The dead are here. Theyre outside, in the street. I could hear them coming - I could smell them coming. I wonder if I'll ever get used to how they smell, its so awful.

A glance through the window confirms my fears. Theyre here. Theres more than I thought there would be - too many to count. More than I've seen in one place before, but at least I dont recognise any of them. Thats the worst thing about all this - when you see someone you know, and theyre like...that. They used to be people and now theyre those monsters - just mindless things. Just like us until they died and came back. Its easy to forget that when they're strangers - its easier to bring yourself to doing what you have to.
I killed my next door neighbour an hour ago. No thats wrong - I killed what was left of him. There was no way he could have been alive when I did it. He was walking around with his guts hanging out of his stomach. It had taken him a long time to die, and only minutes for him to come back again. And then I shot him through the eye, decorating the back of the wall with his head. That put him down, out of his misery. I couldnt bring myself to shoot my girlfriend though. She was bitten yesterday, and she got sick, real sick, about an hour later; she died this morning, in our room. I stood there for about an hour - I wanted to do it. I wanted to do like the soldier told us to on the radio. I wanted to stop her from coming back. But I couldn't do it. How could I? I tried, but I just couldn't pull the trigger. I couldn't shoot her, and now shes one of them, just another walking corpse... I can hear her stumbling around upstairs. I still don't think I could do it, even if I saw her like that. I don't want to see her like that.

I figure its the end of the world. They'll be everywhere soon. Everything they kill gets up and kills. The radio says heavensgate's been overrun - the first attacks only started a week ago, and we only knew what we were up against yesterday; and now the entire citys just filled with them. The army are pulling out now, they know its hopeless. The helicopters have been in the air for a while - according to the radio, theyre evacuating the few people left in the city. I can hear some cars coming down the road now - I better take a look.

I crept up to the window and took a look. There were a few trucks and jeeps coming out of town. For a second I thought there was a chance I might get out of here alive, that despite what I'd seen there was a way out of here - an escape from this nightmare. But the dead people in the street saw them coming. By the time the first jeep got here they'd almost filled the road. The first two jeeps sped through the only gap in the horde and managed to get away. The truck behind them smashed through the few zombies who'd staggered into the gap, but by the time the jeep behind it got there it was too late. The zombies were about four ranks deep by then; the jeep slammed through their ranks but this time the monsters had clung to the car. They smashed through the windscreen and grabbed at the people inside - the jeep swerved suddenly to the left, and then slammed back to the right. It tipped over and slid a few metres down the road before screeching to a halt just on the other side of the road from here. A marine pulled himself out of the wreckage and started to hobble away from the stricken vehicle, but he as he stumbled forward the things swarmed him - they ripped him apart.

The truck behind that jeep was the last vehicle in the little convoy. It skidded to a halt as the jeep tipped over, and the marines in the back jumped out and ran over to the wreck. They started shooting the dead, trying to keep them back. But one by one they were overwhelmed - a soldier stopped to reload and a bisected zombie pulled at his leg, taking a huge chunk out of it. Another soldier managed to get up to the wreck and pull one of the passengers out - the passenger ripped the would-be samaritan's throat out with his teeth: he was already one of those things.
The other two marines fired off a few rounds and then tried to run back to the truck, but they'd been cut off, surrounded completely by the walking dead. They emptied their guns into the crowd but there was too many. One of them pulled his pistol out and blew his own head off - not the first person I've seen do that. At least that guy wont be coming back.
The other one wasnt so lucky - he still thought he could fight it out. Either that or he couldnt bring himself to do it; he pulled his pistol out and blew away the first few that managed to get near him, and then he started frantically reloading his sub machine gun. He slammed the clip in just as the first cold dead hand pawed at him - then the first hungry bite ripped into his shoulder. Then the second, and the third, and then I couldnt see him. Thank god...

The truck behind them was swarming with the dead by then - I saw a few fall backwards from the back of the truck as someone in there started firing some sort of shotgun, but it wasnt enough. The crowd clambered up into the back of the truck, and there was a last loud gunshot before I saw the dead fill the truck completely - they'd filed in and packed it to the brim. God knows what it must have been like for the poor bastard inside.

