GASP! I jerk my head up. That was a terrible nightmare. I get up from the wall I was leaning against and check my watch. 39 hours and 56 minutes. I look ahead and see Ashley packing up her things while Holly rubs her eyes having just woken up. She turns to Ashley.
"Why are we up at night time?"
"Its not night time Holly its just early morning. The sun should come up in a few hours that way" Ashley points to the east.
As I walk towards them I get closer to the helicopter to take a look. I wonder what could have survived in there? This is a military helicopter so maybe there's- CRUNH
I look down at my feet. I'm standing on a big crack in the roof caused by the helicopter. "Oh fuck! Ashley!"
"What?"
"The roof cracked"
Ashley's eyes widen as she leans closer. "Give me your hand"
I lean towards her with my hand extended. I don't even remember hearing anything. Just seeing the nose of the helicopter sink into the roof and feeling the ground beneath me disappear. As I fall I hit my head on the ledge of the hole and pass out.
4 years ago
Me and Hank stand on the edge of a lake. Our fishing rods in hand.
"So she just poured it out? Just like that?" Hank questions. I clear my throat
"Yeah I have one drink on a school night and she pours the whole bottle down the sink. $40 worth of whisky that she bought for me may I add"
"That's fucked up man I wouldn't let my misses do that"
My son Connor walks up to me and Hank with 2 beers. "Here dad"
"Good job lil man" Hank says as he passes me one.
I hear my phone buzz in my pocket. "Here Connor take the rod for a minute"
I walk off to the side and answer the phone.
"Hey"
"Hey" Monica answers "I just wanted to say that... I'm sorry. For pouring your liquor out"
"Mmm-hmm"
"But I know that once you start you don't get out of bed until 2 in the afternoon. And I didn't want you to waste your birthday so I thought I could make it up to you"
"What did you have in mind?"
"Well since Connors going to his friends house to sleep over tonight"
"Mmm-hmm" I begin to smile
"I'm thinking you pick up some wine and we watch a movie"
"Then?"
"Then I was thinking we go to bed"
"Is that not a little early to be sleeping?" I smile already knowing what she means.
She chuckles "We're not going to be sleeping"
I feel my face become hot. "I'll see you then" I hang up.
I feel the side of my face. Its wet. Is that sweat? I look at my hand and its red.
"What?"
I wake up on the ground. Its dark all around me. I groan in pain.
"Dave!?!" Ashley shouts down to me. "Are you alive?"
I force out a loud "Yeah!"
"Fuck Dave what do you want me to do? I cant get to you"
I sit up. "Ill find a way out of here" If I'm not out in a few hours leave. You and Holly just wait at the bottom for me"
"Ok"
Ashley disappears from the hole.
I stand up and feel my back crack painfully.
"Ohh too old. Too fucking old for that" I lean back as my body aches. I look around the dim room. It looks like a room of an office. There's what seems to be a receptionist desk in the distance. I walk towards a door. I try and open it but it doesn't budge. I look down and see that it has been wedged. Most likely by the military. People came here because they thought they would be helped and they did this. They trapped them. But they might still be in there. I take the wedge off and open the door. I unsheathe my machete as I walk in. I gag as the scent of rotting corpses hits my face. My eyes watering. Bodies lie everywhere. The room is full of cubicles. This is where people worked. Now its barren. Papers lie on desks half done. Old cups of cold coffee lay about the desks and break room. I notice one of the bodies shift. Its lying down. I raise my machete and sneak up on it.
"Psspss" I hear come from my right. The sound you make when you want to call a cat. Turning I see a man. He wears a dust mask and he slowly walks towards me with his hands up.
"Don't kill it" He demands. His eyes so wide they look like they are about to pop out of his head.
"Why?"
"You make a noise and all the rest of them will wake up"
I look around at the dozens of bodies. They're not dead. Some of them are shifting and groaning. Oh god we're surrounded.
"What the fuck is this?" I ask
"Sleepers. They need it just like we do. Follow me to the break room and we can talk."
We both walk into the break room. The man closes the door slowly. Making sure to hold the handle down until the door is shut to make sure it doesn't click. We sit down at the table.
"My names Zeke" The man says as he removes his mask. He looks to be in his 20s. Maybe late teens.
"Dave. Or David. What are you doing here?"
"The military said that they was evacuating people. Drove my car here straight from my college where I was already relatively safe in my dormitory... Ran up the stairs only to see that they blew them up. People ran back down but the infected were swarming the building. Everyone was screaming and knocking each other over. I thought I would suffocate from all the people pushing into me. Now I found a janitors closet. Pushed a shelf up onto it and locked it. I heard people bang against the door but I didn't know if they was being followed by infected. Or was themselves. So I kept it closed. I'm not proud of it but I did. After the screaming stopped. I just heard chewing, and crunching and gurgling it was making me sick they did that for hours. I was in that closet about 2 days. But I had my food with me. I sat in that fucking closet eating peanut butter and dry ramen for 2 days damn. But then I stop hearing noise round about 2am." He shows me his watch. Its the same type I have.
"Got one too" I show him my wrist and chuckle
"What's not to love? Solar powered and waterproof right?" He grins. "What's the timer for? 39 hours?"
"I'm infected"
"I thought you looked sick"
"Does it look that bad?"
"Yeah. So what are you trying to do?"
"Make it to my family. Maybe spend one last day with them. So I should really hurry up and get going"
"Let me come with you. I came into here and I know the way out. And if you don't make it I can pass a message to your family"
"I already have people with me"
"Ok but I was hoping I could ride along with you guys because I'm scared to go out alone if I'm being honest. Like this is fucked up man people eating eachother? Its sick"
"...Ok we'll get out of here and talk about it then."
