Outbreak of the Living Dead (Book 1)

by Guerra, Aaron

  When she was a young girl, a rabid dog had chased her up the neighbor‘s tree. She was stuck there until her father was able to come to rescue her after he got out of work.

  “Daddy, do you and Jake miss me as much as I miss you two?” she said, trembling. Tears began to form in her delicate eyes as she slowly brought the gun up to her head. The girl couldn‘t help but fight the urge to move the weapon away, but the image of Tristan and Kim being devoured was too much for her bare. She had already lost her family, she didn‘t want to lose her friends as well. Another loud unknown roar echoed throughout the night which made her jump up. She was resting the end of the gun against her head as she kept wishing to wake up from this nightmare.

  “Momma, I just want to come home. Please Momma, let me come home with you, Daddy and Jake.” Susan said to herself up in the tree.

  The two beasts in the mud started to shout through the area when they heard a loud pop sound coming from above. The gun came tumbling down to the wet grass near the creatures that stood there. Both of them stopped screaming and just started to stare down at the base of the tree. They just stood there in silence as the young teenager’s body laid on the tree branch up high. There was a simple smile across her lips as she laid there all alone. No wind was able to make it through the thick leaves of the tree. Her body was safe from being pecked at and eaten by one of the creatures down below. At this time, Kim somehow felt a strong depressing pain within her chest. She didn‘t exactly hear a weapon going off due to the constant raining, monster screams and heavy thunder that echoed throughout the night. But somehow she knew something did happen. Something that made her world feel a lot darker.

  Roxanne was finally able to make it to one of the Hallway Classrooms through the front entrance of the school. The doors were broken down from the football players that came busting in earlier.

  “Is this where Luke and Sarah went?” she said. The large doors were broken down with trails of fresh blood leading to the other side of the hallway. There was a few motionless bodies laying across the floor. “It would appear to me that those two are a very good team. They were able to take down these football players without the use of much firepower,” said Roxanne. The science teacher slowly walked through the long hallway to see only one door open. She had made sure that she didn’t step on any of the bodies that were laying flat against the cold surface. Roxanne noticed that the room that was open had belonged to Chris Reeve. If she recalled, he was a History Teacher when he wasn‘t coaching the High School’s Football Team.

  A pile of bodies were stacked on each other like a barricade near the entrance of the door. She had moved her hands to her mouth when seeing the man in the corner just beyond the bodies. He was covered in blood with random wounds scattered across his arm.

  “Luke!” Roxanne said as she quickly jumped over the deceased. The woman knelt down beside the wounded man. Somehow he was still alive, but just barely.

  “You? What’re you…doing here? Run…Escape from this hell,” he said while holding in a cough. The man placed his lucky metal pipe down beside her as blood seeped out of the corner of his mouth. “Find Sarah and escape…” he added. The woman carefully looked at some of the wounds that were inflicted upon his body. The bites were mainly on his arms and legs.

  “You saved Sarah by sacrificing yourself, didn’t you Luke?” she asked him.

  The man tried to laugh, but instead he started to cough due to the severe pain he was in.

  “You know, I’ve always had feelings for Sarah. Ever since we were just kids growing up in this little town,” Luke said. The woman sat beside him to place her hand over his for comfort. “I just…didn’t have the courage to ask her out,” he said. She smiled warmly to him. Her smile slowly disappeared when she noticed that the color of his skin started to change as he continued to talk about the officer. “One time, I got so drunk that I ended up trying to kiss her. She slapped me and the next thing I know I woke up in her bed,” he said with a light laugh. A small smile had spread across his face when he started to remember the rest of that morning. “She took me to her home and took care of me through the night,” he said.

  Roxanne held his hand abit tighter to feel the warmth that came him slowly die down as time passed.

  “Please, help her escape. Tell her…that I’ve always loved…her,” Luke had said as the color in his eyes left. The woman watched as the man’s body fell limp to the side. She let his hand go gently before picking up his metal pipe.

  “I’ll find her, Luke. I will tell her how you really felt,” she said to the dead man. The science teacher slowly walked out of the room before closing the door quietly behind her.

  “Please…” she said to herself. The door started to shake violently with something on the other side already hitting it. Just like all the others, he had been revived as one of the creatures they’ve come to know and hate.

  “…please stay here, Luke. I will find Sarah and tell her what you’ve shared with me! I promise!” she said with determination.

  The woman ran down the hallway to the other side where Sarah possibly went earlier. She had tried to push the doors open but they wouldn’t budge. Roxanne’s eyes stared down to see that they were locked from her side. Click. The doors were now unlocked. She then stepped out into the darkness with the door closing on it’s own behind her. Roxanne held onto Luke’s weapon firmly in her hands when she spotted a few of the corpses wondering around outside.

  “I will live. I will survive. I will find Sarah,” said Roxanne.

  The Science Teacher had moved her glasses up to fix them since they kept sliding down from the position she was in. She had already killed three of the normal slow ones with the man’s weapon. The woman was covered in flesh and blood all over her white coat.

