Chapter 2: I found a dead body on my table

Being suddenly awakened by the sound of screams and gunshots is definitely not normal especially when you live on a farm. I mean the first question is who would try to rob a farm and the second question is why. Rover was also awoken by the noise surprised I mean everyone in town knew that our family has a history of serving the army and police force. Oh yeah Sorry, I forgot to mention my dad used to serve in the Navy and my grandfather was in the air force. I opened my bedroom window and tried to see what was going on. I saw some movements coming from the corn farm as well as gunshots. Rover was also looking in that direction. That reminds me I never introduced Rover properly apologies. Introducing Rover, the incredible German Shepherd with a stunning coat of brown and black. This pup is no ordinary doggo - he's got some serious police dog training under his collar! Rover's all about loyalty, courage, and being there for us when we need him most. With those piercing eyes and a sleek, strong body, he's got that tough yet lovable look that makes this German Shepherd so awesome. Whether he's sniffing out bad guys or keeping us safe, Rover's always ready to show off his skills. But hey, he's not all business! When he's not fighting crime, Rover loves playing fetch with me in the park, going on long walks, and just being a goofball. So get ready to hear more about the coolest dog on the block!

I got out of bed without turning on the bedroom lights as I navigated to the door. I wasn't sure if an intruder had entered the house little did I know worse was to come.

Locking the door I grabbed the wall as I navigated towards my cupboard. Bending down I moved a pile of clothes aside where I had a hidden compartment. I opened it and grabbed the bulletproof vest I had just received, with my taser flashlight badge and my Sig Sauer P226 pistol. I had Rover's ballistic vest with me as well.

"Rover come here boy" I whispered but he was busy looking out the window which was unusual as he always listened to me. I crept slowly towards the window I almost dropped all the things I had in my hand. San Francisco was on fire, something wasn't right. My mind started rushing with thoughts of terrorist attacks, the Taliban had entered our lands even worse the Russians. Believe me, when I say the city was on fire I meant the whole city was on fire. Flames were flying into the sky. I made Rover put on his vest as I grabbed my uniform putting it on. I grabbed a bag and dumped my flashlight and taser into it while grabbing the walkie-talkie and my phone from my desk and dumping it as well. I put on my bulletproof Vest and grabbed my pistol while wearing my bag.

"Hush," I said to Rover as I quietly unlocked my bedroom door.

The first thing I would do was check if there was anyone in the hallway. The worst-case scenario would be a fight to the death as the hallway is small and there's nowhere to hide or run. I also had to get to my parent's room to help them get out of there.

Opening the door I moved into the hallway crouching with my pistol in front of me. I looked both left and right to see nobody there. Quickly I ran to my parents' bedroom which was at the end of the hallway to the right. The door was opened and I turned on the bedroom lights as it was pitch black.

The bed was empty and the bed was a mess as if something happened. My parents' cupboard was opened with my dad's shotgun missing meaning he had escaped. The question is why would they run off without me? Something wasn't right, I headed to my brother's room which was next to my room. He had left his dagger in there and told me where it was. Quickly I opened the door of his room his room was the same as mine with a baby blue colored wall. I went under his bed strapping off the dagger attached to it. The military dagger glistened in bold red, with a sharp blade and a vibrant grip it was the best weapon for stealth. I didn't have a silencer and in such a situation making noise would be the worst choice. I opened my brother's side table grabbing his kickboxing gloves as he loved those and I definitely didn't want anyone stealing them.

Quickly I stuffed them into my pocket as I headed back into the hallway, At the end of the hallway towards the left where the stairs led to the ground floor. It directly led to the living room and the main door entrance was connected to the living room. Our stairs had no light so it was pretty dark the only source of light was from my parents' room. Rover and I tried to walk as slowly and quietly as possible the floorboards were creaking a little bit beneath us.

I grabbed the wall for support and it felt wet. I moved my hand towards the light and noticed it was red. It was blood! red stains of blood were on the wall smeared into it as if something was dragged along it. my heart started pounding rapidly and I started to assume the worst. I walked further downstairs and noticed that the white entrance door to our home was broken and was fallen on the ground. Weird noises were coming from outside which I never heard before. I was startled by such strange noises and this scared Rover as he hid behind me.

