The Monsters Among Us

Chapter 1: In the Beginning

I was in our apartment in south eastern New Hampshire, right outside Manchester when all of this started. I was in the bathroom just getting out of the shower, towel drying my long, dark brown, wavy hair before work, when I stopped to look at myself in the mirror.
"What the hell is this?" I say, noticing a wrinkle starting to form on my forehead as I lean forward to inspect it.
"I really am getting old." I say to myself with a sigh.
That's when I heard my fiance, Carol, call me from the living room.
"Babe come see what's on the tv!" she says in a worried tone. I come into the living room and sit next to her on our L shaped couch. The sun shines through the windows reflecting off our fake vines we attached to the ceiling and various pieces of art placed along the walls. Our lesbian pride flag hung above the couch where we were sitting. The news station was showing footage of some weird looking people attacking others. They looked kind of animalistic, but not completely. They look almost dead.
"Kristen, I think we need to leave. What if those people come here?" Carol says.
"I agree, They don't look like normal people though." I say
"They aren't acting like normal people either." Says Carol.
"True, I'll call into work and you start packing a bag, make sure to pack the pistol."
She nods and goes to the bedroom to start packing. l call my work but it goes to voicemail, so I try the number again, and again, and again, but no one picks up. I go into the bedroom with my fiance quickly packing a medium sized, black, duffel bag. Her shoulder length, dark purple hair is tied into a messy ponytail.
"I tried to call in but no one picked up. It's honestly worrying me."
"I'm sure everyone's ok, we'll call Andy and Emma when we're on the road ok?"
"Ok, thank you babe." I gave Carol a smile, she always made me feel better when I was worried about something.
I grab a brown, slouchy, canvas backpack, and go to the kitchen and start packing food. I hear weird noises coming from the road so I go over to the window and look out. I see 200 or so of the same looking people walking through the streets and attacking people, eating them, people getting out of their cars and running and stepping on others who fell in the panic.
"Carol, we need to leave now!"
"What's wrong?"
"Just grab Harris and get to the truck!"
I run to the bathroom and get some supplies like bandaids, peroxide and a first aid kit, then grab the keys that are hanging by the door. Carol comes running to the door, carrying my nephew on her hip. I take the bags and run down the stairs of our apartment building. While I throw the stuff into the bed of the truck and jump in, Carol buckles Harris, who has a scared look on his face, into the car seat in the back and gets in the passenger's seat.
"What's happening? Why are we leaving?"
"There are bad people coming, but don't worry, we're going to be ok." I say once I get in. Harris nods toward me and plays with his pink stuffed elephant his birth mom gave him. There are some of the people coming around the side of the building from the big group and I notice that they don't look alive, completely. They all have very pale skin, wounds in various places, and a dead look in their eyes. I hurriedly put the keys in and sped off. Carol frantically calls her siblings in the seat next to me while my nephew plays with his toy in the back. "Where's uncle Andy?" says my nephew innocently after about 5 minutes of driving.
I look over at Carol while she turns around to talk to Harris.
"He's at his house with Aunt Emma, we are going to their house to get them."
"And then what are we doing?"
She turns to look at me with a concerned expression, then back at Harris.
"Well figure that out when we get there, Ok bud?"
"Ok momma."
After my twin sister died I was the next person in line to take custody of Harris. He would have gone to our parents, but they died when me and Grace were 12. My dad was on an angry rampage and he hit our mom a little too hard. He was so distraught he got his gun and ended it. I was the one who found them. We went to live with our grandparents who died after we were out of the house, so that left me to take care of him. Luckily Carol was ok with having him around. She was gonna adopt him once we got married. He already considered her his mom, we were just going to make it official in the eyes of the law.
When we got to Andy and Emma's I parked in their driveway, in front of their 2 story house on the outskirts of Bedford. My fiance ran to the door and knocked on it. I grab Harris, put him down and hold his hand. I turn my head toward the house and see Carol hug her brother and sister. I pick up Harris and speed walk to the house, go inside, and hug Andy and Emma.
"What's happening? Why are those people killing people?" Emma asks frantically. I tell Harris to play with Andy and Emma's american pit bull, Harley,  in the next room to keep him calm.
"This is going to sound crazy but I think they're... dead, like zombies or something."
"Kristen, that's crazy!" Andy says.
"I told you it'd sound like that, but I saw them, they looked like corpses, and you've seen them on the news, no human would just bite someone like that." I said.
Carol turns toward me and gives my hand a loving squeeze. "I believe you babe, so what are we going to do? Where are we going to go" she asks.
"We could go to Manchester, there might be a relief center there, or something" Andy says with uncertainty.
"Maybe, but there would be a lot of those things there because it's a bigger city." Emma says looking over at Harris.
"True but it's our best shot." I say.
"And our only plan." says Carol.
"I guess. I mean it's better than nothing." Emma says worridley.
"We should take the van, there's more room for supplies" says Andy.
"Yeah, I'll get Harris and Harley." I say as I hurry to the other room and grab Harley's leash. I clip him to the leash by his collar, grab Harris and pick him up calmly yet hurriedly go to the van. I buckle Harris into the car then put Harley in as well. I run to the house and grab the bags as Andy and Emma run out to the van to put more supplies in. It's not much but who knows what we'll need. I go into the house and notice some of the things walking from around back.
"Carol!" I shout through the house. My fiance comes running through the house. With a bag of food.
"I found all of this in the cellar"
I grab her hand and pull her out the door not even bothering to close it. I get in the car beside Harris and Carol gets on his other side. As soon as she closes the door Emma speeds away with a hoard of those things following us.
"I don't think we should call them zombies." Said Harris
"Well that's what they are, wait how did you hear us? You shouldn't eavesdrop on people."
"I'm sorry I just wanted to know what was going on. Anyways, Zombies are fake, these are real."
"What do you suggest we call them then?"
"Walkers, since all they do is walk around, and eat people." Harris suggested, surprisingly not very bothered by the fact dead people were walking around.
"Walkers it is then."