Prologue and Chapter 1

PROLOGUE

I was told to write this to be used as a history of your world, as it is now. So I figured it would be a good idea. I will try and remember as much as I can recall, so you will understand how we got to where you are today.

I call it your world because I am 92 years old and my body is slowly shutting down; I will try and make it quick. So I guess I will start with who I am and things you might already know because it was not always like it is now. We used to be consumed by the internet, money, celebrities, and everyone else’s drama unlike now where we worry if everyone is ok and wondering if we will fall back into that way of life we used to have.

So what you probably know already is that we fight to keep our world for the living and not the dead and that our world, so far may be small, but it used to be much smaller. You, I am sure, already know from your teachers that this world was brought back by groups that came together in Morris, IL.

A few things you may not remember is there used to be more to worry about, in the early days, other than just school, work, farming, chores and hunting the dead. There used to be two types of zombies, no, there were zombies then there were the sleepers, I will get to that.

The other thing you may not know, or you figured it out. I am one of the original five people that brought together the first survivors in Morris, still alive. Our children and grandchildren came later when the world was a little saner.

So I will start the story, from my view, on how this all started and how we came to be where we are now. I will have Joey or Kalie fill in the parts I was not awake for, being knocked out happened a lot to me. Hold on tight because you are going to learn a lot that people might not want you to know.

So before I begin, Sleepers are what the zombies, or as you know them, The Dead, used to be. They were the first, the beginning. They breathed, bled, ate, slept, and maybe drank something (we don’t know for sure). But, like us, if they were shot too much or didn’t eat or didn’t breathe, they died. Easy? You would think, but once they died, the came back as the Dead.

CHAPTER 1

The week before the whole world went to shit was normal and boring, with just a few exciting milestones being reached for our family. Nothing that would have suggested that something life changing was going to happen.

The week started with my older brothers, Guy and Dan, going to see our little brother’s high school graduation. We went with Kenzi, Guys wife, our father, Guy Sr. and our mother, Kim.

With Guy being thirty-six and me being thirty-five, we were around the age of some of the student’s parents there. But with it being the small town young parents were not an uncommon sight. If you didn’t know we were brothers spending a couple of minutes with us and you would know without a doubt that we were, you would also notice the roles we fell into.

Guy was the definition of an older brother, always eager to be in charge and always willing to help the younger brothers with anything. He was the first to go to college and had the personality of a gigolo with ADD and always stayed in shape like he was an Old Navy model, and lived by the saying “Work smarter not harder.” It wasn’t too surprising to us that Kenzi married him even though he had that mentality. But, her being a woman born and raised in Billings, Montana and forged, in her adult life, to put up with the people in downtown Chicago and working in many forms for the Board of Trade in Chicago, then you know how she got so patient.

I was the middle son, and though I not the definition of a middle son I had my moments. Growing up I was always interested in fixing things and learning new things, and even though my grades never showed it, my 152 IQ was always overlooked because I was the “moose” of the two older brothers, I was used, and learned to enjoy, doing the physical work. Mostly because Guy made me, but it later came to be who I was. By eight I knew I wanted to be in the military, By high school, I gave up on school because I Knew I was heading to the Military and at the end of my Sophomore year I was already signed up for the Army.

I would come to be part of the 82nd Airborne and a proud Infantryman. My life came to a halt when I landed wrong on a jump and blew out my knees and three discs in my back. I went into a deep depression and took to liquor and pain pills it would take three years and being back home to cure me of this, even though depression is always with me at times. Twice it drove me back into a bottle and twice I was given a DUI. By the time of Joey’s graduation, I was Five foot Seven, Two hundred and eighty eight pounds. But, I walked everywhere, since I didn’t have a license. Though I was a heavy guy, doctors were always surprised I wasn't predibetic or had heart problems. I always thought it was funny when people would call me the healthiest fat man they know. I give props to my dad for making me a worker and not a sitter.

And on that note there is Joey, and though he is young and in shape, he is only half like Guy and I. He worked hard when asked, but ONLY when he was asked. He wasn’t as outgoing as Guy and I, but once we were all together we all reverted to twelve-year-olds, and it was all about boob jokes and calling each other stupid and smelly, but also together no one could stop us at anything we wanted to do, Guy led the way and Joey and I made things happen.

