Intro

Its 1998 and a young man is waking up, unaware of the hour in his small concave, dim lit room, there’s a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling; ticking off the little life’s it’s got left, every so once every hour. The room is hidden from the surface of earth in his house’s basement deep in the underground. For some this small space might seem like a dark scary place, but for Thomas this was his sanctuary. And with the situation that was happening above ground, this place was perfect for his survival.

It’s been about 3 months now since the original zombie virus began to spread, Z-VIR1. Still lost and confused in his small town; he doesn’t know how or what started it, just the name. Thomas, is 24 years old, and slowly he is studying the virus in his makeshift laboratory underground. He hopes and inspires to create a cure for this disease, a beacon of hope, a purpose for his life. His mother was a scientist, a particularly smart one for any matter; and taught her son more than the basics of advanced biology, his favorite subject. Thomas, barely left his house, it was his only safe space in the world, and his only place of remembrance of the woman that showed him the gears of the world, his mother.

P1

Eventually one morning Thomas, realizes he needs to leave his comfort and stop living a life of un retractable fear. He needed to leave his sanctuary. But every time he glimpsed out his window, rampant terrifying memories shoot through his brain, causing him to shake and break down. He was traumatized of when the virus first began to spread in his small town and how the world became so twisted so fast. It absolutely terrified him seeing his friends and family slowly turn into something… not human; no longer even able to recognizing their own name. And the few that were still human, just became destructors of society causing chaos and malice.

Another thing holding him back were the pouncing, heavy memories of Thomas’s mother’s last living moments. She was a single strong hearted mother, teaching him everything she knew. He wanted to become a scientist just like her one day— but life took a turn for the worst. During her last moments alive she was protecting her son from the monsters trying to enter their home. When she realized there were too many zombies attempting to enter their home their she knew she had to make an ultimate sacrifice —one that perhaps only a mother was capable of doing — to lure them away from her only family left. She locked him in a room and told him to not come out, ran outside to direct all the zombies away from her home. She ran outside and used herself as bait to protect her only child. That night the last thing Thomas heard, were the echos of her crying screams, and pure sickness indulging her saintly soul, as her body was being ripped apart. After that night, fear pierced his body and he became too scared to go outside.

Life in the bloody-wild-zombie-world had defeated his confidence and purpose in life. Or so he thought…. exactly on the morning he prepares to leave his beloved home, to pursue  the hope that maybe perhaps, more people are out there and maybe, they might have answers for a cure; he spots a unsuspected female with a weapon in hand passing by his house. For the first time he sees another human in 3 months.

P2

The boy didn’t know whether his presence should be known or not. He’s looking at her from his top story window, gazing at her with awe, her badass look. She looks to be around the same age as him, long dark hair, tired and rugged face, lips biting themselves as she patrols the area around. He is nervous and scared, because she has a gun in her hand; and projects an energy that says, “I’ve killed over 100 zombies”. However at the same time, a large part of him feels excited and happy, almost like a sense of hope as he looks at her. This is the first human being he’s seen since the world flipped upside down, but he stares for too long and the world answers for him.

As she was passing by, scared and ironically fearless at the same time, she accidentally kicked a canister and it clanked loud on the pavement, chaos. Her heart dropped and gun swung up, knowing what she just commenced. The unforgivable sound of screaming echoed all around. Alarming all the  zombies that roamed the area. She ran to an old truck and took cover from the zombies as they smelled her. A small batch of zombies starving, all ran in a frenzy, smelling her pure warm blood.

Calmly aiming her gun through the sight, she held her breath. She aimed at the heads of the parasites and killed one by one. The heads exploded and the loud gunshots, shot shock waves through Thomas’ veins; reminding him of when it all started. Thomas turned his back from the high window, collapsed and began breathing heavily with every bang. His heart was throbbing, but his survival instinct not quite yet letting the trauma completely engulf him. He struggled, stood up again by the window clenching his grip to see what was happening outside. She was fleeing away; surprisingly she managed to kill almost all of them. She was running and shooting behind her at the last zombie, missing shot by shot. Bang! She hits her leg hard on a car as she was running away. Her attempt to escape now would be a miracle with the amount of ammunition she had left. Shooting her last and final bullets, she stopped and looked at the sky, unknowingly if she’ll see the sun come up again; she cries for her life. Thomas saw this, and made a decision.