I kinda lost it then for a second. When I saw them eating the bodies on the floor, I threw up. I grabbed the petrol bombs I'd made, the gun I'd stolen from a dead soldier yesterday - a long black assault rifle - and I ran out the front door. See, so far the dead hadnt seen me. They didnt know I was there. But then I ran outside. So stupid of me. I didnt have enough bullets to kill them all. But I just couldnt take it, I had to try and save anyone left in the truck's cabin. As I ran out this woman leapt out the cabin door and started running towards me - but there were too many. She almost made it towards me, but there were too many of them. Too many. I tried to kill them, clear a path, but I was shooting them and they wouldnt die - I remember blowing the left side of this fat guys head clean off and it just kept lurching toward her. They grabbed her, and they pulled her down, and then I shot her just after the first high pitched scream. I figured that was what she'd want. I mean, eaten alive or shot, its not much of a choice right? Right. I did the right thing.

I threw a petrol bomb at the truck before running back to the house. The glass smashed apart and fire blossomed around the front of the truck. Just as I reached the house I heard - no, I felt, the truck explode. There was this low dull sound, like thunder, and then I felt a gust of heat touch my back and the front windows smashed to pieces.

But I got into the house, and I slammed the door behind me - they didnt have me yet. I heard the low moans and snarls of the horrors right outside, then I saw them start to beat against the door. I stepped back and ran through the living room for the back door as the first zombies staggered through the window - one of them was on fire and the smell was horrible, like fried bacon that had gone mouldy, it made me feel sick - and I ran out into the kitchen and then paused at the cooker. I turned the gas onto full and then ran out into the garden - hopefully something will spark and barbecue any undead bastards still in there, do what I couldn't for Julie - and climbed over the fence.

I started running down the street and I saw a car stopped in the road, doors wide open. There were a couple of dead people standing deathly still next to the car, empty expressions on their mangled faces. I stopped running for a second and fired a quick burst at them. The first one, what used to be an old man from the looks of it, fell down as it's head exploded in a shower of gore The other staggered backwards as the rounds slammed into its chest and neck, and then started lurching towards me. I ran up to it and smashed its brains out with the back of the gun - god these things are already decomposed! I almost retched as I felt the spray across my arms. I controlled it, and climbed into the car. Luckily for me, the keys were still in the ignition. I wondered if the people - no theyre not people, not anymore, I have to remember that - I just killed were the owners. The radio was on when I got into the car and started the ignition. After a burst of static, a panicky male voice came on the air.

There are some soldiers and survivors from the city held up in the mall. Theres a helicopter on the way there - the last train out of town. But the dead are on their slow, implacable way there already. The guy said the carpark was slowly filling with them - already too many to shoot. They were going to barricade the building up, leave a couple of doors unlocked - most of the dead dont seem to know how to open them. But they said if things got too hairy, they were going to close off the mall completely. I have to get there fast.

A flurry of movement in the corner of my vision distracted me - something reflected in the wing mirror. I heard a woman scream as I twisted my head round, and saw her backing out of one of the houses next to me, clutching at a bloody wound on her neck. A man with the pallid complexion of the dead followed her through the door, blood and flesh smeared around his mouth, which was open in a horrific O. The woman backed up, her whimpers barely audible through the car window, then she tripped over the steps leading down the porch.
I couldn't get out and save her, she was as good as dead. I might need the bullets. She'd been bitten, and I knew what that meant - all those things ran through my mind as I twisted in my seat, staring at the spectacle with indecision.

The dead man staggered towards her, and I heard her scream again, calling the man's name and begging him to stop. The panicked voice was like a knife in my gut, almost making me get out of the seat and help her. Instead, I pulled the hand-brake off. I was about to drive off, eyes drawn inexorably to the atrocity about to take place behind me, when a small figure ran out of the house and grabbed the man's legs as he bent over the stricken woman. I stared in shocked horror as saw the little girl, heard her screaming and crying. The man ignored her frantic, ineffectual blows and then began to tear the womans face off. I heard the innocent voice scream "Daddy no no don't!" and I finally made my decision. I leapt out of the car and ran towards the house.
"Get away from him!" I yelled as I ran, snatching the rifle off my shoulder as I moved.

Before I could reach her, before I could save her, she was dead.

