By Serge

The night was silent. The skies over Onett were darkened even further with heavy purple thunderheads that threatened an imminent downpour at any moment. An hour passed and the rain began to fall. It fell heavily to the streets, picking up all the dried debris and carrying it off. The soil absorbed a large amount of the water due to the lack of rain over the past few months. Everyone and everything was nestled, soundly asleep inside their warm, darkened houses. Lightning pierced the dark sky, illuminating the area with a flash of light. Thunder rumbled, shaking the windowpanes.

The turmoil outside woke Ness out of his light slumber. He sat up, startled for a moment, and then lied back down, and attempted to return to sleep. Among the catastrophic noises of Mother Nature’s anger, he picked out the sound of a solitary truck winding along the mountain roads above Onett. He rolled over, and quickly returned to his state of suspension.

“...Roads are exceedingly slick due to the sudden, heavy downpour. Everyone is advised to stay indoors and avoid the roads at all costs. The rain is scheduled to let up at about 6 am this morning...” the radio crackled. David yawned over the steering wheel of the 18-wheeler he was driving. The room was pleasantly darkened except for the pale green light that emanated from the instrument panel of the vehicle. His eyes were becoming more and more heavy with each passing moment. He hadn’t slept for 36 hours and it was really beginning to show. Another drowsy yawn escaped him.

“Can’t stop now,” he muttered, “only an hour ‘till Threed, then I can dump this shipment and find a motel or somethin’”. He was delivering medical testing supplies to a new company that recently appeared in Threed.

The dark figure of a child suddenly darted out in front of the truck. David seized the wheel and made a sharp swerve to avoid the child. His diversion sent the truck careening over the ledge and into the forests below the cliff. The truck smashed through several trees, which promptly shattered the windshield and sent thousands of tiny daggers of glass streaming into David. The impact of collision with the ground sparked a fire under the hood of the overturned vehicle. The profusely bleeding David noticed this and rushed to escape the truck. He grabbed the opposite door handle, but his blood-smeared hand slid off. He kicked at it, but his blood loss was weakening him, and the sudden jolts caused heavier flows, and lessened his chances, the door was jammed and refused to budge. Using the remainder of his strength, he threw his body through the shattered windshield and to the wet dirt of the forest floor. He dragged himself to his feet and stumbled away from his truck, towards town. Before the necessary distance could be made, the fires from the engine reached the fuel tanks, and detonated them.

The explosion was horrific. An area around the truck was leveled instantly and an even greater area was set ablaze. The fires went out after a little while due to the heavy rain, but the explosion caused far greater damage than ever foreseen. The force of the collision split the large container in the cargo Bay of the truck. A mysterious fluid oozed out. It was then propelled into the lower atmosphere, where it mixed with the rain, and showered down onto the urban area of Onett. The wind managed to carry the tainted fluid away from the face of the hills though, so the entire area was not infected.

The Next Morning

The skies remained darkened because of the lingering storm clouds. Ness was awakened by his mother’s voice she sounded frightened.

“Ness, honey, wake up!” She said. Ness sat up and in a drowsy voice said, “Whas goin’ on ma?”

She gave a concerned look and said, “come look at this.” Ness rolled out of bed and followed his mother downstairs, where the TV was blaring the morning news. He sat down on the carpeted floor in front of the TV and tried to make himself a little more alert. The TV quickly snagged his attention.

“...Medical disaster has struck the small town of Onett. A freak accident involving a truck containing experimental medical substances has crippled this small town. Little information is available at the time, but it is believed that the vehicle contained an experimental device of biochemical warfare. Officials have placed the town under total quarantine. It is believed that a massive percentage of Onetts population is either dead or dying. Here we have Gina on the scene with an interview with...” Shock spread across Ness’s face and a cold shiver ran through his entire body. He suddenly felt very nauseous. His mother stood in the kitchen staring at the TV as well.

“Mom, what are we going to do?” Ness asked in a small, scared voice.

“There’s nothing we can do for now. I think we should just wait for someone to find us here, then we’ll be alright,” she knew she was lying, to both her son and herself. She thought of what might happen to them in only a short period of time. That thought, the thought of a mother losing everything, especially her most precious son, hurt her more than anything ever had before in her life. A tear of fear, sorrow, and anger welled up her eye. She forced the thought away, hiding it deep within her subconscious, where she thought it wouldn’t be found again. She was certain that the fate of her and her son was sealed.

