ZAHMBIES: A novella: Part I ch 1-7

1)          The Rocket



The earth shook with hellacious force.

"Ellie! EL! Wake up!"

Ellie jumped up at the sound of her name, only to slam her head painfully into the rattling lantern hanging from the ceiling of her tent. "Damnit!"



Something wasn’t right. Why would Axel be screaming her name in the middle of the night?

She clutched her head tightly as she untangled herself from her thermo sleeping bag and attempted to unzip the hatch to her tent. The ground shook so violently her legs felt like jello. Ellie stumbled out of her tent and landed flat on her stomach in the dirt. Pulling herself up, she saw her fellow campers crawling out of their tents. Axel was already out and brandishing a flashlight trying to wake everyone up. Corey, the tallest of the 4, nearly knocked his tent over trying to get out as the earth continued to rumble, as Christy, Axel's twin sister, rolled out of her tent looking terrified.



"Axel!" Ellie exclaimed, "What's going on?!"



"Earthquake?!" Christy suggested.



"It's one hell of an earthquake then!" Corey yelped.



Axel, the fair haired, twin opened his mouth to answer but suddenly a roaring filled their ears, drowning out all sound and all thought. The clear night sky lit up with a brilliant red-orange glow and everyone looked up. Flying at unimaginable speed, a massive rocket streaked through the open skies and shook the earth with it's trailing sonic boom as it passed by. Within seconds it was gone, and the sonic boom faded out, leaving the woods oddly quiet as they had been before.



"What the hell was THAT?!" Corey exclaimed.



The four of them looked at each other, all with the same face of fear and wonder. Ellie looked across the camp fire at Axel and knew he was thinking the same thing; they were being attacked.

Who, where and why, were unknown but it was an attack nonetheless.



"That rocket is  probably headed for the city," Axel said finally.



"You mean like a terrorist attack?" Christy replied.



"I dunno," he said to his twin sister.



Ellie looked at Corey, "I don't either but maybe we can find out. Corey, grab your keys, we can use the radio in your truck to see what's going on."



Corey didn't question her and dove back into his tent to retrieve his truck keys. When he finally found them, the four campers trekked across the near-empty campsite. Nobody liked camping in December so the whole place was practically a ghost town as they walked to the gravel lot and piled into Corey's F150.

The four of them crammed into the 3 seater. Corey claimed the driver’s seat, while Axel squeezed into shotgun. Ellie found herself sandwiched in the middle with Christy shivering uncontrollably in her lap.





Corey jammed the key into the ignition and turned the battery on so the radio powered up with the heater. Despite the fact that the heater was roaring away and they had two naturally toasty boys on either side, Ellie found herself wishing she had brought her sleeping bag.

Corey reached across and started flipping to station after station looking for the news.



"Try 750am," Ellie suggested,” That one usually has the news."



Corey made a face, "You really listen to that liberal bullsh-"



"Corey!" Axel and Ellie snapped in sync.



"Oh fine," he grumbled as he tuned into 750.



As soon as the dial read 750 the truck filled with noise as a news reporter blared over the station, "Ladies and gentlemen, tragedy has struck....."



2) The Broadcast



"Turn it up a little Cor," Ellie said.



The station was a little fuzzy, considering they were in the middle of the words, but audible nonetheless.

A scratchy male voice came bellowing over the airwaves. "Ladies and Gentlemen this is Brent Memory from Fox 5 News and I am currently in Downtown Atlanta where the much anticipated Lady Gaga concert has just been completely interrupted by what appeared to be a rocket exploding in the middle of the crowd. Everything has turned to chaos down here as fire and greenish smoke continue to erupt from the rocket and spread across the stadium."



Screams of terror were the background to the reporters broadcast and Ellie could feel Christy shiver even more at the sounds.



"Nobody seems to know what going on, no is taking charge. It is complete anarchy down here. Many people have been injured in the explosion and have scattered everywhere.  I can here the sirens from the arriving fire trucks but they seem to be having difficulty reaching the scene because of the fleeing masses. It is really quite a scene down here folks and we're gonna be with you every----wait! Wait a minute ladies and gents, my crew and I have just received a report update. It seems that he rocket is in fact a ballistic missile and has broken up into smaller warheads all over the city! It's a massacre, pure massacre, purely an attack-"



The microphone picked up the sound of someone screaming "Oh God, OH GOD!" from behind the reporter as he continued his story and Christy reached across and snapped the radio off, unable to bear anymore.



