Ally sat across from Nicholas. The two had been enjoying lunch together as they caught up on their lives. School, work, and all the other struggles and responsibilities that came with life had prevented the two from seeing each other as often as they'd like.

"I really am glad we've gotten to catch up like this," Ally said, picking off the last couple fries from her plate. They went to a simple burger joint, rather than some overly expensive restaurant. "We should do this more oft-" her words, however, were cut off by a scream.

Ally visibly jumped in her seat, startled by the sudden scream. She looked towards the main lobby and what she saw she couldn't explain.

A corpse of some sort was walking. It stood at the counter, leaning over the register in an attempt to grab the cashier. The cashier looked scared out of her mind, but she slapped the grabbing hand away with a plastic food tray and backed up. Two more of these undead monsters stumbled in, moving towards the patrons.

Ally shot up out of the booth and shouted, "What the heck!" She couldn't believe her eyes. These... zombies were walking right into the restaurant! She didn't know what to do, what to say, how to react.

"W-we need to get out of here and call the cops!" Ally said to Nick, still frightened by the sight in front of her.

Nick was taking a bite from his burger as Ally said she was happy to catch up. Nick nodded and put his burger down before swallowing and cleaning his face, "Yeah it's been a while hasn't it?". Nick had gone to take another bite of his burger when he heard the scream.

He dropped his burger back onto the plate and put a hand to his chest. "Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed in a slightly annoyed manner. He'd never been one for sudden noises and jump scares. They almost always worked on him even if he saw them coming, to his annoyance. He did crack a smirk after seeing Ally have a similar reaction.

Nick was seated across from Ally and was puzzled by her shocked face. He then turned in his seat to see something he could only describe as a zombie trying to attack the cashier. What the hell!? He stood up out of his chair his face stricken with fear and unease. He looked at Ally and nodded, he had struggled to make words come out of his mouth because of the sheer shock he was in.

"Yeah but, what way do we go!?" Nick was surveying the chaos of patrons running in terror and the three shambling zombies making the way about the burger place. He looked around for exit but his mind was so frazzled he couldn't think that clearly.

He unconsciously put a hand on Ally's shoulder, placing himself between her and the zombies albeit only slightly.

"I'm not sure!" Ally said, looking through the wave of people. A hand fell on her shoulder, and she felt slightly comforted. She tried to find the emergency exit, but it was being flooded with people. The three zombies were in the way of the main entrance, so they didn't have much of a choice. The two zombies lumbered over to the crowd of people, that pushed through the exit harser in an effort to get through quicker. This only resulted in people getting jammed in the doorway or falling into the ground, which slowed everything else.

The zombies reached the group and grabbed the closest person to them. It was a man, mid-to-late thirties, who tried his best to fight back. The monster grabbed him by the upper arm and ripped him towards it. Both zombies immediately feasted to the fighting man on the floor. He couldn't do anything, and no one could help. His screams had frozen people in fear, Ally one of those people.

Ally swallowed hard as she watched a man being torn apart by this creature. She was frozen for a moment, suddenly unsure of what to do. Could she help this man? Considering his intestines were falling out, there was nothing she could do. Her heart dropped, but she looked back at the entrance. The only zombie there was still distracted by the cashier, who now resulted in throwing straws at the monster.

"Nick!" she choked out, still shook up by the zombie, "The front! Let's go!"

She sprinted across the burger spot, a forty foot sprint that lasted an eternity, to the exit, hoping the zombie couldn't get her or her friend.

Nicholas watched in shock and disgust as the two zombies started ripping into the poor man. He wanted to help but he saw the mans innards spill out and he almost lost his lunch. "Oh god..." Ally would have felt his grip on her shoulder tighten slightly.

He jumped slightly shocked at hearing his name called out. He look at Ally and noticed his hand was on her shoulder, he promptly removed it as he then followed her gaze to the door and the cashier. He then nodded still shaken from the sights he had seen, and could still hear.

"Sounds good!" Nick runs after Ally and glances back at the man being torn apart. He forced himself to look forward unable to afford to spend more time feeling sorry for the now very dead man. He had to focus on getting out of the burger place and to somewhere safe, his eyes followed the zombie fighting the cashier and he wanted to help. But had no idea what these monsters were they could have been zombies, but he had seen so many different kinds of zombies he had no clue if he could actually help fight against it.

He stayed behind Ally not able to spare the cashier another glance.

