The Dead Rising: The Beginning
Albert Yates
copyright 2015 by Albert Yates
This would not have been possible without the undying love and support of my wife, Amanda, she encouraged me to continue when I could not find the motivation to keep writing. Without her I would be lost.
Chapter One
February 1st was the beginning of the end of humanity as we knew it.
For anyone living close to the larger cities, there was not enough time to prepare or run, as the onslaught was so sudden that no one understood what was happening. Those living in suburbia or on the outskirts had a better chance of survival. There were others who might not have known what was going on since it was in the middle of the training season for the nearby infantry base. The rumblings in the distance were attributed to the training and not a fight to save humanity in the middle of the city.
Merton was one of the picturesque towns that were featured on postcards that highlighted the beauty of the country; from the sweeping hills of old trees that littered the countryside with colour in the autumn when the leaves changed, to the award winning art gallery in the heart of downtown. Merton was the kind of town where everyone wanted to raise their children. It was once the thriving hub of industry until a couple of decades ago when the recession hit and factories began to close their doors, opening the way for more retail outlets to occupy the once storied locations.
Merton was cut in half by a winding river. The portion of town on the northern side of the river featured mainly the low-income housing and the newly re-opened mill that had been saved by a local businessman, while the other side of the river was where many of the smaller businesses' and residential neighbourhoods could be found.
On the edge of Merton, there was a small, modest neighbourhood the kind where everyone's lawn looked professionally manicured, and all of the houses looked like they were picked from a single page of a housing catalogue. Henry McPhee lived in one of those houses. He did not know that it would not be for much longer.
Henry's house sat at the end of a dead end street, the house is a standard three bedroom bungalow with an exceptionally large yard. When the street was first being constructed, Henry had some friends within the city's planning department who helped him create the biggest property on the street, without paying extra.
After his first neighbour moved in Henry built a six-foot fence that encircled his entire backyard. The fence was there to keep his neighbours from visiting unexpectedly or snooping in his windows, the day that Jacob arrived, Henry found the man walking into his living room while he was in the shower. Less than two weeks later, the fence was erected. When pressed, he often told people that it was put up to protect his garden from the rabbits that lived in the woods.
Almost two years ago he would have been getting ready to go to work. Instead, he found himself sipping his coffee in the living room. The coffee tasted a little bitter as he looked between his curtains and up the road towards the high school. It was too early for the kids to be arriving yet, but he knew they could not let him forget what had happened. Just last week he'd found a copy of one of the textbooks on his doorstep with a note telling him where to go and how to get there.
They had framed him for burning down the auditorium, after all.
What had he done to deserve such wrath? He'd given Kevin MacDonald, the captain of the school's undefeated hockey team, a well-deserved 'C' on the mid-term. It was not Henry's fault that this had caused him to be benched for poor academics. After he caught the hockey player cheating on the test, giving him a 'C' was the kindest thing he could have done.
On that afternoon, Henry had been on his way out of the auditorium, where he was helping create the sets for the upcoming school production of Hamlet, when he'd been approached by Kevin.
"Hey, Mr McPhee! That's a great looking castle you're building." Kevin said with a grin.
"Thanks, Mr MacDonald, what can I do for you?" Henry said.
Henry could tell that Kevin had a plan. He could see the hate seething in Kevin's eyes as he looked past Henry towards the stage.
"You all done in there? The team and I want to have a quick meeting about our game tomorrow night." Kevin said.
"Don't you have a room in the athletic department for that?" Henry asked.
"Yeah, the basketball team has it booked for the next couple of hours," Kevin added. "We won't be very long, we just have a few game plans to go over."
"Sure thing, Kevin. The crew should already be done cleaning up. Just do not touch... anything. The paint is still drying." Henry said.
"We'll be extra careful," Kevin said while smiling and bounding past Henry towards the stage.
It was about forty-five minutes later when the fire alarm went off, and everything changed for Henry.
From what the principal told him, the space heater they were using to help dry the castle had been left on and had ignited the castle and the supplies covering the stage.
Henry knew that it was turned off and unplugged. He had done it himself before leaving the auditorium.
He'd told the principal about the hockey team using the room for a meeting, but the principal had seen the team leaving the school at that time to do some training.
Henry had looked at the principal and yelled at him for believing a student, with a reputation for lies and deceit, over an honest teacher with fifteen years experience. The principal had mentioned a pending investigation from the school board and had told Henry to go the staff lounge for the rest of the day.
After he'd been sitting on the sofa reading the paper for the fifth time, Henry grew tired of the sideways glances and whispered conversations he knew were about him. He put the paper on the table stood up and walked out of the room. He'd glanced over his shoulder as he left and saw the concerned looks on the faces of the other teachers.
He'd found the principal standing in the lobby of the school and approached him from behind with a huge grin on his face.
The principal turned as Henry had gotten closer and had begun to open his mouth to speak when Henry looked at him and shook his head.
"I think I'm done here. You take this job and shove it." Henry had said as he walked by. "You and I both know what happened in that room. It's a shame that there are no longer any decent role models in this school. I feel sorry for the kids."
Henry McPhee had walked from the school with his head held high, carrying a box of his belongings and teaching aids, he could see kids gathering in the windows along the school to see what was happening.
At the end of the walkway, just before reaching the teachers' parking lot, Henry had finally looked up, and the only person in the window of the second-floor math class was Kevin, standing with his arms crossed and a big grin on his face. When he noticed Henry look up, Kevin uncrossed his arms and blown him a kiss.
When Henry had seen Kevin uncross his arms, he knew exactly what was going to happen, but he could not help himself from reacting the way that he had.
Henry dropped his box to the ground and swung around to face the window.
"Screw you, Kevin! I know what you did!" Henry had screamed at the closed window.
Henry's life was not ruined. In fact, he hated to admit it, but Kevin had probably saved his life that day. Over the last few months leading up to getting fired he had started to drink heavily at home in the evenings just to try and cope with the job that he hated.
Henry had really only ever wanted to live a simple life working with his hands and living off of the land.
Chapter Two