Wind whistled between the giant grey colossi that make up the buildings of a large city. Groans of the undead are carried on this wind, but save for the beeping of car alarms in the distance, or a newspaper in the breeze, there is nothing. None of the commotion of human life, no animal noises, for all this is gone. This is the fact that terrifies a group of four survivors atop an office building. They all look out into the fog that blankets the city, searching for a way out. One boy, the apparent leader of the group, sat still as he cradled a hunting knife in one hand, and propped up an assault rifle in the other. He was once heavy set, but the weeks of surviving in the city has toned his body, making it muscular and fit. He rubbed a hand through his thick, messy brown hair. He looked up at the rising sun. One of his friends, a tall, black haired boy looked at him. “We have to go when it gets light out. There is only about a mile from here to the edge of the city. Going from building to building, we should be there in half a day…” He looked out towards the city, calculating the distances. A girl in the group
Opened the door into the building, and pointed inside. “We should probably get whatever supplies we can from this building, and then go on to the next building, Max. I’m just thankful that this city was built on a grid!” She was right. The city was a mass of buildings of all different shapes, but that shaped fit into a grid, where each building wall faced the wall of another building. Max, the leader of the group looked up from his intense thought. “We’ll take a survey of our supplies, then head out as early as possible, most likely at noon.” The tall boy, Chris, pulled out a 9mm pistol, taken from a local police station. “Go down and get whatever food is in the cabinets, Sarah. Take this,” He placed a military silencer on the pistol, cocked it, then handed it to her, “in case you run into trouble.” She knew what he meant. The building was clear, but sometime there were those who were “slow burners”, reanimating a few days to a week after infection. They were slow, but they could be a nuisance when looking for supplies. She began to walk away, but Chris tapped her on the shoulder. “Almost forgot to give you this…” He pulled out a flashlight/laser aim combination, and slide underneath the barrel of the gun. She checked the switches, and proceeded down the stairs. “Show me what we have…” Max approached a cluster of assorted piles, while holding a copy of the Zombie Survival Guide*. He pointed to a pile of pistol rounds, rifle rounds, and shotgun shells. Chris pulled out a clipboard from a satchel.
“We have… 500 carbine rounds, 450 .45 rounds, 300 9mm rounds and 295 shotgun rounds. We have 6 pistols, 3 9mm’s and 3. 45’s, two carbine rifles, a SPAS pump shotgun, and a semi-automatic AK-47. We have 15 clips for it, but I don’t know how many rounds that is…”
“What about weapon attachments?”
“All the rifles have silencers and scopes. The 9mm’s have silencers, but the .45’s don’t. The shotguns have shell holders on the sides.”
“How are we on melee weapons?”
“Three machetes, five hunting knives, and a single Japanese Katana, taken from a local Japanese sword shop. It is actually usable, not just a replica.”
“Armor?”
“We have plenty of Kevlar pads that can be slid into clothes to prevent zombie bites, and flak jackets, ‘cause you never know…”
“Food?”
“Sarah is getting our stockpile of MRE’s from the army surplus store. We have enough for days.”
“Hmm…”
“What?”
“I call dibs on the katana.”

Sarah cautiously turned a corner. Her light was on, moving across the shadows, revealing a chaotic scene of overturned tables and scattered papers, not to mention dried blood. She heard moaning outside… Or was it inside? The zombies had most likely broken into the first level of the building. She felt relieved that Max had a copy of that weird, grey book. It was actually pretty useful, telling them to shut down the elevators, and ironically, even though it said to destroy the stairs, a steel wall closed off all of the first floor stairwells, to guard against riots. She thought back to a few weeks ago. At that time, they were just a bunch of high schoolers on a trip to science lab. From what they could gather from news reports and papers from the lab, a “subject” had escaped into the city, then people started disappearing. Max got that book for his birthday, from his mom. He had always loved zombie movies, and after getting the book, he would joke with his friends that “they’re coming!” But he never actually believed in it, till now. He was a little freaked out when the signs of a zombie invasion from the book started happening. Then, right as the kids got to the science center, a huge mass of people came running, followed by thousands of zombies. What freaked Sarah out is… Max was actually ecstatic. He couldn’t wait to take command. After the doors where shut and barricades were set up, we waited. A few days passed. Max said that the only way out was to get to another building, but only the five of them got out… Sarah snapped out of her memories when she heard a snapping noise. It was coming from behind a broken door, barely on it’s hinges. She turned on the laser aim on the light, and proceeded. She got up against a wall inside the door, and peered out. In the darkness, she could see a ghoul feeding on a corpse, directly in front of the cabinet she needed to get to. She transferred the pistol from here right hand to her left, and unsheathed a machete from her left hip. She took a deep breath and turned the corner. She ran at the zombie full speed. It barely had time to look up as she swung the machete, decapitating it. The head was still snapping at her on the ground. “Oh, shut up!” she said, and kicked the head out a broken window. She pushed its body aside, opened the cabinet it was blocking, and removed the MRE’s.

