Generation Z

Chapter 1 - How it All Began

"This evening, a 47 year old man has been rushed into Hope Street hospital after a severe reaction to a bite on his arm from an unknown assailant. Police had tried to subdue the attacker, but due to an attempt on their lives there was no other option but to use an armed response.
This has been the first case an armed response unit has opened fire on a civilian in twenty years. The man has been rushed into A&E and we're currently waiting for an update on his injuries. This is Alison Baxter, BBC News."
Needless to say this wasn't what I was expecting when turning on the news. The attacker was a friend of mine. I saw him yesterday what could drive him to do something like this? I listened carefully, my eyes now glued to the television like I was in some sort of trance.
Just then they went live to the reporter at the scene.
"The man that was taken into hospital has now started attacking other patients. There is chaos coming from inside as the armed response unit are trying to take control of the situation but have yet to return.
Several shots have been fired already and the victims inside have been fleeing the building... Wait! Here's one of the patients now! Excuse me sir, can you tell us what's going on inside?"
The man did not reply, just continued walking towards the reporter. He appeared to have a limp and was making an odd groaning noise.
Something wasn't right, even I could see that.
Suddenly the patient grabbed the reporters arm, yanked her forward and began to tear flesh from her neck. I watched in horror, not believing what I was seeing.
The patient then turned to the camera as if he was looking me dead in the eyes, his skin was pale as if all life had been sucked out of it, his eyes were bloodshot red and his mouth was oozing with the reporters blood.
This was when the broadcast came to a halt; my eyes were met with five bright colours and the words 'please stand by' followed by an irritating loud flat-line noise echoing throughout the room.
My heart stopped as I stared at the screen blankly, unable to move.
I regained control over myself, took a deep breath and decided to go to bed.
There was nothing I could do, just lay here and hoped the authorities would regain control over the situation.
I climbed into bed, wrapping the sheets around me and drawing my eyes to a close. However, no matter how hard I tried to think about something else images of the reporter getting her neck ripped apart and the patient's eyes were going through my mind.
Tossing and turning within the sheets of my bed I was unable to find any comfort.
Knowing that it was impossible to get any sleep, I rushed out of bed, got dressed and headed down the two flights of stairs of my house and out the door heading to one of my friends' houses nearby. The air was ice cold as I opened the door and there was screaming coming from the top of the road.
"What the fuck is going on?" I thought, running down the road and up the hill towards Gabriel's house.
Gasping for breath, I arrived at the top of the hill.
People were running toward the town, roads were packed with cars as people tried to flee the area. There were even signs of accidents and car crashes further down the street. I could see fire lighting up the town, smoke filling the air like ashes from a volcano.
I continued down the road until I reached Gabriel's front door.
Approaching the door I placed my hand on the door bell and repeatedly slammed down on it, desperate for him to answer.
It didn't take long for him to answer the door, the look of confusion on his face.
Gabriel was a large muscular male, way taller than I was.
He had light orange hair and a short ginger beard around his face. As usual he wore a large pitch black hooded top and navy blue jeans.
"I take it you've seen the news then, eh? Come on in." He said with a firm voice.
It seemed all that happened tonight has had no effect on him; I felt like he knew what was happening.
I followed him inside the house, which had looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks. There were clothes over the floor, damp towels hanging from his doors and even stains on the counters from where he had spilled food. It smelled like something had died.
It took a while before we actually sat down to talk about what was going on. He spent most of that time stood at the window, watching people sprint past like a stampede of animals in the wild.
"What do you think this is Gabriel?" I asked curiously.
"Isn't it obvious? Someone gets bitten and taken to hospital. Suddenly that person attacks everyone else inside... Then one of the patients walks out the door and rips the reporters' neck out. This is going to sound really bizarre, but I call a zombie apocalypse." He replied, closing the curtains and joining me on the sofa.
As ridiculous as that sounded, it did make a lot of sense but there was no report of the guy that was shot getting back up and attacking.
Although the reports did stop not long after the reporter was killed, so it was possible that the attacker got back up, but zombies... really?
Our conversation was cut short by a loud, slow banging on the door.
The sound echoed the house shaking the walls and sent a cold shiver down my spine.
"Relax will you? It's probably someone else seeking refuge from all the madness going on out there. Wait here, I'll deal with this." He said with a smirk on his face as he walked over to answer the door.
Things went silent, I could hear the footsteps on the laminated floor as he walked over to the doorway, a small click as it unlocked and the screeching sound as he pulled down on the handle.
I could feel my pulse racing, my heart pounding in my chest like a drum.
Suddenly the door slammed open with a harsh forceful bang, causing my body to freeze in place.
There was a loud groaning noise similar to the one I had heard on the news and a loud thump on the floor as if someone had fallen onto it.
I dashed out to the hallway to find the man a multiple bullet wounds in his chest attacking Gabriel.
"David, I've kind of got my hands full here man! Do me a favour, go into the top draw of the cupboard and get me something to take care of him please." He shouted, with a struggle in his voice as he tried to hold the man down.
I ran to the cupboard and quickly climbed up onto the counter.
Not wasting any time I ripped the cupboard doors open, my eyes darting back and forth looking something that could be used as a weapon.
I reached for a large metal frying pan, still stained from grease and pulled it out of the cupboard, jumping down from the cupboard and making my way back to Gabriel.
The attacker was closer to him now and appeared to be trying to bite the nearest piece of flesh he could get close to.
Frying pan in hand I rushed over to Gabriel and held it out for him to grab.
As he took it out of my hands he proceeded to roll the attacker onto his back and started repeatedly smashing his head with it.
Bits of bone, teeth and even parts of the brain went everywhere.
The floor was covered in blood and Gabe wasn't stopping.
"Enough man! He's dead. I said panicking, not believing what I was seeing.
My best friend had just murdered someone; I never thought he was even capable of such a thing.
Gabriel stopped, stood up and put his arms behind his head.
"Gotta be sure he's dead right? If he wanted a kiss he should have bought me drinks first." He laughed in an exhausted manner.
His words scared me, how could someone make jokes having committed murder?
