Prologue

It started out as any ordinary day. The sun was shining, the birds chirping, and the dead moaning in the street, yep, just another post apocalyptic day for me. The fact that there was walking dead infesting the land didn't bother me one bit. May seem strange to you but to me and my group it's the average thing.

Chapter One

''BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!'' The alarm clock beeped in my ear awakening me to a cool frigid morning. I suddenly sat up with a jolt as I remembered what today was. Today was a special day, the day I got my license and I had to hurry to school to get the newly made license as well as do my work. I thought of how my face and name would look on the front of that new, shiny piece of plastic. I quickly stole a look at the clock on the wall five minutes till six o'clock am. I quickly made my breakfast, which consisted of a simple cup of orange juice and a single fried egg. Checking the clock again I saw that it was six thirty, I nearly lost my egg as I saw how much time passed and I still had to get my stuff together, eat, and get out the door. I quickly wolfed down my eggs and chugged my orange juice as I rushed to get my stuff gathered, luckily everything was already next to my bag and I just had to shove it in. As I left I put the empty juice glass in the sink and shot out the door. As I burst out into the cold morning air, feeling the cold sting of the morning I quickly opened the door and grabbed a jacket. I slammed the door shut and locked it then turning on my heel I quickly sped down to the bus stop as the bus just came to a stop. Quietly I took a seat mid bus and sat back for the long ride ahead. Soon enough though the bus finally made it to the high school and I departed with a kind "have a good day sir" to my bus driver. Walking to the center field of the school I noticed a lot of students were missing, and then thinking back a lot of the teachers cars were missing as well. Upon further inspection of the students still there I noticed most were ill and quite weak. Those who were sick seemed to have a high fever, sweated a lot, had fitful shakes, and vomiting. It seemed those not sick with this odd disease or sickness were Goose, David, Britney, Brita, Christine, Trenton, and I, Alex. I met with them and asked if they knew what was going on, Trenton looked up from some calculation and said, "Truthfully, no it seems no one knows what is exactly happening." I looked in shock for a moment and finally said, "Well um huh heck, so why are we standing in the open around the sick again?" Everyone looked at me and said, "So where do you suppose we go?" I thought and said, "Well we could go to the career discovery building and lock ourselves in for protection and quarantine purposes." They looked at me for a second and finally as if thinking with the same mind answered, "Okay sounds like a good plan." So with that settled we made a dash for the CDC, we ran so we could avoid the sick as much as possible. Soon we made it to the CDC and locked ourselves in the mechanics class. During the day Trenton was able to hack the schools security camera system. Throughout the day we observed those who were sick, by what would have been second block a lot of the sick seemed to change. Their skin was turning to a dark tanned leather color, large boils and cysts started to form on their bodies, their eyes turned to a milky cloudy color, and they then seemed to lose all of their sanity. They thrashed about in a fit of pure convulsions, white frothy vomit appeared as well as bloody noses that seemed to never end. Then suddenly they all just stopped moving one by one. We were left to wonder what was going on, will someone come to help us, or will we suffer the same fate as those other poor souls in the school?

