started writing this a couple years ago and found it on my computer tonight. I'm still working on the other chapters.
update 12-2010:  will be on Amazon soon! wait for 2nd edition though






Chapter 1 head call


Here I am a former warrior with a plethora of high-speed low drag training now in the current predicament…unemployed and living in my parents’ basement. I did eight years in the Marines and completed the school of infantry, CQB training, Army Jump school, and any other high-speed school I could get into. I had the crazy idea that the civilian life would be better for me. I got my business degree and thought every fortune500 company would be pounding at my door for me to work for them.

Here I sit on the toilet in a fancy high rise in the city after I bombed an interview. It was a nice clean facility so I did not mind taking a much needed head call. At least my iphone still had signal so I could go post to my favorite internet forums. Interesting as I check the active topics almost all of them have “zombies” in the title. My favorite Internet forum is a large gun board that has half it’s members obsessed with zombies. I guess they were all a little more active today and I’m not in the mood for z-day talk now that I still have no job so I close the browser.

After about twenty minutes sitting on the can planning my life and recollecting my shortcomings I thought I would check the local weather and news. I don’t go up to the city that often and maybe once I’m done I would go out for some coffee and check out the sites. The city has lots of women and I have been in the worse drought of my life. At this point my life is about rock bottom as I am single, jobless, and living in my parents basement.

My iphone finally loads my local news web site and it’s a little livelier than usual. Lots of breaking news with headlines of: riots, deaths, and chaos. I   click on the main headline just as the lights go out. “Oh crap” I yell as I sit on the toilet in pure darkness. I can’t believe I have been in here so long that the timer on the motion light went out. It was one of those great energy saving ideas that turn on the lights to the bathroom when you walk in. The problem now is that the stall blocks all my movement. I grab some TP and hope for the immaculate one wiper and then find my way to the door.

I am using my iphone as a flashlight as the lights are not going on and notice the news site has finally loaded on the iphone. In big read letters it said “Rabid people rioting in the streets of Milwaukee!”  And had lots of reports of people biting other people. I click on a video and see the newscaster reporting from just down the street from the building I’m at. I can see the reporter is looking pretty scared and only within a few seconds of broadcasting he gets tackled and then you see the camera go down. For a brief second while the camera is on the ground you see the people that tackled the newscaster jump on top of him before the camera cuts out. The news site has the video on loop. The video was of such poor quality it was hard to tell what started it all.

I need to get out of the bathroom and to my SUV, one of the few things I struggle to keep with my work situation. It was all rigged for land expedition with a snorkel, skid plates, roof rack, all terrain tires, and extra lighting. I built this thing for the extreme while I was in the Marines but I have only been able to use it on the roads. I parked about three blocks away from the building I was in because I found a free parking lot.

Everything close to this building was meter parking and I am one cheap person when it comes to parking. I put my phone back in my pocket and started to open the door. The door was really heavy and the bathroom soundproof as that is what I look for in a bathroom facility when I have to drop the deuce. My interview was at the other end of the building but I asked the doorman were a discreet restroom was as I had Mexican food the other night. When the door opened I was bombarded with sounds of people in dress shoes running on the hard floors, honking car alarms, and screaming. I was temporally blinded from the light as my eyes adjusted from the dark bathroom to daylight.

I had to go down this hall to the main lobby, which was also the source of most of the screaming. I pulled out my iphone again to check the news in hopes that the chaos may be ending. The news was now showing a map of the US with red blinking dots on many cities including the one I was in. The largest blinking dot was over Chicago. Great my home is in between here and Chicago. I have to get to my SUV and to my Parents house. I was one of those guys that had cases of MRE’s, pallets of bottle water, and enough guns and ammo to outfit the National Guard. I kept it al at my parents as they had an underground storm shelter. It was on my parents’ property from the previous owners who built it during the cold war. It was the best place to be in situations like this. The only problem was that I was about a 45-minute drive from their home.

Just as I was zoning out looking at the blinking map the screen changed and then it said “incoming call from Mom”.  I answered it and my mom was yelling for me to come home and then asked how the interview went. She said my dad and her were going in the shelter and would wait for me in there. I was just about to tell her I was on my way when the phone went dead. I can’t believe the battery on this phone is so horrible and that has to be the worse luck ever of mine having it die on me now. At least the screaming has died down a bit, as it’s time for me to get out of this hallway and to the main lobby.

I start walking to the lobby and feel naked without a gun. While in the Marines I always had a weapon on me in scary places. This building was very scary now as it was silent. If I could make it to my SUV as I have a Glock 26 hidden under the dash. Yea Wisconsin is one of the few states were you can’t conceal carry but many still carry. I left it in the car as this building had a metal detector at the entrance. As I enter the main lobby it’s just a mess of spilled coffee cups, papers, shoes, broken glass, and on almost all the windows spider web cracks. The hard marble floor is slippery enough without all the extra hazards in my way. The one day I wear a suit and dress shoes this happens. Over by the large glass windows facing the street I see one window completely smashed in and what looks like bloody handprints all over the other windows to either side. I start taking my tie off and put it in my pocket. I am really getting freaked out now because I am noticing more blood but no people. I make sure not to get any blood on me as I remember the news talking about rabid people.

I make my way to the metal detector and just like the rest of the place there is nobody around.  I push on the revolving door and notice no blood or mess in it. I start pushing and than “WOOMP”! I get jolted in the revolving door as someone ran full speed to get in as I was trying to get out. The jolt put us both in the midway point so neither of us could get out without moving it around one turn. The glass door hit me in my head and dazed I look into the other compartment to see who ran into me. The person was slumped over and when I tried to move the door there body stopped my movement. Now I’m stuck in a revolving door with a knocked out person in the other compartment. I keep trying to push the door and notice the other person’s foot is stuck half outside and in their compartment. As I’m looking at the person I notice that it is an old woman that is pretty large. She is all dirty and looks to have blood on her.

I can’t see her face as she is slumped over towards the bottom of the door were it is not glass. I start lightly kicking the bottom of the door to get her attention and yell “ma’am are you ok”. I then notice her starting to move a bit. Maybe she knocked herself out as she ran in the door. She started twitching and making moaning noises. Oh great she is having a seizer and I can’t do anything. The glass in the door is pretty strong as I try kicking it with my dress shoes. Just then she turns around towards me and I see what has been next to me all this time. Her eyes are all bloodshot with almost a yellow color and there is blood all over her face mixed with what looks like mucus. She almost looks a bit bloated or maybe that is just her weight after all we are in Wisconsin. She does not look injured but very angry and confused.

“Ma’am are you ok?” I yell. She then locks eyes on me and starts screaming in the most horrible voice I have ever heard. It sounds almost frothy and unrecognizable. As she is screaming she is spraying blood on the glass between us. Oh How I wish my G26 wasn’t a few blocks down the street in my SUV. I notice with all her movement that she freed her foot from the door. I push with all my strength to move the door so I can get outside while also moving the rabid woman inside. She is freaking out and banging on the glass and I make enough of an opening to squeeze out of. As I get free of the door I instantly check my surroundings. In the distance I see people running, cars on fire, and cars smashed into each other all over the streets. I see a few bicycles strewn on the street. It almost reminds me of the photos of Katrina minus the water and looters.

I am expecting to hear at least some gunfire but nothing. There are just a few screams in the distance and the sounds of car engines racing. I’m hoping the run to my SUV won’t be so bad. I look back and the rabid lady is still banging on the revolving door. I also notice now in the smashed out window a person standing there. This person is also covered in blood and looks to be in a police uniform. His face looks really bloody and I notice he has no lips with just teeth exposed. He also started screaming that same frothy scream as the lady as he started hobbling towards me. As he is directly in front of the building a city bus comes racing down the street. I can see the driving is being attacked by a mob of people as he goes right by with the door open.
The bus jumps the curb and completely runs over the rabid police officer, and then smashes right through the revolving door over the rabid lady. I take off in a sprint the other directions towards my SUV faster than I have ever ran in a suit and dress shoes. After a few minutes I can see my SUV about a half a block away with movement all around the area.

well now...........here we go!!

good start photog.
run with it.

More paragraphs please.  The content may be great but it's hard to read in this form.

will do...

thanks all for the feedback and I'm going to enlist the help of a friend that does proofreading to help me out.

Chapter 2 Handicap parking

On the plus side is that Milwaukee does not have a very populated downtown like a city like Chicago does. Unfortunately it is pretty crowded near my SUV as there was a handicap minibus parked next to me with most of its occupants in wheelchairs. I could now see a few wheelchairs knocked over and some people on the ground. The crowd that was around the area has slowly moved further down the street now. I’m now cautiously slowly walking up to my SUV. The people on the ground are thrashing about making horrible sounds. Most with only their upper bodies moving trying to drag their legs. The street has blood all over it and what looks like small bloody pieces of flesh.

