Prologue

He spit into the Petri dish containing the bacteria most commonly known as the "Flesh Eating Disease" and watched as the bacteria reacted. He had many such Petri dishes and test tubes in his lab. He dipped a bread crumb into the dish and placed it in the feeder of one of the lab rats.

He was a doctor, but enjoyed dabbling in the lab, experimenting with his unique physiology, trying to discover a cure for his condition. He'd been unsuccessful in his many years of experimentation, but he had discovered new treatments for other illnesses along the way, so it wasn't a complete loss.

The lab rat sniffed at the crumb and gobbled it up. It immediately vomited. The doctor noted this on his clipboard and moved onto the next experiment. He had lots of experiments planned for today and it wasn't unusual for a rat to vomit the infected food, so he took no notice.

A few hours later, it was time to head home. He had a shift at the Forks Hospital and it would be a long drive. His lab was in a secure, underground facility several miles from home. He was proud of it. With the help of his family, he had built this multimillion dollar facility so that he could do his experiments without government interference. While he didn't think the government would appreciate having a secret lab with the most deadly bacteria and viruses known to man run by a small town doctor, he knew that he was more intelligent than most men out there, and felt sure that it would never be found.

He was wrong.

***

"Come on, Jason, hurry up!" Phil whispered to his buddy. They had been watching the man from a distance through the binoculars over the small ridge about 5 miles away, and had been doing so for about a month. When he drove away this day, they decided to check it out.

"Jesus, I'm coming. Keep your pants on," Jason answered, trying to keep up.

They ran over to where they were keeping the four-wheelers and started them up with a roar. A short while later they were at the semi-hidden entrance, which was in the side of a small hill.

"Shit, man, how are we gonna get in? This door is like, fucking titanium or some shit," Jason mused.

"Don't worry, dude. I went to some guy and got a bomb!" Phil was excited. He was positive that this was a grow-op (why else would a young, handsome man with an expensive car drive out to the middle of no where to an un-marked building in the ground) and he was dying to get in there and steal all of the weed he could handle.

"You got a fucking bomb? Are you retarded?! Someone's gonna see that shit," Jason was stoned, but not enough to think that explosives were a good idea.

"Don't be such a pussy, Jay. It's just a pipe bomb. Besides, we are way out the middle of fucking nowhere, dude. No one is gonna notice."

Jason shrugged. "Fine then. I'm going way the fuck over there. Don't blame me when you blow your stupid ass up."

"Dude, you are such a wiener," Phil said, half to himself. Jay flipped him the bird as he walked over to where the bikes were stashed.

Phil lit the pipe bomb and started running. He caught up to Jason just as the explosive went off. The two guys flew to the ground in a dramatic, movie-like gesture as the explosive took out part of the side of the hill. The door remained standing.

"Well, at least we can get in," Phil said.

"Dude, you are seriously one fucked up fucker," Jason laughed as they walked towards the smouldering heap of dirt.

As they reached the hill, about ten rats came running out with one staggering behind the group.

"Hey, man, look at that rat, dude. It's fucking wasted!" Jason said, kneeling down to get a closer look. The rat looked stupidly up at the stoner for a moment, before leaping up and biting off a chunk of his nose.

"SHIT! FUCK! GOD-DAMN FUCKING FUCKER!" Jason screamed as he tried to stop the flow of blood. He kicked the rat away from him and ran over to Phil.

Phil stared at Jason in shock for a minute. "Shit, man, we have to get you to a hospital. That rat could have rabies, dude!"

Phil removed his shirt and gave it to Jason to help with the bleeding. Then they got on Phil's four-wheeler and began riding back to civilization.

***

Chapter 1 – Three Days Later

BPOV

Ugh, I was so bored! Edward was out hunting, Alice was off doing wedding things, Charlie was at work and Jake was sulking off in the wilderness somewhere. No one was around and I had nothing to do.

I sat at the kitchen table, impatiently tapping my fingers on the table when I heard some yelling outside.

"Quick, Jodi! Get the kids and get in the damn car!! Come on!" The neighbour was screaming to his wife.

I didn't want to be nosy, but the man sounded extremely upset. I walked over to the front window and peaked out. People all down the street were throwing shit into their cars and peeling away in a big hurry. Others were running around screaming. Windows were breaking and I could see a man lumbering up the street, moving much slower than the panicked neighbours.

"What the fu—," I started to mutter when Charlie's car came flying down the street, with the lights flashing and the sirens on. My heart got stuck in my throat.