Nobody knew what to say, or if anything should be said, so the four sat in silence for what seemed like years to Ellie.



"It sounded like hell down there," Corey murmured finally, "And they said that wasn't the only one."



"We need to go home," Christy said after a moment, "Now."



There was another long pause. Ellie sat there thinking, I can't believe we saw it, even  4 hours from the city and we saw that rocket go past us. I hope mom is okay.



Axel was the first one to move, opening the passenger side door and sliding to the ground.

"We can't sit here forever, guys, let's go get the gear and get on the road."







3) The Phone Call



Ellie grumbled in severe annoyance.

"Why did we make the no cell phone rule again?" she questioned sarcastically as she bent over on the side of the road and handed Corey the jack.



Corey rolled his eyes as he slid the jack under the frame of his truck and began pumping furiously to raise the flat back tire of the ground.

"Oh that's right, because "having contact with outside world takes away from the unique experience of being one with nature!" AND "what could possibly go wrong?!" Ellie sniped as she handed him the tire iron forcefully.



"How was I supposed to know shit was gonna go down?" Corey replied as he forced each lug nut off the tire.



"Stop arguing you two," Axel snapped.



Axel had been in the ditch by the road watching after his sister Christy who had made herself sick with worry.



Ellie continued fuming over the cell phone business, but kept it to herself now. She knew it really wasn't his fault they had run into a flat and been without cells. The weekend had been for fun, and nobody had expected something like this. Her anger really came from her worry about her mother.



"Hold these El," Corey said as he handed her the lugnuts.



Ellie took them from his hands and Corey began trying to pull the tire off with no luck. The thing wouldn’t budge from the wheel.



"Hey, Ax come help me with this," he called.

Axel trotted over and together the two boys tugged as hard as they could on the tire. A grinding noise came from the tire and suddenly it dropped, but not without the entire truck end.



The truck came crashing back down as the jack buckled and both boys stumbled away from it quickly to avoid being smashed.



"Damnit to Hell!" Corey bellowed.



Ellie watched as Axel dusted off his hands and Corey flew into a fit of obscenities.



"I suppose we'll be walking till we find some place with a phone," Axel said over Corey's curses.

Axel managed to get Corey to stop cussing long enough to start walking and rounded up his sister who was still vomiting in the roadside ditch. The sun was starting to peep of the horizon and light up the woods and the roadway. At least any cars coming by will be able to see us now, Ellie thought.



"How far away is the nearest gas station?" Axel asked Corey who had been camping here before.



He pointed down the road. "Fifteen miles that way."



With the prospect of a long walk, together the 4 of them made their way to the gas station.

It took till the middle of the afternoon to get there, between Christy being ill and Corey's occasional pee breaks to make it the Smokin' Oaks Gas Station and General Store.

They walked into the place hungry, tired and worried. The man behind the counter, a mid-forties bearded fellow, barely noticed them as they entered. He was too busy watching the small antenna driven TV on his register to see his customers.

Judging by the sounds coming from his station, Ellie could tell he was watching the same program they were listening to last night in continuation.



Ellie approached the register. "Hi, there."

The guy jumped back in surprise.



"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," she apologized.



"No worries, miss. Been jumpy since this started goin' on anyways," he replied in a gravelly voice, "How can I help you?"



"Our truck got a flat on the way from the camp ground a few miles back and we need a phone," Ellie said, "Do you have one we might be able to use?"



"Sure thing," the owner said, "There's a phone in my office you can use."

He walked from behind the counter and led Ellie, Christy, Axel and Corey to the back where the phone was.



"Just don’t go too long distance," he said, "It's be murder on my bill."



"No problem," Axel assured him, "We're just going to call home."



The owner's face turned a little down and he asked, "You dont have family in the city do you?"

Christy nodded, "That's where we're from."



The owner shook his head, "You might not want to go there. I've been up all night watching and it's absolutely insane.  That rocket thing broke up into 20 different parts all over the city. People dead, missing, hurt, and going crazy."



Christy let out a whimper and Axel glared at the store owner, "We can handle things ourselves thanks."