I’m guessing these people were attacked from the same type of rabid people I saw earlier. I run to the rear of my SUV and open it to grab my “get home bag” which has a first aid kit in it along with other things to help me get home incase of emergency. I grab my G26 out of the lock box and put it in my pocket along with the two spare 10 round magazines. I creep up to the first victim and almost vomit on site. His face had chew marks all over with flappers of skin hanging off. He was also foaming at the mouth and his eyes are all bloodshot. I could see what looked like defensive wounds on his hands from trying to block biting people. Blood was all over this guy.

“You’re going to be OK buddy!”  I said to him in this dire situation as I did not know what else to do. He looked at me not in a helpless way but more threatening way. I have seen that look when confronted by aggressive dogs. He started to claw at me with his bloody hands and scream. I jumped back and also noticed the others on the ground doing the same. Only one was not really moving just kind of twitching. I crept up to the body and noticed that he was still in his wheelchair. It was one of those fully motorized ones for someone who was fully paralyzed. This guy did not have a chance. He was all chewed up without a face with just bits of flesh hanging off. It looked as if he was partially eaten. Just then my peripheral vision caught movement inside the minibus.

I grab my g26 out of my pocket and scan for more movement with the pistol at the ready. The minibus has bloody handprints smeared all over the inside of the windows. I can tell the large side door is partially open on the other side. I do a quick scan around the area for other movement and it’s just the guys on the ground twitching. I creep around the back of the minibus and can see the open door with a small bloody hand hanging out of it. I slowly back away as I curve around to the front of the door giving myself space as I square away to the door. Just then the hand gets sucked back in and I think my heart is going to stop.
With my G26 sites aimed in on the door I keep watching but also noticing the pistol shaking. Just then I hear some gunfire to the left of me and I look that direction. It sounded pretty far away but I keep looking to see anything in the empty streets.
My peripheral vision then notices the minibus door slowly sliding open with a figure standing there. I quickly turn and face this figure. It is a man standing up with blood all over him. He looks horrible with cuts and grime all over. His bloodshot eyes staring at me and I notice he has one of those safety high visibility vests on hardly recognizable with all that blood and grime over it. I glance over his shoulder and notice what looks like a scene out of a horror movie. Half eaten people in the minibus slumped in their seats with blood everywhere, with some of them still moving. I screamed at the top of my lungs, “FREEZE RIGHT THERE BUDDY!”

This guy was pretty big and shuffling fast towards me. I kept backing away with the sites drawn on him. He was about ten feet away from me when I instinctively fired two shots to the chest. My ears were ringing and I could not believe I just shot a man in the streets of Milwaukee. The man was still standing and looking at me and started moving at me again. “THE HEAD, THE HEAD!” I thought to myself as I aimed in for the shot. I fired again and the bullet grazed his face taking off some flesh. I was shaking and just started firing and luckily one round struck him in the forehead as he fell back just feet from me. In a matter of seconds I fired a 10 round magazine as the slide on my G26 was locked back with smoke lingering out of the chamber. The pistol was shaking badly in my hands and my ears were ringing. “SNAP OUT OF IT” I told myself out loud as I quickly reloaded a fresh magazine and scanned the area. I ran to my SUV and jumped in, locked the doors, and started it up. I was still shaking as I put it into drive; I was creeping out of my parking spot trying not to run over the guys on the street. I mentally told my self “Ok you just fired 10 rounds and only have 20 left” and that was for just one of those monsters.

As I pulled away I saw a couple more of those things come out of an alley and ravage the minibus’s helpless victims. I started to wonder if maybe someone was stuck in the minibus that I could not help. I quickly put the radio on as I slowly drive down the street. I hear static and put it on seek, and it almost goes through all the stations but one. I turn it up and it is a person talking about what is going on. “Seek shelter, do not come in contact with infected people, and the Government will be sending in the CDC along with the National Guard soon” and then it repeated again. Wow I thought that was a pretty vague public announcement and I bet it is much worse then I thought. I need to get out of the city and back home but a thought was worrying me. This city is pretty calm but more people live in the suburbs and smaller cites of Racine and Kenosha, which I have drive through to get home. Just then I see the exit for the freeway.

yep.....gonna get good and gory in a minute.....keep going

Chapter 3 Drivers ed


The freeway exit is about a quarter of a mile away and I’m thinking this is won’t be as bad as I thought to get out of the city. Just as I’m about to make the right turn onto the exit I see a large SUV speed right across in front of me. It had to have been doing 60mph and it had luggage strapped on the roof rack. In the quick glance as it flew by I could see some of the passengers looking at me. I guess it was a whole family trying to get away from this mess we are now all in. I then hear brakes squealing and a large crash as I cautiously make the turn for the exit. What I see makes my stomach sick as the large SUV smashed into hundreds of cars that were stuck in the exit. Most of the cars were smashed from what looks like continuous wave of cars driving to fast for the exit. If you were going at a slower rate of speed you would be able to stop before smashing into that mess. Some of the cars were on fire I saw movement all over the place. I could not tell who were regular people or those that were the infected. I was now stopped in the street and got out to take a better look. As far as I could see on the exit and freeway it was gridlocked with smashed cars making the freeway a death trap. I then started hearing a sound that was getting louder and louder coming from the direction that the SUV just came from. I looked down the street and saw what looked like a marathon coming my way. It had to have been hundreds if not thousands of people coming up the street. They were now about 200 yards and closing in on me. I started to get a better visual of the large mob.

“Oh Crap!” They all look bloody and angry as they came my way. Strange I thought as the sound was echoing all around me now. I did a quick scan of the area and noticed more mobs on all the others streets coming my way. For a quick second I smelled the faint scent of yeast in the air from the breweries and thought “man I could really go for a cold one right now”. I jumped back in my SUV and started to turn around from the freeway exit. I had three possible ways to go and two of the three had large mobs coming at me, but the third one only had about 20 of those things. I started driving in the path of least resistance and wondered if my aftermarket Australian off road bumper that was made to hit the occasional kangaroo would fair against these things.

Going on this side street at a good rate of speed I was making good distance as I could swerve around most of the damaged cars that were on the road. I was trying to get to the side of the interstate and take the frontage road or any other back road. I was trying not to imagine the interstate right now with thousands probably trapped in their cars or dead. I saw a person on the street ahead of me in what looks like a running suit. I started to slow down and it looked like a woman that was a jogger. I was coming along side of her and rolled down the passenger window as I crept on her side. I yelled “GET IN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!”  As she turned my direction I noticed a large bite on the front of her face and the bloodshot eyes. She immediately turned my way as I stepped on the gas. Judging from her body she would have been considered in happier days a Milf, “what a waste” I mumbled.

I rolled the passenger window back up and made my way to HWY-45 as it is not that busy of a road. I looked ahead and the road looks clear for at least a half of mile so I reached down to try the radio again. “BAM!” I looked up as I hear a loud sound as I feel the truck run over something. Before I can react I see another infected person meet my bumper and the SUV violently shakes as the tires crushes the person. I erratically scan the area again and see a few infected moving my way. I step on the gas as scan the carnage in my rear view mirror. I had to put my wipers on as I had blood spay on the window but so far the bumper was worth the high cost I paid for it. There were now less and less cars on the road and I could pick up speed as it opened up.

It was lightly populated on this path and it would soon turn into more spread out county with more farms and small towns. I was getting hungry and thought I should find local food before venturing into the county were there are not many places to get food. I knew that the fast food restaurant/ gas station ahead was the last stop for some time. I looked at my fuel gauge and it was just under half a tank so I would have to top that off too. The entrance of the gas station had two smashed cars in it so I had to drive up over the curb and go right over their little landscaped flower garden to get in there. Most of the pumps had the gas dispenser hoses lying on the ground and the doors for the place were open. I did see a body lying on the ground too so I put the SUV in park and got out with G26 in hand. I glanced at the bumper and it was all bloody with bits of gooey flesh stuck in parts. I saw what looked like a tool belt and hammer smashed through the unprotected plastic grill above the bumper. “I hope my radiator is ok,” I thought as I assessed the damage.

The actual bumper was unscathed though the plastic grill looked pretty bad with some tools crunched into it. I did not want to touch anything so I left it as is. I then started to scan the area and saw no movement. I listened and did not hear anything which was creeping me out even more. I ran to the back of my SUV and quickly looked through what I had. I found my gym bag with dirty clothes and a pair of running shoes that I quickly put on to replace my leather soled dress shoes. I found one MRE, an LED flashlight, first aid kit, a small knife, poncho liner, fire starting materials, tow strap, and jumper cables. I put the flashlight in my pocket and made my way towards the gas station. I saw some pistol shell casings on the ground that looked to be .40 cal so I thought it might be the police that were doing the shooting. I crept up to the body lying on the ground and noticed that he had a fatal gunshot wound to the head. He also had on the matching shirt to the fast food restaurant inside.

