Locked up

After a twenty-five-minute drive, I spot these large wooden beams jutting out of the ground. It looked about fifteen feet tall surrounding an eighth of Hazlebub.

I keep driving forward, seeing a gap between the wooden walls where the road is with what looks like people outside of it.

Slowly edging my way to the gate, i meet face to face with the guards, having machine guns they look at me and thir guns aimed at the vehicle.

"Halttttt! Or we will shoot!" One guard shouts.

I slam on the breaks the two men approach the vehicle cautiously.

"We have to ask you a few questions before you can park your vehicle inside the town and stay. Firstly, do you have any firearms with you." One guard interrogated.

" I do not, sir."

"Any passengers with you?"

"Just my dog Coops."

"Lastly, have either of you been bitten?"

It goes silent for a minute.

The guard lets out a loud sigh. "Don't worry, we won't kill you if you're bitten. We're temporarily locking up victims that have been bitten if they want entry. You'll be handcuffed behind you back and feed three times a day in a cell. The person in charge is doing this to identify people who may be immune."

"What if I decide that I don't want to be in this town while I'm locked up, and when would we be set free from prison?" I inquired cautiously.

"When the guards are bringing your food, you can ask to leave town they'll escort you back here and then uncuff you if you'd like. We aren't sure how long you'd be locked up for. All I can say is you'll be set free when we have no doubt that you wouldn't turn." The guard explained.

Reluctantly, I agree with the guard and park my vehicle inside the walls, putting my hammer and blowtorch into my pants and steeping out. A separate person goes and talks to the guard before approaching me.

"Can you show me your bite mark and the dogs if he has one?"The person asks.

I pull back my shirt, reveiling my bandage, and they unwrap it.

"Well, the good news is that it's not infected. The bad news is that it looks like you have a bone bruise. they take weeks or months to heal zombie bites have an extremely strong bite force." He says while going to Coops examining his leg.

I turn around, and he cuffs me, leading me to a golf cart and driving Coops and I to the wre we are staying.

We arrive at a police station we enter, and Coops is placed in a cage. I'm taken downstairs where there's around thirty people.

"Alright, you'll be staying in this cell with this gentleman." I walk in, and he closes and locks the cell on me walking away.

(Not the smartest decision putting us in the same cells.)

"So you decided to come here for safety after being bitten?" An older fellow with a long beard sitting across my cell inquiries.

"Yeah, it seemed like a reasonable solution for now. I'm surprised they got walls up so fast within the first two days all this has happened." I reply bewildered with the situation.

"Ah, that's because this little town is filled with lumberjacks and the Amish they know how to build very fast."

"I see." I reply, glancing around the cell, which consisted of a toilet, sink, and two rough beds. There wasnt much else to note.

"Hello, nice to meet you, im Angelica. What's your name if you dont mine me asking." A young woman with pitch-black hair and red eyes greted me across my cell.

"Earlo is my name. It's a pleasure." I reply as she gives me a smile.

"So how long have you all been here?" I ask.

"Most of us arrived yesterday after being bitten. You're the third to come today, initially there was only one person here from the start, but they let him out for room of the infected." She explained as a guard walks by.

"Here's your dinner for tonight. The leader of the town said there will be no more infected allowed in as all the cells are full." The guard says, pushing in two plates of cooked chicken though the bars.

I struggle for a few minutes eating the food without my hands.

"Why are we still cuffed while we are in the cells?" I ask aloud.

"Ah, that the guards don't want us scratching them through the grates if we turn." Angelica explains.

(I guess that makes sense, but it's a death sentence to us. I'll wait and see what happens. If I'm not let out in the next three days, I'll ask to leave.)

I decide to call it a night since it was starting to get dark outside, and there was only a small amount of light shining through a barred window.

My slumber was abruptly disturbed by my cell mates moaning and groaning. Waking up to a dark room except a little moon light shining through the bared window. The moonlight starts to glow onto him, revealing a mangled face with bloodshot eyes and a  drooling mouth.

"Ah shit he's turned!" I say aloud realizing he has turned into a zombie he rips his hands off the cuffs and lunges toward me.

"Fucking hell!" I shouted instinctively kicking the zombie away . The commotion wakes up Angelica and other people as they start yelling for the guards.

The zombie trys to grab onto me. I kick him in the face, knocking it to the ground and repeatedly stopping on its head until it stops moving.

"Jesus, what a way to wake up. I won't get any sleep after this." I say as a guard comes by with a flashlight unlocking my cell and taking the zombies corpse out.

For the remainder of the night I lay down wide awake restless with my rscing heart until the sun rises again.

"Are you alright?" Angelica asks with concern in her eyes.

"Yeah I'm fine." I respond as she looks at me confused and rubbing her eyes.

"Is something wrong?" I Inquire.

"No, no, it's nothing." She responds as we hear screaming down the hall.

"Wha-what the hell are you?!?!" A prisoner panicked voice yells out.

"What are you talking about?

"J-just look in the mirror." The prisoner replies to neighboing guy across his cell.

(What the hell is going on over there.) I think to myself before hearing the screams of the prisoner.

"Jesus guys all the screaming throughout the day is so tiring. Over half of you already died overnight!" The guard yells as he goes to the distressed prisoner.

"What the hell happened to your face...hold up I'll take you to the person in charge as he'd want to see this." He unlocks the door and the guard walks with the prisoner past Angelica's and my cell.

(W-What the hell.) I think as a prisoner with a long beak walks by me. Angelica looking frightened at the mans sight.

To destract ourselves Angelica and I start to talk about our lives before this apocalyptic sight. As the person in her cell lies in bed with a fever sweating a storm.

"Angelica, you have to keep quiet about this, okay?" I say as I reach into my back pocket, grabbing the blowtorch and start melting the cuffs.

"What if they catch you??" She whispers back concerned.

"Don't worry, I just needed to stretch, and it's in case unfortunate events happen. I'll act like I'm cuffed if the guards come by."