Another zombie came staggering out of the door behind her, it's features rotted and damaged beyond description. It placed a fleshless hand on the girls shoulders and tugged her off her father, who was immune to the childish blows upon his head and shoulders. He simply carried on eating his wife's face as the thing behind him sunk it's teeth into the little girls throat.

I skidded to a halt at the edge of the lawn, and screamed at the sheer insanity of it all. Then with twitching hands, I raised my rifle and emptied the rest of the clip at the front of the house. The rifle bucked and shook wildly in my hands, and the gunfire simply shredded the house. A group of slugs smacked into the fathers skull as he bent over his wife, sending him to his death. A few bullets smashed into the child - she was already dead, I don't think I could take killing a kid - and tore the small frame from out of the monster's hands. The monster itself simply fell apart as the burst of heavy-calibre bullets crashed into its ruined carcass.

I staggered away from the tragic scene of destruction and death, and stumbled into the car, hating myself for my earlier hesitance. I couldn't stop thinking about how I could have saved them, how I could have killed the two zombies and saved the mother from waking up again, saved the kid from that...Oh god, I let a little girl die.

My guilt and trauma was halted when a hand pounded against the car door. I looked up into a rotting face with a hideous rictus of a grin, and then I jammed my foot down onto the accelerator and swung out onto the road. The mall's only two miles away. Maybe I can make it...I will make it. I'm not going to die like that. I'm not going to spend another second in this nightmare.

This post has been edited by TheBlazeUK on February 08, 2005 12:21 pm

I might do more of this guy's particular story. I havent really thought about it - I just played 1.2 and then decided to type this out.

Any comments would be welcome. Well, maybe not any...

Well the response has been overwhelming....

The car sped down the highway as I pushed the pedal to the floor. I stared intently through the windscreen, keeping an eye out for the dead - and more importantly, the wrecked cars and debris which cluttered the road already. I avoided the dead where I could, tried to keep as far away from the crowds that they seemed to form instinctively. It wasn't that I wanted to avoid killing them, but by now I'd come to the realisation that this wasnt something I could fight. No matter how many I killed, there would be more. I could run down as many as I liked, and not make a dent in the zombie population.

I was almost at the mall when I came across the blockade. This wasnt one of the army's, like the ones they'd set up in heavensgate. This one wasnt made of sandbags, didnt have machine gun nests or firing emplacement. There wasnt a checkpoint, or even soldiers to guard it. This blockade was made of the very thing I was driving: cars. There had been alot of people trying to get out of the city in the last few days. The military and the state had tried to ease the evacuation, but I don't think it worked very well. As I came to the road which led out of town, away from the dead, I saw what had happened to all the people who tried to run.

The road was clogged with empty vehicles. Among the deserted transports I could see shapes moving, things that looked like people making their way through the stalled traffic. The road had overflowed with the mass of evacuees, cars filling the gap between the lanes and the barrier. Further down the road, I could see a huge rising cloud of smoke, though the source was unclear.
I could imagine the people desperate to escape, packing their possesions and their loved ones into the car, anxious to flee the horror that had attacked the city. Hundreds of people all rushed out of town. The first few would have made it just fine. But alot of people would have stayed up until the city centre fell, mistaken in their belief that the military would soon clear the disturbance up. By then the dead would have been making their way to the outskirts, shambling down the roads and streets, increasing in number with every person they dragged down and murdered.
And the traffic out of town would have stopped; an accident further up the road, a broken down car. Anything could have brought this huge concentration of vehicles to a halt. The people would have waited anxiously, sitting back and waiting for the traffic to clear. And then the dead would have caught up with them. Pulling the living out of their cars, tearing them apart - and what about those who were trapped inside their transports, unable to escape as the monsters clawed their way inside the metal boxes...
Now the roads were choked with their derelicts - and I was stuck in traffic at the end of the world.
I would have laughed if....well, you know. If people werent coming back from the dead, if they werent killing people, if the world hadnt gone crazy in the space of a few days.

