The year is 2030 and America is at nuclear war with Iraq. My name is Zachary and I am 18 years old. My younger brother Ryan, who is 13 years old, and I were forced out of our home in Iowa eight years ago by a nuclear explosion that started the war. We are now orphans living at a California military compound.
Each day we are trained to defend America. Now I carry a backpack around with me everywhere I go with a gun, knife, and a gas mask in it. My brother only carries a gas mask in his. I am rather annoyed by my brother a treat him as a child being that I’m his superior.
He is always pestering me by fallowing me around and ratting me out to our superior. Sometimes I just wish I wouldn’t have to watch him or even have him as a brother.
Far out in the distance I see a gigantic green explosion fill the gloomy sky as I ride my bike back to the compound from the convenient store two miles away. I lunge off of my bike without hesitation, reach for my backpack, rip it off of my back, grab the gas mask within it, and buckle it on. As the neon green tidal wave like gas cloud hits me I am flung backwards through the air, then slam into the ground and fall unconscious.
Hours later I slowly wake up to discover a green haze the seemed to covering the ground along with abandon cars on the road. I struggle to get to my feet then slowly make my way towards what is left of my tattered backpack; as slow as a snail I unzip it tooth by tooth the pocket that contains my Berretta M9 and combat knife.
I head towards the compound and crouch behind what is left of the front wall. I peek over the top. At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me and I couldn’t believe what was in front of me. I see what had to be at least fifteen zombies swarming a survivor. I slowly back down and l make my way to the edge of the wall fifty feet to my right. I glance around the corner, there is two fighting over what appears to be an arm. With no other choice I head toward them. With my knife in my left hand and my gun in my right I slowly walk towards them hoping to reach the entry without being seen. Before I know what is happening they are flailing toward me and I have no choice but to defend myself.  I one or their throats my knife and put a bullet in the others head.
Keeping an eye out for Ryan, I proceed with caution as I make my way to the court yard to gather supplies. To my surprise there were no more zombies within sight. When I get to the court yard go to the door on the left of the half destroyed statue of a marine, turn the handle it creaked as if to announce my presence and walk down the stairs. When I reach the floor I stop and listen for any other signs of life. There are none.
I am not sure what exactly has happened or how long this situation may last so I walk to the storage shelves to gather supplies. I retrieve the following supplies: a Honey Badger assault rifle and the ammo for it, water, fruit, vegetables, nuts, cooked meat, a replacement backpack, and a gun holster. I put the food and drinks in the backpack and put the backpack on. I put the Berretta in the holster strapped to my waist and put the knife in my pocket.
I carry the assault rifle in both hands as I walk up the stairs. I step through the door and gear hear something to my left in the grass and in a split second my weapon is pointed in the direction of the noise. I am relieved to see that it was Ryan still alive with his gas mask on. “Ryan what are you doing here?” I ask, suppressing the fear in my voice.
“Um looking for you!” he exclaims sarcastically.
“You should be hiding and not out in the open. Things are dangerous now. Have you seen the zombies?”
“What zombies?”
“Just stay close to me.”
Ryan hesitantly nods realizing the seriousness of the situation. “Do you need a gun strap?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“Here,” He pulls the strap out of his backpack.
“Why do you have one anyways, you don’t carry a gun?” I ask with a slight smirk.
“Just in case; you never know when you may need one.” Ryan replies.
I smile and put the gun strap on the Honey Badger and put it around my upper body. “Come on, we need to go up to our room to see if our Commander, Sargent Lance Valcony, is still alive. Stay close.”
“Wait can I barrow your pistol first?” Ryan asks.
“Here take it but don’t shoot unless I give you the okay.”
“Got it”
Now, with us both being armed and deadly, we steadily go to the room. When we reach the room we crouch down, open the door, enter, and look for any signs of life. We silently move to the back of our instructor’s desk but we don’t see or hear anyone else. Suddenly, Ryan gets excited and exclaims “Hey! There are walkie-talkies, bullet proof vests, and military pants here! The pants look more comfortable than what we have on!”
