When The Dead Came...

 My name is Avery. I never told any of the people I know, or once knew, what my last name was because how things are now, it just doesn't seem to matter at all. The group I traveled with had grown then decreased and increased again. I remember all their names: Justin, Alex, Holly, Joel, Jenny, Zackary, and Keith had been the first people I traveled with. Then we came across the group from Ohio, but only a few of them joined us later on which was Evan, Drew (the scientist's twin brother), and Trevor. We eventually were joined with David, Jeremiah, Melinda, Elizabeth, her husband David, Jared, Guy, and Mitch. But the biggest help was from the group from California (Kevin, Simon, Wyatt, Brandon, Ryan, and Zach) and the ex criminal from Oregon named Sebastian. There were more people, but they all come into this story later. Right now, let me start from the beginning. I can recall what I was doing the day it started. I was home, getting ready for school before 7:30 in the morning. I was the only one home, my mother was already gone for work and my dad, well, he lived else where after the divorce. I usually watch the news in the morning, but that day, I skipped out on watching it and just gathered my school books, threw them in my bag, and left the house for school. The bus had shown up just in time and I remember sitting there, staring out the window and wearing headphones, listening to Mushroomhead's song Simple Survival on my mp3 player from last Christmas while the kids were screaming on the bus ride.

Once the bus stopped at the school, I had gotten off and caught up with my friends, Holly and Katie. To be noted, they didn't like each other out of jealousy. To avoid any arguments, I had cut in when Katie had said something sarcastic to Holly. After that, Holly's boyfriend John joined her and I left them alone and walked into the high school. Meeting me there while I grabbed my Art book, my other friend Keith had come up. He's my best friend, we've been friends since middle school. "Did you see the news," is what I remembered him asking. When I said no, he told me a whole story about a man who was attacked and taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. But he came back to life. I kept assuming it was just one of those moments where the doctors were incorrect on a diagnosis and just assumed the guy was suffering from rabies when Keith mentioned the man attacked the hospital staff. At first, it didn't seem real to me, maybe i was being a skeptic at the time, but I was proven wrong and made a believer during Art class. 

I was sitting alone, the only friend in the same first hour class as me was Holly, but that morning, she was seated with the teachers kids in an attempt to get answers on our worksheet. After I had finished my work, I had walked toward the window to put my paper in the first hour box when the movement outside caught my attention. What I saw looked like a regular man. He was dressed with a yellow hard hat and a vest that was bright orange, apparently one of the workers from the crew the bus passed earlier. That's when I noticed the dark liquid dripping constantly from his right sleeve and the awkward way he walked. I was so mesmerized by the sight that I hadn't heard my teacher calling out to me. Holly was the one who snapped me back to reality, but when she noticed the man too, he had looked up at us and his face on the left side was almost demolished. Skin was hanging down with bits of flesh missing. I remember Holly screaming so loud that for a moment, I couldn't hear. At that point, things seemed to go by fast, the next thing I knew, the teacher left the room and the quarterback of the football team made the mistake of opening the back room door, allowing the guy to come in and that's when the chaos began. 

Holly and I had left the classroom and found Keith and Katie as the halls had become crowded with everyone trying to get out or find a place to hide. We couldn't bring John, he was already dead. His throat and neck had been eaten to the point that his head was only hanging on by the spine. We didn't hang around any longer, my friends and I left the school and ran down the street. At one point I had stopped to view the hell before us. People were running, cars trying to speed through but ending up in a head on collision. The gas station was on fire and the "monsters" were chasing those running. Our only source for safety was to climb up top a van that was left in the middle of the street. Within seconds, we were surrounded by them. They kept pushing on the van and trying hard to reach up at our legs. And that's when Justin and Alex showed up. Alex had come out of that dark colored Altima and was smacking a baseball bat right against the zombies heads and he instructed us to jump down and get in the car. Katie had shoved Holly down, I guess hoping that the zombies would catch her, but instead they caught Katie. Keith had jumped down then I did. I had landed on my knees and palms, hurting instantly, but still had to get up and join my friends in the back of the vehicle. At one point, Justin questioned us such as what our names were and if we were bit or scratched. 

After the excitement of impending danger in those first moments, we were thinking we would be safe in the car, but Justin had plans to drive from Colorado to Lubbock for family. And my friends and I realized none of this was over yet, it was just beginning.