Kimberly Greene's Story

Inside a large department store, gruesome creatures lurked in the darkness. Some were big, some small, some skinny and others large. Some were children, while others were adults. However, there was something similar about each and every one of these things; they were all humans, and they were all dead. In the modern world, these creatures were known as zombies.

The undead had been hiding in a dark sporting goods store that was two stories high, and full of items that had caught dust ever since the apocalypse, or when the infection broke out. Nobody who had wandered into Sufferman's Sports that day was safe. They had all been bitten, and then locked inside. They had been left to die and rot. Their skin was tearing, their eyes had turned a color that was as dark as the night sky, and most importantly, they were hungry. Almost a month without food, without flesh, and they would REALLY start to rot. Of course, at that time, none of them had expected the surprise that would come next. Out of nowhere, a cage filled with big, hairy, black rats came sliding across the dusty floor, right in the center of the store. Not only did the rats' squeals make a ruckus for them to hear, but immediately the zombies could smell the sweet scents of fresh meat. Quickly, the creatures limped over to the cage, moaning as they pushed themselves out of they way to get a bite of the food. However, with their lack of intelligence, they zombies only found themselves struggling to open the sealed cage.

As the monsters were distracted by the bait, a girl with a bright blue hoodie slipped quietly past the scene, not making a sound as she scurried up the stairway that led to the second floor of Sufferman's. She smiled as she saw that there was nobody on the second floor with her. Of course, zombies were much too stupid to climb stairs. Kim shuffled past the canoes, tents, and bikes as she made her way to the part of the store she was looking for; the hunting section. She had been running low on ammo, and raiding these abandoned sports stores was the perfect way to refill her empty handgun. Ironically, there were sports stores all around Malibu, as surfing was popular and people needed a place to get their boards. However, there weren't too many places where hunting gear was sold. Kim considered herself lucky to find a place such as Sufferman's.

She took a look at the weapons section, getting a look at all the rifles and things that hung on the wall. However, she needed to find the place where ammo was kept. There was a door to the right of her that looked suspicious. Perhaps she would check there. When she grabbed the knob, she cursed under her breath, realizing that it was locked. She grabbed a bobby pin, and started to pick the lock. It felt weird doing it, as she hadn't practiced it in such a long time. Then again, she hadn't needed it. Ever since the days when she spied on her father while he was doing his lab work, Kim didn't need a lot of things.
Once she could feel the insides of the knob loosen, she turned the handle, and she was in. An assortment of bullets and weapons lay in front of her. Although they had been sitting for a while, the boxes still looked shiny and smelled like they were new. Without hesitation, Kim packed the box of bullets she needed, and stuffed them into her leather backpack, while taking some out of the box and clicking them into her empty magazine. She checked to make sure that was all she needed, and then put the other stuff she had taken out back in its rightful place. She had planned not to take anything she didn't need, but when her leg bumped into a sturdy box that contained a very unusual weapon, she couldn't resist.

She grabbed the arrows to the crossbow located underneath the sales desk, clipped them into a compartment in the crossbow, and then clipped the crossbow unto a strap in her belt. With a handgun, a small stun gun, and a crossbow, Kim knew she wasn't traveling light. Then again, the more variety of weapons she had, the better. Things would run out eventually, with a hell on earth and all. Kim looked down the stairs, and took a deep breath. She drew her handgun, and stealthily tiptoed down the steps. As she reached the final step, however, she was surprised to find that the zombies she had worried over were completely oblivious to her presence, and were still trying to get the rats out of the cage. Maybe pulling those rats out of the dumpster wasn't such a bad thing after all, she thought to herself. A half smile on her face, Kim cruised right through the shelves of various goods, and paraded through the front door. That's when she heard the loud beeping sounds.

An alarm? How on earth could an alarm used to stop kleptomaniacs still be functional after the outbreak? Whatever the reason, it was bad luck for Kim. Every beep that sounded made a wave of zombies stare in her direction. They didn't hesitate. Right when they saw her, they ignored the rats, and started to quickly limp in her direction. "Shit." she cursed, as she pushed her way through the doorway, and started to run out into the open daylight, exposing herself. She had found a way to open the locked doors, so she knew the zombies would be coming out any moment. She held the pistol out in front of her, ready to fire once the monsters had shattered the glass door. That's also when she heard moaning sounds coming from behind her.

More zombies? This was starting to become chaos. In a matter of seconds they would all be surrounding her. However, it took Kim less than a millisecond to start taking action. She shot her way through the wall of zombies, and slipped past the remaining creatures as they approached her. She ran with all her might, until she saw a black motorcycle sitting on the side of the street. She plopped her body unto the seat, and breathed a sigh of relief as she found the key still in the cycle. She turned the key, but her breath of relief turned into a sigh as she realized that the cycle was almost out of fuel. She stomped the gas pedal, and in the blink of an eye, she was off. As the bike moved faster, Kim became more aware of how to steer it. It was almost like driving a car, only she was a lot more vulnerable.

Her eyes calculated a piece of large rubble in the street. It was large enough that it could send her off course. She was about to move her arms to change direction, when she felt cold fingers clenching her neck. She looked back to see a zombie right behind her, barely holding unto the motorcycle. The guy must have been hiding underneath the bike as she was driving it. It was so hard to keep her balance with one hand on the bike, but with a quick punch, Kim was able to launch the zombie off of the bike. She watched to see the undead fly off into the road, and then turned her eyes back to the road, finding the piece of rubble only a couple feet in front of her. She was going to die. In a moment of desperation, Kim wildly pushed the handles of the bike. She held on for dear life as the bike violently turned on its side, and then lifted back up. She had done it. She was still alive. She had kept the bike in balance. She didn't wipe the sweat off her brow, but took a deep breath as she continued to pay attention to the road. For some reason, she felt like she had a better chance of killing herself than being killed by a zombie.

