The Apocalypse

Chapter One

The morning sky was a pale gray as I ran outside in the brisk fall weather with my shotgun in hand. There was debris almost everywhere, and abandoned cars sat in the empty street.
To be honest, no one really knows what happened here. We had all gone into hiding about a month ago when the news had reported the spreading of this new virus. None of us really understood, but a majority of people decided it would be safe to quarantine ourselves. Let's just say those who didn't quarantine themselves didn't make it long.
I was staying in an abandoned apartment complex with the rest of the survivors at my school, which wasn't a lot.
The virus was different than what anyone had ever seen. It changed people. The people infected went insane and some victims even resorted to cannibalism, at least, that's what doctor's observed. Everyone started calling the victims of this disease "zombies"— they fit the part pretty well. Lots of them had decaying bodies and little to no consciousness left. People started claiming we were living in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

I was running down the street to the closest grocery store so I could grab more food and goods for the group.
It all seemed clear as I made my way there, no zombies or people in sight. I still held my gun close, my stomach turned with fear.
I entered the grocery store with caution, and to my surprise, the entire store was empty. Usually you'd see at least one person searching for food, but this time there was nobody there. I walked in slowly, half expecting a zombie to jump at me, but there was nothing and no one there. I quickly grabbed a bunch of food off the shelves, not caring to look at the labels or seeing what they were.
I did look for a few certain things, like the foods the group had requested, but other than that I was just blindly tossing things into my backpack. As I was finishing up, I heard some noises from outside. I listened for a moment before realizing a group of zombies were approaching. I quickly hid near the back of the store and kept my eyes on the entrance, waiting for the mob to pass. There were a few stranglers at the back of the mob, but eventually they all were gone. I quickly left the store, but just as I was about to cross the street, I saw as a few of those zombies from the back of the group had noticed me and were coming back in my direction.
I knew if I ran for it they'd follow me back to base. Preparing to run in the opposite direction, I noticed a singular zombie on that side, only a few yards away. It had seen me too.
I held my gun closely, knowing I would probably have to just kill them. I aimed my gun at one of the closest ones, and shot. The blood sprayed, just missing me, and the diseased body fell dead onto the concrete. The one on my left hadn't moved, it just stared at the others on the other side of me. I focused on the others, when suddenly, there was one remaining, and I ran out of ammo. Panicked, I prepared to run, when suddenly there was a loud hiss from behind me. I turned quickly to see that the zombie from before, the one who hadn't moved, was standing behind me. It was strange, it wasn't hissing at me, it was hissing at the approaching zombie.
The zombie in front of me let out a low grunt before stumbling away.
I was at a loss. Had this zombie saved me or what he only saving me for itself? I turned to face it, and saw that it resembled that of a young man, maybe even a teen.
I backed away slowly, expecting him to start chasing me or grab me, but he just stared at me. Suddenly, he straightened up and looked up over in the distance. Suddenly he grabbed me and led me into an alleyway. I tried to pull away but he quickly covered my mouth.
Surely he would bite me, surely he would do something. But the zombie didn't bite me— he didn't do anything. I looked over and saw that the same mob of zombies had turned back and were walking back to where I was standing before.
I turned back to the zombie holding me down, and saw that he was watching the mob. He looked down at me, his one hazel eye narrowed. "I'm going to let go of you now." I would have gasped if he hadn't been covering my mouth.
"Be quiet." He placed a finger on his lips as he let go of my face. I gasped quietly for air. "How can you talk?"
I managed to get out. He shushed me loudly.  "I said be quiet." He said coldly. I mumbled an apology as he started muttering words under his breath.
"You should come outside more prepared next time." He finally said. I scoffed but said nothing. It was then when I got a better look at him.
He had ripped, blood-stained jeans, with a black turtle neck with a small rip near the collar. He had a few cuts on his neck, and a bloody lip. The most noticeable thing though, was his missing eye. There was a gouging hole where his right eye should have been and that entire side of his face was smudged in blood.
He had unkept curly brunette hair that went down to his shoulders, which complimented his dark skin.
"You never answered my question." I finally said.
"I can't answer your question." He simply said.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know the answer." He wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand.
"So are you conscious and everything? Like you aren't a zombie?" I asked, intrigued. He scratched his head.
"I guess, kind of." He paused for a moment. "It's weird,"
I was opened my mouth to speak, when the zombie scrunched up his nose and covered his mouth and nose with his arm. "Are you bleeding?" His voice was muffled through his sleeve. I looked at my arm. "Oh yeah, just a small cut though."
He backed up. "Can you cover it or wipe it up? The zombies are attracted by the scent of blood."
I quickly wiped off the cut with my opposite sleeve. "Even you?" I asked as I did so. He nodded briefly.
I covered up the cut with a bandage I had in my bag before looking back up at him. "So what's your name?" I asked. He uncovered his face. "To be honest, I don't remember." He answered. "I barely remember anything from before I got sick."
"Nothing?"
He shook his head. "Well, I remember some things, like what I looked like before, little things like that."
I nodded.
"Well, I should probably head back to my base now.." I looked down at my dirty shoes. "You know, you could come with me." I added. He shook his head.