Chapter Two

It was ten o'clock by what the clock in the room said. Trenton closed the laptop and looked up to us and said in a dreary tone empty of emotion, "We are the last few here that are not sick or worse." I saw Brita ready to cry, David moved to her and comforted her. Goose seemed to be not affected by any of the news, but we all knew that inside he was terrified beyond words and actions. Britney and Christine were crying together in a corner of the room, Trenton was worried as well not only for those in the school, but out of it in town as well. I stood motionless, paralyzed by the fact that we could be all that's left of our small town. After ten minutes I heard a noise, a loud rumble of engines heavy engines at that, I looked out a window and saw what had to be a whole platoon of vehicles. Two military hummers with fifty caliber machine guns on top, three duce and a half troop carriers full of ammunition and heavily armed men, two more hummers, and finally one gigantic fully loaded tank. Each vehicle had a white letters painted on the sides that spelled out VOPA. It took me a moment to remember what it stood for than it hit me VOPA was short for Viral Outbreak Protection Agency. So that was it the sickness was a virus and outbreak at that! "Hey guys shut your yaps", I yelled at them, "We got company!" They rushed over and saw the great convoy of heavy military vehicles come to a sudden stop just on the other side of the CDC building. They then proceeded to go to the door and rush out to the platoon of soldiers, "Wait, stop right there!" I yelled. They froze in place, turned and looked at me with eyes full of question, "Look" I said "VOPA is only interested in getting results and that's it, if you go out there they will blast you all to pieces except for one then they will take the one they didn't mow down and do horrible tests to you to find a cure after the cure is obtained they will kill you that is if you don't die during the tests and examinations." David looked at me as if I was one of the sick about to kill him and said, "You're full of crap why should we believe you?" I looked at him and said, "David save it alright, just listen to me I know what they do. Remember the outbreak of the swine flu in Africa, how some survived and were placed in the care of VOPA then died two days later? Yea they were used to try and find the cure, the same thing in Brazil when small pox broke out. That is not just a coincidence." David thought on it for a moment and replied, "Well when you put it like that I don't want to go out now." "Alright then would anyone else like to go meet VOPA?" I asked "No well good, now we have to get out before they come in." I told the group we were going to have to get out through the shop and hide. They agreed without question and we began the first task, getting out. We crossed the shop flow as quietly and as quickly as we could. Now the second part climbs the ladder to the roof of the CDC. This one got me one question from Kristine. "So why are we climbing to the roof?" she asked with a disgusted look on her face. "To gather some information from VOPA that's why" I shot back in a low hiss. She looked at me like I was a pile of crap on her new shoes, "Just get up there" I growled at her. "Okay, okay" she replied in an annoyed tone, I climbed up behind her. Once we reached the roof we were in perfect range of the VOPA team to hear the soldiers talking amongst one another. "So what are we doing here again Mallard?" one soldier asked his partner who looked up clearly annoyed by his team mate's stupid question, "Well Bill were here to wipe out the undead left by our science project gone wrong that's why, didn't you listen to the briefing we got as we arrived here?" Mallard grumbled. "NO, I was cleaning my piece" Bill replied, a look of guilt flashed in his eye. "Well I guess I'll have to debrief you again. Okay Bill listen and listen good we are here to wipe out the zombie infection in this town. Then we, Bill are you still paying attention? You are good then I will continue. Then we find a cure from either a survivor or a zombie, after that we give the cure to the other states and countries to prevent further spreading of the disease. Oh and if you shoot them get them in the head it's the only way to stop them." I motioned the others to move back to the center of the roof, and we all crawled back to the center to avoid detection from the squad below. "Okay you guys I couldn't put it any simpler than that." I said to the group, who responded with a nod of their heads. "So it's a virus that turns the sick and infected into zombies?" Britney questioned. I said yea in response to the question, then I told everyone we were going to make a trip to the police station in town. Goose looked at me and asked, "So how we going to get around the walking dead and the troops Alex?" I thought and replied, "Who said we were going to go around them, were going to go over them. Everyone to the metal roofing over the sidewalks, walk slow and lightly so we don't get any admirers okay?" We began the trip to the walkways when a hand suddenly appeared over the ledge next to the latter. I walked over and stood behind an old air conditioning vent and waited for our guest to appear. The soldier pulled himself up and over the ledge and walked toward the vent to catch his breath, what he didn't expect was a board to fly from behind the vent and knock him out. I walked out from behind the vent and dropped the board on the roof, bent down and took the unconscious soldiers radio and weapon along with his ammunition for the weapon. Leaving the soldier exposed was too much even for me so I moved him to the shade of an overhang on one of the vents, and then I left him to reawake in a dazed confusion wondering what just happened to him.

