A car was speeding down the highway in Illinois. There were four people in this car. The one driving was a man named Jason. Jason was heavy with muscle. He had a chiseled jaw and a short beard.

David sat in the back of the car with his little brother, James. David was a tall young man with short brown hair. He was thin and he was growing a little stubble on his chin.

James was a short young boy. He was a little pudgy. David and James were the son of Jason.

Donna was sitting in the front passenger seat. She was Jason’s wife. Donna had curly blond hair and a slender body. She held onto her side in pain.

“What the hell was that thing back there!?” Jason shouted.

“It attacked me.” Donna said while holding onto her side.

“Are we going to be okay Dad?” James asked.

“We’re going to be just fine.” Jason focused on driving the car.

The further he drove, the more cars started to appear.

“Where are we going?” James asked.

“Chicago.” David said. “That’s what the news is saying to do.”

Donna began to cough violently. Blood came from her mouth.

“Hang in there Donna. You’ll be just fine.” Jason said in a reassuring voice.

Eventually, the cars started to form a gridlock. They now were unable to move forward.

“Shit!” Jason shouted. “Come on!”

Jason honked the horn loudly.

“Be patient Dad.” David said.

Jason looked back at David. “Don’t you tell me what to do boy! I’m your Father!”
“And I’m Twenty One.”

“I don’t need your back talk.”

“Jason, David, Stop fighting.” Donna said.

She sounded weak and she was taking long deep breaths.

“Donna, are you alright?” Jason asked.

“I’m fine.”

Jason frowned and looked back towards the road with the many cars in front of them.

The family sat in silence as they would inch forward little by little.

At this point Donna appeared to have fallen asleep.

“Are we there yet?” James finally asked.

“No!” Jason shouted. “Does it look like we’re there!?”

At that moment, Donna lunged at Jason and bit him on the neck.

Jason pushed her away held onto his neck. He was unable to speak.

David and James started to freak out and jumped out of the car.

They watched through the window Donna proceeding to eat Jason.

“DAD!” James screamed.

David held James close to him as he cried.

“Stay right here.” David said as he made his way to Jason’s door.

He opened the door and found that Jason was now dead.

“You had this coming to you.” David said quietly. “You were an awful father.”

David grabbed Jason’s knife from his pocket and closed the door. He looked over to James.

“Come on, we can make it the rest of the way on foot.”

“What about Mom and Dad?” James asked.

“Don’t worry about them.”

David walked over to James and put him on his shoulders.

“Where are we going?”

“Chicago…”

David walked forward carrying James. For a long while, nobody said anything to them.

When they were nearly into the city, they were stopped by someone in one of the cars.

“You two!” They said.

The window rolled down and a head popped through. It was the head of a woman with short red hair.

“Why are you guys walking by yourself like that?”

“Why do you care?” David asked.

“I don’t know, you have a little kid with you, and what with all that’s going on, I don’t think a little kid should have to deal with this stuff… Are you his father?”

“I’m his brother… Our parents they…” David looked to the ground.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Come hop in this car with me. I’ll keep you safe.”

“Why should we trust you?”

“That’s up to you to decide.”

David looked at her for a bit and walked around to the passenger seat.

He put James in the back and sat up front with the lady.

“So who are you?” David asked.

“Jennifer Lynch. You?”

“David McCorvic.”

“McCorvic!? Oh my god, do you know a Jason McCorvic!?”

“Sadly yes… He’s my father.”

“Sadly?”

“Yeah… He was abusive, very abusive.”

“Oh… You think you know a guy.” Jennifer looked down.

Helicopters flew over the highway towards Chicago.

“Things must be getting pretty bad in there.” David said.

“David…” James said. “When is Mom and Dad coming back?”

David didn’t answer.

“What happened to them?” Jennifer asked.

“They both… turned into those monsters.” David answered.

“Oh god… What do you think we should call those things?”

“Well, I was thinking about that actually. They’re dead, but they can get up and walk and stuff like that, so how about Walkers.”

“Sound’s good to me. So David, what did you use to do before all of this?”

“I recently graduated from college. I was going to be a rocket engineer but… well you know.”

“That really sucks.”

“Yeah. So what about you?”

“Oh, I was just a boring tattoo artist.” She looked down with a smile. “But I liked it. The news says to go to Chicago so that’s what I did. Luckily, I haven’t had to see anybody I care about get eaten by those things. Uh, Walkers.”

“Well thats good, so you’re alone?”

More Helicopters flew over them and the sun was beginning to set.