A short, stalky boy in a shirt that said “Save the Princess. Save the World” *was twisting knobs on radio that was connected to a huge metal tower. He had a huge headphone over his left ear and the other headphone behind his right ear. He took the headphones off, put them around his neck, scratched his curly brown hair, and wrote down some figures on a small pad of paper. His glasses slid down his nose, so he constantly had to push them back up. Max approached him.
“Got anything for us, James?”
“Nope. Just static, garbled messages made over handheld radios, the message from the army base-wait!” James grabbed his headphone. He heard a message that was coming in clear… But that meant it had to be local. James adjusted knobs till the message was very clear. He turned down the volume, and then unplugged the headphones. From a small speaker, they heard: “-Elp. My name is –ohn Braggs. I’m a sci-ist that work-d at th- necr-gene-cs l-b. I hav- infor-tion on the ou-reak. If –o can h-r th-s, find m- at the Jo-nson bu-ding. Pl-se help. --------“

Sarah was just coming out of the building when she saw the boys huddled around the radio. She approached them with a bag full of MRE’s. She laid the bag down with the rest of the supplies. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Hey Sarah. Did you get the food?” Max replied.
“Yeah, but what’s going on? Did we get a new transmission?”
“It is from a guy who says he knows how this started…”
“You mean where the virus came from?”
“Yeah. I mean, I personally would like to know who would create a zombie virus?!”
“There had to some good intentions in there somewhere…”
The sun was just coming up above the horizon. The group of kids gathered the supplies. Max stood before them as they packed. Max approached Sarah. “Take a machete, a .22 rifle, a 9mm, a .45, and two hunting knives. James, you get the same as Sarah. The both of you are our best snipers. I will take the AK, a 9mm, a hunting knife, and the katana. Chris, you take the shotgun, the .45, a hunting knife, and a machete. Sarah and James, you each get 250 carbine rounds. We each get 100 9mm rounds, and/or 150 .45 rounds. The carbines are for long range, my AK is for medium range, and the shotgun and pistols are for short range. There shall be no firing inside buildings, unless there is enough space to effectively fire, but only if necessary. In other cases, use blades. Move quickly and stealthily. Any questions?” The kids stood silent. This was no time for a stupid question.

The group’s movement was incredibly coordinated. The team went to the highest floor for every building, depending of the size of the building. A hammer secured to a rope was flung at the opposite building’s window. This shattered it, and killed the occasional zombie as it looked up at the noise. They then put a wide, sturdy board across the windows’ sills. The group then crossed the plank to the next building, scouted the floor for any zombies in their path, eliminated them, and went on to the next building. It was a slow process, usually taking 15 minutes, if there was little opposition. Finally, after 5 hours of moving, they made it to the Johnson Building.

