Infected (Book 1): The First Ten Days

by Thomas, Jack

  The no longer was a point of reference for what a good day could turn out to be. I guessed at this point. No death was a reasonable start, and the best I could hope for. The vast majority of people already died, as the days went by the chances of more death became lower. Humanity gradually perished under the weight of the infected.

  Daylight, dried up trees, highway roads covered in snow, bird less skies, the lingering scent of death and rotted flesh floated through the frozen air and burned my face with every brush of wind that stroked my cheek; this was the normal daily atmosphere now. I grew to hate the act of walking over the years of being a skater, but even more so after being forced to walk through several feet of snow, which happened to be the case. I could barely tolerate the snow but what was there to do about it? There were no usable cars for this apocalypse.

  During the next day or two I was to reach the school and meet up with my family, maybe even check to see if Melissa and her family arrived safely. The hell I was living was coming to a close.

  Along the walk on the highway I was going to cross another town and I would have to be careful going through it. I couldn’t walk around the outskirts of the town and lose the location of the highway. To make it through yet another place with a large population would have me on my guard. The number of infected would be larger and I’d likely have to make a run for it a few more times. The difference was I didn’t have a map to depict the town, the highway, and how to stay on it.

  I was too close to the goal to get off track. In case I was attacked on the way, I began to mentally prepare myself to stay focused on the highway and have an awareness at all times as to what direction it would be in if I was to stray away for whatever reason.

  Somewhere down the line I remembered the suicide note I found in the apartment a day back, I added the gun in the backpack to the equation and I realize after I avoided the thought for a while many people were probably forced to take the same route out of this hell. I couldn’t imagine doing it; going down that road didn’t seem realistic.

  Coward!

  A headache, too much sunlight, a frozen desert,

  Frozen dessert? Frozen Desert – Melted Dessert?

  What wouldn’t I have done for a nice warm dessert to distract myself from the frozen desert?

  Route: 23: The Frozen Desert

  A headache, a big, bright, nice, and warm sun, a frozen desert, a red SUV looked in perfect condition (for the circumstance). It was the first car I saw in hours. This meant I walked more than half of the distance between Creed and whatever town came next. In a few hours I would reach the next town and then decide from there if headingto The Hills over night would be more beneficial than waiting. The lack of sleep would eventually prevent me from being able to perform life saving maneuvers well, not something I looked forward to.

  I began to inspect the SUV as I came closer to it and looked for signs of intrusion. I pushed the snow gathered around the door handle out of the way and pulled on the handle. No resistance; the door opened, it was open to search for anyone who was curious enough to walk by the car. Snow fell off of the door when it opened and exposed the inside of the car. A mess; chaotic, the way the apartments in the first few towns and cities looked. Things were thrown all over the inside of the car, likely signs of someone who searched for supplies or anything useful. I didn’t have to look through the car any further to know I would find nothing. Another moment gone, more time wasted on nothing.

  I so desperately waited for something to happen to get my blood to pump, my adrenaline levels up and my excitement over the top, but it didn’t happen. More snow covered highway laid out in front of me to draw out and abuse my boredom.

  The headache became a migraine. My head pounded and the cold didn’t help either. I needed to come by a pharmacy to find some pain medication strong enough to get rid of a migraine.

  I couldn’t see a town up ahead yet which meant it was still pretty far. The highway wasn’t a straight path either, the drawn out left and right turns were so massive they would obscure all visuals beyond the forest lined along the sides of the highway. It was hopeless; the migraine had to be tolerated.

  The thick sheet of snow which covered the world began to thin out the further I walked. Not by much, but enough for me to take notice after I walked awhile. I no longer brought my knees as high up as before. I could only assume the center of the blizzard was on the opposite side of Creed City. This was significant and meaningful. Over the course of the walk I could came across more common amounts of snow and was able to move more freely.

  Bang! The pain became so bad it felt like gun shots was fired inside my head. BANG! The sound became even louder and the pain became worse. The only thought I could process was how strange and outer-body it felt. BANG! Things began to get fuzzy. The outline of everything I looked at fluffed into its respective figure and made everything look like I stared through glasses that didn’t belong to me. BANG! I couldn’t tell what was happening. My body began to weaken. I couldn’t help but compare the headache to the one I had back at the Farpoint military base, but I couldn’t remember having heard banging sounds. Was it all in my head? Did I really manage to hit my head so bad the symptoms of the injury resurfaced days later to kill me after I came so far? I was so close to the finish line. It wasn’t fair. Why was this happening? The idea of dying of a simple head injury with a zombie apocalypse going on around me was sad, another way to go anticlimactically. BANG! The ground rushed up at me and I slammed into the snow face first. BANG! I couldn’t breathe. With the little energy left I flipped myself over and looked up at the sky. Everything went silent. The headache was still present but the banging stopped.

  The first time these headaches came to me it was similar but this terrible sound I heard was not a part of it. Why was I still conscious? Didn’t I pass out sooner than this last time?

