Chapter One

                                    

                                          
When I start the walk back to the only place I know I can go to (my apartment), it's pitch dark outside and the streets are crawling with the undead. I can't stop hearing people screaming, things breaking and crashing as those that had tried to hide become discovered. I sneak my way through, trying to avoid confrontation as best I can. It's hard with zombies fucking everywhere.
Eventually, I stumbled into my apartment. Thank fuck. The lights and power are still working, but I don't risk turning the lights on- don't want any unwanted attention.
I move until my back hits a wall. Then, I slump down until I'm seated on the ground. My axe clatters to the floor in front of me.
The events of today are spinning in my head, but I still can't process it.
I don't know how long I sit there, but it's definitely for a while. I can't bring myself to move, I can't bring myself to think. It feels like this is all just some crazy fever dream, and I need to wake myself up from it.
Twenty-four hours ago, I'd been watching some stupid reality television show with Kate while stuffing our faces with whatever snacks we bought that day.
And here I am.
Kate is dead, and I'm sitting in my apartment with a bloodied axe.
Not how I thought my Friday would go.

***

I use my laptop to look up the news. I plug in my headphones so that I don't make any noise and listen, squinting at the bright screen.
"No one is exactly sure what started the pandemonium on Averna Island,"  The woman on screen is saying, "but one thing's for sure- it's a threat to humanity's very existence. Escapees are claiming that people are attacking each other, gruesome people with incoherent thoughts and a taste for human flesh."
Zombies? Appears on the screen in bright red font. I changed to a different website."...no idea where to go from here," Some man is saying, looking to his co-anchor. "Military has moved in. Both bridges off the island have been closed down."
"It looks like the outbreak started in Clearbrook," His co-anchor says, eyes narrowed at the camera. "For those unfamiliar with the island of Averna, Clearbrook is its largest city and easily its only noteworthy one. There are some smaller towns scattered around the island, and most of them were able to be safely evacuated before any sort of infection arrived."
Well, they're not exactly right. It started in a workplace about ten minutes outside of town- the undead just picked Clearbrook as their first target.
I watch more of the news, but it doesn't help. It only increases the dread building in my stomach.
No one knows what's going on.
I can't believe I know more than the media. "Maybe if I offered an interview, they'd put some effort into getting people out of here," I say to myself bitterly, glaring at the map that someone's pulled up of Averna Island.
"Is there any hope for the people still trapped within the island?" The news anchor asks the camera.
It's a damn good question.
I wish I had an answer.

***

I don't know how long it takes the power to go out. But it does. Same with cell reception. Everything just goes to shit at some point.