Chapter Two

What you have to understand is that theses aren't the zombies we grew up knowing. These aren't the resident evil, dawn of the dead Romero zombies. No, they are worse, so much worse. In the games and movies before the crisis the zombies were rotting pieces of flesh. That isn't the case with the 12:09 virus. As John Wilkins died in the hospital that day, the virus was forced to mutate, to find a way to continue living. We heard that the virus worked as kind of a group conscience. Well, I should be careful, conscience implies intelligence, and don't get me wrong, they are dumb as fuck. What the virus does do though is communicate with itself throughout the entire body. It keeps its host alive, thereby keeping itself alive, by acting almost like an artificial life support system. The virus lined the veins and arteries of the host and pushed fresh, oxygenated blood throughout the body. It made the heart keep beating, and kept the most primitive parts of the brain alive. They didn't just attack us though, they attacked everything, if it was food, it was consumed. The virus doesn't care what it eats; it just needs the body fueled so it can continue its life cycle. I know, I know, at first this sounds like a lucky break, we can just shoot the heart and they die right? No, sure the heart dies, but the virus just reroutes itself. It doesn't need the heart, it just uses it while its there. Scary shit huh?

I'm getting ahead of myself though. I was on the floor for about 10 minutes still catching my breath when I decided it was time to act. I had a little survival pack that I had made for tornados, so I grabbed that and all the food that wasn't perishable and ferried it up into the attic. I grabbed blankets, pillows, an air mattress, a hammer and a few gallons of water. I woke Chelsea up and had her move into the attic while I ran cable up there for television. I was in the middle of hauling a TV up when I realized that I hadn't even thought about my brothers and sisters who live a few miles away. I picked up my phone to call them before remembering the phones were gone.

"Chelsea, don't freak out but I have to go get mom and the kids." I told her.

"If you leave me I am going to freak out Derrick, and how exactly do you plan on doing that anyways? We don't even have a car now thanks to those army guys."

I hadn't even thought of that. "Fuck, I don't know but I have to do something. Wait it's only a mile or so to where we left the car, I'll jump on my bike and I'll be there in 10 minutes. I have to go get them; they wouldn't be okay 5 minutes in that shithole house they live in if something happened. Baby, I know this is hard for you, but you have to suppress that, if this shit is for real, then the world is going to be a much different place. I love you, but I'm leaving!"

"Okay Derrick, please just be careful and quick. If something happens to you, I'll probably just sit up here and rot." She paused for a few seconds as tears starting to form in her eyes. "I'm scared Derrick, you have to hurry!"

"I will love, I'll lock the door behind me, just stay up here and you'll be fine, and I'll be back in under an hour. I love you."

I climbed down the attic stairs into the garage. I sat there for a minute, trying to build courage. I'm not going to lie, I was scared too, scared shitless after what I saw on the news. I had to do it though, I knew that my siblings were sitting there; terrified, hoping I was coming to get them. I grabbed my bike and took it out the side door trying to be quiet. I didn't want to attract any attention if any of those things were around here. I was confident that I could outrun them on the bike, but really trying to not test that theory out. I pushed the bike through the door and turned around to close it when my grip on the bike slipped and it slammed against my air conditioning unit. It had to be the loudest noise I've ever heard and it made my heart jump into my throat. I sat there holding my breath for a minute to see if anything unfavorable had been attracted by the crash. Once I was convinced that it was safe to proceed I wheeled the bike around to the front of the house, and peeked around the corner to make sure the coast was clear. I jumped on the bike, and took off.

If you're reading this that means you've made it as long as I have, and that you've probably had some of the same experiences that I have. But I have to take a minute to say just how eerie it was. Riding though my neighborhood on the way to our car was the worst. There wasn't a soul in sight. Sprinklers going off, dogs barking, but not a single person anywhere. It was like I had dropped into an episode of the twilight zone or something.

I made it there without seeing a single vehicle on the street. I stashed the bike behind some bushes and made my way back to the car. I got in, turned the key, and it wouldn't start. The engine was turning over, so the battery was fine. I tried for a couple more seconds before looking at the gas gauge.

"Fuck!" I screamed.

When we were stopped by the army trucks, we had just left the car. We didn't shut if off so it ran itself out of gas.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do now?" I said out loud.

I was so pissed that we didn't shut of the car. I started hitting the steering wheel in frustration. It was too far to ride the bike to my mom's house, and the car wasn't going anywhere. I was sitting there, trying to find plan B when it found me instead. It came in the form of bullets shattering the back windshield. I hit the floorboard in a panic as bullets tore through the car. Why the fuck were they shooting at me? Better question, who the fuck was shooting at me? After a few seconds the firing stopped and I could hear a truck approaching from the direction of the shots. I eased myself up and peeked around the headrest as another army truck came to a halt a few feet behind the car. A few soldiers jump out of the back of the truck and cautiously made their way towards the car. They were at full alert with their M-16s at the ready. I slid back down in the seat and started yelling.

"Don't fucking shoot me you idiots. I'm not one of those things."

I heard them whisper among themselves for a second.

"Come out of the car with your hands up one of the soldiers shouted."

"If I get out of this car, are you going to shoot me?" I replied.

"That depends on how long it takes you to get the fuck out of that car."

The soldier said it with such conviction that I knew he wasn't kidding. I immediately opened the door and got out of the car as fast as I could. I started to walk towards the soldiers. In an instant two of the soldiers had slammed me face first into the ground as another held me at gunpoint. Shit must be really bad I thought to myself, just a few hours ago the other soldiers while not quite polite, were at least civil. Now they were ready to kill anything that moved. One of the soldiers handcuffed me while another ran a gloved hand over me.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking your for any signs of a bite."

"I haven't been bitten, and why are you handcuffing me?"

"Because I told you to stay in your house, and you chose to ignore that." The officer with the gun told me.

I hadn't recognized it before, but these were the same soldiers who had stopped us earlier.

"Listen, I haven't been bitten, I haven't even seen one of those things!"

"You're fucking lucky then." One of the soldiers said as he stood me up.

"I know you guys have a job to do, but you have to let me go! I have to go get my family, if this shit gets bad they are screwed where they are."

"You're shit out of luck cowboy, cause shit is bad already, fuck bad, shit is fucked."

I never heard so many cusswords in a single sentence, but I knew these guys were stressed. I could also tell that I only had one shot at getting those guys to help me get my family, and time was running out fast.

"What's your name?" I asked the officer pointing the gun at me.

"I'm second Lieutenant Jensen." He started to say more but was cut off by one of the soldiers. "Sir why are we wasting time with this guy, fuck him, let's just leave and let him find his own way there."

"We have orders; we are supposed to help all civilians to safety." Jensen replied.

"We already helped him once, we did our job"

I could tell my only chance at getting a ride to get my family was through Jensen. He had to be 6'5" and built like a tank, so none of the other soldiers would argue with him too much.

"Jensen, your orders are to help civilians to shelter correct?" I asked

"You know that already, if you have a point you better hurry and fucking make it."

"My family isn't safe where they live, it's a piece of shit government house that won't last 5 minutes under siege. If you help me by going and getting them and taking us to my house you would be fulfilling your orders, and helping me at the same time. I swear it won't take more then 15 minutes."

He thought about it for a few seconds, sighed and told me "I'm going to give you 15 minutes, then I'm kicking you out of truck, and if I see you out of shelter again I'll shot you myself, do you understand me?"

I believed him. "Yes, I understand, if you help me, I promise I won't leave my house again."

"Get him in the truck, and take those handcuffs off of him." Jensen ordered.