November 13th, 2020. It's 7am, time to wake up, get out of bed and do the usual morning routine, all to get ready for just another standard day at work. Little did I know this standard day was going to be the beginning of the zombie apocalypse.

Pretty much every morning starts with a coffee and a cigarette. I stepped outside on to the balcony of my flat and proceeded to light up. Seemed rather quiet this morning, but it was rather early on a Saturday morning, so naturally you expect it to be quiet. As I pulled my phone out of my pocket to have a look on social media I notice my phone network was down. I tried calling my friends but wasn't getting through. As I don't really use my mobile that often, it wasn't really a big shock to me so the phone just went back in my pocket.

I finished my cigarette and coffee and headed back in, threw my jacket on, put all the essentials in my pocket and began the walk to work. I work in the local supermarket so luckily I only have a ten minute walk. Like most people I always have my headphones in, the music blaring and normally walk with my head down, being completely oblivious to the world around me.

As I got to the end of my street to cross the road there was still no people to be seen, or any traffic around which, by now, is a bit unusual but being a bit of a social reject I like the quiet, so it kind of made me happy there was no traffic or people. It just meant a smoother walk to work.

On the other side of the road there is a long footpath which hasn't got much lighting and is surrounded by trees so it's kind of hard to see much at night, or in my case, in the early hours of the morning. But as I started heading down it I did happen to spot, what I could only assume, was a homeless man sleeping underneath a tree. He was making random jerking movements as he laid on the floor but as there are a few 'tramps' around my town naturally I just assumed he was a drunken tramp and proceeded on my way.

Having strolled nearly three quarters of the way there and still not seen any cars or people I was getting the feeling I was in an apocalypse. Being a big zombie fan I have always played out a few scenarios in my head of how great (or un-great) it would be to actually be part of an apocalypse.

There is a street at the back of the car park, of the place I work at, which I had just approached, that looks like the perfect set of a horror film so every time I'm down this road my mind goes in to major overkill with plotting a zombie fest.

As I got to the back of the car park I headed over to the smoking shelter, where all employees have to go for a cigarette, to have a cheeky cig before I start my shift. It was then I happened to notice something wasn't quite right as the car park was rather empty. Being a Saturday, it's never this quiet on the weekends, so something had to be wrong. Being in the town centre, where there is currently a lot of roadworks going on, our shop does seem to get a ridiculous amount of power cuts so maybe that's what was going on today.

As I finish my cigarette, I notice it is still a bit early so I took a seat on the floor for a bit. I got my phone out to see if it had any signal yet but it didn't. Having been sitting there for ten minutes it was time for one last smoke before I went in. I stood up and noticed some movement out the corner of my eye. As I looked over I noticed somebody kind of stumbling very slowly down the alley. It seemed a bit coinsidental seeing two drunks on the same morning, but seeing as it was the weekend, naturally I didn't think anything of it. I spark up my cigarette and carry on watching this drunk women attempt to make it down the path. Now normally I just laugh at this sort of thing but something seemed very off with this person. As she got to the gate that led on to the car park she lost her balance and fell into the bushes. At this point I did snigger slightly but continued to watch. That was it for now, show was over she had, what I assumed, probably fallen asleep in the bush.

Who doesn't love a bit of a story to tell your mates when you get in to work, and I certainly couldn't wait to tell someone about this. As I put my cig out it was time to get this work day started. Time to find out why we were so quiet. I headed down to the store but as I got closer I noticed all the lights were still on, so obviously it wasn't a power outage. I couldn't wait to get inside and find out what was going on. So I sped up slightly but as I got nearer the entrance I slowed right down. Having had a little scope around there was still nobody, staff or customers, in sight. Now considering this is in the middle of the town centre, as well as next to a busy train line, surely there must be someone around. It was at this point I took my headphones out and turned my music off.

