CHAPTER TWO -- DEADLY HOPE

Kelsey hated that stupidly warm feeling. The feeling like someone actually cared about her. Ha! Like that had ever happened in her life... but still. Had the guy really been so whacked up in the head that he would've taken any nobody off of the street? It was bad enough that he had caught her breaking in and stealing his gold watch off of his limousine's dashboard. Instead of reporting her to the authorities like a normal person he had the crazy idea to adopt her sorry butt! She knew she's be better off in jail with the rest of her buddies. At least the cops knew how to handle kids like herself...

She smacked her hand to her cheek and leaned to look out the airplane window. She really needed to stop calling herself a kid! 16 was practically an adult in her world. Most girls she knew on the street at that age had already had at least one kid. She was a lucky one. Besides, it wasn't like she had the choice of growing up anyway. Living on the streets was hard enough, even harder when you run off at the age of 10. Her parents didn't care anyway; her dad had already walked out on her as a baby and her mom was always drunk and on something. She wouldn't be surprised if she had totally forgotten Kelsey's name by now. Kelsey just knew way back then that if she wanted to make it on the streets she had to be smarter than all of the people around her. That was the only way to survive in the slums of San Francisco, and she knew it. Still, Kelsey always preferred the life of hard work over the life that guy had been offering her then. She loved her life the way it was. Well. . . the way it used to be.

Kelsey would never forget the way things went down that day, literally, they went down. She could only remember parts of the crash, and how she hadn't been wearing the airplane seat belt at the time. Everything after that had been lost to the coma. . . . . . The coma that she had just woken up from. . . .

The air locked door released it's pressure as Kelsey's body began to thaw. Her body, still partly concealed in ice, was in panic mode from the dramatic crash. Why did she have no memory after that? What exactly happened anyway? The nerves in Kelsey's body slowly started to wake up as her mind struggled to do the same. The capsule slowly began to drain of the strange blue, now liquid substance, that she was once contained in. It had stained her white hospital dress a light blue color over the patches of red blood that seemed stitched into the fabric from age. The seal on the door finally gave way and let the outside air greet Kelsey once again with a warm embrace. Her eyelids fluttered open as she reached up and ripped the air mask off her nose and mouth, and out of her throat. Leaving a stinging, itchy feeling in it's place. Breathing on her own now,she took one slow step onto the cold laboratory style floor and collapsed to her knees. Kelsey's normally strong and speedy legs felt weak under her now scrawny body's weight.

"Hello?" She hoarsely called now clenching her throat from the pain. "Is anyone there?" There was no response. Not one sound. Well this is annoying, she thought as she tried, wobbling to stand. She now noticed that the room was littered with messy sleeping bags and broken parts of furniture scattered everywhere. It looked almost as if a fight had broken out. Taking a closer look at the mess, she realized that there were trails of dark, old stained blood smeared all across the floor. "Hello?" Kelsey called again, now following the smeared blood trail down the room's small hallway. She wasn't necessarily terrified because the blood was so old, but she was hoping that it would lead her to some sort of answers to what was going on. She could tell the building she was in was old from the cracking walls and chipped floors. Just where exactly was she? She hadn't seen any sign that anyone was here.

At the end of the hallway, the blood trail ended at a shattered window. The trail stopped at the very edge of the building. Had someone dragged them-self over here and jumped or had they been dragged by someone, or something else? It was hard to tell as she stared at the window's remains scattered across the floor stained in dark, old blood. With a sigh of uncertainty, she lifted her head to look out at the view, but was shocked and surprised to see exactly where she was. She was still in her city, San Francisco, California in all it's glory, but something strange was going on. There was not one person in sight. The usual busy streets were scattered with cars, but not one moved. No people were out in the bright sun. No one was down by the pier playing in the water, or over in the neighborhoods jumping rope like she used to do when she in grade school. No one was around for miles. Not one person in sight.

What building am I in? Kelsey thought, walking back into the room from where she once came. Why weren't people outside? What the hell was going on?! The small room felt even smaller now. Like the walls were going to close all around her. For several hours, she waited there for someone to return. After wasting so much of her time already by sitting on the broken sofa, she finally decided that no one was coming back. Something strange was definitely going on. Steaming mad at the whole situation, she stood up and headed straight to the front door. She pulled on the door knob with all of her strength, but still it wouldn't budge.

"What the hell?!" she screamed and stomped over to the windows that shared the same problem. They were boarded from the inside with large heavy-use nails. There was really no use in trying. She was already feeling weak from the stress and strain she had placed on herself. Feeling defeated, Kelsey madder her way back to the couch and flopped heavily down with slight distress. She felt extremely annoyed by the whole situation.

Where the hell was that old guy at anyway? Ummmm. . . . Anthony, yeah, Anthony Cress was his name. Something like that, but where the heck was he?! He wanted to adopt her yet he was taking no responsibility for what he did to her? He left her to rot in this stupid little room that was boarded up and locked away from the rest of the world. How aggravating! Everything in the stupid room was frustrating to her, but what was really ticking her off was the mess of papers scattered all around the ground, along with a flipped table. Frustrated as all hell, Kelsey leaped up to try and calm her steaming head. She was the one that had been hurt in the plane crash, so why was she cleaning up after her rude caretakers?

Kelsey froze in mid paper pick up and mulled that over for a second. Shouldn't she be a bloody mess right now? Shouldn't Mr. Cress have the same situation? Kelsey shook her head to get rid of the guilt she had now pounding in her stomach. How insensitive could she be? What if he hadn't lived through the crash? the thought made her heart drop as she continued picking up the mess. I guess I started taking a liking to the guy, Kelsey thought with a sad, disappointed look on her face.

That's when a word on the papers caught her interest, "Infection?" Kelsey read the word to herself to make sure it was correct. Infection of what? The papers had thoroughly caught her attention now. She sat back against the sofa and began to read the newspaper clips . . .

"OUTBREAK IN LONDON. Virus watch, day 26. The deadly unknown virus has crossed the Atlantic ocean and continues to flood over the European border and into the eastern parts of London. The virus broke free of quarantined areas and continues to swarm the streets of London city. Experts still have no leads on how to completely kill the disease or where to begin with the purification process of those infected. The only information being reported are the sights of others being killed by the infected and by themselves. Some scientists refer to the virus as, the world famous and commonly feared 'Zombie Virus'. As of now, that term is incorrect, but more information will be given as it is received."

Kelsey couldn't believe any of this. A zombie virus? Was that even possible? She thought back to the smeared blood across the floor and shivered. Zombies must have taken the survivors that were here... or maybe that was from when the attack had first started. Kelsey looked at the date on the new paper and nearly fell backwards. The date read January 16th, 2022. 2010 had been when her plane had crashed so if her math was correct, she had been "asleep" for 12 years when this paper had been printed, but who knew how long ago that could have been. Kelsey shook her head to clear her thoughts and decided she had to focus on her new task at hand. Who knew how long she had until night, and if these "zombies" were like the classic ones she had read about before, then she had to board up that huge hole in the wall before the sun went down or she would have a deadly and hopeless night on her hands.

*Authors Note: This chapter was written by Sara and must I say that starting off my half of the story gave me a bit of trouble (as always). Sorry if anything sounds weird, but everything will be clear soon. We promise! Next up will be by Amanda again. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and we're excited to see your reviews!!! :D