The Walking Dead: Lost Souls

The second we put a bullet in the head of one of those monsters... The moment we drove a hammer into one of their faces... Or cut a head off... We became what we are. We are surrounded by the dead. We're among them and when we finally give up, we become them! We're living on borrowed time here. Every minute of our life is a minute we steal from them! You see them out there. You know that when we die, we become them. You think we hide inside these walls to protect us from the walking dead? Don't you get it? 

Chapter One: Idle Hands

Two Months Ago- Zeus' Temple

Now- Lone Oak Mall

Two Months Ago

 
"...and here will be the key to your apartment, will that be all Mr. Wells?" 
"Yes it will, thank you" 
"Wonderful, enjoy your stay" 
Burgess Wells had just entered the Holiday Inn in America to stay there for a week or so. After the kind young receptionist handed him his room-key, Burgess grabbed his things and headed to the elevator. After entering the elevator, Burgess pressed the buttons to get to the 2nd floor.

While he was waiting to get to the top, Burgess reminisced on what brought him to America in the first place. He was a teacher of English Literature at London University, but in his spare time, Burgess was working on a new novel. The novel was set in the United States, so Burgess felt it was necessary to travel there himself, to get inspriation and just a general feel for the American culture. It would've been futile to write a book set in America, if he hardly knew much about it himself. Back home he left his 10 year old son, Oscar Wells to live with his ex-wife (Burgess and his wife were divorced), and his mother, father and brother carried on with the rest of their lives like normal. Burgess didn't take his son with him to America because he needed to be alone, and looking after his son (although he did love Oscar like any normal father) would've been hard whilst simultaneously writing a book. 
 
Anyway, the elevator stopped at the 2nd floor, and Burgess left to head towards Room 245. Burgess didn't carry much besides his laptop, mobile phone, clothes and journal to write down ideas, so he could get around somewhat easily. After walking several yards down the corridor, Burgess found his room. Afterwards, he stepped into Room 245 where he spent the rest of the night writing his book. 
 
Three days later

 
Burgess was enjoying his time in America so far. He had spent three days doing nothing but writing, eating light dinners and exploring the country around him. He got to know new people, like Lois the receptionist, and he also went shopping one day in the Lone Oak Mall, mainly for a gift for his son. He even went to the local casino Zeus' Temple one night. He luckly won some money on the Blackjack, starting with $100 and ending up with $155 dollars. However, Burgess also came across a sneaky con-man by the name of Clive Gardner, a Brit like himself, although less...trustworthy. They never talked much except when playing Blackjack, but still, Burgess never trusted Gardner. Nevertheless, Burgess had fun while it lasted. 
 
When Burgess was up late one night writing like normal, he heard a woman's scream, coming from downstairs. Burgess ran quickly to investigate what it was. When Burgess got downstairs, he couldn't see anything. 
"Hello?" he asked. "Lois, are you alright?"

Burgess could see no-one, although when he walked closer to the reception desk, he could see a puddle of blood. Burgess gulped as he further investigated. 
"Lois, it's me Burgess, are you oka--"

Burgess then gagged in his mouth and impulsively vomited on the floor next to him. What he saw, was the mutilated corpse of Lois. Her face was nearly unrecognisable with the damage done to it, so much so, that Burgess only found out it was her by chacking her name badge. Her arm and legs were also ripped apart, to the point where pieces of bone could be seen. I say "arm", because one of Lois' arms had been ripped from the torso. Burgess vomited again, for no normal man could act any differently at such a horrific sight. However, to make things worse...the murderer returned. 
Burgess turned to see what looked like a homeless man limp into view from the janitor's closet. His clothes were tattered with dirt and booze like most homeless people, and the man also had long, grey hair with a grey beard and a black baseball cap. However, what drew Burgess' attention was the blood stained hands and mouth. The man also had pieces of red meat in his teeth, and his eyes were hollow and blank. Burgess at first suspected he was on drugs, but even drug-addicted homeless people looked more normal than this. 

"Excuse me, are you alright?"

The two lumbering figures didn't respond as they bore their red, blood-stained teeth with a primal hunger for Burgess' flesh. 
"Dear god...HELP ME!!!"

As Burgess shouted, more guests from the Holiday Inn came to help. Two of them were a husband and wife, both in their 30s, and the other was an old but strong man, who had a stern look on his face. 

"Okay, what the F**K is going on here

The old man ran, and the couple looked on in awe. The husband of the couple stampeded towards the janitor and homeless murderers. 
"You monsters, I'll kill you!"

However the attempt was vain, as the homeless man scratched the husband across the face, and in this time of pain, lunged at him. The homeless man then bit deep into the husband's shoulder. 

"Howard

"Hi dad, it's me" the child on the other end being Oscar. 
Burgess tried to stay calm, in order to not scare his son. 
"Hey kiddo...how are you doing?"

At that point more screams were arising, as people in the same corridor as his apartment were sounding like they were being attacked. 

"Dad, what's that noise?"

"Why are you acting so wierd?"