  The view was amazing. The snowflake clouds floated in the ocean sky and gently glided along the sky’s surface.

  The headache remained but I wasn’t unconscious. I could hear nothing but the wind brush over the snow around me.

  I tried to push myself up off the snow but I was relatively weak. I used most of my energy to sit up and look around. Everything was different. Strange, in fact; it’s hard to say exactly what I saw happen before my eyes. I landed right in front of the next town on the list. Not only that, but the colors swapped places at random, an intense synesthetic experience. The question on my mind was why? A time lapse left a large gap missing from my day and symptoms of synesthesia occurred both at once. My brain was obviously damaged from the blow I took to the head.

  The snow shifted varied shades of yellow to light shades of blue, magenta and pink. The buildings in the town ahead ranged from red, to purple, brown, and so on.

  I forced myself off of the snow and walked myself in a drag towards the town. A pharmacy, a doctor’s office, a hospital, anything useful with some form of medication inside was my next objective. I wouldn’t last for long in this condition.

  I wondered about the banging and the ring which lingered afterwards. After a moment my thoughts became quiet.

  Pitch black darkness.

  My eyes opened and the sky was no longer blue. The only reason I could see was because of the snow, it reflected the little bit of light the sky offered. My body was a Popsicle. The blackout happened. Aside from the cold and the fact I could barely move a muscle, I was fine. The pain in my head was gone and my thoughts organized themselves.

  I was sure death awaited me in the next few hours from the hypothermia I must have gotten from being out in the snow for so long. If I did have hypothermia, medication would do nothing compared to natural heat.

  I need to find a place indoors to start a fire, wrap myself up with whatever extra crap I could find and regain my body heat before I die.

  The middle of the night inside of some random town I didn’t even have the common decency to learn the name of was not the best place or time to ponder unimportant details. I wasn’t
that kind of guy. I’ve always been more traditional, dinner and a movie. I didn’t want to rain check the romanticism of getting to know the town before I stayed inside it, but little choice was offered.

  This town looked like all the others. Everything managed to look the same every day. Everything managed to be the same every day. Everything managed to feel the same. Everything was the same, everyday.

  Tyler Durden didn’t deal with this much repetition and lack of trust in the world around him. “And he was a misanthropic cynic.” Maybe I was too.

  I was being guided by pure instinct. I shivered uncontrollably. I needed to get somewhere safe and soon. My body needed warmth. I gathered myself and moved faster. I notice how little snow was collected inside of the town. The snow on the streets ranged only in inches. My movements were faster than when I was warmer, the cold forced me to pick up the pace.

  I picked the first door I was near and reached for the door handle. It was unlocked, both a good and bad thing. I’d struggle less to get inside but there could potentially be anything or anyone inside ready to attack whatever came through the door, but I couldn’t warn anyone I planned to enter in case there were infected inside. Stealthy and paced were the rules to the game, both of which were difficult while I shivered with little control over my body.

  From what I could tell the buildings in the town were generally small with the max height being only four or five stories, the vast majority of the buildings being only two or three. I didn’t know what kind of building the door I opened was to but it didn’t matter.

  Before going in I readied the lantern and prepared to react to whatever jumped out at me. Mobility was the key to survival so I adjusted the backpack again to achieve max flexibility and reached for the handle once more.

  I shined the light through the crack of the door. It looked empty. There was only an unfurnished hallway with doors to either side.

  Darkness filled the hallways with the exception for anything I personally illuminated. I walked in and shut the door behind me to stop the cold air from being pushed inside.

  BANG, BANG! The same loud pop from earlier without the headache attached to it. It was never in my head. There was something outside which made the noise. BANG! Again, this time it swallowed the silence whole. Tiny bits of whatever lightly brushed against my body before their impact with the floor a fraction of a second after the bang. It came from behind me. I turned around with the lantern raised in front of me to the door I came in through. Nothing was there, but I knew the sound came from somewhere close. BANG! Another pop followed and wood flew off of the door. A tiny hole ripped open on the door. I noticed the first hole was on the door too; gunshots.

  I backed into the wall and two more holes poked through the door with the combined sound of gunshots in the distance.

  The lantern!

  Somebody saw me go inside the building. When I aimed the lantern at the door, the light must have leaked out through the holes and confirmed I was inside. Whoever it was must have been heading my direction. Some psychopathic, starved idiot most likely caught sight of me. It would explain the bangs from before I blacked out for the second time.

  “Go look inside!” someone yelled out. Who did they speak to?

  Damn it! There’s more.

  Some lame-ass situation I was in: trapped inside a building with a layout I was unfamiliar with, and more than one person with a gun headed my way, likely in search of food they believe I carried. All so they can have one person’s food. Everything was the same. These crazed Richard wannabes. Under the right circumstances, everyone becomes a killer.

  “I’ve got to get the hell out of here.” This was easier said than done, I still shivered and from possible hypothermia (as far as I knew). Regardless,

  Time to move...

