FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Survival: Z-Day, Part one: A quick and unexpected turn of events is my newest creation on my computer. I have been writing this story on and off for some time now, and finally decided to put the first part up. It's all I have written so far, and would like all forms of criticism please. I want to know if this is worth writing more or not, and what I need to change with this part in order to make it better, if possible at all. Let me know what you think! Like I said, all forms of criticism are accepted!

---

"Hurry up, we need to barricade those doors as soon as we can," a voice rang out on the other end of the building, while the sound of groans, smacks and hisses could be heard all throughout the now-abandoned factory where sneakers and other various footwear used to be made.

"I'm going, I'm going! Hold yer damn horses," another voice yelled back in reply to the first. Sudden cracks and shatters of boards and glass filled the rooms as they made their way inside, groaning and moaning all the while.

"Well it's not like we have much time here, John," the first voice responded back to the second. The now sound of hammers onto the heads of nails filling the factory, only slightly drowning out the infected people's attempts at breaking into the place, wanting to tear them limb from limb.

"Calm down already, Casey. They're not coming in, and soon we need to take these bastards out if we're gonna go back into town," John exclaimed to the man on the other side of the building, who was putting boards up on the windows and doors as fast as he could, doing just the same as John.

"Please, please let me in, please?" One of them cried out to John from the outside. Not less than two weeks ago, the world cried out in panic and awe as the last remains of fuel of all kinds had been depleted. No coal, no oil, no natural gas; nothing was left except natural sources, which didn't produce enough to sustain an entire globe that had become dependent on wasteful things such as expansion of the now-known 'Biochemical Era.' Everyone had chemical needs, especially the 'godforsaken government' as Casey called it. Biological and biochemical weapons were used daily. War throughout the world over the miniscule amounts of fuels had ensued, and nothing had been done about the hundreds of nuclear plants and giant tanks to store all of the waste and weapons.

The power went out, leaving everyone helpless. Japan and China were the first to be left in the dark. Korea and Europe soon followed suit; after that, Australia and the Netherlands. Finally, the Americas were in for the last flickers of fuel-powered electricity were dried up and left to rust. Nothing was done to preserve the storage tanks and nuclear coolers. Two weeks ago, nearly everything was still fine.

**Two Months Ago**

"Casey, do we still have the DVD from the store," Jennifer asked, walking into the living room where the aforementioned boyfriend was watching the news, "or did you take it back already?"

"I took it back yesterday," Casey looked at her from the screen, which showed the day's news, as well as urgent reports about stocks.

The TV sounded an unusually loud ring as the news changed. "Breaking and ungrateful news everyone: we, the world, have run out of fuels," the screen showed a giant cavern with some digging equipment, "the last of our coal and oil supply ran out today as workers from Southeast Asia dug up the last remaining bits of coal, shown here in these photos.

"Everyone is advised to turn off any unnecessary tools and appliances that are electrically run to save our remaining supplies. Everyone is advised to please keep things to a minimum until we can figure out a way to come up with alternative means of energy. The government has issued a country-wide power dismissal, and we will be coming off the air tonight at midnight." A slight pause and a camera shift on screen.

"As for other news in the Middle East, the US sent out 50 nuclear-armed missiles to Saudi Arabia in an effort to--" Casey clicked off the television and sighed, relaxing back into the couch. "Looks like we'll be a little short on electronics for a while; it's too bad, guess you'll have to be living without straightened or curly hair for a while as well."

Jen gave off a sarcastic laugh, "oh ha-ha, Casey. And I guess it means no chilled beer for you either." Casey looked taken aback, but shrugged it off. A call on their home phone took them both by surprise, and Jen answered. "Hello? Yeah, he's here. Okay. Alright, I'll tell him," and she clicked the red button on the phone to hang up. "It was your work. They said that due to the energy crisis, you need to stay home today, since they're shutting down for the day to help conserve energy." Casey nodded. Not too long after, Jen's phone rang, saying she didn't need to come in either.

"That was pretty quick since the warnings only came out about half an hour ago."

Jen thought, then beamed, "guess our workplaces are just that awesome, then!" That enticed a chuckle from Casey. He clicked the television to the news again, and the energy crisis broadcast continued to play throughout the day.

The next morning, Casey woke up in a sweat, with the AC that they kept in their room on close to full blast was sitting still, no air coursing throughout the room. Jen had already left, presumably to work. Casey stood and walked up to the air conditioner and turned it off, clicking it on again; he did this a few times, with no success in getting any sort of function out of the machine, and he gave up on it, letting it go. Western Tennessee was not the sort of place you wanted to live without air conditioning -especially in the mid-summer heat, which was already starting to affect Casey, being half-beaded with drops of sweat as he turned his attention to the TV, which as he suspected, gave no power either as he tried to turn it on. He gave of a huff of discontentment and flopped down onto the couch opposite the room, giving him full view out of the window. He propped open a book, but not even five minutes into reading, a loud obnoxious siren not far off in the distance began to ring, causing Casey to throw his book down and look out the window. The siren was distinctly from the nuclear facility toward the South end of town, as he had heard it before from the bio-lead a few years ago. Quarantines had been issued, and the lead was dealt with quickly.

But this siren seemed different; too suspicious a day, especially one without power, to have the siren be going off. Casey reached the window and peered out, the big bay window serving as a nice viewpoint to watch the outside happenings as he reached for his phone to call Jen, but there was no service to be found. Worrying about the sirens, he dressed quickly in whatever he had found first, which happened to be a pair of white and grey cargo shorts and an aero shirt that was just as grey as the stripes on his shorts. He headed out the door and was driving down the road towards Jen's work in seconds.

He was about halfway across town, stuck at a red light, when all of a sudden he felt the car trembling and shaking, then him before he looked around: the entire ground was shaking. Is there an earthquake? There was no way that could be happening. Off in the distance, towards the South side of town, giant bellows of smoke could be seen rising from the ground to high in the air before dispersing, the way towards the nuclear plant and the sirens. Birds of all sorts, as well as grounded animals could be seen flying or running as fast as they could away from the area. Casey needed to get Jen as fast as possible before something could happen; but it was already too late, something terribly wrong had happened, and it is nothing Casey has any knowledge of -at least not yet.

