《After Z》Chapter Ten
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The next few days fell into a simple routine. Nick would get up with the dawn and make a pot of coffee over the campfire, hand-grinding the beans he’d brought from home. It was a process that took significantly longer than it would have if he’d brought the electric grinder from the kitchen, but he didn’t know how much longer the campsite would have power.
To be honest he’d given a lot of thought to the power grid – more specifically, the nuclear power plants over in Zion. How long would they run? Did the government have enough cohesion to keep engineers there? If not, would they be able to shut down safely?
He was probably being silly. There were probably protocols to avoid a catastrophic meltdown. Right?
And what about in other countries, with less regulation? Had the zombies spread beyond the United States? In almost every scenario he could think of, the pandemic would go global… unless it was something like 28 Days Later, in which case it could be confined to England, or the Omega Man remake where it was just LA. But those weren’t really zombies, and from what little he’d seen on the internet these ones looked like your garden variety flesh-eaters, Night of the Living Dead style… but even that was speculation.
Even then, undead monstrosities came in different flavors. Were they the fast kind or the slow kind? Did they have a pack telepathy, or were they acting en masse through individual volition? Did they have enhanced senses, or could they be fooled with the old “paint yourself in gore and shamble around” trick? Were headshots the only solution, or would dismemberment work?
Man, there were so many permutations. He’d been making a list of options in a little notebook he’d packed, but honestly, field research was the only way to be sure. And for that, he’d have to leave the forest preserve.
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Nick did not feel up to that.
So, instead, he’d stuck to routine. After his morning coffee he’d have breakfast. For now that was freeze-dried eggs, but he hoped to get enough of a handle on finding food in the preserve that he’d be able to leave his non-perishables for emergencies. That’s what took up most of each day… exploring the park, trying to find food. He’d brought a field guide on edible plants of the Great Plains region, so he’d grab that and go around looking for edibles. That first day he managed to find a patch of wild onion that supplemented his army surplus MRE dinner, and he did spot a cluster of mushrooms – but he wasn’t feeling quite so brave or desperate as to be able to dig into them.
Yet.
And traps. His Wilderness Survival Guide had a section on building snare traps, so he’d been trying to figure that out. Some meat would probably be good, and the Guide even had a section on how to dress and clean meat, so he’d be able to do that when he caught something.
Occasionally he’d spot another camper – a woman walking her dog, a group of kids wearing scouting uniforms, a jogger or two – and he wondered if they knew what was going on. If they really got it, and whether or not it was his responsibility – or his right – to tell them about the hellscape they’d be walking into once they left the forest preserve. If he had a humanitarian duty to try and get them to stay.
After the incident with the guy on the highway he didn’t feel like trying. But maybe he should? What would he say, though? How would he do it without coming off like a crazy person? Mostly, he just avoided other people. Some things even the apocalypse couldn’t change.
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After lunch, or whenever he’d get tired of foraging, Nick would relax at camp with his tiny AM radio. His cell had long ago lost its signal and had been relegated to the status of “pocketwatch,” but he could catch radio signals from the outside world… and what he heard wasn’t very comforting.
“…police action against the riots in Chicago continue, spreading North and West from the Loop…”
“…no comment on shortages leaving store shelves empty. Senate Republicans blame…”
“…decrying a lack of Federal coordination, leaving it up to state Governors to deploy their National Guards…”
Nothing about the dead, or any indication that anything out of the ordinary was happening beyond simple civil unrest.
He didn’t check in often, preferring to keep the dial tuned to the local top 40 station, turning the sound down whenever the DJ would start talking about… anything.
That was it. That was the routine. That was life for the first few days of the zombie apocalypse.
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ꜰʀᴀʏᴇᴅ |ᴀ.ʟ.| ꜱʜᴀᴅᴏᴡʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀꜱ ꜰᴀɴꜰɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴ {ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀᴍɪʟʟᴇ ꜰᴀɪʀᴄʜɪʟᴅ ᴛʀɪʟᴏɢʏ #1}
Camille Fray has a normal life.A young mother, a young sister and a father who died when she was child. Graduated from high school and 2 years into a psych degree. A normal, boring life.A mundane life.Or so she thought.On the night of her sister's 18th birthday, everything changes. Skeleton's come out of the closet, secrets are revealed and both her and her sister, Clary, are thrust into a world where "all the legends are true."When Camille meets Alec, even more changes. His intelligence and brusque manner matching her own draws her to him but will he feel the same way?Or will continuous obstacles keep two people, who should be together, apart forever?Find out in Frayed.{BOOK 1 of the Camille Fairchild Trilogy}
8 116crossed over
modern day au x no white star au og cale is busy feeling sorry for himself when he winds up in a modern au where he's dating alberu. meanwhile, his modern day self is now stuck in the fantasy world he came from with no idea how or why he got there just a lot of chaos because i enjoy hurting og cale taking some suggestions for other characters/relationships if they comply well with the story outline i have
8 229Hell House (Yandere x reader) (complete)
(Y/n) opens her eyes to find out she's... dead? And she certainly isn't the only one. Everyone in the house seems to have their eyes on the new person and there is literally no way for her to escape. A yandere story in which (y/n) is trapped in a house with seven other people. Everything seems fine at first.
8 179Invisible {s.m}
She was human, he wasn't. "I usually don't fall in love with people like you" "I usually don't fall in love with dead people"
8 101Reunited At Last|✔️
[COMPLETED]BOOK TWO OF HIS MAFIA QUEEN. NOT TO BE READ AS A STAND-ALONE. DESCRIPTION CONTAINS SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST BOOK|Disclaimer|• More Romance•Sexual Scenes~Liliana Romano, now known as Elena Rose, made her grand escape to London, UK. After being shot by the love of her life and deciding she wants out of the mafia life, she leaves, faking her death and breaking hearts. Six years later, Sebastian Di Salvo and Liliana's paths cross as she finds out he's finally tying the knot with Isabella Moretti. The news of Liliana's heart beating shakes the mafia world causing her life to be on the line once again. But she risks it all to stop Sebastian from making the biggest mistake of his life.What happens will happen. It's unstoppable and unavoidable. Maybe reuniting at last won't be so bad? After all she is his everything as he is hers.Will they reconcile their love? Have they always loved each other? Will they get the happy ending they've dreamed of?~I watched as Sebastian stuffed his hands into his dress pants pockets, keeping a careful eye on the time. "You can't marry her. I can't let you." His head snapped towards mine. "I didn't see you there beside me as I grieved for you," he snapped. "She was there.""She's also the reason why we lost each other." He let out a scoff. "We lost each other because you gave up on us and ran away. I'm marrying her and that's final. If you came here with the idea of us getting back together then you need to get the fuck out 'cause that's not happening."My breath hitched in my throat. She's poisoned his mind and turned him against me. But what could I have expected? I showed up here out of the blue after six years. I let him go once and now, he's in my reach, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get him back, no matter what because I now know that we're meant for each other. But if he's happy with her, then reuniting won't be an option after all.Started: January 2022Finished: March 2
8 204The Mafia's Stolen Daughter
"No one will ever love you." ••••••Imagine stepping into Aubrey Simpson's shoes. You're living a depressing, abusive life and then discover everything you have ever known has turned out to be a complete lie. Your parents aren't even your biological parents and you have to adjust to yet another new school, all while juggling the never-ending downs of your not-so-average teenage life. Not to mention, trying to find out the truth behind why you live your life in complete misery. And to make matters worse, you learn that you are just the key to a Russian Mafia leader's revenge plan on your father, an Italian Mafia Leader, who has never given up on finding you. COMPLETED/Book 1
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