Outnumbered

[Allie's POV]

It was just an average night. Nothing new. If you looked outside the windows of my apartment you'd see millionaires of stars shining in the sky. The buildings were lit up and the palm trees swayed in the California breeze.

But suddenly every light in my apartment shut off. The room went black. I was frozen where I was standing. You could hear my heart pounding heavily in my chest. Something didn't feel right.

I heard my daughter screaming in the other room for me. I walked down the hallway to her playroom, where I saw her sitting on her knees, tears running down her face, her arms reaching out for me.

I got down on her level, placing my hand on her back. "Hayden hunny, you're fine." I comforted her. She crawled into my arms and I picked her up. Hayden's little hands clinged to my shirt and I started to bounce her a little. Hayden was 4. She could talk, but right now she chose not to.

I brought her out into the living room. I called for my boyfriend to light some candles up if he could find any so we could have light in our place.

He came out with some matches in his hands and 3 scented candles. He placed them on the coffee table in front of us. He lit a match and lit the top of the candle on fire. The light flickered. I felt Hayden start to calm down.

"Vic, I feel like something isn't right..." I said, whispering so I wouldn't scare Hayden.

Vic turned around to look out the window. I saw a side view of him, his brown eyes growing big.

"The city is dead. No one's outside. Every building is black. There are no cars in the streets or anything." Vic replied. I could hear him starting to breathe heavy. He stood there staring blankly staring.

This wasn't making any sense. Just a couple minutes ago the city was bright and alive. Maybe it was just a power surge. Maybe people left to somewhere else in town that might have electricity. That made sense in my head.

I wanted to brush it off like it was nothing but it was something. I felt as if I was in danger. Something was among us.

[Vic's POV]

We went a couple days without electricity. The streets were empty as can be. It was night time already, and not a single window across the street was lighten up. I had no signal on my cell phone. Our food was going bad. I wanted to go out but Allie didn't want to be left alone. She kept having a theory that something bad was out there, but I told her to knock it off because I didn't want to scare Hayden.

I made sure all the candles were blown out before I made my way to my bedroom to go to bed. I was exhausted even though I did nothing the whole day but color with Hayden.

I took my shirt off as I walked through the door frame of my room. I flipped the blankets over and Allie turned over. She was wearing nothing but a clean white undershirt. Her brown hair was resting on the pillow and her hand was reaching out for mine.

"You okay?" I asked her, getting under the blankets next to her. I felt her move closer to me, her hands wrapping my upper arm.

"Yeah, I just think something bad is happening out there." Allie rested her chin on my shoulder.

I turned over to see her eyes staring into mine. "Don't be silly. Nothing's happening out there, we just gotta wait it out."

"But what if?" She asked.

"What if what? Everything's fine...er...will be fine." I corrected myself. I could sense her fear. She was shaken up by something. Allie always had weird things wrapped in her mind. I wish she could have just stopped making up stories in her head, because even though I thought she was just over thinking what could possibly be happening, I was starting to get scared.

I put my hand on the side of her face, gently brushing my thumb over her soft cheek. She was a beauty, let me tell you. She had perfect bone structure, her teeth were perfectly white, straight brown hair, beautiful eyes and a killer personality. Allie was everything I wanted and needed in a woman. I want to claim her for the rest of my life. She was that perfect for me.

Allie placed her hand gently on top of my forearm and our lips met and she kissed me. It was a simple peck, and after all the years of me being with her, I still got the same electric feeling from it.

She sat up and I did the same, my hands going straight to her waist as she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me hard. We fell back onto the pillow, and she kept kissing me, our lips practically begging for each others touch. Her hands went to the side of my face and our lips tugged apart as she placed her nose gently on mine, brushing our noses across each others. I loved that. I heard her giggle to herself and I planted a kiss firmly on her lips again.

But suddenly I heard a noise.

BANG. BANG BANG.

I jumped from being startled. Allie looked up at me, her hands grabbing my arm again tightly.

Someone was banging on our door. I didn't know if I should go and answer it, but something told me to go and do it.

"Allie, go into Hayden's room. Make sure she's not awake, and stay quiet, okay?" I said whispering.
She nodded her head and I kissed her forehead and got up from the bed.

The doorknob was frantically turning. "OH GOD, PLEASE OPEN UP! SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE!"

I heard a male screaming at the top of his lungs for help. I didn't know what to do. Should I open it? Could it be a joke?

The door was about to break down if I didn't see what this fuss was all about, so I unlocked the door to see a man covered in tattoos. But his tattoos were tainted with blood. He had stretched ears and a dermal piercing as well. He fell onto the ground, crawling into my living room. He collapsed onto his knees.

"SHUT THE FUCKING DOOR, QUICK!" He screamed again, pointing at me to shut the door. I slammed the door shut, locking it quickly and I tried to catch my breath and I turned around to see this man on his knees trying to catch his breath.

"Will you calm down? My fucking daughter is trying to sleep, alright? What's your issue?" I asked him, my eyebrows narrowing down at the bloody body in front of me.

The man sat up grabbing his chest. He was breathing heavily. He got the strength to sit up, propping his back on the back of our sofa. "It's mad out there, man."

"What do you mean?" I asked him firmly, crossing my arms against my chest.

"They...they aren't...humans." He said, stuttering as he spoke. His words were cold. He spoke as if he was really shaken up from this.

"Then what are they?" I asked.

