Chapter Final

"If anyone else has anything to add on why we shouldn't do this, say it now or forever hold your peace," I said, trying to add a little humor to the situation. No one laughed but at the same time, it did seem to help a little.

After a second of no one talking I figured we were all in agreement on the decision, "Ok it's 9:32 right now if we are fast we could raid the hospital starting at noon or we could wait until tomorrow but no matter what we are not raiding at night," I said trying to get the rest of the group into the discussion.

"I think we should aim for noon today like Owen said the better we get these supplies the better," Watson said speaking up for the first time in the last hour. "If we are fast we can be thoroughly prepared," As soon as Watson had entered the conversation everyone else seemed to lower their guards and were visibly calmer. After that, they all began to help plan how we would raid the hospital and what supplies we needed exactly.

As soon as everything was planned out it was roughly 11 o'clock. "Ok we have an hour before we leave let us break here and meet at the truck at noon," I said getting up from my seat along with everyone else and taking the rest of the time allotted to prepare myself mentally. All I wanted was for everyone to get out of this ordeal alive.

I got myself to the trucks exactly as the clock turned over to twelve, and when I got there everyone who was participating was ready and most were already strapped in. As soon as I got into the truck Owen who had decided that he would drive took off speeding towards our destination. Normally we wouldn't drive that fast to attract the least amount of attention possible but it was noon and the least amount of Ceps would be out and about so even if they did see us they wouldn't attack.

It took us roughly seven minutes to reach the hospital normally we would take the back roads but not today. For the first time, it was easy to see how much destruction was left in the wake of the Ceps. When we would patrol our area we saw broken houses and bodies lying in the street but the highway was different. You could see that we were living in a post-apocalyptic setting. It reminded me why we were trying to stay alive, and everything we were fighting for.

After that, we quickly pulled into the hospital parking lot making sure to position ourselves near the emergency room entrance. The parking lot wasn't too full of vehicles I guess that due to the apocalypse starting on a weekday not that many people had been given the chance to visit. The first thing we did was quickly have Jim and Jeremy walk around the truck and shoot anything that moved. Nothing was around us and we couldn't find any Ceps lurking in the shadows, so we jumped out and began ransacking the ambulances taking two IV racks and all the supplies that went with them. The whole time having Watson look over everything and check things off our list once we had enough.

This continued for about an hour until there was nothing left on the outside of the hospital for us to pick apart. After everything was loaded into the truck we began our exploration into the main hospital looking for some of the more specialized supplies, while making sure that we watch out for any Ceps that might be hiding within the hospital.

Once we entered the lobby of the building the smell of blood could be detected immediately. No one said anything but it was crystal clear that a lot of lives had been lost here. After quickly searching the main desk for a key card we moved on to the basic patient rooms. There we gathered more basic supplies like cast materials and cleaning alcohol while keeping a lookout for anything that might seem helpful.

Next was the overnight wing of the hospital, the most dangerous part of the hospital, and somewhere that one mistake could cost you your life. The only thing that stops you from entering the overnight wing is one major door that requires an id card to open. As we stood there preparing to open it a shadow quickly and stealthily crossed the bulletproof windows of the door. If it wasn't for Jim quickly and quietly pointing it out we easily could have missed it.

Jim silently took out a knife from his backpack and situated himself near the opening of the door waiting for the Cep to come out. Then once he was situated, Owen put the ID we stole against the scanner and slowly opened the door. The moment the thick oak door was open the Cep sprung like a lion launching himself at me who was positioned right in front of the door. Then before I could even pull my gun up to my shoulder Jim lodged his knife directly into the jugular of the unsuspecting Cep. Blood sprayed like a fountain black and disgusting, then what could have just been a few seconds later he fell to the ground soundless and unmoving.

After a few seconds of waiting and making sure that the Cep wasn't going to attack us the moment we turned our backs, we slowly began making our way through the overnight wing grabbing anything and everything that seemed like it could be useful. Such as gauze, stitches, and many other things.

As we were walking down the gray, depressing tiled hallway of the hospital, we began to notice more and more blood, but instead of the deep red that we had become accustomed to, it was a deep shade of gray.

"Why the fuck is this blood gray?" Owen asked the group squatting low to the ground examining it.

