ã€ŠWhat makes your zombie apocalypse special.ã€‹


 Why my zombie apocalypse cant be like one in TV?

    I often find myself, thinking about how movies and TV series were wrong about this whole zombie apocalypse thing. It''s almost three years since it began, but I still can''t stop comparing reality to those fictions. Of course, it''s not like those books and movies were completely wrong, many things are like in scripts, but seriously, how those characters from TV screen could kill those creatures so easily? My favorite example is ordinary zombie decapitation, looks simple, isn¡¯t it? It''s not.

    Right now, I am standing in the middle of street and I am in the deep shit. About three meters in front of me stands perfect example of walking dead. One wouldn¡¯t be such a problem but I can see five more down the street and they already noticed my presence. Let''s forget about those five and focus on gentlemen in front of me, decapitation right? First of all you need a tool, I got some bastard sword. It''s really nice, you can wield it in one or both hands and naturally it doesn¡¯t need any ammo, just a grinding stone once a while.

    I was always laughing while watching some famous brothers from TV show beheading evil creatures with huge hunter knives and similar stuff, it was just ridiculous. But you can ask, it has to be some brutal medieval blade? What about something more sophisticated like katana?

    Yeah, katanas are cool, I have even meet some guy wielding one about two years ago. He was doing well while using it but there is one problem, that guy got black belt in every martial art that I could name. He was like bastard son of Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee, he was jumping, slicing and kicking zombies like a mad. To be honest I was pretty sad when he died from bite wound infection, I wanted him to teach me some of that moves.

    Ok, let¡¯s head back to decapitation, we got our tool so the next step is to cut the neck of zombie in front of me. Sound simple, isn¡¯t it? Let¡¯s give it a try.

    So, I stand in stance, with my legs little wider than normal, both of my hands are wielding sword, I am ready, just wait let him come closer.

    It take some time for zombies to notice prey but when they finally see you, it''s really hard to run from them. They are not as slow as in TV but fortunately they don¡¯t run like athletes.

    So, gentlemen in front of me started to act. He made first step and second one. Ok, that¡¯s the moment time slice some flesh, just one clear cut. And¡­ I fucked up... sword is stuck in his spine.

    There are few possible causes of such a failure. Firstly, I have heavy backpack on me with addition of whole protective gear I am wearing it''s almost miracle that I can even move. Second problem is sharpness of my blade, I tried almost everything but keeping this thing sharp is like trying to fill broken bucket.

    Third reason why I failed is because decapitation looks cool and easy only in TV. Zombie with sword in his neck fall on the ground, I guess I was little lucky, the spine core was damaged. For a short moment I think about releasing sword from dead body but fuck this thing. I am already tired of trying to learn how fight with this blade, it''s not like I needed it, I took it because it looked cool.

    Ok, I need to stop thinking about weird shit and focus on important things, like five zombies heading my way. Quick look on my surroundings and thank god there is one. About 20 meters behind me is solution for this situation.

    I take me a few seconds to reach ordinary white van about two meters in high. Only problem is to get myself on the roof, it''s not impossible but backpack isn¡¯t helping. Fortunately front window is broken and makes it easier for me. Ok, I am finally on the roof and zombies are still 10 meters from my shelter.

    Now I got few minutes to take care of them, at least TV shows were right about their intelligence, they are nothing more than dead bodies with deep need of fresh human flesh. Zombies won''t get me when I am on the roof of a van but I can¡¯t spend too much time here. It will be unlucky, if noise made by them will lure more of their kind and there is also a chance that other humans will hear it. I don¡¯t know which option is worse.

    So I am sitting on the car and zombies are trying to get me, it may looks bad but I am calm. Fortunately sword wasn¡¯t my only weapon, there is strange looking pickax attached to the right side of my backpack. It looks little like those used for mountain climbing but its handle is longer and its spike is smooth without any small hooks.

    My pickax is weapon crafted specially for situations like that; spike is made from hardened steel so it won¡¯t break form hitting enormous quantities of sculls. Yeah sculls, killing zombies is hard, so specialized tools are needed.

    I am taking off my backpack, it takes me few seconds because I use all belts to wear it, it looks lame, like six years old going first time to school lame, but after few months of wearing your whole stuff on your back, it''s only choice. Without additional weight on me I can move almost normally. So when I am sure of my movements, it''s time for some zombie elimination.

    I kneel on the edge of a van with pickax in my hands; under me are five pairs of arms and five zombie heads. And once again, killing zombies is not an easy thing; I need to be very careful while piercing their heads. There are two bad things that can happened, one of zombies will grab my pickax and I want be able to take it back from its steel grab, or dead zombie will pull me down while falling.

    Fortunately crushing zombie heads became like national sport in last few years and almost every person alive could be called an expert it this discipline. One by one with a quiet sound of breaking bones zombies are dying with a little help of my pickax.

    When I am done with scull cracking it''s time to change location, it''s not like such an experienced survivor like was caught by six zombies by mistake, seriously it wasn¡¯t my choice to go this way, I was made to do this.

    While walking down the street my eyes meet the zombie that I killed first, the one with sword stuck in his neck. I takes me a while but I decide to take blade with me, it''s not about how cool I look with a sword, not at all, I am just sure that I need just little more training to became master of decapitation, at least I won''t run out of training dummies.

    Sometimes I wish that, my zombie apocalypse would be more like the ones from TV it wouldn''t change too much in whole picture but at least it would be easier to get some guns. Some of you may think, what I am talking about, in zombie apocalypse guns are almost everywhere, aren''t they? Unfortunately not in my case, it''s because my zombie apocalypse is taking place in Eastern Europe not in USA.

    It''s not like I couldn''t find gun for a whole three years, I had dozens of them mostly AK''s and some hunting rifles but getting them took at least fifty kilometers of walk in almost every case. But let¡¯s think about why I want a gun? It seems like a stupid question but let¡¯s think about it for a moment.

    Firstly guns are loud and that¡¯s the huge problem because zombies are very sensitive about noise, you can lure them easily with just a little noise but in the same time, with little help of masking cloths and remaining silent like a dead (that¡¯s funny) you can pass almost touching them.

    Another thing is that guns are heavy; seriously rifles are heavy and ammo to. Of course there is also everlasting ammunition problem, it''s even harder to get that rifles. While talking about guns I have to mention one more thing, zombies are not only ones that can hear you shooting. There is a reason that people talking that melee for zombies guns for humans.

    So you can ask why do I need a gun? Obviously because it looks cool, imagine yourself guy with AK''s in one hand and with a sword in another, decapitating and shooting zombies in the same time. Ok, I admit it may be a little stupid but my delusion are the only entertainment for me right now. Of course I need gun to protect myself from other survivors but it''s not like you may think.

    There are no gunfights, or maybe there are but they are very rare. Firstly they are to loud, zombies or more humans could come, secondly ammo is hard to obtain and the most important reason is that nobody wants to die.

    You know, there are few possibilities of meeting another person in zombie apocalypse. First one is that you and another person don''t have guns, that¡¯s the easy one. You can fight with bare hands or with what you have, you can talk with each other or you can go your own way and forget about whole situation. Second variant is that one of you have gun. That one is also simple, your new friend is an asshole and takes everything from you but you are still alive or he is a nice person and takes just part of your loot or doesn¡¯t even take anything from you( very rare). There is also an option that you will end up killed but like I said before guns are loud, why somebody would take any additional risk. Third possibility is that both of you have a gun, it''s similar to a first variant but it can end up with some Mexican standoff.

    More interesting things happens when whole groups of survivors meets. Seriously I haven¡¯t seen meeting of two armed groups that wouldn¡¯t end up with some slaughter. So, as you can see rules are pretty simple those with more guns wins.

    You may ask why I don''t have any gun with me? Answer is pretty simple, I was so unlucky that meet a group of people on my way. Unfortunately for me they all have guns. Yeah, that was pretty bad. Fortunately for me that was group of rather overconfident youth so they were so nice to left me sword and pickax. They also didn¡¯t wanted my protective gear. It''s sad that even three years in this walking dead situation didn¡¯t teach them anything, but who knows? Maybe I am wrong and their zombie apocalypse is right one? Anyway I just was happy that they left me that much a gear. It may seems not much but I were just one step form losing my life while collecting it. Seriously getting this SWAT protective gear took me almost one week of scull cracking, and believe me, zombie wearing police helmets is a nightmare.

    But I run out of luck when I wanted to leave my new friends, unfortunately for me, they were serious about their, let¡¯s call it territory domination, or they just want me dead without wasting precious bullets. Their leader said that they will let me go but under one condition, that the route which I take will go trough the city.

    You may think, there is no way that few people could made me go that way or another, they would need to surround whole city or try to follow me. You would be right but they knew what they were doing. You see the city, I am talking about isn¡¯t big, maybe 30000 of citizen, maybe less, but I was approaching it from the east and the west border of, lets call it city A, was created by river. Unfortunately for me it''s middle of a spring where I am right now, so rivers are still full of water after the winter. If we add that river is going straight from south to north and only one bridge is still standing, right in the center of city, we will end up with pretty dam good death trap.

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    So I am right here trying to make my way through city A. Walk through the abandoned city is always unpleasant experience for me. It makes me think about what humanity lost, it''s even surprising for me, but it makes me angry. Don¡¯t mean me wrong, I am not angry because some shitty military scientist couldn''t keep such a virus or something locked. No, I am angry at myself because I think about some unnecessary shit.

    I am walking with sword in my hands, yes I was serious when I was talking about mastering the blade, and I am looking for something. I can bet that you wouldn¡¯t guess what I am looking for. You see, every time I decide to loot some city, there is one thing I am looking for first, it''s a city map. Seriously, even simple city plan makes everything simpler.

    So let¡¯s start again, I am walking with sword in my hands and guess what ? There is fucking newsstand right in front of me, unbelievable. Unfortunately it seems like there are some clients still inside. I can see three of them, it''s not that bad, I am pretty sure I can handle them but there is one problem.

    You see as an experienced survivor, I have learned to pay attention to some details and believe me I paid a high price for that knowledge. When you enter any store, especially the smaller ones, you have to take a look inside, over the door. You may ask why, what kind important thing can be in such a place? Oh trust me, it''s even more important than zombies inside. Almost every shopkeeper likes to know when client enters his shop, I doesn¡¯t matter if is just convenience store or gun store, everybody wants to know when others enter their territory. Yeah it''s so simple, an ordinary bell that will ring when doors open, can fuck you up for good.

    It almost happens to me, at the beginning of apocalypse while a was still, lets call it unexperienced and stupid, I casually entered some store. It was late evening almost nigh, perfect opportunity to search for some loot,when there is still enough light for you to see, while zombie are becoming blind. So, like I said I just slowly passed few of them standing next on the street before store and entered the store. Guess what?

    Yeah, fucking bell ringed. Unfortunately I made this situation even worse and entered the store. I could know talk how I heroically slaughtered through crowd of dead I have found inside but I don¡¯t want to fantasize to much, it supposed to be lesson for you. I will tell you only that, I have survived simply because of pure luck and lost almost whole my gear. You know, you should remember one thing, there is nothing more depressing than starting everything from the beginning once again, especially while zombie apocalypse.

    So, the newspaper store. It may be looking like I want to prove something but I will get city map no matter what and I am 100% sure that I will find one in this store. Firstly little reconnaissance, store is located on corner of the two streets, there are few cars standing on the streets but what''s really bothering me is lack of walkers, yes I will call them like that too, it seems to be more professional. Ok, the fact that streets are clear, is not the problem for this moment and to be honest it make things even more easier for me. Lucky for me the doors to the store got window only on the upper side.

    Remember when I said that killing zombies is hard? And I was right but if you think a little you will be able to make things easier for yourself. I am ready, it''s time for my sword to shine. I will do it old style with my right hand on handle and left halfway on blade, I stand right before doors. One quick hit and window is broken, zombies inside don¡¯t need any more invitations. Ah, I almost forgot, before performing such an action make sure that doors open to inside, you don¡¯t want them to go outside, don¡¯t you?

    As you probably imagine three accurate thrust and zombies aren''t problem anymore. Smart, efficient and safe (mostly), that¡¯s the proper way to eliminate dead. I am sure that those smarter and more observant of you will notice one flaw of my method. Yeah, doors are blocked, only way in is through the window I broke.

    I assume, that you won¡¯t be surprised if I tell you that I found perfect map? There was even pack of mints which looked edible. So, we got our map, next step of our smart and intelligent way to loot city is to find a police station. The chances are low but if you will be lucky you may find something useful like¡­ I don¡¯t know, maybe a gun?

    I am ready to head out in direction of police station when some advertisement on the wall of the newspaper store catches my attention. Apparently woods around city were some hot spot for hunting before apocalypse, and even city wasn''t big there was some gun store next to market square, I guess, I got little lucky once again. You are probably surprised that I am making such a big deal from a simple gun store but let me remind you that I am in Europe, we don¡¯t sell guns in supermarkets here. I leave newspaper store, there is nothing interesting here.

    While I am getting closer to the city center zombies are starting to appear, most of them I am able to pass without any problems, sneaking between abandoned cars. I am almost at market square, I just need to turn left on the next crossroad. Slowly I am getting closer to the edge of building located next to the street that will lead me straight to the market but when I take a careful look around corner, it''s obvious for me that gun store is outside of my reach. To be honest I am truly afraid of what I saw and you have to understand that I have seen many terrible things since the beginning.

    So firstly, I was right when I said that small number of walkers were suspicious, I guess it was only natural for someone with as much experience as me. Secondly, the thing that scared a shit out of me was crowd, unfortunately in times like this only crowd possible to see, is made from zombies. And finally, why gun shop is impossible to loot for me? Hah, it''s simple, it''s not a crowd made from dozens of zombies, it is made from at least dozens of hundreds. Ok, little trip for some sight-seeing is over, I turn around and return the same road which I came here, I will just take some nice and wide detour to the police station that should be on the opposite side of market.

    Police station doesn¡¯t look to promising, it''s obvious that somebody was here before me. The first sign of others survivors past presence were remains with cracked sculls. What can I say? Those guys who were here before me weren¡¯t fucking with their job. There are piles of dead zombies everywhere. I guess I should be grateful to the earlier police station guests, there is less work for me.

    And once again, I believe that some of you may wonder why I am so interested in police station that was already looted. Ah, let me enlighten you, my young fellow zombie apocalypse survivors, as I have already explained to you, access to firearms was rather low in mu country so problems with finding them now are obvious. But don''t worry about that because I had already some solution to this problem. Ah, I bet that I got your interest know? You probably wander, what kind of idea, I came up with?

    It''s simple, if you want to do something, the easiest way is to make someone else do your job.

    Hah, brilliant isn¡¯t it? So I will let someone else to find guns in neighborhood, and to be precise somebody have already located all firearms in area and they even made a list with addresses and types of weapon. Yes, I will use police database of registered weapons and permissions to use it. Yes, yes there is no electricity and computers don¡¯t work but police got everything on paper too. So I am getting to work, firstly I just check whole station in case if some zombies where still here or earlier survivors have left something useful.

    It take me almost two hours but my work pays off, I found box of 9mm ammunition, I was hidden deep inside one of desks, Lucky me. Ok, I am sure, right know that place is safe, it''s time to take care of my real goal. While searching the building I already found the right office but armored locker was closed and key wasn''t anywhere near. I assumed that key must be in one of zombies pocket and that¡¯s why I am looting a corpses.

    You may ask if I am not disgusted with what I am doing? Only thing I can say, is no. Maybe first month was a little hard, but after that I got used to it. I got used to dead bodies, to blood, to smell, to violence, you would be surprised to what kind of things, people can get used to. Unfortunately armored locker was a popular model, which remembered good years of communism and what really make things hard to me is that police station was full of such lockers.

    After another two hours I have found about dozen of keys which look like they will fit. I decided to give it a try, maybe one of them will be one I am looking for. I try every key, one by one, and me hearth skips a beat when the last, is the right one. I am a fucking genius, locker is full of files, managed with alphabetical order by names that f people with permission to own a gun. I got about 4 hours before sun will set, so I get myself to work.

    After about hour I got 5 different addresses marked on my map, I decide to not waste any more time, and move out. The first two locations are no good, there are too much walkers, I won''t be able to even enter the building and there will be no safe way for me to leave it. Third is the one that I am most interested in, files says that it''s house of retired military officer, who have hunting, sport and even self-defense permission.

    When I reach location, I find out that it is a nice looking house near banks of a river.

    Around house is a garden, which grown wild in those three but you can see that somebody put a lot of work in it. Ok, ok, another shitty thought that I don¡¯t need. What''s more important area looks like, it is at least safer than rest of a city. But first things first, I can let myself to be not careful. I walk around the house, I look through windows and I know that place is safe.

    How do I know that? The answer is inside. Front doors are open, I don¡¯t really try to be silent when I enter a hall, house doesn''t have second floor but it seems that there is a basement here, but basement it''s not my goal right now, at least not yet. No, without hesitation I go through the hallway and enter the room which is master bedroom.

    On the big double bed lies a pair of people. The old man and women, I assume that they are retired officer and his wife. It takes me a while before I leave a room, I know that I told that I should focus on real problems and don¡¯t let myself to think about useless things but one thought doesn¡¯t want to leave my mind. The thought that I what I have seen just a second ago was a real love.

    You see both of them got shot in the head, but one hand of a man was garbing his wife''s hand and the second was holding a gun near his head.

    But there was only one pistol in the room.

 Why my zombie apocalypse cant be fun ?

    I am lucky.

    The basement of the house is like a treasure. It isn¡¯t big, whole room have about 25 square meters but it looks much smaller because is full of shelfs and card boxes. There are no windows and only source of light is my flashlight. Shelfs are filled with bottles and  glass jars, I am curious what''s inside, so I open one of them. It seems that, three years is a little to much for homemade jam to stay tasty. I was expecting that everything in jars won¡¯t be edible, but it was always worth a try.

    I take another look at bottles, I am not an expert but I am pretty sure that I will find some homemade wine inside. Unfortunately, this is not the best time to get little drunk. Cardboard boxes are another disappointment, all of them are full of old clothes, nothing useful.

