Third Person
Brian wasn’t happy.

Larry, who had done so much for them over the years, had just sold them to some young woman who they barely knew, and Brian was convinced that she only agreed to take them for two reasons; one reason being that she wanted to get out of the hospital as fast as possible and the other being that he had just supplied her with enough money to pay her way through any obstacle that may show itself to her and stop her from moving herself and her brother to safety.

Larry turned away from Hannah with a tight-lipped smile and started jogging back in the direction that he and the guy had just come from and clapped each of them on the shoulder with a smile as he passed them – offering up a silent goodbye… for now. Hannah slammed the call button on the elevator three times in a row but still nothing happened.

“Elevator isn’t coming,” Hannah announced, glancing up the corridor to the five guys she has
idolised for years “There’s an entrance to the stairwell just around the corner, quickest way
down.”

“Will it be safe?” Zack asked as they all walked towards her.

“Only one way to find out,” Matt answered him.

“Let’s go then,” Hannah smiled, looking over the five of them, but her smile dropped when she
saw the look on Brian’s face while he looked at her “What’s your problem?” She asked him.

“You wanna know what my problem is?” He growled “You are my problem,”

“What the fuck did I do?” She snapped.

“I don’t want you to be in charge of my life, I don’t trust someone your age and your size to
keep me alive,”

“What do you think I’m going to do?” She laughed sarcastically “You think I’m going to use
myself as a human shield and risk my life to save your ass while you cower behind me and cry
like a baby who can’t even hold his own damn knife?” She asked rhetorically “Because you can
go fuck yourself if you think that’s what’s happening here,” She took a breath to calm herself
and ran a hand over her face “I’m supposed to get the five of you out of here and take you
somewhere safe, but after that you are no longer my responsibility and unless one of those
fuckers is about to bite into your flesh and have you for dinner I will not be killing them for you,
you’re going to have to do it for yourself,”

There was a long moment of silence. Nobody said anything, but nobody knew what to say, they
were all pretty shocked at Hannah’s outburst, and before anyone could say anything, Hannah
turned on her heel and started to quickly walk away from them and gestured over her shoulder
for them to follow her. They all started walking quickly behind her to keep up with her and
Jimmy jogged a little until he was beside her.

“You alright?” He asked.

“I’m fine,” She answered without missing a beat “I just don’t have time for pathetic douchebags
who can’t hold their own… I have two more important people that I have to get to and I can’t
afford any more setbacks, the longer I hang around having a pissing contest, the longer they’re
alone and in danger of being eaten,”

Jimmy didn’t say anything; he just kept his mouth shut and continued to walk along beside her
while the rest of the band followed the two of them until Hannah came to a sudden stop once
they rounded the corner.

“What is it?” Jimmy asked, looking at her. She nodded up the corridor and Jimmy followed her
gaze.

Just down the corridor, standing between the group and the door to the stairwell was Doctor
Wills. Hannah sensed right away that he wasn’t himself anymore. It was all in the way his body
was moving around and twitching before her very eyes. His head was tilted back and he was
looking at the ceiling above him and moving his head slightly as though he was trying to sniff
someone out.

Hannah looked over her shoulder at the guys and held her finger to her lips, signalling for them
to stay completely silent before she slipped her bag off of her shoulder and handed it to Jimmy
and started to walk towards Wills. Hannah hated the man with a passion and she was about to
do something that she had been wishing to do for a very long time.

Hannah had spotted the bright red fire extinguisher on the wall and she was going to bash the
bastard’s brains in with it until he was really, really dead. She wasn’t one-hundred percent sure that it would work, but she had seen enough movies to know that it was at least worth a shot.
Carefully, she pulled the extinguisher off of the wall and readied herself as she stopped walking,
standing at a safe distance.

“Wills!” She called out.

Doctor Wills reanimated corpse turned around at the sound of her voice and instantly lunged at
her but she stepped back just before he could grab her and he went down like a tonne of bricks
and as he fell she brought the fire extinguisher down on his head and smashed his skull with
one hard whack, but she kept going and hit him over and over and over again before finally she
let out a deep grunt and tossed her weapon onto the floor beside the dead body.

