When It All Fell Apart

^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~^_~ WHEN IT ALL FELL APART Nellie's POV (oldest): The door banged open the sound echoing around the empty ware house. Our sleeping bags were spread askew around a circle of our supplies. Makes for an easy escape, in case of trouble. Cassandra, the youngest of us three sisters, walked in her face grim. She clutched a ratty newspaper in her hand. She slowly walked over to Maci and I. She opened her mouth to speak, her eyes bright with sorrow. Suddenly she closed her mouth and threw the paper. It slid across the ground and landed by my knees. I didn't bother to pick to up, the headline said it all. "U.S Pandemic Spreads! Public fears of totale downfall!" I tightened my fist, resisting the urge to crumple it up and throw it into the fire that cackled near by. "They spelled total wrong," Maci said, holding in a snicker. I sucked in a breath. "The world is in ruins, i doubt anyone cares about spelling," I told her. I slowly got up, stretching my tired legs. "We should probably head west. The safe houses should be open by November." Cassandra and Maci exchanged a glance. "Nel..." Cassandra started, "How do you know there will be safe houses?" She asked, worry filling her voice. Dread settled at the bottom of my stomach. She could be right... No. There ARE safe houses. "I just know, pack it up we're heading out soon." I gathered my stuff, getting ready for the long trek ahead. *** "Sleeping bag?" "Check." "Full Canteen on water?" "Check." "Extr-" Maci abruptly stood up, cutting me off from checking the list. "Nellie. We have everything, we've been doing this for awhile. Let's just go, you're making me want to die in this parking lot." She said with an irritated voice. I looked down at the list and then back up, meeting her dark brown eyes. I sighed, "Your right. Let's head out." I hitched my blue back up on my shoulder. The sun was just rising and we headed away from it. I tightened my grip on my metal baseball bat. Sliding my glance over, making sure the others were armed. I looked Cassandra, her light brown hair blowing in the wind. She had a rain off an old rusted bike we had found on the side of the road clutched in her small hands. Maci caught my eye and smiled. "Jealous?" She asked, a mischievous glint in her eye. She pulled her own bat out from behind her. A long nail was pierced near the top of the bat. "Wait and see." She grinned. I gave her a strange look, but nodded. I grabbed my hair band from around my wrist and pulled my blonde hair up into a high pony tail. Cassandra hedged closer to the middle of the two of us. "Nels." She whispered. "What's that?" I snapped my eyes up. At the center of the road stood a giant cage. Zombies were pressed against the chain link, trying to get out. Their groans could be heard from a mile away. Maci stepped forward swinging her bat between her fingers, a dangerous smirk on her face. What is going on? Were people hoarding zombies? Before she could take a step forward I put a hand on her shoulder. We weren't close enough to really see the zombies but I grabbed as big a rock as I could find. Slowly lifting it up, I brought it over my head and let it fly from my fingers. It landed with a thud right out side of the cage. Five zombies suddenly appeared, running from behind trees and broken cars. They all surrounded the area around the rock. They didn't even pause as they went at each other. I stepped in front of Cassandra, blocking her view. I felt a hand push me aside as she peeked through. "Oh My Gosh." She whispered, her voice disgusted. Before Maci could rush forward demonstrating her new bat, I grabbed both of their arms. "Where are we going?" Maci asked. "Around." I answered briefly. "After we get away from them, we should set up camp." I looked up near the setting sun. Another day traveling. *** "Batter up mother fuckers!" Maci called out before swinging her bat at a lone zombie. It made a sickening sound before the zombie fell to the ground. Maci smirked before turning back around and grinning at us. Cassandra looked at her with a frown. "Your being immature! Millions of people are dead and your just having a dandy time, aren't you?!" Maci looked at her shocked, "Well MAYBE that's how I deal with it! Okay?!" She yelled back. Cassandra whirled around and stalked off. I put a hand on Maci's shoulder, "Let her be." I said keeping an eye out for more zombies. All of a sudden a loud growling could be heard. I turned around