Starting Over...

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"Mom?... Dad?..."

My voice echoed through my family's dark, empty house. I traveled from room to room upstairs, feeling like I was floating... I couldn't sense my feet touching the floor.

Each room was empty; The three bedrooms, the bathroom, the den... So I felt my body drift down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Hello...?"

Still, I couldn't find my family. There was no one in the kitchen, the living room, in the downstairs bathroom, or on the back porch. There was only one place left: the basement.

Suddenly, I was standing right in front of the basement door. It slowly creaked open on its own, and I could see both my parents standing at the bottom of the staircase. Their backs were turned to me, and a sudden shiver of fear shook my spine... Something wasn't right.

"...Mom...?" My voice croaked... it sounded so far away.

Slowly, my mom turned around while my dad stood eerily still. My heart pounded faster and faster until she finally faced me. I tried to scream, but my voice was gone. For some reason, I couldn't remember how to use my voicebox.

I was stuck in that spot at the top of the staircase, forced to stare into my mothers white, foggy eyes and the yellowing, decaying skin falling from her face, exposing the skull beneath. Thick, bloody slobber hung from her chin and stained the front of her night shirt.

On her neck, I could see a huge, open wound... A bite mark.

The thing that used to be my mother opened its jaws, staring me straight in the eyes and piercing my soul. But instead of the horrible scream I thought I was going to hear come from its mouth, I heard.... Gun fire...

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I sat straight up in my sleeping bag, the sound of mixed voices shouting and bullets firing ringing in my ears. I instinctively jumped out of my bunk,  still a little disoriented, and scrambled to lace my converse high tops onto my feet.

"EVERYONE WAKE UP!!" Rick's scream echoed from downstairs, "WE'VE BEEN BREACHED!! WALKERS!! COME ON, GET UP!!!"

Now I was awake. I rushed to Jessie, who was amazingly still asleep on the top bunk. I put both hands on her shoulders and violently shook her.

"Jess!" I said urgently, "JESSIE!!"

She woke with a start, and I didn't waste any time. I grabbed her shoes from the floor and tossed them at her.

"Hurry!!" I shouted while I armed myself with my weapons in record time.

In a split second, Jessie was by my side grabbing her baseball bat and her gun. By now she had caught on to the screaming downstairs.

"What's going on?!" She cried out as we dashed out of the cell, heading straight for the stairwell.

"I don't know," I yelled over the sound of everyone frantically scrambling through the cafeteria. Carol rushed into a cell with baby Judith in one arm and a machine gun in the other, "Rick said walkers breached the fence..."

Glenn dashed right in front of us, gun in hand, screaming at us to come outside and help. Without waiting for a response, he busted through the door and disappeared outside... I could hear Rick and Hershel calling to each other, and I caught a glimpse of a group of three walkers chasing T-Dog across the lot.

"Jessie!! Kayla!!" Tina's terrified shriek caught my attention, and as I turned toward the direction it came from I saw her heading toward us with Maggie and Beth at her side. Each of them was armed with a handgun.

"Hurry, we gotta get out there and help before the guys get eaten alive!" Maggie urged us as she headed to the door.

We all nodded and followed her, and I braced myself for what I was about to see.

Outside in the lot, it was like a horrific nightmare come to life, much worse than the one that had woken me up. It was still the middle of the night, so the only light we had was from the pale moon.

Walkers were crawling everywhere, focing Jessie, Maggie and I to immediately race to our left. Maggie screamed out for Beth as she and Tina were seperated from us, four hungry walkers chasing after them.

"TINA!!" Jessie yelled out, "BE CAREFUL!!"

She swung her metal baseball bat with all her might, smashing the skull of a tall female walker.

Three more freaks were staggering after me, and I dodged each of their hungry, outstretched arms as I darted to the right. I slammed my back up against the brick wall of the cafeteria. I whipped my pistols out from their hulsters and pointed them straight at the walkers headed in my direction.

