Dead Sun Rising; Chapter 2, Page 12

Smelling the snickers (It actually smelt kind of nice...) i decidely put it in my pocket until later. Never know when you might need an extra boost of energy, or morale for that matter. Candy really works well as a little gift wrapped piece of heaven with things look gloomy.
I handed Nails the crowbar once more and lifted sophie up to maybe get out of here. This place really is getting tiresome, constantly being on edge has can be worse then you think. And i'm not talking about constantly being on edge because of your paychek. After watching all those war movies and horror movies... I think i've found new respect and awe for the protagonists presented in those movies. It usually falls down on a combination of skill, patience, willpower and downright dumb luck that they get out of the situation. Perhaps that'll be what saves me aswell?
Proceeding down the dreary halls that all looked the same, the silence was palpable. Shouldn't there be more undeads wandering about? Or was that perhaps just a part of the lower floor we were in earlier? And what happened to the crowd that ran past me when i woke up in this forsaken hole?
In any event, we continued our travel until we arrived at an unmarked room on the map. It clearly said security but this wasn't marked on the map at all. The door was locked and the keycard didn't work, so we did things the old fashioned way, burglar style. Putting Sophie aside, i asked Nails for the crowbar and jammed it with the flat side into the crevice as hard as i could. Pulling and tugging, it finally opened. Thank goodness for the robustness of the crowbar, it wouldn't have held otherwise. The smell that came when we opened the door... It smelled of blood, and perhaps something else. Stepping inside, i was proved right when a person layed huddled in the corner with a hole in his head and a gun gripped firmly in his hand. Putting one and one together, it wasn't hard to realise what probably had transpired here. The sight made Nails gag, especially with all of the substances of the head all over the wall. "Rest in peace, whoever you are" i mumbled and closed his eyes. I told nails to look through the computers to see if she could find anything of interest, while i tried to pry the gun loose from his hands. I guess the term "Dead Mans grip" came from somewhere so i told Nails to slide over the crowbar. Said and done, i positioned his hand with the back of the hand upwards and took a steady swing at the knuckles. With a cracking sound combined with a thump, the hand released it's grip and let go of the gun. To be honest, it felt like grave robbing but beggars can't be choosers so with a steady aproach, i took a look at the gun. I felt kind of vexed since i didn't recognize the gun model but took a look at it anyways. Housing twelve bullets out of what i was guessing was thirteen maximum, it atlest wasn't empty. Looking through his clothes, i found two additional magazines. Jackpot! Look's like we'll atleast stand a decent fighting chance now if we'll get into trouble. Afterwards, i started looking into the few lockers that was here.

Meanwhile, Nails found a computer that was logged in. The first thing that showed when powering the monitor was was i assumed was the suicide letter from the guy in the corner. Turns out his name was Michael Bronson and he was an imported worker here at the facility with a family waiting for him back in the US. Where this facility was, he didn't seem to disclose, the rest of the letter was of his regrett taking this security jobb, his regret in not question the extremely high pay and the ever so hush-hush policy they housed about not talking about work at all while on leave or anything you see here. It also mentioned economics problem which explained why he took the job in the first place.
Sifting through files and looking for obvious clues, she found nothing. She jumped onto a cluster of computer screens in the corner next, carelessly, people has forgotten to log out of the computers. I guess computer security was the last of their problems during the outbreak. Powering them up, it apparently was security monitors. Alerting me, i came over and we both took a look at it.

I produced a map i found in one of the lockers, which seemed to correspond to the correct security cameras and where they were located. I guess the map was for newly hired persons but it sure came in handy for us. Comparing it to the map we had marked previously, i looked up the conference room and safe to say, it was flooded with undeads. While we looked through the remaining security cameras that were functioning, we saw somebody moving way faster then any undead. Managing to paus one of the feeds four floors up, the person looked masked, and well armed.

Dead Sun Rising: Chapter 1 - Page. 11

No matter how hard i screamed, the sound didn't resonate with anything. It was like my voice just faded into the white. I started walking, walking turned into running and then i ran for what felt like an eternity in slow motion. That's when i finally saw something, out there in the white. It was very hard to tell, but it seemed like a humanoid shape-wise. But no matter how fast i continued to run, it clung to the very edges of my vision making it very hard to know what i was chasing after. It was when i was falling over due to exhaustion that i heard a whisper, but making out what it said was next to impossible. I could only register "... Suffering..." before i awoke with a snap, gasping for air.
I was back in my nightmare, as real as it could get. Back in the recreational room, with a...
I noticed Nails was clinging to me tightly, looking at me with a worried but drowsy expression.