“Boss?” Matt chuckled as they walked over to Hannah and took a look at the dead body on the
floor.

“Bastard tried to get into my panties one too many times,” She cringed “I’ve wanted to do that
for a very long time,”

“Go Hannah,” Jimmy laughed.

“Let’s get a move on,” She muttered, throwing open the door to the stairwell and quickening her
pace as she took the stairs down two steps at a time.

They made it into the parking garage without another hitch and Hannah jogged across the
parking lot until she reached the van. She unlocked the vehicle and slid open the side door and
gestured for the guys to get in, and they did, but before Brian got in he started to laugh.


“What’s the problem?” Hannah asked, completely unimpressed.

“You think I’m getting in this old thing?”

“What’s wrong with it?” She asked, confused, as she looked at her most prized possession.

“It’s a death trap on wheels, that’s what’s wrong with it,”

“Oh well I’m sorry that it’s not your beloved tour bus that you’re used to, but it’s your getaway
vehicle for now so either get in and come with the rest of us or stay here alone and be eaten
alive… your choice,”

Hannah knew that there was nothing wrong with her van, but she wasn’t going to waste
precious time proving that to Brian. The van had been a birthday present from her mother when
she turned seventeen and she’d never driven anything else. The van had been old and falling
apart when she first got it but she spent as much time and as little money as possible over the
years basically rebuilding the thing and she knew exactly how stable and trustworthy it was.
Hell, she even lived in it with Jamie for a month when they were waiting for their payment on the
house to go through and they were completely safe and comfortable.

Brian looked around quickly when the sound of shrieking, gurgling and groaning echoed around
the parking garage, signalling the arrival of some unwanted company. He looked back at
Hannah and she just raised her eyebrows at him and he jumped right into the back of the van
and she slammed the door behind him before climbing into the driver’s seat.

~~~~

Hannah

Once I climbed into the driver’s seat, I slammed the door shut and jammed the key into the
ignition and turned it quickly and smirked almost proudly when the engine came purring to life. I
glanced in the rear view mirror and watched as a couple of patients and a few doctors –
changed – came running across the parking garage at the van and backed out of my space
and tore out of the garage.

“Can someone find my phone?” I asked, breaking the silence that fell over us once we were out
on the road “It’s somewhere in my bag but I have to focus on driving,”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jimmy leaning over the back of the passenger seat and
sticking his hand in my bag, rummaging around for my phone. After a few moments he pulled
my cell phone out of my bag and handed it to me. I used my left hand to steer and my right hand
to call Jamie and put the phone on speaker phone. The phone rang a few times before his
worried voice came through the phone.

“Hello?”

“Jamie!” I almost yelled, letting out a sigh of relief into the phone, relaxing a little from the fact
that he had actually answered “Jamie, pack a bag and stay inside the house, don’t let anyone in
until I come home, alright?”

“It’s not a prank, is it?” He asked me.

“No…” I sighed. He must have assumed that it was a prank because it’s Halloween and no
doubt it’s already being reported on news stations “It’s really happening so I need you to-ah!”

I screamed when someone ran out in front of the car and I slammed on the breaks. We didn’t hit
him but he was holding himself up on the hood of the car. He was bleeding profusely from
multiple wounds all over his body and he looked me right in the eyes with a horrible, pleading
look on his face.

“What do I do?” I asked, glancing at the guys in the mirror.

“Just run him over,” Jimmy answered.

Luckily, I didn’t have to run anyone over because the injured man moved on and stumbled out
of the way and I continued to drive.

“Jamie, I’ll be home in ten minutes, I’m bringing Avenged Sevenfold with me. Call Erin and tell
her that we’re coming for her,”

I hung up before he had a chance to question what I’d just told him and tossed my phone over
onto the passenger seat. I gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands and put the foot
down, driving as fast as I could without being too dangerous.

~~~~

Third Person

Hannah pulled into the driveway next to her and Jamie’s house and cut the engine before
turning around in the driver’s seat to face Matt, Brian, Jimmy, Johnny and Zack.

