Survival or Struggle?

Upon walking the ten miles the broadcast told them about, they arrived at the supposed town where the safe zone was. They looked around, everything seemed trashed, as was everything else they had seen prior. So this shouldn't have been a surprise or shock to them. But they didn't think it would get to another town, or the one after that. But denial would get them nowhere. They walked onto a sidewalk, looking around to see if there was anything they could see to point them in the right direction. There wasn't any, not at this point. So they just walked around until Jake spotted a sign with a red arrow spray-painted on it. The rest of the group walked towards him, hearing him sigh.

"What? What's wrong?" Jinxx asked him, brows furrowed in confusion.

"Is it bad that I've forgotten which place we were touring in?" Jake asked, knocking his fingers against the sign. It had been a welcome sign at one point. It read: Welcome to Princeton, New Jersey. Jinxx would have answered no, because they've all forgotten where they hell they were at while not trying to get eaten. That trumped anything, any day. But at least they knew where they were now. It gave them a starting point, of sorts. So after a few moments of silence, they followed the first arrow, then came another, then another. Eventually, after feeling like they were going around in circles twenty times, they met with a iron gate, complete with reinforcements to keep it stronger. As well as random people that were armed. In other words, survivors.

The people standing by and guarding the gate noticed them, raising their guns to about chest level with two out of the five members. The guards looked to be about mid-twenties, one had reddish hair, almost a cinnamon color, the other bleach blonde. But despite how they looked, they weren't messing around, it seemed. And not one of the group told them it was wrong otherwise, they would have done the same thing. They put their hands up, showing surrender(sans CC, seeing as he was still carrying a still unconscious Ashley).

"Keep your hands raised!" the bleach blonde male shouted.

"All right man. We don't want any trouble. We just need some help, figured you would lend us a hand." Jake said calmly, his hands raised along with the others.

"What do you want?" the dark brown man asked, though more calmly, and no shouting involved.

"Medical attention, mainly." Jake uttered, motioning with his head to Ashley. "And also some food, a restroom, and rest. We've come from a town or two over from where this all started." He added.

The two men looked at Ashley in CC's arms and went towards them, guns still slightly raised, though the group gave in indication that they wanted anything sinister to go down. They went up to Ashley and looked him over, spying the head injury, grimacing in sympathy.

"Looks like it hurts something awful." The reddish haired one said, looking the rest of them over.

"Yeah, it probably did. What are you doing?" Jinxx asked, not liking the guys in his personal space.

"Bite marks." The bleach blonde said tersely. The two men said nothing, and after finding no bite marks on any of them(though they were wary of CC), they relaxed.

"Well, come on in. There are people in there that can explain a lot more than we can." The reddish haired one replied, unlocking and opening the gates for them.

"Go straight into that building, it's an apartment complex, extravagant, probably for richer folks, But several apartments were made into medical centers, food stations, weapon holding areas, they works. The rest are locked." The reddish one added, letting them go through the gates and then shut them.

They heard the locks turn and settle as they headed towards the apartments. Once inside, they asked the first person where the medical place was. They were directed to the fifth door down and to let themselves inside. They thanked the person and went single file(the hallways were pretty narrow, a familiar scenario), and entered the makeshift hospital room. A young woman noticed them, then looked to Ashley, gasping.

"What on earth happened to him?!" the young woman asked, concerned. She seemed like the mother figure already, and the doctor, judging on how she was the only one in the room, sans a few 'patients'.

"We had a battle with those...things. He got thrown into a wall. Smacked his head pretty badly." Andy said quietly, pointing to Ashley.

"No bite marks, they checked." Jake added quickly, seeing the worried gaze forming on the young woman's face.

"Oh, well, that's good news. Lay the young man over here so I can look at him." she said.

They were then led over to a makeshift bed(a cot really, but they weren't really complaining). CC laid Ashley down on the bed carefully, his worried gaze went from him to the young woman looking at his head wound.

"The head wounds's not as bad as I thought. I don't feel any internal bleeding or anything life threatening. Maybe a concussion." she said softly. They all breathed a sigh of relief at that.

