The Walking Dead Fan Club

Going Through The Walking Dead Withdrawl

(me too)...I enjoy writing (I don't do it a lot...just the ideas are in my head but I don't usually do much with them).  This is pretty much freestyle.

 Part 1 - A typical "Nine To Five"

BEEP BEEP BEEP screams the alarm, though it's still dark.  The sun hasn't risen quite yet.  She reaches over and despite using one eye, as the other one hasn't woken up yet, she still somehow manages to press the snooze button after a couple attempts.  She makes a quick calculation in her head determining she can stil sleep another few minutes.  Seconds later, or so it seems, the alarm screams out again.  She reaches over again and gently clicks the snooze button and once again calculates a couple more minutes.  The buzz interrupts her dreaming yet again and rather than hit the snooze button a third time, she reaches over and flicks the button turning off the alarm.  Rolling over to her back she stares at the darkness which has enveloped the room while she mentally places everything in the room knowing she has to get up and avoid the obstacle course that is this bedroom to get outside and get ready for her day.

Peeling herself out of bed carefully not to jostle the bed, she gets clear giggling to herself how sneaky she is that she can move about without waking anyone up.  A smile finds itself on her face as she sees the slight outline of her husband under the blanket.  She makes her way to the bathroom blinded by the light temporarily and stubmling to the sink.  She takes in a couple mouthfuls of water which she swishes and spits back out,

"Morning mouth gunk", She thinks to herself while getting ready to relieve what her bladder has been saving all night.  She gets to the kitchen using the tiny night lights in random wall sockets through the hall illuminating just enough to get by without having to turn lights on.  There is a very light hum of traffic far off in the distance. 

"Back to the routine", She thinks to herself while getting herself a small bowl of cereal which she brings to a small table holding up a bowl of assorted fruit and a closed laptop.  She opens the laptop wrapping her house coat over her crossed leg to keep it warm.  She checks her email while her ears have suddenly come to notice there are no birds chirping.  Looking through a couple windows, knowing she wont see any, she realizes how strange that is.  She has heard birds every single morning since they moved into this house in the country 3 years ago.  Being absolutely silent and listening stronger, still nothing.  Just the very light hush sound of distant traffic.

She finishes the bowl of cereal and placing the dishes in the dish washer, she grabs an apple and checks a couple things online and quickly heads to fix her lunch then back upstairs to get ready for work.  Dressing in her work-standard green dress shirt and black pants, she finishes it off with the black vest, name tag clipped on the left breast pocket, she sees the clock and smiles satisfactorily she has 10 min free before she has to be out the door.  Doing a second and third check she has everything ready and ready she sends her husband a quick text, which she knows he'll get when he wakes up and turns his phone on that she loves him and looks forward to seeing him tonight.

With her hands full, she gets out the door and to the car and begins the long drive to work.  She gets about 10 minutes into her drive when she realizes there are no cars on the road at all.  Not entirely untypical, but she expected one or two.  Yet before long, one appears in the distance on this long and winding road.  The two cars going in opposite direction pass quickly.  Her ride is quick and as the closer to civilization she gets the more civilization she sees.  The guy walking his dog same day every morning.  The couple sitting on their front porch and the guys packing their gear in their truck.

She finally arrives and locking her car, she begins the walk to the employee only door.  Entering she sets her lunch in her locker after a few long corradoors.  Her clip board in hand and everything ready, she darts off to get ready for the buzzer.  She is greeted by the usual guys calling her by name.  Time goes by fast and the buzzer screams out causing the group of guys to scatter like bugs.  She meets up with a couple people on her team as they discuss the days goals and such and she's off counting down the next 8 hours.

the day felt normal and going at its normal pace as her thoughts trailed here and there.  That's one thing she highly valued about her job.  While she held a clip board and an electric "gun" zapper/bar scan hanging off her belt, she had lots and lots of time to think.  The warehouse was your standard extra large warehouse.  Isles and isles of products one would find in a standard grocery store wrapped up in industrial strength plastic wrap and incased in cardboard with shipping labels.  Her job, as well as a small group scattered throughout the warehouse, was to check that every slot was full (so long as it had to be full).  Empty slots were scanned to ensure they were supposed to be empty.  Full slots were scanned to ensure the correct products were in the slots.  Up and down the isles, cleaning up the odd piece of debris if necessary avoiding forklifts and assembly workers.

But something seemed a but odd.  Somehow it got quiet.  Her mind got away from her again as it easily did.  Having spurts of quiet moments weren't out of the ordinary, but somehow this was different.  But she had a job to do, so she pressed on, taking the odd moment to look about her.  But the more she looked, the less she saw any sign of life or machine driving.  She had a very slow job.  Fork lift drivers and assembly workers had a fast job and if something happened, they knew before she did because they passed other workers way before she did.  She would see them passing by and honking by in the distance.  But when she lost track of time and a couple hours passed in a blink of an eye, she suddenly realized everyone was gone.  She took a moment to stop and wander around to an open area where shipping/receiving workers were and found abandonned machines in positions which may be consdiered unsafe by warehouse standards.

She didn't get scared easily.  After all, this wasn't like a mall where people are everywhere.  It was common for people to just vanish for a few moments, but then you'd see the odd machine here and there.  But there were none.  Within the distance she saw a phone hanging from a large bulletin board.  The idea came to mind, "maybe call the office just to check up".  She could see the office on the other side of the shipping dock but it was far too far to make anything out.  Especially with all the products on skids ready to be shipped.  Decision made, she begins walking to the phone when something catches her ear.  She couldn't reproduce it with her own vocal cords if she tried.  But somehow it was creepy and earie.  It wasn't far away.  Turning to where she thought it came from she found a shipping door open and what appeared to be a transport parked way off.  Transport trucks were to park backwards very slowly and park eactly to the door so shipping/receiveing could drive on and off the trucks with ease.  This truck was at least half way off.  Very unsafe.  The closer she got she thought she began to see a lone shoe.  Who would take off their steel toe shoe on the receiving dock?  Approaching the open door revealed more and more of the grounds outside.  The indesribable sound got louder and louder as she somehow felt a twist in her stomache.

Getting to the edge of the door in full view of the parking lot, looking down she saw what appeared to be a man covered in blood with chunks of his body ripped out.  Almost as though they had been bitten off.  She had a hard time understanding what she was looking at when she realized he was eating a man she recognized as a shipper. Teddy was his name.  She let out a light squeak unintentionally which caught the attention of the mystery man.  He let out a loud growl and ran at her, stopped quickly by the wall which was way taller than he was.  She screamed and found herself on her butt very quickly, tripping over the shoe.  Two bloody hands could be seen scraping at the dock doors.

AT THIS POINT I'd introduce zombies...is anyone interested in a couple more paragraphs?

Awesome!  I love free style!  I'd read more

WOOT! WOOT! do i smell a best seller?

Yeah!! Hook it up.

PART 2 ~ Not your typical  "Nine to Five"

Her heart was beating fast and heavy.  The shipping doors were too high for him to get in, but his hands reached above within view.  She got to her feet as in the distance she saw another figure staggering toward the noise this stranger was making.  Adjusting her thick frame glasses, she squints slightly focusing on the figure in the distance.  Nothing looks out of the ordinary, other than the fact that he looks like he was heavily drunk and had a hard time walking, but some how managed to keep his balance.

"NINA!" she hears somewhere.  Looking around she sees Raddi, one of the staff supervisors, half hanging out the door leading to the shipping office.  This was the office which has a breakproof glass window on the upper portion of the heavy door.  It was also magnetically closed and only open to someone who had the authorized magnetic card.  Nina had one of those magnetic card.  But seeing as though Raddi had the door open anyway, she didn't have to waste her time fiddling through her pockets to get it.  He had some blood splattered on his normally very tidy dress shirt.  He called a couple more times before she darted to the door, which was merely a few yards away.  Meeting Raddi at the door, he pushes it open enough for her to get through without slowing her speed.  Shutting it behind her it motions down the hall.

"Don't look under that rug," Nina hears Raddi behind her while she sees a body covered from the waist up lying in a small pool of blood.  "Head to 'headquarters'" Raddi calls out again as Nina runs past the body trying not to look at it.  "Headquarters" was a jargon or slang reference to the large room where all supervisors 'hung out'.  It was a room which had other rooms or offices branched off for each supervisors' respective office.  If a supervisor wasn't on the main operation floor, they'd be in these back offices, in "Headquarters".  Though, unlike the entrance to this hallway, "Headquarters" wasn't magnetically locked.  Nina ran past a couple doors, bathrooms and the nurses office and a "Janitors closet", to finally reach the BIG door.  The big heavy door, also windowed on the top half, leading to the large room filled with a large table, lockers, filing cabinets, anything you'd expect in a supervisor's office.