I could barely even look at him, the look of excitement in his eyes after he had just killed someone made me sick.
"Get some rest, we leave in the morning." Gabriel panted dragging the body down the hall, a trail of blood following behind him. "You can sleep on the sofa."
He shortly returned, carrying some clean sheets and a pillow and laid them at my side. "Sorry it's not much."
"It will do." I replied, taking it from him and lying down on the hard sofa.
"We will leave in the morning; it's too wild out there to leave tonight." He finished, walking up the long flight of stairs across from the doorway.
Before going to sleep I unzipped my bag and took out my old journal.
I thought it was best for me to find a way to feel like I still had some control to battle the anxiety I was feeling.
"January 06 2014 – 3:00am
It has been three hours now since the broadcasts stopped.
The sounds of people screaming filling the area outside as people were desperate to find somewhere safe to stay the night. Many people have formed groups and have camps set up in the mountains; I can see the lights flickering in the night sky from the campfires.
I have no news of my family in Oxford, maybe this isn't happening there. Maybe it's just here.
There are several gunshots going off outside one by one, almost like fireworks.
In the morning we should head over to the centre of town, there is a shopping precinct there that has a huge gate that can't be climbed over. This place would be perfect to wait this out, considering we can get there alive.
I'll be keeping this diary of events updated as often as I can.
This feels like I'm in some kind of horror movie, how did things get this far out of control?"
I placed my journal down onto the hard oak table next to the sofa and closed my eyes.
After what felt like an hour, I managed to drift asleep only to be woken up by a loud banging on the kitchen door and a loud crash as glass shattered from the window.
Gabriel charged down the stairs and burst into the living room where I was stood, petrified and confused as to what was happening.
"We have to get out of here, right now!" He shouted, packing a large hiking backpack with tinned food and a change of clothes.
I could hear the panic in his voice which had only made me feel worse.
Knowing I had to move quickly, I picked up my journal and placed it into my backpack and dashed for the front door.
Once outside there was blood everywhere, bodies on the floor, cars toppled and smashed.
There were children dead on the floor with bullet holes in their heads.
"How did it get this far out of control?" I thought to myself trying to maintain control of my emotions.
This was not a sight that anyone on this earth should have to see and yet there it was, right in front of me.
Gabriel gripped my arm and pulled me into an alleyway behind a broken down fire truck, the sound of the sirens causing my ears to ring.
The smell of the bodies burning still clouded the air even though we were so far away from them.
"We need to get to the town without being spotted." Gabriel whispered, ducking behind a large yellow dumpster.
The smell was almost unable to bear; there was the very distinct scent of rotting food that smelt almost like fish but far worse.
"How?" I replied hastily, my eyes tearing up from the stench.
"We follow the alley down the road and past the police station. From there we can move through the skate park near the old supermarket and in through the gate. We should be able to shut the gates using the control panel at the side of the gate, if not we will use force to close it." Gabriel explained, looking through the dumpster. "Find something to use as a weapon, we're going to need it in the event we get cornered and have to fight our way out."
I climbed into the dumpster after Gabriel, my clothes covered in mouldy orange sauce from a leaking black bag, causing me to throw up down onto the floor.
There wasn't much of a choice as the bin was made up of broken glass and garbage.
Digging my hand deeper into the garbage, I was able to dig out a large plank of wood with nails hammered into both sides and covered in maggots.
Shaking the stick violently in an attempt to clear the maggots away, I climbed out of the dumpster and waited impatiently for Gabriel to join me.
After some time, he had managed to find a sharp lead pipe amongst the bags and climbed out of the bin, next to me.
Having everything we needed we headed toward the police station and climbed over a large metal fence into the skate park. There were loud moans coming from the top of the hill as we silently continued down a small rocky path leading to the closed down supermarket next to a thick steel gate.
Just when I thought we were safe I felt a hard yank on my jacket pulling me to the side. I quickly turned to find Gabriel sat next to me with his finger to his mouth, signalling me to be quiet.
He then pointed down the road to a mysterious figure walking towards us covered in blood, wearing a blood-soaked, skull style paintball mask and carrying a baseball bat.
"Maybe we should ask him for help?" I whispered, as the man got closer to us.
"Are you fucking crazy dude? Does he look friendly to you?!" He replied, almost loud enough to be heard.
We hid behind the wall, lying on the floor and listened as his footsteps passed us.
When there was nothing but the groaning sounds coming from the monsters in the town, we continued towards the town centre and jammed the back gate near one of the stores shut. We then made our way to the middle of the shopping centre to close the gate on the other side but were suddenly stopped by six infected who were stood in the small pathway between us and the side gate.
Panicking, we hid and thought of a plan to take them out safely.
"Three guys each?" Gabriel whispered, swinging his frying pan and lead pipe from side to side.
I looked at him confused as to why he was so excited about trying something this crazy. However, I didn't question him. It seemed better that way.
"Half each seems fair." I said worried, my body shaking with fear.
Gabriel decided to take on the first three as the alleyway was way too thin for both of us to charge in swinging at the same time without risking hitting each other.
He ran ahead and swung the lead pipe into the first infected's head, smashing it against the wall. The impact from the swing caused the left side of the head to cave in, blood splattering over the wall.
Gabe then swung the frying pan at the second destroying the skull and sprayed blood onto his clothes, some of it almost getting into his mouth.
He then proceeded to kill the third by swinging both the frying pan and the lead pipe in a cross pattern, the sharpness of the pipe caused him to decapitate the infected, blood gushing out of the neck as it fell to the floor.
The head rolled over to my feet still alive and snapping it's teeth violently. I slammed my foot down on the head until it touched the ground, covering it in blood, parts of the brain and bone. I couldn't believe that one day we were at home, living our lives and the next we were killing people... if they even were people anymore.
I ran over to assist Gabriel in taking out the other three, picking them off one at a time with Gabe doing most of the work as I kept freezing up.
"Well that was fucking easy." Gabriel laughed, trying to catch his breath. "Thanks for the help by the way, you lazy bastard."
"How can you be so fucking cool about that? You just killed those people." I replied, angrily.