Chapter Three

We crossed the countless walkway roofs till we reached the end of the school compound. After helping every one off the roof, I moved to lead the group to the police station. Halfway to the station a single zombie appeared from an old abandoned shack in the woods just across from the path we were taking. We ducked behind a pile of cars that had crashed some time after we locked ourselves in the class room of the CDC. The zombie stumbled towards a car and started to fumble the door handle, it seemed after becoming a zombie the human mind lost all abilities it once contained. As the zombie tried in vain to open the car door Goose found an old pipe and rose to the challenge. He beat the zombies head in with the pipe causing a great mess to form on the cars roof and side. Goose looked around one last time to make sure they could travel safely, then seeing that it was a clear shot across the rest of the field to the police station he gave a soft whistle and signaled it was all clear and safe to go. I took lead again as we made our way to the station, looking down while stopped to make sure it was still clear I spotted a nice metal pipe to use as a club, I took the time to tell the others to find something to use as a weapon as well so we could fight as a team and move easier and more securely. No one question this and soon everyone had a weapon of their own. We stated off one last time this short run brought us right to the front door of the station. We all drew straws to see who would have to go in, and well Trenton and I ended up getting the two short straws so we had to go in and secure the station and weapons. We said our prayers and made it up the stairs and opened the doors, the sight that welcomed us was a pitch black abyss. Trenton felt around and found a flash light that he quickly flicked on. The light revealed a surprisingly neat office area, we continued down to a hall way we checked all the rooms to make sure it was clear. Each room was empty then we reached the last door in the hall, on a small sign next to the door it said "Room 20 Armory". "Well Trenton here we are what we came for" I said in appreciation that our job was nearly done, Trenton replied, "Yea about time." I then proceeded to open the door and enter. Trenton shined the light as I entered it seemed empty except for the guns, but then the light landed on a young man infected with the strange disease. I raised the metal pipe and swung down in a great arc, but then suddenly as if it expected the swing the creature rolled away from me! "Look out Alex its coming back at you!" Trenton yelled in a desperate warning, this time though I was a step ahead of the infected beast. I brought the pipe around with all my strength and added in with the force of my turn to the infected, the infected having already jumped could not avoid the pipe and the pipe connected with its head bursting like a pumpkin. "Hey Trenton how's that for a head banging time?" I asked him with a smile. "Well I would definitely have a splitting headache after that" Trenton said laughing. "Okay, enough playing let's get these guns and ammunition boxes out of here." I said as we walked to the weapons and ammunition lockers. We moved the weapons and ammunition to the main office where we entered then we proceeded to lock the doors and windows leading to the rest of the building. I poked my head out the door and told the group it was safe to come in and we got the weapons and ammunition we came for. Brita managed to find a snake machine in the lounge that she smashed open and got us some lunch. She laid out the food in front of us and we ate till we could eat no more, "Uh I am stuffed" I mumbled and the rest of the group grunted in response. "Alright hear is the plan we are going to stay here for the night then we will get a car and get to my place. And I say my place because I have plenty of room one, two it's close to town, and three it's easy to defend from attacks. We will move tomorrow because today we are full and tired from the shock of what has happened and all the work we had to do to get here, but it should be a lot easier to get to my house AKA the base, Okay?" Everyone nodded a yes and we began to make a place to sleep, we would keep one of us on guard duty for two hours and then we would switch out just for extra protection. We went to sleep for the first night of the infection in what was Poplaville now Viralville. I kept first watch and had no problems with any of the infected or any of the zombies, but I did however hear a lot of gun fire from the school's direction. I thought to myself, boy I am sure glad we got out of there when we did.

Chapter Four

The night passed without a problem and we all awoke at seven to the sound of more gunfire, though this gunfire was unorganized as if the team had been taken by surprise and could not get organized and fight back properly. By seven ten the gun fire ceased we only noticed this because we had just finished breakfast and we only heard silence. We didn't have time to wonder if the team of soldiers was still alive or food for the dead, we had to find a working car so we could get to my place. No longer that ten minutes into the search then Christine had found a fully working SUV that even had a full tank of gas. We quickly got it to the station and loaded it with the weapons, ammunition, food, water, and bedding after we packed we got in and took off towards our new base, my house. Arriving in a cloud of dust we jumped out of the SUV and quickly armed ourselves with shot guns, pistols, knifes, and extra ammunition. We then made a quick but thorough search of the house and property for any activity, we found no activity what so ever in the house or on the property so we started to unload the SUV and pack everything away in an organized fashion. We then made the agreement to go to a lumberyard slash hardware store to get supplies to armor the house. "Okay everyone here is the list of items: two or three plug-in drills, fourteen boxes of wood and brick screws, all the wood we can carry out in the SUV in one trip, and finally one generator we may need it later on. We will divide into two groups and meat at the side entrance in half an hour, David take Brita, and Trenton I will take Goose, Christine, and Britney. David you will take the SUV so you can get the generator in and come get us. Okay let's do it and get it done, good luck and be on your guard." Upon arriving at the lumber yard Goose and I began to move all the wood planks and two by fours, while Christine and Britney stood watch. On one of the boards was a hand saw I picked it up and put it next to our pile. Goose and I then continued to move the rest of the wood. David was in the middle of lifting a large and heavy generator with Trenton while Brita stood guard, just when a zombie approached Brita from behind David reached back and grabbed the gun jutting out of his back pocket and put a round through the zombie's head. Brita being scared by the shot turned to yell at David, but then she saw the zombie's body and thanked him instead of yelling at him. David and Trent then finally got the generator into the SUV's back compartment and closed the door. They had managed to get the generator, three plug-in drills, and all the boxes of wood and brick screws they just had to go get Alex and his team. "Hey Trenton you ready to go?" Trenton spun around and jumped into the SUV's driver seat and yelled back, "You ever going to get in or what?" Smiling David got in and Brita got in as well, seeing that everyone was in Trenton started the SUV and gunned the engine. He then hugged the tight corner as he came around and then stomped the breaks to stop in front of Alex and his team. Seeing Trenton whip around the corner and come to a screeching stop I made my way to the pile of wood and began loading the back. Soon the back was full and Goose helped me load the roof cargo career, after a few more minutes the wood was completely loaded on the truck. We then joined the rest in the SUV and drove back to base to board the windows and doors. We got back to base in only a few seconds and took ten minutes to unload the SUV, after unloading we instantly set to boarding up the house. We managed to board all of the windows and three of the four doors when suddenly Brita who was at watch for any Infected or zombies gave out a yell, "Ten zombies on the hill in front of the house!" Trenton speeded the news on to us further on in the house, Britney who was closest to the weapons room pulled out several M16's and passed them out to us. We charged out the house ready for battle and armed to the teeth. Seeing our sudden movements and actions the zombies gave a hoarse cry and charged us. There run was a trot mixed with a limp, but it was effective because they closed the distance by half in only a few seconds. Suddenly there was a bang and one of the zombie's was suddenly missing his head! We all looked down one side of the road and saw no one when we looked up the other side we saw a soldier with his own M16 shouldered. He took aim again and let off a burst of nine shots each bullet finding its mark and blasting the heads off the other zombies as if they never existed.