"Don't be stupid. I don't want to risk infecting anyone else." He said coldly.
I looked up and met his eye.
"You saved me." I pointed out. He shook his head. "I'm still triggered by blood, I just don't want to hurt anyone."
"You won't, we'd all help you, maybe even help cure you." I said. He scoffed. "Right, like a kid could cure a worldwide virus when literal scientists couldn't." He joked. I rolled my eyes. The zombie leaned forward with his hands behind his back. "How old are you?" He asked.
"I'm eighteen." I looked him up and down. "How old are you?" I asked. He narrowed his eye. "Nineteen. I rest my case."
"Oh come on! Our group could use more members!" I scoffed. He pushed his hair out of his face. "Yeah, human members!" He crossed his arms. I was going to say more, but I decided not to waste time arguing. "Please? It will be good for you to get out of the streets." I told him. He glanced around. "I suppose you have a point, but if got someone infected, it's over." He narrowed his eye.
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could say anything the radio I had in my pocket beeped.
"Pippa, are you there?" I heard the muffled voice of the group leader Ezra. I quickly grabbed the radio from my pocket. "Yeah, is something wrong?" I asked quietly.
"No, but you've been gone a while, is every thing okay? Alex and Liz are worried." Ezra asked.
I glanced up at the zombie standing in front of me. "Yeah, it's fine, I had to hide for a little bit, there was a mob of zombies close by I didn't want to risk it." I answered. Ezra didn't answer for a moment. "Okay, just be careful on your way back."
"I will" I replied and tucked my radio in my pocket.
The zombie was staring at me when I looked up at him. "I know you want me to come with you, but I can't." He crossed his arms over his chest.
"I'm sure you wouldn't hurt anyone." I assured him.
"How would you know?" He challenged.
I didn't answer.
"Exactly." He scoffed. "Why do you want me to come with you so bad anyways?"
"I can't just leave you here when you're not completely infected." I pointed out. "I know there's still the chance you could get someone infected, but we'll just be careful."
He stared at me for a long moment.
"Fine." He finally said. "But I don't know how they'll even react to me.."
I smiled slightly.
"It'll be fine, I'm sure."
We started walking back to the apartment in complete silence, until I finally spoke up. "So what should I call you?" I asked him. He looked down at me as we walked, his curly brown hair bounced as he walked. "I don't think it matters much." He murmured. I watched as he stuffed his fists in his pockets. "I want to call you something. What kind of names do you like?" I asked. He shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me." He looked at the sidewalk as we walked. "You come up with something."
"How about Anthony? Do you like that name?" I suggested. He shrugged once more as we arrived at the apartment complex. I opened the door for him and walked in after him. "Sure, that works." He said as we quietly walked up the stairs. "You sure?" I asked. He nodded. "Yeah, I honestly have no preference." He answered.
"Anthony it is then." I said as we reached my group's base. We camped in one of the apartments, considering there wasn't a lot of us, so there was lot of room. I opened the door slowly and saw almost everyone look over at me.
"Pip!?" A voice who I recognized as my older sister Eliza called out. She shoved a few people out of the way to get to me and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. "Aww, Liz!" I complained as I wiped my face. "Sorry," Liz briefly apologized before going back to hugging me. "You scared us!"
"I know, I'm sorry; but I ran into someone who wants to join our group." I looked back at Anthony, who was awkwardly leaning against the wall, warily watching all the people staring at him. Liz however, was not afraid. She smiled at him and gave a little wave. I saw Ezra out of the corner of my eye, a confused and concerned expression on his face.
I turned back to Liz. "Here is the food, you can pass it out." I handed her my bag full of food. She quickly began running around passing out food. I walked quickly over to Anthony. "C'mon, we can get you all situated." I said.
I led him to where the extra supplies were. "You can take one of each of the supplies, and don't forget a sleeping bag." I told him. He did as I said. "Where would you like to sleep?" I asked. He looked around. "Where to you sleep? I'd rather sleep by someone I know." He murmured.
The two of us headed over to where my sleeping bag was. He laid his down next to mine and sat down. I sat on mine next to him. "Would you like me to bandage your eye?" I asked him. He nodded. "Sure, go ahead." He invited. I reached over across the floor and grabbed a first aid kit. I grabbed some cloths and started wiping up his blood from his missing eye.

Once I had finished, l quickly wiped my hands off.
"Thanks." Anthony said. I nodded. I had cleaned up the blood on the right side of his face and placed a large bandage over his missing eye. He also had another small cut on his left cheek that I cleaned up.
It was strange, as I cleaned him up, he didn't show any signs of pain, he didn't even flinch when I started wiping around his eye. It was like he didn't feel anything.
Before I could do anything else, Lizzie came over and sat on the floor across from us. "Oh, good job bandaging his eye, Pip!" She praised me. I gave a slight smile and began cleaning up all the bloody cloths I had used.
"So how did you lose your eye?" Lizzie asked, pure interest in her voice. I shot a worried look up at Anthony. He wasn't looking at me, instead he was staring at the floor. "Oh um, I got into a fight a few days ago." I let out a small sigh of relief as I stood up to throw the dirty wet wipes away.
"How awful." Lizzie sounded genuinely concerned. "Pippa it wasn't infected was it?" She turned to me as I sat back down on my sleeping bag. "No, it looked fine; just bled a lot." I lied. I couldn't tell my sister that Anthony had been infected by another zombie; the word would get around quick and that could put him in danger. I sighed and laid down on top of my sleeping bag.
Anthony sort of glanced at me, a rested and comfortable expression on his face.