With Wet Noodle unsheathed and being held in one hand and the scabbard in the other, Grant stepped out onto the walkway outside his apartment. The moment he stepped out onto the walkway, Grant cautiously observed his surroundings, trying to hear or see anything or anyone that could pose a threat to him.

The apartment building that Grant lived in was a square shaped building that surrounded an open plaza area where people could relax and spend their free time. Since Grant lived in the corner furthest from the stairway, he would need to walk around the entire walkway before he could reach the stairs. While he was looking at all the apartments surrounding him, he realized that more than a few of them had their doors opened wide.

He observed the surroundings for a couple of minutes and since he wasn't seeing any danger on the walkway he was currently standing on he took slow and steady steps forward. Trying to make as little noise as possible. Once he reached the end of the first side of the walkway, Grant turned the corner onto the second side of the walkway, only to see two bodies laying on top of each other in front of one of the open doors, surrounded by a pool of blood. Neither of the bodies were moving or making sound but Grant still approached them with utmost care. When he was close enough, he poked the bodies with the scabbard in his hand, but they still didn't move.

After a few more attempts to solicit movement with his scabbard, Grant gave up and accepted the fact the the two people in front of him were already dead. It was the second time Grant had seen a body in only a few hours so he still struggled with the site in front of him.

Grant had to take a couple of deep breathes and look away just to stop himself from vomiting where he stood. After taking a few moments to gather himself, he steeled his resolve and started walking towards the staircase once again. He made sure to avoid the two bodies and the pool of blood just in case he was wrong about their alive or dead status. He figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

As Grant approached slowly towards the staircase, he realized that he was about to come across one of the open doors that he had seen earlier. Maintaining the same level of alertness he had since he walked out of his apartment, he slowly put his back up against the wall of the apartment and started to slide towards the door.

Once his shoulder was up against the door frame, he inched his head around the corner so he could get a peek inside, only to snap it back a split second later. In the brief moment that he was able to see into the apartment, he saw someone standing still in the middle of the room. Their back was to the door so he couldn't see what the person was doing, but after remembering the words of the person on the radio, he knew it was a fifty fifty shot that the person might be a zombie.

Since he wasn't sure whether the "person" he saw was still a person or not, he decided to maintain his caution and still refused to make a sound. He briefly considered asking out loud if the person was okay or needed assistance but he quickly discarded the idea. Instead, he slowly reached down and picked up a little rock that was on the walkway next to his foot.

With rock in hand, he once again slowly peaked back around the door frame to once again get a look inside the apartment. After noticing that the "person" still had their back to the door, he tossed the rock to the right side of the room in an attempt to draw their attention.

After the rock hit the wall, the "person" moaned loudly and started slowly walking their way over to where the rock had hit.

Seeing the way the "person" was moving, Grant couldn't help but pull back away from the door once again, to take a moment gather his courage.

[Fuck! That's a zombie, right?!

Alright Grant, deep breathes, deep breathes. Sneaking past the door is probably possible, but if I fuck up and make a sound or something, then I might attract unnecessary danger to myself.

If I kill it now, that's one less threat I need to worry about as I sneak out of here. It's survival of the fittest at this point. Time to pull all the courage you can out of your ass and get the job done Grant!

Fuck! Why am I thinking about myself in the third person!

Fuck! That's not important right now! Focus! FOCUSSSS!!!]

While Grant had a momentary mental breakdown, the zombie reached the corner where the sound had come from, and since it didn't notice anything, it once again stopped moving.

As Grant slowly accepted the reality of the situation and he prepared himself for what would come next. He slowly but surely started to creep into the open door and entered the apartment.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

While the zombie was still mindlessly looking into the corner where he had thrown the rock, Grant readied himself to strike.

Unfortunately, as Grant shuffled towards the zombie, he made a small amount of noise with his shoes and the zombie seemed to notice his presence so it started to turn and face him.

While the zombie was turning towards him, Grant had also begun the swing of his sword, planning to decapitate the zombie. But once it had turned and fully faced him, Grant couldn't help but pause his swing. He hadn't paused because the zombie scared him or caught him by surprise, it was simply because, although the person may act and function like a zombie, they still looked relatively human.

