The Red Room: Origins: Part One

         Nobody expected it to happen. Everything was fine just the day before. Life was good. Normal. Perhaps even boring. People went to work during the day, and came home to their families at night. Politics went on as normal, as did business, the economy, everything. Nobody could've known what was going to happen. I don't even think they could've known what would happen. But it did. And then everything went to hell.
         The first news reports were rather vague. Some people thought the news stations just didn't have all the facts. Some think they were just trying to minimize the chance of mass hysteria. I'd say it was a bit of both.
         At first, the news just reported an increase in missing people. They said that they suspected some big gang thing was going on. Then they started reporting some of the missing people being found, and that in all cases the people appeared to have been mostly devoured. Now they suspected wild animals. Across the entire country. Yeah. That's when people started having trouble believing what the newscasters were telling them. Even then, nobody could believe what was happening. Conspiracy theorists started going on about terrorist attacks and other more "realistic" possibilities.
         But then the reports started coming in of people being randomly attacked by other people, right out in the streets. The public started to panic, now thinking that there was some kind of underground revolution going on, taking over their country. They were so quick to jump to conclusions back then. I guess, looking back, it was kind of funny, in a cynical sort of way.
         Then people started getting sick. Hospitals started filling up faster than they could deal with patients. All of them exhibited the same symptoms: fevers, nausea, general body pain, excessive fatigue. And all of them had been attacked by people. Some of them rambled on about how so-and-so had died and then attacked them. The doctors brushed it off as hallucinations due to the fevers.
         In general, people refused to believe what was going on. That is, until one of their loved ones keeled over, stood back up, and started trying to gnaw on their fleshy parts. Most of the time, that got the point across.
         Either way, it became obvious that what was happening shouldn't have been happening. This was all the stuff of movies. Of big budget special effects. Of British actors with red on them. People don't just die and then come back to life, intent on eating other still-living people.
         That last newscast was one that pretty much anyone still around remembers. I know I do. It's kinda hard to forget something like that.
         "We have received definitive word that... I know this is going to be hard to believe, but it is true. We have received word..." The newscaster worriedly adjusted his tie. "...That the recent mass of attacks are being perpetrated by the recently deceased. From the information we have been able to gather, it would seem that any sort of bite or other bodily fluid contact will seemingly 'infect' the victim, causing them to become sick, then to die, and then to rise, and attack any other living humans in the vicinity. Local law enforcement has informed us that, should you be attacked by one of the recently deceased, the only effective way to stop them is to...I can't believe I'm saying this on live television... Destroy the brain by some means." The newscaster became much more visibly agitated after saying that. "I'm not sure why this is happening, or what's causing this. I've never been a very religious man... But God help us all..." And then he pulled out a gun. There was shouting, the camera jolted to the side, and then a gunshot. Somebody screamed, and you could see people running past the camera to where the newscaster was. Someone said he was dead.
         I didn't watch much more television after that. There didn't seem to be much point to it anymore. I mean, after the end of the world is announced on live television, it kinda puts a damper on things.
         But I digress. This isn't my story that I'm telling. This is someone else's story I need to share, as, unfortunately, he no longer seems to be around to tell it. And it's pretty obvious that he wanted his story told, as he decided to keep record of what happened to him. Clever kid; used technology to its fullest. It looks like he was walking around with an MP3 player and a camera. When he wasn't taking pictures and recording videos, he was recording sound with the player. And when he was doing neither, he was writing in a journal.
         His name was Seth Michaels. According to the recordings, he lived a pretty normal life before everything happened, and hadn't really been effected by everything that led up to all of this. Apparently, he worked at some electronics store in some mall. And apparently, that's where he was when the shit hit the fan, so to speak.
         Now, the beginning stuff is kind of hard to make out, due to him having been in a hurry, but I'll put everything together as best I can.
         It was the early afternoon. Things were slow, not too many people coming into his store, not a lot of traffic in the mall in general. That was when Seth noticed the security guards running by. He'd never seen them move with such urgency before. Usually, they were relatively laid back. Seth also noticed that a couple of them were carrying guns. Curious, he walked outside the store's entrance to see what the commotion was.
         There was shouting. One of the guards was yelling at someone to get on the ground with their hands out. The guard's gun was raised. And there was the person, slow walking towards the guard, arms slightly outstretched, hands grasping at the air. Seth then decided to put his nifty camera phone to use, and start recording.
         Within seconds of hitting the record button, there was a bang. It was deafening, amplified by the mall's walls. Then there was another. And another. Red streamed out of newly opened holes in the person that the guard had been shouting at. But they kept walking, seemingly impervious to the pain.
         The person kept walking right up to the guard. The person grabbed the guard. The person started biting the guard. The person started eating the guard.
