Notes

“They just keep coming!” screams Max as he shoots an arrow into a zombie's kneecaps.

“Reloading!” shouts Ryan as he fires his dual wielded gold plated Desert Eagles.
“Watch your back!!!” commands Wesley while he cuts a zombie in half with a katana.

“AIM FOR THE HEADS!” roars Collin as he sends a .50 cal bullet right between a zombies eyes.
“They just...wont...die...” stammers Nicoli as he backs into the corner while being stalked by five zombies.

It all started two months ago. We were at school when it happened. I was in class when the principal came onto the intercom and told everyone we were on lock down and to remain calm. Then the screams came. I jumped out of my seat and looked out the door, and saw teachers and friends racing and tackling each other through the halls. I stopped one guy and asked what was going on. He seemed out of breath and was extremely nervous. Between his heavy breaths he barely got out the words “Monsters...all of them...they wanna kill us all.” Before I could ask what or where, the guy took off down the hall with the other hundreds of people. I pushed and shoved my way through the vast sea of people. All I could hear was screams. Finally the people began to thin out there was just an occasional kid running down the halls now. I turned a corner and a black figure jumps out from the shadows and yelled at me.
“Hahaha I really scared ya didn't I?!” laughed Ryan.

“That's not cool bro. Something bad is going on here and I don't know what it is.”

“Yeah, I heard the principal on the intercom, but I was in the bathroom. What happened?”

Just then we heard a long low groan. We turned around and saw a teacher lying on the floor, leaned up against the lockers. He was sickening to look at. One of his arms was snapped in half and one leg looked like rubber. His clothes had millions of rips and slashes in them. There were bite marks everywhere around his body.

“What happened to you?!” screamed Ryan as he looked in horror.

“They...attacked me...I was swarmed by them...they jumped on me and bit me. They bit me...over and over and over...” muttered the man

“Who is they?! Are they students?” I asked while looking around for more people.
“They were monsters...they attacked me...a bunch of them...all at once. Help me!”

“Monsters?! What is this? A joke? This ain't funny...its dumb. Who would believe that monsters invaded the school? Y’all really need to work on your pranks.” said Ryan. “My mom could pull better pranks than this!”

Then the teacher began to yell and scream. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he became silent. I thought he was dead. Then we heard groans coming from down the halls. I looked around the corner and saw our friend Nicoli running down the halls at full speed screaming and yelling.

“RUN!!! THEY ARE COMING! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” he began to slow down as he neared us. Just then the teacher that we thought had died groaned the exact same groan we heard down the hall.

“There must be others down there! We have to help them!” said Ryan as he walked towards the groans.

He stopped dead in his tracks and froze in fear and couldn't believe his eyes. On the other side of the hall were teachers and students bent over an injured man. But they didn't seem to be normal teachers and teens. Their skin looked rotten and they weren't helping the injured man. They were constantly biting the man. He tried to fight back, but he was so weak that he couldn't push off the swarm of people on him. We ran down the halls towards the exit, but we ran into a group of these monsters. They began to come towards us. Some were limping, others were crawling, but some were running towards us. We took off in another direction down the stairs. We hid in the guy's locker room and I noticed the baseball bats. I grabbed an aluminum bat and threw a bat to Nicoli and Ryan.

“We have to get out of here!” I yelled as they ran to the door. Ryan peeked out the door and down the halls.

“Wait! Someone is coming down the hall!” whispered Ryan. “Y'all hide and I'll lure him into the room.”

I hid behind the door anxiously as Ryan got his attention and ran back into the room. The person walked through the door and I swung my bat as hard as I could.

THUD! My bat connected into the guy's chest knocking him down. We grabbed some rope and tied him to a chair and barricaded the door shut. He was a black guy. He was a little skinny and had a black headband. He finally regained consciousness.

“Who are you?!” I demanded from the guy.

“Uhhhh.....” He was still dazed from the blow of the baseball bat.

“What is your name?!?!” Ryan screamed at the guy.

“W...W...Wesley. Wesley Norris. Son of Chuck Norris.” the guy managed to say before losing consciousness again.

When he came to again, we resumed the questions.

“Are you one of those monsters?!” yelled Nicoli.

“Huh?” the guy seemed confused

“The monsters! Are you one of them?!” I screamed at him.

“Monsters? What are you talking about?” the more questions we asked, the more confused he became.