The things moving in between the stalled traffic were coming towards me. I pulled the car to a stop in front of the first halted car, and picked up my rifle. Then I opened the car door and stepped out slowly. I looked down the cluttered highway to the dim shape of the mall, just visible at the very end of the horizon. At the huge number of cars that littered the road in front of me. And I looked at the dead people who were just now emerging from the rear of the traffic jam, stumbling towards me with vacant eyes and gaping, hungry mouths. And then I ran.

I ran straight towards the first car in front of me, an estate. The interior was coated in blood, the windows covered with gore. A woman was coming around the front of it, her ragged hands outstretched towards me, blood covering her tattered shirt. I jumped on to the back of the car and then leapt over her, crashing down on the roof of the one in front. I heard a low, hungry moan from the side, but I didnt look. I pulled myself up and leapt again, bridging the gap between cars again. I was concentrating on making my way down the road, navigating the wrecks, but I could see the undead coming towards me. I could see zombies in the cars around me, pressing their hands and faces against the windows, smearing blood along the interior as they tried to escape their confines. I could hear something in the car I was standing on, pounding on the roof from underneath. I kept moving, jumping from one car to the next, rifle slung across my back.

I jumped on to the back on to the back of a school bus, and pulled myself on to the roof just as the first cold hand brushed against my legs. I took a moment to catch my breath, then looked down over the edge of the roof. The dead stretched their hands toward me, and a cacophony of moans and growls rose among the crowd. I pulled my rifle out and walked over to the front of the bus, and took aim at the pair of zombies that were between me and the next vehicle. They clawed their hands in the air as I came near them, opening their mouth's wide and reaching for me with a desperate hunger. I squeezed the trigger and their expectant expressions came apart in a spray of red gore, and their tortured bodies finally fell to the floor. As soon as they were down I jumped across the gap, before the rest could close ranks around the bus.

I managed to get quite far using the wrecks as stepping stones, but eventually I screwed up. I jumped into the back of a station wagon, and it was only as I landed that I saw the zombie slumped against the cabin. As I landed it's eyes flickered open and it stood up awkwardly. I took a step backwards and felt a hand grab my shoulder and try to pull me down - I shrugged it off and glanced behind me; already the zombies had caught up with me. I desperately reached for my rifle as I saw the disgusting, half-eaten face of the one in the truck close on me. I managed to bring it round just as it lurched at me, arms reaching towards me. I tried to aim the rifle but the bloody, mangled arms of the dead man pushed the gun away as he eagerly snapped his mouth open. I yelled incoherently as my finger squeezed on the trigger, and a burst of gunfire smashed into his stomach, knocking him backwards. He let out a snarl and then came back at me, closing the small distance my gunshots had created in a second - this time though, I didnt bother aiming at him. I smashed his face with the back of the rifle, knocking him over. His hands still twitched towards me, and the ruined mess of his head still twisted around, I brought the gun up again and smashed it down once more. This time there was nothing left, and the hands spasmed once more before falling down.

Breathing heavily, I looked in dull horror at the gore splattered across the back of my rifle, and I shuddered as I noticed the cold dampness of the blood on my skin. I staggered over the body and clambered up on top of the cabin. The dead had almost surrounded me completely, and I could see the huge mass of creatures closing on me. I jumped from the truck to the next car along, then finally dropped to the tarmac. I pulled the rifle in front of me and fired a few rounds at a zombie that was sticking its upper body out of the front passenger window of a car, struggling to escape its confines, and then I span round and pulled the doors of the vehicles behind me open - blocking the small path between them. I turned quickly again and started sprinting between down the road, terrified I would feel a cold hand grab at me, that I would be overwhelmed by the undead behind me. I didnt look back, barely looked where I was going. I just ran frantically down the road, towards the mall.

I could see the huge smoking wreck of a 16-wheeler slumped across the road - this was what had consigned all the people in the cars to their deaths, what had trapped them in these metal coffins. I gave it as wide a berth as possible, and then I was out of the surreal maze of twisted metal and onto the open road again. There were stumbling figures on the road in front of me, but they were scattered. I could make it- I was almost at the mall! I could see the building just in front of me. I stopped running as I came closer, as I saw the huge mass of zombies clustered around it. I could see a large number of them clamouring to get through a gap in the blockaded doors, the huge mob pushing each other in their desire to reach the survivors inside. There was no way I was getting in.