"They are not people anymore David!" Gabe snapped back, pushing me onto one of the bodies. "Haven't you seen the fucking movies? I thought you would be psyched."
"Psyched?" I replied standing back up, my clothes now covered in blood. "How can you be psyched? You knew these people."
"I knew them for who they were, not what they are now. There is nothing left of the people they were yesterday and you're going to die very quickly unless you learn to accept that."
Suddenly we could hear footsteps coming from the tunnel beside us, the footsteps echoing towards us.
We quickly hid behind a short brick wall directly across from the tunnel, hoping he would pass us without noticing.
"I know you're here!" He yelled at the top of his voice, echoing through the centre.
I recognized the voice straight away, wondering if it was even possible that he had managed to find us.
"I'll give you the count of three to come out from wherever you're hiding and I'll let you live." He shouted, banging his bat on a wall. "One... Two"
"Josh, stop! It's David, Gabriel's here with me too!" I yelled back, interrupting the countdown.
"David, Gabe! What's up guys?! Isn't this great?!" Josh laughed as he walked over to us.
Josh was a half cast muscular male with a thick brown afro, he was one of my closest friends in school until he had to be sent to a psychiatric ward following an attack on a teacher during class. I'm glad he survived, someone as strong as he was would definitely be a benefit to our survival.
"How the fuck did you manage to find us?" Gabriel replied, stepping out from behind the wall.
"It wasn't hard; your shouting could be heard throughout the town man." Josh replied, taking off his mask and placing it on the wall beside him. "I'd never thought you guys would actually survive all that chaos last night."
"Me neither." I laughed, walking over to him and shaking his hand. "I'm glad you did though man."
"Right, well now we have the pleasantries out of the way let's get some grub." Gabriel interrupted, opening his bag and placing tins of food onto a metal bench and sitting down.
"I'm not eating that shit, I'm checking inside the shop." Josh replied, walking over to the daily foods supermarket and smashing the padlock holding the shutters down with his bat. "Be right back."
Josh wandered into the store as we waited outside for him to return. It was great to see he was still alive. Gabriel was glad to see him, even if he didn't want to show it. They had never got along, in fact on numerous occasions Josh had almost killed Gabriel after he made racist remarks about him in school.
Josh returned shortly after wheeling out a trolley full of food and eating a small bag of chicken strips.
"I had to settle for this crap, there wasn't any protein bars." He laughed, spitting out crumbs as he spoke. "Eat up David, you're way too skinny."
He wasn't wrong, I've always been skinny due to my fast metabolism, making it hard for me to put on weight.
I searched through the food in the trolley and came across a ham salad baguette, a day past its' best before date and sat down to eat.
Gabriel was adamant he didn't need Josh's help and continued to eat the tinned macaroni and cheese he had taken out of his bag.
After we had finished eating, we worked together to jam the rest of the gates closed, locking them down so that they could only be opened from the inside.
We wanted to ensure nothing would get in and make it safe for us to stay the night without sleeping with one eye open.
Gabriel, Josh and I spent the rest of the night walking through the stores and taking out any of the wandering infected that were inside them.
Once finished, we moved the bodies out of the stores and burned them with some lighter fluid and some matches that we had found.
The smell of the burning flesh put us off eating anything for the night so we decided to head inside one of the stores to spend the night before heading out in the morning.
"January 07 2014 – 3:30am
Tonight, we are staying in the town centre.
I have to be honest, I am surprised we have made it this far. Who could have prepared for the world turning out the way it did?
We met up with an old friend of mine in the town but avoided confrontation when we first saw him. We didn't know if he was a friend or a foe at the time. Gabriel stopped me approaching him, pointing out the blood soaked mask and the bloodied bat he was carrying.
We are fortunate that the people that made it to the town centre didn't have time to raid the stores, leaving us with plenty of food... for now anyway.
There are loud gunshots still coming from the comprehensive school down the road, could there be other survivors still out there? Do they need our help?
I will bring it up with Gabriel and Josh in the morning... that is if they didn't hear it too.
Well, that's it for now, I'll write more tomorrow."
As I finished the entry I placed the journal back into my backpack beside me.
It was difficult to sleep with the hundreds of infected banging on the reinforced gates frantically, like a hunter trying to get at its' prey.
I wasn't worried too much as I knew those gates were tough and would be able to withstand the pressure they were receiving from the infected.
The main thing on my mind at this time was how we were going to get out of this place and if it would be safe for us to return.
Eventually I managed to fall asleep, despite the loud banging on the gates and the horrid smell from the burning corpses outside.
A few hours later I was awoken by a strong smell of bacon along with the sound of loud sizzling.
"Breakfast is almost ready!" Josh shouted, cooking bacon on a small gas cooker like the one that my family would take with us whenever we went camping.
"For us or them?" Gabriel laughed, pointing at the horde outside the gate.
"Go out there and find out." Josh replied, not even cracking a smile.
"I was kidding..." Gabe paused, sitting beside him.
I stepped out of the store and joined them near the benches; the smell of bacon filling the air masked the smell of the infected which was a welcome change.
"Did you hear the gunshots last night?" I asked curiously, as Josh plated the bacon onto small, white paper plates. "It sounded like it was coming from the leisure centre next to the comprehensive."
"I was going to bring that up actually." Josh replied, taking a bite into the bacon. "Apparently the leisure centre is the armed response quarantine and evac zone in the area. It was broadcasted on the radio of a car I passed earlier. I was thinking about checking it out myself."
"If there were gun shots, it could mean the people are still there." Gabriel smiled, getting his hopes up. "Maybe they will evacuate us away from all this bullshit."
"Maybe, but it could have fallen by now. There are a lot of the infected around and the gunshots stopped two hours ago, you'd think they would have drawn a lot more of them and yet we have heard nothing for two hours. I doubt they would have killed all the infected in the town. For example, there's a horde of them outside the gate right now." I replied, beginning to have doubts.
"Either way we should check it out, there could be weapons there." Gabriel insisted, standing up and turning to the infected trying to get through the gate. "Question is, how do we get out?"