    When I was checking this whole junk, my eyes has already found the main prize, moreover there is even some bonus to it. In corner of the basement is big armored locker, similar to the one I saw in police station but the main difference is that the one here is open. I guess my host didn¡¯t bother to lock it, I am not surprised, he was about to take his and his wife''s life.

    The locker is full of guns. There are few types of pistols, hunting rifles, assault rifles and shotguns. I shouldn¡¯t be so much surprised, everything was described in police files but view of such an arsenal makes me hearth race. Oh fuck me, once again I am acting like an idiot. It''s not time for this.

    It takes me about one hour to bring all weapons and ammunition upstairs. Ah, remember when I told about bonus? Yeah, there was one, on the lowest part of one shelfs I found few tin cans with some beans soup. Date on them is expired but I don¡¯t mind, I am sure that they will be alright. Like they said, for the war times only beans and bullets. Or maybe they were saying something different? Never mind.

    The sun outside is almost hidden behind horizon and I am ready to make some decisions. In front of me, there is big dinning table with many guns on top of it. I need to choose which one of them I will take with me. Firstly I take two pistols, some Glock and Sig Sauer both chambered in 9mm. One of them will be hidden inside my backpack. Next decision is though, I have to choose from picking an AK or some hunting rifle. Both of them are heavy and loud. You know what? Fuck AK, I will take hunting rifle, it got nice scope on it and I found almost 40 bullets for it. I am pretty sure that I will be able to hunt some tasty meat with it.

    When I am done with packing, my backpack is much heavier. It''s now full of ammo and tin cans. In addition there are my pickaxe and hunting rifle attached to both sides. On the top of it is my sleeping bag. When I look through the window it''s almost completely dark outside, it''s not surprising, it was cloudy day, so neither stars or moon lightens the night. It''s not the best idea to travel in darkness, zombie can¡¯t see you but you can''t see them either, so I will spend night in the house. To be honest, even if it was full moon and the sky was clear, I would stay in house. Why? Simple, the bed in guest room looks just to comfortable.

    I guess, I must explain to you, how it was possible to find such a place like this house. I know what are you thinking, it was three years. Even if there were zombies around someone should find it before me. I admit I am lucky, but you don¡¯t understand that zombie apocalypse isn¡¯t as simple as it seems to be. First at all, I have to tell you, how it all started.

    It''s bullshit, that all of zombies became like that because they were bitten by another zombie. Think about it, how long would it take for 8 billion people to get turned? Definitely too long, our governments and armies are not so useless like in the movies. Finally someone would find the way to protect people from zombies. The way that people get turned in to that creatures is much more simpler. The just get sick.

    Yeah, just like that. Whole population of world became ill. At the beginning nobody cared much about it, symptoms were similar to the normal flue. But after 48 hours everyone got massive fever. It was already time when people noticed that something is wrong, but it was to late to do anything. Whole world was paralyzed by millions of people fighting with fever.  After another 48 hours people started to die. Their hearths were just stopping. One by one people were dying, in their houses, in hospital''s, on the streets, everywhere.

    You can ask why I and other survivors are here? Another simple answer, we didn¡¯t get sick. Just like that. It was terrible, the worst nightmare, something that nobody could expect. I was there with my family, I was trying to help them, to take care of them but I could do nothing, just being there healthy, watching them die. There was no electricity, no tv, no internet, no radio, nobody was telling us what to do.

    And once again, I was lucky. I was digging graves for my parents in the garden behind my house when I heard some noise, inside the building. My parents were already dead, so I thought that someone broke in to steal something. Armed with shovel, I opened front doors and yelled if anybody was there. For second it was only silence but short after I heard heavy steps on the floor. I almost fainted when I saw my father in the hallway, I was about to cry from happiness, when I noticed that there is something wrong with him. He was pale, his eyes were like covered with fog and his movements were little weird. When he rushed in my direction I already knew that, this creature in front of me is not my father. He was first zombie I have killed. Second one was my mother.

    For the next three years I met with a lot of different people, they were just like me, lone when everybody around were dying. Sometimes I think that it would be better if I died that time, at least I wouldn¡¯t be involved in such a shitty situations like this.

    Right now I am hiding on the roof of some factory on the outskirts of a city. It''s hard for me to catch breath and world around me is pulsating in the rhythm of my hearth powered by huge amount of adrenaline. I wouldn''t even noticed that I am shot in my left arm but there is quite a lot of blood on my shirt and jacket. I wouldn''t even noticed that I was hurt, I feel no pain, it must be a shock.

    Unfortunately wound on my arm isn¡¯t my only problem, somewhere on the ground level of factory are two more survivors and they are definitely not friendly. Not after I shoot three of their comrades. And of course there are probably all zombies in the city going this way, but there are more important matters right now.

    You may ask, what the hell happened? Last night I was sleeping in nice bed and now everything seems fucked up. I guess we can call it karma.

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    After I left a house I was ready to leave city, so I headed out south, to the industrial district. I thought that it will be lower chance to meet some zombies, and I was right. There were only few of them, nothing serious. I was almost out of a city when I saw a group of people few hundred meters in front of me. Unfortunately the moment when I saw them was the moment when they notice me.

    I don¡¯t know why, maybe nigh in normal bed made me little rebellious, but instead of putting my hands in the air and peacefully waiting for them to come near, I just run. I hide myself in one of factories located nearby and got.my rifle ready.

    I would be much easier to surrender but I was already tired of giving away my stuff. I don¡¯t know what they were thinking, maybe they didn¡¯t saw my guns? Or maybe they thought that I won''t dare to shoot in the city. They were just causally heading to the factory, where I was hidden. Well, when one of them has fallen on the ground with his brain out, I officially declared that I am not afraid and they are not welcome.

    I couldn¡¯t believe how helpless they were. I managed to kill another one, when they finally found themselves cover. If I only had better position I could kill them all but they started to shoot back and gates which  I was hidden behind weren¡¯t bulletproof as much as I wanted, so I retreated inside of a factory.

    In the huge hall filled with huge machines my rifle wasn''t much help so I attached it again to my backpack end pulled out my Glock. I hide behind one of the machines and carefully waited. As expected after few seconds three figures appeared in a door. Without hesitation I emptied whole magazine in their direction, with little bit of satisfaction I noticed that one of them has fallen dead on the ground and another one was wounded.

    I was about to end this when third of them finally noticed me, and pulled trigger of his gun. I must admit that he was even worse at shooting than me but he manager somehow to hit me in my left arm. Just a flesh wound but I have seen to much of them to take it seriously. I decided to retreat for a while and take care about wound. I was pretty sure that I want be followed, one of them was wounded too.

    So that¡¯s how the things are, it''s not really a holiday trip but I was in much worse situations. My hands are shaking when I am bandaging my arm, adrenaline is wearing off and wound is starting to hurt. I don¡¯t need a second look to now that I need stiches but bandage is all I can do right now. By the way, I think about throwing sword away once again. You know, it finds out that running with it attached to my belt, isn¡¯t the best choice, thank god that the blade isn¡¯t as sharp as it should. Yeah, thanks to my laziness my left leg isn¡¯t sliced into pieces.

    Ok, I am calm myself enough to held my gun again and my enemies didn¡¯t find out my yet. It''s like they say, the best defense is offense. I am heading to the staircase that leaded me to the roof earlier. When I am about 10 meters away from it, doors open. It''s a tenth of second but my body acts on it''s own. It''s called a muscle memory or maybe no, I don¡¯t really care. I guess guys in front of me didn¡¯t have as good muscle memory as me, he is lying dead with a gunshot hole on his forehead.

    It looks like the second guy was wounded more seriously then I though, I found him bleeding out on the base of a staircase. For a second I think about checking bodies, maybe they got something useful on them, but I hear strange noise from the outside. When I realize what is making it, I gather all force left in my body and I rush out from the factory.

    My legs are like made from lead, air in my lungs feels like a burning flames, but step by step I run through industrial area. As some of you probably already guessed, the sound I heard factory was sound of marching crowd and like I said earlier, only crowds here are made from zombies.

    I didn¡¯t even once, turned my head to look at sea of dead behind me. My leg arm is getting soaked in blood once again, my bandage didn¡¯t last long. Run, run ,run I say to myself but the facts are that I am getting slower and slower. Remember when I said that zombies are not exactly slow? If I would be rested, not wounded, without my backpack and  all those weapons, I could run from them with ease, but right now it''s impossible for me to get away.

    Run, run, run. I am running only because I am used to it. My body is almost moving on its own but my mind is falling down in despair. I don¡¯t know how long I am running but it feels like it was hours. I am thinking about every option, but everything will end with me being eaten by zombies.

    I am almost ready to accept my sad destiny, when something came to my mind, I should think of other instead of myself. I bet that you are confused right now. I am dying, it''s not time to change get rid of egocentrism. Don¡¯t worry, everything is ok, I just need to find a car. I will say even more, I need to find their car.

    You see, my reluctance to cars isn¡¯t common within the rest of survivors. I am pretty sure that they have hidden theirs somewhere near. Think, think, where they could hid it? I am almost outside the city, my running looks more like fast walk and I can hear zombies getting closer, when I notice reflection of light between trees. I almost proud of myself.

    I am rushing through the trees and I can see it, green pickup hidden between bushes. I am about 15 meters from car,  when shots are fired from this direction. I am trying to take out my Glock from a pocket of my jacket but I got hit by branch of a tree and gun fells of  in to a grass. Fuck it, I don¡¯t even slow down a little. With full momentum I am jumping out from bushes, my hand is grabbing  handle of my sword. The guys who was shooting to me is standing next to the car, he is trying to reload his revolver. As you can see, not the best weapon for the zombie apocalypse.

    One more step and he is in my range, let''s if it''s harder to do it with a living human. My blade goes on the perfect arc and meets neck of the men in front of me. I can feel resistance but blade make it through. Little fountain of blood surprises me a little but I don¡¯t care, the only thing that matters is car. Thanks gods it''s open, and keys are inside. I takes few seconds to take off my backpack but I am finally inside a car. Engine starts smoothly and makes a lot of noise when I smash pedal to the floor.

    I am safe right now and I let myself to glance in back mirror. Horde if zombies is even bigger than I thought but who cares. As you can see,  sometimes my zombie apocalypse isn''t fun at all.

 Why my zombie apocalypse cant be a nice place ?

    I have to admit, I got much better mornings in my zombie apocalypse survivor career. My back hurts from sleeping in driver seat but it¡¯s nothing if you compare it to my arm. Gunshot wound pulsate with a dull pain, last thing I remember before I fell asleep is changing bandage but when I look at it now, it¡¯s soaked with blood. I guess I will need some stitches. My mood became even worse but it¡¯s time to get to work.

    On the back of pickup I find a plastic container with water and quite big cooking pot. Further inspection of stuff and I hit true jackpot. Having a car got a lot of advantages but most important one is, that you can collect and keep a lot of loot. Between bags and card boxes is one small touristic gas cooker. Excellent item, no smoke, burns in rain, absolutely amazing, if you only have easy way to carry it.

    When water is finally boiling it¡¯s time to clean the wound. It¡¯s not the nicest feeling but it¡¯s still better than everything that will be next. When my arm and wound is clean it¡¯s time for bottle from my backpack. Steel military canteen is filled with 96% alcohol. Before I put a little bit on my wound I take one sip from bottle and another one. Here¡¯s to us.

    When burning sensation in my throat changes in to another burning sensation in my stomach, I feel ready. Ok, ok, I don¡¯t fell ready but I need to do this. One quick movement and I pour a little of alcohol on my wound. The pain is sharp and strong but it lasts only a short moment. Easy part it¡¯s done, now it¡¯s time for serious business.

    Once again I must admit, I was lucky. To be honest my wound is nothing serious but it still needs a stitches. Bullet just scratched my arm, it¡¯s not deep but it is few centimeters long. Ok, it¡¯s time to end what I have started. I take out small metal box from my backpack, it contains one of my treasures.

    You see, one of a hardest things in zombie apocalypse is to loot hospitals. Almost all of them were zone zeros if we talk about massive zombifications. Think about it, big building filled with sick people. I bet my words will surprise you but most of people, who were at hospital¡¯s when zombie apocalypse started were turned because of sickness but because of zombie bites.

    What? What the hell I am talking about? It¡¯s simple, think about, why am I wearing that whole police protective gear? I don¡¯t want to get bitten.

    Unfortunately survivors are immune to only one type of sickness but there is second one. I don¡¯t really now but it seems that zombie saliva or blood or both of them makes sick even us and when you are bitten, the only way to save your life is quick clean cut to a bitten limb. What about zombie bites you in part of body which you can¡¯t cut off? What can I say? Unlucky.

    Back to hospitals. When one of patients became zombie it was fast way down. You see normally when zombie kills human, it will feast on it¡¯s body but when there are so much humans laying around, their instincts are going mad. When it happens zombies are jumping from one human to another biting  and ripping flesh.

    Like I sad before, hospitals are true hell. Closed space filled with hundreds of zombies. But with higher risk comes higher prize. In hospital you can find medical equipment that it¡¯s not in drug stores.

    So, my little metal treasure box contains goods, obtained in one of a raids on hospital. I don¡¯t want talk about it, all you need to know that it was massive operation and I was working with group of survivors. Oh, and one more thing. Half of them died before we even got to the second floor.

    I open the box, inside of it are few ampules of morphine, some antibiotics, painkillers and special needle with threads. I won¡¯t describe how I stitched my wound. Doing it on my own body with only one hand, it¡¯s not pleasant thing to do. You need to know that, when you forget about pain and blood it really easy thing to do. Just make sure that edges of the wound are put close and tightly. Now, only clean bandage and it¡¯s done.

    Ok, now its time to take care about other needs of body. Let¡¯s make good use of a gas cooker while I can. It¡¯s been few days since I ate a warm meal and even thinking about it makes me exited. It¡¯s funny how people learn to appreciate a little things, when you take almost everything from them.

    I am sitting next to the pot with boiling beans and a little bit of dry meat and I can feel how yesterday¡¯s run overloaded my muscles a little bit. I guess I will have to make good use of that car I have stolen to make them rest for a while. I am worried about my localization. I am not really sure where I am, I don¡¯t clearly remember the way I get here.

    Right now, I am deep in woods, the risk that I will meet another survivors is low, but I am concerned about tire traces that my car left behind. It would be better if it was raining, it would cover the traces. Or maybe I just should be happy that weather is nice.

    When my meal is ready, it disappears almost instantly in my stomach. The alcohol that I have drink before and warm food makes me feel much better.  I am even starting to think about going back to sleep some more, but it¡¯s not time for this. Right now I need to take care about rest of my stuff.

    You may wonder, if I am some psychopathic monster. Right now I am happily eating my breakfast but only dozen hours earlier I killed 5 man and took all their stuff, oh sorry, my mistake, 6 of them. The blood of the one, who was guarding a car is still on the windshield.

    I could tell you some clich¨¦ line, that only monsters can kill monsters but I won¡¯t. I believe that everything is a matter of perspective. People are changing to fit themselves to situations that are occurring and I can¡¯t think about more demanding situation than apocalypse.

    The moment when we, survivors, decided, that we will use this opportunity and survive, was the moment when we became obligated to follow new rules, rules that making our survival possible. I got one, good advice, forget about the past, it doesn¡¯t matter who you were. Only important thing is what is happening right now and what kind of consequences your action will have in future.

    So, I do what I need to survive. Sometimes things end up well and nobody is hurt, but sometimes nothing is going right way and things get nasty like yesterday. You may ask, couldn¡¯t I handle that situation differently? Of course I could but it doesn¡¯t matter right now. Remember, the past should be only source of experience, material to learn from. But past shouldn¡¯t have influence on your future decisions, it only should give you more options to choose.

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    So, why I killed those guys yesterday? Don¡¯t judge me, just think about it as me. Right in that moment, I was on the top of what single survivor could achieve. I got guns, food, meds. If I surrender to them, in best scenario, I would end up on the bottom again and my survival would be more unknown then before. If things would end up badly, would laying there instead of them.

    Think about it, if I would give up, when I could fight and win, my survival would be pointless. I believe the hardest thing to do, when you face world as broken as my, is to find yourself a goal. It¡¯s first and hardest step, but don¡¯t worry because next one is simple. Do anything you need to achieve your goal and don¡¯t hesitate or you will end up dead.

    The goal I have choose for myself is obvious.

    Survive.

    And I believe, it¡¯s only right one, I have seen many people who wanted to be hero, to save the world, to build society once again and guess what? They are all dead, because path of survival wasn¡¯t their way, because they were still living the past. Things I do may be harsh and brutal but this world is harsh and brutal too. Don¡¯t blame me, don¡¯t judge me, think about how you would choose one my place. If you would do something different than me, you would probably end up dead. Trust me, I now what I am talking about.

    It seems that, I end up little philosophic. You have to forgive me, sometimes it just happens. With my stomach full and with pain in my arm on reasonable level, I need to make my mind. I decided earlier ,that I will use car for a while, of course I won¡¯t drive main roads, it is just asking for trouble.

    With little help of map, I am able to, at least approximately, find out where I am. With all stuff I collected and everything I found on the back of pickup, I will be able to spend week in wilderness. It¡¯s funny but I feel like for me, gathering food became easier than in the first days of apocalypse. I guess it¡¯s matter of experience and things I have learned.

    There is another thing that you won¡¯t even notice, if you won¡¯t think about it. I became hot, I mean three years of constant fighting for life changed my body in the way I wouldn¡¯t expected. This whole running with heave backpack, tough diet left my body almost without gram of fat, only muscles. Seriously I look like a Greek god, of course if you forget about scars and I got quite few of them.

    It wasn¡¯t always so nice with a lot of food and medicines. First weeks were worst, I didn¡¯t really understand what was happening and I didn¡¯t know what to do.

    Let me tell you about my first encounter with another survivor. It was also my first situation that I had to kill a man.

