[Jackie]

One month later . . .

Date: 9:59 p.m. Tuesday, August 17, 1999
Place: Baltimore, Maryland, United States, Earth

       “Help,” a girl’s voice from nearby screamed. “Get away from me you . . .  you monsters.”
       I turned the corner and bumped into the girl who was screaming. After I got up and assisted her up I noticed that I and the girl were completely surrounded by the undead humans called zombies.
       “Great, I don’t have my gun,” I said.
       “What? You mean we’re going to die?” the girl asked.
       “Sorry,” I said.
       As we were prepared to be eaten alive, with my eyes closed, I heard a lot gunfire. I opened my eyes and the saw zombies lying on the ground, and I saw the feet belonging to someone standing right in front of me. I looked up and saw Akira standing there, along with the rest of the “Monster Hunters”. Over the last month there were a bunch of attacks so Akira created and leads this group he called the “Monster Hunters”, to fight back and hunt down the demons, zombies, and other monsters who have been attacking the human race. I also haven’t seen Akira since a month ago, and had only heard of what he had done.
       “Hi Jackie, looks like we got here just in time,” Akira said.
       “Sir, so you know this civilian?” one of the Monster Hunters asked.
       “He’s a friend, who I haven’t seen since these monster attacks began,” Akira said.
       “Uh, Akira -” I started.
       “That’s sir to you,” an adult Monster Hunter interrupted.
       “He can call me by my name,” Akira said. “As you were saying Jackie.”
       “Well, I would like to join the Monster Hunters,” I said.
       “I guess it’s okay, since you’re a friend, but are you sure?” Akira asked.
       “Yes, and thank you, you won’t regret it,” I said.
       “Thanks for saving me,” the girl said.
       “No problem, it’s part of my job,” Akira said to the girl, then he looked toward the rest of the Monster Hunters. “Back to base.”
       “Yes Sir,” the Monster Hunters replied.
       Akira opened a cellar door revealing a ladder going down. I and the girl followed the Monster Hunters down  and through a tunnel to a door leading to their base. In the Monster Hunters’ base there several groups of people taking refuge from the attacks above ground. There was also a lot of high-tech machinery and weapons that I have never seen before.
       “This base was originally a secret government facility, where they researched new types of weapons and technology,” Akira said. “With all the monster attacks, most of the human population has been wiped out within the past month, including the President and the rest of the government. The only humans left are in this base and in a few places elsewhere.”
       “Sir, I have some bad news,” one of the Monster Hunters in the base said, walking up to Akira.
       “What is it?” Akira asked.
       “Well it’s about your family . . . we kind of lost track of them,” the same Monster Hunter replied.
       “We were ambushed by some zombies,” another Monster Hunter said.
       “Okay, get to the point,” Akira said.
       “There is little chance that your family survived the ambush, and if they did they were probably bitten,” one of the Monster Hunters said, “which means that we have less than twelve hours to find them and administer the vaccine for the virus that the zombies carry before they become among the undead.
       After Akira heard this he slammed his fists on a nearby desk and lowered his head.
       “NO!” Akira yelled.
       “There is a chance that they may  be alive and not infected,” I said.
       “I doubt it, those zombies love to ambush people and they only die when their brain stem is severed or they are shot in the head. My family probably never stood a chance,” Akira said.
       “I know how you feel,” I comforted.
       “You do NOT know how I feel, my family is dead and if not we have less than . . . twelve hours to . . . ” Akira started. “At least you have THEM.”
       Akira pointed to a group of people who were taking refuge from the attacks and happened to be my family, who I thought was dead.
       “Meanwhile I have nobody, NOBODY,” Akira finished.
       “I’m sorry you’re right, I don’t know how you feel, I just . . . ” I stopped, and looked straight at the door we came in just earlier.
       “Just what?” Akira asked, raising his head to look at me.
       “Um, behind you,” I said.
       Everyone in the base looked toward the door I was looking at. The door was bulging inward from whatever pressure was being used on the other side. Suddenly the door flew off its hinges and to the floor. In the doorway were demons that I have never seen before.
       “Oh no, ‘Destroyers’,” Akira said.
       “What?” I asked.
       “Demons, who are trying to make the human population extinct as quickly as possible,” Akira said.
       “Oh my God,” my mother said.
       “God can’t help us now,” Akira said. “Everyone get out of here.  I’ll stall them.”
       “But Sir, can’t I stay and help?” one of the Monster Hunters asked.
       “GO, I’ll catch up,” Akira said.
       “Be careful,” I said to Akira.
       Then everyone in the base, except Akira, followed one of the Monster Hunters to the back exit. Outside we found ourselves surrounded my zombies. The other Monster Hunters opened fire on them, but there were too many. One of the Monster Hunters handed me a weapon right before he was gobbled up.
       “Is this the end?” I asked as the others were getting wiped out all around me.

[Akira]

Meanwhile . . .