I turned and started walking towards the building. I looked through the windows the best that I could and did not see anyone walking around. I walked in and saw more shell casings and noticed one window had a bullet hole through it. It was a little bit dark inside and now I was glad I paid extra on my pistol for the tritium night sites. I walked in and saw a rack with those fabric shopping bags that you are supposed to buy and reuse. I grabbed one and put it over my shoulder. The windows were letting in light in the front but the back of the place was a bit dark. I noticed that the place was a mess. There were candy bars and snack foods all over the place like a mob ran through here. I pulled out the little LED flashlight and turned it on and shined it on the back wall. There were those glass doors that hold all the beverages with most of the contents all over the place or gone. I walked over cautiously and scanned the area with the pistol in my strong hand braced on the hand with the flashlight like I was trained to do in the Marines. I saw a few bottles off water that I grabbed along with some caffeinated soda and sports drinks. Funny how all the beer was missing along with those trendy energy drinks. I quickly grabbed any candy bars, tissue paper, and snack food that were stilled sealed. My bag was getting heavy but I also saw a plastic gas can inside that I snagged.

I put all my new supplies by the door and rescanned the area one last time. I did not check the fast food side and walked over to that section. I immediately saw a body on the ground and shined the light on it. It also had a head shot along with a few body shots. This one looked like one of those businessman Harley guys that are plenty in Wisconsin. He had the clean jeans with an off the rack biker jacket. I scanned the light over the counter and saw a few more bodies with headshots. A few of them looked just like kids and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. As I walked around my feet kicked a few more pistol shells on the floor. “There must have been some major shooting going on in here,” I was thinking. I turned around as I noticed something silhouetted in the window.

“Oh crap, that’s a man,” I said as I looked at the person standing by the window blocking my path to the door. I raised the gun and light up to notice a very bloody and infected County Sheriff. I instinctively fired two shots to the chest and noticed him go back as he made a shrieking noise. “He’s got a vest on,” I thought as I lined up the 3-tritium dots on his head. “Slow steady squeeze,” I told myself as I fired a shot into his head. He dropped back onto the floor as the back of his head exploded from the hollow point bullet that just went through it.  I did a panicked 360 scan of the place with my light and saw another person standing by the bathroom door. “OH CRAP,” I yelled as I placed the 3-tritium dots on her head. She came running at me as I fired. My first shot grazed the side of her head and she was still coming at me. I stepped back to gain more distance and then tripped over something and fell back onto the ground dropping my flashlight. “CRAP CRAP CRAP,” I could barley see her outline as the ambient light was fading. I just aimed the 3-tritium dots in the general direction of her head and fired for effect.

My slide locked to the rear as she dropped back. I scrambled for my flashlight and then looked at the body I tripped over. I looked like the person was half eaten and tore to pieces. I was now shaking from fear and scanning the whole place with the flashlight. “Oh CRAP!” as I hastily reloaded my last 10 round magazine. I shined the light on the lady I just shot and noticed that I hit her only twice in the head. She was wearing a Packers sweatshirt but I noticed she looked worse than most of the others. She looked almost decomposed a bit. I cautiously walked past the infected Sheriff that I just shot and noticed his radio. I very carefully reached down and grabbed it and also noticed the empty holster. He must have been one of the ones doing some of the shooting.  

I grabbed my shopping bag along with the gas can and walked outside. I heard movement in the distance and noticed the sun was going down. I ran to the gas pumps as fast as I could and could not get any to work. I still threw the empty gas can in the back of the truck along with the rest of my loot. I jumped in the SUV as I noticed more movement closing in on me. Since I knew my bumper was pretty strong I thought I would take a few more of them out before I hit the desolate country road. I swerved around and drove back over the flower garden and noticed a few of those things within range. The closest one was a very obese woman in spandex that was moving like a large sloth. A few more were gaining on me too but she would be first. I sped up to about 45mph before I hit the infected sloth. It was like a detonation of red mist and fleshy pieces and then I felt the all terrain tires crush over her bones with a menacing sound.

Next up were two fast moving guys coming at me. I sped up this time to about 55mph as I made contact. “WHACK……THUMP…CRACK…. THUMP… THUMP,” “ Oh crap,”one guy went over the windshield as I ran over the other. I could hardly keep control of the SUV as I fought to keep it on the road. I looked back in the rearview mirror to witness the carnage behind me. “CRAP OH CRAP!” As I hear and see steam coming out of my hood. I start speeding down the county road to get as far away as possible as I see more of those things in my rearview mirror. Not sure how far the SUV will make it but no matter what, darkness is coming.

Oh shit

Off to a good start, keep it up.

Keep it up!Great start!

I feel like that everyone would shoot if a zombie infection happened.  Keep up the good work.

Great story!!

And since I travel alot for work, these stories really get me thinking how I would get my sorry ass home during a zombie event. My coworkers would make a good distraction, but thats a limited item

Chapter 4 Zero Dark thirty

The SUV was not moving anymore and I’m out on a county road far from anything. I could see a farmhouse a few miles away but the sun is going down fast. The SUV’s power still worked so I put on the roof mounted auxiliary lights to shine down the road in front of me in addition to the headlights. As far as I could see it all looked clear. I emptied my gym bag and put in it the MRE, first aid kit, knife, poncho liner, fire starting materials, and the bottled beverages.  I kept the small flashlight in my pocket and my G26 in my hands. I wore the gym duffle as a backpack and started down the road with the bright lights shinning on me. I would not be able to look back and see what’s behind me for a bit as the lights were so bright. It was now dark out with just the sound of my footsteps on pavement.

Maintaining my brisk walk I distanced myself about a mile down the road from the SUV and could still see the lights. I stopped as my night vision was coming to me and I could make out how remote this area really is with the exception of that farmhouse about a mile and half up the road. “I have to get to that house,” I told myself as I started moving up the road again. I glanced back one last time to the SUV and noticed the lights flickering, “hmm that is odd, the battery should last longer than that,” I mumbled out loud. I noticed the pattern of the flickering becoming very sporadic as I thought I saw something by the SUV. “HOLY CRAP,” I yelled out loud as I noticed the flickering was about 10-15 infected people moving in front of the SUV and coming down the road my way.

I started to run as fast as I could towards the farmhouse and wondered if the infected would take the path of the least resistance on the road like me. “I NEED TO GET OFF THIS ROAD,” I yelled to myself and I started double-timing it to the ditch. My lungs were burning and I felt sick to my stomach as I went the whole day without eating and dinking much. I was getting fatigued fast and not sure if I could make it to the house. For all I knew the house could be full of infected or not very secure for the night. I noticed a driveway up ahead and ran to it. “This I hope leads to the farmhouse,” I said to myself in a winded voice. I noticed the stars were out and I was able to see much better as my eyes got used to the dark. I franticly looked behind me down the road in the direction of the SUV. I froze when I saw that half of them were much closer than I expected. Some were moving fast while others still shuffled along further down the road. Two of the infected were getting real close to me within about 150 yards.  

I was now about 500 yards from the farmhouse and in pure pain. My lungs were burning and I was about to crap my pants from dehydration and cramping. I was now staggering towards the house yelling my new mantra “I can’t go out like this, I can’t go out like this.”  I looked back and saw those two now within 100yds and closing. I looked at the house in a in a last attempt to evaluate if I could sprint the final distance before the infected would reach me. “Oh God this is it” I cried as I realized that they would reach me before I would get to the house. I dropped my bag and turned to face them with the last 10rds in my G26. A few were within 75yds and closing and I yelled “COME GET IT!” and I sighted in the night sights with my shaking hands. What made me sick were all the others in the distance that were coming my way. I saw about 15 total and I knew from the past that I would probably only hit one or two with my last rounds. I would wait until they are within 10yds before I shoot to make the hit ration go up. One was getting real close and I tried to calm myself as I aimed in for the head.

I started firing and the infected person was still getting closer. He was within feet of me before I finally hit him in the head and he went down. I saw another infected getting close and I sighted in. It was a smaller person moving in on me. I lined up the 3 tritium dots and started firing until I heard the sickening sound the slide locking back on and empty pistol as this infected dropped from his now well ventilated head. “OH MOTHER OF GOD!” I screamed and I turned around and started running towards the house.
“SNAP…..SNAP….SNAP” as I heard the familiar sound of incoming small arms fire going past me. I could not tell were it was coming from but I looked behind me to see 10 of the infected still coming at me as I heard a “SNAP” wiz past me and the closest infected dropped. Someone was shooting them and they were a pretty good shot. I then heard the continuous snap of incoming rounds go over me as all the infected were being picked off. I just watched in awe as I saw these moving infected things dropping like flies. I turned and started running towards the farmhouse in the starlight.