I saw some slight movement out of the corner of my eye coming from the kitchen. We had a sort of Japanese type of sliding door leading to the kitchen so you could see through it kind of. There was this very weird shadow chewing something that was on our kitchen table. Slowly in the dim light, a etched a figure of a person lying down on our dining table just flailing their arms around randomly.

I loaded up my pistol and slowly walked towards the kitchen. I tried to quietly open the door but as usual, it made a large rattling noise. To my horror, I saw a thing no son should ever see. I almost dropped to the ground about to Puke. I didn't understand what I was seeing I could barely prevent myself from screaming. My brain and emotions were a mess I felt like screaming, crying, frustrated and angry. My mother was on the table with her intestines spilling out her face had a lifeless expression while her arms were flailing around.

"Ma my dear ma what happened to you, who did this to you?" I said while tears were spilling out.

Her arms moved toward my direction as if she was asking me to come to her. I didn't understand what was going on my body got up and walked towards her. The other man who chewed her intestines looked at me but continued to chew on her intestines. He had green skin with his eyes popped out like he was a zombie. He must be some psychopath coming from that festival Mom and Dad went to.

Grabbing my mom I hugged her, "Everything will be okay ill get you to the hospital right now as soon as a kill this sick bastard".

"I'm gonna make you regret what you did" I yelled with anger as I turned towards this man. All of a sudden my mother made a very weird groaning noise, "RAAAAAUUUGHHHHH" and leaped on me. I fell on the floor as my mom was on me. I looked at her out of horror as my mother tried to attack me, I couldn't understand her appearance. She was turning all green as she tried to bite me. I grabbed her forehead trying to push her above me. My mother was getting old she was in her 50s starting to get a lot of gray hair and was a bit overweight. Other than that she was a sweet person who all the people in the town loved and helped in fundraisers and charity a lot. She was a practicing Christian meanwhile I wasn't really a guy who believed in religion. Anyways back to the story. She tried lunging towards me trying her best to bite me. What was going on? Why is this happening to me? I thought to myself Who did this? Why is my mother trying to kill me? So many questions started to fill in my head.

The other guy started walking towards me as well slouching. Rover attacked him knocking him to the ground.

It was getting harder and harder to prevent my mother from biting me. I looked closer at her appearance and she looked like a zombie out of the movies. I couldn't shoot her, my mind was so confused and shocked about what was going on and what was I supposed to do. She came closer to me and was so close to biting me.

"Sorry Mom" I yelled as with all my strength I pushed her to the side and rolled the other way. She was struggling to get up meanwhile Rover started barking. The man got up again and was about to bite Rover. I ran towards him tackling him to the ground. I grabbed the dagger I had and stabbed him in the heart 3 times. He screamed in pain as I quickly got up and backed away.

I thought he was dead but I was wrong as he got up again. What the hell is going on what the hell is he? He isn't even human, he lunged towards me knocking me down on the floor.

"Get off of me" I yelled as I grabbed my dagger and stabbed him directly in the head piercing through his brain. All of a sudden he stopped moving and just fell on me. I pushed him off of me as he lay on the floor lifeless. It was like he was a zombie.

My zombie mom got up and started walking toward me. Rover came in front of me and gave her a snarl which was a warning from him to stay back.

I did not know what to do, I pulled myself together and picked up my pistol and rover. Immediately I turned around and bolted towards the door. I know what you are thinking wow Daryl seriously a cowardly move. Well, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't kill your mother unless your a psychopath.

I ran outside of the house and ran straight towards the stables. Our stable was pretty big filled with a lot of hay. I quickly entered the stables and shut the door as my mother chased after me. She was limping while trying to move as fast as she could. She kept on making weird groaning noises.

Click went the door as I shut it, I could hear Becky at the back being frightened by something. I ran towards her stable and opened the door. I could tell that she was as frightened as I was. I tried to calm her down and gave her gentle pats letting her know everything was alright. I still did not understand what was going on.