       I was trying to get rid of the Destroyers, but they just kept coming. I heard screams and gunfire coming from the direction of the back exit then it stopped. I kept shooting, knowing there may be no chance of survival for me. When I ran out of bullets in the firearm, I was carrying I dropped it to the floor and closed my eyes, preparing to be eaten alive by the Destroyers. All of a sudden I heard more gunfire and this time it was coming from right beside me. I opened my eyes and looked around to find Jackie standing there firing at the Destroyers.
       “Don’t be giving up on me now, Akira,” Jackie said.
       “You’re alive!?” I said.
       “Yeah, we were ambushed,” Jackie said.
       “Any other survivors?” I asked.
       “No,” Jackie said sadly. “I guess this is the end, it was fun while it lasted.”
       “Like you said earlier, don’t give up now,” I said. “It’s nowhere near the end.”
       I remembered about the armory and all the racks holding swords, guns, and other weapons, in the room just adjacent to the one we were in; it was put in while I was leading the Monster Hunters. I ran toward it as Jackie followed. I looked on all of the racks, grabbed a couple rifles, and tossed one of them to Jackie.
       “Think this is enough?” Jackie asked rhetorically, noticing that the room was full of weapons as far as either of us could see.
       “Better be,” I said sarcastically, strapping the rifle over my right shoulder and around my left hip keeping the rifle against my back until I wanted to use it.
       Jackie grabbed a few army packs and loaded them with all the ammo and grenades. I grabbed the best-looking sword on the rack with its sheath and strapped it over my right shoulder and around my left hip like I did the rifle. Then Jackie picked up a Gatling gun and tested its weight, shaking it up and down, to see if it was to heavy to carry. As he did that I studied a rocket and grenade launchers that were modified to make confined explosions so that they could be used indoors if necessary and not make too big of an explosion.
       “Jackie, over here,” I said.
       Jackie placed the Gatling gun back on the rack and ran over to where I was standing a few feet away.
       “What is it?” Jackie asked.
       “Here,” I said, handing him the modified grenade launcher, as I picked up the modified rocket launcher.
       Then we went back to the room where the Destroyers had busted in, and we used the modified grenade and rocket launchers on them. Smoke from the explosions formed a veil covering where the Destroyers were standing.
       “Stop firing,” I said to Jackie.
       We waited for the smoke to clear so that we could see if we had succeeded in killing all of them. As the smoke veil cleared, I noticed that there were even more Destroyers than before, and some others lie wounded on the floor.
       “This is useless, follow me,” I said, “and grab as many weapons as you can carry.
       I ran to my truck that was sitting in the garage attached to the base through a side exit. I had obtained this truck while I lead the Monster Hunters to carry troops around to different locations. I loaded the modified grenade launcher into the back of the truck, and ran back to the armory to grab more weapons as Jackie ran past me with an armful of weapons.  I quickly grabbed an armful of weapons and ran back to that truck while Jackie did the same, and we repeated this process until all the weapons that were in the base were loaded onto the truck. Then since I noticed there was more room in the truck I decided that we should take the computers and anything else that wasn’t to heavy to carry with us, because I thought they might be useful to us later on. Jackie seeing what I was doing assisted me on loading everything into the truck. Doing this took a lot of time, and I remembered that the Destroyers eat their wounded, which gave us enough time.
       “Phew, that was a lot of work,” Jackie said, while wiping the sweat of his face with a towel he found in the truck.
       “All that we didn’t take was the desks, tables, and chairs,” I said, a little bit exhausted from all the carrying.
       Then I noticed that there were some human corpses scattered nearby.  I got into the driver’s seat leaving the door open as I looked for the keys. I noticed Jackie lower his head when he saw I child around the age of his younger brother dead on the ground. I figured he was thinking about his family and how he couldn’t do anything to save them.
       “I’m sorry about your family, but we have to get out of here,” I said, finally finding the keys in the glove compartment.
       I put the keys in the ignition and closed the driver’s side door, as Jackie got into the passenger’s side. Then I got an idea that if successful would buy us even more time.
       “Wait here, I’ll be back,” I said, opening the driver’s side door and getting out.
       “What are you going to do?” Jackie asked.
       “I’m going to blow up the base, to buy us some time,” I said. “The Destroyers may be strong and nearly invincible, but it takes them a while to get out from underneath a bunch of rubble.”
       I ran back into the base to find the Destroyers still feeding off their wounded near the front entrance. I quicky grabbed some C4 and strapped them to the pillars holding the ceiling up, and set them for just enough time for me to get back to the truck and drive far enough away from the base. Then I ran back to the truck as fast as I could, got back into the driver’s seat, and turned the key to start it up.
       “Fasten your seatbelt, we are out of here,” I said, fastening my seatbelt, and drove the truck out if the garage.
       There were a few zombies, demons, and other monsters trying to catch up to the truck as I drove, but they were too slow and couldn’t catch up to us on foot. Then as we had the base far enough away behind us, it exploded. The explosion was bigger than I expected. Pieces of rubble flew into some of the monsters and into the some of the parked vehicles along the road, killing the monsters that were hit instantly. I noticed Jackie jumped from the explosion when a piece of rubble just barely missed the truck.
       “Did you use enough explosives?” Jackie asked rhetorically.
       “No,” I said jokingly back. “Anyway, where would you like to go? I don’t mind where.”
       “Well no one can object to where we choose to go . . . because they’re all dead,” Jackie said, stating a very good point.
       “Well, at least, now you know how I feel,” I said sadly.
       I drove through the streets of Baltimore and into Towson. I drove all night as Jackie fell asleep against the window. I grabbed a CD from my school backpack that I had put in the truck a while ago and placed into the truck stereo. I listened to the music to drone out to sounds from the zombies, demons, and other monsters, which from now on I’ll just call them all monsters. I drove until dawn, listening to the music, when Jackie woke up.

