1 The Beginning: July 2nd 2016(Tommy)

It was a hot summer night it seemed especially hot tonight though. I was stuck working the grave yard shift in the Morgue at the St.Micheals Hospital. It's the only hospital for 250 miles. The closest town isnt really a town at all but a small pit stop for truckers. Gas,food,and roach infested motel then nothing for another 75 miles. Me and my wife live in Wisconsin . La Pointe It's a small town 309 population. We moved here from Texas for a fresh start after Madie miscarried.. Twice. Its not her fault but she blames herself no matter what. Poor Madie. I love you sw-.

Just as you were lost in thought two Emts brought down beds with body bags on top.

"Hey Tommy we have a woman looks like mid 30s Jane Doe. Decomposed pretty bad. And a male ID on him said Scott Fordson early 20s." Mitchelle stated his fully tattooed arms opening the body bag with the Jane doe first. "Thanks fellas. Was beginning to think this night might be dead." You say before realizing the irony of it. Mitchelle and Clyde looked at you and chuckled. "Have a good night boys." You say quickly retracting the statement. You move the Jane doe to the metal table and begin examining her. Pulling your tape recorder out. "Jane doe mid 30s. Appears jane has bullet in the frontal part of her skull causing instant death. Although it appears bullet wound happened post life… Wrists have ligature marks as if she was restained for a period of time with rope or something of that nature. Left side of neck has a wound with serrated markings. Possibly bitten." You stop recording and lean over her trying to picture what could have possibly happened to this poor woman.

You finish up your examnations of the Jane doe and move on to the next body..

(Madie) Midnight:

Sitting infront of the tv looking at your phone clock. Your sigh heavy saying to yourself. " Another date night forgotten." You get off the couch heading straight to the dining room. Blowing out the candles and grabbing the plates throwing them in the trash. Grabbing the bottle of wine and head upstairs to take off the lingerie you purposely bought for date night. Stopping infront of the full length mirror naked you examine yourself."This is stupid.. You are the one who has been distant lately not him." Chastisingly taking a swig from the bottle. "I miss you.. Goodnight babe." almost sending the message to Tommy and then. You erase it."Maybe its too late.. Maybe I don't deserve his patiences." Your subconscious says to you. With that you close your eyes. Phone across your chest.

(Tommy) 3:45am:

Finally done examining the bodies and heading home. It's the weekend and deciding to work from home on the paperwork. You decided you wanted to sit down and talk to Madie. Try to mend her broken pieces.Somehow. This cant be it. Shutting the garage door behind you you walk into the kitchen noticing the plates in the trash. Theres a card on top of the broken plates. "I know things have been rough but I want to try again.. I miss us. I love you Tommy." Signed your Madie. Your face drops reading it realizing tonight was datenight and you forgot to tell Madie you were working late. "Fuck.' You groan leaning against the counter taking a swig from your beer. Heading upstairs slowly and quietly not wanting to wake her. You walk in the room seeing her naked body pressed against the comforter. You stop fully in your tracks taking in how beautiful she is and how much you missed this sight. She had the cutest birthmark next to her navel. She shivers rolling over. Breaking you out of your head. You go over to her slowly and go to touch her hip with your middle finger and index finger but stop mid air. Instead you pull the comforter over her and lightly kiss her forehead. "I love you so much." You whisper before getting ready for bed.

3Hours Later:

You awake to loud bangs. When you awake you hear it again. Gun fire and Explosions. Madie wakes up rubbing her eyes looking at you concerned. "Whats going on?" She asked. "Not sure stay here." You pull your pajama bottoms on ans start heading downstairs. You look outside and see people running down the street. You look at the tv and realize there is an alert. Turning the volume up you hear the news people say:" This is not a drill. We are under attack. People dying and coming back eatting people.

. Remain indoors and hide. The army is working on the issue. Safety percaution is a mu-." The electricity went out. You lock the door and make it upstairs. "Whats going on Tommy?" Madie says looking out the window. You look stunned. "We are under attack. People are being reanimated and eatting people." You go to the closet and grab 2 black cases from the back. "This isn't real.. It cant be.. Tommy?? It's not funny." She said getting out of the bed and grabbing clothes. "Im not kidding. Now pack necessities only. We need to leave we arent safe." You demand more than meaning to. "We are safe here indoors. Why do we need to leave??" she wimpers scared. You sigh and throw your arms. In the air. "Back when I was in the marines.. We ran into things. These people or atleast what use to be people before they turned crazed and eatting people. At first we thought it all to be a big joke from our superiors, soon realizing what they were actually doing in the facility. They are easy to kill unless in a pack. One slip they can take out a whole platoon of men.. The news said the Government would take care of this and I know what that means. It means try to wipe out any infected. But deemed to infected of an area or town and they will neutralize and annihilate any and every living thing in and around that town or city. " You say looking down. You being filling your duffle bag with ammo and head to the kitchen. Madie follows staying in the doorway." You never told me this before.. This is why you use to scream in the middle of the night.? Waking up soaked in sweat." She said eyes beginning to water. You nod. "I never wanted to share the burden.. That and I never thought we would have to worry about it. Not here." She helps put water into jugs and moves them into your hummer. When everything is packed up you two get into the vehicle and head out. People still running in the street screaming. Some bloodied running after others. Madie looks out the window and then at her hands. "Where will we go?" She quietly and surprisingly calmy asked. "Theres a compound where if things such a disasters like this happen my squad and our families can go. Once we were all there we would get on a ship and head somewhere else not populated by anyone." You look at her. She looks at you and grabs your hand squeezing tightly. "Okay. Where is it?The compound?I mean." She says looking at you intently. "Fort Howard." I know its far but we can make it. Just stay with me and listen to me and we will be fine." He squeezes your hand gently back. You look at him. He means well but comes off as he has no faith in me. "We are a team. Ill have your back." You say taking your hand back.