I tried to calm myself down and try to figure out what was going on and what should i do. Maybe this was some sort of prank, no Dad would not break down a door or make the walls dirty. Plus my mom wasn't much of an actor. I tried to pet Rover but I couldn't feel him anywhere.

It then occurred to me that where was Rover, I was pretty sure I brought him inside. "Rover here boy" I called out. No response, again I called out for him still no response. I got up and took out my gun from my pocket. "Rover here boy," I said again, this time I heard some whimpering coming from the corner of the stables.

"Hey boy what are you doing there," I said while approaching the corner. He was trembling which I found very weird but then again what wasn't weird? I scooped him up in my arms patting him I guess he was still scared after what he saw. Even I am seeing my mother trying to kill me something I wish I could unsee. She was the sweetest person I knew. I remember how when I was little she would always pamper me and my older brother would always get jealous. I once tripped and got a bruise on my knee while playing football. My mom rushed to aid me while my dad would lecture her to let me deal with it on my own as I was supposed to be a man. I chuckled over the thought, I wonder where Dad was, he loved Mom so dearly that he would never let this happen to her. He was not the man to run away.

I turned around and walked toward Becky, she looked toward me and started neighing in a panic. I didn't understand why was she so upset, I felt a cold hand touch my shoulder. Quickly I grabbed the hand and rolled down as I tossed him forward. Another zombie, oh god I'm still not used to this, I reached for my gun but it wasn't with me. I must have dropped it somewhere.

I looked towards the zombie I didn't recognize him he was some random citizen, he groaned and leaped towards me. I quickly rolled sideways just barely missing his attack. He grabbed my leg and the rover came in the nick of time to save me. He pushed the zombie away, I quickly grabbed my dagger and stood up. "Stay away" I yelled, now that was stupidity at its peak, I was threatening a zombie I mean he barely cared I'm not even sure if he understood me all he wanted to do was probably eat my brains. Knowing walking dead the best thing to do would be to kill this guy. The zombie walked towards me as I started trembling with the dagger in my hand, I could hear Becky panicking, Rover came in front and started barking at the zombie. The zombie turned towards him, and out of primal instincts, I lunged at the zombie. I couldn't afford to lose Rover, I stabbed the zombie in the head and felt blood splatter on my clothes. The zombie lay dead in front of the rover, "I'm sorry random person I killed" I said under my breath.

Becky was still panicking especially after what he saw, I could hear more zombies banging on the door. I opened Becky's stable to calm her down, but instead, she kicked me and ran out of the stable shed through the back door. I cussed at my stupidity and quickly got up running out the back door. I found my gun fallen on the back door thinking I must have put the gun on Becky.

"Come on Rover we got to bail before the zombies get to us" I yelled.

Rover quickly came running behind me, we had to hide and escape before the zombies catch us. The only place to run now was the corn maze. I know it's stupid for me to go to the same place where the gunshots started but going the other way was through the front door and that place was filled with monsters. At least in the corn maze, I had the element of surprise giving me the chance to take them all down.

I sprinted as fast as I could along with Rover, and we dove right into the field. I made sure I wouldn't lose Rover and we ran toward the center of the field so the zombies in the maze wouldn't be able to catch us easily. We saw a few zombies but they were a bit slow so it would take time for them to catch up to us. I dropped to the ground catching my breath, my lugs were grasping all the air they could get.

Rover was also panting, I could hear the zombies scruffling around the field trying to look for us. I wondered where Becky had run off to. I assumed she probably ran away to safety, I got up and rubbed off the dirt from my pants. Now it was my turn to escape from this hell. The only way to escape was by killing all these monsters.

"Rover" I whispered, he came walking towards me, sniffing the zombies out for me. He understood his orders and started to lead the way. This was crazy I just killed a zombie who was probably an innocent person and now I'm gonna kill more of them. I'm not mentally prepared to kill innocent people I mean my job is to protect them not kill them.

