We start walking away from that game… My eyes stick to the ground as I shamefully trudge away from our makeshift football field. My team loses again. Why do I even try to win?

“Hey Josh! Cheer up! You only lost by twelve touchdowns this time!” Trav says, attempting to lighten our mood.

“Good point!” I say with fake enthusiasm.”You know what? Lets play something we’re all good at! Prepare to watch as I whoop you all at soccer!”
“Sure, and I’ll turn wood into stone…” Buchta jokes.
“We’ll see about that.” I ominously reply. We split up the teams evenly, and we're starting with the ball. There’s no way we can lose! I accidentally kick off the ball to Trav. He dribbles it up the field and with one of his famous sound effects he always makes. He elegantly kicks the ball right into the goal.
“Zingo! Who’s the best at soccer? I am!” He yells, right in my face.
“You know what Trav? Shut up-” I begin to retort. At that very moment a large squadron of planes soar over our heads. “What did Obama do now?” I joke.
Just then tornado sirens go off. A moment later, a megaphone shouts at us, ”The government has issued an official code red for your area, we suggest that you seek shelter. This is due to an official CDC severe outbreak warning.”
“What the heck is going on?” Alex questions the obvious.
“My Mom!” Trav exclaims.
“Now’s not the time, Trav!” I yell back. He then repeats the same joke over and over… Couldn’t he shut his mouth for 30 seconds?
“Who’s that running towards Mr. Hanks?” Buchta points out. Just then a man with his arms extended, torn clothing, and a crazy look in his eyes tackles the old man who is tending to his lawn. We are speechless as the man tears Mr. Hanks apart. Is this the beginning of the end? The thought begins to echo in my mind.

Dangit, he hung up on me! I bet he’s in bed already. Still thinking about the bogus football game, I head into my room, and turn on the t.v. I see Spongebob’s face for a split second and then bright blue words flash onto the screen: WARNING, EPIDEMIC IN THESE COUNTIES: MCHENRY, COOK, KANE, WINNEBAGO, AND LAKE. DO NOT EXIT YOUR HOMES AND BE PREPARED WITH ANYTHING TO DEFEND YOURSELF. Uh oh. I run outside to try to notify the others, when I see Josh, Alex, Buchta, and Trav running from a man with a torn shirt and a blood stained mouth. Quickly, I head into Joey’s house and I find him looking out a window, watching the scene unfold.

“Dude, we need to get some weapons to take this guy down. I saw a television announcement about some crazy epidemic in our area!” I tell him.
“Yeah, helicopters just passed, warning people. I’ll get my spear and you grab my dad’s machetes!” he yells.
“Ok, open the garage.” I take two machetes off of a shelf and head outside. I’m glad these are sharpened. Joey and I sprint towards the freak. Just as he’s about to grab Alex, we catch his attention.
“Umm…”Joey says, “I don’t think that thing’s human.” The creature comes after us and Joey throws his spear. The thing gets speared through the side and Josh runs over to it and starts punching it. I finally reach the zombie. I try to take a swing at the head, but it’s more dexterous than I thought. It dodges my blade, and lands right on top of me. I see Joey standing over me, in shock. I would like some help, Joey! I push up on its head, preventing it from biting me. My arms start to feel like jello, and I can’t hold on for much longer. After a few moments, my arms give out. I thought that this would be the end, but I see the zombie suddenly slump over on top of me, somewhat lifelessly. I look up to see Trav, and a dagger in the zombie’s head.
“Wow, thanks Trav!” I say.
“No problem,” he says, sticking out his hand. I grab it, and he pulls me up. I just then realize that the only way we are going to survive this mess… Teamwork.

Five Minutes Earlier
“Oh, crap!” I say, as I see my neighbor being wolfed down by another guy. “That’s no man!”
“It’s a zombie!” Josh shouts. “RUN! Get weapons!”
While Buchta and I run away, I see Josh attempt to take out the zombie with his karate moves.
I open my front door, and rush inside. I go upstairs into my room, looking for anything useful. I find my dagger and a cardboard L.A.R.P.ing shield. This should keep at least one zombie entertained. Who knows how many there are. I blame it on Obama!
I also take my school backpack and my sister’s Science Olympiad chocolate bars. You’ll never know when these will come in handy!
I snatch a deck of cards, a flashlight, and the $300 I got from mowing lawns. I hope the others bring food too, because there is only so much I can carry I think as I run out of my house.
I spot the zombie about to bite John, so I throw my dagger. It hits the zombie’s head and tears it off.
Alex is cowering in the shadows, weeping like a baby, looking absolutely horrified, so I try to lighten the mood. “Who wants chocolate?” Everyone smiles at me, except John. John looks as if he’s in a state of shock, staring at the starry black sky, pupils dilated.

