Un-Dead World Book One: Dead Men's Game

Chapter One

    The smell of food wafted through the house as I cooked dinner, once again, alone. It had been weeks since my hometown of Farmton was quarantined due to a huge outbreak of the virus. You see, a virus, not unlike the common flu, had begun to spread rapidly all over the globe. Some places weren't hit as hard as others, but the towns with massive infection rates were being quarantined to try and lessen the spread. Not that it seemed to be working. Nothing they were doing was stopping the spread of this disease and somehow the virus had begun to mutate against any vaccines. As the governments and scientists around the world began scrambling to find a solution, our population was slowly dying. None of us knew what to do anymore, we were losing our minds. If you were lucky, you were home when quarantine went into effect, because wherever you were, you were stuck there. Weekly supply drops kept people fed and kept us stocked with the basics but entire families were separated and with communications being monitored so closely, there were only certain schedules available to talk to those close to you. 

    I had been getting ready to leave for work when the sirens began. I tried to call my boyfriend but all services were cut off while the town was closed off. I remember running outside and starting my car, preparing to go find my boyfriend, when soldiers knocked on my drivers side window. I was told to return to my home immediately and the remain inside with my doors locked until otherwise instructed. My car keys were confiscated and a yellow flag was placed on my mailbox. Nobody knew what the flags meant, but there were different colors. Red, yellow, blue, and black. I had tried to find common traits between people or properties, to try and figure out what the different colors meant, but to no avail. The streets were busy with police and National Guard soldiers on patrols, state police were responsible for maintaining the boundaries. Even now, as I watched the only tv channel airing in town, the news, I could hear the footfalls of boots walking in sync and the crunch of heavy duty tires as they rolled down the street on another patrol. The news was saying the same thing that they had for weeks, Quarantines were still in effect all over the world and the towns that were deemed safe were quickly becoming hot zones as people fled to be with family. 

    As I zoned out on the newscasters overly pink lipstick, the meat I was cooking popped grease at me, hitting my cheek and drawing my attention away from the screen. That's when I heard a strange noise, faint yelling, somewhere outside. I grabbed the tv remote and pressed mute to listen more easily and it was unmistakable. There was shouting outside! I walked to my Livingroom and pulled back the curtain slightly, to peek outside. I was not prepared for the sight that I was met with. Soldiers running down the street, military and police vehicles ahead of them. It looked like they were leaving town, but they hadn't said anything about the quarantine ending. Confused, I walked to my locked door and opened it. I slowly walk outside, looking around at what I could only describe as mass fleeing. It became very apparent that this wasn't a typical patrol and that they were nervous about something. 

    I walked down my small driveway to the sidewalk, seeing some of my neighbors had done the same while many of them remained inside their homes. As a soldier drew close to my driveway, I stepped into the street to get his attention and ask what was happening. As soon as he saw me approaching his face paled and I was met with the barrel of a gun pointed at my face. 

    "Get the hell away from me!" He screamed, taking slow, measured steps around me, gun still drawn. I was frozen with fear. I had never had a gun in my face before and I didn't understand what I had done. I was just trying to find out what was happening. 

    "I'm sorry, I'll go back inside. I just wanted to know if the quarantine was over and that's why you're leaving in such a hurry." I had my hands up in the air, next to my face and I slowly began to step backwards, back in the direction of my house.     

    "Just stay away from me! You aren't gonna get me sick!" The soldier replied, ignoring my inquiry. He had a nervous sweat appearing on his upper lip and was taking careful steps down the road towards the rest of the fleeing men and women. When he had backed up to around fifteen to twenty feet from me, he lowered his gun and began to run after his comrades. 

    I wasn't sure what was going on, but I was pretty positive it wasn't good. I hightailed it back inside my house, locking my deadbolt behind me and checking all remaining doors and windows. With everything locked up tight, I went to turn my TV back on and see what the news was saying. The screen was blank, which was odd because I know I had only muted the TV, not turned it off. I pressed the power button to turn the power back on and saw the power light turn red, meaning I had just turned my TV off. The news just hadn't been playing.  Confused, I turned it back and and began scrolling through the channels, searching for a signal somewhere, but to my disbelief there were no channels active. I ran to grab my home phone, knowing it wasn't my scheduled time to use the phone, but hoping to reach somebody with answers anyway. I grabbed the phone and dialed the number to my boyfriends workplace, where he was stuck through quarantine, but when I brought the phone to my ear, there was silence. I checked that the phone was indeed plugged in and tried once again. Nope. There was no service on the phone either. To make matters even worse, as I sat in silence, trying to comprehend what in the hell was going on, all the lights shut off and i was thrown into darkness. 

    Now I may be a 5'7", athletically built twenty year old, but let me tell you that when the lights shut off, I screamed. I let out a shriek that would have given a banshee a run for her money. Then I promptly ran to my bedroom, grabbed my handgun and sat inside of closet with my phone next to me. I kept the closet door open so I had a view of my entire room and the windows and I kept my gun fire ready in my hand. It wasn't like I was really gonna shoot some cop or soldier if they came into my house, but when you're alone during a worldwide pandemic, you get a bit paranoid. Having a gun makes you feel so much more secure when you're alone and afraid. 

    At some point I must have dozed off because I awoke to a soft thudding sound. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I sat up, wincing as my neck pinched from sleeping in such an awkward spot in my closet. the sound that woke me wasn't very loud but it was definitely out of place enough to have registered to my sleeping brain. I stood and looked around my room, now lit up from the sunshine streaming through the windows. I couldn't tell where this sound was coming from but I could tell it was somewhere towards the front of my house. I checked my gun and magazine once more to make sure it was fire ready, just in case, and I slowly began making my way down my hallway and into my open Livingroom/kitchen area. As I entered the room , I could identify that the sound was emanating from my front door. It almost sounded like something was lightly banging on my door, over and over in even intervals. 

    I cautiously made my way to the front door, scanning the house around me as I walked through. When I reached the door I made sure to stay very, very quiet to avoid alerting whoever was outside. I knew in part of my brain that this was all illogical, I was overreacting to all of this. Who hides in the closet with a gun because they lost power? I couldn't explain this feeling that I had though. When the soldiers were fleeing it had begun like an ache in my stomach. When the power went out it was like I had just dropped off a huge cliff, that feeling that you get in your stomach when you're plunging. I just knew that something was wrong. Even more wrong than it had been for the past few months. As these thoughts went through me, I began to raise myself on my toes to look through the peephole on my door. A warped sense of relief flashed through me as I saw my boyfriend on the other side of the door. He was standing there but as I watched he walked forward a step and simply ran into the door, stumbling backwards and standing still for a moment before repeating the action. I threw the deadbolt and wrenched the door open, even as my instincts screamed at me to do the opposite. 

    "Carson! You're okay!" I cried out, stepping towards him with my arms open. " So they did lift the quarantine?" As I closed the final step between us before making contact, my nose was assaulted with the most unpleasant odor I had ever smelled. Instinctively I stepped back, wrinkling my nose at the sharp scent swirling its way inside my sinuses. "Are you drunk? Did you throw up on yourself?" I asked Carson, waving a hand in front of my face. He still hadn't said anything or even reacted to my presence. "Hello? Carson? What's wrong sweetheart?" I once again spoke to him, with no response. Concerned, I reached my hand out to touch his shoulder and as soon as my hand met his shoulder it was like he came to life. His face twisted into a snarling, furious mask while he emitted a screeching growl. As I finally saw all of him and noticed that he was covered in black blood, he lunged for me. My back hit the ground, followed by the back of my head and everything went black as Carson came down on top of me.