Zombie Stories: Fan Edition

Change Pt. 2

The afternoon sun felt great on my tired face. I took a moment to enjoy the sunshine on my face. I started my walk to get further into town.
It took me a couple minutes to really start getting into the heart of the town. This neighborhood was full of nice two story homes and family owned businesses. It was definitely a town for a settled in family.
I decided to go with my normal technique, find a house with a lot of options and figure yourself out for a few days. I passed countless stores before hitting the lines of houses on every street. They were all basically built the same most of the time which made the decision even harder. I needed something worth taking.
A few blocks later the homes started to space out. Revealing bigger, secluded homes, exactly what I needed. A few of the homes were almost perfect. All of a sudden I saw a potential winner with a long driveway leading up to it. I took a look around and made sure nothing was looking my way. The town was this quiet when it was alive, the apocalypse didn't make it any quieter.
The driveway was longer than it looked. I liked that, you could see a car full of looters that ready to kill you and take your stuff from a mile away. I finally reached the front door and looked the house over. The second story had large windows and they all looked over open fields.
This house would definitely do, I just had to be sure that there was no problems inside the house.
The front doorknob didn't turn, the house was locked up. I took a good look around and decided that breaking a window wouldn't be a bad idea. I walked down the porch steps and scanned the ground for something capable of busting a window. It didn't take very long to find a good, heavy rock. I walked up the steps again and heaved the rock through the first window I saw. It was definitely loud, but the houses were spaced out pretty far. Just to be careful, I looked hard at everything in my line of vision. Unless there was a sniper in a window, I was completely unnoticed.
I busted the rest of the glass out with light taps. The hole was big enough for me to crawl through and I pushed through, making all sorts of noises in the process.
I landed on the floor and stayed completely still. If anyone was in the home they would've heard the window right away.
The house seemed to be empty, there wasn't much in terms of belongings. The furniture even looked scarce for what the house was. I slowly figured out that the house had been packed up, whoever left made sure they had almost everything. The rooms downstairs were almost completely wiped clean. Only furniture in the living room and a couple appliances in the kitchen still remained.
Hoping the second floor was a little more promising, I found my way to the stairs. Some of the stairs squeaked under my feet and I felt like the entire house could hear it.
The second floor had two bedrooms and a bathroom. There was also an extra room, it was large and full of windows. Having nothing better to do, I went over to the windows to look over the open fields. I didn't feel nervous when I saw one walker in the middle of the field, he was wandering. They were always completely oblivious to the meaning of direction. They just kept going until they find the next living being to eat alive.
I sat around the empty house for a couple hours. Poking cans of food open with the new knife I now had in my possession. After a few cans, my stomach was pretty full. I packed everything up and looked out the windows. There was a few more walkers in the area, I made a mental note to keep an eye on them.
I had a little bit of time left to spare. I had right to make it through this town and The next before the day was over. I decided I'd be better off if I kept moving.
As I was making my way towards the stairs, a wave of unease swept over me. I slowed down and saw blood on the floor. I didn't get cut on the way in, someone else came through.
Holding my knife tighter, I started to walk down the stairs. About halfway down, the sounds of something stumbling around could be heard through the wall. I heard a small screech, it was definitely an infected.
The only way to the room was one doorway. I peeked around the corner and made sure that my nose kissed the wall. The infected person wasn't there, they had to be further in the room around the corner. I crouched down and approached the next turn, slowly letting my face slip out from around the corner.
There he was, facing the other way, groaning and grunting like a feral man. I looked the beast over and noticed that there wasn't bloody footprints going into this room.
White, hot pain ripped through my back suddenly. I fell forward, rolling myself off by stomach right away. A different infected snuck up on me and struck me in the back. Now he was trying his hardest to rip at my flesh.
My knife fell from the sudden blow, but I noticed it right away on the ground. The infected man with bloodied feet was the only obstacle between the knife and I.
The man slowly approached me while I tried to get on my feet. Before I could make enough room to pop myself off the ground, the infected already threw it's body against mine. I fell again and landed right next to the knife. I never moved so fast in my life, the infected creature was seconds away from making me his chew toy.
The commotion in the room attracted the other infected person. He came around the corner almost completely oblivious to my presence, before he could even realize I was there. My knife slid into his brain with ease, killing him instantly. I pulled the knife and made my to the front door.