Ally felt Nick behind her and was glad he didn't get caught. "What the heck is happening?" she asked, voice full of anger and confusion. Where did these monsters come from? How could they stop them? Where were the police? Ally didn't know how or where to find answers. She looked around and watched people racing to their cars in an attempt to eacape the now hellish restaurant. In all of the chaos, several car crashed occured.

"Nick this is terrible. What do we do?" Ally asked, unsure and quite scared. She looked beyond the parking lot and saw what she didn't expect to see. Besides a few people running from the restaurant, there seemed to be two more of those zombie-like creatures harassing the people. She continued to look around and spotted another. "Where did these things come from?"

Nick skidded to a halt behind Ally and looks at her. "I've go no idea. It's like a movie!" He felt mixed emotions about his choice of words but it was to late to change them. He looked up as the cars smashed into each other, then around at all the people running in every direction.

Jesus... This can't be real. Nick refocused on Ally and tried to sound reassuring "First thing we have to do is get our asses out of here. Then possibly arm ourselves, we have no idea how many of these monster there are or where they came from... Come on lets go.". He wanted to put on a smile but the sights he'd just scene made this impossible.

Nick then headed away from the parking lot and the restaurant because those were the last two places he saw the monsters.

"Alright, that sounds good," Ally said, glad she wasn't alone. She didn't know what she would've done if she didn't have Nick here now. Maybe she would've went running into the street and got hit by a car. She followed Nick's lead, feeling sick from watching someone being torn apart. Like that won't be in my dreams every night, she thought, almost gagging.

"Where should we go? I'm not sure a gun shop would be safest, we might get shot there..." she said, more thinking aloud than giving actual suggestions. She wished her home was closer, there would definitely be more to work with there than shoving through people in the streets like this.

"I hope we're strong enough to fight them off with our fists," Ally said to Nick, "But really I don't want to touch them at all. Maybe we need baseball bats or something?"

Nick tried pushing hes way through people as softly as possible and almost ended up trampled. He looked back to make sure Ally hadn't been caught by what he had almost caught him, he was relieved to find her right behind him. Fuck I don't know what's more dangerous... The people or those. Zombies. He shivered with that thought.

Nick nodded in agreement having only just heard what Ally had said over the roaring stamped of people. "You're right. People aren't in their right mind at the mom---. Hey watch it!" Nick growled as he was shoved. He continues forward through the crowd with Ally for a few moments gathering his thoughts. "Yeah even a bat would be an invaluable tool. If we can get one that is..."

Nick looked around trying to look over people heads to find somewhere the could stop moving and properly talk. He spotted an alleyway and started trying to move in its direction. "Right now we just gotta focus on get out of the fucking crowd!" Nick was obviously annoyed at being pushed around.

"Alright!" Ally said, following Nick. She was thankful he was so tall compared to her because she was nearly being absorbed by the crowd. Waves of people pushed and shoved the two as they made their way towards the alley. Ally nearly fell multiple times as people shoved her in every direction. This is insane! Nothing will get done like this! she screamed internally.

Finally, the two were able to burst through the crowd into the alley. "Thank goodness you found this. I'm not sure which we need to be more worried about, the crowd or those... Monsters." Were they zombies? Didn't zombies move slowly, bite people, and eat brains? These zombies were pretty fast and didn't seem too picky about which part of the body they ate.

"We need to arm ourselves in case those things come for us. We don't know how strong they are or when the cops will come to help us." Ally looked around the alley, unsure of how to craft a weapon. Finally, her eyes rested on a dumpster. "Think we're desperate enough for dumpster diving?" she chuckled, hoping to lighten the mood, though she was completely serious about this.

Nick lets out a sigh of relief as they make it into the alley. He can't help but chuckle as Ally says exactly what he was thinking not 20 seconds ago. "Yeah... The people have gone crazy..." He was a little battered from the ruthless crowd having scrapes on his hands from catching himself on the rough asphalt.

The whole situation was insane. Zombies! Chaos! It was almost to much to comprehend, tho his Nick had his doubts about the situation the pain he felt in his hands dispelled any notion that this was a dream. He took some deep breaths trying to clear his head then looked up as Ally started talking. "Yeah. Even if these monsters are weak it would still be better to be ready for something much worse. And we can't depend on the cops to help us, there is to much chaos..."