Getting into the room, Nina saw a small group of people.  Some injured and others looked worse than Raddi with blood on their clothing.  Nina struggled to get a word out.  She normally didn't go out of her way to talk to the people she worked with.  An athletic girl in her mid 20's amung 50 to 100 guys.  Even though she proudly wears her wedding ring and doesn't entertain the subtle or bold comments or flirt attempts.  She was motivated to do her "nine to five" and leave.  Today didn't look like it was going to be a "nine to five" day.

"Nina, do you know any C.P.R.? Do you have any first aid training?" Raddi asks resting a hand on her shoulder looking her in the eye.  Nina shakes her head, no.  "One of our truck drivers has been sick.  Didn't even park the truck properly.  He collapsed right on the ground outside.  We had to bring him in here then while we were trying to call 911, all this crazy shit's been happening.  Terry, the new office clerk was attacked by this crazy guy who just ran up the shipping ramp while Terry was checking an order.  We couldn't get him off so we had to hit him over the head with the crowbar we use to pull down the ladder on the dock.  Terry needs medical attention.  Dumb fuck bit some chunks outta her neck---"

"Mr. Rudshi," Peter calls out interrupting Raddi.  All eyes went to Peter who slowly backed away from the previously crowded Terry lying in a bloody mess on the table.  The small group fell back in failure.  Terry lie motionless on the table.  She had been with the company for years.  She had been moaning and goaning and breathing heavy while on the table.  But now, she was silent.  As was the rest of the room.  A faint thumping sound was heard outside the door.  Raddi darted out the door and his face cringed in disappointment.

"Another one....what the fuck are these things?" Raddi looked to Nina and the others in the room as though trying to process how he was going to fix this.  "I've seen three...four people die this morning from getting bit from these fuckin' things."  Raddi stares down the hallway at a sight no one could see.  Nina maps out the small labrynth of hallways they were in and worked out a plan to take the stairs down the hallway to get to the second floor.  She could get a phone signal up there and call someone.

"Hey, Nina.  What-chew tinkin' der girl?  I know dat face.  You tinkin' you gonna get oudda here?  No way.  It's way too dangerous out there withou..." Raddi is interrupted by a sight behind Nina.

Turning around Nina saw the 50-something year old Terry pull herself up to a sitting position.  Her eyes had turned mosly white.  The wound on her neck suddenly appeared as the cloth which was covering it fell off.  As Peter approached Terry with a curiosity on his face he slowly reached to her with little time to react as Terry leapt off the table clawing at and biting at Peter who screamed at the top of his lungs as he fell to the ground, pinned by Terry.  The others screamed out which caught Terry's attention.  She leapt off Peter who's gurgling cough prevented him from breathing properly.  Terry bit into another office clerk while everyone scattered into random offices shutting the doors.  Raddi commanded Nina to stay put while he disappeared down the hallway. 

Nina is a red belt in tae kwon do.  She wasn't far off from making it to a black belt, but as she would say it, "things got in the way" and wasn't able to accomplish it in the time frame she'd hoped for.  She hadn't had to use it for a while, but much like riding a bicycle, it's not something you necessarily get too rusty at if you've been away from it for a while.  Seeing all these scenes right in front of her, she spent more time trying to mentally map out the area for an escape.  Her concentration was suddenly interrupted as she heard a very loud growl.  She snapped out of her state just in time to see Terry racing at her.  Wedging her head and eyes just slightly, she saw something small, maybe a wet floor sign or something, was in the door way keeping it open just a slit.  WIth less than a couple seconds to respond, she found herself in a quick, custom fighting stance.  With a very quick thrust of the side of her foot, Nina kicked Terry's knee breaking it instantly.  Terry fell to the floor quickly with a loud crack and thud.  Terry should have screamed in pain.  I mean, who wouldn't?  But instead, she crawled on her hands after Nina still.  Nina found the bloodied crowbar resting against a locker.  Picking it up with her comfortable right hand, she gave a strong swing landing it directly on Terry's forehead breaking her skull open.  Terry's body fell limp immediately while blood and brains oozed out of her skull on the floor.  A couple of doors open as the remaining group who scattered slowly come back on the scene.  Nina then considers the fallen office clerk who lies dead on the floor, as well as Peter who was no longer coughing and struggling to breath.

"Get back in!" Nina cries out as peter gets to his feet and Baily, one of the frightened survivors cries out being bitten in the ancle by the fallen office clerk.  Peter lashes out at in a rage into an office room with the last two survivors.  Nina can think of no way to save them.  Instead, she runs out the hallway to find Raddi struggling to fight off two more.  She takes a few steps into the beginning of a sprint which is stopped suddenly as Raddi cries out from a bite.  The two are distracted with their new victim.  Nina covers her mouth with tears streaming down her face.  The crow bar slips from her hand and bangs loud on the floor.  One of the two eating Raddi turns to see Nina and darts at her instantly.  Nina turns to the only corner in this hallway and races down.  Approaching the half way mark down this corridor she remembers the door leading to the stairs.  With a loud raging freak behing her she suddenly sees two  more appear at the other end of this corridor.  She now has no choice.  She must reach the door before they do.  Sprinting at full speed, she reaches for the door and pulling it open with all her strength, she uses it to push the two monsters back and has just enough time to pull back on it avoiding the one behind her.  She pulls the door shut stepping back in haste while the three freaks bite and claw at the window on the upper part of the heavy door.  Looking up she sees nothing.  She needs to get up the second floor and try to find a way to escape.

DAMN NINA! thats actually really good girl!

Part 3 - Trying To Escape

She breathes heavily and skips up the stairs trying to make as little noise aspossible but also trying to go as fast as possible.  Only two flights of stairs.

She passes one door, solid and windowless on the immediate next floor.  No signs or indication what-so-ever where it goes.  It's prolly locked, at least she thinks it must be.  Businesses like these always lock doors, especially when you can't see behind them.  In a quick look, she doesn't see a magnetic card pad on the wall.  But the door does have a keyhole in the handle.  However, it's not where she's going anyway.  She stops gently and very slowly approaches the door and closing her eyes to concentrate, she puts her ear up against the door.  While the door is very heavy (most of the doors in this building are), it's also solid.  Which means, sound is pretty much none existant on either side of these doors.  

 Pressing her ear against the door, she hears nothing.  Waiting an extra moment, then wondering why she's even doing this, reminding herself, her destination is one floor up.  Wiggling the door hangle, she quickly finds it is indeed locked from this side.  She takes a step back suddenly finding herself uncomfortable with the silence as a loud THUD moves the door from the other side.  The sudden interruption of silence catches her and she lets out a slight squeek and covers her mouth immediately.

A dull murr is heard from the other side as light pounding begins hitting the door, followed by heavier and heavier poundings and louder growls.  She takes a few more steps back heading toward the stairs leading up.  She turns and takes her first step reading her other foot to begin the race upstairs against her invisible fears when a very loud crash is heard.  She is taken back a moment as dozens of deformed people dressed in everything from 3 piece suits to 1 piece welding suits and loading jackets.  Many of them fall over the railing, while others fall over each other, and other still fall right before her feet.  The silence has suddenly turned into a very loud choir of growls and screams as the mob begin crawling over each other and toward her.  She takes a deep breath and darts up the stairs followed closely behind by an accumulating number of these deformed and senselesscreatures.

She's been in this stairwell a couple times but it's been quite a while since she was in here last.  She knows at the very top of the stairs is a standard large door with a window, like most other doors in the building.  This door leads to the cafeteria where she has options for an escape.  Or at least she hopes she does.   It was nearly 8:00am by now, so the cafeteria should be emtpy of anyone other than kitchen staff.  She was barely half a starecase ahead of the flood behind her.  She had her keycard ready.

Racing, and nearly out of breath, she gets to the door and pressing her keycard against the door expecting the little red light to turn green signaling the magnetic lock is off she quickly reaizes there is no light at all.  And with half a second to consider what that means; There is no magnetic lock.  She can run right through and close the door behind her and hope these things don't know how to open up doors.  But considering how fast and how many there are of them they will most likely barricade the door on themselves.

Without a moment to lose, she rips the door open as one of them grabs a piece of her sweater  She lunges through the open door as the door shuts on its own by the force of this flood.  She takes a few steps back while taking a moment to analyze the door and stumbles on something, though keeping her balance.  Taking a look down, she sees the lifeless arm which has been ripped off by the door, owned by the creature staring at her and biting at her on the other side of the door.   There is a blood trail from the floor to the door.  She examines herself quickly and closely and finds no blood on her at all.