“I’m just going in to grab some clothes, food, weapons and my kid brother and then we’ll be right
out,” She told them “I’m locking the van and taking the keys with me so that you guys can’t get
out but nobody can get inside to you either,” She looked directly at Matt, now speaking mainly
to him “If anyone, or anything, tries to get into the van, honk the horn three times,” Matt nodded
at her twice. She grabbed her bag, stuffed her phone back inside and climbed out of the van
without another word.

“Are you all seriously fine with this?” Brian asked with a laugh as they all watched Hannah jog
up to her front door.

“We have to be,” Johnny shrugged “Larry knew that she was our most reliable ride out of the
hospital and she got us out of there without any trouble, and she only has to get us somewhere
safe and then we’re not her problem anymore,”

“The way I see it,” Matt started “We’re going to help Hannah and her brother, Jamie, through
this for a while and they’re going to help us, and once we find somewhere safe then we go back
to being our own people and doing our own things,”

“What about our shit on the bus?” Brian asked “Our clothes, booze, instruments?”

“Who gives a shit about the instruments anymore?” Zack snapped at his best friend angrily
“Brian, it’s the end of the fucking world, zombies are fucking real, right out of the movies, and
you’re worried about your beloved guitars?!” He didn’t wait for an answer “We’re not a band
anymore, alright?” He sighed “It’s the end of the world… we’re no longer Avenged Sevenfold,
we’re just a group of guys trying to survive, alright?”

~~~~

“Jamie?!” Hannah called out as she burst through the front door.

Her eyes were drawn to the landing at the top of the stairs when the sound of running footsteps
met her ears, and she saw Jamie standing there with a terrified look on his face. Hannah let out
a huge sigh of relief and dropped her bag to the floor and sprinted up the stairs as fast as she
could until she reached her baby brother, wrapped her arms tightly around him and hugged him
to her. She couldn’t help but think back to the days when he was so much smaller than her and
she could easily press comforting kisses into his hair while they stood, but now the top of his
head was level with her eyes and he was much too tall for such comfort, so she settled with the
tightest hug she could bring herself to give and she smoothed down his hair on the back of his
head to offer some more comfort.

Jamie had instantly wrapped his arms around his sister in return and hugged her just as tightly
as she was hugging him while he buried his face in her neck and sighed with relief that she was
here, that she was alright.

“Are you alright?” She asked, pulling away from the hug and holding him almost at arms-length,
her hands on his shoulders.

“I’m fine,” He promised, nodding and looking her over, too. Her hands moved from his
shoulders to the side of his face and she sighed with relief once again and dropped her hands
down to her sides “I called Erin,” He told her “She was crying because she had to lock Kevin in
the basement after their neighbour bit him, but she’s getting her things ready and I told her that
we would be over there as soon as possible,”

“Well, it might be a little cramped in the back of the van for a while,” Hannah sighed, running her
hands over her face.

“Are they really with you?” He asked, having a little bit of a fan moment. Hannah nodded and he
smiled at her a little bit and bit his lip, trying to hold in his question.

“What?” Hannah asked, frowning at him a little.

“What – what are they like?” He asked her.

“They say never to meet your heroes…” She muttered “They seem great, well, all of them
except for Brian who has been nothing but a douche since they were put in my care,”

“Why are they suddenly your responsibility?” He asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” She admitted “Larry made me promise to keep them safe and alive, and
he… well he gave me a little something that I couldn’t exactly say no to, and agreeing to do this
for him got me out of the hospital and back here a whole lot faster than standing around arguing
with him about it would have, and if I’d stayed there much longer… who knows what might have
happened over here,”

“I would have waited for you,” Jamie promised with a smile “I’d hold my own for as long as it
took if it ever came to that, you know that,”

Hannah stayed silent and just smiled adoringly at the little brother she practically raised for
most of his life.

“Go on,” She finally said “Did you pack a bag?” She asked.


“I’ve got some clothes here,” He confirmed, picking up his backpack waving it at her a little.

“Good, go to the kitchen and pack all of the bottled water, canned food and anything else that
will last us a while; chocolate, chips and other snacks to keep us going,”

“What are you going to do?” He asked her as he started to descend the stairs.

“I’m gonna pack myself some clothes, empty the safe and then come down and pack up some
weapons and grab the big jugs of water from the garage,”

“Alright, hurry,”

“I’ll be right down,”

Once Jamie was down the stairs, Hannah walked down the hallway and into her bedroom and
quickly set about stripping herself from her scrubs and started rummaging in her drawers for
something to wear. She found a loose-fitting, black tank top and a pair of skinny jeans and
slipped them on. She sat on the edge of her bed and tugged on her combat boots, let her hair
down and ran her fingers through her hair to smooth it out, and then strode across the room to
her closet and grabbed the duffel bag off of the floor and started packing it with clothes.

Once the bag was half-full, she rushed into her bathroom and grabbed her makeup bag off of
the counter and emptied the contents of it into the sink and walked back into her bedroom and
stepped inside the closet, moved all of the clothes left inside to the right side of the closet and
exposed the safe that was embedded into the wall to herself and she smiled proudly. Quickly,
she punched in the code and the door popped open and she scooped all of the family
possessions into the empty makeup bag as well as whatever cash she had stashed in there for
an emergency, and then there was only one thing left. Their father’s gun. She picked it up and
inspected it, looking closely at the intricate carvings on the handle and she dangled it from her
index finger to feel the weight a little but was snapped out of her slight daze when Jamie called
her name from the kitchen, telling her to hurry up. She quickly shoved the gun in the back of her
jeans, covered it with her tank top and shut the safe. She stuffed the makeup bag into the
bottom of the duffel bag and hid it under her clothes before slinging the duffel over her shoulder
and hurrying out of the room and down the stairs.

Jamie was finishing up packing the food and he’d remembered all of the medication that they
might need, too. Everything from his inhalers to the first aid kit that they kept under the sink.

While he was doing what Hannah had told him to do, Hannah rummaged through all of the
drawers and tossed knife after knife into her duffel bag on top of her clothes. All of their
sharpest knives that would do a lot of damage to anyone – dead or alive – and then zipped the
bag shut and warned Jamie to be careful if he had to put anything in her bag. The last thing she
needed was a brother without a couple of fingers.