but I couldn't see anything. I quickly grabbed Maci's arm and ran over to Cassandra. Suddenly a truck appeared in the distance. As it neared closer i instinctively stepped in front of Maci and Cassandra. It slammed to a stop right in front of us. I took a step back but ran into Cass. Two doors popped open and a group of about five filed out. "Well, Well, What do we have here?" The oldest looking one stepped forward a smirk on his face. He couldn't have been older than twenty. I glared at him suspiciously and then another guy opened there mouth. "You guys heading west?" He asked roaming his eyes around the land. "No sh**." Maci cut in her voice full of attitude. I glanced back at her and gave her a disapproving look. Let's not cause trouble, please. I thought to myself. I guess that doesn't work cause in a zombie apocalypse, trouble is everywhere. Maci's POV (middle) I looked at them with pure hatred. I didn't know who the hell they thought they were, but if they wanted to come and terrorize the two most important things in the world to me, than they had to get through me first.. And I assure you, that wouldn't be easy. I could sense Nell's anxiety, and I knew she needed me to be quiet, but I just couldn't. I pushed Nell and Cass behind me slightly. "Who the hell are you?" I yelled bracing my trusty bat. The dude had sort of a country accent. "Well sweetheart, I suggest you change your attitude." His smirk melted slightly, and his serious face scared me. I shuddered, and he must've seen it. He moved in closer, his features were actually really cute. Bright emerald green eyes that sparkled in the mid day sun. His hair was brown and slightly shaggy to his ears. He was a lot taller than me. He bent down, making Nell instinctively pull me behind her, but I resisted. "What's your problem man!?" I yelled. From out of nowhere I felt a sharp pain across my cheek. His hand was hard and dry. Cassandra let out a small yelp, but I stood my ground. Nellie was pulling on my arm, trying to drag me behind her. The other four men behind him were silent. "Nellie, take Cassandra and don't look." She looked at me, but no matter what, I wasn't changing my mind. They walked away 10/15 feet and Cass tried to cover her ears and eyes. Nellies eyes were squeezed shut. I clutched my bat, checking to see if they had any guns. They must've left them in the truck. "Go away." I said very calmly. "And what if we don't?" I swung the bat as hard as I could. The metal spike plunged into his stomach. He groaned and fell to the ground. "Go the hell away. Now." I squeezed the bat, praying to not have to swing it at another living human being. They whispered among each other. I couldn't hear it, I was deaf in my left ear. They left the guy on the ground bleeding, while they jumped in the truck. They sped off. Nellie walked up with a depressed look on her face. "We could've handled that differently, you know." "I know, I'm sorry to the both of you." Cass was crying. I went over and hugged her. She pulled away and hugged Nell. I knew she hated me. I tried as hard as I could, for all three of us, but I couldn't do good enough. We lost everything, our parents, our brother, our home, we were all we had left. I didn't do a very good job of protecting it. As we walked I desperately needed a pharmacy, my inhaler was almost empty, and I was having trouble breathing. Cass refused to even look at me let alone talk. In the end I just gave up trying and kept my big mouth shut. I really hated walking. We followed the road as much as we could. We started to enter an area that had many trees alongside the road. As we walked, Nell heard something and pushed us behind a big tree. Cass must've heard it too. I was completely in the dark, and they kept shushing me. "What?" "SHHH" "what did you guys hear?" "SHHH"....... "SHHH" "Cass, what did you guys hear?" "Rustling." I peeked behind the tree. True, there was rustling, I could hear it now. Something was moving the bushes. "It's just a zombie, Nell." I said. She nodded slightly. I stepped out to exterminate when the rustling amplified. At least 10 zombies stepped out. Nell threw me back behind the tree, but they had already seen me. "Run. Now." Nell whispered, and her word was my command. We ran with Nell up front, Cass in the middle, and me in the back. We kept running. When we stopped I collapsed on the ground in full out asthma attack. "Where's your inhaler, Maci?!" Nell yelled. I frantically pointed to my bag laying on the ground next