The Unknown Disease

The Unknown Disease
(Book 1)
Apocalypse
Welcome to the first installment of The Unknown Disease (TUD) we hope you enjoy it.

November 5th, 2004, Georgia.
It was gonna be the end of the days, Nathan, Theo, Zoey, and Riley. We were all stocking up on food and ammo since we heard on the news that the world is going to hell in Asia. They’re taking the wounded here so they can get help. Apparently, it’s some sort of infection, we’re not sure how it works but, we’ll find out. Right now we’re all in our tree house, talking, Nathan making lunch for all of us, Zoey and Riley are both whispering to each other, giggling, and me? I'm cleaning some of our old guns, a 1911, two 12 Gauge Shotgun’s, and a Glock 17. Oh, and Theo is upstairs doing I think some reinforcements since people keep sneaking into our treehouse. We’ve all been friends since.. 6th, maybe 7th grade, now we’re in 10th grade, and most of us have lost one or both of our parents, Theo and Riley being those of us who have lost both, me, Nathan, and Zoey have just lost one, me? I lost my mom, in a car crash. “Alright, lunch is ready!” Nathan calls to everyone, Theo comes down the stairs “What are we having?” he asks. “grilled cheese,” Nathan says. Then Zoey and Riley go to the table and start eating. “Are you gonna eat?” Theo asks me. “Yeah, sure” I wash my hands and go eat. “You know, I was thinking, can we all go to the cemetery later? See our parents all together?” Zoey asks. “That’d be nice,” Nathan says. “Mhm,” Theo agrees. “When?” Riley asks. “How about later after we eat?” Zoey suggests. “That's good with you?” Then, everyone just looks over at me. “Uh.. yeah, sure,” I say. “Alright then, later after we eat we’ll all head down to the cemetery,” Theo says. We finish eating, and Theo and I finish doing what we were doing, then all of us start heading down the ladder to head off to the cemetery.

We all make it there and see our parents' graves.. We say hi, catch up a bit, not sure why but we just did, and then we noticed a crumbled headstone. “Hey, what's that?” Theo asks. “Not sure,” I say. Nathan kneels beside it and fixes it a bit to see the name. “Alfred.. Pennyworth.' 'Nathan says. “Died doing what he loved most, he was a construction worker” “Hm.”' Zoey says. “That's odd, who would destroy the headstone?” “Maybe someone who didn’t like him?” Riley says. “Maybe.” I agree. We finish saying goodbye to our dead parents and head back to the treehouse. “Hey guys, I'm gonna go to my room, okay?” I say. “Alright, I’ll let you know when dinner’s ready when I make it,” Nathan says. Zoey and Riley are in their room, it’s marked with their names above the door frame, and Nathan Theo and I all share a room, also marked with our names above the door. I lay in my bed, thinking about this new infection shown on the news, we haven’t heard anything else about it. As I stare up at the ceiling I hear something outside my window, though I just think it’s Theo doing something outside. Then I hear strange gurgling sounds, and I see someone climbing through the window. I sit up. “Theo, that you?” I ask. Then I realize, this isn’t Theo, and a person I don’t know stands in my room, half of his face is rotting and dead looking, his arm is missing, and he hurdles towards me, though I push him away. “GUYS! HELP!!” I yell, everyone eventually runs in, they pin the undead guy down. I grab my bat and slam it into his head numerous times until he stops moving, and we all look at him. “Let’s uh… let’s check his ID,” Theo suggests. “Yeah, good idea,” Nathan says as he checks the dead man for his ID, he eventually finds it and reads. “Guys, you won’t believe this..” Nathan says, his eyes wide. “What?” Zoey asks. “Who is he??” Riley also asks. “He’s.. Alfred Pennyworth.” Nathan looks up at all 4 of us. “But he’s dead,” I say. “Not anymore, at least not until you killed him, again,” Theo says. “Could this be The Virus we heard about?” I ask. “Maybe,” Zoey says. “Then.. What about the injured people? The ones they brought in from Asia?” Riley asks. “Maybe.. They’re gone too, or well.. Resurrected.” Nathan says. “Gravewalkers,” I mutter. “What?” Theo asks me. “That’s what we’ll call them, Gravewalkers.” I declare. “I guess it makes sense,” Nathan says. “What do you think happens to those who are bitten? Or scratched? That's what they saw on the people who were injured.” he asks. “My guess is that they’re infected with.. Whatever disease that caused this, and eventually, they die, and come back.” I say. “As Gravewalkers?” Zoey asks. “Mhm,” I say. “Oh god..” Riley is frightened by the thought of what might happen to our world. “I think we’ll be okay,” Nathan says with a slight laugh. “I mean if this is like a uh.. Zombie Apocalypse, I think we’ll do fine.” “you never know,” Theo says. “We don’t know how bad this can get.” “I agree with Theo,” Zoey says. “We need to prepare for this,” I say. “Mhm..” Riley agrees with me. “You guys make a fair point,” Nathan says to us all. “We should go to the gun store, or something, take some ammo, and we need to stock up on food,” Theo says. “I can work on reinforcements here,” Zoey says. “Me too, I wanna help,” Riley says. “Alright, Nathan, you wanna stay here, make sure they’re safe? At least until me and him get back.” Theo says, looking over at me. “Sure, you guys stay safe, and take this,” Nathan says, handing a 1911 to Theo. “Alright, we’ll be back,” Theo assures the rest of them. “Let's go,” I say. “Alright,” Theo says, as he heads toward the exit and starts climbing down the ladder, me following behind him.

