Keith

Keith ran as fast as he could, but he could feel his energy quickly running out. He couldn't remember the last time he ate something other than the granola bar he found the other day, or when he drank water other than the small amount he gathered when it had rained two days ago. Behind him the growls of angry people, no people wouldn’t be the right word. They hadn’t been humans for a long time, with their rotting flesh, gaping wounds that was oozing green and yellow, and their pale white eyes and grayish skin. No, they might have been human once, but that was long gone. Now they were flesh eating zombies that didn’t only ate brains but everything they could get their fingers into. 

Keith was panting hard, trying to catch his breath while running, but he was struggling. He used to be a quarterback in college, but that was months ago. Now he was just a normal 21-year-old, trying to survive the apocalypse like everyone else, and it would have been great, if it wasn’t because of the rapid dog that suddenly showed up, forcing Keith to kill it. 

It caused such a ruckus, as it barked, and Keith’s gun bang so loudly, that it caught the attention of the nearby zombies, which hadn’t even been that close, but they weren’t like those slow type of zombies you normally see in tv. No these were runners, the type that could sprint and they were fast. Keith had to gather his things so quickly, that he ended up leaving a few things behind, one of them was his rations of sunflower seeds, he had managed to find in the house he was staying at the time, and his inflatable pillow, which he had managed to get from someone’s tent that he stumbled upon out in the woods a month back, where he also found a sleeping bag and a small hiking backpack, which was better than the worn-out backpack, he had before, one he used for school, plus the new backpack had better back support and more space so he could have more things in it. Not that he had much to begin with since he wasn’t home when it all went down.

Now the zombies were at his heel, his backpack feeling heavy even though it only had a few pieces of dirty clothes, a flashlight, which would probably not last long, an empty bottle, crumbs, which was left behind from some bread he had two weeks ago, his wallet with a picture of his family, along with the sleeping bag. The gun was as the hem of his pants, unloaded as he used his last bullet on the dog.

He wasn’t sure how long he could keep on running. The streets were barren, with only a few sports cars scattered around, left behind in a hurry, expensive but useless if you needed to take things with you. They weren’t the only expensive thing as they matched the expensive looking houses, which were even spread out along the road, with huge gardens, tall gates and was several floors tall. Keith would love to get inside one of those, but half of the houses had already broken into, by the looks of broken windows, and the other half had the front door open, which meant they were left open in a hurry, and people had probably already been through them.

He glanced behind him. The zombies were further behind than before, but he knew he couldn’t rest. He had to keep on moving, so he slowed down to a jog as he looked around. He hoped to find shelter somewhere, anywhere so he could rest. He knew the zombies didn’t really react to things like blood or smell, but mostly on sight and sound, though he had noticed they had short term memories, so if you got out of sight for long enough, they would forget you and move on, but where to? Nobody really knew since the zombies would just wander off aimlessly. 

When he reached the end of the road before it turned into a hiking trail, for a park that would end out in a forest, he saw a house. The door was closed, and the windows were still intact, which could be because of the crazy high stone wall around the property, except the massive gate that didn’t seem to have been messed with. People probably didn’t have the right tool to do something about the gate, and thought it might have been useless, but Keith thought it was the perfect opportunity to try and get inside. He looked around as he slowed to a halt, the zombies far behind as if they had stopped running, already forgot about him. 

He searched for something he could stand on, something that would be tall enough that he could reach the top of the wall, maybe even stack up some things to make it easier for him to get up. He found a wheeled trashcan, a motorbike, a bench and a huge potted plant, not really things he could use to get up with, since it would make too much noise if he moved it, plus he didn’t want to use his energy and strength to move the things around, so he decided to jog along the stone wall, hoping to find something, and after searching for a minute or two, he saw a bench that had been propped up against the wall, with a slightly expensive garden chair on top of it, making it possible for Keith to reach the top of the stone wall, if he used the back of the chair as a step. 

He climbed up on the bench, then onto the chair, keeping his balance as it wobbled a bit before he carefully stepped up on the back of the chair. How it stayed in place, Keith wasn’t sure, but who ever had placed it there, knew what they were doing as it kept steady, long enough for Keith to get up and grab a hold onto the top of the stone wall, and use all of his strength to pull himself up. Just as he got up, one of the legs of the chair broke, for some reason, and the chair tipped to the side. Had it done that while Keith was getting up, he would have fallen, and the chair would have been too short for him to get up again.

Keith sat on the stone wall and looked down at the chair then on the other side where a huge bush was. Keith wondered if he should jump down onto the bush, but he wasn’t sure what kind of bush it was or if there was something under it, but he couldn’t see any other way for him to get down, so he decided to lower himself down, hanging from the edge of the stone wall before dropping himself and land into the slightly soft bush, that cushioned his fall.

He climbed out of the bush and stood beside it, removing some leaves and sticks that stuck onto him before he glanced around. The garden had probably been pretty, but now it was just a dry shell of it’s past self, as the grass had turned brownish in color, from the heat and the dry weather, and the flowers were all wilted. Only some of the bushes had managed to keep their green leaves, which meant they were probably more used to harsher climate.

