I’ve been driving on this road for an hour already. With no general direction to be heading in, but I do know I’m never returning to that place again. There’s nothing left for me there and no point in going back now. My leg starts to vibrate and I remember I had my phone on me, “Hello?”
“Joshua, honey it’s me.” The voice answered.
“Mom, where are you? Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine and I’m in the shed at home, I need you to get me and your dad, they don’t know we’re in here but I don’t know how much longer we can stay hidden with them lurking around.” She says nervously
“I’m on my way right now.”
5 Hours Earlier.

“Dude where is everyone?” Ryan asked me.
“I have no clue this place has turned into a ghost town, but why?” I say as I get in the car with Ryan as passenger. We just got back from New Mexico and returned to Waco and the outbreak of zombies has gotten worse. It’s been four months since the outbreak has occurred and it looks like we’re fighting a losing battle. Most cities have become accustomed to the zombies and ignore the world around them with walls set up around the perimeter. Waco use to be such a busy city with fortifications all around, but as we drove in the walls were broken down and some buildings were now ablaze. I didn’t want to think the worse, but I guess it usually comes down to that. The zombies finally broke through, but how?
“Maybe they’re setting up a surprise party for us” He said jokingly “but really this is a bit creepy.”
“Yea I know.” I started driving into the heart of the city, not a single thing had moved, no sign of life was left in this city. I picked up my phone and started to call Rhiannon, I hadn’t talked to her in a couple of hours, but could things change that quickly? It went straight to voicemail. I tried calling home, but was rewarded with the same response.
“Hey man we’re going to Rhiannon’s house first is that alright?” I asked.
“Sure let’s just be quick about it, no lovie dovie stuff alright?” he was trying not to laugh I could tell, but I just ignored him. The drive there was long and uneventful and then we turned two streets across from Rhiannon’s. There was blood soaked into the grass, dried up on the black road, and spilled across houses and spread across some cars. It was everywhere.
“Where did all the corpses go?” I asked.
“I don’t know but we better hurry up and get to her house, oh s*** watch out for that man!” he yelled in my ear. I turned to see what he was talking about and sure enough the dude was running straight for us. I tried to swerve out the way, but I ended up hitting him with the back of the mustang. He begins flipping in the air then lands on the ground with a thud. I put the car in park as fast as I could and got out as quickly as my legs would let me to survey the damage. His torso was facing the opposite way it was originally position and was watching us with a blank stare. His jaw was missing with his tongue lolling off to the side, and large chunks of flesh had been taken out of his body. It was a gruesome sight. He was still alive and reaching out towards us with his hands that were now just stumps. I looked towards Ryan and he looked back at me, both our suspicions were confirmed they were here.
“We’ve got to hurry and get out of here. Those tire squeals may have attracted more.” Ryan said. Now Ryan and I are both experts when it comes to surviving the undead and we’re usually always prepared so we had supplies in the trunk. I popped it open and our findings were to our likings, a crowbar, a steel baseball bat, chains (don’t know what they would be used for but better than nothing I suppose) and my shotgun which was fully loaded. We turned the car off; didn’t need to blow our cover in this hellish world, so we began to walk the other three blocks there. It was quiet, a bit too quiet, but then we heard screaming as we rounded the corner we ran as fast as we could to see what was going on, but it was only a little girl running towards us with streams of tears flowing down her face. She didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger, but there was something wrong with this picture, we started heading towards her. Then something caught my eye from a rooftop, it looked like the outline of a man just watching her run. The dark figure was just crouching there and then it screeched from the top of its lungs.
“We’re coming!” I said. Can we really make it to her? I think to myself, than out of nowhere it jumps screaming even louder and lands right on top of her!
“Help me! Please!” the little girl screamed. She was punching at it trying to get it off, but it was a failed attempt, the thing grabbed her arms and leaned its head in for the kill. It bit down into her throat pulling out her jugular and her screams turned into gurgles of blood.