 They bang at the window but with its wiremesh molded into the glass, they will have a very hard time getting through it.  Turning to the very small dark hallway she stands in.  It's filled with a couple small chairs and an elevator door.  She walks to the end of the darkness as the cafeteria opens up to show something she didn't expect.  There are dead bodies.  Lots of dead bodies!  But why weren't these dead bodies active and moving...and trying to kill her?

 Maping out the area in her head, she was very close to the exit she had planned.   There is a hallway on the opposite corner of the cafeteria which lead to a small hallway and another stairswell.  At the bottom of those stairs was the main enter/exit door which led to the parkinglot.  The parking lot which was in full view from the large windows along the wall of the cafeteria.  But she would have to walk through this creepy room of dead people.

 Approaching the room, she walked very slowly and very quietly.  Scanning the area very carefully there was no life at all.  No one moving.  Just random dead bodies which had apparently been eaten alive.  Blood everywhere, as if these people had a water balloon fight with red paint.  The parking lot window was a few yards away from her.  From that window she would be able to see her car and see what kind of unwanted traffic there may be outside.  Taking one step at a time, listening carefully and stepping even more carefully, she slowly makes her way to the wallof windows.  She could hear the faint pounding and commotion of the dead who have barricaded the door.  Finally getting to the window she saw far more chaos than expected.   There were people running around and getting eaten.  There were cars crashed into other cars and trucks, blood everywhere.  Looking to her side she saw the door leading to the hallway which brings her to the stairs which get her out to the parking lot.  Sanning the parking lot, she sees her car.  While she enjoyed her job enough, her number 1 pet-peeve was the parking.  She always got a horrible parking spot, far on the other side of the parking lot.  Interestingly enough, her car as well as a few others seemed untouched.  Could she make it?  What would it take?  She took a deep breath as she stared at that door leading to the hallway.

What would she do once she got into her car?  Looking back out at the parking lot, she scanned the rest of the parking lot and saw few openings, but enough openings to get out to the main road.  Should she go home?  And when she got home....HOME!!! She suddenly realized that she hasn't even thought about calling home.  She always keeps her phone on her on vibrate because employees aren't supposed to use their phones on the warehouse floor.  She pulls out her phone and find several missed calls and so many texts.  Her husband as well as friends and family have been flooding her phone with messages.  She doesn't bother texting, she presses the call button to call home.  The phone rings and rings and rings, but there is no answer.  Scanning the text messages, she decides to try a text message to contact him.  Just as she begins typing her phone begins to vibrate, "HOME" is calling.  She picks it up to hear her distraught husband on the other end,

"Nina!" she hears on the other end.

"Nick...are you ok?" Her question is reciprocated with the same question.  She tries to whisper just in case.

"I'm fine.  I'm at work, I'm just trying to---"

"NO! I'm coming to get you!" Nick calls out from the other end

"NO!" Nina whisper-yells, "You can't go out there...do you see it out there?  I can get to the car and I can get home.  Just please don't go out there--" She's suddenly interrupted by a sound.  Her immediate silence has suddenly caught the attention of Nick calling out for her on the other end.

"I'm coming home, gimme 15 minutes!" She says pressing the hangup button and putting her phone away in time to see, one by one, each of the dead rise from their previously catatonic state.  Her way is now blocked as she stands in the corner of a room filled with at least two dozen dead.  She looks over to the door leading to the hallway as she hears a loud sound of glass breaking followed by very loud sounds of growls coming from the dark hallway.

She grabs a broom from beside a large glass door fridge where there are usually minor janitorial tools.  She leans the broom against a table and kicking the bottom of it, she breaks the brush end off, leaving a pointed and broken end.  She lifts up the long stick, holding it in a prepared stance.  She doesn't have much time, but she's not going to die this way.

PART 4 -  Escaping

Sorrounded by the dead, and armed with a broken broom stick, her eyes bounce between each enclosing corpse like a "terminator robot" from the movies.    She "scans" the movement of each body trying to calculate how much time she has between each encounter.

First one reaches out with a loud growl.  She swings the stick like a baseball hitting it square in the temple exploding its skull as though it were made of clay.  The body drops as the next one trips over the first body.  She skips back plunging the  stick into the back of the skull adding to the mosh pit.  The third needs a couple steps to get close enough for her to hit.  She swings hard at its knee which folds on itself bringing the body down, but not out.  It gnarl's at her and continues to crawl.  She leaps up on a table and baseball bats another in the neck hearing the neck break like dry spagetti.  The body wobbles a little but then continues at her with its head resting heavy on its shoulder.

"This isn't working," She thinks to herself.  Was it speed or was it style of kill.  She didn't have the luxury of being fancy.  They were coming in fast and she still had to get out of this room and down the stairs which she didn't know how populated they were.  A loud mur mur was heard from the dark hallway she escaped to get into the cafeteria.  She had left a large mosh pit of the dead on the other side of a large heavy door.  But there were dozens of them and they were raging frantically.  They could have broken the window, but surely not the door.

She skipped from table top to table top swinging at a zombie like a golf game as she passed.  Many fell and didn't get back up while others staggered and came back at her.  She faught through them to the small opening which led to the door, which was her only exit.  A very loud commotion burst out as she sees a flood of the dead explode out of the dark hallway.  No time to waste, she turns and as if in slow motion, she hits a full out sprint to the door the the dead following quickly behind.  She has but seconds to make any decision she has to make.

Holding her broken broom stick tight, she bursts through the door she has been anxiously fighting to get to.  On the other side of the door, she had no time to look down the stair well, she just had to run.  But run carefully.  People fall on stairs just running down them in a haste...let alone running for their lives.  Careful but quick, careful but quick.  She held one hand on the railing and one on the stick and watching each step carefully, she tackles the first set of stairs suddenly hearing the door behind her blast open with the violent screams of the flood behind her.  There was no chance she could hide from them.  But how was she going to get to the car with this mess and how is she supposed to escape from this mess?

She clears the last set of stairs, not surprisingly, there were no dead in this stairwell, just like the stairwell she used to get up to the third floor.  Once at the bottom, a single living corpose stands before her but doesn't seem to notice her.  How couldn't he?  Couldn't he hear the noise?  She first considers running past it, but then she didn't want to add to the marathon beind her.  She quickly breaks the back of its knee with the balls of her feet and using her elbow, hits its temple as hard as she can.  Its skull makes the same grotesque crunch and it falls to the floor, near the bottom of the stairs. Exactly where she was hoping it would fall.  It wouldn't be much, but it would slow these things down a little trying to run over a dead body.  If even a couple fell over, it would certainly slow the rest of them just enough.

She pushes the door leading outside to the parking lot and sees the chaos she saw minutes before from the window above.  People running everywhere.  Blood painted all over the place.  She hears a growl very close to her.  Turning beside the door, there is a vermin eating a co-worker she barely recognized.  She gives it one swift kick just below the ear, at the jaw.  A firm crack dislocates its jaw, but didn't kill it, nor did it flinch.  It growls loud and reaches for her  She backs up and manages to stab it in the neck with the broom.  Its blood begins draining to the ground.  She pulls the stick out and then stabs the crippled body in the skull.  If falls motionless before the door.  Hopefully one more obstacle for her escape.  She turns to see an unmanned riding fork lift.  Likely operated by the now fallen and eaten man by the door.  Leaping onto the fork lift, she cranks it into forward gear and guns it!

The fork lift starts off a little slow but doesn't take long to get full speed.  There are many obstacles in the way, especially the dead.  She pulls on the "fork" lever and raises the forks a couple feet, then realizes that will only mame them and maybe even turn them into road bumps, which fork lifts aren't meant to drive over.  She lifts the forks a little higher as she "catches" one of them surprisingly.  Dangling off one of the forks, pierced right through the chest, the dead growls at her but can't reach her.  Then another, and another.  The speed of the machine doesn't slow down as they are built to carry thousands of pounds.  She misses several, but finds herself piercing several, as they all stick to the forks like Shishkabob.  She wedges the broken broom stick to the pedal holding it down on its own.  She weaves through the dead, both running around and lying motionless.  She sees her car in the distance.  Now, how is she going to get off.  This isn't like one of those little battery operated child's toys...this is a several thousand dollar machine built like a tank.  One false move, and she would do more than just hurt herself on her landing.  Timing had to be everything.