“It’s been hours and we’re practically in the same place.” Jennifer said. “Sure we’ve moved a bit, but still, at this pace, it’ll be Christmas by the time we get there.”

“At least we’re safe in here from those things.” David said.

He looked back to see James sleeping in the back seat.

“Out cold huh?” Jennifer said looking back as well.

“Yeah… Hopefully whatever’s happening will stop real soon.”

“You said it.”

The two of them looked back toward the front of the car.

“Hey.” David said. “Thanks for letting us stay in the car with you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Jennifer Replied, “It’s the least I could do.”

Helicopters began to fly over them once more, but in the opposite direction.

“It looks like they’re retreating.” David said.

“David, look ahead!” Jennifer shouted.

David looked down the highway to see the things known as Walkers, limping along the highway. Many of them were banging on cars trying to open them.

Jennifer stomped on the accelerator and made a hard right. They were now driving off of the highway and now on a plain.

“Are you insane!?” David shouted.

James woke up and started screaming.

“I’m getting us out of there!” Jennifer shouted back.

As they drove, they went past roaming walkers.

“How many of these things are there?” David asked.

“How should I know.” Jennifer replied.

“I didn’t expect you to.”

She drove for a long time. eventually the gas in the car ran out.

“Damn, looks like it’s on foot the rest of the way.” Jennifer said.

Jennifer and David got out of the car.

“What are we going to do now?” David asked.

“I think I see a town up there.” Jennifer replied.

James got out of the car and joined them.

“David, I’m hungry.” He said.

“We don’t have any food.” David replied.

“Can we go to McDonalds?”

“I’m sorry, but no, we can’t.” David gave out a sigh.

“Whynot?” He crossed his arms.

“We don’t have any money.”

“Let’s get to that town.” Jennifer said. “We might be able to find something there.”

“Sounds like a better plan than any.”

Jennifer started walking toward the town and David followed with James on his shoulders.

David noticed an object poking out of Jennifer’s back pocket.

“What’s that?” David asked.

Jennifer looked at what he was referring to.

“David, are you checking out my butt?” Jennifer said with a blush.

“No, that thing in your back pocket.”

Jennifer pulled out a pistol.

“It’s my gun, I figured I might need it. You know, for self defence. Chicago isn’t the most friendly place in the world.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” David continued looking forward to the town they were going to.

As they approached the town, they could see that all of the lights in the houses were turned off, and nobody seemed to be outside.

“I wonder where we are.” David said.

“Maybe we can find a sign somewhere.” Jennifer said as she looked around. “Over there!” Jennifer pointed to a green sign.

Her and David ran over to it.

“Cedar Lake, Indiana.” David read.

“But we live in Illinois.” James said.

“Yeah, but now we’re in Indiana.”

They walked further into the town now known as Cedar Lake.

“This place is like a ghost town.” Jennifer said.

“I see someone!” David said. “Hey! Can you help us out!?”

The man turned around. His skin appeared to be falling off and his eyes were gray.

“Holy shit it’s a Walker!” David screamed.

James began to cry and scream.

The Walker limped toward the group of three.

Jennifer pulled out her gun and pointed it at the Walker.

Before she could pull the trigger a man dressed in black robes and a black mask ran up and jammed a knife into the back of the Walker’s head.

He ran up to David and put the knife away.

“Hurry, come with me, we don’t have much time, more will be here soon.”

The man ran off and David and Jennifer followed.

They ran into a building. It was two story and dark on the inside.

“Let’s get up to the second floor, it’s safer there.” The masked man said.

They followed him up to the second floor. There was a bed and boxes full of food around them.

“Woah.” Jennifer said.

“I hope they won’t find us in here.” The masked man said.

He pulled down his mask which showed a chiseled jaw and shiny black skin.

“My name’s Felix.” He said. “Who are you people?”

“I’m David, this is my brother James.”

“I’m Jennifer. So what do you mean by more will come? Do you mean the Walkers?”

“Walkers?” Felix questioned. “Oh you mean the Dead. Hopefully we won’t have to worry about it.”

Felix stayed close to the only window in the room.

“So Felix.” David said. “Tell us about yourself.”

Felix turned his attention to David.

“Well, First off, My full name is Felix Freeman. Before all of this happened I use to work as a mechanic. Fixing cars and stuff like that.”

“Now what do you do?” James asked.

“I survive.”

“Are you alone?” Jennifer asked.

“I am now.”

“So you weren’t at first?” David asked.

“That’s right, I was with a group, but then they betrayed me. At least I’m still alive.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“How many Walkers have you had to deal with?” Jennifer asked.

