Hybrids: A New Species

George Town, a nice small village for tourist to come by who were visiting the mountains. Whether it was for fishing, skiing, hiking, or hunting, this small town and its peaceful residents was once a great place to stop by, visit, or even live. Since the rise of the Fallen, most of the residents of George Town were slaughtered by other people for supplies. It was a small battle, the residents of this small town against the drifters coming through. Most of the residents were killed, and the rest left, knowing there was nothing left for this town.

Ben arrives and he quickly hides behind a ruin car. He sneaks around the abandon cars and buildings, avoiding being spotted by the Fallen that roam the streets. Ben sees a gas station up ahead. It’s a block away from where he’s at. There are two corpses in front of the gas station, and four more on the way there. Ben knows he can take out the two Fallen at the gas station, however, he wants to avoid having a crowd of them attacking him at once. He decides to create a diversion. It’ll make it easier for him to run to the gas station. Ben grabs a nearby broken brick, close to a half-burned building, on the ground. He looks for a building away from him that has windows, specifically one that hasn’t been broken from looters. Luckily him, there’s an undamaged window about twenty feet from him. Ben firmly grabs the brick and throws it at the window. He misses.

“Damn!” Ben whispers.

He grabs another half-broken brick and attempts another throw. He misses again, and it hits the wall. Ben is becoming frustrated.

Third time the charm he thinks to himself.

Ben grabs a rock this time and throws it hard. The window shatters. The Fallen on the road immediately turn to the noise and begin limping toward the abandon building, growling hungrily. His distraction is a success, and Ben rushes toward the gas station. He runs as quickly and as quietly as he can to the small abandon location. He arrives at the gas station within seconds. He pulls out his knife and approaches the first Fallen. He grabs it by the neck and thrusts his knife into its head, killing it instantly. He pulls the knife out, blood gushes from its head and it falls to the ground. Ben shakes the blood of his knife and looks over at the next Fallen by an abandoned car. It spots him. The Fallen starts to hungrily walk over to Ben. It approaches him but he kicks it in the torso, causing it to fall on the ground. Ben crushes its skull with his foot. Blood and chunks of brain covers his boot. Ben looks back at the other undead back at on the street. They are still clawing at the broken window he created.

I’m glad these things are stupid. He thinks.

Ben looks out at the horizon. The sun is beginning to settle. He enters the gas station.

Ben keeps his knife out and searches the station to make sure there is no danger. The place is a mess, trash is everywhere, broken glass on the floor and a message on the wall that says, “No Hope” in blood. The gas station is clear and he sets up temporary barriers with shelves at different openings, to secure nothing can get in. Ben begins searching the station for any food and medicine. Most food today is either hunted or grown. People have struggled to obtain food from old stores, and if they were lucky to find any, it was most likely rotten. He investigates the entire area and finds toilet paper, a few cans of corn, and some bandages, however, no medicine for his daughter. Ben decides he will set up here for the night and wake up at dawn to search the pharmacy four blocks away from the gas station. He lays down behind a counter, unstraps the sleeping bag from his sack, and gets comfortable. He sleeps holding his gun, since it’ll be the quickest way to kill any kind of danger he might encounter in the middle of the night. Ben closes his eyes and thinks of his wife and daughter. He knows they’re counting on him, and that they need him to survive. It’s the only thing that is keeping him going.

Morning has come. Ben wakes up and rubs his eyes. He cleans the crust out of his eyes. He didn’t encounter any kind of danger all night. He stretches and peeks out the window. It appears the Fallen that were outside have moved on somewhere else. Before heading out, Ben eats the can of corn he found last night. The canned good isn’t as satisfying as he hoped. It’s mushy, tastes stale and smells like old socks. After his disappointing meal, he packs his things together, holsters his gun and knife, and moves out.

Ben exits from the back entrance of the gas station and ends up in an alleyway. The sounds of grunting and moaning come from the left of him. A small group of five walking corpses are there and spot him. Ben knows he can’t take them all, so he runs down the ally, opposite way from the Fallen. As he runs down the alley, he spots a ladder, however, it’s a bit high up. He decides to not go for it, until suddenly, Ben stops in his tracks. There is another small crowd of the Fallen further down his direction. Now Ben has no choice, but to jump for the ladder. He looks to the left of him, and the other group of Fallen are closing in. Ben gets nervous. He jumps for the ladder, he didn’t get close. He takes a few steps back and tries to run up the wall for it. His fingers barely graze the bottom of the ladder.

“Fuck!” Ben yells.

