Prologue

ORIGIN

STATE: NEW YORK

DATE: 14th AUGUST 2023

3RD PERSON POV

"It has been announced on the local news this morning" Evan turned to his best friend, pointing at the group of other students standing in groups of twos and threes in front of the school gates

"Told ya" Evan and Michael has been best friends for the longest of time, they come to school together every morning, either Evan goes to Michae's house or the other way around

Thirty minutes earlier Evan had told Michael school was cancelled but due to Michael studious nature, he wanted them to go to school to make sure, Evan had complained about it till they got to school

He is making sure he milks the fact that he was right because that rarely happens between them "you're just too big of a nerd to let school go for a day, are you happy we had to come all the way here just to find I'm right" Evan glares at the back of Michael's head thinking about how ridiculous Michael is when it comes to school, he believes in nothing but books "yeah something crazy happened at my Dad's work yesterday, some people were biting others, it is like a freaking zombie dude" Michael rolls his eyes after hearing the word zombie smacking his classmates with a folder to give him a reality check

"what did you do that for" he whines rubbing his arm "dude, zombie? seriously?" He rolls his eyes again, scoffing at the absurdity of Nathaniel's what "when last have you been online, I'm sure your head was buried in organic chemistry throughout the weekend, maybe you could have seen the video going about" Michael signs still finding their thought process stupid, the two guys talking are also the set that believes in conspiracy theory "dude, you saw the video too?" Evan interrupts Michael who was about to give them a piece of his mind "I have it too, it is just unreal" Rex said in disbelief "so was your mum when she named it the name of a dog" Nathaniel jabs, raising his hand to high five anyone, they all just glared at him "what video Evan" Michael turns to him, he does not care most of the time but whenever school is involved he get interested

he eyes them suspiciously knowing they can tease him about things and never really happened just because it doesn't really care about social media, that is not the first time that that will happen "prove or it never happened" Evan fishes for his phone in his pocket

he scrolls through Facebook trying to remember the page he had seen it in, he typed in the keyword, the video was the first to pop up, he gave the phone to Michael who watched with an annoyed look "dude, this is just like a druggie being a druggie" Evan shakes his head urging him to keep on watching

An intoxicated looking man ran after a pedestrian, she screamed loudly running as fast as she could but the attacker caught on to her people on the street did nothing about the bizarre scene until they saw blood, the druggie has just bitten the lady, Michael felt scared when the druggie looked directly at the camera

the camera started capturing jumbled movements, the person holding it must have started running, Evan collected his phone from Michael "this is not the worst part Mike, before the paramedics arrived the injured woman had started chasing the bystanders violently" Mike isn't the one to believe things online "it could have been AI" he shrugged "everything can be faked nowadays" even his own word sounds absurd to him

that doesn't look fake, he thought

and if it was they all must must be good actors and actresses, his mind isn't settled but he doesn't believe such nonsense could occur in real life, why will someone ever become a zombie, nothing amidst the theory he has even remotely supports the lunacy of what happens in movie becoming there reality

Michael nudges his best friend, he nods his head in the direction of their home "I think staying here will make me share the same brain cell with you guys" Evan shakes his head, not finding it new that Michael is always in the opposite direction of the crowd

Evan waves his other friends goodbye, he flings his arm over Michael's shoulder causing him to stumble forward

they talked about irrelevant things until they came in contact with someone who seemed like an injured person

Evan stopped Michael with his hand signalling him to be quiet as the person was backing them in a very slouched manner blood dripping from his out streched hand and what appears to be a gnash on his neck, Michael stopped scared to take a step backward, what if what he had seen earlier was real

Evan was busy searching for something he could use as a weapon if the man ever came running at them "are we not supposed to help him" Michael asked quietly "you want to help him go ahead" Evan finally spots a quite thick wood, he asked Michael to back away which he did without hesitation even though he was dying to help the injured person

He stepped back quietly, thinking of all the endless possibility of what could be wrong with the individual

he knows about the zombie theory he just doesn't want to believe it, he is a literalist believe something as you see fit

the reasonable part of his mind kept telling him there is no way someone that injured will be standing upright, the backed into a metal waste can that went clang as it hits the ground

They both looked in the direction of the individual, he had turned around, now facing them, analysing them, his eyes red with blood, the side of his less left cheek missing like something had taken a bite out of it, his collarbone on display, the Flesh around it like it had been run through a blender

the man's eyes unfocused as he stared in the direction of the source of noise, he looked up suddenly making eye contact with a very scared Michael

Evan and his piece of wood ready to be swung, the undead man running towards them in full speed causes Michael to stumble, falling right on the set of stairs

He rolls violently down the stairs, he landed at the bottom of the stairs with his right and protecting his head, he stands immediately moaning as he uses the bottom step to support himself, he held his ribs feeling a slight jab in the corner of his chest

he looks towards the top of the stairs trying to look for his best friend, not long after he sees him running and screaming down the stairs with the undead coming down the stairs like he had done earlier

it landed on his skull which cracks open, part of the guts spilling out, blood-spattered everywhere, Micheal started throwing up

"we just killed a man" Michael said the thousand time still in disbelief "are you dumb?" Evan's heart is beating rapidly, his hands shaking, he might be known to be one to expect anything, joke about things that are not supposed to be laughed about

what was happening right there and then is not something he can joke about, the videos were real, zombies now existed and they looked exactly like they did in the books and movies, the reality is absurd, it really isn't happening "it is the end of the world Michael" Evan voiced his thought still shaking uncontrollably

"zombies exist" Michael's thought was a jumbled mess

He suddenly starts pulling at Evans clothes aggressively "what about my mother? what about my father?" He yells sobbing uncontrollably "Mike you need to stop yelling, if these are really zombies which I'm sure it is, they are attracted by noise so you need to shut up" Evan holds his wood up in a defensive position after he had pryed Michaels hand away "I have a mother too and a dad so we think rationally so we can save the both of them and both of yours"

Evan reasons, he ducks behind a parked car to inspect the alley he needs to take to get to his house

He signals a very dumbstruck Michael that it was okay "make sure you don't step on anything that makes noise again" Evan warns, stepping out from behind the car, stepping carefully not to make any noise, when he noticed they were in clear he started working normally, Michael mimicking his action "you watched Z nation right?" Michael shook his head no "they are not as fast as the ones in there" Evan performs the same action he did earlier when they got to the end of the alley

you can never be too careful, Evan has watched enough zombie shows to know he had to take extra precautions

the only thing is that he doesn't really need to check as the street they were on is filled with people running and getting chased, blood splattered on the wall of the houses, cars burning, sounds of obvious horror, people screaming and the loud growling and moaning of the 'zombie', Evan pulls Michael, holding his hand while navigating the safest way to get into his house

"my dad has some gone and few bullets" Evan's father is an illegal gun dealer, who knew his shady bussiness was going to pay off "did they ever find a cure in Walking Dead" Michael asked with a shaky voice

Evan give a shaky and low no, he clutches Michael's hand

just as he was about to run, a armef human swings a baseball bat at Evan which he luckily dogged "it is not even the end of the world yet and people are already very crazy" Michael yells as he ran, ducking through bodies and different people running for their lives

they successfully got to Evan's door before a loud bang stops the both of them in their truck