1 THE NEW WORLD: CHAPTER I

SCOURGE

Utica, New York. August, 4 months after an outbreak of mass hysteria happened in the city. The United States Military was told to take action.

As the neighbourhood slowly crumbles within the panic of the people, a lone soldier runs through the desolated area. He can feel his own body dying with the screams of the poeple. Their shrieks can be heard, but where this came from cannot be seen. The stench of corpses, accompanied with the scents of sulfur and gasoline from the destroyed vehicles, and the smell of soot from the neighbourhood being scorched down to the ground. Something horrible happened here before the arrival of the soldiers. And his duty obligates him to save these people, but he does not want to stay and get caught in it.

Fatigue takes over him and he falls down. He starts to breath heavily and takes off everything that added weight to his person except for his weapons.The soldier stands before 2 military trucks that has crashed into one another, and an explosion was evident. Down in the ground were motionless soldiers that was caught in it. The lone soldier examines each of the bodies when they suddenly start moving. He grabs and turns each body and shaking them, but they were unresponsive or dying slowly in his arms. Guilt runs through him as he is the only one that is in a better condition that them. He does not allow to let his emotions get the best of him.

"Keep your head clear Toby..... keep it clear...." Toby, whispers to himself. He slowly puts the soldier down and closed his eyes with his fingers. He thought of a prayer, but what can it do in their situation. Instead he just said a simple 'goodbye' and left for his own objective. But as he was about to live one of the bodies suddenly turned on its face. He squinted his eyes at the silhouette moving about, and it suddenly lunged towards his direction but nowhere near him. Toby noticed how one of his leg is pinned under the truck's debris and is severely wounded.

"Sa..ve....muue" The pathetic last words of the man as his jaw has been separated from his skull. He slowly raised his hands begging to be save but his life was slowly snuffed out of him. He has lost too much blood and there was nothing that can be done, still Toby is guilty for that loss and could not help himself but to burst into tears. His tough exterior was easily broken down, he is weak, he is scared, and he has no idea what to do because he has no idea what is happening. He walked on his knees slowly to the man and grabbed his hands.

"I.. I... sorry...." The only words that escaped his mouth, the only words that his emotions allowed to express.

"What the fuck were we sent too?!" He screamed. Asking a question that he very well knows will not be responded to, he was more or less complaining. He wanted to have a reason for this fear that lies within him. A reason as to why this is happening, a reason to live? to fight?

"You made me kill innocents....." He stopped as soon as he said that, it was useless and pitiful. So he wiped his tears and the snot off his face and had to move forward. His legs feel lighter suddenly and he by the time he knew it he was already jogging. "This mission is a bust" Toby said under his breath. The Mission that he was sent to was that to dissolve a gathering that resulted in a dangerous rally. There were results of people literally tearing each other apart, running into houses and it was just pure havoc all around the United States, primarly the eastern part of the country. It was eventually chalked up and dissolved down to an incredible case of mass hyteria, but it eventually lead to force to help solve this issue.

The President of the United States, President Quentin Porter addressed this issue but for some reason he never explained it in detail; and once more just chalked it up to a conclucion, to what the people would like to hear "it was nothing". The Issue started in the month of May and only has gotten worst in August. No world leader dared to speak on this topic, as even their own countries are currently experiencing the same issues as the States.

Toby stands by himself and stares as mutilated corpse, stupefied by the scene. A gurgling feeling grabbed his gut and it slowly runs up to his throat, vomitting everything he had. He starts to cough up everything he had for lunch and turns away. The corpse seemed weird as he stared back at it once more, the way it was mutilated was not what he expected. It was as if the marks were made by teeth and fingers, a person's. It was chewed and scrached apart. Even worse for his mind, the corpse is missing it's lower half and is crawling towards him.

"No... No.... stay.... s..." He raised his pistol and qucikly shoot. The gunshot echoed around him and it did not matter as it just blend in with the chaos. The body already went rigor mortis, somehow the body reanimated. It seemed impossible but he does not care what is plausible or not. Allowing his curiousity, he moves up to the body to further inspect. But before he can a group of people walked behind him. He quickly alerted them.

