Dead and Rising Chapter 13, a zombie survival guide fanfic

-13-

"All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing." - Maurice Maeterlinck

Alan suddenly and surely knew what the rounds were all about.

Behind the building was a large, open field bordered by forest. Many, many people were lined up, facing the mountains on the other side. Behind them were about fifty men, armed and ready. Ahead, the looming mountain range and certain death. They were to run, all one-hundred and fifteen of them, from one end of the field to the other. Along the way, many zombies would notice them from the infested forests and come out.

They were the bait. Most of them would die. The rest would be used the next day. And so it went until they all died. If any tried to escape, they would be shot down by snipers. Alan stood silently. He wished he knew where Lauren was, if she was safe or not. He would probably be dead within the next hour or so. The sun was high in the sky, and the still air was beginning to grow hot. He suppressed his tics, wanting to die his way and not the way of his Tourette's

. He swallowed hard, stared straight ahead, and focused on the mountain. He'd make a break for it; what was there to lose? Warren stood behind the group, laughing openly and spitting on them. Now Alan knew why this man gave off a bad vibe; he was in charge of punishment, the executioner. And he enjoyed his job a little too much.

"All right you fuck-ups, get ready. At the sound of the gun you run, and you yell, and you make noise. The zombies will follow you. No use in trying to escape, you'd die in the woods after a mere hour, you pussies."

It happened too quickly. The gun shot, and before he knew it he was running. He was running for his life. He was screaming along with the rest of them, for what reason he didn't know. As he ran, he started thinking about the situation. Why not just let the zombies get him? It'd be much easier… no, he wouldn't go like that.

He had to snap out of it. He had to escape. They'd made it only a few yards before the zombies poured out of the woods. There were bear zombies and deer zombies and people zombies. They came out, and the ones nearest the forest's edge were brought down. Some of the people that didn't die from the zombies were hit by the barrage of bullets erupting from behind them. Alan was in the middle, which was good for now, but would be tricky once he tried to escape into the forest.

The people screamed, there was blood. He noticed he was crying. Not for himself, which was a big surprise. He cried for what a big fuck-up the human race was to the earth. He cried for the innocent people. He cried for Rich. He even cried for his mommy. Then, he saw his break and snapped out of it. He ducked in between two zombies mauling down a woman, resisting the urge to help her. He ran to the right, slowly pushing his way through people and zombie alike. Then he was in the open, carnage on one side, forest on the other. He sprinted to the forest, hearing the bullets smacking the ground behind him. He could almost feel the red dot from the sniper on the back of his head, and waited for the shot while he ran. But it didn't come, and he tore into the forest going full speed. He zipped past the trees, passing a zombie here and there. He made his way deeper but also circled around.

He had to get Lauren. Finally after running such a long distance, he collapsed onto the ground. His cheeks stung from the vines that whipped his face, but overall he was all right. He sat in the shade of the trees and sobbed. He still heard the gunshots in the distance, heard screams. He waited until it all died down before he stood up again. He froze. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something. No, just paranoia.

Then, a voice. "Didn't think I'd see you ever again."

The deep voice. Alan whipped around, fresh tears in his eyes. He saw him, standing there, all bloody and bruised, with a huge grin on his face.

"Rich," he whispered.

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Jason was now inside the building. No one had noticed his entrance; most of them probably didn't recognize him. He was sure that Rick hadn't planned his arrival. He slipped down the corridor, making his way to the back. He had a pair of keys in his hands that would unlock the door to the women's room. Then he'd tell them to leave, find and kill Rick, grab the explosives, and blow the place to Timbuktu. He whistled as he walked down the hall.

Then, he heard a muffled thump. Then a woman's scream. He stopped dead in his tracks. He heard voices coming from inside Rick's office. "You fucking bastard," he muttered. When he tried to open the door, it was locked. He fumbled with the keys. There was one for this door, he knew it. He finally found it, slid it in, and turned.

When he opened the door, he wasn't noticed.

Mainly because Rick had a small, blonde woman bent over his desk, trousers down, the woman's head covered in blood and smashed into the table.

The woman squirmed under his firm grip on her neck. She was choking and sputtering on her sobs. Jason ran in and before he knew it was on top on the pant less Rick, beating the shit out of him.

"You—fucking— bastard!" With every word came a hard blow to the sweaty pig's face.