“SSSHHHH!” I hiss at him. At that moment I look around and see our instructor’s shotgun in the corner and I quickly rush over there and grab it and toss it to Ryan. We decide to change into the pants and to put on the vests. We switch the walkie-talkies to channel 3 and test them. “Testing, testing,” I say into mine. “One, two, three,” Ryan replies through his walkie-talkie. “Do we get code names? How about you are ‘Big Bird’ and I am ‘Cookie Monster’?” Ryan laughs. I grin but then say “Get serious. This is no joke! We are in trouble!” As we clip the walkie-talkies to our pants, I look over at Ryan and wonder if he has any idea of what is going on.
“You know what started this right?” I ask Ryan.
“That bomb,” he replies. “I was almost to school when I saw it go off but I did not see you anywhere. I went into the training facility looking for you.”
“I don’t think that that was just any old bomb like the ones we are used to. It was a Z-bomb, the ones that make zombies. I have heard rumors that the enemy has developed these new bombs. I had suspected that this was a Z-bomb from the point it went off ‘cause there was only gas and no fire.”
BOOM! Something in the room next to us exploded. The entire building shook to its core and a cloud of dust filled the room.
We both immediately aim our guns at the cross way between the rooms waiting for zombies to poor through. Instead, one of my old friends, Nick, appears in cross way through the debris. Nick is a year younger than me. He and his family had escaped from Iowa with us eight years ago. “Hold your fire!” I cries.
“Nick! Thank goodness it’s you and where did you get the C-4 and the AK-47?” I ask.
“In the bunker,” he replies. “I found it as I was taking cover from the bomb.”
“Have you found anyone else alive?” I ask.
“Not yet,” Nick sighs. I can tell he is really worried about his family.
“Guys, sorry to break up the reunion but we have to go,” says Ryan. “We should go find help and somewhere safer to hide. No offence but you just blew up the room next to us and someone, or something probably heard it!”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Then I ask, “Hey, Ryan, can I have my pistol back now that you have the shotgun?”
“Okay,” he says as he walks the weapons over to me. He hands the knife to me and I slip it into my pocket then I take the pistol from him and put it in my holster.
“So guys,” says Nick, “what’s the plan?”
“Hide,” says Ryan.
“No, we need to find any survivors and get out of here,” I say. Then, with Nick and Ryan by my side we go out the door.
The three of us make a left towards the emergency stairwell. As we step in we hear a rumbling that sounds like a car engine from the lower portion of the stairs. We then see a hoard of zombies fill the stair well.
“See, I told you they heard the explosion!” cries Ryan.
“Get ready!” I yell. Right then and there it becomes a battle.
I know that I have been preparing for combat for eight years but nothing has prepared me for this overwhelming event. I try to keep an eye on Ryan but there are too many zombies in the way. We are surrounded. Finally we find a rhythm together and the three of us fight in a small circle with our backs safely to each other.
I hear Ryan cry “I feel like a minnow in a piranha tank!” I wish I could help him more but there are just too many. It feels like the battle is lasting forever.
There are so many zombies but finally it’s over. I look around and Ryan and Nick are wounded but not seriously. All of the zombies are dead. We go to the front of the school and when we get there hundreds upon thousands of zombies are waiting for us. (I know this is an exaggeration but if you are ever in the middle of combat ten feels like one hundred and one hundred may as well be a thousand.)
Suddenly we hear the “whup, whup” of a helicopter and gunfire from above. Zombies start dropping left and right as five helicopters fly over the school. Once the zombies are defeated the helicopters land in the training yard. The three of us make our way over there to meet them.
I look around, once I’m in one of the helicopters. I see Air Force soldiers and other survivors from my class: Jada, Seth, and Katherine. I then ask Jada “Where did you guys get the help and helicopters?”