"All right, everyone please stay back from the crash" They were unresponsive and kept walking towards him.

"Stay back please, I do not want to see al--" He stopped from speaking further and drew his rifle and put his finger on the trigger. He looked through his scope and sees the group all bloodied.

"STAY BACK!" He screamed.

"PLEASE!" Once more.

From the back, some of them started to sprint towards him and without hesitation he ran to the gated alleway. He jumped over it and the strap of his rifle got caught and it chocked him. He falls down and left it as it was grabbed. He drew both his pistol and army knife and aimed at the gate as they started to push it. The gate is strong enough to hold on to the weight of the people. He slowly steps back from the gate as the gate starts to bend.

"Not like... this.." He continued to step back, he can feel his body petrifying as fear run him down. He starts to go into panic, his vision tunnelled and all he can see are the hands of the people going after him, and their growls that seemed animalistic. All his attention fell on to those details and his mind starts to go blank wkth every second that passes by. What can I do? What CAN i do? All of this thoughts are snapped right out of him as he hears something squelching behind him. He quickly turns around to expect it and see the worst. A young boy devouring who appears to be his mother, pulling off the flesh from her bones, tearing her very entrails from within, and breaking the bones apart to eat the marrow. He stood there, stunned.

"Hello there" He called onto the boy, but it savours what it is eating. Whatever person lived in that body is gone and replaced by a flesh eating monster, the fictional zombie. Creatures that he knows that only exist within the deep books of fiction, now alive in front of him. It slowly turns around and sees him; groaning. But he does not want to beleive and refuses to react. It is alive, is it?

"Stay back... stay there please....." He tries to step back but hears the clamoring of what he assume is also the undead after his own flesh.

He took deep breathes and aimed his gun at the boy. As it grows and groans towards him he keeps pointing it at the boy and to his head. His breathing turns heavy, turining into loud grunts of fear, and eventually he just charged the boy and pinning it down on the grown. It reaches for his face. He turns its face down on the ground and turns his face way, then a crack. He killed the boy or whateve it was. He turns his sight back to the and vomits. He moves away and leans on the wall, he starts to hyperventilate as he killed a boy. He looks at his bloodied hand, tremblin. He clenches his fists but it trembles even harder.

He looks down again on the corpse of the boy, and the disgusting side on his right side. The eviscerated body of a woman on his peripheral made him squeamish, and he vomits.

Somehow, after all of that he starts to calm down. His head has gotten straight and he starts to think rationally. He bites down on his lower lip, like a pinch in the cheek. He takes a deep breathe to have a clear head, and all he can smell is the rotting flesh and the scent of soot. He looks up to the night sky covered by the smoke of the burning neighbourhood. He grabs his pistol right beside him and contemplates what he should do; or rather what he can do.

He slowly picks up the gun and puts off the safety catch. He turns on his radio to hear something, anything that could give him a reason to live. To survive and get out of this mess, but nothing. All he can hear is the static buzzing sound that will haunt him in his final times. He slowly aims his pistol on the side of his face, then up to his temple and he prays to whatever god there is, or if they even exist. Right now, the one thing that can save him is a damn miracle. If the dead can rise and devour the flesh of people, then can god exist?

Once more, he focuses on the slight buzzing of the radio that he nows has found calming. His body loosens up as if he is about to sleep, with the exception of his right hand. Tensed up with the feeling of pulling the trigger right beside his head.

A distorted voice comes through the buzzing of the radio. Though it was unclear it was heard. A woman's voice. It halted his finger from tightly pulling the trigger, he awaits for the same voice.

*Hello? Is Anyone out there?*

He cannot believe it. Upon hearing the woman's voice all he can do is hold his breathe, is this real?

*This is... Lee Ryung-Ki of the... toon, any one co-*

The voice cuts in and out of the audio but he is still able to make out the voice. He grabs the radio with both hands and speaks into it.

"This is private Tobias Cramer of the Rescue Platoon over!"

He repeats it again, no response.

Once more, desperate to have a reply he pleads over on the radio. Nothing, he fears that he now has a pyschotic break, hearing a voice over the radio. His mind plays tricks with him that he cannot discern. Tobias stands straight and puts the radio down on the ground and aims at it.