Casey turned the radio on, and on every single station, the same broadcast was playing: "Attention every citizen: this is a broadcast from DC. Everyone is advised to stay in their homes, or evacuate if you live within ten miles of any nuclear site or division. Please, vacate your home and make way toward a US military relief station that is nearest to you, which are being set-up nationwide as this message broadcasts. Radiation from overheated nuclear plants will decompose your brain and can kill you within hours of exposure. Seek military relief as soon as possible if you know or believe you've been exposed." Not being able to listen to the broadcast anymore, Casey clicks off the radio with a disgruntled groan.

Within ten more minutes of driving, Casey reaches Jen's work, and sure enough finds Jen's car there. He clicks off the car and hopes Jen is waiting for him by the door. After waiting a short while, he becomes impatient and is about to open the door when Jen comes bursting out, holding up a sign that says 'don't leave the car!' in bold-faced letters. Casey shoots her an awkward glare, but removes his hand from the handle of the door nonetheless. Jen walks up to the window and mouths out the words "I've been exposed," then points towards the bellowing smoke. "I'll meet you at the relief center or at least out of town." At that, she gets her car filled to the brim with her coworkers and heads off down the road, Casey soon following suit.

It was a long and tedious drive, a lot of cars still in their owner's driveways, causing Casey to wonder why nobody else was getting out of here like he was. After about 20 miles, he started to pass hastily made signs that lead the way towards the relief stations. Jen's car pulled off to the side of the road. Casey followed her lead. Once Casey turned off the car and opened the door, all he could hear were screams; some of terror, some of panic, and some of pain, but all screams and cries. A man in military uniform jogged up to Jen's car. The man had an automatic weapon of sorts strapped to his back. He leaned into the window as Jen let it down. Casey walked up to her car and the man stood at attention instantly.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to take a few steps back while I check on this woman first. You'll have your turn," the uniformed man with the pin on his chest that gave him the name Lieutenant Carson said.

"That woman is my girlfriend," Casey replied sarcastically, irritated already at the man, but let it slide, considering the situation, and that this is probably standard procedure anyway. Jen opened the door and hugged Casey tightly, the officer backing up just a little to give them some space.

Jen's coworkers all piled out and the officer took care of them while Casey and Jen talked. He ushered them to the lines by the tents before returning his attention to Jen. "Miss, have you been infected or had exposure to the radiation from any nuclear plants close to you?"

"I think I have, but I'm not too sure," Jen replies. The officer gives a curt nod and turns to Casey. Already knowing the question, Casey shakes his head no before the officer has time to ask him. He knew he was well out of range, living about 15 miles from the one in their town. Shortly thereafter, the officer leads them into two separate lines. At the front of said line, two people in hazmat suits were scanning people over with the wand of a Geiger counter, the machine making odd whirring and clicking noises as it detected, if any, amounts of radiation on the people in line.

"So how do you think you were exposed and I'm not?" Casey turns to ask Jen.

"Well, Case," she went on replying, "my work is about five miles from the plant, and our house is about 15. I let you sleep in this morning, so when it happened, I knew you were okay. We were listening to that broadcast on the radio on a little personal radio that ran on batteries. Shauna brought it in since there was no power; she was hoping to get some music, but all we got was that." As she continued on, the line shifted forward quickly, the ones with radiation heading into a separate tent than those who did not. "Looks like we'll be split up; I'll catch up to you later, okay?"

Casey nodded, and added in an okay himself. They kissed each other quickly before stepping up to the men in hazmat suits. The wand was waved over Casey, the counter giving off soft clicks, but no alarms. "To the left tent," the man called through the sound-muffling suit. Casey nodded and headed into the tent. Jen was led into the right tent after her counter made a loud buzz and click sound. They split ways as they both reached the opposite tents.

**Present**

Casey plopped down on the ground, leaning back against a support beam after securing all the windows and doors, clutching a photo. The infected outside can be heard breathing audibly and letting out moans and groans. Realizing it was a fruitless effort to try and break into the building they had given up, but still remained at all of the access points from the outside. Casey let out a soft sigh, staring at his only remaining photo of Jennifer, while his only companion, John, scoured through the building, trying to find supplies. Throwing pair after pair of shoes, sandals and boots over his shoulder, he yells out and turns to Casey, "at least while we're dying of starvation, we'll have brand new shoes on," he states sarcastically. This entices a chuckle from Casey as he hides the photo in his pocket before John had a chance to be nosey.

"At least that's a plus, right?"

John sighs and sits down against a beam, facing Casey. "Guess you're right, but that still doesn't help the fact that I'm starving."

Casey reaches over and grabs his pack. Searching through it, he pulls out two cans of beans; smiling sarcastically and pointing to the can meant for John, the other man sighs and grabs the can from him after standing up, adding in "I'm so sick of god damned beans."

"It's the only thing we've got right now, John," Casey replies. The both of them collect random pieces of boards and wood and paper, as well as some new boots to wear, they started a little fire to heat the now-sick-of-eating beans. They sit down on a bench they had found, pulled out to sit in front of the fire. After a few minutes, the beans inside the can, and the juices being to bubble inside the flames; they pull out their beans and devour them quickly until only slowing down when a few remained.

**Two Months Ago**

Taking a seat on one of the benches that had been placed inside the tent, Casey looked around at all of the others with him. Women, men and kids of all different sizes and ages were inside with him inside the unventilated tent. All-in-all, there weren't that many people inside here with him. About ten to fifteen other souls remained, along with another military officer standing at the opening to the tent, with an arm band that had the letters MP in bold lettering. In fact, all of the officers he had seen here had the same band on. Why hadn't he noticed earlier is beyond his own knowledge.

