AN: READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN 'THE LOST TAPE': Okay my first 'Dawn of the Dead' fic, this story, like I said in the summary is based off 'The Lost Tape' which for those of you who haven't seen it is a little extra on the DVD showing Andy's, I think it was about a month, of his life before he died. In the tape it showed that he had an ex-wife named Susan and an unnamed daughter, so I named her. Also part of the clips of his wife and daughter in the tape took place a year before the movie took place and his daughter looked about eight so I changed it to about three or four years back before the movie so his daughter could be old enough in my eyes to be doing what she's doing in the fic. If you really want to see the tape and you don't have access to the DVD go to youtube I know someone posted the video up, just look up 'the lost tape dawn of the dead' or something like that.
I do not own any of these characters or situations, aside from those you find unfamiliar. And all spelling mistakes are mine, my beta does not cover this sort of thing. I'm sorry if this isn't accurate to the movie and all but this is just my little thoughts bouncing around in my head, now, enough rambling lets get on with the fic!
Samantha Raine walked through the abandoned streets of the town, so many dead bodies lay there, so much destruction. The smell of decay and rotting corpses almost brought tears to her eyes. You could hardly walk five feet without running into another body, some of the 'zombies' which people had named them, still twitched, and the ones who did she promptly shot in the head. Most were gone though they were trying to clean everything up, and start life again.
Many would argue that she was far too young to be seeing this, to be doing this, she was only fifteen. But over the past couple years of this hell she learned to grow up extremely fast, everyone did. She considered herself already prepared though, her father was Andy Raine. She was his only daughter and only child, he never had a son, he divorced her mother when Samantha was only eight so Samantha had learned quickly how to shoot a gun. Her mother never liked this but her father had said it was a necessary ability in life. Samantha would never object either, her father collected guns, they were always around, it was only natural she would learn to like them.
She wandered through the remains of her old home, the fateful day the 'epidemic' spread she happen to be staying at her fathers that weekend. She was thirteen, he left for work to open up the store and all and she was left alone until three. He always closed up early when she was staying and everyone knew it, he loved her, she knew that and he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. But he left early in the morning that day, said he had some business to attend to at the store.
She saw him last the day before it all happened, it was almost four o'clock, very early for her, but she woke up when the dog started barking so she went down to find out what was happening. She remembered all of it perfectly...
Flashback
"Dad...?" Samantha asked sleepily walking down the stairs of the cabin like home. "What are you doing up already? It's, like, four..." She yawned.
"I have to take care of a few things at the store, baby girl, I'm getting a new shipment in and they're coming early." Andy said turning around and bending down to her height. "What are you doing up?" He asked brushing some blond hair out of her eyes.
"I heard Nancy barking, I thought something was wrong."
"Naw, nothin's wrong, just me bein' a little clumsy and stepping on the dog."
Samantha smiled and laughed.
"Now go back to bed sweetheart, I'll be back early today since I'm opening early." Andy said.
She walked over and sat at the kitchen table. "No, daddy, you don't have to do that I'm thirteen, I'm old enough to take care of myself... besides I think I'll be asleep most the time your gone anyway." She said smirking.
Andy smiled and walked over to the table. "Alright, baby girl, now go back to sleep get some rest, I'll be back by three I promise, then we'll go out and see a movie or something, okay?"
"Alright." She said as her father came over and kissed her on the head. "I love you, daddy."
"I love you too, baby girl." He said smiling at her and picking up a few things off the table before walking out the front door and over to his truck.
She saw the headlights flicker on in the early morning and then pull out of the long driveway and over to civilization. One of the things she loved about her fathers house is it was away from a lot of people. She had a few neighbors up here, you could see their lights on through the trees at night, but they weren't close enough that you could see them clearly through the trees in the daytime.
Yawning again she walked over to the stairs and walked back up to her bedroom. The dog was following her; apparently she wanted a rest up there on her bed. She passed several heads mounted on the wall, her father was big on hunting, he promised to take her out on her fourteenth birthday. Walking into her room she collapsed on the bed and pulled the covers up around her, she closed her eyes and felt the lightweight hunting dog just up beside her. In minutes she was back to sleep.
