บท 1: So it begins
Times are forever changing, sometimes for the good, others for bad. American towns have always had turbulent times, but the change that was approaching this time would shake the world. On the east coast of America there was such a small town, filled with everyday Americans going about their lives in relative peace. The day of the end started just like any other, and it is on this day that our story begins.
'Beep, Beep, Beep' Jim's alarm clock goes off, just like it did every morning breaking poor Jim out of his peaceful slumber. Every morning the same routine happened, The alarm would buzz and Jim would toss and flip, bury his head under his pillow, before eventually launching his pillow across the room at his most dreaded of enemies, his alarm clock. "Take that!" Jim mumbled, still half asleep. his alarm was still beeping of course, just now on the floor with a pillow over it. After this just as every morning before Jim face plants into the bed and slumbers for another few minutes. Of course he eventually rolls out of the bed with a thud and turns off his alarm, and throws his pillow back on the bed.
Jim works at the local cash advance store, his job is issuing loans for new clients and collecting payments from existing customers. It was work, not the best or most glamourous work, but it paid his bills and he was able to live in a fairly nice neighborhood. His neighbors all had great jobs including his next door neighbor who was an old friend, Gregory, from high school. It never really bothered Jim that everyone else in the area was far more successful than him. He just got up everyday, and went to work, he was trying to live the most normal life he could.
While he was getting ready this morning, he turned on the news. He enjoyed hearing what was going on in the world while he got ready to start his day. Today the news was of course talking about the failings of the president, as they do every morning, but within that there was a story that Jim found interesting. "Scientists have uncovered a never before entered cave in Greece. They are expected to send expeditions later on today, we will keep you posted on any news that may come of it." The broadcast said. "Now back to our main story, does the president hate you? The answer may surprise you…" The news continued. Jim just sighed with disinterest and went about his routine.
On his morning run outside to receive his newspaper and place his mail in his box, he saw his neighbor Susan with her two kids, as she was getting them ready to take them to daycare, since her and her husband both worked. She had married his friend Gregory and the two of them lived happily. She often wondered how Jim, with his mediocre job was able to afford to live in their neighborhood. He always thought she was nice, since whenever they would see each other she would give him a big wave. Truth is she just felt bad for him.
Finished with his morning rituals, Jim was finally ready to get to work. He hopped in his Prius and was off to the office. It was a good day at work. Jim had six new loans and was quite pleased. When he got home he took a shower as he always did and made himself a nice dinner. Jim did not like to brag, but he could cook up a nice bowl of ramen noodles. He had no cooking skills at least aside from boiling water. It was just another normal night, Jim and the rest of the world had no idea what was about to happen.
Over at his neighbor's house Susan and her husband Gregory were preparing their kids to go to bed. They had two sons, Matthew who was five and Jacob who was two. Both of them were into super heros and were decked out in their favorite hero's pajamas, rooms filled with hero paraphernalia. Greg and Susan tucked them into their bunk beds, gave them a kiss good night, and turned off the light, leaving their glow in the dark hero cut outs to light up their room. "We have great kids'' Susan said to Gregory as she smiled. "I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband, and such wonderful kids." Susan gives Gregory a hug and smiles. "Dear, did you remember to let the dog out?"
"Oh I forgot, sorry hunny" Gregory replied. "I will go let him out now, I wouldn't want him to make a mess on the rug." Gregory then got up and let their dog out into their fenced backyard. They had a small dog that they loved just like it was one of their children.
Over the ocean, a dense fog could be seen rolling in. This was not an ordinary occurrence of the weather. The fog itself was a pale yellow and it changed everything it touched. It sped across to water until it finally made landfall. Once it reached the land however it slowed to a snail's pace. Slowly inching its way across the land twisting and warping everything it came in contact with. This was late at night, and Jim was fast asleep in his bed. "AHHHHHH!" A blood curdling scream could be heard from the distance. Jim jumped out of the bed, unlike his morning routine, this time he woke up immediately with no fighting the alarm. "AHHHHHHHH!" another scream could be heard. Jim snuck out of his bed to check the window to see what was going on. He peered out through his blinds and what he saw shook him to his very core. He saw the fog rolling across his neighborhood. It was causing wood to rot, plants to wither, and animals were becoming something else, something unspeakable. Jim then turned his attention to Gregory's house, he could see all the lights in the house turned off, and then he saw it, one of the kids was opening the back door probably to check out the screams. "What is he doing?!" Jim said to himself, still cowering behind his blinds. Just then their dog darted and started to bark at the fog that was slowly creeping over the fence.
It was not long before the dog was engulfed in the fog, and its form became twisted. Its legs elongated and its fangs grew. Its skin bloody and its fur became matted together. It grew many times its size into a powerful beast. Its eyes changed from the sweet eyes of a loving dog, to eyes that seemed to burn with demonic fire. It darted straight for the young child and ended him quickly, before running inside the house. The sight of this made Jim jump into action. He quickly put on his clothes and prepared to make a getaway in his Prius, he kept repeating just one word over and over again. and that word was "Shit."
Just as Jim was about to make his escape through his garage he heard a horrible banging on his front door. He was terrified, was this a monster like the one he just saw out the window, was he not going to make it to his car. "JIM!" he heard a woman's voice scream through the banging. "Please let me in Jim!" He could hear the fear and the tears in her voice. Jim knew exactly who it was now. It was his neighbor Susan.
Jim took a deep breath and mustered all of his courage. He opened the door to find that it was indeed Susan, she was still wearing her nightwear, which was just a sheer fabric, Jim could see everything, her slender frame, her small apple sized assets, everything her outfit left nothing to the imagination. Upon seeing her, he turned his head to not stare. He was taken by surprise when she grabbed onto him, sobbing. She was a small woman only standing only around five foot with flowing blood hair. "There all dead Jim'' Susan said while gripping on to Jim tighter. "My whole family is dead."