"I have no clue but I'm guessing that if we follow the trail we will know soon enough," I said, trying to keep a level head. We already knew that human blood is red and Cep blood is black but maybe a human who is undergoing the transformation process, they might have gray blood for a little bit?

As we Cept along the hallway trying our best not to make a sound we could begin to see movement up ahead. At that monument, we brought all of our guns to the ready waiting for a Cep to come out swinging, but none ever did. All we eventually found was the remains of a campsite and one that looked like it had been left in a hurry.

"I don't understand how this is possible?" Jim said staring in disbelief and I understand why none of us could believe it. To set up a campsite in the middle of Cep territory was unthinkable yet here it was. The worst part was that this campsite had to be a few days old at least, this could only mean one thing.

"Whoever's campsite this is must be invisible to the Ceps. I didn't even think that was possible." I said staring at the lit fire with the rest of the group. Then just like that, we returned to a complete silence waiting, waiting for anything to break it.

"GrayBlood" Owen said, at last. "That's what we will call him," he said after a brief pause in the middle, and without anyone confirming anything the name GrayBlood stuck.

After a brief pause, everyone quickly and silently left the room and began picking up any supplies that were left in the remaining rooms, getting rid of the few Cep stragglers that they came upon. Sure everyone was silent but it seemed like everything was going well, once we had everything that we needed from the overnight wing we decided to take it all back to the truck and discuss our next move.

"Ok that is pretty much everything except for the food from the cafeteria and potentially a generator from maintenance," Watson said once everything was loaded and he had checked it off on the Watson list of success.

"So what do you suggest? Should we go down there and get those items or are we fine without them?" I asked Watson trying to decide if staying here was worth the risk. Sure we had only run into a few Ceps here and there but that didn't make sense, this was a hospital where, where all the people?

"How many Ceps have you encountered so far?" He asked plainly showing that he was calculating the risk, based on whatever number I said.

"Ten," I said with a sound but clear answer.

"Then yes, the chances of survival are over 50 percent so I don't see why not, though that number seems way too low," He said after waiting a few seconds, either to finish his calculations or for some other reason.

"Ok then, Owen, Jim, and Jeremy you three will join me on this I don't want to take any more people than I have to through the basement of this place," and with that, they grabbed their guns and we slowly made our way back through the blood-stained '80s looking lobby, through the overnight wing and to the stairs that lead down into the depths of the death valley hospital.

As we stood there adrenaline pumping through our veins preparing ourselves mentally and physically for what might be ahead of us Owen spoke up, "Why don't we just use the elevator?" He said completely serious and with no hesitation in his voice.

"Owen that is one of the stupidest questions I think you have ever asked, the elevator is super loud if we were to take it, it would be the same as yelling free coupons in a retirement home. Are you trying to get us killed?" Jeremy said with a completely straight face. It took us a while to calm ourselves down and get back into a serious mood but it was worth it. After the mood had been regained and everyone was ready we opened the door and began our descent into the unknown.

The stairwell was very dark as we cleared each step, it had one overhead light that when working might have lit up the whole space but now with very little power being supplied it made the scene look and feel like it came from straight out of a Stephen King novel. But even with that we still made our way down.

Soon enough we had reached the bottom of the two flights of stairs and were quickly presented with another door, this time though it had no window or way for us to tell what could be and was waiting for us on the other side. We all had one last exchange of looks that seemed to go directly into each other's souls before I reached for the handle of that blue deadly looking door.

Then like a mouse it silently turned the dull silver handle and pushed the door just ever open trying to see around it. At first, nothing seemed to be in the way, but with each passing second of that door getting opened further and further my heartbeat grew louder and louder to the point that I would have sworn that the entire complex could hear. Then out of nowhere Owen came up and pushed the door the rest of the way open revealing nothing in front of it.

Once the door was open and I could see nothing was about to happen I was finally able to calm down enough to start pushing forward once again. The hallway directly connected to the stairwell was painted with navy blue on the walls and had a white and gray checkered tile floor. Other than us walking through that hallway it was empty, not a sound being made except for our shoes hitting that strangely clean tile.

After about two minutes of walking, we came across these two oak wood doors with bulletproof glass and a sign hanging above them that read, "Maintenance". Without saying a word we quickly pushed the doors open and began searching the room for a small moveable size generator. Strangely enough, it wasn't that hard to find, it took a few minutes sure but overall not hard.