She uttered something unintelligible and then went silent. There were no more emotions on her face but pain as it continuously pulled out more and more chunks of flesh with its teeth, devouring her as if she was a happy meal from McDonalds, a pool of blood had already surrounded them. I had gotten up to it first and ready the crowbar to attack the zombie, but it got up so fast and grabbed onto the crowbar in a failed attempt to grab at my torso. This thing was strong and there was no way of telling who it use to be due to the torn pieces of flesh hanging off what use to be its face. The odor was absolutely dreadful, but it was amplified as Ryan came up next to it and smashed its head into its torso with the steel baseball bat. There was a splatter effect as brain matter and blood sprayed onto my face. I had my eyes closed, but made the grave mistake of breathing in as some of it flew into my mouth and I swallowed accidentally. I turned around and threw up in the blood; this happened two more times before I was finally able to stand up straight once more.
“Looks like zombie 3.0 was released huh?” Zombie 2.0 were just runners and I didn’t think it could get much worse than that.
We finally reached her house and there didn’t seem to be much out of order. Well unless you count a wave of dead bodies all over the yard and blood soaked grass as orderly. I walked up to the door I could hear movement from inside the house. I looked through the frosted front door window and see someone walking across. I knocked on the door and was granted with what I now suspected to be zombie running into it and smearing its blood across the glass.
“Doesn’t look like they want company” Ryan said jokingly “let’s try the back door.”
We walked around back and the dogs greeted us normally, barking, we jumped the fence and were granted the sound of a shotgun being cocked.
“Don’t move you sons of- Josh?” It was Rhiannon’s dad and I couldn’t help but stare at the shotgun, but then I noticed Rhiannon next to him with her mom crying.
“The one of many” I said “do you mind putting your sight down? That thing is making me a bit nervous.” As I said this he lowered his weapon and Rhiannon ran over to me crying.
“Oh Josh they got him…” she said through my tear stained jacket.
“Who got…? Marc is he?” I asked her father.
“No he’s fine he just is sleeping on the trampoline over there.” He said.
“It’s your brother…” Rhiannon said.
“No you’re just joking he wouldn’t die that easily.” I said with my voice breaking.
“He didn’t he came over here and saved us, we were surrounded by them, but he took them all out two by two. How he got a hold of that m60 I don’t know, but he tore them up with it. Body parts were flying everywhere and blood began to cover up most of the grass. He took them all out and walked up to the door and we opened it for him, but there was one that just knocked him to the ground and bit into his shoulder, I was able to shoot it off but I couldn’t shoot him in the end. We just closed the door to the kitchen and came out here.” Her dad was looking at me for some kind of reaction, but I had no emotions to fill the loss of someone I was so close to. I stepped onto the deck and walked inside.
“Don’t come in… I’ll do this alone…” I said gravely as Ryan tried to enter. The smell of death was thick in the air, but I didn’t really care I just opened the door to the living room and closed it behind me. Isaac was still face up against the window, but as soon as I closed the door he turned his attention to me and limped over to me with a speed that I guess you could call walking. I was going to end it with this one swing. I lifted the crowbar in the air, but as I did I guess something just snapped in his head and he rushed me, I was able to roll out the way, but he was still pursuing me, as I stood up I brought the crowbar up into his under jaw and lifted him up over me and slammed him down on the other side into the ground. He still kept on and I stabbed the crowbar as hard as I could through his body and into the floorboards sticking him there, I ran back into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. There were footsteps from inside the living room and watch him as he runs into the kitchen and charge me. I tried to get out the way, but I wasn’t fast enough and I panic, dropping the knife and grab onto the crowbar holding him at bay with it. He starts inching closer with each step he takes and i can hear his intestines sliding across the metal from the inside.
I tried reaching for the knife, but I couldn’t get close enough to the ground, then I felt the door behind me. I pulled it open and he gained full momentum, stepping aside I let him fall into the garage. I picked up the knife and ready it for the ending blow.
“Goodbye.” I say and launch the knife in between his eyes and watch as he falls to the ground, blood slowly squeezing out of the fresh wound. I walk over to the corpse and say a small prayer and pull out the bloodied crowbar. I walk outside and I guess Rhiannon was worried once more because she punched the heck out of my ribcage.
“Don’t ever do something that stupid again!” she yelled at me.
“I’m sorry… it only seemed right I do it by myself, I didn’t want any of you to be in the crossfire…” I replied back to her. I looked over to Ryan and he was signaling that it was probably time to go. “Well I think it’s time we all moved out of here, me and Ryan have a car parked two streets over so we’ll meet you there, just get the essentials from the house like foods and any object that can be used easy to swing like a weapon and meet us there.” I told them.