Chapter Five

The soldier approached us and told us to drop our weapons. I looked at the soldier and realized who it was it was the soldier Mallard the same guy whose lights I knocked out a day earlier! He yelled at us to drop our weapons again. I replied with "my friend you should not order those who outnumber you and out arm you, you are the one who should be dropping his weapon." Mallard stood there bewildered at what I had said so he just slung his weapon over his shoulder and approaching slowly with his hands up. "Hello Mallard where is your troop" I asked with a chuckle. Mallard asked how I knew his name, and I told him we were on the roof the first day he and his troop arrived and we heard all of what he said to his partner. Having learned we had just eavesdropped he seemed relieved and asked if he could join us. We talked amongst ourselves to come to a decision, Trenton, "Well he did save our butts you know." Brita, "He did save us and he didn't just shoot us on site either." I thought and finally I reach a verdict he could stay. "Okay Mallard you can stay" I said in an average calm voice. "Oh thank you so much uh I didn't catch you names." He said in a confused voice. I told him our name and we all introduced ourselves to him and went about our business of moving the zombies to the ditch. I walked with Millard to the house and showed him the place and allowed him to some food and drink. As he ate he explained that after he was knocked out he woke up to gunfire and saw that his squad was under attack and he couldn't do anything because he didn't have a weapon as well as he could barely stand. After a few minutes he saw that his troop was dead and being devoured in a bloody gore by the zombies. Once the zombies had their fill and left he made his way down and got the M16 and some ammunition, he then made an emergency call for a helicopter evacuation. I took this all in and felt some guilt because I was the one who knocked him out, but of course that may have saved his life as well. I asked him if he got a response back from his call out for rescue and evacuation, he looked at me and said yes I did receive a response, but it said they could only get a helicopter out here in one day. I called in the group and told them of the rescue helicopter that would save all of us. The group of roughed up survivors jumped with joy and celebrated. "Hold on to your celebration you bunch we still have to survive those three days so don't get cocky and make mistake cause now a mistake could mean you life is over and there is no restart button, got it" I asked the group and all in unison they said, "yea we understand." I checked my watch it was six pm time for bed. I called out to the group, "alright time for bed and rest well collect more food tomorrow as well as work on defense and offence so rest up." David had firs watch followed by Trenton. When Trenton's shift came around he heard a noise outside the window, he went to inspect the noise and saw that a zombie had made his way to the house. Trenton opened a gun port in the front door and gave a sharp whistle; the zombie went to the door and looked in the gun port only to get a face full of nine millimeter bullets. Trenton closed the gun port and had no problems the rest of the night.

