Episode 9: The Way of Life

Episode 9

"The Way of Life"

(Samantha's Point of View)

This is how it all happened.

I was kidnapped, taken from Jeff, taken from Kayla. I was taken from my family. They put their hand around my mouth and muzzled my screams. I kicked and I thrashed, but I couldn't do anything. I was thrown into the trunk of a car and the car sped off. I heard the engine start up and the car started to move. I panicked, they gagged me before throwing me in the trunk, I was helpless. All I remember going through my head was the constant panic of what was going to happen to me, how was Kayla going to grow up without a mother? The car ride lasted about an hour, the car took a sudden stop. After a few more seconds, the trunk opened, I saw a man standing there, he had a gun on him. He picked me up and dragged me out of the trunk, I fell to the ground. I was picked up again and thrown over his shoulder. He started walking towards a building, I looked around to see where I was, but I didn't recognize anything. I wanted to ask them so many questions, but I couldn't speak.

They went into the room and I was placed in a chair and tied up, I had tears streaming down my face. The room was dark, it was a full concrete room. There was a metal door that I knew I wouldn't be able to break though. The door finally opened, it was scraping across the ground, making a horrible noise. The door was closed behind them. A women came and sat down on a chair across from me. She had long, black hair. She was tall and thin, and had dark eyes. She took the gag out of my mouth.

"What do you want?" I instantly asked.

"I know you're confused," she said, "I know you're angry, but just let me explain."

"Then do it!" I cried.

"We're a business, we do what we have to do. I'm sure you understand that, what we do is bad, I know. But it's good money."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Lady, I run a shop. People come in, they see what they like, and they buy it. You're one of many things we have in stock."

"Are you saying that, you're selling me?"

"Don't take it too harshly, there are a lot of people who I'm sure will take good care of you, for the right price."

The black haired lady smiled and turned around to leave the room, opening the loud metal door once again.

"You won't get away with this!" I yelled, "You won't!"

The door slammed shut and I was left in the room by myself again. Alone in the cold, dark room. I remember I kept thinking about how Kayla must be feeling, how hard this must be for both Jeff and Kayla. I can't die, I can't be sold. I couldn't even believe this was happening to me, I remember I kept on trying to wake up from this nightmare, but it never happened. This was very much real.

Years passed, and I stayed in the same room, no social contact unless you count a man throwing a tray of food and water in my room social. It was horrible, I thought about trying to kill myself several times, but in an empty room, I found that kind of hard. The black haired lady would keep coming in the room and taunt me, over and over again. Every few days, she would tell me that someone would eventually want to have me. The thing was, it never happened. Nobody ever came, I stayed in the same room, and I think the black haired lady started getting impatient. She would come in my room and taunt me every day though, it would never stop. One day, that all changed.

I heard a ruckus going on outside one time, it was so loud I heard it through the concrete room. I heard gunshots, and I smiled. This must be the police, they found out about this operation and they are here to save me. Tears streaming down my face and I took a deep breath in, the gunshots stopped and I heard footsteps behind the metal door.

"I'm in here!" I called, "please help!"

The footsteps stopped, and I heard some kind of weird growl behind it. I didn't care though, I just needed to be saved. There was a scratching sound behind the door, like the person behind it was scraping it with their nails. I started getting a little freaked out, this wasn't the police.

"Who's there?" I asked in a shaky voice.

There was a scream behind the door, then banging. Whatever was behind that door was angry, and it was trying to get in here. I was starting to think it might not even be a human. I panicked and tried to find some way to free myself from being tied to the chair. I rocked back and forth and tried to tip myself over, I finally fell on my side next to a tray of food I had eaten earlier today. I tried reaching the knife from the tray to free myself. I reached as far as I could with my tied hand and grasped the knife barely. I inched it towards the rope around my arms and started moving it up and down slowly. I should have tried this a long time ago, but there were guards everywhere. The creature kept on banging on the door and it was making it a lot harder to focus on getting out of here.

After what had to be a good five minutes I finally got free with my hands. The rope snapped and I was free to move my arms. I heard more of the creatures arrive behind the door and the metal door was slowly moving, it was coming down from all of that force. Since my arms were free, I started cutting my legs free with a lot more force this time. In seconds I was free from the ropes, I got up and stood in the corner with the knife held in front of me immediately. I started panicking, holding the knife forward, ready to defend myself, even though I had no idea how to. The metal door was finally pushed open far enough that the creature peeked their head in, it was the scariest experience of my life. The creature inched his head inside the room slowly, I got a full view of it. The creature had red, glowing veins all over it's face, dead looking eyes, greasy looking hair, and it was very angry looking. The creature spotted me in the corner of the room and screamed, I covered my ears and started crying. I had been through so much, what is going on now? Haven't I had enough already?