"They're cannibals...they're dead. They were humans before though, you can tell by looking at them. But they're skin is rotting, their eyes are a cream white color. Their teeth..." He shook and shut his eyes tightly. "They're terrifying things. I think they're zombies, dude. They don't speak at all, they just claw at you trying to eat you alive." The man started shaking when he said that. He was getting jittery, his eyes were getting big. He was expressing what they would do to you if these creatures caught you.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Tony. Tony Perry." He replied quietly. He went to take his hand out to shake mine but I shook my head no. His hands were covered in blood.

"Tony, how do you kill these things?" I asked him quietly. I forgot that Allie and Hayden were in the other room and I didn't want them to overhear this horrifying conversation.

"You got to shoot them in the head, man. Shooting them anywhere else won't stop them from shit." Tony handed me a pistol that was in this bag he was carrying.

I held the pistol in my hand. The handle had blood on it and I felt like something was going to crawl up my throat. He killed someone. Well, not exactly someone but he had to kill to survive.

"I really can't believe this..." I sighed. I didn't think this could ever be possible to happen in our society. We were living in the movies now.

Tony nodded his head yes. "It's too dangerous to go out there. I live down the street. I was living with my friend, and I don't know where he went. He left me stranded. I found this place, but to find it loaded with these maniacs running around on every level."

I looked at Tony when he said that. Our apartment had zombies in them? I was in potential danger this whole time?

"We need to get out of here...now." I said sternly. "I have a family, I don't want them to get hurt."

"Fuck, are you crazy? It's too dangerous! We don't have the weapons and we don't have the time to let out lives on the line like that, man!" Tony looked at the ground.

This man knew what he was talking about. It was a crazy thing to do, but I had to do what's best for my family and I would protect them at all costs. I wanted my daughter in a safe area and I needed to get her out as soon as possible.

"We're gonna take these things out together...one by one." I stated firmly. This character needed to get through his thick skull that we were gonna have to fight to stay alive now. Life is about making choices and living it to the fullest. I was about to do that.

"Look, I have a place where I know it will be safe. We'll make it out to the car and drive to this cabin I go to write at. No one's ever down there. It's in the middle of no where, I'm sure we'll be safe there. Grab every knife from the kitchen and we're leaving in five." I tossed the pistol back at him to hold on for me and I ran down the hallway to find Allie lying down in bed, holding Hayden in her arms.

I shook Allie awake and when I saw Allie open her eyes I put my index finger up to my lips to make sure she knew to stay silent.

"Vic? What's going on?" She whispered, perching herself up on her elbow to look at me.

"Baby, we need to get out of here, okay? Grab a blanket for Hayden and we're leaving." I said quietly, but my words felt rushed out of my mouth.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't freak out when I tell you this," I swallowed the spit in my throat before I continued to speak. This was going to terrify her. "There are zombies everywhere. I don't know how this happened, but that's besides the point. They're in the building. We need to get out of here now."

Allie covered her mouth and her eyes formed big heavy clouds of tears in the pouch of her eyelid.
"W-w-what?" She couldn't speak.

"Allie, shh okay? You'll be safe okay? Just stay behind me. There's another guy here who's going to protect you and Hayden. We're going to be okay." I reassured her. She probably thought I was crazy.

"What about Hayden? I don't want her to be hurt...I'm going to stay here. I can't leave. I don't want to leave. This is crazy. Fuck, this is so crazy." Allie began to sob, and I had to try to comfort her and knock some common sense into her.

"Hayden will be safe. I would never try to harm her in anyway, baby. You need to trust me. We're going to be okay. We're going to the cabin, and I know it's safe there."

Allie looked at me and her eyes were pouring tears. Her face showed that she was scared and she didn't know what to do. I didn't want to put her or Hayden into danger, but I knew for a fact I would protect my family at all costs.

"Vic, if anything happens to us I want you to know that I love you..." She sobbed quietly, her eyes looking down at the ground and then back into mine.

"Baby, I love you too okay? So much. Don't worry. I'll keep you safe." I gave Allie a peck on the lips and Allie woke Hayden up to get ready to go and leave the place.

I walked down the hallway to see Tony throwing knives into his backpack. He kept 3 huge butcher knives out on the table. "I thought we might need these. These will do serious damage."

I nodded and then he handed me a pistol and I held it in my right hand, my pointer finger on the trigger.

Allie appears from the dark hallway, with Hayden in her arms wrapped in a blanket. She forced a smile on her face, and I could tell she was getting nervous about going out.

"Put the blanket over Hayden's face, Allie. She doesn't need to see this." I said, as Allie came over by me and I did it myself. I kissed the top of Hayden's head and I saw Hayden's brown eyes glisten in the moonlight shining into the living room.

"I love you, Princess." I whispered to her.

Hayden's small lips formed a smile and I put the blanket over her head.

I stepped in front of Allie, and Tony stayed behind her. Tony handed Allie a knife and Allie looked at it as if she didn't know what to do with it.

"If one comes near you, take this and jab it in the forehead. They won't die anywhere else but the head." He said, putting his blood coated hand on her shoulder.

Allie nervously nodded, gripping the base of the knife in her sweaty palm.

My heart was racing. I felt sweat dripping from the side of my face.

I put my hand on the doorknob and turned it sideways to see nothing but flickering lights and pitch blackness at the end of the hallway.

I was ready to fight these things. I was born to die.