Death By Dawn

➽Chapter 1

Its ravenous hunger was depicted brutally as its teeth penetrated her soft tender skin. From her jugular gushed the red sea and her screams echoed throughout the halls of the abandoned school, in which her companion claimed would be safe. Fueled by desperation, her hands yearned to find solace in the knife she had dropped a few feet away from her, but hope by then had already abandoned her and the grim giant that was death had already determined that this soul was his. Her vision began to fade, a vast darkness overtaking her consciousness. The pain was immense, but no longer did she possess the ability to scream. As her vision faded into the dusk, the deafening ringing in her ears was complimented with footsteps, drawing ever closer, heavy with the life long burden of failure, a loss, a scar that could never disappear. The last sight in which engraved itself deep within her memory, the one she loved...too late to save her life.

➽3 Months Later➽

Carefully he scanned the gas station for any sign of provisions. It had been two days since Alexander last foraged for food but now his supplies ran near the edge of nothingness, leaving him absent of choice. He had barely enough to survive on for a few more days before he would be thrown into an unwanted battle with the monster humans had faced their entire lives, hunger.

Lowering his body to a crouch, he outstretched his left arm under one of the gas station's shelves in hopes of discovering some form of food, preferably canned but at this point, anything would do. However, his endeavor was cut short as a deafening scream pierced his ears. This unexpected noise caused a jolt of electricity to surge through his body and for a split-second, the fact that his hand had been under a shelf was made unknown to him, evident in his reflex to stand. This resulted in slightly injuring his left arm, but the pain faded a few seconds afterwards.

"Dammit!" he muttered to himself as he slid his arm from under the shelf.

From through the broken glass that lined the front of the gas station, Alexander peered a young woman surrounded by a herd of zombies. She had positioned herself on a nearby rusted-green dumpster, in the middle right against the wall of an apartment building, which provided her with temporary safety. Regardless of providing her this temporary safety, it was also a trap within itself, for it left her with no where to go as the possibility of escaping unharmed rapidly dwindled to nothing.

Without a single fiber of hesitation within his muscles, he quickly armed himself with his Semi-automatic, Glock 26 Gen5, and even though he had little to no ammunition remaining, this thought was far from his mind as he was fueled by an event in his past and a promise to never let such a circumstance occur again...not on his watch.

"Hey brainiacs, over here!" he called out, attempting to gain the attention of the undead monsters.

They slowly turned towards him, setting their flesh hankering gaze upon him. They approached him inchmeal, little by little, and the stench of their rotting flesh advanced in front of them. Alexander could feel their overwhelming hunger as he backed away slightly, aiming to captivate their attention long enough to allow the woman some distance between herself and the grotesque beasts.

"Yeah that's right. Keep it coming brainies, come get a piece of this delectable flesh all fresh...well kinda fresh."

Alexander led them a substantial distance away from the woman, allowing her to slip away, unharmed, onto the roof of the gas station. On confirming her safety, his snail-like pace quickly adapted a horse's gallop as he quickly evaded the threat of the incoming, despite slow, zombies. Alexander found a nearby building and utilized the ladder attached to it to completely evade his pursuers as they lacked the simple ability to climb. Gripping onto the strap of his black backpack with his left hand, he looked down at the herd of zombies congregating at the base of the building.