Outbreak of the Living Dead

by Aaron Guerra

  “Well why the hell can’t they talk?! They’re dead bodies that wake up and try to eat us! They defy science altogether! So yes! She talked! She said…” Sarah said before she was cut off. The air vent’s cover from above came crashing down next to them. They slowly looked up to see the skull of Sammie through the darkness with blood dripping out of it‘s mouth.

  “I WANT YOUR BRAINS!” Sammie screamed with blood spilling out of her open mouth. Both women began to scream as loud as they could as they ran through the hallway in the direction of the Cafeteria.

  They continued to run down the hall past the rotting corpses that Luke and Sarah killed off earlier. Roxanne noticed that the new creature was following them through the ventilation up above. It was crawling through it fast, faster than any of those monsters they‘ve seen so far.

  “Sarah! We’re almost to the Cafeteria! We’re going to make it!” Roxanne said in relief. In front of the large double doors that led to the room with the other survivors, the red corpse came bursting out from the ceiling to block their way. Only her body was dangling upside down with more of it’s flesh sliding off it’s red bones.

  “Sammie, what’s happened to you?!” Sarah had said to the revived girl. It growled and snarled while scratching the air around it.

  “WHO’S OUT THERE?!” It was the principal’s voice that was coming from inside the large room. “Roxanne?! Have you brought help?!” Joe said within the Cafeteria. The boney creature slid back into the vents without making a sound after it heard his voice.

  “Principal! I have Officer Parson here with me! Please, unlock the door and let us in!” Roxanne said to him. The man hit the door with his fist as his eyes closed from disappointment.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow that, Ms. Delarosa,” said Joe.

  Sarah carefully walked to the doors with her hand grabbing the handle.

  “LET US IN DAMN IT!” She demanded. The principal started to laugh from what he could hear.

  “I never did like you, Sarah Parson! Always causing trouble with that good for nothing Luke Reno! I will never open these doors! I am in charge of this school! I am…I…” his voice began to crack up towards the end. Sarah took a step back when the man started to scream out in pain. From behind the doors, she could hear something being banged against the walls before it suddenly stopped.

  “P-Principal White?” Roxanne had said his name. She didn’t want to die in the hallway. She used Luke’s pipe to break the protective glass for the fire extinguisher next to her on the wall. The woman came over to Sarah with it in her hand. “Move over! I‘m tired of his shit!” she said to her. She started to hit the doorknob with all of her strength. After a minute had passed, the officer moved her aside to kick the doors open. The two women cautiously walked into the room.

  “Oh no…” Sarah said in a low tone. There was nothing left but one of the principal’s shoes in a puddle of blood in front of them near the entrance. They looked up to see blood dripping from the large hole that was made in the ceiling.

  “S-Serves him right! He was always a monster towards the children, including some of the faculty!” Roxanne said. The officer started to walk into the Cafeteria without making a sound. When she entered the area, she noticed that there was no one there to be found.

  “Did, Did that bastard kick them out?!” Sarah said in anger.

  Roxanne ran past Sarah to check the back of the kitchen where she was last time.

  “The door is closed. There’s no sign of a struggle or from any of those creatures. He must’ve sent them out with Chris to find help,” Roxanne said. Sarah placed her pistol into it’s holster and kicked a chair away. “That coward! That bastard! That-That…” she said to herself. Roxanne went to Sarah with her eyes full of hatred. “That asshole. If only I knew what he was planning, I would’ve stayed behind and prevented it,” she said with her face turning red from frustration. They sat down at one of the long tables to take a break. Sarah remembered something about this room.

  “I almost forgot! I left my supplies in here earlier!” she said. Sarah looked around the area from the first time they were there. “The bags missing. I had two clips left and another pistol in it,” said Sarah. Roxanne rubbed her hands together with a confident smile on her face.

  “I could use something that can kill those things from a distance. I don’t like my chances of survival with Luke’s pipe. Even if it has saved our lives a few times already,” said Roxanne.