That night

The day had gone by in silence. Neither Ness nor his mother spoke for most of the day. They just spent their time securing all the doors and windows. After that they spent their time gazing out the different windows of their home in a romantic sense, and contemplating different things, wondering about the ‘big questions’ and just imagining a brighter future. Neither of them saw another living thing that day, it was as if the world was dead out side. A heavy fog coated the entire town. Total and complete silence. Night was drawing near and still nothing had been seen or heard. Ness had made his way back up to his room, and he was now sitting on the edge of his bed, staring out across the deadness of his silent hometown. The streetlights flickered on at their usual times. The fog reflected and filtered the lights, causing the lighting to be dim. Their flickering caused the illusion of movement. Ness perked up for a moment and stared intently towards that light. But there was nothing, just the deserted streets, clouded in fog. There had not been even the slightest hint of wind that day. Ness sat back and continued his gaze towards the outside world.

From time to time he could hear his mother slowly shuffling about in the house, but she was done for the night, so everything was again silent, and lonely. Ness sank back further and was now resting on his elbows. He closed his eyes and yawned. He paused mid-way through his yawn. A rustling noise had come from outside. He leapt up and rushed over to the windowsill and began scanning the area for the source of the sound. The fog had crept up the hills and had now encircled Ness’s home, making visibility poor. His eyes darted across the area searching for anything.

A dark figure stumbled out of the fog and made its way towards Ness’s house. It was about 100 feet from the house when it stumbled over some exposed tree roots and fell to the earth. Despite the darkness and the distance, the figure was recognizably female, and appeared rather young as well. As she regained her footing a couple unrecognizable figures hobbled out of the mist, as if pursuing the girl. Their movement was irregular and unreasonable; they seemed to be dragging themselves along, towards a preordained destination. A scream escaped the girl as she ran to Ness’s door and began pounding franticly on it.

Ness sensed the obvious danger of the situation and seized his trusty baseball bat as he ran out of his room, and downstairs. His mother was already there, panicking about the frantic banging and screaming on and near the door.

“Ness, NO, Don’t touch the door!” She began, she knew his intentions. Ness continued towards the door, not even recognizing his mothers presence. His hand lighted on the door handle, it was suddenly pulled away. His mother had a tight Ness’s waist and was attempting to drag him away from the door. Her efforts were in vain; he worked himself free and was out the door in an instant.

“NESS!” She wailed, “GET BACK IN HERE NOOOOOWWW!” She ran over and began banging on the door and screeching at her son, she was too afraid to actually venture inside.

Outside

The obscure dark beings had wandered much closer, and had become a far more threatening presence. Around them was the heavy, sickening stench of death and decay. The scent was overwhelming at first. Ness stepped back in hesitation.

“FOR CHRIST’S SAKE, GET INSIDE, OR DO WANNA DIE RIGHT NOW???!!!” the girl screamed at Ness. The hideous creatures steadily moved closer, now Ness could easily see them and recognized, they were decaying! They were living corpses! One of the creatures reached forward and took hold of the young girl’s already torn shirt. It leaned its head in with its jaws gaping, ready to take a bite out of the girls flesh. She screamed again, her voice was growing hoarse. Ness lunged forward and swung his bat heavily at the zombie. It collided with the creatures upper torso, the sound of rotting ribs crushing and snapping echoed out as the creature was sent backwards by the force of the blow. The girl fell to the ground before Ness, and then quickly scrambled to her feet and darted behind him.

The injured creature returned to its feet and joined its 2 comrades. They continued their slow pursuit.

“Go find anything you can use as a weapon!” Ness yelled over his shoulder to the girl. She looked at him for a moment, and then ran around to the back of the house. Ness turned and swung at his opposition, this time aiming in the head region. The first creature’s head developed a massive indentation, which followed the nauseating sound of grinding bone and cerebral fluids. The other 2 received similar wounds, a jaw was sent flying, an arm completely shattered and useless, a neck that had darkened bone protruding from it, collapsed eyeballs, caved in ribs, and other such normally crippling wounds. The girl ran out from behind Ness’s house and lunged, screaming, at the nearest monster. The lead pipe she had found shattered a kneecap and sent the zombie to the ground. Ness saw his opportunity and leapt into the air. He delivered a devastating step-kick and obliterated the creature’s skull, only then did it stop moving. This procedure was repeated until the rest of the creatures were “dead”.

Back inside

“What’s going on?!” Ness asked.

“Something terrible has happened!” the girl began. “No shi-!” Ness began,”

“We have to get out of here NOW, do you have any guns?” she said.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?! What’s going on?!” Ness inquired.

