Day 1: The Outbreak - Part 1

Sarah gripped the steering wheel, an uneasy feeling creeping into her body. She shook it off though. With everything the news has been reporting, these feelings were becoming increasingly normal. Government can’t make any kind of judgment on it currently, although they probably created whatever it was she thought as she brushed the brown strands of hair that had fallen out of her bun. All they know is that, whatever it is, it attacks the brain and makes them violent in nature.

“Hey, you okay?” said her partner, Reggie who sat in the passenger seat of the patrol car. He was a tall man with dark skin, his hair was short and faded on the sides. A pair of sunglasses rested on the top of his head

“I’m good,” she said, adjusting her glasses again. “Just feeling nervous. Think I’m starting to get anxiety from all of this, day in and day out.”

“Comes with the job.” He said. “Why don’t we get something to eat? There's that new pizza place on the corner I’ve been wanting to try.”

“Pizza again?” She huffed a little. “Alright I guess.” They had pizza pretty much everyday but it was usually quick and in their line of work, quick is needed.

Sarah pulled the vehicle over to the curb and shut the engine off. They got out and made their way into the pizzeria. Booths lined the red bricked walls. The hardwood floor had been replaced with new boards but some of the older ones were still there from the last restaurant, their aged look was apparent. On the left hand side after walking in was a window glazed with steam that displayed the currently freshly made pizzas. Above this was a chalkboard with a wooden trim; written in calligraphy was a number of pizzas that you could request to be made as well as a build your own pizza. Behind the counter was a teenage boy, who seemed unsure of what to do with two officers who just entered. His black curly hair stuck out awkwardly under his work hat.

“I’ll order,” said Reggie. “You go sit down.”

Sarah nodded and crossed to a booth in the back of the room. Instead of sitting at the table, her attention was drawn to the TV. It was showing people running in the streets and images of explosions and fires breaking out all over the city.

“What the hell is going on?” she motioned for Reggie to come look. Reggie came over, holding two plates with very large slices of pizzas on them. Sarah stood up and moved towards the TV, taking her plate that Reggie was handing her. He looked at the TV and his face became white.

“Reports have been coming in all over the country. Chaos raging in the streets, riots, mass killings.” The announcer was then hidden from view as a video was shown. People with deformed body parts rushing into buildings. Others were screaming and running. The camera zoomed on a group of people as a pack of raged individuals rushed after them, quickly overtaking them, “Oh god!” yelled the reporter as the people were being ripped apart.

“What the hell?!” said Sarah, covering her mouth. Screams could be heard from outside, people running past the tall windows. Then roars as people were overtaken by the same mutated individuals on the screen.

They dropped their pizzas and pulled their pistols out. Reggie was already out the door yanking the mutated individual off the person it was trying to sink its teeth into. It flailed in his arms, scratching open his arm. Reggie dropped it and Sarah managed to put two bullets into it even though she was still inside the restaurant. The shots only knocked it and it quickly got back up, lunging at Reggie. They fell to the ground, Reggie forcing the monster's face back as best he could but it steadily got closer to his neck as it snarled and gnashed its teeth.

Sarah rushed out the door as another mutated individual rushed them. She fired two shots into its chest. It bolted over the top of the nearby car ,changed direction and lunged at Sarah, knocking her down. The mutated arms tore at her vest and roared as loud as it could as Sarah struggled to push it back, its teeth elongated and already blood stained trying to tear into her exposed neck. Sarah yelled, reaching for her gun that had slipped from her hand. Then Reggie rushed in and grabbed the monster around its waist and yanked it off of Sarah. She quickly rolled and grabbed her pistol, then fired two shots into the flailing beast head right as it rotated in Reggies arms and was preparing to sink its teeth into his neck. The beast fell limp as Reggie dropped it and fell against the wall, grabbing his bleeding arm.

“It’s just a scratch,” he said, panting a little. “What the hell is going on is right.” He got back to his feet. They both looked at the bodies now lying on the ground. Sarah crouched down examining one of them more closely.

“It’s the new virus,” she said. “I knew it made people violent but not like this.” She stood back up. “It’s like they become,” she paused for a moment. “They become feral almost. We have to get back to the Precinct.” She holstered her pistol. People were still running past. Her cell phone rang. She pulled it out, and her daughter's image erupted on the screen. She answered it in a rush. “Lydia are you okay?!”

“Mom!” she heard on the receiver, her daughter sounded frantic. “What’s going on? We’re trapped in the room, there’s people trying to break the windows. They killed teachers, what is going on?!” She then screamed, roars could be heard as loud banging erupted. “They're at the door!” she heard someone shout.

