1 Surprise

I grabbed my keys. They clinked together as I jammed them into the ignition and turned. The ancient engine growled and grinded angrily as the starter turned reluctantly. 

'Hot diggity damn! That engine's just like my boss without fifteen cups of coffee; pitchy, witchy, and straight up the ass bitchy.'

I sighed as hot air blasted out from the air conditioning nozzles. I slid my sunglasses onto my face and lowered all of the windows as far down as possible. 

'It's finally time to head home. A 9-5 won't be bad, they said. They won't treat you like a slave, they said. The pay is good, they said. Well fuck the pay and fuck them; I need a shower.'

I popped the emergency brake down and began to reverse from the parking spot with my wheels screeching like a banshee. As my truck bed was about to hit the cars in the far parking spots, I slammed my brakes hard. I changed to drive and spun the wheel as I hit the gas again. 

'Hehe, I almost impregnated my boss's car with my truck's hitch.'

I drove for a full minute with music blaring out my speakers before coming to a red stoplight. My brakes screeched, even though I wasn't hitting them hard.

'Damn, I need to check my brakes when I get home. This day keeps getting worse.'

Now, maybe the light turned green, but I couldn't really tell. In a brilliant flash of light, the sky turned green. Even through my sunglasses, my eyes stung. I closed my eyes and drew my arm over them. Even with my eyes closed and hand blocking the light, I could still see the green light. Perhaps my retina had almost been burned or something. 

'I swear, if the stoplight exploded, I'm going to hunt down the electricians who routed that shit.'

I grabbed the sunglasses from my face and drew them away. Their film had been melted. If I had not been wearing them, my eyes would be mush. I threw my glasses to the floor of the front passenger seat and glanced out my windows. The light had not exploded and it was still red, but it was blinking now. No one was going and I didn't know who stopped first. I gritted my teeth. 

'Fuck it, I'm going.'

I hit the gas and sped through the light at top speed. I glanced at a stopped driver to my left, and his mouth was open as though he had become mindless or had fallen asleep with his eyes open. 

'What was that light? I need to get home.'

As I drove, I saw cars that had driven off the road, cars that had crashed into each other, but none that were driving like me. It was as though the light had killed them all. 

Another minute passed as I wove between crashed cars when, suddenly, the people began to move. The people who had crashed began to get out of their cars and fight each other. I didn't bother to stop. 

I slid smoothly into my parking spot. I turned my key, pulled it out, stuffed it into my pockets, jumped out of the car, and slammed the door behind me. As I looked at my apartment, I noticed that my window had shattered.

'This has to be a fucking dream. My worst day on deployment in Iraq was a cakewalk in comparison to this shit.'

I opened my car back up and quickly retrieved my Glock from the glovebox of my car. I closed the door softly this time. My heart beat a little faster, but not because I was scared. It was a familiar feeling. A sardonic smile slid across my face.

'Just what I needed.'

I jumped through the broken window and landed softly on my couch cushions. I glanced left and right. There was no one, but my living room, which I was in, was completely torn up. I heard a sound, and it was coming from the kitchen. 

I quickly stood up and poked my gun and head around the corner. There was a man with a pickaxe. He was hitting my cabinets and breaking through them. He turned around towards me. His eyes met mine, but they were horrifyingly glowing green. He screamed and ran towards me with his pickaxe raised in the air. 

I pressed the tip of the trigger on my glock three times. BANG, BANG, BANG. A bullet caught him in the chest, blood sprayed, but my neighbor continued towards me. Another hit his arm; more blood was drawn, but he did not stop. The last caught him in the head and he dropped like a doll.

As the body hit the ground, it twisted with its green eyes staring up towards the roof. The glowing eyes faded and turned completely milky white. He had not been blinded the last time I saw him. I stood still as my mind wandered.

'He didn't look like he was in his right mind. He looked like one of those Zombies in the horror films my brother always made me watch. I shouldn't even be thinking about this, there isn't time. I need to meet up with my brother in Dallas as soon as possible. He prepped for crazy shit like this, and I always thought him stupid.'

My train of thought was entirely shattered by a crashing noise. Someone was hitting my locked door with a crowbar. It dented in slightly and then with the second hit, a small chunk of the door came off.

I pulled the glock from my holster and I fired through the door four times. I heard a thud on the other side of the door and then nothing. The smoke that formed from the barrel of my gun swirled and drifted up towards the roof. On the floor, blood began to pool from under the crack of the battered door. 

I looked down at the corpse at my feet and I sighed. It was going to be a long day. 'Is this excitement or fear? Maybe a little bit of both.'

I ignored the corpse at my feet and ran into my bedroom. I grabbed the emergency camelback I had from my Army days. It had MREs, an empty water bladder, chlorine tablets, among other things. I picked it up and then moved to my closet.

I quickly hunched down next to my vault and began to dial in my combination. The magnetic lock clicked. There it was my AR-15. I grabbed it and slung it over my back. There were two more 30RD magazines inside for my AR-15 and three 16RD magazines for my Glock.

I grabbed them along with several spare boxes of ammo and stuffed them into my camelback; there was hardly any room left.

I quickly ran into the kitchen, and I poured water into my camelback. I avoided the eyes of the zombie as I moved past him.

'I'm going to head back through my window and just drive as quickly as I can to Dallas. My truck can handle some off-roading.'

I jumped back through the window and opened the door of my truck. I threw my shit into the back of the truck. 'It's time to go on a field trip.'