Page 1

Young smiled at a woman in the bar. Murray, a shy, introvert character, was jealous at Young's luck with women. Young could pick up a woman, just like that. Murray, on the other hand, still had trouble talking to his closest friends. Hansi noticed this. 'Don't worry mate, You'll meet the right woman sooner or later, and you wont have any problems talking. Believe me.' Hansi gave him a reassuring, warm smile. Murray did trust him. He trusted all of them, they were such good friends to each other, Murray included. He smiled back.

Hansi Young, Young's elder brother was definitely the smartest of the group. Everyone called Hansi by his first name so as not to get the two mixed up.

Murray reviewed the group, something he did many a time, each time wishing he was half the people these were.

Halford took a swig of Coopers drink.

Halford was so street wise, he could make friends like Burger King makes burgers. Never judged a book by his cover.

Cooper was the kindest and most loyal guy you could meet, always help you out.

Simmons was great for sorting out problems. If Murray was more confident, he'd be able to go to Simmons for help with his lack of self esteem. He chuckled to himself. It was a vicious circle.

Young didn't really have any outstanding qualities, except for his confidence. He was a small, scrawny but handsome fella, but he was emotionally strong. Probably the reason for his success with women.

Each person had their dark side, but never directed at one another.

Five creatures burst through the door. The entire bar stood up, and grabbed the nearest article of defense. The bar staff, who were supplied with guns, aimed and dropped every one of the corpses.

'Jesus Christ' exclaimed Cooper. 'This zombie thing is getting really out of hand.'

'We should probably get indoors. I mean private property.' Murray said, surprised at himself for speaking out. 'Yeah,' Hansi replied, rather distant.

'Tell you what,' Cooper rubbed his chin. 'Why don't you crash round mine tonight? It would make me feel better to know you are all safe.' His offer received an appreciated 'sure, thanks' from all members. He tossed Halford his keys. 'You lot go back, and we'll get us a Chinese,' he said, pointing to Hansi and Young.

The group split up and went separate ways from the pub.

Young led the way, Hansi and Cooper stood close by.

A figure in black jumped out of a parked car and held a gun to Hansi's chest. 'Gimme what you got asshole.' Hansi tried to hide his laughter as he noticed that the gun was obviously empty. He decoyed by reaching into his pocket, and his eyes widened.

'Corpse!' he cried, and the mugger spun around, only to see a blurry pink object as Young took a swing at him at him. The mugger dropped his gun, and ran off. A moan and a scream signalled the outlaws death.

'Check the car,' Young said as respectfully as one could when stealing off the newly dead. He knelt down and picked up the gun.

Hansi gave a gasp. 'Check this out!' Inside the boot of the car were a few more guns and boxes of ammo. There was a stash of cocaine in the boot as well, but they weren't that stupid. Halford and Young snatched the weapons, and concealed it on their person as they took their still hot oriental meal back to the house.

The rapping on the door made all present jump. 'That must be them,' Halford assumed. Cooper walked in with his arms full of weapons. Simmons smiled. 'Hey you should really check out the news. The country's gone to pieces. Crime rates are up by a mile.'

Hansi, Cooper and Young glanced at each other.

'But the emergency services and some volunteers are building up this rescue center place, and telling everyone to go there'

Hansi frowned. 'We can't. The place will probably be overrun by survivors, or controlled by some power mad army guy. Come on, you've seen the films.' Hansi smiled.

'We should find ourselves a hideout or something, board it up, secure it and stuff, before things are too bad.' Murray said, as he ate his prawn crackers out of the bag.

'Good thinking' Hansi replied. 'I know just the place.' He looked at Simmons. 'Your dad's loft, We can clear it out right? ' Simmons frowned, then spoke: 'Yeah, come to think of it, we can. Its big enough to hold us all.' He thought about it for a while. 'Oh! And he's got an old generator as well, we can have working lights and stuff. To be honest, can't really see where we can go wrong!'

[ Continue to page 2 ]