- Are you ok? All i could hear was mumbles and you sounded quite distressed..
- I'm... I guess I'm alright. It's just... I don't...
- Shh, It's ok...
- ...!

That's when i noticed that Nails hands suddenly were in face, grabbing ahold of me and kissed me passionately.
I could do naught from getting lost in the moment, noticing that my hands started moving by themselves, undressing her as the kissing heated up even further, her hand movement gett more erratic, rushing to undress me aswell. In all this chaos that we wound up in, even if it was temporary, we shared a special moment where nothing else but us existed.

From what we assumed was the following day, The tension was decidely... Akward in the room. It was a bit hard to look each other in the eyes, so we started getting dressed and feeling fit for fight, we ate what was left of the Chilli pot and examined the map to see where we should've been heading next. The layout was quite confusing to say the least, sections where placed seemingly random and it was quite easy to get lost here based on the map.
But with a felt pen, we planned and marked out a route. It was a detour, but better be safe then sorry. Our optional route led us right through a conference room that could house up to 200 persons. Just the though of it brought me memories of the meat locker type room and it made me shiver. I looked over the locker filled with liquor and found a big vodka bottle, perfect for cleaning out any wounds. I filled up the gym bottle with as much as i could (which was almost the whole bottle of about a litre) and threw our belongings in the backpack, along with a scissor i scrounged up.
Things were looking up, but i couldn't admit that out loud in case it would come back to stab me in the back later on. Moving the sofa and opening the door slightly to see if anyone had entered, i grabbed Sophie and proceeded out when there was no signs of entry. Lugging a dead body around sure wasn't as easy as it looked in any of the action movies but i did it anyways. It might've been called stupid on my part, but i really didn't care. I had my respects to pay to my ex, and i'll be damned if i didn't do just that.
Things were as quiet as before, which was unnerving to say the least. Tension could get the best of anyone, and the dark danky corridors didn't really help at all. What we needed was probably some sort of flashlight but looking for one would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
We carried on, and the sight we met in some of the rooms made us sick. A person had been flayed with his skin around his stomach cut and spread, neatly showing everything inside. I didn't even stop to think of the tremendous pain that man must have been in before passing on, assuming he was even awake during the process. Further on, we actually found a person laying on the ground. I was about to smash his skull in just to make sure, until i noticed that somebody had actually shot him square in the middle of his head. Sighing, i ransacked him in order to maybe find something of value. After looking through his pocket, i found an unopened King-sized snickers, a wallet containing a picture of his family and an access card. Jackpot.
Now, since i didn't know how much access this was going to buy us, i just put it in my pocket until later.

Dead Sun Rising: Chapter 1 - Page. 10

After walking for five minutes in dead silence, following the map blindly, we reached what we thought was our destination. Checking the map if it was the correct number, we cautiously opened the door up and expected the worst. Suprisingly, we were treated to some sort of lobby where there were coat hangers, lockers and other things where you could put your trinkets, labcoats and suits away for the moment. Not bothering to dequip anything, we proceeded onto the next room and what we found was like a little slice of paradise.
It lived up to it's promise of being a recreational room alright. It had a fully equipped pool table, a small library of books, a couple of couches, a few dingy lights and it even came equipped with a bar and stove. It looked like it had everything we needed to take a brake. Putting Sophie down, we started looking for a suitable barricade for the door so we took one of the couches and started hauling it over to the door. When that was done, we both simultaneusly lied down on the floor letting exhaustion getting the best of us. It felt so nice just lying down on the carpet, my body felt a bit abused by now. The sad part is that i really wanted it all to be over, but it isn't. I have to deal with reality and i have a responsibility to keep now. I have Nails and if i want us to stay alive, i need to pull my shit together.
I felt that thinking too hard on those things will just depress me even further, so i stood up and went to the fridge, attempting to make idle talk while assessing what i could do with the contents of the fridge.