Rick screamed like a girl and flopped beneath him. His face was beet red, due to either embarrassment or rage. It was probably rage. The woman slid off of the desk and landed hard on the ground with a burst of new tears.

Dark welts had appeared where Rick's fingers had been. Rick had wiggled free and was now kicking Jason in the jaw, making him bite down on his own tongue.

Blood ran down his chin.

"You're alive! You should be dead!" He grabbed Jason's arm, caught him off guard, and wheeled it behind his back, knocking him to the floor. The woman screamed and scrambled up, pulling on her pants and trying to calm down.

"I'll have to kill you the hard way— with my bare hands!" Rick started punching Jason in the head, slamming it into the concrete floor. He stood up and kicked the now-bleeding man over with his foot, forgetting about the woman.

"Now, I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget—"

Then he was down. The woman had smacked a stool over his head and he crumpled like a piece of paper. Jason lay gasping for breath, literally drowning in the blood coming from his tongue. The woman propped him up, now she had stopped crying.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly. He nodded and closed his eyes. "You okay? Are you bleeding still?" She shook her head.

"No, I'm not. Thanks for saving me. I'm Lauren." He smiled at her.

"Nice name. Now, excuse me while I kill him." She gladly stepped back. But then she gasped. Jason opened his eyes and saw Rick, head bleeding, wielding and axe. He'd somehow fallen and slid behind his desk where the weapon had been hidden.

"Fun time's over, Jason," he said manically. He dove toward him, narrowly missing his leg as he jumped up out of the way. "Let's go!" Jason screamed as he grabbed Lauren by the wrist and led her out of the office.

Rick laughed again as he withdrew a syringe filled with bluish liquid and found a vein, injected himself, and discarded the needle. As he followed them, he screamed, "You know what that was? That was the virus activator, my friends. Now I'm infected with the non-lethal strain!"

And he chased them down the hall, shrieking like an animal.

Once the needle left his vein, Rick was no longer human.

Changes were being made inside of him; a war of microscopic proportions was being waged deep within him. And he was changing mentally and physically.

He was no longer a he.

He was an it.

And it thirsted for blood.

It didn't need the axe any longer; all it needed was two arms and two legs. It bounded after the two people, could smell them like it never could before. All senses in overdrive. The power. The thrill of it all, it could smell the blood drying. It could taste the sweat coming from their bodies. It rounded a corner and came across two soldiers. They took one look at it and screamed, but their screams didn't last long without a head.

It followed the scent, followed the sound of racing hearts. It looked down at its graying arms, saw the blue veins, felt its temperature drop. Its heartbeat slowed, but that didn't stop it. Then, the hallways were empty.

Not a problem, in any case. It could hear them.

Smell their odors, still could smell its own odor on the woman. They'd gone into one of the vacant rooms, the food storage room. It crashed through the door and slowly walked down the long aisles of canned foods. It passed a window, and its reflection; a swollen shell of what used to be a human, skin grey, hair already falling out.

It was at least two feet taller, its eyes were all whites now. It's nose had begun to sink in, its lips were dissolving into nothing, showing only gum and teeth. It could feel something inside itself dying, a part of it that tied to humans; its conscience.

But, then again, it didn't have a conscience in the first place, did it? Oh, no, Rick had never had one of those.

It let out a laugh, but it sounded more like a howl.

Then it stopped.

The scent was in the room all right, but now it was hard to discern the smell of human to the scent of stored food.

The chase was on.

Lauren tried to keep her heart from bursting out of her chest. Did Rick just howl?

She hadn't seen what he looked like, hadn't dared to look back. Now her and Jason were separated only by three shelves of conned goods; not a good idea. She glanced at Jason, whose eyes were wide and flitting around the room. He looked at her and made a hand gesture. He pulled something out of the air and aimed. A gun! She nodded. He gave her the thumbs up, and then mimicked opening a door. There must've been a weapons room nearby.

She nodded gravely and pointed to where Rick stood, just breathing heavily and sniffing occasionally. He looked panicked, then jumped slightly when he heard cans crashing to the ground as Rick pushed items out of his way. Lauren almost cried out but stopped herself. Jason slowly edged to the end of their aisle, glanced around, and then looked at her. He pointed in the opposite direction, behind them. So, the beast was at the end.