I fired off six shots, taking them all to the ground just as Michonne passed in front of me. She hacked two walkers at the same time with the razor edge of her sword, but there was one more behind her that she hadn't noticed. The undead beast trudged closer, snapping its jaws at her neck. I pointed my pistol in her direction.

"MICHONNE!" I screamed out, "DUCK!"

Her long dreads whipped around her head as she looked at me. When she saw my gun pointed her way, she followed my instructions and dropped to the ground, just as I fired a shot and took out the walker behind her. The bullet struck right under the eye, blowing half its skull to pieces. Michonne stood up as the body slumped over, staring down at the bloody mess. She glanced back up at me, nodding a 'thank you' in my direction.

I didn't have time to return her gesture, though, because before I knew it, a whole herd of walkers came storming around the corner. If Michonne and I didn't move fast, we'd be ripped to shreds in about five seconds flat.

"Let's go," Michonne growled loudly as she grabbed my wrist and started running, "Come on! We have to move!"

I ran along with her as fast as I could, glancing behind me at the walkers and firing a few shots into the crowd. Some bodies dropped, but it barely made a dent. They were still coming at us full force, even with Glenn and Hershel firing at them from behind.

"There!" I gasped as I pointed to the fire escape I'd become familiar with. 

I knew we could climb that fire escape and have a much better view on the entire lot. We could pick off the walkers more easily that way, not to mention we could figure out where they were coming in from... The only problem was there had to be at least 15 living corpses in our path.

We had no other choice but to risk it.

Michonne and I made a B-line for the fire escape, making our way past the vehicles... But we were taken by surprise by a huge walker stumbling around the Cherokee... It was a male, and it was bald and had to be at least six feet tall, weighing close to 250 pounds. I gaped up at him as he opened his jaws and let out a roar, his yellow, bloodshot eyes locked onto us. The beast made a lunge for us, and Michonne tossed me to the side, throwing me off balance.

"Oomf..!" I grunted as I hit the ground belly-first. The force from the fall tossed my pistols from my hands and I watched as they skidded across the pavement, coming to a stop about 10 feet away underneath Daryl's truck. 

The wind had been knocked out of me. I wheezed and willed my muscles to move, but my arms and legs felt like they weighed a ton. My reflexes were sluggish, and I looked behind me as I tried my hardest to stand up. I had my AK-47 strapped to my back, but I couldn't will my arms to reach over my shoulder and grab it.

Michonne was busy with the obese walker, slicing and dicing its arms as it stumbled around and reached for her. She swiped for its neck, but it wobbled in just the right way and all the blade caught was the collar of its green shirt.

My heart stopped as I saw another group of walkers had spotted me laying helpless on the ground. A female at the head of the pack shrieked loudly, alerting the rest of them, and they all rushed toward me. My breathing became jagged as I fumbled with numb fingers to grab my AK, and finally I mustered the strength. I pulled the gun from it's strap on my back, rolled over and pointed the barrel toward the herd coming my way.

I clenched my teeth as I pulled the trigger, keeping a good grip on the butt of the gun. This was a much more powerful weapon than my pistols, so it was a little harder to control. The sound of the bullets firing from the barrel was almost deafening, but I'd take losing my hearing over losing my life. I emptied an entire magazine into the crowd of undead, holding the trigger until the last shell flew out and tinked against the cement. Still, more were coming my way. 

Michonne had long since slayed the enormous walker and had been forced to flee to the other side of the lot, leaving me helpess and alone until I managed to pop another magazine into my gun. My fingers trembled as I tried to do just that, but it wasn't happening fast enough. I quickly looked up to see how much distance the walkers had closed between us. They were about 12 steps away from devouring me, and I still couldn't make my hands work the way I needed them to.

Just as I started to panic, a powerful handgun fired six times from behind me, taking down a walker with each bullet. I exhed and turned around to see who had bought me a few extra precious seconds.

"Carl...!" I gasped as I layed eyes on the young boy. He was breathing heavily, his gun pointed straight out and his ice blue eyes fierce.

"C'mon, they're still coming!" Carl urged me as he reached out his hand and helped me up. While I reloaded my AK-47, Carl fired off three more shots before having to reload his own weapon. 

