Sorry about the late update! I've been addicted to minecraft as of late! It's so addicting! Not to mention that I had run out of inspiration… Anyway, I'm just gonna get started since I don't have much to talk about…OH! Before I forget. After this chapter, I will be moving this to the M section, so yeah. Be on the lookout for that.

OOO

The last reference was from Dawn of the Dead (2008). It was the scene when the guys were on the roof of the mall, capping zombies that looked like celebrities. The main female protagonist said how sick it was to be finding enjoyment killing zombies. One guy, who was a dick, said a whole bunch of crap and ended with the sentence, "If I turn into one of them, I give you full permission to blow my fucking brains out."

OOO

Chapter 7: Kristen's Story

Kristen and Clive walked silently through the streets of infected Milwaukee, cutting down zombies left and right. Clive was in a cheery mood, but more of the silent kind that keeps it to himself. Kristen, on the other hand, looked to have sorrow in her eyes. She kept thinking about the past, even though she looked like she was cold and ruthless on the outside. Her mind kept going back to the event in her life that changed her life.

OOO

It was a regular autumn day, the sun setting on the leaf stained city. Leaves fell from the trees like rain, showering the St. Lutheran football field with colorful stepping stones. The football team was practicing for a big game the next day, sweaty with effort. In the stands sat two girls: Kristen and Sarah, who looked sane. Kristen looked like a normal middle school girl, wearing a pink shirt and a flirty style skirt. In fact, Kristen's hair wasn't even naturally black. It was a dirty blonde color, looking beautiful in the autumn sunset. She was giggling along with her friend, Sarah.

"No no no!" Sarah giggled out, "Timothy is the cutest!"

"You just say that because he's the quarterback! Dwayne is obviously the cutest while Kyle is the sexiest."

"Oooh! Got crush on Kyle, do ya?" Sarah jokingly nudged Kristen.

"N-no! Why would you say that?"

"Come on, Kristy! I know you better than anyone! We're BFFs!"

"W-well…I kinda do have a thing for Kyle…" Kristen twiddled her thumbs.

"Kristy loves Kyle! Kristy loves Kyle!" she teased her best friend.

"S-shut up…" Kristen blushing even harder. She turned away from Sarah.

"Oh come on! I'm surprised you hadn't made a move on him yet! I mean, it would be easy to win him over with these things…" She pointed to Kristen's big breasts.

"I-I don't want him to just think I'm all boobies!"

Sarah giggled again, "Just think of them as…persuasive devices."

"W-whatever…I'm going to head home!" Kristen got up, Sarah watching.

"You can go, Kyle Lover. I'm going to stay here and watch Timothy show off his manly moves…"

"It's not like they're taping a porno, Sarah…"'

"I know. I'm just saying that he must be really sweaty. ALL of him must be sweaty, including his-"

"Bye Sarah!" Kristen walked off the bleachers and left the football field before Sarah could say another word.

OOO

"Kristen…KRISTEN!" Clive yelled, trying to pull Kristen back to reality.

"W-what?" she looked dazed.

"You just stopped all of a sudden," he batted away another zombie, "You know we have to keep moving unless we want to get overrun by a horde."

"Y-yeah…you're right…" she looked down.

"Something the matter?" He looked at her, concerned. In this kind of situation, bad mental health was the LAST thing you wanted…next to a bite.

"It's…nothing…" Kristen lied, walking forward.

"Oh…I see…" Clive didn't believe her in the slightest. He took a deep breath, "
We should find shelter for the night. It's going to be much harder to fight these things in the darkness."

"You're right…" She sighed, she swung her kendo stick and took down another zombie, "We need to take a break somewhere…I can't think here with all these god damn zombies!"

"Gas station dead ahead" Clive called, pointing to the BP gas station at the end of the block. Kristen nodded and walked towards the gas station, an emotionless expression in her eyes. Clive caught sight if this and frowned. Something definitely was troubling Kristen…but now would not be the best time to talk about it.

When they arrive at the gas station, Clive looks around. Nothing seems to be out of place…other than the 5 zombies mauling the already doomed survivor in the middle of the street. The five zombies kneeled over him, eating into his arms and legs.

"No! Gah! G-get off of me! AGHHH! Someone help!" His screams of agony echoed through air, being accompanied by the sound of the zombies greedy eating.