Getting closer and closer to her car, she pulls out her keys from her car and pressing the unlock button, she sees the lights of the car flash, signaling it's unlocked.  She aims the forklift to the open field beyond the building property and leaps out of the drivers seat.  She watches as the ground gets closer and closer and lands feet first, but feels the push taking her down.  As long as she lands fine, she can roll.  She falls to the ground, but manages to roll and quickly finds herself to her feet again.  Bumps and bruises and a couple small cuts, she runs to her car.  Most of the dead hadn't made it this far....but her little stunt caught unwanted attention.  There were a few in the distance, but several dozen far off.  It looks like her little flood got through and were well on their way to catching up with her.

The doors already unlocked, she opens the door quickly and gets the car started.  Putting the car in reverse, she gets herself to a clear as a couple dead catch up to her bumper and begin banging on the trunk and start running up the side of the car.  She puts the car in drive and presses down hard on the gas and within seconds, she is on the main road and the flood of the dead are but dots in the distance.

She picks up her phone to call home again,

"Home in 10 minutes..." she thinks to herself.

This is good stuff Nina keep it up, I hope other people are reading this because it's good and if your not your missing out.

great stuff!

nice read nina wicked stuff. : O ) keep them coming

forklift = nice touch. i'm enjoying ur story.

PART 5 - NOT HOME IN 10 MINUTES

She lived very close to where she worked.  She had a 7 to 10 minute drive max (depending on speed and traffic).  Other guys she worked with had a half hour or even up to an hour trip to get home.  She even walked home a couple times, not necessarily by choice...but schedule conflict.  The walk only took her an hour.  There is almost nothing to see in the walk.  It's pretty much pure farm land.  Even when you're driving, you pass one house every couple minutes, and you can barely even see the house.  They are very far down a very long laneway.  Some laneways are covered by forest while others, a very large open field.  I guess the good thing about the crysis at hand is, given the open land, she could see anything with more than enough warning to react.

The roads were completely clear.  The open land was completely clear.  Why was there so much carnage back at the warehouse...and yet nothing everywhere else?  Nick seemed to have an understanding of what was going on.  Did that mean he saw something or killed something?  Not likely.  He wasn't a very violent person.  Not that She'd call him a "frady cat" or anything.  But he wasn't known for getting into confrontations, or winning any.  He made a really great husband, and she's seen him with kids of all ages, and looked forward to the day when they would have some of their own.  But he wasn't a fighter.  She had taken lessons in her teen years, just before meeting him.  She didn't use it much.  There were a couple small instances where it came in handy.  But for the most part, it was for personal security.  And in a time like this, it looked like it was needed.

She was picturing Nick at home either under a blanket in their bed cowering, which made her laugh. Or he was locking up all the doors and stocking stuff in the "dungeon" in the basement.  They had semi-finished basement in their humble "first home".  It was the kind of home that a standard couple their age at their average income would have.  Just enough space for themselves and a small family and some company.  They didn't plan to make it a home.  It was a house.  It was a great location for everything they needed.  They were going to let "life" decide what was going to happen to it.  But they weren't planning on staying there "for the rest of their lives".  Fixing it up to make it a "life long" house would cost as much as some of the larger homes in the area...so it would be more worth it for them to just buy a larger house than waste money on this one.  They had gone back and forth about it from time to time in the three years they had lived there.  They first had a one bedroom apartment which they out grew.  Or rather, their "stuff" out grew.  The one bedroom was great for a single person, or an engaged person. But as a couple, they didn't last a year in it before deciding to get a house.  The house was pretty much exactly what they were looking for.  And now...it may be the best place for them.

Nina was about half way there.  Two more long turns and then to their little "hidden" laneway.  Strangely there was nothing in sight.  This was almost too easy. 

Turning the first large corner took her to "the big intersection".  It was just built over this last year.  There was a new bridge being built which would save drivers five to ten minutes of driving (worth the millions of dollars the city must have spent on it).  The intersection was pretty clean.  But was expected to get much busier with the connection of the other side of the road, which led to a very busy commercial road.  A mall and many other stores.  But right now, and for the last year, it has been closed. So for now, we have a three way intersection, which would soon be a four way intersection.

As the corner turned to the opening, she fully expected to see a completely clean intersection.  That was the exact opposite of what she saw.  The more that cleared from the trees to this opening the more chaos she saw.  There was an endless lineup of cars down one road.  The road she wasn't planning on going down.  There were few cars lined up down the road she wanted to go down.  But most of them were crashed into each other.  All the cars were pointing to the center of the intersection which answered for all the disaster.  There were four large transport trucks (likely coming or going to the warehouse she just escaped from.  There were no other warehouses in the area...and thus no reason for any trucks that size to be here).  The trucks were smothering the middle of the intersection completely.  There was no way to make it through at all.  And all attempts had apparently failed horribly as remains of cars were the moarter to the trucks.  There was barely any room to even walk through this mess.  As she took her eyes off the mess of machines and slowing the car down to a creep she then came into focus of more than she wanted to see.  She thought the mess back at the warehouse was scary.  There were people fighting off people who were fighting off the dead.  People running into the fields to be caught by random dead.  The dead were spread out like marbles fallen on the ground.  Well spaced out, but one wrong move and you are food.

Turn back or fight through? She thought.  If she turned back and went another route, it would take her at least double or triple the time to get back and she had no idea what was waiting for her back there and heading toward her.  She was five minutes, fast driving, from home.  It may take her about thirty minutes to walk this, maybe fifteen if she ran.  She wouldn't run fast.  She saw everything that happened this morning and she had to keep her strength up.  She hadn't been noticed just yet, but in the couple of minutes she had been processing everything she was seeing, she saw little to no way to drive through this  She couldn't drive into the fields.  They were far too bumpy.  She would surely crash or get stuck.  She couldn't drive through the construction, it was even worse than the open field, and there was no room left on the road.

These things didn't attack in-animate objects.  They only seemed interested in the living.  And from the looks of what she was seeing, there wouldn't be much more of those left.  Could she do it?  After surviving what she did in very close quarters, could she survive more fiends in larger quarters?  Nick didn't expect her for at least ten minutes.  And whether he saw these things on the news or if he had a one on one encounter, he hadn't been trying to call her.  Either he was busy himself or he knew to trust her.  It wouldn't be safe to stay here and have a conversation on a cellphone about "how I plan to get home".  She had to make a decision and make it fast.  There was far less human/dead traffic through the construction zone.  Scanning the area quickly, she found a place she could store her car.  There was little of value in the car.  She kept everything she needed on her person.  Park the car somewhere out of sight, lock it without an alarm (the last thing we needed was an accidental bump sounding a car alarm which could draw unwanted attention).  Stash the car and make a break for it.

PART 6 - SURROUNDED 

She parked the car near a couple other cars, which were most likely construction workers' cars.  She had her lunch with her in the car, and despite her better judgement, it would slow her down.  It's in a little lunch cooler, and it isn't something that would spoil very easily.  Especially in the containers they're in.  The only thing missing now is a possible quiet weapon.  She gives the immedate area another quick scan.  The dead walk throughout viewing distance, but aren't near enough to her.  They wont notice her yet.  She ensures she has everthing she needs.  Cellphone is on vibrate in her front pant pocket.  She opens the door quietly and gives it a quiet but sturdy shove to shut it quietly.  She then presses the 'lock' button on her keychain.  One press is to lock it, confirmed with a flash of the lights.  Pressing the same button a second time will make the car beep signalling the alarm is on.  But at the moment, that would be a very bad idea.  Simply locking it is good.  She'll find a way to come back for it.  There isn't anything of value in the car, and it should last the next 24 hours when she can come back with reinforcements.

Looking before her, there are a few options.  There is a "work in progress" road to her left which snakes up, down a very long field, which is joining the other side of a large river bank.  The purpose of this bridge is to give people a quicker commute and lower traffic down some other roads.  To her right is another road filled with abandonned cars, and lots of dead, and the living, which are losing the fight quick.  In front of her is the road she wanted.  It twists a little bit, and has a lot of forest cover, and may be about twenty minutes from home.  But if there are this many dead here, how many more were there up the road.  She couldn't see past the bend.  The road in construction didn't have many dead, while the road full of cars had more dead than cars.

She slowly sneaks through the construction zone, hiding behind an outhouse, a large tractor, a large machine, a trailer.  The dead must have been attracted to the living, rather than quiet machines.  She sees a generator with the keys in it.  She wonders, could she turn the generator on, to get attention to it.  While attention is on the generator, she could slip away.  But what was her escape path?  There were a couple houses in the distance, but what would she use as cover?  There were some bushes, but would it be enough?  Or, should she even risk it?  Should she just try and slip by while they're all distracted by the people screaming and running for their life.  She finds a crowbar. It was heavy, but she wasn't breaking speed records here.  Take yer time, and just get home safe.