"Ok, Jim and Jeremy you two take the generator back to the truck, Owen and I will stay down here and scout out the cafeteria. If we end up needing your help we will meet you at the truck." I said trying my best to get all of us out of that basement as fast as possible. I could see some hesitation on Jim's face trying to tell me that wasn't the best idea. But instead of saying it he just nodded his head and began taking the generator up with Jeremy.

Once they had gotten past the stairs and seemed like they would be able to take it the rest of the way with little to no trouble Owen and I began our trip towards the cafeteria. For the most part, it was completely silent; we had one Cep come out from a connecting hallway but Owen quickly took care of that. At this point, it was becoming second nature when it came to killing the slow ones. Now and again one would run at you and if you weren't prepared for it you could make a mistake but those were far and few in between.

Then just a few seconds after we had taken care of that Cep were our worst fears realized. We found the cafeteria, and along with that everyone who had been in the hospital at the time of the outbreak. Hundreds of Ceps wondering about that open room banging on walls and immediately turning back and walking the other direction.

It was like staring at a living nightmare, blood dripped from almost every one of their mouths, bodies laid across tables like pinatas after a group of starving children had gotten to them. Owen and I could only watch in horror as each one slowly turned their heads towards us, and I swear they were smiling.

Like lightning flashing across the sky they ran at us, we didn't even have time to turn before they hit the doors, never in my life had I been happier about cafeteria doors having a keycard lock. But we knew that it wouldn't keep them for long so faster than anything I had ever done in my life, so I turned around and began sprinting for the stairs.

"Crash!!" The sound of glass shattering could be heard echoing along every hallway coming from the cafeteria. Neither Owen nor I had to look back to understand what had happened. They were free. I didn't see it but I could imagine in that brief second their mangled corpses crawling through the glass creating new long cuts all across their bodies as they rocketed through the now open window.

It had taken us a little over two minutes of walking to reach that cafeteria but now that it was a race for our lives it felt like we were an eternity away. The navy blue hallways endlessly stretching and the tiled floor repeating on end. Then just like endless rain finally coming to a close the thick windowless door came into view.

Now was the time to run, run like Usain Bolt while he was in the prime of his career. At this point, I was only a few hundred meters away. Then bam I could feel my entire body shake as I slammed into that door, but I had no time to feel the pain, no time for anything other than opening that door and hoping that Owen was right behind me and about to run through.

As soon as that door was open I went through and for the first time since seeing the Ceps in that cafeteria I looked back and at that moment I thanked God for the first time. Owen came running through that door faster than I had ever seen him run, and with that, I slammed that door harder than a shot of Tequila on a Friday night.

Then just like how the lightning came, the thunder exploded through the stairwell as the Ceps slammed that door with every ounce of force they could muster. The first reaction both of us had was to begin quickly running up the stairs but weirdly enough halfway up all the sounds stopped. I don't know why but the Ceps just gave up, whatever the reason I have never been happier to be alive in my life.

After taking a few seconds to catch our breaths Owen and I began our climb, trying to make it back to the rest of the group in one piece. Finally, we reached the top level where we had entered from, nothing seemed out of place but that's what scared us the most. The Ceps downstairs had to have made enough noise to draw some sort of attention but yet nothing was here.

"This feels wrong," Owen said while looking around, the gun still firmly pressed into his shoulder.

"I know, but nothing we can do except move forward and get out of this damn place," I said trying to keep my cool. Then as if God had heard our conversation a Cep came running out of the side hallway that connected to our right. Out of pure reflex, I looked down the scope of my gun and pulled the trigger. Down fell the Cep, the bullet pierced its skull easier than a knife through hot butter.

That's when I realized what it was wearing, a purple girly short shirt with flowers over the trim and a pair of purposely cut jeans. Then it hit me, it was like a movie reel rewinding but this time it stopped. It stopped one week before this hell started, it stopped on Sara, back when she was wearing that exact outfit. That's when everything went dark.

I, Owen if you couldn't tell, watched as Lucas fell to the ground, fear instantly filling my mind, did he just die on command? Was he dying from something that I didn't know about? I don't know but what I did know was that I couldn't leave him there like that. I moved my gun to my left hand and grabbed Lucas under his right arm with my other.

"God damn Lucas you're a heavy son of a bitch!" I said out loud to no one. It took me quite a long time to carry him back to the lobby doors, but after enough grunting and swearing at him, we finally made it.

