THE DEAD CHRONICLES
PART I
CHAPTER I
It’s really amazing what the world looks like after the apocalypse. I say that not fully knowing if civilization has truly ended. But more than likely, if civilization still exists it’s on a very small scale. As for why, most of the world’s population is either dead or undead. The rest are possibly bunkered in very small communities. Throughout the years the undead have had many different names; zombies, walkers, wanderers, the biters, etc., etc. The fact remains is that at some point, for some reason, instead of people dying when they died, they got back up and started attacking those still alive. Throughout this (diary?Is that what this is?) story I will reveal some of events as I have learned that lead to the apocalypse. But all in good time.
All I know is that with most of the living humans wiped off the face of the planet and nature beginning to take back over, the world looks (and sounds) different. The clear sky is a deep blue; the night sky is full of stars that people haven’t seen since at least the 1700s or earlier. But mostly, it’s quiet. Like eerily quiet. Even during the day when you can see for miles there are hardly any natural sounds, the traffic sounds that most people became accustomed to are now gone, replaced by nothing. There are of course nature sounds but not what I would have expected. Maybe it has something to do with the dead still walking around, this one I actually have no answer for.
It’s hard to believe that it has been only ten years since the era of humans came to an end. I was living in the city of Stantonsville, Arkansas at the time. It was a modest sized town between Little Rock and Ft. Smith on the Interstate 40 system (it was part of the interstate system that ran throughout what was then the United States. It was designed to make travel easier and faster). At the time we had a fairly large sized lake. There was also the dam on the Arkansas River. All that is gone now. The dam was destroyed about two years after the end when it had been severely weakened by the spring rains. When it collapsed, and the lake emptied to the east, it was almost magical. Most of the walkers that were still left in the area were washed towards Little Rock, but they would eventually make their way back. The Arkansas River is slowly taking back the land that humans had taken from it. The area where the lake had been has turned back into the marshy lands that existed before the dam had been built creating the lake.
I was lucky in those first days, I escaped to an empty house up on a hill overlooking the interstate and the lake that was in a closed neighborhood completely fenced off. This area eventually became a small community that I loved dearly. I thought that I would never have any reason to leave. I had no one to leave for and I was set up in a pretty decent area. But as is human nature, I eventually did leave. I always regretted leaving, but I had to. The things I discovered after leaving …
But I’m getting ahead of myself. If you are reading this you have your own versions of what happened, unless you were born after, but you would probably like to know everything that happened up to this point, from my point of view (because of what I did discover). You know I survived. Some of the details simply aren’t important. So, I will give you my point of view of what happened, only to an extent (some of it like I said just doesn’t matter to the story. Some of it I don’t wish to share. I don’t know that I will ever want to share some of what happened). This is about what happened to lead to the point that you are reading this. But as stories dictate you do deserve to have some background information on me at the very least.
My name is Liam Thompson and there was never anything special about me when the world ended. I was a history professor at Stantonsville University. I had no family. I was an only child to Theresa and Matthew Thompson. They died in a car accident, three days after I graduated college with my Doctorate in History. I had never gotten married and I had no kids. Like I said, nothing special and nothing remarkable.
I was 41 when the end came. I looked like most normal guys around my age. Brown hair, beard with some grey in it. A little pudgy. I was no Adonis, but I enjoyed my life. I had always been single and often preferred it that way. I had no idea that my solitary life style would, in a way, prepare me for life after the dead rising.
Anyways, I remember what it was like when we became very aware that everything was coming to an end. The death had not yet come to Stantonsville when we began to see the images on the news, but even today I am still shocked at how fast it came. It has always been portrayed in media (when a reason was given) that the virus (or sickness) was already in humans it just needed a bolt to start. I had never seen anything suggesting that this could be spread through the air. Even at that time and for quite a time I never believed it could be spread through the air. I was so wrong. It was scary for everyone involved and no one knew quite how to take it. Even though I was nothing special or remarkable (yes, I realize that I keep commenting on not believing myself as nothing special or remarkable. That’s a product of the media that had been written about zombies. You never really saw normal people rise to the top) my students seemed to love me, so some of them looked to me for what to do. Sadly, I had no answers for them. I had been teaching for about four years at that point and was known campus wide as someone who was an advocate for the students and would do anything to help.
But I digress. It was towards the end of April and I was sitting in my office grading papers while putting off a book I had been writing on and off for six years (funny that) when one of my students came busting through the door:
***
“Mr. Thompson have you heard what’s going on in New York and Los Angeles?” Sheila said excitedly.
Sheila was one of my sophomore basketball players and had taken most of the classes that I offered. She was cute, completely in shape, blond hair, blue eyes. The typical all-American girl. She was decent at basketball but wasn’t a starter and wasn’t a star. But she was an excellent student who had a love for history that I greatly admired.
