Chapter 3, The Beginning

Back at the farm Kristy hung up the phone and stared at it for a while.

Karen and Bill came out of Lilly's room and closed her door. Bill went to the gun safe in the study and Karen sat next to Kristy on the couch.

"Your mom lives far away?" Karen asked

"I'm in my second year of college. It would be more accurate to say my home is a 23-hour drive in good traffic. This was a good flight school. I wanted to be a pilot. I think it will take two days to get there if we leave at noon tomorrow even switching drivers."

Kristy looked up. "The roads will be bad, everyone will pass out at 7:45. Imagine the cars, all of them with no conscious driver, moving at 65 miles per hour, asleep with their foot on the gas pedal for four hours."

"Can we even drive in a straight line for four hours without turning?" Kristy thought out loud.

"Everyone who dies becomes a zombie as long as their brain is intact. The road is the most dangerous place to be right now. There will be a lot of zombies on the road tomorrow." Kristy informed them.

Karen took the double barrel hand shotgun from her husband and loaded it. "If you didn't have that little patch of special land this doesn't sound like a world I would want to live in anymore." She looked at Kristy.

"Thank you for picking my family to share your space with." Bill sincerely thanked Kristy. As he handed her a shot gun he had loaded.

"I don't know how to shoot." Kristy looked nervous.

"Aim for the chest. The kick back will put most of the beads more to the head. I'm sure you can't miss with this spray." Bill coached. "Just make sure to brace yourself or you will get a nasty bruise."

"If the road is that dangerous, why don't we wait before going?" Karen asked, still thinking of what Kristy had mentioned.

"Because they won't get better. Tomorrow, we face level 0 zombies. Their strength is about one and a half what it was when they were alive so they are all stronger than us. They are slower though, but in one month they will grow to level 1 zombies. They will get faster, their strength doubles with each level and some will acquire powers."

"In other words, it will never be safer than it will tomorrow. The more we kill the more practice and experience we have. also, there are that many less level one zombies if we kill them." Kristy told Karen why they would want to go right away.

"It's time love." Bill said to Karen. The couple got up, hugged each other, kissed and separated. Karen went to the bedroom and closed the door. And Bill went into the study to close the door.

No one said anything more Kristy stretched out on the couch covering herself with a blanket and waited to fall unconscious.

Kristy was startled awake by a loud thump. She sat straight up the couch and the blanket she was using was on fire! "Shit!" Kristy scrambled to put out the flames when she thought of putting out the flames they went out before she could smother them.

'Wait did I go through a third awakening space, time, and fire?' When Kristy thought of fire, a flame danced in her hand.

"A combat power, I have a combat power. Thank you, God!" thump.

Kristy was distracted by the loud noise coming from the study growling was getting louder and the door was shaking from being hit.

Bill did not make it through the change. Kristy got up and knocked on the bedroom door. "Karen? Are you ok?"

Kristy heard a hiss then a growl in response then another thumping on the bedroom door this time.

Kristy sighed the chances were against them but she had hope for this family to survive. Kristy was thinking how to tell Lilly that her parents didn't make it but this was unnecessary as she got closer to the little girls' room, she could hear the soft thumping on the bedroom door.

'It is still strange that zombies instinctively go for the door but they don't know how to open them till they reach level four.'

Kristy sat in a chair in the kitchen, the same one from last night's dinner. "None of you have to live through this hell. I wish you peace in heaven. I will bury you."

Zombie Bill broke through the study's door. And started ambling towards Kristy. 'Aim for the chest; the kick should spray towards the head you shouldn't miss.'

Kristy went over Bill's instructions from last night and aimed the shotgun. Then fired.

The first time Kristy Killed something in both timelines and she had to bury her new friends. Did they get lucky or not? They Were all together and felt no pain.

Even if she went back in time to save them, they would not want to live their whole lives in the space worried when Kristy would die. This was their choice, freedom.

In Portland Brenda woke up off the bathroom floor. "What the hell? I fell asleep in this dirty bathroom and no one woke me up! Matty! You are so dead, delete the pictures." Brenda bitched coming out of the bathroom.

She had a one-track mind to force her brother to delete the pictures he must have taken of her sleeping on his bathroom floor. She ripped open the door to Matty's bedroom.