“Guys,” He says, “We’re gonna need the whole crew for this.”

We all take some blood stained chocolate, and then make a game plan. Trav and I will round up the rest of our friends, while John, Alex, Buchta, and Josh gather weapons, food, and other supplies we might need. First stop, Roger’s house. Trav and I get our weapons, and start to make our way farther down the street. We knock on the door. No answer. We’re not going to take no for an answer. We climb up to his roof, and knock on his bedroom window. No answer. We still aren’t taking no for an answer. After various attempts at prying open his window, Trav and I both agree to take this into our own hands. I use the butt end of my spear to bash the window open. We rush in to find Roger asleep, curled up in a ball, unaware of what’s happening. We rapidly shake him awake and explain the situation to him.
“We have to go. Now.” Trav says, with a stern tone in his voice.
“You guys are lying! Zombies aren’t real, just leave me alone!” Roger is always irritable after waking up.
“Trav, go downstairs and grab anything that we will need. I’ll convince Roger to believe us.” I command. I’m never going to be able to convince him verbally… But I can if I use brute force. I find a rope on Roger’s bedroom floor, so I stroll over to him, and quickly hog tie him before he has the chance to struggle. I go out of the broken window, with Roger slung over my right shoulder, and spear in left hand.
Trav and I head back to our meeting spot, where we find the others counting cans of sodas and bags of chips. I notice Alex sucking on his inhaler, and Buchta arguing whether doritos are better than sunchips. So basically, everything’s normal. Trav dumps his load, adding on to the mess of unhealthy foods. He actually collected some useful stuff. I thought he would look for L.A.R.P.ing equipment or something. Trav found leftovers from Roger’s latest dinner, a bunch of matches, gunpowder, and some large kitchen knives. Looking at our supplies, I estimate that we could survive about a week if we aren’t killed. Hopefully that will give us enough time to find a steady food and water supply, along with a good shelter. Our final destination, Ian’s house. I decide to bring John along, because Ian may be a bit harder to handle. I feel as if Trav deserves a break anyways. As John and I go far down the street, we hear an ominous moan come from an unknown location.
“Uh, how about we go a bit faster?” I suggest.
“Sure…” John replies, as we sprint down the street, frantically searching for Ian’s house. When we find it, go up to the door, and twist the doorknob. Surprisingly, it’s unlocked. John and I sneak in, and stealthily creep down the hallway leading to Ian’s room. I open Ian’s bedroom door, to find him upside down, hanging on a horizontal metal pole from the tips of his toes. Asleep. What the… heck? I carefully step towards Ian, and casually poke him in the stomach. His eyes flash open, and he slaps me on reflex.
“What are you doing in my room?!” Ian screams.
“Calm down, what I’m about to tell you will blow your mind. It’s the zombie apocalypse, and we need you and any supplies that you may own.” I explain, as I brace myself for a counterargument.
“Oh cool! I finally get to use my zombie survival kit I received as a Christmas present from my Uncle Steve! At last I can put my shotgun to use!”
“Wait, you have a shotgun?!” John exclaims, as a grin widens on his face.
“Yep, look,” Ian says, as he points to a Nerf shotgun in the corner of his room.
“Oh, I thought you meant a real one,” John says, with the grin fading away.
“You want real guns? Well my dad has a musket in the living room,” Ian tells us. John’s grin returns.
“Do you know how to use it?” I ask
“Yep, I’ve been a professional since I was three years old! I think at least.” Ian says.
“Well, can you grab it for us and meet us outside?” I ask him.
“Ok, be back in a jiffy!” Ian yells, zipping out of the room. Well that was easier than I had anticipated. We meet Ian in his front yard. Ian snagged the musket, along with ammo, snacks and toilet paper. We all stroll back down the street singing “I’m a Survivor.” With the whole group together, along with various types of supplies, the cards seem to be in our favor. We might make it through this invasion after all.
“Uh oh.” John says. His grin vanishes.

