Chapter 1

We had been hearing about the disease for around three months when I decided to go home. It started in several places all over the world. Central France, Greece, Egypt, China, Peru, and the east coast of the USA. The CDC was in full force trying to find a cure or a vaccine and the public was on the verge of going crazy with hysteria. The only thing that was keeping people from rolling off their rockers was the media. You would read about crazy stories on random forums and sites, and a few videos from heavily infested areas on the east coast claiming to be farther inland, but with the major networks ensuring us that everything was fine, it was hard to argue. I thought the infection was weeks away from reaching me and that was if they broke through the quarantine line set up by the army and National Guard. But looking at what I saw in front of me, nothing could have been further from the truth.

I wanted to go home earlier and be with my family. What was happening was serious enough to warrant dropping my studies for a while and going home like my roommates had the week earlier. The problem was that since all the news stations and the government had told us that life west of the Appalachian Mountains should continue as normal and only areas east that were close to the Quarantine Line should put things on hold, our college decided to stay open. Not only did Mosswood University decide to stay open, but anyone wanting to go home had to fill out an incredible amount of paperwork and go through each professor individually to get things to work on while we were away. If these were not done a failing grade in all classes would be handed out and since I was applying to medical school after the semester, failing was not an option. Less for me than it was for my father. I was never one who always strived to please him personally, but to never fail anyone in general. That’s why in school I would continue to play in football games with concussions, sprained ankles, and in one instance a torn back muscle. I always tried to do what people expected of me.

I was expected to be a doctor. Not just from my family, but from everyone I knew. If you plucked my year book off the shelf you would see a picture of a broad shouldered, short blonde haired kid with fair skin and light blue eyes, much like I am today, and underneath the caption you would read most likely to succeed. The cherry on top being my name at the bottom. Dr. Derek Netters. To fail would not only let down my family, but everyone I knew back home.

But when I was sitting at the exit ramp of I-75 I realized that letting some people down was the least of my problems. How could the news have been so off on what they were reporting? These things we not east of the Appellations, hell they weren’t even east of Ohio! They were there in front of my face.

While waiting at the red light the first one cleared my line of sight over the horizon of the on ramp. Her hair was matted with dark matter and he pale gray skin was dusted with brown earth. The same dark brown matter in her hair was crusted on her arm just underneath a clearly visible bite mark.

She shambled forward one step at a time. I couldn’t pull my eyes off of her until the next one came up. Then two more, then three. The ramp looked more like a trickling faucet of the dead and I had a feeling that soon enough it would be a rampaging river.

I quickly flipped my old truck into reverse and I started to swerve around the loose traffic behind me until I had enough open space to turn around and head back into town. All I could think about is that I-75 is my only way home and that going that way would kill me.

I knew I could leave town on the western back roads, but where would I go. I had no idea where any of the roads that way would take me and I had no idea where I would or could go once I got out of town. If those monsters were this close this long, then where ever I stop they would quickly be close behind. Even worse I might not be able to stop, only able to move west until I reach California and be stopped by the Pacific.

No, my only hope was to get back to my apartment. I started to head towards my place but I stopped at the corner carry out convenience store by my road and Main Street. I leave the truck running as I run inside and grab a shopping basket. I had bought some extra supplies already, but not much. I was always under the impression that I was safe so I was only willing to buy some cases of Ramen, a few extra tubes of oatmeal, and some extra cans of meat. I just didn’t see the point in spending a lot of money on food I didn’t need.

Now that I did need it, I tore through the store picking up protein and energy bars, plus any cans of soup that they had available. Jazzar had never seen me act like this in his store, but he was also never one to say anything to a customer who was acting strangly. Well that is until someone steals from him, then he tends to get very vocal. When I ran out the store without paying, he ran out after me swearing up a storm of broken English slurs.

“Moda fooker, you pay now! I 911 your ass hole unless you pay now!”

I didn’t have time to stop and have my normal polite conversation with Jazzar. I had to get to my apartment and get ready. By all accounts, I was lucky. By lucky, I mean I had enough sense to get an apartment that wasn’t on the ground floor, even though when I signed the lease I was thinking more alone the lines of not wanting my place to flood during a storm.