Matty wasn't in the bedroom her mom was. She twitched on the floor by the bed for a second. Then stood up, turned towards Brenda and growled.

Brenda screamed and stood there in shock. Her mom was striding towards her with empty white eyes and blackish saliva dripping from her hungry jaws. Yes, with the shape her jaw is, it can't be considered as a mouth any more. Her skin had turned gray and her blood veins were all dark. You could see them like spiderweb tattoos.

There was a noise behind her. Someone pulled her out of the way Brenda took a second to realize that was her dad. And then she watched as her mom sunk her teeth into her dad's arm and ripped his flesh off.

Then she screamed some more.

Matty Jumped up from the couch and he could hear Brenda scream. He pulled out his gun but Brenda and his dad were in the way of the shot!

Matty watched in horror as his mom ripped a chunk of flesh from his dad's arm. His dad pulled Brenda who was still screaming out of the way.

Matty steeled his resolve, his mom is gone, that's not her any more. He took aim and shot. He missed. So, he shot again and again on the third shot the zombie that was once his mother fell to the ground.

"Calm down sweetheart dads got you." Richard coxed his daughter to stop screaming when she finally started to calm down. There was a thud and a growl from the second bedroom door.

Matty began to move towards the bedroom door, still shaking from shooting the zombie that was once his mother just a moment ago.

Richerd intercepted him "Give me the gun boy you're a lousy shot." Matty handed the gun to his dad and went to Block his sister's view. 'Don't need her screaming again, all the zombies in the apartment will be drawn here.'

Richard opened the bedroom door, let Kristy's mom out. He took aim and fired. Only one shot clean to the head.

Matty went into the bathroom for the first aid kit.

Richard called Kristy. And put the phone on speaker. 'If he needed to take a bullet, he would not let his kids stop him.' "Hay pumpkin, so I hear you have information on this zombie apocalypse. What do we do if we get bitten?" Richard got straight to the point. Not sure how long he has before he turned into a zombie.

"I'm so happy to hear your voice uncle Richard." Kristy was excited that he was alive and completely missed the last part of the conversation. "Finally, some good news."

"Ok Kristy focus, what do you do if you're bitten?" Richard repeated.

"Eww did you piss yourself?" Matty yelled at Brenda who was still shaking.

"I did not!" The fear vanished from Brenda, replaced with rage 'how dare he! I did not piss myself.'

She looked down and her whole body was soaking wet.

"The virus for level zero zombies does not spread that fast. How many times were you bitten?" Kristy asked while thinking "they should have been in separate rooms how did this happen?'

"Just once on the arm. My wife and your mother did not survive the change." Richerd informed Kristy

"Uncle Richard, this is very important to your question of what to do. Did you wake up with powers?" Kristy asked.

"Powers? not that I know of." Richard responded.

"Ok listen closely, the zombies right now are mostly level zero so it will take 12 hours to turn into a zombie. However, I woke up with powers, Brenda just got the power of water, and Matty will get wood power in three days. So, powers run in our family, when the manna level or infection level goes up." Kristy shared some information she learned in the past in the base as she thought about it 'can it be considered the past if it happens in the future?'

'Inner space powers are considered a different dimension separated by time. But her space joined with her time magic before coming back in time with her you could say the tether to her soul was there and sort of towed it along so she is in her original body but she has these powers attached to her soul. If the space was not absorbing power crystals at that time, would she have lost the large upgraded space and instead of adding a power of fire she would open the small closet size space again?'

Kristy mentally tucked away the train of thought to focus back to what her uncle was nervous about. "Every human has the ability to awaken powers in them however; the one percent of the population that gets powers closer to the beginning of the apocalypse has this gene as a dominate in their DNA not a recessive. The rest of them need to get stronger fighting the zombies before those with a recessive gene can awaken some are buried further in the genetic code making it harder to awaken. Every human needs a key if you will this can be an action a thought or an attitude or emotion to hit a certain level."

"This gene is also affected by the strength of the body those in their prime unlock this key faster. If you have been sick or have internal injuries this could slow the process but not by much."

"So, nether of our moms made it. The gene was very recessive or the body would have adjusted to the manna rise better." Kristy was careful in saying this as they had just died over there. For her she lost them a long time ago and jot a chance to talk to them again. This gift she was happy for."