“Alright Josh, c’mon y’all we gotta hurry up and pack.” Rhiannon’s dad told them all.
“I’m going with you!” Rhiannon said from behind.
“I’m sorry babe, but you can’t, not yet anyway just stay here and help pack and when we meet up than you can ok?” I told her.
“No please let me go with you now, I don’t want to be away from you again… please.” She cried out to me.
“You can’t yet please Rhiannon understand that it’s too dangerous to be walking around with us, these zombies most seem normal, but there are some that seem like they’re the stronger version so it’s best if it was just Ryan and I walking” I said to her, they look liked they stung her, but she understood why. “Please take care of her sir.” I told her dad.
“Of course, good luck” he said.
“You too.” I replied. We walked into the house and out the front door, once more entering the fray, this is our life now and we must learn to cope with it.
“My car! Noo!” I yelled. When we returned to the car it had looked as if it was just attacked or something, the windshield were beaten on and several cracks ran across it, the hood had multiple dents and the front and rear bumpers were bent downward as if something used them to climb atop the car and off.
“Why didn’t the alarm go off?” Ryan asked.
“Because I had it uninstalled due to the fact it could attract more of them undead b******! God I’m so p***ed off get in the car,” I got into the drivers seat “lets hope it still works.” I said. I put the key in the ignition and was granted the the sound of the engine sputtered twice before it finally returned from the grave.
“Hey Josh how you gonna see out the window,” Ryan asked, as he asked though I raised my boot and kicked the glass out. “great now we’re gonna have the hot summer wind blowing into our faces along with small winged insects real smart Josh.”
“If I wanted commentary I would have asked for it by now.” as I said this Rhiannon and her family drove up beside us.
“Having car trouble?” Her dad looked over and smiled.
“No we’re fine lets go, before we do do you have anywhere else you need to head before we go? Because after this stop its going to be a one way trip.” I said gravely.
“Yea lets over to Walmart real quick.” He told me.
“Why there could be a zombie nest in there?” These ‘zombie nests’ are infestation of zombies that roam around in one specific area for an extended period of time before finally moving on.
“Because we’re going to need all the supplies we can get if we’re going to survive for at least a week with the rest of the people we’re going to find. Then there’s plenty better melee weapons there besides that scrap metal you’re carrying around.” He said. He was right this crowbar was pretty hard to swing and when I did it would be too slow.
“Alright, but Me and Ryan are going in alone I don’t want to risk too many people walking around and making so much noise.” I told him.
“Wait Josh let me go with you.” Rhiannon told me.
“I can’t risk losing you baby please stay with your family.” I begged her. I don’t want to lose her, she’s all I really have left unless I can find my family too.
“No I’m coming with you I can handle myself and plus you’ll be there to help me if I need it, and face the facts the more there are the easier it will be to carry all the supplies and more weapons mean less of a chance of dying.” Dang she had a point that I couldn’t shrug off with a lie.
“Alright you can come, but please promise me you won’t leave my side or Ryan’s ok?” I tell her.
“I promise now lets hurry up we’re wasting daylight ladies.” she laughs, girls got gut that much I know, lets just hope she can keep them inside her body through this run I pull out my shotgun from the trunk and we head in. We are at the front doors of Walmart and it doesn’t seem like they will open by hand I got back in the car and told Mr.Milbradt to go ahead and move his car behind mine in front of the doors so nothing would be allowed to gain entry except for an extremely skinny zombie which I have yet to see. I pried the doors open with the crowbar, but what i saw inside was absolutely terrible. Bodies were in rows as people tried to escape outside but just couldn’t make it the odor was dreadful as if someone left a pile of dog crap sit out in the baking sun on a sidewalk for hours. Some of the bodies were fresh, but most of them were decaying away, we walked along the corpse cautious that some of them could reanimate at any given moment. As we maneuvered our way through the dead, we could hear a distant shuffling among the isles, it sounded as if something was searching through shelves, but there was no one in sight. The closer we got the more and more it sounded like someone grunting and getting more and more p***ed off looking for something, but not succeeding.