  “Where the hell did she go?” she said. Roxanne stood up after hearing more of them heading in her direction. She had ran to the closest door that she could see from where she was in the small field. The woman entered the different hallway to see two figures from the distance. “How many of these undead monsters are at this school?!” she had said. Roxanne quickly started to run down the hall with her eyes blurry from the tears that were building up. But before she had the chance to strike them down, her entire body froze. It was Sarah and one of the students that she had for the morning classes.

  “Sarah! Sammie!” Roxanne said in surprise.

  The Teacher had dropped the metal weapon before suddenly holding the two in her arms tightly.

  “Roxanne!? What’re you doing here?! Why aren‘t you at the Cafeteria with the others?! Did something happen there?” Sarah asked as she slowly moved back when Roxanne was done with the hug. Though her green eyes were fixated on the weapon that the science teacher had dropped. “Isn’t that Luke’s? Where did you get it?!” Sarah asked the teacher. Roxanne couldn’t help but fix her glasses again when his name was brought up. Her hands started to tremble when she took hold of Sarah’s.

  “I found Luke,” she said calmly. Sarah smiled big with her arms wrapping around the teacher.

  Sammie stood up to shift her backpack in a better position. Some of the books in it was jabbing her lower back.

  “Where?! Where is he? Why didn‘t he come with you?” Sarah asked her. The teacher slowly removed the officer from her hold before looking away.

  “I’m afraid that I have some terrible news to share with you,” said Roxanne. The officer slowly took a step back when the teacher said that. All of the doors that were still rattling in the hallway completely stopped at that very moment.

  “He said that he’s always had feelings for you ever since you two were very young. He loved you, Sarah. That‘s what Luke wanted me to tell you,” Roxanne told her. The officer had fell to her knee’s to cry to herself while Sammie and Roxanne looked at each other with sadness in their eyes.

  “Ms. Delarosa, have you thought of a plan for our escape?” Sammie had asked her. The teacher had planted her hand on the girl’s shoulder with a deep sig
h escaping from the woman.

  “I was hoping Sarah had one. I guess we should all just return to the Cafeteria where Mr. Reeve and the Principal are for now,” said Roxanne.

  The teenager froze up when she heard that the evil Principal was still alive. The science teacher had smiled weakly to her reaction, but she couldn’t help but look at the heartbroken woman on the floor. Sarah was just laying on her side while letting all of her pent up sadness out.

  “Sammie, we must take Sarah there so we can all rest before making another attempt to escape,” Roxanne said to the girl. The student had stretched out her arms before walking over to the crying woman. The teacher knelt down to her side to place an arm around her. She had also reached over to pick up Luke’s pipe from the floor. The two girls gently lifted the officer up to her feet. They started to walk down the hallway while doing their best to ignore the creatures that were trying to escape from the classrooms.

  The large doors were opened so that three girls could walk right out of the building. Sammie held onto the officer when Roxanne left to deal with a few of the normal creatures that stumbled around in their way.

  “WE’RE…” The Science Teacher began to say as she had bashed one of them in the head with the pipe. The attack caused it to fall back with blood spilling out of the crushed skull. “…GOING…” Another one came out from the corner of the building only to get the metal pipe jabbed deeply into it’s eye socket. It screamed as she yanked it out of the hole. She immediately shoved it back in deeper to finish the job. “…TO SURVIVE!” she said with the fire inside to survive taking over.

  Sammie grabbed Sarah by the black jacket she was wearing. The girl stood up to speak to the officer face to face.

  “Please! Snap out of it! She can’t fight them all by herself! She‘s not as strong as you!” Sammie told her. Sarah tried to snap out of it but losing so many people that she loved in a day was just too hard. Back on the small field, Roxanne had noticed a strange body coming from the distance. It had started to sniff the air like a dog before lowering it’s body in a predator stance. The creature began to scream from the top of it’s lungs as It’s eyes became blood red. The body started to twitch around after it was done letting out that horrible cry. Sammie gripped Sarah tightly as they faced the science teacher‘s direction.

  “Ms. Delarosa! That’s a Revival! You have to completely destroy the brain or it’ll keep getting up to attack!” Sammie cried out.

  The woman held the pipe tightly in her hands as she watched the beast walk around in the rain.

  “A Revival? I like that name. It suit’s them perfectly,” Roxanne said. She ran over to the creature when a flash of lightning filled the entire sky. The woman’s eyes were closed from the random blinding flash of light that covered the area. That caused her to trip over a large rock that was hidden in the grass. The thing had finally noticed where she was in the field. It started to sprint to the woman with it‘s bloody hands stretched out. Sammie couldn’t help but release the officer from her hold. She rushed over to the teacher‘s side with her backpack sliding down to her hands. In that moment, the teenager had used her heavy backpack as a weapon. She bashed the thing against the chest with all of her strength to knock it back. This allowed Roxanne enough time to get up from the muddy ground.

  It’s body twitched once before it instantly jumped on top Sammie‘s body from the ground. She used her backpack to keep them apart as it tried to bite down at her face. The science teacher impaled it’s head from the back with the pipe. It slowly climbed off the girl to scream with it’s body flailing around randomly on the grass. Roxanne helped the student up from the muddy ground as the creature continued to grind against the grass. Some of it‘s flesh started to peel off from the impact it had to the ground. Back near the building, Sarah finally was able to snap out of her brief depressing state. She watched closely as the beast stood up from the ground again. Most of it’s skull could be seen after the tantrum it had. It lowered it’s body before it charged to the two girls near it.