"Err..." 
Now there were sounds of more of those...things running up the stairs. Burgess was almost soiling himself in fear, why were those people eating Lois' flesh? The more time he stood not answering his son, the more his son was getting afraid. 
"Dad, you're scaring me"

"It's alright Oscar, I'm fine...listen, you know I love you very much"

"Yeah?" said Oscar, coming somewhat close to tears. 
Then there were pounds at Burgess door. There were people outside wanting to get in. 

"Sir! We need help, there's these people outside trying to kill us!" 

"Yeah, for god's sake, let us in!"

"Dad, I'm getting scared"

Two months ago...

Now...

Eight Weeks Ago

Present Day... 

8 Weeks Earlier

Present Day

Selene Celest removed her uniform and tossed it into the wash. She had worked night shifts this week and it was starting to take a toll on her. She didn't have work untill eight so she figured she would crash till six. It was eight in the morning now that would give her ten hours of sleep and about two or so to spend with her husband Eric Celest and daughter Alice. Closing her eyes she was out instantly. Another night like any other, least that was what it seemed like.

"Mariah get up." The raven haired woman groaned "five more minutes." Eric laughed before shoving her off the bed. "Serious goldy locks get up." That was enough to get the job done. Selene got up and hit her husband in the shoulder before kissing him good morning. "First off how is it you keep saying it despite me telling you i have not nor will I ever be a damn blond." Eric smiled "yeah but it gets the job done. Speaking of jobs that is why your up, despite the fact you've only had about two hours of sleep. Chief is calling everyone in. City is tearing itself apart out there, news cant say anything same pandamonium is over there like everywhere else." Selene looked at him in confusion that seemed odd. "What about Alice shes home today?" She figured it out almost as soon as she asked. Alice was just as stuborn and good at talking her way into things as Selene was. "I told her she could ride along with you. She made a good point it's safer with us then alone or at someones house." She roled her eyes of course it was.

The three of them got ready in record speeds, for them. Roughly an hour after geting up they had piled into the car and droven off to the station. Turning in Chief Warheze a barel of a man who was all to nice for a guy whos last name reminded people of a slasher film greated the trio. He messed up Alice's hair as she huged him before speaking in his thick texan acent as he adressed the two officers. "We got everyone out on patrol except us. I'm going to ride along with Eric we allready got a call some ax wielding lunatic is acused of murder." selene and Eric looked to eachother bewildered. They both had heard and seen some heavy stuff sence they were on the field. That included selene and she was only on the field for about a month. Eric and Warheze hopped in one patrol car close by so Selene and Alice would have to take the one in the back end of the garage.

Once to the car Selene looked to her daughter and gave her a playfull shove. "I hate you, taging along all friendly like." She responded with a light kick to the shin playfully "yeah I hate you to." They laughed and took off in the car. Twenty three minutes later the two police cars arived at the house. Standing in the grass of a house normally kept clean by the looks of it but now a complete mess stood a man. A white tank top and boxer shorts sugested he had either A goten up late, B didn't have time to do anything, or C was just crazy. His shirt drenched in blood from an ax dripping in blood sugested C. Looking closer at the situation two corpses were seen on the ground. They looked pale and grotesque as if dead for far longer than a few minutes. Blood trails ran down there open jaws adding to the freakish look on their face. The milky eyes completing the horific sight. She wasn't sure if it was the ax wielder or the dead people that looked more insane. She looked over to Alice about to give her orders.

"Yes Selene Mother Oficer Celist Queen of Bosshood. I stay here you go ax that dude a question." Selene shook her head "that joke is so bad." The two laughed a bit "yep but you laughed." That said Selene got out of the car to join the others they stood at a distance guns drawn just incase, "Sir we need you to drop the weapon" Warheze yelled at the man. "They ate her, ate her from the inside, nomy nomy on the tummy." Selene raised an eye brow, didn't know if that was a rude provocative remark, serious statment, or if tye guy had just lost all sence of rationality. "Could you repeat that?" She asked in confusion. "Canibals, f--king canibals they ate her. Bite wounds untill her arm falls. Blood oh god the blood." Eric desiding he had to be insane raised his gun. "We said drop the weapon! Please dont make me use force, put it down and put your hands on your head." The blood drenched man looked onward in terror.

Selene looked behind her to see a sick looking pair of women tackle a man and started biting him. Blood gushed out onto the ground in crimson arcs without any sence of ending. "Holy sh!t this can not be happening." She quickly turned around and stepped forward trying to take charge of the moment, the other two following. "SIr I axed, I mean asked you to drop the weapon. Put it down NOW!" He shook his head defiantly "no, no, NO! I wont be a snack I won't I'm not meals on legs damn it. There cultists or something yeah spawn of the devil and your with them." He raised the ax and ran towards Eric. The bullet hit him in the neck blood spilling out as his jugular vain was ruptured. His momentum carried him forward though in his dying moment. The ax coming down in a strong murderous arc.

