We come from a far away place called Earth. It’s a little planet in the Milky Way galaxy that’s covered by dirt, water, and plant life. There are animals too, of course, but they are close to extinction due to hunting by the zombies and the humans trying to survive. The world was once ruled by a single sentient species known as Humans. Now, a different species has taken over. A species known as Zombies to some, The Undead to others. They plague our planet like an unstoppable swarm of Locusts. They are everywhere. We haven’t found a way to stop them and save what’s left of humanity. We tried fighting back and wiping them off the face of the planet once and for all, but they kept coming. They are a never ending stream of mindless, flesh eating monsters. We as humans had no choice but to run, hide, and try our best to survive in the world that we once called ours... My group and I don’t know how we ended up coming from there to this place of magical friendship and talking multi-colored ponies, but this is our story. The story of how we Survived Hell to find Heaven.

• Sgt. James W. Riggins of the U.S.M.C.

Journal entry #17

Time: 1200 hours. (12:00 pm)

It’s been 17 days after the first outbreak of the infection now known as the “Solanum Virus” hit the United States. How the rest of the world is doing right now, is a complete mystery. All connection to the outside world has been severed due to the Zombies, as we’ve taken to calling them, swarming and destroying the radio towers and any other long-range communications equipment as they do with everything they come across. We are now officially living in the zombie apocalypse.

Day 17 --- March 27, 2020 --- 1200 hours (12:00 p.m) notice anything new in nightfall?

The group consists of: Marie: callsign “Ghost”, Campbell: callsign “Loudmouth”, Beth: callsign “Boom”, Lucky Duck: callsign “Lucky”, and James Riggins: callsign “Alpha”.

We all had our reasons for the names we had, like most others on this planet. So let me tell you the reasons for ours.

Ghost had gotten her name after she had single-handedly wiped out an entire camp of raiders without making a single sound, remaining undetected until she was halfway through eliminating the enemy. They didn’t even notice her until she had slit their throats with a single clean cut, and they were on the ground, dying from the lack of oxygen and choking on their own blood.

Loudmouth had gotten his name by his non-stop talking that had gotten us caught in the middle of rescuing Boom’s little sister from a raider compound. We originally had 12 team members and three Survivors that we were rescuing, but after that we only had the five of us left. Boom was devastated to have her little sister die in her own arms after being shot twice in the chest by stray shots and bleeding from both internal and external wounds. Loudmouth and Boom hadn’t spoken since, and it’s known that the tiniest thing can set her off now that she doesn’t have anything left to lose but herself...

Boom got her name for being the team’s explosives expert. She had been a new recruit into the U.S military service when this all happened. After her sister died, she was overcome by grief and went on a suicide mission to the largest camp of raiders in a few hundred miles. Her plan was to plant explosives and connect them like bomb collars so they’d go off one after another all over the place and blow the raiders to bloody pieces of cloth and seared flesh when she was in the middle of the camp. She’d gotten spotted while planting the final explosive charges and called for reinforcements, to which we showed up as she detonated the chain of high grade explosives she had set. In that split second, half of the raider camp and ninety-five percent of the enemies perished. The rest retreated and started running in the opposite direction, trying to get away from the possibility of more explosives blowing up in their faces. They received several shots to their heads and fell to the ground like planes that had been shot out of the sky.

Then there’s Lucky Duck, or just Lucky if you want to call her that. She earned her name by being the “Lucky charm” of the group. Whenever she was with one of us, luck seemed to come our way more often than not. There once was a time when we were caught running from a small group of raiders without our gear. We genuinely believe that because Lucky was with us, the IEDs that were planted where we stepped didn’t blow up until the raiders got to them. We didn’t know the explosives were even there at the time, but when the raiders ran to exactly where we were a few seconds before, let’s just say things got a little… messy. Why the IEDs didn’t go off for us, we might never know. Let’s just say we got “Lucky”.

Last, but definitely not least, is me. But you can call me Alpha. Former military, Sgt. James W. Riggins. I earned my title by becoming the leader of the team through showing my knowledge of combat. I had spent a total of 8 years in the Armed Forces before this all happened. Some like to think that I went back for more after my first enlistment was up because I was an adrenaline junkie, but others say that I felt guilty about something that had happened during my first deployment. No one knows the true answer, because I haven’t spoken about it since I returned from the war the first time... I don’t plan on saying anything now.

* P.O.V. (Point Of View) - Alpha *

The Survivors, a group that haven’t turned into vicious murderers known as raiders, are all over the country broadcasting signals over their short-range radios and relaying them on a daily basis. There seem to be a few million of the things we now know to be Zombies in the U.S alone, if not more. I don’t know how long we can withstand the infection, if even at all. Food and water is getting scarce and we haven’t seen a Survivor in two weeks... We are running low on energy and supplies, so we need to find some kind of food, guns or something. Anything that might help us in this hell that’s for some reason called life. My team and I have barricaded ourselves in an abandoned house near the town hall of a random town we stumbled upon earlier today. I have sent Ghost, Lucky, and Boom to clear out the rest of the house while Loudmouth started exploring the cleared areas for anything useful.

***Several hours later…***

“Loudmouth! Found anything useful yet?” I say in a harsh whisper, hoping he had found something.