And then I realised I could hear the sound of helicopters. Above me - a blackhawk! The sight of someone else alive was pleasing enough, but this was rescue, a way out of this nightmare. They buzzed through the air above the infested landscape, swooping towards the mall. I almost started to cry with relief as they touched down on the roof. I looked frantically around for a way to reach them. But before I could find a way, they lifted off again, clawing their way into the air and flying away from the fallen city of Heavensgate. I screamed at them as they started to rise into the air. I waved my hands desperately, I shouted and yelled and I even fired my rifle at them as they started to move away, but they didnt stop, they didnt come back for me.
They left me.

I stumbled into the parking lot, my mind clouded with shock. I sank to the floor against the side of a truck as I watched the helicopters fly away, and I couldnt stop thinking that they they would come back for me. But as they carried on, I slowly came to my senses. They weren't coming for me - either they hadnt seen me, or they just werent bothered about saving me. I was on my own. I pulled myself to my feet and looked back the way I'd come. A huge horde of the dead had made it's way after me, picking their way through the labryinthe of dead cars and pursuing me. They were almost at the parking lot entrance now...
I ran over to a police car that was lying open in the middle of the lot. The doors were still flung wide, and as I got near it I saw the keys glinting in the ignition. I flung myself in and slammed the doors shut behind me, then hurriedly started the car. I looked through the windscreen at the zombies filing into the lot after me, and then I pumped the gas pedal and lurched towards the exit. On my way out, I ran into a zombie, and with a loud thud and bang it rolled across the bonnet and fell to the floor behind me with a wet smack. I looked in the mirror and saw it rise unsteadily to its feet, and then I turned towards the open road in front of me. It seemed clear of wreckage.
One thing stuck in my head as I drove the police car out of heavensgate.
There was no one on the radio. There was no one out there.

Umm.....this seems a little slow now that I read it. I think in next part, I'll add some more surivors and have him fight some more zombies. Oh, and give him a name etc, heh.

Very good.
Nice story and concept,well formulated.
You shouldn't however describe every death of a zombie in such detail,
you don't need to explain how it's head smashes apart, as it only nauseates the reader
and becomes repetitive.
Apart from that one point; nice story!

*gasp* someone else actually read the damn thing. Thanks for the commentary and the compliments!
And yeah, I wont describe the deaths of the dead in such detail next time. Though I kind of intended it to nauseate the reader

me, i like detail lol. pretty cool

Please, do not make it faster or have more zombie battles, etc. This is a nice change of pace from the average zombie story. Excellent writing and I saw almost no spelling errors.

Okey dokey, I'll prob update the story some time tommorow, thanks for the glowing feedback. Glad somebody else is actually reading it finally.

OMG! you need to tell people these things...like me! I jsut saw yur thread unfortunatly yur story is long, a quick glance makes this to be a worthy read! Ill read it tomarrow during comp.apps cause i have to hit the sack! Just got done updating Operation Necro! anyway Ill read and evaluate yurs lata! lata days all!

Ahh, I guess I must have missed it earlier, because this is the first I've seen of it. I love it, as said earlier, a wonderful change of pace. The descriptions were great, and I saw it as in no way slow. Hell, it's something I'd much prefer to read than a lot of things here. I mean no offense to all the other writers, but this is just the kind of thing I like. Keep writing, and I'll keep reading.

As I drove out of the city limits, out onto the interstate, I took in this new world of horror. In the rear-view mirror I could see Heavensgate burning ferociously behind me. I guess there was nobody left alive to put any of the fires out. In the ash-blackened sky I could make out the dim shapes of helicopters fleeing the doomed metropolis. In the road ahead of me I saw more of what Id already come across: burnt out and deserted cars, small groups of dead men and women wandering the roads aimlessly, and I once had to carefully steer around the crashed wreck of a news helicopter. I peered in through the cockpit window as I slowly drove past. Inside, I could see the body of the pilot writhing in its seat trapped by the seat restraint, its body shattered by the helicopters crash. But the head was intact, so the corpse was still animated, still hungered for the flesh of the living. Again I felt the dull disgust and terror that had permeated my mind ever since I saw the first corpse return to life push at my sanity. The feeling faded as I left the crashed wreck behind me.