Te entire day went by perfectly, just like he said he would be took her to the movies when he got home, he bought her a few things and even though, his ex-wife, Susan, said not to he took her to the shooting range simply because she begged him too. It was going to be their little secret. He took her back home and then went back out on his own, he told her he loved her and went out to meet a couple of his friends. She knew the number where she would reach him and all, he never left her without giving her one and making sure every single number from his cell phone to the dentist was left behind for her.
She fell asleep at around eleven and woke up to the phone ringing at around five o'clock in the morning. She moaned and complained as she sat up in bed, hoping they would just hang up. She remembered thinking to herself why she was getting woken up this early two days in a row. The person refused to hang up so she shuffled her way over to the phone in her fathers bedroom. Wait, dad, why didn't he pick up? She opened the door to find his bed empty, he must have let early again, or maybe that was him, maybe he had car trouble and was staying at his friends for the night or something.
She picked up the phone and cleared her throat. "Hello? Dad? What's going on? How come you're not home yet?"
He sounded tired and worried over the phone. "Listen, baby girl, I want you to lock all the doors, all the windows, get in the basement and lock that door." His basement was build like a bomb shelter, there was food and water supplies in there that would last you months in you rationed it.
"What? Daddy, why? What's going on?" She asked getting worried.
"There're riots or somethin' going on right now, they almost tipped my truck on my way home a couple hours ago. I'm at the store now, it was closer then home, but I want you to get in the basement now. When I come home I'll come down and get you, but get in there now." Andy said hastily still sounding worried.
"Um, o – okay, dad, I'll go down there now." She said hoping that her father wasn't just drunk and making things up. "I love you." She stuttered.
"I love you too."
"Bye." She said and she hung up the phone.
"Come on, Nan," she called to the dog, which proceeded to follow her around. In less then ten minutes she had all the doors and windows locked and she made her way down to the basement. She grabbed her cell phone off the charger in the kitchen before she went down, chances are her father would try to call her on her cell phone.
She locked the door in the basement and sat on the brown cot in the room. Reaching for the small TV she turned it on and flipped around, there was nothing but news. Finally she decided to stop and watch it, and she saw shocked her.
"Riots have been breaking out all through the area, we advise you to stay in your homes. These people are extremely dangerous the death count is just continuing to rise by the minute..."
Samantha never watched the rest she stopped listening and stood up to start pacing. "Oh my God," she said turning to face the dog, as if talking to her. "Dad was right; he wasn't drunk, oh my God. Death count!" She exclaimed. "Oh my God, mom," She said and flipped her cell phone open. "Gotta call mom."
She pushed her mothers speed dial and waited for the longest time for her mom to pick up the phone. It took some time, but finally the tired voice of her mom answered.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Mom? Are you okay?"
"Sam... What, what are you doing calling this early?" Susan asked.
"Have you watched the news yet?"
"Of course not... what –"
"Turn it on, now," Samantha ordered.
"What?"
"Now! Mom, now!"
"Okay, okay." She said and Samantha heard the bed move over the phone. She heard the TV click on and the news come over the phone. "Oh Lord..." She heard.
"Mom, you have to promise me that you'll be okay." Samantha said.
"I will, Sammy, I'll be fine, your father doesn't have you in that ridiculous basement of his does he?" Samantha was quiet for a couple seconds. "Oh, Lord, put him on I have to talk to him, probably blowing all this out of proportion."
"Um, mom, dad's not here, he's at the store, he called and told me to get in here. But I don't blame him, mom, look at everything, its all just going to hell."
"Samantha watch your mouth!" She scolded. "But, dear, I know its bad but don't be like him and exaggerate everything, okay? I'm sure it'll all be fine."
"Yeah," Samantha said and sat back down on the cot. "Yeah, it will be... Love you mom..."
"Love you too."