The door was in front of them, now it was just a matter of slipping away before it could find them. Then, behind Lauren, a can fell off of the shelf. The monster stopped. Lauren glanced back to where Jason had been, but he was gone. The monster was right behind her now, the next aisle over, and had heard the can fall. She was dead. Then, from the other side of the room came the crashing of a shelf.

The monster darted back over there and she was left alone, now worrying about Jason. But he had somehow slipped unnoticed back to where she was. He grabbed her arm and dashed toward the door, opened it quietly, and then led her down the hallway. He wheeled to the left and pulled out some keys. He slowly went through them, trying not to let them jingle together. Then he found the right one and they were in the walk-in closet from hell; filled with guns of all sizes, grenades, rocket-launchers, you name it.

He grabbed a fairly large gun off of a rack and handed it to her, then grabbed a similar one. After loading them quickly and taking a few grenades for both of them, she followed him back out. They ran down the hall to the women's room. Behind them, a shrill howl.

"Shit!" Jason proclaimed, and they quickly entered the workroom.

"Listen to me! We need your attention! There's a monster on the loose, and we're going to blow up this building. Everyone, come out with—"

Jason was sent flying across the room and crashed into a group of women, who screamed and scattered. What stood next to Lauren was something that looked like it would be on sci-fi; a large, looming form. Grey skin, bulging muscles, and a bald head except for a few strands of hair.

Its eyes were clouded whites, its nose had collapsed into its face, and it had no lips, just black gums and teeth.

The clothes were gone, and weird, moving muscles rippled underneath layers of fat-skin. Lauren screamed and ducked just in time, dodging its giant, claw-like hand by centimeters.

It let out a roar and tore into the crowd of pregnant women, ripping their huge stomachs open, blood pouring over and pooling onto the ground.

The women shrieked and began running frantically around, not knowing where to go. Jason slowly stood up and tried to calm them down.

"Please— listen!" he staggered like a drunk.

"The exits are open, we unlocked them; you can leave!"

But no one was listening. Lauren fought her way through the maze of people and grabbed Jason's arm.

"They're not going to listen. We have to go, there's no other choice. It's either we kill that thing now, or have it run rampant out in the wilderness."

He looked into her eyes regretfully, and then nodded. They ran to the front of the room as a giant claw swiped through the air, tearing people in half. Lauren was almost about to gag. "Where are all of the soldiers?" she asked, now remembering how empty the place was.

"Outside, watching the rounds, the bastards."

The rounds? What was that?

When they stopped in front of the door, Jason took his gun and fired several times into the air. It caught the attention of the monster, which stopped as it cornered a group of people. It was on all fours, now looking like more of a wild animal as it sniffed the air.

Then it raised to its full height as it stood on two legs. It dashed to Jason and Lauren, eyes feral and mouth barred.

"I can't believe it! We thought you were dead…" Alan felt a wave of happiness go over him.

Rich stood there, his clothes were ripped and bloody, his palms were cut, but he still had a goofy smile plastered on his face.

"Yeah, I know. When that thing crushed the hummer, I thought I was a goner. But then, as the car tipped, I slid to one end. It jumped right on the place where I was just at, but I managed to squeeze under and avoid gettin' smashed. The tricky part was climbing through the windows after they'd been bent."

Then his face went dark, and his smile vanished. "Those guys…. All of them died. That thing went berserk when they fired a rocket launcher at it, and then it just ran around and plowed into everything until its skin was in shreds and black blood poured out of it, and I mean buckets.

The smell, I couldn't describe it to you. Finally when I had climbed out of the truck I thought I was home free, but guess again. There was a zombie-cougar or something out there and I nearly had my arm ripped out of my socket. Long story short, I made my way in the direction you guys went." Rich must've seen the glint of guilt in Alan's eyes, and he put a reassuring, fatherly hand on his shoulder.

"Listen, kid. I know you and Lauren thought I was dead, and I would have left, too. It was thanks to the lord almighty that I survived, and you had no choice in it." Then he hugged him. Alan knew it hurt him, it probably hurt to blink with all of his wounds, but still Alan couldn't help hug back. He'd never been hugged like that. Then, the moment ended and Rich stood tall, wiped away something in his eye, and looked firmly at Alan.

"Where's Lauren? We need to get out of here, fast. Stacey must have slipped a note in my pant pocket, and I found it when I was throwing out my old money and keys. It's got some bad news on it." Then out in the forest they heard laughter.