John and Joey just left to retrieve Ian, and he leaves Trav, Buchta, and I to take care of the now shaking Alex.
“Why do we get babysitting duty? This is crap! I mean, we’re in the middle of a zombie outbreak, and we have to stay here and watch them.” I complain to no one in particular.
“What do you think about us leaving Roger and Buchta here to tend to Alex while we go scavenge nearby homes?” Trav asks.
“Well, we only have about two weeks of rations… Lets go!” I quickly decide. We find two daggers and a large bag in the “forts” stockpile. “This should be perfect for our looting,” I tell Trav. He nods in agreement. We head off to the now vacant house across the street.
We try to turn the doorknob… Locked. Trav begins to bash the knob with any blunt item he can find. Finally with a rock the lock brakes on his 8th hit. We barge in, nothing in the main foyer. We search room after room finding nothing but useless junk like pillows and furniture.
“I found the kitchen Josh!” Trav yells across the house. I run over to where I heard his voice, and behold there was a fully stocked kitchen. We shoved canned goods, cereal boxes, and sweets into our bag.
“Nice job Trav, I’m pretty sure this will last us at least another week. If rationed properly.” I say happily. There is only one last spot to check, the basement. We open the door, and begin to descend the wooden stairs. Trav flicks on the flashlight he brought along. The basement instantly illuminates. We can see everything.... And so can all of the infected.

3 hours earlier earlier…

My forehead is burning hotter than the surface of the sun. Sweat drips down my body at an alarming rate. The color is draining from my cheeks. My stomach has the rumble of a washing machine. I think I just might be sick.

Ring Ring Ring. It’s the phone.

“What?”

“Hey man, wanna come out with us and play some o’ dat football?” John yells into the phone.

“Nah, I’m sick. Very sick.” I tell him, coughing.


“You sure, it’ll be a blast!” John explains.

“Nah I can’t even stand up man!” I complain to him.


“Ok, my brotato!” John says, with a hint of sympathy in his voice.

“Ok, bye home dizzle-dawg,” I tell him, hanging up the call.
I put down the phone and begin to wonder what this disease is, and how I contracted it. I don’t wonder for long though, because I fall asleep in an instant.

15 Minutes Earlier


I abruptly get shaken awake, to see Trav barging into my room through the window talking about some absurd zombie story. Do those guys ever stop L.A.R.P.ing?
“You guys are lying, zombies aren't real! Just leave me alone!” I yell at them, furious about them waking me up.
“Trav, go downstairs and grab anything that we will need. I’ll convince Roger to believe us.” Joey orders. Trav runs down the hall obediently. Then Joey ties me up and starts to haul me out the window. Wow, these guys are serious about their L.A.R.P.ing. Joey drops me off in the middle of the street, next to a pile of supplies. Alex and Buchta are also there looking around nervously. Man could this really be real? My mind is racing at the thought. I’ve never seen them so serious before.
“Guys tell me for real, is this a L.A.R.P.ing session?”
“No, we’re not lying to you.” Buchta replies, with a shaken up voice “Trav and Joey even saw Mr.Hanks get torn apart.”
“Wait, Mr.Hanks?! How many of us are there left?”
“I don't know, Trav and Josh just went to find more supplies, while John and Joey are going to get Ian. But other than that it’s a mystery.”
“Wait? So there’s a zombie apocalypse and we’re sitting in the middle of the street?”
“Yeah, he does have a point. Alex, should we be sitting in the middle of the street?” Buchta asks.
“Well what’s the worst that can happen?” Alex says with a smug look on his face,
“We can take a zombie.”
“Umm how about five?” Buchta says. I turn my head to see that Buchta was right. Off in the distance there is a small group of zombies sprinting towards us.
“Quick! Untie Roger and give him something to fight with.” Alex yells out brandishing an iron bar. Buchta untied me and shoved a kitchen knife into my hands.
“Is this my kitchen knife?!” I yell at them. “This is used for cutting vegetables, not zombies!”
“Fine... take this dagger instead.” He replies, annoyed that he has to give his dagger up. “This will work great!” I say, a grin creeping onto my face. If you zombies want to kill me, well let’s just see you try!

The zombies spread out trying to take out the person closest to them. Alex swings his metal bar and hits a zombie in the head. It cracks open and starts gushing blood. I run forward to help, but I attract a different zombie. It tries to attack me but I manage to stab it in the eye. The zombie crumples to the ground. I start to get back up but the same zombie is on top of me again, thrashing at my neck. I close my eyes, waiting for the bite, but it never comes. I look up to see John standing over me, holding two bloody swords. He runs over to kill the final zombie, but Ian shoots it in the face. John comes back to me, helps me up, and speaks,
“Joey and Trav weren’t lying to you.”
“Oh really?” I reply “I didn't notice!”

