The Sleepless Dead

June jolted out of her sleep and hit her head against the wooden board about. She let out a small scream of agony and rubbed her forehead tenderly.

She slowly got off the cot she was laying on, making sure to avoid the low hanging wooden boards above. June walked away from the cot and over to a nearby table.

It was hard to see due to the fact that the only light was what was coming in through the boarded up windows. Sitting on the table was a half eaten piece of bread and June finished it.

She had been staying in this house for about a month. It wasn't permanent but it was good temporary shelter. The half eaten piece of bread was the last of her food and she would have to go out to get more supplies today.

June stood up from the chair near the table and walked over to the door of the house which was boarded up. She picked up a hammer from nearby and pulled out enough nails so the door would open.

When she opened the door she saw that it was early morning and the sun was about half up. It seemed risky to go out but she really needed the supplies.

As June walked down the pathway leading from the suburban house to the road she looked around to see that as usual the streets were empty and there were items blowing around. One of the nearby cars had blood splashed on the windshield.

“Looks fresh,” said June to herself.

June walked through the suburban town for a while without encountering anywhere or anything. Then she reached a small grocery store. Most of the food in these places had gone bad, but there was occasionally some packaged stuff still in good enough condition to eat.

June stepped into the store and looked around. Right away she noticed that something was off. There were all sorts of items laying on the floor in a mess that weren't like that when she was last here.

She reached her hand to the back of her belt and pulled out a small black handgun. She dropped the mag into her hands and counted the bullets.

“Three shots,” June said out loud.

It was possible that they had heard he say something but that was okay. They didn't understand anything anyways.

June put the mag back in the gun and loaded it. She pointed it forwards and proceeded to start to walk around the store carefully.

There was the sound of rustling coming from from the next aisle. June slowly turned the corner and looked into the aisle. She didn't see anything so she slowly started to walk down it. Then suddenly she could hear the sound of rustling coming from behind her.

“Oh shit,” muttered June.

June spun around and fired a round from her gun, but it was two late. She could feel a striking pain in her shoulder.

The thing staggered backwards from the force of the shot but it didn't die. Those things never did if you didn't get them in the head.

Suddenly the thing began the stagger forwards towards her again and she fired her last shot at its head.

This time the bullet struck it directly in the forehead and it fell to the ground. Despite the fact the June had shot it in the forehead it was still moving. She walked over to it and kicked it as hard as she could in the head. It then ceased all movement.

That was when June remembered her shoulder. She looked down at it and saw that her shirt was ripped and it there was blood covering.

“No no, please no,” muttered June.

She took off the shirt and looked down at the wound. She could see teeth marks, it was a bite.

“Shit,” she said slowly.

June slumped down to the ground and leaned against the one of the shelves.

Two months ago was when it all started. It was when the first person changed. It was just like the all those stupid zombie movies you watch on TV as you fall asleep.

Some guy got a virus, and became like one of these things. Then it spread and the rest happened just like you would expect it to.

June hadn't seen another actual person in over two weeks. The rest of her group had been bitten, she was the only one that got away.

She still shuddered when she thought about it. She had seen a lot of messed up things in the last two months, but that was the worse of it all. She could still hear the shots and see the blood splash against the ground.

When they there group had been ambushed June ran as fast and far as she could. She never looked back. Sometimes she thought about if she should have stayed. Somethings she thought that if she stayed she might have been able to save them.

From what June remembered about the broadcasts they held on TV before the government went down, it took you about twenty four hours to change into one of those things after you had been bitten.

June thought about all the things she was planning to do before it all happened. She had just finished her gap year and was about to head off to college. She had been planning on studying to be an artist.

There wasn't a chance of that anymore tho. There wasn't even any colleges left standing, or people to teach in them.

That was what June assumed at least, to be honest she didn't know how many people were left. She could even be the last one.

Suddenly Jane could hear more movement. It was coming from the door of the grocery store.

She looked through the gaps in the shelves and saw that a few more of those things were slowly staggering in.

June picked up her gun and dropped the mag again. She only had one shot left and there was at least three of those things.

Then she realized something, one shot was all she needed. There wasn't a chance in hell she was becoming one of those things, and she had already been bit.

June took out a small mp3 player out of her pocket and unraveled the headphones. She hit play on one of her songs and put the headphones in.

As she listened she looked over to the end of the aisle and saw that there they were now staggering towards her.

Jane put the mag back in and loaded the gun. She couldn't hear the things due to her music but she assumed they were grunting or something.

Once they were about five feet away from her she took the gun and held it against her temple.

“Not today you bastards,” she said out loud despite them not being able to understand her.

She then tightened her grip on the gun and pulled the trigger.