Dead silence filled the air. It was the weirdest feeling. No cars, planes, trains or even any birds that normally are quite noisy this time in morning. I proceeded to the front doors, thinking if something's wrong they would be locked, but I was wrong. As the automatic doors slid open. I walked forward, the music in the shop was still playing but there was still nobody to be seen or heard. Now seeing as the shop opens at 6am and the time was coming up to 9am there would normally be all the checkout lanes open and plenty of people around the shop. Well this was certainly not the case today. I headed to the back of the shop to the staff doors to see if there was anyone out the back. Walking up the corridor I come to the first room, the managers office. Slowly opening the door I bent my head round it, nobody was in. Next room, the administration office, again I opened the door slowly, bent my head round, but again no one to be seen. Having checked all the rooms I was starting to think the whole shop had been abandoned, but I wasn't leaving till I had checked. I got to the end of the corridor and proceeded up the stairs to where the staff cafeteria and toilets are. As I approached the top of the stairs I could here someone moving. I quickly ran up the stairs and swung open the door to the top corridor only to be met with silence once again. Did I just hear a person? Or was it just something else like the wind? Either way I was determined to find out. I headed over to the men's toilets. There was two doors in the toilets. I held open th first one and started to open the second, which had a squeaky hinge. As I proceeded to push the door there was a rather loud creek which echoed round the toilets and down the corridor. Suddenly there was the sound of shuffling at the end of the corridor to which I quickly came out the toilets and went to investigate. Who or what ever was there had gone. There was definitely someone or something up here and I needed to find out who. I headed down the corridor to the staff cafeteria. Opened the door, but there was no one there. I stepped in to the cafeteria and walked over to the kitchen. I opened the door to the kitchen area and stepped in. As I shut the door behind me I knocked a spoon off the table which let out a loud clanging sound. I quickly dropped to the floor and put my hands on it to stop it rattling. Suddenly there was more shuffling coming from outside the canteen so I jumped up, swung the kitchen door open, ran out the canteen and into the corridor, but no one was there. Just left of the canteen door was a room which all the power switches and other essential switches are kept. So I figure that must be where they are hiding. I head over and open the door, just as I ease it open someone comes running over and slams it shut. "Who's in there?" I asked, but no one answered. I bang the door with my fist and asked again. I heard a voice say, "Johnny, is that you?", "Yeah who's that?" I asked as a feel of relief came over me for I had a feeling I knew who it was. The door suddenly opened and someone appeared in front of me. "Quick get in" they shouted, as they grabbed my arm and pulled me in. It was my boss Gary.

"What the fuck's going on?" I asked. "I'm not completely sure I only know a few details, but what I do know is there are dead people walking around out there that eat people". I quickly stepped in "You mean zombies?". To which he said "I suppose that's what you could call them, we refer to them as z's. I witnessed them biting some of the other staff members and they then turned into them." "Other staff members?" I asked, "What do you mean? Is there anyone left anywhere?" Gary then showed me to the back of the room where, in a moment of relief, were some other colleagues and a handful of other people. "Holy shit, Johnny?" I heard as I looked over to see one of my closest friends, Lee, who also worked here. He jumped up, ran over to me and wrapped his arms around me. "How the fuck did you make it here?" He laughingly said. "Fuck that, how did you guys get up here?" To which Lee went on to explain, "It all kicked off at this morning about 7am. It seemed like there was a fight or a riot outside the front of the store, so a load of us went to investigate. By the time I got out there, only a few staff members were left standing. But they weren't normal. They were twitching and making husky, groaning noises. Then they started coming at us. Phones were down and no emergency services were around so we gathered everybody we could and headed up here where we knew we could hide and barricade those big doors. Gary has a team downstairs now clearing the shop so we can get it all sealed off and try and come up with a plan." "I ain't fucking staying here I need to see if my family are ok." I shouted as I quickly stood up. Lee stood up next to me, put his arm round my shoulder and said "So do I, but we can't just go wandering around out there. We will stay here for a bit, make sure these guys are safe then I'll come with you and we'll head to your parents house, then to mine.". "Cheers buddy." I said as a single tear rolled down my cheek.

