Chp.1 Even a whimper starts with a bang

Connor May 12 2025

I remember the night before it happened like a distant dream. I'd stayed up late stressing about the essay I had to write on classical English literature. At the time, it seemed like such a momentous task that I might never finish even in the four hours we'd be given for a three page long essay. I'd been talking with some friends late into the night to distract myself, playing games to try and find some relaxation to ease me into bed. Truthfully it didn't work too well. So when They came the next day, it felt ever more dreamlike. It was hard to believe what was happening before my eyes. Watching one of my best friends get his throat torn out by another human. His body fell to the floor as more of Them crowded around his limp corpse, falling to their knees to begin feasting on his still warm flesh. The blood splattered on my face, a reminder that this was reality and I was still alive. The air in my lungs rushing in and out, my heart pounding like a jackhammer. Constant hopes, wishes, and prayers that I was dreaming. Yet more than enough sensations to make sure I knew I was alive.

"Connor what the fuck are you standing around for, RUN!" Marshall yelled.

He came in swinging with a baseball bat and knocked one of the undead over the head. It's always interested me how the sound of bones breaking was so quiet yet so loud. Even though the sound itself was always quiet, it could be heard so clearly at any given time. The man's skull made that noise as Marshall hit it, clear as day. He wound back and hit another one. The others were still preoccupied with the corpse that they didn't even react to it.

"C'mon, stand up," he said, picking me off the floor, "we weren't the only ones with the idea to come to the sports shed. We need to get off the field."

We sat at the end of the old football field. Our team was really good, we'd been pretty consistent champions, best players in the division. I remember coming out to see the games with friends. The roar of the crowd as a touchdown was scored. The chants for every yard gained, it seemed oh so distant now, but at the same time like it had only happened moments before.

"I can't fucking carry you man, use your legs." Marshall was yelling at me.

I was so caught up thinking about what was happening that I couldn't focus properly, this dream was too real. I needed to wake up from this nightmare. Pinch myself, bite my lip, twist my earlobe. Nothing would wake me up. Then he hit me, slapped me across the face. My world recentered and before me was Marshall, yelling at me, but I couldn't hear him. His mouth was moving but no words came out. Then he struck me again.

"Hey you moron, you awake," he asked, "if you can hear me, we're gonna go find April and then get off campus okay?"

"Ok yeah, yeah yeah. I got it." I say, still shaken and stirred.

My legs started shaking less and felt more solid on the ground. He was always calm no matter the situation. Even when he told me he was scared he would never look it. He had some kind of mental thing if I remember right. He was always pretty emotionless, even when he appeared to look like he was feeling emotions there was a sort of uncanny valley to it, like it wasn't quite fake, but not quite real either.

The whole of campus had been overrun. It started early in the morning, during that essay I was so worried about. There were screams outside and we all turned to look outside. The first glimpse we all got of the new world we were about to enter. A girl lay on her back, kicking and screaming as one of Them was slurping her intestines like a piece of spaghetti. I remember looking at it for a while and the only thing I could think about was how easy it looked to eat the intestine. It was grotesque and disturbing, but It was deeply interesting to see it. It was like something I'd never thought about stirred in my stomach. Before I could think about it more, someone threw up. The panic began spreading across the classroom and soon a knock on the door sent our minds to the darkest fears. Waiting for one of Them to knock down the door and kill us all. When the door opened, it was Marshall. He grabbed me and the other guy and sped us off down the halls telling us his plan to get us out of here. It'd only been ten, maybe fifteen minutes since then and he was already dead. Just Marshall and I now.

Many people decided getting outside was the best option. As a result the halls were all pretty clear. We tried to get a hold of April but we couldn't manage to get through to her. She didn't have a class at the time so there's no telling where she could be. I didn't want to see another friend die. Finally, the phone got through and I could hear her voice on the other end.

"Connor!? What's going on, are you safe?" she asked, panicked.

"Yeah I'm with Marshall, we're looking for you. Marshall's got a plan to get us out of here. Where are you?" I asked her.

"I'm at the library with a group of other people. We're holed up but there's some of those things at the door." the fear in her voice rising.

"We'll head your way, sit tight." The hope in my voice slowly reduced as I hung up.

"Alright then, we'll grab her and leg it out of here. Just the three of us." Marshall said.

