The Walking Dead – Across the Pond

Chapter 1 – Waking Up

The pain behind his eyes was beating in rhythm with his heart as he unstuck his tongue from the roof of his mouth, with the taste of whiskey still strong on his palette. Alex Pond was lying on his bed in his one bedroom flat on the third floor of an apartment building in London after another night of drinking himself to sleep. He was still a little dazed as he slowly began to regain function of his senses. The pain was relentless as he struggled to open his eyes.

He had spent a couple of years wasting away like this, slowly distancing himself from a society that he saw as broken. It wasn't that he didn't like people; it was that he found he had less and less in common with them as years went by. His thoughts drifted back to when he lived at home with his parents in Manchester. He hadn't had a lavish upbringing but it was a good one as far as he was concerned, but after leaving to study economics in London he felt he had lost everything and so began to drink his days away in his one bedroom flat.

His thoughts were broken by a loud scream piercing through his half open window and his ears. The sound caused Alex to cringe as the pain pulsed once again from behind his eyes. He rolled onto his side and was dazzled by the sight of 9 o'clock morning sun. Another scream came through followed by the sound of smashing glass. It was the sound of a woman. He was used to the loud bustle of London but it sounded more panicked than anything else. His brain turned over as fast as it could to process what was happening but came up with nothing. The sound of another shout and bang filled the small flat, something was happening down on the street.

Alex lifted himself to his feet in a lacklustre way as the pain caused the room to blur a little. He took hold of his bed post to steady himself. The sound from outside was becoming clearer, it wasn't just one woman but the sound of many in a state of panic. He stumbled, bare footed, to the window and drew back to thin curtains. What he saw almost caused him to fall back in disbelief. Broken glass from windows and cars was scattered around the entire street as groups of people were running from buildings. "Was this a riot?" he thought to himself as he reached for his glasses on the bedside table. As his vision came more into focus he saw the devastation that lay before him. As far as he could see the city was in anarchy but it soon became clear that this was no riot. A man ran down the street underneath Alex's window, his right arm covered in blood. He slowed to catch his breath as, what looked like; three men came from around a car, pushed him to the ground and began to… eat him. Alex stumbled backwards with his hand to his mouth. He frantically tried to understand what he just saw. It was too much; he threw up in the corner of his room whilst steadying himself against the wall.

Collecting himself, he knew he had to leave the apartment and find out what was happening. Flicking on the TV Alex began to throw on some clothes he had on his floor from the previous day. He slowed as he pulled his t-shirt over his head. The TV was blank. The channels cycled through as he thumbed the button on the remote but they were all the same, a message saying they will return soon.

"What the hell is going on?"

Throwing on his jacket Alex swung open the front door and began to descend the stairs hurriedly, the image of the man being eaten alive spinning around in his mind. His heart was racing by the time he got to the ground floor. Taking a second to catch his breath the realisation of the silence of the usually busy apartment building sunk in… Something was seriously wrong.

Through the silence the sound of the main entrance door creaking open almost screamed through the halls. Five creatures stumbled through the door, blood dripping from their mouths and hands, their eyes whited over, about ten meters from where Alex was standing. They lunged forward making a gargling, moaning sort of noise. Alex fell backwards into the door to the maintenance room as he panicked from the sight that was set before him. Quickly trying to react he spun around and threw himself into the cupboard, locking it shut with a metal mop handle. The creatures banged and screeched against the door as Alex stood, bewildered in the darkened maintenance closet. London, it appeared, was in decay.