         By now, the general populous of the mall had already begun panicking due to the gunshots. The other guards tried to pry the attacker off their fallen comrade. And then from behind, another of the guards was grabbed.
         "Shitshitshitshitshit." Seth cursed as he seemingly began to panic as well. The camera whirled around, taking in the rest of the mall. Everyone was running in every direction, except for the ones that were shambling about, grabbing at anyone they could. There weren't that many, maybe five that the camera caught. But then there was the sound of glass shattering in the background. And then the camera started moving towards the noise.
         Seth rounded a corner, and you could see one of the mall entrances. One of the glass doors was shattered open, but people weren't trying to get out here. They were coming in. Slowly, like the other attackers already in the mall. There had to be at least a hundred of them out there, probably more.
         The camera slowly panned across, taking in the surreal view. And that's when Seth seemed to notice their injuries. The majority of the people coming in were covered in blood. Some didn't have any visible sources of it on themselves, while on others, it was clear as day. There were quite a few with large chunks of missing flesh in various places. A couple with missing limbs. A few with missing facial features. And one missing the entire lower half of their body, slowly crawling across the floor towards Seth.
         "Zombies," he said abruptly to seemingly nobody but himself. "You have to be fucking kidding me. Zombies. Here. At my mall. In real life. What the hell." He suddenly didn't sound nearly as panicked as he had earlier. In fact, he sounded almost calm.
         The camera turned, back towards the inside of the mall. People were still running around like mad, now seemingly avoiding this entrance. As he walked, Seth turned the camera on himself.
         "Hi," he spoke to the camera, "My name is Seth Michaels. Looks like I'm gonna be recording this in case something bad happens to me. If anything does, then whoever finds this, I give full permission to make a movie about me. Or write a book. Or something. Whatever.
         "Anyways. Zombies are attacking the mall. As in undead, slow moving, 'Hi, we're gonna eat your brains' zombies. At least, I think that's what they are. I mean, this is like something out of a movie or something. People are panicking all over the place here, trying to find some way to get out. And in a way, I kinda have to feel sorry for them... Mainly because they don't have the back exits like I do. But yeah. I'm actually heading back to my crappy electronics store now, for probably the last time ever. We've got some stuff in the back that may make my life just a little bit easier." It was also beginning to seem as though Seth was loosing his grip on reality as well. Of course, in a situation like that, I don't really blame him...
         So Seth got back to his store safely. The camera followed him around, checking if anyone had, for any reason, decided to seek shelter in an electronics store. Thankfully for him, nobody did. After checking, he quickly slid shut the big plate glass doors at the front of the store, and locked them.
         "I don't want anyone following me out, leading any of those to me," he explained to the camera. "You see, I prefer to live beyond just today. And having all those people being all crazy while following me? Yeah, not gonna help."
         After the door was as secured as a big piece of glass can get, he made his way to the back room, and began rummaging around, all while still holding the camera. Soon after, he held up a long, black metal rod.
         "This used to be part of a microphone stand," he said proudly. "Until some little kid decided that it would be a fun toy to play with. Ended up messing it up pretty bad. Not bad enough to force the parents to pay, but bad enough to take it off the floor. Good thing we kept it back here." He laughed, a kind of forced "haha, let's try to lighten the mood of a funeral" type of laugh.
         He then grabbed a set of keys off the back desk, and used them to unlock the cage holding all of the high-priced merchandise.
         "And now, a couple more things to help me document, just in case my phone dies or something..." He pulled out both a digital camera, and a digital voice recorder. "Always helps to be prepared." He quickly unpackaged them and stuffed them in his pockets. "And now, for my exit."
         As he walked towards the rooms back door, though, there was a loud crash from somewhere nearby.
         "Shit, that sounded like it was in the hallway..." He picked up speed, flinging the back door open, then stopped, standing in the doorway.
         The crash had been the sound of a delivery truck. A delivery truck that had just lodged itself into the doorway that led outside, to Seth's escape.
         "What the fuck?!" he shouted. "Damnit, no! This was supposed to be EASY! This was supposed to be me just going right out the back door, past all those fuckers, and getting to my car! Damnit! DAMNIT!" Now he was starting to panic again. But there was also anger in his voice.
         And then there was a moan. Seth went quiet immediately, and turned back to the truck. The driver was slowly making his way out of the cab, obviously much worse for the wear. A large chunk of metal was sticking out of the side of his throat, and the crash had broken one of his arms almost clean off. But the driver didn't really mind the injuries too much, as he seemed far more interested in Seth.
         "You son of a bitch," Seth growled. "You cut off my best chance of escape..." The only response he got was another of those moans. "Ha, yeah, of course you have nothing to say, cause you're DEAD, and I'm gonna make you even MORE dead!"
