Take a Bite of My Heart Tonight

"Alex open the fucking door! Alex!" is the sound that Alex Gaskarth wakes to one Saturday morning, along with the continuous violent banging on his front door. He recognises the voice instantly as Jack Barakat's, and lets out a string of curses under his breath before going to see what his best friend wants.

He is nearly knocked over by Jack's slim frame barrelling past him as soon as he swings open the door, which is promptly slammed shut by the darker haired man as he leans against it to catch his breath.

Alex is annoyed for being woken up so early on a weekend, staring properly for the first time this morning at his best friend. It is only then that Alex takes in the other man's appearance; his hair is sticking to his forehead from the layer of sweat covering it, his shirt is torn slightly in places and there is blood scattered about his body.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Alex exclaims.

Jack takes a deep breath in and cracks one eye open to look at the older man, before uttering one word.

"Zombies."

The sound of footsteps upstairs makes them stop in their tracks, their ears straining carefully to listen for any more movement. The sound becomes louder and more frequent before Rian appears from the stairs, rubbing his eyes and yawning loudly.

“What are you two doing up at this hour, it's Saturday?” Rian asks irritably, clearly still half asleep.

Alex just glances over at Jack, who quickly repeats to Rian what he just told Alex. Rian's eyes bug out of his head, and he shakes it quickly.

“No, no that can't be true.” He denies, still shaking his head slightly.

“It is man, I went over to Holly's this morning to see her and she attacked me!” Jack exclaims, “I swear dude, she was gone. She was completely fucking zombiefied, she tried to claw my eyes out as soon as I got through the door!”

“Man that sucks, I mean you're used to having girls throw themselves at you on a daily basis but I doubt they usually want to eat you.” Jack just punches Alex's shoulder for making a stupid comment, but otherwise lets it slide. He can't get over the image of his undead girlfriend's eyes burning with lust and want, and not in the way he's used to.

“So what do you know?” Rian asks, fully awake now.

“I know that the world has gone to shit man, they're fucking everywhere!” Jack just about yells, hands flying up in the air to emphasise his point.

True to Jack's word, Alex peers out of the window next to the front door and nearly faints at the sight; They are everywhere. In houses, cars, streets. Everywhere. They're not crowding the streets so much that it's near impossible to escape, but it will be hard. And the guys need to get going now if they want to get out before the zombies get in.

Alex turns to the other two, “Guys we need to go, now.”

“We need to get Zack and the others.” Rian adds, all three men nodding in agreement.

Jack decides to speak up, “We should get as many weapons as we can first, you know, just in case. We don't know how this thing is spread yet, and I'm not willing to wait around for one to get too close for comfort to find out.”

Ten minutes later the trio are armed with as many “weapons” as they could find; baseball bats, a crow bar, knives, a shovel from outside (which Alex had nearly got himself a bite to the neck for), and a shotgun and ammo found in the basement from Alex's grandfather (he was an avid hunter and had passed the firearm down to Alex).

Rian swung open the front door after checking the coast was somewhat clear, and all three men race to Alex's SUV, swerving and ducking to avoid any oncoming zombie limbs and mouths.

Soon enough they're racing down the street, Rian in the driver's seat, all hoping to get to Zack's house in one piece. Zombies littered the streets, climbing in and out of houses through doors and windows, dragging screaming people out with no mercy.

Jack had called ahead earlier and told Zack to expect them and to get everyone else to his... and to bring cars, weapons and other supplies. In their rush, Rian, Alex and Jack had forgot to get supplies such as food and clothes, so they were relying on their friends for that.

Alex is freaking out, he's looking out the passenger window at the fast-moving scenery, taking in the carnage that has become of his beloved hometown. It's a mess, a chaos without any purpose or direction. He doesn't know how to feel, but can sense the nausea building up as, ew, he just saw a man's insides being ripped out by several zombies.

He just hopes that they make it to Zack's in time.