Turning around a corner, around a large machine, she sees a dead body hanging out of the driver seat.  He had clearly been something's meal.  The bite marks were very prominent.  But, why wasn't he 'up and running' like the other dead?  Getting slightly closer, she sees his feet got tangled up in the seat belt and his skull was completely cracked open by landing on the foot ladder.  Brains and goo of some sort were slowly dripping to a small pile on the ground.  She turned away immediately.  She can handle some horror movies...but when the horror movie is actually right in front of you, it's not so entertaining.  This gave her more and more evidence that the skull was the main target to bring these things down.  There were a couple within creeping distance.  She gripped her crowbar tight.  They were feeding off something.  I didn't look human.  It didn't look like anything by what these things were doing to it.  She creeped up to them quickly but quietly and with a large baseball swing, she exploded the head of the one with its back facing her.  It fell over without struggle and didn't move.  By the time the other one took notice of her, the crowbar had already landed on it's forehead.  It also flopped over like a dead fish.  She started to notice the small spots of blood she was getting.  She had oddly managed to stay pretty clean for now...but she was starting to get some blood dots on her uniform.

These things were slow, but if they caught you, you were as good as dead.  Watching the people far in the distance, they were making such loud noises.  Screaming and running.  Almost as if they were calling out "eat me, I'm alive.  Eat me, chase and earn your meal".  But what could she do?  Try to save these people, when they're already frantic and panicing, and try to fight off what appeared to be several hundred dead?

"Help..." a voice coughed out.  Looking around she saw a young man, maybe her age.  His throat had been bitten into.  He was  bleeding fast.  He was pale and lying flat as though preparing to make snow angles in the grass.  Approaching what she knew to be a dying and dead man, what would come of him?  By the amount of blood loss, she knew there was nothing she could do.  But, she couldn't leave him like this.  She cripped the crow bar despite the objection in his eyes and raising it over her head, her arms twinge ready to bring it down when his eyes roll into the back of his head.  She held the crowbar over her head a moment longer then slowly brought it to a comfortable spot before her.  Hugging her knees, she detected  he had stopped breathing and choking.  But how long would it take for him to come back?  She watched him for maybe five minutes with intrigue and guilt as she was surprised by the sound of a loud growl.  Turning her head, she saw three dead creatures limping slowly to her.  They were easily far enough away for her to get away, but it would seem as though they may be running out of food out there and began exploring for more.

Getting to her feet she took a couple steps back as the young man also began rolling to his stomach reaching for her.  She took in a deep breath and giving a large swing, brought the crowbar down on the young man's head.  His head broke open and fell apart, and his body was motionless.  The three heading toward her wouldn't be long.  She turned toward the closest house.  It was easily within sight, but a fair way down the road.  Her best bet was to stay off the road, and stay in the bush below and hope it was clear. 

With a swift dash, she gave a light jog through the open construction zone.  Jumping over stacks of metal, climbing through skids of materals, keeping her ears very tune to any possible sound of unwanted attention.  She had been down this road before, but never down in the bush.

It didn't take her long to get to the house, but the house wasn't her target.  It was past the house.  There should only be a couple more houses to get past after this one.  She takes it slow, but not too slow.  The house looks like it has been taken.  Much of the house is broken and it also looks like whomever lived there left in a haste.  Grabbed essentials and left quick.  She jogged lightly through the debris in the yard but found nothing useful, then her memory sparked something uncomfortable.  A reason why there would be so many dead on the road.  There was an old Church just down this road, and as she came to a small clearing, just past the house, she found herself on top of a fairly large hill, overlooking the whole area where the Church was.  And in the Church's back yard, was a large community cemetary.  And this cemetary had regurgitated it's dead.

There were easily a hundred she could see wandering around.  She began skittering to the main road, but didn't make it too far when she began to see a few dead wandering around her.  They hadn't seen her just yet, but there were enough that she would have to make very quick thinking.  She was surrounded.

PART 7 - THE FIGHT HOME!

While she was almost used to making split second decisions, with all the death she'd seen today and it was barely early afternoon, she had to react fast.  Be quiet, be quick and MOVE!

There was little point in trying to creep past them.  She didn't want to be caught (by the dead or by nature).  She scanned the area quickly and found her first target.  Its back was to her and there were very few after it.  She darted to it as top speed and with a loud 'thwack', brought the crowbar through its skull like it were a watermelon.  Somehow that caught attention as multiple dead which started groaning and screams filled her ears behind her like a burglar alarm.  Still, the option remained; take the open road up the little inclined hill.  She'd be able to see everything...but everything would see her too.  OR, keep the cover of nature, but higher chances of getting caught on something.

She kept her speed up for a bit, but slowed it enough as to not exhaust herself.  Coming up against another which hadn't seen her yet, she "golf swung" it in the back of the knee, bringing it to its back with a quiet but quick thud, followed by a loud roar.  Two suddenly appear before her with no easy way around them.  They came at a strong speed despite they had obvious difficulty walking.  As they reach out to her growling, she gave the closer one a quick punch to the throat with the bend of crowbar.  It quickly reminded her these things aren't human.  They don't choke and don't get winded.  All it did was stagger her back due to the force of the impact.  The second nearly grabs at her until she quickly goes for the knee cap again with the balls of her foot.  It snaps instantly and she crushes the skull quickly after it lands on the ground.  Coming around, she spins herself for momentum and pushes the point end of the crowbar into the eyeball of the other.  Her momentum forces it to the ground as well as her, falling onto the creature, and digging the crowbar into the ground slightly.

Getting to her feet, she has a slight struggle getting the crowbar free, but after a couple tugs, it's out.  It was a great weapon, but too close for comfort.  She holds the crowbar like a sword, like the letter "J", point end up and keeps going.  After a short distance she finds one feeding on someone, or something.  As she approaches and readies the crowbar, she finds a bat on the ground.  Aluminum after a short examination.  It was lighter and easier to move around than the crowbar, but would it do the same job?  Reaching over her head, she brings it down hard on the head of the dead man feeding.  He limps over motionless.  His meal was human, but hardly recognizable.  She was not but 10 minutes from home, if her forest navigation was correct.

Continuing on she hears a faint cry for help.  As she is pulled between her home, not far away, and yet another living person who needed help, she shuts her eyes tight and cringing, she makes haste to the voice.  Before long she finds a small opening where a teenage girl has been chased up a large tree and there are about 8 to 10, on a quick count, dead reaching for her.  Would the bat do well enough?  Could she take on this many at once?  Was it worth it?  She holds her position a moment, then gives the bat a good grip and slowly walks out of the bush.  She feels her muscles tense up, readying themselves.  She takes time to breathe properly and concentrate her Chi energies as she narrows the count to 11 dead.  Some racing around the tree, some in one spot while others seem bent over as though leaning on an invisible cane, as though waiting for the others to do the hard work.  She goes for them first.  There are three.

Walking up to the first, it's a quick smash to the head.  The second, again, a smash to the head.  The third somehow detects her and cries out in its growl which somehow sets an alarm to the others, despite the fact that their growls easily drown it out.  Within seconds, all attention is now on Nina.  The girl in the tree starts screaming to Nina for help.

First swing, in the knee of the 'security alarm', which brings it down.  As long as it's down, she has time to focus on the others.  8 more to concentrate on.  Two race at her as though they want to be the gold prize winners.  The first one to reach her gets the TOMONAGE, tossed behind her.  She keeps her knees curled up waiting for the second and aims carefully to spring them against its chin.  She hits it perfectly with her heels, breaking its neck instantly and knocking it off balance.  She gets to get feet as it stumbles to its feet very unsuccessfully.

6 left, moving slow, but loud.  She calls out to the girl to get down and run as she readies the bat.  She gives one a good swing to the face as it falls over in front of another causing it to fall over.  She smashes its skull while it is down.  With three left, one nearly grabs her, until she pulls a classic trip move, kicking its ankle.  While its on the ground, she uses the bottom of the bat to pound its head.  Getting back to her feet, she races fast at the last two, which are only a couple yards away.  She reaches them quickly and knocks them both to their faces with a few quick kicks to the thigh and head.