- So... did you know that i am an educated cook? I sometimes used that as a pick up line.
- I'm not suprised, chick digs a guy who can take care of himself.
- Well uh... That i know. And a lot of other unnessesary crap.
- You got me intrigued, go on.
- Oh like... Let's see here. You are most likely an 80c cupwise, Around 20 years old and probably has a dislike for carrots.
- How did you even... You do realise that the carrot part is true right?
- Magic, whooohoo. So uh... Some outdated milk, eggs we should avoid, some fresh meat, some herbs, butter... I think we might be able to do something with the stuff here.
- Wiseass... But in a cute way.
- That's my style baby.

Feeling that i've successfully increased the overall mood, i got to work. Finding some pans and pots, i started cooking with what i had. I was able to scrounge up enough materials and spices to make a pretty tasty chilli meat pot. It was a bit lacking, i'll be honest, but it delicious in the current circumstanes. I never said it out loud but if there was anything that wasn't fully eadible, the chilli would've made sure to eliminate that particular taste.
We made some small talk during dinner, i told a bit about myself in a very relaxed and playful manner, while she discussed some things about herself prior to these events.
Telling Nails that i was going out to the other room to scrounge around in the lockers for a bit after dinner, i took the crowbar, moved the couch a bit and stepped outside.
Finding a few stuff of real value (Amongst those items where: a gym bottle, a couple of handly king sized towels and a backpack, all stuff which could come in handy later on) i felt satisfied with what i scrounged up. Taking some relief in that i didn't need to break up any lockers and cause an unnessesary commotion, i returned in to the recreational room. We needed all the sleep we could get, so i told Nails that we probably should do just that. I examined the couch and it turned out to be a pretty handy bed-settee (I could hardly believe our current fortune, i was just waiting for lady luck to slap us in the face) which i proceeded to fix up so it could be slept on, grabbing the softest substitute for a pillow i could find and done. Removing nothing else but my shoes, i lay down on it and felt as if every ounce of my strenght was drained away. My eyes felt so heavy... All i could register was a warm source from somewhere and then everything went dark.
The dreams were hazy at best, a whirlwind of emotions streaming through me. My past life, my current situation, things i took for granted, ex girlfriends... Heck, even people i hated passed by it all. I wonder why.
Then all of a sudden, i was sitting all alone in the middle of an empty, quiet colloseum.

Dead Sun Rising: Chapter 1 - Page. 9

Seeing nothing else of interest in the room, i followed the mildly panicing nails (In all actually, i could understand she as afraid, but this afraid...?) out of the room and into the room with all the shelves filled with petri dishes, and into the next room.
In here was nothing of real interest at first glance, it was yet another researshing room filled to the width with different object, most of which none of us knew the function of so we left it alone.
Leaving the rooms almost empty handed, we proceeded out through the cool sliding doors and into the locker room. Taking of the suits, i finally gasped for fresh cool air. Feeling as sweaty as a yeti in a summer vacation resort, i enjoyed just feeling myself cool down for a bit.
The pressing need to proceed made itself reminded of, we stepped out of the locker room and into the deserted and somewhat morbid halls again with Sophie in my hands.

- Well, left or right, which way Chris?
- You are the woman with the crowbar, i say lead the way.
- Then uh... Uh... Left, right, left, right... I'll just go with right. If my intuition fails me, it's your fault.
- Hey, don't blame me if it goes haywire, you are supposed to have your female intuition.
- But that for guys onl... Argh, never mind. Let's just go already.

We started walking to the right, going as far as the corridor hopefully till take us when we heard the distinct noice of something falling to the ground. Both of us on edge, stopped the second we heard the sound. I held up a raised hand to signal her to be quiet, and put down Sophie as gently as i could. Signaling Nails to give me the crowbar, she complied and i started sneaking forward as fast as i could with Nails right behind me. It was still a bit jarring to see the undead up close and personal like that, but he was giving of a distinct moaning and had his back turned against us. Feeling that i didn't want to risk getting any blood on me or nails (And risk an unnessesary infection), i gave her the crowbar and signaled her to wait. The amount of adrenaline going through my body at the time was something i can't properly describe, but every motion felt smooth, controlle and in slow motion. I rushed forward with his back turned, putting my left hand on his chin and my other on the back of his head, flexing my arms as hard as i could and twisted it with every ounce of strenght i had.
With a wet snapping sound, he fell silent immediatley and dropped to the ground with a thud. Breathing hard and heavy, my hands where shaking madly and i had to sit down. Feeling that i didn't want to risk anything, i stomped on his head, furiously. I didn't stop stomping until it was but a pulp left of his head, tears welling up and hatred for these creatures flaring up out of nowhere. When there was barely anything left of the head, i continued to stomp (By now, i was screaming furiously) until Nails pulled me away sobbing.
I could do nothing but cry, feeling regret, anger and just about every negative human emotion running through my head at the time.
When i finally stopped shaking and sobbing, i realised that i was wrapped up in Nails arms. Not sure if it was her that hugged me, or me hugging her, It still felt kind of akward with me trying to play the strong, brave leader. So i muttered a thank you under my breath and stood up straight. Killing somebody, even an undead does not get any simpler as time passes. This might have just been my second kill but... I just hope it gets easier. I know they truly arent alive any longer. They are just empty vessels that craves flesh and nothing else. So why does it bother me so much?