That house was no longer safe, it had been compromised and who knows how long that second infected had been in the house while I slept. A few walkers changed their direction after seeing me leave the home. They were extremely far and I doubted that they had a chance of catching me. I looked at them intently, deciding that they weren't really a threat. I had to go the complete opposite way from them and I was fast on foot. The next town was a decent distance away and I still had plenty of daylight.
The middle of town was strange in the day, every single store was now filled with ghosts it seemed. I looked at almost every single building trying to find the correct road.
After a few blocks, I saw the sign I was looking for. The next town was on the road in front of me, so I started to jog.
This road was a little more human and a lot less nature. All the trees were gone and the open fields had nothing healthy planted in them. The winds and curves ahead were all visible, it was almost like this very road used to weave around trees and lakes some point in the past. But now it was open, dead and empty. Just like everything else in this nightmare.
Those thoughts eventually left my head as I kept jogging. Another thirty minutes had passed and I figured there was still thirty to forty minutes left. I almost hoped for something to explore so I could take my mind off of running. My feet seemed to be hitting the pavement harder, I was getting tired. Putting my hands on my knees, I took a few deep breaths and stood up. The sky was still bright but I was wasting the precious lighting by taking breaks. I took a few more deep breaths and started my run again.
The last home stretch almost killed me, I was huffing and cramping up. The large town in front of me was about one hundred fifty yards away. I saw one walker aimlessly walking in the street.
He was facing the wrong way, looking straight up at the sky. He seemed to be lost in his own world, not paying attention to me or anything else in the area.
I knew he needed to go so I started to make a break for the side of a building off too my right. As I darted across the grass to the building, the infected person still didn't look my way. I felt a sense of relief. I was glad that he wasn't going to cause trouble just yet.
I took my eyes off the walker to look down the other side of the building. There was no other walkers that I could see, I jogged down the side and peeked around the next corner. The walker was still in the same spot, only diverting its gaze ever so slightly. Feeling the window of opportunity, I darted down the side to charge the monster.
When I was about five feet away, he finally heard my footsteps. He faced me just in time to get a knife plunged into the side of his head. His dead eyes locked on mine as he fell to the ground for the last time.
I looked around, it was only him and I in the street. As I stood over the body, my eyes rolled from left to right, looking for anything worth looking at. There was a small store that looked interesting, I walked over to it.
It was a family owned business with someone's last name on the wall above the store. Other signs said something about food and liquids to drink inside, hopefully some of it still was. The front door shook the building when I gave it a hard tug. It was locked up tight, but the large windows on both sides of the doors looked pretty breakable.
After wandering around for a few seconds to find a rock or brick, I finally found a stone for the job. It was a baseball sized stone and out flew out of my hand perfectly. It seemed to disappear inside the store as it passed through the window. But shortly after it went through, the entire window gave out and glass hit the ground like rain.
The explosion of glass breaking seemed to bounce off of every building. I looked around nervously and decided to crawl through the window right away. My nose as instantly hit by the smell of some rotten food. Which was both a good and bad sign if there was more than just perishable foods left behind.
To my right was four cash registers and the rest of the large room was lined with shelves. These shelves had a variety of different foods and some other objects that I wasn't too sure about. I walked across the room towards the shelving units. The rotten smell started to get exceedingly worse. I covered my nose with my shirt an looked through the shelves full of old, decaying food.
The first two rows of shelves were a waste of time, but after that the food started to look a little more promising. Packaged candies and some canned food rested on two shelves next to one another.
My bag was already full but I still grabbed a few cans and brought them to the front. Before I went back to grab more, I looked out the window to see that daylight was already on it's way out. I walked faster, taking one last look outside before heading back to the cans of food.
There was more than I could carry and I left the remaining cans for the next pack of looters. I was stocked up, enough food to go for about four days at this point.
Outside the front doors it was completely quiet. The walker from earlier was still motionless in the same spot. There was no movement to either side and there was still enough sun to expose any dark corners. I had about twenty minutes to get in a building before dark crept in and spread it's shadowy blanket. I was holding three extra cans of food in both of my hands. There was definitely no way I could afford a fight right now. My eyes were moving a million miles per hour across my surroundings.
