The New Age

Chapter One

The hot sun was beating down as she walked. The only sound that could be heard was the sound her shoes made with the pavement. She looked up to the sky and saw that the sun wasn't even fully risen. It was going to be a hot day. She checked the heavy bag and looked at the water bottle that swung from the straps.

"Half empty." she said out loud to herself. She had been doing that more often, being alone she found it reassuring to listen to herself speak. She looked at the bottle again. "No, half full." she stated. "Got to stay optimistic Renee." she sighed and looked around, in the distance she thought she could make out the outline of a building further up the road. It was a little bit out of her path but she figured water should be the first priority.

The building was a small gas station. It was in the middle of nowhere. All she really knew is that she was either in Wyoming or Montana. The journey started back home in Alberta, Canada. Where she had a car and drove until the tank ran dry. That was over a week ago. Renee was the type of person who people would think would be the first to die in an event like this. Renee even thought that herself. Somehow, with her lacking amount of survival skills, she had made it this far.

As she got closer Renee began to make out the shape of a body on the ground. Renee gulped and pulled out her knife. She'd only ever had to kill a few of them before. As she walked up to the body she could see the flies buzzing around it. Maybe this one was already dead. Finally she got close enough to see the bullet through it's head. In the dead mans hand was a pistol. Judging from the amount of flesh that was still on his face Renee assumed he had got away from the monster that bit him. He had shot himself. Renee sighed and looked at the gun. This was the first one she had found. All the other bodies she came across had been defenseless. She held the gun in front of her, she'd played a lot of video games before, it couldn't be that different right? Renee had never shot a gun in her life that wasn't virtual. She never wanted to. She sighed and began to walk into the gas station. She hoped that whatever had bit the man was gone. Or dead.

"Preferably dead." she mumbled to herself. The glass door to the building was smashed open, as she stepped through it she could hear the glass crunch under her feet. She winced, that was a little louder than she had hoped. They were drawn to sound. She stood on the glass for a few seconds and nothing came out to jump at her. She sighed and walked in the rest of the way. "Water and food." she told herself. "Just need water and food." The store was already a mess, it had been ransacked like every other building on the first day. Renee began to make her way to the back of the store, where they kept the drinks. She opened the door to the fridge and even though the power had been out for weeks, she was still expecting to feel the cold air coming out of it. Her bag was already heavy with other gear she needed so she took a couple water bottles and shoved them in. Next she went to the chip and candy aisle.

She turned the corner when out of nowhere she was inches away from snarling teeth. Renee screamed and jumped backwards, knocking over a shelf in the process, making even more noise. She scrambled back up to her feet and looked at the monster. Whoever it had been before was long dead. All that remained were it's hollow eyes and rotting flesh. There was a knife that was going through it's heart that was keeping it pinned to the wall. Renee shook her head.

"Did no one watch zombie movies before this? It has to be the head." and with that she jammed her knife through the creature. She needed to get moving. As she made her way out of the store she passed a shelf that caught her attention. She walked up to it and smiled at what she had just found. A solar powered charger for your phone. Renee had refused to leave hers behind, she had kept the useless thing as a memory of the old world. The satellites had gone down before her phone died but that wasn't what she wanted off of it. She wanted her music.

+++

"What do you mean we're out of gas?!" A voice called from the back.

"Remember when I said two hours ago we needed gas?!" Another called back. Dan rolled over and sighed.

"Some of us are trying to sleep!" he yelled. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. They were still in the bus. The tour bus had been their home since everything started. Dan walked up to the front of the bus where his brother sat in the drivers seat. He was auguring with the drummer of the band on where to get gas. "What's going on?" Dan asked.

"The closest gas station is in that town." Daniel Platzman said while pointing to the map.

"But, there's one only a mile over in the middle of nowhere. It won't be as busy." Mac said. Laughing could be heard as Ben McKee walked up to the front.

"I don't think it's going to be busy, I've noticed nothing is busy anymore, I guess all the bushiness must be dead." he said sarcastically. Mac rolled his eyes,

"It's not the living I'm worried about." Dan looked down at the map,

"Only one extra mile?" Mac nodded.

"I say we go there." Wayne Sermon piped up from the back. "I could use the walk, this bus is getting cramped with us all." Ben looked at Platz,

"Yeah, maybe if we leave it will air out. Someone has been eating way to many packaged burritos."

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Thank you for reading the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! Also some news, I have started a GoFundMe page where I wish to raise money for TRF and for myself. I have written a book on my other wattpad account (_kindofanerd) and I would like to get it published but that needs money. So by donating you are helping me get closer to my dream of being a published author and the other half of the money is going directly to the Tyler Robinson Foundation to help pediatric cancer! https://www.gofundme.com/support-trf-and-my-writing