2hours later:

Made it out of town and are coming up on the trucker stop. Looks like a few truckers are parked over there. Madie is asleep in the passanger seat curled up knees to chest. You pull in to fill up on gas and to see if anyone here. Pulling up to the pump everything was quite. No one in sight. You look at your sleeping wife and grab your .45 out of the glove box careful not to wake her. You place it next to her incase needed. Then you grab your .357 and begin filling up. While its filling you head to the little shop. When entering no one is around. When walking through to the back to look and see if someone is there you hear knocking. Walking down the dark hallway slowly .357 in hand you open the storage door quickly revealing a little girl and a woman crying hysterically. "Im not gonna hurt you. Are you alright?My name is Tommy here to help." You say holding your hands up in surrender to them. "Its not safe out there… Theres monsters... My husband Jeremy never came back… One of the truckers seemed sick and jeremy went to help and he... He attacked him." The lady said weeping. You look behind you. "Lets get you out of here. I have a vehicle and me and my wife are headed to a safe zone. Come with us." You say looking down the hallway again out the window to the truck. The little girl ran to you grabbing your leg. "We need supplies.. Lets get somethings quickly together and head out. Just necessities." You pick the little girl up and head down the hallway back to the shopping floor. The lady nodded and headed out the door with 2 duffle like bags. You both begin filling the bags with water and non perishables. Then you quickly make your way to the vehicle. Little girl and lady get in the back startling Madie. Walking around the truck you see 4 straggler dead beings walking your way.

One of them is missing an arm and half his face his mechanic shirt reads Buck B. The next is a lady in short shorts with a bite out of her left thigh. And her stomach ripped open. One lone Intestine dangling from under her tshirt. The other two were decomposed the most. Their flesh slimy, eyes glossy, flesh sloathing off. And yet they seemed strong as ever. I looked at my wife than at the girl and her mother. Pulled my gun out and shot Buck B. Right in the head. Then the rest followed. The lady got out of the truck and came up to you. "Any of these jeremy?" she asks looking at the woman cringingly. "No two of them are way to decomposed and the other one over theres name is Buck B according to his name tag. And that one well the obvious." You say trying to be reassuring. "We have to find Jeremy.. The car is still here which means he didn't leave us." She said looking in the direction of the car then to you. "You said he was attacked.. If biten or any contact with their body fluids and yours you instantly are infected.. The only cure is… Death." You say realizing that matter of fact was the wrong move with her. Madie seeing you indistress gets out with the car and pulls out the .45. "Ill go look for him. Holly lizzie is asking for you. Why don't you get back in the car and rest we have a drive ahead of us." She says not missing a beat. Tommy nods in agreement. "We will go look for him." Tommy says edging her to the car. Once she was safe. You two decended into the shop and checked every room through. Nothing. "Theres a garage and an apartment above the store." Madie said matter of factly. She seemed different. Strong. "Upstairs first?" she said nodding. You and Madie make it up there and check every space possible. Nothing. "Looks like someone liked stealing identities." Tommy said looking in the office finding 30 diffrerent drivers licenses. Madie rolls her eyes. "lets get the garage done and get out of here." She starts back down without you. When you make it to the garage you see blood. Lots of blood. Theres an office in the back the window caked with thick blood and gunk. Guns ready you go for the door. When you open it theres a body lying in the middle of the floor un moving headshot wound. Madie looks at the body. "Christ that must be Jeremy.. How are we gonna tell them?" He said to you looking at the now blood dripped picture frame of the family on it.