It was my turn to fire my gun, and that took out the rest of the pack that we had been dealing with. Still, there had to be at least a hundred or so more roaming around the prison lot, chasing us down like cats and mice.

"Where's your dad?!" I panted as Carl and I sprinted across the lot forgetting about my plan to go to the fire escape, seeing as that area was covered in undead.

"He's by the gate," Carl replied, "He's trying to figure out where they're coming in at."

I kept quiet, saving my breath, as we dashed the rest of the way to the gate, taking out as many walkers as we could the entire way there. All the while I frantically searched for my brother, but I couldn't see him. I prayed for the best and tried not to expect the worst.

"T-DOG!!" Carl suddenly screamed, and I gasped and covered my mouth as my eyes laid upon what Carl had seen.

T-dog's body lay in the corner of the lot, mangled and almost unrecognizeable. His entire middle had been ripped apart and devored, his face frozen in a horrible expression of screaming pain. The amount of blood and shreds of skin and organs was unimagineable, and instantly my eyes filled with tears... I felt as if I'd throw up.

"Oh, god..." I whimpered as I grabbed Carl's shoulders and directed him another way.

As we ran, I could hear him sobbing. I wanted to stop him, look him in the eyes and tell him everyone else was going to be alright... But I just couldn't be sure of that.

So, we just kept running, hurdling over the bodies of walkers as we went. Some of them were crippled but still alive, and they reached out for our shoes as we passed them.

"DAD!" Carl yelled out as he spotted Rick, side by side with Daryl and Zach.

Their backs were all pressed together where they stood in the middle of the lot, rapidly firing bullets at the walkers. Each of them had great aim, taking down every freak that came their way.

"They're coming in through the back!" Rick shouted over the sound of gunfire, "Someone cut the lock and opened the gate, we've got to get-"

I didn't even wait for him to finish his sentence before my adrenaline kicked into overdrive, and I made a mad dash toward the back of the lot.

"KAYLA!" I heard my brother shout as I gained distance. "STOP!!!"

I ignored him and willed my legs to keep going. I was out of ammo for my AK-47, so I hooked it back to its strap, tossed it over my shoulder and whipped my knife out instead. I was still missing my pistols, but I'd have to make a plan to get those back without being eaten alive.

I dodged and ducked around the walkers, killing the ones I could, when finally I spotted it. A gate at the back corner of the lot had been swung open, the heavy duty lock and chain that had bound it lay on the ground in several pieces.

The gate led down a long, narrow fenced in area that trailed to the field outside... That's where the swarms were wandering in. I had to get through that gate... My legs carried me closer and closer, I was almost there...

Suddenly, I was tackled to the ground, and the putrid stench of rotting flesh overcame me. I struggled against the cement, pinned under the dead weight of a hungry walker. My one free hand was glued to its forehead, wobbling as it held the walker's snapping jaws just inches from my face... The hand that held my knife was trapped under the beast with the rest of my body, and I was running out of energy fast.

I groaned and fought the walker's face back. I looked into its face; It was missing its right eye, but the left one was cloudy and white, staring down at my neck. It lanky arms flailed about, broken in several places, fully exposing jagged pieces of bone.

I whimpered as my hand slipped a little on the walker's disgusting, slimey forehead. I knew I couldn't hold on much longer... Gruesome images of T-Dog flashed in my head.

I didn't want that to be me...

Suddenly, a metal baseball bat struck the walker in the jaw, and I heard the sickening *crunch* of its hollow bones caving in. The body flopped over to the side, and I quickly stood up.

Jessie lunged in front of me, swinging the bat one more time and swiftly crushing the walker's entire skull.

"Go!" She panted and pointed to the gate, obviously realizing what I was trying to do. "I'll cover you, go! Go!"

"Okay." I nodded firmly and raced through the gate into the narrow fenced in tunnel.

I was exhausted at this point, running on pure adrenaline as I used my knife to exterminate the few stragglers that blocked my narrow path.