As we start walking off, Theo asks me this. “Hey, why do you write in that book so much?” I look over at him and say: “just documenting things, I'm kind of turning our lives into a story.” “That's kinda cool,” Theo says. “Can I read it?” “Not until it’s finished,” I say with a slight grin. “Alright man, whatever you say,” Theo says. “But wouldn’t we all be dead for it to be done?” he asks. “Not necessarily, now that this.. Infection is here, I can make a story about it.” I say. “Ah, alright,” Theo says. We eventually make our way to a nearby gun shop in Atlanta. “Alright, we go in, get some ammo, and head out,” Theo says. And we walk in, to find it empty. “What the hell?” I say. “Let’s just.. Grab the ammo, maybe a few handguns,” Theo says. “I say we grab all the ammo we can carry, and all the guns we can hold,” I say. “But what about other people??” Theo asks. “Screw them, if anyone anywhere wanted to help us, they would have, no one helped any of us when any of our parents died, no one,” I say. Then I start grabbing boxes of 9mm and 12 gauge. “C’mon man, we can’t do this,” Theo says. “Just start grabbing things,” I say. “..fine,” Theo says sadly, as he starts grabbing guns off a wall, a scoped M14, a Glock 18, and a 10 Gauge shotgun. As I notice, I start grabbing boxes of 7.62x55mm, and 10 gauge slugs. “Alright, I got it all,” I say. “Me too..” Theo says. “Alright, let's go back to the treehouse, then we head out for food,” I say, walking out of the empty shop, Theo following behind me.

Then, we turn a corner to go home, and we run into a horde of those creatures. “Oh my god..” Theo says, almost dropping the guns. They all turn to look at us, making gurgling sounds, we see military vehicles all over the roads, empty, and the Gravewalkers start running at us. “RUN!!” I say, and we run. “UNDER THE TANK!” we run fast, carrying the guns and ammo, we crawl under the tank, but the Gravewalkers see us, and start crawling under. “SHOOT THEM!.” I scream, and Theo starts firing at them. “A HATCH!” I look up and see an open hatch under the tank, and I climb in, and offer Theo my hand. “GET IN! COME ON!” I yell. And pull Theo in, with the guns. There's a dead army man in the tank, I crawl over to him to see if he has anything on him, and then he starts moving, I get startled and jump back, hitting my head on the roof of the tank. “SHIT! SHOOT IT!.” I yell, my voice echoing. “Theo shoots it in the head, but the sound is so loud it hurts both of our ears, and we begin crawling around on the floor of the tank, covering our ears. Eventually, our hearing comes back, we can still hear the dead pounding on the sides of the tank, then we realize the top hatch is open, I go up and look around. I see the horde beginning to clear out but some remain, too many to take on. So I close the hatch. “Never.. Fire that in a tank..” I say. “Ha.. like I would want to..” Theo says. “Once they clear out, we should be able to move,” I tell him. “Yeah, alright,” he says. “Hey.. if we never make it out of here, just know, you were one of the best friends I’ve ever had,” Theo tells me. “We’ll make it out. I promise.” I tell him. I open the hatch again, and I see a mounted gun, though I decide not to use it so I won't make much noise, all that's left of the Dead is one Crawler under the tank trying to get in. “Alright, come on,” I say. Me and Theo climb out of the tank, and run home with the guns and ammo. “We’re back,” I say. “Hey, did you guys run into any trouble?” Zoey asks us. “Ha, a whole hell of a lot of trouble, there was a horde of them, we had to hide in a tank and nearly lose the supplies,” I tell her. “And Theo got scared.” “I did not!” he says, embarrassed. “Oh yes you did, but trust me, anyone would have been scared,” I say. “You were the one screaming the whole time,” Theo says. “I wasn’t screaming the whole time” “Haha, you both were scared,” Riley says. “You would have been too had you been there,” I tell her. “Now we have to head back out for food..” I say. “Atlanta is not safe, but we need to go in,” Theo says. “We’ll watch out for Gravewalkers, and hordes, we’ll be back,” I tell them. And we head out to a grocery store. “Hey uh.. Thanks for getting us out of there” Theo tells me. “No problem, you think I'm just gonna leave you?” I say. “Maybe,” he says.


