The New World

Chapter 1 : The Rising

"Ah shit!" Butch yelled as he hit the ground, stumbling from hitting his own foot. Bird and I laughed as Butch stood up grumbling. Butch brushed himself off, then looked up and his eyes widened, "Hey guys what's that over there?!?!" Butch began to run in the direction he looked in, he reached done and picked up a small blue cooler. We opened it and it had a few water bottles in it, "oh, hell yes!" Bird yelled. "Shhh, hey, keep it down those damned things will hear us" it had been two months since society went to hell because of that damned virus. I guess we were the lucky ones, we got out and a lot of others didn't. My mom and dad didn't make it, that bummed me out real bad. Butch and Bird still didn't know what happened to their parents, my name is Tyler by the way, but everyone calls me Sparky. We kept walking down the road and noticed the sun was getting low, so we found a house to stay in. I came to he door and knocked a few times to see if any infected were there, I heard nothing. So we carefully cleared the house and then set up in a room on the second floor. We were very lucky to have each other, we were three best friends and we each had our own skills. Bird was great with tactics and gaining a vantage on any enemy we faced. Me? I was a pretty good shot. And Butch? He was a Boy Scout, he knew about every survival technique there was. I also owned a lot of knives and Bird owned a lot of guns. So we were as prepared as anybody. We sat in the room we camped in. I could tell it was a young boys room, there was a box filled with toys, and a TV with a child's movie in the DVD player. We talked about what we missed. I asked "Butch? What do you miss most?" He waited for a second then looked at me and said, "girls man, girls" I could tell he was kind of kidding, then I turned to Bird and said "what about you, Bird?" He paused for a moment then said "walking around 11th street man, that place was fun." Then Butch asked "What about you Sparky? What do you miss?" I sat in silence for a moment, then turned and said "my mom.." No one said a word. We had moved the bed over against the door so nothing could get in. Butch was on the bed and me and Bird had our own sleeping bags. We were all laying down about to go to sleep, when Butch said, "you know what? We should come up with nicknames for the infected people." I sat up, then asked "well, what do they do best?" Bird whispered "Bite people" then I suggested, "well how bout Biters" Butch butted in "well they don't just bite people, they roam around a lot, so what about Walkers?" Bird asked "well they moan a lot, so what about moaners?" I said, "well, let's Rock Paper Scissors for it. If I win its Biters, if Bird wins its Moaners, if Butch wins its Walkers." So all in unison "Rock Paper Scissors." I had Rock and Bird and Butch had scissors. "Biters it is then." I said, then I laid back down and said "goodnight guys, get some sleep."
I woke up slightly cold, Bird had opened the window, both him and Butch were already up. He saw I was awake and said "oh good thing you're awake, Butch went down the street to scavenge and found us some food." He handed me an apple and I bit into it, with a mouthful of apple I said "so when do we start moving?" He replied "Probably at 12:00." I looked at my watch "9:23" it read. I laid back down, "ugggghhh. Man I wish I could just go back to sleep. Bird said "man what do you think about making this place a home?" I replied "what do you mean?" "Well, Butch saw a supermarket that wasn't scavenged to much, it has a lot of stuff in it, he also saw a gun store down the street. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go check it out." I walked downstairs to find Butch sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch smoking a cigarette, "that shit will kill you man." I said "ah don't worry about it, I don't have many" he said. I asked "are you ready to check out the gun store?" "Sure, let's go" he replied. We walked down the street and arrived at the gun store. I opened the door and saw there was a small bell on the counter used for getting the clerks attention, I hit the bell a few times to attract any Biters inside the building. I heard nothing. We walked inside scanning the building for anything useful, there were no guns on the wall but there were a few pistols in the display cabinet. Butch was preparing to break the display case when I grabbed his arm and said "let's see if we can find a key first." He put his arm down and hopped over the counter. I went around and into the back. There was a gun cabinet in the back, I went up and tried to open the door, it was locked. "Dammit" I whispered to myself, I looked around and saw a desk, I went through the desk and found a pair of keys, as