The ax fell cleaving into Eric's chest driving into his shoulder and working its way down. It was about through half the rib cage when it stopped. Blood gushed from the wound oozing from the split bones and organs. Warheze and Selene each placed anohter round in the chest of the ax wielder, his heart shut down by the projectiles ripping through it. Body dropping to the ground Selene ran to her fading husband. The soft cries of Alice could be faintly heard from the car. Selene's hands clammered around the bleeding wound trying to stop the blood flow. Her hands covered in blood she tossed her coat over it and pressed down as she sat by him. "Don't...just don't god d-mn it." Her free hand rested on his cheek. THe two of them crying not wanting to let go. Eric would of made a final remark but could do no more than gasp for air. Warheze walked up to her "the ambulance is on it's way...Sadly though we both know hes gone." He looked down at her in remorse hand resting on her shoulder. In retaliation from the pain of it all she pushed his hand aside and slapped him. "Don't say that! F--k Eric come on, damn it I said come on." She returned to her husband desperatly hoping he would hold on. Her fist pounded into the ground as she watched Eric stop breathing. Her knuckles bled from the amount of times she hit the concrete.

"Selene I promise when this all blows over the station will pay for his burial. We need to go, Alice needs you as dose the city in general. I know...I know it's hard but we need to go." He hugged her tightly giving her someone to lean on as she tried to take it all in. Using her hand to wipe away the tears she looked up to him as she got to her feet. "You're right, we need to go." Selene got into the car Alice and Selene both trying to be strong for the other. Warheze spoke into the comm unit "rioting is accuring at the station. We're going to head there try and settle that before returning to the streets." The mother and child followed "you said ax didn't you." Alice made the remark trying to lighten the mood. Selene sniffled and returned the inocent smile "well he said noms at one point it was a bit odd already." It got a laugh for a second, then the mood returned to its grim state.

The station was in an apsolute state of anarchy, fires waged in the streets and vehicles wer flipped over. The streets were spotted with corpses. Bodies devoured and gruesome or the diseased looking corpses of the canibals that were riddled with bullets. The stench of decay filled the air. Selene offered her hand to Alice as the treo entered the building. The streets were ghostly in there chaos no real chaos runing about just the aftermath. The station was a whole other story however, the thick walls and doors blocked alot of the noice from outside. Entering the building though madness was abound. Gun fire barked as citizens and police emptied round after round into the canibals. Screams filled the building and splatters of blood marked various deaths. Affter sevral minutes of conflict the conclussion was that this was pointless. Alice on a shelf to keep away from the canibals knocked a light onto the head of one of the dead look a likes. The body slumped to the ground and Selene put a bullet in the head. "Selene we need to move we're just going to end up dead, where the hell is the military. I know in movies they get the short end of the stick for plot but this is total fubar." Selene fired again and brushed a lock of black hair from her face. "I have to agree with that, normally I suport the term retreat hell but this is more like a grinder than fight and we don't have the supplies." The texan fired a shotgun at one of the rioters his feat shot out from underneath in a shower of blood, the human used his hands to crawl forward. "Mom how did we get it into a zombie apocalypse?" Alice said it, Selene didn't want to believe it, in the end though she couldn't argue with the facts. "We can worry about that first lets get out of here.

They reached the garage and sure enough the walkers were close behind. As the two remaining family members exited the door Warheze slammed it shut. Locks could be heard followed by a shot gun blast. Selene pounded on the door "sarge what in the name of your bloody lone state do you think you're doing." Another blast echoed through the garage "somebody has to live in this sh!t storm, better you then me." A string of curse words were wispered at an inaudible tone before she went back to yelling at her senior officer. "Fine, but Tex you better die fighting because if I find out other wise I'll make this hell and the actual hell seem like candy land." His booming voice made his laugh loud and clear as the two went for the last police car. The shot gun stopped and it was clear from the softer barks Warheze was down to his pistol. As the two grabbed the handle and started to climb into the car a scream was heard. THe two looked to eachother gritting there teeth as they heard the loud agonizing scream. Starting the ignition Selene drove to the mall. It could offer two three months of safety which was the best they could hope for. The mall would also have enough provisions to be able to get by come time to leave and find another location.

The sun was setting as they entered the large parking lot of the mall. A car on fire pulled out in front of them as they turned. Caught off guard the blazing car colided with the police vehicle. The burning car hit the light post toppling it and killing any individual unfortunant enough to be in the vehicle. Or maybe they were the fortunant ones Selene thought in the back of the mind. The engine was totaled Selene looked to her duaghter trying to be strong for her. "Looks like we have to make a run for it. Can see some others in the distance, those doors are the destination, beat me you get whatever toy you want, I win I get any CD I want." Alice mimiced the strong persona Selene attempted to put forward "deal." The two of them did the same motion of brushing aside hair as they got out of the vehicle and made a run for the entrance. They were close entering the handycap zone close. A car leaking oil was right by them when the two tripped not noticing the curb infront of them. Both hit the ground with a fresh set of bruises as they hit the assphalt.

