His current residence was an RV. It was a lucky find, actually, he found it abandoned in front of a gas station a few months earlier. The only thing he really had to do with it was stock it with food, ammunition, and gas. He stocked enough supplies to last him about 3 months, and now his supplies were running low. He walked to the refrigerator and opened it, pulling out a half-gallon of orange juice. There was only about a fourth of it left, so he didn't bother getting a glass. He sat down at the table and looked out the window. The darkness concealed much of what he saw, but the lights along the road showed patches of the highway and surrounding area. Derek noticed movement down the road, and saw the figure of a man. The man seemed to be moving away from Derek's RV, but he still knew it was a threat.

He took a gulp of the orange juice, and looked at the picture of himself and his wife, Autumn. It was a picture taken after they got back from their honeymoon at their house outside of Chicago. They were standing on the white porch, her in front, his arms around her waist. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail, and she wore a red t-shirt and khaki shorts. "She's so beautiful," he thought to himself.

Derek allowed his mind to wander back to the day everything he knew changed.

He had just gotten home from work and wasn't too excited about planning a test for the following day. When he got home, Autumn was sitting on the couch in their living room, watching TV.

"Did you see this?" Autumn asked as he entered the room.

"No." he replied kissing her and then sitting down to join her. "Why, what's wrong?"

"Some riot in Pittsburgh has been going on since this morning. And even more reports have been coming in from all over. It's like there's a wave of them."

"Any in Chicago?"

"No, not that I've heard."

"Then right now, we're okay. But if you want, I'll go lock the doors just in case." Derek asked, seeing the fear in Autumn's eyes vanish as he finished.

For the next couple of hours, Derek and Autumn stayed glued to the TV, watching any late-breaking news that came in. The rioters were being described as people in a sort of 'trance-like state', who didn't seem to respond to any commands. On some of the news reports, police and National Guard had actually fired upon them, but they didn't run away or seem threatened. When the news then reported that the riots had begun to flare up in Chicago, Derek and Autumn's fears began to manifest. Chicago was about ten miles away, and if the riots there got out of control, people would flee to their little town of Pollock.

"Oh my God, what are we going to do?" Autumn asked, looking at Derek.

"I don't know." Derek said, as a short pounding throbbed the front door.

"Who..?" Autumn asked as both walked to the front door. They looked and out the peephole and Derek recoiled back.

"Don't look." he said, but it was too late. Autumn looked out and let out a gasp, beginning to tremble.

"I'm... uh... oh God, what happened to him?" she asked, quivering.

"I don't know, but with all those injuries, there is no way he can be alive." Derek replied, grabbing a pool cue off the wall near their billiard table.

"Derek, dead people do not walk around knocking on doors!" Autumn screamed.

"I know, but how else am I supposed to describe him?"

Another thud came from the door, followed by a low moan, causing the young couple to freeze in fear. The pounding continued and Derek began to reach for the lock.

"What are you doing?" Autumn asked.

"Well, I don't know." Derek replied. As soon as he unlocked the door, it burst open, and the man lunged in. Derek and Autumn moved out of the way, as the man fell to the floor. He struggled to get to his feet, and when he did, his grotesque features came into view.

His right eye was no longer there, as dried blood had filled the cavity where it once occupied. His left eye hung out of the socket on a strand of tissue, swaying delicately, and bouncing off his cheek. His once blonde hair was covered in blood, and the top of his scalp had been peeled back, revealing thin strands of blood and muscle. The cause of his death was evident, for his throat was now just a gaping hole. As he lurched forward, he stretched out his arms, showing the bloody, skeletal stump that was once his right arm. He let out a low moan that made Derek's skin crawl. Derek shook violently, he hated confrontation, and was more scared of that then the inhuman creature in front of him. He swung the pool cue, cracking the man across the head, disconnecting the eye, sending it across the room.Derek felt sick to himself, and he swung the pool cue again, knocking the man to the floor. Derek heard Autumn scream behind him, and he jumped. He spun around, only to see a woman covered in blood come crashing through the window, lurching towards them.