to me. She practically ripped my bag open trying to find it. After just seconds she gave it to me and tried to help me sit up. After that was over we all sat there for a while, not talking, not doing anything, just sitting there, thinking. I checked my watch. "It's 7:00, I really wish I could watch Spongebob right now.." We looked at each other, and laughed. **Cassandra's POV** We laughed and joked around a bit trying to lighten the mood, but while constantly looking over our shoulders, the effect was ruined. "It's getting late, let's walk some and then set up camp." Nell said a note of anxiety in her tone. My mind keeps replaying the moment Maci swung her bat at the guy, granted he hit her, but I can't help but to think of what this new world has made her become. I clear my throat and stand up. "Okay, let's go." I hold out my hand to Mac and silent understanding seemed to pass by. 'We're okay.' it seemed to say. Getting up she walks beside me as Nell stands in front leading the way. "I'm sorry you had to see that." she said head looking forward. "It's okay." I say nudging her with my hand and walking faster to catch up with Nell. We reach a cave and set up camp. "Set the traps around the entrance and mark escape routes, make sure they our monitored!" Nell's voice rings out from the back of the cave. I walk up front and look out over the dark forest. I see four shapes walking along the forest floor, 'zombies?' I think. 'no, to fast.' "Nell-" I begin to say, but then it dawns on me. "It's the guys from earlier!" I accidentally scream out loud. Alerting them that I know they are here. One of the youngest snaps his head up. They slowly make their way up to our cave. I look at my trap and snigger. If they don't see it, Ill be very grateful. Yet, they all do and step carelessly over it. "it took me an hour to make that, and you just step over it?" I say huffing and running over to get my blade. "What are yo- oh, it's you." Nels says coming over. "Maci!" she calls out and she walks over. "didn't I kill one of you?" Maci asks calmly eyeing the one who looks a lot like that guy. Im going to guess that's his brother from the grief stricken look on his face. I instantly feel bad for him. "I'm gryphon." he says in a shaky voice. Maci's POV I wasn't sorry for killing the guy. Nobody lays a hand on me and lives to tell the tale. He looked at me with a disapproving, sad expression. "Just to let you know, I'm hardly sorry for that." I said harshly. "Look, Thomas wasn't very nice, he sometimes loses his temper, but that's no reason to kill someone!" I was getting mad. "Are you crazy!? Go out there and take a peek at all those morons gropping around! I'm sure we both have killed MANY of those 'someones'" "YOU KILLED SOMEONE WHO WAS REALLY ALIVE!" "What's the difference anymore?" I said in a quiet voice with my head down. The atmosphere changed drastically. I knew I had become a monster, in my sisters' eyes, and in the world's eyes. I pushed passed the guys, Nell tried to grab my arm, but I shook her off easily as if she was ok with me leaving. I walked about a mile before sitting behind a tree. I cried. All my crying was to be done in privet, I refused to let them see me. I let it all pour out. I sobbed until i heard a voice close behind me. "Mac?" It was Cassandra. "Cass! What are you doing out here? Where's Nell!?" "I ran off, she's probably worried sick. We need to go back.. Are you ok? You know you're still my sister..." "I'm alright, let's go, quickly." We started jogging through the thick forest when my face met Nellies aluminum baseball bat. Thank god it didn't have a spike in it. Black out. A couple hours later I heard muffled voices above me. "Gryphon, is she gonna be ok!?" Nell asked. "Eh she'll be fine. Met that bat real hard though. Good thing it wasn't that killing machine she used to murder my brother." I opened my eyes, they seemed really heavy. I tried to turn over, but Nell put her hand on my shoulder. "Mac, how are you? I'm really sorry! I thought you were one of the "walkers". "It's ok, better me than Cass. Are you ok?" Her response was drowned out by an excruciating squeak in my ear. It was a continued high pitched ringing. I squeezed my eyes shut, and it slowly faded away. I was shaken awake by someone strong. It was Gryphon. "Get up! We need your help!" I struggled to get up. Then I heard voices out of the mouth of the cave. As soon as I realized we were in total zombie chaos I grabbed my bat and joined the anarchy. Nell and Cass