Jim looked down at her again, this time noticing that she was covered in blood. "Are you hurt?" Jim asked her as he placed his hands on her shoulders.
"This is Gregory's blood." Susan said with her head still buried in Jim's chest. "He jumped at that monster so I could get away. My kids, when I checked on them, they, they" She was unable to finish her sentence because the tears had overtaken her.
"We have to go, Susan." Jim said, trying to snap her out of it. "If we stay here we will die too, I have my car ready we have to get out of here now!" Jim raised his voice trying to get through to her. It was not working, she was too emotionally distraught. "Fine." Jim said as he just picked her up with ease. Jim was a large man, of about six foot four inches, picking up a petite woman like Susan was nothing to him. He placed her in his car, got in the driver's seat and drove off, leaving their home and neighborhood behind.
"Let me turn on the radio." Jim said, trying to break the silence as he drove. He had subscribed to satellite radio and he was very happy with his decision to do so right about now.
"I will put it on a news channel, maybe they will know what's going on."
"This is an emergency news alert! It appears that a strange fog has engulfed the East coast and is creating what some are calling zombies." The report pauses for a moment. "Zombies? Are you serious right now?!" The reporter was whispering but was still audible through their microphone. "It appears that the president is giving a briefing on the current situation from Air force one. We will now take you live to that."
"Look the lamestream media would like you to believe that there are zombies running around our great country. FAKE NEWS!" The president continued, "This is all just a hoax from my enemies to make me look bad. We have the greatest stock market of all time and they are just jealous of my administration's success. The only zombies in america are my enemies in congress, do not let the media fool you. I am working on an executive order that will put an end to their constant lies about my administration." With that Jim turned the radio off.
"Well, looks like there's zombies now." Jim said to Susan. Jim looked down at his gas and noticed he was running on fumes. He rarely had to fill up in his car, so he would forget when he was running low on gas. "We are gonna have to find a place to get gas soon."
"Gas? We don't have any gas?!" Susan was beginning to panic. she had been sitting balled up but has now opened up with the realization that they were running low on gas. "Well find some." She said pointedly at Jim.
"Um Susan?" Jim asked. "Would you like something more to wear?"
It was at this moment that Susan realized that she had been basically naked this entire time, and that Jim had not said a word to her about it, but she didn't care, her whole family just died, and she was dead inside. "I should probably cover up." She said. "Do you have anything?"
Jim had always kept a spare set of clothes on his back seat in case the worst happened during lunch at work. Having a professional appearance was very important in his line of work. "Ya there's a shirt you can use a dress on the back seat. It is behind my chair so you'll have to reach back there and get it."
"Ok." Susan then crawled in the space between the front chairs and grabbed the shirt that was on the back seat. "Thanks." she said as she put Jim's shirt on. "Hey, there's a gas station" She pointed out.
Jim pulls into the gas station and has a terrifying realization, he forgot his wallet. Susan definitely did not have her wallet, she didn't even have clothing. "We have a problem Susan." Jim said with shame. "I dont have my wallet."
Susan just glares at Jim as if something inside of her is about to break even more than it already has. "ITS END OF THE WORLD!" She screamed. "Break into the building and turn the pump on, who the fuck cares if you pay now?!"
Jim realized she was right, and did as she instructed. Gassed up and ready to go they depart once more. "I know where we can go." Jim told Susan. "Somewhere that's safe, but we need to stop and get food and supplies first." Jim continued on. "I have actually been headed there this whole time. It won't be long before we reach it." After driving for a while longer they encountered another problem on their journey. A complete traffic jam blocking access to the city they were trying to enter. "Looks like we are stuck"
"We just have to walk." Susan explained, "If we stop, we die. We will just have to keep moving." They both exit the car and Jim stands over it with a sad look on his face. "What's wrong. We need to keep going!" Susan exclaimed.
"I just paid her off" Jim said in a sad voice as he reached out to rub the top of his car.
"Jim! I just fucking lost everything that was dear to me! Do not make a fuss over a damn car!" Susan began to yell. "I don't even know why I ran to your house! We have other nieghbors who are exmilitary who would know what to do in this situtation and instead I ran to your sorry ass who didn't even have the balls to steal gas during the fucking apocalypse!"'
"Look I was just saying goodbye to her." Jim takes his hand off his noble steed. "Lets go." They walk until they find a grocery store. Jim looks down at Susan noticing that she is barefooted and that her feet are full of cuts and sores from the road. He grabs a cart from one of the cart corals and picks her up and puts her in the cart.
"The hell." Susan says as she is lifted into the bed of the cart. "You know I can walk right?" She states to Jim.
"Your feet are full of cuts. I would rather not risk you getting an infection during the apocalypse." Jim replied. "So sit back and enjoy the ride." The store was already filled to the brim with looters, but luckily none of them seemed to be interfering with the others. The store had more than enough food still so the looters had not begun fighting amongst themselves for it. "We are in luck, we got here early." Jim said as he raced down the isles dumping as much as he could in the cart on top of Susan. When the cart was full, they made a break for it and headed for the destination that Jim had spoken of earlier. It was a long journey filled with many streets and side streets. Susan had a lot of time to think while buried alive in her pile of food stuff.
"Jim, I don't think I ran to you so you could save me." Susan said. Thinking back she had known Jim as long as she had known her husband. They all went to the same high school and Jim was always the awkward tall kid. "Maybe it's becauseI couldn't save my family, I at least had to try and save you." Susan waited for Jim's response.
"Thanks then I guess." Jim said with a smile. "I am just glad that you made it out alive." They continued on for a while in complete silence. Until finally Jim spoke. "Look Susan we have made it." They both just looked up at the massive building that stood before them.
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