The Beginning of the Aftermath

It was a chilled morning with the wind blowing softly through the trees during the winter months. Any other day in history and this would be considered a wonderful day filled with promise, but today the surroundings are silent. No birds are chirping, no morning traffic noise cluttering the street, no news on the television. It was a quiet beginning, but it's something I've gotten used to. It's been around three months since this started, since everything became silent. It's actually considered a good thing to have such a quiet morning now, because if there is noise...it's always them. If you do wake up and hear something, you know its going to be a bad day.

Last week I woke up to the sound of someone "knocking" at my door. Instantly I was up and out of my bed. I grabbed my shotgun and answered the door with a warm "Hello" with the butt of my rifle. I couldn't fire or else it would attract more, but this method never seems to stop them. He lay there on the ground, still squirming, his body couldn't function after the impact, but his mind was still demanding that he attack. I could see by his name tag that his name was "Victor" before all this started. He was no longer Victor though, he was no longer a man that might have had a family or a son, and he no longer had a mother or father. Now, he was just a drooling, groaning, hungry creature missing half of his right bicep with bite marks around what's left, obviously the reason for his current state.

So what to do with him now as he lay there, twitching and recovering from the head trauma? I didn't have much time to decide, it'd just be a matter of time before he was back on his feet. I dragged him in the door, closing it behind him to help avoid letting noise out. I ran to the garage where I kept my stock of supplies and grabbed the first blunt object I could find, a hammer. I hurried back to the front door, but I had taken too long. There he was, what was left of Victor, standing up, looking around with that blank and soulless stare. He was inside my house, right down the hall from me. It's moments like this that I've learned to avoid, how stupid could I have been to not only bring him into my house, but to lock myself in with him? On hindsight it was a poor decision, one I swear not to make again.

At the sight of me he stood upright, and let out a loud ear deafening screech. I've always wondered how they could emit such loud noises, I'm almost positive back when they were normal they couldn't do it, so what changed? Either way, this was bad. This means more are coming now. Having him inside my house would stop the muffled groans as I finished him off, but there's no way they didn't hear that screech. I only had a little time before they came now, so I had to act fast. Opting for a different tactic than my original plan, I dropped the hammer and ran back to the garage to grab my shotgun. I could hear him following behind me, luckily they're a little slow so I knew I could lose him around the turns. Once I got my shotgun I went back into the kitchen, working my way through slowly, and there he was, just as expected I had lost him during my retreat. He stood there looking with that blank stare again, only now he was standing in the dead center of my living room. Even though I've learned that the world isn't what it used to be, all I could think about at that moment was that I had just replaced the carpet a year ago. On that thought, I came around the kitchen corner with the shotgun drawn. One pull of the trigger and it was over.

His head popped like a grape, all over my new carpet.

I didn't have long to sulk about it though, running back to the garage I gathered my packed supplies and jumped into my vehicle. Hitting the garage door opener, I found out I couldn't have done it sooner. They had already begun coming towards his screech. There must have been a dozen of them, crowding around my house, drawn by the noise of the garage to my exact area. Slamming the SUV in reverse I mowed down a couple of them, and speed down the road. SUV's are the perfect car for something like this, they give you enough space to feel safe, and the durability to run over fairly large "speed bumps" without problems.

The only problem I faced as I drove down the street was where to go. My home was now off limits, completely overrun by the infected thanks to my one little mistake. I had a few options, but I hated not having a full plan before moving, it always caused problems down the line, but ohh well, live and learn.