After a few seconds of trying to figure out how to open the doors without having to drop my gun or Lucas we had finally made it, I could see the entrance was just a little further then we would be home free. Then out of nowhere, there was something obstructing my vision, A person but who? That's when I felt it my body changed from warm to hot, so hot. I didn't even have time to look down but I could feel it, I could feel the knife now penetrating through my body.

Is this how I would go out? Afraid and alone, well at least I have Lucas by my side then like that the lights went out. I dropped to the floor soaked in blood from the waist down. The wound was bigger than anything I had ever seen. My pain was minimal because of shock I guess. With no one else around to hear me besides an unconscious Lucas laying on the floor. I felt bad because I couldn't do anything to help him. I was just bleeding out all over the floor. With what was left with my life, I tried standing up and getting my footing.

Once I was on my feet, I saw a blue muddy dirt bike leaned up against the wall on the other side of the lobby. Then looking outside the big glass door and saw a man standing there just waiting. Waiting for what I don't know, but he began walking towards me. The door opened and he was then standing right in front of me.

"I can't let you leave this building Owen," he said with his mask right in front of my face.

I found it weird that he knew my name, but I didn't have the time to figure out why. I threw a swing and hit him in the jaw. What came next was very odd because the blood that came out of his mouth was grey. That's when he stabbed me multiple times in the stomach and chest before darting out the door. On his way out he left a grey bloody handprint on the glass door.

I then collapsed to the floor and the last thing I had ever heard was the sound of a dirt bike driving away and the sounds of footsteps getting closer and closer. My life went by like a flash and what mattered to me was my friends and how they helped me through all those times.

I awoke with a jaunt, flying straight up like a rocket, hitting my head on a giant medieval-looking light. I moved the light out of the way realizing where I was. I was in the medical room back at the jail. That's when Jim walked in the room with this look on his face and trust me, it was not a good face. If I didn't know better I would have sworn someone had died. He walked towards me and took a seat right beside me before putting his hand on my shoulder. He asked if I knew anything that had happened which I replied:

"The last thing that I remember was seeing Sara as one of those things before blacking out… wait where is Owen at? Is he ok?"

That is where I saw Jim shed a tear and I knew immediately what he was going to say next. I began shedding those same tears when I asked:

"How did it happen?"

Jim said that he had multiple stab wounds to his stomach and chest before collapsing on the floor where he eventually bled out. Or at least that's the conclusion that Aaron came to.

"Can I have some alone time for a minute Jim, I'll be out soon," I said as calmly as I could, he kindly left the room shutting the door behind him with a quiet thud. The biggest burst of guilt fled right into my body as I began crying. If I had just been able to control myself then Owen would still be here standing here waiting. Giving me a "it's ok" or "you ready for tonight" with a stupid looking grin that only he can make.

Instead, my emotions got the best of me, and for that Owen died. While there was nothing I could have done. Never in my life had I felt more helpless than right now. I then heard a knock on the door. I didn't know who it was but I was guessing Jim.

"Wait just a second please," I said with a slight muffle in my voice and while also trying to dry off the tears running down my cherry red face. Once my eyes were dry but still completely red I let him come in. To my surprise, Aaron Watson walked in instead of Jim and asked how I was doing.

"I am fine, just a little struck with an overwhelming amount of guilt," I said trying to keep the tears back as Aaron began walking closer. Once he had gotten to the side of the bed he pulled a chair up and said,

"Can I tell you something that I haven't told very many other people?" He said to me as he sat down in the mahogany chair while never taking his eyes off the floor.

"Of course," I said, trying to get him to look up.

"When I was just starting teaching, I had this student that I could tell was struggling in more than one way and I felt that it was my duty to help them," He then began whimpering but eventually regained the ability to keep going on his story.

"I felt that I was making progress in this kid's life, but one day I got a phone call from the office saying that one of my students had committed suicide that previous night. Now I knew it had to be the kid I was trying to help because the rest of the class was there." He said while holding back tears, then after a quick break, he began again.

"What I am trying to say is that some things are just out of our control and you can't save everyone," he said, trying his best to comfort me. Let me say this, I have always seen Aaron Watson as a role model but today was the day that I realized if not for him, some things I went through would have not been possible. He was always there for us science buddies when no one else was, and he always made it a point to be not only a teacher but also a friend when you needed it.