"Speak" he said to the inanimate object, but what reply can he have with the object? He knows what he is doing is worse than desperate, insanisty. His ears starts to ring and his vision tunneled. His own mind starts to cave in with the pressure of reality, clueless he shoots upwards.

*Ma'am, if you are hearing this.... I am probably gonna die" Tobias' voice heard through Ryung-Ki's radio.

"Was that you?" Ryung-Ki spoke to the radio.

*Where were you?*

"We heard you earlier but for some reason you did not hear us"

*So I'm not insane?* She hears the desparitiy in his voice.

"No you are not, and we can get out of this city..."

*I'm in an alleyway ma'am, you can see them gathering*

She spots the people all converging together, and believing what Tobias said that is where they are going.

Tobias puts the radio into his chest and looks once more down on the decaying body of the body. Still remorsful of what he has done, he covers the face with newspaper clippings.

"I'm sorry" He hids his gun and walks up to a backdoor within the alley. He first tries the doorknob and it was locked. Using all his strength, he aimed the area near the doorknob completely breaking the door open. He enters the house but was pounced by one of those things. It grabs a hold of his fore arm and tries to bite his face off.

He struggles with the frail man and uses the splintered parts of the door to kill the person with, but this time he was not as remorseful like the boy. He was able to have a good hold on the person and smashes their head on the door until it was completely mushed and caved in. He steps away coverd in blood, and tasted it as well. The taste of the blood was unexplainable, but all he knows is that it is vile. He tries his best to spit it out, utilizing the tap water, but the taste was too strong and he looks for an alcohol. He checks the cupboards and cabinets.

A bottle of rubbing alcohol catches his attention and without a second of thinking he makes his way to it and grabs it. He takes off the cap and put it into his mouth, gargling the liquid and spitting it back out. Because of the adrenaline whatever pain that he felt from the alcohol was minimized.

As he slows down and pick himself up he hears the gates slowly breaking down, he looks at the backdoor and sees the shadow and eventually the silhouettes of the horde breaking through.

"Shit... up sta-"

*They've broken the gate!* Tobias hears Ryung-Ki but has to turn it off. His little fight earlier and the noise it produced might have caught their attentioned.

He looks around him to find a way out but all of it are barricaded by heavy furnitures and such, but he sees a set of stairs leading up to the second floor. Once more, without a doubt he started to climb the stairs and dragging anything that he can towards it hoping it will slow down anything that sees him.

With what little time he had he enters one of the rooms and puts up a barricade between him and the impending crowd. He takes a few steps back and turns on his radio.

"If you heard a gunshot that was me"

*Yeah we figured that much, where are you?*

"In a house... I entered one through the alleway:

*Is there anyway that you can send out a signal, one that does not make a noise I might add*

"I have a flashlight...."

*Good, use it*

Ryung-Ki hears shuffling and ruffling on the otherside from Tobias and then dead silence. She then turned to one of her men on whatever place that they are in.

"Newman, anything out there?" A tallman looks around the town searching for a light. "None so far ma'am". Ryung-Ki then went back to waiting for Tobias' response who seems much more lively than their earlier conversation.

*Tobias are you there?* A stern and loud voice pulls through.

"Fuck... Shi- can you keep quiet, they are in the house" He whispered in frustration but she did not seem to make out any of it.

She tries to speak but was cut off by Tobias. "Shut up, they are in the house". On Ryung-Ki's side they cannot hear what he is hearing. The moaning and groaning of what he assumes are zombies, along with their slow and unnerving footsteps and their wlaking corpses hitting and pushing against one another. Tobias can hear them breaking, falling, and loud noises as they roam about downstairs.

As Ryung-Ki worries about Tobias' situation Newman had a reaction that could not have been better.

"OVER THERE MA'AM!" He points out to a house along the Columbus Avenue and Eagle street intersection. They see a light from the second floor of the house flickering in a peculiar and ryhtmic pattern.

--- …- . .-. , …. . .-. .. , "Over Here" Newman read out, he also pointed out a flag pole with a flag hanged on top of the window.