All these secaniaros that I had played over in my head, and the countless hours of gaming. Yet here I was, literally stuck in the middle of a zombie outbreak and had no clue what to do next. All I knew was my family were out there. With no way of knowing if they were safe or any way of contacting them. Regardless of what the plan was with these guys, my next mission was to get to my family's house... somehow. 

    Heading back out of the canteen down the corridor, now having a better idea of what's going on, suddenly felt quite terrifying. However, I was determined to get through this and get to my family. Besides I now had other people relying on me, so I didn't want to let them down. We managed to get to the bottom of the stairs and down the corridor without any problems. The place was still quiet. Maybe we were lucky and none of them were left inside. Well that's what we were hoping anyway. As we reached the end of the corridor to the shop floor Gary quickly run in front "Ok, we've no idea what's going on down here, so everyone stick together." We proceeded onto the shopfloor, but it was still quiet. Until suddenly there was a shuffling noise coming from one of the aisles. With no idea who or what was making the noise, we had to go and find out. As we headed further down the shop the shuffling noise sounded like it was getting closer. I looked over and Lee, there was a mix of focus and fear in his eyes. He looked at me and nodded his head, put his hand on my shoulder and whispered "It's alright, we can do this."

We approached the aisle where the noise was coming from and we found one of the z's dragging itself across the shelf fixture. We all quickly took a step back so it couldn't see us. "We're gonna have to do something. I can't carry on knowing that thing is here." Gary said. "We'll take care of it." Lee said as he grabbed my arm and started edging me towards it. "Ok, I'm ready." I hesitantly said. We paced very slowly towards the creature, it hadn't seen us yet so we had a bit of an advantage. Just as we got close, suddenly it raised its head and it let out a kind of snarly groan. Having seen its face I recognised it, it was one of our regular customers, Pat, who shops here everyday. He was an elderly man and was one of the nicest people I'd ever met. It was hard to see him like this, on top of that I had no clue what me and Johnny were actually going to do with him. However it was too late to think as he lunged himself forward to grab Lee, but Lee shoved him back. Then he raised his plank of wood getting ready to hit the z with it.

Suddenly out of nowhere there was a big thud and Pat, the z, had fallen to the floor. Someone was behind him and was beating him with a metal pole. As they took a step back and wiped the blood of their cheek I saw it was one my other managers that worked here, Mike. His clothes were covered in blood. "Holy shit Mike, what the hell happened to you?" I asked. He looked at us in a kind of relief "We ran in to a few of them as we came down. Unfortunately we lost a few of the team. They got bit by the z's, then they turned into them so we had to take care of them too." Gary walked over and shook Mike's hand "I'm glad you're ok. Is there anyone else down here with you?" Mike pointed to the back of the shop. "The rest of us are hiding down there. We were getting ready to come back upstairs when we got ambushed, so we took them out then hid behind the counter in the corner." "Right, let's go over and get the rest of the guys and head back upstairs."

We walked slowly to the back of the shop, as we approached the corner I saw a couple of heads pop up from behind the counter. It was Tom and Paul. Paul,who was another one of my closest friends, that worked with me, and Tom who I had worked with for many years so we became good friends at work. "Fuck it's good to see you guys." Paul said as he hugged me. Mike stepped forward, "What happened to Kim and Stu?" Tom quickly jumped to his feet "They're fucking dead! Those fucking things bit them and turned them into a fucking walking corpse." I was good friends with Kim and Stu so it was quite hard to take in what had happened to them.

We all crouched behind the counter, Gary waved his hand for us to all huddle together "Right, now we have a better idea of what's going on down here, what do ya say we try and make a move back upstairs where we know it's safer?" At that moment we all agreed and stood up. We started heading back down the shop but then we heard a shuffling sound. As we looked over we could see a group of z's heading slowly in our direction. Mike quickly stepped in front "We're gonna have to fight our way through if we wanna get to the corridor." Me and Lee then stood forward next to him "Let's do this."

As we were getting ready to fight, Gary ran in front of us all "I got a better idea. I'll go to the side and bang around to get their attention. Then hopefully you can all get through." To which, without hesitation, Gary ran down one of the aisles, banging the pole that he had against everything, making lots of noise. As we looked over the z's were picking up on all the noise Gary was making and started heading his direction. Within a few minutes the horde had moved out of the way of the way so we all quickly scurried towards the corridor.

