The desert
I awoke.
It was dark.
I was in pain.
The ground beneath me felt un-even, I sat up to find I was on a slope. The ground that felt un-even, was sand.
I was in a desert.
I smelled smoke in the air. I stood up and glanced around. I noticed, even in the darkness of the night, a smoke cloud rising from behind the slope I was currently on. I began walking towards the smoke cloud, hoping to find more people. I noticed that on the sand, there were footprints, leading to the area I awoke in.
I reached the top of the slope. The smoke cloud was coming from a helicopter wreckage that was still burning. I ventured towards it. I couldn't identify the helicopter's make or model.
I was about five metres away from it when I froze in horror. A man, who I believe was the pilot, crawled from beneath the helicopter ruin, he was missing an arm and had large cuts across his body...
And a savage bite mark on his neck.
He started to stumble towards me, moaning with every second step. I had a brief vision of a man in a very similar state attacking me in an alleyway. Not wanting the same situation to happen again, I avoided the pilot, ran over to the downed helicopter and began searching for a weapon in the burning wreckage. Inside a rather small container, I found a 1911 pistol, I unloaded the magazine to see how many bullets it had.
There was one bullet.
I turned to face the pilot, who was beginning to trot towards me, picking up a bit of speed now. I aimed the pistol at the pilot's head, my hands were shaking. I took a deep breath, settled myself, and pulled the trigger. I closed my eyes.
The piercing sound of the bullet breaking the sound-barrier lasted a good 5 seconds. I opened my eyes again, and gasped, for the pilot was still making his way towards me. I threw the pistol at him and turned to run, only to find another man pointing a rifle at me.
"Duck!"
I obeyed, dropping to the ground. I heard a gunshot, and the sound of meat hitting the floor. I stood up and looked around, I saw the dead body laying a few feet away, blood from all the wounds, especially the massive hole in its head, flowing freely into the sand. Brain matter was spread all over the place with chunks of bone and hair elsewhere. I turned to the man who saved my life.
"C'mon, it's not safe around these parts," he said.
I followed him to the other side of the destroyed helicopter, where he had a parked jeep. He got in and started up the engine, I clambered in the passenger seat. He began to drive.
"Were you in that helicopter wreck?" he said, keeping his eyes faced forwards.
"I don't know..." I replied, trying to gather my thoughts.
"What d'ya mean you don't know!?" the man replied angrily.
"I can't remember!" I shouted back, looking out the window, only to see sand for miles.
"Getting a little bit of amnesia, are we?" the man said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Look, the last thing I remember is being attacked by a man in an alleyway, I can't remember anything that happened before that, or between the time that happened and I woke up here," I said.
"Attacked? Were you bitten!?" the man said, with fear emulated in his voice.
"Bitten? No," I said, feeling a bit confused. "I was pushed to the ground, as far as I can remember. And now I've got an ache in my back because of it."
"Thank heavens, didn't want you turning in my car," the man said, seeming relieved.
"Turning? What are you talking about?" I replied.
The man didn't answer my question, he was looking forwards with a shocked expression, as if he'd seen a ghost. I stared at the place he was looking at, and I too showed a shocked expression. There was a group of people fighting each other, one half seemed to be doing the most damage. I noticed it was the half that looked dead on the outside. The man stopped the jeep, turned off the engine and got out, bringing his rifle with him. He paused, got back in the jeep and opened the glove compartment, pulling out a revolver. He handed it to me.
"Don't let those bastards get anywhere near you," he said in a very serious tone.
The man continued on his way, jogging over to the people. He opened fire on the 'dead' group, but they outnumbered him. I looked onwards as the 'dead' people slowly started to devour the man, along with the other people being attacked. I felt sick in my mouth. I slid over to the driver's seat and went to start the car...
But the man had taken the keys.
A bead of sweat slowly poured down the side of my face. I was going to have to somehow get the keys without directly confronting those things. I remembered the revolver the man had given me, I picked it up. It felt heavy in my hands, but powerful at the same time.
I exited the car, keeping the door open, so that I could make a quick getaway. I did a quick headcount of the 'dead'. There was 11 of them, but there seemed to be more of them now than there was before the man was murdered. I noticed that one of the 'dead' was in-fact the re-animated corpse of the man, and that he was waddling towards me. Knowing what I had to do, I aimed the revolver at the dead man, and pulled the trigger.
I had better luck than the first time I had shot a gun, as this time the bullet went straight through the dead man's chest. But he kept on moving. I shot at him again, this time hitting his leg. He stumbled for a few seconds, but he kept coming. Desperately, I readied myself for another shot. By now, he was only a few feet away, so it should have been an easy shot. Should have. I pulled the trigger, but the bullet missed, instead taking out another one of the 'dead', I noticed the bullet hit him in the head, where the brain is.
With my new-found knowledge, I aimed for the dead man's head. I shot at him once more, this time hitting him dead-centre in the head. His face exploded into a mixture of blood, skull, and brain matter. In the intensity of my encounter with the dead man, I failed to noticed the other 'dead' people headed towards me. Quickly, I ran to the dead man's body, searching for the jeeps keys.
I found them in his jacket pocket, and made my way back to the jeep. I climbed into the drivers seat, put the key into the ignition, started the engine and drove off. Then I heard the moaning coming from the back seat. One of the 'dead' had hidden itself while I was battling the dead man, and was now attacking me. In a panic I managed to flip the jeep over, knocking myself out...
I awoke.
It was dark.
I was in pain.