Zombies Attack!

A big Thank You to Et2bruttus for editing this story so that it could be uploaded for the rest of you to enjoy! All characters are above 18 and this is a work of fiction.

*

Did you know that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today? Antibiotic resistance can affect anyone, of any age, in any country and as time moves forward, more and more humans become resistant to modern day cures and medicine. What about the "Zombie-Ant Fungus" that invades an ant's body and takes over control leading the ant in a kind of "zombie-like" state before it kills its host and moves on to infect other ants?

These two go hand in hand because one scientist, or a group that was led by a single scientist, were hoping to reverse the effects of the human body becoming resistant to medicine as well as study the effects of the fungus in its hosts. All it really did was create a super fungus that figured out the weakness in the human body and how the body temperature and water located in the human body was the perfect place to reside and live in. Those group of scientists didn't realize what consequences they faced until things went wrong in their lab.

—————————-

~The Beginning~

Kate and Max had just purchased their first home together celebrating their new lives as a couple. They had just been married within the last year and sealed the deal with a beautiful home overlooking the city. It wasn't the most beautiful city, but at night it came alive and the city lights flowed down below. Thousands of people lived their lives day to day without a second thought of impending doom or that at that exact moment, their lives would be over. Instead, everyone woke up, went to work, school, home, wherever they needed to be and lived happily for the most part. Just like any city, you had your street gangs and homeless that wondered the sleeping city. The city itself seemed like one giant organism that needed people to exist.

Kate kicked her red van shoes across the room as she threw herself down onto their black leather couch before flipping open her computer and scrolling through her daily web to see what was new. Max rubbed his cloth over his pistol before assembling it and pulling the slide back. He smiled and aimed the weapon at the glass window towards the city and pulled the trigger. The pistol made a click before he charged the pistol again and squeezed the trigger once more.

"Would you stop? You're gonna 'shoot your eye out.'" Kate pointed her thin, porcelain finger over at Max as he rolled his eyes.

Click.

"Hey! Did you hear me?" Kate sat up and looked at Max who was now taking the cloth back to his pistol.

"Yes.... I heard you. It's not even loaded, so don't throw a hissy fit," he replied, looking up at his beautiful wife before giving a smirk.

Kate rolled her blue eyes at her husband before tucking her brown hair behind her ear and resumed typing.

"Hey Max, did you hear about that lab or whatever that went down? It's all over the news and it's kind of annoying. Like, I wanna know what happened on last night's episode of Kill or Be Killed."

Max never took his eyes off his pistol as he once again took it apart and inspected the pieces. "Yeah hun. Everyone at work was talking about it. You know how old people are, they gossip. Apparently," Max took a breath and slicked his hand through his blonde hair before continuing, "Apparently they were working with some kind of fungus to try and understand it more? Bunch of wack-jobs if you ask me."

"Yeah, but it says here that they never found the scientists. When the police responded to an alarm that had been going off for a few hours.... no one was there. It was just...abandoned," Kate began getting nervous and her voice shook as she said, "Abandoned."

Max looked up and saw the worry spreading across her face. He stood up, set his cloth and parts down on the wooden table, and walked over to his wife. He took her into his arms and hugged her tight.

"Hey, hey. It's ok. How far away is it? It's in another state isn't it? What...300 miles away or something? I'm bad with geometry."

"Honey, it's GEOGRAPHY. You're right though... it's silly. They probably just got annoyed with the alarm and went home, but what scares me is that they put caution tape up and have put the city in quarantine. No one has heard from anyone inside of the city either. It's like they just got put on pause or something," Kate spoke to Max after burying her face into his muscular arm, tracing an outline of one of his tattoos.

"Geometry, geography, whatever. It doesn't matter. The point is, if something crazy happened the police and military would respond, and we'd be fine. No different from crazy protesters. I'm sure they'll pop up on the news with some crazy statement about what happened."

Kate just sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned back against her husband's chest. She fell asleep listening to his heartbeat.

——————

A few weeks had passed, and two more cities had been put on quarantine. No matter how much Kate tried to find out what was happening, anything that hinted at what was going on was quickly removed from the internet.