"Here, little piggy, piggy, piggy! Come on out to play!" They were searching the forest for him.

"Rich, you go, now. I'll keep them busy. They want me; they don't know you're out here. Lauren is inside the base somewhere. When you find her, tell her I said sorry for leaving her. Tell her…"

Then he trailed off.

Rich shook his head. "No, I'm not leaving you. You're coming with."

Then he grabbed his arm and they were sprinting through the forest, not caring if they made noises or not. Behind them someone shouted. They weaved in and out of trees, ducked under branches, and then emerged into daylight. The building loomed ahead, dark and cold looking.

All the commotion from earlier drew the zombies out, and they gathered just beside them in the field and forest. Rich and Alan ran as fast as they could to the building, sprinting, pushing themselves. One of the sentries spotted them and fired. A bullet hit Rich in the leg, and he toppled over.

Alan stopped running and turned back around. He grabbed Rich and dragged him out of the line of vision.

"You're gonna be ok, man," he said as he ripped his shirt off and tied it around the bleeding leg. Rich gasped but other than that he was fine. They limped over to the gate.

"How are we going to get in here?" Alan asked. Rich smiled and held up a key ring. "Swiped this from one of the dead soldiers."

It could smell them. It had heard the noise, which just made it enraged.

The loud noise.

It could sense the hated man and the horrid woman, even without sight. It was blinded by the brightness.

Blind? It didn't matter. Its senses were on overdrive, amplifying things sevenfold. It charged at the man and woman, lusting for their blood, wanting the warmth of it to wash over its cold, quivering skin. It needed to kill the man, for some reason.

It sliced the people as it ran, ripped open bulging stomachs and letting the redness flow. It had no need for these children; it had to have its own.

The man and woman ran out into the open hall, so it followed. The hall was dark, ah, darkness. It saw blurs of shapes, but no matter. It felt their vibrations. Power, oh the thrill of the chase. It surged forward, crashed through the door, flew past barrels.

Then it saw them do the unexpected. They stopped.

What trickery was this?

No, not a trick.

They had given up. Good, for now it hungered not just for the thrill. But, the man drew something out of his pocket. What was this? He threw it, but it merely bounced off of its thick, leathery hide. It laughed at the stupidity.

It was all powerful, not to be stopped.

But, then, the man said —

"Shut the hell up, you bastard." The grenade had landed right where he wanted it to; next to the fuel barrels.

The monster looked confused, but then the grenade went off, sending flames spreading outward. A cloud of fire engulfed the monster, it bellowed, black smoke rose off of it. Jason and Lauren scrambled to the side and ran in the opposite direction, behind them the monster screamed, echoing off of the walls.

"We have to get out, this place is gonna blow!" Jason shouted. Lauren followed him, stumbled, and then found balance.

"What?" He pointed upward. She looked up and saw many, many pipes that ran along the ceiling. They rounded a corner and flew at the door; inside the smoke was building up and they couldn't breathe. Lauren pushed the door open and slammed into someone. She was not looking for a fight with the bastard soldiers, and she raised her gun to shoot.

But she stopped as she saw Alan, and next to him, a bruised, bloody, smiling black man.

"Rich?!"

She went to hug him but she saw that he flinched and decided not to. Jason was looking around nervously.

"Yeah, guys? Now is not the time for a family reunion. We have to get the fuck away, now!" As they ran from the building, Jason heard the sentries shouting orders.

He cupped his mouth with his hands and screamed, "Ay! Bobby, get the fuck out, the place is gonna blow!"

But, too late, the floor underneath him collapsed and a pillar of fire shout outward where he was standing.

Jason turned around and ran with the group, now soldiers were pushing their way to the base, unaware of them, and unaware of what lay inside. Zombies were literally everywhere in front of them; streaming from the forest, running across the field, blocking their paths.

But anything was better than what was behind them. Behind them. The door burst open and the flaming monstrosity roared, its skin charred black and horrible smoke rising off of it. It sliced through the soldiers, cutting most of them in half. It pursued them still, it ran full force, eyes burnt out, nose gone, teeth barred. It outstretched its hand to Jason, but then toppled over. It lay in a heaping, smoldering pile of bubbling flesh.

