ON THE FIRST DAY

Kevin Santorini sat in his old but still running car— one of the only good things he had in his possession while eating a sandwich he had just gotten and listening to the news on the radio.

He was still a struggling artist, and few things gave him joy except for his art, the car, his girlfriend Gina, and the house they co-owned after he had saved up for months on end to buy. It was quite shabby, but he liked it and was proud to say it belonged to him.

With an exhausted sigh he reached for the knob, just about to change the radio station when a new headline came in.

“Breaking News. The Institute for Health Research in Middlestown has announced the escape of a new virus called the Q-21 Zombie virus from one of its laboratories earlier this morning. Everyone is advised to stay indoors until the virus can be controlled.”

Laughing at the news, he took the final bite of his sandwich. “Sounds like the gamer's dream come true. Nothing real.” He said to himself, throwing the paper it had been wrapped in at a garbage can outside.

Around him, people were going about their daily businesses. No one seemed bothered by anything, or in panic. It only meant that the Institute was once again creating fiction, just like they had twice in the past month, first announcing the disappearance of a virus and later on, telling everybody that everything was under control, and that Middlestown, their city, was in safe hands.

He turned the key in his ignition and started to drive when the sound of a screaming woman drew his attention. All of a sudden, people began to run helter-skelter, all yelling, and he stopped his car with his head wrapped in confusion with all the wavy forms running past, in an attempt to not to hit anyone in the chaos that ensued.

Just then, someone came and jumped on the front of his car, and when he saw the face he cried out in terror, pressing his foot hard on his accelerator and driving the car forward at top speed.

The face was no normal, human face, but to him like the face of a dead man walking, his skin grey and rotting with brown bone exposed where the skin was falling away, and deep dark crevices sitting in his torso where the skin and bone did not reach.

He would have considered it a very real costume, a toy, a mannequin, and anything if that thing, that zombie was not punching on his windshield, extending the length of the cracks with each blow, alive with life and power.

Kevin swerved from side to side without a second thought and threw the man off, shocked to realise that the Breaking News concerning the zombie virus was referring to a real zombie virus.

“Gina,” he whispered to himself as he thought of her.

His girlfriend would be all alone.

He needed to reach her before the zombies did.

Speeding through the confusion and running people, made even more difficult for him with the broken windshield, he somehow managed to reach his street, where it looked as though the zombies had not yet made their entry yet. He drove his car into his garage and rushed into his house, locking the door behind him and shouting for his girlfriend.

“Gina?? Gina???”

He ran upstairs as fast as he could, relieved to hear her voice. She was speaking to someone, it seemed, until the sound went from her high pitched laughter to a sensual moan.

Cautiously, he kept walking on towards the sound, forgetting the zombies for a moment. The moans were louder now, and he could even hear smacking sounds.

The door was unlocked and he kicked it in, coming face to face with the sight of Gina bent over, and a man thrusting into her from behind.

“Gina?” He whispered, but the both of them heard him. She rolled away and covered herself with a pillow, while the man took another pillow which he covered his crotch with.

“Felix?”

Felix had been his best friend since childhood who had recently lost his house to a fire, and moved by sympathy, Kevin had taken him in and given him a room to stay in despite how shabby the house was for all three to live in, and Gina's insistence that Felix a bad person who did not deserve Kevin's friendship.

His rage at such betrayal burned deep in his chest, and without thinking he went to a drawer behind the door and pulled out a loaded gun as the offenders both cried out in terror, pleading with him not to shoot.

He cocked it at them, holding it in his hand.

“I take you in my house to keep you safe, and you sleep with my girlfriend under my roof?”

“Kevin, please drop the gun. It is not what you think?” Gina cried.

“I swear, my friend. It is not what you—”

Felix's speech was interrupted by the sound of their window breaking open, and a head poked in, looking like the dead face that had almost wreaked havoc on Kevin's windscreen, groaning loud as the three others in the room cried out in terror.

Without thinking, Kevin shot at it, bursting the head and splashing its blood all over. It disappeared only to be replaced by two more, shuffling and trying to get in through the window.

Felix and Gina rushed behind Kevin, who for the moment was too distracted to think about their naked forms and the betrayal he had just caught them indulging in. He aimed two more shots and killed the things — the zombies, but even more were coming in through the window.

They panicked as the sounds of breaking glass came from other rooms in the house. They were surrounded by the zombies, and there was barely any way to escape.

“Let us run into the attic. We will be safer there.” Gina suggested.

Three more had now slipped into the room, and Kevin, Gina, and Felix ran out, locking the door behind them. They ran to another part of the house, Kevin leading the way, when all of a sudden there was a zombie before them.

He shot once more with his gun, but he panicked and missed. Pulling the trigger two more times, the first shot got the zombie, killing it, and the other had no effect, as the bullets were finished.

“I have run out of bullets. Let us get to the attic and up to the roof.”

Thankfully, there were no zombies in the room that led up to the attic, and they were still climbing up the ladder that led to the attic when several zombies rushed into the room, hard on their trail.

Kevin pushed Gina up and climbed in himself, Felix following after him, and then they locked the trapdoor behind them. Outside, a helicopter was flying overhead, making a public announcement:

“Climb up to your roofs while you still can, so we can take you somewhere safe. Climb up, NOW!!!”

“All we need to do is to get to the roof.” Kevin instructed. “Felix you go first.”

Felix climbed up the ladder and went out into the sunshine.

“Gina, you next.” He said, pushing her up the ladder.

Behind them, the zombies were hitting against the trapdoor. She was just getting out when they broke it open.

Panicking, Kevin began to climb. But his palms were sweaty as they always were when he was stressed and he slipped a bit. Behind him, a zombie was screaming.

“Help me.” He cried, hearing the whir of the helicopter blades as it came closer from outside. He climbed up a few more steps and reached outside with his hand.

“Let us go.” Felix was yelling. “Don't wait for him. We do not have time to waste.”

Gina's head was above, looking at him with tears falling out of her eyes.

“Help me, Gina.” He cried out in fear, stretching his hand outside.

“Push him in so he can buy time for us.” Felix yelled again, coming closer. “The zombies want to have us, but it is better for one of us to go than for all three.”

“No,” Kevin shouted, but it was too late.

Felix took one side of the ladder, Gina took the other, and they both pushed it backwards, so that slowly, Kevin Santorini fell to the zombies.

The last thing he saw was the betraying faces of his friend and girlfriend as they looked at his, right before the swarming crowd of zombies around him blocked out all the light and covered him in darkness.