The Outbreak

by John Birkritt
4th January 2023

December 2022 20:04

A man called Sam in his late thirties was wearing dark blue pants matching a white buttoned up t-shirt hiding behind a black jacket. He has a black, bushy beard and short black hair, he was walking down a street on his way home, he had just finished work he was happy and jolly everything was going well.

He walked pass a newly made Jewellery shop and looked inside the above standard clean window to see a man wearing a hat and dirty clothes making it unable to see his face was attacking a staff worker, without thinking twice he entered the shop and pulled the people off of each other before the man in dirty clothing rushed the staff worker pushing him onto the wooden floor trying to get closer before he could get away the homeless looking man had taken a chunk out of him and the now bloody floor as the staff worker bled out onto it.

The man realised that the attacker wasn't normal it had rotting skin and its eyes were... empty. He was very strong and heavy, Sam tried to push him off, but it didn't work the thing was too strong Sam tried to punch him after but it's like he didn't feel it at all, so he tried to grab something to use as a weapon and he found a hammer he could just barely grab onto it and pull it towards him before bashing his head finally making him fall off of him.

He had only just got him off when the staff member had risen Sam not thinking much about it tried to alert the worker to help him however, he noticed that his skin was starting to peel off almost identical to the thing slowly rising from the floor. Sam could only just deal with one of them things and now there were two. Sam grabbed the hammer and turned to the staff member and BAMBAMBAM. The thing was now on the floor dead but Sam hadn't realised other one as it grabbed and pinned Sam against the wall.

Sam had dropped the hammer onto the ground when he got grabbed, he tried to push it off of him having his hand on its face when it suddenly it stopped and fell to the floor with a cleaver in the back off its head. A woman with pink long hair, she was wearing dark green pants with black shoes and a white crop top. Behind her was a boy that looked around eight he was wearing a hockey helmet and a hockey stick he also had a green pyjama shirt and matching pyjama pants.

There was a little girl around five, she had long blonde hair and was wearing a purple dress and long purple socks with flowers on them. She was holding a teddy bear with a bunny hat. They all looked at Sam, the mother of the children grabbing the cleaver before raising the weapon she looked like she was about to attack. Sam said "Hey, Hey! What are you doing?!"

The mother looked surprise at his voice saying shaking, "The dead can't speak?" "Isn't that obvious?" said Sam confused "So, you're not one of those things" The mother looked at the two dead victims "No I'm not, do you know what's going on?" The mother looked at Sam in the eye's tears filling up "yeah... one of those creeps. or-or ghouls or whatever the hell they are and was invading our home and my husband tried to protect us, he didn't make it out."

December 2022 17:52 - 3 Hours ago

The mother whose name was Olivia woke up to her husband Liam wearing unbuttoned white t-shirt and beige trousers and his mostly broken shoes nudging her. Half-awake she spoke mid yawn "What-t." The husbands eye kept moving from his wife to the door. "Get up, I'm going to get the kids we need to leave." She immediately knew the situation was urgent.

"Oh-okay" she sprung from her bed and walked momentarily towards the wardrobe to get ready to leave when her husband quickly said, "before I go take this" he said handing her a hockey stick before saying "just if you need it." She kept searching the modern wardrobe for her clothes as she was wearing her pink fluffy pyjamas. She found her clothes and rushed to get dressed. Just as she finished getting her shoes on, she heard a loud scream that wouldn't stop.

The mother ran into the hallway that had wallpaper with stripes on the wall she looked into her two children's room that were both stood frozen with shock as they watched their father being eaten Infront of them as he had sacrificed himself for the safety of his precious children.  They were called Emma and Noah. They shared a room; Emma always had an interest in animals, always begged to let her have a pet rabbit but to no avail. Noah loved sports and would always watch the latest match or competition every chance available.

The dad could only scream as he was unable to move as the mother although filled with shock pulled the children away as the kids added to their father's screams. The mother could barely pull her children into her bedroom as they struggled to escape their mother's grasp, but it was already too late for their father. Once the children had finished with the attempt to run and their tears ran out, they all waited as they knew they wouldn't be able to escape as the horde of monsters roamed their home.

December 2022 19:56 - 1 hour ago

They sat waiting, they hadn't heard a noise in a while but were scared of risking their lives. Only when Noah's stomach started to rumble the mother who was curved into a ball next to her bed looked up at her two children. Without saying a word, the mother stood up and walked to the door placing her ear to it. She couldn't hear anything, she hesitated before reached towards the handle before a hand touched her arm, it was Noah. "Please don't, I-I'm scared." Once the words left his mouth, he stared at the floor ashamed of him feeling these emotions as his now dead father tried to teach him otherwise.

The mother took a deep sigh as she turned to him, as she noticed her daughter stood behind him in agreement, she bent down as her son was half the size of her and said "It's okay to be scared to feel this way, I know Liam I mean your dad always tried to push you to be strong, at a time like now anybody would be scared. But we can't stay here forever we need to go". Noah looked up from his gaze, a single tear dropped from his face.

"Hey what do we do when we are scared"? She said waiting for an answer, but the answer didn't come. Knowing he didn't know what to say she said "we... breath in, hold it in, and let it out". "That sounds stupid" "hey you haven't tried it yet". The little boy did as he was told before saying "still stupid" "but it worked"? "Yeah, but still" before he could finish speaking the mother said, "Still stupid"? "Yeah". 

The mother walked back to place she previously sat and picked up the hockey stick Liam had given before he left to get the kids. She picked it up and passed it to Noah before looking on top of the cupboard and saw the hockey helmet Liam had as a kid and she gave it to Noah saying, "just if you need it." Noah nodded as Emma said "I'm coming too" "okay then" Noah was about to say something but his mums glare on him caused him to stop himself.

As they left the room, they could hear a groaning from the room Infront of them. As they look into the room as the door was now broken and barely holding onto its frame when they see a figure in the room, they can see the thing was wearing a ripped, unbuttoned t-shirt and blood, red trousers with slight beige colour. The mother's children gripped onto her, she turned to the two and put her finger to her lips symbolising them to be quieter.

As they turned from the room, they could see the mess created from the monsters and before they could get to the end of the hall, the little girls teddy bear slipped out her hands and as she tried to pick it up again, she wasn't able as her mother hadn't realised and was still walking. The girl tugged away causing the confused mother to whisper "what are you-" just then the daughter broke free and fell to the ground knocking a cabinet causing a glass to fall on the ground and shatter into multiple pieces.

The mother could hear the sounds of her dead husband getting up and walking towards the hall, as the daughter grabbed her bear the mother and her children ran to the end of hall while the now widow saw a cleaver her husband used with blood on it, and she picked it up before reaching the end of the hall. There were two ways they could go left towards her children's room or right towards the stairs. She turns right but instead of going straight to the stairs she needed to catch her breath encase running will need to happen urgently again in the outside world. She and her children backed up against the wall.

The mother was in the middle of the children, her daughter Emma was on her right-side gripping on her teddy bear, her son Noah was on the left-side wearing the hockey helmet and holding the hockey stick he was given, the mother was holding the cleaver not wanting to kill her husband, again. Knowing how difficult it is for all of them she whispered to them saying "hush, kids... it's not dad anymore." Once the groaning grew louder and the mother knew it was time to leave, they went to stairs leaving their home wandering the streets until they saw a guy getting attacked by the monsters.

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