Soft groans could be heard from the tent that Casey was currently not present in, and wondered if Jen would be alright. A man in a similar outfit as the one standing at the entrance leans in suddenly into the flap of the tent door. He takes a look around, whispers something inaudible to Casey in the ear of the other soldier and then leaves as the first soldier steels his face and gives a quick nod of understanding. The first soldier takes a few short steps forward and brings his rifle around so it fits his grasp. "Alright everyone," the uniformed man with the MP band around his arm says, "it looks like that is everyone in the area. Fewer numbers than we had hoped, but it still is a plus nonetheless." He continues on, "I'm going to need everyone to remain calm and stay seated until we're done here. Thanks for your cooperation in all of this." As he finishes his little 'speech', a woman who looked about middle-aged, pipes up, "why do we have to remain calm?" another voice, deeper, that of a man who seemed fairly about Casey's age, added in "yeah, what's going to happen that we have to stay here? This is all too suspicious. Will everyone in the other tent be okay?" Everyone except Casey began to get riled up, the man in uniform bringing his hands up and making a 'calm-down' kind of gesture at the tiny crowd of people.

"Everything's going to be all right folks, so just keep still and everything will be dealt with soon." Guards outside must have heard the protesting banter and quickly two more guards entered the tent and shortly standing on either side of the first officer. The people that had originally begun to protest or speak-up quickly sat down quietly at the arrival of the two new heavily armed military officers.

From what sounded right outside the tent, male and female voices could be heard screaming a blood curdling scream of horror, accompanied by louder groans and random spurts of gunfire. Everyone, including Casey inside the 'non-exposed' tent went on full alert, panic setting in. No one could sit still, or not panic, or stop looking around constantly. Casey stood up and rushed to the door, but was stopped by one of the officers, who brought their gun up and pointed it right at him. Scared, Casey sat back down and waited impatiently for something more to happen.

**Present**

Rummaging through all the pairs of boots and shoes, Casey picked out a few pairs that he liked and packed them away with his gear. John was now fast asleep, and he knew he should be as well, but he just couldn't. He sat down against a support beam and pondered to himself about how suddenly everything had changed, about how quickly all of this had happened, and about how soon this might end.

Wanting to shake these morbid feelings off, he decided to go for a walk around the building. He grabs his knife and an oil lantern. Walking around, he checks all of the barriers keeping the infected out. Out of nowhere he hears a cracking sound of breaking wood and a loud crash of something heavy hitting the floor. Knife in hand, he rushes to the site of the noise to find the infected breaking through one of the barriers. Another crash and crack is heard not too far off in the distance. The infected had grouped up and were holding something they were using as a battering ram; they dropped the object and started to completely break through the rest of the now weakened barriers.

Casey runs to Jon, shaking him awake saying, "John, wake up! C'mon John, get the hell up! It's not safe here anymore!" John wakes with a startled jump.

"What the hell's goin' on? What're you talking about Case?"

Casey looks around quickly before smacking John upside the head softly stating back "they've broken in, John! They've broken down the barriers and now we have to get out before it's too late! How the hell didn't you wake up from the noise?"

**Two Months Ago**

A man came running into the tent from outside, whispered into the main guard's ear again, and left quickly after. The man stepped up to the group, worrying and panic spread through the whole group as he tries to keep his voice flat, "alright, we're going to get all of you escorted out of here to a secure location, no one panic and we'll all be okay."

"What about our loved ones!" one man asks.

"What about the other tent?" another cries out.

"What were those screams?" a woman yells.

"Why were there gunshots?" a little child asks the officers, being held in his father's arms. Cries went out like this until the officer finally burst.

"Alright, that's enough! Now, everyone is going to calm down and we are going to get out of here alive and safe! Understand me?" the officer continues after he'd gotten a majority of hasty nods from the terrified group, "good, then we'll all line up and I'll escort you to the transport. Single file line; that's it, there you go. Nice and easy now. Now everyone listen up: it's going to be a bad sight out there, so we need to--" he lets out a cry of pain as he's cut off mid-sentence by someone biting him in the neck, which his outfit had left exposed. More people came inside the tent, bullet holes in places with blood all over. They let out strange moans and groans, starting to come after the group.

Cries of terror swept the tent as everyone scrambled for their own lives. The man he saw, the officer, was limp on the ground, twitching and moving, but still limp. The person that had bitten his neck stood up. The bite mark he had left on the officer was odd. Casey noticed it had the characteristics of a normal bite mark, but it had a silvery sheen to it, like the man who had bitten him had silver pain in his mouth. The officer twitched a few more times before slowly rising, making the same groaning noises as the first man. The first man had waited for the officer, and now that they stood together side by side, they starting coming after Casey, who stood frozen in his place.

Realizing the danger, Casey shakes his head and books it through a hole in the tent that had been made by the mob of scared civilians, which some of the same ones now stood like the bitten officer, coming after Casey too once they spot him. Casey had no idea where to run to and no idea where he actually was running to, he simply ran. He didn't know how long he had been running for either, he only ran until his chest hurt and he could run no longer. One can imagine that anyone in Casey's situation would do exactly the same thing. After running from them for however long he had, he walked through a little town he had somehow managed to enter along the way.

It was a quaint little town with no nuclear plants or anything like that that Casey could tell. Casey thought all this, catching his breath as he walked down the sidewalks of the roads where no cars drove by, and there were no lights inside the little houses, and all of the curtains were drawn shut. Casey walked up to a house and banged on the door, crying to get in. No answer. He walked to the next, then the next, and on and on, but not a hint of an answer came from any of them. He had even tried to open the last few doors and all of them were locked. Knocking on the final door of his last shred of hope, he heard the clicking of a bolt, the opening of the door, and a hand reaching out to pull him quickly inside. Once inside, the door closed and locked again by someone else apparently. Casey stood frozen from the knife to his throat and a flashlight in his eyes. The light moved from one of his eyes to the other, then was gone, but the knife remained in its spot as a deep voice called out.

"What do you want, traveler?"

"I don't know what you mean," Casey replied, just able to speak at the softest tone.

"What do you want?! You come into our town as dirty and angry as one of those things and scare our little community! So what is it you want that you're here? You're lucky we haven't slit your throat already, so tread lightly, traveler," the man said angrily and impatiently.

"I-I just need some food and shelter. I swear I didn't mean to scare the town. I'm just lost and confused, and don't know what to do."

The man removed the knife from Casey's throat, and the one who was across the room yelling at him turns on a lantern, leaving it on its lowest setting. The light illuminates a few scared faces and Casey looks around at all of them. "I'll give you a few supplies, and you can stay the night since it will be dark soon. After that though, you're on your own. You must leave. I can't take in anymore people, and neither can anybody else. I'm sorry."