“Where the hell is it!” the man said with a gruff voice. I rounded the corner first and saw what look like a man in his early 30s or so. Ryan rounded the corner and ended up running into me not paying attention in front of him, I try to balance myself out but its too late, I fall down hard onto the clothes in front of me most likely alerting the guy around the corner. I start to get up and as I do I can see him turn around and stare straight down at me.
“Look man, I don’t want any trouble,” no point in letting him know about them too I think to myself. “So i’ll be on my way and let you keep looking for whatever it is you’re-”
“Raaaahhhh” He screams out at me and charges holy crap he’s a whole lot faster than I thought and he knocks me down as soon as I raise my shotgun. He’s on top of me now and I struggle to get free he’s a bit bigger than I thought, but thats when it hits me, his fist to be exact made contact with my face and then another and another then they stopped but the bleeding didn’t I could feel it trickle down out of my cheeks through the cuts he made with his nails. I don’t know if I didn’t want to open my eyes or even if I could, I heard someone come up beside me then I heard her talking to me asking me to get up I think she asked. I opened my eyes to see her above me with a look of worry across her face.
“Are you ok baby?” she asked.
“Yea I’ll be fine where’s Ryan?” I looked around for him but he was nowhere in sight. I got up and started looking for him and then I saw his golden locks poking above the clothes it seemed like he was still wrestling the man the way he was moving, there was another person I think that was moving towards them, but its movement was disoriented and more of a limp then a walk. Oh no its got to be a zombie. I thought to myself. Then Ryan was knocked down. I moved upon them and I could see them both struggling to keep control then a zombie that came down upon the man and took a chunk of flesh out of his back at the same time digging into his shoulders with its fingernails and pushing him down off Ryan and onto the ground face first.
“NOOOOOOOOOO!” he screams as loud as he could, but it dies down along with his body as the beast takes more and more chunks of flesh out of his lifeless body. Ryan gets up besides me and we look down on the lovely couple, its sickening but they could’ve been something before all this. The three of us move back to the original spot, but then we hear them, sounds like hundreds of them moving through the store towards..... us! I look above the clothes and I can see all of them a horde of the undead moving slowly towards us and some runners are in the crowd too running over any slower zombies in their way.
“Run!” I yell at both Ryan and Rhiannon, but I was just preaching to an empty crowd because they started making there way back to the car already. I run in behind them and we’re about to be at the entrance when I see the biggest zombie ever and I don’t mean tall I mean really really strong pick up a clothes rack and throw it in front of the entrance!
“S***! We’ll move it just keep that abomination off our backs.” Ryan says and he and Rhiannon start pushing it out the way as I turn around I can see it charging me and I aim right for the legs since it was huddled down. This guy was terribly huge way bigger than I thought, it has what looks like spikes coming out of its back or no those are bloody bones protruding out of its skin blood seems to be constantly pouring out of these wounds leaving a cold red trail in its tracks. Its body look like it was injected with 30 liquid pounds of steroids and was constantly given more, all but the legs and head were enhanced which looked like toothpicks carrying a giant with a doll head. I shot at its legs and you could hear the bone break as the buckshot impacted with the right one first and hampered its movement by a great amount. It was now limping its way towards me only but a few feet away.
“C’mon!” Ryan yelled from behind me, they got the clothes moved and were already in the car. I turned around once more and the brute was reaching out for me i took another shot and disabled it forever leaving it on the ground crawling slowly towards me. I looked up and then I saw the hordes of zombies running at me with full force! Oh crap! I pulled the crowbar out from in between the sliding doors letting them close properly with a snap.
“Move it!” I yelled at Mr.Milbradt. He got my signal and put the van in drive following closely behind us. I called home one more time and was rewarded with the voicemail this time.
“Mom if you’re there please pick up the phone or call back as soon as you get back, I’ve got Ryan and Rhiannon and her family and I’m going to drop them off somewhere safe so call as soon as you can so I can...” The voicemail ended. “Alright.... lets get out of here.”
I’ve been driving on this road for an hour already looking for a safe haven with no luck I don’t know what to do anymore, but I do know I’m not returning to walmart ever again. My leg starts to vibrate and I pull out my phone.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Joshua, honey it’s me.” The voice replied.
“Mom is that you? Where are you? Are you okay?” I asked nervously for the answer.