Sympathetic for her life, he ran to his basement as fast as he could, bumping into all the walls and stairs. He finally reached the basement, and grabbed his mothers old gun. He sprinted back all the way upstairs, got by the window, and aimed his gun while shaking uncontrollably. He closed his eyes and told himself to breath slow, held his breath, and at the last second his eyes opened and he fired his rifle. Blood splattered all over the old busted truck, barely saving the girl, killing the last zombies and saving her life.

Shocked by the sound of another gun, she turns to look around looking for who fired the shot. He comes down running out of his home, and finds her seriously injured. He approached her calmly and saw she had a large ferocious gash on her leg.  She faced the boy with fear and despise; she angrily tells him, “Go away! Or else I’ll kill you!” Her face and body were trembling in fear and pain, Thomas understood that look way too well. But he reassures her he’s just there to help.

“I mean no harm, I’m by myself and I’m doing research to find a cure for the disease! Please you have to come with me or else you’ll die out here by yourself!” She looked into his eyes, and saw a light brown glow, a small sparkle of hope was in his pupils that reminded her of what humanity was in its whole. Something inside her told her this was the only way she was going to live. She had to go with him, she decided to trust him. He reached his hand out to help her and she grasped it with all her strength, gripping Thomas’s arm in a painful scream of help and cries. Thomas knew she was scared and in pain, he had no other option but to do this right. He needed to help her too if he wanted to leave as well. He put her arm around his back and carried her to his home.

Now inside, the girl was acting stubborn and was completely disappointed with herself. Angry that she failed to save herself, she finally opened up to the boy. Her name was Claire, and she also had not seen anyone either since the break out of Z-VIR5. Unfortunately, for herself, she lost her younger brother as well in the madness of it too. Now, she definitely did not trust the boy at first and sometimes even viewed him as a threat. She would be paranoid for the first few days being in someone else space, always looking behind her back, limping in the empty cold hallways of Thomas’s home; locking all the doors that she could to feel safe in a place that wasn’t hers.

But with time and patience, the boy proved himself to be trust worthy, attending to her wounds day by day making sure no infection happened, and even feeding her the last few food cans he had left. She began to admire his hope, to finding a cure and to attempt to solve the worlds problems. Somehow, he still had hope after all that happened. Claire, couldn’t comprehend it. Why try to continue to live when there’s nothing left to look up to, or even do for that matter. But he always found a way, the mindset of curiosity, the ability to look at the world not for what it was, but for what it could still be. His spirit was infectious. She missed that part of being human, the ability to have: hope.  She eventually would ask him about why he did what he did; and how his life was before the virus. Both of them for once, felt again what it was like to have decent company, felt again the essence of being a human being. Behind their minds, for the first time, they finally felt happy and were having a good time… ironically somewhere in a place where they shouldn’t exist.

She knew it was probably impossible to reverse what had happened. And she knew he couldn’t do it by himself, even with his intelligence and hope, he needed help too. She saw his private battles struggling too, she would hear him crying some nights. Trying to grasp the reality of the modern world, and that leaving home is slowly beginning to become more real and more scary. On the other hand, when he was close to Claire, he felt a little bit of peace, a glimmer of calmness, a remedy for his anxiousness. Another soul to share a passion with, the same air to breath and share. One night when he was by himself laying in his room on the ground, while staring up at the ceiling he heard the quietness of he room, his thoughts were able to speak out loud. “ I’m glad to have her around. Damn, I think I like her too…”.

