We Live In Death ~*Watty Awards 2011*~

We Live In Death

She sat in a large seemingly empty warehouse, her breath crystallizing into a cloud in front of her face, it was the middle of winter and there was a thick coat of snow over the ground. It had been ten years since the end of everything she had known came to an end, she had been very young when it happened, her mother and father turning right before her, their eyes glazing over, her brother had killed them as they tried to get to her...to eat her. Her brother turned a few years after the outbreak, she was forced to kill him, Seven years later she returned to her home city where it had all started, it was strangely quiet devoid of the shuffling undead with their hollow gazing eyes. When she had last visited it had been overrun with them, their stench overwhelming, but now, silence.

She waited in the warehouse for anything to happen, knowing that there she would be safe, there was a steel vault where the survivors had stocked food when the virus took over, she and her brother had lived in the warehouse in the following months after the zombies started multiplying. At one point they broke through the barricade and she and her brother were shoved into the vault and told to stay there until it got quiet. It was weeks before the shuffling steps of the undead left the warehouse. When they had emerged, the stench of blood and decaying flesh overwhelmed them, they gathered what weapons they could carry and enough food and water for a few months and they left. She sat on the cold hard concrete floors staring out the window at the whitewashed world, as her gaze turned to the city gates she saw a figure moving slowly and deliberately towards the city. The figure was moving slow and with shuffling steps but the movements were too coordinated to be one of the undead, no, this one was alive.

Walking silently he approached the gates of the city with shuffling steps, aiming the barrel of his Barrett M107A1 straight in front of him ready to shoot anything in it's sights. Ten dog tags dangling from his rifle, tied tightly around the barrel in memorial. It had been ten years, during three of which had still been with his unit. Three years before they had been whipped out by a horde of ravenous zombies. A soft sigh settled his thoughts as he entered the city checking everywhere around him before stepping forward.

She made her way through the warehouse's familar twists and turns down to the street level, she peeked out the door cautiously looking around aware that a zombie could be lurking anywhere, ready to feed. Her heart was pounding in her chest with excitement, it had been years since she had seen a survivor they were all dying off, unable to take the life they were now forced to live. She had so many questions so she took a deep breath before making her way out into the street, moving quickly and quietly towards him.

Hearing the snow crunching softly beneath her feet as she approached him, by instinct he swung around pivoting his body and aiming the barrel of his rifle straight at her head, his eyes hidden by his helmet. He studied her quickly, checking over every inch of her body in a second, before he lowered his rifle slowly. still not moving towards her or a way. She walked over to him slowly, looking around. There was a slight animal air about her, her eyes darting around nervously. She stood in front of him for a moment and motioned toward the warehouse. She started to walk back to the warehouse, turning around every now and then to check that he was following.

He watched her intently with caution as he slowly began to follow her, his weapon's sights not yet off her entirely. He had come across survivors before most of them had lured him into traps or tried using him to make another trap, their lives never lasted long after that. He had once come across an old couple who had tricked him into thinking he was safe, they treated him to a nice meal, but like all the others, they tried to kill him, stabbing the bed they thought he was sleeping in like mad as he watched them from the corner. He never did like laying in bed, he was used to the rough and hard ground. He couldn't help but wonder who she was though she seemed familiar and most girls he came across tried seducing him or acting innocent just to take his weapons from him. He could never trust anybody in these times, never.