The Cure: Chapter 1 Hunger

“How many bullets do you have left?” John asked Anthony “I have…” Anthony pulled out his clip from his pistol. “I have seven left. What about you?” Anthony asked as he put his clip back in his pistol. John pulled back the cocking bar from his sniper rifle. As a bullet shell jumps out of the chamber, he grabs a bullet from his belt. As he loads it into the chamber he says “I’ve got four left in my belt and one in the chamber.” BANG, BANG! “Make that five” Anthony shouts as he shoots two of the flesh-eaters. “We have to get to the roof of that grocery store. From there we can see where we can get away from these things” shouts Anthony as they start to run towards the small grocery store. They run across the front of the store and notice that the windows are boarded up. So they turn left into the alleyway, Anthony starts to climb the chain-link fence. As John reaches the fence, one of the flesh-eaters grabs him. He turns around, shoving it away, and points the rifle in the rotted face of the flesh-eater. BANG! The head of the rotted flesh-eater explodes covering John’s uniform with bloody chunks of brain and hair. He sees a mob of those flesh-eaters chasing him. He turned around and throws his rifle over the fence saying “Here catch!” Anthony holsters his pistol in his Marine issued holster, and grabs John’s rifle. John climbs the fence and takes back his sniper rifle. He pulls back the cocking bar and a bullet shell pops out of the chamber hitting the cold ground. He loads another bullet in the chamber and turns around looking through the fence. He sees the flesh-eaters trying to force themselves through the fence just so they can get a taste of John’s flesh. “Hey, here’s the ladder!” Shouts Anthony. “Help me move this dumpster in front of the ladder so we can climb up there” Anthony says. “Yes sir” John says forcing his eyes away from the horror that was chasing them. “Hey Sergeant, do you think that any of the other Privates survived?” John asked as he starts to push the dumpster into place. He climbs the rusty ladder waiting for an answer. “That’s a tough call to make considering the fact that most people got eaten by those flesh-eaters. Then they rose up like they were never scratched, and their bloody organs hanging out…”He pauses in thought looking back at the horror that was chasing him. “…They were just trying to help those poor sick people” Anthony says looking back at the ladder and starts to climb up it. When he gets part way up the ladder he kicks the dumpster away from the wall. It doesn’t go far but, far enough that it is away from the ladder. “It’s getting kind of dark. We can rest on top of the roof until first light” Anthony says. He points at a rusty metal door about twenty feet from the ladder. “We’ll have to lock that door just in case” Anthony says as he looks around the roof for something to lock the door with. “Hey here’s a rusty chain” John says pointing behind the air conditioner. He picks up the chain and wraps it around the door handle and the pole next to the handle. Then he pulls out a zip-tie from his Marine uniform pocket. He ties the chain together within itself. “I’ll take first watch” Anthony says “I’ll wake you in a couple hours” He says as John takes off his Marine backpack and rests his head on it to go to sleep.

After an hour, Anthony hears the sound of the front door handle turning. He looks over the edge of the store. He sees the front door open slow and quiet. He stands still and watches a woman walk out of the door. He thinks to himself she better watch out for those flesh-eaters. Then he sees an M-16 in her hands. She was wearing a bloody white t-shirt with a bullet-proof jacket on. She’s ready for a fight… Anthony thought. She ran across the street and went into the Bank of Portville. What is she doing in a bank…He thought? She came back out looking around the street. She looks down the street and sees an ambulance. She runs down the street and opens the back door of the ambulance. She grabs something out of the back, and runs back to the store. Anthony ducks down so she won’t see him. He hears the door open then shut again. What if she is hurt… he thinks as he goes and wakes up John for his watch.

