Before the Storm

Groans and cannibalistic snarles filled my ears and sent indescribable shivers up and down my spine. My legs were aching like no other and the inside of my chest was so inflamed that I could barely even breathe anymore. Why was I in so much pain? The images of evil, yellowing eyes and putrid, rotting teeth flashed across my eyes and I was powerless to stop it. No matter what direction I turned in, I saw them.

I ran down a dark, dank alley way and pressed myself up against one of the cold brick walls as much as I could. If it were up to me, I would have pressed myself so far into it that I completely disappeared. I had no idea where I was, I had no idea where anybody else was. Was I all alone in this place? Was I the last person left? Questions whirled around in my mind and I had no idea what the answers to any of them were.

I took a deep breath and decided to keep on running down the alley way, because I heard the loud wall of snapping teeth getting closer to me, and I didn't want to stick around to face any of them.

I hurdled over empty cardboard boxes and tried my best not to run into the metal trash cans that littered the walk way, but it was so dark that I could barely even see my own hand in front of my face. My foot collided with one, causing a very loud and very distinct bang to sound out from the alley. I glanced behind me, and saw that the walkers were beginning to close in.

I was breathless and my legs were barely able to propel me away from them, but I urged myself to go faster and faster. I wasn't about to let myself get caught by these things.

A tall, wooden fence separated me from the other side of the alley way, and I knew that if I could just push myself just a little bit more and climb up and over that fence, I would be safe enough to get as far away as I could before they busted it down.

I reached my arms up and grabbed hold of the top of the fence, the tiny jagged edges of the wood digging into my skin. I hoisted myself up on top of the tall fence and threw one leg over, immediately stopping myself from going over. My mouth dropped open at the sight that I saw.

I was on the outskirts of Atlanta, and I saw far off in the distance, the once tall buildings were beginning to crumble down. They were on fire, and some had huge gaps in the sides from being bombed. The black smoke the rose up from the city was the thing that caught my eye the most. It was like a war zone had happened; Who knew how many people had been killed.

Suddenly, the wall of walkers crashed into the side of the fence so hard that it made me lose my balance, and I started falling. Falling right down towards the hoard of angry monsters trying to get me.

It felt like I was falling in slow motion, and it seemed like the sea of blood coated mouths was a lot farther down than they really were. I actually had time to look around and take in all the faces that were waiting to eat me. I saw Madisen, and I saw Zack. I saw my parents, and everybody else that I had known from my previous life. They had all turned, and they were all waiting anxiously to kill me.

My eyes widened and my mouth opened up to scream, but nothing came out. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make a sound. The only thing I could do was allow myself to fall.



I shot up in my bed, screaming my lungs out and looking around at my surroundings. I was panicking because I didn't recognize anything. I heard footsteps rushing over towards the bedroom door, and I hurriedly reached for my knife that was sitting on the bedside table, but ended up coming up empty handed. Where was my knife?!

I pulled the covers up close to my chin and cowered as far away from the door as I could possibly get. The door knob turned and the door was thrust open, revealing a tall, dark shadow that was illuminated from the crackling fire place behind it.

"Jaycee, are you alright? I heard screaming." It was Zack, and I instantly felt myself begin to calm down.

"Where are we?" I asked, still in a panicked state of mind.

"We're in the cabin, remember?" He said, walking over towards the bed and sitting down on the edge. "This is the third night in a row that you've had this dream. Are you gonna be okay?"

He leaned over and pressed the back of his hand against my forehead to check if I had a fever, which I didn't really think I did. I felt a little warm, but that was most likely from the night mare that I had just had. That, and the fact that it was already super hot outside, even with the sun not being out. The fireplace going out in the living room only made it that much worse.

I nodded my head, wiping away the layer of sweat from my forehead with the bottom hem of my shirt. I threw the blanket off of me and turned so that my legs were hanging off the side of the bed. "I just need some water."

Zack stood up and held his hand out for me to take it. Once I placed my hand in his, he hoisted me up onto wobbly legs and led me out into the living room area so that I could sit at the small, round table that would have counted as a kitchen table. He walked over to the counter and poured me a glass of water, before walking back over to me and sitting down at the table as well.

He just sat there watching me as I took tiny sips of water, trying to calm myself down. The images of my dream were flashing across my mind and all I wanted them to do was to go away. This was, like Zack had said, the third night in a row that I had woken up screaming because of a dream that I had had. Each dream that I had involved me seeing my loved ones as walkers.

I saw out of the corner of my eye that he was opening his mouth to say something, but I raised my hand up off the table surface slightly, indicating for him not to say anything. I shook my head back and forth. "Don't. It was the same dream."

"Is there anything I can do to make it better?" He asked sympathetically. I just shook my head again.

"Not from what I can tell. It's all because of what's goin' on around us. All this stress 'nd running everywhere." I lifted the glass and took another sip of water, swallowing hard.

I heard a movement come from outside in the trees, and Zack shot his hand over onto my forearm to keep me from jumping up and acting out of haste. I pursed my lips together as I stared daggers over towards the window, which was covered up with blankets as to not let the light from the inside get out.

"No use in goin' out there just to kill one of 'em. We'll jus' let it wander off on it's own." He said quietly, trying not to make too much noise, himself.