We decided to scavenge some of the stores to find weapons that would help us fight our way through the horde we would most likely be facing when we got there.
Stacy had found a metal baseball bat behind the counter of the DMD Sports shop nearest the gates, Josh already had the baseball bat he had brought with him and I decided to take a wooden cricket bat with red lining around the handle from one of display sets in the window.
"Now all we need is a way to get past the infected at the gate." I said, turning the bat in my hand as I thought. "The middle and back gate are just as dangerous to open as the infected are still piled against it."
Why don't we throw this?" Gabriel smiled, holding a small, black electronic alarm clock he had found.
"Good idea, the noise might lure them away long enough for us to sneak past." I replied, taking the alarm from his hand and setting the timer.
I pulled the gate open just enough for me to fit my arm through without being noticed by the infected that appeared to be focusing on someone that had tried to get here over night, all I could see from here was the grotesque flesh flying from the body as they tore at his corpse.
I set the alarm to go off five minutes after it was thrown, thankfully the batteries were charged.
This would give us enough time to ready our equipment and get out of here whilst the alarm was ringing.
We gathered all the equipment necessary and waited at the gate for the alarm to start ringing.
Five minutes passed and as planned, the alarm rang. The sound intensified with an ear splitting high tone, drawing all infected within the area towards it.
Once we were sure it was clear, we sprinted as fast as we could down the long car park past the army of infected chasing the alarm, using the cars as cover.
As soon as we were clear of the car park, we took a short break inside a large delivery truck that the charity shops would use to deliver furniture, out of sight of the infected.
Suddenly, a group of them stopped and made their way towards the truck as Josh's foot slipped and banged against a large brown sofa, causing a loud thump.
"Shit, be quiet." I whispered, peeking through a small window at the back of the truck. "Hopefully they will pass us."
They got closer, their footsteps echoing on the hard concrete floor outside as they made their way towards us.
Gabriel leaned forward, quietly opening a large shutter and climbing over the seats, ducking behind the dashboard.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I whispered, not taking my eyes off the infected.
"Trust me." He replied, quietly opening the window and throwing his frying pan as far as he could, sending it crashing to the ground as it bounced further down the street.
The noise had successfully drawn the infected away as they followed it down the road, groaning more violently with every passing step.
As they made their way down the street after the frying pan, we quietly opened the back of the truck and climbed down onto the road.
"We could go through Bedwellty Park David, the trees and large walls would provide perfect cover from the infected on the street. It was closed at the time of the infection so I doubt there would be many infected on the inside."
"The park would be a great place to hold off if we can get the people for it. It can hold a lot more than our centre can." Josh whispered as we approached the large metal gates.
"Yeah well, we can think about that when we know there are more people that can help us protect it. We can't get our hopes up too high as we still don't know what we're going to find when we get to the Leisure Centre." I replied. "Sure would be nice though."
We made our way through the tall trees, following a large cobbled pathway to the small gates at the other side of a large metal band stand in the middle of the park, the groaning of the infected wandering down the roads on the outside.
"Be quiet, I can see someone down by the gates." Josh said, pulling the back of my shirt before I walked into sight.
There were four people walking around the gate wearing police uniform, it was hard to tell from where we were stood if they were infected or not.
"If they're not infected, maybe they can explain what is going on around here." I whispered, peeking out from the trees at the infected. "But how will we know for sure?"
"Hey!" Gabriel shouted waving his arms in the air.
The shouting caused the people turned around, rips on the front of their shirts showed that they were grabbed violently.
Suddenly I noticed that there was flesh dangling from their necks, even parts of their intestines dangled from the gaps in their uniform.
We had only a second to glimpse at them before they knew where we were and started sprinting towards us.
I ducked behind the wall, clenching the cricket bat in my hand preparing to swing.
 A sudden crash came from the gates as they slammed open and smashed them against the wall.
"Here we go." I thought to myself, beads of sweat rolling down my face.
I could hear the thumping of their feet on the ground as they charged towards us.
Without hesitation, I stood up and swung as hard as I could; closing my eyes as the contact from the bat had made to the head of the infected sent powerful vibrations down my fingers making it difficult to hold on to. The side of the head began morphing around the bat, followed by an explosion of blood that had nearly entered my mouth.
I could hear Josh shouting loudly ahead of me, following loud crashing of metal against concrete.
Quickly turning around, I could see Josh smashing one of the officers over the head repeatedly; his bat had completely gone through his skull, painting the floor with blood.
"You made my life a living hell." He yelled frantically, swinging the bat violently. "I lost my brother because you took him away!"
"Josh calm down! If you keep shouting, every Infected for miles will come down on us." I whispered loudly, trying to calm him down.
"Hey guys, what's for dinner?" Gabriel laughed walking over to us with a severed head on his hand, moving the mouth like a sock puppet.
"That's just sick." I replied, taking it off him and dropping it on the floor in disgust. "Come on lets wash this shit off, we don't know what causes this infection and I don't want to take any chances getting this blood into our system."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Gabe replied, walking ahead of us toward a large dirty pond and cleaning his hands.
I followed shortly behind him, cleaning my bat of the blood.
Josh decided to dive in head first, splashing freezing cold dirty water onto me.
"Oh fuck you man." I laughed shaking my hands violently, trying to get the dirt off.
We sat on the grass waiting to dry and watched as the infected began moving away from the entrance to the school, granting us easy access onto the premises.
I felt sharp digging into my shoulder, causing me to turn out of confusion.
Suddenly my eyes were staring down the barrel of a small black handgun.
"What the fuck Josh?" I shouted, backing away from him. "Is that thing loaded?!"
"Sure is." He smiled as he pointed it at me. "Freeze motherfucker."
"Get that out of my face you crazy bastard!" I shouted, pushing the gun away with my hand.
He then spun the gun around in his hand and passed it to me by the handle.
"You can have it; I'm good with my bat." He laughed with a smug expression on his face. "You're such a weakling, it'll probably do you better than that shitty bat you're using."
I reached out and took the gun from him, turning it in my hand and noticing a small safety lock on the bottom left hand side of the gun.