“No… I didn’t find anything other than a few duffel bags filled with unopened packs of dried jerky and a bunch of different food items. Judging by the pantry these people had for themselves, they may have raided a store… There’s so much food and water in here! It seems like they left in a hurry though, maybe someone kicked them out and took this place over? We could be in for a fight if that’s the case.” Loudmouth replied in a worried tone. I walk into the pantry that Loudmouth was in and saw what appeared to be a literal stockpile of food. None of us had gotten anything from the beginning raids and riots that had spread throughout the cities at the start of the infection, so this was a true blessing from above. It was an all out war. Humanity was being kicked back into not even being able to trust your own lifelong friends anymore. I had seen one man murder the love of his life and their two young children over a small sack of old, barely edible potatoes. I saw the same man a few days later lying dead in a pool of his own blood in an alleyway near the edge of the city, turns out those potatoes were poisoned before he or his family were even given a chance to see them. I had smiled a little that day, seeing as how that man had gotten what he deserved for murdering the innocent for something that would have killed them anyways.

I was snapped out of my rather unexpected flashback by Lucky, my technical second in command and best friend since we first met in third grade. Ashley looked to me with a face of worry. “Hey, you alright there J? You kinda… zoned out there for a bit…” At the word ‘bit’, everyone in the room except Lucky jumped for their weapons and aimed them at me, with me just standing there chuckling to myself quietly.

“Wow. I guess I trained you all better than I thought…” I said with a smile. “But it was a false alarm. You won’t get to kill me today. Sorry, everyone.” My smile grew bigger and I laughed a bit at the thought of dying. It was technically mercy in the land of the dead. No one wanted to go by firing squad, but it was preferable over going out by zombies.

We all sit by a barrel while Loudmouth lights the papers and other flammable materials inside on fire, using a random lighter he had found while searching the house. I sit beside Ashley with a smile while Boom and Ghost sit together across from us. Loudmouth is left alone to tend to the small fire that he’d made inside the house. He gets up and walks to the pantry to get something to cook for dinner. It’s already dark outside and the zombies are far more active. We had close the windows and made sure that no light could get in or out, but I don’t think it’ll do much for the smells of the food cooking over the fire.

Loudmouth comes back carrying a few cans of what looks to be beef stew. I never liked that stuff, but it’s the apocalypse. You gotta eat when and what you can to survive.

Loudmouth sits down by the fire and tries to open the cans by himself. All of us chuckle or giggle at his failed attempts to open them. I finally get tired of waiting and move to open it for him. I open all of the cans with my knife in a matter of seconds while he has a face that says he knows he’s stupid for not thinking of that before. I give a smirk in his direction and move back to my seat beside Lucky while Loudmouth mumbles to himself about me being a showoff or something.

While he heats the stew over the fire, I pull a classic move and yawn, stretching out innocently before wrapping an arm around Lucky. Everyone but Loudmouth sees this and quietly giggles to themselves while Lucky tries to hide the massive blush she now has. We all sit there and watch Loudmouth as he finishes ‘cooking’ the rest of the food for us and himself. I let Lucky go and pass out the food to the girls around the fire.

We all eat in relative silence while the fire slowly burns itself out, leaving nothing but a hot barrel and burning embers at the bottom. I finish first and set the can down beside my feet while I watch everyone else. Lucky is the next to finish and does the same thing I did with my can, but she lays her head on my shoulder afterwards. I blush a little and smile while wrapping an arm around her, pulling her closer to me to keep her warm. At least, that’s what I tell everyone else that looks at us. She smiles and tries to snuggle closer, but she’s as close as she can get.

And then there’s a knock at the door that makes everyone freeze. I get up and silently move to a window before looking outside and seeing nothing on the porch beside the door. I shrug and walk back to the fire, or what’s left of it anyway. There’s another knock at the door. I turn around and slowly walk to the big wooden door at the front of the house and look through the peephole. I see a little girl in a My Little Pony dress standing in front of the door, holding what seems to be a teddy bear. Don’t ask how I know that show, I just watched the first three seasons. No more, I promise. I immediately open the door and reach down for her, but stop when I notice the blood covering her for the first time.

I kneel down and look the girl in her eyes to see if she’s got the yellowish look in there that means she’s infected. She seems clear so I reach out to hold her hand and she grabs mine before I reach hers. “Hey, are you okay?” She nods small yes. “What’s your name?”

“I-it’s Annabelle…”

“Did you lose your parents somewhere?” She nods and looks to the ground sadly before hugging me tightly. I can hear tiny sobs coming from her so I wrap Annabelle in my arms and carry her inside carefully. When I get to back to the others, they all have faces of worry and fear, but they calm down at the sight of the girl. I shake my head and set her on an old couch that’s in the next room over. She slowly stops crying and lays there, quietly snoring.

I smile and move back to the others for the night. Loudmouth is wise enough to keep his mouth shut and the girls all give me smiles for bringing the girl inside. I nod and wrap Lucky in my arms before leaning back and laying on the ground with her wrapped up. Everyone but Loudmouth dozes off like someone flipped an off switch. Lucky and I cuddle while we sleep while Ghost and Boom do the same. Loudmouth is left alone to guard the house while we sleep. My shift is next, so I need all the rest that I can get.

End of Journal Entry #17

Author's Note

Sorry if this chapter isn't good. I hope you all like it so far though! There's far more to come soon!