DEAD ERA- Afterworld

Chapter 2

    “Nice...now let's get somewhere safe before zombies feed on our brains .”

As the car came to a screeching stop, the three occupants leaped out and quickly ran to the house.

Once inside the house, the man checked around and sighed in relief. There were no signs of undead activity and no blood stains on the floors. It was as if nothing even happened during the apocalypse.

"Do you have food?" the man asked while checking the fridge.

"There should be more in the cupboard."

He grabbed a box of granola.

"Anything else?"

"Just the cereal and milk in here."

Bali took a seat at the table and watched the strange man. He seemed so relaxed compared to the way he treated Bali before they entered the house. It reminded him of home…well, not home in that sense, but somewhere he knew from memories and things.

Bali remembered a time when his father would bring home a box of cereal, milk, and some eggs each morning. He loved cooking and baking. It was his passion.

His parents would sit in the kitchen with him watching him make breakfast and bake bread. When they ate, they'd eat together and talk about their lives. They would tell stories, laugh together, and share recipes that they would try to cook. It became a tradition to take turns cooking dinner and making lunch for their family.

 Levis asked, “What is your name?” gazing at the stranger who put a cigarette  to his mouth

The stranger looked at both men, Levi, and Bali shrugged their shoulders.

“Why does it matter to you?” he responded curtly turning around and heading towards the stairs to go upstairs and to sleep.

“Well, I just want to know more about you” Levis answered smiling innocently.

The stranger stopped in his tracks as he stared into Levi’s eyes with an emotionless expression.

Levis chuckled nervously rubbing the back of his neck, “I mean I guess I am sorry if that’s weird to ask…”

“No, I understand…”

Silence fell upon the room Levis stood awkwardly.

“Well goodnight then,” the stranger stated heading upstairs to his room.

Bali stood staring at the door, his arms folded across his chest. Slowly, he started walking towards the staircase. When he got to the bottom step he stopped in his tracks. 

Something seemed off.

The lights weren’t on.

Not even the television was on. It was pitch black with only the moonlight peeking through the window. Bali slowly headed towards the light switch but as he turned on the lights, he gasped quietly. On every surface, there was dried blood. Blood and gore splattered everywhere. The carpet looked stained with it too. Throughout the room were piles of rotting bodies. Bali felt sick to his stomach as he stepped foot onto the hallway. He slowly walked down the kitchen s he kept his gaze glued to the blood splatters on the floor. In the center of the kitchen, there was a small table surrounded by chairs. There were bloody marks and bruises all over the table's surface, as well as a couple of torn-up corpses lying on the kitchen floor. Bali closed his eyes as images flashed through his mind. Bali sighed taking a bottle of wine which was half empty from the fridge and slowly started walking towards the basement. Downstairs was a large cellar filled with bottles of liquor and boxes of wine.

He sat in one of the chairs near the back of the cellar and slowly drank from the bottle. Then, he pulled out a photograph and placed it in front of him.

It was of a girl around 15 years old, she had long brown hair with blonde highlights. Her face showed that her smile hadn’t faded since childhood. She smiled brightly and had her hand wrapped around someone. 

She seemed happy, but she wasn't. She didn't show it. It was obvious what had happened to her. 

"Hello my dear, long time no see…it is you…"

 

Bali lowered his gaze feeling tears starting to form in his eyes. It was clear what had happened to the girl, her death wasn't long ago, it was recent. She was found in the backyard of a house, lying on the floor, covered in blood. It looked like a scene straight from a nightmare. It was such a horrific scene that Bali wanted to forget. He didn't know the reason why this happened, his little daughter was killed by a zombie.

"I hope we can reunite someday…," he whispered as tears fell down his cheeks.

   NEXT MORNING

  Location:RESEARCH LABORATORY 

      Inside a destroyed laboratory, which smells of dead bodies, and blood everywhere. A male naked body lay inside a water tank, with a life machine counting every sound of the heartbeat. Then suddenly the body opened its eyes as he begins to bang the glass capsule and yell out at the top of his lungs.

‘Oh, God! What is happening to me?’ he thought to himself confused and terrified. He was scared, he didn’t know how he got in there or how many days he had been stuck in this lab.

As he kept banging the glass capsule, he tried to open it but the liquid inside didn't flow anymore.

‘What is going on? Why won't it open?’

He looked at the water cylinder and was shocked. The lid has been ripped off revealing the insides. From where ever it was coming from, it was dripping with red fluid. He was so scared he started banging harder on the glass container.

 Finally, the glass cracked open, throwing the naked man to the floor,  he screamed and ran outside, stumbling and slipping on the wet concrete.

At first, his skin was burning, he stood up staring around, “Where am I ?” he whispered to himself. Immediately a loud screech went into his eyes causing his head to ache and his ears to ring. It was deafening as he tried covering them, but as soon as it died down, the screeching noise began again.

"Stop!" he shouted as tears began to fall. 

"What is happening?” he asked as the sound stopped.

     The man walked out of the operating room, using the wall to support his stamina and balance himself. As his head cleared, he realized he was standing in a large room. It looked almost exactly like a medical lab, except without any computers or machines. 

Instead, there were tables littered with various tools and other scientific materials, with cabinets full of books and papers. 

Everything was white and bright with multiple windows that lined up with the walls giving people a view of the outside world. As his vision became clearer, he saw that the floor and walls were coated with thick blood; some were splattered on the ceiling and several on the walls. He looked around again at the white walls and the rows of tables with equipment all around him.

 The man saw a lifeless body laying on the floor, and he decided to change into the body's cloth s he was wearing earlier. The clothes fit perfectly with his height, though, they still hung loosely around his skinny frame.

After he dressed up, he began to walk around the building looking for any clues as to where he was. Once inside, he noticed a sign next to a broken computer.

'Biohazard Facility' it read. 'Warning, this place has been compromised. If you are infected and do not remove your clothes immediately leave the facility, now!'

He continued to look around, trying his best to find something that may help him find his way out of this place. Just as he started to move away from the computer, he heard footsteps. The steps grew louder and louder until two armed guards came storming Zombies entered rushing toward him, growling and fill with a hunger for blood.

   The man looked by his side to see an extinguisher, then yanked it from where it was hung smashing it unto the first zombie's head. He swung a blow directly at the zombie's neck severing its spinal cord. The man continued hitting zombies with the end of the sprayer smashing heads in, knocking them out, and killing them instantly.

A female zombie approached him slowly reaching for him as he watched. He swung the nozzle at her head knocking her clean out. He quickly followed after it and smashed the rest of their skulls in.

He continued his rampage, destroying everything in his path as his screams echoed throughout the facility.

When his screaming subsided he finally calmed down and noticed that there weren’t any more zombies roaming the hallways. His breathing began to get heavy and he leaned against the wall exhausted as tears continued to flow. He held onto the wall in case he fell to his knees. After calming himself down a bit, he turned on his heels and slowly made his way further down the hall.

‘I don’t understand…how did I get here?’ he questioned as he examined the area around him. There were numerous doors all along the hall, leading to offices and labs, rooms for sciencforprojects, and other rooms. He noticed some doors labeled ‘Experiment room’ but couldn’t make out any writing or signs, but there were also signs on the door marked ‘Storage’ and ‘Living Area’.