"Max, I don't get this. They just shut down Twitter because someone posted a video of inside one of the quarantine zones. From what I could see before the site went down it looked like a horde of...people I think? But they weren't normal. It was like they were on drugs or something. The video was really shaky and there was a lot of screaming. Then...that was it... the video cut out and the site went down. Now it's..." Kate got quiet and clicked her mouse a few times before sighing and throwing her hands up into the air. "I don't know Max. This doesn't seem right. The whole site is down. There's a little dinosaur running saying no connection."

Max sat down at the wooden table and took apart his rifle, inspecting the pieces and looking through the scope for scratches and cracks.

"Mhm. I agree with you. Something isn't right. Two more cities were put into quarantine and one of them my family lives in. I haven't heard anything from them since. The last call I received was that there were people attacking each other and my mom said something about cannibalism and rape? It didn't make sense to me. Try seeing if you can see anything about that online. I'm gonna head out and grab more ammo just in case." Max set his scope down and looked over at Kate who began chewing on her fingernails and nodded, "ok" to him.

Kate started browsing the web trying to find some kind of hidden forum or website that was put up regarding what was happening. That's when she found the video that would change everyone's lives.

——————

Max was at the gun store right before it closed, picking up a few more boxes of ammo.

"Hey Bob. Let me get a few more boxes of .45 and let's do five boxes of 5.56."

Bob, an older man probably late 40's early 50's with a bald head and grey hair around his sides, smiled and started grabbing boxes of ammo behind him.

"Whatcha up to Max? How's that pretty wife of yours?"

Max smiled and rested against the counter while flipping a lighter that was on sale open and closed.

"Oh you know, can't complain. Kate's good. She's real worried about that stuff with the lab, and now cities are going into quarantine and what not." His blue eyes watched the flame of the lighter dance around in the air before he closed the lid shut and flipped it open again to relight the flame.

Bob dropped the boxes of ammo onto the counter and scratched his rough 5'oclock silver shadow before putting his hands through his suspenders and resting them against his gut -- a gut resulting from years upon years of alcoholism and fast food.

"You keep flipping that flame on and I'm gonna have to make you buy more fuel for it."

Max closed the lighter and added it to the boxes of ammo, "I'll buy it. I like the Aquarius design on it. Kate's really big on that astrological stuff anyways."

Bob shook his head and they both gave a hearty laugh that echoed off the walls of the old gun store.

"Well, you tell Kate there ain't nothing to be scared of. I heard it was some kind of AIDS epidemic anyways. They say everyone's over there raping each other and what not. Now what the hell would drive people to do that? I'll tell you. It's that damn AIDS. People over there fucking monkeys and shit and now we got an epidemic. That's probably what they were doing in that there lab." Bob started getting red in the face and a vein started emerging from his forehead.

"Easy cowboy. I don't think it's AIDS. I did hear something about rape, but my mom said something about cannibalism before her phone cut off. I'd rush over there myself and check on her if it weren't for all those damn check points and military setting up outside of the quarantine spots. I'll admit, something big is going on and it's starting to rattle my cage. I didn't think anything of it until recently, but I can't let Kate see that it's bothering me," Max watched Bob start bagging up his ammo and lighter before ringing him out.

"Well whatever the hell is going on, I know I'm gonna be sitting high and tight right here in my gun store in case crazies wanna try and loot the place now that all hell has broken loose. I don't trust no government people either. They're always lying and shit." Bob spat onto his wooden floor and wiped away the tobacco stain from his lips.

"Yeah I hear ya Bob. Hey, stay safe man. Oh, and I'm pretty sure monkeys didn't give us AIDS," Max replied as he picked up his bag and left the store with the door ringing on the way out.

Bob cuffed his hands together and shouted out at Max, "I'm just saying! They sent monkeys to space you know! Can't trust em!"

As Max walked to his Jeep, he saw a man standing under a streetlamp facing the wall. His body swayed back and forth as he stared into nothingness. Max looked a little closer and saw that the man's veins were black and his fingers were bending and twisting in weird directions.