Rover quickly found a zombie and informed me. we hid quickly and observed it. It kept on running into the corn maze bush walls repeatedly. At this rate, we weren't going to get anywhere. I decided I was going to attack it from behind. I cautiously pulled out my dagger and walked slowly toward it from behind.

Quickly I stabbed it through its skull as it pierced the zombie's brain, the zombie fell to the ground dead. I was freaking out I still wasn't used to killing people. My body trembled in fear, from behind me nowhere a zombie grabbed my leg making me trip and knock my dagger away. He was all over me, with his saliva spilling on my face, I pulled out my pistol and shot it. This brought the other zombie towards us, Rover attacked it by its leg biting it, it let out a shriek of pain as I pointed my pistol at its head and fired. I patted Rover, "Alright boy we better get out of here," I said. The first thing we needed was more guns if we were going to survive this and secondly food. I quickly grabbed my dagger and we ran towards home. We approached home checking if my mom's zombie was there.

I slowly walked into the home from the back kitchen door with my flashlight on there was no sign of any zombies. I opened the kitchen cupboards grabbing any canned food I could find as I put my bag on the kitchen slab. Tossing all the food I could find in the bag.

. The next stop was the shed my dad kept more guns there. The shortest route there was through the corn maze. Our farm was pretty huge.

I and rover ran through the backdoor and ran straight towards the corn maze, I could feel the zombies getting closer. Quickly we ran towards the center of the maze expecting no zombie to catch up to us. I stopped to quickly catch my breath, we had to run just a little bit more and I would find the shed. I decided to take a quick break as it would take around ten minutes for the zombies to catch up to us.

I opened the chocolate bar and started chewing on it, Rover tried to take a bite but I blocked his mouth with my hand.

"NO Rover you know chocolate would kill you," I said in a strict tone. He got upset and walked a little bit away from me his way of showing he was angry at me. I finished eating my bar and got up.

"Come on Rover we have to get going," I said, I turned towards Rover seeing him freak out and whimper. What's the matter boy, he was looking towards one of the paths of the maze. I dropped to my knees holy god oh no oh no why is this happening to me? Tears came out from my eyes, it was Steve he turned into a huge zombie.

He was one of the sweetest people I knew in the academy, yet here he was looking like an ugly vile creature. His skin was green, red eyes, he was huge and it seemed as if another head was emerging from his body.

He made a weird zombie roar which scared Rover more, the other zombies hearing this also responded to this call. He quickly ran towards us and when I say run I mean it, he ran as fast as a normal human compared to the other zombies who were a bit slow.

I quickly got Rover and ran knowing I couldn't defeat him, I quickly dodged his attack and ran into one of the corners of the mazes. I ducked down and hid there, Rover was still whimpering and was making too much noise. "Rover come on you gotta keep quiet otherwise they'll hear us," I said panicked. Sweat was dripping from my face my heart was pounding. If Steve lounged at me id be a dead man.

The zombies and Steve were nearby I quickly grabbed my bag and Rover and ran straight to the shed. I was hoping the zombies wouldn't notice me but they did. I quickly opened the door of the shed and slammed it shut behind me locking the door.

I took a sigh of relief but I knew the door wouldn't handle the zombies for that long. A hand emerged from nowhere and covered my mouth. I grabbed the hand and grabbed my dagger from my pocket ready to kill another zombie. Moving the hand away from my mouth and turning towards the zombie, turned to see Dad. My heart beat with joy Dad he was still alive. I could tell Rover was also happy to see him, I quickly hugged him.

"What is going on what are those things," I said to my father.

"There mortui viventes wheres your mother?" he said as he tossed me the shotgun and grabbed the rifle.

"Mom didn't make it I am sorry", I said looking down

"Did you kill her?" he said in a deep sad voice

"I couldn't bring myself to do it I'm sorry," I said as tears started to fall out my eyes.

"Hey ill do it she's my wife don't worry," he said as he put his arm on my shoulder

"Whats mortui viventes," I asked wiping the tears off my face

"Well in your simple English you'd call them zombies but in Latin, they're called mortui viventes," he said.

My dad loved learning languages during his free time he'd speak to us in random languages and we had no clue what he was saying.