*We read you, Cramer* A reassuring statement for Tobias.

"Good, there's more of this people, things whatever coming after me... can you lead me out of here? or cover me"

*No we cannot, this people will hear us and may go after us, if we make any loud noises we'll both be in peril*

Still facing the door, Tobias continues to take a few steps back until he makes contact with the wall. He looks behind him to spot an opening but it was more horror than a way out. He sees people running around and being held down, and devoured. He looks towards the Columbus avenue and sees more of them walking towards the house that he is in.

"I have an idea ma'am"

*What is it?*

"Since they are attracted to noise as you suspect, do you think I can make it to the garrison?"

*Are you even near it?*

*Yes, ma'am he is* Newman's voice can be herad through the radio and he explained further.

"There's the red cross flag, a bit obscured but a quick sprint should get him there" Newman quickly explained.

*Correct, also, some of them are slow*

Through the radio they hear what sounds to be scotch tapes being pulled and cut, and also hear it being wrapped around something. By this time he thought of a plan but withheld it from them as he waits whatever they come up to think.

*What are you doing over there?* Ryung-Ki asked.

"I have a megaphone, my lucky day" Tobias exclaimed.

"Allright, Ma'am, ask whoever is on the other side to put their sights back on me"

*Copy, Newman*

Newman sets his sight back on to Tobias. Noticing the window is barricaded he instead broke the glass and crawled through.

"I can see him ma'am?" He sounded confused. He sees a flag hanging over on top of Tobias.

*What are you doing?*

Tobias ignored her and propelled himself downward.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" Her voice echoed through and hears almost the same distant sound.

"Is that me?" She spoke into the radio louder and hears herself, it was disant but she knows it is her own voice. Understanding what he has done she continued to use her own voice as a distraction.

While this goes on, Tobias finally lands down back on the ground and covers his ears as Ryung-Ki continued to speak. He sneaks to the back of the lawn of the house that he is in and sees an empty pool on fire. Corpses seems to be the fuel of the flame, still squeamish he continues to move towards the garrison that is south of the house. He vaults over each fence that he sees until he arrives at Eagle Street. He shines a light on the red cross which Newman sees.

"Ma'am" Ryung-Ki stops talking. "Look, he's by the garrison already" He then flicks the flashlight on and off repeating the same code for 'OVER HERE'. Ryung-Ki spoke once more on the radio and her loud voice echose through.

"We see you!" The radio switches off and Tobias enters the garrision. He lock picks the door and easily got in, after entering Tobias quickly used what resources he had to block the door. Pinning a carpet under it and anything heavy to completely block the door. There was little light coming in from outside and it made out silhouettes for him. He flicks the light switch the power was weak, but eventually he just used his flashlight to look around. His eyes dart around the room that he is in, and the same bloody stench from outside continues to reek in.

He looks around and discovers to his horror. Soldiers all shot in the head, some of them are even bluggened. Their brains and innards scattered all around the room, causing it to be a darker. Some of them are soldiers that he has served with before, friends, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters all dead without even being able to say goodbye to their loved ones. A horrifying thought as it was made clear that it was suicide, their guns on their hands.

"You guys did not see the light" The whole room was a mess. Papers scattered around, bullets, ammos, supplies and everything was treated as invaluable. And among those plathera of things are radios, he searches it amongs the corpses but oddly enough none of them had any on their person. So he checked down on the ground and finds one that is in a better condition. He then set the dial to the correct frequency in order to contact them.

"I'm the garrison, do you copy?"

He left it on as he hears the same loud static that now seems to make him focus instead of peaceful. He then continued to look through the building in order to found anything that is of use to him. He finds a backpack and more ammo that he see suffecient for him to bring. After gathering all the things for himself, he looks for information regarding this busted mission.

"Files.. here we go, now what the fuck are we fighting Mr. President?"

He grabs a hold of several classified files that his superiors carried around, including Ryung-Ki. But he had no time to really get in-depth and read through the information. So he grabbed every file as it all seemed important. He then heads down to the basement and finds the gastank and then proceeded to puncture it without hesitation.

