The Regulator (Complete First Draft)

Chapter 7: Ivan - Innocence

Ivan lay awake in bed, frightened. He always told himself he could be strong in these situation, but he was a lot more afraid than he expected to be. Nick wasn’t here, all his friends seemed to be asleep, but he laid in his bed wide awake. He could hear the distant pop-pop of gunshots becoming more and more frequent. That one shot earlier in the night was bad enough. But this? This was terrifying to him. What was going on? There was no one to tell him what was going on. There was no way to defend himself if something happened. He knew he had to move if he wanted to live, but he couldn’t even make himself un curl his toes, let alone get out of bed. His friend Zach was across the room, sleeping like a baby. Ivan envied him, he wished he could be that peaceful right now.

As Ivan lay still he suddenly saw a light dancing across the windows of the cabin. He heard footsteps quickly rush up the steps and then the door swing wide open with a loud “Snap!” as it hit the wall behind it. Ivan jumped up out of bed in shock, the rest of the campers in the cabin all quickly and groggily sat up. The person who had just ran in quickly grabbed for a walkie-talkie on his belt and said into it, in a familiar voice, “Nick it’s okay, you’re groups fine, I got ‘em.”

“Who are you?” Ivan asked first, mustering enough courage to confront this thing that had just barged into their cabin. He was talking to Nick, so they couldn’t be all bad.

“It’s me, Andrew, Ivan. I’m taking you guys to my cabin. We’re having a little incident, so you’re gonna stay there with my group and Annaliese.” Andrew said. Ivan could detect distress in his voice, but for the most part Andrew seemed calm.

“Do we need to bring anything?” Zach asked, sitting up from bed and slipping his shoes on. Ivan decided to do the same thing.

“No, just get your shoes on and come with me. You’ll be back here by morning.” Andrew said.

Ivan and the other boys quickly put their shoes on and lined up with Andrew. Andrew counted them off, ensuring every one of the six of them was there. He then hustled them out the door.

Outside things were getting chaotic fast. Every cabin had it’s lights on, with every kid standing on the porch. People were rushing past Ivan and the others holding all sorts of weapons. Rifles, Shotguns, handguns, hammers, rakes, axes. Ivan could hear a constant and annoying buzzing sound coming from every single radio. It was driving him insane just listening to the buzzing as he tried to follow Andrew through the crowd.

The crowd was actually disorienting. Ivan had no idea this many people were still at the camp! All the sounds, flashing lights, rushing people, gunshots, and just his general tiredness were too much for Ivan to handle. He could feel himself getting dizzier and dizzier, losing Andrew in the crowd just because of his disorientation. It was becoming genuinely difficult for him to tell what he was doing.

Then something hit him. It hit hard too. Ivan felt himself fall hard onto his back. He looked up and saw what appeared to be a mal-nourished man standing above him. He had no shirt and gray skin. He began to bend down towards Ivan when a gunshot rang out. Ivan screamed and covered his ears which were now ringing like crazy. He felt some kind of liquid splash on to his face, and then heavy weight fall on his chest as the man fell on him. Ivan’s disorientation began to fade away, his eye sight came back to him fully. Andrew was standing over him, pushing the mans body off of Ivan. The body rolled off of him, and Ivan turned to see his twisted, undead face with a bullet hole right in the forehead. Ivan screamed.

“You’re fine, you’re fine!” Andrew shouted. Andrew knew Ivan was a tough kid, seeing him actually scream was terrifying in a sense. “Get up we’ve gotta go!” Andrew shouted. Another walker began shambling toward Andrew and the Group. Andrew promptly raised his shotgun and shot it in the face. This horde had come from the back of camp. They were dealing with two massive hordes hitting the camp from both sides. “Let’s go!” Andrew shouted.