He quickly gave me some ammo for the shotgun as well. I stored them in my bag for later on.

"This isn't good how many of them are there out there," he said loading up his rifle.

"Probably a dozen, I don't know how we're gonna survive, "I said looking at him with a worried look.

"There is no we," he said while looking at me. He grabbed a red crystal necklace and took it off giving it to me.

"What do you mean there is no we?" I said looking at him startled.

"Take this necklace and keep it with you always," he said looking at me seriously as he handed me this weird-looking red crystal. I had never seen him have it before.

"Dad where did you even get this from and what do you mean there is no we" I yelled. I could hear the zombies banging on the door, any moment they would be inside.

"Son I'm sorry, forgive me I'll always love you and your brother you both will always be my children," he said with tears in his eyes.

"Son, as the darkness looms outside this shelter, and the relentless threat of the undead surrounds us, I need you to listen carefully. Promise me, with all your heart, that you'll continue to live. Live long enough to experience the beauty and joy that this world still holds, for both of us.

You possess a strength within you, my dear boy, a strength that runs in our blood. Find your brother, reunite with him, and together, your bond will be unbreakable. Lean on each other, support one another, and I know you will survive whatever challenges lie ahead.

I have fought countless battles and witnessed unspeakable horrors, but now my time in this world is drawing to a close. My body may be frail and weary, but my love for you is everlasting. Carry my memories within you, my son, and let them guide you toward a brighter future.

Remember, life is precious, and you must cherish every moment. Embrace the sunrise, revel in the laughter, and keep your heart open to love. Let the world feel your presence, for you possess the strength to shape it for the better.

It pains me to leave you in this dire situation, but know that my love for you transcends all boundaries. Hold onto our memories, and when you feel lost, close your eyes and feel my presence beside you. I will be your guiding light, even from beyond this realm.

Promise me, my son, that you will live, truly live. Survive, find happiness, and honor the legacy of our family. The weight of this world may be heavy, but I have faith in your resilience. Farewell, my dear son, may life's blessings be bestowed upon you as you navigate this treacherous path." he said holding me close

The door gave in and the zombies entered the shed my dad ran towards them yelling and firing at them. I tried to run after him but Rover tugged me preventing me from going. I didn't understand what was going on but Rover did, he quickly pulled me away from the shed as my dad lead the zombies away from me. I could see my mom and Steve running toward my dad. My dad shot my mother killing her I could tell this wasn't easy for him he was in pain. Zombies attacked him from behind chewing his shoulders and legs off. he screamed as he fired at Steve.

"To hell with you all rot and burn" he yelled as he took Steve down. The zombies toppled over him chewing him. All I could do was run and watch. why did he do that giving his life for his son I never understood what it truly meant to be a father but I guess this was it. To sacrifice your life for your children, no this was a duty of a man to protect and provide for your family. My father was the bravest man I know he lived as a man and died as a man.

Tears filled my eyes as I started running, I ran farther and farther and hurt me that I couldn't do anything for my dad. I'm just a coward a good for nothing I couldn't even save my own Dad.

I lost most of my family what a pathetic loser I am as I started hitting my head in frustration. I ran out of the farm towards the driveway, Rover alongside me. I could see in the distance Becky was about to get attacked by a zombie. Holding the shotgun in my hand I shot the zombie.

Becky neighed out of panic I quickly grabbed her and pulled her back. "Stay," I told Rover as I ran into the sheds to grab Becky's saddle and reins.

There was a zombie in the shed and I jumped on it in pure frustration grabbing my dagger and stabbing it. I stabbed it probably ten or eleven times in the chest before killing it. I got up and grabbed the saddle and reins.

I ran back to Becky and put the equipment on her while patting her to calm her down. I put on my brother's kickboxing gloves and quickly I got up on her and Rover jumped up.

"Hya" I yelled as we set run towards the town, I'm sorry Dad forgive me I couldn't save you I said in my heart. Tears fell from my eyes as I ran towards the town leaving away home forever. As I approached the town all of a sudden I heard a cry for help.