Bloodshed (Book One in the Apocalypse Trilogy)

Prologue: A World At War

Bloodshed

Prologue: A World At War

Year: 2023 

London, United Kingdom

The creatures darted across the bridges, around the buildings, behind cars, as tanks and planes relentlessly bombed them. But they kept coming, despite the efforts of the military. 

She huddled behind the soldier that had come to take her to a safe place. That was all he had told her. There had been no time to gather possessions; she had just been taken from her home. The baby began to wail, upset by the gunfire and the shrieks. Her guard peered around the corner and motioned for her to follow him. They sprinted towards the helicopter that was idling just feet away. They were almost there. Then a hand grabbed her arm from behind. She swung and found herself staring into the face of a zombie. Its blank white eyes locked with hers, and it growled like an animal. Petrified with terror, she was motionless as the thing lowered its head to bite.

An extremely loud noise rang out, and the zombie was gone, face down in the dirt. The soldier picked her up, his gun still smoking, and forced her into the helicopter. The propeller began to turn, and she almost relaxed, when a pang of shock hit her. Where was her baby? She quickly looked out of the window, and saw him on the landing pad, a mob of the creatures closing in.

“NO! NO, STOP!” she screamed. The pilot had tears in his eyes, but he proceeded to bring the craft into the air. She curled up on the floor, sobbing and trying to clear away the image. She didn’t notice as the zombies climbed all over the chopper, and it was brought back to the ground.

She didn’t even register that she was being eaten alive.

Washington D.C, USA

“Go, go!” They crawled out from the barricades, and the moans and shrieks were drowned out by assault rifles, grenades and tank shells. He glanced to either side. Confusion and fear were on all their faces.

The zombies had not originated in America, which he found funny to a certain degree. Some genius had tried to cure death in Indonesia, and ended up creating a virus that turned the dead into flesh-eating monsters. That’s what he’d heard, anyway. They’d received the shortest briefing of his career: aim for the head, don’t get bitten. Then a gun had been put in his hand and he had been sent out, accompanied by other soldiers and a variety of war machines.  When asked what they were up against, the general had simply replied ‘Zombies’.   

He’d expected Romero zombies, but they weren’t. They weren’t slow and unintelligent. They were fast, strong and cunning. Could any of them survive this? Was it time for humans to step aside as the dominant species? Could they fix this mistake?

Well if they could, it wasn’t him that would. The bombers flew overhead, and the last thing he saw was the bomb heading straight for him.

Slums of Beijing, China

The woman sat in her car, a cigarette dangling from her lips. It was a quiet night, and not a sound could be heard.

She didn’t care though. In her purse was a large sum of money, and her new identity was set up. She could begin her life again. She wondered if her son was still waiting for her after all these years. She wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t.

A man emerged from a bar, screaming. She grimaced in distaste. He was drunk.

Another man came after him, followed by ten more. They were all running and screaming, as if Death himself was behind them.

A loud sound exploded from the bar, and a red spray hit the window.

Her hand darted to the small box under her seat, and the heavy handgun was in her hand. She rolled up the window, and got out, locking the car.

Another gunshot echoed inside the bar, and she flinched at the sound. She was close enough to smell the acrid stench of the gunpowder.

“Hello?” she called. A shriek answered her. Not a human shriek, something else. She stepped into the bar, the handgun pointing straight in front of her. She was greeted by a shotgun blast, which she barely dodged. She squeezed off a shot, hitting a beer tap. The brown liquid spilled over the floor, spreading under tables and out the door.

She stood up, hoping to take out the attacker’s gun. She clicked back the hammer of the gun, ready to shoot. She saw the man being eaten by the most grotesque people she’d seen in her life.

They turned her attention to her when she screamed in horror and disgust. She kept screaming as they advanced slowly, as if savouring her fear.

Brisbane, Australia                                                                 

Bang. Bang. Bang. The shotgun sent jolts up his arm as he blasted at the oncoming horde of rotting, walking corpses. For hours, he and the strangers around him had been shooting, but they just kept coming. A horde of stinking monsters, coming to kill and destroy everything you cared about. A volley of machine gun fire sent about a dozen to the ground, but twice as many replaced them.

Suddenly his gun clicked. He reached for the box of shotgun shells, but it was empty. He cursed. That was the last one. A series of clicks and swearwords told him that the others were also starting to run out of ammunition. Guns were flung at the creatures, but it had no effect. He pulled out his revolver and fired a few rounds. But the zombies continued to sprint towards them. Then a deafening explosion and a massive flash of white light went off in the city.

Screams echoed inside the bunker behind them, and those outside realised what had happened. Someone had detonated the nuke, the last line of defence against the zombies. The mushroom cloud went up on the horizon, and that was when they knew that they didn’t have a chance. If the explosion didn’t kill them, the zombies or the radiation would. There was nothing they could do. The wave of fire and hard radiation grew outwards, in every direction, pulsing red and green and yellow. It was almost beautiful, and would have been if it wasn’t so deadly. To escape the painful death he was about to experience, he lifted his gun to his mouth, closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, as the explosion engulfed him. There was nothing more they could do.

There was nothing they could do.