The Beginning 

It all started on a normal day. Well, not so normal for me, and my friend Hayden, well, let's just say our pro gaming skills allowed us to get into a gaming competition against the top players in our region for the game NiteFort. A game about being a knight and you build forts to face against other foes. Anyway, back to the point. Mid-Match, everyone's phones in the audience started to beep, like what would happen for an amber alert, or tornado alert. Suddenly screaming echoed from the backstage. One of the security guards went to one of the doors and opened it, however, a screaming man emerged from the darkness of the backstage, grabbing onto the guard, and biting into his head, ripping off his ear. Screaming everywhere. Everyone that was present started to scramble out of the building, me and my friend included.

As we got outside, we saw cars crashing and buildings catching fire, the first thing I thought of was maybe it was a terrorist attack. But what I saw next completely changed everything. As we started running down the streets we saw a man get mauled by rabid animals in human clothing. Not only that, but multiple times we saw these humans jumping out of windows, and then standing up as if nothing happened, and then hunting people down. When we saw that, we acknowledged that this wasn't a terrorist attack, this was something far worse.

We saw a store, and although the windows were broken, it was our best bet. As we got inside and were safe we thought to call our friends and family to see if they know what's happening, however the phone service was down. We were completely stunned thinking about what could happen to us. I was starting to have a panic attack. My friend Hayden was trying to calm me down. It sort of worked but I was still terrified. Hayden said he was going to gather some food and drinks in a backpack he grabbed off of a body outside. I said ok and was shocked that he would even grab something from a body. However, now wasn't the time to think about that. I told him I would be waiting here. He was searching cabinets, bags that customers left behind, anything that could contain useful supplies. He came back to where I was sitting and he gave me some water and a chocolate bar to calm my nerves. I was thankful and soon I finished the chocolate bar and the water I was given.

I stood up and walked around for a while, not only to calm me down, but also I was trying to see if I could find anything Hayden could have missed. I headed back to our little corner where we were hiding. I sat down and asked Hayden what we were going to do. He said we need to get back to our families as fast as possible. I agreed with this and wanted to leave immediately. However, Hayden said we needed to prepare a bit first, so he went to the back of the store and came out with two wooden planks. "We'll use these to defend ourselves. We will have to find something better at some point though." I looked at the plank, it had a few splinters, and looked bent, so it would not help much, but it was better than nothing. So I took the plank and proceeded to get a few test swings with it. I felt pretty cool for a second, then I remembered it was just a plank. It wasn't my type of fighting style, not that I fought much anyway. But if it will help me survive whatever catastrophe is happening outside I'll take it gratefully.

Hayden pointed towards the door and broken windows, saying they should start moving, as staying in one place for too long was a "terrible" idea. I thought differently, but I decided to trust him, as he hasn't let me down before, except for that one time, and that other time, and a few more times. But we don't talk about that. We walked outside and wandered about until we saw a hardware store. Hayden said "We should go there, it could have some supplies we need, like weapons." I agreed so we headed towards it. Hayden got to the front door and looked inside, looking if any of those creatures were in there. When he thought the coast was clear, he walked, but apparently he is blind, because he was quickly attacked by one of the rabid humans. I quickly swung my plank, hitting the, I guess I should call it a zombie, in the head, stunning the zombie, then Hayden stomped its head with his boot. Hayden said thanks, and I looked at the zombie, I really thought it was dead, that was until it grabbed my leg, Hayden stomped on its head again, and again, and again. It was very gory. Blood and brain matter splattered all over the floor. Just as I saved him, he saved me, so I thanked him, and we got busy.

We scavenged around the store until we found some new weapons, I found a crowbar, and Hayden got a hammer, we knew that we would now be ready for whatever horrors came at us or at least that's what we thought. We made sure that the store was safe for us to stay the night, and at we started to go to sleep until we heard a loud bang against the door, we both jumped up with fear he grabbed his hammer and slowly walked towards the door, I followed with my crowbar, Hayden slowly wrapped his hand around the door knob, he started to twist the knob until the banging started again, he backed up a little ways away, as the banging got louder and more intense.

Then all of a sudden it got quiet again we thought whatever it was gave up and left however when we put our weapons down, the door busted down and a fast zombie sprinted at me, Hayden quickly reacted and stuck his foot in it's path, tripping it, Hayden then started beating its head into the ground, the zombie then quickly got up and pushed Hayden away, I ran and stabbed it with a screwdriver I had found at the hardware store. After stabbing it, I stomped on its head a few times, mimicking where Hayden kicked that other zombie at the store. Making sure it was dead, I went to check if Hayden was okay. He was bleeding on his arm a little bit from hitting the rough wall. I told him we needed to find him something to patch him up, and that we needed to get out of this place as soon as possible. Because our line of safety, our door, is now broken, and the noise of it could bring more zombies. I wasn't going to risk us getting killed so I helped him up and we gathered all of our things and left to search for another place to stay for the night.

We found a doctor's office and decided to go in there to look for medical supplies. And hopefully another backpack for Me. We snuck in through a side entrance of the office and there were a couple of zombies, which we tried to take out as quietly as possible. Using a quick stab to the head with a screwdriver did the job. I found a bandaid in one of the cabinets, I gave it to Hayden and we settled down in one of the rooms after clearing out the building. Here we went to sleep. The next day I woke up and saw that Hayden was not in the room we slept in. I searched the whole place until I found him scavenging around in the back of the place, I told him that he scared me and I thought he got eaten or ran away, and that i'm glad I found him, I also told him to never do that again, or I would do something he wouldn't like, it was a empty threat, but I think it worked, That's when he handed me a backpack, I guess as a form of apology, and I gladly accepted it. I came up with an idea. That being that we should try finding a car so we could go find my family, since they live in Texas, and that's where the gaming competition was held. He agreed but said that we would go find his family right after. At the time I was fifteen, and Hayden was seven-teen, as such I didn't know how to drive, but Hayden did, which would be how we got to our families.

We went searching and we found a car, we reached through the rolled down window and unlocked the doors, we checked out its condition, and all that was needed was fuel, we wandered around looking for a gas station, whenever we found one Hayden filled up a jerry can that he grabbed in the gas station, with some fuel, and we went back to the car. Then he put the gas in the car while I hotwired the car. I was a rebellious kid, so I had some knowledge about stuff like this. I eventually got it, and we went back inside the doctor's office and gathered our things then we put it all in the trunk of the car. Also, we found a 12 gauge shotgun in the trunk, Hayden of course called dibs. I decided to just let him have it.

I got into the passenger seat. He told me to start up the car so I used my skills and started it again. He got into the driver seat and we drove off. Luckily my house was only an hour away. I told him where my house was and we drove. Whenever we got there I hurriedly rushed inside my house, but I froze as soon as I entered the door, blood, so much blood covered the hall. I yelled for my Mom, I rushed to the bedroom, and found my mom with my siblings behind her, all dead. I fell on my knees, I couldn't believe what I saw, my head was pounding, and I started questioning why this had happened, why did this have to happen to me, why us? I was destroyed on the inside. I didn't know what to do. I don't know how long I was sitting there when Hayden came to check up on me and saw what had happened. He told me to get in the car and that we were leaving. I just felt so dead inside. I couldn't believe what had happened. I couldn't wrap my head around it. As we started driving, I knew where we were going next. To Oklahoma, where Hayden's family, and our friends were.