I got to within 10 yards of the farmhouse and then heard a loud voice yell “FREEZE RIGHT THERE AND DON’T MOVE!….ARE YOU BIT OR DID YOU GET INFECTED BLOOD ON YOU?”  I wheezed out “I’m Ok” the door to the house opened up and I noticed dim red light inside. I could not see any light from the distance when I was making my approach to the house. I heard another voice yell “GET IN HERE NOW” and I ran in as he closed the door behind me. I looked at the two guys and both were in ARMY uniforms and one had what looked like a .308 AR style rifle with a suppressor and night vision scope on it. The other had a M4 that also had a suppressor with night vision on it. The one holding the .308 spoke to me first, “I heard shooting and through the night vision scope I could see those ZEDS chasing you as you franticly tried to shoot back” he chuckled “You did not have a chance”.  “More are coming as they probably heard his gunshots” the other snapped at the one holding the .308. I yelled “WHAT IS GOING ON?  I HAVE HAD THESE INFECTED PEOPLE COME AT ME ALL DAY!”

The man with the .308 looked at me as he spoke, “Not sure how it started but it spread fast. It is transmitted through the blood and many people were biting each other and spreading it. This is National and for all we know global. The infected first were thought to be rabid but some are also starting to show signs of decomposition. Sure is Creepy”. I just stared wide-eyed as the other butted in, “You have to shoot them in the head, and body shots only slow them down. We were part of a larger unit at a roadblock a few miles form here and we got overrun. We were doing over watch from a distance and could not stop them all”. He looked down with a blank stare. The man with the .308 was getting behind the rifle again as he propped it up on a bookshelf. He was about 10 feet back from the window and now looking through the night vision scope. One window was open so he could aim out and I could feel the cool night breeze coming in. “Do you have any water or food? I dropped my bag of food and water running to this house”, I asked. “THERE COMING” the soldier with the .308 yelled as my stomach cramped once again.

this is great so far!

this is great so far!

Chapter 5 Incoming

The soldier with the sniper rifle was now rapid firing well-aimed shots out the window. The familiar gunpowder smell was filling the room as fear set in on me. “DO YOU KNOW HOW TO USE ONE OF THESE?” the other solder yelled at me as he was holding up an M4 rifle. “HECK YEA I’M A MARINE 0311!” I yelled back as I grabbed it out of his hand. The rifle was equipped with an ACOG scope, suppressor, and an infrared Laser target aimer. He then handed me a 3-day style assault backpack that was a bit heavy as it was full of 30 round magazines for the M4. “YOU WILL NEED THESE TOO!” he yelled as he handed me a pair of night vision goggles mounted to a helmet. The two soldiers both had night visions scopes on their rifles and now I would join them.

The house was and old farmhouse and not one that I would want to make my ALAMO stand from. The other soldier was now taking shots from another window and I needed to find a shooting position ASAP. I walked into the living room and found a nice large window that I opened and punched out the screen with the butt of my M4. The room also had a nice large couch in the center. I grabbed some cushions and fashioned a rest for my rifle. I was able to move around without light in the house, as there was enough ambient light not to trip over all over the place. I got comfortable behind the rifle and looked through the familiar ACOG scope and saw the reassuring glowing tritium glowing red chevron but could not see anything as there was not enough light. I franticly grabbed my helmet with NVG and put it on while turning on the laser on the rifle. I aimed out and saw two other lasers moving about the yard and then stopping on objects and moving again.

I could see the infected still coming. There was about a hundred of them coming up that opening from the road. It was just a nonstop sound of the two other rifles going off and it was now time for me to start helping out. I moved my rifle with the laser pointer to the nearest infected monster I could see. It was an average Midwest fat man shuffling in our direction. I raised the rifle slowly to get the pointer to center on his head and flipped the safety off and slowly squeezed the trigger. I could make out the tope right corner of his head get blown off as he dropped in a surreal green nightmare. I could not believe how many there were and now the closest were within 100 yards. Most were now moving somewhat slow and easy targets. I got into a rhythmic pattern of aiming in on the closest ones and making consistent headshots. The familiar rifle felt comfortable in my hands and I was in the zone. I had already done 4 magazine changes and my rifle was getting hot and then realized that they just kept on coming.

“WE NEED TO MOVE NOW, GRAB THE GEAR AND LETS MOVE!!”  The soldier with the .308 screamed at us. They each grabbed a few backpacks and handed me one more. The other soldier yelled “THIS WAY OUT THE BACK DOOR NOW!” I could see the opening of the door and the two go out in front of me. I could see out the back door of the farmhouse, as there was a barn and silo on the other side. Beyond the farmhouse was about a thousand yards of open farm field that gradually went downhill to a large wooded section. “DOULBE  TIME TO THE WOODS!,” one of them yelled. As we jogged between the old barn and the silo I could hear the old barn sway in the night breeze and it sounded so eerie that I was glad the sound of my breathing almost drowned it out. “Wha…what…about..any people in…the Farmhouse?” I gasped out as my body was no longer as lean and mean anymore, and my lungs burned. “The house had piles of mail and newspapers in the large mailbox so we guessed the owners were on vacation. The farm had no living occupants that we could find,” one of the soldiers, said in an easy voice. We kept moving for a good while longer.

“Lets pause here” the other soldier calmly spoke. I was glad as I was out of breath and cramping up real bad. We made it about 400 yards away from the farmhouse and were almost half way to the woods. The soldier with the sniper rifle turned and aimed at the house as I caught my breath. “They are at the house but shambling around and not coming this way,” he said as he watched through the scope. “They may not follow us to the woods and we can bivouac for the night” the other soldier calmly said. We grabbed our gear and now started moving towards the woods at a slower pace that I appreciated. It felt like an eternity before we got to the dark edge of the woods. “Are you sure we want to go in there,” I chuckled in that scared kid kind of way.

The two soldiers both flipped on infrared lights and started shining into the woods and I just tried to look without getting even more scared. The woods looked real dark and thick and I dreaded the idea of going in there. “We should skirt the woods and try and get around it” one of the soldiers said and the other soldier and me almost said at the same time “OK”. We started to walk the tree line and the sounds of the forest always play havoc on the mind. You would swear you heard little kids laughing as the trees bent in the slight night breeze along with cracking sticks. We had no idea if any of those monsters were waiting in the woods. I was now getting comfortable using my NVG’s again though it was now getting cooler out. The weight of the two bags that I was carrying was starting to kill my shoulders. One was a 3-day style pack and another larger rucksack full of who knows what. “We will spend the night here,” one said as I let out a quiet sigh of relief. “What is all this gear?” I asked as we all set down the multiple packs.

“We were leaving our original over watch and came upon an abandoned Humvee on a road with a soldier laying next to it with a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He had a few bites on him and I guess he chose his way of going out. The humvee was loaded with weapons and extra gear but no fuel. We grabbed an extra M4, 4 M9’s, 2 cases of MRE’s, 24 bottles of water, 2 poncho liners, extra night vision, batteries, and all the ammo we could fit in any bag we could find in the Humvee.” The solder with the sniper rifle said.  The other solder was quietly scanning the area with his rifle ready as I was already sitting on the ground. I opened the larger pack that I was carring and could feel the large box of MRE’s along with loose bottles of water. “I’m going to drink and eat since I had to ruck this beast on my back” I chuckled. The two soldiers laughed and one said chuckling “Marines always complaining….don’t worry I will take first watch”.

very nice!!

Pretty good.

tag....

Chapter 6 Chaos

“Hey, wake up….wake up and be quite” one of the soldiers was whispering to me as he tapped  on my shoulder. I must have just fallen asleep after eating a MRE and was still a bit groggy. I did not have my night vision on but could see a little, as it was a bit brighter out. “Be quiet and listen” the soldier whispered again. As I started to listen I scanned around our bivouac site. I could still see the dark woods to one side but looking in all other directions was complete contrast.

I could see random fires for at least a few miles, and a big cluster of fires in that small town of Union Grove. As I listened I could hear sirens and sporadic gunfire. I thought of my family locked up safe underground while most of the population were living in doomsday probably fighting for their lives. I then smelt the worse smell I have smelt in some time. “Do you smell that?” I whispered. The soldier with the sniper rifle started to quietly chuckle, “OH MY Gosh Sgt, you ripped a lethal one!”.