A few blocks went by without a hitch. There wasn't anywhere worth hiding, I had to keep searching. The dark seemed to follow me as I rounded the corner and immediately ran into trouble. About seven slumped over figures stood in the street in front of me. They were strange at night, always seeming to pause in packs when nothing was happening. They hit you randomly like a landmine, get too close and they go off.
This pack saw me right away, I swear the could even see better in the dark. They all started towards me, reaching their arms out for me in the darkness.
As I turned back to switch streets, I started to notice the increase of walkers in the area. There was undead all around me, seeping in through every possible way. It was getting too dark to see a few of them until they moved closer. I had to run or I was dead, my eyes were still frantically searching for a decent place to go.
I ran a few more blocks, some of the undead were uncomfortably close. They were starting to choke me, I was running out of room.
This city was full of infected at night, I didn't expect this much trouble. I ran faster as more silhouettes appeared in front of me. There was a block with a group of homes, I cut through the front yard and ran down the side of the house. I ended up in a large plot of open grass, it seemed like a shared backyard. A couple two story homes stood behind me. I looked them over and contemplated about which one I wanted.
The one on the left seemed like a better choice, it looked roomy. While I approached the door, a screech could be heard a block away. I froze to listen for footsteps but quickly opened the door when I heard someone running.
The house was completely dark, I stood still and thought about random things to give my eyes time to adjust.
Those runners are becoming a real problem. They never run, why are they running now?
Outside the door I could hear the runner, he went by the door for a second but kept going. I slid my the bag off my shoulder, feeling vulnerable as I stood in the darkness. I thought I had lost my flashlight, but it was underneath all the contents in my bag. I clicked it on and swept the room with the beam of light.
I was in some kind of sitting room and the room gave off an eerie vibe. There were a few family photos on some of the shelves and a couple others were hanging on the wall. In any normal circumstance those wouldn't have been creepy, but since they were slightly splattered in blood, it made the story a little different. The blood was also on the walls near the pictures, it got worse towards the floor. A couch stood in front of the of the wall that was covered the worst.
I stopped in my tracks to put my hand over my light so I could listen. Something moved upstairs, it sounded like something was kicked and scraped across the floor. I opened two of my fingers on the end of my flashlight and made the beam smaller. It lowered my visual a little, but it also did the same for anything else that saw it. The couch was right by me, whatever mess laid on the other side was about to be discovered. My hands shook as I aimed the flashlight towards the blood on the wall.
I rounded the corner and saw a corpse, it was long gone. But the injuries resembled buckshot and there was at least two shells emptied into this man. His mouth was covered in blood, it looked as if he might've tagged somebody before dying.
I let the beam shine at it's full potential and examined the next room. It was a room that led to the front door and a few doorways. The door to the left of me led straight to a staircase. The door on the right seemed to be a dining room of some sort.
Deciding that the infected upstairs was a bigger threat, I crouched down and crept towards the staircase. Another thump came from upstairs, but this time I heard it closer. I shined the light upstairs and exposed a railing on the right side of the stairs. I could see a door covered in blood, somebody had been bleeding and rubbed up against it. The smear faded off to the right, I made my way up the stairs with my light pointed steadily towards the right side.
At the top, I saw that the hallway ended with a door at the end. This door was also covered in blood, the handle was covered. The infected had to of been in that room, I looked behind me and saw another closed door. This was reassuring because my back was covered. As I turned back, a loud slam against the bloody door almost made me jump out of my skin. I regained my track of thought and pulled my knife out.
A smaller thud came from the other side of the door. As I got closer, the doorknob started to move a little. Something was barely touching it, the infected couldn't figure out the door handle. I was standing in front of the door about to grab the handle when something made of glass broke behind me.
I barely got by flashlight up to see the runner's face for only a second. It ran into me full speed, throwing its arms at me rapidly. The initial hit knocked me backwards pretty hard, it had slammed me into the door behind me.
This only pissed off the infected in the other room. It started to beat on the door heavily. I had to get rid of this runner so the other one would quit drawing attention to the house.
I managed to swipe the knife a few times, it made the monster stumble back. My light was on the ground, it was hard to see the horror breathing heavily in the dark. Before I could react, it was in my face again. They kept hitting me in the nose, making my eyes water. I tried grabbing for the front of their shirt, it was hard to find it in the dark.
