OOK-OOK! *Pounds chest

DISCLAIMER: This is an original story which I wrote during my free time. This story is heavily inspired by George A. Romero's Living Dead Series, most notably Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1988) as this story concentrates on survivors seeking shelter from the living dead. But similarites ends there.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: All characters in this story are original characters, with the exception of Sara Schwarz, in which her character design is heavily based on Asuna Kagurazaka from Negima!? with major similarities (e.g. having red hair and blue eyes) and minor differences (e.g. having her hair down all the time).





Ever since the shelter had been overrun 4 months ago, Sara had been living like a nomad. She had been traveling around town looking for a bite to eat or a safe place to sleep. She had been able to stay in some places for a few weeks, while others have been good for a few hours. In all this time, she had only encountered a handful of other survivors. Had they been a little more inviting, she might have taken up with them. But some of the characters she came across seemed rather unsavory. While she wanted to avoid being eaten alive, she found herself having to put up a fight over her last Snickers bar.

One couple that she ran into wasn't so bad, though. She had traveled with them for almost three weeks before they got into some trouble. They were scavenging a local pharmacy for food and drink when they were ambushed by a few undead who were hidden in the stockroom. Rachel, the girl, was bitten pretty badly. Over the following week, her condition worsened. Sara knew what was to become of her. But her husband, Vinnie, refused to address the problem. Sara didn’t feel comfortable traveling with a wounded companion who would, eventually, try to kill her. So she took off on her own.

That was almost three weeks ago, and she hadn't heard from them since...

Surprisingly, it wasn't uncommon to hear sporadic gun gunfire throughout the city. She knew there were other survivors. But unfortunately for her, she was never able to pinpoint the locations of the shots. Besides, she didn't exactly feel safe running around town investigating every gunshot heard. In normal times, people associate gunfire with danger and they run away from it. But these days, the sound of gunfire is a sign of life. It is a positive thing…





Detroit, Michigan – February 21, 2008

Sara walked on under the scorching heat of the sun. Her long, red hair glistened under the sunlight. Sara was an exchange student from Hamburg, Germany, and had always been an attractive girl. She was 19 years old, approaching 20 in exactly 2 months time. During normal times, she would either be shopping, hanging out with her friends or simply slacking off at her dormitory. However, when the zombie epidemic started several months ago, her lifestyle changed. As she continued moving on, she was sweating rivers and her clothes were damp and smelly. Her once white tank top had turned a light grey color, and her demin pants had dirt and mud patches clinging around the calf area.

"Mein Gott… Mein Gott…"

As she walked into the intersection of Jefferson and Woodward Avenue, Sara said these words over and over to herself. The prayer sunk into her unconscious and became a repetitive whisper at the back of her mind as she kept walking, stepping carefully, alert for any movement that might pose a threat. She carries with her a Kukri, for self-defense, and scanned the streets. It was just before noon, and there was litter everywhere, wrecked cars, and bodies torn to pieces. Broken glass crunched underfoot and glittered like diamonds in the sun. The stench of rot hangs everywhere, enveloping her.

"This is not so good…"

The wreckage was the worst she had seen. Mostly broken windows in the shops and office buildings, with stuff strewn all over the sidewalk indicating that many have been looted. All was quiet. No signs of life at all. Most people don’t realize how much noise surrounds them until it suddenly stops. The feeling of desertion was absolute. The sheer emptiness of the place was overwhelming. Desolation surrounded her. She can feel fear crawling all over her. She let the fear in and it engulfed her. Letting it in was the only way. Letting it jump the synapses and bring every sense to high alert. Then it was suddenly gone, and she was calm and wary once again.

"I've got to do something," she thought to herself. "There must be someone around who needs help."

"Hello! Anyone there! If you can hear me, please answer!" Her shout echoed down the empty streets breaking the silent stillness and reverberating off of the buildings, making her feel so small and dreadfully alone.

A human form arose from behind a Buick about ten feet away that had crashed into a light post. It turned stiffly toward her and utters a chilling moan. The man was missing an arm, and his once neat business suit was covered in dried blood that flaked off with every movement.

"Mein Gott…" Sara said as the man moved towards her. It was without a doubt that this man was a zombie.

The creature made no sign that it had heard and understood, but just moaned and began to move jerkily towards her as she began to unsheathe her Kukri and got into a defensive position.

"Alright, that's far enough." But the creature kept moving forward; shuffling closer and closer. Its eyes were vacant.