“You are lying!!!” Ryan walked up and pulled his bat back and prepared to swing it at Wesley's head.
“No! Wait! I think he isn't lying. The others...they couldn't talk. They only groaned.” Nicoli held Ryan's bat so he couldn't swing.

“He's right Ryan...They didn't even look normal. This guy does.” I mentioned to Ryan.

“What is going on here?!” Wesley asked.

“The school has been overrun by monsters.” I told him everything we had seen and heard.

“Monsters...really?! What do you think I am? Stupid?” Wesley laughed at us.

“Yes really! Monsters! They swarm us and bite us nonstop and try to eat us alive!” said Nicoli.

“Hahaha I'll believe it when I see it” Wesley laughed. “Anyways...how did I get knocked out?”

“Oh that was me...i kinda hit you full force with a baseball bat” I told Wesley.

“You hit me with a bat?! WHY! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” He screamed at me.

“We thought you were one of them! I was about to knock your head off!” Ryan yelled while he untied Weasley from the chair.

Then something started banging on our barricaded door. Wesley went to open it to let them in, but Nicoli tackled him to the ground to stop him.

“Why did you do that?!” Wesley asked Nicoli.

“Because! Those things banging on the door could be some more of the monsters!” Nicoli yelled at him. “We don't wanna have to deal with them!”

“But they could be people! And y’all still haven’t even proven to me that these things you call monsters exist!” Wesley yelled. “This prank is getting old really quick!” He seemed a little aggravated.

“Its not a prank...but you're right. They could be people out there. Lets just look out the window. Unbarricade the door just enough to see out the window so we can see whats out there.” I calmly told them.

We began to take away the chairs and tables to see out the window. There was a person standing there begging us to let him in. He was an Asian kid with black hair. His shirt was ripped and shredded into pieces. We unbarricaded the door and let him in, but there was a group of the monsters not far behind him. We tried to re-barricade the door before they could get to the room, but we couldn’t finish it in time. We were too late. The monsters were at our door looking in through the window at us. What we saw was indescribable. They all appeared to be relatively familiar. They all looked like friends and teachers and other students. But they weren’t the same. They seemed different. They looked like they hadn’t gotten sleep in months or maybe even years. They looked dead. I jumped back in horror. The monsters were gathering up at the door like bugs to a light. There were so many that I couldn’t even begin to count them. They shoved their arms and hands through the glass of the door like it was nothing. The glass cut them, but their blood wasn’t red. They bled a brownish red color. It was almost as though their blood was dirty. We were frozen in fear. We couldn’t move. We couldn’t run. We could only just sit there and wait for them to get us.

No one moved. Not even me. We were shocked and confused. No one knew what to do. Finally I spoke up. “RUN!” I yelled to everyone, but still no one moved. I pushed everyone towards the backdoor onto the field, and they finally began to run. However, when we got to the field we saw masses of these monsters limping around the field like lost dogs.

I knew we couldn’t go this way so I commanded everyone to run back into the room. When we got back into the locker room we were shocked to see that the monsters were beginning to climb into the room through the broken glass. They were being stabbed and cut by the glass, but they didn’t flinch or grimace in pain. The pain didn’t seem to effect them. I looked around the room for an exit. But I couldn’t find anything. We ran into the next room and I saw our one chance to get out of here. The air vents. Nicoli and Ryan went to the door and began hitting the monsters with their baseball bats while Wesley and me knocked the air vent down. The Asian guy picked up a metal meter stick and began to help Nicoli and Ryan fend off the monsters. Wesley crawled into the air vent and I yelled to the others to follow. Nicoli and Ryan gave one final swing to the monsters and followed us. The Asian guy impaled his meter stick into a monster's face, but as he turned around to climb into the vent. A monster leaped onto him. He tried to crawl away, but the monsters swarmed him like stray dogs to a piece of raw meat. We knew there was no saving him so we began to crawl away. We heard his screams of agony. I could only imagine what those monsters were doing to him. But we couldn’t go back for him. We had to keep going. We had to get out of the school. We heard crying and talking. I knew these were normal people and not these monsters so we dropped out of the air vents into the room below us. We were in the gym and there were hundreds of people there. I looked around and found two of our friends, Taylor and Justin.