I finally grabbed a hold of it after they rocked me in the face a few more times. Pulling them towards me as hard as I could then pushing away, I brought the up and pulled him close again with a solid stab into his brain.
I felt one of his firm hands on my shoulder go limp. He hit me in the chest with his face as he fell down.
I turned my attention to the door behind me. The infected was still slamming into it from the other side. I bent over to pick up my light and shined it at the door. The wood was literally warping from the heavy hits it was taking.
I held my knife up and grabbed the door handle. As I started to twist it, the pounding suddenly stopped. I let go of the handle for a second and stared at the door in fear. After a few seconds, I finally started to push through.
The room was dimly lit from a window on the other side of the door. I only went in an inch at a time, the first thing that came into view was a closet door. After watching it closely for a few extra seconds, I decided it was safe to open the door further. I had to poke my head in more to see more of the room without exposing my body as much. But I regretted it immediately when I heard a shuffle and the door slammed shut with my face halfway in it. I fell backwards, my head was already ringing,
I felt like my vision was blurry from the blow and I could barely see the door opening very slowly. I laid on my back and stared into the now open doorway. In front of the window was a large figure, looming in the darkness. I couldn't see it's face but the bone chilling growl from the infected was definitely clear. I heard him let out another low growl and it went completely quiet. "Oh shit." I muttered.
I tried getting up as he came at me like a sudden explosion. It was a huge walker, it was easily two hundred pounds. I was about halfway up when the walker grabbed me. He literally lifted me off the ground and swung me into the wall beside us. My head whiplashed into the wall, this only made the ringing worse. Before I could get a stab in, he was already on me. He pushed me against the wall and held me still. I grabbed at his face, trying avoid his flesh eating chompers. After not having any luck, I thought about my pistol. By this time he was bringing his face closer to my neck. He was about to rip my throat out, I reached for my waistline and kicked at his leg.
I couldn't have been any closer on the draw, his brain matter hit me in the face. The shot absolutely destroyed the monster's had at close range. I slid down the wall and let the adrenaline shake itself out of my hands. My palms were cold, I had just looked  death in the face.
I rubbed my eyes and accidentally wiped blood near my eye. Disgusted, I dragged my arm across my face, wiping the blood from my face. I let out a deep breath and got back to business, in the back of my head I thought about how loud the gunshots were. I walked into the room where the infected was stuck and started my sweep with my light.
On the floor was the 12 gauge that killed the dead one downstairs. I walked over to it excited, it was hard to come by such a useful gun. I pumped it and watched a shell fly out. Bending down to grab it, I slid it into my pocket and pumped the rest out onto the floor. There were four shells ready to go, filled with buckshot.
I loaded one and let the others rattle in my pocket. I slid the pistol into my waistline and held the shotgun close to my body. My backpack was comfortable on my back and I was ready to move.
I walked down the stairs and pointed the shotgun barrel into the moonlit home. I could see the body's shadow on the floor and there was nothing visible lurking in any of the corners. The back door was still closed and the front door was still locked up tight. I lowered the shotgun and made my way to the front windows.
The street was dark, but still lit enough to see any undead shuffling around. Nothing moved, I was surprised and almost didn't believe it. I walked over to a new window to make sure I was seeing things correctly.
Still nothing lurked on the streets around the house, I got lucky. Resting the shotgun on my shoulder, I walked over to the backdoor and locked the deadbolt. It was time to hunker down until morning. I went upstairs to find a blanket and pillow.
The first room I tried was the one with the closed door to the left of the stairs. It was definitely the master bedroom, a very comfortable looking bed sat on the furthest side of the room. I almost thought about letting myself fall face first onto the fluffy pillow on the bed. But I knew better than that. I rolled it up and carried it down the stairs.
Through the dinning room was the living room, I shined my light nervously around the space. Nothing was waiting to ambush me so I threw the bedding down on the couch and got comfy.
I couldn't fall asleep right away, this house made me uneasy. If anything had heard the gunshot earlier, I would be an easy meal for the infected pretty quick. I started to get paranoid and sat up, looking out the windows as much as I could. The view didn't really reveal much from the couch so I just talked myself out of the bad thoughts and laid back down. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and let my dreams take me over.
At first I thought it was part of my dream but then I snapped awake. I could definitely hear a truck engine outside as clear as day. It was revving loudly and it sounded like it was coming straight towards the house.