Part 17: Sweet Dreams are made of this.

"Kyle?" I asked.

"You really don't remember, do you?"

"No," I said through a yawn. It had gotten late, and night had fallen.

"Well, we should get some sleep. There's a couple beds in the other room or the couch is available." Kyle stood up from up from the table. "I don't think we need to keep watch tonight. The doors are locked, we should be fine."

"If you say so." I found a bed in the other room and laid there for what seemed like a eternity and finally dozed off.

I had the strangest dream of being in this house before. Two people were with me. A man who I recognized and a beautiful women. I saw the horde of zombies coming towards the house. I saw the women running. I was surrounded by zombies. They kept coming closer and right before they had the chance to bite me, I woke up...

The sun was beginning to shine through the window in my room. I felt my left arm was burning. I opened my eyes to investigate the source of the burn. As I looked down and saw the mark on my forearm....

"What happened to me?"

Part 16: A new friend

We sat in the kitchen at a small corner table. The kitchen was small and poorly lit, but I could make out the face of this stranger. He was handsome, and average height and build. His hair was short and he had the scruffy stubble of a beard growing in. My hospitable stranger walked towards me with bread and some lunch meat laying on a paper plate.

"Here." He said as he sat the plate down in front of me. I began to grab at the meat before he could even finish setting down the plate. "Are you thirsty? I don't know how clean the water is here, but we do have some type of soda I think..."

"Soda." I manage to spit out between bites.

"Uh, alright.." My stranger placed the cold silver can in front me. I grabbed the can, popped it open, and chugged the sweet taste of Diet Coke down.

"Damn! You were hungry."

"And thirsty...." I finished off the can. "What.. what happened out there?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, Jared. I don't rightly know. I was trying to escape the city and I stumbled upon this place. Everything was as you see it out there.... Jared, how did you get here?"

"... Who are you again?"

"Jared, you don't remember me?"

"I don't remember ... anything." I stopped. "All I remember is waking up outside and then stumbling into this house." The man standing in front of me looked disappointed or confused, I couldn't really tell. "I'm sorry I don't recognize you.... what was your name?"

"We were neighbors, friends even. Jared.... it's me, Kyle."

Chapter 15: Open my Eyes

I opened my eyes... I was lying on my back staring in the orange sky. The sun was setting. My mouth was dry and my body felt stiff, I tried to rise to my feet, but I was too tired to move.

"Where am I?" I thought. "How did I get here..." I managed to find the strength to sit up. Looking around the field, I saw that there were dozens of bodies all around me, I couldn't tell if they were alive or dead, and there was also a large yellow machine was crashed into a tree behind me. I sat there for what seemed like an eternity until my stomach began to ache. There was a house not too far in front of me. I decided I would head that way in search of food, but with my stiff legs and arms I had a difficult time getting to my feet; finally, I was successful and began my trek. As I slowly shuffled to the front porch of the house, the stiffness in my arms and legs began to loosen up. I was almost walking normally or what I thought to be normal.

I reached the porch and placed my hand on the cold, brass knob. The door opened up to a dark, silent room. My stomach began to grumble cutting through the silence like a knife. I continued to walk inside the house, tripping over some boxes and knocking over a small table.

A voice shot out through the darkness. "Who's there?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Hello?" the voice called again again, this time it was closer. A light came on in the hallway in front of me and footsteps followed shortly after. I began to walk through the now barely lit living room towards the hallway. A face and the barrel of a pistol met my gaze as I reached the doorway to the hall.

"Jared? Is that you? You look like shit." He said lowering his gun.

I just stared into his eyes. Speechless.

"Jared," he said this name again. "Jared, you better say something or I am going to shoot you."

I tried to speak, but the words would not come.

"JARED! I'm sorry..." He raised his gun again and aimed it at my head.

"Hu... hun...hungry." I managed to whisper before the hammer crashed into the bullet. This man in front of me sighed in relief

"Thank God! Come on, let's get you something to eat."

Chapter 14: Life Among Them

I burst into the house looking through every room as quickly as possible. As I ran into the bedroom I had slept in, I tripped over something. It was cold and hard. I picked myself up and looked to see my bat on the floor. "Great... Now the keys." I glanced around the room and spotted the keys on the bedside table. "Really?" I thought to myself. I grabbed the bat and keys and ran out the door.

Adam was still on top of my car trying to keep the zombies off of the bulldozer. I couldn't see Jade on the machine. I began to panic.

"Jared, we have to get out of here!" Adam started yelling at me. I knew it was smart to leave, but I couldn't leave Jade behind.