"Thank you, and again I'm sorry if I scared any of you, this just... what's going on? I don't know what else to do," he says as he looks at everyone closely in the house with him, saying sorry to them all individually too.

The man who came to be known as George as they all introduced one another, shaking hands and being courteous to each other, brought Casey into the kitchen, where the stove was going a pot of something that smelled good. "Casey," he went one, "you can see how scared these people are, how confused they all are too. We've had to kill a few who had turned. They came through the woods like you had. They had eyes red as blood and looked about ready to pop out of their damn sockets. They took a few of our own. We had no idea something like this was taking place until it was too late for our people. Our community as a whole knew something bad would happen, because we know how the damn government works.

"We prepared, and made plans for anything and everything that could happen, and I'm glad we had. Backup generators help more than you could ever know, and the gas lines are still good for now. I'm glad I never switched over to those stupid electric stoves."

Casey listened with close attention, as best he could, while the smell of the supper got stronger, and smelled great. "I have a boy, about 12 now. He's growing up so fast, but he's still so innocent, and I'm afraid of more of those things showing up to terrorize us."

"Sir," Casey spoke up finally, "they're still people. Those men and women are not things. So please don't talk like that."

"Let me guess, you lost someone close? Whatever you say; all I know is I can't call them people anymore. I can't call on my neighbor Joseph and expect an answer of any kind. I know I can't call my good friend Katrina up anymore. They're not people, they're things that try to bite you and spread what they have. I've come to face that fact already, and now you need to as well. Now, I think you can help feed the others out there. You may be our guest for the night, but seeing as you weren't necessarily invited here, you can help." He turned to Casey with the boiling pot of supper. "Carry it out to the table. I'll be in with a ladle and bowls. You'll be scooping one ladle into each bowl, no more and no less."

Casey went into the dining room and set the pot of food on the table. Someone had turned the lantern up a few clicks while another stood watch at the windows. "Alright guys!" George came in, "dinner is served! You know what to do." They lined up in a row, one by one all of the people in the room stood and lined up near the table; they stood silently, patiently, for their turn to get food. It was a simple meal: cabbage soup. It was nothing to complain about though (except maybe that night.) As Casey scooped out bowls of soup, he awed at the manner in which their plan, over the course of the day, or a few days, he could no longer tell, was succeeding in keeping order and actually working.

The sun went down completely and came back up as it always does. This morning seemed different though. Casey woke up in a sweat dampened shirt, the summer weather and no air conditioning of any kind was hitting Casey already. He looked around and noticed everyone seemed to already be up. There were no birds singing outside. Things seemed way too peaceful inside the house, making Casey uneasy. He went downstairs and plopped down on the living room couch. He had a lot to think about, and he figured now was the perfect time to do that.

**Present**

"Come on, we have to leave now!" Casey screamed at the top of his lungs as John scrambled to his feet, packing everything of his up of his belongings and nodded to Casey when they were both done and standing up. He and Casey ran from exit to exit before finally finding one with the least amount of shiners. They took them out quickly and silently with their knives, one fell with a stab to the heart and a few others went down after with stab wounds to the necks and chests.

**Two Months Ago**

After thinking for a while, George came into the house and went into the kitchen. Casey stood and followed him in. George took the pack he had been carrying and placed it on the table. "That's yours. I suggest you use those supplies wisely. They'll last you about a week if you do," George says as he turns on the faucet and pours himself a bottle of water.

"Sir, thank you for your kindness, but please will you let me stay? I'll pull my weight, my share. I'd be a useful addition to your community. Please, please let me stay," Casey pleaded.

"Casey, I can't let you stay. I told you we have too many people as it is."

"George, I promise you. I won't let you down. I'll prove to you I am a wise decision to keep."

"I'll have to really think about this, and talk with those who actually live in this community. If we all agree to keep you, we will put you through a kind of trial to see if you actually are worth keeping. If you can actually pull your weight around here; and just so you know, it won't be easy for you," George says as he hands Casey a separate bottle of water.

**Present**

Reaching the center of town, Casey and John book it for somewhere to hide or a spot to for a defense to take down as many shiners as they could. "Over there!" John calls out, and they run into the broken down doors of the town library. The shiners follow closely behind, running at their maximum speed which is slower than a live human running but are still able to achieve a quick pace. In the moonlight, their mouths shine brightly from the radiation of their transformation, which is bright silver. Their red eyes deep crimson meaning their next victims would probably be food instead of only just a target to spread their god-awful infection. Together, John and Casey take down the few that had followed them. They fell quickly down to the ground dead.

**One Month Ago**

A month had gone by, and it had only gotten a little bit colder, and the month had changed to August. There had been little to no incidents of the infected appearing in or around town. A few here and there, and once a small mob appeared, but passed as soon as they had come. No infected, and zero non-infected had been injured or killed.

George stepped in through the doorway, carrying a basket of vegetable he had been growing in his garden out back. "I'm glad you asked us to stay," he said, "you've really proven your potential and I thank you for that."

Casey carried a second basket of the vegetables, setting it on the table in the kitchen where George had placed his and patted him on the back. "I'm glad you let me stay. I thank you for that and will probably never be able to repay you for it." He put both baskets worth of veggies in the basement where they'd be kept better since it was colder. As he was putting them away in the basement with George, a blood curdling scream carried its way through the town and into the ears of a man holding a potato and a few carrots in his hands. Casey threw them to the ground and sprinted upstairs as fast as he could. Casey bound outside and stood frozen as George followed closely behind, doing the same thing. What they saw outside was something he'd never seen before. The infected came through the woods, around the trees. They came in massive amounts of numbers, not just spotted here and there.

"How the hell did they grow in formation like that? Did something change in how their infection works? It's like they've learned to group up and take us out like that! I'm giving everyone a decision to either leave or stay and fight. Some might leave, find it hopeless. This is completely up to you, but this is important and you must make it very quickly."

