Z-Day
It was august 5, 2005. It was a sunny day in New York. I was at Clover Park and it couldn’t get any better. My name is Cris Boozer I’m 18 years old and this is my story on how Z-Day started.

I went to the park to the park to walk my dog, his name is Spike. It was at noon when it all happened. I was watching channel 9 news on TV that a store owner had on display. I heard something about some infection. I paid no attention to it though. For some reason it was stuck in my head all day about this infection.

Spike and I started for home because it was getting late. We live in an apartment that’s five stories tall. We lived all the way on the top floor.

As soon as we got home we ate the left over Chinese food that we had and I got tired so I took a nap. I woke up at about midnight to someone screaming outside. I couldn’t see anybody but it sounded like someone was really scared. I called 911 but the lines were busy.

I heard a loud bang in my neighbor’s apartment. I got up and off the couch to see if everything was ok next door. I opened my door to check up on him. I said threw the open door, “hello.” There was a noise coming from one of the rooms, it sounded like grunting. There was blood on the floor leading into the room. I moved slowly towards the room and said, “Excuse me are you ok? I heard this loud bang and wanted to see if everything was fine.” I walked into the room and turned on the light, it was my neighbor covered in blood throwing up. I ran over to help him up to get him to a hospital. He pushed me away and told me to leave him that he got bit and was infected.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I wasn’t going to stay there. I ran out of the room closed his door and ran into my apartment. I turned on the TV to see what was going on. The news reporter said, “There is an infection going around everyone please stay in your homes and wait to be rescued by the army.” I did what the reporter said and stayed in my apartment and grabbed my .45 that I kept in my drawer.

A week passed and there was still no sign of the military, so I figured we were quarantined. Spike and I were running low on food. I wasn’t aware of what was going on out there, but we needed supplies’ so I grabbed my .45 and a bat and a back pack to carry the supplies.

I don’t like surprises so I started with my neighbor’s apartment since I knew what was behind his door. I moved quietly towards his door and slowly opened the door. There was a huge mess. All his furniture was broken, there was blood and glass everywhere. He was sitting on the couch not moving at all, he stayed completely still. I needed to save ammo so I took out the bat and moved slowly to hit him. When I got in front of the couch I took one more step to put power into my swing, but I didn’t notice broken glass right there and I stepped on it and slipped crashing to my back.

He got up and turned around, he was screaming loud he had blood all over his clothes and face. His eyes were red and blood was dripping out from the corner of his mouth. He leaped onto the couch. I was so scared I froze on the floor, not moving a muscle. He jumped on top of me and tried to bite me and that woke me up. I put the bat in front of him so he could keep his distance from me and I got a piece of glass and stabbed him right in the neck. Blood started to squirt out from the huge cut on his neck. I punched him and he got off of me. I got up and grabbed the bat. I hit him over the head as hard as I could. He stayed still on the ground, he didn’t move or make a sound.

I looked through all his room and his kitchen for any supplies for food or that could help me fight against the infection. There wasn’t very much besides a can of beans and expired milk. I closed the door and needed more supplies, so I searched the rest of the fifth floor. Surprisingly it was clear and there were no zombies, I figure everybody left when they heard about the infection, well mostly everybody. There was a map on every floor that showed were everything was at in the apartment complex. I marked on the whole fifth floor “clear.”

I went back into my apartment and I thought to myself. “I’m not going to be safe unless I stop zombies from getting inside, I have to clear the whole apartment complex.” I put the can of beans on the table. I still had energy so I moved on to the fourth floor. I looked through every apartment, threw every room to look for supplies and survivors. At the end of the day I searched through every floor except the first floor and the basement. I found no sign of survivors and the supplies I found were some peanuts, a water bottle, pain pills, and a bag of chips. Most people had grabbed everything they had when they left, so there wasn’t much to find.

I marked on the map on the fifth floor “2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th floor clear, and circled the first floor and the basement.” I went back to my apartment and Spike and I ate some beans. I didn’t like Spike coming along with me because I would go crazy if I lost my only friend. I felt he would only bark at the zombies and run away when they noticed him.

The next morning I woke up and got ready to clear the 1st floor. I grabbed the bat, my .45, and the backpack just in case I ran into some useful supplies downstairs, and a rope I had found in one of the rooms. I told spike to stay in the room and I headed downstairs. As I was moving downstairs I could already hear zombies. It sounded like there was a lot. I peeked around the side of the wall and saw that there were three zombies. I didn’t want to alert anymore from the outside of the apartments because the door was open. I saw an empty beer bottle on the floor next to a plant that was in the corner, it was about three feet away from me. I quietly tippy toed to the bottle and rolled it to the other side of the counter were it hit a bag and made noise. It was loud enough so only the three zombies could hear it.