“Hey y’all! Are y’all okay?!” Ryan asked them.
“Yeah. Our teacher brought us here after the announcement. What's going on?!” Justin replied.

“Monsters bro. Monsters are invading the school. But they look like some of our friends and teachers. They ain’t them though.” I answered. I described what the monsters looked like to him.

“Are you joking me? It sounds like you're talking about zombies off of a video game bro.” Justin laughed at us.

“Oh my God....y’all...I think he's right...I think these monsters are zombies!” Nicoli said.

“Zombies? Like undead people? Video game stuff? Fiction stuff?” Ryan seemed concerned.

“I don’t know what these things are...but they are dangerous. They killed that Asian kid!” I reminded everyone. “It don’t matter what they are. All that matters is that they are trying to kill this whole school. We need to get out of here.”

“We can't! There are teachers patrolling every exit of this gym. They won't let us out because they say it's too dangerous.” Justin said.

“Well then lets sneak out!” Nicoli said.

“That's gunna be kinda hard though...” Taylor said. “We already tried it, but we got caught.”

“I can make a distraction!” Justin yelled excitedly.

“Shut up! Don't yell it cuz then they will see it coming!” Ryan whispered.

“Oh yeah....well I can make a distraction!” Justin whispered.

“Okay, well what can ya do?” I asked.

“Hmmm....You'll see. Just trust me on this one bro. I got this!” Justin said.

“Uhhh.....okay fine. We're trusting you on this...” I reluctantly said.

I looked around the room. There were teachers everywhere. All the students were formed into their normal groups of friends. They tended to stay away from the windows and doors though since the teachers were around those areas. There was also a few cops around the room too. Most of them had their guns already unholstered and ready to fire. This worried me a little. If even the cops were anxious and had their guns ready to fire at these monsters, then what were us students supposed to do without weapons? They even took our bats away from us at the door of the gym!

We heard something hit the wall of the gym. Everyone in the entire gym became silent. A few silent moments later another thud, followed by another, and another and another. What was going on? Did the zombies find us? Were they trying to break through the wall and eat us all?

“EVERYONE REMAIN CALM! They can't get through the concrete walls! It's okay! Everyone get to the middle of the room!” one of the cops yelled.

Then everyone panicked. Pushing each other over and tackling and trying to get to the very middle of the room.

“This is our chance y’all! Let's get out of here!” I yelled to my friends.

I opened the door and peeked around and to my amazement, I didn’t see any of the monsters. As soon as we left the room I heard the sound of glass breaking. I looked back and saw the monsters falling in through the roof of the gym. We heard screams of agony and anguish. But we knew if we went back to help we would be the next ones screaming. We ran to the front office and there were still no sign of any zombies. I could see the front door! We were almost there! But we stopped dead in our tracks when we saw the monster in front of the door. It was by itself, there was no other monsters around. This one looked exactly like the Asian kid we met earlier. But we knew he wasn't the same. We knew he was going to try to eat us and turn us into one of them.

“What do we do? We can't go back because the only way out is through the gym and there is hundreds of them there. We can't go straight because this one is in our way now.” Ryan said.

It must have heard him because it turned around and looked straight at us and began limping towards us. I hurriedly looked around and found a dead cop that still had his gun.

“Please...please please please....please still have ammo...” I begged as I picked up the handgun. I took aim at the only place I could think of, it's head. CLICK....CLICK...

“You have got to be kidding me!!!!” I yelled as loud as I could. We turned and ran back towards the way we came again.

“In here!” a voice whispered to us from a room on our right. We quickly ducked into the dark room and heard the door close and the lock turn.

“Who are you?” I asked in between my breaths.

“It's me” the voice answered.

“Max?” Justin questioned.

“Yep.” Max replied.

He turned on the lights. We were in the music room. I immediately surveyed the room for anything we could use to barricade the door or use as a weapon for that one lonely Asian zombie at the front hall. The Sun shined through the window and glared across something into my eye. I looked and a huge smile came across my face.

“What are you smiling about?! We could die any minute!” Ryan demanded.

“I've always wanted to break a guitar...” I smiled as I walked towards an electric guitar.

“Bro...this ain’t the time for fun. Like Ryan said. This is a life or death situation.” Nicoli said.

“I don’t plan on smashing it in here....I'm gunna smash it on that Asian's head in the front hall!” I replied still smiling and holding the guitar.