were killing them left and right, so were Gryphon's gang. There were maybe 30/40 zombies running. This wasn't gonna go on. Left and right i swung my bat until it got stuck in a zombie's head. A couple were quickly surrounding me I kicked them, but they kept coming. I heard Griphon yell and all of a sudden he took out all five. All was quiet. We entered the cave where our traps lay broken. "Ok, what the hell happened?" I asked whoever would listen. The three boys next to Gryphon spoke up. "I'm Charlie." The middle one said "I'm Vernon." The youngest said. "I'm Teddy." Said the one who looked maybe a year younger than Gryphon. "Uh huh.. But that doesn't answer my question." "Maci, I'm sorry. We just got surrounded all of a sudden. How are you feelin?" "Like shit.. But it's cool. Nothin gets me to feelin better than killin some Z's." I smiled and they did too. "So you boys are going to be joining us in our quest to.. Um... Western frontier?" I asked Charlie, who was really hot. "Yeah, if you'll let us." His voice was deep and sexy. "Anytime." Nell shot me a glance. She knew I was into him. She rolled her eyes. Nellie's POV~ I shot a glance at Maci. There wasnt time for this! Were trying to get to safety and shes flirting. Just the fact that she can actually get a guy with out trying bugs me. I let out a sigh of frustration. I need a plan, and fast. "You okay?" A voice asked. I ignored it. Just another guy fawning all over Maci. I raked my hands through my hair stopping myself from pulling at it in frustration. I felt a tap on my shoulder and i shot up. My heart pounding. I turned around and saw a boy standing there. I raised an eyebrow. "Uh.. I was just seeing if you were okay." I clenched my jaw and kept my mouth shut. Am i okay?! Were in the middle of the stinking end of the world! I took a deep breath. "I didnt catch your name." I told him. He looked frustrated for a second, but then he smiles. "My names Teddy." I noticed he too had light brown hair, but instead of green eyes his were a deep brown. He stood a little taller than me, with me being so tall that was surprising. "Uh, well hi Teddy." I looked around scanning the area. He cleared his throat. I snapped my gaze back to his eyes. "Sorry," I forced a smile. "Force of habit," He frowned and shook his head letting out a sigh, he turned around and walked off. Maci called him over and i shot her an annoyed glance. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the slippery cave wall. Time to think. Maci's POV (sorry, i write alot. i get bored :P) The boys were sitting around the fire, talking to me. I kinda felt bad because Nellie was sitting alone near the back of the cave. i got up, yawned, and told them to go to bed. i walked back to her and slopped down next to her. "You ok, big sis?" she kept her head down and whispered something "What? You know i cant hear you." "I said, Im sorry." I looked up at the celing of this massive cave. i closed my eyes for a minute, remembering the time before all this chaos. We would screw around in the kitchen trying to make cake that failed miserably. I remember Nellie sitting with me watching Spongebob eating a tub of ice cream when my first boyfriend broke up with me. Then i remember when our brother got infected.. It was the middle of January, freezing cold, snowing that night i think. Cass, Nell and I were watching the News, it was brodcasting major infections moving around the united states. People were advised to stay in their home, not to let anybody in. We heard a frantic banging at the door. Nell jumped up and shushed us. She moved slowly to the door. "Its me! Its Harry!" Our older brother yelled. She unlocked the door and let him in. He stummbled inside and said "The dude out side! He fuckin bit me!" I looked at the bite. It was blue and purple, on his left forearm. I ushered to the kitchen and washed the bite "Its infected, Hares.You need to go to a doctor." He shook his head. "No, no its not that bad." I wrapped it up and sat him on the couch. an hour went past and he'd gotten worse. He puked several times. Then he collapsed on the floor. We flipped out and tried to wake him up. After about ten minutes of failure we heard groaning. He got up and advanced toward us, pushing us all three back to the wall of our living room. "Mac, whats happening?" Cass asked i shook my head. He didnt look like our brother, he looked like a monster. His once amazingly bright hazel eyes were now blood shot. He had a trickle of blood running down