Name Changes

A few character names I decided I didn't like so I changed them, the past chapters online will remain the same but all future chapters will include these changes:

Wendy-->Jade
Daphne-->Lauren
Simon-->Chris
Steven-->Malcolm

Any strong feelings on this matter feel free to leave suggestions

Haven Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I awoke, choking on dust, and quickly realised I was coated heavily. A quick glance around gave me some idea as to the damage Wendy’s “plan” had done. The table we were hiding behind had been broken, a large chunk of concrete had been flung into it. There was a hole in the wall, but replacing it was the smoking remains of Connor’s car, from what I could see we wouldn’t be driving it out of here.

I was cut in several places and bleeding, but it wasn’t too bad and soon I was on my feet. Connor was up before I was, and was now trying to shake Daniel awake. Daniel looked the worst of the three of us, there was a large cut on his forehead that was badly bleeding, and he showed no signs of waking up soon. Wendy and Simon came climbing in over the car. ‘Are you alright?’ Wendy asked, but I could only nod my response, ‘we have to get out of here,’ she continued

This time I found my voice, ‘Daniel won’t wake up,’ my voice was shaking from the shock

‘Then we carry him,’ Connor said, also sounding fearful

‘Can’t we wait he might be badly hurt,’ Simon argued, picking up the generator

‘I don’t think we have the time,’ Wendy gestured at the door, and I say that the impact had also damaged the barricades we had made, and more of the dead had found their way here.

‘Run,’ I yelled and all four of us ran and pushed desperately on the car, pushing back out of the hole it had made. My eyes stang from all the dust and the sudden light, but I kept running blindly until Simon cried out and pushed me to the ground as an explosion sounded behind me.

…

            Once again I woke, ringing in my ears and dust in my eyes. Apparently the crash had damaged the car so badly the fuel had ignited. I hadn’t been out that long and Wendy was pulling my arm trying to get me up. Dazed I stumbled to my feet but the desperation of our situation returned I was quickly sprinting with the rest, in which ever random direction happened to have the least amount of deadmen present.

…

            As we ran from the station the rest of our group in the warehouse all rushed towards the sound of metal hitting concrete. Brooke and Daphne rushed to push the section of ventilation off Steven who was now unconscious. Nicole quickly joined them, ‘What the hell happened?’

            ‘The piece of ventilation just fell, right on top of him,’ Daphne replied hysterically. Brooke took Daphne away as the others arrived, and Nicole checked Steven’s pulse. ‘He’s breathing, and his heart’s beating fine,’ she informed the others, ‘that’s all I can really tell for now, let’s get him somewhere safe.’ Nicole thanked her foresight to bring the stretcher from the hospital along.

‘Wait! He’s bleeding,’ Will pointed out the small trail of blood on the floor

‘He can’t be I checked,’ regardless Nicole checked again, still finding no open wounds. That’s when they all heard a soft whimper coming from inside the piece of ventilation.

...

            Connor, Simon, Wendy and I didn’t stop running until Simon couldn’t stand carrying the heavy generator anymore and, along with Connor carrying Daniel, stopped and fell slowly to the floor. Wendy and I stopped just ahead of them, and did a quick sweep for any of the dead. We found none, but I knew some had to still be following us from the station, we couldn’t relax now.

            ‘We can’t keep going like this,’ Connor gasped between breaths

            ‘Well we can’t stop now,’ Wendy said quietly through closed teeth, I could tell she was afraid, ‘for all we know they’re right behind us’

            ‘Yeah or they could be just up ahead,’ Simon argued back frustrated, ‘as long as we’re on foot and burdened,’ he gestured at the generator and Daniel, ‘we’re sitting ducks to any decent amount of zombies that find us.’ I had to speak then, ‘if it comes down to either leaving the generator behind or dying then we leave it that’s fine, but there is no way we are ever leaving Daniel to those monsters’

            ‘Of course, I wasn’t implying…’ Simon mumbled ashamed. In truth I didn’t really think that’s what he meant, I was angry at myself for considering leaving him behind, if only for a moment. But I had to be strong here, I needed to get these people out of this mess. But how? Simon was right the way we are now there’s no way we can get out of here safely.