My idea at the time was simple. From what I have seen on the news and online, these things had no climbing or jumping ability. So to make my apartment safe, I just had to get my stairs torn up. I didn’t know how long it would take me to do, but I knew I was going to need to get it done as quickly as possible. I was ahead of the large group that was most likely pouring off the interstate at that very moment, but first ones that I had saw had already made their way to my street. The closest one to my apartment was three blocks away. It was on its knees in front of a dog house. It had the poor animal in its claws and it was peeling its skin back from its ass to its face. The poor thing was still alive, biting and kicking with no avail.

Trying to get the dog out of my mind, I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex. It was a really good setup thinking back. Two buildings, four apartments per floor, with three floors. Each apartment on the first two floors had separate staircases and porches leading to their apartments, while the top level apartments shared a walkway with two stair cases on each side. I was on the second level, which was very fortunate.

When I got out of my truck with my basket of food, I was ready to get to work as fast as I could, but I noticed my other neighbors and I had to stop. Most of them were not running around, preparing their apartments, running food inside. They were standing around watching, on the phones with their parents telling them what they had heard up to that point.

“They’re coming!” I shouted at them. They just stared, continued to talk on their phones. None of them were trying, none knew what to do, and I did not have time to help them all. But I did see a girl who lived across the parking lot from me named Hannah who I had in a few of my classes trying to load up her car. She lived on the bottom floor. She wouldn’t have had a chance and to be honest I liked her somewhat. I had always thought she was good looking with her black hair that fell to her shoulders, tan skin, and dark green eyes. We got along well enough before the outbreak and even hung out every once in a while but nothing ever came of it.

I ran over to her, “There isn’t any point. They’re coming up from the interstate.”

“I’m going to leave to the west of town. I should be able to make it out that way.”

“I wouldn’t bother. By now everyone is going to be heading that way. There will be too much traffic and you won’t be able to get out.”

The frustration must have gotten to her at that point because tears started streaming down her eyes. “What should I do then? I just don’t know what to do.”

“I’ll tell you what. Go back into your apartment and grab what ever food you can and bring it over to my place. I’ll take your bags and throw them inside. You need to hurry though. I need to get the stairs to my place torn up.”

With a questioning look on her face she ran off and I grabbed her bags and my food and dropped them off inside. I hurried up and pulled my crowbar and hatchet out of my truck and got to work on the stairs. As soon as I got the bottom step off, Hannah was running over with a decent sized bag over her shoulder and two cases of Ramen in her hands. I helped her up over the missing step and I got back to work.

The bottom steps were hard to get off. There was little room to wedge in the crowbar to tear off the step. Once I got at steps that were waste high, I was able to start bashing the steps off from the bottom. The quicker work on the final steps was good because I could see the first zombies start to make there way off the streets.

I finally had gotten the final step off, but I still had one thing left to do. There was an old ladder that sat behind my building behind the shrubs that the grounds crew would use for minor chores. I ran around the building were I saw a thick mob of these things reach the corner of the streets that my building was on. I picked up the ladder and I ran it back around to my porch. When I got there I set the ladder up against the porch and I climbed up. When I got up I started to pull the ladder up with me when I snagged on something. I look over the edge and I see that one of the ghouls had the bottom rung clenched in his fist. This monster looked like he had been pulled down by a large group and he looked like he had been baking in the sun for about a week. His face was almost nearly torn off with raged skin hanging in every random spot and his lips had been torn off. I struggled to pull the ladder out of its grip, but the thing was too strong. I grabbed my crowbar and I swung down at him. I only manage to snag a piece of look skin which exposed his empty eye socket. I swung back down a second time and this time I made solid contact with the creature’s skull. At this the torn zombie slumped to the ground and released his grip on the ladder.

I pulled the ladder up quickly and slid it into the apartment. Hannah came back out and stood next to me and we watched the parking lot start to fill with the undead. I could see that she finally understood why I knocked the steps off the porch. The dead started to surround the porch and reach up for us. The problem for them though was that we were too high for them to even touch the bottom. Satisfied that we were safe for the moment I lead Hannah back into the apartment. As I closed the door I heard someone who got caught outside scream. It wouldn’t be the last one we heard that day.