Infected

My eyes started to widen from the darkness of my closed eyelids as I saw my legs on a white bed. I stood off of the bed and thought what is going on? what is happening? where am I? who am I? I pushed the door open and walked out into the hall. I saw medical supplies on a trolley as I walked towards a big red door. It read, nurses office. Was I in a hospital? I thought to myself as I looked around the corner. Nothing, nothing but another trolley. I kept strolling through the hospital confused until I saw the exit. There was no one here. I walked outside and still, no one. I saw the city of Philadelphia, empty.
I walked onto the chiselled concrete as the wind blew against my face. As I furthered deeper into the city, I saw someone.
'Hey!' I yelled. No reply, 'hey you, can you hear me?' I yelled again. Still, no reply. I ran up to him and asked
'Why is everybody gone?' The man turned around with half of his face. His face was disgusting, it was gruesome. The flesh bleeding from the skin of a bite mark on his face, his teeth hanging loosely, nail marks on his cheeks, his eye poking out of the socket. I screamed. He chased after me. I turned around as I sprinted and saw his leg buckle underneath him. I stood still for a second, wondering what was going on. He started to crawl towards me. My face still, a tear rolling down my face.
'Bless you, I wish you well, but your fight is over,' I whispered as I took out the brain and cut the veins connecting to it as he fell to the ground.
I walked around terrified, still not knowing what was going on. I walked past store after store. They were all empty. When I was about to give up searching I heard something. It was a static sound and it came from the TV store. I walked inside and saw a black radio on the counter.
'Hello, can anybody hear me? Mayday, mayday,' said the man in the radio.
'I can hear you, what is going on?' I yelled.
'Shhhhhhhh, they will hear you,' he said.
'Who?' I whispered.
'THEY will hear you and THEY will turn you into them,' the man in the radio said.
'What are those things?' I asked him. On the other end, I heard a growl.
'God help me,' he said followed by a scream. I dropped the radio on the ground as I started to walk around the store thinking. Silence filled the room along with my useless thoughts. No noise until... BOOM.
The ground started to shake. I ran out the door and saw the flames of an explosion. I sprinted towards the wreckage until I couldn't sprint anymore but in the corner of my eye I saw a shotgun. I picked it up and the ammo bag next to it. 'I could need this,' I said to myself. I started to run towards the wreckage. The next corner I turned was disgusting. Bodies and limbs scattered across the ground. Stone buildings crumbled onto dead bodies. I searched for anybody that was alive but I found nothing. But I wasn't giving up. I threw concrete as I dived into the wreckage. I crawled out as I heard the word help.
'Hello?' I yelled out, 'Are you there?'
'Please find me,' the voice cried out. I threw concrete block after concrete block away from the wreckage until I found her and helped her out of the concrete.
'Thank you so much,' she said.
'What is your name?' I asked her.
'Jess, you?' She replied. I stuttered forgetting my name,
'I-I-I ammmmm, Uhhh Geoff.' I remembered!
'Well Geoff, we better get going because this place isn't safe anymore. Someone poured petrol over our fire. Stupid Ashton,' Jess exclaimed. I nodded my head as we started to move towards Washington, D.C. Day after day we strolled on the deserted highway with rations. In the distance we started to see the city of D.C.
We rushed towards the tall buildings but in front of us we saw a man run onto the road.
'Who are you?' we asked.
'My name is Ross,' he stated.
'Well Ross, you can join us to find a safe place,' Jess said.
'What-t-t the hell are those things?' Ross stuttered.
'They are infected,' Jess sighed. We walked into what we expected to be safe haven Washington, D.C. but it was empty. Suddenly I lost hope but we kept on walking through the capital city.
We walked and we walked through the abandoned city. We kept on walking until we found the White House. Outside of it was Obama. We went up to the president and asked him
'Sir, is there any safe place nearby?' and Barrack turned around. His eyes were bulging, his lips were dripping with blood-tinged sputum and his cheeks were decomposing. He started to growl staring into my soul. His face close to mine he breathed heavily and loudly and chattered his teeth in hunger. His breath smelt like death and his teeth chipped every chatter. One step forward for Obama, one step back for me. My emotions were paralysed. I was face to face with fate. Click click, bang! The president fell to the ground and smoke poured out of the shotgun barrel held in Jess' hand. His blood was scattered across my face as I gasped in shock. Jess looked at me and I looked down at the ground as we continued to walk through D.C.