“Well let’s just say that that last one out there was the first in a while.” Felix replied.

“A while?” David questioned. “Last I remember this outbreak happened two days ago.”

“Nope, It’s been going on for about a month now. It’s just a couple of days ago that it finally got bad.”

David and Jennifer looked down as if something had just dropped inside there chest.

“There’s no need to feel bad.” Felix said. “You just gotta get use to it.”

“But things will go back to normal soon right?” Jennifer asked.

“I hope so… But I don’t think that will happen.”

They sat in silence.

“Here.” Felix passed them one of the boxes full of food. “Help yourself.”

“Wow… Thanks.” David said.

“Don’t mention it. If you guys are gonna stick around, you need to be feed, but you’ll also need to know how to deal with the dead… Have any of you killed one yet?”

“No, not yet.” David said as he grabbed a bagged sandwich from the box and handed it to James.

“Neither have I.” Jennifer said.

“Hmm…” Felix started. “Well, first thing you need to know is that these things are attracted by loud noises.”

“So I guess killing them with guns is out of the question.” David said.

“No, not necessarily. While guns are loud, there effective, it’s best to use the sparingly.”

“Anthony!” An unknown voice shouted.

“Quiet!” Felix said in a loud whisper. “Get down now!”

“Anthony, go look in some of them buildings over there, Keith won’t rest until he gets to teach that trator a lesson.”

“Okay Jase.” Another dumb sounding voice said, likely belonging to the one known as Anthony.

“What’s going on?” David whispered.

“Shut up.” Felix said quietly.

“Shut up isn’t a nice word!” James shouted.

“I said shut up!” Felix tried to stay as quiet as possible.

“Anthony, did you hear that?” The one likely known as Jase said.

“Yeah, Yeah I did Jase.” Anthony said.

“Well then why are you just standing here!? Go check it out!”

“God damn it you little snot nosed brat!” Felix was still trying to stay as quiet as possible. “Now they’re going to get us… Quick, get into the closet, Anthony won’t be smart enough to check there.”

Felix rushed them all into the closet. It was a tight fit, but they all made it.

“It’s dark in here.” James said.

“David, shut him up.” Felix said.

“James, if you be quiet I’ll take you to McDonalds later.”

James stopped talking after that.

They heard a door open on the other side.

“Hello…” Anthony said. “Is there anybody in here?”

There wasn’t any noise for a while.

“Uh…” Anthony said. “I don’t think Jase is gonna like this.”

They heard the sound of a door closing. They all got out of the closet as soon as Anthony left.

“What was all of that about!?” Jennifer said.

Felix shushed her and looked out the window.

“Did you find anybody Anthony?” Jase asked.

“No, but I found a bunch of food and stuff.” Anthony replied.

“Well maybe you aren’t so useless after all, we’ll go back and have some people take this stuff back to the camp.”

Jase and Anthony turned around and started to walk off.

“They’ll be back, we need to go now.” Felix said.

“Why? Who was that? What’s going on?” David asked.

“They’re bad people.”

“How do you know them?” Jennifer asked.

“They were in my group.”

“The one’s who betrayed you?” David asked.

“Yeah, them, now we have to get going now!” Felix grabbed a box.

“No, Why don’t we just take them out? I still have my Father’s knife.”

“You’re going to need a lot more than just a knife to take them out. next time it’ll be more than just Jase and Anthony. And they’re going to have guns.”

“I’ve got a gun.” Jennifer said. “And I’ve also got twenty four bullets with it.”

“My gun only has seven bullets.”

“Do you have any more guns?” David asked.

“I have one more.”

“Then we can take them, I’m sure we can.” Jennifer said.

Felix looked down thinking about the outcome.

“I guess we do have the high ground on this one. Jennifer, you said you have twenty four bullets, that’s enough for each of us to have eight, and then my seven bullets.”

“Alrighty then, so when they come back we’ll be ready.”

“If anything goes wrong. I’m blaming you.” Felix said to Jennifer.

“I wouldn’t blame you, now come on, let’s get ready.”

Felix handed David a pistol and Jennifer distributed bullets to everyone.

“They’ll be here any minute now.” Felix said. “Be ready.”

“Do you still think we should have left?” David asked.

“Yeah… But I can’t do anything about that now.”

“I guess so.”

“Right this way.” Jase’s voice said.

“They’re here.” Felix said. “I’ll take the first one. I have more bullets, so if I can take one out, we’ll have the same amount of bullets to work with.”

“Sound’s good to me.” Jennifer said.

Felix poked his gun through the window.

“How many of them are there?” David asked.