Josh and I stand in the entrance to the basement. There are zombies everywhere.
“Man, that is a lot of zombies!” I exclaim.
They start to slowly trudge towards us up the wooden stairs. I thrust my shield at the first zombie, and he loses his balance, falling down. I try the same technique on another zombie, but this one manages to take a bite out my shield before tumbling down the stairs.
I look over to Josh, who is using his amazing karate skills to decapitate the zombies. He’ll get tired fast doing that. I need to come up with something quickly before we die down here.
I look at the flashlight in my hands, and I get an idea. I smash it against the wooden railing as hard as I can. Just as I thought, it bursts into flame. I see a cluster of zombies on the other side of the basement, so I move to the bottom of the stairs. As I block a zombie with my shield-hand, I chuck the flaming flashlight at the cluster. My throw is good, and one of the zombies bursts into flames. Then, because of the stupidity of undead, all the zombies that are near the burning one burst into flames as well.
“Nice throw!’ Josh yells over the moaning noises as he kills the zombie I was blocking. “Eight left -I counted ‘em!”
“We need to leave. Now!” I shout, using my shield to launch a zombie into the waiting fist of Josh. “We’ll lose all of our energy! Or worse- we’ll lose our lives!”
“What about the loot? We can’t just leave it!” Josh complains. I attempt to bash a zombie’s head into a wall, killing it. As I bring the shield back, I see that it is caught on the zombie’s tooth. I tug on it, but that only rips the shield apart.
“Forget the loot! More zombies will come, and we already lost the shield and a flashlight!” I counter. Josh reluctantly nods, turning on his heel to ascend the stairs.
A zombie waits for us at the top.
I pull back my arm to throw my dagger, but then I get a good look at the zombie. It looks fresh, like it is still part human, not fully corrupted yet. Its clothes aren’t torn either. I can see a white shirt with the number 42 written on it with blue letters.
I only know one person who has that shirt, I realize.
It’s Zion.

I had fun killing my first zombie of the apocalypse. I was also glad that I saved my friend's life. But, I had a more pressing matter at hand. I had used my only musket ball. I look down the street to see another pack of zombies headed our way. I look at our pile of loot and see some rope and my brother's false ruby hilted sword. I tie my musket to my back and grab the newly-sharpened sword.



"C'mon John. Let's go! I need to get more ammo, I used my one and only shot for Roger, and I need a buddy to go with me!" I shout.



"Ok, I'm coming!" John yells back. We charge down the street, headed straight at a pack of zombies. Next thing I know, we're plowing through them, stabbing and slicing whatever’s in reach. There were only four or five, but we end up panting like dogs once we’re finished.



"Where are we going to get lead?” John asks. “Can’t the ammo just be marbles or something?"



"No, lead is traditional, nice, and heavy. Enough to put a hole through a zombie’s skull. Anyways, there is one place I know of that might have some lead. The Briarwood recycling center, over by my house." I reply.



"Alright," John says.



"Lets get going," I say, leaving at a brisk pace.



Upon our arrival, I find just what I need. I make a pile of about five pounds of lead, sheets of aluminum, a backpack, fireproof gloves, and a lighter. By now it’s pitch black outside.



"We better set up camp for now, ‘cause I can’t see a thing", John says.



"You're right, I can make the bullets now, and complete the cartridges later, because we have plenty of gunpowder and paper back at the main camp," I say. John tries to light a fire while I make molds out of the strong aluminum.



Just as I take the last musket ball out of the mold, we hear a scratching sound.



"What is that?" John whispers as we draw our bloodied swords.




"I don't know, but it doesn't sound good" I reply. Just then, we see a figure emerge from the shadows, pause, then turn back to the darkness.
Ten minutes later, we hear a blood-curdling scream, and so we decide to spend the night with alternating shifts. When I wasn't watching, I got little and shaky sleep, with plenty of nightmares. I knew it would be a long night…
In the morning we return to the meeting place to find that the rest of the group is all there, and getting worried. While breakfast is being cooked, I finish up my cartridges. Now I have a ton more shots. I clean and load my gun, then put the rest of the ammo, the ruby studded sword, my survival kit, the lighter, and a small amount of rations in my backpack. I really look like I'm from those zombie movies.
"I'm ready for anything," I announce, right as Buchta calls for breakfast. I feel great physically and mentally, but I sense that something's wrong. I peer into some of Roger's bushes, and see a figure crouching behind them, watching us. It's the same figure as last night. I don't think it's going to turn away this time I think, as I remember the scream last night.

