Full Summary: An underground lab experiment has sent a deadly, airborne virus spiraling all about America and infecting many; namely, the sick. Disease is spread by the infected, and shortly, it's gone viral – worldwide. A group of nine remains, fighting for their lives, surrounded by flesh eating creatures they once knew as humans. When a promising call that there is civilization and safety on the outskirts of Hawaii, they are determined to reach it. Figuring out a way to get there certainly won't be their only problem…

Chapter One: Scavenging

A silver bullet, the size of a nickel and stretched long, pierced the air with an ear splitting blast from the barrel of a gun, pelting toward its quickly moving target at incredible speed. Momentum however, seemed to have slowed – all focus upon that one projectile. Gradually, as it grew nearer, time sped up, and only when the ammunition had lodged itself straight into the forehead of ravenous flesh-eater, did it return to normal. The rabid beast went down with a gnarl of protest, a quick segment of pain that surely did not last long, before he himself lay motionless upon the ground, where he undoubtedly, rightfully belonged.

The carrier of the gun, a girl no older than the age of sixteen, did not spare a second glance and swung around with her foot in the air, successfully slamming the heel of her sneaker into the face of another. It stumbled and crashed into one of its own kind, should it have been a specific species in itself, she didn't know, and she took this as the perfect opportune to fire bullets from her raised .357 magnum gun, before lowering it to her thigh and investigating her chaotic surroundings. Her team was smack in the middle of a deadly rampage of the Infected, who were rabid about them, determined to sink their teeth into something other than themselves, something fresh, and inject them with their virus. The three were greatly outnumbered.

Catching her off guard a salvaged beast snatched her ankle, bringing her to the dirt with a painful smack – she swore she heard something in her shoulder pop. As she fell, her only source of armed defense flew from her hand and landed several feet away from where she now was. Sharp fingernails dug at her bare, sullen ankles; another flesh eater had joined the other upon smelling, hearing the rushing blood and the pounding heartbeat, and the two of them restrained her, attempting to drag her back and toward a monstrous group of hungry cannibals. She scrambled in fear to fight against her attackers, one an infected male ten times bigger than her own self, the other, the first, a female whose face was quickly decrepitating away. She strained herself to reach her gun, nose wrinkled at the retched smell, going against her protesting muscles and the pain that followed. An anguished gasp parted her lips from her struggle, but before she knew it her foot acted upon its own accord and slammed into the females face, knocking her into the male.

Her fingers closed around her weapon and with skilled aim she fired them both down, and both assailants were dead. But that didn't change the fact, she thought with an exhausted sigh as she lowered herself upon her back, safe for now, that there were plenty more surrounding them.

In her seclusion, Caterina Hannah Valentine, or more commonly known as Cat, pressed her gun to her chest and closed her eyes in a feeble attempt to ease her unsteady breathing. She had taken liberty to hiding beneath their car, which had once been bombarded by the undead mass army in order to fully stabilize herself. God forbid her go out there unstable – that was as if she was signing her death warrant and handing it off to whichever underground corporation caused this mess, and she could not risk being bitten by one of those skin craving zombies.

She had grown up far too fast for her liking since the end of the world, or anybodies for that matter, she concluded as she cocked her gun and took a deep breath, finally gaining little energy to open her eyes. Thereafter, a scream of fear ripped from her throat, horrifyingly loud and rivaling that against the rotting beast who hung just before her, screeching, with his mouth just inches away from her cheekbone. Cat acted completely upon her impulse and rolled toward the side, clothes sullen from the sand that had blanketed a good portion of the terrain that they had been covering, bringing her gun out in her defense. The zombie scurried after her with a sickening, gleeful gnarl, and before she had any time to react, he lunged, and she did the only thing that she could think of. She put the barrel of her gun straight into his parted jaws, her finger pressing down the trigger.

Nothing happened.

And that was when she was going to begin panicking – she had lost her only other weapon in her struggle just several minutes previously, when they had first been bombarded with thousands of the undead supreme, where they were currently located. She had backup ammunition sure, yet being so close in proximately with her opposing enemy she would have no time to reload; and if she didn't act quickly, there was no doubt that it was the end of the line right here. However before she even had the chance to do anything other than slam her gun further into his mouth and give a prompt kick to his chest with her foot, a bullet pelted straight through his brain, once, twice, until he had completely fallen to the ground. Out of breath, Cat retrieved her gun and looked up at her savior: Erwin Sikowitz, member of her team, and her high school acting teacher.

