Infected

Chapter 1

September 15, 2001, Atlanta, Georgia.

Darkness, all i could see was utter darkness. i felt a sharp agonizing pain in the side of my leg. what had happened? what was going on? i felt something rest gently on my hand. i opened my eyes to see my friend Cyrus staring down at me with pain in her eyes. her frown slowly turned into a smile. "Alex your ok! i was so worried" she yelled excitedly wrapping her arms around me. "yeah yeah i'm fine, now get off" i stated while shoving her off of me. I looked down at my leg to see it wrapped up in a bandage with a little blood seeping through. "what's going on? and where are we?" I was very confused. The last thing I remember was walking with Cyrus after school had just ended. We were going to meet up with our friend john. Then all of a sudden people started screaming and running around frantically. Cyrus was scared and then I remember falling to the ground. That's when everything went black. I snapped back to reality when Cyrus began to talk "Well I don't know the full story. But what I do know is that something terrible has happened and now we're trapped inside Nick's house." "Whose Nick?" I was even more confused than before. "Me" a tall person with dark hair entered through the doorway that led to the room i was in. "if it wasn't for me you'd both be dead by now" he seemed terrifying, not the type of guy i'd mess with. He does look familiar though. I think I've seen him in school before. He must be in an older grade. "Any luck with finding John?" Cyrus asked Nick while standing up to meet his level. I don't think standing up would help much with that though. Cyrus has always been short. "No, I haven't seen or heard from him," Nick replied. I looked around the room to see my surroundings while the two of them continued to talk about where John might be. "Hey Alex, do you know where he'd be?" I could tell Nick didn't really care at the moment about John or even me or Cyrus. He just wanted Cyrus to stop bothering him so he could go try to find his friends. I just shook my head as a response to Nick's question. "Come on Alex you're his best friend you've got to know where he is. Just think for a moment." I've never seen Cyrus so concerned before. It's very strange to see her like this, she's always so out there without a care in the world. I thought for a moment. If I were John, where would I be? Hiding under my bed freaking out and hoping that whatever is outside doesnt find me. Yep, that's john. I looked at Cyrus "have you tried looking at his house?" "yes we searched the entire place" i then remembered that John has a grandma that lives near my house. Maybe he went there. "What about his grandmas?" then Nick budded in, "Look kid! We can check there if you want but I highly doubt that his grandma would be able to protect him " "he doesnt need her to protect him he just needs a place to hide" i stated. "then lets go" Cyrus said while forcing me up onto my feet. With Nick annoyed and Cyrus ready to go, we grabbed a few things and then set off to John's grandmas.

We walked down the street to John's grandmas. There were a few cars sitting in the middle of the road and one of them was on fire. As we walked I heard something. A zombie walked around a car to meet us face to face. The horrid distorted face of the creature left my stomach turning. It was foaming at the mouth and looked as if it had been cut multiple times. I was frozen in fear of the thing. Nick jumped in front of me and started swinging. He knocked it to the ground. "There's more we need to hurry," Cyrus said while pushing me forward.

We ran the rest of the way and my leg was in agonizing pain because of the big gash that's in the side of it but we managed to get to John's grandmas. as soon as i was up on the porch i Immediately swung the door open and walked in not even stopping to think about what might be in there. There was a slight click noise that was barely even noticeable "Oh crap!" I screamed as I barely dodged a paint bucket that flew at me from the ceiling. I turned to look at the others to make sure they were alright. Nick looked like he was about to start throwing hands with someone. "Traps, he's setting traps which means that he must be here." Cyrus said while walking inside. "I'll check downstairs the two of you look upstairs" Nick said while walking into the kitchen. At least if we hear screaming we know it's most likely just John meeting Nick for the first time. Cyrus and I slowly walked up the stairs and checked around each corner to make sure it was safe. We came across his grandma's room which was the last room we hadn't checked. "He's gotta be in there," Cyrus said while looking at me. I looked back at the door and reached forward grabbing the doorknob. "Locked" I looked to Cyrus hoping she could find a way in. "oh please, have you never picked a lock before" she reached for the hair pin that was in her hair. Soon enough we were in the room. I walked and looked around. I checked under the bed and he wasn't there. Cyrus opened the closet door "AHHH" John jumped out of the closet screaming and darting towards the door. I caught him by the arm and stopped him from leaving. "John, John!" He tried desperately to escape. "It's ok. You're alright it's just us" he was terrified. Nick came running up the stairs, he was tense with a metal pipe in hand ready to attack. "God damn you kids" he sighed while loosening up.

We sat in the living room and talked about what was going on. John was jittery, scared, and wanted everything to go back to normal. Cyrus noticed how scared he was and tried to calm him down. "Hey John everything's fine. We're still alive and well- " John interrupted Cyrus "Stop. nothing's fine, nothing's normal." he was beginning to raise his voice a little. "But John-" "No, do I look fine to you? You don't know what's out there. You haven't seen what i have." "John!" I raised my voice at him, I was getting sick of this arguing. "Sure we haven't been attacked or chased by whatever made you this upset but we have been worried about what's going on. We all need to just calm down, think things through, and figure out why all of this is happening." John stopped talking after I said that.

A few minutes went by and then there was a loud crash in the other room that broke the silence. I looked to the group then back at the direction of the sound. It came from the kitchen. I quietly stood up from the sofa and slowly inched my way to the kitchen. I peeked around the corner and looked around the room. There was a chair that had been knocked over and the small blue vase of lilacs on the table was broken, water spilling all over the floor. "What is it" Cyrus whispered, startling me.

I looked at Cyrus and held my finger to my lips, silencing her. I continued forward slowly inching my way into the kitchen. i stood in the doorway and thats when i saw it. Something stood behind the counter. It looked enormous and somewhat human but mutated. It was lengthy and it smelled absolutely foul. Its face was distorted much like the last zombie we saw but this one was worse, far worse. Its clothes were tattered and barely even there. One of its hands had huge claws covered in fresh blood. It suddenly turned its head facing me. I quickly spun around the corner getting out of its sight. I could hear it walking, moving closer and closer. It made strange indescribable noises. Cyrus and I quietly made our way back to John and Nick in the living room.

"We need to go, now" i whispered in a strict tone. "What, what is it" Nick questioned. John looked to the doorway of the kitchen. "It's him isn't it" I was about to respond when the creature jumped through the doorway. It looked at us, mouth wide and screeched a loud, painful screech. "Ah sh**" Nick said while grabbing his metal pipe. "Go go go go!" I yelled as I began to shove Cyrus towards the door. The creature ran towards Nick and was about to hit him but before it could Nick whacked it with the pipe. It stumbled back a bit but was barely even hurt. Nick turned from it and ran out the door with the rest of us.

We ran in the middle of the road weaving around cars. More and more of the terrifying creatures began running after us. I looked ahead to see a massive amount of the creatures in front of us. I then began to look around for an escape and saw a gas station with the doors closed. "There!" I yelled, pointing to the gas station. We ran to it and John grabbed the door and tried to open it "No no no it's locked" he said with a trembling voice. The creatures were getting closer and closer. Nick started to bang himself against the door. "Hurry! They're getting closer" Cyrus said with a scared and worried tone. The door busted open and we ran inside Nick closing it after us. The creatures were clawing at the windows and the door trying to get in. Nick and I slid a small shelf in front of the door to barricade it.

Cyrus sighs "that was way too close" "i agree, we need to be more careful next time and we need to be better prepared" i said. "Alright then let's get looking for supplies" Nick says while walking into an aisle.