- Let's... Let's go Nails. We've wasted enough time here thanks to me.
- I just...

Failing to complete the scentence, she went quite for a bit. Obviously faking a smile, she helped me lift Sophie once more and we proceeded onwards, past the zombie lacking a head. I winced as i passed it and carried on, trying to ignore it.
When we came to a three way junction, i saw a handy little map on the wall. Taking it off the wall and examining it, i saw a recreational room clearly marked on the map, along with other hot spots. Perfect, we haven't rested at all since we started. It might be risky to relax for a bit, but it might also be just what we need to carry onwards...

Dead sun Rising: Chapter 1. Page 8

The door leading to the decontamination room was one of those really cool doors which slides open (Not sideways, but upwards!) and when we stepped through it, it closed behind us with that silent but notable sliding sound you always hear in sci-fi movies. We were suprised by the sudden gush of compressed air shooting at us from all these different directions but it was probably just disinfectant mixed with stuff to kill bacterias anyways. Still, couldn't help but to jump a bit from the sudden sound of it.
With the door in front sliding upwards and allowing passage, we stepped through to what appeared some form of laboratory. Mostly, it resembled the things you'd find in a hospital such as shelves filled with petri dishes (Seems to be different kinds of bacteria in them), a couple of desks filled to the brim with different kinds of papers (at first glance, seemed just to contain some scribblings and lots of technical words), some examining tables with different kinds of equipment and two doors at the left and right leading to different places.
Telling Nails to start looking around for some kind of information we can use later on, we both started going through all the documents. Much of it, was just technical science information which i couldn't understand at all, but some reports actually used some form of laymans terms...

- ... Nails, i think i found something.
- What is it? All i can find is all these documents which i can't interpret at all...
- Well, turns out some form of project or another was here. Problem is, it doesn't allude to what and why.
- Some information...
- Well, it's better than nothing and from what we know, we can assume that this is some project gone haywire.
- Still, that information isn't of much value to us since we don't know why, what or how. I mean, how are we even going to kill those things?
- They just seem like ordinary reanimated humans, that means that blunt trauma, snapping their neck or decapitating them works. As long as we stop brain activity.
- Uh, you sure know your freaks...
- Look, i was a huge zombie fan back in the days... I'm still kinda feeling the irony of it alright?

Continuing to wade through all the papers, we didn't find much we could understand but still decided to grab some of what we assumed was the most important papers (sign and sigil usually screams important) and continued onwards with examining the labs. The various petri dishes just had a number ID, which didn't tell me or nails much at all about them so we just left them alone for the time being.
Aproaching the left side door, it slid right open as the other doors behind us and closed shortly afterwards. I was getting some form of simple joy stepping through them, the guys who designed these doors must've also felt that way when the stepped through them. But this wasn't the time for childish thoughts, so we entered into what looked like an experimental area. The lighting in this room was very dim, save for a few lamps here and there. From where we stood, we couldn't see the entire room, so we walked to the corner which cut out our view of the entire room but what we saw, we couldn't possibly have been prepared for...
A glass tube of sort stood in place, along with a couple of other tubes, it was around three metres in height, about one and a half in width and had some dim lights that lighted up the tube. Sitting it the tube was something at a height of two and a half metres, looking humanoid with pale grey skin, no clothes and lacking sex at all. The muscles on that thing was impressive, to say the least and his hand looked like it was as big as my head. It didn't appear to have any physical deformation on the outside, it just seemed like an extremely buffed up human being. Nails backed away from the thing slowly and bumped in to a cart of some sort, screaming in shock and falling to the ground.
The screaming snapped me out of my awe and i rushed to help Nails up, her body was shaking like a leaf and she just stuttered that she wanted to get away from that thing as soon as possible.
Complying, i led her away from it and prayed that we would never ever encounter that thing living.