"The powers should be coming from you and my dad. Your genes made us awaken at the beginning of the apocalypse you are definitely growing a power. If it was close to being complete the bite will help, if not the bite will kill you." Kristy explained thoroughly for her uncle.

"Usually there is only a three percent chance of awakening a power from being bitten but you're genetically predisposed so a power is already growing in you increasing your chance of survival. if you weren't bitten you could have still awakened in a couple of days like Matty."

"Those who awaken from a zombie bite are stronger than a natural awakening. The best part is that if you fail to awaken, I can go back in time to before we passed out last night and call Matty. What should we change to keep this from happening?"

"Have Matty stay in the hallway so I can beat him up before opening his bedroom door." Brenda suggested. "Then mom wouldn't have come after me, and dad wouldn't have been bitten saving me." Brenda was crying now she had just barely wrapped her head around what had happened. She hoped this was a crazy dream that she would soon wake up from.

"Uncle Richard, this could be a great last present from Auntie. It will be painful and you will pass out again. after possibly hallucinating, but it could make your powers stronger when they awaken. then they will be stronger with each upgrade." Kristy explained

"Wait, should I go out to let myself get bit?" Matty asked, "so my powers are stronger."

"Never purposefully get bit Matty, that is not a good mindset for fighting zombies. Pretend I don't have time magic when you're fighting and call me for emergencies." Kristy complained. This cousin of hers, she will never get anywhere if she keeps going back in time.

"So, wait, I look like I pissed myself and you get the power of time travel. How is this fair?" Brenda complained.

"I didn't get time powers till five years after the apocalypse started Brenda, I brought it back in time with me." Kristy explained.

"Five years, I might get time magic in five years?" Brenda asked.

"I don't know, I didn't even know time travel was a thing till I almost died. I was pathetic. In a way I got time travel yesterday, then I went through the awakening again and got fire magic. I have a combat power this time." Kristy was excited to tell them how she is now a fighter.

"Woah what do you mean this time did you not get fire first last time?" Brenda asked

"No last time I got space; I was no more than a closet sized backpack in the beginning of the apocalypse and useless later. I spent five years cowering in the base before it fell. I was too weak to fight." Kristy explained.

"Woah I would never say your week and you're not the type to stop fighting what happened?" Matty asked

"Well in the beginning of the apocalypse I stayed in my apartment scared and waiting for Jacob. He unlocked the ice power and we went together to the base. I was carrying all our supplies so I wasn't allowed to fight." Kristy remembered that time.

"One month later all the zombies upgraded to level one. They were fast now and twice as strong. I had zero combat skills from when they were weaker so I stayed in the base in the office job Jacob got for me."

"If I knew I could unlock other powers by fighting and getting stronger I would have done it, but the zombies were level two before we figured that out and six times stronger than they are now. In short, I had no time to adapt and was not strong enough to take on a zombie."

"From that point on I was trapped in the base. If I left, I was sure to die. After five years the bases started getting overrun by zombies one after another. Before that, one might fall every six months but, by five years the weakest zombie was level 4 the strongest level 8."

"This is our survival goal to get past level 8 in five years." Kristy told her family her plan. "Every zombie we kill now is one less level four zombie in five years. This strength and numbers the zombies had us humans beat on both ends."

"Sounds like Jacob took care of you last time when were you guys coming here?" Richard asked.

"Jacob cheated on me two years after the apocalypse started. with Jessica who tried to kill me. So, I'm not coming with them, it's just me coming." Kristy explained to her uncle.

"Wow, dump him before he even does anything." Matty commented to lighten the mood it didn't work

Brenda glared at him. "A cheater is a cheater, it will happen eventually, dump him fast you go girl."

"You're going to come here on your own?" Richard was nervous for her.

"I now have time magic. If I'm wounded, I can go back in time to before it happened. A level zero zombie is unlikely to kill you quickly so I can go back in time and take different routes if I need to. I also have guns. They will work till the zombie reaches level two. But be careful when making loud noises. You don't want to get surrounded."

"Kristy what are you doing? You sound like you're panting." Brenda asked

"I'm digging a hole to bury my new friends from last night. They didn't make it." Kristy was crying on the phone.

"We need to bury mom and auntie Carol too." Brenda said.