The radio crackled to life about an hour later. I pulled over to the side of the road, desperate not to miss a second of the broadcast who knew when thered be another.
This is sheriff Adams of Albany County the voice sounded respectable, trustworthy, even with the southern twang that Id laughed at when I first moved to the south. It reminded me of those good ol boys in the movies, the steadfast, reliable heroes that came through in a crisis. Well, we were in one now. The state of Georgia is currently in a state of emergency. Martial law has been declared in every major urban settlement in the country. All citizens must comply with local and national authorities or face severe consequences. Looting and rioting will be punished with lethal force. The civil unrest that was reported yesterday in Heavensgate will not be allowed to take place elsewhere. I sneered at the words. Looting and rioting, huh? That wasnt what I saw. And civil unrest hardly covered what had happened. So much for the good ol boy.

Adams carried on. There is no official word from Washington as to the nature of this crisis. All outlandish rumours of the dead rising are to be disbelieved; there is no reason to panic. All citizens are advised to stay in their homes and await further instructi fuck this! The calm officious voice the sheriff had adopted suddenly segued into earnest outrage. I straightened up in my seat maybe the good ol boy would come through after all. Listen, ignore all that bullshit I was saying. Thats the official word from the state, and it aint worth jack. Ive seen whats happening. Its already here for gods sake, and if we stick our heads in the sand were gonna get it bitten off. There aint no way of saying this without sounding crazy, but you have to trust me. The dead are coming back. If youre in the vicinity of Heavensgate, get out while you can. The city has been abandoned by the army, there is no one there to help you. Get out of there. Hell, Id get out of Georgia if you can. Ive heard reports of attacks throughout the state The voice sounded infuriated by the bullshit the government had given him, had ordered him to cram down our throats. But his vitriol was wearing out, and a weary tone entered it now.
Just get out of there. If you see any of these these zombies. Godif you see any of them, run. Avoid any contact with them. If you are cornered, do not hesitate to defend yourself. Dont try to disarm them, just kill them. The only way the only way to kill them is to destroy the head. Shoot them in the head and they die. Nothing else will work. If you hear about any attacks in your area, run. Thats all I can say. Get to the countryside, get away from the cities, just get away The voice was silent for a moment too long, and I wondered whether it would ever begin again. But soon;

I have to go now. But remember what I said. Dont trust what the government tells you, they dont trust us enough to save ourselves. Just do what you have tothats all we can do now. Good luck everybody. I hope I wish I could say itll be alright. I a sigh was audible, even over the radio. The voice came back on, strong again but lacking the earnest tone it had before. Im told all national radio broadcasts have been reserved for official broadcasts. Stay tuned to the following frequencies for further information. Stay alive everyone. Chief Adams out

I hurriedly noted the frequencies down as some nameless official read them out tonelessly, then leaned back against the seat, and considered the sheriffs words. So, we couldnt trust the government. They just wanted to keep things under control. Well it was too late for that. Maybe they had a shot at it a few days ago, when the first cannibal murders were being reported in Heavensgate. Maybe they could have even put a stop to it when the city was the victim of civil unrest, when those assholes in city hall brought the army in to stop the rioting. But it was too late now.

I drove past the first exit I saw. I didnt see much point heading to anywhere near here. After what Adams had said, I doubted the places near Heavensgate would be any safer. God knows where would be
I kept on driving.

The car was almost out of fuel when I ran into the squad of soldiers. I saw an APC coming down the road towards me, and watched as it skidded to a halt about 200 metres in front of me. I slowed down and stared in shock as the soldiers piled out of the vehicle and took up firing positions. A man, his face obscured by a gas mask, climbed out of the roof hatch of the apc. He waved his fatigue-covered arms at me, then held his hand out in a clear stop sign. With his arm signals, and the heavy machine gun mount positioned just in front of the hatch, he gave me the ridiculous image of a deadly serious, heavily armed traffic cop. Again, I would have laughed at this vision of post-apocalyptic traffic control if the realisation that we were actually in the apocalypse, that chances were there wouldnt be any traffic anywhere for much longer, hadn't killed the humour.