The man shrugged, "Just my advice." Then he left us to the phone.



Ellie dialed in her mom's apartment number as soon as the owner was gone. It took 6 of the longest rings Ellie had ever heard for her mother to pick up the phone. She breath a sigh of relief as she heard the sound of her mother's voice saying, "Hello? HELLO?"



"Mom! I'm here it's me! Ellie!"



"Oh Ellie, sweet heart! I've been so worried about you! Are you safe? Is everyone safe?"



"Yeah, mom, we saw the missile. It flew right over us! Are you are okay?" Ellie asked quickly.



"I'm fine for now, but the city is in crazy mode!"



"I know mom. We're on our way back but-"



"No!" her mother interrupted, "Stay out of here! Don't come back here because it's not safe. They're talking about the possibility of more attacks with more of that nerve gas stuff. Please stay out of the city."



"What nerve gas stuff mom, and how am I NOT going to go back to the apartment? Where are we going to go? How am I going to find you?" Ellie asked frantically.



"I'm with Corey's parents right now in the apartment. Go to Axel's place and we will meet you all there, okay sweetie?"



"But mom, we got a flat-"



Ellie was interrupted by the sound of the apartment door on her mother’s end being knocked on.



"I have to go Ellie, it's the police, I love you and I will see you soon at Axel's okay?"

Click.



The phone went dead leaving Ellie's heart pounding and the rest of the group staring at her fearfully.



"What happened El? What'd your mom say?"



"She said not to come to the city. That there may be more attacks and something about nerve gas and that she would meet us at Axel's parents place in the country."



"This is insane," Corey said, "We can’t even GET to Axel's now."



"We have to try," Ellie said, "I have to find my mom."













4) The Rage



With a new tire, new jack, a few swear words, and the help of the store owner, Corey, Ellie, Axel and Christy were back on the road and speeding towards Atlanta. Ellie was fairly sure that Corey had not lifted his lead foot off the gas or used the break at all since they began moving again. Not that it matter, really. They hadn't seen a single car in passing or even on the roadside at all.



"This is creepy," Christy mumbled next to Ellie, "We haven’t seen ANYBODY."



"I know," Ellie replied, " But I imagine they are telling people to stay inside or something. I mean, what ever hit the city was full something. Mom said it was nerve gas."



Christy shifted uncomfortably. "Should we really be going to the city then? They were telling people to stay away.  Even your mom said ‘don’t come back’."



Ellie scowled. "I have to find my mom, and Corey's parents Christy."



"Yeah,  we WILL find them," Corey grumbled.

Ellie looked at Corey worriedly. He had grown increasingly tired and irritable from driving so much. Axel had offered to take over for him earlier but Corey refused. "I'm fine," was all he said before the subject was dropped completely.



Other than a few small comments and a bathroom break, nobody said much of anything until they hit the City limits at sunset.

The setting sun lit the cold winter sky with golden hues as Corey gunned it onto the main freeway into the city. When they rounded the top of the turnpike, prepared to deal with the heavy flow of commuters, they were met with a completely empty 6 lane highway.  All of them stared in shock. Out of the 4 million people who live in the city, NO ONE was on the highway. Not a single soul.





"What the hell?" Corey breathed.



"This isn't right, this isn't right, this just inst right!"



Christy had gone into another nervous break-down and Corey slammed on the brakes immediately.



"Get her out before she pukes in the truck!" He barked. 



Axel thrust open the door and bailed out as Christy leaned out the door and vomited.

Ellie had never known Christy to be such a nervous person. Sure something bad had happened and Ellie was worried but she wasn't going to pieces like her friend.



Despite this, she held back Christy's hair as the girl wretched and finally sat up, looking green.



"I'm sorry," she said, " Nerves."



"Let's swap places in case you get sick again," Axel said, "You can sit by the door and I'll be in the middle with Ellie."

Christy nodded and the twins swapped places quickly in the middle of the highway before Corey started off again.  Axel was much broader then Christy and couldn't help but squeeze Ellie into a very small space between his should and Corey's arms.



Corey sped down the empty six lanes at 100mph or so.



"Aren't you going a bit fast, Corey?" Christy murmured.



Corey glanced over at her with an incredulous look. "There's not even anybody out here, why would it matter? I could ride down in the middle of the line like this."