The next morning Anthony wakes up to the sound of a chain falling to the ground. He pulls out his pistol lightning quick and points it toward the door. “Nice to see that you still have a quick draw” John says. “Sorry I thought that you were someone else” Anthony says holstering his gun. “What do you mean someone else?” John asks in interest “There was a woman that came out of the store last night. She went into the bank across the street. Then she came out of the bank and went down the street and got something out of an ambulance” Anthony says. “Strange” John says. “What are you doing?”Anthony asks looking at the rusty old chain lying on the ground. “Going down stairs, we need to eat something” John says as his stomach howls at the idea of food. “Yeah, let me get up and help you” Anthony says as his stomach growls in agreement. Anthony gets up and draws his pistol and goes ahead of John. As they go down they hear someone whisper “I think someone is coming down the stairs behind us…” The voice of the person doesn’t sound familiar to Anthony, but it is a woman’s voice so he knows that it’s that woman he saw. They both stop as they come to a wooden door. Anthony looks back at John and nods, as in agreement that the voice was behind the door. John walks up to the door and tries to open the door by turning the door-knob. “It’s locked” John says looking back at Anthony. Anthony pulls out a lock-picking set and starts to unlock the door. He stands back up he looks back at John and says “Good to go.” John walks up to the door and opened it. As the door opens the lights, in what looks like the office of the grocery store, turn off. “We are just looking for some food. We don’t want to start any trouble” John says looking around this office of store the grocery. He looks back at Anthony. “Do you see anything?” John asks. Anthony looks around the office. There is a bookshelf up against the door across the room, there is two desks flipped over with the legs facing the doorway they stand in. The carpet has a small pool of blood smeared in the middle of the floor. “Are you okay?” Anthony asks expecting and answer to come shouting back but there was nothing, just dead silence. Anthony creeps up to the desk with his gun drawn. He looks over the left desk and sees a woman and an older looking man. “What’s your name?” Anthony says looking at the woman then the older man. The woman and the old man stand up. The old man’s leg has a bloody bandage. “And how was your leg injured?” Anthony asks the old man, finger on the trigger ready to fire if needed to. “I’m Madison this is my grandfather Phil; his leg was scratched by that chain-link fence in the alley-way. What are your names?” Madison asks holding Phil’s arm around her shoulder. “My name is Anthony and…” Anthony turns and points at John in the doorway. John still has sniper rifle ready. “… That’s John. He’s a first-class Private sniper. I’m his Sergeant” Anthony says look back at Madison and Phil. “Let me look at that scratch” John says from the doorway. “Okay, if you insist. It’s not as bad as the bandage makes it look” Phil says as he takes his bandage off his leg. The scratch looked to be two holes in his leg, and about half an inch deep. “Unlike you guys I don’t have a padded Marine uniform” Phil says putting his bandage back on. “Is there any food around here?” John says as he walks up to the desks looking at Phil’s leg then back at Madison. Phil was an average height, he had a red t-shirt on with some dark- blue jeans on. He wasn’t wearing a bullet-proof jacket, but he did have a .32 revolver. “There isn’t much, but yeah” Phil says looking at these hungry Marines. They were still in their camo uniforms, but they were easy to tell apart. John stood around five feet eight inches, and Anthony stood about six feet four inches. Anthony was heavier built than John is. Madison walked up to the bookshelf. She put her M-16 on her back with a strap attached to the gun. She pushes the bookshelf to the right of the door. She opens the door and looked back at John and Anthony. “I thought you were hungry?” Madison says walking back to Phil and grabbing his arm. She put his arm around her shoulder. Phil takes his arm off her shoulder. “I’m fine thank you though” They all walked out of the office and went to get some breakfast. They picked up the desk in the office, and pushed them together to form a makeshift table. They found some eggs and half a gallon of milk. They sat around the makeshift table eating cooked eggs.

When they got finished eating Madison asks “Why did the shots not work Anthony?” “Well I personally don’t know. Only the doctors and the scientist knew how it was going to work. I think that the shots work in a way, but they had a problem in the brain. Because that’s was the first complaint to the doctors. That their head was in extreme pain and that they felt light headed. Soon after that they passed out and then they rose up and started eating the doctors…” Anthony says picturing those things eating their terrified friends. “We are just trying to stop those flesh-eaters from killing any more human beings. That’s why we are here” He says thinking of the few days that he has been in Portville.