Rise Of The Others

Chapter Five.

"It's the same old theme
In two thousand eight-teen
In your head, in your head, they're dyin'"

I put the phone down, placing it back in my pocket. I began to look at the soldier, holstering my rifle. "About Seattle, has it been contained?"

"We're still doing our best to contain the outbreak there. It's nothing too serious," the soldier responded, putting away their rifle.

"Well, I just hope the infection doesn't spread anywhere else," James mumbled, sitting down on the nearest chair.

I began to hear something on the radio Caden was carrying. "Hey! We're done getting all the supplies, get back to the chopper!" I heard Max say into the radio.

"Come on," Lincoln whispered." We have to get back to the colony."

As we began to move back to the helicopter, the soldier began to go with us. "Where are you going?" They yelled, taking out their rifle.

"Back home, what do you expect?" Caden said. "We have room for one more."

"The helicopters leaving in 5 minutes!" Lincoln reassured us, running out the door.

As we left the shithole people called the hospital, I could see a helicopter, but it wasn't ours. Odd.

I could see the helicopter's blades begin to spin, the wind circulating around it. The air was hard to go through, Caden even being pushed to the ground by it.

"Come on!" Max shouted from the chopper. "We don't have time to wait!"

We all jumped in the helicopter, it began to slowly fly up in the sky, I could see smaller explosions coming from both inside and outside the hospital.

Skulls were surrounding the hospital shooting at the military, gunfire went back and forth, explosions ruining the streets. "I'm glad we left when we did," Caden said, crossing his arms.

"Oh well." I looked up at my phone, seeing a text message from Nate.

Nate: Hey Liam.

Liam: Hey.

Nate: I'm surprised you actually survived this long... Tell me your secrets, Liam!

Liam: Step one: stay away from populated areas, more people means more zombies.

Step two: if necessary, gather supplies in groups, especially in populated cities.

Step three: set up camp in a good spot. Bonus points if it's a quarantine zone.

Step four: always stay clean!

And that's how to survive a zombie apocalypse! (Well, actually any type of apocalypse but whatever :p)

Nate: interesting . . .

Liam: yee

Nate: btw, I'm not too far from Kelowna. I'll be there in about an hour.

Liam: I may or may not be having a mini panic attack right now--

Nate: same here xd

Liam: I wanted to see you for such a long time, it feels weird to actually think that you're just an hour away.

Nate: I know, right? It feels like forever since I last saw you, Liam. I just can't stop thinking about you.

Liam: I know, I'm really anxious to see you again since a year can change a person a lot.

Nate: Yeah, since because before I saw the emails, I genuinely thought you... died. For all that time, I've been telling myself lies. But now, it feels like my life has been turned around.

Liam: Well, I'll see you soon. I love you.

Nate: I love you too.

I put my phone back in my pocket to see everyone looking at me. "Welcome back to reality," Caden said, giving me a soft smile.

"I'm detecting another helicopter going our way," Max shouted, pointing at the radar in front of him. "Its right behind us."

"Oh, shit," was all I could mumble back. I began to look outside, seeing the ruins of what used to be hotels, shopping centers, even homes.

All I know is that we were the lucky ones. Everything was calm, except the roaring blades of the helicopter above my head. I could see hundreds, maybe even thousands of people walking the streets mindlessly, and I could see that they were human. But their clothes were ripped up and torn apart. I could see that Shaun's theory was correct.

Within all of the piles of dead bodies and other people, I couldn't see much, if any zombies anywhere. "Max, we can walk from here. I don't see any infected," I pointed at the streets. "All human."

"We can't hold that many people!" Max shouted, looking into my eyes. "We can barely hold the people inside the damn colony!"

"We can just set up some bases near the colony, eventually, we can take back the region!" Caden excitedly said. "I mean, Shaun said that the virus would die out within a year, right?"

"Yeah, but that's like thousands of people!" Max insisted.

"Just land the fucking helicopter!" I shouted at the pilot.

I could feel the helicopter come to a halt, landing at the nearest building. Seeing all of the people jumping in excitement, waving their hands around, was so uplifting to me. It was so hopeful to see so many people just being happy, being themselves.

Within all of those people, I could still see some infected. If I had remembered, sometimes, the virus doesn't die, it instead, resonates in a host. That's what I remember from the countless lessons on diseases or stuff.

The door to the downstairs of the building was right in front of me, being boarded up for some reason. It gave it some sort of odd feeling, like if I shouldn't go in, but most buildings have that oddness.

Still, I took Caden's hammer and took out the nails and opened the door, looking for any traps or mines. Caden, Max, Lincoln, and Susan came with me. Looking inside the hallways of the building, which I assumed used to be apartments. I could hear pounding on the doors, people yelling for help. As we checked each apartment, there were multiple families we all had encountered. The smell of rotting and mouldy food was all I could smell. 

When we got to the ground floor, about 50 different people, mostly children, were following us. I could hear the infected's screeches and groans from inside the office of the building. 

I told the kids to hide, as I unlocked the doors to the complex. Noticing a baseball bat down in the floor beside me, I took it, clenching my hands.

I kicked open the doors, hitting a zombie and killing it. This had alarmed all of the infected within the entire block, which was few and far between.

It wasn't too much of a hassle, because there was maybe about two zombies left. I bashed their heads, killing both of them. 

After killing the zombies, I gave them a speech about the Skulls. Still, despite having the entire city on our side, the Skulls imposed a greater threat.

After the speech ended, I went into the helicopter and back inside the colony.

As I left the helicopter, I could see there were no civilians around. Guess it's lockdown time. 

While going into my room, I could feel the humid air inside the cabin, the fire crackling, as the radio was playing. I leaped on the bed, curling up in the sheets and blankets. 

The next morning, I heard a faint voice. "Liam?"