Sara was about to take a swing with her blade, when a shot rang out from a building on the left. Sara scrambled behind the Buick, to scan the building. A second story window was opened, but she couldn't see the shooter. Looking quickly over to the creature she saw that it had been shot in the head and was not moving. It was also not bleeding. At least, it was not bleeding like a man who had been shot. There's no blood, just goo.

"A survivor…" Sara thought to herself.

A deep male voice came down from the window. "Miss, you might wanna thank me for saving your life!"

"Well, thank you, but maybe you can give me a holler before you start firing!" Sara said, slowly standing up.

As she spoke she noticed more zombies moving in the street, seemingly drawn out by the noise. They were all moaning; that same sickening, spine tingling moan as the zombie with the missing arm. The sound rose until it bacame a sonic equivalent of biting into a rotten apple. It made her nervous and queasy. The moaning mob seemed to be aware of her presence and began to move towards her.

"Miss, you'd better get out of the street and get on up here before those things are all over you! Come on through the alley to the other side of the building and I'll bring you up!"

A zombie lunged forward with a moan and Sara brought her elbow up to smash its jaw. The creature staggered back with the bottom half of its face caved in, falling on its back. With the Kukri firmly gripped in her right hand, Sara stepped around the monster as it sat up and used a slicing blow to the back of the neck to decapitate it. The head rolled to a stop a few feet away, its eyes rolling in their sockets and the mouth still trying to bite. Sara cleaned the blade of the knife on the clothing of the headless body and returned it to its sheath.

Sara trotted across the street and through the alley to the other side of the four-story brick building. The zombies seemed to home in on her presence as they shambled after her. They were all grotesquely disfigured due to several months of decomposition. Once on the opposite side of the building, she can see that the main entrances have been barricaded, and all of the windows as well. On the other side, a rope made of bed sheets dangled out of a second story window. "This is so corny," she thought.

"Hey mister," Sara hollered up to the window. "I hope you're not wanting anything weird when I get up there!"

The gravelly voice came back at her. "Just climb up, lady, we don't have time for this, unless you wanna stay down there and make jokes with them dead things."

Sara wasted no time and started climbing. After crawling into the window, Sara stands up face to face with one of the tallest, most powerfully built man she had ever encountered. At 6 foot 6, the man towered over Sara's 5 foot 4. She estimated him to weigh somewhere around 300 pounds. He looked to be a year or two older than her, with tanned skin, and his enormous, very muscular built indicated immense strength and power of endurance. He wore a black singlet, camo-colored combat pants, black combat gloves and boots, and had a dog tag around his thick neck. His blonde Mohawk and Goatee were well taken care off and his green eyes seemed to gleam under the dim light.

The room they stand in seemed to be a fairly normal apartment living room, with a couch that looked like its best days are behind it, a coffee table, a couple of overstuffed chairs, and a good old, all-American idiot box, turned on to silent static.

Sara was the first to speak. "Thanks for saving my life. Anyway, I'm Schwarz. Sara Schwarz." She sticks her hand out to shake and the man's hand enveloped it.

"Eric Tannenbaum. I'd say good to meet you, but the circumstances are not too pleasant, as you've probably guessed." Eric said.

ok mate. I've read it, and I think it's pretty good ;) . The people act as they would in such a situation if they had come to terms with what was going off. The way the zombie's moved was very nicely done as well as the description of the moaning. It actually sent a shiver down my spine.

However...(yes, theres an 'however') you need to stick to a single tense. On multiple and frequent points throughout the story the text causes redundancies by containing opposing forms of tense. Throughout there is evidence of the use of past tense "they did" and a lot of present tense "they are doing"

an example:

"...had always been an attractive girl. She's 19 years old, approaching..."
at this point you went from past to present tense. if you were to stick with past tense, then "she's" would have to be changed to "she was".

"...hese words over and over to herself. The prayer sinks into her unconscious and become a repetitive whisper at the back of her mind as she kept walking, stepping car..."
If this were to be kept as the present tense, you would need to replace "and" with "to".
If you were to change it to past tense you would need to chang "sinks" into "sunk" and the either change the "and" to a "to" or the "become" to "became".