    It was about week after I buried my parents. They were living in country, they weren¡¯t farmers, they just live there.( escape to the country and stuff like this). Like I said before, it was almost week and I didn¡¯t have anything to eat. I was seriously scared to walk outside but finally hunger has changed my mind.

    About 300 hundred meters down the street where my parents lived, was small convenient store, nothing special but it got most things that you may need. So, I armed myself with axe which my father used to chopping wood and headed out to the store. Fortunately streets were clear, problems started when I heard that someone is inside the store. I was ready to turn back and run when front doors opened.

    It was one of neighborsi didn¡¯t really remember his name but I know that face. In his one hand was large bag full of food, in second was large kitchen knife. I almost wanted greet him but when I saw his eyes, somethin inside warned me about danger. It were eyes of mad man, hard to describe but you will know, what I am talking about when you see one. I didn¡¯t took even a second when he thrown down the bag with food and charged at me.

    I almost ended up sliced like a fish but he stumbled and fall on the ground. In the next second he stood up and charged at me once again. I don¡¯t know what kind of thoughts were inside my mind but I took my axe and hit him. With surprising trajectory axe struck into his head.

    Who knows, why he attacked me? Maybe he became crazy after his family turned in to zombie or he was just greedy. I don¡¯t know why he did it, but I know one thing. That situation showed me how world will look like in the future and what I will need to do, to survive. After I took my axe from his head, I collected all stuff I could find in  the store and went back to my house. I left his body right where he feel. I wasn¡¯t playing in to burying corpses anymore.

    When car stops, I am precisely where I wanted to be. Zombie apocalypse helps you learn how to use map. Right in front of me, river flows, it¡¯s not big maybe about ten meters wide but it¡¯s spring so water level is pretty high. All you can see around me are trees, to be honest I didn¡¯t leave forest even once, it¡¯s easier to stay out of trouble that way. And by trouble I mean people, people with guns.

    I must admit, roads weren¡¯t in best condition, in three years without a car they became little messy but car got 4 wheels drive, so it wasn¡¯t that bad. Weather is nice too, maybe its not hot like in summer, but sun is bright and sky is cloudless.

    You may wander, what am I doing in such a place?  I don¡¯t really know. I am sure, I will find something interesting to do. To be honest I got perfect idea right now. I only need to find hazel tree.

    It take me almost 15 minutes to find hazel tree but fortunately it got all I need. With knife I cut long and straight branch. I am sure that some of you already know what I am trying to do. All I need now, is something from my backpack. Another 5 minutes and I got nice fishing pole. What, are you surprised? Weather is nice, I am in good mood and even if I don¡¯t catch anything it won¡¯t matter, I got all time in the world and I can waste it, like I want.

    And by the way, Zombieland Rule #32: Enjoy the Little Things.

 Why my zombie apocalypse is full of surprises?

    I didn¡¯t expect that, I will enjoy my little holidays on the river banks that much. I have already spend three days on fishing, sleeping, repeating my stuff and drinking booze, which I found on the back of a car. Seriously, it looked like a ordinary fishing trip back when the world wasn¡¯t filled with walking corpses. Fishing, canned food and alcohol.

    Of course I wasn¡¯t careless, there were trap wires around my little camp and my drinking was only recreational. I feel relaxed probably first time since begin of apocalypse. Why didn¡¯t I came up with such a good idea? I don¡¯t know.

    I need to confess something to you. I became little obsessed. You see, my fishing gear isn¡¯t nothing special, just simple stick but I am quite successful in caching my meals but there is one thing that makes me uncomfortable.

    In the water, near the place where my camp is, is living truly monstrous fish. It has already run from the hook many times and even broke one fishing pole. Since it happened on my second day here, I have been hunting for this river king. I don¡¯t know what kind of fish is it, but the thing I know for sure, is that the fish is huge. And I will get it for sure.

    I am sitting on the river banks, right know I am hunter and my pray is down here in the water. I am prepared for everything, I mad fishing rod from thicker branch, I made two fishing lines in to one so it could stand strength of river king. I even sacrificed one of my hook needles for wound stitching. Ok, let the hunt begins.

    It¡¯s been about four hours and still no sign of river king. I can¡¯t get impatient right now, that¡¯s the rule of hunting. For a moment I think I can hear gunshots but it could be only sounds of trees in the forest. I am a little distracted by sounds and almost missed little movements of the float. It has began.

    Now, it is most important part, I need to pull my fishing rod in right moment. My float is dancing on the water and suddenly hides underneath. PULL!!!!

    I got him, I got him for sure. Ok, now the fight begins. I need to be careful, I don¡¯t want to break the line. River king is almost near the surface when somethin unexpected occurs . There is the human corpse drifting down the river. I am little shocked and when fish pulls the line with it¡¯s last strength the fishing rod fall from my hands.

    I guess my little holidays are over. The corps is floating few meters from me but I can see that it¡¯s is fresh, water is red around it. I got no problem with finding out the house of death, there is an bullet entry wound on his forehead.

    When water turns body upside down, I can see exit wound, or I would rather said¡­ I can¡¯t find right words. The back of head is completely blown off. It seems like our friend got shoot by some serious rifle and that means that somebody has got his hand on some military stuff.

    You see after sickness wiped out most of humanity and turned them in to zombies, some of lucky one who survived where serving in military. Technically such a people have a little easier on the beginning. I have to admit, I don¡¯t like this kind of people, I have spend one winter in the came ruled by military and I don¡¯t have any nice memories. Let me tell you about it.

    It was my first winter and I was in big trouble. I was struggling to get some food and to find warm place to stay. It was another clod day when I entered some city and instantly I was surrounded by guys wearing military uniforms, I almost shit myself. I was about to pray to god for a miracle, when one of them asked me, if I want to spend winter in their camp, in exchange I needed to work for them.They took me to some military facility protected with high fence and guarding towers. Like I found later, there was interesting story about that place.

    When zombie apocalypse began there were three soldiers that didn¡¯t get sick. One officer and two privateers. Fortunately for them facilities where full of different kind of weapons, so after a few days of constant slaughter they were able to clear whole camp.

    As you probably expect the gun fight lured massive amount of zombies from rest of a town. But once again, number of equipment made survival possible. It wasn¡¯t long when other survivors found military facility and in order to live behind safe walls they promised to obey officer¡¯s orders.

    I am pretty sure that you know what happens, when to much power is held by one person in times like this. I didn¡¯t take much time before camp became true dictatorship.

    So, I ended up in place like that and once again my enormous luck saved my skin. After few raids on the town to collect additional supplies, I was noticed and promoted form ordinary worker to the member of guard, which was obviously privileged class in camp.

    For the whole time I spend in the camp, I was a witness, how time of crisis turn people in to beasts. After three months, I decided that was enough. I was on patrol with four other guards, I was waiting a long time for occasion like this.

    This four of them were true monsters, who were feeling pleasure from watching people misery. So after we checked another building and was ready to came back to the camp, I departed myself from them under excuse of taking piss. Four of them were waiting in the care, they didn¡¯t expect any danger.

    So, hidden behind building I took out few grenades, which I have stolen from armory and throw them under a car. It was ordinary 4x4 pick-up, nothing armored. I am pretty sure that they didn¡¯t even noticed when the died.

    So after my flashy resignation I had to run in haste. Winter was already ending so living by myself wasn¡¯t problem anymore. Of course I got a lot of useful stuff hidden outside camp.

    So, as you can see, anything connected to military is a bad sign. Of course I can be wrong and this poor guy was shoot with some crazy hunting rifle, who knows? I should focus on important things, my camp doesn¡¯t seems to be as safe as few minutes ago and the fact that I have ignored gun shots earlier, means that I need to get back to my routine.

    I haven¡¯t spend all three days on resting, I have repaired my clothes, taken care of my weapons and prepared new backpack which I found in the car. Seriously, I am pretty impressed how much useful stuff were gathered by previous owners.

    As you should remember, I got additional pistol hidden in my backpack, it will replace previous one, which I lost while running from zombies. I found another cool thing in the car, holster that you can attach to your thigh. It¡¯s pretty useful and it looks cool. Definitely better than keeping gun in pocket.

    With all stuff repacked to a new backpack and everything prepared, it was only one decision left. What to do with a sword. Bruises on my left side and left leg still doesn¡¯t heal completely, but the way I killed that last guy was pretty impressive. After short moment I decided to give it one more chance.

    There is also matter of car and all stuff gather on it. The best thing to do is, move everything that could fit to the cabin and cover the car under branches. I left keys hidden in the nearby tree, who knows, maybe I will need this car later.

    I am fully prepared, so it¡¯s time to move up the river. I bet that you are at least little surprised. Why would I want to move in direction from which dead guy came? I believe it¡¯s important to know what kind of hostile survivors are in area and I am little curious about what happened. Ok, ok, maybe I am more curious than just a little.

    Breaking trough forest isn¡¯t most pleasant thing, especially with all that gear I am wearing. I take me almost three hours when I see smoke over the trees. You should know that smoke in zombie apocalypse is almost always a bad omen. That¡¯s why I don¡¯t make campfire, if there isn¡¯t a serious reason to do it.

    There are few sources of smoke but any of them isn¡¯t a good news. Most obvious is of course campfire, great way to prepare meal, warm ourselves and tell everybody around that we are here. I guess that I don¡¯t need to explain why it is a bad thing.

    Another case is gunfight and I am not talking about few shots. Even my little battle from few days before is nothing. I am talking about massive fire exchange from machine guns or even use of explosives. Trust me, in situation like this it¡¯s quite common to light up some fire.

    Sometimes, smoke we could see, will be coming from chimney. It means that we have found some settlement, permanent camp. It¡¯s better to avoid such a places but you can try and approach. It could be bad or good, mostly it¡¯s matter of luck. In my case, I am trying to avoid such a encounters but sometimes there is a good reason to visit such a place. They may shoot you on sight, they may trade with you or they can even let you in and offer a place to stay. Like I sad before, it¡¯s matter of luck.

    Unfortunately everything seems that gunfight was source of our smoke but let me remind you that I am in the middle of nowhere right know, so why somebody was fighting over here? I guess we will find out soon.

    It takes another 30 minutes of breaking trough bushes but I finally arrive at my destination and I have to admit that I am pretty socked. I have seen a lot of shelters, camps, settlements, call it like you want, but the structure which appeared before my eyes absolutely outstanding. Of course if we think about it form perspective of zombie apocalypse.

    There is fucking fort in front of me. Located in the bend of the river, on the little, obviously manmade earthwork and surrounded by the wooden palisade fort. And it¡¯s burning, at least part of it.

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    Holy shit, fucking unbelievable.

    Right know I am standing on the edge of circle clearing, which was obviously source of wood for a construction. I am standing and looking at wooden fort with my mouths open. Think about it how much of work is need to build such a thing and imagination. Seriously, can bet that idea came from some medieval fanatic.

    Ok, time to get my shit together, fort even made from gold won¡¯t save me from taking a bullet. So, obviously attackers are not here and there is no sign of habitants of the settlement. I guess, I can assume that they are all dead, broken entrance to the fort only confirms my theory. It is probably safe to check what is inside this palisade but lets scout area around fort.

    After fifteen minutes I am sure that surroundings are clear, it¡¯s time to engage. I leave my backpack hidden and armed only with my gun and sword I am starting to sneak to the fort. Unfortunately the only covered path leads trough the river, I guess it¡¯s time to get little wet.

    Water is pretty cold, there is nothing surprising, it¡¯s middle of April. But water is not the biggest problem, after I made it to about 20 meters to the fort found something very unpleasant. And once again I was shocked, there was a dump pipe coming from fort straight to the river. Amazing idea but it smells bad, really bad. It¡¯s not like I was bothered by that smell but if it could be possible I would to avoid such a situations.

    I made it, all wet, a little smelly but I made my way to the gates of fort in sneaky style. Form closer look it¡¯s obvious that attackers weren¡¯t small fries. Ground is covered in empty cartridges and wooden gates look like they were blown up with some explosives. I cant believe I couldn¡¯t here that noise. Damn river king, it¡¯s all his fault.

    When I enter trough gates its time to wield my sword. It¡¯s to early for corpses to turn into zombies, they need about eight hours after hearth stops, to became walking dead. But I have seen cases that the eight hours were much shorter, short enough to get few people killed.

    So, with sword in my hands, I am slowly walking in to yard and it became obvious that there will be no zombies from habitants of this place. You may ask why? It¡¯s simple, all of them lying on the yard right now, and their heads are next to it arranged in small pyramid.

    Fortunately, I don¡¯t have much time to contemplate doubtful beauty of this a exhibition because someone is shooting at me. Remember when I was thinking about throwing out my sword, you better forget it, I won¡¯t part with this excellent weapon even if world ends. Oh, that may sound little ridiculous, the world already ended, at least for most of humanity. Ahhh never mind, don¡¯t focus on meaningless things.

    So, the bullets are flying around me, and that one which was heading straight in direction was stopped by sword I was holding in my hands. Sometimes it feels like the only reason I survived such a long time is only my luck, seriously it feels really bad.

    Fortunately, my opponent isn¡¯t shooting some big ugly gun, in different case I would hurt myself with a sword because of the momentum that bullet would gave it. It time to take Sig Sauer out from holster, sword is fun but like they said, you won¡¯t bring knives to the gunfight.

    Right now situation isn¡¯t looking to bad. I am hiding behind pile of dead bodies and our shooter is hiding in the wooden house located on the opposite side of yard. Unfortunately I can retreat without making myself an easy target. Maybe I should try a little gamble?

    While being shoot at, I have noticed few things. My opponents shoot five times and there was little gap between single shoots. With addition of small caliber it looks like our assassin is wielding small, five bullets revolver. The gamble is if he or she got some spare bullets.

    Let¡¯s try some old movie trick, unfortunately I don¡¯t have any helmet, but I guess nobody will be offended if I will borrow one head from the pyramid. Yes, I am a sick, sick man but what can I do? I am living in some sick times.

    With the head of some middle-aged gentleman stamped on my knife, I am ready. Slowly, slowly I move the head to the edge of pile made form corpses and¡­ nothing. Of course I can be wrong, but if I were this guy I would shoot to everything that would only try to move.

    I am sure now, ok maybe not 100% sure, but enough to go all in. With casual movements, I stand up and clear my cloths from dirt, blood and other fluids that was leaking from pile of dead bodies. A wait a little and¡­ nothing. I make one stop forward and suddenly there is one shot.

    Oho, remind me later that I shouldn¡¯t play any poker in future. At least there is one good thing, the person hidden in wooden house is hopeless shooter. That was another miss, I guess it was 6 bullet revolver? I will find out in the moment.

    Ok, I am done with playing games, with Sig Sauer in my hands I charge to the house and there is no one inside. I am carefully looking at the interiors when some shadow jumps on my from celling. Laterally in last moment, I manage do rise my left arm and block it a little. Yeah, the same arm that was wounded few days before.

    Surprisingly, attacker couldn¡¯t even make me fall on the ground, he just jumped on my back in some weird way. You should know that I am not a small guy, I have little more than 1,9m in high and like I said before, even if my food ration aren¡¯t always full, zombie apocalypse made me strong.

    So, I somehow manage to grab this guy and throw him at the wall. Ok, it seems that it is enough to knock out my opponent. After short moment adrenaline effects are starting to fade and dull pain in my left arm, is reminding about it¡¯s presence.

    I take up my gun from the floor, it¡¯s time to check, who my is my new friend. There is a half filled bucket next to the broken door, so I take it and pull all water inside on a person laying under the wall.

    As a response I am rewarded with very creative sequence of swears and I notice something. I was mistaken, it¡¯s not a guy, it¡¯s a girl. That explains why this airborne attack from under a ceiling didn¡¯t help her much.

    It takes her few seconds to remember, what kind of situation she is right now. She stands up quickly and with something looking like broken leg of a chair, she moves behind wooden table.

    ¡°Don¡¯t even try to come near me!¡±

    Yeah, that¡¯s definitely female voice. Our eyes meet and I feel that it is a time to say something.

    ¡°Hey, I am not here to hurt you.¡±

    Oho, my voice sounds a little like a broken car engine, you don¡¯t have many occasions to chat with somebody, if you travel alone.

    ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me, murderer.¡±

    It seems that someone is a little mistaken.

    ¡° Please, listen to me I am not murderer (lie), I didn¡¯t kill your friends outside(truth), I was just passing by and saw smoke(almost truth). I am here to help you( probably truth/lie).¡±

    It¡¯s obvious that she don¡¯t believe me. I look like a shit, with all this mud, water and blood on mu cloths. My voice sounds like some villain from B class movie. And there is one more thing, you see shaving in zombie apocalypse is pain in the ass, so I have grown rather impressive beard, the only problem is that it makes me look like a textbook road bandit.

    So, I am standing inside a wooden hut and in front of me is girl that obviously want to see me dead. It probably worth to mention that hut its starting to burn. Fire has spread from other buildings inside the fort. I about to take another try to convince her, that I am not enemy, when I hear noise from the outside. Noise that makes mo think and move fast.

    I charge at the girl, with one move I push the table to the side and I take chair¡¯s leg hit on my forearm protector. Quick grab with the my left hand, hit on the back of her head with another and she is knocked out once again.

    Seriously she is very light, I flip her motionless body trough my shoulder. It¡¯s definitely time to run. You see, the noise I heard before was sound of care engine on high revs. I am pretty sure that it is car belonging to the attackers, who wiped this place before I came. They probably heard this girl shooting at me.

    Faster, faster, faster, there is a chance that they won¡¯t see me, there is a lot of smoke hanging low in the air that should cover my escape to the river. I jump trough the broken entrance and run directly to the river. Girl on my shoulder doesn¡¯t help me either run or keep my balance.

    The moment when I jump to the river, is the moment when car enters the clearing. I made it. Now, I only need to rake my back pack and run as fast I can. There is only one question, why did I save this girl?

 Why my zombie apocalypse is a place, where things end badly?

    It¡¯s going to be a problem.

    Yeah, I could thought about it before I took this girl with me. Seriously I should just leave her and run by myself but it felt wrong. Unfair. You know, all of her friends were slaughtered.

