Part 1

Emily gasped, gulping desperately at the air as she attempted to catch her breath. She adjusted her weight so that she was more comfortable even as she held herself wedged against the only door to the small room she now found herself in. Outside she could just make out the sounds of vicious carnage being wrought at the hands (and teeth) of what she could only call zombies.

Earlier that day, it had been relatively normal. Emily and her brother Cody decided to head out and see a movie before she had to make her way down to Anaheim. She was a company member at the Chance Theater and had to work the box office quite frequently. Afterwards, she would often make plans with other company friends to go barhopping. All mundane, until that evening coming home from the bar. Emily spotted something that, upon retrospect, should have been a red flag.
Passing an alleyway, Emily spotted what looked like two bums. One was lying on the concrete, bleeding and twitching, while the other was dragging the former by the throat with his teeth. His eyes glowed red as he swiftly backed into the shadows. This scene had initially been shrugged off as a horrible drunken memory. Most likely brought on by some horror movie or something.

Only now in the midst of chaos was this memory becoming clearer. She wished she had remembered it better or trusted her own memories, but now that was irrelevant. Now all that mattered was survival.
Like a kick in the stomach, she suddenly came to a sickening realization. Emily wretched, buckling over as she did so. Almost immediately as she finished, she began to sob. She wiped the sick from her chin and nose, slowly rising. After cleaning a hand on her shirt, she slowly ran it upwards over her face and over her head, running her fingers through her fine, blonde hair. Half a whisper, half a cry, she managed to croak: "...Cody... no..."

That same night of the strange alley incident, Emily went home to Pasadena where she lived with her brother. Police cars, ambulances, and fire engines dominated the roads. She could easily discern multiple fires around town and throughout the hills, while on the streets it was very much like a riot. Only it was somehow much more violent. She navigated through all of this and made it to the apartment. There were a few zombies around the building; however this was far before she knew anything about what was going on. She avoided them warily, being extremely careful while unlocking the back door, keeping a small knife in her other hand, hidden deep in her purse.
Inside, she started at the sight of streaks of blood on the floor. Footprints imprinted back and forth from the sink in the kitchen to the living room. It appeared that whoever made these prints dragged themselves during the last trip to the sink. She uneasily made her way, following the trail of blood through her room and into the living room which was also serving as Cody's primary residence. The trail ended at Cody's chair, in which sat Cody.
He sported a large wound on his shoulder. He held a large bundle paper towels over the gash. It was soaked straight through with blood. He looked very pale, tired. His eyes were bloodshot and were no longer green in color. They appeared to have changed to grey.
"Cody! What happened?! Oh my god!" Emily screamed, running to her brother. She held a hand to his forehead and was truly scared to discover he had barely any heat at his temple or face in general.
"Em... Emily?..." whispered Cody.
"Yes! Oh god. Are you okay?"
"Uh... I dunno... One of those bums outside bit me on the shoulder. It... it hurts really bad.-huk-... I think.... I think I'm dying..." he barely breathed the last part. Emily froze for a moment and became almost as pale as her brother currently was.
"Shut up. You'll be okay. C'mon, we'll get you to a hospital," she tried to make herself sound sure of what she was saying, despite how far gone he already appeared.
"I already tried calling... an ambulance... all the emergency lines... were busy," Cody sighed. He shrugged and winced in pain. "I guess I shouldn't have tried to give the guy some change... heh..."
"Cody, you're fine. We'll get you to my car and... and I'll drive you..." Emily suddenly remembered the crazies outside. She could even hear the one that saw her clambering at the backdoor.
Terror gripped her tightly in the chest. Her mind whirled to find a solution as the life oozed from her brother's form. As she thought, Cody coughed deeply. Then heaved slightly, Emily ran to his side and pulled a garbage bin near to catch his potential puke. To her surprise and horror, he hurled blood in violent convulsions which quickly filled the small bin to overflowing. Emily screamed and backed away; Cody fell forward and knocked over the full bin, spilling blood all over the floor and himself. He slammed into the hardwood with resounding impact.
Emily checked his pulse, shakily. She fell back and wept hard and long. She just couldn't believe that her only brother was dead. And he wasn't ever going to come... back?
She heard something moving in front of her and looked up from her arms to see Cody, slowly rising from his grand pool of blood. However, this did not comfort her in the slightest for some reason. In fact, it only served to make her more frightened.
"C-Cody?" she gasped. Cody just stood there for a moment. Blood still poured from his mouth, staining the front of his green shirt. He clumsily scratched a hand against his skull, drawing blood and ripping a small clump of hair from the surface. His eyes ignited in a red light and almost in response, Emily launched herself across the coffee table, grabbing Cody's katana from the far corner and began hastily unlocking the front door.
Cody slowly turned on her. As she managed to get the security grate open he growled deep and lunged at her. The grate slammed back in his face and Emily locked it behind her. Cody mindlessly slammed himself several times against it, screaming and spouting blood from between his clenched and gnashing teeth.

After that Emily couldn't remember much more. She figured she was probably slightly in shock or something. Anyway, there was no way to be sure. She knew that there was no way she was leaving the relative safety of her current location until it was absolutely necessary.
After all, she had been hacking her way through these creatures ever since she left the apartment. She was tired and hadn't even had a moment to reflect on her recent trials. Hence her obvious visceral reactions. Finally, she took a moment to make an inventory of her surroundings. She noticed a folding chair across the length of the small room and managed to bar the door with it so she could rest easy.
The room must have been a janitor's closet because of the various disinfectants and things. Luckily for her, the room must have also been used for the janitor's breaks and contained a small supply of snacks, not to mention a cot. She peered out the window, looking down from her second story refuge. Anarchy. In all directions.
Emily looked away, ready to make her way to the cot. Just then, something twinkling in the distance caught her eye. She turned back to the window and squinted to see what was reflecting the light. It was the glint from a pair of glasses. Glasses which once sat in front of vibrant green eyes, but now barely hid two evil, red orbs. Emily sighed, a tear slid down her cheek.
"Okay, Cody. If it's gotta be someone. I suppose it had better be me."

End Part 1