Jada replies, “When the bomb exploded we were not sure what to do so we went to the Air Force base on the other side of town. There wasn’t much left there but we found these soldiers, some weapons, and the helicopters. Luckily, these soldiers are pilots and know how to fly these things.”
“Have you seen any other survivors?” I ask.
“Besides you guys, no.”
We then lift up into the air and fly away from the school. I take one last look back at the school as we take off and realize that our lives will never be the same again.
As we fly through the darkening evening sky we finally reach the edge of town. The darkness begins to make everything beneath us fade away.
Suddenly a glimpse of light soars towards us. The pilot yells “IN COMING!” As the missile hits we begin to plummet to the ground. All I hear is screaming as I grab for Ryan and pray.
I slowly open my eyes and feel disoriented. Things slowly start to come into focus and I look around not knowing where I am and then I see Nick walk in. “Hey buddy! How are you feeling?” Nick asks.
“I don’t know. The last thing that I remember is screaming as the helicopter went down. What happened? How long was I out?” I ask.
“Shortly before we reached the boundary of the woods, the helicopter was shot down. The pilot was able to control it enough for us to land in a field but several of us were injured in the crash. You have been out for four days.”
“What! Where is Ryan?”
“Easy,” Nick says. “You have a concussion. I will take you to Ryan in a few minutes but you need to get yourself steady first and get some food and water into you.” Nick calls to a soldier outside of tent and soon a plate of food and a glass of water is brought in to me.
I eat as quickly as my weak body will allow, fighting the urge to vomit with each swallow. The shock of food to my system makes my head dizzy. I push the food away and ask, “Okay, now where is Ryan?”
“Yeah, we need to talk,” Nick says softly. A long silence filled the room. “He is badly hurt. When we were crashing in the field Ryan was thrown from the helicopter and you dove out after him. You hit your head but Ryan was hurt worse. He broke his leg in a couple spots and he has a gash in his left shoulder.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s asleep in the tent across from us.”
I go outside and see dozens of people. I think to myself, “Where did all of these people come from? Never mind that now, I need to get to Ryan.”
As I reach his tent I go in and see that Ryan is on a stretcher and he is covered in bandages. Nick then comes in behind me and says, “We did all we could but all we had was bandages. We did not have the proper medical equipment to clean his wounds and he now has infections.”
“I don’t understand. These were Air Force helicopters. Why didn’t have the proper equipment?”
“When they took off from the Air Force they tried to fill the helicopters with as much supplies as they could. They had put all of the medical equipment into one helicopter. The helicopter that we were in was the medical helicopter and everything was destroyed in the crash. We were able to salvage some bandages but nothing else. Luckily one of the other helicopters came back for us.”
“Then I am going into town to get something for the infection.” I state.
“No, you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because there is nothing but zombies out there. How are you going to get there anyways?” Nick asks.
I then walk out of the tent and Nick follows me. I look around for the helicopters. When I see one I point and say “That’s how.”
“The Air Force is not going to let you borrow one of their helicopters.”
“I wasn’t planning on asking.”
“You can’t do this! It is crazy! Going back into town is suicide.” Nick tries to convince me.
“I don’t have a choice. Ryan is my brother and my responsibility.”
“Okay then; but you are not going alone. This is going to take some planning.”
“Meet me back in my tent in thirty minutes.” I tell Nick.
I go back into Ryan’s tent and sit with him. He is sleeping but it does not look like a peaceful sleep. I wipe the sweat from his face and the heat radiating from him worries me. I sit with him, holding his hand, and telling him “I will make it better.” Even though I am not sure how yet.
After thirty minutes, I reluctantly leave Ryan’ side and go back into my original tent and wait for Nick. When he comes in we begin to make a plan to leave at midnight.
“So,” Nick says as he sits on my cot, “what’s first?”
“I was thinking about it and we should be able to get into town and back in two days. I don’t know if Ryan can last much longer than that,” I tell Nick hesitantly.