I step into the doorway, relieved to have found my friends. Although I have to admit this apocalypse isn’t too bad because the zombies are kind of ignoring me…

“AHHHHHHHHH”, Josh lets out a squeal. What confused me was what he said next.

“Y-Y-You’re a zombie! What?!”

“Well let’s save him!” says Travis.

“What should we do?” Josh asks.

“Well, we can’t kill him now. We have to save him.”

I open my mouth, ready to release a barrage of questions. Instead a terrifying gurgling sound escapes my lips, sounding like a dying whale. Both Josh and Travis send a glare in my direction.

“See? He needs help!”


Could they be right? Could I be a zombie? I look down at my hands and see pale skin. My fingers chill my neck when I brush them against it. And as much as I wanted to deny it, Josh and Travis’ flesh looked pretty tasty. As the realization dawned upon me, a look of horror came upon my face.

Josh grabs Travis’ wrist, “Wait! Roger knows first aid! What if he could heal him with someone’s help? Do you know what this means? We could save everyone!

I growl and point behind them.

“The zombies are coming up the stairs!” they shout. “Help us Zion!”

I finally found survivors. I might be able to receive assistance for my serum. I’ve been following traces of them for days now. I think now is the time to introduce myself. I pop out of a bush and casually step towards the group. Next thing I know, Ian is holding a gun in my face.

“Who are you, and why are you here?” He seems serious.

"Ian, I don't have time for this!” I say, matter of factly.
I try to shove past him but I he grabs me and puts the gun to my head.

"Answer the questions. Now."

"Sorry for this dude." I grab his gun and twist his wrist until he lets go. I aim up in the air and close my eyes.

BANG! I hear the bullet hit a tree. I notice that everyone comes out, running to us. They were all staring at me. It seems as if nobody recognizes me. Had I really changed that much? The focus of the group then changed to Ian and his almost broken wrist. I knelt down next to him and take a look at his arm.

"Really sorry Ian. Really. Ok does it hurt too much when I do this?"
Ian shakes his head.

"I take that as a no. Ok. Sorry. Umm." I look around their base.
"Joey, I need you to get me a bottle of water and a wet towel. Quickly I might add." Joey runs off and I'm left with everyone trying to help Ian. John grabs me by the shoulder and turns me around. He then proceeds to punch me in the face, knocking me out cold.

After returning from the recycling place, I tell everyone about the weird noises we heard. While Alex cooks breakfast, everyone does their own thing. Ian finishes his bullets, Buchta gears up for another attack, and Travis and Josh are… Nowhere to be found

“Hey guys, where’s Travis and Josh?” I ask. Roger opens his mouth to speak when a chimpanzee call comes from Ian. I look over to see Ian holding his gun up to some stranger. Everybody runs over to see what’s wrong, a gunshot goes off, and then the dude breaks Ian’s wrist. The guy tells Joey to go do something and he proceeds to walk over to us. I can’t let him do this, We’re just getting started in this apocalypse. On impulse, I sprint over and punch him in the face. If he was a zombie, his head might’ve flown off. Everyone stands around me, staring at the limp boy.

“So, what now?” I ask.

“Ummmm,” Roger says, “Should we like, hide him in a bush or something?”

“Already on it!” I turn around to find Buchta lugging the unconscious body across the street.

“What now?” I ask.

“Uh, we can like… eat.” Alex says.
As we munch on some old bacon, Joey comes back and asks, “Where’s Matt?”

“Who?” I ask.

“Matt, you know, the guy that came out of the bush!”

“Oh, him. I sort of… knocked him out.” Joey facepalms and explains to us that this kid, Matt, was going to help us. Supposedly, Joey met Matt online just a few weeks ago. Matt’s dad is an HCPC registered biomedical scientist who researches the apocalypse and the rapture. The scientists have found a possibility of the apocalypse happening very soon, based on biblical studies. Matt has been trying to warn his friends, but nobody would listen. All he wanted to do was help us. I show Joey where Matt is and we try to take care of him and Ian. After a while, everything starts to settle down, but yet again, I wonder where Josh and Travisis have gone.

Again, I ask, “Where did Travis and Josh go?”