P3

Both Claire and Thomas decide to go on their first ever food run. Their food supplies are now almost gone and they have little to no water left. Thomas asks Claire, “I have to go to find food and water, do you want to come with?” She decides to go, given now that her leg is all healed up, she can defend herself now too. On their walk to find supplies, they see the sun beaming high in the sky, the cars all broken into and dust all over the ground. Every now and then they find a dead zombie body laying on the ground. Stinking with death, the slowly walk pass the lives that existed before.

Eventually, Claire finds a small hand held radio covered hidden in a car. It works! Smiles form in their tired faces, filled with joy and laughter, they both stare at it with excitement. Almost forgetting how it works they start pressing all of the buttons. Finally Claire, tunes into it and find a station. 93.5 SURVIVOR RADIO. On the station there’s a loop of a man speaking about a safe haven, out in the pacific north ocean where the zombies can’t go. It say’s there’s also a research center there as well and this was golden for the boy. In his head he thought maybe they could help him find a cure there, given that they have more resources.

At last a warm feeling of hope touched the two broken souls. They looked at each other for what to say next, suddenly, Thomas whispers, “You did it, you found a place for us to go! Thank you!” For the first time they both felt like they had done some progression in their lives. And more importantly, other regular people, other survivors they had to meet. A community to be a part of. The sun was slowly coming down and a cool gust of wind touched their pale cheeks, they had to move quick now, the sun was going to be setting soon. They headed back to Thomas’s home, empty handed without food but, full hearted and filled with hope. The zombies kept coming more often by the house at night, limping and moaning, their agony echoed in the night. The sounds of them began to haunt the duo and they began suspecting a giant swarm of zombies might be coming soon, passing their sanctuary. If this happened it would be game over for them both as they didn’t have enough resources to sustain themselves for much longer or enough ammunition.

The time has come and they have to leave their only home. The next morning they prepare their little water, food, and small amount of bullets left. They look at each other with nervousness as they’re packing their bags, but the girl reminds him, that they can’t stay any longer. They need to find hope, just like he never gave up on finding a cure. Thomas takes a big breath, and they proceed to walk out the doors that kept them safe all that time. Thomas closed the door behind him, looking at his home one last time, remembering all the good that happened before the plague. Claire looks back and noticed his change in demeanor, she holds his hand and says, “We gotta go, time is running out… things are going to be okay.” they both walk to the street once more and take their leap of faith for the safe haven they so desperately need.

Hours pass by as they’re walking on the empty street, quietly pouncing all of their thoughts into silence. Together they move forward cautiously always looking around and listening for any rustling or moans of death. Scared they slowly move forward, step by step the night keeps getting closer. Finally Thomas says, “ We need to find somewhere to stay the night and take shelter.”. They see a empty red house close to them, they look to each other and nod in agreement that this, is the place to go. With slow cautious steps, they open the door to the house and inspect together everywhere they go. It was a small home filled with old furniture, broken chairs and the smell of old skin in the air. They complete a full search of the place and it was finally cleared. Nobody to be found, nothing to kill.

P4

They looked at each other, smiling and even laughed at of how scared they were to inspect the place. Both their faces filled with peace, and happiness. However, they celebrated too early. Minutes after Claire sits down on an old couch, they hear loud sounds of, “Ughhhh”, the air begins to stink around them. In a panic, Thomas suggests they go to the attic of the house to have a clear look their surroundings. Finally reaching upstairs, they put their heads close to the window. Hearts drop, the smell is getting stronger, and the sounds area getting louder. They were surrounded by thousands of zombies from all directions of the streets. All of them were moving in sync with each other passing the house.  They were looking for food and the zombies finally spotted their scent, in their house.