I then got out of bed and Aaron helped me back to the bedrooms where he then laid me down on my bunk and left. I was finally able to get some rest before deciding what needed to happen tomorrow.

The next morning came faster than I wanted it to, much like how a child never wants to get out of bed for school, I had no desire to go to our morning meeting. I knew what was going to happen, I was going to either be ridiculed and shamed or maybe even kicked out of the group. Whatever the case I still had to go, and as such I finally got out of bed and after getting ready headed to face my sentence.

As I walked through the halls leading to the first-floor conference room I began to think back to the good old days, to the times before everything had gone into disarray. It made me happy and gave me hope that maybe one day the world would be like that again. Then just as my daydream finished I arrived outside the conference room glass doors.

I walked into the room ready for whatever was to come and when I looked around I noticed one major flaw, no one had taken my seat at the front of the room. This must be some kind of mistake, there was no way they would still want me around, as these thoughts were going through my head Jim began by speaking up.

"None of us know what happened in the basement but we all know it's not your fault and none of us are going to hold it against you," Jim said while taking a second to look around the room confirming his words by looking into everyone's eyes one at a time.

"Now we all believe that you are the best one to lead us in times like these, so what's the plan, Lucas?" He said, finishing off with a smile and a nod directed at me. I didn't know what to say to this, I was ready for almost anything, anything except this Not all of my doubts had been cleared but enough of them were gone for me to sit down in my chair and discuss the events that had transpired.

After a few days of mourning for Owen, things went back to normal, or as normal as they could be with the hole that Owen left. After going through and telling everyone the events that had transpired no one quite knew how Owen had died, the only guess Jim had was that the gray blooded handprint left on the window. That's when we all assumed that this might be GrayBlood.

As soon as that was over we got into the real meat of what needed to be done, "We need more people if we want to be safe here," Aaron said to the group during one of our morning meetings.

"What do you mean we need more people? We are doing just fine with the amount we have, we are doing so well we have extra food and extra supplies in general," I said, I was fine with adding more people but we had just gotten to a point that we weren't worrying about supplies in general.

"That's what I am saying now that we don't have to worry about supplies as much. It's better to start saving more and more people so that one day we can rebuild humanity," Watson said, getting into a stance that you would normally only see during the presidential inauguration or some other inspirational event.

"I agree with Watson, adding a few more people here and there won't hurt our supplies count. We have space and we could use the help." Jim was the one to speak up this time, I didn't get it. I know we needed more help but with that many people getting behind this idea it was going to be very hard to shoot down.

"Fine but where are you expecting to get these new people it's not like we can just post something on Craigslist anymore, and if we just roam about there is no guarantee we would find good people," I said, finally coming up with a good reason to shut this idea down. That's when the thunder began outside.

Rain began falling and since we are in the office part of the jail, all you can hear is rain constantly hitting the roof and it sounded like someone outside was hitting an insane amount of golf balls at the building. Now in the actual jail part of the jail, you couldn't hear a thing because of the extremely thick walls. More and more thunder arose from beyond the walls of the building. It got louder as the night went on and eventually it conceded. The next morning was time to go and check out the damage.

"Where is Rob?" I said to the group trying to find him. I walked down the hall towards the bunkroom where I found what looked to be Rob under the sheets. I snuck up to him and threw off the sheets. I have regretted very few things in my life, that was one of them, he threw some kind of magazine under his mattress then grabbed the sheets and pulled them back over himself.

"Please tell me that I didn't just witness you doing the stuff you know we all do but when people are not around," I said, slowly backing away from the area. He responded with,

"Well, no one was in here until you walked in," the look in his eyes said more than I ever needed to see.

"Fair point, but I need to finish up here then get down to the monitoring room and keep an eye out on the cams while Jeremy and I go outside and check for any damage caused by the storm.

"Yeah, no problem, I will be down there here in just a minute," he said as I was walking out. I grabbed Jeremy after opening a bottle of hand sanitizer and ran to the back door and grabbed a weapon and a radio before stepping outside.

Jeremy and I stepped outside and began to survey the building. While nothing stood out I had a weird feeling. That's when Jeremy tapped me on the shoulder. When I looked at him he was looking up in the air towards the sky. That's when I looked up and saw a cep hanging in the tree just waiting to fall. Didn't take long before the damn fell out of the tree and splattered onto the concrete below. No need to waste energy on killing it because it left a decent sized mark on the ground.