  The officer darted off in their direction as fast as she could. When she passed the two girls, she quickly brought her foot high in the air when the beast was in her range. Her foot impaled it’s rotting chest which caused the dead heart to burst out from it‘s back. Roxanne ran to the creature’s back to remove the pipe that she used to impale the skull. Before the beast could reach over to scratch the officer’s legs, Roxanne had used all of her strength to crack open the back of the monster’s head. The oddly shaped black brain started to slide out and fall to the ground behind him. Sammie placed her hands on the officer’s leg to help pull it out of the chest. She carefully checked her leg all over to see if there were any scratches. Luck was on their side yet again when there was nothing there.

  “You need to change your clothes officer. You‘re a complete mess!” Sammie said. Roxanne threw the corpse to the ground with the pipe in her hand still. The woman in the white coat knelt down to bash the metal pipe against it’s head until there was nothing but bone shards in the mud. She just wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t get up again.

  “Sarah, we must return to the cafeteria. I doubt we could make it out of here in your current state,” said Roxanne. The officer grabbed her handgun from it’s holster when she heard more of the infected heading their way.

  “Alright then, let‘s go see the Principal,” Sarah said in a low voice.

  Back at the gas station that Susan and Kim passed earlier when escaping the monsters. The woman in the black coat and long blonde hair was sitting on the counter near the cash register. She was eating some powdered donuts that were placed on the racks beside her. Tristan was near the entrance to make sure that none of those red eyed bastards found their hiding spot.

  “Do you have any friends that are waiting for you, miss? Since you‘re wearing a patch on your sleeve that clearly has OPC. Care to explain what organization you‘re with?” Tristan asked as he was curious in whom she worked for. The woman ignored him like always as she continued to eat the delicious donuts with a smile on her face. The man slowly stood up tall to notice that his strength was finally returning. After all that torture he received from those crazy women earlier, he could finally be useful again.

  “Do you think my friends are okay? They didn’t open the door earlier when we at the house. I just hope it’s safe to assume that they escaped before those things found us,” he said, worryingly.

  He found a spot beside her on the empty counter as his hand carefully reached over for a donut. Immediately she slapped his hand away before waving her finger back and forth with a glare in her eyes. For a powerful, serious woman…she acted like a child when it came to those sweet powered donuts.

  “No touch. Mine. Get your own,” she said. The hand that was smacked had moved up to his hair to fix it. He always had his black hair combed back.

  “Well fine then. I‘ll just go find my own delicious treat to eat,” said Tristan. He hopped off the counter to reach for a bag of salty potato chips. It had been a good while since he ate something. It felt as though time had fast forward when the tip of his fingers reached the bottom of the potato bag. His fingers could feel nothing but the little bits of crumbs which made his smile soon fade away.

  “Well we have a lot of food here. So we should be good for awhile,” he said. The woman suddenly tossed the rest of the donuts to the floor. Her tongue swiftly licked off the powder that was still on her lips. Tristan watched as she readjusted her long dark coat to fit perfectly with her figure underneath it.

  “We leave now. No time to waste,” she said. He turned to face her while popping his knuckles along with his neck.

  “So, to your place then?” he said in a playful manner. She didn’t know why, but she didn‘t like what he just said to her. So like the other times, he deserved a smack to the face.

  Tristan followed the mysterious woman to the streets where they were hiding. Everything was destroyed when the sun finally started to rise up to give the survivors the l
ight to see. Cars were laid on their sides with flames coming from them. Body parts were scattered around the wreckage from what they could see. Some buildings had vehicles wrecked into them with overnight flames still eating the insides of the tall structures. A few of the monsters walked around aimlessly on the streets, waving their arms around in the air to grab anything they could.

  “It’s as if they lost their eye sight. But we can‘t let our guard down around them,” he told her. The woman placed her hand on his chest to stop him from advancing forward. She started to climb onto one of the turned over vehicles that wasn’t on fire. The woman could see something from the distance that had her scratching the side of her head with a confused look on her face.

  “What is that? Looks familiar. Oh! It‘s you…I finally found him,” she said with her eyes narrowing at the thing‘s sight.

  Tristan quickly climbed onto the turned over vehicle that she was on to see what she found. It was an ugly oversized beast that could‘ve fit in some freaky horror comic book. They couldn’t make out how tall it really was from where they were, but it was massive in size. The woman slowly pulled out her only weapon, since the other machete had broke in the gas station.

  “Wait, you’re not seriously going to go fight that thing? Right?!” he said to her. She jumped down from the car without saying a word. The woman in the black coat struck a corpse down easily with her sharp machete. The top part of it’s skull fell in front of her as it’s body smacked hard against the wet road. Tristan watched as she walked towards the new threat. He couldn’t help but wonder if she had finally lost her mind. “COME BACK! THAT THING IS A DEMON! IT‘LL KILL YOU! JUST LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING!” he said in an outburst of worry.