They turned their backs to me and went to investigate. As soon as they turned around I got out the bat and bashed the back of their heads before they could scream or even notice me. One of them, as they were falling down, had hit the bell that was on the floor and for a moment it was quiet all except the “ding!”
I could hear zombies outside running towards the main door into the building. I ran and shut the door. Good thing the door was made out of steel or they could have easily broken through. I pressed my back up against the door to try and stop them from coming in, and quickly took off my backpack and grabbed the rope. The rope was a climbing rope so it was going to rip very easily. I tied a knot around both of the door handles and ran to get a chair that was sitting in the corner next to the counter and pressed it against the door.

It seemed like that did it, the door wouldn’t budge as they hit it. I searched the rest of the first floor searching for supplies and any more zombies. It was clear and I found a lunch bag through some doors that had all the keys to the apartments. I only had the basement to check, where people went to wash their clothes. I grabbed the lunch and stuck it in the backpack and grabbed the bat and walked towards the basement.

There was a door at the bottom of the stairs to the basement. Every step I took made a loud squeaking sound. Every step getting darker and darker as I headed down the stairs. I opened the door and it was pitch dark, I couldn’t see a thing. It didn’t sound like anyone was moving or breathing. I opened the door wider, someone pressed their hand against the wall.
Someone was walking towards me. Whoever it was knew where I was, but I didn’t notice where they were. I picked up the bat and was ready for whatever came at me. A women’s voice said “help.” In all the days of fighting against the zombies it was good to hear someone else’s voice besides mine, and the zombies. She put her hand on my shoulder and she was falling down, so I picked her up and we started walking back up stairs to the first floor. It was too dark to notice how she looked.

As soon as we got to the first floor I laid her down on the couch. She had black hair, brown eyes, she looked Asian, in her early twenties. She said that she came from another building with a group of people but as they were scavenging for food they got raided and she was forced to run into the apartments and ran downstairs in the basement. She was starving and didn’t have a lot of energy to talk, so I gave her the lunch I found that was wrapped in aluminum foil. She ate and we walked back to my apartment.

I explained everything that I went through being here and was willing to let her stay with me. She said that there was a group of people that are held up in a mall. They have established security and some kind of city. The mall was about half a mile from the apartment complex and if we were going to travel that far we had to go at night because we didn’t have enough supplies to fight off waves of zombies.

As it got darker we packed up some food and we headed downstairs. It was quiet. I started to unravel the rope and I slowly opened the door. It was dark and I couldn’t see a thing, I had to use it to my advantage before the sun comes up. We stepped outside and I whispered to the girl to stay low and stay behind me. We took cover behind cars as we headed down the block. When we got the end of the block I could hear people screaming. Spike started to bark at the screams. The screams came from everywhere and I couldn’t see anyone. I was frozen with fear. The girl grabbed my hand and she started to run straight, I could hear footsteps behind me now, and the screams started to get louder and a lot closer. She kept running. It surprised me how fast she was I started to fall behind. Spike was no longer barking, he was running side by side with the girl. She started to yell out “fire flies!” Two big bright lights flashed and they were beaming on me, I was still running and I could feel the zombies breathing down my neck.

There was a door leading into the building and on each side of the door were these two very big bright lights that were beaming on me. I tripped and fell to the floor as they opened fire. I looked up to see that there was about 5 men with rifles shooting towards me when bodies started crashing down on top of me. The shooting was over so I threw the bodies off of me and started to get up. The girl was standing by the door and she said that I saved her life. The men welcomed me into the tall building.

As soon as I entered the building there were different stations that had been established. There were children all gathered up in one area then in another there were crates with food stacked up on each other. Some people had tents that they slept, others had mattresses and slept on the floor. The people were nice, which was weird being in the situation that we were in. They gave me a tour and said they needed more men to help protect the families. I told them I would help all I could. They showed me where I could sleep and there was mattresses in the corner next to the women I saved where she had three kids. The mall was packed with people and we were all bunched together.

I never would have thought that I would be here with other men fighting against the zombies. It’s a lot better than being alone in that apartment. So this is how I’m going to spend the rest of my days protecting the young and fighting for the people. After all that’s what the fireflies are all about.