Despite the fact that all around us was pure chaos I could not help but join in on the chuckling. While we were all chuckling the soldier with the sniper rifle was also looking around with his night vision scope. “Over there,” he whispered pointing to the west of the small town. The two soldiers were now looking through their scopes but I could not see what they were looking at. “What do you guys see?” I asked as I was looking around for my NVG’s. “There is an IR strobe going off just to the west of the small town” the Sgt said.

I finally got my NVG’s on and could see that strobe blinking and all the small fires intensified in surrounding areas. “That looks about a mile away” I said as the two soldiers almost simultaneously said “one and three quarter miles”.  “I will take your word for it” I chuckled as I scanned back towards the farmhouse. I could not see any movement and that made me wonder where they all went. “Get ready to move out” the Sgt said as I heard them getting there gear together. I realized that we did not know each other’s names and said, “my name is Kevin”. The Sgt looked at me and said, “My name is Sgt. Smith but you can just call me SGT” as he laughed and then said, “No you can call me by my first name Tim and the Cpl. Over there is Nate”.

We continued to pack up as I kept hearing sporadic gunfire. The sun was coming up once we started to move and I looked back one more time at the farmhouse to make sure nothing was coming our way. “What else do you guys know about what is going on?” I asked as we made our way towards the small town walking through endless farm fields. “We know that we were told it was civil unrest at first and that the units coming in later had NBC gear on” Nate said. Tim butted in “ We are guessing some kind of virus that is transmitted by body fluids that leaves the victims rabid like”. “Yea, you should of heard the radio chatter from all the ground units before they all got overrun”, Nate chuckled. “Some of them made references to zombies and walking dead”.

“I came from Milwaukee, and it was bad though not as many people as there could have been” I said as we kept on walking with all the gear. Talking while humping packs always made it go by quicker. “The last public service announcement told people to lock themselves up in their homes and we heard that a lot did but many freaked out and tried to leave on the highways,” Tim said as he shook his head. “I saw the highway and it was bad, cars gridlocked with those things everywhere, and the people…….oh man they were sitting ducks….many injured trapped in their wrecked cars….it was just real bad” I said.

As we got closer to the small town we stopped talking and got in a tactical formation. The weight of the two packs on my back was digging into my shoulders. I had to look like a strange sight wearing a suit, running shoes, two rucksacks, military helmet with NVG’s on top of it, and carrying a suppressed M4. We were now walking out of a farm field on to HWY 45 and could see the sign for the town. Earlier I took some fresh magazines for the M4 and put them into my suit jacket pockets. Tim and Nate both had armor vests with ammo pouches on them and I was the odd man out.

“Get ready for anything as we can no longer use our night vision and see the IR strob. It looked like that is were it was coming from just up there,” Tim said as he was pointing to a cluster of building tops.  I started scanning the area with my Acog scope and could just see a few wrecked cars up the road and the few tops of some buildings. The part I did not like was that the road into town is going up hill and then drops down into the town. We can’t yet see into the town fully, just the few buildings tops.

We started walking in the middle of the road with our rifles at the ready. I did not like the idea of cresting the hill and seeing who knows what on the other side. We had less than 10 yards to go before we crested and I was starting to sweat profusely. Nate was on point and as soon as he crested the hill he paused for a second. “SNAP!” as we heard the familiar sound of an incoming rifle round as Nate fell back towards us with his body limp.

good work, please keep the chapters coming.

Cool a Wisconsin story, this I like

Chapter 7 vengeance

“NATE” Tim yelled as he ran towards Nate’s body. I could see blood spurting out of his neck as I looked in disbelief. Tim tried to apply a battle dressing to Nate’s neck but it was too late. We then heard what sounded like a crowd cheering and laughing over the hill. Before I could even react Tim grabbed an M4 and took off running over the hill. I could hear him laying down fire as I heard what sounded like hundreds of rounds of return fire moments after. I could hear him screaming in pain and then he gurgled out a faint
“run…there is about 30” and then I heard a final gunshot.

I was still in a bit of disbelief as I grabbed my bags, also took the .308 sniper rifle, and Nate’s vest. I was saddened to have to leave them like this but not sure what else to do. I quickly ran down the street and then jumped in the ditch as I heard more cheering. Crawling in the ditch I caught sight of a good-sized culvert and crawled into it. I was having a hard time with all the gear but got about 15 feet inside of it and noticed a T junction that was going up towards the town. It was starting to get dark in the culvert but I kept on going deeper into it. I finally stopped to collect myself.

I could hear the faint sound of what sounded like motorcycles going over the culvert and cheering. I just could not believe that with all the other problems we ran into uninfected people that were also a real threat. I sat in the dark for some time until my nerves calmed a bit. I flipped down my Night vision goggles and turned on my IR light and started making my way deeper into the now widening culvert. About 100 yards away I could see a small hint of light. I slowly made my way to the light and soon had to take the goggles off. As I got closer to the light I could hear more sounds of people cheering and laughing. “What the heck is going on?” I mumbled to myself as I crept my way to the light. It was a storm drain on what looked like a sidewalk facing the street.

I took my helmet off and only grabbed an M9 as I slowly crept up to the light. I was looking at the main street and was about ankle height to the people on the street. Once my eyes adjusted to the light I got a grizzly view. I kept back far enough so no one would be able to see me. As I looked out I saw some bodies on the street and some more bodies tied up hanging off of buildings. Some looked like infected and some just looked dread. This was an old-fashioned style town with the main street with small shops on both sides of the street. I could see the reflections on the shop windows and see what was right above me. It looked like a bunch of high school kids in various dress all with guns. Most had SKS’s, AK variants, and pistol grip shotguns, with a few with pistols. Most were wearing baggy sports clothing or gothic dress and were of mixed races. The ones directly across from me were also drinking. It looked like a scene out of one of those small wars in Nigeria. Most of the kids looked like they were stoned. I could hear screams from what sounded like women too.

“If I’m going to go out it’s not going to be like a rat in the sewer!” I mumbled as I started sorting gear. I kept hearing sporadic gunfire and more violence above. I quietly started to recon the tunnels and found out that I had about six of these storm drains with three on each side that gave me a great field of view of most of the street. I then started making weapons caches at each of the storm drains and left the .308, food, and water close to the exit of the tunnel were I cam in. I felt like a tunnel rat methodically planning my attack. My plan was to fire from each of the storm drains to create a diversion and then fall back to the exit with the sniper rifle. I was hoping with all the noise above the suppressed M4 would not be too noticeable. I quickly did a quick recon of all the storm drains as hate was filling my mind.

I was just about to return from the last storm drain when I heard some women scream.  I had to really get close to the storm drain and look off to the side to see some of those punks dragging a group of about ten women that looked to be aged from the 20’s on up to early 40’s. The women were tied together by their hands and feet and could hardly move with the punks dragging them and more punks all cheering. I heard one yell “THESE ARE OUR DATES FOR TONIGHT! As he licked one of the girls on the face and grabbed her in the butt as all the girls screamed. The punks all laughed and cheered. My blood was boiling and I mumbled, “It’s go time”.

This was going to complicate my plan but I was going to have to gamble that they were going to delay in harming the women. I am guessing they killed the men that were with them. “What the heck happened to the infected and who the heck are these guys?” I thought as I put on Nate’s vest and doubled checked the gear. I could still see some of Nate’s blood on the vest and I almost lost it. I noticed that the sun was going down and I had to move now.

I moved to the storm drain in the vicinity of that the guy with the women and could see him push them all inside a Van and then shut the door on them. The van looked empty so I waited for him to turn around as he was swigging what looked like a 40oz beer and started to raise a pistol in the air as if to fire. I crept up my M4 up though I had to aim in at an odd angle to line up to him. As I looked through the scope I put the aiming red chevron of the Acog in his groin area. I waited and then He fired and I squeezed the trigger. The suppressed M4 was still louder than I expected but I saw a pink mist through the scope of what used to be his genitalia. I quickly ran to another storm drain and sighted in on another punk. I noticed that they all started to aim and fire their guns high as if a sniper was shooting at them from the rooftop.

This was great as they were all shooting drowning out my sounds and I could move and fire without detection. The sun kept going down as I kept on shooting these punks with extreme prejudice. It was getting harder to see them and I noticed that they stopped shooting. I slowly moved to the closest storm drain to my exit point. I started to aim but saw no movement. I silently waited as I scanned the area and hoped the women were ok. Just as I was about to move a shoe stepped down right in front of my opening. I crept the muzzle within inches of the tacky looking gothic boot’s heel. I noticed that it had metal studs on it and would soon have a bit more metal on it. I fired right into the heel and heard a scream as the punk fell forward right into my view. He did not even see me as I aimed in on his neck. This punk was emo looking with a flock of seagull’s hair cut and makeup on. I fired as he now lay there gurgling as the 5.56 ripped his throat out. “Time to move” I mumbled.

