Dead Lands

Chapter 1

It started off slow, the infection taking one person at a time. It started with young children acting like influenza no one understanding why so many were getting sick at the same time. Then the elderly and the weak started to get sick as well. As everyone got sick they also got hungry, some went manic attacking everyone they could find, dead or alive, human or mammal. They didnt care. Others wandered aimlessly around streets in the city or the country and only attacking people that caught their attention. The rest that got sick and infected remained slightly human, still able to speak and feel. They were able to stay at home with their families under certain restrictions and they only had to feed twice a week.

Those of us lucky enough to survive put the zombies into three classes and treat them accordingly. The ones in Class 3 are the Manic zombies, in controlled areas such as large cities that happened to survive have taken the manic zombies and they keep them in underground nightclubs where they feed them and keep them contained. The Passive zombies are Class 2, they are the zombies that roam aimlessly on the streets. Then finally the Class 1 zombies, the Docile. They are the ones that still have a hold on their humanity, the zombies that you can live with.

The humans that have the major cities boarded and controlled have houses renovated to fit the needs of the families with Docile members so they can live safely, and every family has two members trained to walk amongst the Passive without being detected and they also have large areas in which they keep Manic zombies contained. Most major cities keep the Manic zombies in case of an attack or if they need to protect themselves. So the contained areas are on the border lines of the city underground. On the walls around every city they have trained special ops crew monitoring 24/7 and have a very tight security system for entry in and out of the city for optimal safety.

There are few of us who travel from city to city and usually spend most of their time finding shelter in the middle of the ruins and dead areas. We find a thrill in surviving in the uncontrolled environments outside of the cities. Living off the land, finding and making your own shelters and killing zombies. Before I get too ahead of myself let me start at the beginning.

7 months ago while I was at school I noticed a few changes in the school and some of the students. My class size was smaller by about half and the over all, the school body was smaller by about ¾. I was in grade 12 when all of this started now Im just another person rolling through, surviving on my own. I would love to be in a city living with my family but they were amongst the first to be taken. My little brother got the infection and he just turned straight into a Manic zombie and while I was at school my mother was home alone with him and he took her. Our father left when my brother was just a baby so its only been my mother, brother and I all these years and now Im alone. Killing zombies and living in the dead lands on my own, such pleasure and adrenaline from this life style.

When I got home from school that faithful day I had come to find my brother missing my mother devoured and dinner cooked and ready. I was in such shock from this that I went to my room and started my homework. I worked on it until 4 am at which time I went to the kitchen and served myself some dinner and heated it up before eating. After I sat in the living room for the rest of night. I guess a part of my was waiting for Jeffrey to come back from school or my mom to come back from the grocery store. The time didnt matter nor did the fact that my mother was dead and devoured on the floor between the kitchen and office.

When my brain finally started working again and all of what I found the day before started sinking in it was bright outside and it was also 2:30 in the afternoon. I just sat there for a while unknowing of what to do. I wasnt going to go back to school again, like what was the point? The world was dying off and what would an education benefit any of us now? The classes we should be taken is Weapons Training and Killing Zombies 101. They are the only classes that will be useful from now on.

I got a bit hungry so I walked over to the kitchen, but something stood out as I was heading to the fridge. I dont know if it was my mums body or the fact that every door was open, even the ones going to the yard. I took a peek out the kitchen window to see what it was like, mostly to see if there were any zombies. What I saw shocked me so much I could barely breath. Out there, in my backyard was my brother, mother and the girl I had a huge crush on in school. All of them standing in the back looking all zombie and what not, my mum was the most terrifying of them all she was half devoured and she had parts hanging and dragging, holes in her like a whiffle ball. It was a scary sight but Jeffrey and Suzy didnt look very different apart from the blood stains on their cloths and the blood stain around Jeff's mouth. I reached up quickly and closed the curtain so I wouldnt draw any attention and I closed the back quickly but quietly, didnt want them to know I was there. Last thing i wanted or needed was to become one of them. After all that I snatched some canned foods, my grandpas rifle and my IPod and I left the house. This was my time to collect food and ammo, and maybe some other things that could come in handy down the road, I didnt know what was in store for me but what I did know, this was going to be fun.

Years of watching zombie movies, martial arts and practicing my aim just incase a zombie apocalypse happened so I would be prepared and now was my chance. I opened the curtains in the living room to see what was out side the front door. All I saw were abandoned cars, blood, and body parts. Nothing moving or otherwise. I went to the front door and cracked it open giving myself a couple seconds before sprinting out into the open street towards a motorcycle I spotted across the street in a neighbors driveway.

Once I took a couple deep breaths and tried not to think about it, I slipped out of the door and booked it. Running across the street, shoes beating against the ground, focusing on the bike. All most there. All. Most. There. Reaching out hoping to touch it. Slow close. When a shot goes off and I collapse to the ground, arm still outstretched towards the bike. Another shot is fired and a third. I look up to find my neighbor in the upstairs window aiming his rifle down the street and not at me. I jumped up as fast as I could hopped onto the bike as a pair of keys flies through the air and hits me in the head. the man in the window threw me the keys. I put the keys in the ignition, crank it and it roars to life. I pulled out of the driveway and sped away from home. Never looking back, only thinking about survival and trying to forget the images of my half eaten mother and dead brother.