    You can say, it¡¯s not my problem and you would be right. People are dying everyday, even from my hands, this is how world look now. So why did I saved her? I don¡¯t know l, maybe I wanted to prove something to myself or¡­ Why do I even need to explain it to you? I did what I did, lets focus about what I will do next.

    So, the girl, I can¡¯t really tell how old is she. Maybe eighteen? About  1,6m tall, short almost jet black hair, pale skin and pretty face. She doesn¡¯t look like she could survive in zombie apocalypse but looks can be deceptive, don¡¯t forget that she tried to shoot me.

    So, I somehow managed to run away with her and backpack but I have to admit, it wasn¡¯t nice exercise. After what happened in wood fort, coming back to my previous camp and taking car was only reasonable decision.

    Right now I am driving car trough the forest, girl is sitting on passenger sit next to make. Fortunately three years it¡¯s not enough for mother nature to take back what belonged to her, there are only young trees growing on the middle of road, nothing to hard for 4 wheel drive pickup.

    The girl is sitting next to me, but don¡¯t worry, she is still unconscious there is no danger and even if she wake up, I tied her up tightly. I need to talk with her and explain few things before I will give her freedom back.

    But fact that she is still unconscious, worries me a little, maybe I hit her to hard? At least I can focus on driving, it¡¯s almost dark and it is heavy raining, so I can¡¯t see much trough the windshield. In addition I can think in peace about, what to do with her when she woke up.

    After another hour, new sound different form deep engine noise appears, muffled moaning could be heard, I guess, my new friend is awake. Ah, I didn¡¯t have told you, I sealed her mouth with duct tape, I don¡¯t like when someone is screaming in such a small place like car interior, zombie apocalypse teaches you to enjoy silence.

    Oho, it¡¯s time to find out, how our future relations will be looking.

    ¡°Hello there, so you are finally awake and yes I will release you soon but firstly you have to promise that you won¡¯t scream after I remove tape from your mouth.¡±

    The series of moans and strange sounds doesn¡¯t sound promising but after few seconds she finally calms down. With one smooth movement I remove tape.

    ¡°You fucker¡­¡±

    At least she is not screaming.

    ¡°So, I guess we can move forward. Firstly you need to understand that I don¡¯t want to harm you.¡±

    ¡°Of course you don¡¯t want to harm me, this fucking rope and huge swelling on my head are proof of your good will.¡±

    Ok, I admit, she may be a little right, but I saved her life in that place.

    ¡° Hey, don¡¯t be like that I saved your life. Those guys who butchered rest of your camp have heard you shooting at me and came back.¡±

    Oho, she looks little surprised for a moment but after a second her face gives me another suspicious look.

    ¡°Why should I believe you?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ Why you should believe me? I don¡¯t know, maybe it¡¯s because you don¡¯t have other choice? Of course if you want to live. If you don¡¯t mind dying, I can leave you in this forest, you will be able to survive for about week or two.¡±

    It looks like she believed in the last one, good, at least she is not stupid. There is another thing, her eyes, she don¡¯t have a look of someone who have seen to much, it looks like she is a tough one.

    ¡°Why are you helping me?¡±

    Oho, she even ask right questions.

    ¡°Trust me, there is no special reason. I am just really nice guy.¡±

    I can see in her eyes that she doubt in my words but she stays silent.

    ¡°So, I can assume that you won¡¯t do something stupid if I release you?¡±

    Quick nod, she is definitely to silent but I can¡¯t keep her tied up forever. Ok, I set her free and¡­ she didn¡¯t try to kill me. I guess it¡¯s not bad. She is not a talkative person, or maybe she finally start to feel shock. It takes her about 30 minutes to say something more.

    ¡°I want them dead.¡±

    ???

    ¡°Those people, who killed my friends, I want all of them dead.¡±

    ¡°Yeah sure, why not?¡±

    Another 5 minutes pass and she speaks again.

    ¡°Will you help me?¡±

    What is she talking about?

    ¡°With what ?¡±

    ¡°With killing them.¡±

    I understand now, why she is so calm after seeing her friends getting slaughtered, there is definitely some problem with her mind.

    ¡°Sorry, but I am little confused right now. You ask me if I will help you with killing group of dangerous and well armed people?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    I am sure she is insane.

    ¡°Are you out of your mind!?!¡±

    Silence, silence again. She is only stares at me intensely, the look in her eyes sends chills down my spine. Another few minutes and she speaks again.

    ¡°If you don¡¯t want to help me, I will do it by myself.¡±

    It¡¯s my turn to remain silent. I just stare at road and try to look like I didn¡¯t heard what she said but my new friend is stubborn one.

    ¡°Don¡¯t treat me like an air! Will you help me?¡±

    She even tries to grab my right arm. I guess it¡¯s time to give her a little lesson. Without any warning I smash breaks and car stops instantly. The girl next to me is not prepared for such a maneuver, her forehead meets windshield with dull noise. Zombie apocalypse or not, you should always wear the seatbelts.

    I don¡¯t give her time to recover, I grab her arm tightly with one hand and pull out my gun with another. The view of weapon stops swears pouring from her mouths.

    ¡°Listen to me little kid! I don¡¯t know how you spend the last three years and I don¡¯t care, but it¡¯s pretty obvious that you barely know how to survive. That¡¯s why I am trying to help you. I even risked my life to safe your life, so it would be nice if you won¡¯t try to make it harder for me. Do you understand ?¡±

    Oho, I can see that all her courage disappeared, maybe I was a little to harsh. I don¡¯t want her to be afraid of me, don¡¯t I?

    ¡°Those people, in that fort, they were friends of yours?¡±

    Quick nod.

    ¡°And you really want to avenge them.¡±

    Another nod.

    ¡°And you are sure, that you will be able to do anything it takes to get your vengeance?¡±

    Without any hesitation she nods again. Oh fuck me, I know I will regret it later, but what can I do, when I see such a death wish in her eyes.

    ¡°Ok, I will help you, but there is one condition. You will do everything I tell you without exception. Do you understand me?¡±

    She nods with hope in her eyes, oh it¡¯s so annoying, is the gun in my hand, reason why she forget how to speak?

    ¡°Say it out loud.¡±

    ¡°I  will do everything you tell me to do.¡±

    Ok, I guess we have a deal, the terms of it may be a little harsh, I don¡¯t have a fucking idea how to get to that guys, but I can be sure of one thing, she won¡¯t kill me in sleep.

    So, I turn back a car in direction we came from, to be honest I still believe that it¡¯s wrong decision but I made my promise, at least it stopped to rain.

    I feel a little bad that I scolded her like a little kid, but don¡¯t blame me, she needed that if she want to survive. There is another reason why it feels bad, I treated her like a kid but I am probably three or four years older than she.

    Girl next to me stays silent, I won¡¯t complain but there is still one thing I don¡¯t know.

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s your name?¡±

    It takes her a few seconds to answer me.

    ¡°Anna.¡±

    Ok, I know that we haven¡¯t a greatest start and my social skill may became a little lacking while I was travelling by myself but she could at least try to make some conversation.

    ¡°This is the moment when you ask me what¡¯s my name.¡±

    She wants to stay silent but look at my face force her to change her decision.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡° Thank you, I¡¯m Stefan.¡±

    Ok, don¡¯t laugh at me but now, I don¡¯t know what to say. I could ask her about how she survived those three years, but even I know it¡¯s not a good idea. Oh, just let it be, silence is alright too.

    After spending night in the car, hidden in the bushes near road, I and my new friend Anna started to track down guys who slaughtered her friends.

    It wasn¡¯t to hard, those guys were specially careful, they left a lot of kinds of traces which guided us out of forest.

    I have to admit humans are impressive creatures and zombie apocalypse couldn¡¯t rip them from their cleverness and ingeniousness. Fort build in the forest was first and now that.

    Hidden inside bushes on the edge of the forest I have great look on base of our pray. They turned ordinary village in zombie shelter. But let me describe it for you.

    Firstly, village. It¡¯s small, about dozen of houses and another dozen of buildings for animals and agriculture stuff. Buildings are located on both sides of asphalt road going straight through village. It typical arrangement for a small village in my country. Add little store and bus stop and that¡¯s all.

    But all fun starts when we talk about how they secured their village. Firstly, there is high fence or wall, I don¡¯t know how to call it because it¡¯s basically made from everything. There are two gates in places where fence crosses the road.

    Additionally gates are guarded by two wooden towers. I bet that those guys have raided some military base or something because there are machine guns on top of towers.

    But that¡¯s not all, whole area around village looks like freshly plowed. I guess this guys are trying to grow some wheat. In addition fields around are protected to. This guys somehow managed to dig trench around it about 2,5 m deep and 2m wide. The parts where trench is crossing road are secured by fence gates.

    Once again I have to admit I am impressed, but it shouldn¡¯t be that surprising, the ones who survived are the strongest and the most clever ones.

    Anna is with me and I can see that this view make an impression on her.

    ¡°You know we don¡¯t have to kill them, it won¡¯t be bad thing if we leave it be like this. We tried to avenge your friends but enemy is very strong.¡±

    Oho, there is this killing intend look.

    ¡°You promised! You..¡±

    I use my hand to close her mouth, screaming at me near enemy camp is not the best idea.

    ¡°Yes yes, I remember, now please stay silent. Don¡¯t worry I have a plan.¡±

    Ok, maybe a word plan is a little overstatement but have some idea how to deal with this guys. Oh, and I have to admit that it¡¯s no exactly my own idea. It¡¯s something that I have heard about year ago.

    ¡°Ok we are done here. Now we need to find nearest town.¡±

    Anna seems to be little confused.

    ¡°Town? We will be looking for weapons ?¡±

    ¡°Not exactly, but I guess you can call it that way. Don¡¯t worry I will explain it later.¡±

    Once again map of area became priceless help. About 10 kilometers away from enemy camp is a little, about 5000 people town.  Of course it was countless time looted by our friends in village but, loot is not a thing I am looking for.

    Ok, recipe ¡°how to fuck up enemy camp¡±. First ingredient is a truck. Sounds easy, but finding a working one after three years of zombie apocalypse I pretty hard. But don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t forget I am a specialist.

    It took us about hour to find special building, a fire station. You know three years is a lot of time for a truck if it¡¯s kept outside, but if it¡¯s hidden garage things are different. Yeah, and easiest place where trucks are kept in garage is fire station.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Just like police station in previous city, fire station was already cleared from zombies and loot but that makes things easier for us. Of course fire engines could be taken already but honestly who would ride huge, red truck in zombie apocalypse.

    As expected all garage places are taken, there are two buses, one let¡¯s call it standard fire engine and something I was looking for.

    On the last place is truck with huge water tank on back. Differently form other vehicles, which are fairly new, tank truck look like it could remember soviet union times and it probably do.

    Age of truck makes it even better for me, it will be easier to start the engine. Main problem with cars in zombie apocalypse are batteries which after three years are almost always dead.

    There are three ways to deal with that problem. Firstly you can try to jumpstart engine from another car but unfortunately our pick-up have 12V installation and truck got 24V one.

    Another idea is to recharge the batteries, but you would need power generator and special charger. Normally I could find those things in fire station easily but someone already took them.

    Finally there is the way which I will use. There are two types of dead batteries, ones which are totally broken because of the time they were unused and ones which only needs to be recharged. The second one is the type I am looking for.

    You may ask why do I need dead batteries when I can¡¯t recharge them? You know I got that idea, that I will connect number of batteries together and maybe, I will get enough power to start engine. Even dead batteries got about 1,5V in them so I will need 20 of them.

    Kill me, seriously fucking kill me. I am dying. Ok, I am not,  but I am deadly tired. Fucking car batteries. I took me about 5 hours to gather 23 of them, 5 fuckin hours. In addition parking near fire station was filled with zombies.

    Anna wasn¡¯t much help, but after I found high enough van, clearing parking was a matter of time. Another problem was to carry all of them to fire station, car batteries are pretty heavy.

    But after all I gathered everything I needed. Of course I checked all batteries if they got any power inside. How ? With little help of wire and my tongue. It should be enough for you to understand.

    With help of wire taken from walls of the garage, I am connecting batteries together. This wire isn¡¯t the best option, it¡¯s to thin, but few of them connected together should do the trick.

    Anna is standing next to me, with annoyed look on her face. I haven¡¯t told her my plan yet.

    ¡°Why are we trying to start this truck?¡±

    ¡°Not we, it¡¯s me who is trying.¡±

    I guess it¡¯s time to tell her how I plan to attack enemy village.

    ¡°You see the easiest way to do something is to find someone who will do it for you.¡±

    The confused look on her face, priceless.

    ¡°We don¡¯t need to kill them by ourselves, it¡¯s dangerous, so we will make someone else do it instead of us.¡±

    Ok, now she thinks that I make fun of her.

    ¡°Fortunately, this town is full of zombies willing to cooperate with us.¡±

    Finally, she understands.

    ¡°You want to lure zombies to the village!¡±

    Oh, she is pretty clever.

    ¡°Why are you so shocked? It¡¯s only way to get this guys. Honestly, chances that we will survive this are pretty low, but still it¡¯s more reasonable than trying to somehow sneak on them and shoot one buy one.¡±

    ¡°But it feels wrong to feed zombies with them.¡±

    ¡° Feels wrong? Hahah,  and what doesn¡¯t feel wrong in this world? It was you who wanted to kill them. It was you who agreed to do everything what is needed to do, to get your vengeance. Don¡¯t even try to give up now, not after I carried all this stuff here.¡±

    Last wire is connected, no its time for a little test, positive to negative and here it is. A nice spark shoot out of wires. Now, the question is if it will be enough to start engine.

    Huge diesel engine which is in our truck will work by itself, even without charged batteries but it needs a lot of power to start. I am about to take a try, suddenly I remind myself a little trick.

    It takes me few minutes but I manage to find some air freshener in the office next to garage.

    ¡°Come here, I need your help.¡±

    Anna, who was siting next to window to watch for any threats from outside, walks near with confused look on her face.

    ¡°Take this and spray it to this hole, when I turn on starter.¡±

    I give her air freshener and show pipe, which is coming from air filter to engine.

    Ok, the moment of truth. Starter is working but engine isn¡¯t starting. 10 seconds pass, 15 seconds, I can hear that batteries are getting weaker and wire that I used to connect it is starting to release a little of smoke.

    20 seconds. Come on, you fucking, stupid piece of shit, come on. And then with last drop of power, engine starts.

    Engine works well, but huge amount of exhaust is quickly filling the garage. Few more minutes and we will smoke ourselves.

    ¡° Anna come here!¡±

    There is no time to was right now, who knows how long truck will be working.

    ¡°Look at this.¡±

    I show her map of local area.

    ¡°You will take our pick-up and you will hide on the other side of the village. But remember don¡¯t drive to close, we don¡¯t want them to noticed anything.¡±

    I am pretty sure that she think that I am insane, look on her face is full of doubts and hesitation.

    ¡°And what about you ?¡±

    It, sounds almost like she is worried about me.

    ¡°I will break trough the village from the other side, bringing horde of zombies with me. We will meet on the other side, I will block the road with the truck, so we will have better chance to escape.¡±

    ¡°Escape? From what?¡±

    ¡°Tell me that you didn¡¯t thought that zombies will kill everyone. Of course most of them will be dead until morning, but I believe that the few who will survive, will start to chase us. You know, they will want to avenge their friends.¡±

    That¡¯s how it is, blood brings only more blood, or not if you only manage to kill all of them. Once again I became a little dramatic.

    While Anna is leaving to reach our car, hidden in bushes before the town, I decide to add a little armor on my truck. Zombies are already gathering around fire station and air in garage is getting more and more polluted, so I have to haste.

    By saying armor, I mean something which will at least give me some cover from those machine guns on the village towers.

    Thick steel plate on the wind shield would be great, but it¡¯s impossible for me to find one, and even if there will be one I wouldn¡¯t have enough strength to attach it.

    Fortunately, while searching trough station I find canteen with big, oak wood table. The top shelf f table is really thick and hard, I hope it will protect me a little bit.

    Who, I want to deceive? Machine gun bullets will pierce it like a paper. Few more minutes and I chop table legs with axe, I found hanging on the wall.

    Now, the I have to carry it to garage and attach it in front of the windshield.

    Somehow I did it. I attached table top using some wires from earlier. Some of you may laugh at me right now, what a stupid guy!.

    How is he going to drive this thing with windshield covered by table top? Don¡¯t you worry, young fellows, I got everything covered.

    I just need to rotate huge, side mirrors and instead of showing what¡¯s behind, they will show what is in front of me. But, enough praises, I feel like I will throw up my lungs, if I will spend a little more time in this place.

    Time to hit the road.

    What can I say? It¡¯s fucking boring. I have gathered almost all zombies from town. Easy thing, I just turned on flashy lights and horns, few circles trough town center and I got whole army of dead bodies.

    I have to admit, it was pretty fun, old soviet truck drives like a tank and when I found levers to turn on, all wheel drive and differential blockades it became almost unstoppable.

    But after I left the town, things became boring like hell, I can drive to fast or my new friends will get lost.

    So, I am basically driving about  5km/h, unbelievable speed of marching human. Because of unknown reason zombies don¡¯t want to move faster.

    The sun is setting behind me, crowd of zombies, following my truck, look truly impressive in such a light. Only 20 more minutes and  should reach my goal.

    Ok, time to start the party, earlier I knew keep only lights on, now I need something to wake up this crowd. Sound of fire engine horns will warn my enemy, but staying silent won¡¯t help me to much.

    My old soviet truck won¡¯t go over 70 km/h, but to be honest it¡¯s even more than I expected. As I thought, noise encouraged zombies to run faster and even they are left about 500m behind, they will definitely follow.

    First gates are not a problem, truck went straight trough them, I need to admit my idea with reversed mirrors doesn¡¯t work well when you drive this fast, I almost missed gates.

    About second after I breached first barrier, machine gun located on tower starts to shoot at my truck. Fortunately distance between gates its not long, so they don¡¯t have much chance to shoot.

