Embrace The Madness Ch. 01

"Hi Tom, and thank you. I'm standing live at interstate seventy-one and seventeenth, right around the fair-grounds, where a deadly car accident occurred only moments ago leaving two in critical condition and a third party deceased. Officers are not releasing any names at this time, but witnesses have reported that one of the victims seemed to have moved into the street looking fairly incoherent."

The cameraman quickly turned the camera toward the wreckage, as two paramedics were safely pulling one of the victims away. Unfortunately, the paramedic closest to the victim's shoulders was suddenly screaming in pain as he stumbled backward and fell. Continuing to scream and scramble, the victim that had just recently been pulled from the wreckage was crawling after him.

As the cameraman stood where he was, continuing to roll the live footage, officers had quickly opened fire on the victim that had just been pulled away from the wreckage. Suddenly the reporter began to scream, begging for help, as he panned the camera onto her. One of the already infected from around the area, had seemed to have come from out of nowhere and had bit against the slightly older woman's neck.

The blood began to flow freely from the side of the lady's neck, quickly staining the front of her blouse, as the reporter tried to free herself from her attackers grasp. Unfortunately for the reporter, her attacker wasn't going to be shaken off that easily. With dirty, skin-rotted and boney, fingers the infected female reached for the reporter once again this time being interrupted as she was quickly struck with the camera.

Still the damage had been done, and as the cameraman began to swing the camera around, it was clear there were more victims within the area. Now beginning to panic, the cameraman finally got his feet moving and began running back toward the van. Keeping the camera with him was his downfall however, the weight had been too much for him to keep going and soon it was tumbling to the ground with a hard thud before finally going black.

Drunk or not, with such an incident happening so close to where he was already, he was quickly stumbling out of his chair and quickly making for the door. Of course he had thrown far more back than he had actually counted, making the short walk from the bar stool to the door that much more difficult. Reaching the door finally, he began messing with the door handle, as though he was unsure of how exactly it worked.

"Hey! Would you like someone ..." Dwayne could hear someone talking to him, but he simply ignored them, as he finally figured out the door and pulled it open, stepping outside. It took his eyes a moment or so to adjust to the very different change in lighting. Outside was getting dark, which begged to question, 'How long had he been at the bar?'

The walk had taken Dwayne much longer then he had anticipated, between his overextended drunkenness, as well as the rain that had begun to come down in sheets. Tripping over an uneven portion of sidewalk, he started to stumble forward and in his current state, was unable to re-balance himself in time. Falling forward completely, he managed to twist his wrist as well as scrape both his knee and elbow upon the impact.

Sitting in the middle of the sidewalk where he had fallen -- for what he had thought was only a few brief minutes -- he too heard the emergency warning, as the sirens began to blare through the night. Trying to stand slowly, now noticing that the foot that had snagged the uneven pavement hurt a little more whenever he added pressure against it, he began to slowly stumble his way toward Layla's house.

Dwayne had walked for what seemed like hours, trying to maneuver around the riots and police that were sent in to establish order. With dusk already settling over the horizon, and with another few miles still ahead of him, he knew for certain he wasn't making it back before dark. Of course that was his thought pattern until he heard the low rumble of an approaching vehicle. Confused? He sure was, but it still didn't stop instinct.

Quickly turning around, so he was more or less walking backward, he waved his arms up in down, signaling to the approaching vehicle. Noticing the vehicle was starting to slow down, he gave a long sigh of relief. Soon the large white Ford Expedition was pulling off to the side of the road, coming to a stop only a few feet in front of him.

"Where ya headin' 'cuz?" The male driver asked once Dwayne reached the side of the S.U.V.

"Just trying to get back to my girlfriend." Dwayne replied.

"Get in. Around the city isn't anywhere you want to be any more. I don't want to be the one to say this, but if your girlfriend was anywhere around the city, then chances are she is either dead, or one of those creatures now." The darker skinned male was saying as he unlocked the car doors.

Dwayne was certainly thankful for the ride, and once the door was unlocked, he was slowly climbing inside noticing two other, fairly stocky males sitting in the far back, a third which he was going to be sitting beside, and a younger looking female sitting up front in the passenger seat. Shutting the door of the S.U.V. they were soon pulling off, though they were heading away from the city.

"So, what's your name?" The older male, currently driving, had asked as he glanced through the rear view mirror.

"Dwayne." He quickly said as he looked through the side window. "Look, I thank you for the ride, but I'd rather like to get back to my girlfriend if you wouldn't mind."

"It's nice to meet you Dwayne, I'm Ezekiel, but you can call me 'Zeek'. Now I already told you, the city isn't where you want to be and looking at your ankle, if I were you I would be a little more thankful that someone is willing to take you somewhere to get it looked at." Ezekiel said quickly glancing over his shoulder.

From the center seat of the Expedition, Dwayne kept his attention through the window in front of him, finally getting to see the crisis for what it really was. Traveling along the open streets from behind the airport, he noticed the military base -- that stood directly next to the airport -- had become over run and many of the infected were currently pressed against the chain-link fence that surrounded the two areas.