The walkers cacked in dry blood and shambling like a crippled drung had a tenacity of geting close despite their speed. Climbing onto the near by car Selene droped to one knee and began to take aim. Alice was close to the hood knowing she needed to be if she didn't want to get bit. Four shots three of the hoard dropped. More continued however two shots and a successful pair of kills. One was missing though from the first group she shot at. A ear piercing scream was heard, Selene's heart started to race. She turned and reacted on instinct. Her boot conected with the head of the walker, his jaw snapping and dripping blood onto Alice's pant leg, the young girl squeeled in pain. The horrific blood drooling undead started shuffling to his feat. Another shot to the knee and the creature fell again. His head hit the curb with a wet thud. Selene walked over and began to stomp. One might call it a curbstomp she just unleashed all the pumped up anger that head built up. Blow after blow she stomped. Bone splintered and blood and brain matter splashed outwards as she refused to relinquish her assault.

Alice groaned and Selene ran to her side dropping beside her. "I'm sorry mom I...I couldn't hold him off." Her voice was shakey knowing well enough what was now destined to transpire. She pulled up the sleve of her sweater her sleave coated in blood that had begun to seep through the fabric. She winced as the wound was exposed, her look on her face went to prove the sevarity of the wound. Selene held her tightly closing her eyes wishing this wasn't happening. Alice tilted Selene's haid to look at her tears running down her cheeks. "I'm sorry I tried I really did." Selene shook her head and then moved her hand to brush aside her duaghter's hair so she could look into her emerald eyes. The eyes she got from her father, there heads rested on eachother as the two of them looked at the pistol. Two shells remained, they put the clip back in the gun Selene held it as Alice cocked it. Alice turned it over putting it in her moms hands. "I wish I could be there with you, do love you..." The words came out with tears. Knowing what she had to do Selene choked back the tears and placed the pistol to the girl's temple. Her eight year old daughter who was just as strong willed as her and the pride and joy of Selene's life. She huged her child tight not wanting to let go. Her head was just out of the bullets trajectory as it rested on the eight year old's shoulder. "I love you" she remarked as she pulled the trigger. The crows squacked and took to the skies as the bullet rang out all the love and inocence in Selene's life claimed in a single day.

Eight Weeks Later

Selene woke up screaming, her tent was small she let the others have the nicer tents. Her make shift room there was enough space for her guns, a few blades she took from the knife shop and her random provisions. Aside from that all she had was a sleeping bag there was little room for anything else. Wallcroft one of the few survivors came into the tent and hugged her brushing aside her raven hair. Was the first time they made physical contact. Selene had told the camp her tale and for awhile they were ok with it. After eight weeks of screaming though from the haunting nightmares people were getting restless, they didn't want to berate her but there anoyance was clear. Jacob spoke "Selene I know it's rough but you have got to try and pull through and get a hold of your demons." Selene manuvered around him and exited the tent. He was sweet alot of the people at the camp were she didn't want more than friendship though.

Her hand went to her necklace a golden locket that partially looked like it was bronze in color. The blood was to blame, it was a locket her daughter had. Selene kept the locket in her pocket. In place of the locket Selene had put the bullet on the chain. The bullet was the last of the clip that had killed Alice, the ashes in the seat of the car near by in the front of the mall those belonged to the child. Selene's fingers fiddled with the bullet as she remembered the burial she gave her child. The oil leaking car was lit on fire following the death of Alice this prevented the chance of her remains being a snack. Selene walked onto the roof it being the nicest place in her book in the survivors make shift home.

It was 8:00 in the morning, when Burgess woke up, weeping in depression and grief. He had been told by Trace Reeves (another survivor) to "Toughen up, princess". Burgess obviously knew that Reeves didn't have children, otherwise he would feel the same, hope-destroying grief as him. 
30 minutes later, after getting some more sleep, Burgess finally woke up. He could hear the sizzling of bacon on a grill and the sweet smell of burning meat. Thankfully for Burgess, he could get his hopes back up after one of Jonathan Rodriguez' delicious breakfasts. Burgess then decided to get up from the sofa he had moved into his tent (his tent was quite big) and headed towards the food court, where he hoped Mr. Rodriguez would be making breakfast. 
As he got up, Burgess looked around, to see the other survivors, but from the looks of it, they seemed to either be still asleep or on the rooftop. Burgess then decided to see Mr. Rodriguez. 
"Morning Jonathan, what's on the menu today?" asked Burgess, trying to make himself forget about Oscar and stay focused. If he remained sad and lonely, he would end being insane with grief.

However, when Burgess got to the food court, no-one was there, but nonetheless he decided to steal some bacon, grab a small baguette and call it breakfast. Burgess then also went and took a bottle of orange juice and headed to the rooftop.