She turns around remembering the one who got the Tomonage and finds it back on its feet.  The teenage girl has made it to the ground.  Nina points in the direction of where she believes her house is as the girl begins slowly heading that direction, but not going to far, as to apparently wait for Nina, who has gone back for the Tomonage victim.  With a couple quick knee kicks and a strong bat to the head, there are no strong threats.  Mostly dead, many strongly maimed.  It's time to go!

Nina learns the teen's name is Jassi.  Apparently "Jessie" was too common for her parents and felt the letter "a" was better suited in the name.  Nearly seven minutes in the bush and Nina finally recognizes the "signature tree" she can see from her living room.  Getting to the tree, which is beside a neighboring cornfield, she gets a strong look at her front yard.  What's left of it.

There are a few bodies on the ground, dead.  Apparently Nick had grown some balls Nina didn't know he had.  Many of the windows were broken, and one of the dead was somehow stuck to another tree in the yard, apparently held using a garden hoe.

No immediate threat just yet.  They get to the front door, and find it boarded from the inside.  Rather than make noise, she takes Jassi to the back yard, basement window, which they always keep open for emergencies.  It's open as expected, and the two enter slowly.  Once inside, she listens carefully and hears nothing.  She gives a couple shouts out for Nick feeling that it's safe.  Making her way through the basement, she begins the stairs leading up the main floor.  There is a small landing where there's a door leading to the side of the house.  That door has been broken completely.  There is blood all over the door and into the house.  Nina motions for Jassi to be careful as she enters slowly.  She calls out to Nick a second time.  Nothing on the main floor.  One floor left.  Going up to the third floor, calling to Nick for a third and final time she hears a light footstep.  Turning a corner at the top of the stairs, listening very carefully, Jassi suddenly lets out a loud YELP as Nina is knocked unconscious!

PART 8 - NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES

There is a light humming in her ears.  Very slowly as she feels like she's waking from a dream she begins to translate the humming is actually chatter.  There are people talking.  Had this whole experience been a dream?  Is she finally just waking up now?  While she's merely semi-conscious and can't understand anything she thinks she's hearing.  Her eyes slowly open up and she begins to feel the strong pain on her forehead.  Without knowing exactly what's going on, she attempts to use her eyes to tell the story about what she should do next.  She blinks rapidly trying to wake up without moving her body.  She remembers very little, just fear and anxiety and adrenaline.  Her eyes slowly begin to focus and she finds herself in her living room.  She's lying on her left side.  Her front lobby is in view, which mapping the house out in her mind, her back is to a wall.  The other side of that wall is the side of her house, which was her entrance through the bushes.

She can't see anyone, but slowly their voices become more and more audible.  There are at least three maybe four men.  A random loud cough and burp near her then counts to a possible fifth.  She was on the floor where she remembers her kitchen table being.  But it wasn't there.  Beside the kitchen table, hugging the wall, was their love seat.  And according to the burp she heard loud and clear (without recognizing the voice of the burp), it meant someone was sitting or lying on the love seat.  Listening even more carefully, even closing her eyes in attempt to heighten her ears she can discern two other male voices giving instructions about how to tie something up.  Either the two of them were instructing each other, or they were instructing another person, or persons.  Should she move her body to see what kind of damage she is in or would the person on the couch, who she expects is there to watch her, see her move and become alerted.  Almost immediately after deciding to move she hears the couch creek and she barely hesitates.  She opens her eyes just a slit enough to see a very large man pound the floor with his dirty feet across the living room.  His steps make the old house shake.  She opens her eyes fully and darting her eyes around the room, it pretty much looks like "moving day".  Nothing is where she left it this morning.  Everything is all over the place.  DVD's are scattered on the floor, other items of considered value are broken or just not where they were left.  The windows are boarded up completely with random large lengths of wood.  Doors, the table, and planks of wood which must have been found in the basement.  The men are talking too loud with the odd deep-stomached laughter, she can't hear anything outside.  Either the yard is clear, or it's just too muffled.

she slowly tries to move her body which hurts all over, but it moves.  She takes it slowly and manages to get to a push-up position at first, then to her knees and slowly stands to her feet.  She twists a little and bends a little.  She has no reason to believe these guys are here to help, and if she had to, she would have to defend herself.  Her imagination shuffles through the junk drawer of her mind remembering a time she and another female friend of hers walked home late one night after having a small girls night out.  They were met by a couple guys on the dark street who asked for money for a coffee.  Nina doesn't give out money like that.  She has volunteered for homeless shelters for years and knows where at least one homeless shelter or food kitchen is in every city she's lived in since she's been old enough to truly make her own decisions.  She actively volunteers with these organizations using that as a way to "give back".  She's met people on the street who have asked for stuff, and she's ended up taking time to talk to them person-to-person to make a new friend and recommend a near by shelter.  But...this night, she didn't have time to talk.  She was out with a friend and they were going home.  Despite her decline to provide the requested money, the two men egged her on.  Walking past them didn't even work as the men continued to follow her and her friend.  All the shops were closed this late at night so the only option was to keep walking.  Things could have gotten more violent but Nina has martial art experience and isn't afraid to use it if necessary.  Especially if someone breaks her purse strap.  While these two men continued to follow Nina and her friend, what started as a gentle please and thank you with a gentle "no, I'm sorry" turned into a louder, "hey, c'mon, don't be like that" which turned into, "hey bitch, what's the big fuckin' deal?  Just wanted a fuckin' buck to get a coffee".  Nina remained silent and picked up the pace while her friend seemed like she would crap her pants, despite Nina's attempts to gently sooth her.  Continued yells from the two men eventually got them both right behind the two women.  Nina slowed to a stop gently grasping her friends arm, "gimme a moment, Allie".  Nina turned to face the two men who had very large smiles on their faces, which Nina knew would go away pretty quick pretty soon.  While one of the men continued to gently egg on for the precious dollar he wanted, Nina insisted "for the last time" she wasn't going to give them any money.

"Yah?  How 'bout you gimme som'n else", as the taller of the men grabbed Nina's shoulders and leaned in for a kiss.  Nina gave a quick reflex slap across the face as she saw her friend backing up slowly in her peripheral vision.  The man, taken back by the unexpected action smiled even more, "hahahah, a feisty one eh mitch?", the other man laughs.  Nina took a couple steps back and began to turn with a dark face of rage on her breaking eye contact with the man and as her back was to the man, her senses highly heightened, she attempted to expect anything.  These two clearly were mere idiot wanna be thugs who were driven by their moronic testosterone late at night.  Taking but a couple steps away from them, Allie beginning to walk away as well, the taller man forcefully grabs Nina by the shoulder and swings her around with a loud profanity and nearly knocking her over with the force.  With a quick "windmill" action of her arm, she is able to hastily wrap her arm around his arm a couple times forcing him to lean back as she kicks the back of his knee, bringing him to his knees.  She continues to twist the mans arm by grabbing and violently twisting his hand with both her hands.  He is now lying on his back screaming in pain, while she nearly has his hand pinching its own wrist, her foot pressing hard on his shoulder.  His scream is very loud and he seems very distracted by the pain and has no idea how to react.  He yells at her to stop as she feels the hands of the second guy on her shoulders pulling her back.  She releases one hand, keeping one firmly bending and folding the wrist while she uses her free elbow to thwack hard against the elbow attached to the arm holding her.  The second man lets out a loud scream as the hand releases her.  She grabs the hand which let go of her and twisting it clockwise, she wraps it around the man's own back and lifts it hard up against his shoulder blade also giving him a quick and strong kick to the knee, knocking him to the ground as well.

Both men, frantically screaming for Nina to stop, she is suddenly soothed by Allie calling out to her, "nina...lets go!".  Nina stares down at these two pathetic examples of humanity and pressing into the web of each man's hand, between the thumb and index finger to activate a very powerful pressure point, they both find the power in themselves to scream just a little bit louder as she pushes each arm to its owner and turns to exit with Allie.

While the incidences were few, and zombies are very easy to take down, one by one.  Taking down half a dozen guys in a small space like her living room or lobby might prove to be a more challenging task than she thinks.  But what are they doing?  She sees no usable weapons in the room, and has no idea what they have.  There is one hallway leading to the loud commotion, which is very close to the front door.  She quickly peaks through the cracks between the planks of wood and to her surprise, she sees a small army of the dead.  They have a little while to get to this house yet to go, but they're coming.  Perhaps the ones she skipped past actually did see her.