I quickly made my way back out the tunnel system and grabbed the .308 sniper rifle and a sip of water. I made my way to the ditch and noticed it was now pretty dark out. I attached the night vision scope back on in front of the sniper scope. I then put my night vision goggles to move. I slowly crawled up the ditch lane and then paused to look up at the street. I was now parallel With Nate’s body and kept low crawling over the hill. I slowly scanned the area. I slid up the ditch up near the road as I placed the rifles bipod legs on the shoulder as I lay in the ditch. I switched the scope on and clicked the IR laser on too. As I scanned the area I could now see Tim’s body just a little bit down the other side of the road. I almost wanted to cry as two of the nicest men I have met lay dead next to me.

I could see the Van and no one near it. I saw about 10 guys running around the street aiming their guns at shops and taking pot shots at the tricks their minds were now playing on them. I moved the IR laser on the first guy and fired on his stomach as I saw him reach for his groin. He dropped, as the others did not notice yet as I was about 200 yards away. Next target I again aimed for the stomach and it hit him in the groin too. “Ha ha I guess it’s shooting a little low” I heckled as I aimed in on another. Now they were starting to take cover and one was creeping up on the Van. He got within 10 yards as I aimed just above his head and squeezed telling myself “slow steady squeeze” as the recoil caught me by surprise as the punk snapped back to the ground. I kept on shooting until one was left. He was in the middle of the street and running around in circles shooting at the rooftops of the shops. I was not good at moving target but would try my luck. I started to lead him a bit and fired. I missed as he turned around and started running right at me! I guess with my distance and the suppressor he had no idea were I was at. I aimed center mass and fired. Gut shot as he went down screaming. I scanned the area and noticed the majority of the guys were still moving on the ground and screaming. I chuckled as I watched.

I started to run down into the town. I scanned the area with the scope as I got up to the Van. I opened the back door and all the women started to Scream. “IT’S OK I’M HEAR TO HELP YOU” I said as I pulled out a knife to cut their ropes. I then yelled the only thing I could think of, “I’M A US MARINE HERE TO GET YOU OUT OF HERE”. I quickly cut their ropes and told them all to hold on to one another’s shoulders and get in a single file line and the first on to grab onto my vest. I quickly led them back out of the town towards the culvert. “I have food and water not to far away”  as some of the women said “thank you”. We got to the culvert and I quickly cracked some chem. Lights and threw them inside. I said, “take these and go inside until you see the T to the right and then go right…you will then see some backpacks and inside are food and water”.

I then ran up to the road and scanned the area one last time. I then looked the opposite way down the road and saw movement. It was a large mob of infected shuffling our way about 500 yards away.  I quickly scanned the area and found some dead pieces of wood from the ditch line and what other shrubs I could pullout to use to block the culverts entranceways. I wedged as much debris as I could until I was sure nothing would get through the culverts and then made my way to the women. “ Is everyone OK?….please be quiet and wait here” I said as I made my way up the tunnel closer towards the town. I have to get the infected to pass the culvert. I made my way to one of the storm drains and with my night vision goggles I could see a few of the punks moaning on the ground. I pulled out my M9 and aimed it at one of the punk’s legs and fired. He started screaming real loud and cussing. The other thug that was close started to try and crawl away as I aimed in on his foot and fired. This one made another loud scream as he too started to cuss. I moved around too all of the storm drains and inflicted more painful wounds on the injured punks to keep them screaming.

I then made it back to the women who were all sobbing and said quietly “ be real quiet as a large mob of infected people are moving right over us on the road and they are probably going to pass through the town as I left them a little bit of bait”. We all huddled together silently in the cold tunnel as we heard the sound of the undead getting louder and the screams of the wounded punks getting ever more frantic. We heard a few last screams of the punks as they were muffled out by the moans of the undead. I realized that I had a grin on my face.

Awesome, now he has a harem....  or a fireteam in the making?

Get both!

still working on the next chapters


life has been busy but will keep on trucking

Chapter 8 Refuge  

We had been in the tunnel for two nights now and were running out of food and water. I snuck out the night before to cover up the remains of my two friends and noticed that the town looked pretty quite. It was a hard thing to do but I owed them this and only wished I could burry them proper. I kept their dog tags and nametapes in my pocket now. I thought one more night down here was a good idea to play it safe and calm my nerves.

One of the ladies was telling me about a storage facility that catered to the food industry that was very close in town. She said she had picked up supplies for her dad’s gas station there a few times. She described it as an old metal pole barn with a fence around it. It sounded fairly secure and discreet. “Ladies” I whispered, “”We move out this morning under the cover of darkness around 0300”. I could see the concerned face of the women under the red glow of the LED helmet light. “I will lead with the Night vision goggle and everyone will hold on to each other like a big chain. I will show you how to use what is left of the guns but we should try and be as quite as can be”. I was starting to get nervous thinking that this will probably not go as planned.

I could not sleep and kept looking at the time on the faint glow of my watch. It was 2:55 AM and I started quietly nudging the women awake. One would think that being trapped with a group of women would be a blessing. The romance wears off quick as the smells of body odor and quiet sounds of complaining snap you into reality. “Ladies” I whispered “like I said before we will form a chain with each person holding on to the person in front of them. We will move slowly with me in the lead.” We started to slowly leave the tunnel and halted them at the edge of the tunnel. “I will check out the area before we all proceed,” I whispered. I crept up the side of the road with the NVGs and looked for signs of movement. It was a bright night out and the NVG’s were working very well. I could see some movement up the road past 100yds but not an immediate threat.

We started the human chain slowly walking down the road. I could hear a few of the women whimpering and I whispered to keep it quiet down the line. I tried my best to keep the pace really slow as I remembered all the Humps in the Marines and how the ones at the end would spread out and then have to catch up. This would fall under the slow is fast way to get there. I could finally see the water tower and the storage facility is supposed to be right by it. I was starting to think what the women must think being led in darkness. I was the only one with NVG’s and that knew for a fact that nothing was lurking in the dark. A walk that should have taken 10 minutes was going on 30. I was very careful to lead the group around any bodies or debris on the road.

I stopped the group and said that I was going to walk around them and scan the area. I quickly walked around them whispering some motivation: “almost there ladies we can make it, just hang in there”. I was almost done with the perimeter when I caught movement off in the distance. I stopped and stared at the movement and quickly whispered, “get down on one knee quietly”. I dropped my pack and set the M4 down while taking out the .308 sniper rifle with the more powerful night vision scope on it. I looked at the movement and my heart stopped for a moment. It looked as if someone was inside a car with about 10 of those things pushing up on the car. I could not tell if the person in the car was one of them or us but I did know I did not want them to see or hear us. They were too close for comfort.

What felt like hours though in reality was only one we finally got very close to the faculty. The area was just on the edge of town and looked very vacant. The fence around it was around 10 feet high and looked pretty solid. I led everyone to the fence and told the group to hold on to it while I scouted the area. I found the gate and it was chained shut pretty good so I circled back to the group. “We are going to have to climb the fence, is everyone ok with that?”  One lady expressed her fear of heights and I quickly brought up my fear of the infected. This was pretty good motivation though no matter how quiet you try to be a group is always going to make some noise. I flipped up my NVG to let my eye get used to the darkness like the rest of the group after scanning the area one last time. I thought it best to spread out and all go up at the same time and explained that there was no barbed wire at the top though to still cross over carefully. I was going to be last to start; as I wanted to monitor the best I could everyone’s progress.

The fence was harder to climb that I expected with all the gear I had on though we each took a spot over a support pole. I heard the familiar sound of someone falling to the ground with a thud followed by a whispered voice “I’m ok” as I crossed over the top. Once I got to the bottom I flipped down my nvg to take a better look. “Everyone ok?” I whispered as I heard the out of breath whispers saying they are ok. I walked around the building in the fenced in yard and it looked secured. The roof was not too high and flat though the service and loading dock doors were locked. The building did indeed have no windows and looked pretty secure but we have to get into it without compromising the integrity of it. I dropped my gear and only took my pistol and helmet with NVG’s and tried climbing the side of the building using a rain gutter. I told the women to be ready to catch me if I fall. I remembered in my past when some friends took me rock climbing and remembered the “Three points of contact” as I slowly moved up. “Two good hand holds and then move one foot….two good foot holds then move one hand up” was my mantra as I slowly crept up the rain gutter like a monkey going up a coconut tree.