November 6th, 2004, Georgia (10:05 AM)
We’re all in our rooms today, the trip to the food store was a success, nothing interesting to document, except that it was empty as well, I'm beginning to think Atlanta is a dead city. Our treehouse is a little ways outside the city. Me and Theo made it back home safely, you know, I think it’s kind of odd no one has called me by my name for.. A while, a few years. Though I'm not gonna just tell you it, I'm gonna wait until someone says it so you’ll have to figure it out. And, I know there may be a chance no one will read any of this, my book I mean. But if you are reading this, just stay away from Atlanta, or any major city, stick to small towns, travel light, trust me, it helps. And if you have to go to one, but you don’t know how to get around, find a library. They have plans of the city, blueprints, everything. Just stay safe. Zoey and Riley finished reinforcements on the treehouse, like wrapping some metal around the trunk of the tree, putting boards on the windows, and changing the ladder so we can bring it up at night, that, is when they’re most active. Tomorrow I'm gonna use the axe in the cellar next to the treehouse to chop up some small trees, and some big ones so we can make a spiked barricade around the treehouse, maybe a gate too, you can never be too safe with these things, they smell like crap too. “Still writing in that book?” Theo asks. “Yep, writing down some plans,” I tell him. “What are they?” Nathan asks me. “About reinforcements for the treehouse,” I say. “Like what?” Theo asks. “Like a spiked fence made of logs, and a large gate to go around the treehouse,” I tell them. “Oo, cool, think I can help?” Nathan asks me. “Yeah, if you guys want to,” I say. “We’ll do it.” They both say.


November 6th, 2004, Georgia (12:37 AM)
A few hours later, we get done with the spike barricade, it took a lot of work to get this done fast, though we still need to make the gate, right now I'm outside, sitting in one of our chairs, writing all of this, and, while I do this, Theo and Nathan are both working on designs for our gate. So far we have something that looks like a broken sword stabbed into a tree as our symbol to put on the gate. I think it looks pretty nice. “Hey! We’re done with the designs! Time to make this thing!” Nathan calls over to me. “Alright! Gimme just one second!” I then just set my book down and go help them. I'll have to write about anything interesting that happens after we build this thing.
November 6th, 2004, Georgia (1:52 PM)
We got done building the gate, and we put it up, so now we have a functional wall, they won’t be climbing it, and there's only one way in and one way out so no one will be sneaking up on us, we did good, while we were building a few Gravewalkers snuck up on us, no one got hurt though, we got rid of them before they could cause us any damage. Tomorrow, I don't know what we’ll do.


November 7th, 2004, Georgia (9:47 AM)
I woke up from a nightmare this morning, about my mom. This is how it went: I woke up from my bed, and I heard something outside the window, banging on the trunk of the tree. I look outside, down at the trunk. And I see someone there. So I walked out of the room, climb out of the treehouse. And I see her. I see my mom, she’s been turned into one of those things, she’s just there, banging her head on the trunk of the tree, lifeless, dead. That nightmare was.. Not that eventful, but still, seeing my mom.. It’s difficult. Anyway! I went downstairs. Or well, fell down them. Since I was trying to write this as I was walking, both Zoe and Riley laughed at me. “Uhh….” I said after I got up off the ground. “The uh…… the stairs are slippery.” “suuuuure.” Zoe said. “Do you really need to write so much Conlan?” Theo asks. “yes. I want to write about the things that happen.” I say. “Fair enough, but why?” Riley asks. “Because maybe someone will read it, and know about us.” I tell them. “At least maybe someone will remember us if we… you know.” Nathan says. “Mhm, that's why I'm writing it.” I say. And finally, one of them called me by my actual name, “Conlan” It's been a while.