“Lydia, I’m on my way! It’ll be okay! Stay calm and barricade yourself in. I’ll be right there.” She hung up the phone. Unspoken, her and Reggie jumped into their vehicle and sped off. All around them, chaos seemed to be erupting. Fires could be seen over buildings, cars overturned everywhere. People running in all directions. She grabbed the radio and called in for backup. “Ferals have taken over West Side Middleton. I request back up.” There was no response.

They turned down a street and were met with a large group of Ferals. “Oh shit..” they both said together. Several already saw them and let out roars before charging their vehicle. The rest turned and soon followed. Sarah threw the vehicle into reverse and sped backwards, except crash! They collided with a vehicle behind them, smashing in the rear of the vehicle. Sarah then threw it into drive as the charging Ferals smashed into the vehicle head first, smashing in the sides and sending the vehicle spinning. They hit the wall of the nearest building. In front of them one of the Ferals jumped inhumanly into the air. The roof caved as it landed on top of the car. Sarah slammed on the gas pedal, Reggie yelling, “Drive, drive!” They slammed into two Ferals as they rushed the vehicle. Several more jumped and slammed into the vehicle, breaking the windows and causing the vehicle to slide and flip onto its side. An explosion erupted somewhere off in the distance and the monsters battering their patrol vehicle ceased.

There was a loud ringing in her ears when she was coming too, her head was heavy and she felt very uneasy with her arms dangling in the air. It took her a moment but the realization of what happened quickly came back. She shook her head, trying to get the foggy haze to lift as well as the spinning. She was dangling on her side, the seatbelt still holding her in the place. Through her dim gaze she could make out Reggie lying on his door, his head shining crimson. She groped at her seat belt but it wouldn’t come loose. She then reached in her pocket for her knife. When she found it she opened it and started to cut at the straps trapping her in place. When they were cut free she caught the back of the seat to steady herself, then dropped next to Reggie.

“Reggie,” she said, shaking him and pocketing her knife. “Reggie!” She checked his pulse at his neck. She sighed with relief as she felt the blood pumping beneath her fingers. He stirred a little and let out a moan. “We gotta get out of here.”

She looked around, her vision back to normal. The windshield was shattered but its flexible material held the shards together. Maybe she could knock it out if she needed to carry Reggie. but she could probably climb to the driver side door to open it and get out that way, although she wasn’t sure if she could pull Reggie out that way. She spotted her pistol just below the pedals. She took it and holstered it before grabbing the steering wheel and placing a foot on the side of the passenger seat. When she was ready she hoisted herself up and placed her other foot on the center console. She jiggled the door latch but it wouldn’t pop free.

She hoped back down next to Reggie who was starting to sit up. He was touching his head where the shards of glass had cut him.

“I’m fine,” he said before reaching for his pistol but before he could a snarl rang out behind them. Sarah had seconds to react before the window-shield caved in and something heavy fell on her, clawing the shards away. She spun on her back and kicked the creature off of her and aimed her pistol at the attacker. It was one of the Ferals, it was female and blood trickled all down her clothes, her teeth were blood-stained . She went to charge and Sarah let three shots go. The bullets went straight through the chest, knocking the woman back. She snarled as she fell, flailing her arms but began to quickly crawl towards them. She fired again, this time through the woman’s head. The Feral woman stopped moving and became limp.

Sarah pushed it away with her feet and stepped out of where the windshield used to be. She helped Reggie to his feet saying, “We have to hurry.” They moved to the back of the vehicle. “Lydia’s school isn’t far from here. It’s a straight 13 blocks from here.” Reggie pulled a rifle out of the back and handed it to her; she took it and shouldered it, aiming down the sight before sliding a magazine into place and pulling the slide back to chamber the first round. Reggie took for himself the shotgun.

Everywhere they looked it was chaos. Vehicles overturned with bodies hanging from their windows who had been torn or bitten. Several were somehow still alive or were becoming alive again. They put pullets into their heads before they could turn fully. Screams could be heard in all directions, people running past, fleeing from whatever chased them. Several blocks down a large group of Ferals ran past. They hunkered into a back alleyway to avoid them. They came out the other end and had to fight off two Ferals. They continued moving along the back alleys to avoid the big groups that had taken over the wide streets.

They stopped when the school came into view, hunched behind an overturned car. The sounds of roars could be heard within the school but nothing was outside it. She called for backup on her radio again but the only thing in return was static.

“I don’t like this,” said Reggie. “But let’s do it.”

“There are kids in there,” she said. “My daughter is one of them. We’ll get them out and get them to safety. There’s a shelter that isn’t too far from here.” She stood up and shoulder her rifle. They looked at each other, nodded, and made their way towards the school.