"Thank you ma'am." Jake said genuinely

"Call me Pennie." she said softly.

"All right Pennie. Thank you. I'm Jake, this is Andy, Jinxx, CC, and the unconscious one is Ashley." Jake said, introducing themselves.

"All right Jake, I'll take care of your friend. Meanwhile, get some food and rest. You all look like you need it." Pennie replied. They nodded, and left. But not before asking one question.

"Where's the bathroom?" Andy asked, not the least bit shy about it. Pennie laughed, pointing.

"Two doors down. It's in an apartment, but it's the only one that we could get before sealing off the rest of the building." Pennie replied, they thanked her again and left.

Once after 'doing their business', they were directed to a room where the food was. They were allowed to go outside, as long as it was within the gates. Anything outside of it wasn't safe. They found a spot in a corner where it was shaded and sat down and ate. They all had some candy bars, a bottle of water, crackers, and a small bag of chips. It was a slight meal, and not at all healthy; but they were happy with what they could get. They were just about done with their food when a couple of survivors; a boy and a girl, came over to them.

"Mind if we sit next to you guys?" The boy asked.

They shook their heads, motioning them to sit down. Once sitting down, they introduced themselves. The two recognized them, the two were fans of their music. They sat around, talking about their music and some inane things(pets, hobbies, ect.). Jinxx decided to approach with a question he was sure the rest of the group wanted answered.

"Do you know what's going on here? Pretty much everyone here is afraid of bite marks. Why?" Jinxx asked.

The girl(now known as Elaine) looked a little bit petrified, so the boy(now known as Troy), spoke up. "We're not sure. But I can tell you what I do know." he said softly. The others were quiet as Troy took a deep breath and spoke.

"This thing, they're calling it a virus. You know, because of how fast it spreads. It started out in my town, which is a couple of hours from here. If you were performing there, then you're lucky to even get out. There aren't many survivors from there besides myself. But the bite marks they're talking about is one of the fastest way this thing spreads. We're not sure what it does to the inside of the body, only that it 'kills you' and then 'brings you back.' Only the 'bringing you back' part is the point where you're the monster. You all following me so far?" Troy asked them.

They all nodded, so Troy continued.

"It only takes seconds for the virus to take hold. And seeing as a lot of people, if any at all, don't know about this sort of virus, it spreads because there's no way of getting away from an infected person within a few seconds. There are other ways it's transmitted, but I've never seen anything other than bite marks to prove them right or wrong. They can be killed by any sort of weapon, as long as it's hit in the head. Any place else won't work." Troy said.

It made sense, seeing as they made head-shots before and they worked like a charm. But they weren't into becoming food for monsters, so they didn't try and stand there and shoot every one they had seen. They were happy to get some sort of information on these things.

"What are the other ways to be turned?" Andy asked.

"Well, blood in eyes, mouth, open cuts wounds and sores. Their saliva is potent as well, or so I've heard." Troy said, looking at CC, who was looking at Troy and Elaine with such an intensity that Troy had gotten in front of Elaine a bit.

"Do you know of a doctor that's in a boarded up hospital?" CC asked. They knew Troy and Elaine knew who it was, Elaine went tense and Troy's face went white.

"They got you, didn't they?" Elaine asked softly, CC only nodded.

"We know him, but not his name. He grabbed my brother, but he didn't turn out the same as CC." Elaine said, looking down. Troy's arm went around her, squeezing her shoulder gently.

"Word has it he is trying to make a weapon. One with the strength and energy of these things, but still has a human body. The weapon he's trying to make is probably to cause a war. Maybe make himself a dictator. Whose to say." Troy said softly.

The group looked at each other, then back at Troy, who went a little closer to them.

"If I may give you a word of advice: Trust no one here, the doctor has helpers all over to bring the next victim back to the doctor. Be careful who you go near or talk to." Troy warned.

CC got up suddenly and sprinted towards the building. The others looked at each other and then at the two teenagers, thanked them quickly, and got up and ran off after CC. They searched for him until CC came out of the makeshift medical center. The words coming out of his mouth both horrified them and chilled them to the bone at the same time.

"Ashley's gone." CC uttered darkly.

Notes