    Table top is big disappointment, machine gun bullets are turning it into strainer. Fortunately truck is made from better kind of material and somehow hidden behind dashboard, half sitting, half kneeling, I manage to survive.

    I don¡¯t have much time to celebrate my luck because second gates painfully reminds me about reality. Powerful collision trembles whole vehicle, driving wheel breaks at least two of my ribs, but soviet machine wins once again.

    Ok, half of work done, but it doesn¡¯t look like it will be easier from now. I lost a lot of momentum and people are shooting at me. In addition radiator is broken and steam makes almost impossible to see what in front of me.

    Two more minutes, and everything will be ok, just two more minutes. Noise which engine is making sounds little like wounded animal, but it¡¯s still running. Another huge collision and I am out of village, it was only 10 seconds, but it felt almost like hour.

    Second machine gun, from other tower is shooting long series of bullets, but water tank on the back of truck is protecting me.

    In second mirror, which I left directed to the back I can see zombies reaching first gates, another 2 minutes and village will be full of them.

    I feel almost safe now, old vehicle pierce trough last gates like an arrow, opening way to my escape. Another minute and village disappears form view in mirror.

    ¡°Hahahaha¡±

    You have to admit, that was pretty cool¡­.

    KABOOOOM

    Truck was smashed from behind with huge force. I doing everything I can, but it looks like forest on the left side of road, will be end of my little trip.

    After breaking few trees vehicle finally stops. Broken radiator gave up completely and steam is all around. I guess that the end of this great machine.

    I am not in the best shape to, I can¡¯t see with my right eye, blood is dripping from wound on my forehead.

    I try to move a little, but it seems that I really broke some ribs. Ok, what now? Focus, something hit my truck, a missile or some grenade launcher?

    Wait, wait it¡¯s not important what hit my, but who hit me. In last flash of consciousness I try to take out my gun, but world goes black.

    Pain, a lot of pain. I open my eyes, it looks like, I am lying dawn on the road and some two guys are kicking me vigorously.

    Oho, they notice that I am awake. One more heavy kick in my stomach and they put me on my knees. One of them is taking out knife.

    It looks like things are going to get really ugly. I don¡¯t blame them, like I said before, blood brings only more blood. But something is strange I can¡¯t hear them, maybe one of them kicked me in head?

    Guy with the knife, grabs my hair and want to stab me, but suddenly his head blows up. Second guy can¡¯t do anything because there is nice hole in his chest.

    I can¡¯t admire this look much longer, because my consciousness fades away one more time.

    I wake again, Anna is trying to pull me inside our pick-up, my hunting rifle lies on the ground next to her. I looks like she can shoot, if she needs.

    Maybe, she isn¡¯t that bad after all.

 Why my zombie apocalypse is place where people change?

    A lot of pain.

    This are the best words describing my current state.

    Pain is not only unpleasant feeling but also very frustrating one. Imagine yourself, that with every single breath, new wave of pain explodes in your chest. This pain stuns you like electric shock, so every breath is short and almost insufficient. That¡¯s how things are with me, right now.

    Additionally shotgun seat in pick-up truck isn¡¯t best place to transport somebody with broken ribs. But enough with whines, lets focus on good things. I am not coughing with blood, hurray! And I am still alive, which is kind of surprising thing.

    I wish I could spend a little more time on my internal talk show but there are more important things going around me. Firstly the car stopped, and it is a while since that happened. I don¡¯t know how long and where Anna was taking us, but it¡¯s obvious that she decided that it was enough. The sound of opening zippers is a final sign for me to return to reality.

    When I open my eyes everything is blurry and little light inside the car causes a little pain explosion in my head. That¡¯s right, I was so focused on my broken ribs that I forgot that my head hurts too, basically my whole body hurts in some way or another.

    When my vision is clear enough to recognize basic shapes and objects, I notice that Anna is literally plundering trough my backpack on the driver seat next to me. With victorious look on her face she manage to find little box, which was serving me as my first aid kit.

    Look on her face changes immediately when she finds out that all medicines are in containers without any descriptions on it. It is quite amusing to watch her troubled face, but I need act before she decides to feed me with wrong medicine.

    ¡°Pain killers are in blue container and in case if you wanted to kill me, yellow one contains¡­ I don¡¯t really know what kind of stuff is that but last guy who took it, died in certainly unpleasant way.¡±

    Yep, I was keeping poisons together with my meds. Just a little present in case of someone taking my gear from me.

    ¡°Give me that elastic bandage, yes all of it. Oh, and bottle of vodka too, it should be in my backpack.¡±

    Unsurprised by sudden awaking, Anna pass all stuff to me. That¡¯s where things start to be very ugly. First painkillers and two long sips of alcohol. Third sip and I am ready.

    Taking my shirt of seems to be bad idea from the beginning, I am pretty sure that I am not able to move my arms over my head. Without much hesitation I cut shirt with my knife, which in some miraculous way didn¡¯t left my pocket during whole earlier action.

    I have to admit, even I am stunned by huge bruise almost black in color, covering my whole right side. Anna is looking at me with widened eyes, no wonder, it¡¯s pretty impressive injury.

    Meds and alcohol are starting to work after few minutes, it¡¯s time for second stage. I somehow manage to leave care  and leaned against pick-up with my back, I try to lift my arms as high as I can. The view before my eyes goes all white when pain explode in my chest, but results of this experiment are rather optimistic, it could be much worse. I teach Anna how to put elastic bandage around my chest, she got some nasty job to do.

    I take another dose of booze, and once again I lift my arms but this time I need to hold it for a while. Anna don¡¯t hesitate and with sharp movements, she wraps elastic bandage around my chest.

    World around me goes white once again, but I am still leaning on the side of a truck. When Anna finally ends, I can put my arms down. Effects are even better than I thought, I can take almost full breath without triggering pain in my chest.

    Painkillers kicked in too, making me feel little numb. Maybe I feel a little to numb. With rest of my strength, I manage return to pick-up. While sitting on my seat, I feel waves of darkness covering my body and mind.

    I wake up again, little stiff, but feeling much better. Air around me is filled with familiar smell of canned food heated on a bonfire. When I open my eyes, I can see Anna holding a pot over the fire.

    First attempt to leave a car is failure, my movements are to quick and I end up moaning in explosion of pain from my chest. I guess my moan was more like a scream, because Anna jumps up after hearing it, almost spilling food from the pot.

    Second attempt is much better, with slow and careful movements, I manage to leave a car on my own. Anna looks at me with truly strange eyes.

    I sit next to the fire and I straighten my hands to the pleasant heat. Silence around us is a little awkward, I feel like I should say something.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    Anna is really surprised, I don''t now what she thinks about me, but apparently ¡°thank you¡± wasn¡¯t something that she expected form me.

    ¡°Thank you for taking care of me and rescuing me form those guys on the road back then.¡±

    I want to praise her fro good shooting, but I can see that thanking for killing someone, is already to much for her. After hearing my words Anna face immediately goes white, she stands up quickly and move behind tree, where she throws up in violent way.

    When she finally comes back, here eyes are full of guilt. O don''t blame her, not all of us can kill and forget about it. When Anna calms down, I feel like it is a right moment to ask important questions.

    ¡°How long was I unconscious?¡±

    Yeah, yeah I am heartless bastard, girl has probably nightmares after her first time killing other people and  I don¡¯t even do a single thing to help her.

    It''s not like I don¡¯t want to help her, I just can''t. Personally, I accepted the fact that I am a killer, it''s just a normal part of new reality. Yeah, it may sounds a little dramatic and brutal, but it''s truth.

    Anna got two choices, she will understand that she did what she had to do, or she will die soon because her enemies won''t hesitate to pull the trigger. You shouldn''t think about it anymore, there are more important matters right now.

    ¡°First time it was almost two days and second you were  sleeping for whole day.¡±

    I am little shocked, two days? That''s a lot.

    ¡°Where we are?¡±

    Anna hesitates a little and her eyes are directed at ground.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­¡±

    That¡¯s bothersome, but it''s not end of the world. I am pretty sure¡­ Wait a minute!!!

    ¡°Did you drive for whole 2 days while I was unconscious?¡±

    Quick nod confirms my worst worries.

    ¡°And fuel?¡±

    Her eyes are still looking down, she won''t dare to even look at me.

    ¡°There is nothing left.¡±

    Oh, fuck me!

    ¡°Spare canister on the back!?¡±

    That was a little to loud.

    ¡°I-I used it all.¡±

    I fell a little of fear growing inside my chest, she took us far away from earlier location, it could be even few hundred kilometers. But I am not worried about not knowing where are we, nah it''s just a little problem.

    There is just one thing I am truly afraid in this new reality of ours, running out of food. It may think it''s funny for you that in world full of zombies and where other humans wants you dead, starving is the only thing I am afraid of.

    If you do, only thing I can say, is that you are fools. Yes, it is true that people can survive without food for many days, but with each day of starvation, you are becoming weaker and weaker and there is only one destiny for weak ones, death.

    So, it is time to take some action, because sitting next to cozy fire in unknown forest and eating out our last food supply, will finally end up with us dead.

    ¡°How much food is left?¡±

    Now, Anna is able to look me in the eyes, it''s obvious that she is somehow proud of herself.

    ¡°We got about dozen of those bean cans on the back of a truck, everything you got in your backpack and these.¡±

    She stands up and walk away only to show me two buckets full of strawberries. They are smaller than the one from before apocalypse, but it''s only normal, there was no one who would take care about them for three years.

    To be honest I am surprised that they even grow by themselves, I was pretty sure that they should die after two years. I take one of strawberries form bucket, it''s rather sour, but we still cane use it as some kind of addition to our meals, it''s better than nothing.

    ¡°God job, where did you find them?¡±

    ¡°At the first day of escape, I was driving next to some fields when I found one in bright red color. I couldn''t stop myself form, taking them. I haven¡¯t seen strawberries for three years¡­¡±

    Anna who was holding herself bravely to this moment, bursts with sudden cry.

    I feel awkward, even before apocalypse I wasn''t very social guy and that whole survival made only more socially broken, but I try to give her a little hug. That¡¯s what a man should do when he sees crying girl right?

    To my surprise, she is nor running when I pull her closer to my healthy side. I am even more surprised when she clings to me even harder and her cry becomes louder.

    ¡°Everything is alright¡±

    I try to calm her while stroking her head with my hand, she needs to calm down quickly, what if someone will hear her?

    Anna POV

    We were living in fake feeling of being safe. The shelter build by my father and our new friends made us think that we run away from al threats.

    How wrong we were.

    When they came, I managed to hide myself on the wide shelf under the roof of our hut. When huge explosion shattered shelter gates, I was already watching through the hole in wooden roof. I now regret that I did that, bit in that moment I couldn''t turn away.

    Everything was happened later have written in my memory so clearly, that I could still feel smell of blood and gunpowder in my nose.

    Slaughter was fast and efficient, clearly they have done it before. Air filled with screams, blood soaking ground, headless bodies thrown on the pile and me as a silent observer.

    When they left I was paralyzed, not because of unhuman acts I have witnessed seconds before. I was paralyzed by all my believes shuttered down by monsters in human skins.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    But I was wrong once again, I realized that when I saw a man walking through broke gates. His movements were different than attackers from earlier, he was careful and slow. He obviously wasn¡¯t walking, like he was afraid. Being afraid was totally opposite how he look like, his presence was that of true predator.

    I immediately felt fear that made all my feelings from before nonexistent. I realized that people from before was just trying to be monsters while this man was the only true one.

    He was looking on everything with empty eyes, pile of bodies and heads next to them wasn¡¯t making any impression on him, his presence made those signs of carnage look pity.

    Than something snapped inside of me, I felt that there is no way for me to survive this encounter, I knew that he will find me in my hiding.

    a

    Feeling anger raging through my body, I jumped on the floor as silently as I could and took revolver which my dad gave me in secret.

    I walked up to broken doors and while hiding in the shadows inside the building, I slowly took my time to aim.

    I cleared my magazine, I didn¡¯t have any more bullets, but I was pretty sure that my first shoot hit the monster.

    When I realized that he wasn¡¯t dead, overwhelming fear froze blood in my veins. Only one thought appeared in my mind, I had to run.

    I barely managed to pull myself up to my hiding under the roof. After some time I saw the monster walking trough the doors.

    Once again I feel burning anger inside my guts, I won''t  die like this.

    My father would be pride of me, I managed to jump on enemy and he even made sound of pain when I hit his left arm, nut my luck run out when with effortless movement he thrown me on the wall.

    While seeing that the monster was getting closer to me, I swear from pain, after hitting the wall all my body hurts. I yelled something at him, I cant remember what, I was little stunned.

    ¡°Hey, I am not here to hurt you.¡±

    Fear paralyzed me once again, monster spoke with human voice.

    ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me murderer.¡±

    I managed to yell at him. He tried to say something more, but I didn''t pay any attention to his words anymore, on the edge of my hearing, familiar sound, messenger of slaughter appeared.

    Monster heard that too, with one quick movement, he got closer to me and with quick flash of light, darkness embraced my mind.

    I didn''t thought that death will be shaking so much and will be sound like car. When I opened my eyes, it was obvious that I wasn¡¯t dead.

    I was sitting in the car and on the drivers car monster was sitting. With his dead man eyes, he was watching road ahead through windshield with blood stains on it. I didn¡¯t know how he could see anything, it was dark and heavy raining.

    I tried to move a little bit, but it was impossible, I was wrapped tightly with rope and my mouths were covered with duct tape.

    When I finally managed to change my position a little, I felt pain exploding in my back, landing on the wooden wall made some damage.

    I let out muffled moan, which caught monster''s attention.

    ¡°Hello there, so you are finally awake and yes I will release you soon but firstly you have to promise that you won¡¯t scream after I remove tape from your mouth.¡±

    This motherfucker!

    His voice was deep, so calm and emotionless that everything he said sounded like a threat or mocking, it was so confusing.

    I tried to scream at him with frustration, tape was holding tightly. When I finally calmed down, he removed tape with one quick movement.

    It hurt badly.

    ¡°You fucker¡­¡±

    I wanted to continue my angry monologue, but I stopped myself.

    ¡°So, I guess we can move forward. Firstly you need to understand that I don¡¯t want to harm you.¡±

    And again he was talking about being friendly, I didn''t think that kidnapping someone against their will was obvious sign of friendship.

    ¡°Of course you don¡¯t want to harm me, this fucking rope and huge swelling on my head are proof of your good will.¡±

    I looked like my words hit him a little, his eyes were dead like always, but his face made strange unhappy look for a second.

    ¡° Hey, don¡¯t be like that I saved your life. Those guys who butchered rest of your camp have heard you shooting at me and came back.¡±

    He had me that time, he was probably right, but if he wasn¡¯t there I wouldn''t had to shoot and there was no threat. And why should I believe him? He could be with those guys

    ¡°Why should I believe you?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ Why you should believe me? I don¡¯t know, maybe it¡¯s because you don¡¯t have other choice? Of course if you want to live. If you don¡¯t mind dying, I can leave you in this forest, you will be able to survive for about week or two.¡±

    He was right, his every word was true. I was angry, so angry. Not at him, but at this whole world. The world where I wasn''t able to survive and where I needed to depend on others in order to be alive.

    ¡°Why are you helping me?¡±

    My mouths formed one loud thought by themselves.

    ¡°Trust me, there is no special reason. I am just really nice guy.¡±

    That made my hearth skip a bit and I felt shiver down my spine. ¡°Really nice guy¡± sounded like a death threat in his mouths.

    ¡°So, I can assume that you won¡¯t do something stupid if I release you?¡±

    I nodded, it wasn¡¯t like I could do anything, I was paralyzed by fear. He released me from the rope.

    For the next half hour, I was fighting in my mind. Thousands of thoughts where speeding, my worries, my fears, my dreams and my memories were fighting again each other for my attention.

    I was about  to cry, when one emotion, stronger than anything else started growing in my hearth.

    ¡°I want them dead.¡±

    They should die, they should feel the same pain of their friend killed and their bodies slaughtered. I wanted to see the pile of their bodies, just like pile of my dead friends.

    ¡°Those people, who killed my friends, I want all of them dead.¡±

    ¡°Yeah sure, why not?¡±

    He didn''t take me serious, how dare he! Anger inside of me was rising to the new levels. I was silent until, I made clear decision in my mind.

    ¡°Will you help me?¡±

    ¡°With what ?¡±

    ¡°With killing them.¡±

    He was playing dumb with me.

    ¡°Sorry, but I am little confused right now. You ask me if I will help you with killing group of dangerous and well armed people?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Are you out of your mind?¡±

    He¡­ My fear of him was still stronger than my anger, but I am sure that if someone else would be siting on his place, I would rip throat of that person with my bare hands. After few minutes I decided to play his game, I wanted to check how nice was our ¡°really nice guy¡±

    ¡°If you don¡¯t want to help me, I will do it by myself.¡±

    He didn¡¯t say anything, he didn¡¯t even look at me.

    ¡°Don¡¯t treat me like an air! Will you help me?¡±

    My anger finally won against fear, I tried to grab his hand. Instantly car stopped and my forged meet with windshield on full force. For a second view in front of my eyes went black.

    When I opened my eyes again, I saw the barrel of a gun pointing directly at my head. With second hand he hold me tightly causing pain in my arm.

    Look in his eyes calmed me completely, fear paralyzed me again and I remembered that that was not human but monster.

    ¡°Listen to me little kid! I don¡¯t know how you spend the last three years and I don¡¯t care, but it¡¯s pretty obvious that you barely know how to survive. That¡¯s why I am trying to help you. I even risked my life to safe your life, so it would be nice if you won¡¯t try to make it harder for me. Do you understand ?¡±

    There was only fear filling my body and nothing besides that fear.

    ¡°Those people, in that fort, they were friends of yours?¡±

    I nodded.

    ¡°And you really want to avenge them.¡±

    Another nod.

    ¡°And you are sure, that you will be able to do anything it takes to get your vengeance?¡±

    Anger in my guts burned with little hesitation. I confirmed once again. His face made a small smile, which looked terrifying with his eyes.