“So, who wants breakfast?” Nathan asks. “Ooo, can we have waffles??” Riley asks. “Yeah, waffles!” Theo exclaims. “Sure,” Nathan says. “Are the rest of you okay with that?” he asks. “Mhm.” me and Zoey both say at the same time. “Allright.” Nathan says as he walks to the kitchen, and begins making waffles. I'm not gonna write about us eating waffles, cause that's just weird, all i can say is,, they were good. Then, there was a loud crack outside. We all scrambled to the window to see what it was. And we saw them, the horde from Atlanta. Surrounding the barricade around the treehouse, they don’t seem to notice us so they’re just passing around it and to the west. We all went to the ground as soon as we realized what was happening. “I think.. They may move on.” Nathan whispered. “Me too, i’ll grab the M14 just in case.” Theo said. “No, grab the 1911, you won’t need the rifle.” I say. “It’ll be easier to shoot if they get in.” “he.. Has a point.” Riley said. “Alright.” Theo says while he pulls out his 1911. “Don’t shoot unless you have to.” I tell them all. “They’re attracted to sound.” “I won't.” Theo says. There's a loud crack again. They seem to be slamming themselves against the gate. Trying to get around. “There's so many..” Zoey says scared. “It’s what we faced in Atlanta on our gun run.” Theo says. And yes, I am writing this out as it happens. “Conlan, what do you think we should do?” Riley asks me. “I think.. We need to stay silent. Not quiet. Silent. We let them pass. And if they get in we start firing. We can’t risk them being inside.” I say. “I agree with that plan. We lay low.” Nathan says. They all agree with him. “I hope you're writing all this down.” Theo said jokingly. “What do you think I'm doing? Writing about how we ate waffles?” I answer back. “Maybe.” Theo says. After a few hours of staying silent. The last few set off and are gone. “Alright. I think they’re gone.” I say standing up to look out the window. And I see a gravewalker, caught on the fence. “There's one on the fence, I'll take care of it.” I tell them, as I climb down the ladder. “Be careful!” I hear Riley call out. “I will!” I say. And I walk up to the gravewalker, and I pick up one of the metal rods we have that we reinforced the gate with, and as I do this, the gravewalker looks over at me, making odd noises. I freeze. I recognize this person. It was…well…. My mom. I stand there for a good minute. The metal rod in hand. And.. this…. Thing, does something completely unexpected. It holds out its hand to me, and calls out “help.. Me….” I step back a bit. “I- mom…” I say. The gravewalker goes back to making gurgling noises. “I'm sorry.. Forgive me…” I say as I slowly raise the metal rod. And send it through her skull. And then, I end up on my knees, crying. I'm not sure why, but the only thing I remember after that, is me sitting in my room, by myself. Just thinking.

Then, for some reason, Riley walks in. “Are you okay?” She asks. “Yeah, I'm fine.” I tell her. “What happened?” She asks. “..that gravewalker.. It was my mom.” I say. “Oh.. I'm sorry, Conlan.” Riley says, sitting down next to me. “Don’t be, nothing bad happened.” I say. “But it was your mom, you shouldn’t have had to do that.” She tells me. “She said something.” I say, stopping her from saying anything else. “Said something? But she was dead. How could she say something??” She asks. “I'm not sure. But I know she said something.” I tell her. “What did she say?” She asks me. “She.. held out her hand to me, and she said.. Help me. But her voice was all weird. It was hard to hear, but I know that's what she said.” I tell her. “Oh.. alright, hey, will you be okay?” She asks. “I’ll be fine.” I say. “Alright.. Everyone is worried about you Conlan, just.. If you need anything, let us know, okay?” She says. “Okay.” I tell her. And she then walks out of the room, and I’m left alone again. You know, I'm not even sure why I'm writing this, or why I even started, no ones going to care enough to read it. Not now.