Dead Sun Rising: Chapter 1. Page 7

Not sure what to do with myself, i just kept on walking, and walking, and walking. Stunned to silence by grief, and terror of what we would be encountering next.
Eventually, we wound up in another section blocked of by a door that demanded a key card and was marked with a biohazard sign. But as luck would have it, the door stood half open as if somebody just threw open the door and ran.

- Chris, did you see the biohazard sign? I don't think it's going to be very safe going in here.
- I think it's a minor chemicals lab, let's just take a look atleast. Maybe we can find something we can use.
- Guess i just have to trust you on this one...

In order to move unhindered, i put away Sophie by the side of the door and swung the door open slowly to see what's in there. The first thing we encountered was a room with around 20 lockers or so, and some hazmat suits hanging. Feeling that it probably was safer here then out in the corridor, i went back to pick up Sophie and put her here instead.

Think we should don a hazmat suit, just in case?
If we can find one our size that is, then yes. Better be safe then sorry.

Swinging open a few lockers, we found family photos, a couple of nude pictures on the lockers, pretty much everything stereotypical you'd expect to find in a locker of such a place. Though when i opened up my seventh locker, i found something that piqued my interest, a lot. Lifting the object up, i felt a satisfying weight in my hand. I swung it around a bit and felt like Gordon Freeman for a second or two, we even stood in a laboratory so the comparison couldn't have possibly been better placed.
Nails caught me swinging the object around a bit and laughed since she apparently thought it looked a bit funny.

- I see you found something useful there Chris!
- Yes, i can't believe i found a friggin' crowbar! This thing is probably one of the most useful things we could have found at the moment. Short of an exit of course.
- I guess. But you are carrying around Sophie, how are you going to carry that as well? I mean, she must be heavy...
- Well, sort of. Suprisingly light for her height but still heavy to carry around and i have no real pockets or belt to put the crowbar in...
- Give me the crowbar, i might not be able to put it in as good use as you would, but i can still take care of it for now.

Said and done, i handed her the crowbar with amusing results. She wasn't expecting the weight of it and almost dropped it as a result. Looking mildly embarresed, she lifted it and held it in both of her hands, trying to swing it around slowly with one hand to adjust to the weight of it.
When she looked to be just about done, i said to her that the leisure brake was over and that we needed to keep up the exploring. So i started equipping a hazmat suit of a somewhat fitting size with some difficulty and Nails followed my example.
After a good five minutes, we were done and i felt like was a man on the moon with this thing on. It was all rubbery, big and felt like you had some sort of bigfoot costume on, not to mention that heat built up fast in one of these making you all sweaty after just a little while in them.
It was kind of funny how all everything sounded lightly distorted from the inside as soon as you equipped the helmet though, but eveyrthing from the outside sounded distant and far away.
Steeling ourselves, we approached the next door which seemed to lead into a decontamination chamber of some sort.

Dead Sun Rising Chapter 1. Page 6

I just let her cry as much as she could. The faster she got it out of her system, the better. Not that i myself felt like crying, it's just that my first instinct was that by acting as strong as i could outwards, i could give her strength to get up and keep on moving.
Looking over my shoulder to the half naked Sophie almost made the tears well up again, but acting strong, I gave Nails a helping hand to help her get up and picked up Sophie afterwards. It was time to keep on moving out of this strange place.
Picking up our pace, we started moving down the large corridor. One thing that we both noticed, was that this place looked way cleaner. Almost like a hospital with the large corridors and many rooms. The vague smell of antiseptics crossed my nose, indicating that the zombies most likely hasn't been here, or at least not to a larger extent. Looking into the rooms, we saw several things. Most of the rooms were simple rooms with one bed, straps to then (Most likely so they could keep a subject in place) and a light hanging above the bed. Some beds were stained with blood, some not. It almost felt like a horrible prison.
My mind started racing about the different scenarios that could have taken place there and none of them looked particularly good. Most of them involved what I imagined processing over the the undead side and most likely, the straps were to keep them in place because otherwise they wouldn't be still due to pain or escaping. But who knows, I may as well have been blowing smoke out of my arse for all I know.
Passing by all the rooms, we found ourselves in a crossroad with three different directions. Since there wasn't much to say, I balled up my fist gently and stretched it out in her general direction. After looking at me for a second or two, she realized that I wanted to play Rock-paper-scissor to decide which way to go, not punch her.