**Present**

Using bookshelves to blockade themselves in until daylight, Casey and John quickly make use of their surroundings and barricade the doors. They search around in the dark for any supplies but come up empty. The dark of night is a bad adversary while trying to make your way through a library, and Casey was finding it just as difficult as John. Using what little moonlight they had, they felt their way along bookshelves until they reached the front entrance again. John had taken some books with him and began tearing them up. Soon enough they had a small fire for warmth and finally some more light. Casey rested back against one of the toppled over bookshelves proving as the barrier from shiners, and closed his heavy eyes slowly and reluctantly, intent on only resting them for a moment

**One Month Ago**

In a quick moving line, Casey grabs one of the many guns off the table that George had put out to prepare for the attack. He steps outside with those that had stayed, looking at the line of trees in the distance. The infected walk toward them; some go slow, some go faster, and all-in-all an overwhelming number of them coming.

George joins all of them, the small group of people, and waited for them to get a little closer. All of them intent and ready to pounce, George called the word and the whole group charged forward into the mass of the infected with rifles and machetes alike.

~Later That Day~

The 'battle' lasted most of the day, and the horde had been disbanded. Casey's people, the uninfected ones, had won. There were losses though. Some of George's neighbors had been bitten and were disposed of and buried properly. They were preparing dinner for that night, though it seemed nobody had their appetite, when Casey appeared through the doorway of the kitchen.

"Oh hey, Casey," George said tiredly and with a downcast tone, "I'm not making much, but it'll be enough for those that still have their appetite for some reason, even after all that's happened today."

Casey sits in one of the pulled out chairs around the table with his arm resting on the table itself saying, "I'm leaving George. I need to get out of here. Who knows when the next horde is going to come, or the next time we lose someone?"

"But you've been a great addition," George responds quickly, seemingly getting agitated, "to our community that is. You've done your part, your share, and you fought great today!"

"That's just the point, George. I don't want to have to be able to defend people from a giant horde when you can just run."

"Running from them isn't going to fix things, Casey! You know that!"

"But it's a hell of a way to do it without killing innocent victims who have suffered with this infection!"

"You're still seeing them as real people! You're soft, you're weak, and you're pathetic! That's your problem. They're still living people in your mind and that's--"

"That's because they are still live people!" Casey interrupts, "they're still living because if you stab one, he or she bleeds; they still breathe, they're still warm to the touch, and they're definitely still moving! So yeah, they're still alive!"

"Can they talk? Can they not try to bite us? Can they remember their birthday, or even their names? Can they remember their real selves at all? I don't think so! Don't you go on claiming that they're still living when all they are is a moving host to some virus or whatever. They still may technically be alive, but they sure as hell are not alive."

They both sit quietly for a short while, simply staring at one another, thinking silently to themselves before Casey speaks up, "I'm still leaving George. There's nothing you can say that will change my mind on that matter."

"So you're just going to leave? Like that, just like that? After you gain our trust and we gained hope and confidence from you, you're just going to leave?"

"I'm sorry George. It's just that--"

"No. Stop. Save it. You'll leave in the morning. We'll send you off right like all the rest of those who had decided to leave. I did give you the choice after all," George seemed to have cooled down. He turns back to the supper as Casey stands and reaches the doorway when he hears George "Well, damn... now the supper's gone and burnt."

**Present**

Light shone through the windows of the library and right into Casey's eyes. He woke with a start, quickly jumping up onto his feet and cursing under his breath that he had fallen asleep when he should have taken watch. John looked happy as he came back into the main room where they had made camp. "I found some cans of fruit and some instant coffee! I'm making us a good breakfast! You're more than welcome to join me!" Casey chuckled - something he hadn't done in a long time - and sat by John and waited for his coffee.

They ate in silence, barely making a noise, being too cautious because of being in a new area. After their meal they took stock of what they had and what they had lost, which was thankfully nothing. Opening the front door back up, they headed out, backs against each other with knives in hand to secure where they were and find out what they can take from town. Two or three shiners were around and were dealt with quickly. John decided to check the shops and around town, leaving Casey with the houses to find medicine, food, or anything useful at all.

Kicking in the front door to his third house now with no luck, Casey is all but ready to give up when he notices something on the counter in the kitchen of this house: a small package of non-perishable food and a note attached saying 'we'll be back every day to check, stay here and be safe'. It looked as though it hadn't been touched in a long time, so Casey grabs it instead. He picks up the whole bag and throws it over his shoulder. Below the bag is a brown notebook. Looks like a journal Casey thinks to himself and picks it up. It looks weatherworn and used. The leather is torn and dirty, and the corners are worn out. He removes the front strap and opens the front page. He sets down the bag of food and leans against the counter as he reads the first entry.

_ _

December 30, 2043

_ _

Dear Diary,

This is my first diary entry, so I don't know what to put, so I guess I'll just but the basics in. Hi, my name is Terri Baldsing, and I'm 14 (in February). I have a younger sister, Chloe. She's six, and she's pretty annoying at times (I still love her though. My mom is named Betty Marston Baldsing. She says she's 29. (I don't believe that though) My dad is named Rick Baldsing, and he's 38. I love all of them so much. It's also weird calling you like you're a person, diary, and I'm just writing these notes to you, but I guess that's how it works. I got you for Christmas. I've never had a diary before, and I've always wanted one. The front of you isn't too girly, but I s'pose that's okay. Well I gotta go! We're all going to grandmas for some holiday thing or something like that. Talk to you later, Diary!

-TB

Casey closes the diary and puts the cord back into place to keep it shut, then pockets the diary, wanting to read more into the life of Terri. He didn't think it was weird, or creepy. She's probably dead or something and he's commemorating her life in the best way he can. He thinks all this to himself as he searches the rest of the houses on the block.

**One Month Ago**

"I'm upset to see you go, Casey."

"I know, George, it's just something I have to do," Casey says, standing outside George's house, a few people watching in the background. Casey shifts his supplies and the pistol George had given him around to get it to fit comfortably. "I will see you all soon, when this is all over. I'm going to DC, to see if they have something at the CDC. It's probably unlikely, but it's still worth a shot. If anything, the capitol should have it, if not anywhere else."

"I better. Now you stay safe Casey, and are sure to come back with that cure you're looking for," George replies as he slowly backs up, watching Casey turn and walk toward the woods to the northeast.