He turned the wheel to straddle the white lines which marked the lanes.



"Hell, I could even do this!"



He punched the gas even harder, flooring the accelerator and jerking the wheel back and forth, weaving the truck violently at upwards of 150mph.



"Corey, stop!"



"Why?" he snapped.



"You're going to drive us into the median or something!"



"You're just a bunch of pussies!"



"Corey, slow down," Axel, threatened, "NOW."



Corey stared at Axel, "Or what?"



"I'll stop it myself," Axel said as he gripped the emergency brake.



"Do it-“



"COREY STOP!" Ellie screamed.



He finally snapped his attention back the road where a man was walking across the highway right in front of the truck.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"



Corey slammed on the breaks, Axel pulled the emergency break, Christy screamed and gripped her brother and Ellie clamped her eyes shut as she instinctively grabbed for something or someone to hold on to.

The truck squealed in protest and came to a jerking halt.

The adrenaline rush had left everyone winded and shaking as they opened their eyes slowly.



"Did we miss him?" Ellie said shakily, "Please tell me we missed him."



Corey turned his head slowly and looked back. The man was standing in the middle of the road holding his arm and staring at the truck.



"Oh shit," he said, "I think we nicked him."



He  put the truck in park, and opened the door. "I'm gonna go check on him. Axel, you should probably come too."

Axel nodded and started climbing over Ellie clumsily. There wasn't a lot of room to move.  He put his hand on the back of the seat right on Ellie's ponytail.



"Ow, ow, ow," she hissed.



"Sorry."



"Just be careful," Ellie replied, as she repositioned her hair.



"With you or out there?" Axel asked.



She rolled her eyes. "Both."



Axel gave a sort of half smile and managed to clamber out of the vehicle after Corey.

Ellie and Christy watched in the rear-view mirror as Corey and Axel walked up to the man.



Corey walked up slowly with Axel behind him. "Hey, man. You alright? I-I tried to stop."



The man was hunched over his arm muttering to himself as if he didn't even hear the boys.



"Dude, can you hear me? Hey? We're sorry if we got you," Corey tried again, "Is it just your arm that's messed up? We can take you to the hospital if you want."



The man shuddered and looked up. His eyes were bloodshot and his nose was bleeding down his lips to his chin and neck.

"You almost hit me," he hissed, "You ALMOST HIT ME."



"Yeah, so um, we didn't hit you?" Corey said carefully.



"But you're arm is screwed up," Axel said, "Are you sure we didn't hit you? I know it was close."



"You-almost-hit-"



The man doubled over and stared at his arm as he dug his nails into his own arm, drawing bloody scratches over what looked like an already

oozing bite mark.



"Corey...I think we need to get out of here," Axel said quietly.



Corey shook his head, "Maybe we can put him in the bed of the truck and take him to the hospital."

He leaned down and reached out to the man. Immediately, the man's eyes snapped up and he launched forward with angry growl.



"YOU ALMOST HIT ME!"



He swung a fist, missing Corey by inches. The boys backed up and Axel snatched Corey back as another punched was aimed at his head.

"C'mon!"



The boys took off running and the man chased after them screaming at them.



"OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR!"



Ellie was already ahead of them and thrust open the driver side door. Corey dove inside, piling on top of Ellie and Christy as Axel jumped in the driver’s seat, and shifted into drive as he slammed on the gas. The truck peeled away from the man with the driver side door still open.



"Shut the door!"



Axel snatched the door closed and Corey sat up from his sprawled position on the girl's laps.



"What the hell was that?" Corey gasped for air, "What the hell."



"Did you see him, man?" Corey said, "He was crazy! Totally nuts. And his arm? The bite mark?"



"Yeah, I saw it," Axel said, taking deep breaths, "And I've got a bad feeling."

















5) The Chase



Axel drove steadily and silently till they made into the inner parts of the city. The narrow streets were littered with abandoned cars, glass from broken store fronts and an incredible silence that should never come over place where 4 million people dwell. They wound their way through the catacomb of silent alleys in the long shadows of the late afternoon sun.



"The apartment isn't too far now," she whispered, not wanting to disturb the silence.