Samantha hung up the phone and pulled her knees up to her chest on the cot. This was going to be a long day.
Hours had passed until she got another call on her cell phone; it was now around eight in the morning. Checking the caller ID she saw it was her father and she picked up right away. "Daddy? Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, baby girl, yeah I'm fine, are you? Have you been watching the news?" He asked.
"Yeah, I have, dad I'm really getting scared." She said.
"I know, Sam, I know, just hang in there. I don't think I'll be gettin' home any time soon. But we have the phone, if you need me just call. I think we can just wait this thing out, I have plenty of water here, I have plenty of defenses here for myself. So do you, you know that. You have a couple guns down there right? And ammo?"
"I do, dad why...?"
"Don't ask, just, don't ask... make sure that it's out when you might need it. Don't ask me why, just please, don't ask me why." She heard him sigh over the phone. "Okay, don't open the door for anyone or anythin', okay?" he asked, she could tell he wasn't doing well.
"I won't," Samantha said and shifted in her seat. "You know I won't."
"I know." He sighed. "Have you called you mother?"
"Yeah, she said she's fine."
"I want you to call her again, make sure she gets to her roof or something, to a safe place." He may have hated his ex-wife more then anything, but he knew Samantha loved her and that meant he had to make sure Susan was alright.
"Okay, Daddy, I'll call when I get off the phone with you."
"Alright then, I'll let you go, remember, call me if you need anything and I mean anything, okay baby girl?"
"I will, dad, love you."
"Love you too... bye." He said and Samantha heard the phone click.
Samantha immediately closed her phone and then reopened it to call her mom, the phone rang but no one picked up. She tried this over and over and over again, but still nothing, she kept trying until she got nothing but a flat dial tone. She dropped her cell on the cot and pulled her legs up to her chest resting her face on her knees and cried. There was only one explanation, and she didn't want to face it, but it was the truth. Her mother was dead, the people outside must have got in and they killed her.
She never called her father to tell him, she knew that would only worry him further. She just stayed in the room, away from everyone and everything. Days past, it seemed like forever in her little solitude, she did leave, she knew she wasn't suppose to but she did leave. Her home seemed safe, she heard nothing but when she walked out to the door was when she got a little scared, she saw people wandering, not many but it wasn't their number that made her scared. It was what they looked like.
They were pale, like a bluish gray color pale, and they had blood just covering them, and the moans, the staggers, they looked dead, like walking corpses. As she watched these 'people' she heard screams coming from their neighbors, the 'people' immediately began running towards them making all sorts of horrible noises.
Samantha reacted quickly, she ran into the other room and unlocked the door with the set of keys her father left. She grabbed one of his 9mm guns and some bullets, she had been watching the news over the past couple days, she saw things she never had to see through her entire life.
Going to the back door she loaded the gun the way her father had shown her and watched as the people headed to her neighbors, more screams were heard and she watched as her neighbor ran out of her house screaming with her big brother close behind, he must have been visiting from college, poor guy. They were covered in blood and for a moment Sam wondered where their parents were before she stepped outside.
"Come on!" She yelled to them and they saw her running faster. She noticed that the 'people' were gaining on them and she aimed the gun almost holding her breath and praying that she didn't miss. She squeezed the trigger and the gun rang out, she looked out and saw that she hit the closest one in the chest making him fall. But this only slowed him a little he got back up and starting running again.
The head.
That echoed in her mind, she remembered seeing something on the news, he head killed them. She tried again and missed again, hitting him in the shoulder, she wasn't nearly as good a shot as her father yet.
"Hurry up!" She yelled to them and they reached the house. Ushering them inside Samantha closed the door and locked it with the many locked around it. No more then five seconds later a bang was heard on the door making them all back up.
"Follow me." Samantha said and she ran back to the room, grabbing a few rifles, some bullets and some more hand guns out of the cabinet. "Hold these." She said hastily to her neighbors who took them without question.