"Well well," A voice calls out behind her.  She turns to see the extra large fat man.  "Looks like she's finally awake.  That gives us two toys to play with.  The fat man finds his old seat as four other men of ranging sizes enter the small room, two of them pulling in a frightened Jassi who has been tied up with duct tape.  Many thoughts run through Nina's mind;

These guys don't seem too bright.  They seem to have no preparation for the quickly enclosing dead.  If these guys are obviously not here to contribute something constructive, how long could she delay them until the dead get here?  She remembers a room in the basement which is pretty much "hidden".  If you didn't know to look for it, you'd go right by it.  The room is about the size of a standard full bathroom..but has nothing in it.  Nina originally wanted to use it as a music room.  Get the drums and guitar in there and play some loud music.  But because it was such an old house, moisture accumulates rapidly in the basement, and they have found the hard way, that certain materials get ruined in an environment like that.  Should she just try to run?  But what about Jassi.  Should she just try to talk.

"What's yer name darlin'?" One of the less-kept men says.  She remains silent listening carefully for any signs of anyone else who might just be in the other room and haven't announced themselves yet.  Or another "prisoner", I.E. Nick!  Where was he?

"Nina," She says with a confidence of anger in her voice.  If these guys weren't here to help her fight the dead, which judging by the way they're treating Jassi, she had to get rid of them somehow.

"Well, Nina girl, what dew you think yer doin' here?"

"This is my house!" She lashes back.

"Yer house eh?  Guess that makes sense, since there are a bunch of pictures of you everywhere.  We saw a lot of them as we were checkin' the place out".

"I guess I could ask you the same question.  What are YOU doing in my house?".  The men laugh.

"See, we were here, just passing through, when suddenly this thing comes and tries to fight our car.  We didn't get too far before we figured out these dead things were dangerous, so Dan here said we gotta get a place out of the open so these things don't find us.  This house seemed empty until you showed up."

"Well, you're wrong.  It's not empty.  This is my house, and as much as I want to ask you to leave, I'd like you to help me kill those things outside, then leave".

"Those things outside?  We killed 'em all hun!"

"Did you?" Nina says curiously.  She takes a deep breath.  Based on their reactions, these guys have no idea what she can do.  She turns to the window behind her, which sits easily ten feet above ground level, but has a great view of the yard.  She clinches her fists tight and with a swing of her left and right hands, back to back, one after the other, she begins breaking through the planks of wood.  The windows were mostly broken on the other side, but some glass smashes are heard.  After a few punches, which take them men off guard, she gets the window open to reveal a mere few dead a few yards from the house, but more and more and more in the distance.  Some seem to be running in fierce fury, while others are dragging their bodies slowly.  As the men see clearly through the large window at what's coming their way, they begin to panic and grab at their poles and large sticks.  A couple of them run outside to begin the battle while the rest remain inside.

"It wont be long before they're here".  Nina says with one idea in mind.  Somehow, get rid of these guys, and get Jassi downstairs in this secret room.

(sorry for the delay in episodes guys...I've had a couple very busy weeks.  I've been tryin' to submit one good length portion per week.  Hopefully I'll have time in the next couple days to add a bunch more.  Hope you guys are enjoyin' it as much as I am writing it.  Sorry this one is so short).

PART 9 - Secret Places

Nina stands by the window watching as the first two men run out to battle the in coming dead enemy.  They take out a couple dozen before one of them gets over run and falls prey.  Now only one out there, the fat man and another man watch cowardly from the window as well.

"What do you plan to do?" Nina says to the men.  "Are you going to let your friends die this way?".  The men look at each other and have nothing to say.  Nina is trying to get them out there or some how get them to slip up so she can get free of them.  Nina continues the mental taunts trying to either make the men freak out of fear or motivate them to flee or begin fighting.  The fat one runs to a corner of the room cowering while the other continues to stare as he watches his other friend fall out in the field, becoming a meal to the dead.  He turns to face Nina with a panic, just in time to her foot meet his face, knocking him out the window.  He falls with a scream and begins to try jumping back in, but can't quite reach the window's edge.  But within seconds, his death gurgles die quickly.  Another meal to the dead.  She looks to the fat man who's got his eyes closed and cowers in a fetal position in the corner.  Nina takes the knife and frees Jassi to then find the fat man at her feet begging her to help him.

"Tell me why?" Nina protests.  "You and your faggot friends attack us and now that they're dead, you want me to fix everything?  What am I supposed to do for you?"

"SAVE ME!" the fat man screams.  Conflicted, she knows his man will do more harm than good.  The brings the knife to his throat, "You try anything, and I mean ANYTHING, and I will feed you to them!" Nina threatens.  Nina grabs Jassi's hand off the couch and warns they only have a couple minutes and begins to race to the main doorway just as a dead man appears.  With her quick reflexes, she gives it a strong and stern kick to the throat, breaking the neck and knocking it onto it's back.  She brings the kitchen knife up to her face and with a quick swing, throws it, blade first, landing it directly into its eye, killing it...again.  Jassi looks at Nina with amazement as Nina heads to a door beside the stairs leading to the second floor.  Opening the door, she trots to the basement.

"Close the door when you get down!" Nina calls out as she begins heading to a specific location in the basement.  The other two catch up with her as she gets to a very old looking washing machine with a dark little cubby-hole beside it filled with assorted machine parts on various shelving climbing up the wall.  Nina reaches into the darkness behind the cubby and after a couple small jerks she pulls the shelving away from the wall, revealing a 'secret' room very dimly lit.  Nina enters quickly.

"Nick!" Nina calls out as she steps into the darkness.  A dark figure appears in the blackness of the room dimly lit by a few small candles.  Nick appears and makes eye contact with Nina who greets him with a tight hug.

"Are you ok!" Nick yells filled with emotion, "SSHHH!" Nina hushes, "They're outside".  Nina gets Jassi and the fatman into the room and quietly pulls the door shut as several very loud crashes are heard upstairs.

"Everyone...don't make a sound!  They're in!"

PART 10 - EMERGING FROM DARKNESS

the growls and groans thundered louder and louder as the old house creaked and squeaked over the additional weight and slow but many thumps.  Nick was very smart to bring survival items into the room the moment he knew something was seriously wrong.  The good news was they could technically last in this room for a couple days, which was hopefully just enough time for things to clear up.  The bad news was they were completely surrounded by very thick and strong concrete.  Similar to an underground parking lot.  Thus, no cellphones, no radios or signals of any kind.  All they could do was sit and wait patiently.

Nick explained quietly that shortly after Nina left for work, he couldn't get back to sleep so decided to get up and begin enjoying his day off.  The sun had barely risen at all when there was news online and on TV regarding unusual behavior and riots occurring through the city.  Reports were apparently everywhere, in different countries all around the world.  It seemed the exact same symptoms were being reported.  The most unusual thing was within hours, the internet broke down, then TV broke down shortly after and while mobile lines seemed to hold on a little bit longer, it also eventually flat lined.  Nina and Nick have a land line with a corded phone.  Wireless or cordless phones require electricity to operate at all.  In a power out, they're useless.  But a corded phone works using the power directly from the power line.  They had a couple corded phones, and while Nick tried making a few phone calls, he got no where fast.  He did the smart thing and removed the phone from the wall and taking it with him in hiding.  While they can't use it in the basement, there were a number of reasons.  There were reports that visual and audio stimulation seemed to be the strongest aggravation to the creatures who were cannibalizing off everyone.  That told Nick that there can be no sounds what-so-ever.  He couldn't risk being hidden and have a phone ring upstairs and stir up commotion.  Nina and Nick had prepared canned goods which could be consumed without the need for heat.  Plenty of water and batteries and candles.  While they could use candles for a little bit of warmth in the cold cement room, they wouldn't want to keep the candles running constantly as per the slow build up of carbon dioxide.  They kept the lights (flashlights of all shapes and sizes) pointed at the walls away from the door.  While there was nothing stimulating about the shelf/door outside which was the only obstacle between them and the dead, they needed to make absolutely certain nothing would bring any unnecessary attention.

With no volunteers, Nina would need to regularly listen carefully out the shelf/door for any movement.  It didn't take long for the dead to consume the house completely.  It was almost amazing they didn't break down the door, their noises were so loud, it almost felt like an uncontrollable mosh pit which would break the door down by the odd smack against it.  The dead must have been tripping over each other, as the basement wasn't the biggest basement.  The house itself wasn't all that large of a house.  It was a house meant for a retired couple or a newly married couple or even a very young family.  The room was completely dark, save for a couple candles lit for warmth and light, and a couple flashlights for light.  It was difficult to stay quiet especially with the loud growls and the odd slam against the shelf/door.  Adrenaline was high with every bang, especially since they were completely unpredictable and sporadic.