Turning the safety on I flipped the gun in my hand and undid the lock to release the clip. There were fourteen rounds in the clip, only one had seemed to be fired recently.
Once we were in the clear we continued down the path and out of the park gates towards the leisure centre.
We quickly crossed the road, jumped over a large orange brick wall and took cover from passing infected.
There were signs at the entrance to the school saying "Wait here to be evaluated".
It looked like this place fell early as there were bodies everywhere, some didn't even make it past the checkpoints.
The yard was lined with bodies and not only adult, there were also children and pets; it saddened me to see this. I felt it was unfair for me to have survived this long when these people didn't even get a chance.
As I turned my head away from the horrific sight and toward the school I caught a glimpse of someone walking past the window of one of the classrooms.
"Don't even think about it, David." Gabriel whispered into my ear, noticing the shadow in the window.
"We can't take the risk of going in there. Who knows how many Infected are inside that school? And even if there are survivors, who's to say they're going to be friendly?"
I couldn't help but wonder if we could pull it off, but as usual Gabriel was right.
We couldn't risk losing anyone and it seemed like such an unnecessary risk to take.
"You're right." I replied still looking at the window, the shadow now gone.
We proceeded around the back of the school and were suddenly met with a dead-end and ironically with the infected behind us... that is just what it was.
Josh lost his temper and swung his bat at the wall, the contact creating a loud bang against the brick.
As expected the Infected heard the sound and began making their way towards us getting closer and closer with every passing second.
"You fucking idiot!" Stacy yelled, gripping Josh and pulling him back. "Come on David there's no going back that way. We have to go through the school. There's a doorway that leads straight to the Leisure Centre from the inside, it's the only chance we have now."
He picked up a rock from the floor and threw it as hard as he could at the classroom window, shattering the glass.
We climbed inside as quickly as we could, almost cutting my leg as it brushed one of the cracks and used the classroom tables to barricade the windows.
The infected got closer, their silhouettes showing vibrantly through the curtains, causing my heart to pump faster.
"We're going to have to fucking move!" Gabriel shouted, trying his hardest to hold the metal table against the window. "On three..."
Once Stacy had finished his countdown we all dropped the tables and made a break for the door at the end of the class, navigating our way through the tables and chairs.
Down the hallways were bodies of teachers, family members and students and the walls were soaked with blood.
It was hard seeing so many people that I knew, dead at my feet.
Curiosity got the best of me; I needed to know if there were survivors... if that shadow was more than an infected, I really hoped it was.
There was strength in numbers and the more people we had the better our odds of survival seemed.
"I think we should check this building for survivors, there are dozens of classrooms. Somebody must have survived." I whispered as we were walking down the hallway.
"If it'll make you feel better." Gabe sighed, holding the bat behind his back. "We'll help you search the bottom floor classrooms but we can't take the risk of going to higher ground, especially if the infected find their way inside, we would need to get out or be fast food."
Josh suggested that we checked the Art block of the school first as it was the most isolated block on the bottom floor and had a fire exit on the other side in the event we needed to get out fast.
It was a good plan, as the Art block was located at the bottom of the school cafeteria right at the end of the English block.
On the way to the cafeteria we searched all the classrooms down the hall, most of which had bloody hand marks on the windows from people who hid inside to seek safety and the doors were snapped from their hinges.
There were no signs of life in any of the classrooms in the block apart from some empty crisp wrappers and muddy footprints on the carpets, but this could have been from the infected.
I was beginning to lose any hope of finding survivors; it looked more and more likely that what I had seen was in fact nothing more than one of those fucking monsters that seemed to dominate the town.
What we saw made us freeze for a moment before being able to continue forward.
The canteen was full of Infected, walking around near the vending machines, there were rows of tables that seemed to have been pulled to hold them back but had failed.
"If we're quiet, we can crawl under those tables without being seen." Josh whispered, pointing towards the line of tables stretching the entire way down the canteen.
"I have a better idea." Gabriel replied as he stood up and stretched his arms.
He then proceeded to remove the bat from his back, raised his arms and threw it through the gap in doors at the bottom of the canteen that were held open by bodies, all wearing the same uniform as the police we had seen earlier.
The bat hit the floor with an intense bang, echoing throughout the area, loud enough to draw any infected in the canteen towards it, even the ones that were underneath the tables that appeared to be corpses.
As the infected followed the sound out of the hallway we quickly crawled under the tables, moving as silently as we could so we wouldn't draw attention and through the double doors to the Art block, located just before the exit to the cafeteria.
Each classroom was set up to look like a miniature infirmary; the tables were lined up like beds with bloody blankets and pillows everywhere but no sign of the bodies, leading me to believe they turned into those monsters outside.
Just before leaving the classroom, I heard crying that appeared to be coming from inside one of the art supply cupboards.
"Don't open that door David." Josh said pointing the bat in my direction.
"Last I checked Infected don't cry." I replied heading for the door, placing my hand on the door nervously.
"What the fuck do you know about the infected?" Josh retaliated, holding the bat ready to swing. "Open that door... I fucking dare you."
The crying stopped, followed by heavy breathing.
"Go ahead David; I got your back man." Gabriel whispered, grabbing Josh and holding him still. "Calm the fuck down."
I pulled down the handle slowly and began pulling the door open anxiously.
Suddenly I was thrown to the floor by a teenage girl, almost hitting my head on the table behind us.
"Get the fuck away from me!" She screamed pinning me to the floor, tears rolling down her eyes.
Josh pulled her off and held her still until she calmed down.
The girl had long dark greasy hair covering her eyes, I couldn't make out the colour... not that it was important.
She was wearing torn clothing as if something had tried to attack her; there was no sign of blood so my guess was that they weren't successful.
Josh continued to hold her down as she struggled and began kicking Josh as hard as she could, trying her best to break free of his grip.
"Let me go!"
The nearby Infected heard the scream, rushed over to us and began banging on the doors, the hinges beginning to give way.
Gabriel, ran over to the door, looking for something to hold it in place.
"Listen we're not here to hurt you. What's your name? Are you with others?" I whispered as Josh let her go to help Gabe hold the doors closed.