*Hey, if you guys hear this, I will explode the garrison, so look out for that*

They have been hearing him the whole time, but the same issue that they cannot respond to him persisted and the 2 fell into a panic as they try their best to reply. After 3 minutes with thae message the garrision exploded and quickly went up into flames. The horde's attentioned was quickly drawn towards the inferno and they start to make their way towards it.

*I'm still alive ma'am, where are you? I assume you are at a high place?* Tobias spoke through the radio, still hearing the distant sounds of the inferno behind him.

"Correct, try getting closer to Albany street and we'll guide you from there"

*Copy, over and out*

Tobias once more vaults over the metallic fences. He rushes past the empty pool and now looking it up closer to the mound of burning corpses, it continues to move; their groans and moaning as well starts to give chills down to the bottom of his core. He vaults above one more fence and was startled by a voice. He turns around and sees people being devoured around him up close and was worse than what he was witnessed earlier in the evening. This time people are screaming, struggling, begging, unlike what the boy was devouring earlier; already a corpse.

"Help me", " Do not leave me", "Put me out of this misery, please". Voices are even struggling coming out of their lips. Those words rang around his head and he cannot do anything but left them to their own devices. As he marches forward and turned around to the people whom he was obligated to save, he stops in front of a fence and slowly vaults over. His body shakes and he falls down to the ground and he is angry. He turns on his flashlight and the glare caught Newman's attention.

"Ma'am over there!" He pointed west of their direction.

*Where the fuck are you guys?* Tobias asked.

"We're at the elementar school, follow the road"

*I see it* Tobias starts to walk and slowly transitions to a jog and eventually a sprint. They see him get pass a house and running towards their direction.

"Newman, ladder" He grabbed the ladder and the 2 tries their best to softly put it down and not cause a loud noise. As the ladder is set, Newman held the ladder firm and Ryung-Ki shot any of the zombies that is near them.

"Going down!" Newman called out. He slides down and and also helped on clearing any zombies that is too close from them. As Newman gets closer to Tobias, the man falls down as if he fainted. Newman rushes and helps him get up.

"Are you okay?"

"Bryce.... yeah, I think so... thank you" He gave Bryce a pat on the back and notices his left arm covered in blood.

"Don't worry, I got caught in the explosion" Tobias said to calm Bryce down. Bryce puts Tobias' wounded arm over his nape. "I'll cover you" Tobias volunteers. He calls out and shoots down every zombie that comes in their way, shooting their leg.

"That won't kill them"

"Yeah? Seems to be working"

"Shoot the he-" Tobias pushes Bryce away and grabs a hold of the zombie and shoot it from the bottom of its head. He falls down onto the zombie and it cushioned his fall.

"That works much better right?" Tobias said, trying to make light of a dark situation but it was not enough to make Bryce calm as he tries to help him up; but it was refused. "I can walkm thank you" Tobias said.

"To the ladder!" Bryce covered Tobias as he makes his way to the ladder first. As he climbs the ladder slowly, Ryung-Ki provided support by holding onto the latter and calling out any zombie that is outside of Bryce' field of view. She grabs Tobias and pulls him up, Bryce quickly followed and pulled the ladder up after his climb. The zombies, being attracted to their noise, starts to swarm around them. Attracted to their noise, clawing for their skin, and craving for their flesh. A terrifying sight as their gray rotting skin covered in blood, their hollow dead eyes, and their stench slowly builds up under them.

As the 3 cools down, they laugh upon their reunion. Tobias lays down on the ground, Bryce holding onto his knees, and Ryung-Ki standing straight up. They get a look of each of their faces and they are all in relief.

"I almost fucking died Bryce, help me up"

"Sure"

"So, what happened to you guys how did you get up here?" Tobias asked Ryung-Ki as he is being pulled up by the 2. Bryce immediately started on patching up his wound. He pulls out a cigarette and Bryce kindly lights it up for him.

"Well, there were people that threw gas tanks on our trucks then lit them on fire, trucks exploded and... houses caught on fire"

"Damn... then?"

"Then those things appear, they started to push down our men, we pulled them away but it was too late... some of them started to act, like them"

"act? act how?"

