A Story Of Survival

Chapter I - Introduction



Nathan was a normal teenager who lived in a small rural town.

His day started like any other, his mother, Tracy, woke him and his brother, Sam, at 6:50 AM. Tracy leaves for work a bit later and her children begin to prepare for school. At 8:00 o'clock, Michael, Nathan and Sam's father, wakes up and quickly gets ready to take their kids to school. Sam was the youngest, being 10 years old, while Nathan was 16. Sam was kind of a complicated kid, despite of being always talking, he usually gets tired of everything else easily, being exactly the opposite of Nathan, who is a bit shy and prefers to keep his problems to himself so he doesn't bother anyone. This differences make Nathan and Sam fight a lot but they still get along well most of the times.

At 8:20 AM, Michael leaves his kids at their schools. Just like any other typical teenager, Nathan never liked school, not just because of the disgusting food served in the cafeteria or the horrible teachers, but mainly because of the other students. We all know how cruel and mean people at high school can be, and no one knew better about this topic than Nathan and his small group of friends. He had always been a target of the popular group of his class, and even though he hated that, he likes to see the positive consequences that his problem brought, because if it wasn't for this, he probably never would have met Gwen and Haley, and later on Claire and Catherine, Kitty for her friends.

Claire and Kitty were part of the popular group once, that was until the other popular girls, who didn't want to share the popularity with them, invented some rumors about the two, turning everyone against them, and the only people who stood up for them were Nathan's group, becoming friends

ever since.

Before being Gwen's best friend, Haley was friends with Lois, who was Sarah's best friend, and, according to their class's monarchy, Sarah's group was pretty close to the popular group. Jealous of their friendship, and afraid that Haley was going to steal her best friend, Sarah took a desperate measure, breaking Lois' phone, and made everyone think that Haley was guilty.

On their freshman year, Nathan was separated from not only his friends but also his enemies. Nathan is not exactly the most sociable person in the world and he wasn't even planning on becoming friends with his new classmates, but he did. Mia, Hayden, Mary and Hanna were a few of the friends he made.

It was Wednesday, and his classes started with History. Nathan sat on the table in front of the board with Mia. Nathan never truly liked "Dr.Cromwell", no one did. Professor Cromwell always believed to be one of the best teachers of the school and he's always very proud of everything he does, mainly the book he wrote about the region's (poor) history and the small articles he writes on the regional newspaper who nobody really cares about. Still, Nathan preferred him to many other teachers.

His next class was Physical Education and there wasn't a teacher Nathan hated more than Paul Anderson. But lucky for Nathan, his teacher was missing because he got married not long ago.

"Who would be crazy enough to marry him?" Nathan thought to himself. "I think I would commit suicide right after marriage!"

Some time later his classes were over and Nathan's aunt, Nicole, or Niki like everyone calls her, came to pick him up.

Seven years ago, Niki moved to Spain with her husband, Steve. They ended up divorcing due to Steve's alcohol and smoking problems which used to make him spent a lot of money every month on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. Shortly after the divorce, Steve decided to come back to Portugal, where he eventually died in a car crash, due to the excessive consumption of alcohol. The news about Steve's death travelled fast and got to Niki quickly. Even though they were not together anymore, his death wrecked her, leaving a giant impact in her.

Niki tried to move on with her life after this tragedy, meeting many guys, but never getting a stable relationship. Niki started feeling really lonely and depressed and she got tired of it, she got tired of spending her free time alone in her apartment, thinking about all her problems, so she decided to sign up in a gym, where she would go three times a week. She started to love doing exercise, she loved it so much she started running every day, and she even joined a climbing group.

Niki rarely comes to visit her family to Portugal, and both Nathan and Sam loved her. Tracy also loved her sister and they had a great relationship, even with Niki in Spain, they always had the time to chat with each other every day.

After picking up Sam, the three go straight to Holly's house, who had invited them to lunch.

Holly and Ben were Nathan and Sam's grandparents. Holly was a really nice and simple woman who worked in a nursing home, and liked to spend her free time taking care of her backyard and cattle.

Ben was a strong man with gray hair, around 60 years old who had a psychological problem that he had since his participation on the war. This problem is caused by the fear Ben has of dying, a sort of death phobia. Along with this, Ben is always mumbling about everything and criticizing everyone constantly, making people tired of him. That was what happened with Tracy a week ago. Her brother, Josh, moved far away a couple of years ago so that he didn't had to put up with his dad, where he started a new life with his girlfriend, with whom he had a baby boy. After he moved away, Tracy was the one who started taking Ben to the hospital whenever he thought it was necessary, but in spite of this, Ben kept criticizing Tracy unfairly, causing her to stop talking to her father.

Even though they are better as a couple now, Holly and Ben had many problems in the past. A few years ago, Ben wouldn't let Holly have a normal conversation with other men or hang out with her friends. He used to force her to be home before 19:00 PM and if she disrespected his orders, he would assault her or would simply lock every entrance to the house, not letting her in, forcing Holly to spend the night somewhere else, usually at Tracy's house. Tired of Ben's attitudes, Holly's daughters decided to act, threatening him that if he didn't stop with his violent behavior, they were going to take the case to court. From that day on Ben never touched Holly in a violent way again and their relationship got better than ever.

Niki and her nephews arrive at Ben's house, where Susan was already waiting.