"Hey guys, I see something smoking off in the distance towards the high school and it looks like smoke or something," Aaron said, standing at the front door. I radioed back saying I saw it too. Jeremy and I ran back inside and hopped in the truck and went to investigate.

I pulled out of the garage and drove out through the parking lot. I drove down to Second street which I took the rest of the way through town. I hadn't quite been through the south side of town since this whole thing started. It took us about five minutes before we were about to enter the driveway leaking down to the school.

I drove the car down the oh so familiar driveway I took every day. I will never forget the time when one of the sophomores decided to drive the way out in reverse. How that guy never got pulled over, I have no idea. I drove down towards the parking lot and rounded the corner. In the middle of the parking lot was some kind of car burning. Just by looking at it, I could tell that the fire started not that long ago. I parked the truck and Jeremy and I stepped out. We were able to walk about ten feet before Jeremy looked over at me.

"Is there another Cep in a tree or something because you are looking at me with that same face as before," I said kind of weirded out.

"No, there is no Cep, just a laser right on your forehead." He said with a tingle in his voice. I looked back forward muttered:

"Shit, well this can't be good."

When I said that I heard something over and over by the tree line. That's when a couple of people emerged from the tree line and from behind the burning car.

"Weapons down and hands...wait a minute, son of a bitch." One of the guys said as they began approaching us. One of them ripped off their masks and I saw a face that I had not seen in a while. Jordan walked up to us and said,

"I knew you guys would come if you were still alive, and yes I was having my doubts, but man am I glad to see you guys."

One year later -

Everything seemed to have calmed down for the most part we continued to add more and more people to our group after Jordan rejoined us. We got so big eventually that our base was no longer big enough to contain us. So we had to search far and wide until we found a suitable home. After that the rest was easy, we set everything up and survived, after a year of patrolling the same area we had a pretty good understanding of where and when Ceps were going to attack.

After that, the only thing we had to worry about was the ever-increasing need for more and more supplies. Eventually, we had most of the stores in Clinton raided, and their supplies stored underground for when we would need them. That morning I woke up with a jaunt, memories of Owen still lingering in my dreams even a year after the incident.

"Hey, Lucas you there?" I heard it come from my radio which was sitting in its charging station. Our power problem had mostly been solved once we tapped into a water wheel we stole from our local museum. After a few seconds of trying to decide whether I should pick up the radio and answer or just fain being asleep, I picked it up and said:

"Ya what's up, I just woke up," I said trying to make it seem like I wasn't being a dick while I was. It seemed to work quite nicely.

"Oh it's just that the propane we stole a while back is acting up," he said all nonchalantly like what he had just said didn't mean it could kill us all.

"Ok, Darwin what exactly do you mean by acting up?" I said trying to see if we needed to evacuate that side of the base or if he was just being over-cautious.

"The pressure is normally around 145 psi, but today we are sitting at 185," he said with a little worry in his voice but nothing that made me want to jump out of bed and run away from this place.

"What is the max psi it can be at and still be safe?" It was a simple question that I hoped he had the answer for.

"The max safe psi that a tank of this size can be at is around 200," and just like that the little worry I did have vanished.

"Ok, well then just check on them every hour or so and if anything happens such as it going over the safe limit contact me, until then we should be fine," I said while slowly getting ready.

"Ok, I will do that," Darwin said, ending the transmission. He was a recent addition to the base. We found him hidden in a house we decided to raid. He had managed to build himself a steel safe like door that was keeping the Creps out. Considering how good he was at building stuff we assigned him to be our mechanic, damn he was so happy when he heard that.

Next was the morning meeting, at this point everything we talked about was pretty much the same. What did our supplies count look like? Do we need more and if so from where? And then what did the base look like and was there anything that needed to be done immediately. After the morning meeting was over it was time to begin my rounds.

I began with our resident doctor Lisa, we found her about a month after Owen died, she was hiding on the hospital roof. How we didn't notice her the first time is a mystery. But she did notice us but due to us leaving in such a hurry it took her a month to find us.

"Hallo Lisa, how is everything?" I asked, trying to be nice, Lisa had moved from Germany to study in America, she had just finished school and was about to start her residency when the apocalypse started.