"My name is Tania." She answered, wiping her eyes. "I am with a small group that took my family in after everything went wrong here. Last I saw, they were on the top floor of this building; I got separated from them when looking for food, but all I had found was garbage."
I wondered that if we helped Tania find her group then, maybe we could convince them to join us and help us find the others in the leisure centre, if these people weren't them.
"Not going to hold much longer David!" Gabe shouted, struggling to hold the door.
"Tania, stay down and be quiet ok?" I whispered, moving to a table near the window. "We will find your group but first you have to trust me."
Suddenly Gabriel moved as the infected burst the classroom doors open and dived behind one of the classroom tables.
Josh crawled next to me, mouthing the words "I got this".
Before he could stand up I yanked him back, noticing that many of the Infected were coming in through the door.
Tania began to panic, fighting the urge to get up and run.
"We will get you through this." I smiled reassuringly, wrapping my arms around her.
"I've got it! If we slowly take the brakes off the wheels of these tables, we can use them as a battering ram when they get to the centre of the classroom and make a break through the canteen to the Science block. That is where her group must be." Gabriel whispered to me, moving from the door and ducking behind the tables as the infected burst through, growling violently trying to find us.
I signalled Josh to take the brakes off the tables near him as I began unlocking the brakes around me.
As I crawled to get to the last brake, my foot knocked over a small pile of paint pots that were stacked behind me next to the cupboard draws behind me, drawing the infected towards me.
"Fuck!" I yelled as I unlatched the last brake and rammed the table into the horde, slamming them into the wall as hard as I could, blood splattering me as it tore into their decaying stomachs.
"Get Tania safe! I'll drive them off and meet up with you guys."
I sprinted out of the room, banging on everything I could to get the attention of the infected and causing the entire horde to set their attention on me as they chased me through the canteen.
As I ran towards the English block, there was a thundering smash coming from one of the doorways, followed by another horde of Infected that had finally gotten inside through the assembly doors.
I took a sharp right turn into the science block and ran up the stairs across the hall, bursting through the closest door to me and quickly slamming a table against the door and sitting with my back to it.
It was safe, but for how much longer? There was no way that door was going to hold against the infected, none of the others had.
With Infected gathered around the classroom door, I ran to the window and looked down, thinking that maybe if I jumped it would be a less painful death than what was awaiting me outside the door.
This is when I saw Gabriel, Josh and Tania looking up at me and talking to each other, panic in their eyes as they thought of a plan of action.
Suddenly Gabe raised his arm rise into the air, noticing me watching them and stuck his thumb up. He appeared to be shouting something but I couldn't make out the words.
They then quickly began scurrying back inside the building, fighting off infected one by one.
I placed my ears to the floor and listened for anything happening beneath me.
My ears were met with thumping and deep breathing along with some clashing of metal against concrete. It was difficult to make out what was going on by hearing alone, all I could do was hope that they were ok.
Suddenly, the infected began disappearing from the doorway one by one as they made their way down the stairs towards them.
I felt so helpless, like a fucking damsel in distress sitting in a room as the princes did all the work.
After a few moments the noises stopped, there was no sign of infected or Gabriel, Josh and Tania.
Assuming the worst had happened I opened the door, looking down the staircase, lined with infected bodies that seemed to have died by smashing their heads on the jagged metal of the staircase, blood flowing like a river down them.
I headed back into the room, it would be stupid to follow them down the stairs, especially if they have a plan to get up here and maybe they just lured the infected away.
An entire hour had passed, I was anxious. There was no sign of them still; surely they would have been back by now. Could they have been killed?
"David!" Gabe called out, running up the stairs. "Let us in, quickly."
I quickly moved the tables and yanked the door open; Josh was carrying Tania in his arms behind Gabriel as they ran in, placed her down onto the floor and jammed the table back into place.
"I thought I was dead." I laughed as I leaned against the wall resting my head and catching my breath.
"Yeah, we have something to tell you David." Josh said with a concerned look on his face.
It was an unusual sight to see Josh concerned; he is usually a strong, forward person, it was rare to see him showing any kind of emotion to anyone well... except for anger.
"Tania has a deep teeth marks on her leg."
"What?" I replied, looking over to her as she lay on the floor. "Is she unconscious?"
"Yeah, she ran and tripped." Josh answered, looking over to her. "She hit her head pretty hard but she should wake up soon."
"We can't do anything right now; we don't know how this infection spreads. Maybe she is going to be ok." I whispered, in case she woke up.
"If she's not, you're going to have to deal with it." He finished, placing her somewhere comfortable and running to check the door. "We're clear for now, must've lost them back in the assembly hall."
Twenty minutes later Tania woke up, rubbing her head violently from the pain.
"I'm alive?" She asked, confused.
"Where is your group, Tania?" I asked wrapping the bite on her leg with some bandages we found in the infirmary.
"One floor up, last classroom on the left there's no doubt they heard everything below." she replied, clenching from the pain.
Gabriel and I left Josh with Tania to make sure she didn't turn whilst we were gone and headed towards the stairway in search of her group.
"I'll go first and call you if I need help, we don't know what kind of people these are and more than one of us would startle them." I whispered to Gabe as I made my way up the stairs.
Once getting onto the block of classrooms I felt a punishing blow to the head as it knocked me to the ground.
I looked up and I saw a blur of the person that hit me before falling unconscious.
Several hours later I woke up on the floor of the classroom with a bandage wrapped around my head.
Gabriel and Josh were sat by my side whilst Tania's group was tending to her injuries in the corner.
"Nice way to say hello." I laughed, struggling to turn my head.
"We thought you were one of the infected and didn't want to take any chances, we are deeply sorry. Tania explained who you were and what you did to get her here and we are really grateful to you for returning our daughter to us." A woman said to me as she helped me sit up and handed me a stale piece of bread.
They introduced themselves one by one.
The girl that hit me at the top of the stairs was Leah; a beautiful girl with brown hair and blonde streaks at the bottom, wearing a rainbow coloured top with blood on the chest and skinny jeans. The woman speaking was Tania's mother Nicole; a tall, chubby woman with short, brown hair and was wearing a denim jacket with a bloodstained white shirt. She appeared to be married to the man due to the rings on their fingers.
