Zombie Invasion: Chapter 1

Chapter 1- The Beginning

I think a lot of people like to believe they're survival experts. Striding out of the smoke from the bomb they just built and threw at a threat, while the rusted buildings of Post-Apocalyptia tower over them. I fear for humanity if this is so. First of all, why would you throw a bomb at a threat? A bullet would do fine. And now you've got someone else's attention from the bang. An enemy's attention. And why are you alone on the streets of the city? Being cool ≠survival.

Am I a survival expert? Nah. Believe me, I don't think I'd last a month in the apocalypse- all that emotional and physical and psychological strain. Like anyone else, I'd prefer the world to be like it is now, safe and comfy.

In the event of the apocalypse, I'd barricade myself in my house and rely on what instincts hit me first. I'd be totally prepared. Much to my disappointment and shock, the apocalypse found it funny to start while I was at school.

It was period 2, Design Studies, located in the west wing computer lab, Wednesday, November 15 2010, 11:36 PM, weather-chilly, slight flurries, not bad over-all, and class was mind-numbingly boring. I sat at my usual computer, gazing at the dull light coming from the monitor as I scrolled through the thousands of web pages that showed up as a result of my search.

Beside me, faithful companion and emotional support with the uncanny ability to make people laugh, Kaitlin. She wasn't looking at Google results for "cool statue designs". No, she was on IMDb and I couldn't help but look on her screen.

"Oh my God...." she said, trying to hold back an excitement that had been nagging at her since October, "Deathly Hallows is coming out in 4 days!" My eyes flicked back to my screen.

"I can tell you're excited." I said pleasantly. The sound of plastic wheels rolling across the ground sounded from behind me and Markie was suddenly sitting between us. You see, we're all too lazy to stand up and go over to our friends, so we scoot around on our wheelie chairs instead.

"I can't wait either..." she said in an overwhelmed voice, "I really want to see it."

"We can see it together!" Kaitlin said in a voice that was projected sarcasm in order to please. Markie chuckled.

"And it sucks because I really want to see it, but it's impossible to get tickets on opening night." She said in disappointment. I smirked at a notion.

"Heh. You could just throw a sick cat into the theatre and everyone will book it to safety and you'll have the movie all to yourself." I should have expected what was about to happen.

"Awwww!" Kaitlin gushed her shrill, long, 'oh-noes-how-horrible' gush, "Soufflé!" Perhaps I should explain things a bit. A few days ago, cat owners flooded the animal clinics of Calgary complaining about erratic behaviour, coughing, spasms, vomiting- the list goes on. Calgary wasn't the only city with bursting animal clinics though. The scary thing about this was that people were experiencing it all around the world. Name a city, and so long as they had cats, they had the same problem. Now most people would think that Mr. Whiskers had rabies, but tests showed that it wasn't that. Whatever's making cats sick, it's unknown to us. Now I don't have a cat (or any pet for that matter) and nor does Kaitlin. So how did we get caught up in this? Well, on our walk to school, we've come across lots of outdoor cats. And being the weirdos we are, we named all of them. Kittius Plantius, Tom, Floofy, Patches, Cookie Dough, Salem, Brick, Grouchy, Blanca, Potato, Milkshake, Nova, Soufflé, Arbour, Jingles, William (am I missing anyone?). So now we've grown attached to all these cats and right when the Pussy-Pandemic is going on. You just know what's going to happen. Kaitlin and I begin to see our feline-friends only in the safety of their homes. One cat was brave enough to mingle in the disease mine-field that is outside however, and that was Soufflé. We'd still see him perched on the steps to his house like a noble lion over-looking the savannah, not a care in the world. You wouldn't blame us to feel shocked when he disappeared.

"Kaitlin, maybe his owners keep him inside now." I tried to get the point into her, but like in my many other attempts, failed miserably.

"But they kept Brick inside all that time, so why would they suddenly not let him go outside?" she whined. I sighed.

"We don't even know if they belong to the same people."

"But they hang around the same house..."

"Is she still on about the cat thing?" Markie asked me in exasperation. Before I could nod, Kaitlin blew up.

"You never knew him!" she said in a deranged voice, intending humour, "Never! Nevar!!!" she subsided into a series of maniacal giggles accompanied by a crazed grin as she slowly stroked her water bottle cradled in her arms. Some find that weird, but I find it hilarious. Markie sat there, eyes wide, before uttering a slow, 'Okaaaaay...' and wheeled off to her computer.  I eyed Kaitlin, and after a pause, I reached for the water bottle.
"NAO!" she shrieked, "It's Souffle...."If there's one thing you should know about Kaitlin, it's that she acts crazy, but she really isn't. Well I guess in acting crazy, you'd be considered crazy... but Kaitlin is normal... to a point. Okay, so she isn't the homicidal maniac people take her for, but she can act like one if she wants to!

Now this whole cat disease happened about a week ago. I mean that's when it hit the headlines. Apparently accounts of this disease were happening before 2010, but people just didn't put it in the news. Now that it's out there, people have been in a panic. Let me just say this; it's H1N1 all over again.

If you walk by the pet store, you'll see the parking lot crammed with cars- cat owners buying their cat's toys and stuff before they die. People carry their cats around with them, keeping them close before the bitter end. On the flip side, people are turning their cats loose onto the streets because they can't afford the medical treatment for the disease. What people don't realize is that they're just spreading the disease faster. Kaitlin and I delved further into this story as we walked home from school that day.
Okay, so the apocalypse didn't happen on November 16, but it did happen in school.

So, as Kaitlin and I were walking along the side of the school at the end of the day, we stepped passed a page from the newspaper. I stopped too when I noticed Kaitlin wasn't walking alongside me anymore. She had paused and was staring down at the paper awkwardly.

"What?" I asked as I met up with her.

"I saw the word 'zombie'..." her voice trailed off as she read. I looked down at the paper. She was right. There, in bold letters was the headline: "Zombie Cats!?"

"What?" I said in an outraged, confused voice. I stooped down and picked up the paper and gave it a flick to straighten it out.

"A woman who wishes to stay anonymous spots her previously abandoned cat sitting on her counter in possibly the worst condition a cat could ever be in." Kaitlin read, " 'The first thing that hit me was the smell, then when I saw her sitting there, I nearly jumped out of my skin,' she says just minutes after the encounter, 'She must've snuck back into my house last night through the cat door. I thought she was a dead corpse sitting on my counter, then she stood up.' The woman then broke down into tears and refused to be interviewed any longer." Kaitlin and I exchanged looks.

"I-I don't know what to make of that..." I said, dumb-founded.

"She probably had a nightmare or something." Kaitlin concluded, just as shocked. I crumpled the paper up.

"Let's hope."