More banging was heard from other parts of the house and she looked around, not seeing them she grabbed one more box of bullets and jogged over to the basement door. "Get in, hurry." She said to them and she followed suit putting her weapons down as well she went back to the door bolting it shut. The many locks were in place. No one could get through this thing.
Turning to the two of them she kneeled down to where they were sitting on the cot. "Are you guys okay?" She asked her voice shaking.
"Yeah, yeah, we're fine." Lauren replied, a fifteen year old girl with short brown hair and brown eyes.
"Wh – who's... Who's blood is this?" Samantha asked looking at the crimson red shirts and jeans.
"Our parents." Jake replied, he was nineteen with similar hair color to his sister and blue eyes, like his mother. "Those things got in, we tried to board everything up but it's like... it's like they don't sleep or get tired or anything, man! The just kept trying, they got in, me and Lar, were in another room we heard them screaming we came in and their throats were ripped... ripped out..." Jake said as he began to break down into tears. "Tried to stop it, but those things came after us... I hit one with the flower pot in the head, sent him down. We went to see our parents but... the blood... the blood was everywhere... we couldn't stop it... they came after us... we ran..." He said and then he put his face in his hands unable to speak anymore.
Lauren put her arms around her brother as she began to cry too. Samantha watched this, remembering her mother and she began to sob quietly too.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but she knew she heard the familiar ringing of her phone. She sniffed and wiped her eyes off, gaining her composure she picked it up and answered. "Hi, Dad." She said still a little shaky.
"Just checking in, are you okay over there? You sound a little shaken." Andy said.
"Yeah, um, dad I left and I know – "
"You left! Why!? I told you not to you have to stay in there and don't come out!"
"Dad, Dad, I know, I know, it's just I was curious and going crazy in here. But when I left its Jake and Lauren, they're in here now... their parents aren't..." She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence but her father seemed to understand.
"Okay, baby girl, just don't leave again."
"Oh trust me, Daddy, I won't I won't ever again, I swear."
"Alright, you have enough ammunition?"
"I have plenty, when I left I made sure to grab some more. I'll be fine, Daddy, I will." Samantha said.
"How's your food and water?"
"Fine, we have enough in here to last a little over a month." She said walking around to the food and water supply checking it out. "And I'm sure if we needed to ration, which we will, we could last longer."
"Good... is Nan still in there with you?"
"Yeah, and we have the whole big bag of dog food, she'll be fine for a long while."
"Have you called your mother since last time?"
Samantha paused for a moment. "Yeah, just a little while ago, she's fine too." She lied through her teeth.
"Okay, just making sure. I'll check up again in a few hours. Love you."
"I love you too." She said and hung up her phone.
"Where is your father?" Jake asked.
"At his store, he was headed home but he was attacked, he fine though he just went there because it was closer." Sam explained.
"Oh..." Jake said and sat back on the cot. Samantha joined him and for the rest of the day they simply sat there and watched the news and the few shows that were still playing.
She got three more calls form her father over the course of the day, she never went back outside but if you listened closely you could hear the angered cries and moans from the creatures outside. It was hard to sleep with all the noise, now that they knew they were in there.
She stopped getting calls from her father after about a week. She tried calling him but nothing, his phone must have died. She tried the store but the power must have been down, and a couple days later her phone died as well. The only reason they had some power in the basement was because they had a back up generator there. But when the calls stopped she got worried, her father was all she had left, a part of her mind told her that her dad was hard as nails, invincible, but then another part told her to assume the worst.
Jake and Lauren kept assuring her he would be fine, that it took more then this too take out her father but she still had doubts. More weeks past, there was only one news station left, the rest were gone. They didn't know why this one particular one was left but it was horrible to watch. They showed maps of the world and of the United States of where the 'epidemic' spread and it was everywhere. Only small parts of the U.S. were still safe and it was only a matter of hours before they were covered in red too.
They began running out of food on month two, but you could last twenty eight days without food and they had plenty of water. So Samantha figured they would be safe. But it wasn't until another couple weeks had passed that she realized they needed food, their rationing wasn't working, and they needed it now. They were all weak and getting too thin.