  I turned from the door and shined down the hallway up to where it ended. Left and right where my two options to go further into the building and find a way out. I couldn’t stray too far away from the highway so I needed to get around the building without being seen and make it far enough to get back onto the highway still unseen, but I would have to find somewhere safe I could warm up first. I couldn’t shoot back at them because there was only one round in the gun. They didn’t worry about their rounds; they freely shot at a door, so it was safe to assume they kept much more. (Rhyme unintended.)

  Left; it was a safe choice to make, a left turn would take me in the direction I already traveled and if I came across a window, I could make my way out and continue deeper into the town without ever losing track of where I was. If I did in fact have hypothermia, it was incredibly possible I could get confused and not remember where to go; left turn it was.

  The door at the other end of the hall was not yet opened; I took it as a sign they were still on their way to the door. No rational person would open fire without some height advantage over the infected which would gather in search of the source of the shots in the first place.

  DAMN IT! That means it’s not safe outside either.

  I still needed to get away. I didn’t know what to do… again, again, again. Every day, a different toilet, just filled with the same…

  BANG! Another shot was fired followed by a loud thump. The door was kicked in. I sped up. The left turn led me to another hallway filled with more doors. The only difference being, there were no more turns up ahead. I walked myself into a dead end, again. I ran to the end of the room and opened the door to the far left of the hallway, it wasn’t locked.

  Some kind of conference room awaited me on the other side. The room contained a large rectangular table which sat in the middle with six chairs lined up to either side. I turned the lantern off and threw the backpack against the floor after I took the gun out. One round in the gun and no idea how many people headed my way. This needed to be timed to perfection. If I was forced to shoot anyone, I would need time to get their weapon but not be seen by anyone else who came after the gunshot.

  More doors were kicked in somewhere down the hallway. These guys were reckless. I was amazed that they managed to live as long as they did with as much noise as they made. THUMP! THUMP! Doors continued to get kicked in closer to my position. Every thump would have a moment of silence follow it while the rooms were searched. They came closer, THUMP, and closer.

  THUMP! THUMP! You could tell they took a left turn, the same as me, when the thump was no longer muffled by the walls but rather the wooden door between the hallway and me. TAH! TAH! It became louder and clearer.

  BANG! Another gunshot, this time through the handle of the door to the room I was in. I took cover behind one of the chairs on the other side of the table. TAH! The door flew open. The room was dark, my eyes were adjusted to see through the dark but the chances were his eyes went through the same adjustment too. This room was the second to last in the hallway, and this made him more careful as he continued to more probable locations in which I’d be hidden. He didn’t know how close he was. He was reckless with the door but wasn’t overall stupid, his caution was still present. The man took his time to scan the room before he entered. He paced slowly around the table headed to the end where I hid and with his movements I began to back up and move around the table clockwise at his same pace. I remained outside of his visual range. Before I knew it, my back was to the door, but the man’s back was now to my backpack. If he saw it he would know I was hidden there.

  After he failed to find me hidden in the room with him, the man relaxed and became more casual with his movements. He relaxed so I relaxed. I tried to identify the guys face through the dark; a black fuzzy cloud was all I could see where his head should have been. The room was simply too dark. What I could tell was that broad shoulders and huge arms made up his upper body. I couldn’t take this guy in a one on one fight which meant the gun I held could actually come into play.

  If I knew where he held his gun, I could’ve taken it from him and risk my one bullet.

  My focus was taken by a faint whistle ringing in my ears. It was far but clo
sed in.

  Is it the other guy?

  The closer it became, the louder it became, right up until I realized it wasn’t a whistle at all. It was screaming. The same screaming I’ve heard many times before.

  They found us.

  Clusters of infected made their way to the place where the gunshots came from, the office building I was in. The idiots shot at me and were going to not only get me killed, but themselves too.

  The infected slammed into the building with a drumming consistency. Hundreds of them found their way to the building. I was right in not going outside, but being indoors was only a temporary solution against the infected. Soon the windows would be gone and the infected would pour in through the holes where the windows used to be, they’ll take everything in their path down with them, a volcano, lava.

  I wondered if the guy across the table from me remembered to close the front door to the building. After all, he did shoot his way into the place. I didn’t even lock the door when I came in. I didn’t doubt his capability to leave such a large important detailed unattended. I could only hope no runners made their way through the door. I wasn’t particularly excited about dying in some random conference room with some buff strange deranged manic as my death partner.

  The drum solo of the infected slamming into the building continued. By its consistency, I simply assumed everyone in the town was infected. Hundreds of infected continued to slam into the building, they scratched at the walls and screamed sporadically at the top of their lungs.

  The tortured voices of the suffering

  The man in the room stood frozen, he listened to the infected continue their solo.

  Nice tunes

  Breaking glass, somewhere in the building, I didn’t know where it came from and luckily neither did the guy I was trapped in the room with. He became paranoid and rushed out of the room. He gave me a chance to grab the backpack and follow behind him unnoticed. My footsteps were masked by the drum and screaming vocals of the hot new thing all the kids listened to; The Infected.