"Hello Lucas, everything is good, we have enough supplies for right now, almost no one is getting hurt on missions anymore so I'm pretty bored these days," she said with those brown puppy dog eyes of hers. I don't know what she was begging for but it was probably something I didn't want to know about.

"How about the research on GrayBlood?" I asked knowing that I was probably going to get the same response that I had gotten every other time I asked the question.

"You're no fun and we finally understand why he is immune or at least we have an educated guess as to why," she said with a slight smile, a smile that was considering not telling me just to see me squirm.

"And?"

"Fine, here look at this photo," She said, pulling a photo of Grayblood's cells out from a drawer in her desk.

"See this little thing?" She said pointing at what looked like a triangle sitting on top of the cell dancing a jig.

"Ok I see it but what is it?" Finally, we got to the most important question. It was like herding sheep with her.

"I have no clue," she said with that annoying smile of hers, the same smile that made me want to punch her in the face at times like this. And with that, I left her be and went to check on the guards we have at each corner of the complex.

After checking with each of them they all said the same thing, that "almost no Ceps are walking around," While I'm not going to complain about there not being any threats it was still weird and a little bothersome. After checking on the guards my next task for the day was to go and tend to our garden.

Now when I say garden most people think of some small back yard garden made to be a hobby. But this garden is what helps create 50% of the food we consume, It is comparable to most farms in terms of size, and 100 of the 258 people that make up our population are tasked to maintain it.

Right behind the farm is a little bit of space that we dedicate to cattle and chickens, sure the space is nowhere near enough if we were going off the laws before the apocalypse and would probably be counted as animal cruelty but who cares laws were no longer applicable a while ago.

After barely getting into inspecting the gardens I heard a massive explosion come from the east wall. I looked up with fear glistening in my eyes; a slight static started emitting from the radio on my belt. Jeremy was radioing out, yelling that the propane tanks had ruptured, causing a chain reaction. I immediately ran over to the watchtower near the center of camp, grabbed my belongings, and went to gather as many of the others as possible. But after frantically searching, I was only able to find the members of the science club and Watson.

As soon as everyone that I could find was in the same place they began to invade, hundreds upon hundreds of Ceps came pouring in like bees when their queen was getting attacked. And that brings us back to the present, to when the Ceps were just 500 meters away on each side, the first person to fire was Watson shooting the Creps on our left side. Then the rest of the group began firing into the crowd trying to take out as many of them as we could while slowly moving to the left where Watson had opened up a hole for us.

"Push for the main building," I yelled to the group trying to get everyone on the same page and so we wouldn't die. Then like that everyone made one big push getting us against the gray bricks that protected our southside letting us focus on the hoard slowly pushing in on us.

"Lucas, Lucas are you there?" I heard this come from the radio on my belt. It was Sydney, one of the guards that were in charge of watching for Ceps.

"Yes, I'm here what the fuck happened why didn't you radio that Ceps were approaching?" I yelled into the radio my cool gone with the wind and understandable too.

"We tried but the radio single went down this was the first time something went through," She yelled back at me, she was probably on the run from the now hoard of Ceps that was storming our base.

"Ahhhhhhhh," her voice came through the radio, a high pitched scream letting us know her fate had not been a pretty one. With that we made one final push for the main gate, Ceps came from us on all sides blood flying from their mouths as they charged at us snarling with every step. Every bullet fired hitting its target, the adrenaline making everything slow down like we were moving through time at a slower rate than everyone else.

And like that, we were through, but just like lighting thunder soon followed, on top of a giant hill standing roughly 500 feet tall was GrayBlood, and around him an army of Ceps waiting to strike. Then as GrayBlood stood there staring us down with his mask covering his face he yelled out:

"Lucas, it's been a long time, the last time was when I killed Owen, that spineless coward," He yelled into a speakerphone, his voice nagging in my ear. I knew this voice and he knew us but from where?

Then with the flick of his wrist, he ripped his mask off and stared at us waiting for us to respond, waiting for anything to fuel his ego.

"Willllllsonnnnnnnnnnn" I screamed up at his rage filling my very soul, why did it have to be someone I completely hated? Someone, anyone would have been better, I thought he died I was happy that he died but this was too much. Then with the flick of his wrist downwards the Ceps started flying down the hill ready to rip us apart.