I turned around to see where Gary was, but couldn't see him "We need to go and check if he's alright." Suddenly he popped out the end of an aisle "It's ok, they are out the way now let's go." Then all of a sudden a z came up behind Gary, grabbed him by the shoulders, and bit into his neck, tearing a big chunk of skin off. He let out a mighty scream then fell to the floor. "Mike what the fuck do we do?" I asked. "Let's just get back upstairs, it's too late for him now." We all started running down the corridor, got upstairs, and went into the room where everyone else was hiding.

We all quickly rushed into the room and shut the doors as quickly as possible. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. I've seen this sort of thing on film and tv but to see it in front of me wasn't quite as easy as it looked in the films. Mike stepped ahead of everyone and proceeded inside. We all took a minute to process what had just happened. Then we heard Mike, "Erm, guys, you best come and see this." Me and Lee walked over to him only to discover dead bodies on the floor, and that the others that were up here had gone. Nobody knew what to say. Mike went to speak but was interrupted by a banging noise coming from a cupboard in the corner. He walked over and put his hand over the cupboard door handle. Lee quickly put his hand on the door "I don't think that's a good idea." Mike held Lee's arm and slowly eased it away "Get behind me and get ready to pounce." Mike then slowly eased the door open, but as it got half way someone jumped out. It was another colleague of ours, John. He was also one of the group that had been hiding upstairs. "Thank fuck it's you guys." "What happened?" asked Mike. "We got ambushed by a bunch of those things." answered John, "They pretty much wiped out the whole group. I quickly jumped in here so I didn't see much. I don't really know if anyone survived."

I approached Gary, "Well we clearly can't stay up here anymore, so I think we need to stick with my idea and get out and see if we can get to my place as I live the closest." He didn't say anything for a minute. He just stood there staring at the bodies on the floor. He had a mixed look of sadness and anger. He then looked up at me and said "Right, let's get the fuck out of here, I know roughly where abouts you live and if we stick together then we can make it." Tom stepped forward "Well my family aren't around anymore so I ain't got a reason to go out there. Surely if we barricade the place up we can stay here for a while." John then walked over to where Tom was, "Well my wife died a few years ago so I got no one to get out of here for either. You lot can do what you want, but the way I see it is we are in a supermarket so we have plenty of supplies, so I'm staying here as well." I shouted over to them "Well if that's what you wanna do then that's up to you. I need to get out of here and check on my family. If you really are gonna stay here then we could all come back when I find them. I'm sure the others have the same idea too." Lee came up beside me "Yeah, I'd like to know my wife and child are safe." John looked at me with a slight hint of frustration in his face. "Ok well I'm still gonna stay here. So when, or if, you return I will be waiting and we can all get the place secure." Lee, Mike and I all looked at each other until Mike steppped in front. "Well, if you're sure that's what you wanna do. I still think we'd be safer in a group." Tom then interrupted "Well we've made up our mind." There was clearly no pursuading them both. We started heading out the door then John ran over to us "Let's hope you all make it back. We'll be right here waiting."

We managed to get downstairs to the corridor. "Ok everyone, we know what was down here when we came back up, so let's hope they've all gone, but just in case they haven't let's make sure we stick together and have each other's backs." Mike said as he then started leading us down the corridor. As we got towards the end, the faint sound of the z's could be heard. We were all too determined to get out of the shop that no one paid any attention to it.

We got to the end of the corridor and stepped out on the shopfloor. The sound of the z's was getting louder but still not close enough for anyone to be scared. We proceeded towards the front of the shop to the doors when suddenly the doors opened and a load of z's stumbled in. We backed up quickly to the door of the corridor, got behind it and shut it, trying to force it shut using our weight. We could hear them heading our direction. "Right I'll go out there and try and distract them while you guys head for the door" Mike said. I certainly wasn't keen on the idea "Nah that's a crazy idea. I thought we were all staying together?" To which Mike answered "Yeah, but these things ain't gonna go anywhere unless someone intervenes, which is exactly what I'm gonna do." He then jolted the door opened and went running toward the horde.

