Red vengeance V AKA The Walking Red Part 1.
{3:44PM} 2 Hours of Chaos… Light. More like the lack of it. I had reached ground level after my encounter with that monster. The thing. Whatever it was, most have one name for it. Elmo. I just ventured out of his lair. It was different since I had last been on the surface. My dog Killer ran away from me once we hit the top. The sky seemed darker. Almost menacing. Dark clouds swirled overhead. There was a bitter coldness to the air. Thomas, my friend had come in to save me from Elmo’s wrath. Where had he gone? Thomas suddenly rose up from the tube. He looked like he might vomit. “Please Help,” He sputtered out. I rushed to his side. Suddenly his nose became plump and orange (kind of like Squidward). His eye’s started to bulge from his head and red fur burst from his skin. The liquid that Elmo had spilled on him had turned him into an Elmo zombie! “Do you like Elmo?” He questioned in his new high pitched voice. He lunged at me. I kicked him in the face and he was unconscious instantly. “Elmo don’t surf.” I muttered. I looked around. It was just me now. I saw a dull blue car had crashed into a fire hydrant. Maybe if I could get the keys I could head for help. I slowly trudged through the snow, breath visible in front of me. It was silent. A busy city street, completely still. The car door was already propped open. The keys lying on the dash board. I put the keys in the ignition and the car roared to life. I closed the door and pondered where to go. Who could help me? From the looks of the city it had been completely evacuated. The police station must have officers still on duty. It is their job after all to protect and serve. The police station was trashed. No officers could be seen, or heard. A police car was hanging off the roof of the station. The door lay on the floor in several long splinters of metal. A scream could be heard from inside. On instinct I rushed in to the corridor of cells. I heard a snicker than a blunt object smashed into my head with incredible force. I could still hear talking. Then no sound, just a cold tingle running down my spine. {4:19PM} 2Hours 35 minutes of Chaos… “In this corner we have the rebel, you know him, you hate him…” “Trysten Crawford!” I look around with an immense pain in my head. A terrible roar of hate ran through the crowd. I was in the large area of the prison known as the showers. It had been a trap. The prisoners knew I would go to the police station and had dragged me into their hood. “In this corner we have the long necked freak, Big Bird!” Big Bird appeared through a gate opposite of me. I was handed a baseball bat and shoved down into the showers. “Fight to the death.” I thought. I slowly stepped into the maze of the showers. The crowd roared their approval as I heard flapping and a menacing squawk over the banter. I slid into a corner of the stalls. I waited for the yellow feathered creep to peek out so I could whack him with the baseball bat. I heard the crowd roaring their approval much louder than before and looked up to see Big Bird pounce on me from on top of a wall. A flurry of feathers flew in my face as I squirmed on the hard shower floor. The baseball bat flew from my hands just beyond reach. Then I had a plan. Big Bird brought his head back ready to strike. I saw my chance. With incredible speed Big Bird darted his head down. I reached out and grabbed his throat in mid-strike his head jolting from the abrupt stop. As he wheezed I threw him off me and ran towards a shower nozzle and pulled it down. Big Bird had recovered and was coming at me. I turned the handle onto full blast. The cold water struck the bird in the face. I hosed him down as he cursed blindly. Shivering in one place Big Bird did not stand a chance. I picked up my bat and knocked out the fat freak with amazing speed. Multiple amounts of “boos” bounced off the showers around me. “Now what?” I thought. “Should I just lay here and let the convicts kill me slowly?” “SHUT UP!!” a raspy voice demanded. A figure emerged from a capsule next to the announcer. I had never dealt with this beast before but had heard enough to know who he was. Oscar the Grouch was what most had called him. “Is he trying to help me?” I thought. “Why else would he have demanded order among these goons?” In the blink of an eye the green beast threw an alcohol bottle just below my feet. “Whoever can hit him and take him down will get to beat him up personally!” The Grouch announced. Suddenly bottles flew all around me. Not realizing that the prisoners had plenty of bottles I just ducked out of the way in one place. A bottle suddenly hit me in the small of the back shooting intense pain up my body. “This is suicide.” I muttered to myself. I turned and ran as fast as my legs could carry me not knowing or caring where I was going. Suddenly a flurry of confusion overwhelmed me. Where was the exit at? “Head-shots are bonus points!!” The Grouch declared. Bottles flew past me with more intensity than before. Finally amongst the chaos I found the door and ran out of the dreaded police station. I ran around the corner and hid inside the dumpster in case they came looking for me. Only two inmates rushed out the door but thought I had gone far from here. Figuring it was safe I decided to doze off instead of figuring out what to do next. {10:59PM} 8 Hours 40 Minutes of Chaos It was late obviously but I couldn’t sleep. You try sleeping in a dumpster sometime. Was I the only one? Was there some kind of resistance going on? It had not been that long since the spread. The infection… Elmo seemed to infect through biting so the infection wasn’t airborne, which was good news. I