Before the Storm

The loud sound of glass being smashed in was what jolted me awake. My lids were heavy, and I was very disoriented. I heard screaming, and yelling. Voices were all around me, but I didn't recognize any of them. I looked all around the darkness, unable to see hardly anything in front of me. I did notice that it was still down pouring rain outside, and it was still dark, indicating to me that I hadn't been asleep for very long.

I felt the cold rush of air on my left side, followed by rain pelting down on top of my head. There was a hard pressure around my bicep, pulling me out of the driver's seat and into the surrounding trees and bushes. Rain water was trickling down off the top of my head and down into my eyes, making it that much harder to see around me. The clouds overhead were completely blocking out the light from the moon, leaving us with nothing to help guide us.

"Get down on the ground!" I heard a gruff, male voice growl at me. Suddenly, I was being thrust down to the ground.

The feeling of mud and vegetation from the forest floor seeped through my jeans, and I felt myself becoming covered in the mixture. I heard Zack get thrown down beside me, and I reached a mud covered hand out in the direction of where I had heard him.

"What's going on?" I asked frantically, my hand landing on his shoulder.

The next thing I felt was a sharp sting on the side of my face, causing me to fall down to the ground and slam the side of my head into the muck. I reached my hand up and clutched at the fresh wound on my cheek, the feeling of tears at the backs of my eyes.

I heard Madisen being taken out of the back of the car and whimpering loudly as she was forced to stumble along on her hurt ankle, before also being thrown down to the ground with me and Zack.
"Don't none of you move, now." Another very intimidating male voice sounded through the darkness.

I strained my ears, trying to listen to anything over the sound of the falling rain and thunder. I heard clamoring and bickering coming from the back of the SUV, and I knew right then and there that we were being raided. These men, however many of them there were, were going to take our stuff and leave us with nothing. Maybe they'd even go as far as to kill us after words.

My adrenaline was pumping so fast, and eventually, my vision started to clear up and it was a little easier for me to see through the dark abyss. A loud clap of thunder sounded above, followed by a large streak of lightning that struck across the entire sky, lighting up the ground momentarily so that I could see.

I saw three figures rummaging around through the SUV, all three of them were on the large side and carrying a few weapons of their own. I couldn't see their faces, but then again, I couldn't really say that I wanted to. I just wanted them to take what they wanted and leave. Even though that meant that we'd have to go scavenging again and earn back everything that they took, it was a lot better than them taking our lives.

"Hey, Len," I heard one of the men say. "We got ourselves a couple purdy ones over 'ere."

I felt an arm snake around my throat and lift me up so that my back was pressed up against his chest. The man's face was right up next to mine, and I felt the roughness of his facial hair rubbing up against my cheek. I winced away from him, but his grip around me only tightened, keeping me close. The overwhelming scent of alcohol and cigarettes filled my nose and it made my stomach churn.

"What cha want us to do with 'em?" I heard the other voice say, the one I assumed was Len.

I heard Madisen struggling against Len, who had also lifted her up and had his arms wrapped around her mid-section, keeping her arms pinned down to her side. Another flash of lighting shot across the sky, and I faintly saw that the man holding her was on the thinner side, with dark, short hair and dark facial hair to match.

I heard hard footsteps sloshing around the mud and coming straight towards us. I felt the third man's presence in front of me, before a blinding light was shined into my eyes. I clamped my eye lids closed, and only a few moments later, the light was taken from my face and I could see again. The man walked over in front of Madisen and did the same exact thing, shining the flash light in her face.

"You can take 'em here, or take 'em with us. Your call. Jus' make it quick." The man said, his voice deep and thick with a southern accent. I assumed that he was the leader of this trio of men, since he was the one the other two were answering to.

"Just take what you want and leave," I heard Zack speak up from down at my feet. "There ain't any need for this." He was trying to reason with these men, but I doubted it would do any good. They were already robbing us, what was to stop them from going farther?

The leader of this group walked over in front of Zack and shined the flashlight down onto his face, and it was then that I could faintly see the face of the man. He was a bit on the heavier side, with gray hair and gray facial hair. He looked like the kind of person that was your all around family man that had a hidden agenda. You definitely wouldn't want to bump into him in a dark alley.

"Well what do you think we're doin'?" He chuckled. His voice was very charming; This man was nothing but a deceiver. "You're gonna give us the keys to this vehicle, Trevor and Len here will have their ways with the ladies, and then we'll be on our merry ways like nothin' ever happened."

All the while he was talking, he had a sickening grin plastered on his face. My heart was about to beat clean out of my chest, and I don't think I had felt any more defeated in my life. My hair was completely plastered to the sides of my face from how wet it was, and there was no doubt that my clothes were entirely soaked through by now.

"I claim this one." Trevor said menacingly into my ear.

He claimed me? Like I was something that could just be picked up off the side of the street and owned? I began struggling in Trevor's arms, trying desperately to get away from him. He threw me down onto the ground, and before I could even try crawling away from him, I felt the entire weight of this man come crashing down on top of me, pinning me face first into the mud.