         And then the camera dropped to the ground with a clatter. The view tumbled a bit, then came to a rest on a nice, dramatic sideways angle, showing only Seth's legs as he lunged towards the undead. There was a thick, meaty thunking sound, accompanied by the twang of metal. Then another. And another. And another. Blood pattered on the ground as one of the bodies fell. And then the camera was picked up.
         "Damnit, the screen cracked..." The view of the camera swung as Seth kicked the fallen zombie. "That's for making me drop my phone." He then turned the camera back towards himself again. His upper body now had a decent amount of blood on it, and on his face he wore a somewhat frenzied look. "And now, I've got to find a different way out, because this jackass here decided he would drive through my original exit. Fantastic!"
         He went back through his store again, coming to the front entrance. There weren't nearly as many people running around anymore as there were before, but there were quite a few more of them shambling about, chasing down the few remaining survivors. Seth unlocked the door, flung it open, and stepped out into the mall, looking around. He was also kind enough to pan the camera around, showing the chaos that had wracked the mall within the last 15 minutes.
         Bodies littered the walkway. All sorts of people, young and old, had fallen. I'm not entirely sure if they had been trampled in the rush, or just caught by zombies, but either way, there were a lot of dead people there. And a lot of them were being eaten, too. Groups of zombies were hunched over most of the dead bodies, pulling, grabbing, biting.
         "And now's when things start getting interesting," Seth said to himself. He turned the camera back to himself again. "Ok, so there's another back entrance on the other side of the main entrance over where they were all getting in... If that made sense. Basically, I'm going to go through another store's back door. And hopefully not have that blocked off by a truck as well."
         Seth started jogging down the walkway, the camera view swaying back and forth. He ran past a small group of zombies, keeping the camera on them a bit, showing them eating far more up close than would be pleasant to watch. I'm guessing he was trying to get some good footage that he could sell in case he made it out. Like I said before, clever.
         After a bit more jogging, he stopped, standing outside of a bookstore. So far, it seemed as though none of the zombies were following him, or at least, none were close enough to pose any sort of threat. After a bit more checking around (and some more dramatic camera panning), Seth entered the store and started making his way to the back.
         As he walked, his foot caught on something. Or, more rather, something caught his foot. The camera looked down, and Seth realized that in his rush to get back, he had walked right over a zombie that was laying on the floor. And as he had passed, it grabbed him, and was now pulling its mouth towards his ankle.
         "I don't think so, Tim," he said as he rammed the pole down at the zombie's head. There was a sickening crunching sound as the pole pierced its skull and hit the ground underneath. The zombie went limp, immediately loosing its grasp on his foot.
         After making it to the back room (and having checked behind every shelf on the way), Seth pointed the camera at himself again.
         "Well, it looks like they're pretty much your basic, generic zombies," he said with a slight grin. "Just like the movies. Slow, stupid, hungering for flesh... And they die if you destroy the brain. Which means they have a definite and easy to exploit weakness. But alas, as much as I wish I could stick around and clear out this mall, I have a car to get to, and a dying phone battery."
         Quickly, he moved through the back room, making his way out into the back hallway, and then to the door leading outside. He opened it, and surveyed his surroundings.
         There were zombies. Too many to count. Most of them still making their way into the mall, but still a pretty large number scattered around the parking lot as well.
         "Well hell, this is gonna be fun," he said, as he started running. "If I... Don't make it... Make stuff up... For the movie..." As he ran, zombies started to turn towards him, their moans echoing out through the parking lot. The ones nearby started reaching and grabbing for him. The camera caught the pole swinging a few times, always shortly followed by a dull thunk. And then Seth stopped.
         "Jesus, I need to exercise more," he said as he quickly unlocked the car he had stopped at. He hopped in, locked the door, and started the engine, breathing a sigh of relief. For a bit, he just sat there, panning the camera around, viewing out of all the windows. Zombies were approaching him, slowly but surely.
         "Well, looks like I get to live for a bit longer," he said as he threw the car into drive and tore out of the parking lot.
         Out on the road, he panned the camera around some more. There were zombies seemingly everywhere. There were cars abandoned all around the road. In the distance, he could see smoke and fire. Then there was a beeping noise.
         "Looks like the battery's about to die," he said quietly as he drove. And then the picture goes black.
         That's the first video that's saved on here. I actually had to pull it off the phone before I could watch it, due to the screen being cracked as it was. And of course, there's more here, too. Both the digital camera and voice recorder he "borrowed." And all three have several more recordings. But it's already getting late today, and I've got my own survival I need to worry about. But I can say that he did get out of that little situation rather well. Of course, the beginning days weren't nearly as bad as what's happened since then, but still. I give him credit just for that.

To be continued