Clive was about to turn away, vomit, and find another safe house when Kristen walked towards the zombie's feast. The zombies paid no attention to the emo student, even when she raised her kendo stick over her head. She brought it down on a zombie like a guillotine, the sickening sound of a cracking skull filling the air. It toppled sideways, collapsing on the pavement. She recovered instantly and swung it to the side, clocking another zombie that had been eating the boy's legs. It flew to the side, staying on the ground. The next one she spun around, a full circle that ended with a zombies head being violently crushed on the impact.

By now, Clive had already recovered. He came running, taking out another zombie with his damaged aluminum bat. It was sickening, the way the zombie died. He had swung it, nailing it dead in its eye. The impact of the metal bat caused the zombie's eye socket to cave in with a disgusting crunch. The impact was so devastating; it didn't even fall to the ground at first. Clive kicked it to the ground, having it sprawled out on the pavement.

Finally, there was one more zombie eating at the doomed survivor, the one biting his right arm. Kristen, instead of going right for the fucker's head, slammed the kendo stick into the chest of the zombie. The impact of the hit caused the zombie to fall backwards, but it stayed alive. Kristen walked to the downed zombie, raising her kendo stick over her head. She swung it down, smashing it into the head of now dead zombie. But she wasn't done. She kept bringing it up and swinging it down again, continually repeating this process. Every time she brought her kendo stick down on the zombie's head, the more the blood splattered on her. By 5 swings, her clothes were now stained with fresh blood. She kept swinging, yelling in fury. By 20 strikes, Clive had to pull her away from the zombie, even though she was trying to pull away from him. She yelled curses at the zombie's dead body and at Clive for holding her back. (1)

Even though the girl he had a crush on tried to thrash her way out of his arms and kept swearing at him to let her go, he didn't even so much as feel regret for holding onto her. He understood that she was relieving stress from not only her past but from the current situation, but it was crossing the line when it was attracting a street full of zombies towards them.

"Let me go, Clive! Let me put another dent in the fucker's head! I said let me go! Stop acting like a bitch! Fuck you Clive! Fuck you! LET ME GO!" She screamed. He turned her around and did something that she would always do when he snapped…slap her upside the head.

"PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, KRISTEN!" Clive yelled, staring into his eyes. She held her cheek, stunned by what he just did. She stared at him, a look of disbelief in her eyes.

"W-w-w-wha…"

"It's already dead! No sense in trying to kill it some more! I understand you are blowing off stress, but you're taking it too far!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Did you by chance notice THAT?" He pointed to the horde Kristen had attracted. They were a half a block away and closing in, "If I would have let you have kept on going, you probably would have been part of that horde!"

"T-then why don't you just save yourself?"

"Because I'm not allowing you to die!" Clive yelled, stunning Kristen further. Clive noticed the horde close to them, about 5 meters, "Come on!" He gave her his bat, which she held onto. Clive did the last thing she would expect. He picked her up bridal style and began to jog away from the horde. He was doing a good job of avoiding all random zombies around the streets.

As Clive was carrying Kristen, she flushed. Her head was close to his chest, and she could hear his heart beat…racing. Understandable due to the situation. She closed her eyes and listened to his fast heartbeat. When she opened her eyes, she noticed Clive had run past the gas station.

"W-why did you run past there!?" Kristen asked.

"Too late to go there now!" he panted out, still going, "We need to find somewhere else!"

She looked back, and noticed he had put a noticeable distance between them and the horde. As he ran, she stared at his determined face. She sighed and looked forward. She couldn't help but let her mind wander as she thought about the past.

OOO

It was turning night in Milwaukee; the busy, bustling metropolis turning into a booming, drinking city. People went immediately from work to bars, trying to lay off steam from their days at work. It was calming: how the crowd moved like zombies into the bars. Well, calming in the sense that everything was the same as the last day.

Walking through the streets, coming home from Sarah's apartment, was Kristen. She smiled; looking cheerful when compared to her gloomy, emo self. She wore a skirt that was a few inches above her knees. It wasn't really THAT revealing, but it was revealing enough to the extent that it would be frowned upon by public schools. Her top was a pink short-sleeved shirt with the design of an anime character, proving that she did watch it.