They heard the door banging downstairs and the windows being crushed by the weight of all of them trying to get inside. The boy and the girl panicked, the boy ran quickly to get his research papers he’d been writing and puts them in his backpack. The girl ran to the backpack with their weapons and told the boy to get ready. They both looked at each other again, they stared into each others eyes and realized this might be the last living day of their lives. Without saying a word they nod to each other silently, both knowing that they had to try to fight their way out together. She told the boy, “let’s go out the window and stay on top of the cars! We can find a way out!” He nodded and followed her through the small tight window. They jumped on top of the cars and manage to escape most of the giant zombie mob. Fear is instilled in the boy, suddenly looking at all the faces of the zombies reminded him of the last time he saw his mother. How she died being pulled apart in pain. The girl noticed he was falling behind a bit and turned to see what was going on. She yelled, “Hey hurry up we’re close to losing them!”. The boy looked up and saw her, somehow giving him hope. He felt her encouragement and it reminded him, that she never gave up on him, so neither should he.

Now they’re almost completely behind the mob of zombies. The sense of freedom is making the hairs of their skin rise with excitement; they’re both making it out together when suddenly, as they’re both skipping the cars she falls down and tripped really hard. A small mob of zombies began to circle her and she started to scream! Fear hit the boy again, flashbacks of the dying screams, made him stop in his tracks. “AHHHHH Help me!” She begged. The adrenaline hit the boy like a bullet in the head, and the world stopped moving and became mute. He felt a strange feeling in his head. He couldn’t quite understand what it was, but he felt a whisper telling him in his head, “Go save the girl… don’t let the same thing happen to her…”.

The boy looked at the circle of zombies ahead of him and he rushed to it with all his might in his body. He shot the zombies in the head, killing them instantly and stabbed the last one in the back with a sharp knife. All the zombies were on the ground now, still with no motion. Now the boy moved in to help the girl once again. She was crying, bleeding, and holding her leg. She told the boy that she thinks she got bit on her leg. Everything is hurting in her body. The boy rushed to locate the the bite on her leg but didn’t find anything. Just gashes of her fall, when she hit the floor. He told her she didn’t have any bites, but she was bleeding out and they need to find shelter immediately. They both looked at each other again, surprised that they survived the swarm of zombies without any bites. She wiped off the tears from her face and hugged the boy with relief. He grabbed her tightly and told her that everything will be okay. They got through the worst of it and that he’s going to help her back to normal again.

They let go and stare at each others eyes once more, both had a miraculous feeling in their body, almost like love, like hope, maybe was a real thing. The boy tried to get up, he grabbed her arm to pick the girl up. In a split second they hear a loud, “Agghhhhh!!” the boy got tackled from behind and landed on top of the girl. He looked at her face in complete fear, as she saw a zombie bite the boys neck, ripping off a chunk of skin off his neck. Blood splatted everywhere on her face and the heaviness of his body froze her entire self in fear too. Claire’s world had turned upside down. As the boy’s face was being torn apart in front of her, she wanted to deny the understand that he will turn into the thing he feared the most in the world; and she will have to take over the wheel of life for him. And play god. She grabbed ahold of him somehow, he was still crying, and pushed him off along with the other zombie on top of him. She got up with excruciating pain. She stared looking at the zombie annihilating, Thomas. She grabbed the knife that was on the zombie, pulled it out and stabbed it again on the back of its head. Now she looked at the Thomas, she cried even more, as he was crawling on the ground, slowly turning into someone, she no longer knew.

She saw the complete transformation clearer than any definition, of detail of a man-turned-zombie. In his complete transformation, he stood up growling, and stared at her one last time, like a tiny piece of him was still there. She looked into his eyes and felt him crying for help inside, begging to be killed before things got worse. Adrenaline struck Claire, and the world stopped moving for her too. The world became still as she pulled the knife off the zombie that was on the ground, and stabbed, Thomas in his head. Stunning him, killing him, freeing him, he finally collapses on his knees, with the blade stuck in his eye, and died once more. She began to shake, and collapsed on the ground as well. Looking at her only friend, that saved her from before. The only person she ever knew that didn’t give up on her. Dead on the cold earth, alone again. She tried to get up, but her pain was too excruciating and fell down again. She was bleeding out. Bloody and barely able to get up herself. Alone she crawled in the the middle of the street, utterly cold in the night, and hopeless for life. She turned around and looked at the only light, the stars in the sky. Maybe this was the only light there ever was and dies.

THE END.