He drove up into the yard, not even bothering to park in the driveway. He got out of the car as quick as he could, grabbing the shot gun out of the trunk before heading into the house. He was nervously looking around the yard and into the woods. I peeked my head out the front door.

"Dad, what's…,"

"Bella, get in the house," he said to me, his voice shaking.

"Wha--," I started and he raised his gun and shot at the man who had been lumbering up the street a moment ago.

"CHARLIE! What the fuck!" I yelled at him. I watched as the man fell to the ground in a limp heap, his brains oozing out of his head. I felt my stomach heave.

"Bella! House! NOW!" He screamed at me and ran up the steps. He grabbed my arm and pulled me inside with him.

"Dad! What is going on! Why did you shoot that guy? Why are all the neighbours screaming and running?"

"Bella, something very strange is going on, and I don't exactly know what. What I do know is that we need to barricade all the doors and windows and hide upstairs. I want you to grab as much food as you can and take it up to your room. Stay up there until I call you down." I nodded dumbly as he spoke and grabbed some grocery bags and began to pack food from the cupboards into them.

Charlie began to move the couch in front of the door. He ran into the basement and came out a few moments later with some old boards, nails and hammers. He saw me watching him.

"Bella, upstairs. Go!"

I ran up the stairs and dumped the food onto the bedroom floor. I stared at the food wondering how long we would be up here. I wondered where Edward was and why Alice hadn't called me to tell me what was going on. I was wondering a lot of things.

"Dad," I called out timidly from the top of the stairs. "How long are we going to be up here? Should I grab the camp stove?"

He thought for a moment and said that we might need it, so I ran back down and into the basement to get the little propane stove, the can of propane and a couple of flashlights. As I was coming back up, I heard a window break and another shot was fired.

"Charlie!" I screamed as I emerged from the basement.

"Up! Now, Bella! Run!" He yelled at me.

I ran -- well, stumbled would have been a better word. It was hard to run with my hands full of this stuff – back up the stairs and dumped my load onto the bed. I turned back around when I heard someone coming back up the stairs. I went back into the hall to see what was going on.

"Bella, I need some help. I have to destroy the staircase so they can't come up. I need to get the chainsaw out of the basement. Come get the gun and shoot anything that tries to come into the house," he said as he passed me the gun.

For someone as clumsy as me, I was actually a great shot. Charlie had taken me for lessons when I was younger and sometimes went to the shooting range with him. I made sure the gun was loaded and sat on the stairs watching the doors and windows and Charlie rummaged around downstairs.

Luckily, nothing happened while Charlie was downstairs, though I could hear some god-awful groaning noise coming from outside. He came back up and motioned for me to go back up. He started the chainsaw and came up the stairs slowly, destroying each stair as he went. He reached the landing as the staircase collapsed into the bottom floor.

He left the chainsaw at the landing and went into the bathroom and began drawing water into the bathtub. I watched him while leaning against the door case.

He began speaking before I did. "We have to fill the tub in case the power goes out. Before I got here there were reports that some of those…creatures…were out near the power station."

"Creatures? What do you mean?" I whispered.

"Bella, that thing I shot wasn't a man. Or if it was a man, it was possessed by something else. These things are wandering the streets, eating people. Sometimes those people die, but more often than not, they are changing into whatever bit them."

"Uh, Dad, do you realize that you are talking about Zombies?" I had seen some zombie flicks over my life, but the idea of something like that actually happening seemed ludicrous, although, if I stopped to think about it, so were vampires and werewolves and they were part of my everyday life.

He looked at me for a moment, and you could see him immediately comprehend what I was saying. "Zombies…Yes, I suppose you could be right."

He finished filling the tub and went into my room. I followed behind him.

"I didn't have enough wood to cover all the windows, but at least the doors are locked up tight and the larger windows have at least one board in front of them," he stopped and looked at me. "Bella, where is Edward?" Charlie asked.

"He was out hunting with his brothers. He was supposed to come back tomorrow sometime." I wasn't too worried about Edward, knowing that his skin was impenetrable. I did wonder why he hadn't called me yet. Or Alice. Or any of them.

"Then he's probably gone," he said, wrapping his arms around me in an awkward hug. I pushed back.

"No, Dad. No…Edward…well, I'm sure he's ok." Just then my phone beeped.

It was a text from Alice: We are coming to get you and Charlie

I looked out the window to see about 10 undead ghouls wandering around the yard. I heard a window break downstairs. Charlie grabbed the shotgun and crept out onto the landing. I heard the gunshot and then a sickening thud as a zombie dropped to the floor.

I texted Alice back: HURRY!