“Soon it’ll be four.” Felix said quietly.

Felix pulled the trigger.

One of the men walking with Jase fell to the ground.

“What the hell!?” Jase shouted. “Take cover now!”

The men scattered around looking for cover.

“God damnit! There were people here!?”

“What do we do Jase?” A man said.

“They killed Devin, so we kill one of them!”

“What if Felix is one of them?” Don’t you think Keith would want to see him alive?”

“You may have a point with that, but I’ll bet Felix isn’t in there.”

One of the other men fell to the ground.

“Fuck! Not Austin!” Jase shouted. “Mike, You come with me into the building!”

“Right.” The man now known as Mike said as he followed Jase.

They barged into the building.

Mike was a fit black man like Felix was. He had short facial hair and very short hair as well.

“Mike, you search upstares!” Jase ordered.

“Yeah.” Mike ran upstairs.

He slammed the first door he saw open. When inside, he Saw Felix, David, Jennifer, and James in the room. His eyes were fixated on James.

“They… They have a kid?” Mike said to himself.

Jennifer spun around and pulled the trigger of her gun in fear.

The bullet grazed through Mike’s cheek and shot off a part of his ear.

Mike screamed in pain and held onto his cheek.

Jennifer pointed the gun at him again.

“NO!” Felix shouted as he knocked the gun away.

“Why!?” Jennifer asked.

“Felix!?” Mike said.

“Mike… I’m sorry you had to get caught up in this.” Felix said.

“What’s going on!?”

Jase walked up behind Mike.

“You found them!” Jase said as he pointed his gun at them.

“STOP!” Mike shouted.

Mike grabbed the gun and forced it up. The shot was fired into the ceiling.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU MIKE!”

“It’s Felix!” Mike shouted. “You know Keith is going to want to see him.”

Jase growled. “You four ain’t going nowhere.”

They all heard screaming coming from outside.

“That’s Geoff!” Jase shouted. “Damn, the dead got him. They must have been attracted by the gun shots.”

“So there’s a hoard of Dead out there?” Mike asked.

“I’d guess so.” Jase replied.

Suddenly Jase was grabbed from the back. He we pulled away and was now in the arms of a Walker. The Walker bite Jase on the shoulder.

Mike jumped away and kicked the Walker away from the room.

Him and Felix closed the door as hard as they could.

“David, get something to keep this door shut!” Felix ordered.

David grabbed a chair and handed it to Felix.

Felix put the chair on the door and jammed it from opening.

“Hopefully that will keep them from getting in.” Felix said.

“What just happened?” David asked.

“We came here for the supplies in this room.” Mike said. “We didn’t know there were people here.”

“Mike.” Felix said. “We need to do something about your ear.”

“I’ll be fine Felix.”

“Who’s this Keith guy you were talking about?” David asked.

“Keith is the leader of our group.” Mike answered.

“Knowing Keith, he’ll probably be on his way up here right now.” Felix said.

“I’m sure he’d go easy on you if you surrendered yourself.”

“What happened between you two?” Jennifer asked.

“That’s my business.” Felix said. “And there’s no way I’m going back to him.”

“Come on Man.” Mike said. “Think about Anthony, I know you like that guy. He was the one who found this stash, and if Keith doesn’t get this, you know he’s gonna take his anger out on Anthony.”

Felix stared at the floor.

“I guess I just can’t win any arguments today… Fine. I’ll go.”

“We’ll go with you Felix.” Jennifer said.

“That’s nice of you, but I don’t think you should.”

“Felix.” David said. “Even though we just met you today, I’m already seeing you as a friend. I wouldn’t let you do this alone.”

“Neither would I.” Jennifer said.

“Remember, you said it yourself, you can’t win any arguments today.”

Felix sighed. “Fine… Come with.”

They heard gun shots coming from outside.

“I think that’s Keith.” Mike said.

They heard two more gun shots next to the door followed by a pounding on the door.

“Open up god damn it!” A voice said from the other side of the door. “I know you’re in there!”

“Keith! Stop, I’ll open the door!” Mike said as he pulled the chair away.

“Mike?” The pounding stopped.

Mike opened the door. On the other side was a tall man with short black hair. He wasn’t very strong looking. There was a scar that ran over his nose.

“Felix!” Keith said.

“Don’t worry Keith.” Mike said. “He agreed to surrender.”

“Ha… Well then. Looks like you’ve finally wised up.” He looked at the others. “Who are these people?”

“They were with Felix.” Mike said.

“Good enough for me.” Keith walked up to felix and grabbed onto his chin. “Welcome back Felix.”