When he got there, he sat down, and took a big bite into the bacon baguette. The taste was delicious, although Burgess soon began to wonder how long before all this delicious bacon was gone. He and the other survivors had been here two months after all, the food had to eventually run out. Burgess then placed the bacon bagutte on a plate on the table next to him, and then he began to write on some pieces of paper, in order to carry on with the novel he was working on. 
The novel was a horror story about zombies (or Walkers as the others called them), although Burgess had ironically started the novel before the outbreak had begun. This book was also of a more alien form of horror, with it being about an alien being who came to Earth in order to ressurect the dead, to form an army to enslave humanity. This alien being had perform this feat with various other alien races previously, but now it was Earth's turn to fall under the whim of Nekros (the alien in the novel). The book was titled Nekros after the titular villain, and now that a real zombie outbreak had begun, Burgess wondered if perhaps his imagination had caused this outbreak. 
Nevertheless, Burgess kept writing. He then spent around 30 to 40 minutes of nothing but writing, that was until he was disturbed by one of the survivors. Burgess quickly turned to find none other than Trace Reeves nearby. Ever since the whole "Toughen up, princess" scenario, Burgess had something of a grudge against him. Although it wasn't healthy for fellow survivors to hate one another when they forced to live together, but Burgess found Reeves' bravado, macho attitude very annoying. But, Burgess stayed calm, he needed to save his energy for when (and if) anything out of the ordinary took place, and falling out with Reeves would just make things worse. 
After a short pause, Burgess took a swig of Tropicana orange juice, and then set back to writing his novel. After all...what else could he do?

Dawn came slowly, pink light seeping over the horizon to stain the sky a wash of colours. Jack rubbed at his eyes, trying to get the grainy feeling out of them but only succeeding at forcing it deeper. He was sitting in a folding lawn chair next to a fountain in the food court. Although the pump was off, the water inside was far too chlorinated to be of any use to anyone and so it had been left untouched despite the increasingly bleak supply situation. Now Jack was sitting next to it with a rod in his hand, letting the tackle float dejectedly in the three inches of brackish sludge left. He had been at it all night.

Jack was coming out of the other side of middle age, his thin face speckled with the beginnings of a salt and pepper beard. It gave him a haunted, hungry look that belied his otherwise nondescript appearance. Idly, he scratched at his chest where he'd been shot many years ago, wondering what the new day would bring.

The other survivors came awake slowly, moving around tending to their duty's whether they be in patrolling or cooking or some personal errand. With the situation as it was, the chain of command was rather informal and only Kingsley Kaine could order anyone around with any degree of authority. Jack had the feeling that he was as lost as the rest of them, but did a better job of hiding it. Whatever the truth, he was happy that someone had taken charge.

He was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of running feet. As the old drifter turned in his seat half a dozen children came into view, all of them carrying plates of food. In a few moments they surrounded him, sitting cross-legged and breathless in a rough semi circle. The eldest child stepped forward and presented him with a plate of food reverently. Jack smiled warmly and took the plate. He wasn’t hungry but the giving of food was part of the ritual which had developed over the long months of incarceration in the the locked down mall.

“I suppose you will be wanting a story then?”

The crowd nodded, eyes big in their heads and faces split with grins. The next words were also part of the ritual and they knew them off by heart, but it wouldn’t be the same if he didn’t say them.

“Fine. I'll tell you a story. A story of what is, what was and what can never be...”

And he did. Jack had lived a long, full life and he had seen many things. He told them of an Emperor of a great land to the East, who had fought many battles and won them all. But finally in his old age, he had grown tired of fighting. So to protect his people he had built a great wall, miles high, that stretched around his entire kingdom. Upon his death, for this king lived many years ago, his people had decided that they didn’t need money, or governments. So they lived in harmony with each other and were defended from all those who would wish them harm by the wall that their king had built. The implication was there and a fair few of the older children seemed to get it, that not even the Walkers could penetrate such a kingdom. Finally, when he was done he allowed the children to ask questions. But only one little girl put her hand up.

“Why are you fishing in a fountain, you'll never catch anything?”

Jack smiled at that.

“I'm not fishing to catch something. I'm fishing because it brings me a feeling of peace and because nobody will ever fish here again. If we let our situation effect who we are then the Walkers win and we become like them. If you will not do what you love out of fear, then you are already dead.”

That seemed to please the children and then began to disperse. Going to help their parents or play in the myriad of shops left abandoned. Jack felt an urge to do the same. Standing, he stretched and looked around for anyone who needed a hand.

Daniel half-opened an eye lazily as the barking of dogs alerted him that someone else had come out onto the roof. The dogs instantly pestered the newcomer, having become revitalised and energetic at the sight of someone to possibly play with. Daniel grinned smugly as he baked in the sun. Company was always comforting in the repetitive existence that the walkers had seemed to force upon the survivors. Stifling a yawn, Daniel slowly lifted himself so he sat upright and turned his head towards the newcomer. Selene let the door slowly close behind her as she stood and stared out at the decaying horizon, occasionally glancing down to pat the dogs that pleaded at her feet for attention. 
 
"Morning," Daniel smiled at, his head just above the miniature canopy of bushes in pots. Selene often seemed stressed in the morning, she screamed in her sleep, though because Daniel was such a deep sleeper he'd only noticed it the nights he'd stayed up long enough, "You skip breakfast too? Want a carrot? They're finally ready."  
 
