Before the Storm

It had been around two weeks since the outbreak began. Two weeks of driving around without a single place to go, because it seemed like everywhere we went either had no people, or it had been overrun. The amount of sick people wandering around just grew and grew in numbers. Madisen had begun calling them "walkers", because of the way they just walked around, stumbling over themselves aimlessly. The only thing they did was walk and kill.

Each day that passed, it seemed like the rest of the world secluded itself more and more from everyone and everything. The radio broadcasts stopped, leaving nothing but static on every station, the lights slowly began going off in all the stores and along the streets, and each day, it became even more rare to see an actual living human being. Everyone that I did see was dead.

It was still hard for me to fully wrap my mind around the fact that these people really were zombies. They weren't alive; They were dead. Even though I had seen the change right in front of my very own eyes, it was still mind blowing. People dying and coming back to life as zombies was something that only ever happened in the movies or in books. Plus, the fact that the way you turned into one was if you were bitten, scratched, or got their blood into your system just made it that much more of a cliche.

The fact that the radio broadcasts had stopped, and the fact that Zack and I still hadn't found our parents, it was making it that much easier for me to give up hope that things would get back to normal any time soon. The military, and any form of Government for that matter had been overrun as far as I could see and was no more. Hope, for me, was almost nonexistent.

However, both Zack and Madisen were still holding on to the idea that things would get better soon. All we had do to was find more survivors, group together and fight against the "walkers" to take back Georgia. I didn't for one second doubt that there must be other survivors out there, but I was also willing to bet that there were more walkers out there than survivors. And who knows, maybe it wasn't just Georgia that was hit. Maybe it was the entire United States, maybe even the whole world was hit.

Supplies were becoming scarce and it was starting to become harder to get gas to keep filling up the SUV. The vehicle that we had chosen wasn't exactly the best to be driving around all the time, anyway. It was a gas hog and always had been, but it was the only practical vehicle that we had at the time to be able to carry all of our stuff, while still giving us enough room to get rest at nights when we needed it. If things didn't get better, and gas just flat out became unavailable anywhere, I knew without a doubt that we'd either be hoofin' it or downsizing in vehicles.

"Zack," My voice was quiet and hoarse, from lack of use in the past few days. "We need to find somewhere to go."

We had been driving around almost aimlessly. None of us knew where we were going, and I for one was getting sick and damn tired of being in the car all day every day. We needed to find a building or house to take shelter in, otherwise I was probably going to go insane.

"Where do you suggest we go?" He asked irritably. He hadn't gotten much sleep recently, so I somewhat understood why he was so snappy. I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't know ... Choose a house, any house. They're all abandoned, so I doubt anyone will care much." I looked out the window at the surrounding area, seeing nothing but open flat areas and a few trees here and there. We weren't too far out of a town though, so I knew we could just find a place there.

"I agree." Madisen chirped from the back seat. "I can't stand bein' in this car any longer."

Poor Madisen. I felt so sorry for her after her father died and came back to life right back in front of her. It effected her like nothing I had ever seen before. The light in her eyes had died, and I could sense that she was no where near the same as she was before. It was almost like a part of her had died as well, and like she had given up to a certain degree. But then again, hadn't we all?

Zack nodded his head, agreeing to us finding a place to hole up in for a few days so we all could take a proper break and get our bearings back. We weren't going to be of much use if we were all exhausted, both mentally and physically.

We drove for another half hour before we came upon the town. There were no walkers around, which was a blessing. I wasn't about to deal with any of them right now. Zack drove through the town until we came to a suburban area just full of houses, ready for the picking. We pulled over on the side of the road in front of one of them and Zack turned in the driver' seat to look at Madisen and me.

"Take this," Zack said, handing a large buck knife over to Madisen that we had picked up at another store that we raided for weapons. "You're gonna need it."

She nodded her head and grasped her hand around the large knife handle. He then looked over to me, and I showed him that I already had my own knife out and ready. He nodded his head once before speaking up again.

"We're all gonna have to go in and do a walk through of the house to make sure there's nothing inside. Be on guard and don't get distracted. If you see a walker, kill it." He was stern with his instructions, but we both agreed and slowly exited the SUV.

Me and Madisen both held our weapons up at the ready, and Zack held his handgun up and began walking up the walk way towards the front door of the house, Madisen and I following closely behind him. I looked around us, keeping a sharp eye out for any walkers or people that might be around looking to harm us.

Zack flung the door open with ease and stepped inside. The house didn't look too bad, a few things knocked over and some random papers strewn around the floors here and there, but overall, it would be a nice place to stay for a few days. Maybe even until there's a cure for all this.

The hardwood floors creaked beneath our footsteps. Other than that, the air was deathly silent around us. I heard some stumbling about coming from upstairs, and I knew instantly that there was a walker. Zack heard it as well, and told us to stay down here as he began heading towards the stairs.

Madisen and I stayed down stairs and continued our sweep until we heard a loud snarl come from upstairs, followed by the sound of a deep thud from the walker hitting the floor. Zack came back downstairs, a few drops of blood on his shirt and arms from the spray off.

"It looks secure." He announced, wiping the blood from his arms off onto his jeans.

"We should put blankets up over the windows to keep the light hidden at night." I offered, and my brother and best friend both agreed. I nodded. "You two go out and grab the supplies, I'll look around and see what I can find."

We all went our separate ways, Zack and Madisen heading out the front door and me heading upstairs to first check the bedrooms for blankets or sheets, since they'd be the first place I'd assume some would be in.