  The officer gave a weak smile before she removed her gun’s holster from her side. She gave Roxanne both the holster and the gun.

  “You can use this then. I think it’s only right that I use his weapon of choice,” Sarah said. The science teacher blushed a tad bit when she accepted the handgun.

  “Yes, I think Luke would’ve wanted you to have it,” she said. The woman placed the long piece of metal into Sarah’s hands. Roxanne removed her lab coat and placed the holster on her side. She was wearing a long red skirt with a matching top.

  “You look pretty cute in that outfit, teacher,” Sarah teased.

  They started to laugh during their only time for a break. But that was soon cut short when the principal’s body landed onto the table they were standing next to. He was missing most of his head as his brains spilled out onto the table.

  “Why can’t we ever catch a break?!” Sarah said when looking at the principal’s body. The beast in blood had landed on top of the man’s body with her red eyes glaring over at Sarah.

  “Brains…” Sammie said with blood spilling out of her mouth. Roxanne lifted a chair up and threw it at her former student. By the time Sammie got back up onto her feet, the women were already gone. “BRAINS!!” it demanded.

  Valerie and Crystal were in a small room with Tristan still strapped to his seat. The woman placed a new stick of gum into her mouth as she watched her leader slap the man across the face. They decided to bring him back into the same room where Velski and Rebecca were. When the woman stopped her abusive hitting, he was able to see his new friend laying flat on the table behind him.

  “What…What the hell did you do to her?!” Tristan had said in a sudden outburst. He tried his best to break out of the chair, but it was futile. They had him tied up pretty good, unlike the other time. Valerie blew a bubble in front of his face while grinning from his failure to escape.

  “Your new little friend is asleep. What’s the matter? Got rid of the two other girlies and got with her instead? That‘s pretty wicked of you!” she said playfully. Valerie gave him an actual punch to the face which caused some blood to spray out of his mouth. “Oops, I might’ve hit him a little too hard. Oh well,” she said while rubbing her hand that she just used. She started to punch him a few more times in the face until his head started to hang low. “Crystal, I think he passed out,” she said while staring at him closely. “That’s no fun, no fun at all,” said Valerie.

  The leader took a few steps back while wiping her hands clean from his blood. The gum chewing freak decided to lick some of his blood off his face to get a better taste from him. She ended up spitting out her gum.

  “He doesn’t taste as good as I thought he would,” she said. Footsteps could be heard from outside the room. The door slowly opened with Rebecca Lee walking in with some documents in her hand.

  “I take it that you’re having fun with your man?” Rebecca asked them. She glanced over to the beaten person in the chair, then to the woman on the table. “But this one here is a little concerning for me,” she said. The other two had walked over to the table to look down at her face.

  “Is she part of the Feds or something? Special Forces?” Crystal asked as she trailed her fingers along the naked woman’s body. Rebecca placed the documents on the table with pictures of the blond woman sliding out. The two women picked some of them up to see the unconscious girl in different uniforms, wielding different weapons.

  “So what the hell is she? Is that a Russian military outfit?” Valerie asked. She was indeed curious now
. She placed her hand on the unconscious woman’s face to verify that she was in fact the one that they were looking at in the photo’s.

  “She belongs to an organization that I was working for recently, remember? I suppose they knew that the creature I’m looking for was going to start another outbreak here, so they decided to send their special unit to save as many people as they could. But from the looks of it, they were either too late or were destroyed in the process. She‘s one of the higher ranking members, probably why she‘s still alive,” said Rebecca.

  She rubbed her face before looking over to the man.

  “Question is though, who is he?” Rebecca had asked herself. She walked over to him to get a better look at his face. “I don’t recognize him at all. I don‘t remember them recruiting more people before I left,” she said. Valerie slapped the guy in the back of the head to wake him up. He slowly opened his eyes to see a different face.

  “I’d like to ask you a few simple questions,” Rebecca told him. He coughed up some blood while staring directly into her eyes.