Selene gave the young man a wave and a somewhat awkward smile, possibly not having expected him to be up here, "I'm good thanks Dan, you on watch?" 
 
"Mhmm," Daniel replied as he lied back down, "Nightmares again? You look a bit crap." 
 
"Thanks for putting it bluntly." 
 
Daniel let out a "meh" as his eyes began to flutter closed once more, only for another person to come out onto the roof and cause the dogs to go into an uproar again. Burgess, 'the other British guy' stepped through the door with a bacon baguette on a plate, a bottle of juice and a stack of paper that was his 'novel in progress'. Burgess gave them a nod and headed for one of the chairs where he began scrawling notes inbetween mouthfuls of bacon. To Daniel it felt a lot like he was back on a camp, minus a lot of sexually promiscuous and experimental teenagers. There were the occasional activities, the occasional parties and every now and then camp fever struck him hard. Tilting his head he could still see the pole with black smudges laying on the ground from the night he'd gotten so bored he'd decided to perform a naked fire-twirling show for his undead audience, and the few survivors that had walked in on him. 
 
Out of sheer boredom he'd done many things some might consider stupid or childish in his time in the mall: Ridden a widescreen T.V. down the escalators, bathed in the fountain, smashed a hole through a closet that he then placed infront of the dollar store which he'd filled with bits of paper that he'd spent hours cutting up and claimed it was snow, all so that he could leap through the closet with a toy sword and shield screaming 'To Narnia!'. Still such activities passed the time and for the time they were fun, there was really only one thing he'd done that he knew was stupid and somewhat regretted. He didn't like Kingsley very much, what gave him the right to boss everyone around when there were at least police present, actual authority figures, not like Dan would care to listen to them either though. Dan followed orders but it didn't mean he liked it, he worried about the sanity of a man who watched family members die before him and worried about decisions being made, the direction this new society would go in. What he regretted was letting Kingsley know this. Having gotten far too drunk one night Dan had let Kingsley know a small list of the things he didn't like about him, which had left him in some trouble. 
 
Sighing, Daniel sat back up and pulled out his packet of cigarettes. Lighting one up he got to his feet and made his way towards Selene, leaning against the wall next to her, "I used to have nightmares about zombies when I was a little kid, think my favourite one was one where well, everyone was being eaten all around me, friends family, eventually I was too, then I woke up, went downstairs, made myself a bowl of brains, limped to school, my rotting arm dropping off along the way, class we were taught about human anatomy." Taking a drag from his cigarette, Daniel blew a ring with the smoke and watched it widen until it faded away. "I find it kinda funny looking back at that dream, how few differences there were between it and my reality during my childhood, feels like only recently I've been able to do what I always wanted to do, well, as a kid." 
 
Letting himself slide down the wall so he was sitting at its base, legs outstretched before him, Daniel took another drag from his cigarette and looked up at Selene as a cat hopped onto his lap and purred loudly, "I take it you still don't want to talk about your nightmare?"  Patting Tawney Kittanya, as the kitten had been dubbed, Daniel poked his head around the corner to see Trace had also come out onto the roof. Burgess was still writing though one of the cats circled about under his chair and had begun meowing at him, "Burgess! Chairman Meow wants a role in that thing!" Staring back up at Selene, Daniel smiled, "You know, you haven't really told me much about what your life was like before all this, I know you were a cop too, I just wonder why you're not in charge." 

Trace saw that Burgess was writing. He let out something halfway between a snort and a derisive laugh. What're we gonna do? Read the Walkers to death? Two other survivors, Dan and Selene were nearby. Trace took a mouthful of bitter coffee and sat down by Burgess. He could understand why Burgess was sad. He looked over to the two cops as one called over about the cat under Burgess' chair wanting a role in the book, then reached inside his jacket. Unzipping the small pocket, he retrieved the folded photo. Unfolding it, he leaned closer to Burgess. In the photo were three smiling people. A happier time. With his other hand, Trace pointed at the photo. In the middle was himself. "Ya see? That's me." To the right, "That's my brother Drake." He pointed at the woman to his left in the photo, displaying a dazzling smile that had always taken his breath away. "That's...that's Dana. She is-was-my wife." He folded the photo and put it back inside his jacket, firmly closing the pocket. "When the plague hit, I lost em both. I watched my brother changed into a walker in front of my eyes. You can't imagine what that can do to a man." He ran a hand through his blonde hair, and scowled. "Just makes me tougher, I guess."

Selene walked onto the balchony to be greated by the sevral dogs. They were a comfort to have around she had made a habit of coming up here mostly to be around them. For a dog things were simplistic they didn't much care that the world had gone to hell. The fact that a few stories below there were hundreds if not thousands of there once best friends who would now try and devour them. While many dogs probably had died at the side of their master or been eaten by them many more of the animals got away. Now they were here with cats and a variety of other pets geting by. Selene actully envied them, so simplistic and plain were their lives. Meanwhile she was left with the grim reality of what was. Anyone the survivors knew was likely dead or worse, any chance of prolonged survival was slim at best. And while she would never say it especially with someone like Burgess around, she really doubeted they would get as far as the outskirts of the city. They were living on borrowed time, and that time was fading each day they tried to ration food from a mall. Fast food if not canned was probably only going to last a month or so then what?

