The Dead among us - Author:Damian Nevarez, Illustrator: Carlos Romero (room on the broom read aloud .txt) 📗

Chapter One:The first death

“The zombie plague was an automatic death sentence to whoever had the disease, and that's not the worst part. The worst part is that no one at all knows who has the disease, even the person who has the disease doesn't know they have it. Want to know more terrible things about this disease? well, you have no choice, I'm telling whether you like it or not. Here are three more facts: It is highly contagious in many ways, it is spreading worldwide, and there is no known cure.”

 

“Thank you for reading your essay to the class Michael,” my history teacher exclaimed. I was in class reading my history essay, the events I explained aren't currently happening, but that doesn't mean it's not true. “But I must point out Michael you forgot to add the fact that the disease takes a while to go into effect, someone could catch the disease and it could take a few days for them to turn to zombies, also you forgot the disease was founded some fifty years ago,” he added.

 

I should introduce myself, my name is Michael I’m around twelve years old and I live in San Francisco and go to San Francisco City Middle School.                                                        

“Sorry,” I mumbled, “I completely forgot about that.”

“Don't worry about it,” replied my teacher, “ you just won't get an A on this assignment.” The bell rung, “Class dismissed,” shouted my teacher, and I went outside and my friend Jack was waiting for me.

“Hey Michael what took you so long?” asked Jack. “I was about to leave without you.”

“I had to read my essay,” I replied.

“Don't worry”, Jack responded, “Did you see the news last night?” He continued.

“You mean when ten people turned to zombies on a tour of Alcatraz?” I answered

“Yeah that one,” Jack replied, “Fifty people total, infected and killed. There were very few survivors.”

We were getting around to the part when a few surviving witnesses claimed they saw some zombies jump in the water and started swimming to shore, when we heard a scream and what sounded like a gunshot coming from the school. Jack and I turned around and what I saw next would haunt me for the rest of my life. What I saw was my history teacher running out the school, but there was something wrong with him, one horrifying second later I realized he was a zombie, it was the first time I've seen one in person, pale skin glowing yellow eyes and blood dripping from his mouth. I heard someone yell:

“Zombie run for your life!”

Jack and I turned to run but before we could escape, Jack was pounced on, he screamed in terror and tried to get up, then my zombified teacher sank his teeth right in Jacks' shoulder. He let out a terrified scream of pain. He looked at me and moaned,

“Run.” and then blood squirt from his mouth, his skin turned pale and his eyes started to glow, my zombified friend and teacher both got up and started limping after me and I knew that they could pounce on me at any moment.

I turned around and started to run, but before I could even take one step a man appeared out of thin air holding a shotgun to my head and yelled

“Duck kid!” I ducked and then, BAM! The man pulled the trigger. I turned around and I saw both my friend and my teacher, dead on the floor.

 

 

Chapter Two:My life as a prisoner

One hour later the police arrived at the school, along with some U.S. Army soldiers, some scientist and what looked like half the hospital. They took the bodies of my friend and teacher, they assured me they would have a proper funeral after they run the bodies through some test, then they took me in an armored van after the doctors checked me for any injuries.

“Take a seat,” an officer said, I sat down, a different officer sat down in front of me and said in a calm voice,  

“Tell us what happened.” I slowly explained everything that happened. “Where did this man go?” The officer in front of me asked when I told him about the man with the shotgun.

“I don't know,” I replied which was true he ran off somewhere after he shot the zombies.

“Are you sure?” The officer asked I nodded, “Ok then,” the officer mumbled “Did the man shoot your friend after he became a zombie  or before he was a zombie”

“After” I replied.

“Ok,” the officer said calmly “could you describe this man”

“Yeah I think so” I answered, “He was wearing a mask, a black ballistic face mask, and a headset, and a black zip-up sweater,  black cargo pants, and vest that the army wears to carry ammo and grenades, also a black backpack that was carrying two more guns, he also wore knee pads, boots and a pistol holster on his calf” I explained.