Without looking up I said, “I’ve heard that they believe there is some super flu or cold going around. But I hardly think that’s worth barging into my office like some wild woman.” I looked up at her giving her my serious, yet not serious look.
“I’m sorry Mr. Thompson but something else is going on. It’s on every channel. You have to come with me downstairs.”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say it’s serious enough that the school has put up a TV downstairs so that people can watch. Are you coming?”
I blew out some air, leaned back and scratched the back of my head, “Yeah, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” Sheila ran out of my office and I slowly stood up and walked out of my office into the larger office of the History Department. I realized that all the smaller offices were empty and only the secretary was in the larger office.
“Did I forget about a meeting, Karla.” I asked as I walked up to her desk. Karla was an older woman who had been the secretary for the History office for 30 years. She was 65 and had planned to retire at the end of the school year. Even at the age of 65 she was a fairly attractive woman. Her hair was grey and up in a bun. Sadly, she never made it to retirement, but she didn’t. As it turned out she didn’t even make it to the next day.
She looked at me surprised. “Liam, haven’t you been paying attention to the news?”
“Is this about what’s going on in New York and LA?”
“And Chicago, Atlanta, San Fran, DC. All the major areas are being affected and they are no longer saying that it’s some kind of super bug.” For the first time I noticed the worry that was on her face and realized that something seriously wrong was going on.
&n
bsp; We looked at each other for moment as I attempted to find some words of encouragement for her. Not being able to find any words as the first initial wave of fear crept into my mind I just simply said, “Well Sheila said they have a TV set up downstairs, so I’m going to join the students. I’ll talk to you later Karla.”
Karla smiled weakly and said, “Talk to you later Liam.”
We would never speak again.
***
I finally got downstairs where the TV had been set up and for the first time saw what was going on. It was horrible, the images they were flashing on the screen. Though it was true that the networks were no longer saying that it was a super bug the government continued to call it a super bug long after they had lost control.
At that time no one realized we were watching the end of human civilization, though looking back on it we should have. All the major cities had already collapsed into anarchy. Rioters were everywhere. Mind you, at this point no camera had actually captured one of the dead attacking a living person. No camera had captured one of the dead at all.
That would change really damn quick. Not only in the larger cities but right here in Stantonsville as well.
As I stood there with about ten faculty and forty students watching all the different scenes playing out in front of us, an anchor suddenly cut in:
“At this time, we are cutting into our coverage to show you something that was recorded a few days ago in St. Louis. We do need to warn our viewers that what you are about to see is very disturbing. If you have weak stomachs or do not wish to watch please look away now. We have argued in the offices for days whether or not to show this footage but have decided for public awareness to show the footage.”
I quickly looked around the room and noticed that not a single person looked away, or turned around, or walked away. I wish that I had, though I would come to see this same type of stuff happen time and time again from that point on, walked away. That image, out of everything that I have seen, is the image that will always stay with me.
The screen was filled with a very shaky recording. All we saw in frame was a black man that looked incredibly sick and dehydrated slowly walking (it was closer to a limp but not quite a limp) through the street. He was making some kind of strange growling sound and there was a second gurgling sound that was also coming somewhere from him. He was in profile to the camera and we could only see the left half of his body. Suddenly the man behind the camera, realizing who the man was shouted out to him.
“Yo, Curtis! What the hell’s wrong with you man? Why you out walking around when you’re supposed to be at home sick.”
Curtis did not respond, only kept walking down the street. It was at this moment I realized he was actually only walking with one leg. The other one was limp beside him being dragged behind him. A thought came over me that no human should be able to be walking like that without being in immense pain. His friend yelled out to him again.
“Curtis, what the hell man! You been in an accident?” At this point the friend began walking towards Curtis. “Curtis why are you ignoring me?”
Curtis, suddenly realizing that someone was talking to him turned towards the camera. Every person watching that video visibly gasped as they saw Curtis full on for the first time and realized half his face was gone.
Curtis’ friend begin gasping loudly trying to speak but only able to stutter toward his friend. Curtis turned his full body and began moving towards the camera and the growling became louder. Oddly enough the first thought I had as Curtis came closer to the camera was that he looked almost starved and was needing something to eat. I could have never imagined that what he was actually “hungry” for (yes, I know that is a cheesy line but I can’t help what I was thinking or how to describe what was about to happen).
The friend started yelling at Curtis to stop, but he didn’t stop. At some point the cameraman had pulled out a gun and shot Curtis straight through the chest knocking him to the ground.
“No wonder they argued about showing this. That was brutal.” Said one of the students I didn’t know gathered to watch.