I let myself fall back down into my chair and I propped my elbows up on the table, resting my head in my hands. I was so pissed off at everything, and I could feel the anger bubbling away in my veins. At this point, I just wanted to go out there and kill every last walker that I came across. No matter where we went, they were there.

We were silent for a few minutes as we waited for the walker outside to roam off somewhere else. I could hear it outside, stumbling through the trees and mindlessly groaning with each and every step that it took. You'd think that after almost three months of being in such close proximity to these cannibals each day that the noises they made would just start becoming like normal, every day noises that you heard. Like a bird chirping in the trees, or a car going down the street. But it was exactly the opposite.

The moans and groans that they made, and the occasional snarl or growl, it was probably enough to drive me to complete insanity. Every sound they made was like nails to a chalk board.

"So," Zack began, tearing me away from my thoughts. I glanced up at him from under my hands and waited for him to continue. "I've been lookin' at this map." He reached over onto the counter top and grabbed the Georgia State map, placing it onto the table in front of me.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked at it. "What about it?"

He opened it up in front of me and glanced at it a moment, as if trying to find a specific spot to show me. "Well," He laid it back down again. "If I'm right, we should be right here."

I crossed my arms down in front of me and leaned over a bit more into the light to try and get a better look. Right where his finger was sitting was a little cluster of trees about five miles away from the high way. He then moved his finger a couple of inches to the right.

"Right down this way is a town that we haven't been to yet. It's about ten miles, so it'd be a pretty long hike."

I felt my stomach begin to do flips at the mention of leaving this cabin to go out and scavenge for supplies. Ever since arriving here three days ago, neither of us had even ventured out of the cabin any farther than the well to get some water. Both of us knew we needed a break, and that's exactly what we had been doing. However, our food supply was beginning to run low, and I knew that we needed to go out and get more. That and weapons and ammo. It was crucial.

Zack looked up at me and noticed the uneasy face that I was making, and he reached across the table and placed his hand on top of mine, rubbing his thumb across my skin gently. "Ya know we gotta." I just looked down and nodded.

"Yeah, I know. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

After what had happened on the side of the road when we got our SUV taken from us, I was completely terrified to go outside. It was sad that it wasn't even the walkers that I was that afraid of anymore, but instead it was living, breathing people. I had no idea what I would have done if I just so happened to come across another person.

"Jay, not all people are bad." Zack said, as if reading my own thoughts. "We just happened across a couple'a bad ones, 'nd it wasn't this happening that made 'em that way. They were like this before."

"That doesn't make it any better." I mumbled, trying not to sound as upset as I actually was.

"I'm willin' to bet that there's genuine people out there that want to help." I knew that he was just trying to make me feel better now; Trying to make me look at the bright side of things.

I began chewing on the inside of my cheek, not really having anything more to put into this conversation. If there were real, genuine people out there that didn't just want to fuck us over, it'd be too good to be true. It was one of those things that I had to see to believe.

My mind then began to travel back to a time when my parents were still around. I was around the age of thirteen, just entered into Junior High and was having to deal with bullies because Zack had gone off to High School and wasn't around to protect me. I remember my Dad sitting me down on one of the patio chairs on the back deck of our house and crouching down in front of me as to make better eye contact with me.

"Don't let the bitterness and crudeness of people get to you," He had said. "There's good in everybody, even if it's just a little bit."

I smiled at the thought of my father and began to feel a warm, comforting feeling begin to build in the pit of my stomach. I knew that he was right, and I couldn't just let what had happened to me cloud up what I knew to be true. There were still good people out there, despite the world completely going to hell and turning close to everyone left living into cavemen who's only goal now was to survive. It was just going to take a bit of weeding out to find the good ones.

"You can choose to stay here, or you can come with me." Zack said. I blinked a couple of times, not even realizing that he had begun talking to me again.

Had he really just given me the option to stay here by myself? That was something I hadn't expected. Usually, he'd be telling me that I'd one hundred percent have to go with him just so that he could keep an eye on me.

"The real question here is would you be able to make it there 'nd back without me?" I asked, turning the tables back towards him.

"Can't really be that hard. I'll jus' pack what I can in my bag 'nd head back here. Shouldn't take me any longer than a couple of hours." He replied.

"I donno, Zack ..." I wasn't too comfortable about this whole plan, and I knew that he could sense that. Something in my gut was telling me that this wasn't a good idea.

"Besides, I don't really feel like takin' all my shit with me again when I could jus' leave it here for you to watch. It'd make it a whole lot easier to grab what we need." He was looking at me expectantly, as if he was waiting for me to give him permission.

I half smiled over at him and shrugged my shoulders. "If you feel comfortable with it, then I guess I could stay here." I looked over and watched him smile widely. "When were ya wantin' to do this?"

"I figured I could leave tomorrow morning, be back before nightfall." My eyes widened.

"Before nightfall? That doesn't sound like just 'a couple of hours' to me." With this new information, I was even more uneasy about the whole thing.

"Obviously I didn't literally mean a couple of hours, Jay." He said, like I was just supposed to automatically know what he had meant. "I promise, it'll be okay."

I pursed my lips together into a hard line, picking up my half full glass of water and taking another drink, trying to calm my new set of nerves that I had just acquired.

"I hope you're right."