~~~~

Erin

I knew that it was happening but I didn’t want to admit it.

I didn’t want to admit that the world was ending while I sat in our living room, petting our dog
with my blood stained hands, watching the TV as the news reporter raved on about how we
should all remain inside our homes with everything locked and avoid any human contact as
much as possible… I could hear my fiancé, changing into one of the undead while locked down
in our basement.

It had been about twenty-five minutes since I heard from Jamie, so I knew that they would be
here soon, and just as the thought crossed my mind I heard the familiar purr of Hannah’s
engine outside the house.

“One…” I started counting “Two… Three… Four… Fi-“

The front door burst open and the sound of Hannah calling out my name sounded through the
house.

“I’m in here!” I called out to her, not taking my eyes off of the TV, but out the corner of my eye I
saw her rush into the living room.

“Erin…” She sighed sympathetically, taking a seat on the arm of the couch next to me “E, we
have to go, we have to get out of here and find somewhere safe to hold up for a while,”

“I don’t want to leave,” I admitted “I should stay here – with Kevin,” I was aware that I was
speaking slowly and Hannah was probably already convinced that I’d taken something, but I
didn’t even feel like I was inside my body right now, I felt as though I was watching everything
that was happening and not actually living it “He’s in the basement,” I said as I stood and
walked out of the living room and down the hall to the basement door. I was aware of Hannah
following me.

“Erin, what the hell are you doing?” She asked frantically.

I stopped with my hand on the door handle, ready to open it, and looked back at Hannah and
smiled softly at her.