While Nina had the only watch on, with INDEGLO built in (which was a special back lit watch).  The cellphones were turned off quickly to save battery life.  It took about two hours (which felt like a life time) for the growls to begin lightening up.  Another couple hours for them to quiet up so much that Nina finally decided it was time to take a look.  Motioning for everyone to keep quiet and even close their eyes, she gently peaked out the door as she opened it slowly.  To Nina's relief, there were none in sight.  She vanished into the light pouring into the room and shutting the door behind her.  She immediately realized she had nothing on her to defend herself, and also immediately heard a couple thumps and slides of something just around the corner from her.  Looking quick, the only thing she could find were a couple wooden chairs she and Nick had put into storage.  They were their first kitchen table set.  A small round table and four wooden chairs which they had no room for upstairs given the table set sitting ten given to them as a wedding gift from family.  Nick had lived on his own for a number of years in a small apartment and was the original owner of the table for four set.  She gave her orders very clear, even though she knew she didn't have to.  No matter WHAT anyone hears...don't open that door.  If she was being eaten or killed she would yell out the code word, "ESCAPE" which meant the three survivors would have to figure it out themselves.  Otherwise...any noises were her fighting for her life and the life of the other three.

With a couple snap of her arm and fist, she breaks the wood of a chair to release one of the chair backing rails free.  She rips it off the floor.  A small piece of wood slightly thicker and slightly longer than a standard drum stick, but with a much more deadly point at the end.  The noise aggravates the intruder around the corner.  Nina quickly and light on her feet skips to rest her back against the wall beside the open door way dividing the rooms.  She hears the dead slide, thump.  slide, thump.  slide, thump.  The growls getting louder, even enough to hear it breathing.  Holding her wooden stake tight, and pressing herself against the wall, it slowly hobbles into the room without noticing her against the wall, hidden by the door.  As the dead creature fully enters the room, she shuts the door quietly, not hearing any other presences on their way.  It doesn't seem to notice.  She brings the wooden rod high above her head and brings it down hard and fast into its soft and already broken, exposed and bloody skull.  It falls quickly and she pulls out the wooden stake.

She gives a light tap on the shelf/door and slowly pulls the door open sharing the light with the three who have been terrified in the darkness for about four or five hours, which has felt like a full day or more.  She instructs everyone to stay in the room while she creeps out into the next room and waves confirming it was clear.  She slowly glides up the stairs trying to make as little noise as possible hearing some, but very little mur murs up stairs.  The sky was very slightly turning colour.  It had been less than one day since all this happened.  And it happened so fast.  At least they knew the secret room was safe.

Nina entered through the door at the top of the stairs leading directly into the kitchen, which spanned out to the main front door to her left and straight away, through the kitchen, into the 'computer room'.  Either way, she would by pass the living room and have an opportunity to go to the second floor.  There was at least one creature in the living room which she couldn't see and didn't detect her.  She gently skipped to the computer room and quickly peaked into the room and retracting herself and processing the second and a half look she gave herself and re-playing the sight in her mind, she saw two.  Only two.  The room was pretty much completely open due to all the furniture hugging the walls, and the table vanished (presumably boarded up against a window somewhere).  Taking a deep breath, she dashed in and without either of them noticing her, she kicked the one very hard in the small of the back, knocking it onto the other creature.  Both fallen to the floor.  She thrusts the wooden stake into the skull of one, then quickly pulling it out and into the eyeball of the next before it makes too much noise.  Continuing her scan of the rest of the house, she finds only one more hiding out in the bathroom, having fallen into the deep, elevated bathtub, folded itself and unable to escape.

The sun starting to set, and the dead surrounding the house, though significantly thinned out compared to what it was.  She had closed and barricaded the front door by leaning the basement table against it, wedging it under the door knob, as well as pressing a couple self-made wooden door stoppers at the bottom of the door.

While no one trusted the fat man, playing his cowardly role (and doing a very good job at it).  He certainly pulled his weight (no pun intended) cleaning up and building up defense etc.  Jassi certainly kept her distance from him.  Nick and Nina had no reason to trust him either.  All four fully knew that the vast majority of the dead walking randomly throughout the yard, close by and far in the distance, pretty much knew this house was 'dead'.  So long as the four took precautions to maintain no visibility to the dead what so ever, they may be just fine for the night.  The fat man (who introduced himself as Gus) volunteered to stay in the secret room in the basement for the night.  Nick was far too wired to sleep.  Jassi was pretty much already asleep in the spare room which Nina and Nick were slowly deciding for the baby room.  Nina also slept on the floor while Nick took first watch.

PART 11 - AN UNWELCOME WAKE UP CALL

She is awaken by a low murmur and growling. She can't move her body. She struggles slightly but still can not move. A couple louder growls snap her out of her daze and, like before, she uses her eyes only to explore her environment to find nothing around her. It takes her a moment but then she realizes something dark and heavy is lying on top of her and she is, at the moment, unable to move it. She can clearly see a couple specs of light against what appeared to be the wall. After a few wiggles of all parts of her body slowly she regains full consciousness and gains full control over her body. She has silently listened to her surroundings and the best way she can describe it in her mind is, it sounds like the dead were in the same place she was, and this covering was blocking their sight from her. The last thing she remembers was getting out of the basement and carefully getting a couple things organized and then going to her bedroom and going to sleep while Nick took the first watch. Nick wouldn't have messed things up. And even if he did, he would have easily called out a warning. Was the perhaps that OUT of it that she wouldn't respond to whatever it was anyone was alerting to her?

The growling dies down slightly and over time, which felt like hours and hours, it eventually stops as the voices die down and thumps get quieter out of the room and down the stairs. When silence becomes too much for her she musters the strength to push off the heavy thing and finds it was her mattress pinning her down to the floor with several blankets on top. Whomever did it wanted her to be invisible. With the mattress off she scans the room taking a few deep breaths to find a strange person eaten alive. No resemblance to anyone she knows. But that could also have to do with how badly this person was eaten. Blood covers the floor as the dead are heard throughout the house. She takes a couple steps toward the room's entrance, the door has been removed. Her and nick's belongings are scattered everywhere. Where could they be?

She gets a couple steps closer to the door when a thin and tall creature with its head bent to rest on its shoulders turns the corner and lets out a wolf cry of a scream which quickly seems to get the attention of all the dead in the house. The house begins to tremble and she has no escape this way. She gives the dead man a hard kick to the thigh and somehow her foot passes straight through the leg as though it were made of putty. She screams and falls back as the dead man falls on top of her biting at her. She manages to smash its head enough to separate it from its body, just in time to see several more dead at the doorway making their way in. She struggled to her feet and with few options available, her only way out was through the window. The window had about a four foot fall to the top of the garage, but it was her best chance. With a couple wide leaps and a strong jump, she leaps through the window with a loud crash and falling to the garage roof, she rolls out of control down the angled roof and down to the ground. Wasting no time she bounces up to her feet and collapses immediately as her right foot gives out on her with a searing pain. She looks to find her foot bleeding and a bone sticking out. It was in that moment she knew there was nothing she could do. Multiple dead saw everything from outside and were already closing in. She found a long stick and began taking a couple of them down, but more and more surrounded her. She climbed behind a small wood pile which slowly began to collapse on her as the dead fought over it to get to her. She was trapped. One wooden block, then another and another. Dead hands reaching out to her as the groans got louder and louder. Things began to get dark as she began to feel the dead grab her body and shake her violently.

Nina suddenly finds herself lying on her bed, Nick shaking her. She pushes him off, flat on his butt and begins screaming. Nick is taken back and doesn't know how to respond. She crawls back against the corner of the room unable to fight past the walls. Nick tries to SHUSH her with the palm of his hands innocently raised to her. When she comes to, and realizes she was just dreaming, she finds herself gasping for air. Multiple quiet thumps on the ground reveal Jassi appearing at the doorway in a panic.

"It was just a dream. You were struggling and talking in your sleep. I thought you were making too much noise," Nick says trying to calm her down.

"Is everything ok?" Jassi asks

"She's fine" Nick reassures gently hugging his heavily sobbing and sweaty wife, brushing her hair with his fingers.

It was still quite dark.  Jassi took a quick peek out the window, wondering if Nina's cry out caught any unwanted attention.  Nothing could be seen by the bedroom window, mostly blocked by the garage.  Jassi quickly skips to the other windows; the bathroom, the other bedroom.  Bathroom was pretty clear, but she was alarmed by what she saw out of the spare bedroom window.

Where the dead previously wandered in seemingly random patterns around the yard, were now slowly beginning to wobble toward the house.