Damn, paper vs. Scissor. Looks like Nails win. Looking a bit happy about her victory, she chose to go left and I complied since well... She was the winner. Walking along it, she tried her hand at small talk, just to pass the time and get what I imagined to be our eventual death out of her head.

- So... Chris. What were your hobbies before all this?
- Well... I used to be a no-good guy turned decent to be honest. Play video games, being with my friends, organize events, stuff like that. I used to be quite passionate about the it too, even if everyone around me usually were better at what I did. I've always been an underdog.
- I see... Well, I myself used to be the party hard kind of girl. Even if nobody in particular liked me, I was tomboyish and liked to party to get my mind of my otherwise miserable life. It's kinda surprising what being a tomboy and having an ample chest can get you with boys.
- Uh... Right. Well, I'm not one to judge to be honest. I've had my share of girls, trying to sleep my way through my also miserable life, haha. But I try not to think about it too much. I've found that brooding to much about the past just brings you more pain.
- I guess... You're right. I was meaning to ask you, but who is that girl you are carrying around?
- *Sigh*, Well... She was my first girlfriend. One from a long time ago. From when I was 15, her name is Sophie. She was the first person I encountered here in this hell hole, she was infected in a hasty encounter so I had to snap her neck in the end, before she was going to try and take a bite out of me. That why her head is hanging in such a bizarre way

Without realizing it, tears started running down and dropping on Sophie, grief taking me over for a short duration of our walk. Nails, looking like she realized she stepped on sensitive grounds, just kept on walking besides me, not saying a single word more.
When we arrived at another crossroad, she balled up her fist and stretched it out into my general direction. Sigh, another one of her victories, scissor vs. rock. Once again, she chose left and kept on walking, her body language screaming that she was positive this was the way out. I sure hoped so, because I was hoping that this hell soon was over. But maybe that was wishful thinking.
Hopefully, the zombies are located in one place only and hasn't escaped this... Facility of sort.
I don't know if I could handle a destroyed world outside of this pit.

Dead Sun Rising; Chapter 1, Page 5

Have you ever been inside of an actual meat storage? You know, with all the meat-hooks and thick pieces of meat hanging in a fridge?
This looked more like it was fetched straight out of some horror story, with various parts of the human anatomy hanging on different sized hooks. My stomach reacted instantly with the overwhelming smell of rotten meat passing by my nose, it's all fun and games in movies but in real life... God help me. Looking at it, it almost felt so bizarre that I lost track of where I was for a second. That is, until I realized that the moaning around me actually got louder.
When I looked around with squinted eyes, I saw figures approaching me slowly, limping, like they had one of their legs broken. Right away, I realized what must have been inside this room, docile until someone actually hit the lights.
Trying to hurry myself up and telling myself that I was in mortal danger, I hurried to pick up Sophie and looked around for Nails, turns out she actually was moving to my current position. Come to think of it, I didn't know where exactly i was positioned in relations to the huge room, so I looked around and realized that I had walked quite a bit in my trek into the abyss of darkness. It also occurred to me that there were several shambling zombies being distracted by all the meat hanging around which gave us an ideal opportunity to sneak out of here. If it was a good idea or not, i leave it up to you to decide.
Nails, shaking in boots, slowly approached me and whispered:

- We need to locate the nearest exit, immediately! Seen any exit from here?
- N-no. H-h-hopefully, we will be able to locate one before this zombie party turns into a party which involves us as the main course...

