1 The Death of James Martin

At the start. All humans on the planet fell unconscious, when me, my brother, mom and and step dad woke up, we were confused, we all fieghted in the house not knowing why, at least Leo, our dog seemed alright, then came the emergancy news reports.

The Government had told us to stay in our homes and lock the doors, we all knew what was happening, the videos from all over the world, showing zombies attacking anyone in sight, and hell, I didn't believe it until we looked out the windows and saw are neighbours, we even saw one unlucky person be chased by a group right in front of our house, without any hesitation, we silently threw anything we could in front of the down stairs windows and the front and garden doors, we would climb out a bedroom window on the second floor onto the roof of the extension the previous owners had built at the back of the house if we were going out, bit of climbing involved so zombies couldn't just stroll in.

After a month, my brother and step dad were becoming stronger and faster, when we first went out, we found that it would take 2 of us to take down 1 of the zombies, their strength and speed was to high for us to kill one alone, which was surprisingly as they seemed to be unable to run or climb, but after the first week my brother and step dad were able to take 2 or 3 each, and now each of them could take 5 without a issue. where as I still couldn't match 1.

"James, were running out of food and water, me and your brother are going to go out, stay here and watch out for your mom." my step dad told me about an hour ago, them two were usually the only ones going out now, I didn't worry to much seeing how strong they were but I did envy them, my mother on the other hand was injured a few years ago at work, and had not been able to work since, before all of this, she would sit in the garden watching her programs, or sleep half the day, which is where she was now, sleeping.

Their returned after another hour of me keeping a watch out from the upstairs windows, with a lot of food and water and no injuries.

After catching up on the details of the food run from my brother for about 20 minutes while my step dad was preparing dinner, my step dad came into the room and said "Luke, set the table, and James, go wake you mom up." As we would all sit around the dining table, to eat what my dad would cook, thank god my mom had a gas heater in the garden, otherwise we wouldn't be able to cook anything, electric and gas were cut off after the fists week, and luckily we where only a few stops away from the shop that replaced the canister, my brother and step dad went there a week ago, and hauled back four fall ones, luckily they were strong enough as the weighed atleast 100kg each, and also that we didn't need it for heating yet was a good thing, was still a couple more months before winter.

I went upstairs and woke my mom up, just need to call her name, but doing from the bottom of the stairs like I use to would be suicidal, or idiotic, seeing that it would need to be loud enough for her to hear, and a few of them things wandering the streets. I'm not complete sure about our next door neighbour, she was a elderly women with a hearing implant, my dad would always tell us she was lucky not to be able to hear us gaming in the bedrooms at 2am, we were a semi detached house, so the other side was fine, but I couldn't help hope she was with her family somewhere.

My mom woke, staying in her pyjamas and walked down stairs, I followed after her, when we reached the living room, I could see the dining table set, my brother taking mine and his plates to the table, until, Leo, jumed up for the food and pushed a plate out of his hand.

"Smash" the noise echoed for what felt like a eternity, I quickly turn around and run to the living room window, looking out the peep hole, I move my head left to right to see no zombies on the street, 'thank god' I think, through the food runs, my brother and step dad had only found one other group of 7 survivors, the rest had probably turned from the start or been really unlucky, with a town of more the one hundred thousand people, for only a 11 people to be left and have a clear street was a miracle, as i continue to check, I see it, a figure move directly infront of the glass, a Red Pupil, looking direction into mine, not 3 inches away.

A Zombie, bloody clothes and red eyes staring through the peek hole, if I had stayed still, it may not have seen anything, but I backed away out of fear, giving it a clear view of me, enranged at seeing me.

" Mom, run to Luke" I yell to my mom to get to safety while my step dad came running from the kitchen, but before he could even make it to the living room, at a speed that even a world class athlete would envy, the zombie jumps through the window, and the furniture blocking it and lands in the middle of the living room, leaping onto me and pinning me to the ground in 2 seconds, I did attemt to wrestle him off me, but it was hopeless, the small neighbour from up the street with a zombies unreasonable strength manages to subdue me and bite my upper forearm.

My step dad is able to get into the living room and finally use the cooking knife in his hand to stab the head of the zombie, quickly finishing it off.

but the deed was already done, I was bitten, no cure or vaccine, and reports from the emergancy broadcast proved that although we survived initially, a second infection through bite would lead to death.

"Dad, I'm going to die" I said as tears started drooping down my cheeks. My words sounded confusing to me, and I had not cried in tears yet I couldn't stop them, it wasn't until that moment that I knew how scared I was to die, the infection would take a day to kill me if I was lucky, a couple of seconds if not, I knew I couldn't stay, my step dad and brother would be fine even if I turned this instsnt, but my mother, if I hurt her... I would rather kill my self now then risk it, if I did turn, I know she would leap in the way and risk herself of my step dad and brother doing what was needed, even if I was already one of them looking at prey.

I needed to leave, so after half an hour of saying goodbye, and watching my step dad and mom cry why my brother went to his room, I left.

I used the back alleys that my brother and step dad had already cleared on the food run, coming across a few wandering zombies but a lot less then it was originally, I went to sneak past, but their senses were really sharp, but instead of attacking, they left, I wasn't sure why and just came up with that I was already infected, I made my way to the other side of the town, walking through the streets with thousands of them, a complete no go zone and simply went into a flat in the middle, when I came across a empty room, I used the blood from the bite, fighting the pain to pass out to draw an x on the door, if somehow, someone made it through all the zombies outside, at least they would no that there was one inside.

After finding a room, a small bedroom, pink wall paper on the walls, a few colouring books on a side cabinet next to the bed, and a wardrobe, and in the middle of the floor, I thought that I could barricade my self in, using what little strength remained, I closed the door and pushed the wardrobe infront of it. and then turned the bed so to make sure the door couldn't be opened easily, and sat with on the floor with my back to the bed, waiting to fall unconscious, it did take a few hours before I finally did, which I spent remembering the days before the virus.