Susan was Tracy and Niki's older sister, despite being the smallest in terms of height. She and her husband tried to have a child many times but they were not successful. Susan began several fertility treatments, who were quite expensive and exhausting, but they were not providing any results. Things got even more complicated when her husband had to leave the continent to work abroad, being able to come to Portugal only once a year.

Nathan and Sam greeted the family and sat at the table to have lunch. Ben was the first to finish, he got up, grabbed a pack of cigarettes and headed to the courtyard. Ben has a major issue with alcohol and tabacco, and despite his family's offers to help him, He never cared.

After lunch, while Niki was helping Holly with the dishes, Susan and her nephews went to visit Grace.

Grace was Ben's only sister, and just like half of Ben's family, she had her own problems with him as well. She used to live with her mother, but she eventually passed away due to a heart attack. Grace lives alone ever since, with only her pets to keep her company.

Moments later, Niki joined them and another half hour later, Niki and her nephews say goodbye to Grace, leaving her with Susan, and the three head to Tracy's home.

Niki parks Holly's car in front of the house and Nathan opens the big green gate. When they get inside they are greeted by Wolf and Luna, Nathan's dogs, a big and beautiful male siberian husky and an energetic female labrador. Nathan opened the door and Sam goes straight to his bedroom to do his homework, something he was used to do since he started school.

While Sam finished his homework, Niki and Nathan changed clothes so that they could go running. Nathan liked to have his aunt around, she encouraged him to do some exercise. Tracy got home from work just in time to stay with Sam while they both went running.

Half an hour later, Nathan and Niki were running through Holly and Ben's street when a man tried to grab Nathan. Nathan kicked him in the face and ran next to Niki. The homeless man got up and kept chasing them slowly, growling and raising his arms in their direction. They kept running until they got to Holly's home and tried to open the gate but it was closed. They started ringing the doorbell, waiting for someone to answer. They now had three men around them, slowly approaching, and there were two others feeding from a dead dog not too far from there. Holly finally opens the gate and Nathan and Niki get inside as quick as they can, locking the gate. Where there were two people fearing for their lives seconds ago, there were now five cannibals slamming against the gate, trying to get in. Niki convinced her parents to abandon the house with them. Holly and Ben started packing right away and Ben grabs a shotgun he had hidden away since he's hunting times before Nathan was born. The four abandon the house through the backyard but Nathan stops and asks about Susan and Grace. They decide that Holly and Ben were going to hide until Niki and Nathan came back with Grace and Susan.

The gate that leads to the courtyard was locked so Niki and Nathan had to jump over it. When they got to the courtyard Grace's dogs started barking, attracting the cannibals that were at Ben's gate to Grace's. When they heard the dogs, Grace and Susan came to the door in a hurry, fearing that one of those people outside found his way in, but the two women calm down when they see that it was only Niki and Nathan. Niki explains the situation and asks Grace and Susan to come with them. They get inside the house and they find Meredith, a friend of Grace.

"Meredith was on her way here when one of those men out there attacked her. She got away, but one of them bit her and got a piece of her arm..." Susan explains while Grace was getting her stuff.

When Grace was almost ready to leave, Nathan gets a call from Tracy.

"Where are you? Are you safe?" Tracy asks in a tone of panic.

"We're fine, there are some crazy people on the streets who seem like they want to kill us. What about you and Sam, Are you ok?" Nathan asks back.

"Yeah, but there's a woman trying to get through the wall since your father got home."

"Calm down, the whole family's going over there, we won't take long."

The conversation is interrupted when one of the freaks outside breaks a window from the living room and Nathan is forced to say goodbye with an "I gotta go." Grace grabs an axe, Susan helps Meredith and they all leave the house, leaving Grace's dogs behind. They ended up joining Ben and Holly and they all headed to Tracy's house. They safely arrive at the gate, where a girl was slamming against the wall, trying to get inside. The girl seemed to be between 20 and 24, brown hair and she was wearing blue jeans, a black and gray checkered shirt and a dark green jersey. Her skin was dry and filled with cuts, broken nails, green and bloody eyes and a bite in her neck. Noticing the presence of the family, the girl slowly turns to them and starts heading towards Holly. Ben loads his shotgun and aims it to the girl, pressing the trigger hesitantly, spilling the girl's blood all over the street. All the family gets a bit shaken for what just happened, some more than others. None of them had ever seen anyone get shot before, except Ben, who had to kill many during the war. Hearing the shot, Tracy opens the gate and allows everyone to get in. As soon as they started entering, the body of the girl starts moving again, grabbing Susan by the ankle, making her fall. Susan struggles to set free from the girl who had her guts out due to the gunshot. Grace quickly uses her axe and cuts the girl's arm, saving Susan. Tracy hurries them to get inside and locks the gate with a lock. The girl gets up and starts pushing herself against the wall once again. While Nathan gets the dogs inside the house, Holly and Tracy try to find a way to get rid of the walking corpse. Tracy ends up grabbing a pitchfork and stabs it on the girl's head, right in the eyes. While Tracy pulled herself together, Michael comes to the door and tells everyone to get in the house as fast as they can since the shot would probably attract more of those things. Niki helps Meredith getting inside, followed by Susan and Ben, with Grace right behind them, and finally Holly and Tracy, locking the door behind them.