            ‘Then we’ll find a new car,’ Wendy said resolutely, interrupting my thoughts. I was pleased she had spoken but also embarrassed I hadn’t thought of such a basic solution

            ‘Seriously,’ Connor asked, getting his breath back finally, ‘what’re the chances that we’ll find a car that actually works that has had all its petrol taken around here?’ I knew he was right, between us, the marauders and whatever over groups that were struggling to survive around here we had siphoned almost all petrol around this area.

            Panic gripped me, how are we going to get out of this? All of us are decent fighters, we all want to survive, but with Daniel wounded, and the rest of us in bad shape the odds are stacked against us. We have an army of undead all around and god knows where we are, we don’t even know if the others made it to the warehouse! Deep down I know that there was little to no chance of us surviving, even if we make it through this challenge, there will just be another waiting for us. And while the enemy grows with each fallen survivor our numbers grow smaller, and our resources dwindle more and more.

           What’s the point in fighting, if there’s no hope of victory?

Haven Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Will, Nicole, and the others drove toward the warehouse in silence after our talk, partly due to the fear of the dead following, and partly due to the concern they had for those left behind. In the Ute Steven was driving, with Brooke, Monica, and as much supplies as they could gather in the back, leaving Will, Nicole, Daphne and Andria in the people carrier.

The two cars had communicated occasionally via the radio, conferring about whether to avoid a small group of the dead or dealing with them, but apart from essential communication the lines were dead. Andria toyed with the radio, trying to find signs of anyone else alive, but all she got back was static. Daphne stared out the window the whole trip, only glancing away when I called in over the radio, everyone could tell where her mind was, with Simon. Nicole had pulled out a collection of maps we had collected, and was looking at the area surrounding the warehouse. Will was driving, his hands were once more firmly grasping the wheel, reminiscent of the beginning of this... apocalypse.

It was Nicole who finally, and gratefully broke the silence, ‘So this warehouse, what is it like?’

Will was confused, ‘What do you mean?’

‘How big was it? Was it just one big room? What kind of condition was it in?’ It was a lot of questions, and Will couldn’t answer straight away, he was still breaking out of his silent contemplation. But eventually he found his words, ‘It was big, not as big as some others I’ve seen though, and in good condition except for a few… bodies,’ as he spoke his voice became stronger, but at the last word his voice shook worse than before. But his strength returned as he shook the thought of me and the others sharing the marauders’ fate, ‘it was mostly one big room, except I think there was one, maybe two smaller offices. Why did you want to know?’

‘Tactics,’ Nicole replied, ‘we should use one of those smaller rooms to store the weapons and the generator, they’ll be safer there’

‘That’s a good idea,’ Andria chimed in from one of the back seats, ‘was it clear?’ she asked, turning back to Will

‘No,’ he answered, ‘It had all these tall storage shelve things’

‘If we can move them we might be able to separate the space even more,’ Andria suggested logically.

Nicole smiled and breathed out heavily, she knew if they drove in silence for much longer someone would begin to panic. But she realised it may have been too late as Daphne spoke up from the far end of the vehicle, ‘what is the point? Rooms, weapons, defence, what does it all matter if we’re all going to die anyway,’ Nicole could see her words affecting Will and Andria as their faces became more and more sad and melancholy. To Nicole’s dismay Daphne wasn’t finished, ‘lets face it, there is nothing we have done or will ever do that could change the fact that the world we knew is dead, and soon enough we’ll be dead along with it.’

‘You’re wrong,’ Nicole spoke firmly, and the others all turned to her, but she had nothing else to say, ‘you’re wrong,’ she spoke again quietly, her eyes focused on the road ahead.

…

            When they finally made it to the warehouse they all left the cars, and Nicole could see that Brooke and Steven had just a pleasant of a trip as she had. Will had been right about the warehouse, it was quite large, but not so large as to make her worried about the parts the others hadn’t yet explored. And apart from several nauseating blood trails it was still in good condition. The door was of some concern though, the main entrance was two thin wooden doors each with a glass window that had been smashed through, it would have to be reinforced to give any form of protection from the hordes of dead that may attack.

            Will and Steven parted the cars in a position easily accessible, and pointing away from the warehouse in case the need arises for a quick escape. Nicole and Daphne sat in the driver’s seats as the others grabbed some handguns, and Brooke the rifle, and began to search inside. Will had made the point that just because it was clear of zombies the last time they were here doesn’t mean it will still be clear and safe now. It was a good ten minutes before Will emerged from the warehouse, holstering his weapon calmly, and gestured that it was safe to enter.