  “What the hell do you people want with us?” Tristan asked her. Valerie was going to hit him, but the glare from Rebecca made her instantly stop.

  “I just want to know why you’re with this woman here. Are you with her group that came to town recently? Do you know who I am or what’s going on?” Rebecca asked. Tristan looked around to check his surroundings again before bringing his attention back to her.

  “I’m from here…and I just met her. I don’t really know anything about her, just that she’s from out of town. Also her speech is pretty bad,” he said. Rebecca placed her hand on his check while smiling.

  “Thank you for your honesty,” she said. She stood up and went to the unconscious woman. “Your friend here is part of an evil group that caused this outbreak,” she revealed to him. Tristan couldn’t believe it, he didn’t want to believe it.

  “No, you’re lying. She isn‘t that kind of person,” said Tristan. Rebecca picked up one of the photo’s from the table and brought it over for him to see. It was Velski, holding a machine gun with a group of other soldiers behind her.

  “Did she say that she was here to stop the outbreak?” Rebecca asked him. The man looked away from the photo after she said that.

  “No, she didn’t. She really hasn‘t said anything at all,” said Tristan. Crystal started to undo the man’s restraints to let him loose. Rebecca dropped the picture onto his lap while walking away again.

  “The truth is, I’m looking for the same thing they are. I’ve enlisted these two to help me, but I could use someone who lives here. You know the area better then us, and you can help save some of the people that are still trying to survive. What I’m looking for is a tall demented creature that can destroy whatever it lays it’s eyes on,” Rebecca explained to him. Tristan started to laugh which caught the woman off guard.

  “You’re after that freak?! Velski and I was in it’s path before we were captured by you morons,” he told her. He finally stood up to face Crystal and Valerie. “I don’t know why you hired these two. They’re psychotic bitches. They will turn on you the moment they grow bored,” he told Rebecca in disgust.

  Crystal quickly brought her hand back to slap him across the face again, but this time he caught her wrist and decided to squeeze the hell out of it. The woman fell to one knee while struggling to break free from him.

  “Why are you this strong?!” she said in pain. Tristan slapped the woman as hard as he could, which made her collapse to the floor below. Valerie took a step back as he turned to face her.

  “I was brought up to never hit a woman. But with you two, I‘ll have to make an exception,” he said with that low dark voice. The man started to pop his knuckles to intimidate the bubble gum woman. Rebecca decided to check on Crystal, but she was out cold from that single strike. The mark on her face isn’t going to make her happy when she wakes up. Valerie suddenly jumped up when she heard a loud crashing sound from down the hall.

  “What was that?!” she said in fear. Tristan and Rebecca went to the doorway to see the hallway being crowded with the dead.

  “They broke in!” Rebecca said as she went back into the room to wake up the woman that was on the floor. “Don’t just stand there you moron, wake up the one on the table. We could use her help with those things out there,” she said to them.

  Valerie jumped over to Velski and tried her best to wake her up. She shook her body and slapped her a few times but it didn’t do anything. Tristan kept an eye on the creatures that were slowly heading their way.

  “Hey Bubble-Bitch, come take my spot. I’ll wake her up,” he told Valerie. She ignored the insult for now and quickly went to the entrance to watch the dead. “Hey, wake up! C’mon we have to go, now!” he told the unconscious girl. Tristan placed his hand on Velski’s cheek before leaning in to speak into her ear. “Wake up. Wake up,” he said. There was no sign of her waking up. “Get up! I need you to GET UP!” he was losing his patience. The woman’s eyes suddenly opened as he took a step back. She quickly hopped off the table and started to stretch her muscles out.

  “What’s going on? Why am I naked? Stupid pig,” she said to him like usual.

  Velski put her outfit on and looked around to see someone she disliked.

  “Rebecca Lee, you’re coming with me,” she demanded. Tristan got in her way which didn’t make the soldier happy. “Move, stupid boy. I take her in, now,” said Velski. He snapped his fingers in front of her which caught her attention.