It was starting to get dark after an hour of walking silently. We decided to find a safe house to sleep for the night. We opened many house doors but couldn't find the right place to hide. After a few minutes of searching I heard Ross yell out. We ran to him hoping he found something.
'If we sleep here, we can find something to help us or use,' he proclaimed. I didn't understand until I opened the door. The door creaked open as I saw inside, a lab. I looked inside cupboards and found nothing but empty glass bottles. I decided not to sleep and keep searching. I spent hours and hours searching the lab and found nothing. I saw one last cupboard and found a book in it. The front cover read Diary.
I started to read the diary entry with my tired eyes. Everything was about a test on people. Every day, this man would try to brew a potion. My tired eyes widened with shock and horror when I read page 347. It read...
Day 347: Today is another day trying to create what I'm trying to. I've got more test subjects. Time to get to work.
Oh my goodness it worked! Today is the day! Tomorrow I will release the Zaxeeve virus to the public as a 'medicine'. Hahaha! Time to destroy the world with my zombies.
I looked at the sleeping bodies of Jess and Ross. I slowly stood up in disbelief and dropped the diary onto the hard marble floor. I strolled over to awaken them. I tapped on their shoulders and whispered
'Hey guys, I found something.' They started to wake up and see the diary on the ground. I told them to pick it up and read page 347. After reading it, they were just as surprised as I was.
'This is where it all started...'
We ran out of the lab and saw the sun starting to rise. Jess and I started to walk down the street. I realised that we forgot Ross. We opened he lab door to remind him that we were leaving now but he wasn't there. I heard a scream down the street. We ran to the alleyway where the noise came from and saw Ross next to one of the infected. Ross' arm was dripping with blood as the zombie walked away. His arm started to swell and his body started pumping. His eyes were bloodshot. He was yelling and dropping to the gground, struggling to get back to his feet. Suddenly he stopped shaking. He looked up at us and stood up. He walked towards us as a tear rolled down my face. Jess and I ran off. I started balling and asking over and over again one simple question.
'Why?'
Jess tried to keep a happy face but I knew inside she was crying and thinking that we promised a safe place for him. We kept on walking through the abandoned city of Washington, D.C. only finding trash and tumbleweed bouncing across the cracked tar road. Our eyes we're droopy and our legs were sore. After hours of walking we saw smoke in the distance. Jess and I looked at each other and smiled. We forgot about the leg pain and rushed towards the smoke. We sprinted through the forest as fast as we could until we saw a guard sitting atop of a concrete gate with curled barbed wire. He pointed a pistol straight at us, hand on trigger.
'Stop!' I exclaimed.
'Wait, you're not infected?' The guard realised.
'No, we are just looking for somewhere to stay, we have been searching for days.' I said.
'Well you found what you were looking for,' the guard stated, 'we've got hundreds of people living inside these walls.'
'Could we please add onto the numbers?' I asked. The guard nodded and opened the gate.
'Quick, come in, we will find you a spare room,' the guard stated as he got out his walkie talkie and informed the mayor of the safe haven. We walked in and saw a lot of people. People without grotty teeth and bloody bodies. We went to our room and agreed that we found the right place.
Weeks passed living inside of the walls. People came in every week or so just like we did. We were living happy lives, until the break in.
'Everybody run for your lives!' the guard screamed.
The wall was covered with zombies climbing over each other. My eyes widened with fear as one dropped into the walls. I sat down in my room thinking that everything was going to be okay. I held my shotgun and kept silent with no Jess by my side to comfort me. Suddenly one of the infected burst into my room and looked at me. I aimed the gun at its head and pulled the trigger. Click! Nothing happened. I pulled it again. Click! Still nothing happened. I hastily checked the ammunition box and I forgot the bullets. My ammo was on the other side of the room. The zombie stepped towards me, licking its cracked, maroon lips. This time I couldn't step back. The zombie opened its mouth, showing its red tongue and brown teeth. It's head moved closer to my arm. I closed my eyes as I felt a bite on my forearm. I sucked in air as I felt the virus travel through my veins. It was flowing through my blood stream. My eyes were bloodshot. My blood was pumping through my body faster than ever. My pupils got larger and my sight became brighter. I could scent the wonderful smell of blood from the other side of the wall. I heard the magnificent screams of women being bitten and turned. I grinned. Everything I had experienced, every memory, gone. The only things on my mind were blood, flesh and death. I stood up, feeling no pain. I felt good with my craving for human. I knew at that moment, I was infected.