       “How long have I been asleep?” Jackie asked.
       “Well you’ve been sleeping since eleven p.m. and it’s now five forty a.m. so that’s six hours and forty minutes,” I answered, turning off the stereo.
       “I can’t believe what is happening here,” Jackie said, while looking out the window to the city we were driving into which I don’t know what it’s called.
       I pulled into a self-serve gas station because we were running low on gas and I noticed there was no person or monster in site, not even the corpse of one.
       “Okay, this is weird,” Jackie said.
       I got out of the truck leaving the driver’s side door open, quickly filled the tank with gas, and went to the cashier booth. I left enough money to pay for the gas, even though I knew there was nobody around to claim it. Then I went back to the truck, sat in the driver’s seat, leaving the door still opened, and laid my head against the steering wheel. I couldn’t help but feel somehow responsible for what has happened so far.
       “What is the matter?” Jackie asked.
       “Nothing,” I said, lifting my head, and lying to Jackie. “Nothing at all.”
       Jackie stepped out of the truck and grabbed a couple of large empty gas cans that were for sale. I stepped out of the truck, grabbed the gas cans from Jackie, filled them up with gas, and loaded them into the back of the truck. I then went into the convenience store that was attached to the gas station cashier booth, and left some money on the counter to well enough pay for the food we were going to taking. Jackie walked in and down one of the small aisles, while I stood at the counter and waited.
       “Akira, come here and look at this,” Jackie said.
       I walked down the aisle that Jackie was waiting in. One of the shelves had been knocked down with a corpse lying right on top. I looked at the corpse and after seeing the name tag, found out that this was the convenience store clerk. There was blood all around the body and a shotgun lying beside it.
       “Looks like he died fairly recently,” Jackie said.
       Jackie started to grab for the shotgun and when he got hold of it, the corpse came back to life as a zombie. I quickly grabbed my handgun from the holster I still had strapped around my torso and shot the zombie in the head, killing it instantly.
       “He apparently has been dead for twelve hours,” Jackie said.
       “Yet another victim,” I said sadly, clipping the handgun back into it’s holster.
       Jackie grabbed some food and drinks and loaded them into the back seat in the front of the truck. Then we got in drove off leaving the gas station behind, and drove all night. I drove for three days straight, filling up on gas along the way. I stopped at a diner because we were running low on food, and got out of the truck, leaving the driver’s side door open. I walked into the diner while Jackie looked around outside, making sure there were no monsters around that he could see. In the diner I heard a low chewing noise, coming from somewhere near the kitchen.
       “Hello, is someone there?” I asked aloud, hoping it may be another survivor.
       No one answered, so I decided to go into the kitchen to see what was going on and to look for some food. I saw the back of a zombie hunched over what appeared to be a human corpse, eating away at it. I grabbed my handgun from it’s holster around my torso like before, and shot the zombie in the back of the head before it even noticed me. Then from the kitchen I saw Jackie run in, probably to investigate the gunshot he heard from my handgun.
       “Akira, what was that gunshot from?” Jackie asked.
       “There was a zombie that I shot in the back of the head,” I answered.
       “Oh . . . okay, let’s get some food for the rest of the trip,” Jackie said.
       Jackie walked back into the kitchen where I was and we searched around for all the food that we could find, and that was still good, and loaded them into the truck while not looking in the back seat. Suddenly as we finished loading all the still edible food into the truck and I was about to get into the truck, a car zoomed by and I caught a little glimpse of the driver.
       “Who was that?” Jackie asked, already in the truck, and buckled in with the door closed.
       “I don’t know, but the driver looked . . . familiar,” I said, and got into the truck.
       Jackie, already comfortable in the passenger seat, started to fall asleep. I turned the key in the ignition and drove off as the sun was setting. All night I heard the monsters moaning and wondered how Jackie could sleep through all that noise. I decided to turn on the stereo like I did before to drone out the noise. As I reached to turn on the stereo a zombie from the back seat jumped forward and bit me on the right shoulder.
       “Augh,” I screamed in pain, while opening the door, trying to throw the zombie out of the truck and driving at the same time.
       I swerved back and forth trying to stay on the road.