amount of blood on her, though not much blood on the floor. Just small drops leading from the door. Nina calls out again, but no response.
Nina thinks about how to respond. There are no traps. No trip wire. Her hands resing on her lap. No visible bite marks. Nina gets right next to the young woman's feet. After thinking it through, she gently kicks at the woman's feet expecting her to wake up and lunge out. Still, no response. Holding the knife tight, Nina leans in, pressing her fingers against the womans neck to check for a pulse. There is a strong metronomic pulse. She is alive. Nina then detects a breathing pattern she didn't notice moments ago. Grabbing a shoulder gently, Nina slowly beins shaking the young woman calling out to her to wake up. The woman's eyes open up, making eye contact with Nina. She lets out a panic scream, thrusting her hands and arms at Nina, pushing her away, and making contact with the knife, cutting herself. She screams in more pain. Nina stands to her feet, backing up gently telling the woman to calm down. The woman gets to her feet and holds her hand tight, which is dripping blood, she demands Nina leave. Nina takes a few more steps back as another voice enters,
"What's going on here?" New faces looks at Nina, holding a bloody knife and the young female student doctor holding a bleeding hand. Nina turns to explain when a man responds quickly, "You just stay back!" The man yells. Nina places the knife on a shelf as the man runs to attend to the young woman who looks dazed and confused.
"Bad timing," Nina mur murs to herself.
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Post by ZombieHero on Apr 19, 2013 8:46:22 GMT -6
I just saw you updated this. Another great installment!
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