She continued to walk, whistling to herself an old song she heard when over at her best friend's house. She was so focused whistling and trying to navigate herself, she didn't even look behind her to see two older men following her. When they passed an alleyway, the two men grabbed Kristen by the mouth and arms, dragging her into the alley. She kicked and screamed, the scream being muffled by one of the guy's hands; while the struggle was useless as the two men restrained her. The alley was sort of like a maze, snaking in different directions. They brought her around a corner, and they were shielded from sight from the people on the streets. The two men grinned; one man totally restraining her as the other kissed her neck, which she groaned with resentment.

Just when she didn't think it could get any worse, she heard a zip. Her eyes widened.

OOO

After about 5 minutes, Clive slowed to a stop, "I *pant* don't think I can *pant* continue much longer like this…" Kristen looked back at where the horde was, 2 blocks away. They should be able to slip away.

"I think we're in the clear," Kristen noted. Clive let go of her as she set herself on the ground, "We should find a safehouse…like now."

"Alright…" Clive gasped out.

Kristen walked over to the nearest building, a pawn shop. She tried opening the door, being surprisingly locked. She took a deep breath and shattered the door's window with her kendo stick. She reached inside and began to fumble with the lock, smiling when the door let out a click. She turned the handle, and the door swung open.

"Bingo…" she murmured as she walked into the pawn shop. She looked around, surprised that this place was in such order, "Wow…can't believe this place wasn't looted already."

"Why can't you believe this place wasn't looted yet?" Clive asked, walking up next to her, "I mean, it's a pawn shop, big whoop. This place doesn't have anything useful, does it?"

"Oh, no, my dear Watson!" Kristen replied in a teasing tone, "Have you ever watched the History channel? Maybe watched Pawn Stars?"

"Uhhh maybe once? But I can't remember details."

Kristen sighed, "Pawn shops will buy and sell pretty much anything to get a profit. Historical items, sports memorabilia…weapons."

Clive's ears perked up, "Weapons?"

"Yep! Like this…" she held up a small antique dagger that had been left on the counter, a bit of blood on it. There was a dead body on the floor in front of the counter.

"So…you're saying….that we… just hit… the mother lode…on weapons?" Clive asked again, trying to process this.

"And not only weapons! Pawn Shops also carry vehicles, so I'm sure we should be able to find something to make the trek to the art museum a LOT easier."

Clive couldn't help but laugh in excitement, "Oh, this is awesome!" He was going to walk away, but Kristen stopped him for a second.

"Two things, Clive. 1. Don't take more things than you can carry. 2. Be on the lookout for infected. Never know if an employee got bitten and held up here."

"Okay!" Clive was going to walk away again, but stopped himself, "Ehhhh could I have that dagger?"

Kristen looked at it, then him, "Knock yourself out." She tossed it to him, and he caught it on the hilt.

"Thanks!" He walked to the back of the store.

While he was gone, Kristen turned her attention to a display case that had caught her attention. Inside of it was katana, it's sheath purple and adorned with jewels. She grinned.

"I think it's time for an upgrade," she raised the kendo stick over her head.

OOO

Clive carefully walked through the store, paying attention to see if any zombies were waiting for him. Luckily, none were able to be seen. He lowered his guard, and sighed. He then started to look over what he could use to replace his current bat. Choices, choices. He could have gone Katniss Everdeen on the zombies, as he saw a fine looking competition bow. Near it was a quiver of arrows. He decided against it, as trying to knock an arrow while running from a horde and trying to keep the thing steady while you try to shoot it did not sound like fun.

He continued to look around the shop, sighing. He found a Civil War Saber, which made him smile. He pulled it out, and then made him frown. The sword was so rusty, it looked like the blade's original color WAS rust. He laid the blade down, it being a definite no. He had nothing against condition, but this thing was so rough looking that it looked like it would fall apart at the worst moment.

He turned and came face to face with his 'yes' weapon. He reached over the counter to a rack, pulling a .12 Gauge Pump Action Shotgun. It looked like it was in good condition, a couple scratches here and there, but still pretty good. He tried cocking the gun, which worked pretty well, too. Before he could check how much ammo was in the gun, he heard glass shattering.

"What was that?" Clive called.

"Nothing really that important!" Kristen called back.

"Okay!" Clive turned back to checking on the shotgun. He looked at how much ammo was left…about 3 shots left. Hopefully he could find more ammo. He rested the shotgun on the display case and turned. He saw a door that read 'EMPLOYEES ONLY'. He walked up to the door, his hand falling on the handle. He turned it and opened the door…a zombie lunged at him.