“Well, then first we will need enough food and water for two days,” Nick says.
“And I will need my weapons back,” I add.
“Okay,” Nick says, “I will get your weapons. Do you feel up to getting the food?”
“Sure.”
“The food supplies are stored in a tent nearby. When you go out of your tent, turn right and it is the fourth tent down.”
“Okay, I will get the food and meet you in your tent at midnight. Be careful not to let anyone know what we are up to. I don’t want the Air Force to cause us any delays.”
“See you then,” Nick said as he left my tent.
Once everyone was asleep I got the duffle bag which I had packed earlier that day with enough food and water for two days. I peek out through the flaps of my tent and see a heavily armed guard to the right. When I make sure that his back is towards me, I look left and wait for the sign from Nick to signal that he is ready and that all is clear. Just then I see it; a flash. I check the guard’s position again and then move quickly and quietly towards Nick’s tent and go inside.
Nick whispers, “I got your weapons: the rifle, the pistol, and the knife.” Then he hands them to me and I strap everything on. Once we are ready we prepare to leave his tent. Nick looks out of the tent to check on the guard again. He waves me out and then we make our way to the helicopter.
Once we are in, Nick quickly starts it up. We rapidly lift off and make our way away from the camp. At this moment I am very happy that Nick took those classes at school and learned how to fly helicopters. As Nick and I fly south the silence fills the c***pit and the tension can almost be felt. We both wonder the same thing, “What will we find when we get there?”
Nick flies the helicopter with care and precision. He keeps us out of ear-shot of any zombies but within eyesight of the ground. I direct him to fly towards the edge of town where hopefully there are fewer zombies.
Sooner than I had expected we reach our destination. We land in a parking lot and unfortunately smash multiple cars and make a lot of noise. “Sorry,” Nick says, “I didn’t see them. I hadn’t finished my training yet and it is really dark out there.”
I reach under my seat and grab the flashlight out of the safety kit and put it back as I climb out. I don’t want to draw any more attention to us but the power is out and there is no light in the streets. I hesitantly turn on the flashlight.
I look around and realize that we are in the 7-Eleven parking lot that is across the street from a CVS Pharmacy. I point across the street and whisper “There,” to Nick. We wait quietly at the edge of the sidewalk, listening for any signs of movement. When a few minutes have passed and everything is silent, we jog across the street to the CVS.
“Nick, it looks deserted. Can you get us in?” I ask him.
“Give me a second,” he says as he walks away. He comes back with a large rock. “Move aside,” he instructs me and then he throws the rock through the glass door. CRASH!
“Couldn’t you have found something a little quieter?” I ask.
“I didn’t think that the newspaper that I found would help much.”
“It’s too late to worry about it now,” I say as I enter the store through the broken door. “Gather all of the first aid and medicine that you can carry,” I tell him. We both take a cart towards the back and begin gathering supplies from the deserted store. Inside the store it is quiet and as we are gathering medical supplies the streets become flooded with zombies.
Trying to be as quiet as possible I begin filling another cart with medicine from the pharmacy area. I the tripped on a bottle of antibiotics that I had dropped and fall into the shelf behind me. The entire shelf and all of the supplies on it collapse. CRASH!
“Are you okay,” Nick asks.
“Yes, but the zombies may have heard that.” I reply. Just then we begin to hear movement outside of the store.
“Hurry!” I exclaim. “They are coming!” We glance at the front of the store to the broken door in time to see a wall of zombies trying to get through.
Zombies begin to poor into the CVS so we drop the medical supplies and begin to fire our guns. We soon realize that we are way out-numbered and we do not stand a chance against them. “RUN!” I cried.
We grab as much as we can and run to the nearest door and lock it behind us. Only then we realize that it is a bathroom with no other exit.
We fought all night to keep the zombies away and as the sun came up and light began to shine through the small window above, we knew we had to do something to try to escape. For hours zombies continued to pound on the door.
