“Bang, bam!” As I walk down the corridor, a loud metal crash echoes down it. “Ugh.” I groan. I’m getting a headache. I put my fingers to my temples. The zombies have been attacking the walls of our base for days. Our scout Axel has seen a huge herd on the way, and when it joins the ones here, we might be overrun. As grim as the situation is, I grin. I’ve never killed a zombie before.

As I make my way back to the others in the mess hall, I take a look out the window. I see a lot of undead. There have to be at least two hundred there, on this side alone. “This will be fun.” I take my axe from its sheath and run my fingers over the blade. I’ve been sharpening it for weeks, keeping it sharp so I can be ready to kill a zombie.  I walk into the courtyard training center. I remember when we were attacked when we first came here a few years ago. Jessica, a 16 year-old girl with red-ish hair, had shot an arrow into the wall next to my sister. We negotiated with her, and she agreed to join us.
I look around. I see a Glock-18 on the ground next to one of the make-shift practicing dummies, and I walk over and pick it up. I tuck it in my pocket and keep walking. I walk to where we have our dorms and mess hall. It has a cozy feeling like home.
I remember before this all went down. I was in my backyard, drinking lemonade, when sirens started, and my mom called me and my sisters in. We gathered all the important things like food, water, and protection. With all of these things, we piled in our van. Mom floored it, and we were gone.
The blur of days after that turned to weeks, then months, then years. We met many people, some who are still with us and others not. We found Rebecca, a 27 year-old, in an abandoned gas station living on Gatorade and Pringles. We found Shaun a few months later, snooping out our van. I’ve never seen Mom scare someone so bad.  Axel, our scout, is actually our uncle. We ran into him around the same time we found the jail, which happened about two years ago. He was sitting in a dumpster eating a box of scraps.
As I walk into the mess hall, I see Rebecca, Shaun, and Axel discussing something. I see Conner fidgeting with something. Conner just so happens to be my best friend. He wasn’t with us from the start, in fact, we just found him a few months ago. I’m about to walk over to him, when my sisters, Angela, Christie, and Krista run in screaming, “THERE’S A HERD IN THE BASE!”
Jessica rushes in, her red hair flowing, bow in hand, her face red from running. “I got a few, but there are too many.”  She said as she dropped her bow on the table and picked up a gun.
“How’d they get in?” Axel asks.
“I don’t know. Shaun and Rebecca, go check.”
  Shaun and Rebecca run off, and my mom takes charge. She takes Conner, my sisters and me down a corridor as Axel and Jessica run of to combat the zombies. The corridor we go down looks like a dead-end, but it isn’t. My mom walks over to a banner on the wall and lifts it. Behind it is a dip that has a switch. She pulls it down, and a wall slides over. A staircase leading down is revealed, and we go down. We walk into a brightly lit room with generators along one wall and storage closets with food and other supplies along another. Conner walks over to a couch and crashes down onto it.
“I’m going out,” Mom said. “You all stay here.” She orders as she reaches down and picks up a pump-action shotgun. 
With that she turns and runs out, gun in hand. The wall slides back into place, and we sit there in silence for a moment. Then I move. “I’ll be back.” I say as I start walking toward the stairs.
“What, you can’t leave!” Conner says.
“I’ll be back. You won’t even have time to miss me.”
“Fine, but if you get caught or hurt, you’re on your own.
I turn and run out. I have to be careful. If my mom sees me, she’ll kill me. I pull the lever to close the wall, and I walk down the hallway.  I pull out my blade. It has a saw blade on one side and a knife blade on the other. I climb the ladder next to me up to the barrier surrounding the base to the top to get a better view.  As I scan the area, I see our problem. There is a hole in the wall on the west side. I get jitters of excitement and fear as I realize that is the side all of the zombies in the huge herd are coming from.
“What are you doing?”
I whirl around to see Jessica leaning on a railing. “Umm……” I stammer.
“Hah. Sneaking out, looking for trouble. Look, I won’t tell if you help me.”
I don’t really have a choice. If I don’t help, I get in huge trouble. “Ok.”
“Ok. So here’s the plan. I stay up here and shoot them and stop them from getting to you, while you block off the wall with something. If things get bad I’ll come help.”
I nod and jump down to look for something to barricade the wall with, while Jessica picks them off with her gun. I look to my left and see a stack of cylinder blocks and, to my right, our van. I rush over to the van and start it. I drive around and park it in front of the hole, with the side facing out. I silently say sorry to mom about ruining the van. It is tied to memories of our dad. He died in a war.
I hop out and I get grabbed. I swing out of the grip and turn. A few zombies are chasing me. Suddenly one gets shot. That knocks me out of my shock. I step back and let Jessica take out one more then I shoot the last one. It felt good. I get back to work. I have to hurry. I run over to the blocks and begin carrying them one by one, blocking off any holes between the car and the wall. It takes a while, and when I am done, my shirt is sticking to me with sweat. 
“Good. That should hold them off until we can do some serious repairs.” Jessica says as she hops down and walks over. She pats me on the back and smiles. “Good job.”
We say our goodbyes and part, going back to where we need to be. I walk down the hall and to my horror see the door open. “Oh, crap!”
I pull my axe out and charge down the stairs. I hear screams, and I see Conner on the ground, a pool of blood around him growing bigger, and my sisters backed in a corner by five zombies. I run and bring my axe down on one zombie. I pull out my gun and shoot three more, and on the final one, I use my blade on it. I quickly check on my sisters, and they are ok. I rush over to Conner. I feel sick as my biggest fear comes true. He has been bitten. He looks up at me. “I tried to protect them. I guess i-it didn’t turn out the way I wanted, huh.” He coughs,  and his bite bubbles.
Footsteps echo down the steps as Axel, Jessica, Shaun, Rebecca, and Mom rush in. “Everything alright? Oh, crap.” Axel rushes forward and grabs Conner. “This is bad.”
“I-I’ll be al-“Conner mutters.   
“No you won’t.” I say as I step forward, throwing my axe down, “This is my fault. If I hadn’t gone out trying to kill a zombie, NONE of this would’ve happened. Because of me, you’re dead.”
“It’s alright.” He mutters as he closes his eyes for the last time.
“We have to kill the brain, or he’ll come back,” Mom said lowering her head.
I know what to do. “Everyone go. I’ll go do this.”
“No, you can’t. It’ll be too hard,”  Jessica says.
“I have to, now go!”
They all looked at me with sympathy and leave. I stand there for what seems like hours, and I raise my gun. “I’m sorry, Conner. Rest in peace.” BANG.
   AFTERMATH
I walk out to the courtyard, and I silently swear to myself that, because Conner died because I wanted to kill a zombie, every zombie I kill from now on, every day I live on, I will do it for Conner. Viva la Conner. I will see you some day.