The small group continued to travel east, trying to get as much distance between them and the chaos of the city as they could before sunrise. Flying over head, Dwayne had heard the sound of choppers and turning around in seat, he tried peering through the back window as the first bombardment began on the inner city. For a moment he could feel his heart sink as he turned in his seat and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

Along their drive away from the city Dwayne did his best to keep in touch with where he was, and not being high at the moment had made it a little easier. Noticing along the side of the road there were several cars, trucks and other vehicles left abandoned.

The inner city of Columbus wasn't the only area suffering to the wrath being caused by this new threat. By the early morning hours Ezekiel was pulling the large Expedition into the parking space beside a gas pump.

"Remember. Get what we need and only what you can carry, nothing more, you never know where these 'people' are." Ezekiel was saying as the two males sitting in the back were climbing from the S.U.V.

Dwayne had remained inside the S.U.V along with the male he had been sitting beside, as well as the younger female, while Zeek began to fill the tank of the Expedition. Taking in his current surroundings he had quickly noticed they had stopped just outside of New Albany. He had also noticed that nearly all the power around them had either been shut off at its source, or a wide-range surge had moved though the much of the state.

Either way, the tank was soon filled and after re-hanging the nozzle, Ezekiel was climbing into the driver's seat once again. "So how much do you know about the chaos within Columbus?"

Was that meant for him? It took Dwayne a moment to gather his thoughts, as he pulled his attention away from the window and back toward Zeek. "I really don't know much of anything about it honestly. I was down around the fair most of the early afternoon, until some sort of riot occurred, which I quickly left the area once S.W.A.T rolled in and then I ran into you guys."

"All I can really tell you is Ohio isn't the first place to have fallen. Reports have been coming in from all over the country, the government and media have just been trying to hide the truth to prevent world-wide panic." Zeek said before turning his attention toward the convenience store.

Dwayne wasn't any less confused now then he had been before Zeek explained the situation. Still left to sort through his own thoughts, he noticed the two others make quick work of the distance between them and the S.U.V. "Go! Go.." The slightly thinner of the two males was saying as Dwayne pushed open the door. Soon the two were climbing into the backseat as the deep sound of snarling was heard coming from the small store.

Ezekiel was quickly turning the engine over and as the automatic lights turned on, they were facing a small hoard of a dozen or so, emerging from the darkness and slowly staggering their way toward the vehicle. Throwing the vehicle into drive, barely giving Dwayne time to shut the door or at best giving some added assistance, they were pulling away from the pump in a hurry.

Quickly cutting the wheel to the left, Zeek was certain he had managed to clip one of the infected roamers with his passenger side, but stopping and checking damages wasn't exactly high on his to-do list at the moment. As they pulled away from the gas station, Dwayne was quickly turning around in his seat, watching as the figures faded into the distance.

"You seem to know more than you're letting on." Dwayne said, finally turning in his seat again. "Now I don't want to seem rude, or ungrateful, but I would like filled in on what you know and what's happening."

"All I know is that there's some sort of viral-like disease going around causing those sick to begin acting strange and aggressively to others." Zeek was quickly replying as he kept his attention on the road in front of them.

Throughout the remainder of the drive, as they all continued sharing a little more about themselves along their drive, Zeek was finally slowing the Expedition as he pulled into the slightly large parking lot of an older, eighteenth century style church. As everyone else began to un-pile from the Expedition, Dwayne was taking a moment to acknowledge his current surroundings. Using the side of the Expedition for support, he slowly began limping toward the large brick building.

Other than the large eight foot privacy fence that surrounded the backside of the building, there really wasn't a whole lot to look at in hopes of getting an idea as to where he was now. Pulling the large french-style doors open Dwayne was taken off toward one side of the large room, while the others began to unload the S.U.V.

Soon the door opened, and as Dwayne turned his attention toward his visitor he was soon sharing the room with a slightly older gentleman, no older than his late forties. Moving closer to the table that Dwayne was currently sitting on, the older male began looking over the damages done to Dwayne's ankle.

"Would you like to tell me what happened?" The older male asked as he looked up toward Dwayne.

"You are a doctor, correct?" Dwayne asked, still confused over the whole situation that had taken place.

"I'm the closest thing you're going to come in contact with as a doctor." He said as he began removing Dwayne's shoe.

"There really isn't much to say, I got drunk and as I was leaving the bar to head back to my girlfriend's place, I tripped and twisted my ankle."

Reaching for an ace-bandage from one of the shelfs, he began wrapping Dwayne's foot tightly, without cutting the circulation. "You should be good in a couple of days or so, just try to keep pressure off of it whenever possible." The doctor said as he handed Dwayne a pair of crutches.

Giving the doctor a nod in thanks, Dwayne took the crutches as they were offered to him. After taking a moment to adjust to using them, he headed through the opposite door on the other side of the room and into a completely different world. On the inside of the tall privacy fence it looked like any normal small community would that was just trying to evolve. Stepping further away from the church, he was soon being greeted by many as he slowly wandered past.

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