The warehouse had more infrastructure than Nicole thought, there were metal covers over the electrical wires that ran throughout the main room, heaters on the walls, and even ventilation shafts that criss-crossed across the rooves and walls. ‘I wonder if Daniel will be able get those heaters working using the generator,’ Will thought aloud, ‘you know if’-

‘-if he comes back,’ Daphne interrupted him

‘-if it gets cold,’ Will finished quietly, then walked away towards the office room.

Brooke was fed up with Daphne’s attitude, and with that last comment she thought it was time to have a talk about it. ‘Daphne,’ Brooke found her alone looking through one of the boxes that still remained, ‘you have to stop’

‘Stop what?’ Daphne replied bitterly, ‘stop saying what I’m feeling? What everyone’s feeling? Why?’

‘Because if you keep talking like we’re all going to die someone actually will,’ Brooke’s words made Daphne look up sharply and Brooke could see tears in her eyes, but she knew she could stop there. ‘Because they were sad, because they had given up, or because your constant depression made them stop fighting,’ she continued relentlessly, ‘we need to stay strong here, we need to survive. Even if’- she paused to give herself down and be gentle-‘even if the others don’t come back.’ When she stopped Daphne finally broke and began to sob quietly.Her frustration gave way to pity, and Brooke gave her a hug, and Daphne clung onto her fiercely. ‘Simon is back there fighting for a way to give us a better chance at surviving,’ Brooke spoke quieter than before, ‘and even if he doesn’t come back you have to keep fighting. He wouldn’t want you to give up now.’

Brooke and Daphne stayed that way for a while, until Daphne finally pulled back and rubbed her eyes. When she looked at Brooke she could see the fire and determination had returned, and she smiled. Daphne smiled back and said softly, ‘thank you.’ It was then that Steven found them, clutching something in his hands, ‘look,’ he opened his hands revealed broken food wrappers and water bottles, ‘they weren’t here before, someone’s been here before us.’

But before either of them could react a section of the ventilation broke away from the wall, and fell straight onto Steven’s head.

Updated The Dead Prologue

 Prologue

This is a story about how the whole world changed, and I changed with it. My name is Will Sandren, and I am one the last surviving people, that I know of anyway. I’m 21 and I am, was I guess, a university student, I was going to be a teacher.If you had asked me how well my friends and I would survive in an apocalypse type situation a few weeks ago I would have said we had no chance, but now I think we had exactly what the situation required. We were nerds you see, big fans of sci-fi shows and horror movies, less big fans of physical exercise, except for a few of us. One of my best friends Todd loves zombie films and as a science geek we are constantly discussing whether it’s possible, what we would do and how it would happen. Turns out it was through a flu vaccination, or at least that’s what we think, and we’ve had a lot of time to think about it.

But those things are not important, what's important is how we survived those first few days of the end of the world as we knew it, and what happened afterward. This is my story.

I hate being sick, but wanting to work with children means I’m going to have a lot of exposure to illnesses, that’s why I usually keep up to date with my vaccinations. My sister, Sophie, does the same, she teaches swimming. But when I got an email saying the latest flu vaccination was available I just ignored it, I wasn't a teacher yet. I worked part-time at a child care centre but they were on holidays at the time so I didn’t have much worry about catching anything. So that’s why I ignored the new vacination, it wasn’t mandatory for anything and I had until the end of the holidays until I have to return to the petri dish that is my workplace. My sister however, got the vaccination. She was one of the first victims.

And that’s how I made the decision that saved my life. A decision I will either regret forever, or feel grateful for, I still haven't decided. The day after my sister got the injection she got sick, really sick, she was coughing a lot and looked really pale, she stayed in bed the whole day. I didn’t take much notice; I was just excited that I got sole control of the television for a few hours, I'm now regretting I didn't take better care of her, or at least said hello. I was chatting with my friend Nicole, you'll hear more about her later, arranging to meet up the next day when my sister came downstairs. She had coughed up blood and my dad had to take her to the hospital. At this point I was concerned, we'd had illnesses in the family before but only the more common stuff like Dad's pneumonia or Grandpa's heart problems. This seemed different. When I woke up the next day it was noon, my parents were with my sister at the hospital so I was alone in the house, it seemed unnaturally silent.