I pulled the sheets off the first bed upstairs and balled them up in my arms as I headed over into the next bedroom. The walker that Zack had killed earlier was lying face down on the floor in front of the open doorway, and I had to step over the rotting corpse in order to even get into the room. My nose scrunched up in disgust as the smell crept up into my nostrils. That oh so familiar smell of old blood and decaying flesh.

Once I had pulled the blankets and sheets off this bed as well, I began walking down the stairs again and back into the living room. Zack and Madisen brought in the last few bags of supplies that we had, along with the rest of our weapons, and Zack locked the front door behind him, turning the dead bolt and even placing the chain on the door as well, just for extra precaution.

None of us spoke to one another as we fixed up this house to be suitable for staying in tonight. Zack went through the lower level of the house, making sure that all the other windows and doors were locked, while Madisen and me worked our way around the living room, covering up the windows as best as we could with what we had.



The day quickly turned into night and before I knew it, we were all sitting around the kitchen table, cooking beans and rice over a lit canister of Sterno. The entire kitchen and living room area was littered with candles and lanterns that we had obtained, just to be able to see.

Madisen sat at the table, her hands on the kitchen table and was twiddling her thumbs around just waiting for the food to be done so that we could eat as little as we could so that we could make the food last until we were able to come across some more. I think the thing that I hated most about what the world had become wasn't the fact that the dead had risen, it wasn't that there was death and decay everywhere around us. It was that I now had to actually take notice of what I was eating and how much of it I was taking.

I hated having to ration out my food and eat just enough to keep me from starving to death. I hated that the water supply was low and that was another thing that we needed to keep close tabs on. But above all, I hated that I wasn't able to take a shower every day like I had done for so many years prior. It was going on five days since my last one that I managed to take in an abandoned shower hall, and I was beginning to repulse myself.

I heard a small crowd of walkers begin to form outside on the streets, and I shot up in my chair, knife in hand and sauntered over to one of the living room widows. Zack and Madisen walked over to the lanterns, which were our biggest form of lighting, and turned them down, dimming the lighting. Zack walked over next to me quietly and peered out beneath the blankets and sheets.

"Looks like there's just a few of 'em." He said lowly.

I did a quick head count and only saw about seven or eight of them. But, the night was young, and I knew there would be a lot more wandering into the neighborhood within the time to come. They always did. It's like they formed herds or something and just traveled together.

"Hopefully they all wander off by morning." I mumbled, more to myself than anyone else.

"Yeah. I don't wanna end up gettin' stuck here for longer than we have to be." He replied, patting the blankets back down so that they were covering up the window again.

He walked back over to the table and checked on the food that had been cooking, stirring everything around and making sure that it got warmed all the way through. Madisen sat back down in her seat as well after turning the lantern back up a bit.

"Hey, Zack?" She asked, earning her a questioning look from him. She bit down on her bottom lip, obviously a bit nervous. "D - Do you think you could teach us to shoot sometime?"

I felt my eyes widen and I began nodding my head excitedly. "That's a fantastic idea!"

However, Zack shook his head no, and I fet my heart begin to drop slightly and the feeling of disappointment overwhelmed me. "We can't spare the ammo."

"But, both of us need to learn," I protested, gesturing to myself and my best friend. "We can't just be walkin' around carryin' knives everywhere. What if we get swarmed?"

"That's not gonna happen." He said. He pulled off the can of food from the heat and blew the flame out on the Sterno can to preserve what was left.

"But what if it does?" Madisen interjected.

"Yeah! And besides, we could be helpful if we knew how to shoot. It wouldn't be just you .." I grabbed a paper plate out of the pack that was sitting in front of me and began spooning out some food for myself.

"I said no. There's no place safe for us to practice, the sound would draw them all in like moths to a flame, and we don't have the ammo to spare to have you two just poppin' off rounds." He said harshly.

"But if we begin to run low, we could just go find more." Madisen spoke. I couldn't even understand why Zack was being so hard to convince on the subject. It's not like we were incompetent at learning anything new.

"And what if you go through all the ammo that we have, and we can't find anymore?" He asked in a matter-of-fact tone.

"If you don't want us going through it all, then maybe we should separate what we do have. Give us some to work with, and leave the rest for when we really need it." I was staring Zack right in his eyes, hoping that that would help more. He could clearly see that we were sincere in wanting to learn. "C'mon, you're more than qualified to teach us."

All three of us were silent as he thought about what I had just said. He clenched his jaw slightly and shook his head as he looked down at his plate. "If you two really wanna learn, we'll have to be smart about it."

I felt my insides jump with excitement, and I'm pretty sure Madisen felt the same. I couldn't believe that he really said yes! Maybe he was beginning to come around to the fact that we needed to learn in order to protect ourselves. He couldn't be everyone's savior. Although we did appreciate what he had done and what he had been through to keep us safe these past couple weeks.

"We'll go out into the flats where we can see better, and away from the roads. You two will get maybe, maybe, six rounds each. And even that's pushing it."

"Anything you say!" I said happily.

"Yeah, we got it." Madisen said, just as upbeat.

"Any sign of a herd and we get the hell outta there, no questions asked. Do you two understand me?" He asked, looking at the both of us. We just nodded our heads.

"When will we be starting?" Madisen asked, taking a small bite of her food with a plastic spoon.

"We'll wait until about mid-day when the sun is highest. It'll give those assholes outside time to wander away before we go." He said, nodding his head towards the street outside.

I was really excited to be able to finally learn how to shoot. It was going to come in real handy if something really bad happened and we got swarmed or something. I wanted to be able to help Zack and Madisen out if the time were to come. Although, I was also very nervous. I hadn't shot a gun in so long, and I didn't know exactly what was going to come from gun practice tomorrow.

I just hoped that I wouldn't completely screw this opportunity up tomorrow.