She went out with Jake leaving Lauren in the basement entrance to make sure none came in the kitchen, and to make sure Nan didn't run out and attract attention; you could see the kitchen clearly from the basement door. She gave her a rifle with a scope so if she needed to she could shot long distance and a hand gun for quick firing. Hopefully she wouldn't have to use either. She and Jake both got two hands guns each, she taught him how to reload and shoot. He was a hunter but all he had ever used was a hunting rifle.
Upon hearing nothing outside they slowly opened the door, and they were right, from their line of vision they could hear nothing and could see nothing. But that was always limited from where they were. Slowly they snuck out keeping their guns ready to fire and walked up the stairs to the kitchen. Jake was to go first, he looked around and waved her through she lightly ran and grabbed a black garbage bag. She knew any food in the refrigerator was long spoiled by now so she didn't even bother; she just went to the cabinet and began shoving food in the bag. Jake was now behind her watching her back as she worked.
They heard a gun shot from the rifle.
"Hurry!" They heard Lauren yell from the basement stairs with the dog barking behind her. "I can see them coming!"
Samantha took a couple jugs of water and put them in the bag. It was heavy so Jake took it before she had a chance to sling it over her shoulder. They started to get back down only to hear the sound of something breaking form behind them.
Samantha yelled as she saw them getting so close and fired her gun several times. "Dammit." She said as she missed the head. "Remember hit them in the head!" She yelled.
More shots from the basement were heard and the two scrambled to get back down their, they fired off a few more rounds as they did. They were now coming faster and were very close. Samantha found herself screaming without her even realizing when she started but she began open firing upon the monsters, hitting several in the head.
"Sam, come on, come on! Get in!" She heard Jake yell form behind her, he made it in but while she stood firing she somehow forgot to back up. She took advantage of a few more and then just turned and ran, she jumped down the lat several stairs and Jake closed the door on one of the creatures hands.
"Shoot it! Shoot it!" Lauren screamed as Samantha picked up the gun and shot it in the hand several times.
The hand was withdrawn, or what was left of the hand. Sam fell back onto the floor and began breathing hard. James at down beside her and Lauren next to him.
"So... you got the cookies?" Lauren asked and Sam grinned at her and laughed slightly.
"Yeah, I got them."
More weeks had gone by, it was even worse, the hunger was getting unbearable. They were once again out of food, and they were running out of everything and going insane in the basement. The generator went out long ago, they out played every single board game and non board game. It was just death in there now.
Their water was even running low, it would only last another week or so. They really didn't know how much longer they could last like this. But as the time went on the more silent they were and the more they just sat there in the room without speaking.
One morning, or they assumed it was morning, they had no sense of time anymore Jake sat up from where he sat and listened. "Hey..." He said in a quiet voice. "You hear that?"
The two girls shook their heads.
"Just listen,"
"Jake, we don't hear anything." Lauren said sleepily getting up.
He walked to the door and slowly started opening it.
"Jake! What are you doing? No..." Sam said and then she heard it. Voices, and it wasn't the moans and groans of the 'zombies' but actual voices and people talking. A couple gun shots were heard and the sound of falling bodies.
"It's people." Samantha said and grabbing the gun near the door she ran outside with Jake and Lauren close behind her.
"Hello!" Jake yelled and they went up the stairs the dog barking quietly and jumping on its back legs behind them, "is anyone there!?" He yelled louder.
They heard the footsteps running to the back of the house where they were and they went further up the stairs. They entered the kitchen just as a group of men and women in military uniforms arrived in the room. They had their weapons drawn at the three, who immediately put their hands up.
"Did any of you get bitten?" One man asked slowly approaching them.
"No." Jake said standing in front of the two younger girls.
"Are you positive? Whose blood is that?" He asked gesturing the bloodied clothes Jake and Lauren wore.
"Our parents." Jake said in a shaky voice.
"Alright." The man said and lowered his weapon motioning for everyone to do the same.