Nick couldn't bring a smile to his face despite Ally's attempt to lighten the mood. "It's the best thing we got.". Nick's nose crinkled up as he got close to the dumpster this is going to suck... "We need something with some amount of range. Because if these zombies are like movie zombies, we don't want to get hit." Fear was present in his voice, he wished it wasn't but he could hear it himself. Pull yourself together Nick! You got a decent head on your shoulders, you just gotta think...

"Yeah, we definitely need to be careful," Ally said, doing her best to ignore the scent of the garbage from the dumpster. She pushed the black lid up, bringing up another strong waft of dumpster-scent. She pulled her shirt to cover her nose a bit and give her slightly fresher breaths of air. The woman reached up and pulled down a trash bag. She jumped out of the way as it tumbled to the ground. "I guess we both search a bit for weapons," she said, tearing open the thin plastic with the heel of her foot.

So glad I wore tennis shoes today, Ally thought with a slight smirk. If they were going to be running around a lot, they would need good shoes. Her thoughts then became more optimistic. Maybe the cops would get there, shoot the zombies, and everything would be done. Or maybe the government would send in soldiers to kill the zombies. The government might even bring them all to a sanctuary while they cleaned up the... Creature situation.

"Find anything?" Ally asked Nick, as she shuffled the trash around, coming up with nothing. She reached for another bag and knocked it down, hoping to either find something useful in the bag or under it within the pile or garbage.

Nick hesitantly sifted through a bag of waist regretting every movement he made. God this sucks. "Fucking hell this smells like shit." As he continues through his first bag of rubbish he wasn't satisfied with anything that he found, it was mostly just food waste. He pulled his hands out of the mess of rotting matter a winced as he watched some of it drip from his hands. The amount of sickness he felt almost made him forget that there were zombies killing people.

He hissed in disappointment. "Nothing yet. We can't spend to long sifting through rubbish. No matter how much you enjoy it." Nick smirked slightly as his mood was slightly lifted. He then pulled looked around for a bag with bits sticking out of it. Maybe then he could find something that would give him at least a foot and a half of reach on the zombies.

"Yes!" Nick cried as he pulled out a bag that had some discarded chairs in it. He hefted it out of the dumpster and dropped it onto the ground not bothering to be careful, hoping that gravity would break a bit of one of the chairs for him.

"Hey, you never know what goodies you'll find in the trash," Ally replied. She couldn't help but laugh at Nick's comment. She bent down and picked up a shoe lace. The aglet had fallen off, but other than that it was in perfect condition. Someone had probably gotten it in a box of new shoes and tossed it. "See, I found a show lace! There's a lot you can do with this!"

She then watched Nick drop a chair. It hit the ground pretty hard, loosening the legs and sending pieces of the back into the air. Ally covered her eyes in case any splintered material flew to them. "Nick, you really are smarter than you look!" Ally laughed, unable to contain her happiness about the chair. She walked up to it, put her hand on the seat and kicked at the two legs in the air. Because the fall loosened them, they broke off easily, one side smoothed from sliding around someone's living room, the other part jagged and sharp from the splintered part.

"This is great! Now... Back to the crowd?" Ally asked, looking around to see if there was another option.

Nicholas' mood was substantially better than before. "You may have a use for those shoe laces, not me tho." Nick pointed down to his feet and on them was a pair of orange Crocs. He smiled remembering all the shit he'd gotten from mates about having a pair of Crocs good times. Nick thought, but then he thought again. What about all my other friends, Jesus are they alright... God I knew I should have brought my phone! Nick's face visibly dropped.

He quickly snapped back to reality as he heard Ally kick the legs off the chair. "G-good work. Lets umm..." Nick paused. "Yeah, I guess we'll have to." Nick picked up one of the chair legs and held it tight not wanting to drop it in the crowd, it being his only form of defence against the zombies. Oh crap there are still zombies running around! "We need to get somewhere far away from people, there will be less zombies there... But for that we'll need a car. Might be getting ahead of myself... Lets just get out of here for now..."

Nick shoved his way into the crowd making sure Ally was behind him. He did not like everyone bumping into each other, he always tried to get out of everyone's way to avoid holding them up. But this was just anarchy!

"Yeah, a car would be great," Ally agreed, arming herself with the leg. She didn't want to hurt anyone else while she traveled with Nick, but she also didn't want to lose the leg. She followed him through the crowd, trying to figure out a place to go.