Keith kept an eye on his surroundings as he got closer to the house, trying his best to keep quiet. He looked inside the windows, but couldn’t see anything, other then some things were spread on the floor, like someone had gone through them, and Keith thought that maybe the house weren’t that safe after all, and then thought about the bench and chair, and cursed a little at how stupid he was. He should have known the house would already had been broken in to, but he was so focus on getting away from the road and into a more secure area, that he hadn’t thought about it before now. But when he looked inside, he couldn’t see anyone, nor could he see anyone had been crashing there and decided to try his luck. Maybe they had already left, and he could crash here for a short while, just to gather his energy again. He went to the front door and tried the handle and was surprised to find it unlocked. He opened it carefully as he peeked inside, listening to movement. He didn’t hear nor see anything, so he entered and quickly closed the door behind him.

The house was silent as he moved around slowly. He looked around and when he got to the staircase that led upstairs, he couldn’t hear anything. He peeked into the open living room he had seen through the window, then into the kitchen where he bit his bottom lip. Keith hoped there had been some food or water left behind, but as he quietly went through the cabinets in the kitchen he couldn’t find anything. Exhausted he sat down by the sink, his hair glued to his face from all the sweat he had managed to sweat out, being as dehydrated as he was. He placed his backpack by his side, holding onto the strap, incase someone want to take it. The house seemed abandoned, but honestly, he had no energy to fight anyone as he closed his eyes, trying to relax. If anyone sneaked up on him, he wasn’t sure he would even notice. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure he would care at the moment, as exhausted he was.

--- 

Caz

How long had Caz been crashing in the house, he wasn’t sure. He was lucky no one had gotten inside when he decided to try his luck and climb the stone wall, and he was lucky that there wasn’t a single zombie around, when he pushed the bench closer to the stone wall and went to find a chair from the neighboring house’s backyard. Caz was lucky that he was tall, and even though he weren’t the most fit person out there, he still had enough strength to climb the wall.

When he got to the front door, it was locked and when he looked inside he saw how untouched everything was, which gave him a feeling that no one had been home when the apocalypse started. Why no one had gotten inside before him, he had no clue, but he thanked God, or who ever was up in the sky, for his luck as he pulled out his lockpicking kit and opened the front door.

It was quiet inside, and everything looked spotless, except from the light layer of dust everywhere. Caz closed the door behind him and slowly moved through the house, checking out every room, with his gun in his hand. He couldn’t see anyone or any sign that someone was staying in the house, so he decided to go to the kitchen and see what they had. In the fridge they had a few glass jars with food, that still seemed good but he wasn’t going to try his luck with it, and they had unopened cans of food, everything from canned peaches, to soup and meat sauce. They might have been rich, but they still seemed to enjoy canned food, and Caz thanked them as he stuffed the canned food into his backpack. They had so much, he ended up unable to close his backpack and looked at the ten other cans that was left and frowned. He could sort out what he wanted the most, find another bag and fill that up, but that would be difficult to carry, or he could stay in the house, use a few days to gather his energy and get something to eat and drink before moving on.

And that’s what he did. He went through the house, gathered the blankets, looked through the drawers for things like matches, candles, lighters and other useful things before he went upstairs to one of the smaller bedrooms, where he had a perfect view to the front yard and a way down if something should enter the house.

It was also here he stayed when he heard some noises from the front door. Caz looked up from his book, a book he had found in the house, while going through the bookshelf in the living room, as he cursed silently to himself. He hadn’t locked the door behind him, a stupid mistake that now could cause him his life. How he could be so stupid to forget to lock the door, he had no clue, and now he was being punished for it.

He was curled up in a chair in the bedroom and decided to risk to go look out the window. He didn’t see anything outside, nothing that could indicate zombies had breached the wall and the gate was still closed. He listened to the intruder downstairs and decided to stay put, incase the person was investigating the house, which was what Caz did the first thing. Never assume you’re safe, till you’ve checked everything, that was something Caz had learned the hard way.

He grabbed the gun that he had at his side and pointed it towards the open door, as he kept his attention to the sounds downstairs. He could hear the intruder was walking around, then the sound of cabinets opening and closing, which told Caz the intruder was in the kitchen, probably looking for food. Caz had taken everything with him upstairs, slowly emptying the cans of food, though he did his best to not rush through the rations.

As he listened for the intruder, he noticed that they had gone quiet. Were they really not going to go upstairs? Were they an idiot, or maybe they had been so lucky to only meet nice people? Caz shook his head and left the chair to head towards the door. He peeked down the hallway to the staircase and decided to leave his room and head down the stairs, carefully to not make a sound. Luckily the stairs were made of well-kept wood, so it didn’t creak under his weight. He sneaked along the wall until he reached the kitchen and peeked around the corner.

On the floor sat a ginger haired guy, not much older than Caz, with his eyes closed, slumped against the cabinet door. He looked exhausted and Caz noticed his clothes were worn out, dirty and much to large compared to the guy, which weren’t really a surprise, since Caz had lost weight too during the whole apocalypse. The man hadn’t noticed Caz as he sneaked closer, his gun pointed at the guy until he was only a few feet away.

“You must be stupid to let down your guards like that,” he said and startled the guy, who was staring at him, or more the gun he was holding, first in surprise then fear.