“I’m fine. I’m here in the shed at home with your father, we need you to get us, they don’t know we’re in here, but I don’t know how much longer we can stay hidden with them lurking around.” she said quietly.
“I’m on my way right now” I tell her “don’t move be there in about 30 minutes bye I love you.”
“I love you too Jones.” she said and then the phone beeped off.
“Is she okay?” Ryan asked.
“Yea she is... for now, apparently they’re surrounded by the zombies with no way out.” I say gravely, I start to pull the car off to the side in the dirt path the car comes to a slow stop and Rhiannon’s parents pull up behind us, I step out onto the dirt road and as I look back at them I glance over the car and it’s starting to look more and more like an old pile of junk and less like a car. She doesn’t look like she’ll hold out for much longer I think to myself.
“What’s going on why are we stopping?” Rhiannon’s father ask.
“I’m going back to my house, my parents are still alive there and I need to get them so I’m letting y’all decide now whether or not to come with. There should be a motel a couple of blocks up you can hide out in if you do decide you want to split up. Honestly I would prefer if you went their first because the less there are of us the better, we’ll be able to maneuver through them a whole lot easier without being spotted so I would like for you to take Rhiannon and- ugh what the heck babe didn’t have to punch me.” I said.
“‘Yes I did you’re stupid if you think I’ll let you just shrug me off like that, I love you Joshua and I don’t ever want to be away from you again and I’m as old as you so I should be able to make my own decisions and my decision is to stay with you Joshua and thats the end of that, now mom, dad please go with marc and willow to the motel and hang out there we’ll be back as soon as we can. Alright boys let’s go.” She said and hopped right back into the pathetic car.
“Great, well what are y’all going to do?” I asked her parents.
“Well we’re going to the motel, you better watch over her Joshua promise me before we go that you’ll do everything you can to keep her safe okay?” her dad asked me sternly.
“I swear I’ll protect her with my life always and forever.” I say.
“Good, now hurry up and get going, your family needs you and we need you to come back with Ryan and Rhiannon safe and sound, see you later.” Her mom said.
“Yes mam be careful I’ll see you later.” I tell her.
“You better.” she said and gets in the car with Mr.Milbradt. I jump in my car and watch as they drive off just to make sure they’ll be okay.
“Well what are you waiting for lets go get your family!” Ryan says and with that I drive home to get mom and dad I don’t know what I’ll find there but I do know I’ve got to prepare myself for whatever happens because in this world anything can happen it seems even something you wouldn’t expect. I turned onto sunnydell and what I saw was, it was, not as bad as I thought it would’ve been great that can mean two things: 1. They could have moved on to another prey they could follow or they could already be.... no I’ll save that option when I know for sure.
“Alright there is a fence around the side of the house or at least there should be one if not then we go straight through the house and out the back door alright?” I told them.
“We’ve got it, so lets go already wasting time just sitting here.” Rhiannon said. We all got out the car and moved towards the house. The Durango sat their, unscathed by all that had occurred, underneath the brown wooden carport that led up to the yellow house. I feel almost like a kid as I walk up to the carport like everything was normal again and I could finally let my guard down. Then my eye caught sight of blood spilling out from underneath the door and over the concrete. I remember where I actually am and that this it’s no walk in the park anymore, so we hurry around the house. The old mesh fence that was once there is now replaced by a tall light brown wooden fence with a padlock on the door.
“Well at least we know no zombies got through here.” Ryan said.
“Yea I guess so, well I don’t know the combination so if anyone here has any objections I’m going to blow it off.” I said as I readied the shotgun. Ryan and Rhiannon looked at each other and both shook their head in the negative. I looked down at the lock and then it hit me I’ve only got one two shots left in this shotgun so I set the shotgun down and walked back to the car for the crowbar
“Where are you going?” Rhiannon called out from behind.
“Be right back stay there with Ryan.” I told her and I walked around back and popped the trunk open and grabbed the crowbar. I slammed the trunk shut and turned around to be met face to mouth with a zombie trying to gnaw on my face. I pushed it away, but it grabbed hold of my forearm sleeve and almost pulled me in with it if I hadn’t whacked it with the crowbar in time knocking it down. It rolled over onto it’s chest and started crawling towards me slowly, and then I ended its life with the heel of my boot crashing down hard onto the back of its skull letting brain matter fly everywhere.