Present and past tense don't coinside. I very rarely switch in my stories as you might have noticed and only ever do when I absolutly need to for emphasis and effect. Your's happens frequently and ilogically. It's a cool story and I can't wait for the rest, but as I said, pick a tense and stick to it. It can be quite confusing for the reader otherwise. ;)

OOK-OOK! *Pounds chest

O, thanks for the comments, Cirrax. I will revise the chapter once again to improve it. The second chapter is almost done, and I shall be posting it soon enough. The problem with my writing is that I tend to get the tense mixed up. Thanks once again! ^^

Wicked, can't wait.

OOK-OOK! *Pounds chest







Sara heard her stomach growling, she had not eaten anything for the past few days. Eric seemed to have heard it as well as he turned to look at her with concern in his eyes. Sara blushed in embarrassment.

"You have not eaten, have you?" Eric asked. "For how long?"

"I have not eaten for a few days, now." Sara replied, still blushing. "I managed to eat once in a while, normally raiding mini-marts and pharmacies for food and drinks. But most of the places I've been to were crawling with those creatures. I can handle 3 to 5, but more than that, I'm done for."

"Well, I've got a whole bunch of spam, potted meat, canned hams and vegetables, beef stew and the like that I 'borrowed' from the grocery store." Eric smiled. "I suppose that could help fix you up?"

Sara smiled. "Amen to that."

Eric lead the way into the kitchen where a propane stove sat on the formica counter top. He opened a cabinet 3/4 full of cans.

"Whoa!" Sara exclaimed. "Are all of your cabinets that full?"

Eric looked around and said. "Almost. As soon as the trouble started and I saw a few folks looting the stores and I just sort of followed the crowd. Figured I could use it. So here we go."

"But what are you gonna do once all of this are gone?" Sara asked. "It may last you a month or two, what then?"

"I was thinking of giving it a few more days before moving out." Eric replied while preparing food. "I know I can't stay here forever."

"How long have you been staying here?" Sara asked.

"About three months." Eric replied. "This is where I've stayed longest."

"How do you travel around?" Sara asked.

"I travel around by foot." Eric replied. "I've got a travel backpack for me to store my supplies and I've got a first aid kit as well."

"You have any weapons?" Sara asked. "I remember you shooting down one of those things that tried to attack me."

"I've got with me a Browning A-5 semi-automatic shotgun, which would be the one I used to shoot your attacker." Eric said. "I also have a pair of Desert Eagle .50 caliber semi-automatic handguns, with various assortment of clips, and also a machete for backup weapons."

"You're armed to the teeth, I should say." Sara said, quite amazed.

"I 'borrowed' them from a guns and ammunition store." Eric said as he spread the food out on the kitchen table. The big man noticed Sara's Kukri. "Now, that's a big, nasty looking knife you got there."

"That's a Kukri." Sara explained. "It's been used by the Gurkhas in Nepal for centuries. It's pretty vicious." Sara pulled out the 15 inch blade, thick at the spine for strength, and curved forward for chopping power. "The Gurkhas are wicked hand-to-hand fighters who love their knives. When the British incorporated the Gurkha Regiments into their army, they were feared all over the world."

"Well, after seeing that knife, I'd believe it." Eric said. "Now, how about some food?"

As they were having their meal, Sara and Eric became good friends. They talked on for half an hour about their personal lives, the fun times they had with their family and friends, their hobbies, and the like.

"I'm an exchange from Hamburg, Germany. I came here about a year ago to study law under the University of Detroit. I have to say that I've made alot of friends back then. We went shopping and karaoke during the weekends, or just hit the dorms and relax, you know, playing card cames, Monopoly, Uno and the like."

"How old are you?" Eric asked, curious.

"I'm 19, coming 20 in two months time." Sara replied.

"That makes me 2 years older than you, miss." Eric said. "I turned 22 on the 15th of the last month."

"So, are you a student or are you working?" Sara asked.

"Working." Eric replied. "I've worked as a bouncer, a mechanic and even as a construction worker. But during my free time, I'd hang out with my friends either to a pub or a casino. I took up Sambo lessons as well."

"You studied martial arts too?" Sara said. "I heard that Sambo is quite deadly. I studied Karate under my father. He's a well-known Karate master in Germany. He's a strong man, and I though that he being my father would be easy on me, but he slapped the taste outta my mouth during our sparring sessions."

"Impressive!" Eric exclaimed, clapping his hands while laughing.

"Hey, stop that!" Sara shot back, blushing. "You're embarrassing me!"

"I saw how you handled one of those things out on the streets earlier on." Eric said. "I've never seen a girl kicking as much ass as you did."