"If you want to leave, then go Adam. I have to help her." I handed him the keys and walked away towards the horde. Once I had reached the horde, I just started swinging the bat, taking them out one at a time. "Jade! Where are you?" I couldn't hear anything over the low drone of the zombies. There was no way I could kill all of them, but I fought on. The horde began to swarm around me until I was completely surrounded. With no escape in sight, hopelessness began to set in.

I was going to die.

The horde grew closer to me, hands reached out towards me, and mouths were drooling waiting to take a bite out of my flesh. I continued to swing, trying to think of some desperate way to escape, but there was nothing I could do. Finally, something grabbed onto my arm and sunk its teeth into my flesh.

"AHHHH! NO!" I screamed as my flesh ripped off my arm and blood began to pour out of it. I pushed the zombie off of me. It had taken a chunk out of my left arm....

I was infected.

Chapter 13: The Battle Begins

"Be strong." I kept telling myself as I walked away from Jade, "You have to be strong." I knew if I froze up in this moment, I would die. But even with the horde standing in front of me waiting to tear me apart, she was on my mind.

I was shortly thereafter brought back to the situation at hand by Adam's first shot from his perch. He fired his shot, then another, and another.

"Alright Jared." I was talking to myself again,"You can do this." I raised the shotgun and pumped a shell into the chamber. The horde started to break up a little as it spread out into the field. I was close now and they were coming towards me. Five zombies were reaching out, ready to embrace me. Terror began to rise inside me and my body began to lock up. I was going to become one of them, to die...

"No, I have a reason to live." I lifted the shotgun and blasted the first corpse I saw in the head. The skull exploded and a shower of brains and blood filled the air. I ran out of the middle of the four that were left. "Man, that was close." I pumped another shell into the chamber and took out the four with my remaining shells. That's when I realized I was out of ammunition and that I was unarmed. "Shit. now what?"

Adam was still shooting on top of my car and Jade was..."Where is Jade?" I looked around, but I couldn't see her. "JADE!!!" I yelled out hoping for a response. "JA..."

My last out burst was muffled by the roar of my grandfather's old yellow bulldozer coming to life. Jade was on top of the machine, driving full speed towards the horde.

"What the hell?!" I yelled out.

"Jared!" Adam was yelling at me now. "Duck!" I dropped to the ground followed by the sound of Adam's rifle.

"Thanks dude." I started to run towards Jade and her bulldozer.

"Go get the keys! We've got to get out of here. Jade will be fine." Adam yelled as he reloaded his rifle.

I ran towards the house to look for my keys, not knowing what would come next.

Chapter 12: Preparation

"Adam!" I yelled as I rose to my feet,"Get out here now." I ran to my car and tried to open the door in an attempt to obtain my bat. "Locked." I checked my pockets searching frantically for my keys.

"Jared, whatever you're doing, you need to hurry." Jade shouted. I was about to panic until I saw Adam burst out the front door of the cabin with a shotgun in one arm and a rifle in the other.

"I thought you could use this." He handed me the weapon. "How many?" He paused and looked towards the oncoming horde. "Oh shit."

"Too many to count." Jade was standing ahead of us, waiting to attack. "Everyone ready?" she asked.

"Yeah" Adam and I said in unison. Adam climbed on top of my car and prepared the rifle for his first shot. I ran over to Jade who was standing there staring back into the faces of the horde. She was holding on to the paddle. "Are you going to be okay with that thing?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm not good with a gun."

"Guys, come on." Adam yelled over.

"Don't get to close. If you need help, yell." I said. Jade nodded and flashed a smile at me. She set my heart on fire.

I tightened my grip on the shotgun and walked towards the horde.

Chapter 11: The Horde

Something was touching my back.

I turned my head around slowly to see Jade standing behind me with her hand resting on my shoulder.

"Jared?" She looked worried, concerned. I tried to wipe away my tears, but there was no way I could hide that I was upset. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"I'm scared, Jade. We're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, God only knows whether our families are dead or alive, and I can't even bring myself to kill a zombie until it's too late. I'm dead weight, useless. I'm only going to slow you and Adam down and get myself or all of us killed...." What the hell was wrong with me? I was pathetic and I knew it. I had to get a hold of myself.

Silence.

"Jared..." Jade's voice trailed off. I looked up at her. Her worried expression had faded and all that was left was a very grim glare.

"What?" She was unresponsive. "Jade?" She pointed towards the road. My eyes followed her hand until my gaze met the horde of the decomposing faces.