"HOLY SHIT!" Clive yelled as he was knocked the ground. He was able to keep the zombie from biting down on him, but the force from the fucker's lunge caused Clive to pedal backwards, tripping over his own feet.

The zombie fell with him, and as they hit the ground, Clive's new dagger cluttered away. He grunted as he held both sides of the zombie's face, trying to pull it away from him. He clenched his teeth from the effort.

"Get…off of me!" Clive growled as he tried to push it off. Of course, this wasn't easy while you're on your back and the thing trying to get at you is an undead cannibal that has no limits when it came to strength.

Just when Clive thought he was done, the zombie's head was removed from its body with a blade. The white blade went through the thing's neck like a knife going through butter. The zombie's head flew across the floor and slammed into the nearest display case. Clive grunted and threw the body away from him, and looked up. He saw Kristen standing there, the stone cold expression that was on her face when he usually did something stupid.

"What did I tell you about being careful for any infected?" Kristen asked, bending over and looking him in the eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thank you…" Clive groaned out as he got up. He looked into the doorway, "Let's see what we can find in here." He walked through the door and looked around. It was an office, complete with a computer with a smashed monitor, a half full water tank, a swivel chair, a desk, and various kinds of ammo littered on the floor.

"Looks like he tried to hold up here until the outbreak was over," Kristen noted.

"Yeah, but he must have been bitten on his way in here," Clive replied. He searched through the scattered ammo and found about 7 rounds for his shotgun. He smiled and slipped them into his pack that held their supplies. Kristen looked through the office, and found a door that said 'Garage'.

"There it is…" she tried the door, but it was locked, "Fuck…"

Clive frowned, "It looks like it's made of wood…I'll see if I can go find something to help get rid of it." He walked back into the main store, and scanned the store for something her could use. He instantly found his answer near the door. It was a fire axe in one of those emergency containers, with a bloody hand print that seemed to have been dragged down the glass. It seemed that someone had tried to get to the axe, but met an unfortunate end with a zombie. He sighed and opened the case, taking the axe and slinging it over his shoulder. He walked back to the office.

"Stand aside…" Clive said to Kristen. She turned, and when seeing the axe, backed away towards the desk. Clive raised the axe over his head and swung at the door. It splintered, but the door held. Clive raised the axe again. While he was swinging away at the door, Kristen had another one of her moments, and slipped into her own mind.

OOO

Morning classes were starting a St. Lutheran middle school, like usual. Students filled the room, careful not to be late for class. As they entered the large class room, they talked and giggled and even played around. They seemed to be having a great time before they were forced to actually learn something. Some would say this would be utterly annoying, as they should be in their seats so class could begin all the more quickly, but others would argue that they were just living life.

Kristen was one of the last students to enter the room, her eyes puffy from crying. The minute she stepped into the room, everyone fell silent. The word about what happened yesterday had already spread throughout the class, maybe even the school. The way the students stared at her…just judged her for what other people did to her…it was absolute bullshit. She walked and took a seat next to her friend Sarah, where she usually sat. Sarah looked at her.

"Uhhhhhh Kristen?" Sarah poked Kristen to get her attention.

"Y-Yes?" She said back to Sarah.

"I'm sorry about this….but I don't think we can be friends anymore."

Kristen's eyes widened. Why was Sarah doing this? They had been best friends for years, and now Sarah was breaking off their friendship.

"What? Why?"

"It's just…" Sarah sighed, "I don't want my image to look bad."

Her image? Was her image more important to her then her friend who was suffering?

"I'm sorry." Sarah got up and moved to a different seat. Kristen just looked at her desk, distraught.

OOO

"ANNNNNNNNND I'm through!" Clive declared as part of the door fell, making it possible to get through the door.

"Good work…" Kristen said, looking into the garage. It was full of cars, which would be useless on the streets filled with abandoned cars. She sighed, "God damn it…Not a single motorcycle."

"Look again…" Clive replied, pointing to the corner of the garage. In the corner was a very fast looking Sports Bike with two helmets on it.

"Oh my god, Clive! That is so sick!" She was actually giddy, probably the first time in this horrible situation.

"Let's stay here for the night, and then we'll depart in the morning."

"Agreed," Kristen smiled.

FINALLY DONE! Again, I'm sorry for such a slow update. So, let me know if I lost my thunder or it is on par to the other chapters. Now….see ya!