Day 0: The Hell

Day 0: The Hell?!

It was 10 o'clock on Monday…..just another plain and boring Monday in Williamette, Colorado. Oh how Tom Weir hated Mondays. Thankfully it was the second week of August and he had nothing to really do except a few minor chores his mother had left on the note on his computer desk. Tom managed to drag himself out of his bed and look at the list.

Dear Honey,

Could you please water the garden and hang some laundry out on the line?

Love ya,

Mom

'Ugh this sucks' he thought to himself throwing on some lounge pants and his flip-flops. He walked into the basement into the laundry room and emptied the load of wash into the basket and called for the family's dog Casey. He heard the usual groan come from the bulldog in the living room as she woke up and came to the back door where Tom was waiting basket to his side. Not a very big and strong teenager like his classmates, but despite his seemingly endless time of video gaming not very gaunt or fat either. Tom let Casey out and followed her into the backyard and proceeded to hang the laundry on the line. Once he finished that, he went to the hose on the side of the house and dragged it around front and watered the garden. He yawned and rubbed his arm wondering what to do today.

'Ah I guess I'll see what Zach and Andrew are up to today. Haven't hung out with them in a while, and I've wasted enough of my summer playing games.'

Tom walked back into the house with Casey in tow as he heard a faint scream while shutting the door.

"Stupid kids," he grumbled to himself. He opened his cell phone and sent a text to his two closest friends asking if they wanted to hang out and maybe go somewhere. Usually the three would hang out at one of their houses, but since Zach got his license, though he's a few months younger than Tom (Driver's Ed teacher played favorites) they've been trying to go hang out together somewhere. Tom sat down in his computer chair booted up his computer and 360.

'Hmmm', he thought, 'I think I'll mess around in Dead Rising for a little bit before I hop in the shower.'

Tom loaded the game and was running around with random weapons beating up zombies when his cell started vibrating on the hardwood desk. There was a text message from Zach, which said:

Yeah sure how about the mall? Andrew is already with me…texted me at freaking 9:30! If you want we'll come pick you up.

Tom sent a message back saying to pick him up at 11 so he'd have time to get a shower and put in his contacts. Tom then shut down his electronics, grabbed some clothes, and got in the shower. After having cleaned himself he put in his contacts, brushed his teeth, and combed his shady semi-long brown hair…slightly. After all of that he grabbed his cell, wallet, and MP3 not bothering to let his mom know since she was bound to call any minute now; she always did, always waking him up and bugging him, it really annoyed him. He grabbed a Dr. Pepper and a small thing of ice cream before heading out the back door, since there was an uninstalled dishwasher blocking the front for some reason he didn't care, and sat out front for a few minutes listening to his music.

Soon Zach pulled up in his mom's New Yorker…he didn't have his own car yet while Tom did, but it was in for repairs since it was his dad's old pickup. Tom walked down the driveway to the car turning off his MP3 and taking it out of his ears, when he heard another scream, this one was louder.

Andrew was in the front passenger seat, which a cop probably would have stopped Zach since Andrew's height and face betray his age. Though he was only a year younger than Zach or Tom, Andrew was slim, had a baby face, short dark brown hair, and was just breaking 5' in height over the summer so most people think he's a lot younger. Zach also was slim, and had a young face, but his long dirty blonde hair and height, being over 6' didn't get his age questioned usually. Tom got his aged questioned occasionally because of his face, with its constant peach fuzz he tried so desperately to keep off and his deep voice, which has gotten him confused as a twenty or thirty year old occasionally when he's talked to his friends through Xbox Live.

"Sup guys?" Tom asked climbing into the backseat and lying across the whole thing lazily.

"Just chilling. Ready to go?" Zach asked. Tom nodded. "Alright lets go," said Zach.

"YOUR SO FAT!" Andrew yelled at him. Tom just cocked his head off to one side saying, "Yeah so it would seem, but whose got the amazing ice cream and Dr. Pepper, and WHO doesn't?" Andrew frowned at him, "I hate it when you do that."

Tom just grinned as Zach pulled out of the neighborhood and headed toward Williamette Mall.They headed towards the center of town with little traffic at first all going the other way. Andrew and Tom looked at the people who stared back with the 'you're freaking insane' look as they passed by.

"What is wrong with people today?" Andrew asked.

"Dunno," said Zach without looking away from the road. Tom shook his head, but then he remembered the two screams from earlier. Tom sat up and finished his soda and ice cream and looked out the driver's side of the windows. He saw a helicopter flying towards the mall and saw a bus surrounded by people clawing at the windows.

"Oooook? Since when were people unhappy with the buses?" he asked. The others didn't answer because they were focused on something else.

"THE HELL!?" Zach and Andrew shouted in unison as they saw a few people running up the road followed by a mob of other people who were trudging along and following them, though they were losing distance between the runners. There were bodies all over the sidewalks and road and abandoned cars, and pools of blood, and even limbs strewn everywhere. They boys heard some form of growling or moaning and then two smacks against the side of the car.

"AAAAAAHHH!!" screamed Andrew as a bloody mouthed man was pressing against the window with its hands and face. Tom looked around saw more bloody people walking towards the car slowly.

"Oh hell no! ZOMBIES!! GUN IT ZACH!!" Tom cried. Zach didn't need to be told twice as he floored the gas and sped away from the zombies towards the mall.

"Zombies? Zombies! This isn't happening!" Tom yelled. Andrew was trying to keep his eyes off his window where skin and blood had been left from the zombie that was against his window in the shape of the hands and face smeared across it.

"You've got to be kidding," said Zach as he sped down the road with no destination in mind, forgetting that the mall was at the end of the road.

"Man I knew I shouldn't have played Dead Rising today. It was cool and all that they made a game based off our town, but DAMMIT I never thought this would happen," said Tom breathing heavily.

"W-w-what d-do we do guys?" whimpered Andrew.

"I guess the mall is our best option since if this is actually the game to a degree the Frank West guy should've been in that helicopter I saw earlier, and we know he's at the mall."

Andrew moaned, and Zach and Tom exchanged solemn glances, but they knew that was their best bet. And so, Zach, Andrew, and Tom drove towards Williamette Mall, where things were bound to only get worse.