"We don't have to. Just say we didn't find anything. No sign of him anywhere." She looked down as she said it. "You mean lie?" Tommy looked stunned. "Its far better than telling her this was his outcome. Her mental state is not doing so well already. All I am saying is think about Lizzie. Holly cant function under stress. Which means that little girl is alone when it comes us going out scavenging. Atleast saying we didn't see him gives her the impression maybe hes out there." Madie half shrugs at the end to make her point. You nod in agreement. Heading back to the vehicle Holly jumps out demandingly staring at you both. You begin saying something but Madie cuts you off. "We didn't find him or any trace of him."She said it without missing a beat. Holly looked down defeated and got back in the hummer quietly.

"You were right." Tommy said getting in passanger seat. And he could swear he saw her smile at that.

Once we were back on the road Lizzie fell asleep along with her mother. "I feel bad for them.. Lizzie is just a child. She shouldn't have to live like this. In a world full of monsters." Madie said shaking her head. Then she looks at you."You never finished telling me about these things. Where did they come from? How did they come about.?" She continued looking at you intently. "Something's are better not said.. We have a protocol for a reason. I could put you in danger if I told you." You say not making eye contact with her. She chuckles loudly by accident. "Look around you.. This is a fucking nightmare- apocalypse. If this is your fault as your wife I have a right to know." She says lowering her voice at the last part. "When we were in Thailand the facility I was helping with surveillance was using people as test subjects. They were using animals but they didn't respond to the drugs as well as humans did. It was a government funded facility with rich people helping throw money into it as well. They found or more like made this virus… I didn't know that's what they were doing. At the time they said they were testing medications and even compensating these people. By the time I realized what happened we were under attack. The government told us to shut it down and exterminate anything contaminated by the virus." Blurting it out felt great. But also terrifying. He was afraid for what his wife might think of him. For a painfully long moment it was quiet in the Hummer. Madie sat there stunned. "Okay.. So what do we do to fix this?" She looked at you waiting for the shock to leave your face. "You don't hate me?" Is all you can muster. "I don't agree with what you did in the first place. But you said you didn't know what was going on. I believe you and it doesn't change the fact that you are still my husband.. Or the fact that we are living a zombie apocalypse currently.. Again how do we fix it?" She says smiling at you. "Im not sure. They tried to make a cure but it was never finished the Doctor got bitten before it could be complete." The defeat of that sentence made you grip the steering wheel tight. "What about Dr.France Ivin. He would be able to complete it if you still have the program or were able to get into it at the compound." Madie said looking at the instructions and map to the compound. "We need to make a stop in Illinois for Dr.Ivin. If hes anywhere thats where he will be in the old lab." Tommy said with hope in his eyes. Madie doesnt say anything but merges on to the right following the sign that says illinois 70miles with the arrow pointing which direction to go. "Im hungry." Lizzie says breaking you two out of your conversation. Tommy leans over the arm rest and grabs some chips and a pbj sandwhich that was thrown in the bag along with a water. Lizzie smiled and dug in. she had peanut butter and strawberry jelly all over her face by the time she was done. You both smile at her.

1 hout and a half:

Madie pulls over to the side of the road next to the sign reading 35 miles to Illinois. Everyone gets out to stretch their legs. Holly seems to be in a daze. "Mommy you should eat something."Lizzie said handing her a sandwhich she made her. Holly looks at her daughter enraged and throws the sandwhich out the truck. "How can you eat while your father is gone. what kind of ungrateful girl are you." Holly said disguist in her voice. Lizzie got out of the truck and walked over to Tommy and sat next to him. You catch Madie glaring at the truck. she gets up and walks over to where Holly is. "She was trying to be helpful and take care of you. Something you should be doing for her. Act like that again we will leave you on the side of the road. She is your daughter act like a mother." Madie dared her to say something else. "You wouldnt leave Lizzie on the side of the road." she said smiling. You smirk at her. " Your right but we would leave you." With that her smirk disappeared and you left her to her thoughts.

Back in the vehicle Madie sat with Lizzie in back to keep an eye on Holly. By dark we were right on the turnpike to Illinois. It appears to have been hit alot harder than Wisconsin. You climb over the arm rest to sit in the passanger seat, looking at Tommy with concern. "It looks like a ghost town." You say feeling not as optimisitic as before. "The old lab is just up ahead 3 miles. get him and get out thats the goal." Tommy said matter of factly. you nod in agreement and look in the back seat at Lizzie resting peacefully under Tommy's old Marines Jacket. He looks at you. "Wanna talk about what happened back there?You acted like you were gonna take her head off." He smiles at you. "Something so precious and she doesnt even apperciate her. This whole time she hasn't once gotten up to take care of Lizzie. Lizzie does it all. Then to make a poor child feel bad becuase she cares enough to help its not right." You say shaking your head. He nods in agreement. as you make a left around the last corner to the lab you you in big bright letters. Dr.Ivins Laboratory and Medicine Inc. "Well theres no mistaking thats it." Madie said shaking her head in amusement. seemed to be the only place completely untouched from the madness.

To be continued...( please leave feed back on what you like and dislike)