"Well, we have a problem," Axel replied as he slowed the truck to a stop," Look"



Ellie looked up to see the street blocked by a massive Fedex truck which, by the looks of it, had totaled the car lying next to it and then ran the though the light pole on the sidewalk.



"There's no way we can move that," Corey said.



"Is there another way to your apartment?" Axel asked.



Ellie nodded, "We'll have to go all the way around the block and hope it's passable."

Christy shivered in her seat next to Ellie, "I think we should hurry though. It's getting dark and I have a seriously bad feeling.



"Yeah."  Axel agreed with her and turned left to go down the other side of the block.

It wasn’t long before they came along another truck blocking the way.



"Shit, man." Corey grumbled, "This is insane. I wanna know what the hell happened here."



"We all do," Axel replied evenly, "C'mon Corey, we can move this one."



Corey grumbled under his breath but opened the passenger door and climbed out behind Axel.



"Ellie," Axel called as he walked away, "You play watch out."



"Gotcha."



Ellie slid out of the truck and climbed into the bed where she could see over the cars. The silence was unsettling to her. There were no voices in the shops, no whirring of motors on the roadways, not even the pigeons, which could be found everywhere, were rustling around. Nothing. It was like a city filled with million of people had suddenly become a ghost town in the matter of 2 days. A thought that made even Ellie shake nervously.



As Axel and Corey pushed the truck slowly out of the way, Ellie scanned the area looking for any kind of movement. She didn't see anything, to her relief and the boys were almost done, so she started to climb over the tail gate.

Then she heard it.



The soft tinkling of glass falling to the pavement snapped her up to attention again. It had been so easy to hear that tiny sound in the silence it gave her goose bumps as she looked down the road in the direction the sound had come from.

Nothing was on the road, not even a stray cat. Ellie rubbed her arms, trying to dispel the goose bumps and chalking the noise down to imaginative nerves.



She hopped down the pavement and strode towards the cab door.

*Crunch*



The sound sent a rush of adrenaline fueled bumps down her spine. That was definitely the sound of someone stepping on the fallen glass.

Ellie turned on her heels and stared down the street again.



Something was coming from the down the street and it was coming fast. She squinted hard and made out the shape coming towards them. To her horror, it was a person. A bloodied, and maddened man in a ripped suit and tie running toward the truck. There was more movement and soon he wasn't alone. People were crawling out from everywhere, like food crazed cockroaches. They scattered out of store fronts, from under cars, out of windows, alleys and more. 



"Guys! Guys!" Ellie screamed, "We have to run! Now!"



Both of them looked up and immediately ran towards the truck.



"Holy SHIT!" Corey bellowed.

"GET IN!!!" Axel ordered  Ellie as he ran towards her.



Ellie dove into the truck without hesitation. Two seconds later Corey and Axel crammed in quickly.

Axel threw the truck into drive and slammed the accelerator.



"Can we fit through there?!" Christy screamed as the truck sped towards a tiny space between the building and the moved truck.

Axel hit the gas harder and everyone screamed as the truck jumped the curb, smashed the right headlight into the front of the other truck and lost the left side mirror as they scraped down ht side of the building.  They barreled though and Axel looked at Christy grimly.



"Yes."



Ellie looked back as the screeched down the street at an incredible speed. Thousands of people had come from God only knew where and had joined the others chasing them down the street.



"Oh my God," Ellie breathed.



Suddenly something smashed into the window. Glass showered over them as Christy let out a blood curdling scream and Axel slammed the breaks throwing the person he had hit full on out of the windshield and on to the street in front of them.

The woman they had hit was crawling on the ground growling like a ravenous wolf, covered in blood.



"SHIT SHIT SHIT" Corey bellowed as Christy had gone into full hysteria.



People were  now pouring out of the buildings IN FRONT of them too. 



"AXEL!" Ellie screamed, "GO!"



Axel, who had frozen for a moment, scowled and punched the gas without another thought.

With heavy thud, they hit the first person in the mob and kept going. Person after person rolled over the top of the truck, all of them acting like animals as the tumbled over and all of them covered in blood. 



The windshield was starting to collapse totally in on them as they made a sharp right turn.



"That’s it!" Ellie screamed, "That’s my building!"



Axel gunned it out of the turn and headed straight to the chain link fence surrounding the building.



"HOLD ON!"