Was that a gas station up ahead?

Yes. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of driving along the abandoned roads of Malibu, Kim had found an old-looking gas station a couple of feet in front of her. She breathed a sigh of relief, as she had cruised slowly on the motorcycle for the past hour in order to conserve gas. She would watch painfully as the needle would plunge down quicker and quicker until it could just reach the letter 'E'. Now she could wipe the sweat off her brow, and rest easy knowing that she could refuel her bike. That was, if there was still any gas left.

Fortunately, there was. She had never refueled a motorcycle before, but it was similar to filling up a car with gas, and so she had no trouble at the pump. Finally, a time when she didn't have to worry about gas prices. As she stuck the the nozzle back on to the fuel pump, she flicked her blue eyes from side to side, scanning another "dead" part of Malibu. Weeds started to peak their heads out of the pavement cracks, and only after a month, the convenient store in front of her looked rusty and old. Either this place had been abandoned long before the outbreak, or Kim was living in some sort of dystopian future movie. Possibly even both. Never mind that, the important thing right now was to figure out where she was going, and even more importantly, how to not get herself killed. Although it was tempting, she decided not to approach the convenient store. Not only did it look like it would fall to the ground if she entered it, but there was no telling what lurked inside. Maybe she would look later for supplies and alcohol, but for right now, she would leave the motorcycle near the pump, and approach a crumbled highway bridge that lay in rubble on the street.

She sat on the broken cement and concrete aimlessly. What time was it? Probably mid-afternoon. Kim's iphone was still charged, but she never turned it on unless in dire situations. She wanted to conserve as much battery life as possible, if ever came a day that cellphone reception existed again. There were so many people she needed to call; her aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins....who knew if they were dead or not? She left that thought in her mind for a moment, and then quickly threw it away. No sad or dramatic moments now, there were more important things that needed to be done. She picked up a broken bottle up off of the ground, and placed it up on a high part of the broken bridge. She leaped off of the pile of concrete, and took stance on the road. She grabbed her crossbow, equipped an arrow into the arrow track, and looked through the scope. She took a deep breath through her nose, and focused on the green bottle. She heard the glass shatter as she pulled the trigger on her new weapon. She ran to inspect the glass. The top bottle of the glass had already been shattered, but from her aiming, she had managed to make a dent on the side. She was a little disappointed, as she had been hoping for the center, but the side was close enough. She sighed, knowing that it would take some time to get better at aiming. Of course, it was similar to a gun, but it was heavier than the ones she had used. Kim scrambled through the rubble, searching for the arrow that had been shot. It lay face-down in the cement. She retrieved it and clipped it back into its compartment on the projectile weapon.

A couple minutes later, Kim found herself sitting on the remains of the bridge once again. Sitting on it might have felt strange, but that was the point. It was out of the ordinary. Wild colors of spray paint were left splattered on some of the cement scraps. This reminded her of something. She unzipped the leather bag held tightly unto her back, and searched its contents. She pulled out a hard black case, and twisted the lock from side to side, sliding in the combination. Once that was done, she opened the padded case, and exposed the vial of blatant green liquid to sunlight.

She gingerly pulled the vial out of the padding, and with two hands, held it up to the sun. It glimmered and gleamed, sparkled and shined. This vial of liquid was so beautiful, and yet its functions were unknown. Kim had guarded it every day, unsure whether it was useful or incomplete. She had no idea if she would be able to find someone who could figure out its mysteries. For all she knew, it could be the ticket to saving the world, to saving lives. For all she knew, it could just be a vial of green liquid. If that was the case, why was she even keeping it? To be honest, Kim didn't care all that much to save the world. She had been willing to accept this new life that she lived in. However, she kept the vial because it was one of the only things she had left of her father, the old man who had taken care of her. It was his last work, and so in some way, it was a part of him. To Kim, guarding it was like guarding his life, and this time, she wouldn't let it break into pieces.

Suddenly, the green bottle from before rolled out from the shadows into the street. She silently gasped, knowing that she had thrown the broken bottle into the rubble after using it for target practice. In order for it to move out like that, something had to have moved it.

Someone was there.

She dropped back into the street, and drew her crossbow, strapping in another arrow. She aimed it at the source of the movement. Her finger was glued to the trigger, and in silence, she waited for another sign of life. There was another sound of movement, and Kim approached closer to the rubble. Whatever it was, it was coming from underneath the remains of the bridge. Her shoulders tensed as she looked around, hoping to find whatever the sound came from. Suddenly, a loud noise shrieked from behind her, and Kim swiftly turned around to find a small greyhound barking at her. Only a false alarm. She dropped her crossbow, and gave a half smile to the mutt, but the dog just stared at her. It stood its ground as though it were a statue. Kim stared back, and there were a few moments of uncomfortable silence. After a minute, the dog lost interest, and ran off somewhere along the road.

Later, Kim still sat on the bridge, drinking from a silver flask. There was still a little bit of hard liquor left, and unfortunately she knew that she would have to go into the abandoned store if she wanted to have a chance of filling her container back up again. Yes, as smart as she was, Kim had developed an alcohol addiction at the young age of eighteen. She knew it was stupid, and she knew it was wrong, but she did it anyway. After all, although she didn't do it much, there were times when she felt like she needed to be just a little drunk. At least getting drunk could get her through a hard day. Being sober for too long was like being underwater, and then needing to come back up for air. She put her hood up, and chugged down the last swig of alcohol. It burned the inside of her throat, but she had gotten used to the sensation. With the empty flask in her hand, Kim stared out into space. Hopefully people wouldn't show up if she were to become intoxicated.