“My name is Alicia, my family moved here a month ago, we live near the library,” her dark hair fell over her eye, and she quickly pushed it back, “ The other night, I had a fight with my folks and ran off, to do some thinking. I spent an hour wandering the forests on the hills. I made it out to a road next to a ledge. Some big truck came barreling around the curve and straight at me. I leapt out of the way and it went out of control while trying to avoid me. It swerved off the road and over the ledge. It fell to the forests below and exploded a few minutes later. I ran, it didn’t matter where, I just ran. I ended up in the forest near your house. I fell asleep. I woke up late this morning, and went back to my home. Everyone...” tears welled up in her eyes, “everyone was-was...*sniff* dead!” she started crying more heavily. “Oh god,” Ness stated. He pulled Alicia closer to him and allowed her to have a good, long cry on his shoulder. When she finished she said, “After that, I started wandering around town trying to find anything that was living.”

“Did you?”

“No, and the strange thing was, there were no bodies either, just the scent of charred flesh.”

“So what were those things we met outside?”

“I’m not sure, but I think they were, the people of Onett. The undead have been returned to live and the living have also been transformed into the undead as well! Whatever was in that truck did something to create these, these zombies!”

“What can we do, everyone thinks we’re already dead, there’s no hope of rescue!?”

“We can’t stay here. There’s so many of them out there. They’ll get us in our sleep, we have to leave now!”

“We can’t fight off so many monsters with just a baseball bat and a lead pipe. And what about my mom, what can we arm her with?” everyone was quiet for a moment and then Ness’s mom spoke up, “Your father kept a gun in my bedroom closet. I’ll go get that and then we’ll head for Twoson. Wait here.” she stood up from the footrest she was seated on, and went upstairs. She came back a few moments later, and the 3 stepped out the front door.

Outside

The mist swirled around Ness foot as he stepped off the porch and onto the wet dirt in front of his house. His mother and Alicia followed closely behind him. They followed the path into the dark forest between Ness’s home and the urban area of Onett. Everything was silent, but Ness felt the eerie feeling of mysterious eyes sweeping over him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that Alicia was also quite nervous. A twig snapped in the bushes along the path several feet ahead Ness held up his hand and the group paused. His mother stepped forward with her semi-automatic and slowly stepped towards the bushes. She raised her gun and paused, her eyes focused in the area of the bush. Suddenly, an insidious creature leapt out of the bushes. It appeared to be a dog that had been horribly mutated. Its flesh was singed and it appeared to be covered in muscular tissue. It snarled a deep, evil, snarl and lunged towards Ness’s mom. She screamed and fired at the beast. The shot grazed the ear as the dog seized hold of her arm and dragged her to the ground. The gun fell from her hand and into the bushes near her feet. It growled and violently shook its head, trying to remove the woman’s arm. She screamed again and began beating at it with her other arm. Ness and Alicia ran forward. Alicia swung and smashed the dog in its side close to its spine. It yelped and released the screaming woman. Ness swung and brought the creature to ground. Alicia picked up the gun and fired a round directly into the monster’s skull. The sound was sickening, but dulled by the loud bang of the gunshot. The dog’s head literally exploded and flung thick, sticky gobs of rotting blood in all directions. Ness helped his mother to her feet, she seemed alright, her arm had a few nasty looking cuts, but other than that she was fine, just dazed. “Oh my god!” she said in a light, dazed voice. Alicia returned the gun to Ness’s mom, and the three walked out of the forest onto the road next to the burger shop.

Nearly 30 zombies poured out of the burger joint and lurched towards the three.

“RUN!!” Ness yelled. The three ran south, following the road towards the hotel and the arcade. Another dog lunged out of the hotel bushes and rushed towards Alicia, she swung, but missed. It sang its teeth into her ankle, shell fell flat on her face. She rolled over and swung again, but she was at a bad angle and wasn’t able to generate any force behind her blow. The pipe just rapped against the monster and dropped to the ground. A gunshot rang out in the darkness, and the dog fell to the ground. Alicia crawled to her feet.

“You OK?” Ness asked. “I’ll live, I don’t think I can walk much faster than a limp though,” “You’ll have to try, we can’t carry you, or we’ll just be slowed down and caught. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe.” Alicia stumbled forward, steadied herself on Ness’s shoulder. She pushed back and walked ahead. The three made it to the arcade, but were confronted by a group of zombies in the intersection. They rushed forward and split the three up. Alicia darted into the alley between the arcade and the pizza joint, Ness ran into the arcade and up the steps, and Ness’s mother ran into the backyard behind the arcade. They were all pursued by several zombies.

Alicia

The zombies had her cornered at the wall at the edge of the alley. She held the pipe defensively and tried to ward off the monsters. One lunged forward and had its skull shattered by the pipe. She tried to remove it, but it was deeply embedded and refused to move for the time being. Another lunged forward, she smashed it away with the lid of a trashcan and stomped on its head. A third leapt onto her and dragged her to the ground. It opened its mouth wide and leaned forward, she sent the iron lid directly into the things face, rolled over onto it, and pounded on the trashcan lid until the creature stopped moving. She returned to her feet and resorted to fending the creatures off with her fists alone...