Max slowly opened the door and peered down the halls.

“Clear!” Max whispered

We moved quickly towards the front hall while trying to make as little noise as possible so we wouldn't attract any more of the monsters. We finally made it back to the front hall, but the zombie wasn't there. We slowed down to a walk and looked around.

“Where did he go?” Nicoli seemed nervous.

“I have no idea. But I'd rather not be here to find out!” I answered and sped up a little bit towards the front door.

We were only a few feet away when we heard the groan. The Asian zombie was barely an arm's reach from us. We froze and stared at it. I imagine it was staring back, but it had no eyes. Only blank sockets where it's eyes should have been. It groaned again and we took a step back. It started to limp towards us and I swung as hard as I could. The guitar's neck broke in half and the zombie fell to the floor limp.

“Oh my God! I killed it!!!” I exclaimed happily.

“You can't kill something that's already dead...” Justin said. “It's still moving...”

“Let's get outta here before it gets back up!” Nicoli yelled.

We raced out of the door. The parking lot was full with cars. It seemed as though no one had gotten out of the school except us yet. We raced down the street and it appeared as though we were in a ghost town. There was no cars on the usually crowded streets. Nobody walking down the street except for us.

“This doesn't seem right...” Nicoli said quietly.

“Maybe the police told everyone to stay indoors until the outbreak at school was taken care of...” Max said hopefully.

Just then we heard a groan. We expected to see another monster. We were happy to see another normal person.

“Who are you?” I asked the stranger.

“Huh?” he replied slowly.

“What's your name?” I asked again.

“My name? Uhhh....John!” his answer was slurred.

“John? John who? And what are you doing here?” Nicoli asked him.

“John Horde. And I don't know what I'm doing here. I don’t remember what happened. The last thing I remember is.....” his sentence trailed off into mumbles and stutters and slurs.

“The last thing you remember is?....Is what?” Ryan asked.

“Oh yeah! The last thing I remember is being at a party. And I won!” John replied.

“You won what?” Taylor asked.

“The games! I'm the champion at them!” John answered.

“Games? Like video games?” Justin asked.

“No idiot. Drinkin games! Beer pong and chuggin and funnelin and...” he trailed off again.

“You're drunk?” I asked

“No...at least I don’t think so...I might still be a little buzzed.” John slurred.

“Stand up and talk to us face to face bro.” Ryan said.

As he stood up empty bottles went everywhere and a bag fell out of his pocket.

“What is that bag?” Justin asked curiously.

“What bag?!” John asked irritated as he quickly put the ziplock bag back into his jacket pocket.

“Have you seen anything weird lately?” Nicoli asked.

“You mean like a monster?” John replied.

“Yeah! Have you seen anything like that?!” Justin asked.

“Yeah. I think it was just the booze though. Or maybe somebody messing with me. I stashed the body in the bushes over there.” He nodded towards some bushes behind him.

“Can we go look?” I asked.

“Sure I guess. If ya want to. It is kinda weird looking. Like a alien.” John slurred.

We went and looked into the bushes and weren't surprised at what we saw. We saw one of the monsters. It had gashes all over it's body, especially around it's face.

“How did you kill it?” Max asked.

“I just hit it on the head with my bottle and the bottle broke so I started cutting and stabbing it. I think it was trying to get my booze.” John replied.

“Y'all we need to get home to see if our parents are okay” I said.

We began walking down the ghost road all the way across town. We finally got to my house and there was no cars in the driveway. We began to get worried. Our parents were supposed to be home right now. The doors were locked and the spare key was missing.

“They should have been home by now.” Ryan said.

“Yeah I know. They are always home right now. And the spare key is missing. What happened?” I asked in shock.

We tried the windows and finally found one that was unlocked. Ryan climbed in and unlocked the back door. I came in first, followed by Nicoli, then Justin, then Taylor, and finally Max. I looked around in amazement. It looked like someone was rushing to get out. There was clothes thrown and dropped everywhere, and there was an open suitcase half full with clothes. I went to my room and on my bed I found a note.