“I promised him that I would spend the rest of my life with him,” I reminded her, choking out my
words as more tears filled my eyes “We were supposed to get married, have a family and grow
old together before we died… this – this isn’t how it is supposed to happen,”

“Erin-“

“If it’s going to end like this, then I’m going with him and you can’t change my mind on the
matter, Hannah.” I glared at her and she took a step back.

“By the sounds of it…” She started, nodding to the basement door “That isn’t Kevin, not
anymore, and if you really want proof of that then… open that door and take a look for yourself,
but I’m going to be standing right here-“ She paused and tugged a gun out of the back of her
skinny jeans “Ready to put a bullet right between his eyes, just like I swore I would if he ever
tried to hurt you,”

I smiled weakly at her and silently nodded my head before I turned the doorknob and pulled
open the basement door. The sounds of Kevin banging around and yelling out, in what sounded
to me like pain, got louder and they were the only sounds filling the house.

“Kevin?!” I called down the basement stairs “Kevin, baby, it’s Erin, come on out… it’s alright,”

Silence. Complete and utter silence, but it only lasted a couple of moments before I heart
staggered footsteps approaching the bottom of the staircase.

“Kevin?!” Hannah called “Come on out, buddy…” She sounded somewhat hesitant, but as soon
as we heard him climbing the stairs she loaded the gun and held it up in front of her and pointed
it at the open basement door.

Suddenly, something between a snarling growl and a shriek came from the shadows of the
basement and Kevin lunged at me and knocked me back into the wall where Frank had been
splattered earlier on and I tripped over his body and tumbled to the floor and Kevin landed on
top of me. My hands were pressed firmly against his shoulder and I locked my elbows firmly so
that his upper half couldn’t get down onto me and he couldn’t bite. A shot rang out and Kevin fall
off of me and onto the floor. His body wasn’t twitching, but I could hear him gasping and I
moved so that I was leaning over him and Hannah rushed over to us and dropped to her knees.

“Erin?” Kevin gasped.

“I’m here,” I smiled weakly at him, tears streaming down my face.

Hannah hadn’t shot him in the head, she missed and put a bullet through his neck instead and
he as bleeding heavily.

“It’s changing me,” He gasped “The bite… from Frank, I can feel it,” He looked over to Hannah
and smiled as best as he could “You take one more shot at me, end it, don’t let me turn, and
then you get her out of here… you hear me?”

“Yes sir,” Hannah laughed through her tears.

“That’s an order,” He smirked.

“I promise you, Kevin, she’ll make it through this alive,”

“Kevin…” I whispered, slipping my engagement ring off of my finger and placing it into the palm
of his hand “I think – think you should have this,”