Nails, looking mildly confused at my sudden stuttering, started looking around quickly for an exit, locating one to the far North-west of the room she poked me and told me to start sneaking as quickly as I could.
So we started sneaking, with zombies all around us. I don't even have to point out the irony in that I never expected to do this while I lived, ever, after watching all those horror movies and playing all those horror games. I also felt so shaky from all the adrenaline pumping through my veins that I almost dropped Sophie. We went as quickly as we could but it wasn't easy. Have you ever tried sneaking around with your life at stake with someone in your arms? Thought not.
The moaning got louder every now and then, as they seemed to shamble over to the next half eaten body part and started chewing on it and switch between them every now and then. One got very close to us nearing the exit so we hid behind what seemed to be a huge torso, praying that it wouldn't notice us.
We stood there for what felt like an eternity, until the damn zombie actually started shambling over to the torso we hid behind. Knowing that we would be noticed for sure, we tried sneaking away to the next best body part to hide behind.
When we took our second step to get away, we heard a loud noise and several sets of feet shambling some direction. It didn't take a long time until we figured out where exactly. In panic and filled with adrenaline, I just screamed; “RUN!” and started following my own advice to the best of my abilities. But as you may know, running around jacked up on adrenaline isn't the easiest thing in the world. It's kind of like being drunk, but instead of the world spinning, your body reacts too fast for your mind to comprehend and you feel like there is no control over your body involved, just muscle memory.
We neared the door in the short sprint, me running faster than nails despite the body I carried, my adrenaline giving me wings to run faster then I possibly could otherwise. Throwing ourselves into the exit, putting away Sophie and slamming the valve style door behind us as hard as we could, we both started turning the valves as fast as our shaking bodies could manage.
A minute later when we realized that we were safe for now, the adrenaline started setting and a nervous shake spread when we realized that we almost died.
I sat down, taking deep breaths and tried to take control of my body once again. Nails on the other hands, was at the verge of tears so I slouched my way over to her and gave her a solid hug to hold on to.
And she cried, almost to the point of what felt like blood mixed with tears of despair.

Dead Sun Rising; Chapter 1, p.4

We proceeded along the cold corridor, with what i imagined to be wind blowing in our faces. If i was right, maybe we were on the right path out of here. There was something i really couldn't get away from though, a worry nagging me in the back of my head. Those people i heard before, what happened to them? They couldn't just have all disappeared right? Argh, I better let it go before it eats me up. No pun intended.
The corridor was just about as empty as one would expect with little to no sound reverberating on the cold stone walls.

Hey Nails... This might not be the best question to ask right now but do you know anything about where we are?
… No. All I really remember Is Panic...
I... See.
And you uh... Chris, do you remember anything?
No, not really. All I can remember is panicked steps, a lot of them, a massive headache when I woke up and not much else. Rrgh, this lack of information is killing me!
Bad choice of words...
Uh... Sorry...

Seeing no point in continuing after I unwittingly killed the mood, we kept going straight until we actually had no other choice. We were facing what looked like another one of those vault type doors, but it was hard to see in the bad light. So I put Sophie down and started to feel my way around the door to see if I could grab a hold of any handle.
After around 20 seconds of fumbling around for a handle, I finally found one and started to twist the handle, I noticed that this didn't open the door though so I asked nails to look for any other handle, which she did after a while. When we finally got the door to open, a horrid smell seeped out of the crack in the door and it overwhelmed us both like a tidal wave of sour lemon which caused us both to start coughing like madmen.
I opened the door fully with a little help from Nails and it was pitch black in there. I didn't exactly feel comfortable walking in there without any source of light but was impatient to get out of there. My common sense tingled a bit though about the potential dangers that might be ahead of us so I consulted Nails about what we should do. The response was as expected, that she didn't want to go in there and I understood her. The following scream from there though made me instinctively react and so I lifted Sophie up again and told her that I was going in there.
Without looking back, I ran in to the darkness in some vain attempt to try and save whomever was in there. I just hoped that I wasn't about to become lunch for any eventual lurking horrors.
Walking around in pitch black darkness isn't the most fun thing i've been through, let me tell you that. Ever tried walking around with your eyes closed? It's very much like that.
Feeling as I entered an abyss of some kind, I started walking around trying to locate where the source of the sounds was coming from but I was starting to feel more and more stupid with every step I took.
Then the light hit me, quite literally. It felt like a punch in the face when all the bright light started lighting up one by one. I was so surprised by this that I dropped Sophie on the floor and started trying to cover my face as a reaction after becoming severely blinded.
I don't know for how long my vision failed me, but it really felt like an eternity and the voice got higher pitched, and a chorus of moaning followed shortly after which quite quickly caught my attention.
Trying to see again with watery eyes, I stepped forward and slipped on something and banged my head on the stone floor. Lying there for a couple of seconds, I tried getting up again and when my vision cleared shortly after... It was a tragedy to behold.
It was like stepping into a butchers house. Except the subjects on the various meat hooks hanging from the ceiling and large room wasn't animals and animal parts.
It was humans.