"I think Ms. Valentine," Said the older man as he pushed her into the open car door, where she then noticed that Beckett Oliver, a close friend of hers, had already managed to get into the passenger side and was now shooting as many zombies as he could, through an open window, "it's about time that we leave this God forsaken place!"

"Couldn't agree with you more!" Said Beck as he begun to reload his gun, though instead of putting it to further use when he was finished, he cranked the window closed, just as another flesh eating zombie flung himself at the car door.

Seated in the back, Cat expeditiously maneuvered so she was sitting in the middle of the car as to stray as far as possible from the breakable windows, so she wouldn't have to waste the only package of ammo that she had left on the ravenous beasts just as they were about to leave. Sikowitz, once he himself was secured inside the vehicle, slammed upon the breaks and accelerated forward. As expected several of the undead were pummeled into, crimson staining and coating the windshield, splattered remains clinging onto the bumper – the sight in itself, with the additional rotting stench, was enough to make the young girl want to puke; but shielding her eyes and covering her mouth and nose with her hand she was able to prevent such a thing from happening.

It had taken them several minutes, around fifteen or so, to finally free themselves of the rotting, moving corpses and to drive upon open road once they had. Somber, Cat released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and sat back, recumbent against the leather seat. Once they had been at a safe distance she had scooted herself to sit near the window, exhaustedly resting her head upon the slit of glass and subconsciously closing her eyes for at least a small moment of peace, and rest. In her void of darkness, she came to the realization that she had hated what she'd become; pugnacious – belligerent – more mature, withdrawn. She missed what she had used to be, so care free and loving…but she supposed all of that had changed when she arrived home to her own brother feasting upon her father's abdomen, and was forced to shoot him.

Then, shoot both her mother and father as they were reborn into the flesh eating, undead. They were going to kill their own daughter…

And she was imposed to kill them. Again.

The two men upfront were silent furthermore, until the eldest of the two began to speak, his hoarse voice breaking her from her reverie. "Well children, shall we try Bakersfield?" He asked the two of them, sending a glance over his shoulder to look at her in question. From beside him, Beck sighed.

"No, that's not exactly a smart thing to do." Said the Canadian, "We're most likely to get shrouded by another mass of them if we go into regions that were once high populated."

"Where are we going to get all the supplies we need then?" Asked Cat as she scooted forward, gripping the edges of the two seats in front of her.

"Mikes?" Sikowitz suggested.

"Smoke shop?" Beck inquired with a raised brow and a chuckle, wiping his cheek with a gloved hand, "I haven't had a pack on me in more than a week, so we can go there. We might find a zombie or two, but nothing we can't handle. And then we can try Ralph's, if you guys are up for it. We can't go back empty handed, you know."

Cat smiled and fished a walkie-talkie from her belt loop, fastening her gun within its holster upon her belt. "Hey hey, Jade it's Cat. Are you guys out of smokes?"

"Yep, we have been for a looong time now I'll tell you that much. I'm dying for one…Got any I can smuggle, Rina?"

She could hear Beck chuckle as their leader's nonchalant voice came through the receiver.

"Kay, we're heading off to Mike's now. We tried Wal-Mart just a few minutes ago but it's raging with zombies there, so no luck getting anything. And nope, I don't, sorry!" The redhead replied with a sigh, her finger releasing the small, orange button when she finished speaking. There was no response for a minute or so, but just as she was beginning to get impatient, she heard her best friend huff from the other side.

"Great, don't come back here until you guys get something. We're running out on stuff, and fast. Don't' forget the shampoo and any water or drinks that you guys can find. Alcohol would be nice."

"For a fire or for you?"

"Is that even a question? Me, of course, did you expect anything less?"

"And for your dearest best friend, right?"

"You're going to make me share, aren't you?"

"No," Beck said as he grabbed the walkie from her tinier hands, "we might just keep it for ourselves."