"Derek!" Autumn screamed.

The man began getting up, and Derek struck him again with the cue, and then thrust it through his head. The man crumpled to the ground, as Derek then turned his attention to the woman. The woman lunged at Autumn, knocking her to the ground. Autumn screamed as the woman bit into her forearm, pulling up flesh and muscle. Derek, overcome with horror and rage, tackled the woman, throwing her against the wall, her head smashing into the table on the way down.

"Autumn, are you alright?" Derek asked, rushing to his wife, who was sitting on the floor cradling her arm.

"It hurts so much." Autumn cried. "What are those things?"

"I don't know." Derek replied, tearing a strip of a pillow case off and tying it around Autumn's wrist. This helped restrict the loss of blood, as yet another creature came through the door.

A loud slam awoke Derek from his memories. He looked out the window and saw the rotting face of one of the zombies looking back at him.

"Zombie?" he said aloud. "That's exactly what this is like, a zombie movie! Main character loses love of his life, only to continue on and be 'Rambo' against evil doers everywhere."

Derek got up from the table and threw the empty juice carton into the trash can under the sink, and headed into the bedroom. He changed into a pair of black dress pants and threw on a blue t-shirt, then grabbed a belt off a hook in the closet and walked to the front of the RV. He turned the key in the ignition and flipped on the lights, pulled onto the road, and began to drive.

"I need to find more supplies." Derek sighed. He drove past deserted houses, apartments, and a bank until his eye caught something. To his right was a Super K-Mart. He smiled to himself and turned into the parking lot. As soon as he did, the smile shattered, a mob of zombies had taken the store. He counted at least twenty-five of them, and they were all staring at his RV.

"Damn." Derek said, as he drove around the parking lot to the front. There were only about a dozen in front of the doors, so he felt a little more at ease. He pulled up right in front of the door, cutting off the zombies from entering the store.

Derek strapped the belt on, complete with a gun holstered on each side. He opened up a cabinet by the table and pulled out two Beretta handguns and four ammo clips. He walked back to the bedroom and grabbed a black trench coat from the closet. He threw it on, and grabbed a black arrow quiver off the desk. He then reached for his 'baby', a jet black crossbow with blue geometric designs near the trigger. A smile came to his face as he remembered Autumn giving it to him as a birthday present. Derek headed for the door and opened it.

"Time to take advantage of the 'Blue Light Specials.'" Derek said aloud.

He entered the K-Mart and immediately grabbed a shopping cart. He headed down the aisle, grabbing canned goods, soda, bottled water, and medical supplies. He then headed towards the clothing department, grabbing shirts, pants, and a couple pairs of boxers and socks. Suddenly, the all-too familiar sound of a zombie's moan came from twenty feet away. Lurching toward him from down the aisle was the re-animated corpse of one of the K-Mart employees. Derek pulled an arrow from the quiver and placed it in the shaft of the crossbow. Derek raised the weapon, and aimed it at the creature's cranium.

"I'm sorry you've had to suffer." he said, as he fired.

Derek watched as the arrow punctured through the eye and into the brain, destroying the zombie's driving force. Derek let out a sigh as another moan came from the sporting goods department of the store, followed by a scream."What the?" Derek asked. "Oh man, there's someone still alive in here!"

Derek began running toward the location of the scream, the sporting goods department. Derek turned the corner, only to find a group of five zombies surrounding a young woman standing on the check out counter, swinging a baseball bat. Her jeans were bloodstained, and the orange tank top she was wearing was covered in dirt. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her face showed the weariness of someone who has gone days without sleep. She looked up at Derek, and her eyes glimmered with hope.

"Help me!" she screamed.

"Hey," Derek yelled at the zombies, "Over here! You wanna eat something? Alright assholes, BITE ME!!"