Now you add our iron fist father, Guy Sr., our “adopted” brother Dan, and my best friend, since high school, Andrew. Any challenge in this world could be accomplished, and it would be proved in the days, months and years to come.

Then finally there was mine and Guy's sister Kalie. She was a city girl in all the ways you can think. The only outdoorsy thing she ever did was go to Michigan and hit the beach. Though she was one of the most bad-ass girls you would ever meet. She wouldn't hesitate to put someone in their place, verbally or physically. She was also one of the best nurses I know, next to our Aunt Kim. Her boyfriend Zach was like a brother to us already and he was a great welder and apparently a saint to put up with my sister.

Four days after Joey’s graduation I had gotten off of work at 4 pm as I always did and was walking home. I happened to call Joey about getting on Xbox to play a game that night.

“What do you mean you can’t play, you are not doing anything,” I yelled at him.

“I have practice today. The regional championship game is Friday.”

As I was walking I could feel my knee braces slipping from the sweat, “Well what the fuck... shit hold on” I put the phone down and pulled both braces up so they felt normal. “Alright, so what time...” Before I could ask about the time of the game, it happened.

As I reached for my front door and stood under the covered porch, it started slowly, a massive bright light here and there, then it felt like I was on a runway, what seemed like, millions of smaller lights flashing.

“Holy Shit, Joe are you seeing this?” I just stood there staring at the sky.

“Yeah, I am sitting in my truck at school. What the hell is it?”

“I have no clue, just stay in your truck. Call your mother see if she is ok I will call Dad and Guy. Make sure you call me right back.” Without waiting for an answer from him, I hung up with Joey and dialed my Father as quick as I could. My heart was going at hyper speed as I listened to his phone ring. It felt like forever until he picked up, but once he did, I didn't let him talk first. “DAD, are you okay? Did you see what is happening in the sky, are you okay?”

“John slow the hell down. I have seen it and I am fine I was on the phone with Guy, he seen it too and is ok.” His voice was a little drowned out by the sound the semi he was driving. “I had to get off the phone with him to answer your call.”

Before he could go on, I jumped in “I was on the phone with Joey just now he is in his truck, I told him to call Kim since he is at school.”

“Okay, so he is fine. Make sure you get in your house and stay there till we know what is going on. I am turning around and going home. I will call you when I am there.”

“Alright, I will call Joey back.” As I hung up my heart slowed a little bit as my eyes started seeing the lights slow down, then stopping.

As I waited for Joey to finish telling me his Mother was fine and just taking care of the horses. He was going on about how a bunch of kids was standing around recording the event, and that is when it came, it was like someone turned on a faucet, the water came down so hard that I watched as the roof of a nearby car buckled from the force. I was amazed so much by this I almost didn’t hear Joey yelling.

“Oh my god!” I could hear the water hitting the top of his truck.

“Shit, are you okay Joe?” no answer, “Joseph! Are you alright!”

“Holy Shit, Yeah I'm fine that scared the shit out of me. It came down so hard the kids outside got knocked to the ground I have to help…”

“No! Just stay in the truck till this water stops. Once it slows, start driving home and wait for Dad to get there. I will talk to you all when you’re all together.”

“Alright, I will call when he gets home. “

“Good, stay safe and be careful.” We both hung up.

It took about five minutes for the water to stop completely, and even though it had, I was still a little too spooked to walk outside. I sat at my computer searching for an explanation for what happened, the only thing I could for sure figure out was it happened all over the world, the strangest part was it happened in the coldest areas of the world, meaning where it should have come down as snow it still came in the form of water, and every expert said they were looking into it.

“What damn good does that do me? Is it safe to go outside? Was it an atomic attack of some kind? What the fuck?” Yes, I did say all this out loud, and Yes, it was to my computer. I lived alone.

It would be another hour and a half and be in the middle of talking with my Father and Joey before we knew anything. It wouldn’t even be much, but it would save our lives real fast, and it would spiral our lives into a chaos that we would soon fight to control, against two types of monsters, wannabe thugs, madmen, rogue military factions and even a fake (yet very convincing) God.