The father was Carlton; a large muscular man with a brown beard and almost no hair. He was wearing a blue ripped shirt covered in tiny bird silhouettes and baggy jeans.
There was a loud ringing in my head, I could barely hear them speak.
"Do you know anything about the group trapped in the leisure centre?" Josh asked curiously, walking over to Nicole.
"They were with us." Nicole explained. "We got separated after a horde of infected split us up and chased us into the school. The last we saw of them they were heading into the leisure centre to try and outrun the infected... Are you saying they're alive?"
"That's what we're here to find out." Gabe replied confidently.
"I'm sorry about your head." Leah smiled, placing a cold, damp cloth onto my forehead. "Luckily I didn't do a lot of damage to your skull, you're just going to have a lump where I hit you."
"It's fine, there's nothing in there anyway." Gabriel laughed, walking over to me and pulling me to my feet.
"Fuck you." I replied, holding the cloth and joining in with the laughter.
We gathered what supplies we had and made our way down the stairs and out the door towards the leisure centre.
The main entrance was crowded with Infected, so we decided it was best to go around the back and enter through the poolside fire escape.
The pool would have been closed at the time of the outbreak so it's not likely there would be anyone inside.
Although the survivors got inside, so there must have been a way for the infected to have followed them inside.
We quietly made our way around the back of the building to the large metal doors leading to the pool and opened the doors slowly to avoid drawing attention from the nearby infected.
Once inside we made our way around the pitch black, empty swimming pool there were infected inside, walking idly into the wall.
"They must have fallen in, the stupid bastards." Gabe laughed, spitting down onto them.
"They were people once Gabe, show some respect." Nicole replied angrily.
He went silent; he didn't want to get into a pointless argument over a joke. He often makes jokes in bad taste; I guess he takes some getting used to from people who don't know him.
"Let's go through the female changing rooms, it comes out right beside the entrance to the gym." Josh suggested, pointing at the entrance.
"You're just a pervert!" I laughed, as we made our way towards the changing rooms. "He's not wrong though, it actually does come out right next to the gym."
Gabriel and I walked ahead of the group to make sure there was no infected lurking behind the doors that could catch us by surprise.
"Last time I was here, I got kicked out." Josh said, laughing to himself.
"Been here before eh?" Leah asked, laughing along with Gabriel. "He's right, you're a pervert"
"You don't want to get into that one." I replied, looking over to Josh. "Even though we can save this story for later Josh, I would like to know what you meant by that."
"Children please." Nicole smiled, shaking her head. "Let's just keep going."
"Honey, relax." Carlton replied, holding her hand. "They're just trying to make light of a bad situation."
Nicole took his hand, kissed him firmly on the lips and continued making her way to the entrance.
Once we got to the exit we opened the door slowly, making sure there were no Infected in the hallway.
Carlton spotted someone facing the closet where they kept the sports equipment and the spare gym outfits in the event someone had forgotten theirs, so there was really no excuse to take part in the classes.
"Quiet, I'll take care of this one" Carlton whispered, as he made his way towards the shadowy figure.
As he approached the figure, I saw a second running towards the doorway of the male's changing room.
Before I could warn him the door burst open and the infected dived out and pinned Carlton to the floor.
"DA...!" Tania screamed, Josh covering her mouth before she could finish.
"You don't want more attention than we need." I whispered as I ran over to help.
I grabbed the Infected and tore it off him, but I was too late, the infected had already been tearing the flesh from Carlton's arm and multiple areas of his body.
Carlton screamed in pain as I lifted the infected from his neck, causing him to bleed out almost immediately.
I gripped the second and repeatedly slammed the door against his head, blood splattering everywhere with parts of his skull poking out of the skin.
"Dad, please no!" Tania cried running over to her father, followed by Nicole.
They knelt down at his body whilst the rest of us bowed our heads, not knowing what to say. I was never good in these situations; it always made me uncomfortable trying to find a way to portray sympathy.
Suddenly his arm began to twitch violently... Josh lifted his bat and walked over to him slowly, uncertain if he's still alive.
"He's still alive, get away from him!" Tania screamed pushing Josh away.
Gabriel walked over to assist Josh by dragging Tania somewhere that she couldn't see what he was about to do.
Nicole willingly stepped aside with tears rolling down her face after laying a small kiss on Carlton's forehead.
"I'm sorry for your loss." Josh whispered, placing his hand on Nicole's shoulder.
He lifted the bat over his head and swiftly swung it downward, crushing Carlton's skull and painting the walls with his blood.
He then dragged his body into the men's changing room as Stacy brought Tania back, kicking and screaming.
After seeing Carlton turn that fast I couldn't help but wonder why Tania hasn't turned yet, they told me she was bitten but she isn't showing any signs of infection.
We gave Tania and Nicole time to mourn their loss as we wandered through the men's changing rooms, searching for any other infected that might be able to surprise us later on.
After fifteen minutes of tears, we continued down the hallway and arrived at the gym doors. The words 'We Are Alive' was written on the door in what appeared to be blood.
I put my ears to the doorway to listen for signs of life inside.
There were voices shouting back and forth, it sounded like they were arguing over the lack of food they had.
Leah walked over and knocked three times on one of the doors anxiously, the voices stopping on the inside, followed by murmurs and the clunking of metal.
"Wow, everyone is so jumpy nowadays." Gabriel laughed.
"Hey!" Josh yelled banging his bat on the door. "We're here with Tania, Nicole and Leah. You know... your friends."
"Stop that." I whispered, smacking Josh around the back of the head.
"It's true." Nicole cried, knocking on the door.
A large noise of clutter came from the other side of the doors, it sounded like they were moving something large around the room.
A thin muscular man pulled the doors open as the adults were readying their weapon in the event they needed to fight.
"Hand over your weapons!" A man ordered, pointing a rifle at us.
He was wearing an armed response unit uniform and armed with a light machine gun.