Casey travels for days, on his way to DC. He stops a few times to search for food, to eat, and to hide from any infected. Being sneaky as possible anywhere he goes, walking around a small group of travelling infected when the group drops completely dead, gun fire heard close in the distance. Once the last of them drops, a small group walks quickly past the dead infected, looking around quickly. Casey steps slowly down the alley he had been hiding in and backs into a dumpster that wheels itself into some garbage cans. 'Shit', Casey says under his breath. The group stops and raises their weapons toward the alley where they had heard the noise. Casey figures all is lost and raises his hands and slowly steps from the shadows. The group becomes alert and looks closely at Casey before dropping their weapons to their sides.

"You infected?" one of them calls out.

"N-no, I'm not," Casey replies back.

"Who's the president?" another asks.

"Um... Ron Krumbel." The group relaxes a bit more after Casey calls this back to them. They walk up to him and keep on high alert anyhow. Later that day, after Casey tells them what happened and they shared a little info, one of the members of their group falls slumped over onto her knees.

"What's going on?" Casey asks in panic as he watches the woman slumped over.

"We haven't been able to find any insulin. We ran out about a week ago, and all the pharmacies around here are out," another woman says after running to the fallen over one. Casey hears soft crying of the second woman, and can hear her saying things such as 'it's alright, baby, you're okay. Just hold on, we'll get you some medicine, just please stay strong for us baby.' Casey doesn't know what to do except stand there and wait with the others.

"You're more than welcome to my medicine. I don't think I have anything worthwhile, but it's still here for you."

"Thank you, stranger." One man grabs the pack and searches through the medicine. He doesn't find anything useful and puts it all back. "No luck. Sorry Claire."

"It's okay Josh. She should be okay shortly. We need to get her some medicine though."

"I know, I know. We will. Just a little bit farther, okay?"

"Shiner at three o' clock!" one of the group members says. Another group member pulls out his knife and runs to the infected. It slumps over dead on the ground shortly thereafter.

"What did you call that person?" Casey can't help but to ask.

"I called it a shiner. If you look closely, their mouths are shiny, like silver." The man says coming back with the knife. "So is their blood. It's the chemicals or radiation or whatever from the plants."

"Do any of you know about that? About the radiation, I mean. Will it last; or will there be a cure soon; or if it will go away? If it is going to stay, will we always be susceptible to it, or if we even know where it is?"

"Lucky for you stranger, is that I have a map of the US with all marked locations of the plants and any area that may be dangerous. I used to work for the government. How they didn't come up with a backup plan for when we ran out of fuel I have no clue. I tried to warn them, but they wouldn't listen. Typical government, am I right?

"Anyway, if you get a map, we can copy the locations." Casey nods and they get moving again once the woman gains her ground again. After Casey had found a map and they copied locations, they split ways, leaving Casey alone to continue his journey to DC.

**Present**

Having agreed to meet at the library again once they were done searching, Casey awaits and waits for John. The sun hanging low in the sky, autumn quickly approaching, makes the days shorter but the temperature not going down all too much. Casey grows impatient and goes searching for John. He searches all around town in the shops that he was supposed to be searching for supplies in.

He opens the door to the local drugstore and is caught off guard by a shiner tackling him right inside the entrance. After wrestling with it for a short while, Casey sticks his knife into the skull of the shiner, killing it. He stands up and searches the aisles. In one of which he finds John's packs. He calls out quietly for him. No answer. He calls out again a little louder. Again no reply is heard. Sighing, Casey grabs John's pack and heads into the back of the store. Before Casey is able to walk inside, he looks over to find some movement behind the counter to the pharmacy area. Slowly and quietly stepping over to the counter, he leans over to see what the movement is.

**Two Weeks Ago**

Casey continues his journey onward, setting up small camps along the way each night and marking his progress to DC each night on the map, making sure to avoid any place that may be contaminated. The sun began to set low in the sky, and he decided to set camp up for the night. He had entered a small town in Tennessee. He took out the shiners quietly with his knife that were at the spot he had decided to make his camp by sneaking around them and stabbing them in the back of the head to take them out. He entered one of the little buildings along the main road of the town. A fire was set up shortly, Casey keeping it small to keep attention away from him. As he was setting up his supper of pork and beans, a noise from the other side of the building grabbed his attention.

He set his supper down quietly and picked his knife back up. Stepping as quietly as possible, he makes his way to the other side of the building. Upon opening the door, he sees the glowing light of a fire and a man huddled close by it, rubbing his hands together to keep warm. "You there, put your hands up!" Casey calls out, keeping his knife up, the light of the fire shining off the metal as he steps into the room.

The man jumped, standing up quickly and raising his hands up high. "It wasn't me! Oh wait... You've got the wrong man! No... I'm not infected! There we go!" He looks into Casey's eyes and drops his hands. Casey quickly crosses the room and pats the man down, dropping the knife to his side as he feels no weapons.

"What are you doing and are you following me?"

"What's with the questions? I don't even know you, man. I'm John Carnell, pleased to meet you. Even though you tried to almost kill me and are interrogating me," he says as he extends his hand.

Casey squints his eyes in suspicion, but accepts the hand handshake, adding in, "Casey Blackwell." John nods and they shake hands.

"So Casey, where are you headed to? I'm on my way to DC; I heard it's real nice there. There's no radiation, no infected. It's supposed to be real nice."

"I'm on my way to DC too, to see if they have--"

"Oooh, want to tag along with me? We could protect one another and everything!" John says, cutting Casey off.

"I suppose we could, just don't slow me--"

"Great! We'll leave in the morning! Now, I need some shuteye. You're welcome to stay here if you'd like." Casey sighs and goes back to his own camp to eat his supper. He goes to bed shortly after, knife near him at all times. In the morning, with getting very little real shuteye himself, he puts out the little embers to his fire and packs up. As he steps outside, he sees John sitting on the curb right by the building. He turns around and jumps up, allowing Casey to get a better look in the daylight. Probably in his late twenties, from what Casey could tell. He seems little ditzy, but probably smart.

"I didn't know you camped out in the same building..." he goes on, "anyway, you ready to get to DC?" Casey nods and they start walking down the main road that would take them to the capitol.

**A Few Days Ago**

"Well Casey, it's getting late. Want to set camp up?"