"I believe you saw it, eating flesh, moving when they are supposed to be dead? We were abandoned by those who are alive"

"fucking monsters, why did they do that?"

"I don't blame them, and also... I think those down there" She pointed with her gun "are the real monsters. They are worse, they can tear the very flesh off our bones"

They are disgusted by what they are witnessing. They are still not used to that unruly sight of humans eating flesh. Bryce looks down and sees a baby devoured entirely in the middle of the street. He felt squeamish and almost threw up on Tobias.

"Oh shit.. are you okay kid?"

"No.... fuck this world.... what the fuck is happening sir?" Bryce asked. The soldier is still 19 years old, he was just fresh out of bootcamp and was suddenly thrown into what he sees as the literal hell.

"This is" He grabs his backpack and pulls out the pieces of papers that he managed to pick up.

"Classified?" Ryung-Ki looks confused.

"You don't know this?" He gave her the paper and she reads through it, her face is covered with confusion.

"I'm guessing not"

"So what are these?" Bryce asked.

"These 'things' are a result of a filure... it started with rabies, in animals like dogs started to.. fucking chew at their owners, then got sick with what appears to be rabies then hell broke loose"

"Rabies?" Ryung-Ki. Given that rabies is a fatal disease, it has come to the point where human advancements has managed to 'tone it down'. The virus isn't rampant like the common flu, it was manageable by vaccine shots and treatments. She finds it ridiculous that this 'managed' disease has caused an even bigger issue to the whole world.

"Yeah, and there's more" Tobias said.

"Clearly, do share" She returns the paper back.

"Well what can we do?" Bryce asked.

"Study them weirdly, Its a new type of creature, a new animal almost... if we study them udnerstand them, then we can survive"

"Are we not gonna do anything about it?" Bryce innocently asked. Tobias can only scoff at the way he spoke. His scoff turned into a chuckle, and eventually a loud cackle.

"No nothing.... it sounds to me like you want to save the world?" Tobias said.

"I do" Bryce replied, now Tobias finds him even more ridiculous and can only smile. He adores Bryce's innocence and simpleness.

"We can't superman, someday... you, me and her, we will be like them, we will crave for flesh"

"Stop that" Ryung-ki asked.

"Okay? W.H.O has already gone up to flames when shit hit the fan, they were the first one's to fall, when they fell... so Did U.N, then whole countries, then whole fucking continents.... we were sent her to see if a base, a safe place, is possible to be erected her... it was all riddled in that fucking paper"

"Okay?" Bryce can only reply.

"So no, we cannot do shit.. we were literally sent her to test the fucking waters... so the only thing that we can do?" He slowly walks up to Bryce, getting closer with every word "Is to survive, study those fuckers, understand them, and kill them... that's it" He is already up on the kid's face and it terrifies him.

"We at the least need to know the origin" Ryung-Ki said. It was laughable for Tobias, his laughing returned to that hysterical and annoying laughter like earlier. As if he heard the greatest joke of all time. He put out the cigarette and burned through the paper.

"Like I said... we cannot do shit!" Ryung-Ki and Bryce remained quiet as Tobias continued to Ramble. "Even if we know what it is, so what? We make a cure?"

"Yes! Create a vaccine" Once more, Bryce's optimism pierces through, only to be cut down by Tobias' pessimism.

"A vaccine?" Tobias asked and he opened his arms wide open, awaiting for any rebuttal; but no answers or even a sound flows through their mouths.

"That is ridiculous. What?! we find someone, that.. that.. that.. has some speciall. fucking vaccine made, special blood something?"

No reply from either.

"What then we proctect her with all our lives, just so that she can save all of us?"

"Well... it sounds stupid if you put it that way" Bryce said.

"Okay we get your point Tobias.. this is probably the greatest virus humanity is facing" Rung-Ki said with no confidence whatsoever.

"Ma'am?" Bryce said.

"What is it?"

"Are those hands?" They see fingers holding onto the ledge. and slowly a whole arm arises, they expect to see a human being but they hear otherwise. They see the whle arm under the light of the moon, gray, and rot. The tips are dark red, and skin is already being peeled off. Bryce rushes and breaks the arm off, the zombie fell and the others surrounding it almost, observed. And they started to do the samething, raising their hands; not reaching, but clawing to climb.