"Thank you man. Ok so here's what I know. the stairs are blown up once you get down to the 5th floor or so. Too high to survive so we need to use the elevator"
"It still works?"
Zeke opens the fridge to reveal that the light is on. "Solar panels on the roof man"
"So we make it to the elevator just from here?"
"No I tried the door here. It got warped from being banged into by people. Tried opening it. That shit screeched so damn loud it almost got me killed. We try the floor down" He pulls his crowbar from behind his back. "Lets go"
We walk out of the room and see the infected shifting on the ground. Zeke walks ahead of me and signs for me to follow with his hand.
We move through rows upon rows of office cubicles. Its like a maze. Infected lay on the ground sleeping. Some sleep in chairs resting their heads on the desk. Its oddly human. We make it to a door and Zeke opens it. We go inside and he closes the door. Its a stairway.
"Ok lets go" I say as I walk down the stairs.
As we walk I feel something grab at the back of my shirt.
"stop" Zeke says quietly. Yet conveys a sense of urgency.
I look down and see an infected sleeping on the stairs. I almost stepped on it.
I exhale and step over it.
We make it to the bottom. I grab the handle and look behind me to see Zeke. An infected rises from behind the stairs and screams. Zeke spins around and swings his crowbar into the infecteds head. Accidentally he hits the metal railing causing a large banging noise. I stand at the bottom of the stairs. Frozen with fear. Then we hear it. Screeches of hundreds of infected waking up above us. We dash through the door and Zeke slams it shut. He begins to move a filing cabinet in front of the door. I run to help him push it.
"NO JUST GET TO THE ELEVATOR!"
I run towards the elevator and slam my fist into the button. It turns orange and I hear the elevator coming up. CRASH I turn and see that the door is opened half way. the barricade doing little to nothing Zeke stands there with his crowbar sideways holding back the 5 or so infected half way through the door. The elevator door opens and I rush inside.
"ZEKE!" I push the bottom floor button. Zeke falls onto his hands before taking off in a full sprint towards me. The infected have pushed through and they are about 3 inches away from him. An infected woman at the front is so close that she grabs at his shoulder. But he keeps running. It feels like everything is in slow motion. The door hasn't even started closing yet and him and the horde are already halfway here.
I'm sorry
I pull out my pistol. Aim at his thigh and fire. His eyes bulge as he throws his arms up and falls onto his stomach. The infected woman. So eager in her sprint. Runs right past Zeke and focusses on me. I fire 3 times into her chest and she goes down.
I look at Zeke as the horde begin to throw themselves onto him. He screams.
"AHHHHH!!! DAVE HELP AHHHHHHHH!!!" As he tries to crawl towards me. But the horde holds him down and start to rip him apart. An infected sinks his teeth into Zeke's neck as the doors close just before some stragglers get to me. I stand in the elevator still aiming my trembling arm at the closed door. I slowly lower it as I realise what I've just done. I slam my head into the wall of the elevator over and over. I don't feel the pain.
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU HE WAS JUST A KID! HE WAS JUST A FUCKING KID!
I take a step back from the door and look at the gun in my hand. What 30 fucking hours!?!
I put the gun to the side of my head and pull the trigger. Instead of hearing nothing I hear a click. I gasp as my entire life flashes before my eyes and I feel sick in my throat and stomach. My chest pounding. I look at the gun to see that a casing has failed to eject. I start pulling on the slide trying to get it out. "Come on you cheap piece of shit"
The gun goes off in my hand and the slide is blown off. I drop the destroyed gun and hold my wrist in pain.
I feel something in my throat. I'm going to be sick. I bend over and throw up into a corner. The vomit is jet black and tastes like blood. I fall over.
27 years ago
41Please respect copyright.PENANAzo3EtDirRo
Me and Hank walk home together from school. He turns to me.
"My dad left a case of beers in his fridge and when I stole them he thought he drank them and just bought another pack. If we put our money together we could order pizza too."
"Oh fuck yeah man. You put the beers back in the fridge?"
"Of course I did I'm not dumb"
41Please respect copyright.PENANAEIgUoJDgSO
5 hours later
I wash my hands in the sink and walk back into Hanks room. He's holding a revolver.
"You get that today? Nice firepower. Your dad get it?"
He sits on his bed. "What's really the reason we're alive?"
"Our dads had sex hahaha" I laugh drunk
He gets up and points it at me.
"HEY FUCK WOAH!" I put my hands up
"Everyday I deal with stupid fucking shit! My dad fucking telling me I'm not good enough! You thinking you're better than me DO YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME!?!"
"No Hank no. Just stop yelling you're gonna make the cops come"
"I'm fucking done with dealing with all this fucking fucked bullshit FUCK!"
He puts the gun to his head and pulls the hammer back.
I charge into him and knock him down the ground. Pulling the gun out of his hand.
"What the fuck is wrong with you Hank!?! What the fuck is this silly shit!?! You wanna die because things get tough!?!" Hank begins to struggle under me but I grab the collar of his shirt and shake him. "You don't just fucking quit when shit gets tough you act! You got a problem with your dad? Fucking kick his ass. Got a problem with kids at school? Kick their asses. Ill be there. Ill always be there to back you up you know this! Enough of this shit Hank come on!" I get up off of Hank and he stands up.
"You broke my fuckin hand ma-
"Shut the fuck up"
41Please respect copyright.PENANAVWxDAQnOew
41Please respect copyright.PENANA2b8HpnqtJR