THE APOCALYPSE BEGINS

It's been fifteen days since the apocalypse started. Fifteen days since the first zombie infected showed its horrible rotting face. Fifteen days...I wouldn't have ever believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

It was a day just like any other, sunny and warm, not a cloud in the sky, there was even a pleasant breeze. I was just sitting on my front porch, drinking a glass of sweet iced tea when it happened. Now, let me remind you, I'm just a small town kind of guy, so we don't get much excitement around here.

Anyway, I'm rambling on things that aren't really important, the important thing now is survival. The disease spread a lot faster than I could've anticipated, everyone thought it was some kind of hoax or something. It spread like wildfire on unsuspecting citizens. Before I knew it, the whole town was infected, and apparently, we weren't the only town that got infected at the time. Zombies were popping up all over the country, maybe even all over the world.

I decided to take action though. I got my gun and some rations and I got in my truck, then I just left the town to find out if there were any other survivors. Luckily, I found some. Three to be exact. I found the first one running from a hoard of zombies after he'd tried to break into a grocery store (I found out later that he'd been searching for some food and water for himself and his traveling companion, who was the second survivor I found.) The last guy I found was sitting in a tree shooting zombies before they could get to him.

Well, now that you know how many of us there are, I guess it's time for introductions. I'm Cookie, a kangaroo with a tan coat covered in dark chocolate colored markings, so I look a bit odd. I was also raised by a military dog, so I know a thing or two about how to use a gun. My first companion is Salem, an opossum who mainly uses a crowbar he calls "Gordan" as his weapon of choice. The second survivor is a skunk who goes simply by Gloomy, and she uses a machete to get the job done. Our last companion is a black and white cat named Scriabin, his weapon of choice is an AK47, though he has a desert eagle for some reason or other as well.

We had no idea where we were going, but we had a feeling the only way to get there would be to fight through the zombies. We figured it'd be safer to stay together. At this point, we had no idea that there were “special infected”. All we knew was that there were zombies out there, and that was bad enough, but we were about to come face to face with our first “Tank”.

We had decided to rest after several days of walking, running, and generally fighting our way through the common zombies (our cars ran out of gas after the second day.) Thinking back, I’m surprised we didn’t run into special infected sooner. Anyway, we stopped at an old rundown hotel outside of town to sleep and rest for a moment, taking turns to keep watch for zombies. We actually slept pretty well that night, with the exception of a few zombies here and there, it was morning when we came face to face with that gruesome monster.

We had started walking into the town we were at to find some rations, and when we were right outside of town, a huge rhino zombie was stalking around the dead cars on the highway. We tried to go around him, but before we knew it, he’d seen us, and threw the nearest car right at us before charging in. Scriabin and I started shooting, but the bullets seemed to bounce right off him. Salem hid under a truck nearby and played dead, but Gloomy seemed to have disappeared. Then, the worst thing happened. I ran out of ammo. I thought it was the end of me, but right as the tank got within an inch of ramming me across state lines, Gloomy came from nowhere and leapt onto the monster’s back, impaling him with her machete. I jumped back just in time as the tank fell to the ground, dead.

I found myself shaken, but unhurt. I checked to see if everyone else was okay, and the only injury was a scratch on Scriabin’s arm from flying debris.  Salem came crawling out from under the truck and slowly shuffled over to the tank’s body and gently prodded it with his foot before running behind me, where he peered around to see if it had moved. Gloomy pulled her machete out of its back and started walking ahead with the blade balanced on her shoulder as we followed suit behind her. As we made our way through the cars, we were cautious not to draw the attention of any more zombies, with only a few exceptions.

When we got to town, Scriabin ran ahead to the nearest convenient store and carefully went through the already broken window, returning with bandages and snack foods. We walked down to the pawn shop in search of ammunition, killing any zombies along the way, but when we got there, another surprise was waiting for us. Gloomy shoved in front of us and opened the door to the pawn shop, and was immediately attacked by another special infected which we came to call a hunter.

The zombie jackal jumped on top of Gloomy and started clawing at her face, chest, and upper arms. Salem ran up and slammed Gordan into the beast’s skull, which gushed blood and what little grey matter was left in his head as he fell on top of Gloomy with a thud. We pulled the hunter off of Gloomy and Scriabin fumbled for the bandages in his pocket, which were slapped out of his hand and scattered all over the ground by Gloomy, who looked at Scriabin angrily and kept walking into the building.

Salem looked over at Scriabin and fallowed behind Gloomy while Scriabin tried to pick up the bandages. I went over to help him up, but he just shook his head and motioned for me to go inside. When I got inside, I loaded up on ammo, then watched as Gloomy pulled down a crossbow and arrows, and Salem browsed the games and movies. Scriabin came in soon after and picked up four first aid kits, then he loaded up his own ammo stock. He handed each of us a first aid kit, which Gloomy used to patch up her injuries before restocking it with supplies.

When we got done searching for supplies, Salem took one look at the counters and found a pair of brass knuckles, which he immediately grabbed and put on his hands, still carrying Gordan. We left the pawn shop and made our way towards the mall in search for a vehicle. We got to the doors of the mall with only a few zombies, including another hunter, blocking our path. Scriabin shot down the hunter before it noticed us, and we didn’t have any trouble with the rest of the zombies.

We thought we were clear for the mall when suddenly Salem got caught by a long, sticky tongue. I looked up in horror at a disgusting toad sitting on the roof, smoke seemed to be billowing from every part of its being, I started to take aim at the smoker when I was suddenly lifted up from behind by yet another special infected, this one was an enormous bear with one very large arm, and one seemingly useless, gimpy arm. The beast slammed me into the ground, knocking the breath out of me as I could only watch in terror.
Salam was almost on the roof with the smoker, when a gunshot rang out that freed him from the creature’s grasp. Scriabin shot down the smoker just in time to save Salam’s life. I was relieved that he was okay, but I had problems of my own as I was slammed around like a rag doll by the charger. I thought I was done for, but then an arrow shot through the back of the charger’s head, and he dropped me before falling lifeless to the ground.

Finally we were free to enter the mall. We went up to the doors, and were shocked at the large number of growls and grunts we could hear on the other side. We knew we were in for a ride as we opened the door…

TO BE CONTINUED.