“Oh s*** hurry up Josh your friends you made at walmart are on their way!” Ryan yelled. I looked up the road to see the horde of zombies sluggishly moving along the road with that steroid brute crawling towards me fastly dragging its legs across the asphalt leaving skin and blood far behind it. I ran across to the fence and tried to lever the crowbar in between it and the padlock but it just wouldn’t budge.
“Oh get out of the way!” Rhiannon yelled picking up the shotgun and blasting the lock to pieces, Great one shot left, Rhiannon and Ryan ran through, but I ran back to the car.
“Josh! What the hell are you doing!” they both yelled at me.
“Gimme a second!” I yelled back I popped the hood one more time and pulled the chains out of the car and ran back to the the fence wrapping the full length of chains all the way around the door and the the frame of it, just so it would hold out a little bit longer against the steroided induced demon. Once we walked out into the backyard we noticed bodies were on the ground and the shed door was wide open.
“Oh no are we too late?” There is blood spilling out from the shed and as I walk up to see their corpses, there are none to look at.
“Looking for us son?” I heard a old worn down voice say from behind me. I turn around to see pops standing behind me, he looks like hell, he’s covered in blood stained clothing with rips in his shirts but no visible wounds from what I can tell.
“Are you ok, where’s mom at?” I ask him nervously.
“Calm down boy she’s fine, she’s just resting on the couch near the patio.” he said pointing over his shoulder where mom was lying down, she looked up at me, smiled and waved at me and then got up and walked towards us when she got closer you could tell she was sleepy.
“Hey mom, are y’all ready to go?” I asked them.
“Sure lets get going where’s your car?” she said.
“Well about that...” I gave them the full rundown of events that occurred from the little girl to the near death experience at walmart and the horde of zombies most likely outside as we spoke right now.
“So yea I was wondering if we could take the Durango?” I asked.
“Well your sister went missing inside the house so we’ve got to find her first, hopefully she’s still alive and well.” Pops said. We walked in through the back door and there was blood covering all the walls that were once an olive green color, the refrigerator was still in the corner its black cover had been wiped clean.
“Okay Mom, Dad and Ryan go downst- no I’ll go downstair y’all check up here for her okay, do you have a flashlight around?” I asked.
“Here catch.” Dad said tossing me his from the junk drawer.
“Thanks.” I said me and rhiannon walked down the brown carpet stairs on to the orange tile. I turned on the flashlight and slightly opened the door to see nothing moving inside I opened the door a lil bit and shined the flashlight inside to see a female undead standing in a corner against the room, but other parts of the room were empty. My Dad’s hunting blade was on the shelf to the left of me. I reached out and immediately knocked something down and then it shattered like glass all over the ground. I looked up and saw the zombie slowly turn around and then it let out a ear piercing scream that almost deafened me, I was stunned and had to use all my strength to keep me from falling on my back, I couldn’t see but blurs walking in front of me or hear anything. Someone ran up and grab the blade from me and shoved the blade deep into the females skull forcing her body to the ground. When my vision came back to me I could see my lil sister walk up she was dead and holding a dad’s bowie knife in hand then she ran up and stabbed me in the shoulder I felt the pain sear throughout my body, I guess that was for all the times I was mean to her hehe I thought to myself. My hearing came back and everything was happening so fast, there were screams from outside, the truck started up and I could hear someone honking. Blood ran down my body and heard Rhiannon screaming at me to go. I kicked kiara down and looked behind me to see her worried face and I nodded my head I pulled the blade out and looked back to close the door with my left hand. Kiara was slowly getting up.
“Later sis, I’ll be back.” I told her. We ran up the stairs and out the door and zombies were pouring through the back door and then the front door was shut. I heard thuds of bodies as they ran into the door and then we jumped into the Durango, Dad was driving.
“Did you find her?” He asked as he pulled out the car port.
“Yes....” I said gravely.
“Did you.... kill her?” Mom asked this time her voice was shaky.
“No I didn’t, I’m sorry.... I will come back soon. With that he drove off, we headed for the motel where Rhiannon’s family was supposed to be if everything goes well and stays in our favor then we should see them, if not then it was going to be a long day. This apocalypse has taken its toll and taken way too many lives in my life away from me and I’m not letting it take anymore without taking me first.
To Be Continued