"Maybe somewhere isolated?" she shouted to Nick over the screams and calls of the crowds, "Like a farm?" She figured they could just take the bus or train, but when she saw people standing on top of a tipped over bus, trying to avoid the overwhelming crowd, she immediately scratched the idea out of her head.

"An abandoned building maybe?" she shouted, but heard a car honk. People jumped out of the street, some even getting clipped by it. Ally grabbed Nick and pulled him to the side with herself, although they weren't too close to the path of the car. She wanted to be sure both her and her friend were safe in this even though the car was about two meters away when it passed. How was she to know it wasn't going to skid into their direction? "What is wrong with people?" Ally asked in frustration, all humor from earlier seemingly gone.

Nick nods to himself and calls back to Ally. "Yeah isolated sounds good! Maybe we should try catching some form of news on the way! If they're still running that is!..." Nick gets shoved and growls but knows there's nothing he can do. He calls back to Ally again "Yeah, farm sounds great! Like season 2 of the walking dead!".

Nick nodded again. "Abandoned building could work t-!" Nick was cut of as he got pulled to the side by Ally. He then watched the car drive around like a maniac. He shook his head "I have no idea... You would think people would be smarter... Oh crap!" Nick realised he had dropped his chair leg. He frantically looked around then saw it within arms reach, he quickly grabbed it only to get his arm stepped on. "GAH! DAMMIT!" He looked up in furry but the culprit was already gone.

He slowly got up with the chair leg and hissed in pain. "God that's my good arm to..." He looked over at Ally. The mood had again shifted to anger and worry. "L-lets just get out of here..." Nick held his right forearm with his left hand and the chair leg with his right hand. It's a apocalypse and so far the thing that's given me the most trouble is other people... Nick then looked behind him and could see that the swarm of people was getting thinner. That meant that the zombies would be closer, fear now gripped Nicholas' thoughts.

"Nick!" Ally shouted at his arm was trampled on. He got up, clutching both the leg and his injured arm. "Hey, it doesn't look to bad," Ally said, trying to be optimistic. Then again she wasn't the one dealing with a footprint on her forearm.

The pushing and shoving seemed to ease and the noise seemed to be more in the front than at their current position. "Shoot, we're in the back," Ally muttered, though Nick already seemed to have noticed that. Ally looked around again, not really wanting to look to her back anymore. She didn't want to see zombies, she wasn't sure she could keep her cool if she did. That was when she noticed everyone was racing down a main street. Figures.

"Nick, let's cut down a side street."

Nick nodded. He didn't enjoy the pain in he arm and he was pretty sure it was going to be there for a while. "It may not be that bad, but it hurts like a motherfucker." Nick followed Ally this time, his grip on his chair leg wasn't as hard as before. This was mostly to avoid pain in his arm.

"Yeah a side street sounds good." Nick kept looking behind him hoping not to see any zombies. As he followed Ally towards a side street his mind drifted again this time to his family in Australia. T-they are probably fine Nick. Half of them live in country towns. And there isn't that many people... Just hope Mum, Ben and Dad are alright...

Nick shook his head. "So, where are we headed? Back to your place? You have a car don't you?" Nick feels bad that he had forgotten this information. And the hairs on the back of his head start to stand on end with the thought that he may now be getting chased by zombies.

"Yeah, that's a good plan," Ally said, barely realizing she was going in the direction of her home. She didn't even think about going home. She slapped her forehead, feeling dumb for not considering it. "We grab some things from my place and leave," Ally said, then thought about it. Should they stay in her apartment and hope for the best? Maybe team up with others? Wait for the military? She shook her head, unsure of what to do.

"It's so... quiet," Ally murmured, looking around. She turned around to see the street they left behind. No crowds traveled along that route anymore, only a few zombies lingered. "Uh, Nick, do you think they see us?" Ally asked. Their distance of about 300 feet made her feel somewhat comfortable, but she didn't know how fast they were or how much stamina they had.

Nick nodded. "Sounds good." Nick continued following Ally looking around frantically making sure they had no obstacles or pursuers. He slowed his pace as Ally spoke about it being quiet. He rubbed the back of his neck feeling the hairs standing on end, this made him shiver.

"Yeah it is quiet." He stopped himself form saying To quiet. He had whispered his words unintentionally, and when he realised had whispered he was glad. Nick looked where Ally was and he almost froze. "I hope not. Let's not stick around and find out if they did." Nick hurried along focusing on making no sound over being fast. Fuck, fuck, fuck.