I reached the top and was glad I could not see below me. It felt high as I reached over the lip. I threw my leg over and almost lost my balance because of my helmet with the NVG flipped back. One over the top I flipped my NVG on as I leaned over and whispered that I made it to the top. I could see the group of women below and then scanned the surrounding area from the roof. I noticed a service hatch on the roof near the HVAC system. I crept up to the hatch and reached for the handle and slowly tried to turn it. It turned though making a creaking sound no matter how slow I turned it. Once it stopped I tried to lift it and it started to lift making an even louder sound and then slammed open as it was on air shocks. The sound was extremely loud in the quiet morning darkness. I Once again scanned the area the best I could and then flipped the helmet light to IR and looked down the hatch.

I could see a ladder and I just watched for a few minutes to make sure nothing was down there. Anything would have been drawn to that noise so I thought it safe to go down. Once at the bottom I quickly scanned the area. There was not much free space though there were pallets of boxes taking up most of the building. I located the office and cleared it and it led to the door. I flipped the two deadbolts and opened the door. “All clear ladies” I whispered as I noticed the sun was creeping up. I flipped off my NVG’s and turned the helmet light to RED LED so everyone could see. We closed the door and took some well-needed rest.

Once the sun came up it lit up the interior pretty good from the hatch that I left open. We started searching the pallets and found hundreds of bottles of water, cans of various soft drinks, and any kind of junk food you could find in a gas station. We feasted on the sugary concoctions and I chugged a can of a coffee drink to wash down my powdered doughnuts. Within minutes my stomach was killing me from the highly caffeinated drink. The office did have a toilet that would flush if we added water to it. Not sure how long that would last but it was much nicer for the women that squatting in the dark tunnel. I figured there was enough food and water to last us a couple of months.

After I was fat and lazy from eating I grabbed the .308 and detached the night optic in front of the scope and made my way to the roof. Once on the roof I had a pretty good view of the small town. While eating earlier I found out that I had one magazine for the .308, 66 rounds for the M4, and 21 rounds for the M9. Not sure how I used it all up or lost the ammo I have to keep that in mind. Once I scanned the area I noticed the same car off it the distance with some infected pressing on it. The infected were not in the best of shape thought still scary enough that I was glad they were there and not here. Looking through the scope I noticed movement in the car. It was two people and they were not infected!

I ran back down the ladder and told the women what I saw and how they were only about 300 yards away from us. We were relatively safe here and those two were scared beyond what I could think. “I’m going to go get them” I said with a crack in my voice. The women looked at me with the better you than us look and asked how. “I will figure that as I go but who knows how long they have been trapped in that car so I have to go asap!” I started going through my gear and grabbed some bottle water, coffee drinks, and candy bars to take to the trapped people. “Who here is a good shot with a scoped rifle?” I asked and one lady raised her hand. “I am,” she said in a soft voice “My father taught me how to shoot as a kid and I was in the National Guard to pay for college”. I looked at all 115lbs or so of her and said “You will take over watch from the roof”. I told the other women to keep quiet and stay inside. We had to be on the watch out for both infected and human bad guys.

Once on the roof I gave former Specialist Bella Shandy the quick how to guid on the .308 sniper rifle. I showed her how to attach the night optic if I was not back in time, how to load, and adjust the scope. I finally realized that the rifle had a dope card taped to the butt stock. I explained to her that it was suppressed but still pretty loud. I also stressed that it only had one 20rd magazine left and to shoot sparingly. I told her to use the bipod and stay low as to not be seen. Once I felt confident that she was somewhat capable with the rifle I climbed back down grabbed my gear and started to go out the door when one of the ladies brought me a large key ring. “This may help with the gate on the fence”, she said as I smiled. She then locked the door behind me as I made my way out to the fence.

I had ten keys and the gate opened after the tenth try. I made mental note which key it was and then locked the gate. I gave a cheesy salute to Ms Shandy on the roof with the .308 and I was off to find that car though I wondered why the town was so quiet.

Chapter 9 Evasion

I had to go through a small group of houses and then I will hit the street that the car is on. While in-between the houses I could not help but look into the windows. One house had bloody handprints on the windows and the number 4 spray painted on the door. I started to notice that all the houses had numbers spray painted on the doors. Thoughts flashed in my head of the Katrina disaster and how they marked houses with dead in them with numbers. “Wow this infection must of spread quick” I thought as I cautiously walked on by as I wondered how long it was going on before the media picked up on it. The town being too quiet was freaking me out as I moved closer.

Once I got within a 100yds of the car I could hear the sounds of the infected making thuds as they pounded their bodies against the car. I counted 9 of the infected all in various states of the infection. Some of them looked like they were decomposing while some looked quite fresh. It was hard to see the one that was a little boy as that just chilled me. Most were the typical overweight Midwesterners. I thought out my plan and I would creep up close and then shoot them. I had two magazines for the M4 and only 9 of them. I slowly gained grown on the hoard and got within 25 yards. With my running shoes on I was able to quietly move close to them. Once I sighted in on the first one with the Acog I adjusted my feet and kicked a glass beer bottle spinning in front of me. All the infected looked my way.

I stared to shoot at the smaller of the infected first as they were moving pretty fast. I was averaging about 3 shots per infected. The fresh looking ones moved the fastest though at this range were fairly easy to shoot. The last two left were slower moving so I took well-aimed shots and was 2 for 2. I quickly scanned all around me and noticed more movement up the street a couple hundred yards. I quick look through the 3x Acog Identified more infected coming this way. The suppressed M4 is still quite loud and the whole town must have heard it.

I ran to the car and banged on the glass. Two heads popped up looking really scared though I tried to ease them with a smile. “Are you Ok in there?”  I yelled as I waived and smiled. I heard the sound of the locks opening and a teenage boy and girl got out of the car and hugged me. “No time for that we have more coming our way….you two have any weapons?”  “No mister, what’s going on, my paren….” I cut them off by grabbing onto their arms and dragging them with me as I heard the shrieks and screams behind us as the group of infected got closer.

Up ahead I saw more coming from another direction and then realized that I should have planned this better.  We were now at a 4 way in the street and I could see infected coming from all directions. I could not see the top of the storage facility and realized that the over watch could not see us because of trees. This was not good. I started to shoot the ones that were closest as the two teens began to cry. This was not looking good as I scanned the area for any possible retreat. I was looking at the houses that were probably locked or had infected in them. I thought about trying to climb a tree, just flat out run, go back to the car, or just take a last stand. I started to fire again and then heard the all to familiar sound of the bolt locking to the rear on an empty magazine. I instinctively transitioned to the M9. I thought about leaving 3 rounds left to finish us off but noticed a sound getting louder.

It was the sound of an engine and it was getting closer. I then heard small caliber gunfire. I saw a small MULE type ATV with a guy driving while shooting an MP5SD! I was stunned but also happy as he was weaving in and out of the infected shooting. It looked like the gunfire had little effect but he drove up to us and yelled through his helmet “GET IN” and we spared no time jumping in. The ATV had two bench seats and a roll over cage surrounding us with open doors. He handed me the MP5SD and Yelled, “shoot them!” as I grabbed it I noticed it was a .22 caliber and he had a bag with other .22 guns and magazines. I almost wanted to laugh but he just saved our lives. The driver had on all tactical gear, boots, and tactical vest with magazines and probably a .22 pistol in the holster. I shouted “thanks” as he weaved through the street and infected with grace.

I was taking pot shots with the .22 and had to reload a few times. I noticed a few drop from headshots though body shots did very little. I could put a controlled pair in most of the infected that saw in front of us. I did miss quite often, as we were moving around pretty good. I noticed we were doing circles in the small town as I could still see the water tower and he was just trying to lose the infected. I also realized that this ATV was pretty fast and I wish I had put on the seat belts

I looked back at the two scared kids in the back with death grips on the roll bars and gave a fake smile as they looked at me blankly. I imagined that former Specialist Shandy saw some of what happened as we sped down the street. I looked at the driver and noticed a military helmet on him, though he was wearing that multi camo that I had seen SF guys wear in the past. He had a Afghani style scarf over his face with goggles. We slowed down as he turned into a driveway and stopped though left the ATV running. He got out and ran to the garage and opened the door and then ran back and drove in. He then ran back and locked the garage door and then turned off the ATV. It was dark in the garage until he turned on an LED lantern. In the cool blue glow he took off his helmet and scarf exposing his young pimpled face as he smiled and said “Hi I’m Walter”.

That's Cool

Well done, keep it comin

thanks for the positive feedback

hope to finish this up though life is getting faster for me at the moment. I know were it's going but just need to get it to words

some good stuff to come

Chapter 10 Awakening

The first few hours at Walter’s place shed so much light on what was going on. Walters home was pretty secure and I could actually relax a bit. Walter was the son of a Y2K survivalist that grew up on video games and graphic novels. Walter’s eyes watered when I asked about the fate of his parents and we knew the outcome. Walter was part of a large online group of youngsters that was very Internet savvy. They could see the writing on the wall and the snowball affect of what was going on with the world.  