We shut the door for a second then flung it open and ran towards the front doors. Just as we got to the door there was a loud screaming coming from behind us. It sounded like Mike. We waited a bit to see if he would reappear but he was nowhere in sight. "Wait here, I'm gonna go see what that noise was." I said as I started heading over to where the scream came from. Paul ran over to me "Nah stay over here. We can see if he comes out the aisle from here. Plus if all goes wrong we can make an easy break for it. "Erm, guys?" Lee said with a frightful tone. "You need to turn around and take a look." We both turned and saw Mike heading out the aisle, but he had turned into one of them. "Ah fuck!." I shouted. Paul then shouted over "Just get the fuck out of here."

We then left the shop and started heading up the car park. There were no z's in the car park so it was easy to get across. As we got to the back I could see, who I thought was the drunk woman from earlier, still lying in the bush. It was clear now that she wasn't a drunk, she was one of them. As we walked closer she reached out for us, but one of her arms had got caught on a branch of one of the bushes which stopped her from moving anywhere. We didn't do anything and just kept walking.

Well it was just the three of us now with our mission in mind. We were going to my place to try and form the next plan, and get possible supplies, before we head out to our families. I was a bit scared of what was possibly lying ahead of us, but I was still determined to get to where we needed to go. We were a team, and by each other's side we were determined to beat this thing.

We had got to the street that I said looks like the set of a horror. Well there's no denying the irony of the situation as we were crossing over it, we were living the horror. Luckily there wasn't many z's lingering around so the walk back to my place was quite smooth.

We headed down the long path, just around the corner from mine, and as we got to the end we saw one of the z's crawling across the floor. It was the guy I saw earlier who I thought was another drunken tramp. We stepped round him making sure he couldn't grab us. Paul stood above him and raised him arms, holing a metal pole. I quickly walked over and grabbed his arm "No, leave it. There's no point. Save your energy just in case." He began to lower his arms, but in one swift motion quickly lifted them back up and bashed the z's head multiple times. Lee then quickly stepped in and took the pole out of Paul's hand "I think that's enough of that. We can't go losing our shit now. We got things to do." Paul stepped back "I'm fine, just showing these fuckers what we can do."

We crossed the road, headed down the street til we got to my place. It seemed really quiet, but there was the faint sound of the z's in the air, so we were all on high alert. We got up the stairs to my flat and all stepped inside. Paul wasted no time in looking around for supplies. He was grabbing every bag he could see and filling them with all the food he could find. The rest of us just looked at each other. No one said anything. We then joined Paul's search and split up to look around the house for supplies. After ten or so minutes we all gathered in the kitchen. Paul pointed at a small pile of carrier bags in the floor "Right I got as many food items as I could but it's not a lot. We'll need to see if the neighbours have anything. If we split up we can cover ground quicker." "Nah, that's a bad idea" I said, "We would be safer sticking together. Who knows what's waiting behind those doors." We all picked up our weapons and headed out on to the walkway. I pointed at the first flat at the end. "Let's start from the end and work our way down."

We got to the end and knocked on the door. There was no answer. We knocked again, harder, but still no answer. Lee then reached to open the door, it was unlocked. We stood still for a minute to see if there was any noise or movement, but there was nothing. We headed inside and went straight for the kitchen. It looked like it had already been cleared out. We had a quick look through the cupboards. "There's nothing here!" Paul said as he slammed the cupboard door shut. I left the kitchen and started heading upstairs. "I'll have a quick check up here. You guys keep looking." I rummaged through the bedrooms but they had all been cleared out too. Lee came upstairs "This place is empty. Guess it's onto the next one." We all headed back outside and went to the neighbors flat, but it was exactly the same, it had also been cleared out. We went to the next flat. The door was partially opened. Lee knocked on the door, but as he knocked, the door opened up more. We waited a minute to see if anyone was about but we didn't hear anything. We entered the flat and headed for the kitchen and just as before Paul started searching through it. I once again headed upstairs. As I got to the top of the stairs I could hear some heavy breathing coming from one of the bedrooms, so I headed over to it. The door was half open so I peeked in. I could see someone in the corner of the room, standing there facing the wall. I pushed the door open and leaned in a bit. "Hello?" I asked, but didn't get any reaction. "Excuse me? Hello?" But again there was no reaction. So I took a few steps in to the room. "Erm, excuse me are you ok?" I asked, then suddenly they turned toward me, with blood dripping from their mouth and head twitching. It was a z.