He looks to his left and right again, and the hungry Fallen are moving in closer. Ben backs up away from the ladder as far as he can. He rushes forward and runs up the wall. He reaches out and grabs the bottom of the ladder. He pulls himself up with all his strength and gets himself further up the ladder. Suddenly, one of the Fallen grabs Ben’s leg. The hungry dead desperately tries to pull him down. It doesn’t want its food getting away. Ben vigorously shakes his leg, but the hungry Fallen won’t let go. He holds onto the ladder with all his strength. Thinking quickly, he pulls his gun out and shoots the moving corpse in the head. Its head blows apart from the bullet, and falls to the ground, Ben is free. He sighs in relief, and continues up the ladder, while the rest of the Fallen desperately claw at the wall. Their collected groans send shivers down Ben’s spine as he barely escapes with his life. The building is four stories high, but he arrives at the top.

It’s a splendid view of Georgetown. He can truly see how this small innocent town has become the aftermath of an apocalyptic event and a roaming ground for the undead. Most of the buildings have been destroyed or burned. Ben walks to the other side of the roof; he can spot the pharmacy ahead. He looks down at the streets, it’s littered with trash, ruble, abandon cars, dead bodies, and the Fallen. Ben starts to think about how he’s going to get back down on the streets and get to the pharmacy. He walks back to the ladder he came from and looks down, the Fallen that almost got him were still desperately trying to climb the wall. Ben looks around on the roof, the blazing sun is making him sweat. He notices a door leading inside the building, there is sure to be a few of the Fallen inside, however, that seems to be the only way to get back on the streets. Ben opens his bag, and pulls out his flashlight, preparing him to go in the hopefully abandon building. Ben points his gun forward and lays his arm holding the flashlight on top. The way a marine would if he was going into a hostile area. He enters the building. The inside smells of death and burning flesh. Ben starts to head down the stairs, it’s completely dark and the only light is coming from his flashlight. Ben slowly heads down the steps, he’s at the third level of the building. He stops and listens, he can hear breathing and grunting echoing throughout the building. Some of the Fallen are in here. Ben slows his breathing and starts to head down the second level. The stairs leading down make him suspenseful on every turn he makes going down. He makes it to the second level, but stops, the path heading to the bottom level is blocked by desks, chairs, and other kind of debris. Ben rolls his eyes,

“Of course this would be here.” he says with annoying tone.

Whoever put up this obstacle didn’t want any of the dead coming up the stairs. There’s a door heading to the second floor, he goes in. Ben tightly grips his gun and swiftly looks around the room, it’s completely destroyed, trash everywhere, half eaten bodies lay on the ground, and the smell of blood and decay fills the air. “God has abandoned us”, “We deserves this” and “This is our personal hell” is written in blood and what looks to be human feces on the wall. Ben cautiously walks through the room. Sunlight is emitting from the windows, it faintly brightens up the room. Ben heads to the window towards the back of the room and looks out. The ground is about ten feet from the window. He looks around and sees that there’s a few of the Fallen drifting around. Ben steps back in and starts to clean the broken glass around the window. He’s going to jump out. He throws his bag out and it lands on the ground. He prepares to jump out, until he’s suddenly grabbed by the arm. A filthy mangled corpse has grabbed onto Ben and goes for a bite. He puts his hand on its face, stopping it from biting him, and pushes the Fallen away. He pulls his knife out and jams it in its skull, the Fallen dies and drops to the ground. Three more walking corpses come out from another room. Ben’s eyes widen and he runs for the window. He climbs out the ten-foot drop and falls to the ground, spraining his foot.

“Shit!” Ben yells in pain.

He has no time to worry about his foot, since there are two moving corpses on the ground that have spotted him. Ben grabs his bag and starts a limping run to the pharmacy. Even with his movement temporarily impaired, Ben can still out run the Fallen. Fortunately for him, the streets were clear to the pharmacy, so he makes it in good time. He was able to outrun the two Fallen that were chasing him, and he enters the pharmacy.

I hope I find what I’m looking for. Ben thinks.

The pharmacy is a mess as well, trash and broken shelves are everywhere. Ben starts going through the aisles, he finds some ointments, aspirins, some bandages, and pain relievers. Ben continues to look around for cough medicine and anything for fevers. He heads toward the back and spots one moving corpse behind the counter. He walks to the counter and taps his knife on the surface.

“Hey ugly.” Ben says.

The Fallen turns and snarls at him. It hungrily moves to him, grunting. Ben stabs it in the jaw, grabs its head and slams it on the counter repeatedly until its head busted open. Chunks of brain and blood are all over the counter.

“Disgusting.” He mutters as he jumps over the counter.