Ness

The monsters were working their way up the steps. The stairway was too narrow for Ness to effectively use his bat, it was only about 2 feet wide, and only one person could go up at a time. He thought for a moment, but the scratching at the walls rushed him and caused panicked and irrational ideas. He jumped up and ran over to the nearest arcade machine. He leaned up against it and shoved against it with every ounce of strength he had. It slid across the floor and over to the top of the steps. He gave it a final shove and the heavy block of archaic electronics barreled down the steps. The zombies had no chance of withstanding its massive weight. They all tumbled down the steps and were crushed when it fell over on top of them, one completely crushed, and the others pinned by their arms or legs. Ness ran towards the window and leapt out of the second story window, and landed on the grass of the fenced in backyard. He slowly got to his feet and brushed himself off....

Ness’s mom

Glass crashed behind her. She looked over to see Ness returning to his feet. She had managed to bring down 2 of the 4 zombies in the area, but she ran out of ammunition. Ness ran forward and brought the other 2 zombies down with his bat. He and his mother then made their way back to the main street.

On the main street they began looking Alicia. They heard a loud feminine cry of pain and fear come from the alley, they quickly ran in. At the end of the alley, Alicia was on the ground, pinned by a zombie. It buried its teeth in her arm, a stream of fresh, warm blood streaked down her arm. She screamed again and punched at the monster. It didn’t even flinch, and continued to munch away at her bony arm. Ness ran forward and brought the bat heavily down on its head. The creature turned and swung at Ness. Its heavy arm knocked him off of his feet, he fell and his head connected with the brick wall of the alley. Ness’s mother ran forward and stomped on the creature’s spine, it removed its teeth from Alicia’s arm, wheeled around, and gnashed at Ness’s mother. She jumped back and kicked at its head. It was stunned for a moment, but then stood up and lumbered towards her. She stepped back with each step the creature made towards her. There was a mushy snapping and crushing sound. The creature let out an inhuman cry of pain and fell to the ground. Alicia stood behind it, lead pipe covered in sticky lumps of blood and white flecks of bone, breathing heavily.

Ness’s mother tore off the hem of her dress and bandaged Alicia’s wounded arm. She winced at the pain, but remained quiet. She went over to Ness and lifted up the back of his head. There was a small trickle of blood from a scratch he received from the wall. He made a pained frown and opened his eyes. He reached backwards and rubbed the back of his aching head. He stood up after a moment, and the three continued on their trek.

37 minutes later

They had followed the main road, south, and were making their way through the woods between Onett and Twoson. The forests were extremely dark and dense, visibility was minimal. Ness could smell the blood from all of their wounds, he was certain that the monsters would pick up the scent and be after them quickly enough. He was extremely tired, his feet dragging behind him. The others were in a similar situation, except Alicia had been limping the entire time. Twoson was only minutes away, that was the only thing that managed to keep the trio awake and alive. Heavy footsteps came from behind them. They all wheeled around to see an enormous team of zombies behind them. The odds looked hopeless, all they had available was to run. That’s what they did. The monsters were closing in, each stepped weakened the heroes and the smell of the blood was driving the monsters wild. They snapped at the air, and even lunged at each other a couple times, they must be starving. The three just ran as fast as they possibly could.

They burst out of the forest onto the edge of a dark Twoson street. The area was filled with dark figures. “Oh god, it spread further than just Onett!” Alicia said, “I’m sorry to say this, but it’s all over, we’re gonna die.” Suddenly, powerful floodlights switched on and blinded them. Ness held his arm over his face and squinted to see ahead, it was a miracle. A Special Forces team had circled Onett and formed a defensive perimeter. Someone barked in a loud voice, “Don’t shoot, they’re live ones!” They were suddenly circled by military troops and brought back behind the line. Moments later the group of monsters behind them burst out of the forest and lumbered towards the armed group. Every man opened fire. Thousands of lumps of lead rained through the air, obliterating the abominations that had occupied Onett. Other troops came forward and set the corpses ablaze and destroyed all the evidence of any incident. Everyone was safe.

Ness was watching the news in Twoson hotel 3 days later. The entire Onett incident was explained. Apparently the truck was carrying an experimental virus that eroded the mind and body, creating an undead being. A monster that felt no pain or emotions, nothing more than the desire to consume any living things around it. Governmental forces had destroyed the creatures, the problem was contained. Ness, his mother, and Alicia were the only survivors. They were contained in a government installation over the first night, and were released when they discovered that bite wounds were not infectious, and that they had no risk of spreading or getting the virus.