I started backing up towards the door trying not to make a sound, but just as I stepped foot out the door, the floor creaked. The z started coming over to me so I quickly shut the door and gripped the handle. "Guys! Quick help me, one of them's in here!" I didn't get an answer at first, but then Lee came round the corner and headed up the stairs. "Just leave the door and fucking run! There's a few of them downstairs. Paul's holding the door to keep them in, but we all gotta make a break for the front door." "Ok." I said as I let go of the handle and we both quickly ran downstairs, Paul joined and we made a fast escape out the front dooor shutting it behind us. Paul wedged his plank of wood under the door handle so it wouldn't move. "Fuck, that was close. Right, we stay together and take it room by room for the rest of them." Lee and I nodded and we headed down the walkway passed my flat to the next one. This one was empty too but had lots of food and other bits left. We grabbed it all and left.

Just as we stepped out and shut the door there was a sound of z's in the stair way. Lee ran over to the stairs to have a look, "Shit! There's a load of them heading up this way." he said. I quickly ran to my door and opened it. "Quick, get in." The other two quickly ran in but just as we closed the door, a z started banging on it. Then another, and another, til there was a big group of them all banging. Lee ran into the kitchen, grabbed a chair and wedged it under the door handle then turned to us, "Right, so what are we gonna do now?" I headed into the sitting room. "Let's all get in here." I said, "We'll block this door off aswell and think of something." We shoved the sofa in front of the door and all but Paul sat down. "Ok, I think we should stay here as long as possible." he said, "Well can wait for them to go. We got enough supplies to see us through the night if need be." I wasn't too keen on the idea, but as there wasn't really any alternative we all just agreed to stay in the sitting room until it was safe to leave.

A couple of hours went passed and the banging suddenly stopped. We all crawled up the sofa and put our ears against the door. It was quiet. "Lets check it out." Paul said as he started pulling the sofa back. He went to the front door and peered out the letter box. Nothing was there. He pulled the plank of wood out and opened the door. All the z's had gone.

Suddenly there was a woman's scream from down below. She ran out into the road as a group of z's, the same group that was after us, were after her. She had a z holding on to her, she managed to shake it off but then she tripped, and the group of z's all charged towards her, piled on top of her and before she had a chance to break free, they started biting into her. Paul turned to us, "Right this is our chance to get out of here." We all ran back inside, grabbed the bags then ran back out and headed down the stairs. As we got to the bottom of the stairs the z's were standing near. We snuck out the building but one of the z's spotted us and started heading our direction. 

We ran out and proceeded to the other end of the street, where it was quiet. "So which way is it?" asked Lee. I pointed left, "We head down this road, cut through a small alley, then we come to a lake. We have to walk round the lake, cut through a couple of streets then we are there." We all picked ourselves up and headed down the road until we got to the lake.

As we came out the alley and could see the lake, it had dozens of dead bodies floating on top of it. Lee stepped in front of us "Are you sure this is safe? I have a bad feeling about this." "Well it's the quickest way there." I said, "Plus there's lots of trees and bushes around it so there's plenty of cover."

We began our journey around the lake which actually seemed quiet, but just as Lee had predicted it wasn't long before we ran into trouble. Just as we came round a corner there was a huge crowd of z's heading our direction. Lee stepped in front of us "Great! Well what the fuck do we do now?" "Don't worry we'll just turn around and go the other direction." I said. So we turned and started walking the opposite way, but again we were met with another big group of z's. "Ah, shit!" I shouted as we starting edging backwards. Lee grabbed my shoulder "Wasn't that a fucking great idea? So what are we supposed to do now?"