still couldn’t believe that Thomas was one of them. That was it! Thomas had a twin brother, Nolan. We had prepped for this. Nolan would have started our resistance by now. Yes of course! “Where would it be?” You might ask. Obviously Costco. There were concrete walls, plenty of escape routes, excessive amounts of food, and the Elmo Zombies couldn’t get in without a membership. If Nolan wasn’t one those Elmo Zombies then he would have already set up shop. Operation Remnant Nation was under way. {2:09AM} 12 Hours 50 Minutes of Chaos I crawled out off the dumpster immediately after I had such thoughts. I was on a bridge about 10 miles from Costco. The car was out of fuel and Elmo Zombies moaned in the darkness. The car was sitting in the middle of the road useless so I got out and tried to sneak along the road. I heard something scurry in the darkness. It seemed to be coming from the other side of a mini-van. Fists clenched I leaped to the other side of the van. In the darkness I made out a person holding a baseball bat or pole. Before my eyes the bat swung with lethal speed. I dodged as quickly as possible and exclaimed “I’m human!” The figure seemed to understand and lowered the bat. Looking past the weapon I studied the characters figure. It was my friend Riley! He seemed to know it was me. “What are you doing here?” I whispered. “Looking for Remnant Nation.” He answered back. “Me too.” I added. He covered his mouth to silence me. We walked slowly along the edge of the bridge. I saw a metal pipe lying on the ground that would make a great weapon. I walked towards it but tripped on a wheel. My hand flopped down onto the pipe and made a loud rattling noise that seemed to echo. Suddenly the Elmo Zombies behind us rushed forward to take us down. Riley quickly helped me up. I grabbed the pipe and we ran as fast as we could down the bridge. We ran for our lives as other Elmo Zombies added to the horde chasing us. We found a car we thought we might be able to hot-wire. I jumped in the driver’s side and busted open the area containing the wires with my pipe. The Zombies were gaining on us and Riley closed his door and prepared for the worse. Somehow I managed to get the car to sputter then start. An Elmo Zombie that was ahead of the rest leaped at the car. I gunned it and the car sped up with the Elmo Zombie missing by mere inches. As we drove by, some Elmo Zombies would jump at the car, others would just ignore us completely. Riley and I both gave a sigh of relief as we headed towards Remnant Nation. {2:44AM} 13 Hours 25 Minutes of Chaos The moment of truth came as we neared the corner. Crossing my fingers I turned the corner and laughed to myself. Remnant Nation was there. The door said in spray paint “DEAD” but, I knew that was to scare off enemy clans. There was RN tagging all over the building. I pulled into the driveway and me and Riley looked behind us to make sure that no Elmo Zombies followed us. When we saw the coast was clear we parked the car among the school buses we would use for expeditions. We went around the back of the building and said that it was us and we weren’t bitten. A large thud came from inside and the door slid open. To my surprise Nolan was standing there ready to greet me. We walked inside and locked the doors. “Welcome to Remnant Nation, Trysten.” Nolan said with a nod. Red Vengeance VI: The Walking Red Part 2 As we slowly rose up the elevator to freedom, I knew something was wrong; my head was pounding, vision coming in and out of focus. My ears were ringing; louder and louder until the sound was unbearable, when we finally got to the top, the pain and noise were excruciating. I felt like I was going to vomit. Apparently Killer could sense it, because he quickly ran off. Suddenly, all of it just stopped. The pain was no longer there, the ringing cut to silence. I thought everything was normal, but as quickly as they had stopped, they were both back, but now with a new sensation, like there was something inside me, trying to get out, it started in my head, and quickly the sensation spread through me. I looked down at my hands and noticed something very alarming; I was growing hair at an alarming rate, and my nose felt like it was being broken as it became orange and bulbous, the red hair spreading over my body. My eyes felt like they were about to pop out of my skull as they grew larger. Then, once again, the pain stopped, but once again, different than before, everything stopped. I felt nothing, as I tried to sit down on the ground and rest, I could not. I was not me. Words not belonging to me spilled from my mouth. “Do you like Elmo?” The “acid” was not acid; it had transformed me into some kind of… Elmo… zombie thing… then, suddenly “I” was kicked in the temple. I was knocked out cold. How could things get more embarrassing? Come on, I was an ELMO, not just that, a ZOMBIE, this was not the most dignified way to go. As I woke up I noticed something, I could feel, well, more or less. It was difficult, but I could fight it off. I still looked like one, but my mind was clear, and I was no longer one of the Elmo zombies, which shall from now on be referred to as E’s. I looked around me, noting my surroundings. I was sitting on the sidewalk of a once busy city street. All was quiet save for the faint sound of the chilling wind. I noticed a hydrant was knocked over outside an abandoned grocery store, but I noticed something very curious: two sets of skid marks, one going toward the hydrant, one going away, and the latter were fresh, barely any snow in them. Trysten must have found a way to get a car working and drive away. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to look inside the grocery store, maybe a few things were left behind by previous looters. I stepped through the smashed glass window, but not much luck. All there was: three bags of big league chew (which of course I kept), a sweet hat (which I wore to differentiate myself from the true E’s) and an empty 9 millimeter pistol probably dropped by one in the swarm of looters. It was useless at the moment, but if I could stop by home I could probably get some ammunition. I hid the weapon and gum inside my fuzzy torso, not having any nerves to feel pain. I sewed myself together with what I could find, and went on my way. I followed the car from the fire hydrants tracks to the police station. A blue car was parked outside. A police cruiser hung from the roof, it’s door lying on the ground. To my horror, through the window, I saw Trysten; he was in a fight against big bird. It looked like it was over, Big bird pinning him down rearing his head to strike, then, if I blinked I would have missed it (luckily I didn’t have eyelids) as Trysten threw him off and started spraying him with the water. It must’ve been cold, because I could hear his swearing even through the thick glass of the window. He cracked BB over the head and it was done. Suddenly everything stopped as another character entered the scene: Oscar the grouch. As he spoke a flurry of bottles flew towards Trysten. He ran out of the building, but as I rounded the corner of the large building, I couldn’t see him anymore. I went looking around, but to no avail. As it turned out, the E’s were not stupid, they were not smart, but they could tell something was up with the E wearing the incredibly stylish hat. “Elmo loves eating children.” One said to me in an alley way. “Yes, I- I mean, uh Elmo loves baby, especially the kidneys!” I replied. It wasn’t having it “ELMO HATES BABY KIDNEYS!” It yelled as it lunged at me. I quickly dodged, and managed to clobber it with a metal bar. “My first kill.” I thought as I walked off. My physical capabilities were quite a bit higher, which isn’t saying much considering my previous limp noodle of a body. I was WAY stronger, a lot more agile, and had a lot more endurance. I could jump a lot better with a lighter body and stronger legs, making easy to parkour across the rooftops towards my home. I felt like a ninja. As I got farther into the country towards my home, I had to get off the roofs and resort to walking. I came home to a note. My parents had fled somewhere safe, on a friend’s house boat far from the chaos. I was about to grab my key when I remembered, I don’t have clothes on, and my key was in my coat pocket (the left upper pocket to be precise) but I was not alarmed, because I had forgotten my key before. I climbed onto the balcony and into my house, Safe and sound. I helped myself to the 9mm ammo I needed, plus a few other guns and ammo, my firesteel knife, my hat to replace the one from the store, and some goggles to look cooler. I grabbed a handkerchief just in case it was airborne, so that I don’t spread it to anyone else. Finally, I grabbed my backpack, loaded the supplies, and set off. As I got back into the city, I saw something, a dog. Not just any dog though, Trysten’s dog Killer. I approached cautiously, and put out my hand. He recognized me. Phew. Carefully I got on the back of the dog. I could ride Killer like a horse! But where would I go? Then I remembered: Costco. I clambered atop the large dog, and pointed in the direction of the store. "Why Costco?" you may ask, A group of friends and I had been planning for this, well not this, we thought the zombies would be a little taller and not be quite as hairy. Anyways, we had a plan to take over Costco if we could. Think about it, concrete, metal garage doors, plenty of food and supplies and lots of hiding places. I planned to ride killer the whole way, but suddenly my heart skipped a beat as I saw something amazing: A Camaro. I couldn’t believe it, bright yellow, black racing stripes, I could’ve cried. I did have to do some improvisation though. I wasn’t tall enough. I scrounged around for a long time and luckily found all the things I needed, first of course, I put a box on the seat so I could see over the dashboard, then I strapped some broom poles to my feet to be able to press the peddles. I took a couple minutes to admire how lucky I was, a Camaro, a fancy Camaro. All I had to do was hotwire it and I was off in style. I was in a trance of pure happiness when I saw something on the bridge, a horde of E’s. I came to a stop as I approached the cloud. I pulled the 9mm out and walked into them, hoping to fool them, but once again, no dice. They jumped at me and I shot all around, but it just wasn’t cutting it, even with Killer fighting at my side. So I pulled out my trump card, the AK-47… a chill ran down my spine as I realised my fatal flaw: I didn’t grab a magazine for it. An E tackled me. I thought it was over, when suddenly I saw a dog overhead, not Killer, but Milo. He tore through the E’s like a hot knife through butter, saving me from certain death. As he flew off he said “woof.” Like I said he can’t talk but it’s the thought that counts. I let out a sigh of relief and climbed back into the car. Fingers crossed, we continued our ride to Costco. As I pulled up my hopes were confirmed, the door said “DEAD” my idea to keep outsiders away. School busses with “RN” on the side sat in the loading dock. I looked around the corner outside the door, where two “watchdog” E’s stood tied. This was awesome. “It’s me Thomas! Hey Trysten I have your dog!” I yelled as I banged on the door. I had made it. I yelled as I banged on the door. I had made it.
