The Zombie Infection: Originals S1 by Nick Venom (spiritual books to read txt) 📕

“If it comes to it, I’m sure you can. Especially if it’s for a girl you like.”

Eric blushed, shaking his hand off him. “Shut up.” He said before turning to face him.

Nick grinned. “I will when you get a girlfriend.”

“How about you? You don’t have one.”

Nick shook his head playfully. “I did have one when I was in 2nd grade.”

“Really?” Eric asked. “2nd grade?”

“Well, did you have a girlfriend during 2nd grade?”

Eric shook his head, smiling.  “I didn’t, but a girlfriend during that time isn’t anything. You didn’t even know what kissing was.” He turned around to face the stairs. “Oh, and I’m pretty sure the meat must be burning now.”

Nick’s eyes widened before he rushed down the stairs to reach the meat before it burned. Eric let out a laugh as he watched Nick’s worried expression and constant curses as he hoped the meat didn’t burn.

Eric took his time descending the stairs. If it comes to it… I hope I can. I have to.

TBC…

The teens ate their somewhat charred meat peacefully, speaking to each other as if they were living in the pre-apocalypse world. They laughed and reminisced about their past before they decided to go asleep. Using what they knew from the comic strip called ‘Living In The Apocalypse’, they switched from Eric keeping guard while Nick slept to Nick keeping guard while Eric slept. They designated a few hours for each person to stay up through - which worked well as the Infected grew restless during the night and even tried their luck at the front door, but were quickly repelled.

After dawn broke, both teens woke up and began preparing for their first full day in the apocalypse. 

Nick jumped out of his bed, headed towards the kitchen. He found the room eerily quiet, turning around and moving towards his parents’ room. He checked to see that the room was empty - his memories beginning to flood through him again. His parents were no longer alive, their bodies devoured by the Infected. They weren’t up to prepare breakfast and neither were Eric’s parents. 

He turned around and headed into the living room, finding it empty as well. It was a strange feeling inside him to see the once highly popular place as empty as it was. It felt unnerving to him.

“Morning, Nick,” Eric said, descending the stairs.

“M-Morning,” Nick said, wiping small tears that began to form at the corner of his eyes before turning around. “What’s the plan for today?”

“For now, nothing. We have the entrances fortified, so the only thing we can do is… I guess nothing.”

Nick nodded. “How about… we do some shooting practice?”

Eric nodded in agreement. “It makes the most sense, but… wouldn’t that alert more of them? We would be surrounded by them just by taking a couple of shots.”

“Oh, you’re right.” He turned away. “Well, we should familiarize ourselves with our guns at least. Just in case we need to use them, especially during the night.”

“Yeah,” Eric said, nodding his head. “They get crazy during the night, I’m not sure why though.” 

Nick approached his room, grabbing his assault rifle and returning to Eric. “Something about the night gets them riled up. Maybe they get stronger at night thanks to a Night or Moon God.”

“Okay, that sounds super far-fetched.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “And you’re saying that reanimated corpses aren't?”

Eric shook his head playfully while smiling. “You’re right. Who knows if these reanimated corpses are the minions of the Moon God or Satan, if you can believe that, and they’ve been given the mission of exterminating us.”

“Woah, now you sound crazy.” Nick joked, smiling. “But who knows if you’re telling the truth. Maybe we’ve become the dinosaurs and it’s our time to go extinct.”

“Well if it is-” Eric took a step back, pressing his hand over his heart and dramatically speaking. “-then I hope that we have lived our lives to the fullest and we leave our mark on this world.”

“We definitely have, it’s called climate change,” Nick smirked.

Eric shook his head, smiling. “Let’s hope that isn’t our mark on this world.”

“Unfortunately, it will be.” Nick turned to head into the kitchen, getting ready to prepare breakfast but stopped dead in his tracks. Both Eric and Nick heard something coming from outside, sounding like gunfire. They dashed to the second-floor window, which was one of the windows not completely boarded up. From there, they watched as a redheaded girl their age swerved around the Infected. The horde had diminished severely since yesterday, eating their full before moving forward. 

The girl pointed her pistol at point-blank of an Infected, killing the monster instantly. The Infected collapsed to the ground, hunched forward. The girl then pressed forward, killing any Infected close to her while trying to escape through the small horde of twenty Infected surrounding her. 

“Should we help her?” Nick asked.

Eric nodded his head instantly. “She’s a human being, of course, we should.” He said, his eyes glued on the girl.