    ¡°Ok, I will help you, but there is one condition. You will do everything I tell you without exception. Do you understand me?¡±

    My head nodded automatically.

    ¡°Say it out loud.¡±

    I was still paralyzed by fear, but anger fueled by fresh hope, gave me strength.

    ¡°I  will do everything you tell me to do.¡±

    After those words by mine, he just turned car around. I was just sitting in silence thinking about his promise, anger in my hearth was burning with pleasure.

    ¡° What is your name?¡±

    He surprised me, why monster wanted to know my name?

    ¡°Anna.¡±

    I didn¡¯t know why my name should change anything. I was trying to understand his motives, spoke some more

    ¡°This is the moment when you ask me what¡¯s my name.¡±

    I don¡¯t know if he tried to be funny, but look on his face and those eyes made me ask question he wanted to hear.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s your name?¡±

    ¡° Thank you, I¡¯m Stefan.¡±

    So, monster had a name.

 Why my zombie apocalypse is always a struggle?

    Anna¡¯s POV

    When I saw the place, where people who killed my friends lived, all hope I got left me instantly. Their village was big. Fences and trenches were all around it, they even got towers with machine guns.

    In that moment, I realized how pathetic our wooden shelter was. The safety I felt while living in that place, was becoming more and more fake and idiotic.

    While looking at enemy village, my desire of vengeance was slowly replaced by despair. How could we get people who killed my father, when they are hiding in such a place.

    When I looked at Stefan, I felt already familiar fear, but it was good fear, which was making all cruel world around, feel like it was nothing special.

    Like always, his face wasn''t showing any emotions, only his eyes had some dangerous glitter in them, when he was looking at village.

    And then, he just said.

    ¡°You know we don¡¯t have to kill them, it won¡¯t be bad thing if we leave it be like this. We tried to avenge your friends but enemy is very strong.¡±

    Anger, exploded inside of me, even thought I knew that was impossible for us to kill them, I was furious about him wanted to give up. I was so angry and it was very dangerous anger, because it was directed at monster like him.

    ¡°You promised! You..¡±

    I wanted to vent my anger, but his hand covered my mouth.

    ¡°Yes yes, I remember, now please stay silent. Don¡¯t worry I have a plan.¡±

    He had a plan! So, why he was trying to change my mind? I got many things, I wanted to say about him, but I stay silent like he told me.

    The next few hours were true example of how terrifying humans can be, especially the monster like Stefan.

    He took me to zombie infested town where he found fire station with huge truck in it. At that time I didn¡¯t know what he wanted to do.

    After he left fire station, obviously looking for something, I could be a witness of how effective as a killer machine he was.

    When I lived in shelter my father warned me how dangerous zombies were, and how careful the one needs to be in order to fight them.

    For a moment I thought, that he wanted to kill himself. He went straight to parking on the opposite side of road. Between cars many of zombies could be seen, but Stefan wasn''t care about them.

    Catching attention of few undead, he climbed on the roof of delivery van. Next, he grabbed that strange pickaxe with long handle and started slaughtering zombies, which were already gathering next to the van.

    I was dumbfounded, he was like a machine, using his weapon with great skill. Zombies were falling down one by one. For last three years I never thought, that they could be fought like that.

    When parking was clear, he started to gather car batteries, he was trying to start truck''s engine. When engine started, I understood difference between people like me and monsters like him.

    He wasn¡¯t fighting to survive, he was living in this cruel world like we used to live before apocalypse. Everything he was doing wasn''t nothing special for him, just normal day of life in apocalypse.

    The explanation how we use truck, made me understand another difference between us, he was able to do everything without hesitation, only to achieve his goal.

    I am waiting in the place which Stefan showed me on the map. He also left me his rifle, just in case, like he said.

    While sitting in the hidden car, I think about many things. How my dead friends would react if they could hear that I avenged them. What would my father say, if he knew that I sentenced so many people to death.

    Countless of minutes are passing, when I hear loud sounds of gunfight, that¡¯s the sign I am supposed to wait. I move my car from bushes, just to stop it next to the asphalt road leading to village.

    Shoots are becoming louder and louder when familiar red truck appears from behind the corner. It looks like everything went just like planned.

    Then, suddenly something hits back of truck with enormous force and vehicle stops by hitting trees next to the road.

    I jump out of pic-up with rifle on my hands, I was shooting with weapon like this just once in the past, but I was always surprised how simple guns are.

    Looking through rifle scope I can see, another pick-up stopping next to the place where truck crashed. Two guys wearing some of military uniforms are getting out from car and move in direction of truck¡¯s cabin. After few seconds Stefan is carried by them.

    I can see that he is in pain, the rain of kicks and punches continues, while they dragging him to the center of road. One of enemies is making Stefan kneel before him and takes out knife. In this moment, my body moves almost on its own, I carefully aim at guy with knife. When he is about to stab Stefan, I calmly pull the trigger.

    I can see how his head is blown away by bullet. I killed a man like it was perfectly normal thing to do, without hesitation, without doubts I pulled the trigger. I fell like little part of my humanity dies and in its place monster is born.

    Killing second enemy is just the formality, I aim at him and pull the trigger one more time.

    ***

    Stefan¡¯s POV

    Sometimes, I envy zombies for their easy lives, or rather afterlives. You just wander mindlessly with your zombie friends and when you notice something moving, you chew on it. If it''s bloody and fleshy,  good for you. If it''s not, bad luck, let''s wander a little more.

    Sounds fun right? Maybe you are dead, but at least, you don¡¯t have to go trough such a hell, like I do.

    Unfortunately, Anna wasn¡¯t joking about running out of fuel, it is true that I am not a big fun of using loud vehicles, but in current situation, four working wheels would be much help.

    In addition we were running low on food, we still got enough stuff for 3 days, but in situation when we don¡¯t know where we are, it''s almost nothing.

    You may ask, why don¡¯t you just hunt some animal, you are stuck inside of forest right?

    That''s true, but once again, we are lost. Hunting in unknown area with very loud rifle it''s not the best idea. Someone could simply hear our shoots, after seeing place where Anna was living, I stopped to trust even deepest wildernesses.

    So, I will hunt only, if I have to.

    We decided to leave our pick-up as soon as it was possible, I mean I decided, Anna just nodded in confirmation.

    By the way, if we talk about Anna, I have to say that she changed a little after that night when she broke down. She speaks even less than before, but her movements are somehow more confident. I don¡¯t really know how to describe it, but she looks like feeling much better now, at least it is what I think.

    I said we had to move out as soon as possible, but in reality, it took another day before we were finally ready. I wanted to give my chest another day, it probably didn¡¯t change anything, but I was in really bad shape, it won''t be a lie when I say that I still am.

    In addition, we had to carefully prepare all gear we got left. Unfortunately stuff which Anna was wearing, wasn¡¯t as practical as it should be, at least in my opinion.

    After an hour of digging trough pile of loot, collected by previous owners of atruck,  Anna got herself a new outfit. Finding decent cloths wasn¡¯t a problem, there was nice jacket and sturdy jeans trousers, but problems started when Anna was trying out boots.

    Finally she ended with pair, which was almost good, I know I know, almost is the last word, you want to hear when getting new footwear, but it was still better then Nikes she was wearing before. Hopefully we will find something which will fit her better in near future.

    After getting some change cloths and backpack, Anna was pretty much ready to go.

    Next morning was quite heartbreaking for me, it was a time to part with my sword. Unfortunately my injured chest made, carrying full packed backpack, almost impossible for me. In order to make it a little easier to handle, I left every unnecessary bit of weight behind. Unfortunately, sword was on the list.

    After saying good buy to my weapon, we left our little campsite. I choose to walk along wide, dirt road, it was made quite well, so even after three years there was barely anything growing on it.

    After short word exchange with Anna, I decided that we won''t follow our trails. Apparently, she was driving on that road for few hours to get here, and she could only see trees around her all the time.

    So, with set direction we started our march. After an hour I found out that it won''t be as easy as I thought. Sun was heating strongly and even hiding in the shadow of trees wasn¡¯t helping. In addition air was dense and humid, with my chest still hurting a lot, my breathing became sharp and painful.

    After three hours, we weren''t able to advance anymore, I was covered with sweat and Anna wasn¡¯t in much better condition. Fortunately new pair of boots wasn''t that bad, with additional pair of socks, she was able to walk normally. But weather and heavy backpack took a huge strain on her stamina, so she was even more tired than I was.

    After three hours of rest we were able to move out for once again. You may ask why it took so long? Three hours of rest is way to long, right?

    There were two good reasons, why we spend so much time on resting. First one, quite obvious, I am fuckin injured. Normally doctor would made me stay at least two weeks in bed, before I could stand up, unfortunately there are no doctors and number of beds without zombies fall down greatly during last three years.

    Another reason was sun, we were unfortunate enough to have our road going almost directly south. Walking in full sun without any cover, is not something you should do. And before any of you ask, no we couldn¡¯t go trough the forest next to the road. Imagine yourself, going trough dense bushes, with sweat dropping in your eyes and all kinds of flying bugs all over you.

    Fucking Amazonian jungle in central Europe.

    So, it is already third day of our torment, my whole body hurts, I got burns and bruises in some very delicate places and my lips are dry and cracked. Exhaustion is so overwhelming that I almost don¡¯t feel pain in my chest, that''s the good thing right?

    You see, food wasn¡¯t the main reason to be worried. Amount of our drinking water was pretty low too, and a after three days of extensive sweating, there is not much left, at least our backpacks are a lot lighter.

    I tried to gather some water from birch-trees, it''s pretty easy, you need to cut bark on the tree in v-shape, and stuck something  which water could flow on. Unfortunately this method is rather slow, in addition  it was already too late to collect birch water, so after whole night I only collected 1 liter of it. Oh, I almost forgot, it taste like shit too.

    So, I told you about bruises, dehydration, what else? Oh, yeah BUGS. There is no escape from them, mosquitos at night, huge biting flies in a daylight, they are basically eating us alive. Apparently, smell of our bodies works great as a bait for those little bastards.

    Seriously, walking like this, makes me see my career as a zombie in bright colors, you now, parties with other zombies and of course braaiins. By the way that whole thing about brains is bullshit, zombies are not picky, leg, arm, stomach, it doesn''t matter, everything is tasty.

    I don¡¯t know where I get all that strength to move my legs, but it works pretty well. Left, right, left, right, here you go, I am moving forward like a champ. Anna isn¡¯t in much better condition than me, but honestly speaking, I am pretty impressed that she didn''t fall yet.

    I am so deep in my thoughts, that I almost do not notice, clearing which suddenly appeared from behind dense wall of trees on the right side of road. We passed a lot of crossroads and clearings on our road, but this is little different, because there is wooden lodge on it.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    I am pretty calm, nothing unordinary, just a wooden hut inside the forest, probably empty, we just need to be careful and everything will be alright. Then suddenly loud dog''s barking can be heard.

    Fortunately, tried or not, my instincts gained during three years of constant struggle to stay alive, are working well. With one fluent movement I grab my rifle which was attached to the side of my backpack.

    Obviously, I am not scared of dog, but someone had to feed that animal, right? I don¡¯t have to wait for long, with loud yelling owner of the lodge, charge at us trough the from doors.

    I have seen many weird things in my life, most of them in last three years, but nothing could prepare me for such a view.

    Bald, guy with long grey beard and with double barrel shotgun in hand, running in strange matter in our direction, it''s nothing out of ordinary, right? But what if this guy was naked? Only in waders on hi feet, with his weiner swinging from side to side.

    Oh my fucking god, why? Why it all happens to me? Unfortunately, I don¡¯t have much time to cry about my fate because, old guy tries to aim his shotgun,(goddammit that sounds so wrong now).

    Fortunately, he is a moron, he tries to aim while running¡­

    Boooom!!!

    Recoil of two barrels fired in this same time, almost twist his body. I don''t think that I have to say that he missed? Both slug shots hits trees, about ten meters to ours left.

    Baldy, stops he tries to reload his weapon, he reaches to his pocket to take out some shells, but there is no pocket, someone forgot that he run out of his house in Adam''s outfit.

    I don¡¯t give him much time to think about what went wrong, I pull the trigger and bullet from my rifle hits him in chest, directly where hearth should be.

    When effects of adrenaline fades off, I feel like exhaustion fills my body. Seriously, my vision goes weird, like I was watching everything from the bottom of the well.

    I look behind, just to find out that Anna is sitting under the tree and resting. Feeling that I won''t be able to stand much longer, I sit besides her.

    After about half an hour, I find a bit of strength inside my body, it should be enough to clean that mess.

    First things first, I take my pickaxe, which was attached to Anna''s backpack. She makes confused eyes, but don¡¯t say anything. I give her my rifle and with hand gesture, I show her to follow me. It is not about being silent, I just don''t have enough strength to speak.

    With pickaxe in my hands, I am getting closer to the place where the dog is. Saying that this beast is huge, is a little understatement. Only thing that is stopping this cross of bear and wolf from ripping my throat out, is a rusty chain made from thick links and attached to the three.

    With the wide swing I launch my pickaxe to the dog''s head. With loud crack, steel spike meet with skull and piece it. After short second of hesitation, I swing my weapon once again, just for good measure, this dog looks like pricing trough the brain could be not enough.

    While checking are behind lodge, I find something I was really hoping for, it is hand water pump with metal tub under it . Almost unconsciously, I start to pump water into tub, while drinking plentifully.

    Fortunately cold water, brought a little of my reason back and reminding about few things. Firstly I didn¡¯t check inside the hut yet, I am ashamed of myself, if there was someone else in there, we would be probably dead.

    The second thing is that, I am not alone. There is a lady with me, as exhausted as me or even more. Rising on peaks of culture and propriety, I let Anna take her bath and take her time.

    Muttering about how too soft I am, I leave her alone. From close, lodge looks very solid, wood is well preserved, windows are clean, there is no mold or moss. When I enter trough the door, air inside is filled with smell of smoked meat, the smell is so intense that almost unbearable.

    While checking slowly all of three rooms, the last one is, where I find source of smell. About five meter in length and three in width, whole room is filled with smoked meat hanging from the celling.

    There is everything, whole legs, ribs, all kinds of tasty looking animal parts. I thank to god, that all of meat is clearly from animal source, it may sounds funny, but since apocalypse started it''s easier to find cannibal than vegetarian.

    Yeah, yeah, disgusting right? Apparently, zombie filled landscape makes some people snap and change their diet to zombielike one.

    When I take a bite of the meat, heavenly taste fills my mouth, I am pretty sure that it shouldn''t taste so good, but salty meat is clearly what my dehydrated body needs.

    Anna, took my advice very seriously, when I walk out from the hut, dim sounds of splashing water can be heard. Unfortunately, I still got some more of dirty work before I can dive in that tub.

    Firstly, I have to remove body of previous host, I don¡¯t have any energy to dig him a grave, but if move it deep into a forest, it should be good enough.

    Of course there is control swing of my pickaxe, directly to dead man''s head, better be safe. We don¡¯t want him, nocking to our doors later, right?

    When I was done with body, it is time for a dog to reunite with his master. Old man had to hunt a lot, to feed this beast. It takes me almost fifteen minutes to move it''s massive body.

    Back in the lodge, I find Anna vigorously munching on some smoked deer''s leg. She looks much better than hour ago. Knowing that bathtub is free I can''t handle my poor, sweaty and exhausted body anymore. With last bits of strength, I rushed behind lodge.

    While pumping water, I am trying to remove my clothes in the way that won''t strain my injured chest. After three days of constant struggle, I and pain of my crushed ribs became best buddies. It''s constant presence became totally normal for me.

    When I finally enter the tub filled with cold water, I let long and loud moan from my mouth. Relief floods my body, making my tired limbs finally relax. I close my eyes, feeling enormous wave of somnolence coming. I don''t try to fight, fuck it. If zombie apocalypse wants something from me, it has to wait.

    ***

    ¡°Stefan!¡±

    What¡­.?

    ¡°Stefan, wake up!¡±

    I open my eyes and see Anna standing next to bathtub and shaking my arm. My sleepy mind can''t get grasp on this situation yet.

    ¡°It''s already evening.¡±

    Indeed, sky is in pretty red color and sun is hiding behind the trees. It looks like I spend few hours napping in a bathtub.

    My mind finally starts to work properly and I realize that someone is pretty shameless. Anna is standing next to me, with truly cold look on her face. I am slightly disappointed, it''s not like I had any romantic plans for her, but she should at least blush a little, while looking on my perfect, shaped by zombie apocalypse muscles.

    While Anna is standing with her back to my direction, at least she shows some modesty, I leave bathtub and I try to put on my pants without straining my chest. It looks like, elastic bandage is only thing that stops my ribs from hurting with every movement.

    Fortunately, Anna is here to help me wrap that bandage. After one painful yell, and few moans, I am almost like new.

    When pain in my chest is on bearable level, I realize that sleeping in the bathtub, wasn¡¯t the best idea.

    Firstly you have to understand, that tub was pretty small. It was big enough to hide all my torso under water, but my arms and legs under the knees were just hanging outside the tub.

    You remember when I told you about bugs? Yeah, while I was sleeping like a stone, dozens if this little fucker had quite a feast on limbs and head.

    Fighting with urge to scratch my limbs, I walk in to lodge with Anna following me. Apparently she didn''t bothered with searching trough the wooden house carefully.

    After, looting room, which is suppose to be a kitchen, familiar feeling of danger fills my mind. In one of cabinets we find dozens of bottles filled with bourbon, another one was full of military food rations.

    Instantly, I connect all hints, and found out truth about crazy old man from before.

    ¡°Anna get ready, we are living early in the morning.¡±

    Anna looks at me with surprised eyes, last three days was really hard for her, obviously she wouldn¡¯t mind to spend some more time on resting in this place.

    ¡°This guys wasn¡¯t living here, he was send by someone else to collect meat and smoke it. There is too much booze and rations to transport without a car.¡±

    After my explanations a glint of understanding appears in her eyes. But that¡¯s not all, the most important detail needs to be said.