“God dammit, they’re everywhere!” I hear someone say outside. A guy's voice. “Well, that just means we’ll have to be careful, right?” A girl says. I just sit there listening. “Hey, a treehouse. Looks protected.” the guy says. “Maybe there are people in there.” the girl says. I go up to the window, and I see them. They see me. The guy is dressed in jeans, a white shirt and a dark gray hoodie, he seems to be, maybe 17 years old. And the girl is dressed in some kind of overcoat with a blue shirt, also in jeans, maybe around 16. “Hey! Who are you?!” The guy yells up. “Depends! Who are you!?” I yell back, neither of us are yelling angrily, we only yell so we can hear each other. “I'm Eli! This is Jackie!” the guy says. And the girl waves. “I’m Conlan!” I tell them “I'll come down, gimme a sec!” I then start climbing out the window, and to the ground. Then I opened the gate. “Hello.” Eli said. “There are more people inside.” I tell them. “I think they may be okay with you guys.” “We hope they are.” Jackie says. I start writing all this down in the book. “So… Eli, and… Jackie, right?” I ask. “Mhm.” Eli says. “Why are you writing in a book?” Jackie says. “Oh uh.. Well, I’m writing down everything that happens, now that we’re pretty much in an apocalypse, I figured maybe someone would read it if we.. you know.” I tell her. “Interesting, could I read it later?” Jackie asks. “Sure, once you meet the others.” I say.

After talking with Eli and Jackie a bit, i eventually let them enter the barricade and call out to the others. “Hey! Guys! Theres some new people down here!” I yell. I then see Zoey and Theo look out the window of the treehouse. They turn to the others and talk for a second before coming down. “Who’re they?” Nathan asks. “This is Eli.” I say. Eli waves at them. “And this is Jackie.” “Hello.” Jackie says. “Can we trust them?” Zoey whispers to Theo. “not sure, but if Conlan trusts them, we should too. For now anyway.” Theo whispers back. “So these people are, Nathan.” I say. “Hi.” Nathan says. “And Zoey.” I say. “Hello.” Zoey says. “Riley.” “welcome to our treehouse.” she says. “And Theo.” “hello.” Theo says. “It’s nice to meet you all.” Jackie says. “So.. Nathan, Zoey, Riley, Theo, and Conlan?” Eli asks. “Mhm.” I say. “Well.. welcome to, The Lion’s Den.” I tell them. “Lion’s Den?” Eli asks. “Yeah thats what we call this place.” I say. “It’s a nice name.” Jackie said smiling. “I think we’d like to have it.” she then pulled out a G18, aiming it at all of them ready to fire. “Yeah, agreed.” Eli said, pulling out his knife. Every one of us stayed silent, and i think we all know how this ends since im writting this in. but stil. I see that Theo has a hold on the grip of his 1911. Ready to draw and fire. Both Zoey and Riley have stepped back, since they have no weapon. “We don’t want to have to fight you.” Theo said. “Thats why you won’t have to.” Jackie said. Then, she fired on Riley, hitting her in the stomach. “AHHH!” she screamed. Then Theo drawed his 1911, shot Jackie. I ran to pick up the metal rod from earlier. Nathan started punching Eli. i grabbed the rod, and came up behind Elie and hit him in the side of the head. “Ah…” he said before passing out and falling to the ground. Jackie is spitting up blood, gripping her throat. Theo had hit her square in the middle of the neck. She’s gagging and therres just.. Blood, everywhere. “God dammit..” I say. “Conlan, we can’t.. Just have someone enter like that anymore.” Nathan said. “AH!...” Riley is still yelling. Zoey has already started dragging her up the ladder, to get the first aid kit and help her out. “Come on, lets go.” I say. “I’ll get this one in the cellar. Interrogate later.” Nathan says, dragging Eli to the cellar. “Alright, lets go.” Theo said holstering his 1911, and climbing up the ladder, me following behind him.
I know this event may seem really badly explained, and out of nowhere, but thats how it felt. It was out of nowhere with no explanation. I really hope we can live long enough to see how this ends. But im running out of pages, so i’ll have to stop here. I hope.. If someone is reading this. Thank you. For taking to the to read this. I have no idea what’ll happen in the future. But hopefully it’ll end, fast. When your done reading the rest of the books, wherever they’ll be, maybe you could tell everyone about what we have done? I dunno.. Im not sure if we’ll even do anything good for the world. Anyway. I hope you survive, and god bless you.

(more below)

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To Be Continued
Cast:
Nathan
Theo
Zoey
Riley
Narrator

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Written and Edited by: Zach and Hunter

Story by: Zach and Hunter

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