Dead Sun Rising; Chapter 1, p.3

Chapter 1

Proceeding down the long corridor with Sophie in my arms, the only thing i could think of was regret and why i wasn't more cautious than I was. Then again, thinking retrospectively would help me nothing since I had no idea that I was going to face live and authentic zombies when I woke up here. Again, wherever the hell “here” was. The smell of blood followed me like filth in a bordello, with Sophie’s neck wound leaving a trail thick with blood. I stopped for a bit, tearing of a bit of my shirt (Albeit with much struggle and a lot of teeth) and started tying it around the neck wound. It felt inproper of me to just leave it like that. I had to find a proper place to bury her though, but holding on to her full weight in my arms was beginning to take it's toll and her head bobbed bizarrely up and down, like a bobble head when finger-flicked on.
When I finally arrived at a T-formed juncture, I put her down for a bit for a second time to rest my tired arms and tried to discern if there was any sound coming from either of the opposite directions. Much to my dismay, I heard no sound other than wind howling down the direction I came from. Finding a coin in my pocket, I call heads for left and tails for right. Flipping it and praying for good luck, it showed heads. So I picked Sophie up and slowly moved on the the left of the T-formed juncture. Stumbling on, I finally heard a sound of something muffled along the corridor.
I hurry on to the source of the sound and after a while of power-walking I finally found a door, I put Sophie down gently on the rock floor and moved as silently as I could towards the door. When I put my ear to it, I heard a soft muffled sound that sounded vaguely human. I decided to take a peek on what's in there, so I turned the two handles on the valve looking bunker door to find three things; A light hanging over a operating table, a nude woman strapped to the operating table and different tools used for surgery atop of a trolley.
The gag tied around her mouth explained the muffled sound and I hurried to free her of her shackles. What I saw when I approached the woman was a woman in her mid teens, probably around 18 years old with red flaming hair and a rather petite physique, probably no longer in height then 1.60 cm. Nevertheless, she wasn't directly hurting my eyes with her pretty looks.
When i finally freed her, she threw herself of the operating table in what I imagined to be mortal panic onto the cold rock floor with a loud thud shortly followed by a whimpering crying sound. Regaining my senses, I took off my jacket in an attempt to at least cover some of her decency and inspected her further. She didn't seem bitten, or wounded for that matter in any of the places I saw before I covered her up a bit. After going through a state of hyperventilation, paranoia and a few punches to my body, she seemed to regain her senses and calmed down. A tried to ask her in a low tone:

- Hi... Um, this might not be the best question to ask right now but how are you?
- …
- I see. Well then, I guess I have to entertain you by telling a bit about myself. I'm Chris, your average teenage-adult and I grew up in...

Little by little, she seemed to smile a bit more as I pulled out my entire repertoire of bad jokes, slightly exaggerated funny moments in my life and general stories about me. When we finally returned to reality, she introduced herself as Nails. Apparently, her real name was Jessica but since she always chewed on her nails, she earned herself the nickname Nails in middle school and apparently, it stuck to her ever since.
To this day, the power of the right words in the right time to calm people down simply amazes me. I had an idea, though it felt a bit inappropriate and a bit like desecrating a corpse but corpses need no clothes and so I asked her to wait where she was. I stripped down the body of Sophie to her underwear. Returning with the clothes in hand, I gave them to her and turned around in a show of respect to let her dress without me ogling her.
After a minute or two of cursing about the clothes, she looked much more decent and I told her that we needed to get moving because it wasn't safe here. Surprisingly, she asked no questions about it and just gave me a simple nod so I stepped outside the room, told her to stop and grabbed the two largest and sharpest looking operational tools I could find. Incidentally, I found a tool for dissecting the ribcage of a human and a scalpel.
Taking those and a bit of antiseptics hidden in the underside of the trolley, I stepped outside to lift up the corpse of Sophie. Nails looked at the corpse a bit, but decided to ask no questions about it, the looks I gave the corpse every now and then probably told her everything she needed to know about the situation.