Ocassionally peting one of the dogs on the head as she looked out to the ruinous landscape she continued to think. She had notticed the others and yet hadn't at the same time her mind somewhere else. "Morning" it was Dan who cut her train of thought. She liked Daniel reminded her of the days put behind her. He found ways to keep himself entertained. While childish sometimes she couldn't deny she liked to occasionally take part in them. It was a brief moment to reminiss in the times with Alice. A chance to remember something outside of the death and murder of the day the earth died. "You skip breakfast to? Want a carrot? They're finally ready." Before answering she did her best to come off non-psycholoogically traumatised ex-police officer and mother as possible. A smile the kind you get from a teenager who hates their picture being taken was the best she could muster. She also waved with her trade mark rock on sign. alot of the shirts with the devil horns, or dedicated to rock bands she split with Brook. Obsessivly loud music through headphones had been a regular thing for Selene, helped keep the thoughts of screams out of her head. "No thanks, i'm good Dan. You on watch?"

"Mhm, nightmares again? You look a bit crap" the other survivor remarked laying back down. She got a bit of a laugh out of the comment. He was probably right, this was far from paradise alot of them could likely use a real shower. She wondered if maybe Brook would be willing to help with some of that. The teen was far from the perfect citizen in a past life maybe some of that had rubbed off into a usefull talent. "Thanks for puting it bluntly" she remarked. Dan lit a cigaret and moved leaning against the wall with her. Something she secretly wished people would stop doing. She had come to the conclussion to avoid Wallcroft after his little kind moment. Did nobody catch on? Her last loving embrace with anyone was with Alice before taking her life. She didn't want to sit side by side with anyone. ""I used to have nightmares about zombies when I was a little kid, think my favourite one was one where well, everyone was being eaten all around me, friends family, eventually I was too, then I woke up, went downstairs, made myself a bowl of brains, limped to school, my rotting arm dropping off along the way, class we were taught about human anatomy.I find it kinda funny looking back at that dream, how few differences there were between it and my reality during my childhood, feels like only recently I've been able to do what I always wanted to do, well, as a kid."

Leting himself slide down the wall and take a seat he continued, Selene looked down at him but remained leaning against the wall arms folded."I take it you still don't want to talk about your nightmare?" He remarked petting Kittanya as the door opened Dani looked around and responded with a greeting before turning back to her "Burgess! Chairman Meow wants a role in that thing! "You know, you haven't really told me much about what your life was like before all this, I know you were a cop too, I just wonder why you're not in charge." She could faintly hear Trace talking to Burgess in the background. Sliding down the wall in similar fashion to Dan she hooked up the miniture speeker to her ipod. A set of songs such as 'these are people who died' by Jim Caroll and 'Guess who batman' began to play. A playlist that consisted of songs her now dead family loved, as well as songs that just helped lighten the mood turning on as she prepared to reply. SHe paused to collect her thoughts before starting.

Resting her head on the wall and looking to the skies, the one sight not looking decaying or dead she began to speak. "You know I could make you a bowl of brains for a practical joke. Alice and I used to make it for holloween parties. Great dish of jello wont lie. Kid could be a damn good zombie" she remarked hanging her head thinking of the kid. "I got no issue with talking about the nightmare it's the memories haunting me that make it so f-cked up. It's usually scattered about but ends the same. Husband get's the ax blood washing over my hands. The Sergeant geting devoured. I only heard it and so the mind fills the blanks. What I see is like a horror film. The guns bark and those snarling creatures die again and again. The faces though each time one drops resembles that of the person in the prior life. All that sorrow and pain written on there mutalated face as they die again. As if they were denied a chance to move on and the gore from headshots only makes the imagry worse. Then as ammo depleats he has nothing and the gnawing maws dig in. No make up or prostetics what is seen is true canibalism. It's like animal planet recording an eating lion except there is screams of agony and no circle of life bull sh!t." She paused scratching the cat behind the ear before continuing.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, behind the ravenous hair that draped infront of her saphire blue eyes. "It's always one of the two scenarioes both constantly vivid. The fictional nightmare after all the sequences of death a mix between memory and imagination is me with Alice just outside the mall. I get bit as the last one dies and I turn, Alice is the single person left and I go for her throat. I can see what I'm doing and wan't to stop. It can't be haulted though and soon enough I can hear her scream as I feel my teeth sinking in. Then we fade to black and I wake up imagination still picturing her skin in my mouth imagination recreating the taste of blood in my mouth, blood that I obviously invision is my little girls." She paused a second before continuing "the second is less dramatic but worse. It's just a video of the past in all the jacked up glory. The ever strong memory of having to do what no parent should. The gun clicks and a splash of brain matter strikes the asphalt. The only thing diffrent is how vivid it is, mind makes it to be like the perfect amount of gore in a horror film. You know where it's not so campy as if the head just fell apart but brutal enough to come off as a heitend state of realism." She moved to the ledge of the roof siting on the wall looking out to the parking lot.