his cheek. We ran out of the house trying to trip him up in any way possible. Nell took her phone and tried to call mom, but it went straight to voicemail, same with dad. We looked out in the street and anarchy had already started. People were running trying to escape a zombie trailing close behind them. I dont really remember the rest. It all seemed so long ago. "Maci." Nell nudged me with her elbow. "Huh?" I asked. "Oh nothing, just wanted to make sure you didnt pass out again." She giggled. "You hit me pretty hard with that bat, you sure you werent aiming for me?" She laughed harder. "I dunno, you did ask for it though. You havent been the most angelic sister lately." I laughed too. I shrugged. "Sorry bout that mate." "Uh huh sure, what time is it?" i looked at my watch "Wow, time flie when youre havin fun. 7:23 in the morning." "Dang it, lets go. where's Cass?" I pointed to a sleeping bag where a lump was in the middle. "Dont wake her up, Maci, we've all had a looong night." A couple hours later we were walking west again, this time with the boys joining us. Up in front we saw a zombie with a waitress uniform on. The nametag said Lisa. Nell braced her bat, and took out the lone zombie. Then we were once again walking. Cassandra's POV We walk along a creek dirtied with blood. "Watch out guys, zombies are gonna be all over these parts." gryphon says country like. "Yeah guys, we don't want no zombies gettin' us." maci mocked them. Which earned a hit from nellie. "I get you trying to lighten the mood and all, but keep my accent out of it." gryphon retaliates. "Calm down guys, Nells! I'm getting tired, can we rest?" I ask tiredly slowing down and almost falling over. "Here." Vernon says bending over as if he expects me to hop on. "how old do you think I am? Five?" I snap tiredly. "Just hop on I'll give you a piggy back ride till we get to camp." "Fine." I huff and climb on. I immediately fall asleep. I woke up to the sound of yelling. "What do you think you're doing?" Nell's, I think screams. "We were just kissing, calm down!" a blushing maci yells. "Calm down, Nellie." Charlie says. "figures." I muttered under my breath. Vernon sends me an amused look. "If your done with your make out session, I'd like to go back to bed!" gryphon calls from wherever he is. "Let's go." Maci says curtly grabbing Charlie's hand and stalking out of the clearing. "DON'T FORGET PROTECTION!" Teddy yells. Followed by us all laughing. Nellie's POV~ I resisted the urge to run after Maci and apologize. We were all strung up and tired. My legs itched with the anticipation. Were they okay? Were they safe? I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I felt fabric brushing against my skin. "Seems like your always worried." A voice said from my left. I opened my eyes and resisted the urge to glare at Teddy. "And your not? The world is ending and your just happy go lucky?" I asked, disbelieving. He looked at me for a long time. "Of course im worried, but you cant let that get to you. If you worry to much you can make rash decisions," I looked at him, suprised. "And that ladies and gentleman is some wise words from Ted." A teasing voice, I recognized as Charlie said. He clapped a hand on Teddy's shoulder. I looked up, just now noticing Maci and Charlie were back. Maci and Cass looked to be in deep conversation. Charlie stood above us a teasing grin on his face. How had I not noticed they came back? I looked back at Teddy to see he and Charlie were now talking. I stood up and began walking toward the front of the cave. Vern was now sitting by Cass joining there conversation. "Where are you going?" Gryphon standing by the entrance with his hands in his pockets. "I need some air." I said briefly before stepping into the chilly night.

Maci's POV
I was really pissed at Nellie, she interrupted my fun. Charlie and I didn't go all the way. I liked him a lot.. Well I liked his tongue, and his butt. We just wanted some fun before we, ourselves, turned into those zombies. Which was inevitable because i knew there were no safe houses. There couldn't be. I would've shot myself before turning into a monster though. We were among the only ones left, and we had no supplies. We had to eat only what we hunted. I really hoped Charlie would stay and travel with us, I could use him for stress relief. I also hoped Nells would chill out and hook up with Teddy. Cass.. She shouldn't do that. But maybe a good relationship between her and Vernon would be ok until the end of the world.