I slowed to a stop about 20 metres from the soldiers - best not to get too close. I opened the car door and slowly stepped out, rifle over my shoulder. The soldiers advanced on me carefully, weapons ready and gas-mask faces expressionless.

woohoo I finally read this stuff...well more like an in-depth glance. Nice! Like they said it has a nice change of pace compared to say mine.(Wich sucks)So yeah yours owns...its MUCH more realistic compared to some of the others.No names I will give you. wow ...school..*yawn* anyway Keep it up! best writing in a while! Best story on forums along with FoxTrot_Uniform or whatever his name is, tahts a good story to. anyway lata days and keep it up for all your fans.Like me!

The soldiers stopped about a metre away from me, guns still aimed directly at me. I was suprised by my lack of fear - I always thought I'd be scared if someone pointed a gun at my face. Maybe I would have been if I hadn't seen things far more worrying than guns in the last few days. Seeing the dead rise, seeing people torn limb from limb by ravenous unnatural things, seeing an entire city be overwhelmed in the space of a couple of days: those sort of things kind of raise the bar for scaryness. Made having high-powered automatic assault rifles which fired several bullets per second aimed at your skull seem kinda tame. I looked down the barrell of the gun, wondering what would happen if they shot me right now. Would I come back? The thought supplied me with the fear that the guns couldnt.
The soldier closest to me was the first to break the silence.
"Are you from Heavensgate?" his voice was muffled through the mask.
I looked over my shoulder at the highway sign which said in big, bold letters
HEAVENSGATE 80
I turned back to the soldier and nodded slowly, wondering why people in authority always asked the stupidest questions; a guy who's clothes were torn and spattered with blood, carrying a high-powered army issue rifle, travelling in a cop car that obviously wasnt his - where else could I have come from other than an insane asylum?
"Have you been bitten?" I saw the soldiers tense slightly he said this, and I knew what would've happened if I had been. The bites were a death sentence - it didn't take a genius to work that out. Especially not after what I'd seen.
"No." I shook my head as I replied. "If I had been, I' d be begging you to shoot me. I know what they do to you."
The effect was immediate; the guy on the machine-gun mount climbed back into the APC, and the rest lowered their guns - though I noticed they didn't put them away.
"I guess you do." the soldier turned around and waved his squadmates back to the APC. "You're lucky. I heard the city was thick with those things."
"You heard right."
"Yeah? Shit, man, how bad was it?"
I looked into the opaque black lenses of the mask, trying to work out whether or not to give this man the truth of how bad it had been.
"Worse than you could possibly imagine. They were everywhere. I was out in the suburbs, and you could barely move around there without running into one."
"Shit....." he shook his head again, then reached up and pulled his mask off. Underneath was a thin, suprisingly calm-looking face with blonde hair and blue eyes. He smiled weakly as he raised his hand towards me. "Private Jones, 1st class, United States Army."
I took his hand and shook it briefly. "Rick Drapper, 2nd class chef at the town diner." Jones smile turned a little more authentic as I stated my own name and rank.

"Well private Jones, I'll be blunt; what the fuck is going on?"
Jones' smile faded quickly. "You tell me man, you tell me...All I know is whatever line of bullshit they feed me." he said, a trace of bitterness in his voice.
"And whats that?" I studied his face carefully.
"That quote - control needs to be reestablished in the Heavensgate area at all costs - unquote." His face screwed up in concentration as he recalled the official brief. I could hear the disgust in his voice as repeated the meaningless words. "That quote - more information is needed before we properly ascertain the nature of this incident - unquote. That quote - extreme force has been authorised when dealing with hostile subj-"
"Jones! Get your damn mask back on and get back in here - and bring that guy with you." A gruff voice from a camoflaged figure next to the vehicle interrupted Jones.
"Yes sir!" Jones rolled his eyes and jerked his head towards the transport. "Come on Rick, I guess the sarge wants to quiz you."
"I'll help where I can. Just tell me - did anyone else make it out of the city?"
Jones suddenly looked bleak.
"Some. Not many though. Not many at all. They're back at the camp we've got about 30 miles down the road." He glanced back at his sergeant "C'mon we better get moving or the sarge'll have my ass."
I smiled and nodded my assent. Jones seemed like a good enough guy, despite what Adam's had said about the authorities. Maybe you could trust the grunts, at least. We walked over to the APC and the sarge.