When the Clock strikes 12

Chapter 2 - Day 2 - Discovering The Village

Devan woke up to the sound of an alarm clock going off, "Five more minutes." Devan said as he pressed the snooze button. Devan soon realized that the zombie apocalypse had been going on for years and that he was also no longer living with his parents. Devan then blankly stared at the ceiling of his tent for a moment, "Well, I'd better get up." he said to himself as he walked out of his tent to make breakfast.

Devan and Kathryn's morning was the same as usual; eggs, but Kathryn always enjoyed Devan's cooking, no matter the dish, "thith ith gooth!" Kathryn said with her mouth filled with food, "Oi! don't talk with your mouth full!" exclaimed Devan, "Sowwy." said Kathryn, with food still in her mouth. Devan just sighed as he continued to eat the rest of his breakfast in silence. Once the two finished eating, they went into their car and turned on the radio, Zrrt "This is the zombie forecast for the North area of *Redacted* This is a warning to all who are residing in this area, there will be dangerous levels of infected, in order to survive you must either barricade yourself in or move out of this area immediately if you hope to survive." Zrrt, "Well that's Alarming." Devan said as his hands trembled ever so slightly, "Yeah, we should probably go." Kathryn replied as she and Devan got out to pack up their belongings for the journey ahead.

After swiftly packing up, Devan and Kathryn got into their car and started to drive south to look for a place to stay, "Have you ever thought that there could be two people exactly like us, but we would never know?" Kathryn said, "I guess that could happen, but it wouldn't affect us would it? It'd be like a tree falling in a forest but nobody would be aware that it fell, everybody would continue as if it never happened." Devan replied, "I guess in a way we're all like that tree." Kathryn said, "How so?" Devan asked, "We're all gonna fall someday, and it's up to us how many people see it." the woman replied as she contemplated the thought, "I guess you're right.". Devan looked at the GPS and noticed that they had made it out of the north area of their town, "All right, we made it out, now let's find a place to sleep." he said before looking down at his watch that read 4:00; 8 hours before the aggression point, "Hey, what's that?" Kathryn asked as she pointed at something in the distance.

Devan stopped the car for a moment to look at what Kathryn was pointing at, "It looks like those are." he paused, "walls?" Devan said with a hint of confusion in his voice, "Could those be survivors?!" Kathryn shouted, her eyes gleaming. The last time either one of them had seen a person other than each other was three years ago, so meeting another survivor would be an extremely significant event, "I hope so." said Devan. Within a few minutes, Devan and Kathryn arrived at what seems to be the walls to a village, which on closer inspection seem to have crude wooden spikes placed on them, "It's awfully quiet, do you think it's abandoned." Kathryn whispered to Devan, "I don't know, but we should be careful, who knows what could be behind those walls.". As Devan and Kathryn got out of their car, they suddenly hear a loud voice, "Hands up!" they looked up and saw a ginger-haired woman pointing a gun at them, "Hey, don't shoot!" Devan shouted in shock, "State your names and why you're here." The woman ordered, "I'm Devan and that's Kathryn, we're survivors." Devan gestured to Kathryn, "Survivors!" The woman shouted, "More Survivors!" then loud cheers erupted, and a section of the wall lowered to reveal about two dozen other people who seemed to live there, "Welcome to The Village, enjoy your stay!".

"Holy shit," Devan said, his jaw dropped. Devan had never seen this many people in years. He took a moment to process what was going on, then suddenly, the lady from before announced, "Let's go show them around!". The villagers showed Devan and Kathryn the cabins, the cooking pot, the armoury, and finally, the campfire. The villagers explained that every Saturday night, at 11:00, all the members of the village would have a potluck at the campfire to celebrate another week survived and that this night they would mark their 100th week, "You should come tonight!" one of the villagers said, "Maybe I will.". Soon enough, it was 11:00. Soon enough, Devan and Kathryn got out of their cabin to go to the potluck that all the villagers were talking about, "Something smells Delicious!" Kathryn exclaimed as a delicious aroma dispersed through the air, "Yeah I agree! I wonder what they're making.". The two of them hastily made their way towards the potluck, "Hey guys!" Kathryn announced as she and Devan arrived at the campfire, "Welcome! We were just about to start, you two can take a seat on one of the logs over there.".

The two survivors sat down as they waited for the ginger-haired girl to start her speech, "Hello and welcome to our 100th weekly campfire, let's start with introductions", All the villagers listed out all of their names one by one, "Trevor, John, Katrina, Leah, Abby, Mark....." "And my name is Eden." "So as all of you know. tonight marks the 100th week since this village was first established, so to celebrate this occasion, I've baked a cake for all of you to enjoy!" Eden then removed the foil covering to reveal a cake with the number '100' written on it with sprinkles, "Woah." Kathyrn's jaw dropped, "Are you gonna take a piece, or are you gonna keep drooling?" The ginger-haired woman jeered, then Kathryn quickly took a piece and stuffed it in her mouth, "Mmph, youf dith a greaph jobh!" Devan facepalmed. The night was spent eating, laughing, and was a well-deserved break from all the things that the pair had become accustomed to over the years, but it ended shortly with an announcement from Eden, "Alright everyone, it's ten minutes before the starvation point. Trevor, John, Katy, and I are on guard shift for tonight, the rest of you, go back to the cabins to get some sleep, but keep a weapon close by just in case." Devan and Kathryn followed the group to the cabins to get some rest for tomorrow.

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