Paul then dropped his bag, grabbed both our arms and pulled us into a big bush, "We'll just wait here for them to pass, then carry on the way we planned." So we waited, for what seemed like forever, for the z's to pass us. They started walking in front of us, not paying any attention to us in the bushes. Suddenly one of the z's started reaching into the bush we were hiding in. Lee smacked it over the head with his weapon, but the rest of them heard and started heading towards us. Before we knew it they too were reaching through the bush trying to grab us. We all tried fighting them off but they were slowly getting closer and closer.

All of a sudden Paul climbed out the bush, grabbed a few z's by their clothing and starting pushing his way toward the lake. "Get out of here!" he shouted. We waited for a clearing then climbed out the bushes, but before we could help Paul, he was already pulling the z's down into the lake, with the rest of them following him. I ran over to the lake trying to kick the z's off that were surrounding him. He reached out and I grabbed his hand but just as our hands locked together, one of the z's bit him in the face. He let out a loud scream then let go of my hand and sunk underwater. I froze and just stared at the lake where Paul was, but I lost sight of him as the z's scrambled over him. Lee came up behind me. "It's too late for him, we need to get the fuck out of here now!" I remained still with my arm still extended, where I had tried to grab Paul's hand. Lee then wrapped his arm around my chest and pulled me out the lake. "Come on, fucking move before they get you too!" I snapped out of it, quickly got out the water and we both started running along the path.

A few minutes went by and we hadn't said anything. We both just had our heads down. I stepped to the side and leant my head against a tree. "FUCK!" I cried out. "He did what he had to, to make sure we got out." Lee said. We both just stood there for a brief minute then picked ourselves up and carried on walking. We got round the lake and made it to my parents house. The street was quiet. I saw  my dads car in the driveway so I ran over to the house and banged on the door. There was no answer. I started panicking and continued banging the door harder and harder. Then they sound of keys jingling on the other side of the door gave me a feeling of relief, to which my brother, Dean, opened the door. I threw myself at him and gave him a cuddle. Lee then ran in and shut the door. Dean quickly let go of me and locked it. "Damn, I'm glad your ok." he said as tears started rolling down his cheeks. I said nothing and just gave him another cuddle.

I looked over at the sitting room, "Where's everyone else?" I asked. Dean let go of me and took a step back, "It's just me." "What do you mean? Where's mum and dad?" I asked, as tears rolled down my face. "I don't know. They went out to go clothes shopping in town earlier but haven't come back. I've been waiting here all day but haven't heard anything. They may be safe or they might be..." "Don't say it!" I quickly interrupted, "I've already lost some people, I don't need to hear anymore." He then placed his hand on my shoulder, "I'm just saying we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility."

We both stared into each others eyes for a minute and then Dean reached out his hand to Lee. "I'm Dean by the way, Johnny's younger brother." Lee then shook Dean's hand "Lee." We all went and sat in the sitting room. I remained standing and looked over at Dean. "Right then, I promised Lee if he helped me get here, I would help him get to his house, to his wife and kid. Are you willing to help out?" Dean then stood up "I'll help you, I've got the keys for the car too. So where do you live?" "Just outside the town centre not that far from our work place." Lee said as he stood up.

Dean then put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. "If we are going near the town we could always have a look around and see if we can see mum and dad. We know what sort of shops they go to, who knows they could be locked up inside one of them. I mean, we have the car, right? So we may as well do a few laps at least." "After we get Lee's family of course." I said. We went into the kitchen and gathered some food and water then went outside and got into the car. The street was still quiet so getting out of here was going to be easy. Dean started the car and backed up out the driveway.

So the next mission was now set, and we were all more than ready for it. Lee was more than eager to get to his family. Our parents are out there and we are going to find them, and with my brother and a car, the next journey should hopefully be easier. But we still weren't sure what was lying ahead of us.