Jane's heart raced as she was dragged into the car by her neighbors. "Please drive us somewhere safe." One of them urged. She nodded, gripping the steering wheel tightly. The car sped away, but inside, some passengers couldn't look out – the horrifying sight of zombies devouring human flesh was too much to bear.
Smoke billowed in the east, and Jane accelerated. DC came into view, its half obliterated by a bomb, the other part strangely untouched. Jane's heart pounded in her chest. Slowly, she drove closer to the chaos. Suddenly, a van overtook them, the side door of the untouched DC, swinging open as the van rushed in. Without hesitation, Jane sped up, following the van inside.
As Johnson step out from the van and closed the door, Jane's neighbors emerged from the van. She demanded answers, "What happened here? Where are the others?"
"I don't know, maybe they triggered something meant for the zombies!" Johnson replied. Jane, bewildered, questioned, "What are you talking about?"
"They might have escaped." Johnson show no sign of sympathy as he continues, "that aside, I found something, " Johnson said, handing Jane a note. It read, "Find Luis, he knows what caused this shit." Jane, furious, muttered about that bastard Luis again. Johnson suggested they search for him.
"We can never find him!" Jane snapped.
"Why?" Johnson asked, but Jane remained silent. "Can we at least go to his house. We might find something there, please!" he suggested, the others watching.
"What about these people? We can't risk their lives," Jane protested.
"What if they stay back here? Both of us can go alone!" Johnson suggested. Jane hesitated but eventually agreed.
Arming themselves with guns, they left. On their way, Jane spotted a former cleaner from DC, now a zombie. She stopped the van, took aim, and fired, then continued driving.
As Jane and Johnson reached the biggest depot in the east, they were perplexed to find a red marker drawing a multiplication symbol on the entrance. Jane reversed the van, squinting at the symbol. Confusion etched across their faces, but without answers, Jane resumed driving.
Their next destination was Luis's house. Upon arrival, they discovered the door locked. Jane, not wanting to attract the attention of zombies, decided to break a window to gain entry. Together with Johnson, they scoured every inch of Luis's home, but their search yielded no results.
"I told you we wouldn't find anything," Jane remarked as they prepared to leave. However, as Johnson stepped out, Jane accidentally knocked over a shelf. Books tumbled, revealing a note on the floor. Curious, she picked it up and read aloud, "Luis knows what caused this mess!"
"What is that?" Johnson inquired. Jane, her eyes widening, explained, "Water from the east is contaminated. Avoid drinking it."
Just as the realization hit them, a horde of zombies approaching. They hastily retreated to their van and sped away to a safer location. Once there, Jane handed the note to Johnson, who read it aloud. "Water from the east is contaminated. Avoid drinking it."
Jane connected the dots, "That depot – all the water stored there is from the east. That's why it was marked. We need to stop this and put an end to it. We have to go back to DC, talk to the mature ones, and take them with us. We need to investigate why the water contains the virus."
Concerned, Johnson asked, "What about the rest?" Jane deliberated before responding, "They stay in DC. We can't take them along; we need to protect them. We have enough food and water to last a year in DC. Once we're done, we'll come back for them."
The decision was made, and they headed back to DC. The once familiar streets now bore the scars of the apocalypse.
--------------------
Meanwhile, In the chaotic aftermath of the Jane and Johnson van's departure from DC earlier, a ten-year-old boy among the survivors in DC saw Jane as she took up arms earlier. Curiosity and a sense of responsibility overcame him, and he stealthily approached the stash of guns. With nimble fingers, he snatched a pistol and slipped out of the door, leaving it ajar.
The young boy, armed with newfound courage, ventured out to the infested with the undead. The eerie silence was soon shattered by the sound of gunshots as he aimed at the approaching zombies. His small hands gripped the pistol tightly as he fired with determination. Shooting the zombie on it's chest instead of head, the relentless zombies were moving closer to him, and soon he found himself out of ammunition. In a desperate move, he tossed the empty pistol aside and sprinted back towards the open door.
"Mummy!" he cried out, forgetting to secure the entrance behind him.
His mother, unaware of the impending danger, emerged from the bathroom, a towel hastily wrapped around her chest. The sight that awaited her was a nightmare incarnate – a swarm of zombies closing in. Panic set in as the zombies attacked, and the survivors tried to fend them off, but it was too late. The zombies overwhelmed them with sheer numbers.
"Ahh! please help!!" The people were screaming in pain, but they can't be saved.