The door was pushed open one last time and three of those creatures walked inside of my room, slowly ganging up on me.

"Who are you people?" I asked.

They didn't answer, they just growled and slowly inched towards me. I held my knife out further, trying to scare them off. They weren't. They barely even looked at the knife, it was almost like they didn't even know what it was. One of the creatures grabbed my hands tightly, and I dropped the knife. I was pushed up against the wall and the creature examined me carefully, it then decided what it was going to do. It screamed once more and held my wrist tighter, it grabbed my neck with it's other hand and started choking me, it had a very strong grasp. The other creatures just stood there and watched me. I looked the monster dead in the eyes, it looked so angry, but so emotionless at the same time. It's eyes were grey and dead, but it's facial expression looked so infuriated.

"Please." I managed to squeeze out.

It didn't show any mercy, everything started to fade when there was a large flash of light in the hallway outside of the room followed by a gunshot, someone was still shooting off guns. The monsters turned around quickly, it loosened it's grip on my neck and focused on the hallway. They screamed and started running for the hallway, leaving me here. It was like they were attracted to gunshot lights, like moths. They totally forgot about me when they saw light.

The gunfire kept on going, and I heard a man screaming in the hallways. The creatures must have gotten to him, I snuck out of the room and ran down the opposite side of the hallway. The lights flickered, and there were dead people everywhere. Dead guards everywhere, I saw one of the dead guards on the ground with a pistol in his hand. I grabbed it just incase, even though I had no idea how to use one. I looked around me, I didn't see any of the creatures, and it was scaring me. I started bolting it for the door I saw at the end of the dim hallway. I heard a women crying out from a room, it must be one of the victims, like me. I opened the door to the right of the hallway and saw the black haired lady lying in a room, she was bleeding and crying out for help.

"Hello? Please help me!" she asked.

"Why should I?" I asked.

"I know you must be very angry at me, but you have to give me a break! I did what I had to do to make a living, you can understand that right?"

I heard the creatures coming down the hallway, they were looking for more victims. I looked back at the black haired lady.

"Go to hell." I said.

I left the room and ran to the door at the end of the hallway. The creatures will get her, that will teach her a hard lesson. I heard her screaming for help as I left the building.

I opened the door and felt the warm sun on my face, it's been so long since I've been outside. The light bothered my eyes for a few seconds, but my eyes adjusted. I slammed the door behind me, it was all over. There were dead people everywhere, all of the gang members that worked here were all killed by the monsters. I had to find Jeff, I had to find Kayla. The only problem was I had no idea where I was, and I had no idea what was going on outside either. I got inside of a car in the parking lot of the building. There was a dead man inside of it, he probably died trying to get away. The keys were still in the ignition. I pulled him out of the car and got inside. I slammed the door shut. I would have been more scared about the whole situation, but I needed to get out of this area, then I could think clearly. I started the car up and slowly backed out of the parking lot, I drove out onto the street and made it out alive. I made it.

I started driving down the long road which separated the building from the rest of society. I saw a city ahead of me, and it started to look familiar. This was Kingston ahead, I didn't recognize it before since the building I was trapped in was so far away from the city. I was so close to safety and I didn't even realize it. The people of the city will know what's going on, they'll help me. I can tell them my whole story, and I would find my family again. I didn't even know how long it's been when I was in there, probably close to a month or two. I pushed down on the gas pedal even more, eager to get to Kingston, I started crying, but of happiness. I was safe now.

As I drove closer to Kingston I realized that there was nobody here. It was just as a wreck as the building I was at was. What happened in the months I was gone? I started driving slowly and scanned the streets, dead people everywhere. It was abandoned. I started shaking of fear, what was going on? The car made a weird noise and slowed down, it was empty. Where the hell did all of the gas go? I got out of the car and saw a long gasoline trail behind the car I was driving. The gas tank was punctured and I was driving the car as the gas leaked out. Shit, what was I going to do now? I was lost in the abandoned city with nobody around. I pulled my pistol out and slowly moved through the city, I've been through enough shit for one day, can't this just be over? I heard a growl not to far behind me, I turned to see one of those creatures about a hundred feet away from me, staring me down. It screamed, I covered my ears and ran away from it, the thing started chasing me. As I ran through Kingston, the bodies that I thought were dead got up and started chasing me as well. What the hell was going on? Before I knew it I had tons of angry monsters chasing me. I ran faster than I ever had in my life, but I started to slow down and the creatures only sped up. I turned around and saw them darting straight for me. I fell to the ground and pointed my pistol at them, crying. I fired a bullet off and missed, one of the monsters leaped on me and tried strangling me, I kicked my foot out and knocked one of them away from me. More arrived and started ganging up on me.