    ¡°Looking at amount of meat h gathered, the group which send him here, will probably arrive soon.¡±

    Anna listen to this revelations with stone cold look on her face, after hearing all of that someone could think that she will be full of questions, but she have only one.

    ¡°Shouldn''t we leave immediately?¡±

    The sound of her voice terrifies me a little, it''s totally emotionless, I guess traveling with me is hard for her. But, don¡¯t worry about her, I already have an idea how to help her.

    ¡°We don''t have to, I don¡¯t think that they will come at night. This place it''s already quite hard to find at daylight.¡±

    There is also one very useful thing in that kitchen, on one of walls, big map of all forest complex is hanging. With use of maps which I collected earlier, I am able to find out our location.

    I have to say one thing, of we talking about running in panic, Anna is true master. In 48 hours, she drove almost 400 kilometers, without meeting other survivors or zombies. It''s quite an achievement.

    Right now, we are in forester''s hut located in huge woodland area located between two big national parks. In short there are woods everywhere around us.

    Knowing where we are and obtaining a map is huge help, in the next fifteen minutes I am bale to find quickest way out of woods.

    As we should leave early in the morning, I am collecting everything I find useful in the hut. Besides smoked meat, booze, and military rations, there are few more things that can became handy in the future.

    Firstly, there is shotgun which old man was using, in one of cabinets I find two boxes of ammo for it. I give shotgun to Anna, after I lost both of my handguns, scoped rifle is only range weapon I got.

    The people who send crazy old guy to this wilderness, left him well equipped. In the bedroom I find I find first aid kid, mostly bandages and a little of painkillers. There is also one thing that catches my attention, big knife in dark leather sheath, laying on the table.

    I am not exactly knife guy, but it looks extremely high quality. While unsheathing the blade I almost cut myself with it, it is insanely sharp. Guess what? It looks like I found myself a new knife.

    Returning back to the kitchen I fills our backpacks with food, unfortunately three years old military rations are not anything special, so smoked venison is half of the food I take. Only thing left is to fill all containers we can find with water.

 Why my zombie apocalypse is a place where things try to kill you ?

    Civilization¡­ Or at least, civilization''s remains. It really doesn''t matter, few houses and something that could be called an asphalt road at least twenty years ago,make my face bright with a wide smile.

    After another three days of walking trough the forests, we finally reached the edge of woods. Unfortunately our little break in foresters hut, didn''t helped us that much. of course we got food, water and even fairly comfortable place to stay for one night but after few hours of walking exhoustion hit us even harder than before.

    So, summarizing last three days would be pretty simple: bugs, heat, burns and bruises everywhere. I have to admit that Anna was handling it very bravely, or she didn''t have any strength left for complains.

    From the other side, I am totally crushed. Yep, crushed, that''s the word. Apparently walking dozens of kilometers under rather harsh circumstances, isn''t the wisest thing to do when half of your chest has a colour of ripe plum.

    But I can''t complain, at least swelling came off a little bit, so it is less painful to move. But don''t worry my friends, do you remember that little bullet wound on my left arm? Guess what? Yep, it got infected.

    Excellent, fucking excellent. But it is not that bad, at least not yet. It is little swallen, hot and there some fancy fluids dripping between stitches. You see, the trick to not get your wounds infected, is to keep it clean and don''t strain it. As you probably understand, last few days weren''t exactly good for healing.

    So, now it''s obvious why I am happy after seeing few ruined houses.

    While fighting with bushes and tall grass, we are getting closer to village. Looking at this few houses from a shorter distance makes me notice that buildings are not in such a bad shape as I thought.

    The village, I guess five houses, plus few more sheds and barns around, deserve that name, it''s clearly deserted. You may ask, how I now that? I guess there are few details that you would be aware of, if you would spend as much time on traveling trough zombie infested land, as I did.

    So, it s time for a little lesson, how to not get killed while approaching unknown buildings.

    First step look at windows and doors, if they are not blocked with anything, house is probably empty. What if all entrances are barricaded? Well, you will probably get shoot.

    Step two, even if windows are not blocked take a good look at them, you have to determine one thing, they are clean or not? You may think that it is funny, but trust me, you don''t want to enter house with clean windows.

    Humans are wierd creatures, even apocalypse is not able to change many of our habits. One of them is to keep place we are living in clean. You may think that there are more important things than house cleaning when zombies are roaming around and I have to admit that, you are surely right. But trust me, if you have to live in some house, shed or even cave, you would spend every moment free from trying to stay alive, on keeping your place clean and comfy. It is habit that was hammered into our heads by generations of mothers.

    Long story short, stay away from clean windows.

    Lets assume that house you want to get in , have unblocked, dirty windows, it is save to enter, right? Unfortunately, we can''t be sure yet. What if there is someone, who don''t give a fuck about cleaning, living inside? This is were we get to the step three, checking the building''s surroundings.

    What do I mean by that? It''s pretty simple, look for signs of human presence. Still no clear enough? Ok, ok let me explain. First example, shotgun laying one the bench next to door, yep you should run, or its even too late and your head will be smashed by axe from behind.

    Second example, there is clear path going from house''s doors to nearby water well and by clear I mean there is no grass or weeds growing on it.

    Thrid example¡­ oh come on, you should get it right now.

    So, if you went trough all three steps and house seems ok to you, it is safe to enter? Hmm¡­ I wouldn''t say that it is safe, but it''s definitely safer than charging straight in. But it looks like you forgot about something, what if previous owners are still inside, but in rather zombish form? Well, if something will go wrong, you will end up eaten.

    After, going trough my tree steps routine, we walk in to the village. It''s kind of obvious the previous inhabitants had hard life even before this whole apocalypse started. Houses are not that bad, there are signs of rather sloppy repairs, probably made by old owners personally, but other buildings are in full " let''s check which one collapses first" mode.

    There is one thing that worries me, I haven''t seen single zombie yet. It''s not that uncommon to find totally deserted settlements, but in most cases there are at least one of two walking corpses outside.

    If you think about it, it makes sense that there are no zombies outside, few isolated houses on the edge of woods, probably never looted. There was obviously no reason for dead to go outside houses where they died from sickness.

    As we move closer and closer, it becomes more obvious that we are first visitors since apocalypse begun. I am making some plans how to loot houses around in safest possible way, when wild idea appears in my mind.

    I calmly walk to the nearest house, than I stop few meters from doors.

    "You better stay here and watch for trouble, yell if you see something."

    As usual, I don''t much of a response from Anna, she just nods and turns around in order to watch rest of village.

    I take off my backpack and grab my pickaxe which was attached to it. Without my protective gear which I had to leave in the pick-up truck inside thee forests, my body feels unnaturally light. I try to stretch a little but my chest together with wound on my arm reminds me that I am not in the best shape right now.

    I take few last steps and I stop right in front of wooden doors. I take a long breath and I open them rapidly. Long screeching noise of rusted hinges fills air around me.

    Few long seconds of waiting and I am able to see person walking at the end of dark corridor. It seems that this person was already very old and sick when apocalypse begun. Her, becouse I can see clearly that zombie was an old women, movements are really slow, I guess turning into zombie doesn''t make you younger.

    With the right timing I swing my pick axe into her head, satisfying noise of breaking skull can be heard and little moan made by me, I am definitely not in the best shape.

    ***

    Clearing whole village took us longer than I thought, two painful hours full of zombie elimination. Rest of houses went almost as smooth as the first one, with one exception when not one but two moving corpses charged on me, from one of the houses.

    It''s not like I wasn''t ready for this, but it was clearly to much for my injured chest. A little stunned by intense pain, I almost missed my second swing, it was first time in while since I was so close to being eaten.

    But like I said, village is now 100% zombie free, I can guarantee you that. Anna was standing on the watch as asked her, my little zombie slaughter festival, didn''t left any impression on her.

    To be honest, I should be pretty content with what we achieved today. Firstly, I am still alive and Anna too, that''s pretty surprising outcome. Additionally we left that forests and secured shelter that will serve us at least few good days. We still got some smoked meat that we took earlier in woods and we found few jars of pickles and honey that should be alright to eat.

    As you can see, things looks pretty good¡­ or not. If you compare my situation from two weeks behind, to that shithole I am in, right now, you will understand.

    Back then I got everything, guns, medicines, food and what is most important, I was free from any obligations.

    Looked at me now, I got rifle that is good for hunting deer, but it lacks when comes to shooting at people. Oh I got double barrel too, the only problem with it, is that I don''t know if it will fire or it explode in my hands. I lost all that funky equipment that made me at least a little bit more resistant to zombies teeth.

    Don''t you even try to laugh at me, I am not done yet. In addition, right side of my chest looks like it was hit by sledgehammer and I can fell that my left arm is swelling more and more.

    But don''t worry, everything I just said is only a minor inconvenience, my main problem is girl sitting beside me.

    As you should already understand, her presence in my daily life of zombie apocalypse survivor is definitely threat. I know it is too late for such a thoughts, but it is obvious truth, as long as she stays with me, chances that I will meet with unpleasant death are raising.

    Of course, I am the only one who is responsible for such a situation, there is no denying, but don''t worry I already have some solution. No, no, no you sick bastards, I am not going to kill her. I have spend to much effort to keep her alive, it needs to be solved properly.

    The first thing that have to be done is to tell her about my plan.

    We are currently camping inside one of the houses we cleared earlier today. Inside the house, we found old wood stove, first try to light it ended with failure. After a short investigation we found out that bird nest clogged the top of a chimney.

    Finally, when we get rid of all smoke that filled the room and after quick eviction of winged locators, we were able to light up the stove properly.

    Of course, we wasn''t looking for the way to warm up ourselves, incoming summer was already doing great job with that, way too good if you ask me. With little help of steel pot, which I found in another house, Anna managed to cook some kind of stew.

    Unfortunately, smoked venison didn''t gain anything after that process, but something that looked like a weird type of deformed carrots, which were growing in remains of vegetable garden, made stew almost tasty.

    So, right now I am in pretty good mood, my stomach is full, few smelly pillows taken from the old sofa made wooden floor almost comfortable and earlier accident with stove made all bugs run away. You won''t be able to imagine how good it feels to lay down while there is nothing buzzing around you.

    There is only one problem, I need too talk with Anna. While I am enjoying my little rest, she is trying to make some tea. It''s mostly hot water with honey and a little bit of wild herbs which were growing near the house, but it has to taste pretty good, which is not a surprise seeing how much honey she added.

    "We need to talk."

    Her attention is immediately shifed from her brew to me.

    "I think I know some place where you could stay."

    Oho, she have that "what the fuck are you talking about" look on her face.

    "I mean, you can''t stay with me. I am simply a solo player and your presence by my side is a huge hindrance for me."Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Ok, I am maybe a little bit to straightforward but there is no point to sweeten things.

    "Do you understand that?"

    After a short second, she gives me a single nod. I have too admit it went far better than I thought. Alright, it''s time to get some sleep¡­

    "What kind of place is it?"

    Or, not. It looks like sleeping have to wait. I guess she deserve a little explanation.

    "Don''t worry, it''s nice place, safe and well prepared, I was one of the people who build it."

    Yep, you heard it right, I also had that kind of episode in my survivor career. Anna looks pretty surprised too.

    "But how?"

    Ech.. it looks like it is going to be a long night for me.

    "Ok, I will tell you about it, so listen carefully.."

    ***

    Whole thing started in the summer of the second year of apocalypse. After my little experience in military kind of shelter, I spend whole spring roaming around country, gathering experience and gear. I had also few nice and few unpleasant events involving other survivors, but luckily I managed to survive it all.

    When summer begun, I was already doing pretty well as a survivor, so I decided to look for some more fancy gear and to visit few fun places.

    After a small trade with other lone survivor, we both had guns and were rather reasonable, so our meeting ended peacefully, I obtained information about some mansion on the outskirts of a town I was nearby.

    There was mansion which once belonged to some mafia boss and it was filled with many kinds of useful stuff. Unfortunately it was also filled with zombies, mafia boss was pretty clever man and when people started to suffer from mysterious fever, he summoned all of his pawns together with their families. As you probably already understand, it didn''t helped at all.

    Survivor who traded this story for few cans of tuna, swore that it was true and nobody has looted mansion before.So, whithout further hesitation I headed to check put if my trade would pay off for me.

    I could tell you about, how cleverly I managed to enter mansion and how I looted it, but it''s not important to this story. The one important thing is what kind of gear I found inside.

    So, besides of variety of guns and drugs, there was one rifle that caught my attention. It was called SWD or simply Dragunow. Raised on dozens of videogames I couldn''t resist to take that beauty with me.

    And this is the point where story really begins, because after I left mansion I heard loud noises of gunfight. I was in rather playful mood and still pretty stupid so I decided to check out what was happening.

    When I arrrived at place, gunfight was already going to it''s end. It was rather simple scenario, convoy of cars was ambushed on petrol station. Unfortunately for survivors in convoy, attackers were obviously better equipped.

    Hidden behind their cars, people from convoy were trying to defend themselves with handguns an hunting rifles, when attackers were shooting viciously with their assault rifles. Outcome was rather obvious, with every minute defender were losing someone.

    When it seemed that the fate of convoy was already decided, I got one of that funny moments when reason wasn''t turned on. And I really wanted to try my new rifle.

    I was already on good spot, roof of the nearby building which surprisingly wasn''t taken by one of attackers. I guess they weren''t much of thinkers.

    So, I took comfortable position and started to shoot. First shot was a failure, apparently scope wasn''t zeroed properly. Fortunately nobody noticed my miss, becouse gunfight was still pretty vigorous.

    My second attempt was an introduction to a true slloughter. When thugs noticed that something was wrong, five of them were already dead. What a amazing gun, it was first truly military sniper rifle I shoot, it was really different from hunting rifles I used before.

    Another five minutes was rather chaotic, my continuous elimination of attackers, heroic counter attack of defenders and terrifying screams of wounded.

    When gunfight ended, I decided it was time to retreat, I didn''t really wanted to meet with people from convoy. Who knows? Maybe I will get few grams of lead inside my head as a gratitude?

    I was already ready to leave roof of the building using the same ladder which I climbed up earlier, when something totally unexpected happened.

    Behind me, on the roof was someone else. I was dumbfounded for a second, that guy was literally a giant, seriously I felt small standing next to him.

    Then using the moment of my infirmity he closed me in his bear hug. I was about to stab my knife between his ribs, when something felt strange, apparently he didn''t want do harm me, he was just hugging me.

    As it turned out later, bear man was one of convoy guys who noticed my little participation in their gunfight. His name was Boris and he was a truly stereotypical russian. His accent was so strong, that while you were talking with him, you almost felt like knowing russian.

    Without any chances to leave unnoticed, I was obligated to go down and greet with rest of his group. One thing I have to admit, their numbers were really impressive, they got almost forty people, but gunfight reduced that number to thirty one.

    It was the largest traveling group I have ever seen, no wonder they were attacked, dozen of fully packed cars looked very tempting to any thugs.

    Without any warning, I was introduced as a savior to the rest of the group and I was welcomed warmly. It wasn''t exactly what I was expecting after killing a few other humans, but I wasn''t complaining, it was still better than bullet to the back of my head.

    Next, I met the leader of the convoy, and it was another surprise for me, it was a women, in her early twenties. I was pretty shocked, I was expecting a middle-aged guy, probably a policeman, you know someone with aura of authority, but standing front of me was young women with a gentle look in her eyes.

    The first thing she said to me was:

    "Please, join us!"

    Apparently my reason was still out of order, because I simply agreed without any hesitation.

    The story after was pretty simple, we were traveling a lot, collecting gear and we found a perfect spot to build shelter. I have spend second winter in that place and when spring came I left to continue my solo travels.

    ***

    "So, thats how it looks like. I am pretty sure that this people will take you in, of course not for free, but we will manage to find something to buy you in."

    Look on Anna''s face makes me think that my little story didn''t helped. To be honest, it was quite the opposite, she looked more doubtful than before.

    "I don''t understand."

    What she want from me? I was pretty clear with everything.

    "About what?"

    "If that shelter was such a good place, why did you left?"

    I have to admit one thing, Anna is a quiet one, but she knows how to ask right questions, or at least the most uncomfortable ones. It takes me whole minute before I start my explanation.

    "I don''t really know how to explain that, but I don''t feel that it was right way of living for me."

    Ok, that sounds pretty good, almost reasonable.

    "When I traveled alone, before I met people from convoy and even after that, I have seen things that couldn''t be described by words. Truly terrifying things."

    I let meaning off my words sink deeper in her thoughts before I continue my explanation.

    "And all of that events I have witnessed, had one common factor. Human fear.

    Listen very carefully right now, becouse what I want to say is pretty much the most important thing I have learned in past three years.

    The most dangerous creatures are not the zombies, but humans powered by fear. They are able to do things that you couldn''t even imagine, terrifying and abnormal things."

    Whoa, I guess I went a little to far.

    "So back to the topic, I left because people in that place started to being afraid of me. You see, I couldn''t understand why all of them so desperately try to live like before apocalypse. Why they are pursuing something that is already lost.

    I sometimes feel like I am totally different from other people, but I wasn''t like that before people started to turn into zombies. Maybe I got some kind trauma or something, I don''t really know, but one thing was clear to me. People in that place noticed that I was different from them.

    I don''t even remember when that change happened, but one day I noticed that respect and gratitude in their eyes, changed into fear. So, I left that place."

    It looks like something that should be simple explanation turned into quite a speech. For this whole time when I was talking, Anna was staring at me in the way that, almost made me feel little uncomfortable. Let''s hope that she will gain anything from my words.

    " So do you understand now, why we need to find you a place to stay?"

    One silent nod ends our conversation.

    ***

    When I open my eyes, sun is already high on the sky, but it''s not a big problem. The village which we are staying in, is so small and remote that there is almost no danger at all, in being a little lazy.

    Night spend in decent conditions was miraculous for my injuries, of course it''s not like I am healed or something. I mean that I feel much better, swelling on my chest is definitely smaller and my arm started to heal properly. I guess horse dose of antibiotics from my small supply helped too.

    While trying to stretch my sore body, I notice that someone heated up left overs from yesterday''s stew. Unfortunately taste didn''t changed through night.