“How do we help her? Should we call her over?” Eric nodded. “Okay, then go downstairs and be prepared to open the door. Make it quick.” Eric nodded again, rushing downstairs to deconstruct the crude defenses he had prepared.  

With Eric gone, Nick waited a few seconds, hesitating to call out to the girl. He watched as she pointed her pistol at another Infected, blasting its brains out at point-blank range. She moved deeper into the horde, but she was struggling to go any farther. She was running out of bullets and the horde was slowly increasing, more Infected being attracted by the sound of gunfire.

Seeing her struggling forced him to act. “Hey, over here!” He shouted, waving his arms around. The girl looked up at him. “Go down to the door, we’ll let you in!” He added. The girl glanced at the door that Nick pointed at, hesitating to take him on the offer. However, she wasn’t in a good enough situation to refuse him. She moved towards the door, but there were more Infected standing in her way than bullets in her pistol. She had no melee weapon on her, only the pistol.

Nick pointed the assault rifle at the Infected standing in her way, careful to not hit her by accident. He pressed the trigger, but it did nothing. What’s happening? Did I forget to load it? No, I couldn’t have… Oh, I see what happened. He turned off the safety, pressing the trigger again. The gun jerked into action, catching him off guard. He struggled to get the gun under control, firing into the crowd. Most of the bullets were too spread out to do much damage, but he got a few lucky headshots - none of them being the Infected standing in the girl’s way. He took his finger off the trigger, calming himself down before trying again. Now expecting the kickback, he pressed the trigger and managed to decrease the spread and hit the Infected standing in the girl’s way, killing all but one of them. The last Infected was killed by the girl using her last bullet. She sprinted forward, colliding with the door. Eric peered through the front door’s small window and saw the girl outside, waiting to be let in. He opened the door, waving her in. She dashed inside with Eric closing and locking the door behind her. He peered through the small window again, watching as the Infected slowly trudged towards the door, smacking their limbs, or what was left of their limbs, at the door.

Eric turned around to face the girl. She pointed her pistol at him. “Who are you? Why did you help me?”

Eric raised both eyebrows, surprised to be at the end of a barrel. “Uh… I’m Eric and… I-I saw you outside, s-so I wanted to… h-help you.”

“Help me? Who am I to you?” She asked with ferocity.

Nick had descended the stairs to see the girl pointing her gun at Eric. He pointed his assault rifle at her. “Lower your gun or I’ll shoot.” He warned her.

She noticed that both Eric and Nick were armed, contemplating her choices. “... Explain to me why you saved me?”

“We heard you outside, so we decided to step in. Nothing more, nothing less.” He told her. Eric nodded in agreement.

The girl thought over Nick’s words, hesitating to lower her weapon. However, she was outnumbered and had no bullets in her pistol. She eyed both Nick and Eric, deciding what to do. She could either lower her gun and hope that they were good people or try to fight back and see if she could force Nick to drop his gun before grabbing it and turning on Eric. 

Before she could make her decision, the loud rumbling of her stomach echoed off the walls of the house. She looked sheepishly down at her stomach, embarrassed. Nick lowered his gun, pointing it at the ground. “How about this? I’ll make you some food, then you can choose to leave or stay here.” He suggested. “What do you think about this idea, Eric?”

Eric nodded his head. “I-It’s… It’s good.” He was no longer being threatened anymore, but he struggled to talk comfortably. 

The girl nodded, looking at Nick. “I agree,” She said as she lowered her pistol. “I’m Ashley. It’s nice to meet you both.”

“Likewise, I’m Nick.”

“I’m Eric.”

“Welcome to our house,” Nick said. “It’s not much, but it’s better than being outside.”

Ashley nodded. “Anything but outside is good for me.”

TBC…

Nick made food, feeding both Ashley and Eric. He used eggs from the only 24-pack carton in the refrigerator, which was somewhat cold, to make a large batch of scrambled eggs. Using salt and pepper to season the eggs, the three ate in peace, filling their stomachs as much as they could. After eating, Ashley decided to stay with them. She didn’t have anywhere else to go, aside from wandering the streets in hope that she could find somewhere that welcomed her with open arms - which wouldn’t happen.”

“I understand that, but how did you get the gun?” Nick pointed at the empty pistol in her lap. 

She looked down at the pistol before looking up at him. “I was given this by my father before he… before he was forced to leave me.” She said, looking away from him. Nick and Eric nodded, understanding what she meant. All of them had lost their parents to the Infected, one way or another. It was traumatic, but both Nick and Eric felt more of a bond with Ashley,