Axel jumped the curb again and the truck caught air as it broke through the fence and into the glass doorway to the lobby.





6) The Apartment





"GET OUT!" Corey bellowed.



Axel bailed out of the truck after Corey and half dragged his sister out. Ellie jumped out scraping her arm across the broken glass on the dash.



They made a run for the elevator, all four of them crashing into the UP button. The doors opened casually but Axel pushed his sister through before it could even open halfway then squeezed Ellie through. Axel jumped in and Corey followed him. Ellie mashed the "close door" button hard, begging the door to close faster.

They could see all the crazies outside, crashing through the windows of the building and crawling through Corey's battered truck. Hundreds of them were filling the lobby and coming right at them with a vengeance.



"CLOSE! CLOSE!"

The doors finally closed as the people slammed into it, rocking the elevator violently.

"ELLIE! Your card!"



Ellie fumbled with her wallet trying to pull out her scan card to make the elevator work.

The people were throwing themselves against the aluminum doors with everything they had, creating dents as they tried to tear through. Christy was in total meltdown mode, lying in the corner screaming like a baby. Corey was yelling every profanity imaginable and Axel was yelling at Ellie trying to get the pass key.



Ellie dropped her wallet, her cards scattered over the floor, finally revealing the pass key. She scooped it up, flung the pass key against the scanner and pressed the button 21 for her floor.



She felt like collapsing with relief as soon as the elevator jiggled to live and started moving upward.

Axel ran his hands through his blonde hair and shook his head as he paced the 4 square feet of the elevator. As they passed the 18th floor, he stopped pacing and looked around the room, his eyes landing on a small fire extinguisher mounted near the floor. He bent down, picked the extinguisher up and felt its weight in his hands.



When the doors opened on the 21st floor, Axel held up the fire extinguisher up, ready to defend as best he could.

To everyone’s relief, the hallway was empty. Even Christy was relieved enough to stand up.



"C'mon guys," Axel said, "Let’s go, but stay behind me."



"You think that extinguisher is gonna do much good?" Corey commented as they stepped out of the elevator.



Everyone gave Corey look and he shrugged before walking past Axel and picking up a chef knife which was lying in an open doorway. The knife was already slathered in blood, but was still usable.



"Feel better?" Axel smarted off.



"Yep." Corey said as he walked casually down the hallway.



The four of the crept  down the hallway until they reached Ellie's number: 2114

Ellie held up her scan card and slid it into the door handle. The door unlocked automatically and she cracked the door a little. What would she find when she walked in?



"Go on El" Corey said.



Ellie sighed and opened the door all the way and flipped on the lights.



Everything was in perfect order. It was like she had never left at all. Nothing was turned over, broken, smashed, or otherwise disturbed.

"Mom?" Ellie called, "Mom are you here?"



Having the place look untouched gave her the confidence to walk in and check the other rooms.

"Mom?!"



Nobody where there though. Her mother and Corey's parents were gone.



When Ellie came back to the living room, Axel and Corey had already locked the door behind them and settled Christy on the couch.



"Nobody is here," Ellie informed them, "Your parents and my mom are gone, Corey."



"They must have made it out of the city and gone to Axel's place like they said then," Corey said.



"Or they..."



"No. No. No." Corey said fiercely as he held up a flyer, "They made it out, see? It’s an order from the police to evacuate."



Ellie took the bright green flyer from him and read it out loud slowly, " In light of recent terrorist attacks, the City of Atlanta and surrounding areas are to be evacuated by order of the governor. Please leave immediately, and take all animals, and supplies needed. Leave through a check point as soon as possible as all vehicles and persons will be examined before being cleared to leave. Remember: If you feel ill, or queasy, you may be asked to stay. To avoid contracting the Disease avoid all bodily fluids of infected persons,  and areas as specified by city police. "



"God," Ellie dropped the flyer on the table, "I hope they got out."



"You guys this is some serious shit," Corey said, "Seriously."



Everyone sat in silence for what seemed like ages, being as still as possible, and then Corey entered the kitchen, and started rifling through the fridge.



"Well guys, we should just stay for awhile. I'm hungry and beat. We all are. We can figure out what to do when we feel better," he said from the fridge.



"Yeah," Axel agreed, "I guess we should patch ourselves up too."



