Swinging by A Thread

Chapter 1

Hour: 6:04 am

Place: Massachusetts, USA

Time

Anthony slowly detached himself from his sleeping beauty and silently got out of bed, making his way down to the living room, turning on the TV for the news. Dialing his unit number into his old phone as the reporter babbled about out the things he already knew.

"We advice that anyone that has come in contact with an infected host report immediately to the nearest hospital, meanwhile the other citizens need to stay inside their home. If you come across an infected person avoid argument and stay inside your home. There are military bases being set up as camps in case of any bigger emergencies. The symptoms of the flu include high fevers, aggressive behaviour, dry cottony mouth and foaming of the mouth. If you are sick please avoid contact with anyone who might not be infected and head to the nearest hospital..."

So things were as bad as he thought Anthony thought to himself, looking over to the door on his right Isabel, his mother-in-law, had her head poked out of her bedroom door. Her hazel eyes looking worriedly at the screen while shaking her head.

"Charlie's sick. I need to take him to the hospital, he's burning up. Don't tell jossie, alright? She'll worry. " Isabel whispered, her keys in hand.

"I...I don't think that is a good idea but alright. I won't. She'll be asleep for at least another hour. Be safe. " Anthony sincerely replied. Watching her open the door, Charlie behind her with a vacant, sickly pale look. The young paramedic knew what would happen. They'd both get sick. The hospital was the worst place anyone could be at right now. He didn't protest against them going because he knew that they'd turn aggressive and it would be harder for Josephine to deal with it. Isabels car speeding off was the last memory Anthony would hold of them. As if on cue the short girl trotted over into the bathroom and after a couple of minutes emerged back out with a towel wrapped around her. She sat down on her boyfriends lap and sighed.

"I heard the car. Charlie was sick. It's okay, I know mom's sick too. The hospital is the best place for them right now. " She said meekly, knowing that it was best.

"I'm so very sorry. The best thing to do is stay in here. Have the lights off at night, take the precautions needed to stay away from them as best we can. Okay?"

Anthony replied, hugging her tightly in his arms. The day passed by in a blur and Anthony held a look of distress. The phone lines had been cut off so he couldn't contact his own family, meanwhile, Josephine entertained herself in the spare bedroom of the house looking through the high up window. The street lamp was on, illuminating her eerily quiet street. It was 10:32 pm when the first infected that she had seen made it's way slowly to the street lamp, lazily swinging it's arms around. She had known this man, it was one of her neighbors. An old redneck whose arm was missing due to a car accident. He was wearing short cargo pants without a shirt, a string of blood running down his mouth and on to an open wound on his gut. Without another glance, Josephine stepped off the stool she'd been using and crawled to where Anthony was. His face stern and hard. They didn't sleep that night, the sounds of a few stray people outside their homes could be heard but nothing else. Everything was eerily quiet for the first week besides the obvious sounds of crashing cars and a few explosions in the distance. The water rationing stopped within two days of the infected getting out of control, allowing them free access to the pipes but Josephine insisted on always boiling it before use. They spent the first two weeks holed up in the house with their Golden Retriever, keeping the windows and doors untouched during the day and only a candle illuminated the darkness at night.

Time: 4:01 pm

Place: Massachusetts, USA

"Please don't open the door, you don't know what might happen. I don't want you to, please. " Josephine pleaded to Anthony. The young man wanted to get some machetes and a pipe located just right of the back door. "The fence out there is really low, honey. Please..?"

"I have to, we've got nothing to defend ourselves in here. It will be quick." He answered before opening the back door quietly, closing it behind him but not fast enough. Ruby, the Golden Retriever slipped out with him. Josephine didn't make a sound and just ran to their room, peeking through the window to see Anthony going through a box, Ruby nowhere to be seen. After a couple of minutes he found a pipe, a short machete and a much larger one. Without any of them noticing, Ruby had made her way to the front of the house, where she started to bark at another dog. Within a few barks the dormant infected near them had been alerted of her location. Anthony ran to the hallway outside that led to the main fence, two out of six infected had already made their way over to where Ruby was barking at. Josephine had clambered out of the house, calling ahead of Anthony the dog but it was all too late. Two of the much faster infected slid their hands through the large space between the iron bars at the gate. The dog looked visibly angry at the new intruders, biting down on one of their arms, making the riled up infected more anxious to get a bite of it. The couple finally snapped out of their haze and dragged the dog in by it's collar, failing to notice that three of their zombified neighbors had clambered over the low back fence, making them halt abruptly.

"Stay back and take this, Jossie." Anthony said, tossing the small machete to his girlfriend.

"No! Ruby, No!" She screamed as the dog lurched for a short, once christian lady that lived behind their house, the closest infected to the brawl taking a bite out of the once golden dogs ear while the dog howled in pain into the sky, trying to escape it's attackers with very little success. Part of the top of the skin on it's head being chomped away whilst the one the dog had pinned down split open a hole on it's little stomach, a pool of red liquid and intestines coming out.

Josephine looked horrified, unable to move until Anthony decapitated the hungry walker next to his girlfriend. Anger clouding the young girl's vision while she bashed away the head of one of Ruby's attackers and then the other one, turning their heads and torsos into little more than ground meat.

"Stop, stop! I know it hurts but we have to go inside. " Anthony took her by the forearm and led her inside, locking in the gate and metal door then into the bathtub, dropping her weapons until the girl started to weep. She cried because of what she had just witnessed and for her mother. Knowing she probably suffered the same fate. She didn't remember much else, just cold water running over her and her lovers hands undressing her, a soft bedding underneath her body afterwards and some pills and water in her dry mouth.

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