So, you want to know how it all came to be? How the world became a living nightmare overnight? Well, I'll tell you.
My name's Chris Sykes. I'm 18 years old, and I'm a survivor in this messed-up world of death and agony. To fully understand my story, I have to take you back to the beginning—when times were simple and peaceful, before all hell broke loose.
It was February 2nd, the first Friday of the month. It was a cold afternoon, and my friends and I had planned to meet up at my high school's soccer field to play and hang out.
As I was getting ready in my room, I looked up at the TV and noticed the news was on. Just as I went to turn it off, the news anchor started talking about reports of a strange illness spreading in the DMV area, and a homeless man found brutally murdered on Richmond Highway. She mentioned that details were still unknown about the man's identity and cause of death.
I turned off the TV, feeling a bit remorseful about the homeless man. But after a few minutes, I got back to packing my cleats and water into my backpack. That's when I saw a text from Shadman saying he was almost at my house to pick up me and Mohammad.
I grabbed my backpack and keys, locked up the house, and headed to the parking lot. As I walked up, I saw Shadman and Shaban outside the car filming YouTube content. I greeted them and looked in the back seat to see Hashir sitting there.
I asked Shadman where Bassel was, and he told me Bassel had gone to get Mohammad. A few minutes later, I saw both of them coming out of Mohammad's building. I waved them on, yelling, "Hurry up!" They got in the car, and we headed to West Potomac.
As we drove up the street, I noticed a huge number of cars parked outside Safeway and CVS. Bassel pointed out people rushing in and out of the stores with carts full of food and supplies. Shaban, with a worried look on his face, asked, "What do you guys think is going on?"
I sat silently, thinking about the illness that was on the news earlier. Before I could reply, Mohammad said, "It's probably just a sale or something."
Everyone seemed to shrug it off. As we got up the hill, I double-checked with Shadman, "Is Abid coming?"
He replied, "He should be coming."
When we pulled up to the soccer fields, I glanced at the smaller one—it was empty. I felt a bit of happiness, knowing we wouldn't have to wait. As we all stepped out of the car, I saw Sami, Tauqeer, Farhan, and Foysal already passing the ball and warming up.
While walking to the entrance, I saw Abid's car pulling into the parking lot. I waved and kept going onto the field. We all started putting on our cleats, and I asked Bassel, "What are the teams?"
He replied, "You, me, Hashir, Shaban, and Shadman vs. Mohammad, Foysal, Farhan, Tauqeer, Sami, and Abid."
I nodded and ran off to set up the field. As I made my way to the far end to set up a goal, I saw a man far behind the baseball field, staring at me with a soulless look. I looked away to place the goal, and when I looked back—he was gone.
I double-checked and scanned the area to spot him, but he had vanished. I said to myself, "Can this day get any weirder?" and walked back, puzzled, wondering if my mind was playing tricks on me.
We started the game and had fun for about an hour, until it got dark and cold. Tauqeer suggested, "Let's go to Safeway and get some food."
We all agreed.
"It's getting too cold anyway," said Shadman.
As we started packing up, I couldn't find my ball. I asked Mohammad if he'd seen it.
He replied, "No clue."
Farhan overheard and said he saw it get kicked behind the trees near the baseball field fence.
Before I could even take a step, Farhan yelled, "I'll get it!" and jogged off.
I kept packing up when we suddenly heard a scream in the distance. Farhan hadn't come back yet.
"That was Farhan!" I said loudly.
Everyone looked confused.
Bassel said quickly, "He's probably trying to scare us or something."
But I saw the worry in Foysal's eyes.
"We should go see if Farhan's okay," he said in a panicked voice.
We all grabbed our stuff and headed toward where Farhan went. It was hard to see anything—it was getting dark fast.
"Come on, Farhan, we already know you're trying to scare us," Shaban yelled.
We heard movement behind the trees. I pushed through the branches, and what I saw next haunted me to the core.
It was the man I saw earlier—he was on top of Farhan.
I rushed forward and threw the man off him. The man slammed into the fence headfirst. I looked down and saw Farhan gruesomely ripped open and dead.
When I turned back, the man was already back on his feet. His face was smeared in blood.
"It's a fucking zombie!" I yelled.
Everyone stood there, stunned.
I spotted a broken stick on the ground and rammed it into the zombie's chest. He stumbled back, and I stomped on his head repeatedly until I heard a sickening smash—like a rotten Halloween pumpkin being crushed.
His head was reduced to mush.
I turned around, winded and trying to catch my breath. Everyone stared at me, then back at Farhan's body in shock.
Foysal ran to Farhan's corpse, yelling in a broken voice, "He's dead! This can't be real!"
Abid stood frozen. "This… this can't be real."
Tauqeer walked over and put a hand on Foysal's shoulder. "It's gonna be okay."
"Back away from Farhan's body—right now!" Sami shouted. "He's gonna turn. We have to destroy the brain!"
Foysal didn't respond. He was frozen in place.
Tauqeer helped him up, and slowly, Foysal backed away.
"I'm calling 911," said Bassel. The phone rang, but no one answered.
"Shit… this is bad," said Shadman.
"What are we going to do?" asked Hashir.
"We have to make sure Farhan doesn't turn," I said.
I picked up a large rock from behind a tree. Taking a deep breath, I stepped toward Farhan to stop him from coming back.
But his eyes opened.
I quickly tried to smash his head, but the corpse of Farhan grabbed my ankle.
"Get him the fuck off me!" I yelled, struggling to break free from his grip.
Just as I thought I was done for, Sami rushed over and kicked zombie Farhan in the head over and over until he finally stopped moving.
"Thanks, Sami," I said, checking my leg for bites. Luckily, there were none.
We stood there, silent, trying to wrap our heads around what just happened. After a few minutes, we began to process it.
"What now?" Mohammad asked, his voice soft and shaken.
"We have to find shelter," Bassel replied.
"We can go back to my place and figure out a plan from there," I said.
Everyone agreed.
As we returned to the cars, I looked back at Farhan one last time, knowing we wouldn't see him again.