The school was small. At the front, which they were approaching, was a loop with several school buses. Past that they entered through a metal gate. The interior of the school itself was open to the elements. The sidewalk split at the gate into two directions, one heading straight with a long wall and the other branching to the right with several classrooms before it joined with another that cut across it. They headed straight and came to a large area that was covered. On their left when entering here was a door that read Principal's Office and on the opposite end were signs for bathrooms. Going through this area, they reached another part of the school that was open to the elements. The sidewalk split off into three directions, left, right, and down the middle where it split off again to join with other sidewalks lined with class rooms. Left headed towards nothing except where it curved to the right and followed it down to a pair of double doors that were being battered and rammed by Ferals. Their shouts echoed loudly.

They rushed down the middle sidewalk. As they drew closer to the Ferals, screams and cries of children could be heard. One of the Ferals was nearly inside as its upper body was leaning through a small opening it had made.

Sarah and Reggie rushed towards the group of Ferals, raising their weapons. Sarah yelled, “Hey!” Two Ferals twisted around, snarled and raised their arms as they hunched over, ready to strike. One of the other ones looked back and made a weird noise to the others. The rest of the Ferals turned to attack as well. The leader it seemed let out a roar as its chest sprouted two extra arms who then grabbed the opening of the doors and began bending them apart. The rest began to charge.

Sarah and Reggie started firing, dropping two as they tried to dodge the bullets, the rest of the Ferals darted to the side. One branched off and twisted around a pole before leaping through the air.

“Got it!” Sarah aimed and sent a bullet through it’s head, he fell back from the force into the others who easily avoided the body. Within seconds they circled Reggie and Sarah. One jumped at Reggie and grabbed his gun but was blown back by the blast of the shotgun, ripping its body apart. It writhed on the ground trying to get up as Reggie blew it’s head to pieces. The remaining two surrounded them and they were forced back to back. The Ferals rushed at the same time, Sarah rolled to avoid the Ferals but her weapon was knocked from her hand. Reggies’ dodged the shotgun blast, several pellets grazing its side but not slowing it down as it grabbed him and threw him through a window, shattering it as he disappeared into the room. Sarah heard Reggie yell as the Feral leapt onto the window but couldn’t focus on getting to him as her Feral lunged onto of her. She started fighting it off, pushing at its face as it tried to sink its teeth into her neck. Spit flying from its bloody mouth, she kicked it off of her. She quickly rolled onto her weapon, grabbing it and rolled back over as the Feral grabbed her legs. She shot the Feral through the head, just as shots were fired inside the classroom.

Sarah jumped to her feet. The leader had nearly broken through but was being pushed back by what appeared to be a small metal chair. She didn’t dare fire shots at it now, not wanting to hurt whoever it was inside. With this thought she dropped the rifle and pulled her knife out.

“Hey!” she yelled, charging at the beast. As the Feral turned around she slammed into it, aiming at its head but the Feral dodged it and the knife sunk into its shoulder. They smashed against the wall, the Feral bellowing with rage. Sarah yelled as well, holding the beast on the ground, pulling the blade out and ramming it down into the top of the Ferals head. Suddenly she heard footsteps running behind her, instinctively she pulled her side arm and quickly aimed at whatever it was coming at her. She lowered it as Reggie drew near to her.

“Oh my god are you okay?” she asked, seeing the amount of blood he was covered in.

“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s not my blood. Are you good?”

“I’m good.” She got to her feet and they crossed to the double doors. “It’s okay.” She yelled through the crack in the doors. “It’s safe!”

A man’s head came into view. “Oh thank god!” Then there was a sound of metal scraping and then the battered doors swung open. The man was tall and wore a gray suit which was now torn and covered in blood. He let her and Reggie into the room. It was a large room with long tables that had been pushed against the walls. In the back were counters with windowed barriers. In the center though the students of the school were huddled, teachers stood on the outside, all wielding bats or broken yard sticks.

“Mom!” Sarah looked around and was enveloped by a thick tangle of brown hair.

“Lydia,” Sarah exclaimed, pulling her daughter to her as tight as she could. “You’re safe, you aren’t hurt?” She pulled away, examining her daughter for scratches or bites.

“I’m fine, everyone’s fine.” Lydia said.

“Thank you for coming,” he said. “We called 911 but no rescue had arrived but I see the call worked.”

“I don’t know, we never got a call on our radios about it. My daughter called me from her cell. Either way, help is here and I’ve got backup on the way, I hope.”

“You aren’t here to rescue us?” said one of the teachers.

“I’m getting you all out of here,” she said, her tone changing into a tone of authority. “There’s a shelter nearby. We’ll have to leave in small groups, any large ones will probably draw the attention of the Ferals.”

To Be Continued