Dear Collin and Ryan,
If you are reading this, then that means that you are okay. We aren't home and wont be back home for a very long time. The police came and told us to evacuate immediately. We asked what was going on, but he said it was classified and he was not allowed to tell us. All he told us was that there was a problem at the school and that the entire city needed to be evacuated and if worst came to worst, the entire state would have to be evacuated. He told us to pack only what we needed and leave as soon as we could. We said that we had two boys that went to the high school and would evacuate as soon as y’all got home, but the cop told us no. He said we needed to leave now and we couldn't wait for you. We refused at first, but then he took out his gun and demanded us to leave now. We are so sorry. And as soon as we are able to, we are coming back for you. The cop wouldn't tell us where we were going or for how long. But we promise. With everything. We will come back for you as soon as we can. Dad left his guns in his gun safe in our room if you ever need it. The code is your birthday, Collin. There is also $1000 in the safe. Please be careful and look after each other. I'm sure that some of your friends had to be left behind as well. Try to get together with them and work together. The store owners were also told to evacuate so the stores are probably stocked with food and unguarded. Use them for food if you need it. Please be careful and we will come back for you as soon as we can.
We love you with everything,
Mom and Dad

“Ryan...read this...” I said fighting back tears as I handed him the note.

“So....we're alone....for a long time....by ourselves....with these monsters?” Ryan asked, but he didn’t expect an answer.

Everyone was quiet for a few minutes. A few of them had a tear rolling down their cheeks because they knew if they went home, they would find a note that said the same thing. I finally went to my parent's room and found the gun safe. It was an electronic lock with a 4 digit code. I typed in 1226 and opened the safe. There were two 9mm pistols. There was also a compound bow and some arrows, a double barrel shotgun, a .22 caliber rifle, and a tazer. I took the rifle for myself. Max took the bow and arrows. Ryan took a pistol, Nicoli took the shotgun, Justin took the last pistol, and Taylor grabbed the tazer.

“Now what?” Nicoli asked.

“Yeah...now what? What do we do now? Should we go to the police station?” Ryan said.

“The cops are all at the school remember? What good would going to the police station do?” Max replied.

“Then should we go back to the school?” Justin said.

“Bro...all those zombies attacked the people inside the gym. They are probably all dead by now...they might have even turned into one of them.” I answered.

“Lets just stay here then. We can wait here until a cop or some adult tells us what we should do.” Max said. “If we run out of food we can go to the store down the road.”

“Oh no...I forgot. I was supposed to go shopping today on my way home from school. We are out of food...” I answered.

“Okay, well I'm gunna go next door to see if anyone is there or not.” Ryan said

“You can't go by yourself. There might be some more of them out there. I'll come with you” I said grabbing my rifle.

“We might as well all go. Just in case.” Justin said as he picked up his handgun.

I opened the door slowly and looked around. There was nothing around so we walked to the next house and knocked on the door. There was no answer. I knocked again and still there was no answer. I opened the door and peered inside. There was no one anywhere inside the house. I walked around and I noticed a note on the fridge.

Dear Emily,
The monsters are right outside trying to break in. It is only a matter of time until they make me become one of them too. So I'm writing this letter to you to let you know that during my last few minutes of my life, I am thinking about you. I am so sorry for everything I have ever done. I wonder if you are thinking about me right now. I love you so much. I hope you are okay and survive from these monsters. If you are reading this, then please. Get out of this town. Go as far away from here as you can. Try to find a safe house and stay there with more people. I will stay here for as long as I can. But I will kill myself before these monsters get a chance to turn me into one of them.
Forever yours, your husband,
Johnny

“I wonder if the zombies got him before he killed himself...” Justin thought out loud.

“I wonder how many notes, like this, there is around the city.” Max said.

“Let's look around for anything we can use for weapons y’all” I told them.

“Or food. I'm starving!” Ryan replied.

We started searching the house for anything we could find. Ryan went straight for the fridge and grabbed everyone a soda and a slice of pizza.

“UGH!” Ryan yelled.

“What happened?!?!” I screamed running to the kitchen ready to fire my rifle.

“The stupid microwave don’t work and the pizza is cold.” Ryan cried in frustration.

“Bro! I thought you were being attacked!!! That's not cool.” I said. “Just eat the pizza cold. We can't worry about what the food is now that we are by ourselves. We just have to eat whatever we can, when we can.”

“I know. It's just that I hate cold pizza.” Ryan replied.

We all ate the cold pepperoni pizza and drank the warm Mountain Dew without complaining, because we knew it might be all we got for a while. Then we continued searching the house. I walked down the hall and saw a door that was closed. I tried to open it, but it was locked.