Having never killed another human being in his life, it was difficult for Grant to make the swing to kill the zombie who looked so human still.

While Grant was hesitating, the zombie slowly started to walk towards him, which in turn forced him to take a couple of steps back at the same time. He didn't know yet why or how people were turning into zombies so he didn't want to take any chances with getting even so much as a scratch.

After taking a couple of steps back, Grant found himself with his back up against the wall. He knew that it was now or never and he needed to kill this zombie to protect his own life. Before he could steel his resolve and make another effort to kill the zombie, he heard multiple footsteps coming from the walkway outside the apartment.

He wasn't sure if it was another zombie or a living person, so he had to slowly back away from the door while also keeping his distance from the zombie that was already in the room with him. The louder the steps became the more concerned Grant became because it didn't seem to be only one person, it seemed like multiple people or things were approaching.

Grant didn't have to wait long to find out who or what was making the noise because a few moments later, a person came stampeding through the door like a bat out of hell without seemingly the slightest bit of worry.

It was a guy he had met on the walkways a few times, he was not much older than Grant by his own estimation but he was a few inches shorter than Grant. He had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and looked like one of those guys from the gym that would huff and puff to make sure people noticed him working out. Quite the arrogant looking fellow.

The guy looked at Grant momentary before he seemed to glance down at the Katana in his hand. Without so much as a word to Grant, he turned to look at the zombie that was still ever so slowly dragging itself towards Grant.

When the zombie finally realized someone else was in the room, it decided that it should attack the newcomer since he was a closer target.

Before the zombie could even take a single step forward however, what looked like a baseball bat with spikes came crashing down on top of its head, splattering all of its brain matter, blood, and skull fragments everywhere.

Seeing the explosion of flesh, Grant couldn't take it anymore and started throwing up in the corner of the room. Seeing Grant's reaction, the man looked at him and sneered.

"What the fuck are you doing man? Are you trying to get yourself turned into a zombie? You can't hesitate. If that thing gets close enough to bite you, you're fucked."

By the time the man was done talking, Grant didn't have anything left in his stomach to throw up so he slowly managed to compose himself before responding.

"I know, I was trying to be cautious but I ended up hesitating because the zombie looked almost the same as a normal human. Before you busted through the door, I was just about to take the swing and chop it's head off. Seriously though, how can you be so nonchalant about killing like that?"

Hearing what Grant had to say, the young man paused for a second before he responded.

"I guess I can understand why you would hesitate. I've already had to kill six of these bastards though so I guess I'm starting to get over it. By the way, the names Jeff. I live in the apartment two doors down. Me and my roommates saw you pass by the window and decided to see what was going on. They are just outside the door guarding it for us."

Jeff threw his hand up and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb towards the door to indicate where his roommates were standing.

"Thank you for your help Jeff. The name's Grant. I live just down the other way. We've passed each other on the walkways before, so we've met in passing a few times."

After formally introducing themselves, they shook hands and walked back towards the door.

Once they were outside the door again, Jeff introduced Grant to the other two.

"Grant, meet Tres and Matt. They are my roommates and I've known them since high school. They are good guys.

Tres and Matt, meet Grant. He lives on this floor as well. You guys may know him from seeing him around. He's a bit of a pussy so go easy on him."

While Jeff was laughing hysterically at his own joke, Grant shook hands with Tres and Matt to formally introduce himself to them as well.

Grant was curious what they were planning on doing so he asked them outright.

"Are you guys planning on staying here at the complex until the military or someone arrives?

Shouldn't you move to a location that is better fortified and is closer to somewhere that has food?"

He didn't think that having a couple more people with him would be a bad idea and most people always felt safer in groups, so he planned to invite them to come along with him in search of a better place to hunker down if they didn't have any concrete plans themselves.

Surprisingly Jeff told Grant that they didn't actually have any plans.

The reason that he had to kill so many zombies already was because he had been across the street at the shopping center when all hell broke loose. He had to fight his way back to his apartment to meet up with Tres and Matt.

It also turned out that the two people that Grant came across on the walkway had been killed by Jeff.

Since the three of them had no plans, and Grant seemed eager to team up with them, Jeff invited Grant back to their apartment so that they could make plans.