…
…

When the trio arrived at Mike's Smoke Shop just on the outskirts of Hollywood, Beck was the first to exit the car. He had one hand gripping the holster of his gun should he need it and gestured to Sikowitz to try the door. Cat followed in suit of him; though he made sure she stayed close behind him, just in case. He considered her a younger sister after all, and though she proved very well that she could handle herself, he still felt it his duty to make sure that she wouldn't have to come to that conclusion. From the corner of his eye he saw the adult push at the door, hand working at the locked knob in a feeble attempt to get it open – it was apparent that the wooden slate was not going to move any time soon, and his efforts were, well…pointless.

"Sikowitz," Said Beck as he and Cat joined their teacher, both teens standing behind him, guards up, "try kicking it open, you're not going to get anywhere trying to open it like that."

"I wonder why it's locked," murmured the small girl beside him thoughtfully as she moved to peak into one of the windows, "I'm pretty sure that all stores were open at the time of the apocalypse…right?"

"Not too sure," said her peer as he glanced over at her, "not too sure I care either – we might find poor old Mike in there."

"That's not funny Beck!"

"Aha!" Sikowitz shouted as his boot connected with the door before him, easily breaking free from its hinged restraints and crumbling to the floor with a rather loud thump, a small sand cloud erupting when it had come in contact with the terrain. He raised his gun and gestured for his students to follow, peeking cautiously inside the interior of the small store. Beck was the second to walk in, eyes scanning every nook and cranny that he could in the dark lit room before him. The awful redolence of decaying flesh mingled with tobacco, and he absently crinkled his nose. Even after two years he still was not used to it, no matter what one might have thought, and it had always made him sick to his stomach. He would think that facing them was much worse.

It wasn't.

"Well young adolescents, I think it's empty her-" The older man was cut short by and ungodly groan and gnarl, and was brusquely tackled to the ground. Both teens immediately became alert to the sudden struggling; teacher against zombie, and wasted no time in firing. Bullets tore into the Infected's rotting flesh in excessive amounts, rippling into his spine, his shoulders and his legs; finally, though, after Sikowitz managed to avoid being bitten by gripping his opponent by the collar and with all of his might nearly throwing him to the side, a bullet found home in his skull, and the zombie, otherwise known as Mike, slumped to the ground in a twitching, crimson stained mess.

Sikowitz sat up, gasping for breath, and placed one hand over his heart – Beck swore he could hear it pounding against the older man's ribcage. Either that, he concluded, or that was his own thudding heart that he was hearing. "You okay, Sikowitz?"

"I am now," he said as he heaved himself off of the floor, glancing over at his attacker who now lay motionless upon the floor beside him, "I wonder how long he's been here for. How he turned…"

"The infection is airborne, it could catch anybody," responded Beck as he lowered his gun and placed it back within its holster, side glancing at the silent Cat beside him.

"It has yet to catch us then." Sikowitz grumbled, "where are my coconuts when I need them?"

"We're not going to get infected unless we're bit, so I don't think we have much to worry about…" Murmured Cat as she approached the other side of the counter, opening one of the bottom cabinets and glancing within them, a smirk finding plush pink lips. "Any rainbows out there? 'Cause I think," she muttered thoughtfully as she held up a pack of Marlboro's, "we just found the pot of gold."

"Good Gondi it's a relief to see those, hand them over you wonderful redhead!" Clapped Sikowitz as he and Beck made their way over to her, kneeling down beside her. Their teacher took the pack within her hands eagerly, plucking a blunt and sticking it between his lips whilst his other hand worked at fishing for his lighter.

"Open your bag Beck," Cat said, a smile of relief gracing her lips as she pulled a shelf from its former position, exposing far more packs of cigarettes than they had previously seen. "We're going to take them all."

"I think Jade will be one happy camper."

Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of "In Time"! I'm so awkward with these starter Author Notes at the end of each chapter, so I'll cut this one a little short.

I've decided to upload the first chapter only of this story to see what kind of feedback I'd be getting - if it's positive, I'll continue on writing and updating on a daily basis. However, the next upload won't be for quite some time. I have it done, but I want at least a few more chapters written and complete before I start posting them. So after this there will be a little bit of a wait; and then, no more waiting! Unless I can't get to the computer.

So go ahead and leave a review with your thoughts! Don't forget to story alert/favorite while you're at it!:)

-Live. Write. Love01-