"Well, like I've said before, I can handle 3 to 5 of those things." Sara said. "But when there are 10 or more, then, I'm outta there!"

"A shot to the head or a strong blow to the skull would kill them." Eric said. "Those things are slow, we can outrun them easily. In fact, we don't have to run past them, we can walk past them. Just keep your distance and don't get too close."

"Severing their heads off won't kill them?" Sara asked. "I noticed that after I decapitate one of those creatures, the head was still moving."

"The dumb *&#@s can't be killed by decapitation." Eric explained. "The body dies but the head still lives. As long as no damage has been inflicted to their brain, those things can survive even after you chop their heads off."

Eric was cleaning up the kitchen, while Sara was walking around the apartment. She walked to the window facing the streets below. She looked out of the window. It was mid-afternoon, and she saw dozens of zombies shuffling in the streets below. Even with the windows closed, she could still hear the sickening moaning of the zombies and the heavy dragging of their feet. Sara noted how those creatures were wandering about aimlessly. Eric walked out of the kitchen with a few cans of Pepsi.

"Don't stand too close to the window, those things might see you." Eric said.

Sara walked away from the window and sat on a couch directly in front of another couch which Eric was seated on. Eric threw one of the cans to Sara, who proceeded to pop it open after catching it and took a long sip. Eric looked at her straight into her big, blue eyes and smiled gently. Sara noticed that there was a hint of sadness in Eric's eyes.

"Eric." Sara said. "Where were you when it all started?"

Eric hadn't thought about this in a long time. Thinking back to when times were "normal" was so surreal. It was almost as if he was looking back into his childhood years. You know that feeling? When you were surrounded by the pressures of modern, everyday life and you think back to what things were like when you were a kid? Not a care in the world. That's how "normal" times were compared today. Even the most compalling problems seemed trivial by today's standards. Eric would give anything to have those be his only worries anymore.

"Well, let's see..." Eric began, "It was a Friday. I remember switching on to MTV and started watching some of my favourite music videos. Suddenly, the emergency broadcast were frequently interrupting every program to bring 'breaking news' of riots in some of the major cities across the nation. That Scott Peterson asshole was just convicted of murdering his wife, so I figured a bunch or morons were protesting the conviction or something. I remember it making no damn sense, everyone knew the asshole was guilty. I seriously thought that's all it was."

"I remember it was a real shitty day, I was driving and the WRIF was jamming one of Linkin Park's newest song, I don't remember the name of it but it totally rocks, when they cut it off and that stupid annoying emergency broadcast system sound began to play. I didn't think any of it at first. I honestly just thought it was a test. I remember getting pissed that they would cut a song halfway through to test the stupid system, though. I had just found a parking spot, so I hopped out of my car and headed inside. As I headed inside, I began to wonder if was really just a test. Or perhaps they were cutting in to report the latest on all the riots that were going on. In hinesight, I probably should have listened to what the *&#@ was so important that they had to cut my friggin' song off like that." Eric stopped to pop open another can of Pepsi. Sara sat back and watched Eric has he paused and continued with his story.

"Go on." Sara beckoned.

"Well... I go into the Casino... No big deal, right? My buddy text-messaged my phone and tells me he's at one of the roulette tables on the second floor. So I head up there to meet up with him. We weren't there more than an hour, and he had pissed away about $400. Not to be outdone, I had pissed away almost $500. We were just about to call it quits and head to a local pub, when someone announces over the PA system that everyone had to evacuate the building."

Eric paused yet again, still fidgeting with the can in his hand. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Sara said reassuringly.

"No... No it's okay." Eric said. "Seriously... I haven't had a chance to talk to anyone about any of this yet."

"Well, I'm listening." Sara said.

"So the building is being evacuated, right? And I mean... It's straight up being evacuated. A bunch of idiots headed to the cages to exchange their chips for cash... But the attendants were closing their windows. So now you've got a mob of angry assholes who want their money. Casinos never treat guests like that... So that's when I knew something serious was happening. Dave and I knew something big was happening... And we had lost all our friggin' money, anyway... So we decided to just book the hell out of there."

"By the time we made it to the parking garage... We could see that it was going to take us forever to get out of there. I mean there were cars everywhere. We decided to just leave our cars parked and walk over to the pub across the street to grab a drink."