"What the fuck?!" Bryce is shocked by what he sees and so did the other 2. They realized what is happening or what happened but they do not want to draw out any conclucions as now is not the best of time. They have to get off the roof and run away as quickly as possible, they see the heard that was distracted by the inferno earlier now making their way towards them; already halfway columbus avenue.

"Crap, we have to go now... I talk to much do I?" Tobias said to Bryce, he almost slapped him but they were pulled back by Ryung-Ki who talked back to him, "You are an asshole aren't you Tobias?" she said directly to his face. Tobias' reply is only a stare into her eye, drained of all care and only pure joy. As if he was high on ecstacy.

"Well... the world's falling apart, so who fucking cares?"

"You said it... we need to survive" Ryung-Ki said, "and now you have the fucking audacity to just lay down and die?"

"If we are to surive, how exactly? We're on an Island, and the waters are filled with flesh eating monsters"

Ryung-Ki turns her focus away from Tobias, who seems useless, and trying to find a way out. The parking lot has several cars but there are more of those things around. She lets out a sigh out in frustration for the situation and the circumstances that she is in. She had no choice but to believe Tobias and study them. She looks at the horde and there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary, there is no change in their behavior.

They walk around aimlessly, groaning, and growling. They are attracted to noise, but what noise can they make.

"Do you 2 have no help to offer?!"

"Sorry ma'am, but is this enough?" Bryce shows a grenade.

"Yeah we can use that" Tobias jumps in and grabs the grenade. Ryung-Ki immediately locks his arms and Bryce fumbles to grab the grenade.

"Well... shit... I was groing to throw the grenade to the car and not kill us"

"And risk not having a getaway vehicle?"

"No, the explosion can be powerful enough to trip the shock sensors... weren't you listening to the explosion earlier?"

She finally frees him and feels bad noticing that she held his wounded arm.

"And also, one of those cars are electric, it might take us farther" Tobias shows certainty. They now have an idea on how they will escape, they have a goal; now its a matter of going there. The horde of zombies has now started to to move around and not focused on 1 side of the building.

Ryung-Ki comes up with a plan with Bryce trying to add his own ideas, but Tobias is just there. Both of them thought of plans that would be difficcult to execute but not impossible. Unlucky for them, they do not have the luxury of time and Tobias is proving himself to be dead weight. He can hear them rustling around and moving on the gravel.

"uhm... will he help us?" Bryce pointed out Tobias' incomptency.

"No idea, just ignore him"

As the 2 worries about a way to escape, Tobias' shuffling stopped and a siren goes off.

"That works" Tobias smiles as he quickly puts on his boots, and eventually a loud blast follows. Car alarms started blaring. The shrapnels destroyed the under-side of the car and the cars around it created the noise.

"What did you do?"

"I used my socks, pebbles, and then the grenade.. enough of that we need to move"

Tobias grabs the ladder and Ryung-Ki quickly helps him. They ran with the object to the other side of the roof. They put on suppressors with wipes on their pistols in order to supress to noise to almost quiet. They kill the zombies that are right under them and then Ryung-Ki and Tobias slowly puts the ladder down. Bryce covers them by looking over the horde that is being attracted by the alarms. Tobias gets on the ladder first and limply makes his way down.

Ryung-Ki hears someone running on the gravel behind them but they managed to kill it before it gets even closer.

"How the fuck did it get up here?" Bryce asked.

"Come on!" Tobias told them. Up on the roof the zombie stands up. Bryce and Ryung-Ki are stunned by what they are see and they can onl aim, it jumps onto Bryce as he was the closest but he managed to dodge it. The zombie falls down and lands right behind Tobias, who quickly stomps its head in.

They look at each other and their suspicion earlier seems to have been confirmed. The 2 manages to get down and the started to run towards the nearest car that they can get to. It was locked but Tobias did not hesitate to shoot the window, the alarm goes off and they panically entered the car.