“What do we do?” Nick asks. He looks to me for leadership but I am unsure of what to do. I look around and see a vent and a window that may be useful.
The zombies continue to pound on the door. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.
I take a minute to compose myself and then start thinking of an escape route. “Check that vent above the stalls,” I say as I point up. “See if they are big enough for us to fit through.”
BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.
Nick climbs on top of the stall walls and unscrews the vent cover. He puts his head in the vent but it is clear that his shoulders won’t fit. He pulls back out and shakes his head “No” to me as he turns to get down. He comes back over and sits next to me. We are sitting with our backs against the door to help keep it secure.
BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.
“What about that window?” I ask. “It looks a little bigger. Check it while I hold this door.”
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Nick gets up and climbs up to the window but is not able to remove the security bars from it. “We may fit if we have a few days to chisel through the brick surrounding the window and remove the bars.”
BANG. BANG.
“I don’t think we will last that long,” I reply. Nick doesn’t know it but I forgot the duffle bag in the pharmacy section. The bag contains our food and water supplies. “We may have to make a stand.”
BANG.
Nick comes over and sits next to me again. “I am scared,” he tells me.
“Me too,” I whisper.
Nick looks at me with a weird expression. “What?” I ask.
“The banging stopped.”
I sit there silently listening through the door for any noise from the other side. There is only silence.
“What’s going on?” Nick asks.
“I’m not sure.” We wait another ten minutes but still no movement can be heard.
“I think that they are playing a trick on us.” Nick says.
“They are not that smart,” I reply.
Nick and I decide to risk opening the door to see what is going on. “Be careful,” he says looking at me worriedly.
We both grasp the handle, unlock the door, and push. The door doesn’t move.
“Great! They’ve blocked us in!” Nick exclaims.
“I don’t think so,” I say. “PUSH!” Both Nick and I use all of our might and shove the door open.
We realize that all of the zombies are lying in front of the door, dead. We both looked at each other wondering what had happened but there is no time for that.
We found the supplied and medicine that we had gathered and dashed back to the helicopter. As we ran across the street we could see dead zombie everywhere. “Hurry,” I tell Nick. “We need to get this medicine back for Ryan!”
We quickly loaded the supplies onto the helicopter and Nick ran to the pilot seat to prepare for lift-off. As I strap myself in I wonder what killed the zombies. Whatever it was saved us.
We flew back to camp as fast as possible and I jumped out as soon as we touched down. I left Nick to deal with the Air Force soldiers while I grabbed the antibiotics out of my bag and raced to Ryan’s tent.
I yell for a nurse on my way to the tent. As I rush in, one is right on my heels. She gives Ryan the medicine that I brought back. “All we can do now is wait,” she tells me.
I refuse to leave Ryan’s side. Even when the Air Force leaders instructed me to come to their meeting so that I could face the consequences of borrowing their helicopter without permission, I refused to leave. I know it will make the issue worse but I am not leaving his side.
Finally, the leader comes into Ryan’s tent and asks for permission to sit and talk to me. I agree and prepare myself for the worst.
“That was a very brave and dangerous thing that you did,” he tells me. I nod but don’t say anything.
After several minutes of silence, I ask “Do you know what cause the zombies to die?”
“We believe that the virus that caused them to become zombies had a fatal affect. After several days of exposure, it appears that they die.”
“Oh.”
“How is your brother doing?”
“His fever appears to be coming down but he has not woken up yet.”
“Give it time,” he says as he stands to go.
I sit with Ryan through the night and hold his hand. I wish our parents were here to help. “Mom would know what to do,” I whisper to Ryan. Just then I feel him squeeze my hand.
His eyes are still closed but he tries to whisper back, “You are doing fine.”
As days pass Ryan proceeds to get better and one morning while eating breakfast in his tent he asks me, “So when are you going to tell me all about what is going on?”
“Don’t worry about that, just focus on getting better. There is a whole new world out there.”