"So we're in this local brew pub... It's surprisingly empty for a Friday afternoon. Dave and I are just catching up on some of the funny !@#* that happened that week. I remember laughing about our idiot friend Chris... He's always doing something stupid to get himself into trouble. As we're sitting there, Dave is staring out the window. I look over to see what the *&#@ is so goddamn important that he has to ignore my favorite 'Chris is so stupid' joke..."

Eric stopped mid-sentence and just lets out a deep breath.

"I... A man...I mean... A man was *&#@ing eating a woman on the sidewalk across the street. I mean eating her. She wasn't fighting him... She just lay there in a pool of blood. I presume she was dead. About three people come out of nowhere and start beating the guy on top of her. He didn't even flinch. These people were kicking the living !@#* out of this guy... And he just kept on getting up. He got ahold of one of the people beating him up and bit into his arm. While his friends were pulling the crazy *&#@ off of him, the woman he was chewing on got up. And without skipping a beat, the bitch started going after the people who trying to protect her!"

"That's when I knew things were *&#@ed up in the city. Me and Dave decided to get the *&#@ out... And fast. We ran back to the parking garage... It was still jam packed. People were running scared left and right. I remember thinking that some of them looked drunk. We decided to leave our cars and hail a cab. But we had no such luck. There wasn't a cab driver to be found. We tried to dial out for one of our friends... Anyone... To come pick us up. But neither of us could get a signal."

"I remember thinking I should've listened to that goddamned radio announcement. I could've saved Dave's life."

"What happened to Dave?" Sara asked.

"About an hour later... We were headed, on foot, towards the river. We figured we could find a cab or a bus or something near Jefferson Avenue... It was nuts out there. I don't know how the !@#* spread so quickly... But it was utterly ridiculous. *&#@in' Detroit... I tell ya. !@#* gets crazy for two seconds, and you've already got assholes looting everything they can get their hands on. Dave and I were crossing Jefferson towards Hart Plaza... When some asshole comes out of nowhere and blindsinds Dave. He hit him over the head with a pipe and tried taking his wallet out of his pants."

"It took me a second to realize what the *&#@ just happened. When I did... I went ballistic. I snatched the pipe out of the guys hand and beat him down with it. I left him laying there on the pavement... Bloody and twitching. I tried to get Dave to wake up... But he was out cold. I tried to pick him up and carry him. I dragged him across Jefferson Avenue... The traffic was bumper to bumper. I got him all the way to Hart Plaza and laid him down on a bench."

"I see some drunk hobo stumbling towards us. At least, at the time I thought he was a drunk hobo. I know now what he really was. If I would have known sooner what was going on, I could have reacted better. Instead, I just sat there watching this man approach us. He leaned on me and tried to bite me. I fought him off... But he was unrelenting. I hit the pressure points in his shoulders to make his arms go numb... It didn't work. I jabbed him in the gut to knock his wind out... It didn't phase him one bit. I kicked him in the side of the head... He fell down and got right back up. I shoved him down one more time then grabbed Dave to carry him out of there. As I picked him up, the hobo bit into Dave's calf."

"I dragged Dave to an abandoned building not far from Hart Plaza and tied a turniquette around his calf using my handkerchief. A few hours later, Dave came to. He wasn't doing so well. We sat there together through the night... Hiding out and listening to the pandemonium going on outside. I kept trying to get a signal on either of our phones... But I couldn't pick one up."

"The next morning... Things were a lot quieter than the night before. You could hear an occasional car and sirens and gunshots off in the distance... But other than that... It was pretty quiet. I went to wake Dave up... And I noticed that he had stopped breathing. I thought maybe I had let him bleed to death or something. I felt really bad. I was just about to leave him to go find a payphone to call for help when he sat up. He sat up and came right for me. I didn't know what to do at the time... So I just split. I left him there and just split."

"Mein Gott, Eric... I'm so sorry about your friend." Sara sympathized.

"No... It's alright... We can't change the past, you know? All we can do now is to move on, right?" Eric tried to hide the fact that he was upset.

"Need another can of Pepsi?" Eric said, trying to change the subject.

"Sure!" Sara replied cheerfully.

*claps aplaudingly*

very good Silverback. a HUGE improvement to the last chapter. much better use of tense. I must say it was a seriously thrilling read. KEEP 'EM COMIN'!!!!

cirrax is right

i wasn't sure about whether i liked chapter one (i'm not actually a horror fan at all...) but chapter two was a lot better

well done

OOK-OOK! *Pounds chest





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Sara was walking down the streets of her beautiful hometown of Hamburg. It was a beautiful day. The birds were singing... There was a cool breeze... The sun was shining... All was well in the world. Sara was heading home humming happily to herself. She could barely wait to see her family again.