There was still a surrealness to it all. Now that I'd accepted that it was reality, things came more into focus, things seemed less scary. I knew that we weren't fighting some nightmarish dream demons, the fact it was real somehow grounded me. It was like stepping in quicksand and realizing it was just wet concrete, it was a lot less scary of a thing to deal with and despite this scenario being a whole lot worse than quicksand, there was peace in it. The view outside was still marred by Them. Taking organs like a starving man finding scraps of food. That insatiable hunger in their eyes bore some mix of anger, fear, and a bottomless appetite for flesh. The library was close ahead. There was a horde outside the doors, slamming senselessly at it. They seemed to have little to no intelligence, not being able to understand the concept of a door. More of them were beginning to approach the door because of all the noise.

"How do we want to get in there? Front door doesn't really seem like an option." Isaid, trying to see if there was any way in.

"The tunnels," he stated, "we'll go through the tunnel system and pop up underneath them. It'll be the safest way to get in and get out afterwards."

I'd forgotten about the tunnels. Beneath the university was a network of tunnels mostly used to traverse the campus doing extreme weather. I'm not sure where They fall under weather conditions but I'd count them as an extreme weather condition. The tunnels were narrow concrete hallways, definitely safe from anything above and around but if we get surrounded then we're most likely done for. A few more steps and we emerged out from beneath the library. The group April was with was quite large. It looked to be close to thirty people, the question came down to how we all get out of this. I picked her out of the crowd and we headed over to get her.

"April, It's Connor." I called her.

There was a fear that melted into joy and sorrow as she saw me, she ran over and leapt into my arms, tears flowing down her face. I rejoined Marshall to go down the tunnels and other people followed us. He stepped between us and the group and pointed his bat at them/

"You aren't coming with us, only the three of us for now." Marshall declared.

"The hell are you saying!?" someone yelled out.

"We're not taking care of the whole group, we're going to go through the tunnels and get out of here, you all can stay far behind." he said.

"The fucks your problem! We want out of here too!" another person said, the crowd began to get rowdy.

"I don't trust that someone among you isn't infected by whatever this shit is. He said, waving the bat.

A window shattered and one of Them flung itself onto the floor in front of Marshall. Before he could even reel back to hit it, I lunged at the creature. In a fluid motion I advanced towards it and crushed its head in with one swift blow. There was some kind of visceral pleasure in it, the way it cracked against the bat and fell lifeless once more. There was a slight rush in the moment. I looked back towards the crowd and there was a fear in their eyes, but not towards the creature. Marshall pulled me back and we left back through the tunnels. It was a quiet walk down beneath the earth, a concrete tomb of sorts, almost like catacombs. It had been a harrowing experience today, and the day had only just begun. The sun had barely past the middle of the sky and already the world had fallen into madness. We found a small alcove to relax, if even for just a moment.

"What's the plan Marshall, where do we go to escape this?" I asked, already exhausted.

"We isolate," he said, "We'll stock up some food then hole up somewhere for a week or so. By that point a lot of the chaos will have settled down. I'd imagine the first few days will be pretty chaotic with panic and looting. Hopefully people will calm down and begin to group up. If we're lucky the military isn't affected and should begin clearing out some of the dead. That's the plan for now at least beyond that we'll see what happens"

"Alright, we can do that." I replied, dead calm.

There was an uneasy stillness in the situation. April was undoubtedly still shook in every regard, I was somehow still standing fine and somewhat sane. Marshall was off in his own world, planning our next steps. He was one of those people that no one could figure out. He was like a chess player, anytime something happened he'd run thousands of mental simulations to determine the best course of action. The football team tried to recruit him as a coach because of his mental skills. But even knowing that, it was impossible to figure out what he'd say. Anytime you think he was going to zig he'd zag, as if knowing what your guess was he'd predict it and intentionally choose something different. He definitely had a plan of that I was sure, but I doubt even god knew what it might be. But I'd sure as shit follow him. It was the eerily unwavering attitude of his. Even if his decisions were a bit crazy, I knew he had a plan and a good one at that.

We began walking again and moving onwards towards wherever Marshall was going to take us. April really had the wind knocked out of her, given what just happened I'm a little surprised considering Marshall and I's current state mentally. She was wearing pretty heavy clothing for this weather. It was fairly warm so why she wore a heavy jacket I couldn't say either way we'd need to press on. We'd need to move forward.