“I don’t know,” says Roger, “I think they are still scavenging for food. They’re probably asleep in one of these houses.”

“Should we try to find them?”

“Nah, I think they’re ok. After all, you and Ian survived that warehouse place all alone.”

“True, True.” I say.

“Uhh, guys,” Buchta calls, “I think we have company.” Buchta points towards a field and we see two figures coming towards us. Immediately, Buchta runs after the zombies, after he’s close I expect to see him coming back with blood all over him but instead, Buchta just stands there. He then turns around and motions for us to come to him. Roger and Alex just sit there, dumbfounded, so I run over to see what’s wrong. I stand there to see two kids about our age.

“Dangit,” I say, “Are there ANY adults still alive?!?”

I finally reach the camp I heard Matt talking about. Buchta runs up to me, but is shocked at my appearance. Rusted sword in one hand, unconscious brother in the other. Man, it must look bad. John comes over as well. He says something about adults. Then he and Buchta escort me and Brian to the camp.

“What happened?” Roger asks as he sees Brian.

“At our house was taken by raiders,”I say. “Brian and I sustained by minor injuries. Then we heard from Matt about the camp. On our way we-”

“Got attacked by raiders,” Brian weakly says. He then slips back into unconsciousness. “Brian knocked his head and twisted his ankle,” I explain. “He has been in and out of consciousness all day.”

“Oh, I’m sure we can work on him,” Roger says. “He doesn’t seem too bad.”
“Good,” I reply. As Roger fixes up my brother, Joey gives me a stone to sharpen my blade. A sudden fatigue hits me. This zombie apocalypse stuff is tiring. As I’m about to hit the hay, I hear a rustling in the bushes. I turn to see Matt’s head pop out. He has a black eye and has obviously been in there for a while. Branches are sticking out of his head like an ent.

“How did I get here?” Matt asks. “All I remember is getting punched in the face by John.”
“I think I overheard that Buchta dragged you over there after the KO,” I answer. “Apparently, none of these South kids except for Joey know you.”

“Oh well,” Matt says. “I’m gonna get some food. See you later.”

“See ya,” I answer.

I fall asleep to the sounds of my brother screaming in pain.

“OWWWWWWW!” I yell as Roger tries to heal my broken ankle.
“Will you shut up I’m kind of of working here.” Roger complains as he messes with my leg some more. I haven’t really checked my surroundings since I was knocked out. So I glance around to see Joey, John, Ian, Buchta, and Alex.
“Where are Travis, Josh, Zion, and Matt”? I confusedly ask.
“Travisis, and Josh are getting more supplies and Zion is sick.” John says accordingly.
“For some reason they don’t know who Matt is. John pummeled him because he broke Ian’s wrist.” Joey says.
“Well, at least no one’s dea-, OWWWWW!”.

“Sorry!” Roger retorts.
We look to be in pretty good shape for a zombie apocalypse, but I haven’t seen no zombies yet, all I’ve seen is raiders.
“By any chance have you guys fought off a raider yet”?
“No, and I do not wish to”. Says Alex in a cowardly tone.
“Well you better be ready because a raider ain’t like no zombie!” I explain.
“What is a raider like?” Asks Buchta.
“Well first of all they work for the zombies. And second of all they are like half human half zombie creatures that have the most ferocious looking face you’ve ever seen, most of the time they have swords/guns with them.”
Everyone looks intrigued except for Alex who’s as frightened as ever.
“What sound do they make?” Joey questions.
“They make this awful screeching noise.”
All of a sudden I hear an defying screech in the distance.
“Like that”? Roger says worriedly.
“Like that.” I say in a low voice. My face turns pale as I see a brigade of raiders charging this way.
“Take this”. Colin is suddenly awake and hands me a dagger. I drag myself up to find everybody equipped with their own weapon. My ankle feels a lot better but not the best.
“On 3 we will go,” Joey says
‘1,2….3”!
“AHHHHHHHHHH!”
We all sprint like cheetahs towards the raiders. Colin’s the first one to get there and he flips gracefully over a raider and slices it’s head off. I meet up with a raider and slide under it’s legs, throwing off balance. I get up quickly and stab it in the back. I am happy to see Joey, Ian, John, Roger and Buchta pounding the raiders into pieces. Even Alex is getting in on the action. A raider pulls up besides me. He takes a swipe at my face but I’m too quick. I’m able to kill it before it eats me. Once I’m done, I get surrounded by even more raiders. I Immediately swing and dodge until I find myself with one last raider.
“Look behind you!” I shout.
The raider turns around ready to attack the make believe person while I kick him in the neck. John races over and repeatedly skewers it. I’m relieved to see nobody is hurt. A few scratches here and there but they can easily be healed.
I look at the ground asking myself, When does this end?