We co-operated with them as a way to defuse their suspicions, handing them our weapons and proceeding to step inside whilst they searched us, thankfully not spotting the Glock I had hidden in the event things turned bad. I had only just met these people, I was not about to trust them that easily.
"Alright, you're clear." The armed response unit officer said, letting go of my shirt with his hand. "Alright take a seat."
We sat down next to a make-shift table they had made with some of the gymnastics equipment as they introduced us to their group.
"My name is Gary, this is Tom and Amy.
We are the last of the last of the armed response unit.
At 3am on Tuesday morning, we issued a final broadcast over the television to meet at evaluation safe zones located in all the schools nearby.
Sick people got through the checkpoints as we were only looking for bites on the victims. Each safe zone got overrun from the inside.
The rest of my unit didn't stand a chance against the numbers of Infected attacking us." Gary explained as he cleaned his gun.
Gary was a skinny guy with brown spiky hair; he was six foot tall from what I could tell, tanned skin and was extremely fond of his assault rifle.
The second member of his unit, Tom has a long fringe curved to the side with a short back and sides. He had an English accent and was wearing a shirt with the armed response unit logo on the left side and jeans with blood on them.
The final member of his unit was named Amy. She had long blonde hair, and an average height. She was wearing the same uniform as the others and was carrying a Glock, similar to the one that Josh had given me.
After introductions were through, we decided that it would be a good idea to combine our groups together and find a larger, more secure place to stay that has multiple exits in the event we need to make a quick escape.
This was when the idea of using the park as our camp came into play.
We finally had a big enough group to defend it and would be willing to take others, maybe even build a community.
The group gathered what supplies they had inside the sports hall and left for the park.
We couldn't walk around the outside as there were still more infected hanging around than our group could handle and I wasn't going to risk losing anyone else after Carlton.
Josh suggested that we made our way back through the poolside door and around the back of the school as this seemed like the safest route and was already clear of infected from the events of today.
We began making our way past all the rotten corpses in the school that Gabriel, Tania and Josh had cleared to rescue me from the classroom.
I could hear weeping from Amy, following behind looking at the bodies and Josh leaving the line to comfort her, I could sense a connection between those two, even if they had just met.
Once we got outside the school, our pathway to the park was clear.
We ran over in a tight formation to avoid anyone getting unexpectedly attacked by hidden Infected that may have been in the area.
After reaching the park gates, we quickly moved the infected's corpses and proceeded inside, closing the gate and jamming it behind us, making it almost impossible to open from the outside.
Josh, Gabriel and I decided to go ahead to make sure the park was free of Infected.
"Search each corner; one is covered as that is where we just came in." I said, looking around. "We can all meet in the middle at Bedwellty House; this would be an amazing place to hold up. There are no blind spots and it is right in the middle of the park... besides its big enough for all of us."
The house was a large white mansion with multiple windows on all sides and multiple exits, it was also located in the centre of the park making it ideal with keep watch for any infected that may be coming for us.
A few hours passed before Josh and Gabriel returned from their search, they explained that the kid's park at the top of the hill was crawling with a few infected children and that it was taken care of, the look of regret in their eyes.
They locked all gates on their return back to the house and did one last sweep before returning to us.
We sat down to what felt like a gourmet dinner that consisted of beans, bread and a few sandwiches that we had left from the stores in the town centre.
After eating we decided we should stay the night before heading out to find any possible survivors to begin growing this community into something real.
If there was even a chance that we could find more people like us, hiding somewhere in the mountains looking for help I wanted to take it.
The group headed into the house, each deciding on which room they wanted to stay in.
Amy and Josh left upstairs, followed by Gary, Tania and Nicole.
Gabriel, Leah, Tom and I decided we would stay on the ground floor and take it in turns to keep watch whilst the others slept.
This was the first time since this all began that I felt genuinely safe, maybe it was the fact we have more people with me that I can rely on.
"You think we're going to find anyone?" Gabriel asked, looking out of the window.
"I sure hope so; we're going to need more people to hold this place properly." I replied, as I rolled over and took out my journal. "Have a safe night man."
"January 8th 2014 – 3:02am
Today started out rough. Honestly I didn't know if we were going to survive, after leaving our set-up in the town centre to rescue the group locked up in the leisure centre, we spotted someone inside the school. We decided that it wasn't a good idea to go inside until Josh had lost his temper and hit the wall with his bat... idiot.
We were surrounded and had to go inside. This is where we found a young girl crying hiding in a supply closet down the Art block, named Tania. She told us about another group, alive in the school.
Before going to search for them we got ambushed inside the classroom.
This is where Gabriel came up with an idea that would have worked if I didn't knock over the paint pots. (oops!)
In panic, I distracted a horde of the Infected and made a break for the exit, which was one of the stupidest things I've ever done. I could have been killed!
I got side-tracked and was forced to take the stairs to the science block and locked myself in one of the classrooms.
I was soon rescued by Josh, Stacy and Tania. I was then given the news that Tania was already bitten. We couldn't just kill her, especially because we didn't know how the infection spread yet. I got knocked unconscious by a member of the group thinking I was Infected. Once I regained consciousness we got introductions out of the way.
They informed us that the people we originally came to save were members of their group and set out to help them. Unfortunately on arrival to the Leisure Centre, we lost one of our members to an Infected that unexpectedly burst out of the males' changing rooms. To make things worse the person lost was Tania's father, Carlton. We gave them some time to say goodbye and Josh put him down.
We then met up with the other group, after they let us inside the sports hall they were held up in.
We found out that three of the Armed Response Unit's members had survived and they explained what had happened to the rest.
We agreed to combine our groups and headed out to find a safer place to start building a community. Josh suggested the park and it had more advantages than disadvantages so we decided it was a good idea. The park has now been secured and we are staying the night inside a big mansion in the middle! (First time for everything!) with Stacy keeping watch outside.
Tomorrow we are going to set out looking for new survivors and gather some more supplies from the town. It won't be an easy task, but there are enough of us to do it this time. I have to admit, it feels so much safer now that we have more people.
I guess we will have to see what tomorrow has in store for us. Goodnight."