“Thank you for your information and time” The officer replied, “If you see this man again let us know, and be careful, ok?“

“Of course but why?” I asked

“This man has been seen multiple times, he was part of the U.S. Army along with four others he left taking lots of military equipment with them, soon after they started leaking government secrets to the public such as our upgraded nuclear bombs with quadruple the firepower than the originals, they were some of the best soldiers we had, and if he sees a zombie he kills them, three kids saw him do this they soon all went missing, after five days their bodies were found in an abandoned building.”

“Oh” I mumbled

, “do you need a ride home?” He asked

“Yes please” I answered, and luckily I didn't need to explain this to my parents they were out of town. Ten minutes later I was in a police car on my way home, we were halfway there, I was wondering how I was going to protect myself from being taken by the man who killed my friend and teacher, then the tire popped.

“What the?” one of the officers mumbled, he got out of the car to check the tire the other officer and I followed. He bent down and found a metallic object in the tire and showed it to his partner.

“We ran over a bullet?” the other officer asked idiotically, then he let out a scream of pain and clenched his knee, blood was gushing out of it.

“Take cover, we’re under fire!” the other officer yelled as he pulled out his pistol and his partner fell to the floor in pain, the people in the streets started to run away. I went to hide behind the car then the remaining police officer screamed in pain as I saw a bullet shoot its way into his shoulder, then another through both his hands. He too fell to the floor in pain, I went to check on both of them, the wounds wouldn't stop bleeding so I grabbed a medkit from the car. I was so focused on stopping the bleeding that I didn't notice the figure sneaking up behind me, when I finished someone grabbed me and covered my mouth to prevent me from screaming and was holding a pistol to my head, then an armored truck pulled up and a bag was put over my head and I was tossed in. After a one hour drive, I was taken out of the truck, I still had the bag over my head so I couldn't see, then I heard some voices talking, one  said,

“what do we do with him sir?” the first voice asked

“Just tie him up and hang him on the roof” A second voice answered I thought I recognized it but I couldn't remember from where.

“Understood” replied the first voice.

“Sir, are you sure we should be taking him”, a third voice asked, “What I mean to say is I don't want to kill him like we did with the last three kids who saw what you did”. I was getting very scared now I yelled in a panicked voice “please don't kill me I don't know what you`re talking about I swear I saw nothing”

“Nice try kid” a fourth voice sounded behind me. “But we heard what you told the police, our boss planted a listening bug in your pocket before he ran off after saving your life.”

That's when I found out where I was, I was kidnapped by the man who killed my friend and teacher.

“But don't worry” the man who killed my friend mumbled in front of me, “ were not going to kill you”

“We're just going to keep you here until we feel like letting you go” the second voice continued behind me.

Then I was forced into a chair and was tied up, then they took the bag off my head, four men were in front of me, I guessed it was true they were in the U.S. army at some point because they all were carrying military grade rifles and a pistol, except their leader

He was the only one carrying three guns, his shotgun was nowhere in sight, he had no rifle, that didn't make me feel better because in its place was a automatic light machine gun that looked like it had enough firepower to destroy an armored helicopter with less than half its bullets he also carried a semi-automatic sniper rifle and he still had the same pistol I saw him  wearing on its holster earlier on his calf by the looks of the pistol, I assumed it was a D-50,  and he had a hunting knife in a sheath on his other leg around his other calf.Then they tied a chain around the chair and I was lifted up about seven feet and almost hit the roof.

I got a good view of where I was, I was in a two-story high abandoned wood mill, but they must have been here for a while because I saw they built up walls to separate different rooms.

“Allow us to introduce ourselves” the man who killed my teacher and friend yelled up to me. “My name is Nomad” he yelled, “The other three men are Holt Midas and Griever."

“Nice to meet you,” I yelled back sarcastically

“Nice to meet you too,” Midas yelled back

“But you should know those names are not our real names” Nomad yelled at me “they're code names we used in our Military days.”

“Could you tell me your real names?” I asked.

“Sorry but no,” yelled Holt “That would give away too much information.”

“Ok, but could you at least get me down from here or let me go home?” I asked.

“That's another thing we can’t do,” yelled Griever

“But if you behave then we’ll let you down,” yelled Nomad.