For two days, Josh and I have been trapped in this basement, hiding in a secured bathroom. But now, we are out of food, and we will have to make a run for it soon. But how will we take out all the zombies?

“On the count of three, let’s charge!” We rally up with Josh. I hold a showerhead on a tube like a flail, and Josh wields a toilet seat as a shield. Zion had left to get help from the others.

“Three, two, one! CHARGE!!!!”
We bash the bathroom door out, and zombies immediately head towards us. There were more of them than from before. Before there were less than 10, now there are around 20. Suddenly, I notice a clear path to the stairs.
“Josh! To the stairs!”
We ran up the stairs, killing zombies as we went. We burst through the door and sprint on. The zombies continued to chase us, but we were faster. We burst out of the front door.

“Joey! John! Zombies are coming!” I scream into the open.

“Josh! I see campfire smoke over there!” I tell him. “Let’s go!”


When we arrive at the camp, I see some unfamiliar faces.

“Must be North kids.” I whisper to Josh.

“How long does it take to get supplies?” John says, angered. “You didn’t even get very much!”

“Zombies attacked. We made shelter in a bathroom. Who are those people?” I ask, pointing to the three unfamiliar kids.

“That is Colin and Brian, twins. Their house was raided.” Joey explains. “And that is Matt, a Zombie specialist I met online. He and Robert are trying to cure Zion.”

“They go to North Middle School. As our party grows in size, we’ll be able to handle larger forces, including other humans” says Buchta.

Colin and Brian grimace at the memory of raiders overtaking there house.

“Well, now what? What’s our next move?” I ask. “Zion’s not getting any better, we have a large stockpile of supplies, and zombies will continue to attack as their numbers grow. All of our friends are here, plus a few North kids. We’re standing in the woods out in the open. What do we do now?”

“If fighting gets bad, we could fortify my house and use it as a base.” Joey suggests.

“Oh, man! The fighting just got bad!” John says, pointing.

I turn to see three strong-looking zombies with assorted guns, running down Eagle Street, heading towards us.

“Those…” Joey says, “Are raiders.”

I run out of the house, hearing the yells of everyone as the raiders approach. There are two or three of them sauntering towards us. The raiders are faster than normal zombies but are still slow. “Hey everyone!” I yell out. “Just get all the supplies into the house, Joey, John, and I will fend off the raiders.” Everyone starts bringing all the supplies into Joey’s place, John and Joey look at each other and say “Weasel Cheese.” Weirdos. We unsheath our weapons, me with two large cleavers, Joey with a spear, and John with two machetes. The raiders are getting closer and closer by the second. Finally I hear the doors of the house close and see that all the supplies were brought in. A smile creeps on my face, time for the fun to begin. The four of us ran at the raiders and split up.

“Roger! Get the one on the left! John, take the one on the right. I’ll take the one in the middle” Joey shouts out. I run at the raider on the left, throwing my cleaver at him as I duck down and chop it’s leg. The raider barely registers that I hit him and aims his gun at me. I grab my cleavers from the ground and duck. I feel the bullet graze my ear and a sudden burst of adrenaline comes over me. I kick the raider in the face and grab his gun from him. I am the gun at his head and pull the trigger. I hear a loud bang and the raider falls limp, a giant hole in his skull. I see that Joey and John are having more trouble taking out their raiders although compared to theirs, mine might as well have been a normal zombie. As Joey’s looks the largest I struggle to reload the gun and charge towards it. It registers that I am coming at it and starts to ignore Joey for a while. We both aim our guns at the same time, and all of the sudden I hear a loud bang and everything goes black as I hit the ground.

After what seems like an eternity I open my eyes. There are two other dead raiders lying on the ground with holes in their heads. Both Joey and John are on the ground moaning. I run over to them worried and ask, “What the heck just happened?! Do you think something’s wrong?”

“What could’ve happened?” John says groggily, picking himself up off the ground.