“Well, here we are. Let’s try and find this Braggs guy…” said Max while looking around the room. “I can see why the windows were two way mirrors,” Sarah stated as she looked at all the medical instruments, probes, and medical cabinets, “This stuff has to be illegal, somehow…” James walked over to a closet that said in big bold letters Employees Only. He opened the door, gasped, ran over to a trash can, and threw up. Inside were jars containing human organs, some of them new, some of them horribly decayed. Max looked at them, studying them. He leaned a little closer. The strong smell of formaldehyde hit his nose. “Oh yeah, this is defiantly illegal…” Max concluded. The group started going upstairs. There was chaos everywhere. Blood was splattered on the walls. Spent shells were strewn across the floor. There were dead bodies, both human and zombie, though most of the human bodies were little less than bones with bits of flesh dangling from them. The group searched the floor, then the next, then the next. Oddly, there were only 1 or two zombies on a floor, but there was a long trail of blood going up the stairs. James kicked a legless zombie in the head in there path. “AGH! I hate these things!” he yelled as it crawled towards him. Max rubbed his chin. “What is it?” Sarah asked. Max just looked straight down at the blood trail, following it to the roof, “This is weird. Most buildings have about four or five zombies per floor. We’ve only seen maybe one or two on each floor, and there is this blood trail going up the stairs, and… wait. There are shoeprints close to this pool of blood, and the trail is streaked, as if… Oh no…” Max began running up the stairs, to the roof door. The rest followed him, and they all stopped short of the door. Max slowly opened it. Before them, a large group of zombies were clawing at a small metal shed on the roof, with a glass top. Max counted 35 zombies. He looked down at James and made hand-signs signaling how many zombies there were. He put up seven fingers, then tapped his wrist, then held up five fingers. This signified 7x5=35. He slowly backed down, and allowed Sarah and James crawl up to the top of the stairs. They made headshot after headshot, till their clips were expended. The zombies never noticed the others going down, they just kept clawing at the door. James and Sarah then slid back down, allowing Max and Chris to go up. Max smiled at Chris, “Are you ready?” Chris gave an evil smile back, “I was born ready!” They placed on protective SWAT glasses on their eyes, and cloth over their mouths, then Max unsheathed his katana. “Hey!” Max yelled. The remaining zombies turned around. They each gave a sickening moan, and lurched towards the boys. Max approached one of them, while Chris ran around the right side of them, deterring some of them from Max. Max swung his katana, decapitating them left and right, while Chris distracted them, until none were left. Max sheathed his katana, then mockingly bowed and grunted “Hoi!” Chris rolled his eyes, then opened the door to the shed. Suddenly, a short man, with brown spiky hair, glasses, and 5 o’clock shadow leaped out, wildly swinging a small pipe. Chris leaped aside, avoiding his blows. The man stopped when he saw the bodies. He turned around to see Chris and Max pull of the cloths and glasses. He ran to them both and hugged them. “Oh thank you! I’ve been trapped in there for hours! You got my transmission, didn’t you?” he exclaimed wildly. “Err… Yeah. I’m Max, this is Chris, James, Sarah, and you must be Braggs?” Max said as he pointed out his group. “Yes, I’m John Braggs. Now, you must get me to the military base! I have to contact ZES!” said the little man as he ran towards the stairs down. “Wait a minute, what caused all this?!” Max asked in frustration. “I’ll explain on the way down to the car park. There are four-wheelers there we can take!”             

The small group rode along Main Street, two miles to the country, and one more to the military base. Sarah and James gave John both of their .45’s, so he’d have some protection. Max rode at the front of the group, leading the others behind him. Without looking back, he asked John questions.
“So, what’s the deal? Why are there zombies?”
“Well, we are a necrogenetic company. That being, we try to reanimate dead cells, you know, to give people back their appendages successfully. The virus goes into the cells, repairs neural connections, reanimates, then we inject the anti-virus…”
“Anti-virus?”
“Don’t get your hopes up. It’ll only work if administered a few hours after the virus. The only thing that goes wrong is in the brain. As I said, the virus repairs nerves… or at least mutate dead ones into something that functions like a nerve, being that it can send electrical signals. But the brain is basically like a cluster of nerve cells, which become mutated. They can send signals, but only the most primal instincts, the main one being to feed…”
“Ok, so what is ZES?”
“The Zombie Elimination Squad, a special team of soldiers that contain and cover up most cases like this, having experience in dealing with zombies. Their most useful piece of equipment is a small grey book, with a carbine and a machete on the cover…”
“You mean this has happened before?! And they use the Zombie Survival Guide?”
“Not on grand scales like this, but yes. Small necrogenetics labs in suburban areas make this mistake, creating a virus with different effects on zombies, such as speed and mode of infection, but they all basically moan, are dead, and hunger flesh. And yeah, they use the Zombie Survival Guide.”

The military base was rather small, but it would serve their needs. They parked the four-wheelers behind some bushes, and came around to the front of the base. It was comprised of a few bunkers, and armory, and a main building. The group approached the main building. They peeked inside. There were a few scattered zombies, nothing they couldn’t handle. Max looked at his group. “Ok, here’s what we’re-” but before he could finish, John ran in, pistols blazing. “AGH! Take this!” He yelled as he fired round after round from the revolvers. He fired all ten of his shots, but only downed four. Max grabbed his collar. “YOU IDIOT! YOU’VE ALERTED THEM ALL!” he screamed, but before John could answer, Max heard the groans.