I was looking up and I saw a picture on the desk, it was of a man about 30 to 40 years old and a little girl. He was carrying her on his shoulders and they were both smiling. It made me miss my family. I took the keys over to the gun cabinet and they worked, "Fuck yeah." I whispered. I opened the cabinet and there was a semi auto AR-15, an AK-47 and a 308. Hunting Rifle. I grabbed all three, I went back into the main room and noticed Butch had found a 9mm pistol and a 12 gauge pump action, I handed the AK to Bird and slung the AR around my shoulder. I used the keys I found on the display case and it opened. I grabbed a 45. Pistol and handed Bird a 357. Magnum. Then we grabbed all the ammo from the cabinets. I then stepped outside. I had three guns, Bird and Butch both had two, they decided it was only fair I got the 308. Cause I was the best shot. We walked over to the supermarket, the weight from my pack was bothersome. I had over seven hundred and fifty 5.56 NATO rounds in my pack over two hundred 45mm rounds, and over one hundred and fifty 308. Rounds. We entered the supermarket. Bird said "alright guys, I'll get anything we can drink, Butch, you find anything we can eat. And Sparky, you go to the Pharmacy in the back and get any kind of medicine we will need." "Aye aye Captain." Butch replied jokingly. We all split up, as I was walking down the aisles I noticed how dim the supermarket was even with all the windows, I was in the toy section and I saw two things that I couldn't leave behind, one was a whoopee cushion, the other, was silly string. I grabbed both and made sure Bird and Butch weren't looking and I stuffed them in my pack. I continued to the Pharmacy, I got back there and the metal gate was down, I got back and lifted it up, I hit the counter a few times to see if any Biters were inside, one came to the counter reaching over to get me, I grabbed him with my left arm and stabbed it in the head with my butterfly knife. I hit the counter a few more times, none came. I slid over the counter and it was dark so I pulled out a flashlight I had in my pack. I began searching down the aisles of medicine when I found the main stuff we would need. I put the small flashlight in my mouth using my mouth to hold it. I grabbed lots of bottles of the stuff we needed and shoved it into my pack, then I heard the locking of a door. Startling me, I grabbed my rifle spinning around quickly and seeing a door at the end of the hall that said "Restroom" above it. I walked towards it slowly with my rifle pointed towards the door, carefully checking my surroundings. I had the flashlight in my mouth, I reached with my left and twisted on the doorknob. It was locked, I knew someone was in there, then i remembered that time my step dad taught me how to pick locks, I pulled out a Bobby pin and began trying to unlock it. I heard the click of the door unlocking, I quickly grabbed the door with my left hand and flung it open, then stepped back and aimed my rifle. It was a very skinny girl about my age, she obviously hadn't eaten in a while. I could tell she meant no harm. She looked up at me and said "please don't hurt me... I don't wish to hurt you..." Her voice was low and weak. I slung my rifle strap across my shoulder and reached down and picked her up. She was to weak to walk. I carried her to the counter and rushed her to the front of the supermarket, I saw Butch and said "Hey man come here. I found someone." Then said "get her some food man she's starving." I laid her on the front counter. He handed her a loaf of bread and she tore open the bread scarfing it down. Bird came around and said "who is this?" I then replied, "calm down, she means no harm." He grabbed a bottle of water from his pack and handed it to her. She was too weak to open it so I reached over and opened or for her. She chugged the bottle down. She sat on the counter catching her breath. "Thank you." She uttered looking at me. "No problem." I said. I turned to Bird and said "hey back in the Pharmacy there were a few bandages, can you go get them?" He then replied "Sure" I then said "there's shouldn't be any Biters, but check to be sure." "I got you." He said as he was walking towards the Pharmacy. I noticed this girl had very pretty brown hair. And green eyes that were just so beautiful. Bird then returned with a few first aid kits and a few more medical supplies. We decided to leave then, the girl was still weak, so I carried her back to he house we were staying at. When we got back it was almost night. I carried her into the room we were staying in on the second floor and Bird and Butch came in and shut the door and then pushed the bed against the door. I laid her down on the bed and sat beside her. Then said, "oh yeah, I forgot to ask. What's your name?"