"I'll make dinner," Corey said with a handful of items from the fridge and a smile.



Axel grimaced, "I don't think so."



Corey ignored him and started up the oven anyways. God only knew what kind of concoction they were doomed to eat tonight. 



"I'll find the band-aids and the alcohol," Ellie mumbled.



"Might wanna find some tweezers too," Axel said.



Ellie made a confused face.



"Look at your arm," he told her with a wince.



Ellie flipped over her arms and saw bloodied scratches all over them, sparkling with embedded glass from where she was spray with glass

and grazed the dashboard. She hadn't noticed it when she was running but now, her arms were stinging painfully.



"Yeah, I suppose so."



Ellie went into the bathroom and retrieved the supplies from under the cabinet.  She knew she needed more than just band aids for her own arms but didn't have any gauze.



She took care of Christy first, patching up a few scratches most of which were self-inflicted from clawing herself in fear, and put a band-aid on her cheek from a bit of shattered glass.



Then she went to Corey, who was grumpy for having to stop in the middle of cooking to have a cuts alcohol and bandaged.

Ellie went to Axel who was in kitchen helping, and had to put a band-aid over a gash on his head which was still oozing red.



"Thanks," he said as he winced at the stinging alcohol pad was pressed against his forehead.



"It may leave a scar, you know," Ellie teased a bit.



"Meh. I'll make it look good," Axel replied.



Corey looked up from the stove and made half hearted chuckle. "You make it sound like you looked good before.”

Axel tossed an oven-mit at Corey's head and Ellie laughed a little. It was amazing that after all that had happened so far she could still laugh at all.



"Your turn El," Axel said as he made Ellie sit down at the small kitchen table.

Ellie sat down reluctantly, handed him the tweezers and turned her arms over. Axel went to work, picking bits of glass out one by one. Sometimes the pieces caught on her skin and tore painfully as they were pulled out of the gashes.



"Sorry, el." Axel would murmur every time she winced.



After an hour of picking he managed to get the most of the glass out and sanitize the wounds with the alcohol.

"Uhg. This sucks." Ellie grimaced.



Axel made a face and then disappeared into the living room. Ellie could hear a ripping sound from the other room and was surprised to see



Axel come back with a handful of her mom's lace curtains.



"As close to gauze as we can get I guess," he said, "Hold out your arms again."

He ripped the lace into strips and dressed Ellie's arms like an expert.



"Aren't you glad my dad made me go through Boy Scouts?" he said as he tied off the bandage.

Ellie gave him a weak smile and he gripped her shoulder tightly before walking back over to help Corey serve supper.



They ate quietly. The cable was out as were all the local radio stations, so there was no sound to fill the silence. Corey had made Philly-cheese (slightly burnt but still okay to eat) and iced-tea with what he claimed was a "punch" Ellie knew his

punch" was about a 4th a bottle of tequila he had found in he cabinet.



After they ate and relaxed a little, mostly due to the alcohol, they fell asleep in the living room together. Corey fell asleep in the arm chair after taking off his boots and 4 glasses of tea. Axel has sprawled out in the floor.  Christy, who had barely eaten anything went to sleep  curled up in the corner of the couch, while Ellie tried to sleep on the other side. Even with her head all swimming with tequila she couldn’t manage to get rid of some of the thoughts in her head, some of which were more bloody and terrifying than anything lurking in the city below.   



7) The Plan



The sound of the old alarm clock in her bedroom woke Ellie up with it's obnoxious beeping. It wasn't a good wakeup call at all. Especially when she sat up from the couch, remembering the events of yesterday. Looking around, she saw that everyone else was still in a booze induced sleep. She wanted to go back to sleep but her mind was fully awake now and nothing could bring it back to the edge of unconsciousness. Instead, she stood up slowly and tip-toed to the bathroom. She felt like a shower would do her some good. Since yesterday, she had felt wickedly dirty.



With the hot water pumping out of the shower head, Ellie abandoned her clothes on the floor and stepped in the tub. After over 45 minutes of scrubbing every possible place, she felt slightly better and cut off the water before wrapping herself in towel.