It didn't hit her at first, but as she was nearing her bungalow, a she realized that she was alone. There were no other people around. Upon reaching the porch, she noticed that the front door had been left ajar. Sara pushed the door slowly as she entered. She noticed that her house was in a mess, like it had been robbed. Stuff were strewn all around the living room.

"Hello?" Sara called out. "Mama? Papa? Anyone?"

Sara walked across the living room, and towards the stairway leading to the bedroom upstairs. Sara climb the stairs slowly. As she reached the second floor, she noticed that there were bloodstains on the floor, which lead to her parent's bedroom.

"Mein Gott..." Sara muttered as she rushed over to the door, reached for the handle and opened the door quietly. She saw a man standing in the corner of the room. Sara walked over to the man cautiously.

"Mister?" Sara said as she reached out and tap the man gently on the shoulder.

Suddenly, the man spun around and Sara found herself looking into the vacant eyes of her father, or what used to be her father. Sara just stared at her 'father' not knowing how to react. In a split-second, the creature opened its mouth and lunged at her with a loud and ferocious growl.

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February 22, 2008

Sara yelled as she sat up on her bed. Sweat poured down her body. She was breathing heavily, her heart beating wildly within her ample bosom. Sara looked around and realised that she was in the room which Eric lead her to last night so that she can get some sleep.

"A dream..." Sara muttered under her breath. "A... *&#@ing dream..."

Sara then thought about her family back in Hamburg. She could only wonder what they had been going through during the crisis. She fought tears that were forming in her eyes as she could only hope and pray that they were safe and doing alright. Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle knocking on her door. It was Eric.

"Come in." Sara said while rubbing her teary eyes dry. Eric opened the door lightly and greeted Sara with a warming smile. He noticed Sara wiping her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Eric asked, concerned. "I heard you yelling."

"No... I'm okay..." Sara replied. "I just had a bad dream, that's all."

"We're getting outta here, now." Eric said.

"Huh? How come?" Sara asked, puzzled at Eric's sudden decision.

"More than 2 to 3 dozen of those things are out on the streets. I checked earlier and noticed that some of them were rattling at the barricades." Eric explained. "I guess because they saw you climbing into the building, and the noises those things made attracted even more of them here."

"Mein Gott... I'm sorry..." Sara said. "It's all my fault..."

"No." Eric said. "I told you earlier that we can't stay here for long..."

Sara got up from her bed and followed Eric to the living room. The both of the looked down the window and saw a large horde of zombies cluttering near the main entrance of the building, while several others were clawing away at the barricaded windows. Sara could here them moaning viciously. She saw few others in the distance, heading to the direction of the building, being drawn to the commotion. Eric walked into his room, and walked out half a minute later with two Desert Eagles along with their holsters.

"Hook them up to your belts." Eric instructed.

"I don't even know how to use these things!" Sara said.

"With the pistol pointed at the target, move the safety catch lever up to 'FIRE' position and pull the trigger." Eric explained. "Now, to reload, move safety catch lever down to 'SAFE' position, remove the empty magazine and insert a full magazine, after which you should release the slide by depressing the slide catch or by pulling the slide slightly to the rear and releasing it. Finally, move the safety catch to 'FIRE' position. You got it?"

"Yes." Sara nodded.

"Good." Eric smiled widely.

Eric walked into his room, and brought out two heavy backpacks and passed the lighter of the two to Sara, filled with dressings, bandages and various other medical equipment, otherwise, the backpack given to Sara was a first-aid kit.

"I packed the clips for your handguns on the front compartment of your backpack." Eric said. "I've got various clips for those handguns, all of which have been packed into your pack."

Eric strapped a bullet belt with full of shotgun shells around his waist and placed his machete into its sheath. He picked up his Browning A-5 shotgun and walked to the window to take a look at the zombie horde below. He turned to Sara, and he could see fear in her eyes.

"We'll escape from the back." Eric said. "Hope they won't see us while we're outside."

"What about our food and water supplies?" Sara asked.

"My backpack has limited space to store supplies, we can't take everything from the cabinet now." Eric said. "But I guess this will last the both of us about a week while traveling."