They flew down the opposite hallway, zombies in hot pursuit. Max and John were in the front, John telling them where to go. Chris was in the back, running backwards, and shooting any zombies that got too close with his shotgun. Max pulled out his pistol, shot zombies in their path, and reloaded, all in one fluid motion. They came to the end of a hallway. The only way to go was through two large double doors. “There is where we can contact ZES!” John shouted in excitement. He yanked on the door handle, but it was locked. Chris looked back at the door, then to James and Sarah. “Quick, you two start sniping. I’ll get the door!” he said, and ran back. Max was already prying at the lock with a crowbar. Chris shoved him out of the way, placed the barrel of the gun to the lock, and blew it open. They all ran inside, and then barricaded the doors. John ran to a phone. There was power in the building, most likely the backup generators, but there was no signal. Everyone looked around the room for some form of communication. Then James saw a radio transmitter, it’s lights softly glowing. He ran to it, put on the headphones, then sent out a message of distress, “Help! We are stuck in the army base outside the city! Please, someone help!” Max grabbed him. “Get to the door, and take any shots you can out those high windows,” He said, pointing to some windows on the side of the doors, just below the ceiling, “Use the structures as a perch!” There were metal platforms next to the windows, used for storage. Sarah and James climbed up, broke the window glass, and started firing. There were close to a hundred or 150 zombies at the large doors, most of them in BDU’s. Max fired his AK out of a hole created in the barricade, as did Chris. Soon, there were only thirty zombies left. Max pulled his trigger one last time, and heard a click. Everyone was out of ammo. The barricade creaked at all the dead hands scrapping at it. No one had any hope left. Hands started to emerge from the barricades. Max looked at everyone with a broken smile of despair. “Well, this is it, guys. We did our best. But I’m not going down without a fight!” he yelled as he drew his katana, and began chopping off the hands. The others joined him. They all fought the hands, but to no use. The barricade cracked a bit, and they could see the zombies, their lifeless, sunken eyes hungering for their flesh. Then, they all heard the sound of propellers. They got closer and closer until they were right above the building. Suddenly, a window on the ceiling broke, and a small rope ladder came down. A man in a helicopter pilot’s helmet looked down at them. “Hurry! Get up here!” he yelled. The group wildly scurried up the ladder, just as the zombies broke through the doors. Max came through the threshold. The man ran him over to the chopper. “We have to leave! There are Warthogs on the way, and missiles will be inbound!”

Max stared back as he saw the jets blowing up the buildings. He was so tired. His eyes felt heavy, and he drifted off to sleep. He woke up later, in the middle of a gym. He looked up and saw Sarah staring down at him. “Was… Was I dreaming?” He said as he sat up. As soon as he did, he knew the answer. He saw groups of families huddled together, crying. Dogs were barking. Soldiers ran left and right. People ate MRE’s given to them by the soldiers. Max stood up, and began to cry.

*
So, what happened? The entire city was bombed, blamed on a terrorist group whom “created gas leaks and planted bombs in multiple buildings, regretfully in one where radioactive materials were kept, creating a chain reaction” ZES was sent in to clean up afterwards, killing all zombies trapped in basements and other places where zombies could be trapped. The smoke resulting from the burning zombies bodies was over 1000 feet high, and could be seen from the surrounding states. The virus had spread to the surrounding country side. This resulted in a mass evacuation and quarantining of the small towns. There were screening to check for those infected. Those who could be saved, were and were put under examination, to check for side effects. Those who couldn’t be saved were… put out of their misery. The government did their best to cover up the outbreak, but couldn’t, after a news team hid High-Resolution DVDs of footage of the outbreak. After this, lawsuits were issued to sue Necrogenetics labs everywhere. ZES was made into an official branch of the military, due to the fact that the virus was still out there, and would pop up in small rural areas and third world countries. Max, Chris, Sarah and James joined ZES, each at the age of 15 or 16. Max Brooks was drafted into teaching people how to combat the undead, and his book was taken out of the “Humor” section, and was placed into the “Survival” section. The virus has been named “Solanum”, after the name given in the Zombie Survival Guide. John Braggs disappeared after the lawsuits went through.