The time taken to move gave Dani a chance to make a comment before she began talking again. "See that truck out there, charred black from a fire and looks about a five yards away from one of the entrances. That was mine, Alice got her burial in the front seat. Promise me something, should I die you make damn sure they go cremation rout. Dont put me under the earth with the walkers. As for my life before this that and my current state is exactly why I am not in charge. As a kid I was always the rebelious one. Did good in school just also broke the school and parental rules. Sneek out to see concerts wear clothing that had rude a$$ coments and revealed skin so on and so forth. Spent all that time wanting to be a cop as well. Way I saw it the society based rules were made for a reason but thats not to say I can't live my own damn life as I see fit. Fast forward and were graduating highschool. Current boy friend is this goofy kid who will be going to the academy with me. He spent all his time training just to be a cop. We married shortly after he graduated I stayed back for a little longer. My goal in the academy was to learn it all. Didn't want to be swat or a detective but rather be all of it, we can see how great that does us now huh? Anywho about a month ago I was on the force finally living the dream then people started waking the dead. Think I saw my uncle with a missing arm on my way here."

She looked down at the various walkers below. "So you have the good cop with a rather useless skill set. She's not someone with seniority so that will piss some people off for sure. Finally it ends with the knowledge that she is probablly ten degrees south of crazy right about now. She screams in her sleep only thing that tends to shut her up is loud music and everybody think's she might comit suicide. Yeah Dani lets put leadership in her hands." She smiled making light of the grim truth. "You got an issue with it why don't you take charge? Surely you got the know how right?" She pointed a finger down at a walker and made pretend gun noise. "Fact is we have no issue of comand, no diplomatic set up. I wanted us to be known as the Survivors Harboring Idiotic Trouble clan. That's right are abreviation would consist of the leters s i t and h and we would be lead by Donald Trump who would tell the corpses he shot "you'r fired" but obviously that didn't happen. The whole leader thing is a coping method. It's like my music or Burgess writing his novel or you'r garden for Bugs Bunny. Something to kill off the idea that where in a world that might as well be labeld World of the Dead."

Burgess sat writing his novel in progress "Nekros". Burgess was so far getting immersed in his story, and he felt that seeing as his novel was about the walking dead, he could use his real-life experiences to give his story more life. At that point, he heard Daniel shouting to him. 
"Burgess! Chairman Meow wants a role in that thing!"

Burgess looked down below to see a cat, strolling about under his chair. Burgess laughed and gave the cat a piece of bacon to chew on, and the cat did so with great joy. 
So far, Burgess had completed 3 chapters, and he was just starting the 4th, until Trace Reeves arrived to talk. Trace sat down, knowing Burgess had something of a grudge against him, for taking Burgess' grief for granted. However, it appeared Trace was coming to apologise or open up to Burgess in some form, when he took out his folded photo of his family. 
"Ya see? That's me." said Trace, "That's my brother Drake." Trace pointed to the right to indicate his brother on the photo. 
Trace then pointed a woman in the picture 
"That's...that's Dana. She is-was-my wife." 
Burgess, seemed to undertsand what Trace was trying to say, that he also had lost family in the crisis, and Burgess finally forgave Trace, however he continued. 
"When the plague hit, I lost em both. I watched my brother changed into a walker in front of my eyes. You can't imagine what that can do to a man." 
Trace then ran a hand through his blonde hair, and scowled. "Just makes me tougher, I guess." 
Burgess, after finishing his bacon baguette, placed the plate on the table beside him, alongside his pen and paper. He then looked at Trace. 
"I'm...sorry for your loss". 
Burgess then also took out his only photo he had of his son, Oscar. The photo was so far the only thing keeping Burgess moving in life. In the picture, Oscar and Burgess were at Legoland in Windsor, near London where they lived. Oscar was drenched in water after having come off the Log Flume ride. Burgess was equally drenched in the photo also. 
"This is my son, Oscar" said Burgess, as he handed the photo to Trace. "It's me and him at Legoland, it was the last time I saw him...before coming here. Then all this S**T has to happen". 
Burgess was somewhat close to tears, as he was a more fragile figure than most of the gun-toting survivors who had experience in hunting or killing the undead. However, Burgess held himself together. 
"You see, me and my wife divorced last year, so seeing my son had been less frequent. And now I'm here...I don't even know if I'll see him, or anyone in my family again. Hell, I don't even know if this, VIRUS, has even spread overseas. Not only may I never see my son again, but he may already be dead". 
Burgess then took the photo back from Trace, and subsequently gave Trace's photo back to him. 
"I'm guessing you did this to apologise to me" said Burgess to Trace, getting up from his chair as he did so. "Well, I forgive you". 
Burgess then took his pen, paper and bottle of orange juice that he was still drinking, and left, to go downstairs into the actual mall. Hopefully, someone would give him something to do, or perhaps there was something interesting he could find.

The Present