“Hey y’all. This door is locked. What do you think is behind here?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But it smells horrible.” Max said.

“You think maybe the zombies got him, and he locked himself in here so he wouldn't attack no one else?” Justin asked.

“I have no idea. There is only one way to find out though.” Ryan said.

We picked the lock and opened the door ready to fire our weapons at anything that moved. The smell was putrid, but we couldn’t find anything in the room that was causing it. Finally, Max opened the closest and jumped back yelling shooting arrows into the closet.

“What is it?!” I yelled.

We all aimed towards the closet door and waited for whatever was in there to come out.

“There is a body in there!” Max exclaimed.

I opened the door a little wider, prepared to shoot my rifle at anything that moved in there. There was a body in the closet sitting and leaned up against the wall with a .44 magnum in his hand. The man had shot himself through his chin all the way to his brain and out of the top of his head. He also had an arrow in each knee from Max's bow.

“I guess he killed himself before the zombies got him...” Justin said, answering his question from earlier.

“I'm gunna get his gun.” Taylor said, reaching for the dead man's .44 magnum.

“Bro...that's messed up...that's nasty.” I said.

“But grabbing this gun might save my life later...its a lot better than a stupid tazer.” He replied.

We filed out of the bedroom and went to the next room to continue our searching.

“Wait! Shhh!” I think I hear something I whispered.

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and listened hard....we didn't hear a thing.

“This is all going to your head bro. You're going crazy” Justin said.

“No! I swear...I heard something. It sounded like....” my sentence was cut short by something scratching at the door of the next room.

“See?! I told you I heard something! I wonder what it is?” I whispered.

Whatever was scratching at the door must have heard my voice, because the scratching got louder and it started whining.

“That sounds like a dog! Didn't Mr. Johnny have a dog?! He must have locked it in here so the zombies wouldn't kill it!” Ryan said, “Let's let him out. I'll bet it's starving!”

“Yeah you're right! What was it's name....uhm....Oh yeah! Buddy!” I answered. “Come on Buddy! It's okay. Do you remember me?”

I opened the door and the whining quickly turned into barking and snarling. Buddy looked horrible. He had slashes all over his body and his mouth was foaming white. He jumped at Taylor and knocked him over. I shot my rifle without aiming and hoped for the best. I heard a yelp and then silence. The shot hit Buddy on the side of his head, and knocked him off of Taylor. Taylor was just laying there on the ground in shock not moving or saying a word. I began to wonder if the demon dog had bit him and killed him. Nobody moved or said a word. Everyone was just staring back and forth between Taylor and the dog. Finally, Taylor lifted his arms to look at them and began crying.

“Are you okay?!?!?!” Ryan yelled

“Uhhhhhh....It hurts.....” Taylor cried.

“Did it bite you?!” Max asked fearfully.

“OBVIOUSLY!” Taylor yelled, “IT HURTS SO FREAKING BAD!!!!”

“Let me see.” I told him.

He showed me the wounds on both of his arms. I couldn't help but grimace at the sight. His arms were mangled. His muscles were torn and some pieces of flesh were dangling.

“H-h-h-how....bad is it?” Taylor managed to stutter out through clenched teeth.

“It's not that bad,” I lied to him.

“Does it hurt?” Ryan asked

“No...of course not....it feels freaking amazing!” Taylor gritted his teeth as he yelled.

“Hey bro. It's alright. Calm down. You will be okay. I'll go look for bandages and alcohol to clean it up.” I said calmly.

I left the room to search for some medicine. I ran straight to the medicine cabinet and found nothing but pain killers and gauze pads. I grabbed the pills and the gauze and went back to the group. Taylor's body was shaking and his voice was barely audible. I gave him the pills and a glass of water and looked at his arms to bandage them. I couldn't believe my eyes. The wounds were not bleeding. Instead, they had pus running out of them constantly. The skin on his arms were turning green, and the smell was horrible. His body started to convulse rapidly and severely.

“All I could find is bandages and pain pills, and the wound needs to be cleaned before it's bandaged. So I'm gunna go back to my house to get some alcohol or peroxide or something” I said quietly.

“I'll come too! Remember it's not exactly safe out there.” Justin reminded me. I was so focused on Taylor's wounds that I forgot all about the zombies.