"Fucking tweakers." Max shook his head and hopped into his Jeep before revving it up and speeding off to get back to Kate.

Bob stood in the window and watched Max drive off. He spit again onto the wooden floor that had to have been coated in his tobacco from years of chewing.

"Damn boy doesn't even realize how lucky he is to have Kate. With a piece of ass that fine..." he grabbed his growing erection as he thought of Kate and the times Bob would invite Kate and Max over to sit in his SPA just so he could see Kate in her bikini. "I'm just saying. If I had a piece of ass like that.... well my balls would always be empty, I could say that much."

Bob snickered to himself and rubbed his stiff erection harder before glaring out at the same man Max had seen.

"What the fuck? I thought I told those fucking tweakers to stay the hell away from my store. It's bad for business."

Bob threw open his door and started shouting at the man who stood lifeless under the streetlamp in the parking lot.

"Hey crackhead! Hey!" Bob chucked a rock that struck the man in the shoulder which only threw him off balance and made him slowly turn and look at Bob with cold, dead eyes. "What the...fuck? Hey get outta here! Leave or I'm calling the police!"

The man stared at Bob, smiled a wide, large grin with blood stained teeth before rushing at Bob.

———————

~The Scientist~

Max walked into his and Kate's house and locked the door behind him before tossing his keys into the key dish.

"Kate? Hey, you there?"

He didn't get a response back. Silence filled the house and a faint glow illuminated the living room where Kate had been before he left. Max slowly walked to the living room, his hand reaching for his pistol located in the small of his back.

"Hey...babe...? You there?"

He darted around the corner and saw Kate standing in shock as she watched the tv. Max looked up at the tv and walked over to Kate. Kate looked over at Max and quickly rushed to her computer to restart the video she had found during her internet dig. She quickly rejoined Max and slipped her arms under his and began sniffling.

Max stared at the TV in disbelief. There was a video being shot from a cellphone of a man hiding behind a car and recording one of the creatures that had another man pinned down and was biting into his neck. The man on the video began whispering to whoever was watching, "My name is Peter and I'm one of the last survivors of the lab. I've been trying to get this video out there about what's happening and what the government is covering up. We were funded to try and reverse the human body becoming immune to antibiotics. What they didn't say was that in our lab, deeper in our lab, they were conducting experiments on a new super biological weapon that utilized the "Zombie-Ant Fungus" and trying to understand how it works, how it thinks, and how it takes over its host."

The man who claimed to be one of the last scientists got quiet and looked over the car again and the creature was gone, leaving the corpse of its victim lying in the street. The camera zoomed in on the corpse and you could see a noticeable tent appearing in the groin area of the victim.

"You see that! It's...it's fucking amazing really. The fucking fungus found its perfect host. Humans. Specifically, human males. See, it craves a warm environment with a lot of nutrients and water AKA us. Humans. Until those assholes started fucking with the fungus it grew smarter and stronger. Before, it was only able to control ants and small critters. After a month of tweaking with its properties, the fungus was able to control small animals like cats and dogs. Now, 6 months.... SIX FUCKING MONTHS and it's able to inhabit the human body. It started with a bite. A simple fucking bite. And as soon as the fungus got its first taste of human, it didn't stop. Those assholes just watched it take off and go after a whole town...and then a whole city.... and now two cities later I can tell you exactly what's going on. This fucking fungus man...it...it takes over the body right? It fucking controls you. It kills you first, but it controls you and it makes you spread itself. It's like it can't stop. Now here's the weird thing, it'll attack males no problem. You know, just take a chunk outta you like you ain't shit right? And then of course it's injected into the human body and blah blah science shit. Well, it prefers males because of our testicles. Yeah! I said it! Testicles. Our fucking balls. Look, we create sperm right? Well our balls are the perfect place for it to reside in. That's where it creates spores and mixes it in with your sperm. It's crucial for its survival. I can't make this shit up right?"

Peter once again got quiet and looked over at the body which was gone at this point. Only a blood stain remained. He cursed to himself and slowly started moving around. The camera was showing the empty city streets as he moved around cars and shrubs while he continued on.

