First Blood

         Leaving the shelter, the first thing Bruiser noticed was the silence. No cars traveled the road, no sounds of the people of Medford, and no ambient animal noises. It was strangely claustrophobic. The second thing he noticed, just off the road, was the body of a woman. He watched it for awhile, looking for any signs of life. Creeping slowly towards her, Bruiser sees that she has been dead for quite awhile. Her possessions rifled through and her body just left abandoned. It was both an insult to the life she once lived and an ominous reminder that he has been forced into a situation way over his head.
Forcing himself to move on, Bruiser spots a house on the outskirts of the town. Peering through a window he sees they've been boarded up from the inside. He couldn't tell if it was abandoned or a purposeful fortification. He slowly moved through the yard and around to the side of the house. That is when he heard movement on the other side of the fence. Eight feet of whitewashed weather-beaten pine separated him from whatever was out there. He reached out for the gate when it burst open revealing the unreal. This man was dead and grasping at his clothes. Bruiser swung. That bought him enough time to climb the fence opposite his attacker.
Ahead of him was a huge crater. Bomb? Explosion? How long was this going on with him ignorant to it all just a few states away? He needed answers and he knew he needed help. If he found those antibiotics maybe Stephanie could fill in those blanks. One of these houses should have some medicine.
Bruiser was attacked from behind. Reflex saved him from an initial blow and his pipe smashed the head of the zombie...the zombie assailant. Two more followed and he quickly put them down. This was moving way to fast. Within a few hours of arriving here he was a murderer. Did this count as murder? His body was freezing in the early spring air. A chilled breeze dried the sweat on his head as he struggled to calm his breathing. His chest hurt. There was rustling in the brush behind him. These things were pushing him deeper into town and away from the evac shelter. The shelter may not have been a perfect safe-house, but there was another person there that could calm the screaming internal panic. The wrestler, Chris 'Bruiser' Balducci was in trouble and each confrontation held more weight than the ten pounds of gold.