It started with some leaked human rabies videos that were shared on the Internet. Most were from Asia and Europe. The group of web gurus started to see more and more of these videos spread. Most were such bad quality though they had the same basic eerie feel to them. People were acting crazy and biting one another and the clip would stop. The Internet group really got off on the idea of the zombies and the web forums were exploding with theories on what was going on. New videos kept popping up and no word from the US media was ever heard.

In the US those members of the website started local meetings and would post how they were stocking up on food, water, and weapons. It was almost just a fun entertaining way for the members to justify buying that stuff. More videos kept popping up though one changed everything. Walter still had power at his place and took us to the basement to show us the video on his PC.

The video starts out with a person with a foreign language narrating as the camera is panning. On the ground is what looks like hundreds of human bodies wrapped in sheets, body bags, and laying out in the open. The narrator sounds scared and is whispering more in his native language. There are large plastic coffin looking containers on a semi truck that can be seen in the distance. The camera is shaking though the video is very clear and in HD.

The cameraman crouches and then zooms off into the distance. You then see soldiers start shooting at some of the bodies as the cameraman starts shaking a bit more as he whispers something. Then you hear a distinct voice in English say “HICKS, GET THAT GUY!” as the cameraman starts to scream. At this point you can tell the cameraman set the camera down out of sight with it set to pretty wide coverage. You see his legs walk out in front of the Camera with bodies still in view.  And then a few pairs of legs in camouflage walk up to the cameraman.

One of the obviously American soldiers starts swearing about how did this guy get so close and what a messed up situation this is. You then hear another voice in the same language as the cameraman starting to yell. The view from the camera shows only from the mid torso down but you can see weapons pointed at the cameraman. Everyone is now yelling and you can only make out a few words before you then hear a gunshot and the cameraman drops.

The solders are all yelling now and you can see the cameraman lying on the ground with a headshot with blooding gushing out. The solders are all talking about what to do and swearing some more. Next you hear one soldier yell “CONTACT LEFT!” as you can see all the men turn left and then you just hear gunfire. Shell casing are seen falling and then one solder takes a knee. You can see his face and uniform clearly. He is in a US Army digital uniform with a Ranger, Special Forces, and US flag patch on. He is firing a customized M-14 rifle. You can then see the other two soldiers drop to their knees too.

One is in the same uniform though firing a HKMP5-PDW submachine gun and the other is in a foreign camouflage with a variation of the AK-47 rifle. You then hear screaming all around them from what sounds like a large mob of people. All three are doing weapon magazine changes as the first soldier drops his smoking M-14 and turns to transition to his 1911 pistol. You can clearly see his nametape on his uniform with the name “HICKS” as he starts shooting his pistol like a madman. He starts screaming as you see a person run into him and tackle him. The person that tackles him looks horrible and bloody. The sounds of the person screaming and gunfire are surreal.

You then see the other soldier with the MP5-PDW start to shoot the person and also the soldier as he turns the other direction and starts to shoot again. The foreign soldier is still shooting though he catches sight of the camera. Just as he goes to look away a large group rush him and just start mauling him. His screams are gruesome, as he is latterly ripped apart while some gurgling is all that is heard. The US soldier turns to look as his MP5 runs dry. You can see his name tape very clearly with “YANCERO” for a brief second as he throws his MP5 at the ground as he transitions to his 1911. He then tries to blow his brains out as you see what looks like a huge mob of bloody dirty people next try to rip his body to shreds. He is still screaming, as his self-inflicted gunshot did not kill him.

This scene just keeps on going for almost 25 minutes of the mob ripping the bodies to shreds and what looked like them eating the body parts. Then after the 25 minutes you hear a large barrage of automatic gunfire that last around 10 minutes. You then see soldiers in chemical suits walking up to the scene. You hear that same language the cameraman had as you can see and hear the camera being picked up. It then turns off.

Walter then explained how that after that video surfaced on shareware sites the internet group did some searching and found that a US Army Captain Hicks and 1st SGT Yancero were listed as being killed in a training accident. Further searching showed the language in the film to be a dialect of Chinese and that the two soldiers were from the special operations community and not the logistical unit listed. Photos surfaced of the two soldiers Ranger school graduation and nothing was ever reported in mainstream US news.

The groups posted that the time is now and what we don’t have we can just take. They started mobilizing and forming strongholds. With the Internet as their main communication they organized quickly. Walter explained how he was invited to join the Milwaukee chapter and really did not like what he saw at the first meeting.

They talked about taking everything they needed and the world was ending. They were young, armed, and had nothing to lose. The first meeting was mixed with all kinds of troubled youth that now had a cause. Their mobilization queue was when the National Guard started to build up due to some new “homeland security type flu”. With social network sites easily hacked they knew when soldiers were up to something as they posted it on their status.

Once videos surfaced of the rabid people in the US they stopped posting online. Walter said he did not know how it spread so fast but it did. The morning while I was in my job interview he said that it was found out that the President was bit by one of his kids. His plane then went down shortly after though the new suppressed it initially. The National Guard then set up safety quarantine zones all over the US. It was mostly these FEMA camps that caused quite some buzz on the Internet in the past. It seams the government had an idea of the “what” but not the “when”.

Walter showed us all these video clips on his computer and it was mind-boggling and so was the fact that the power was still working. He said that the emergency broadcast system put a notice that they would do everything to keep the power on. The Military made strongholds of the power grids. Some small towns lost power though and were cut off. The broadcast also mentioned looters and gangs as a potential threat with the infected as the greatest. “Stay in your house and do not come in contact with the infected, The CDC will be there to help very soon. Stay in your house….” The message keeps looping on the radio as Walter turned it on and then off again.

Walter explained how so far all that was known of the infected is that they are fast moving when first infected. It kicks in the infected persons adrenalin. The part that know one knows is why they start to decompose and get slower without completely expiring. The adrenalin phase last around 48 hours and this is what really spreads the infection. Bites, blood, and body fluids will spread it. The person just wants to rip up non-infected people during these 48 hours. Headshots will do the trick though.

The next phase makes no sense as they basically die though still mobile. The still have a hunger for human flesh but can’t move as fast. Large groups are still quite a danger. The problem is most groups have phase one and two infected. Headshots are the only answer.
Walter’s lecture had one last lesson, “No know cure at all and so many have died in the first 48 hours in the US”.

Walter then showed us a few more video clips on the computer of the first 24 hours of the outbreak. One such video showed a large outdoor shopping mall viewed from a news helicopter. One level one infected started to attack shoppers and it spread fast. The newscaster on the helicopter was narrating about how they found out that the workers in most of the stores in the outdoor mall locked the doors and would not let the shoppers in. You could see large mobs of people in the parking lots attacking each other. People in cars were smashing into each other, fires started, and employees on the roof. The last scene of the clip shows National Guard Stryker armored vehicles pulling into the mall parking lot and opening fire.

Just as we were about to watch another clip the power went out completely as the two high school kids let out a scream. Walter flipped on a lantern and the four of us just looked at each other. “I need to get in touch with the others”, I said as Walter and the kids looked at me with confusion. I never let then know about the others and I lost track of time with all the news and video clips. Then we hear a large crash from upstairs.  

nice keep it coming...............

excellent. I thought this one had gone dark.
keep it going

thanks for the feedback.

I have been working so much that I have little time to finish but I'm trying.

my goal was to have it self published by Christmas so I can give it to friends and Family (the ones who like zombies)

It may end up being a two part in order to get it printed by Christmas.

Glad some of you are enjoying it

you keep typing...........we will keep reading...........

just keep fuckin' typing brother

Cool update.  I always like hearing the back stories of the initial infections.

Very nice brother, keep it coming.

well I ended it here just to have it printed so I can give out for christmas and started part two. will have some new stuff on here soon.



thinking up a contest so I can give one of you  a free print copy. Thanks for reading and keeping me going!

awesome

Good Stuff.

I check this frequently to see if there is more... its addicting. very nice

got some print copies!

and I'm plugging away on the next section

should be posted here soon!

Tag for future reading

ok just got finished....................gimme more!

good story dude

So you have print copies of the first 10 chapters?

Awesome story!! And Congrats on putting it into print!

yes it's: to be continued or maybe a series

I needed them for Christmas gifts for my nephews so I cut it short

the next edition will be longer with the rest I'm working on or be multi part. The holidays took a toll on me.


I also wanted to thank everyone for the interest!

Any updates???  I am dying here...come on

soon. very busy month with work and I have to fly out of town for a few days.