“I don't know, but that was strange, I just remember seeing John take down his raider and a loud bang, then it all went black.” Joey adds

“That was really weird, lets just go back to the house” I suggest. Joey and John take the guns from the fallen raiders and we walk back to the house

We walk into the house again and notice that everyone was watching our fight. “It wasn't that exciting really, minus the part where I almost got my head blasted off.” I told them.

“Yeah.” Joey pitched in “It is only bad if there are a lot of them, then they get bad but with a small group like that one it is really not that bad fighting them.”
After that everyone seems like they have fallen into routine. We send off teams to go collect food from the nearby houses that we haven't checked already, once they come back with a few boxes of spaghetti and sauce I instantly know what I want to cook. Once it is time for dinner, our first unrationed meal of the day. Normally we have to ration our food but because we found so much in our searches today we decided to veto that idea for dinner.

“So guys, I was thinking,” Josh starts “ More and more zombies have been appearing, do you think we should fortify the house?”

“Yeah, I was thinking that too, lets start tomorrow.” Travisis agrees.

After dinner we are all cleaning up outside when we hear a bunch of noises coming from the woods.

“Guys, I forgot to tell you, Raiders first send out a scouting party then the army arrives.” Joey says with a terrified tone in his voice.
I bang my cleaver on my frying pan and shout out “EVERYONE, GET YOUR WEAPONS AND DO IT NOW!!” I see the raiders come out of the woods, some of them holding military grade guns in their hands, looking ready for a fight. All of the sudden I have an idea. “Hey Joey, do you think we could rig one of the propane tanks to explode?” I ask with as a huge smile creeps onto my face.

My grandparents send me a cool t-shirt for my birthday and it gets ruined on just the fourth day of the apocalypse. Unbelievable! I mess with my wound while Zion slowly succumbs to the zombie virus. Strange, Roger’s cure stopped working right after the encounter with the raiders. We had to lock him in the basement.
The north kids pull out their weapons ready to kill, so do I. But, from the basement Zion makes this weird noise, sorta like Chewbacca or something. Everybody goes dead silent, no pun intended. We then hear more of the Chewbacca noises coming from a forest nearby. We all head to the forest, still putting off the fact that we will have to kill Zion. As we’re walking, zombies and raiders pour out of the forest and onto Eagle street.
“Oh crap!” Josh hollers, fumbling with his knife. Me and Joey look at each other and nod, once more. We charge, along with Buchta,Travisis and Roger who know very well we are basically committing suicide. All of the others charge behind us, ready to win this battle. Two swords in hand, I reach the horde, slashing and stabbing as quick as I can. I get swallowed up immediately, overwhelmed. I notice that Joey and Roger are yelling.
“GET AWAY! It’s gonna blow!” Everyone hears too late as the both of them are running in to place the propane bomb, like we did in the raider battle. The next we all see is a flash of orange and then a burning sensation. I lay on the ground, dead. Words come across my eyes that say:

GAME OVER
DAYS SURVIVED: 4
ZOMBIES KILLED: 17
SURVIVAL RATING: B+

I step out of my capsule and back into ZimmieZ Arcade, I look around and find both Joey and Travisis talking to Joey’s mom. I walk over there.
“Hey guys,” I say.
“You got demolished, too?” Travisis asks me.
“Yup.”
“So,” Joey’s mom starts talking, “Did you guys have fun?”
“Yeah, it was so realistic. For a moment there I forgot it was all simulated!” Joey says.
“I agree.” I say.
“You better, I paid five bucks a kid for 12 kids!”
“Well, it was worth the price,” Travisis replies, “Even though I didn’t pay for it.” He adds.
“So, the game told me I killed 17 zombies and got a B+ in survival skill.” I tell them.
“Me, too.” Travisis says, “But I only killed 12 zombies.”
“I killed 22 zombies and got a B in survival.” Joeys informs us.
“Nice job.” I say. The others come out of their capsules and start talking about the incredible graphics and nerdy stuff like that. I interrupt them to say, “Now, let’s go back to Joey’s and play some football!”
"Wait a second, where's Zion?" Roger asks.
"Yeah, where is Zion?" We walk over to Zion's capsule and see that it's locked shut. We look through the glass inside but it is fogged up. Joey’s mom goes to find the manager of ZimmieZ Arcade, hoping he can unlock the capsule and let Zion out. I put my ear up to it and hear Zion screaming and thrashing at the glass. The manager comes and is able to force the capsule open, and out crawls Zion, wearing a 42 t-shirt. Zion claws at the manager’s face and bites his neck.
Zion is... A zombie...


The End
Or is it...