I panted heavily, wiping dirt, sweat and blood from my face as I finally reached the clipped hole in the fence. In the distance, undead freaks were emerging from the trees and hobbling their way through the open field.

They were all a decent distance away, but there were so many of them... I needed to fix this now.

My eyes raced across the ground for something useful, anything that I could tie the fence back together with. My mind brightened when I remembered my belt.

I unlatched it, whipped it free from my denim shorts, and wrapped it through the links of the fence. I grunted as I tugged it as tight as possible.

It was sturdy, but as I watched the walkers drawing closer on the other side of the fence, I didn't trust that it would hold. So, I took my knife to my t-shirt, cutting three long strips of fabric and exposing my midriff.

I quickly yanked each piece of my shirt through the chain links, tieing triple knots as tight as I could. I wiggled the fence, nodding in approval. That was going to hold.

"OH GOD, BETH!!!" A horrific shriek came from the lot, scaring me half to death. It was Maggie.

"TINA, RUN! RUN!!!!" Then Jessie's voice screamed.

A burst of powerful energy I didn't even know I had propelled me back through the fenced in tunnel, back into the lot, and into a horror scene.

Tina and Beth cowered in the far corner of the lot, the main focus of almost every walker inside the fence. A few feet away, Jessie and Maggie paniced. Each of their guns were out of ammo, and Jessie's bat wouldn't be able to take out a crowd eight bodies deep.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, unfolding in a gruesome chain of events. Maggie screamed for Rick and the rest of the guys while Jessie began pointlessly bashing the skulls of the walkers.

None of this mattered... Because as I watched in pure terror, I saw a look of realization in Tina's eyes. She saw a break in the crowd of undead, and abruptly shoved Beth through it. She just barely stumbled to safety, and I heard Jessie scream as Tina raised her handgun to her temple.

My heart stopped as I saw a blood thirsty freak leap up and sink its teeth into Tina's forearm. She screamed out in pain, but it only lasted a split second before she pulled the trigger, silencing her voice forever.

The bullet blew her skull to pieces right before my very eyes, and pieces of her short brown hair clung to the fence. I felt as if a piece of my soul had been ripped out as her body slumped into the crowd of geeks who hungrilly tore it apart.

I felt my grip on my knife loosening and my mind drifting away until someone grabbed ahold of me. I regained my thoughts and realized it was Maggie.

"C'mon, this is our chance...!" She cried out.

It made me sick to think about it, but she was right... Tina's body was keeping the herd at bay, but it was only a matter of time until they would be searching for more.

So, I grabbed ahold of Jessie's wrist, and we chased after Maggie and Beth.

"MAGGIE!!!' A voice hollered from above us.

The four of us looked up to see Glenn standing on the rooftop that the fire escape led to, which was complety open now that the walkers were distracted.

Now was our chance. Some of the undead began to stray from the pack, so we dashed as fast as we could to the metal fire escape.

"Hurry!" Glenn urged us.

We helped Beth up onto the ladder first, then Jessie. I grasped the bottom wrung and hoisted myself up, and Maggie had a few inches on all of us, so she had no problem pulling herself up.

We frantically crawled to the top, flopping onto the roof. Beth dashed to Hershel, and I couldn't help but wonder how he had climbed the ladder. Glenn attacked Maggie with a hug and a few quick kisses before giving her ammo, and joinging Rick and Daryl in picking off walkers below one by one.

"Kayla!" Zach cried out as he raced over, trapping Jessie and I in a hug. He then put both hands on either side of my face, staring into my eyes. "Why did you run off like that?? You put yourself in danger."

"I... I closed... the whole in... the fence..." I panted to my brother as I searched his eyes. He just shook his head and let go of my face.

"You broke your promise." He muttered before turning and walking toward Rick, Daryl and Glenn.

In that moment, I wasn't registering anything except what I had seen happen to Tina. I trailed away from the group and sat down, staring into space.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as the harsh reality smacked me hard in the face.

Was this where everything finally fell apart...?

-TO BE CONTINUED-