The Division

Chapter 1

"Riley, pizza hut isn't crap. I mean, I guess you could call it that, but it still tastes better." "How do you know?" "Because it's a worldwide chain. World wide chain food is always shitty food. But good. Still, will you ever learn?" "I'm telling you, it's good." "Nevermind." I dumped our trash into the waste bin. I learned the other day that foods that are unhealthier taste better. I knew that from experience. But I needed to control what I ate. Jesse didn't care, he was a complete pig. Still, I put up with it because we were best friends ever since middle school.

 Jess and I were walking out of Pizza Hut, satisfied by our meal. We got into his car, I felt happy that I got to spend time with him. We would have more work this week, almost enough to kill us. "So Jesse, what are your plans for the week?" I had just asked him that question because I could. Just to annoy him. " Well, I got work; my boss wants me to work overtime." He said this in a sarcastic tone. "That's unfair," I said that in a sarcastic tone too, returning the favor. "Hey, he's paying me double." He replied. "Well..." I trailed off. As Jesse started to pull out, I heard something hit the fender of his car. Whatever he hit had to have taken some serious damage.

I thought we had hit a deer, but I was wrong."What in the hell?" I asked as I got out of the car. Then I saw her. It was a woman; she had blood all over shirt and pants. She looked up at me with crazed eyes. She looked as if she wanted my flesh. Like she was staring straight into my soul. I got back into the car and yelled for Jesse to move. He ran her over, he already knew what she was. "It's happening," I said. "No shit." I laughed seriously.

We drove to the nearest grocery store. People were calm; after all, the situation with the woman had only happened ten minutes ago. They had no idea what was happening to the world right at this second. Jesse and I spent a bundle in supplies. We bought the basics: Water, instant noodles, frozen foods, flashlights, lighters, and some other useful things. Next, we went to Home Depot. By now people were sort of freaking out. Only half of the people in our store were stocking up. We bought axes, hammers, nails, and wooden planks. We would use those to barricade the house. Finally, we went to REI. When we entered the store, people were just stealing. Great. Less money for us to spend. we stole basic things that we would need for our survival, just like everyone else in the store did. Boots, Gatorade, tents, and other essentials.

By the time we were done, we got on the road. It was chaos. People were screaming, and lighting stores and cars on fire. Stores were burning, there were fights in parking lots, and some psycho was shooting another guy for stealing his supplies. We didn't care about anyone else; all we cared about was getting home safe. Just like last time this happened.

Other people had the same idea as us, they were taking supplies and driving home. I could see a zombie; it chased someone, then jumped onto them and chewed their face off. Blood spurted from the victim's face. It was sick, but I noticed something weird.

When the infection struck, the zombies walked really slowly. That zombie chased that guy, and it was fast. Something was wrong. I just knew it. Someone probably made this virus. They mutated the zombie to make it faster, stronger, and more cunning. We were in trouble.

When we got back to the house, our neighborhood was deserted. No signs of life were shown; our neighbors looked like they had taken off. Boy, were they in trouble. The highway would obviously be clogged up, full of zombies.  No cars were in any driveways, so we figured that we should board ourselves up in my house before anything bad happened.

We boarded the windows from the outside and the inside. We also barricaded the back and front door securly. I could say that we were safe. When we got inside, I hungered for a meal. Jesse and I ended up having chicken tenders with fries. A classic meal. "So Jess," I said as I bit into my chicken.

"What do we do now?" I asked Jesse. "Ry, I don't know. All I know is that the world is in some deep shit." "How long should we wait?" I asked him as I shoved a fry into my mouth. "Maybe a year or two." He said as he took a gulp of his coke. "That's too long." I said.

"Better safe than sorry." He replied. "That's what we did last time and look what happened to us, we're still alive." He said. "Okay, but what do we do for entertainment?" I asked. "Video games?" "Aren't we too old?" I asked. "We only have a few movies, and obviously there's going to be no television."

I sighed. As I finished the rest of my meal, I felt happy. We didn't have to work or pay bills. We had enough food to last about three years. We had even more water; it would be a long time before we ran out of it.

Just then, I heard a growl outside. The door started to shake wildly. Jesse looked at me with fear. We both knew what was on the opposite side of that door. A zombie. It couldn't have been a human. The zombie started to growl, then the door shook. It was okay. We both knew it couldn't get in; the door was nailed with wooden planks from the inside and the outside. Eventually it lose interest and moved on. But if this was how we were going to spend the rest of our days, I wasn't looking forward to it.