Without wasting time, Eric and Sara walked out of the apartment and into the corridor. Eric lead the way into a stairway and the both of them walked down to the first floor, and came across the barricaded front main door and windows. The sickening sounds of zombies snarling and their clawing on the barricades were even louder by now.

"We'll go out by the back..." Eric whispered, pointing to the door across the lobby.

Suddenly, the sound of glass shattering and boards. Eric and Sara turned around in horror as they saw one of the zombies in the window, half-climbed, half-fell into the lobby as it was pushed from behind by an army of the dead. Sara felt sick as she watched the creature rose to his feet.

The zombie was shirtless, and even though death and weathering had made his age difficult to determine, Sara guessed he died in his fifties. His skin was sickly and pale, and looked like it might be wet. Part of his face was gone, exposing brown muscle and bloody bone from the right cheek to most of the lower jaw. His short, black hair was matted with gore which had dripped and dried in rivulets past his eyes.

Sara drew out her pistol, and she put two rounds into the creature's forehead just as it had began to moan. But other arms were clawing through the window now; a bald man in a hospital patient's tunic was struggling over the sill. Jagged broken glass was sawing through its abdomen and Sara felt sick as putrid black blood spilled out and spattered on the floor. A loop of intestine followed. Sara put another two rounds into the creature's head, which burst apart in an explosion of black blood and matter.

"RUN! RUN!" Eric yelled. The both of them dashed across the lobby. Looking behind, Sara noticed that 2 more zombies had climbed through the window. Finally reaching the the backdoor, Eric reached for the handle and opened the door cautiously, just to be sure that there were no zombies out back as well. By now, about 8 to 10 zombies were shambling slowly through the lobby, homing on their direction. Eric slammed the door shut and looked at Sara.

"Good thing we escaped on time..." Eric said.

"Yes, but we have to get through them first..." Sara said, pointing behind Eric.

Eric turned around, and saw a few zombies shuffling towards them, moaning in hunger. A zombie which used to be a young black youth sporting cornrows and a basketball jersey, stumbled towards Eric with its arms outstretch. Its arms were streaked with dark, dried blood - the creature's own, Eric surmised, given the extensive wounds on its hands and upper body. It was missing several fingers and plenty of skin, and Eric could see muscles working as the creature groped toward him.

Eric grabbed a crowbar he found laying on the ground and swung it sideways, cracking it against its left temple, and Eric thought he could see the skull crack and give just slightly. The creature kept walking, soundless, unheeding, and Eric swung again. The blow struck its skull lower this time, right on the ear, but the skull had been weakened and this time the curved tip of the crowbar punched through. The zombie went slack as Eric vigorously shook his crowbar to free it.

Another zombie approached, Sara rushed over to the creature and kicked it down. As it sat up, Sara unsheathed her Kukri and slammed the blade vertically into the creature's skull, black blood seeping from the wound as it fell limp onto the ground. Another zombie grabbed Sara from behind, but she acted quickly and slammed the creature in the face with her elbow, sending it reeling backwards. Sara swung her blade sideways, slicing the creature's head off, creating a fountain of putrid black blood.

"C'mon! We need to get the hell outta here, now!" Eric yelled, dropping his gore-covered crowbar to the ground. Eric and Sara moved away as quickly as possible, away from the zombie horde that were shambling for them.

man nice history , hope you make more chapters :D

Hello my friend, sorry I haven't reviewed this for..like...ages. But I have just read this chapter now.

heres my answer.

It's good. It's great. It's thrilling. It's a thoasand time better than before.

However, yes there is once again a 'however'. The however is this, the detail.

Your story is told like an narrative. Like nothing more than a story. Something to read. You really need to detail everything. Make the reader believe they are there.

Entrance them so they just can't stop reading, so that when the chapter ends, their whacking their head on the keyboard in frustration because they can't read any more. lol.

You really need to bring your story to life, because right now it's like one of your Zombies. Detailed, there, but without an emphasis or life in it. Breath into it my friend, let the reader truly hear the gunshots and the moans.

When you first described the moans to me, I heard them. I felt a shiver down my spine. They were REALLY THERE! Now if you can do that with your other sentances and paragraphs, you've got the makings of being a true author.

So give it a shot. More emotion, more emphasis, more DETAIL.

other than that, KICKASS STORY MAN!

OOK-OOK! *Pounds chest

O, thanks! :)

Sorry as I have been busy and had to stall the story... :(

I guess I could continue with the story soon enough... :)

P.S. I will be editing the third chapter as well, to make it better...