Derek slung the crossbow over his shoulder and pulled out his two handguns, firing into the group. He hit five consecutive head shots, dropping all the zombies as more moans became audible. Derek helped the woman off the counter, and smashed open the case.

"I have a shopping cart down by the clothes area," he said, "Run and get it, we don't have a lot of time. When you get it back here, we'll load it up with more guns and ammo, and get the hell out of here."

The woman nodded and ran towards where Derek had just came from. Derek broke the other gun case, and grabbed rifle after rifle. He grabbed a couple of hunting scopes and boxes of ammo, just as the woman came running with the cart. They both hurriedly threw the weapons in the cart, and began running down the aisle to the front of the store.

"I have an RV blocking off the entrance. Just start carrying as much food in as you can, and I'll hold off the zombies till your done." Derek said.

The woman nodded in understanding, and began loading all the supplies into the RV. Derek scanned the store, and noticed the small group of zombies advancing from the back of the store. He raised his two guns and fired, some of the bullets hitting the intended targets, the head, some striking the body of the zombies, spurting blood from the wounds. He fired until both guns ran out of ammo, and slammed in a new clip in each one. He screamed at the oncoming horde, the rage that had been building up inside him began to come to a head. As he shot the zombies, he remembered the three days of hell following Autumn's bite.

On the first day, Derek noticed a fever had set in, along with a slight discoloration around her wound. On the second day, she barely had energy to move, and all Derek could do was hold her and try to comfort her. The third day was the worst. She would scream out her hallucinations, and would drift in and out of consciousness. This heartbreaking saga continued she finally succumbed to her wound, and died. Within five minutes, she returned as one of the living dead. It was the hardest thing he had to do, shooting her in the head. He cried the entire time, and didn't actually fire until she tried to bite him. Now, all he saw were the creatures that he had to destroy. He fired blindly into them, the rage clouding his vision.

"I'm done!" the girl shouted, but Derek seemingly ignored her.

"Alright, get in." he replied, as he continued firing. Within seconds, the zombies were crumpled in a bloody pile in the middle of the aisle. Derek turned on his heel, and jumped into the RV. He shut and locked the door behind him. He turned the ignition, and began to exit the parking lot, running over zombies as he went. The girl sat behind him, and held on to him.

"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed.

Derek replied. "Don't worry about it, glad I was able to help."

"Who are you?" the girl asked.

"My name is Derek." he replied, watching the K-Mart disappear in the rear view mirror. "I haven't seen any living people in about two and a half months, I guess pleasantries aren't my forte."

The girl laughed. "It's okay. I was stuck in that hell for the past three weeks. The only other person there was one of the cashiers there, but the zombies got to him. I had been hiding out in the manager's office since then, but I needed to find food. There were just so many of them."

"It's okay." Derek said, hoping the girl would divulge her name.

"Tara." the girl said smiling, seemingly reading Derek's mind.

"Like I said before, don't mention it. Now, if you need anything help yourself. There's a shower in the bathroom. It's small, but it's a shower. I have some clean clothes in the bedroom that you can change into, I'm sorry if they don't fit, but I wasn't expecting to have company."

"It's okay, I think I can find something." Tara said, as she headed to the back of the RV.

Derek heard the door to the bathroom close and the shower start, as he turned onto the highway. He switched on his CD player, and the sounds of Van Halen filled the RV. He allowed his body to come down from the adrenaline high, and he felt at peace. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to live after losing Autumn, but now he found reasons for staying alive.

'If Tara survived, there must be other survivor's somewhere.' he thought.

'And now that I've found Tara, I won't allow her to be butchered like Autumn was.'

After a few minutes, Tara emerged from the bathroom, wearing a pair of Derek's sweat pants and a red t-shirt.

"How was the shower?" Derek asked.

"It felt great." Tara said, sitting next to him, looking at the open highway in front of them. "So, where are we going?"

"Anywhere," Derek said. "Anywhere we can be safe."