Boils and blisters had appeared and were now popping all over its hide. It lifted its remnant of a head, screeched, and dragged itself to Alan, who was nearest.

Lauren drew her gun and pumped it, firing round after round at the beast. Its head exploded as a bullet hit dead center, and there it lay, quiet except for its disgusting crackling and popping skin.

Its muscles, the weird, ever-moving muscles were still moving, though

. Lauren stared in disgust as the cracked skin pulled apart, and thick, blood red worms the likes of which she'd never seen before rose from the carcass.

They wriggled and writhed, then caught on fire. If they could scream, she knew it would be horrible. They fell like ropes, fell with a squish as they, too, smoldered. Lauren could barely hold her scream in.

Rich turned around.

Then he laughed.

All the zombies were closing in on them, mouths gaping, arms outstretched, just like the classic horror genre zombie. It was a sight for sore eyes compared to the horrors they'd seen already.

"Well, looks like we've got our work cut out for us," Rich said.

Lauren handed him her gun. He gladly accepted, pumped it, and said," Let's drop it like it's hot!"

Behind them, the building blew up, engulfing the area in flame.

-Nine months later-

Lauren sat on the couch and hummed a song from a movie that she forgot.

The fire crackled in the fireplace, the fat logs burning slowly and giving off warmth. She was knitting something, a sweater perhaps.

She forgot.

She sighed, set her work down and sat up. Then she slowly got up and made her way to the kitchen. There was no electricity, but they'd found a generator out back and had been using that. She poured herself another cup of chamomile tea and let the warmth go down her throat.

Then, the front door opened and she jumped, spilling some tea on her shirt. Rich walked in, carrying a bundle of firewood, snow piled on his shoulders. Jason and Alan followed, wiping snow off of their hats and coats. Rich turned to Lauren.

"You got a little something right there, on your shirt." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I know." Then she punched him playfully.

"So, did you guys find anything?" Jason took his boots off and poured out the melted snow, then closed the door.

"Nope, not a single deer out there. Guess we're going to be eating that wonderful spam, eh?" Alan groaned and flopped onto the couch.

"Spam is so disgusting! I want real food!" Lauren smiled at his complaining. He'd been quiet the whole week, probably from boredom, and now hearing his voice was a good thing, even if he was being bratty.

"I could make some of those canned veggies, if you prefer," she offered. Rich shook his head. "We told you last night, Lauren; you're not going to do anything in your condition."

Then he stuck his hand out and rubbed her huge, round belly. He knew she hated that, she thought she looked fat.

"I'm pregnant, not dying," she batted his hand away.

Rich laughed. "I know. So, what are you going to name it?"

Lauren cast a look at Jason, who shrugged. "Lauren wants to name it Carol if it's a girl. If it's a boy, though… I want to name it Oscar!"

"Oh, come on! Oscar is a horrible name!" Lauren said.

Alan sat up and kicked his shoes off. "I think you should name it Will if it's a boy. That was going to be my name before Alan."

Jason looked at Lauren and they both nodded. "All right, Will it is."

Then Jason hopped up and kissed Lauren on the cheek. They started laughing.

Rich look worried.

"What is it?" Lauren asked, alarmed.

"Did you hear that?"

Alan sighed. "Rich, you've been hearing things all week. Look, we're in the mountains, and we're fine."

Something crashed outside. A tree toppled over.

All of their faces went white. Rich and Jason ran to the window and looked outside.

A pack of undead wolves ran from the forest, howling and yipping. But it wasn't the wolves they were looking at.

Behind, chasing them was a huge, grey monster with no eyes. Lauren suddenly felt something.

"Oh, no. My water broke." Rich, Jason, and Alan just stared at her. "Do you have to do this now?" Jason asked.

"No, I think I'll just wait a bit. Yes, I have to do it now!"

Outside, the monster roared, and zombies of all kinds began to gather by the house.

"Oh, man. I'm starting to have labor pains."

"Already!?!"

Lauren breathed, panicked, and started crying. "Wait, no. It's not labor pains… it's —"

Something bulged under her stomach. It was like it was tearing her apart in there.

"What the hell?"

The zombies closed in on the house, and inside Lauren screamed...

Dun dun dun! The end! ^-^ I would love if you comment on it. Peace out ~

"The lives of humans now in the long run do not count for humanity in the future. Therefore, we must not look out for individuals of today, but for the populations of tomorrow."