Amid the chaos, one woman with a three-year-old baby reacted quickly. She locked her child inside the bathroom, shielding the innocent from the impending doom outside. The survivors struggled in vain to escape the relentless assault, but the horde of zombies had claimed the DC as their own.
As the dust settled, silence reigned, broken only by the muffled cries of the child trapped in the bathroom. The once-thriving group of survivors had fallen victim to the unforgiving wave of the undead.
***********
Five months earlier, on the 3rd of February, a solitary man embarked on a drive along the highway. A seasoned hunter residing in Hill-Cambridge at the east, he led a solitary life. Fate took an unexpected turn when he encountered a deer on the road. Unable to avoid a collision, he hit the animal with his car. Rather than leaving it behind, he decided to take it home.
The man skillfully slayed the deer upon reaching his residence. During the process, a macabre accident occurred – the deer's blood splashed into his mouth, and, perhaps driven by some twisted curiosity, he licked it. Oblivious to the consequences, he cooked and consumed the meat. Three days later, he succumbed to an inexplicable fever and die, within two hours of his demise, he returned to life as a zombie.
Awakening in the eerie afterlife, the hunter emerged from his home, driven by a primal instinct to seek out prey. Unbeknownst to him, the infection had already taken root within him. He wandered aimlessly until he reached a dam that supplied water to numerous depots in the east. Many relied on this water source as it was consistently purified.
In a cruel twist of fate, the zombie hunter stumbled and fell into the dam. The water that was supplied that day became contaminated, setting the stage for a catastrophic chain of disaster. The first town to receive this infected water was Tacoma, now destined to become the first zombie-infested town.
As night descended, a truck laden with the contaminated water entered Tacoma. Unaware of the impending horror, the townspeople eagerly purchased water from the truck. It wasn't long before the insidious effects of the infection manifested. Midnight became a harrowing scene as some residents began coughing, while others had already undergone the horrific transformation into zombies, attacking those around them. Leo and two other men escapes, they lock the entrance of the town, blocked it with vans to avoid spreading the virus.
Amidst the chaos, panicked voices echoed through the once peaceful town. Desperation filled the air as the infected sought more victims to satisfy their insatiable hunger. The infection spread rapidly, turning Tacoma into a nightmarish landscape of the undead.
The unsuspecting residents found themselves thrust into a battle for survival against a force they couldn't comprehend.
**********
Back to present. Upon their arrival in DC, Jane and Johnson were met with a disheartening sight – the city overrun by zombies. Frustration etched across Jane's face as she realized there was seemingly no safe entrance. Johnson, ever resourceful, suggested driving to the back of DC to explore another potential entry point.
As they prepared to leave, a distant sound cut through the air – the plaintive cry of a baby which is attracting the zombies, a beacon amid the chaos. Johnson's concern surfaced as he asked, "Did you hear that?"
"What's that?" Jane asked.
"I think there's a child who is alive in there."
Jane, her expression tense, replied, "Let's get out of here!" But Johnson, driven by compassion, insisted they should help the child.
"Are you crazy? Just two of us against all these zombies? We won't make it if we take that damn risk!" Jane retorted.
Their debate was interrupted as a vehicle approached. Silence fell upon them as they waited to see who it was. A familiar face emerged – Casandra, Joseph's girlfriend and a worker from DC. Her van was laden with various war equipment, and in her hands, she held a bomb, poised to obliterate DC in a desperate attempt to eradicate the zombie threat.
Johnson, alarmed, moved to rush out of the van to stop her, but Jane firmly held him back. "Don't do that!" she cautioned. Johnson, torn between helping the child and preventing Casandra's drastic actions, questioned, "What about the child crying?"
"I don't care!" Jane declared, her resolve unwavering. Johnson, grappling with the conflicting priorities, stared at her in disbelief. "You don't care?" he exclaimed.
In a tense moment, Johnson attempted to open the van door, determined to intervene. Jane swiftly pointed her gun at him, a stern expression on her face. "Don't try me Johnson! Don't make me."
The standoff between them intensified as they confronted the ethical dilemma before them – save the child or get killed by the zombies.
Johnson, torn between empathy for the crying child and understanding the severity of Casandra's plan, challenged Jane. "We can't just ignore the child, Casandra is going to kill the child if she throw that bomb in her in hand." He pleaded.
Jane, her grip on the gun unyielding, shot back, "We can't save everyone, Johnson. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made, if you really want to live! And guess what? I want to fucking live!!"