Suddenly several of us noticed that Curtis had sat up. Throughout, the cameraman had been shouting and cussing at Curtis for making him shoot Curtis and how he would never forgive him for it and yelling for God to forgive him. I assume the man had been looking up or down or had closed his eyes and had not known that Curtis had stood back up and was once again coming towards him. I also don’t know why the cameraman had continued to record. I guess it was a sign of the times. Record everything, at all times.
Next to me, silently, one of the professors just plainly said “What the fuck?” No one around him paid any attention to him.
We all continued to watch as Curtis crept ever closer to his friend. Finally, the friend had noticed what was happening.
“Curtis? What the hell? I shot you straight through the chest. How are you still alive?”
Suddenly a loud piercing scream could be heard coming over the sound on the TV, followed by a stream of blood coming over the camera. In the next second the camera, or phone, or whatever the friend had been using had fallen to the ground providing everyone a vantage of what was producing the scream.
It was the friend screaming as Curtis had attacked him and completely bitten off his nose and was now chewing into his throat. Several of the students began screaming or crying, some were doing both. I was completely awestruck. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. I wanted to look away, but for some reason I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. This was something that we had all seen in movies, or other media, and this shouldn’t have really shocked anyone. But with it being real, on the news, a whole new fear ripped through my brain. What the hell was going on? This must be fake. Is this what’s causing all the unrest in the cities?
The screen abruptly cut back to the anchor who, even with make up on, had gone pale. Despite having seen the footage before he was still shaken by what he had seen. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have no idea what is going on, but we have gotten similar reports out of every major city in America. The footage that we just showed you was the cleanest that we could find. Again, we have no idea what’s going on. We have asked the White House and the CDC for comment but have received no reply. We will continue to report on this and as soon as we hear something we will let you know.”
I turned from the screen and just stood there not sure what to do next. One of the girls that was watching suddenly burst out screaming how these were the end of days and that God was finally punishing us for all of our sins and that of the government. This sparked a yelling debate between several of the students on whether these were indeed the end of days.
It’s strange how, when people think the end is near (whether it’s an apocalypse or something less severe like a car wreck) they immediately turn to their religion. I mean, I get it, you think there’s a chance you are going to die you want to make sure you’re good with your god once that inevitably comes to pass. What you often don’t see in these moments are atheists speaking up to convince people their gods don’t exist.
Being an atheist, myself, I knew it was time for me to exit stage left, if not for anything else, so as not to get pulled into the debate that was currently roiling throughout the hall.
As I walked out of the room one of my favorite students, Steve, came running up behind me. I say that he was one of my favorite students but truth be known he was horrible in class. Never paid attention, nearly bombed all of his tests, just did enough to skate by on. He was definitely one of my favorite people. We both had an undying love for all things Star Wars and Star Trek. We loved fantasy and sci-fi equally. He would often come into my office and we would talk away about stupid things that really didn’t matter to anyone else. He was like a son to me.
Steve had the typical nerd look (being a nerd when I was younger was another reason he and I clicked); glasses, short scraggly hair, button down shirt, slacks. Though again, he wasn’t the greatest student in the world, but I
always believed that to be because he was extremely intelligent, and classes just bored him.
“So, prof. What do you think?”
“I think I won’t be able to eat for a few days after seeing that.”
“True but didn’t that kind of look like a zombie to you?” We had often talked of the undead, zombies, whatever you want to call them, often also remarking that in every game, book, movie, or TV show made about zombies it was never mentioned once how situations resembled those in other media.
My first thought was that he was insane, that zombies only existed in the fictional world. So it surprised me a little when the words that came out of my mouth were, “Yeah, Steve, it kind of did.”
We had been walking towards the stairwell that would take us to the History floor and his question caused me to slow and then my answer caused him to stop with a look of deep concern in his face. I stopped and turned to him. After a few moments of deep internal thinking that Steve was doing he looked at me.
“So?” he asked.
“So, what?”
“In all those movies and books and what-not how did they finally beat the zombies. I figure we can at least get a heads up and try some things and maybe prevent this from getting as bad as they always do.”
I don’t really remember what went through my mind at that moment. Possibly the absurdity of the conversation that we were having, or Steve’s suggestion that two nerds could do anything to stop what was or was not coming. Whatever was going through my mind caused me to laugh, hard. I couldn’t help myself but I just stopped and started laughing uncontrollably. Next thing I knew Steve had started laughing as well. We couldn’t stop. Several people walked passed us with disgusted looks on their faces. We laughed for several minutes before either one of us could get under control, tears rolling down our faces.
Still laughing I looked at him and said, “Most don’t have a way to beat the dead.”
“World War Z did.” Steve said talking about the movie that had come out some years before.
The Dead Chronicles (Book 1): The Dead Chronicles Page 1