“Okay. Let's hurry though.” I said.

We walked out and while we were looking for more medicine for Taylor, Justin asked me, “Did you see how bad his arm's are?”

“Yeah...they are really bad. When I looked, his arms were turning green.” I replied

“I hope he is gunna be okay...wait...if the zombies attacked the dog and he turned evil...you don’t think that....” Justin's voice trailed off in terror.

“Now that I think about it....the dog's skin was green too....and Taylor's skin is turning the same green color that the zombies were...” I said.

Justin's eyes widened in horror. “We gotta go back now!” he yelled looking for his gun.

“What are you doing?! Let's go!” I exclaimed.

“I'm looking for my gun. If he already turned then we are gunna need it!” Justin replied.

“We don't have time for to look! Let's just go! We need to get everyone else away from him!” I yelled.

“Okay okay! Just go then!” Justin said.

I ran out of the back door of my house and into the back door of the next house. I dashed through the halls as fast as I could trying to get to the group in the room. I finally reached the room and found the door to be locked. I kicked the door as hard as I could and knocked it over. I saw the group huddled around Taylor, his body was still convulsing. Suddenly, the shaking stopped. Everyone fell silent.

“.....Is he....dead?” Ryan asked in disbelief.

Just as soon as the words left his mouth, Taylor screamed and yelled thrusting his hands at the nearest person, Max. Max leaped back in fear and a shot rang out. Taylor fell back to the ground. He didn't move again. Just as soon as it started, it stopped.

“Well if he wasn't...he is now” Justin said quietly, holding his handgun in his right hand, with the barrel slightly smoking.

We all sat silently for a few minutes. One of our best friends had just died in front of our own eyes, and not a natural death either. He died because he was shot, and not just by anyone....by one of our other best friends. Justin still hadn't moved when I finally decided to break the silence.

“Well...what should we do now? We can't call the cops...Justin will go to jail. We can't go to an adult, cuz all that we know are evacuated.” I muttered.

“But...but...but...it wasn't Taylor though! It was one of the monster things! Taylor was already dead. I killed the monster thing....Didn't I? There wasn't any chance for Taylor to come back...Right? Please guys....Please tell me I'm right...Please tell me I didn’t kill Taylor...” Justin started crying.

“We could have strapped him down so he couldn't harm any of us and just fed him ourselves and waited for help. We could have just waited for the adults to finally come back or for a cop to come double check to make sure everyone evacuated...They might have been able to help him, but they definitely can't now...” Nicoli said.

“No...no....no no no! No! No! NO NO NO!....I didn't kill him! I couldn't have! He was my best friend! That stupid freaking demon dog killed him!!!” Justin yelled and screamed, and then began kicking and hitting and shooting the dead dog continuously. A tear drop rolled down his cheek and he gradually slowed down the beating.

“He was my best friend....I killed my best friend...” Justin sobbed quietly. The tears began to flow as if someone had turned on a sink.

“It's okay bro. Taylor wasn't himself anymore. He was different.” I reassured him.

“Come on guys...let's let Justin have some alone time.” Max said.

“Yeah you're right.” I replied. I turned to Justin and said, “Hey bro. We're going back next door to my house to get some sleep. Tomorrow we are gunna explore around town and look for more survivors. You can stay here if you want to. If you wanna come back next door with us, just run over and knock on the door and we will let you in.”

I could tell he heard me, but he didn't respond. He just shook his head. I didn't want to leave him by himself, but we needed to get back to my house and start barricading the entrances just in case the zombies might decide to try to get in to us. I grabbed Justin's 9mm and put it in on the bed stand next to him. He saw the gun and dropped his head and watched the blood run from Taylor's wound without saying a word. We turned and began to walk back to my house. No one spoke a word even when we reached my house. Everyone remained silent with their heads hung towards the ground in disbelief. When I warmed up some of the left over pizza that we got next door, there was barely a bite taken.

“Guys...we need to barricade the windows and doors to make sure nothing can get in.” I said.

“What about Justin? We can't just leave him next door until tomorrow. What if he wants to come back?” Ryan asked.

“Then we just open the door. We don't want to barricade ourselves in. We just want to barricade everything out. If need be, we can just open the door and let him in.” Nicoli replied.

“Exactly, but it has to be done. Otherwise, we won't be able to sleep tonight.” I added.