Chapter Six

We awoke at six in the morning and started breakfast, which was the last of our rations so it was imperative that we go and scavenge more food from the town stores. We knew it would be a dangerous job, but we needed food or we would starve. At about seven in the morning David took Goose and Kristine to go get food for the group. I stood alone in the weapon and storage room, it was apparent we needed more weapons and ammunition or we would be eaten or killed by a mass mob. I went to Mallard and told him we were going on a little scavenging trip to the school and more precisely the convoy. He looked at me as if I had just smacked his hand with a ruler after the moment of shock passed he said, "You have a good point, but what about all the zombies?" I gave it some thought and said, "simple there any grenades in the trucks?" He stopped and thought, "Yea actually I think there are some." I looked him in the face and said, "Now all we need is a truck to get us up there and then dump it for one or two of the big carrier trucks and those four fifties on the hummers plus the one on the tank" I took Mallard around next door and found a small car to use to get us to the convoy. "Its smaller than heck, but you can't complain about what you got" Mallard laughed. "Yea" I responded in a chuckle. We got the car running and made a dash for the school. Though small the car did have some power and could maneuver quite well. Soon enough we arrived at the convoy's tail end, we stopped the car and got out ready to fight and run like the wind. I quickly pushed the car out of the way so we could back out the carrier truck. As it turned out there were grenades in the back of the first carrier in the back of the convoy. I climbed to the top of the truck and brought up the box full of high explosive grenades, and then I pulled up Mallard to start off the first phase of operation. First we taped all of the grenades together with duck tape, second we tied the pins so on cord could be pulled to activate all of them at once, third we made sure our weapons were fully loaded and off safety. Then we made our approach toward the target, a mass of nearly one hundred zombies. We had made three cluster bombs out of all the grenades in the box, I grabbed one and got into position and pulled the cord and threw the cluster bomb at the zombies. The cluster bombs were very effective the first one halved the number of zombies it took the other two to finish them though because the zombies started to scatter before Mallard could throw the second and I could through the third. Mallard yelled out to me, "That was ingenious to tape all the grenades together like that Alex it would great." "Thanks" I yelled back "I got the idea from bottle rocket bombs I used to make when I was young." We got straight to work getting the fifties and all there ammunition out of the hummers and the tank. Then we emptied the first convoy truck of all its supplies and loaded them into the back of the carrier we were going to use. "Well that's all of it, every last gun and bullet." I said to Mallard in a happy voice. "Yea, now let's get back to base and install these fifties on the roof, those zombies will never know what hit them!" We roared past David who was busy stuffing the last of the canned food from a store into the SUV. David looked up and saw Mallard and Alex fly past in a military vehicle full of weapons and other supplies. Then he strait back to work, he shoved with all his might and finally got the can to go in then he slammed the door shut. Goose yelled to David over the gunfire, "Hey, David can we maybe leave its getting crowded here, we have already shot forty, bam! Make that forty one zombies and there still coming." David yelled out, "Yea we can go come I am waiting on you two!" Goose and Kristine both jumped into the SUV and David punched leaving a mass of zombies in a cloud of dust and exhaust fumes. Mallard and I arrived back at base and were instantly swamped with placing the fifties on the roof and making a wall on the roof to protect the guns and provide support to improve aim. In the middle of the wall building David and his recon team pulled up and started to unload the grate load of canned food and bottled water. We now had enough food to last us for a year or two at least and enough water for at least a year. Then we now also had enough fire power to level a town and enough ammunition to last for at least five years. We were ready now we only had to make it through the night and we were darned determined to make it. I checked the time it was ten thirty pm time for bed. Once again I yelled out, "Time for bed, rest well we may have to fight another battle tomorrow." It was Mallards first time as the night guard and he already didn't like it. About half an hour in he had to deal with a zombie at the door. After that his shift went well with no other problems, he then switched with Trenton and him with Brita. On Brita's shift she hear a noise like a bunch of feet walking out of time, she looked out the window to see a massive swarm of the undead coming down on the survivors road. Brita instantly sounded the alarm and house was lit up by light from the generator in an iron cage meant to protect it. The alarm combined with the lights woke everyone, and soon the house was covered in people, the roof had all five fifties manned by a gunner and a feeder the rest of the people were also spread out on the roof with M16, assault shotguns, and small arms. The yard had been mined earlier that day be Mallard and me, as well as many pit falls in the back yard and side yards these also included landmines. The zombies came into view and began to charge instantly the fifties opened up with ear splitting bangs, then the landmines started to go off more from zombies than stray bullets, the M16 then opened up on the zombies as well. I called for a flare and boy did I get one, it went up and engulfed the entire battle zone in an eerie green glow. There were so many zombies that we thought the entire town was there, but we didn't care we just had to make it morning. I saw a grenade launcher and put grenade after grenade into the crowded street the grenades made a big difference like the landmines they just blew them away. I shot the rest off then reloaded the launcher and continued the battery. The zombie's numbers began to decrease rapidly as the sun rose from behind us. The last few remaining zombies were suddenly gone all that was left was a great crater. We all looked up and hovering above us was or ticket out of here, the helicopter finally arrived! The pilots voice came down to us from a loud speaker as a rescue basket came down and took us up to the helicopter, "Well we certainly didn't have any trouble finding you guys, heck we thought world war three had erupted over here." We all laughed as we were flown to the safe lands of Northern Alaska. Finally it was over we could be safe and happy we really were in a true Viralville, and we lived to tell about it.