I kept firing off my gun, but I couldn't hit any of them. I dropped my gun and all of the monsters surrounded me. I backed up against a building and sat there with my eyes closed, waiting to be murdered. A creature leaned in close to get a hold of me when a bullet went straight it's head. Blood splattered all over me and the monster dropped dead. The other monsters looked to see what happened, I did too. There were three people shooting at the creatures, dropping them one by one. Two men and one woman. Once they were all killed, a man ran up to me and grabbed my arm. He had curly, black hair, and was wearing a torn up suit. He looked me directly in the eyes and said,

"It's safe now."

I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up, everyone started running, I ran along with them.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"Didn't you hear the news?" he asked me while running, "the end of the world is here."

We ran for a long time, until we reached a giant hotel. We kept running and we went through the front door. They closed the door and shut it tight behind them, they all took a bunch of breaths. I collapsed on the floor out of exhaustion. Everything faded to black.

I woke up on a bed in a really nice looking room. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, the man in the suit was sitting at a table. He had put on another suit that wasn't torn up, a navy blue and white one. He was drinking coffee at the table. He turned around and smiled when he saw me. He got up and walked towards me, he sat on the bed beside me.

"My name is Charlie Lockwood." he said, shaking my hand.

"Samantha, what happened?" I asked.

"You collapsed of exhaustion it appears." he said.

"No, what is happening outside?"

"Well," he sighed, "it appears the world is ending doesn't it? A huge infection is sweeping the globe. Dead people who are infected come back to life, but as raged creatures. The news are calling them stranglers. That's what everyone calls them, name fits them. All they wanna do is strangle you. Or rip you apart, it depends on their mood."

"Jesus," I said, "that's crazy."

"You can stay here to figure things out, you'll be safe here. I'm planning on building a fortress here, maybe I'll put up some big walls around the place, recruit a bunch of people and build an army. Nothing will ever stop us.

"Thank you." I hugged him.

Charlie was a man of his word, he said he would build an army, and he did. He started getting more and more people, about ten a week I'd say. I watched it all happen, I slowly recovered from all my traumatic experiences in Lockwood, while he kept us all safe. Once he had enough people, he started making uniforms for them, blue with white padding. He then built big walls that surrounded the hotel, this place was unstoppable. They even got old trucks and turned them into war machines. I felt safe here, but something was still not right. I needed to find my family. I also started to fall for Charlie, I liked him a lot, and I think he liked me a lot. We ate dinner together every night, and we always talked. I really liked him. Every night when I went to sleep I would feel bad though, I'd wonder how my family was doing in this mess. Finally, one day I decided I would leave this place, I needed to find my family. Charlie was doing paperwork, managing Lockwood when I confronted him.

"Charlie," I began, "we need to talk about some things."

"Yeah sure, what is it?" he asked.

"I think it's time for me to go. I have a family, and I need to find them."

He sat there for a few minutes in silence, just staring into nothing. He slowly got up and left the room.

"Charlie I'm sorry! I appreciate everything you've done for me! But I need to find them!"

It was no use, he left. I was left alone in his room feeling terrible about what I just did. I sat on the bed and started thinking about what I should tell him to make him feel better, but I couldn't think of anything. After about an hour of me just sitting on the bed waiting for him to come back, he arrived. He barged in the room with something being his back.

"Charlie! I'm sorry!" I cried.

He started tearing up, and he sat down beside me.

"Samantha, please don't do this to me. Don't leave me. You don't understand the horrible experiences I've had with women in the past. Everyone I love always ends up leaving me. Please don't. I'm begging you here."

"Charlie, I like you, I really do. But my husband Jeff is probably worried sick about me. I need to find him. You have to understand me."

Charlie sat there beside me for a long time, he wiped the tears off of his face.

"Okay, you're right. You go find your family. Be safe."

"Thank you Charlie." I hugged him.

I sat up and started walking towards the door, smiling. I was finally going to find my family, after all of this. Before I reached the door, I was grabbed from behind. He put a gag around my mouth and grabbed me around the neck. I tried calling out for someone to help me, but I couldn't scream with the gag on. He started whispering in my ear.

"Everyone I love leaves me," he said, "you're not leaving me. You're gonna stay with me forever."

That is how it happened. That is my full story. I was locked in the basement by Charlie after that, right back where I was before. Locked up and powerless. I was giving up hope now, I wanted to die. I am never going to find Jeff again, I am going to be alone forever. Sometimes I have dreams about Jeff, it's weird. I look forward going to bed every night so I can see him in my dreams. I know that they're not real though, I don't want to admit it, but he's probably dead. I just want to see him again, I want to see Kayla again too. I just want to be a part of a family again.