I screamed out at the immense pressure and clawed at the ground, trying to gain any leverage that I could to try and squeeze my way out from under him, but it was no use. I kicked and thrashed as much as I could; There was no way that I was going down without a fight.

"Leave her alone!" Zack yelled darkly at Trevor, only earning him a demented chuckle from the man on top of me.

I heard a sudden thump come from in front of me, and then Madisen screaming out in pain. Len flipped her over so that she was lying on her back, and he laid down on top of her as well and began running his grubby fingers through her hair. She was sobbing uncontrollably, and he just laughed as he leaned over and began kissing her neck and shoulders.

"Don't be too long, now. I don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to." The leader said, walking up closer to Zack and holding out his hand. "Now, about them keys."

Zack gave the man the most deadly glare I had ever seen come from him, and reached into his pocket to grab hold of the car keys and hand them over to the man. He snatched them away from him and smiled down at Zack, bending over to get a little bit closer to his face.

"Now, wasn't that easy? Because you've been so cooperative, we might jus' go a little bit easier on you." With that, he turned and walked away from the three of us and over to the drivers side door. "Feel free to watch the show." He called over to Zack, before slumping into the seat and turning on the head lights so that they were shining brightly on us.

I looked over at my brother with tears in my eyes, and I reached out for him even though I knew I wouldn't be able to touch him. We were too far apart, and I doubt these bastards would even let him try and help us. It might actually end with him getting killed in the process.

I felt Trevor's hands roaming all around my body, running his hands up and down my side and grinding his pelvis into my rear. I didn't stop trying to claw my way away from him, even though I knew I was no farther away from him than I had been before. My muscles were aching and throbbing in pain, and it was beginning to get harder for me to move them.

I looked up and saw Len take a large buck knife out from the holster on his side and cut up the entire length of Madisen's shirt, exposing her torso. I felt Trevors hands roam down to the hem of my jeans and begin ripping them down, and I shot my hands down to clutch onto them to keep them up.

Len leaned down once again and planted his lips right onto Madisen's. I was full on crying my eyes out by now, witnessing this happening to my best friend all while the same exact thing was happening to me. What on Earth had we done to deserve this?

All of the sudden, I heard Len yowl out in pain, and I looked up to see him clutching his mouth with his hands. "Fuckin' bitch bit me!"

Len looked down at Madisen with nothing but rage and disgust in his eyes, and I watched in that split second him raising his knife and slicing across her throat in one swift motion. I screamed out for her as loud as I could, not giving a single damn if every walker in the entire world heard me. I stretched my arm out as far as it would go, trying to get near her.

She reached up and grasped both of her hands around her neck, trying to stop the bleeding. Zack tried crawling over towards her, but Len stood up quickly and just kicked him back, causing him to fall over onto his back. It didn't matter what we did, they were just going to over power us either way. Everything was hopeless and never in my life had I ever felt as small as I did now.

"Oh, shit!" Len yelled, and he pulled his gun out from his holster and aimed it behind me.

"C'mon! The flesh eaters found us!" The leader yelled from the car, alerting his two friends before slamming the door behind him and revving up the engine.

Len, without a care for his friend, ran over to the SUV and climbed into the passenger side and closed the door. Right as I began to feel the weight of Trevor being lifted off of me, I heard him yell loudly into my ear, and then the feeling of someone pulling on my wrists.

Zack pulled me out from under Trevor, and I looked back to see a couple of walkers chewing on his legs, working their way up and taking huge chunks of flesh out. His screaming was only drawing more and more of them our way, and we needed to get the hell out of here before we ended up like Trevor.

Seeing their comrade being eaten alive in front of them, Len and the other man sped off onto the road, running over a few more walkers that emerged from the trees before taking off down the road in the opposite direction we had originally came from.

Madisen had stopped moving, and I knew without a doubt that she had passed and was no longer with us. Zack grabbed hold of my bicep and began pulling me towards him, but I just pulled away.

"We can't leave her here like this!" I yelled over the sudden clap of thunder.

"We have to go! I won't be able to carry her and run!" He responded, trying once again to pull me away from the small hoard coming towards us.

I looked around quickly, and my eyes landed on Trevor's motionless body. I jerked my arm away from Zack and ran over towards his body, kicking off the closest walker and reached down to the holster he had wrapped around his waist, grabbing the hand gun and pulling away just in time for another walker to snap at my hand.

"I'm not letting her turn." I said to him. I cocked the gun and aimed right for Madisen's head, pulling the trigger and putting her down before the sickness had the chance to take over.

Zack looked over at me momentarily, and I handed him the gun and began running with him down the street. As much as I didn't want to just leave her there, I had no other choice. I wanted to give her a proper burial, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

I pushed my aching legs to carry me as far and as fast as I could possibly go. Rain pelted me in my face, but I wasn't letting that bother me. I was seething on the inside, having just watched my best friend get murdered right in front of my eyes. And then having to put her down myself only made it that much worse. The horrific scene replayed over and over in my head like a bad movie.

I vowed to myself, even if it took me the rest of my life, I was going to put an end to Len and the mystery leader that allowed this to happen.