  “The dead are coming! We need to work together to get out of here!” said Tristan.

  She went off on her own to stand in the hallway to see for herself. There was quite a lot of them, more than there was a few moments ago.

  “Go now!” Velski yelled. Tristan went back into the room to pick up Crystal from the floor. He wanted to throw her into the hands of the undead, but having the crazy girl holding a machine gun to his side made him feel uneasy to do it.

  “We’re out of here! So hurry the hell up,” he told the bubblegum woman. Valerie followed after Tristan with Rebecca being the last one to exit the room. The dead started to move a little faster towards their food.

  The woman in black stood in front of the door that would hopefully lead them out of the tight hallway. The sounds of the hungry beasts grew louder the closer they became.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked Velski. Tristan gave the unconscious woman over to Rebecca and Valerie to hold. He grabbed the doorknob to turn it, but it wouldn’t budge. “Damn thing is locked! Hey, where the hell are we anyways?” he asked the women. Valerie gave him a smile while popping in another gum into her mouth.

  “We’re at the Funeral Home!” she said proudly. Tristan thought it was the old factory that was closed down at first. Velski quickly spun around to land a powerful kick against the wooden door. The whole thing came down before she entered the new area with Tristan behind her. Rebecca pushed Crystal onto Valerie for her to take care of while she tried slow the dead down.

  “Take her and go! I’m going to see if I can keep them busy while you find an exit,” Rebecca said. The crazy girl held onto her leader tightly with her eyes closing.

  “I’m tired of taking orders…” she said under her breath. But she did what she was told and followed the other two into the room, leaving Rebecca behind.

  Rebecca slowly unsheathed her sword that she found in Luke’s hideout earlier.

  “Time to get some exercise with this thing,” she said to herself. The woman easily dodged one of their advances and swiftly countered it with her blade. The creatures head came right off with it’s body collapsing onto the old wooden floor.

  She could see that more of them were entering the hallway, which wasn’t going to make this any easier. “There’s no end to you creeps,” she said. Rebecca punched one of them in the face to make it stumble back into the others. The nearest one lost an arm than a leg from her quick movement with the blade. A young child came out from the mangl
ed bodies which caught her off guard. The girl was biting the air while reaching out for her with blood dripping out of her mouth. “I’m so sorry sweetie…” Rebecca said in sorrow. She instantly sliced downward with her eyes closed tightly. She didn’t want to see what she did, so she turned away and walked out of the hallway without looking.

  The woman with the sword entered a room with coffins stacked up against the walls.

  “What is this place?” Rebecca asked. Velski, Tristan and Valerie knocked one down and slid it over to the doorway to block the way.

  “We need to block off the area so that they don’t get inside! Now help us push these down and block off that door,” Tristan said to her. Everyone looked over to see Valerie hugging her machine gun tightly in the corner.

  “You’ve had that this whole time?!” Velski asked the woman in anger. She quickly walked over to her as her eyes stared directly at the firearm that was in the girl’s possession. “Give me that. I need it now,” Velski demanded.

  Valerie aimed the weapon at the woman in front of her with a bubble forming from her mouth. Crystal woke up to see both Tristan and Velski standing in front of Valerie.

  “What the hell is happening?” said Crystal. She placed a hand on her cheek to feel some pain. A soft whimper escaped her lips as she glared at the man. “That’s right, that bastard struck me,” she said.

  Crystal got up from the floor and went over to him, but Rebecca got in her way this time.

  “Now’s not the time. We’re stuck in the basement level with those creatures getting closer with each passing moment. Help convince her to lend Velski the gun. The other firearms are in the car which someone forgot to bring down,” she said. They both looked at the girl that was holding her gun.

  “What?! I forgot! I already told you that!” Valerie had defended herself. Velski quickly snatched the machine gun from the girl’s hand before hopping over the coffin that they just placed down. She started to open fire at the creature’s weak spots to take them down easily. One after another they dropped to the floor with black blood spilling out of their wounds.