"No way you are in the city you need to clear all the zombies from a three-block radius before digging a pit outside. You're just throwing up a sign of fresh meat come and get it. Then there is you in the hole, can't even run." Kristy said.

"You say that like you're not in the city." Matty stated.

"No, I'm at a dairy farm. I left the city yesterday to put cows in my space." Kristy explained

"Cows in your space?" Brenda asked

"Yes, my space is big enough to hold life and I wanted to get to them before they mutated. I miss eggs, milk and bacon. You should thank me for all the trouble I went through." Kristy replied, panting from working in the hard dirt. 'This body is really out of shape.' "You know how awkward it is to go up to a farmer and say, I want all your cows so I can drink milk when the zombies get here." Kristy remembered her conversation with Bill and Karen.

"Anyway; you are in the city, be careful not just for the human zombies, but the pet and rat zombies too!" Kristy warned them.

"If you go out. Kill and lure the zombies. Keep moving, if you stop to fight somewhere you will be surrounded. Eighty percent of the population turned into zombies last night. You're in a city of 641,000 plus people. How many zombies do you think are around you right now?" Kristy warned them.

"Wrap them in bedsheets and move them to a safe spot for now. I will be there as soon as I can to help clear zombies. If you go to clear zombies without me, call me beforehand. If I don't hear from you in two hours, I'm turning back time, to when you called me. Also move your ringer to vibrate or the noise could get you killed." Kristy said.

"Pet zombies, do you think my guinea pig survived?" Brenda was worried for her little pet.

"Chances are almost zero but we can check later." Matty consoled Brenda.

"The phones and power go out in two weeks. I have an entire grocery store practically in my space so there is no need to fight with crazy people for supplies. Also don't tell anyone that I have time or space magic. I'm a fire user ok."

"Why?" Brenda was confused 'wouldn't you show off if you had more than one power? Shouldn't that be something to be proud of?'

"It's better to keep some things up our sleeves, and space users are treated like thieves later and discriminated against. I don't need irrelevant people knowing. There can be problems with trust in the apocalypse. They might be great for years before stabbing you in the back."

 "For example, Jessica was my best friend and roommate. We lived as roommates almost two years. Then in the apocalypse for five years together and her jealousy of me with Jacob, led her to try to kill me."

"Take the time magic for example. If we get in someone's way or they don't like us, it is common in a lawless world to kill someone."

"If someone is trying to kill us, they would target me first so we can't go back in time and stop them."

"But if no one knows that I can do that. We will know when they are going to attack and we can kill them to get rid of the threat. This is why it is a card for emergencies." Kristy paused. "I wonder if this is why I never heard of time users in my past timeframe; they kept it a secret too."

"Then, we should go clear some zombies?" Matty asked.

"I wouldn't suggest that uncle fight. Not that he can't, it's just that in his current condition he could eventually pass out from the pain and hallucinations he might attack the wrong person. He should be in a separate room for the next 12 hours till the virus finishes going through his system."

"We will then know whether to turn back time or if this was a blessing." Kristy was panting hard now on the line. She was dragging Bill to the hole she made, and he was big. "I'm sorry I can't dig three holes for you but as a family you will all be together in your yard."

"Why can't you dig three holes?" Matty asked.

"Because Jim and Dan are supposed to be here at noon to leave. I am a girl going to flight school how strong do you think my arms are? Matty, how buff do you think I am to dig that fast?" Kristy complained.

"Ok Kristy we will get off the phone now we will stay here for today and start hunting with dad tomorrow." Brenda told Kristy "You finish taking care of your friends and call us when you're on your way."

"Ok bye for now." Kristy got off the phone.

"Let's move mom and aunt Carol to the study for now. All I need from there is the rest of the ammo from the safe." Matty suggested.

"That's good then dad can use the bedroom to lay down in" Brenda agreed.

"You kids know I'm not hallucinating yet, right?" Richard pointed out he is still the parent figure here.

"Yes dad" Both kids simultaneously responded.

"I will move them. You two start cooking a big meal so I can eat before the hallucinations start. I need my strength" Richard made an excuse so his kids were not moving the dead bodies. They may need to get used to bodies but not the dead bodies of the people they love. From here on out they had Kristy as a secret weapon to save the people they care about.