I got dressed as usual and started to walk downstairs, thinking about maybe going to the hospital today when I heard a scream from outside. We lived in a small south-east suburb of Melbourne and although one side of our house faced a busy road there wasn't really any crime or anything to scream about. I had never even heard a scream so chilling and scared before, not even on TV. I looked through the window, it was glazed so I could see much, but what I did see had me frozen in place. The woman who had screamed was now running past our house until she tripped, she wasn’t exactly wearing clothes for running, a business suit and skirt I guessed, she fell, hard. Another figure appeared, walking strangely as if he had hurt his leg, but that did nothing to hinder his speed. I wondered at what could be happening, maybe he saw her fall and ran to help her I reasoned. But his purpose I couldn't have predicted, or even considered with any rational thought, but rational thought had no part to play in what was happening.

As the limping, creature, reached the fallen woman she struggled to get up, but just as she found her footing the other figure reached her. And bent down to rip into the flesh of her calf, with its teeth.

I ducked down from the window in sudden, horrifying fear that he would see me, it was all I could do to stop myself from screaming just as the woman had. I quickly called the police, even with my hands shaking uncontrollably, but the phone simply answered: ‘All lines are currently busy.’ I almost screamed at the phone, but my sense caught me and I slapped my hand across my mouth.

I panicked, I felt like the whole world had dropped away and I was in a place completely alien to my home, nothing felt familiar or calming, all my eyes saw was what that thing had done, and what it could be doing now. Maybe it was still biting into her, maybe she had managed to get away and it was chasing her down the street. Or maybe it had left her and had come to investigate the house next to them. I scrambled up and ran downstairs, keeping low as if that would help, and grabbed a large knife, I don’t know why but I felt like any moment the man would enter my house and try and kill me too. I must have sat there,quivering, for at least an hour until I had the courage to call 000 again. I got the same unhelpful and distressing message as before and almost threw my phone across the room until I remembered Mum and Dad. And my sister.

I called Dad, for some reason I thought he might know what was going on. I had no idea of the repercussions of my actions.

He was in a store room in the hospital, he too was shaking , curled up against the wall. He hadn’t turned on the light so it was still very dark. He was barely breathing he was so afraid to make a sound. He swore quietly when his phone in his pocket went off, he cursed himself that he did not turn it off when he entered the hospital. But there was a greater danger now than disturbing some patients or doctors. He thought to turn it off but when he saw the caller ID he had to answer out of hope. ‘Hello?’ he whispered

‘Dad?’ I sobbed over the phone, I hadn’t even noticed I was crying, ‘is that you?’

‘Will! You’re alive!’ he was so relieved he forgot his situation for a moment and allowed himself to speak louder, ‘are you alright’

‘A women outside our house was attacked, I saw it happen,’ images of those events kept repeating themselves in my mind

‘Stay inside Will! Okay? Just stay inside!’ the hope and joy inside of my father had been replaced with fear. ‘What happened Dad, are you okay?’ I had never heard my father like this before

‘Will, Sarah died an hour ago,’ my father moaned

‘What?’ I was crying again, ‘how? What happened?’

‘I don’t know but a few seconds after she woke up,’ my father was speaking faster and louder as fear took control, ‘but she wasn’t the same, she didn't speak, she didn't even seem to recognise her. Your mother, oh god your mother hugged her but sh-she just bit into her neck. The blood it.... oh god’ All I could do was listen as my father went on, ‘I called for help but all I heard was screaming, I ran outside and everyone was running past me,' he just kept talking, the memories flooding his mind, 'I tried to grab one for help but another patient came up behind me and bit my arm, oh god there were so many of them’

‘Dad are you alright? Where are you?’ my horror now came second to my concern, what was happening, the truth hadn't appeared to me yet regardless of the evidence

‘I ran, oh god I left your mother there and I just ran with the others, but the people in front just closed the doors.’ my father was talking loudly now and crying, ‘We tried to open it but they locked it! They locked us in with those, those THINGS! I hid in here because people were’- his voice was cut off by a scream as the door to the store room was knocked down by two patients, both covered in blood, some their own, most was not. My father clung to his phone, his one connection to the world now rapidly disappearing before his eyes, ‘Will they're coming, don’t leave the house Will! All the people that were sick they’- but he never got to finish the sentence as the patients torn into him. All he could was scream. And all I could do is listen.