She walked gingerly back to her room. It all exactly as she had left it; bed made, papers on the desk, a few clothes in the hamper and her favorite Falcons cap hanging on the bed post. The only thing that was different was the pressing silence. Usually, her mom kept music playing or the TV on to fill the apartment. There were sounds of cars whirring along the streets below, as shoppers and business men ruled the sidewalks. Then there were the neighbors, like Jake Ulrish across the hall who through wild parties from time to time and held the firm belief that it was 5 'o clock somewhere, or Mr. Michaelson who was a bit of a womanizer...and whose follies were often loud.

But there were no footsteps down the hall, no music thumping (or headboards thumping), no car horns, sirens, voices, or any other signs of life. And it was the silence that unsettled her most of all.



Ellie changed into her most comfortable pair of blue jeans, long-sleeved t-shirt, running shoes, and put her long hair into a pony tail before tucking it into her Falcons cap.



Even after all this, everyone was still asleep. Ellie didn't have the heart to wake them up just yet either, so she set about looking for

something her mom might have left her. She had hoped her mom left a note or something for Ellie in case she had come to the apartment instead of heading directly to Axel's place. She searched through her room and then wandered into her mother’s room where she found herself thumbing through her mom’s shelves which were full of DVDS and books in the most unorganized manner. As she browsed she came across an old DVD she used to watch with her dad: Night of the Living Dead.



The cover art was blood splattered and filled with groaning half-deads oozing various liquids as they crawled out of the earth. She used to watch it all the time with her dad and it had never bothered her once, but now she could barely look at it. It sent chills down her spine as it made her remember the crazed man on the highway, the bloodied mob chasing them through the city and body after body throwing themselves of over the top of the truck.



Then she heard a soft noise. Her hear thumped harder and faster as adrenaline spiked her veins.

Dare she look behind her?



Something grabbed her shoulder. Ellie swung around with her fist flying and her eyes closed. Her fist met forcefully with something fleshy.

"Jesus ELLIE!"



Axel backed away before she could draw back and throw another punch. Ellie opened her eyes and felt terribly stupid.



"Jeez El," he said holding his nose, "It’s a good thing you’re a runner and not a competitive arm wrestler or I would have a broken nose."



"I'm so sorry," Ellie squeaked, "I-I'm just a bit jumpy. Is your nose okay?"



"It'll be okay," he replied with watery eyes, "What were you looking at anyways?"



Ellie held up the DVD for Axel to see.  "Just an old movie dad and I used to watch."



Axel sat down as he looked at the cover of the DVD for a moment.



"You don't think that this, I mean everything that’s happened, is a like zombie stuff do you?" Axel asked after a moment.

Ellie pushed the DVD back into its space on the shelf. "Well, it seems like kind of a crazy idea. That only happens in movies right? That's what I thought."



Axel shifted uncomfortably. "I used to think rockets, chases and crashing cars through apartment lobbies were pretty Hollywood too. Now,



I'm not so sure of anything. I dunno....but I know one thing is for sure: We can't stay here. We have to get to my place. Corey's parents and your mom are supposed to be going there and we need to get there too."



"You're just forgetting a few issues."

Both Ellie and Axel jumped around to see Corey standing in the door way looking extremely hung-over. He strolled in the room and plopped down on the bed casually.



"You're forgetting that we have no guns, no supplies, and no car since Axel parked my truck through the glass windows down stairs," Corey said, "Not to mention there about a hundred thousand ,what I like to call, ZAAAAAAHHHHm-BBBBIIES down stairs just looking for a snack."



"Well we can't just stay here," Ellie said.



"Hell no," Corey replied, "We just can't stroll out either."



Axel ran his hands through his hair. "Do you have any guns in the apartment El?"

Ellie gave him 'yeah right' look. "The only weapon we have around his is my dad’s old pistol in case of a break in. I don't think it’s ever even been fired."



"Find it anyway," Axel said, "Anyone else in the building might have a gun?"



"I don't think so," Ellie thought, "But we do have a guy who goes hunting from time to time that lives below us. He might have something."



"Good we'll check that one out," Axel replied, "We can look in other apartments for food too."



"Yeah, well what about a ride?" Corey interjected.



"We can just find an abandoned one on the street, I guess," Ellie told him.

Everyone got quiet for a moment. Nobody wanted to say what would happen if they didn't succeed in all of this. It was just too much to think about.



"Whatever happens," Ellie said firmly, "We stay together."