Most of Georgetown has been looted, but not very well. Ben has come across various things that people overlooked or didn’t bother to look for. Subtle stuff like toilet paper, first aid, tools, and the occasional packaged goods. He’s been quite lucky at finding supplies. He looks through the shelves, there are various empty bottles, crumbled papers and broken glass in the area. Ben has visited this pharmacy before, but only once to find pills for headaches and a few first aid equipment. When he came across any other sorts of medicine, but not enough room to take them with him, he hides it among the trash.

“Come on, I know there’s something here.” he says anxiously.

Ben keeps looking around the shelves and counters for something.

“Aha! Finally!” He excitedly says.

He finds a capsule with a few pills for fevers and a small bottle of cough syrup, with a very small amount of liquid left. It’s not much but it’s better than coming back with nothing. Ben puts all the medicine he found in his bag and prepares to go back home.

As he walks to the front entrance, Ben hears voices. He immediately hides behind some shelves and sees two figures come through the door. Two men appear, both about six feet; one is bald with a dark gray beard, leather jacket, and some tattoos. The other man has a dirty black cap, denim jacket, with a prickly goatee. The bald man has a shotgun in his hand and the other one is carrying a machete. Ben has his gun out and watches both men carefully. The only thing worse than the Fallen are the people. Humans have become more violent since the Fallen virus has wiped out most of them. The most dangerous of them are drifters, or those who travel in groups, taking everything they can.

“What da hell are we lookin for again?” the bald man says in a rough voice.

“Anything that we can eat or is useful for da camp.” says the other man with a cracked smokers voice.

Both men start to search the pharmacy, Ben’s heart is beating rapidly.

“Hey!” the bald man yells.

Ben’s stomach sinks in and he cocks his gun back, ready to shoot.

“I found some toilet paper!” the bald man yells in excitement.

Ben sighs in relief and prepares to make his escape. He runs to the entrance; however, he is suddenly stopped when five of the Fallen are right outside the pharmacy. They notice Ben. He starts to head back inside, until he’s stopped again from the sudden sight of a gun barrel to his face. Ben swallows nervously.

“Well lookie here” says the bald man. “Looks like we mighta found us dinner.”

These two men are cannibals.

“Now hold up there James, we can’t just kill him yet.” the man with the goatee says with a smile.

“Oh why da hell not?!” the bald drifter, James, says with disappointment. “Don’t tell me you’ gettin soft Greg.”

Greg, the man with the goatee, looks at James with anger, “No you dumbass! Don’t you remember what Jack said if we found any people here?”

“Right, capture anyone we find, so he can decide what to do with them.” James annoyingly replies.

Ben is sweating and looks behind him, the Fallen are closing in. The two men haven’t notice them yet. They were still arguing about killing Ben or not. The barrel of the shotgun is still pointing at his face.

“Who cares what Jack says!” James yells at his friend. “He ain’t know about this guy!”

“We can’t lie to Jack! He knows when we lyin, and I ain’t tryin to die if he finds out!” Greg yells back. Ben see’s that they’re distracted, and he quickly pushes the gun away from his face and gets behind the two men.

“That’s it, yer dead!” James says as he begins to point his gun to Ben. Suddenly, one of the Fallen comes up behind Greg, and bites into his neck. He begins to yell in pain and James looks at him in horror.

“Oh shit, Greg!” James yells.

The Fallen that bit into Greg’s neck, rips a bloody chunk of flesh off him. Greg is still screaming in pain as blood begins to fill up his mouth, and he starts gurgling on his own blood. Another one of the Fallen comes in and bites into Greg’s shoulder, and he falls to the ground. James points his shotgun at the Fallen and shoots at them. Three more of them come in and begins eating Greg as he’s on the ground, he is barely alive and is unable to not scream. One of the Fallen has bitten into his throat, ripping out his major arteries. Ben looks at the gruesome scene in disgust, then he runs to the back of the store and heads for a fire exit. James is too busy shooting the Fallen off his dead friend to notice Ben escaping.

He exits the pharmacy from the emergency exit and runs for the main street. He looks back at the entrance of the pharmacy, there are more of the Fallen trying to go in, the commotion made them all head to the pharmacy. Screaming and gun blasts emit from the pharmacy. Ben is shaking from the close encounter of death and the screams of the man being eaten alive. In this world, people will do what they must to survive, and in this situation, Ben did what he had to do to escape. Anything to see his family again.

Ben begins to head out of town, and back to the woods. As he gets to the hill that overlooks the town, he looks back. Ben looks over the town, until suddenly, he notices a problem. From a distance, he spots a crowd of the Fallen heading into the woods, there are too many to count and Ben begins to panic. He saw a herd like this on his last visit to George Town months back, however, they weren’t heading up the mountains last time. Ben immediately runs into the woods, panicking. This herd is heading into the direction of his cabin home, where his daughter and wife are potentially in danger. It’s a race to save his family.