    When mind finally decides to wake up, stew leftovers are already a history. Withy stomach pleasantly filled, I am able to notice one obvious fact, Anna isn''t here.

    I find her in little garden behind the house, it''s the same place where she found those strange carrots. Good, maybe she will find something tasty?

    I am planning to stay one more day in this place, just to take good rest before returning on the road. Unfortunately I can''t spend whole day just laying around and doing nothing, there is some work for me too. All of sheds and barns needs to be searched, yesterday we only managed too check if there were any zombies inside, we didn''t look for loot.

    Outside look of the shed is not very promising, I am pretty sure that even before this zombie thing happened, it didn''t look very impressive but three years without human hand turned it into pile of wooden boards with something that looks like a doors.

    I am standing in front of shed and the only thing in my head is a question, do I really need to enter that place? Unfortunately my reason is stronger that unpleasant look of this place. With slow movement I pull door handle and¡­ nothing happens.

    What the hell? Yesterday it opened without any problems. I pull once more but I put more force to it.

    "Open, you stupid piece of shit !"

    Loud noise of breaking wood fills the air around me and world goes upside down, when whole board together with door handle leaves its the place in doors.

    "Fuuuuck!"

    Pain makes my vision go all white, unfortunately my fall is far from being pleasant, when handle broke my body twisted in the way that made my injured side, first part of my body to meet the ground. If that wasn''t enough, there is a single pointy rock peeking from the ground.

    Yeap, you should already understand that this rock hit perfectly in the middle of huge bruise on my side. So, situation looks like this:

    "OHH MY FUCKING GOD!!"

    Do you know that feeling when day hasn''t even started yet and you know that it will be terrible? Yeah, I got something like this right now, with one difference, it''s not feeling, it is like a obvious fact.

    I only hope that we killed all zombies in area, because if there is one still alive, it will be charging in my direction. I lay on the ground for a good two minutes when I finally hear some steps.

    So, there is still some zombie alive. With sluggish movement I stand up from the ground, I am pretty sure that my pick axe is somewhere here.

    Oh, there it is, laying next to this fucking shed. With trusty weapon in my hands I am ready to face any walking dead on my way, at least I would be ready, but waves of pulsating pain flood my body one by one.

    To my surprise not a zombie, but Anna appears from behind the shed. With asking look on her face, she walks up to me. Looking at her I feel almost obligated to explain.

    "Handle broke, I fell on my side."

    With a single nod she returned where she came from and leave me alone.

    When she disappeared behind a shed, I decide to rest a little bit. There is single tree stump few meters away, it looks like a decent place to sit.

    Waiting for a pain in my chest to get weaker, I look at shed and I notice that it was a pretty nice wooden building back in its best days. With hand made decorations carved on the boards and wooden tiles on the roof, it surely was pride of its makers. It''s shame that it ended like this.

    It almost got me in decedent mood, when suddenly one thought strike my mind.

    "Hhahahahhahaa¡­ oughh."

    In burst of unexpected laugh, quickly ended by new wave of pain, I realize one thing.

    If it wasn''t Anna but zombie, who came a moment before, I would probably end up killed by a fucking shed.

 Why my zombie apocalypse is a place where things gets smelly?

    I am ashamed to admit, but I needed one more day to rest. Yeap, that''s truth, no denying. At least I somehow managed to search the rest of buildings and I even found few useful items, but I will talk about them later.

    Probably the best hits from yesterday are not single items I found, but new building or structure, made by human hands. The thing I am talking about is basically a basement or underground storage. It may sound impressive, but it is only 1,5m wide and 4m longe room hidden under pile of dirt.

    I am not even mad about fact I found that place so late, in three years mother nature made it almost invisible under the layer of tall grass and bushes.

    To be honest I found it by accident, I was looting nearby shed, swearing loudly about my injured chest, when I noticed suspiciously looking mound in on the back of one house.

    When I was walking around while investigating that anomaly, I basically fall inside the hole. Fortunately it was more like missing part of slope than hole, so I managed to land without hurting my chest again.

    After few seconds of swinging my pick axe, lock in storage doors decided to surrender and I could take a look inside.

    You are probably thinking, that I am so exited because I found secret stash of guns or something, you couldn''t be more wrong.

    Inside that little dugout, I think this is proper name for such a storage, I found a lot of glass jars filled with homemade preserves.

    So, our menu is richer by jams and pickled vegetables. Oh, and I almost forgot, on the far end of dugout I found some funky looking machinery and dozen bottles of moonshine. Three years in dark basement made it taste like highest quality vodka.

    When I finally was able to rest my sore body, my stomach was full annd warm from tasy food and strong booze.

    Unfortunately, unpleasant events of yesterday, especially my little encounter with rotten shed, made my condition a little bit worse then it was before we entered this village. So, naturally I decided that I deserve one day off.

    By day off, I mean that I gave rifle to Anna with order to keep the watch and I hit booze and painkillers early in the morning. Yep, let the world burn, I don''t care.

    When I woke up, it was already evening, seeing that everything was ok, I mean as ok as it could be in the middle of zombie apocalypse, I took another dose of best medicine available (moonshine) and went back to sleep.

    ***

    You may think that hangover it''s not the best way to start a new day and I have to agree. I feel like, there is wild barbarian inside my head, hitting me with giant hammer to the rhythm of my heartbeat.

    With long and pathetic sounding moan, I make attempt to stand up, oh, barbarian doesn''t like it. Opening my eyes is not making things aby better, I can see Anna with grumpy look on her face, you know that kind of look your mother made when you for the first time came back home drunk.

    Besides all its drawbacks, my truly manly curation worked a little bit, full day of laying in bed made a difference to my chest.

    As a proverb says, best cure for hangover is a hard work, I get my shit together and move my body in direction of doors. To be honest, I don''t have luxury of slacking off anymore, there is some work that have to be done. Oh, and don''t worry about me not having my breakfast, it''s not like I could eat anything, not only my head feels wrong because of hangover.

    Morning light is true misery to my eyes, remember kids don''t you ever try to drink alcohol, you will end up like me, poor, injured zombie apocalypse survivor without any bright prognosis for future.

    When my eyes finally started to work properly, my current objects of interest appear in my field of vision. Two bicycles which looks like they are older than me, standing next to wall.

    My job is to make them battle ready or at least working properly. It shouldn''t be much work, but who knows? After all, surviving in zombie apocalypse should be easy and guess what? It''s not.

    Main problem with my bicycles are flat tires but no worries I found air pump. Few minutes of pumping confirms my assumptions, Thatcher air pump is broken. That''s pretty unfortunate but hopefully a lot of duct tape will make it work again, that''s it mates, duct tape for glory.

    You may wonder, why I pick this two bicycles. Well to be honest, I didn''t have much choice. Basically they were only vehicles I found in village. It may look a little shabby, but hopefully they will work just well, if I put enough duct tape on them.

    If you think about it, bicycle is not such a bad choice, it''s quiet and light. Bicycle don''t need any fuel and you can carry a lot of stuff on it. Of course there are drawbacks to, it won''t protect you from weather, it''s much slower than car and you won''t be able to ram trough the crowd of zombies with it. Oh, one more thing, you want to have good condition, especially while running from zombies.

    ***

    Anna isn''t very happy about our little road trip, I don''t blame her, she don''t have strong legs trained in long marches like my own. From the other hand I really enjoy my bicycle, it''s nice change from walking trough forest full of bugs.

    Fortunately, old and totally broken road that started in village, changed into nice and flat one before our vehicles broke in one of holes, which literally filled our old path.

    It''s so refreshing to feel wind on my face, especially when is hot outside, seriously what is wrong with that weather, after all, our CO2 emission was reduced to almost 0 for last three years.

    Lets talk about traveling under zombie apocalypse circumstances some more. As you already know, I prefer to travel on foot, it''s safest and most flexible way. Obviously the most popular method is to travel by car, you can load a pile of useless stuff in it and you don''t strain your ass.

    Ok, that''s two, but what about other stuff, motorcycles for example ? I don''t want to hurt anyone feelings, but if you think that using bike, when zombies are around is good idea, you are definitely an idiot.

    Loud, dangerous and you won''tA be able to carry lot of stuff on it, not enough ? Ok, lets imagine that you are riding on the bike and zombie appears on the road, what you do you do?

    You could try to avoid it somehow, but you will probably end up dead in the process.

    You could try to stop and turn back, but you will probably end up dead in the process.

    You could try to ram¡­ ok if you try to ram zombie with a bike I will buy you a beer. Of course if you survive.

    List of possibilities is very long, but most of them end with your death. But what if you choose a car? As you probably understand, solid shell of glass and steel around you makes a huge difference in our scenario.

    So, car is a best option? I disagree, maybe if there were only zombies out there, car would be best idea, but in situation when shoot first ask questions later, is preferable tactic, being stealthy is way to go. Even if undead are main threat, traveling on foot is advantageous, at least for me.

    In the first place, number of encounters when zombies are blocking your path is way lower, than you would think. Why? I already unexplained it to you, my zombies are all about hearing. Their eyesight is bad, I don''t really know if their sens of smell works or not, but one thing I am certain of, is that those fuckers will hear your car or bike from hundreds of meters.

    Being quiet is such a crucial thing not only because of zombies, while driving a car or motorcycle you won''t be able to hear gunfight, or you will, but form much shorter distance.

    One more thing, you don''t want to travel to fast, shoot first ask questions later, don''t forget about it. Obviously, the best tactic to stay alive is to avoid any danger and driving fast, won''t help you with spotting enemies.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    So, long story short, stay on your foot, keep quiet, look carefully around you and you will have no problem with staying alive.

    Or ride a bicycle, it is a compromise between speed and safety. At least sometimes, I guess¡­

    ***

    You may wander, why are we riding bicycles right now. I don''t blame you, I made all that talk about safety and other stuff and now I am choosing not the safest option? Let me explain.

    I will remind you, we are in middle of big operation, our goal is to find Anna a place to stay. First step was to find such a place, already done, I now exact location of such a place.

    Step to, obtain goods that will help buy in and that is our current objective. Lets think about what will be a good choice, obviously pre-apocalypse money and valuables are out of question.

    Guns! Yeah, guns and ammunition are surely a thing nowadays, but I am pretty sure that our shelter is well supplied with that, to be honest I personally took care about it.

    Fuel, a lot of fuel will surely seal a deal. You may be right, but traveling with a cistern filled with fuel is not the best idea. Think harder.

    Medicines? Bullseye! Even harder to obtain than military supplies, medicines and medical equipment are definitely most valuable stuff. You may ask why? I already told you that hospitals are definitely most dangerous places around, I guess it''s time to explain.

    ***

    Lets go three years back to the first day of apocalypse. Mysterious sickness, the weakest ones are getting ill faster. You all know that, so imagine yourself that you are a parent to the child. Your dear son or daughter, in few hours gets tremendous fever and something that was looking like a simple cold becomes way more serious.

    What do you do? You grab your child and drive your way to thee nearest hospital, right ? At least this is what any normal parent would do.

    So, you are driving trough the city and something unexpected happenes, about one kilometer form hospital, huge traffic jam begins, apparently something is happening, but you are not sure what.

    You wait 10 minutes, but cars are not moving. Remember your child is not well, time is crucial when fever is so high. You are starting to panic, it''s about your beloved child, the thing that you love most.

    When you are about to break, you see that man in the car next to yours, he leaves his vehicle and with his kid in arms he goes on foot in direction of hospital, apparently his child is sick too.

    Another five minutes pass and you are sure that somethig bad happened, people carrying children are appearing more often, in last act of desperation, you grab your own child, you can feel how hot his or her body is, it makes you almost run to the hospital.

    When you arrive at the hospital, reality strikes you like a thunder, something is really wrong. Enormous crowd of people blocks your way and all off them have one goal, to get some help for their children.

    Than comes the hope, there are people in white clothes, military helicopters and trucks. Someone gives your child an injection and fever goes down a little bit. You even find yourself a place in one of quickly raised rents.

    Another few hours are true madness, more and more people are gathering seeking help, but even with help of army there is not enough meds or space.

    You are so worried about your child that, you can''t feel fever slowly taking your strength away. Than adults start to have strong fever too, not all of them but enough to make crowd panic even more.

    Hours are passing when something even more terrible happens, childrens are starting to die. This is the point where army try to calm crowds with brutal force, it''s working, at least for now.

    You feel fever burning your body, when unavoidable happens, your beloved son dies, your beautiful daughter breathe her last.

    You feel nothing, maybe because of fever, maybe it is exhoustion, but you can''t feel anything, than someone tries to take dead body from your arms. There is no place for your child in the graveyard, there won''t be funeral, cold pile of bodies in black plastic bags is its destination.

    It is like waking up from a deep sleep, unstoppable rage of mourning parent, you throw yourself at the soldiers. Your fist are leaving bloody traces on their helmets, inhuman cry leaves your throat only to disappeared in sea of mayhem. It is not only you who lost your beloved one, it is not only you who had enough.

    This is the moment when civilization collapses, moment without return, true world changer.

    When morning comes, rising sun shows true nature of disaster thousands of bodies laying around, some died from fever, some were trampled to death, other killed by soldiers bullets, all united in one picture, announcing the end of civilization.

    Then something changes and movement appears. Bodies of the fallen rise from dead, like a proof of a change that happened to the world, like a heralds of humanity''s fall and apocalypse beginning.

    ***

    Ups, it looks like I am a little melodramatic, sorry it happens sometimes, just ignore it.

    So, my dear friends, hospitals and clinics are not only danger zones but monuments of civilization''s collapse. You won''t see many military outposts around cities, there won''t be huge traffic jams on main arteries. Empty streets are definitely not a thing that we would expect after watching movies and tv series.

    When first zombies were rising from dead, bigger part of people on earth were more or less sick and by bigger part I mean probably all of people who weren''t resistant.

    For first few days, zombies were staying in their places of death, which mostly were houses and apartments. Then survivors started to leave their hideouts. Lured by noise, dead walkers started to break windows and doors flooding streets of cities, at least bigger ones, where were more survivors.

    The only thing, that is on your mind, is probably, if cities and hospitals are so dangerous why would I even thought about coming near to them?

    I can''t give you good answer, I just want to give it a try, that''s why I am pedalling to the nearest town on a broken bicycle. We will get near, take a good look and if there will be a reasonable option we will try to get as much gear as possible. If it won''t be enough, we will need to find ourselves nice cistern filled with fuel.

    ***

    Using maps, we managed to safely avoid any small villages on our way, most them probably wasn''t even worth stopping.

    When evening came we were setting a cam near the outskirts of small town. In little ravine, hidden under thick cover of bushes and trees, I let Anna light up a little campfire. Apparently, brewing herself a "tea" became her new habit, I am guessing that large aumount of honey that we found in last village is main reason.

    Imaging yourself living three years in shelter hidden deep in woods, besides of berries, there are no many sweet things out there.

    I started explain to her about my plan, what kind of city we are heading to, what she should expect when we arrive, obvious thing that will help her survive. Like always, she is quiet, nods and short questions are her only response.

    She doesn''t look very excited about my plan, to be honest she is not showing much emotions at all, the night when she cried was only exception.

    I don''t know if it is a good thing, but at least I don''t have any problems with her opposing my plans, silent agreements are much nicer than arguments.

    When Anna falls asleep I stay awake to keep a watch, it''s not like I expect any trouble but it''s better to be safe than sorry. I have a feeling that Anna won''t be happy about her keeping the watch for the second part of the night.

    ***

    You know that something is wrong when you wake up, to smell so disgusting that it almost makes you throw up. I don''t even know how to describe it to you, it''s like a mix of everything you could find in town''s sewer.

    When I open my eyes, there is another surprise waiting for me, dark hole of strange looking barrel pointed directly on my head, from distance that is definitely to small for me to feel safe.

    Covered with rust, and strange goo, it looks like a some flintlock rifle barrel, my further observation confirms that theory, but old-school firearms it''s not what makes me surprised. There is some bizarre creature on the other end of rifle.

    Covered from head to toes with dirty rags and mud, it has to be human, but that smell¡­ Oh god¡­

    "Get up!"

    Definitely male voice came from place where head of our stinky friend should be.

    I move slowly, delaying in order to have a look around me. There is another stinking fellow, about one meter to my right with an ax in his or hers hands. Few meters away I Anna, bounded and gagged with apologizing look I on her face.

    Apparently fellow with rifle is not, satisfied with my pace, beacouse he tries to kick me. It looks like it''s time to be awesome again.

    Marking his kick, he moves his gun to the right, pointing it on the ground next to my head. With carefully timed movement I pull his leg and make him fall on me.

    #BOOOM#

    His rifle fires, sending dirt in the air, releasing large amount of smoke and making me deaf on the left ear. Terrible wave of stench fills my nostrils.

    With my lover body locked, by weight of the opponent, I twist my torso to the left to grab my pick axe with my right hand. My injured chest is not very happy with my sharp movements, sending weaves of pain trough my body. Feeling familiar shape in my hand, I grab my pick axe handle and swing it to the right.

    Still stunned and surprised by my actions, fellow with axe takes ugly strike of my pick axe to the center of his chest and falls on his back screaming in pain.

    I let my pick axe fall with dying enemy, it won''t be useful anymore. I feel another fellow trying to get up. I don''t give him much chance, moving to sitting position I grab his head and try to strangle him with my forearm. When he feels my grip on him, he tries to free himself kicking wildly, he even manage to throw me on my back, but it is all a futile effort. I can feel him getting weaker and weaker, dying slowly.

    When my opponent finally stops to struggle, I move his lifeless body to the side and stand up. The guy to my right is still screaming, with his hands gripping tightly on the head of my pick axe, trying to remove it from his chest.

    I pull out my weapon with sharp movement, only to swing it down, but this time aiming for head. His screams stops rapidly, making our camp silent again. I turn around and swing my pick axe at already dead body of first guy, loud crack of breaking skull makes me sure that he won''t rise again.

    Well fuck.

    I am sure about two things right now, we need to get away from this place as fast as we can and I desperately need to take a bath.