Tobias started to hot-wire the car. The process was longer than expected as Tobias starts to feel nervous and panicky.

"What the fuck is wrong with meeeee" he sing-songs.

"Come on! Come on!"

The old car finally started and zombie runs towards them. Tobias quickly killed it and they had to go off-road. Some of the sirens started to switch off automatically and the rumbling of their vehicle starts to draw the zombies towards them.

"fuck.... FUCK!"

"STEP ON IT MAN!" Bryce screams.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

They almost drove into a pool in the middle of their panic. They got into the road and had to make a detour, his action shocked the 2 as they will drive towards the horde.

"Tobias... WRONG WAY!" Ryung-Ki said.

"No its fine, trust me"

They followed the 90th Insterstate, in order to get out of the city.

"OKAY OKAY CALM DOWN LET ME EXPLAIN!" Tobias begs for their attention.

"So on our way to the intersection between Mohawk and Eagle, we put too many barricades.. and there is a grou- a horde of those things we can mow past them"

"Mow?" Bryce asked. "Drive past them, sorry" Tobias corrected. Now he seems much more calm than they were on the rooftop of the school.

After 30 minutes of drive. They drove out of the interstate and into Higby road. They all took a breather as they turned around and see plumes of smoke coming from the city of Utica. They do not see the buildings but they already know the damage that has been done. They leaned down on their seats and cover their faces and looked away in shame. Ryung-Ki does not allow herself to tear up, Tobias bites his lips in agner, and Bryce seems to be breathe heavily. He pulls the handle back expecting it to be opened but it is locked. Tobias sees it and unlocekd it for him, he falls down to the warm ground.

Bryce vomits and cries at the same time, Tobas and Ryung-Ki steps out to smell the night breeze and looks up the sky. The Moon and her stars light up the dead sky, but a lingering repulsive scent does not let go of them.

"That is disgusting" Ryung-Ki asked.

"What is that?"

The overpowering scent of ash breezes through them. They looked up to the sky once more and sees the stars dissapearing. As they continue to look above, orange haze is being projected towards them and warm air also accompanied the ashen scent. They can hear the distant explosions accompanied by haunting screams.

The Village of Frankfort is being swallowed by the inferno. As the whole village and eventually the whole town is being destroyed, what shocked them to their core was the ones who are responsible for this chaos.

"Oh no" Bryce said. "You guys better hear this" He called on Ryung-Ki and Tobias as tries to keep the radio signal stable.

"President Harlow" Tobias said.

The President of the United States of America gives out his final words to his people.

"My fellow Americans, on this day, our nation and the whole world faces its greatest battle"

The Audio goes in and out, or goes to radio silent.

"A Virus...s pla..ge... our ra...c."

The 3 are in shock as they pieced together his speech.

"This threat, single-handedly tested the power and might of our democracy, and at the end it won. To my fel.... Ame-..." The audio cuts to that radio silence then comes back, "survive, not for our nation.... but our race", their spirits weaken with the voice of the President. "God bless.... Me..ca... and the wo-"

The Audio cuts off right after the sounds of explosion coming from Frankfort. The radio goes slient and the signal dissapears. Ryung-Ki moves the dials to different channels and she can hear music, speeches, audio readings of sacred texts; the sound of the world ending.

"The United Nations" They hear a clear and crisp voice spoke.

"Heard that?" Ryung-Ki asked.

"Is now being dissolved"

"Dissolved?" Bryce repeated what he heard inaudibly.

"Yeah... America has fallen, the country that is, responsible for the balance of peace, that does not shock me at all" Ryung-Ki explains.

The voice over the radio continues. "The world is falling apart... The UN cannot do anything at the end... we tried everything... but this virus was... too fast, and strong"

The final words that they hear when the signal completely dissapears and the buzzing noise sounds on. The 3 put their heads down. Bryce quietly tears up beside the car and slides down covering his mouth and overlooking the moon as it is being obscured by the dark clouds. Ryung-Ki pulls out a photo of her family over on the other side of the world. "Please... be safe, keep them safe" She said in Korean as she tears up. She kisses the photo and puts it back into her pocket. Tobias looks towards them, crying.