"We're so close to DC though!"

"It's still a long ways away by foot, and it's unsafe to travel in the dark."

"Let's take a car! We should have done that a long time ago!"

"Too dangerous and do you really think it's possible with so many other cars on the road and near the road as well. I thought you'd get that much. I thought I was the dumb one."

"Fine... we'll set camp up and stay here for a short while, and then move on. We need supplies anyway. Good thing there's a town nearby."

"How does that abandoned factory thing look for a camp?"

"Close enough I guess. I'm just tired. If it's safe enough, we'll scrounge for supplies in the morning."

"So cranky."

"I'm not cranky, John. I'm just exhausted from travelling for so long, and I'm hungry."

"Same thing."

"Oh, shut up, John," they both chuckle softly at one another.

**Present**

Looking across the counter, Casey keeps his knife high in the air. John stands up, turns toward Casey and yells in surprise.

"Jeez Casey, don't do that!"

"Where the hell have you been?"

"So much medicine! I'm searching through what we need."

"How did you get past that shiner?"

"There was one of those?"

"Yeah, it was at the entrance."

"Well, I was considered a ninja before all of this happened."

"You're a moron, is what you are. Now come on, John. We have to get going. It's getting late. We should head back to the library. It's the closest thing we have to a secure location for the moment. We'll leave in the morning."

"Fine, let me just go through the rest of this medicine. I'm almost done."

"Alright, I'll be waiting by the entrance. Your pack is with me as well."

John waves Casey off as he goes back to the prescription medicines, looking through them. Casey rolls his eyes and looks through the rest of the aisles of the drugstore for things they might need and putting them in the pack.

A short while later, John comes back with a rather large bag of medicine, making Casey roll his eyes and pick up his pack, tossing John his own. "You're carrying all that stuff, and it better not slow us down."

"Oh quit worrying so much, Casey. Are you ready to go? Good, then let's roll out and go back to the library. You said we're leaving tomorrow? Okay, that works. This place doesn't really have much anyway. You find anything?"

"Yeah, I got some food and other than beans for once, and some other essentials as well. We'll sort it out once we get back. Now hurry the hell up."

~Later at the Library~

"It secure now?"

"I believe so, yeah. These bookshelves seem sturdy enough. They worked well enough last night."

"Alright," Casey says as he prepares the fire. "I'll heat us up something to eat. You can take stock of everything. I found this, so put it in this for now." He says as he tosses the diary he had found to John.

"But Casey, this has a little girl's diary entries in here," he says rooting through the pages, "and quite a few of them too! I can't write in here, it's not right!"

"John, have you seen the situation we're in or are you just a fool? She's probably dead by now, or infected, and it doesn't matter. Put the stock in after all of the entries, and then at least all of her entries will still be preserved."

"You've changed from when we first met. I'll admit it wasn't that long ago, but it's long enough in my book, and I can tell these kinds of things. You've shown a change, and not for the better either, buddy."

"What did you used to do before all of this?"

"I used to be a behavioral psychologist. It was more for men and women who had lost a limb or their mind that were in the armed services."

"That makes a lot of sense," Casey says as he settles into his seat, "just write after all of the entries. I actually wanted to read the entries. Keeping progress and such in the same book will be like a two-in-one kind of deal."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll write it down, don't worry."

"Good. But leave it for now because supper's on!"

"Oh, yum; what're we having?"

The sun peeked through the windows of the library, causing Casey to jump at the sudden light, waking him up with a start. He looks around and stands up. He puts a little more fuel on the almost dead fire to makes some more coffee and some breakfast. A short while after John wakes up and stretches while yawning, still laying down.

"I got better sleep than I thought I would. How about you Casey? Get any good sleep?" he says to Casey who looks like he might have a heart attack. Casey puts a finger to his lips as if to silence him. "What is it...?" he turns around to find an infected right behind him. He instantly freezes for a few moments before reaching over as silently he can to grab a machete.

He grabs his bag, dragging it as slowly and quietly as possible. As the bag reaches him, his machete that was sitting just inside whit the opening of the bag facing opposite of John, falls out, making a large clattering sound of metal against the floor, ringing and clinging until it lays silent on the floor. John freezes again, staring hard at the machete and the bag. Casey watches as the shiner turns around at its own leisurely pace. Casey looks at the sitting still John.

"John, get it now and kill it! John! John, hurry before it turns around!" Casey whispers in his best sotto voice.

John shakes his head and snaps out of his frozen state. He grabs the weapon with a great reach and stands up to look at the shiner face-to-face. He raises the machete and the shiner groans and growls at him, all while John throws his arm down, landing a fatal blow to the neck, cutting deep and almost reaching halfway through with his swing. The shiner groans and shakes, spurting blood from its neck and running out of its mouth, its red eyes wide in terror as it quickly bleeds out to complete death. It falls over dead shortly thereafter and John pulls the machete from its neck.

"That was a close call. How the hell did it even get in here?" Casey asks as they scour the building for clues.

"You know as much as I do, man. Hey, why didn't you help? You could have killed that thing on your own without needing to alert me or have me nearly die."

"Honestly?" John nods. "Fine, John. Honestly, I didn't notice the thing until you started talking to me. I never even looked over toward you."

John replies sarcastically, "So good to know someone's got my back, whoever that is. I feel really safe. Over here, I found something." Casey walks over to where John is, near the wall. Rats - pretty dead ones - litter the area. They have bite marks and have large chunks missing from many of them. "He must have gotten hungry, found a way in, ate some rats, and then couldn't find is way back out."

"I think it's about time we got out of here."

"Hold on Casey, I want to see where he got in from, because you and I could take them down, however many of them there may be, and we could just stay here."

"Come on, John, let's go! I know where we have to go, and we have to get there before it's too late! I need to know if it's still okay."

"Where do you want to go anyway, huh? Where you do thing in this whole God forsaken planet is safe from those creatures? What is so goddamned important to you? I'm sick and tired of traveling, always moving. If we can secure a place, then we can keep ourselves alive, and we can stay safe, have food, start a farm or something, and live safer instead of always moving into new territory that neither one of us know in places that can have rogues or the shiners or both!"