"Look. I just need people to know that I tried ok? I tried saying something and I got a gun in my face. They shot the other scientists and now they're after me before I talk. You guys have to know. They can't stop it. They can't control it. It's not even in the quarantine zone anymore. They think it's still there, but it's spread and it's spreading fast. We don't know exactly how to kill it, but going for the brain of the infected host seems to stop it because you're effectively killing the host's control center, right? This may sound fucked up, but from what we've seen, after it rapes or fucks you or whatever the fuck it does, the host dies."

You can hear the snap of Peters fingers.

"Like that. One and done. Depending on the host, they either rape or eat you. You're either food for this fucking thing or you're another host to it. I don't understand what it's trying to achieve other than just staying alive inside of humans. I can only pass on a few pointers before my phone dies. First, they like sunlight. They crave it. Your skin absorbs it and they feed off of the sun rays. Second, it's not airborne thank God. It can only be spread by bites or fluids. Specifically, sexual fluids. Nine times out of ten, they will try and mate with you. That's the most effective way to spread and seeing as that's how humans make baby humans, it just makes sense I guess. And lastly, the females that are infected all wander off. Now I'm guessing they probably go to some kind of breeding ground or something, but it's extremely rare to run into a female host. All I've seen are males and the females that are injected, bitten, whatever all die, obviously, but then they rise up hours later and wander off into the woods or mountains or whatever. I'm not even going to try and see why."

Peter sat up against a truck and looked over at a horde that had just spotted him. He looked at the camera and pointed the camera back towards the horde of male hosts that started charging at him. His voice got low and tears filled his eyes.

"You know...it's kind of ironic. We fucked with nature and now nature is literally fucking us. I tried. I'm done. I can't keep running anymore. I'm a damn scientist not a fucking survivalist. Just take what I said to heart and..."

The video cuts out to black.

Max stared at the blank tv as the pause and replay button popped up onto the screen.

Kate broke down sobbing.

"What do we do?" She managed to say in between crying and wiping her tears from her eyes.

Max just stared at the TV and was frozen in time. His mind raced back to the man standing under the light.

"We need to leave. Now."

——————-

~Escape~

Max ran through the house grabbing anything and everything he might need. Flashlights, batteries, extra socks and underwear. He threw everything into a backpack and stuffed it full of water bottles and canned food. Kate touched a picture of her and Max on their wedding day. She smiled at how handsome he looked with his combed blond hair and rough beard. She traced her finger over her white wedding dress that hugged her body perfectly. She felt too petite, but apparently she drew everyone's attention and she secretly loved it. With a heavy sigh, she removed the photo from the frame and folded it in half, tucking it into her pink backpack along with food and water.

Max handed her a sharp hunting knife which only made her pull away from it.

"No. I don't want that thing," Kate said as she threw another can of ravioli into her backpack.

"Kate. Just take it please. You never know. You heard that Peter guy. That was the clearest, longest video we've seen regarding this whole thing and what my mom said on the phone before cutting out fits exactly what he was saying. I mean did you see that group that rushed him? They were huge!"

Max pulled out Kate's hand and slapped the knife into it before curling her fingers around the hilt. Kate looked at Max with big blue eyes and whispered, "Ok. Fine."

After they had finished grabbing what they needed they did one last check of the house. Max had his pistol and rifle while Kate held onto the knife for dear life. They heard gunshots and screams coming from outside and Max looked over at Kate who was already staring at him. She gave him a half smile.

"Well...I guess you were right. It's already here," Kate whispered to Max as he checked outside of the window.

"Yeah, I'm telling you that man under that light was infected. The way he stood there just gazing into nothingness was creepy. And his skin was blueish and had black veins bulging from his skin. Hey Kate, look at this," Max replied as he slid open the back door and looked over the balcony that overlooked the city.

Kate stepped over to Max and her jaw dropped. There were police sirens racing through the city and small fires had been started. Cars were crashing into buildings and each other as people tried to flee. An echo of screams and cries could be heard followed by gunshots. A helicopter whirled overhead followed by another and soon a third as the military swept in to try and eradicate the infection. The sides of the helicopters lit up as the door gunners began mowing down anyone caught in their path.