“No,” He shook his head and tried to swallow “Keep it,” He insisted “And don’t you ever forget
about me,”

~~~~

Third Person

The back of the van was packed full with people and supplies.

Hannah sat in the driver’s seat, both hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly that her
knuckles were turning white. Erin sat in the passenger seat, looking out the passenger side
window while twisting her engagement ring around and around on her ring finger where she had
slipped it back into place. Jamie had climbed through from the back and sat himself between
them, he hadn’t said anything for a while, no one had. He alternated between watching Hannah
out of the corner of his eye and watching Erin out of the corner of his eye… and just watching
the road ahead of them.

“Can we hear what’s on the radio?” Zack asked from the back of the van, breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” Hannah muttered, reaching over and turning on the radio “Sure thing.”

“Thanks.”

The only sound that filled the van was the gentle buzzing from the radio, nothing was coming
through.

“No radio. Yeah. We’re doin’ great.” Hannah hissed, turning the radio back off.

“Twenty minutes ago the news anchors wouldn’t shut up.” Erin sighed.

“They say where to go?” Hannah asked, glancing over at her best friend.

“They said, ah… Army’s puttin’ up road blocks on the highway.” She answered “No getting’ into
Travis County.”

“That means we need to get the hell out. Take seventy-one.” Matt said.

“Seventy-one.” Hannah agreed “That’s where I’m headed.”

“Did they say how many are dead?” Johnny asked.

“Probably a lot.” Erin answered “Found this one family all mangled inside their house.”

“Erin.” Hannah warned, glancing down at Jamie.

“Right.” She muttered “Sorry.”

The roads seemed to be abandoned, and Hannah drove the van by a few empty cars that had
already been crashed and gone up in flames, abandoned at the side of the road, no doubt
burning the people inside.

“Jesus Christ.” She whispered “How did this happen?”

“They got no clue.” Jamie shrugged “But we aren’t the only town. First they were saying just the
South. Now they’re going on about the East Coast, West Coast…” He trailed off as the van
rolled on past the first farm on the way out of town.

The whole place was up in flames.

“Holy shit…” Jamie muttered, watching the fire with wide eyes “That’s Mr Lewis’ farm.”

“I hope that son of a bitch made it out…” Hannah sighed.

“I’m sure he did.” Erin said, trying to lighten the mood as much as possible.

“Are we sick?” Brian asked.

“No. No. of course not.” Hannah scoffed.

“How do you know?” He snapped back.

“They said it’s just, ah, people in the city.” Jamie answered quickly, saving an argument “We’re
good.”

“Didn’t Frank work in the city?” Erin asked. More to herself than anyone else.

Suddenly, everything came to a stop.

The last haul out of the County and it was backed up with traffic.

“Ah fuck.” Hannah cursed “Looks like everyone and their mother had the same idea.”

Hannah opened her door and got out of the van, but still used the door as some sort of shield
and remained standing behind it while she tried to look over or around the traffic to see how far
the line of vehicles went.

“What can you see?” Erin asked her from inside the van.

“Nothing,” She answered “I can’t see shit, it’s like the whole fucking town is trying to leave this
way…”

The man driving the car in front climbed out of his vehicle, said something to the people inside
and yelled at the cars in front of him before turning around to Hannah.

“You got any idea what the hell is going on here?!” He called out to her.

“Not really,” She answered honestly “By the looks and the sounds of it everyone in town, and
out of town is going completely-“

She was cut off when another man ran onto the road and slammed the other guy into the side of
his own car, and then started tearing chunks out of him while he screamed, yelled and tried to
fight him off. The people who were still inside of the car were screaming and trying to get out. A
woman got out of the passenger seat and started to run off of the road, but Hannah could see
the people in the back of the car were trapped… they were kids and they were stuck in the
back of the car because of the child lock on the doors.

Hannah finally tuned back into the sounds coming from inside the van and realised that
everyone was screaming at her to get back inside before the maniac realised that she was
there.

Without missing another beat, Hannah slipped back into the van, slammed the door and turned
them around and drove off in a different direction.

~~~~

Third Person

*Time Skip*

You work for your keep these days.

Whatever skills you had before the rise of the dead, you had to use it or you were of no use to
anybody. Even the kids and the animals earned their place.

Hannah, Erin, Jamie, the guys and Jackson the dog were a part of a community now. It was a
small town, reminded Hannah a lot of ‘Woodbury’ from The Walking Dead, only minus the
psychotic ape running the place. They had electricity – a rare thing in this world – they had
homes, supplies and each other.

Not many people were able to use their old jobs to their advantage in the world, save for
Hannah. She was now known as ‘Doc’ to most of the people around here. The town had been
without medical knowledge for a while, until Hannah and the group were rescued from a hoard
of ‘Stiffs’. Being the only nurse in town earned Hannah the title of ‘Doctor’ and she had
managed to set up shop in the old medical centre. Nobody even acknowledged the guys as
‘Avenged Sevenfold’, not once, they were the main muscle around this place and it was their job to train other people up, keep the dead away from their home and do the bulk of the work
whenever a run had to be made. With no internet, or any computers for that matter, Erin had
taken on the role of ‘Teacher’ and spent her days educating the children in town, keeping them
out of trouble during the day and making sure that they still got some form of education.

Life was different, people were different… everything was different.

Notes

Sorry it's taken me over a week to get this up guys, but here's chapter three! The last of the intro and a little bit of an insight into what's coming up in the next few chapters!

Hopefully there will be more to come tomorrow!
Enjoy! (:

~ LMV