"Is it all over?" Sam asked as the informed people helped them up and began walking out of the house.
"Far from." The man replied. "We killed all those sons of bitches up here but there's still some wandering around the town. We're trying to find survivors. So far you're the only ones we found for a few miles."
"Did you um... did you find anyone in Andy's Gun Works?" Sam said in a quiet voice.
The man turned around and asked a few of the soldiers behind him. "We went in, but the place had a couple of the bastards in it. So we didn't look around, just killed them."
Letting out a strangled cry she covered her face as the tears began to fall once again. He was defiantly dead then, unless he got out before... no... She shouldn't be holding onto false hope like she had been for the past months. He was dead there was no getting around it.
Jake took her in his arms and she cried into his chest. "Her father." He mouthed to the man and he nodded.
"Come on, we'll get you to the car and then drive you to the safe house. There are other survivors there." He said and took them all away.
End Flashback
Samantha continued to walk down the road with Jake, now twenty one, and Lauren, now seventeen, and a few of her other new friends who survived. They arrived at the mall, it was trashed, but then again what wasn't trashed in this place.
Then a thought dawned upon Samantha, his store. It was near the mall. She looked and sure enough there it was. Across the street and a hundred yards or so down the road there it was. Andy's Gun Works.
Sam bolted she didn't tell anyone where she was going but she heard her friends from behind her yell her name and tell her to come back. Her breathing became harder and strangled as she fought back tears. Upon reaching the door she tried to open it only to find that it opened without her even turning the knob. Looking at it she realized the door had been shot open, from the military when they came by those years ago.
Pushing it open she walked in, so many memories were in this store. Looking around she noticed that a lot of the hand guns were missing and the glass counter was broken. Looking behind it she saw a small table and a few things on top of it. One was a picture frame, it was tipped over. She walked behind the counter and slowly tipped the picture up just as all her friends came in behind her.
It was a picture of her and her father out on the lake near his house. She must have been ten in the picture; it was so many years ago. She slowly took the back off the picture and slid the photograph out. Putting the picture frame back down she walked out completely ignoring the words her friends were saying to her. Walking up the stairs she explored her fathers store a little further, taking one corner she stopped short and back up against the wall.
"Shit!" She yelled and shut her eyes. The smell of the decaying flesh was terrible. She would never get this image out of her head; she saw her father or what was left of him. He was pretty much just a decaying corpse now, missing a head too. But she knew it was him. She just knew.
Jake was up there with her first and he lead her out of the room with her eyes still closed.
"Oh God, oh God, oh God." She said to herself as he bought her into the next room. She was crying once again and Jake sat down next to her. He had expected to wait for some time before she was ready to stand up again, but to his surprise she stood up after only several seconds. Looking at the picture in her hand she walked on.
Another room sat his computer and the couch, TV, it was the room he had once lived it when mom got the house in the divorce. The house he had lived in before he had only bought a year prior to the incident. She saw the fish tank and she moaned. Ariel, that stupid fish she got him when she was a little kid. She was surprised it was still alive at the time.
That's when she saw the video camera. She furrowed her brow it looked like it was pointing to something like he was taping. She walked over to it and bit her lip, turning the button on the little light flickered and she pushed the rewind button for just a couple seconds the battery would not last long at all. Then she pressed play.
"Hey... this dog got a name...?" That was all that played before the screen went blank once again. But it said a whole lot more, there was blood smeared on the lens, on his face, everywhere and there was a dog barking in the background. She sniffed and suppressed a cry as she took the camera with her and began exploring the store more.
AN: Gonna tell you now that the next chapter will not be this long, hell it'll probably be about half this length if that. The only reason this was so long was because of the flashback that was only supposed to be about three pages. Yeah, that worked out. Hopefully I'll get another chapter up by Tuesday because I'll be going away that week, off to boot camp, oh yay! Shame you can't hear my sarcasm, but no I wanted to go. Anyway review and I'll try to get another chapter up quick!