"There's a place, John, up north, that I have been lead to believe is a better place. It may be cold, but it could be the chance we need to survive in the long run. The CDC in Washington DC should hopefully have some sort of research too. They should also have power, because if I know the government, they will have tons of resources leftover and all of them focused on working at the CDC to find some sort of cure. They should have been better prepared for something like this to happen. Some sort of precaution or anything really. They knew we'd eventually run out of fuel, and finding enough material to mass produce enough alternative energy sources on such short time was nearly impossible. But if they have a cure, or even a preventative, I will find it, and I will use it.

"As for you, you don't have to keep travelling with me if you don't want to! You agreed to travel with me! Go ahead and try to survive on your own. That's perfectly fine with me!"

There was a long silence with the both of them simply staring into different directions before John finally sighed and nodded. He then walked around the bookshelf toward the front of the building. Casey sighed himself after another few moments of standing still, looking at the decaying rats with the bites out of them. He turned around and walked to the front of the building.

Having both backpacks with him, plus the semi-large bag of medicines and other things, John is waiting at the front barricaded entrance to the library. Casey signs again and steps up to John, taking his backpack off of him, making sure everything is secure before stepping outside with John, once the barricade had been removed. "Alright, let's go," Casey says, and they start walking.

They travel many miles, the both of them, setting up camps, scrounging for food, and surviving along the way. By the time they reach the road marker for the District of Columbia, they are both completely exhausted. The air had become cleaner as no power plants or chemical weapon plants were permitted to be built within a two hundred mile radius of DC, due to the president, white house, pentagon, and other national security detail buildings were located within it. That was the main reason DC was one of the most expensive places to live in the US. They had safe-zones where there were no chemicals near it, but those were probably overrun with shiners by now.

As they neared closer to DC itself though, the air had gotten dark and ashen with dirty clouds. The air grew dimmer as the smoke began to haze over the brightness of the sun. They reached a barrier that had been put up by the US army, as it clearly showed by all of the banners and signs along it. There were piles of dead bodies all around the border, but none that were still alive that either of them could see. There were no guards at any posts. No noises from inside the barriers. Nothing could be heard. It felt to them as though national security was no more, and that the nation was dead as a whole. "Well, let's not waste any more time. Let's get going in. You got any ideas on how to get in?"

"Well we could search the entire barrier, or climb it, or, um, I don't know exactly." The air felt hard to breathe in as they searched along the sightline of the barrier. A red color overtook the whites and grays of the clouds as well, looking like a sky of fire.

"Let's just climb the wall," John says.

"How? I can't really find any foot holds anywhere."

"I'll boost you up," he says as he cups his hands together and leans against the wall, "come on, it'll be easy. Then all you have to do is pull me up. Just be careful of the razor wire is all."

"Fine, fine..." Casey sighs out and places his foot in John's cupped hands. After a count to three, Casey jumps and John throws his hands up with Casey's jump. Casey grabs onto the top of the wall and almost slips trying to get all the way up while attempting to avoid the razor wire. Have a firm stance on top of the wall, Casey moves the razor wire away from him as best as he can and lays down, dangling his arm down. John crouches and jumps as high as he can, grabbing onto Casey's arms and using them to place is feet against the wall, climbing as Casey pulls him up, trying not to fall down or get stuck on the wire.

After a long time slowly climbing the wall as carefully as they can, they both jump down on the other side of the wall. "Holy Christ..." they both say, arms heavy at their sides as the weight of reality crushes them like little ants. "How the hell could this happen! God dammit!" John screams out, dropping to his knees. Beyond any point of the wall now lies a decimated pile of the ruins of Washington. Bodies lie scattered all over, or rather the ones that were actually dead, and not walking with red eyes and burnt skin. Fires lay waste in many directions, claiming the city its own.

"This place was supposed to be a safe haven! How could this happen? Hurry, follow me!" Casey runs off into the chaos that was now DC.

"Where are you going!"

"Just follow me, dammit!" Running quickly after Casey, John sighs and follows reluctantly.

Running through ruined Washington for quite some time, through the desolation, Casey kept on going, street by street and building by building until the CDC was in view. A large white building with large triple-paned windows all along its sides and a large unlit sign above the main set of doors saying 'Center for Disease Control' lay in front of them. Around the building lay bodies and turrets and dead soldiers, filling the yard around the building as well, given that the building was not surrounded by other buildings and instead given its own block, smartly placed by the government.

"Was this what you were looking for?" Casey asks, pointing at the darkened building. Neither one of them could tell if it was the smoke that covered the sun or the fact that there was no one inside that made the place seem so dark and mysterious, but John nodded and reluctantly swallowed.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this. How could this happen? Why..." John couldn't finish his sentence as he began to weep.

"Maybe there's still someone inside. Maybe there's still hope. Perhaps, maybe if we..."

"Don't you get it yet, Casey?! There's no hope for us! Ever since this thing started we have had no hope whatsoever! We are lost in this world, Casey. Things will never change. They will never get better. We certainly don't have any hope, either!"

"I understand, but we should really keep it down, John. We don't want any of those things to fund us if they haven't already."

"What's the point of keeping it down anymore!? Why does it matter if they find us or not? You obviously don't get it, Casey. If there's no hope for us, and there's not, then what's the point of living anymore? We might as well be one of them!"

Casey sighs and runs up to the doors of the CDC building and slams on them with his fists, screaming at the doors to open. To let them in. The sound of the shiners coming upon them at all angles, the pounding of the doors, and the sound of John weeping was heard throughout the block. Casey comes back a few minutes later, tired and hopeless and pale as a ghost.

"What's the point of all of this? Why was I left to survive all of this?"

"It's all for a reason, John. You just have to figure it out."

"What's the point?"

"Well, John, it's for a reason."

"What's the point, God..." he is cut off short by the crunching sound of a metal door opening, and a blinding light coming from the opened door of the CDC. The security door opened upward, and a voice sounded from inside. A megaphone. The sound of the shiners got closer and closer as the both of them stood up, walking toward the entrance slowly, an obvious camera above the door moving to their motions, the dot on its front blinking as if alive.

"Quick! Get in here now! If you want to live get in here! Quickly, before they shut because they won't open again once they do!"