TWs for the chapter: Description of gore, description of death, light panic, normal Zombie Apocolypse things.
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Techno hummed as he walked to the kitchen. The distant sounds of Skeppy yelling at his game rang throughout the house. The screams and the yells of his friend's failure were comforting, a sense of normalcy. He reached the kitchen now setting a course for the fridge, Skeppy asked him to get some drinks and who was he to say no, Skeppy hadn't won a match all day, he blamed his teammates jokingly a lot to the point Techno doubts if it's a joke or not; he deserved some level of pity. His phone buzzed in his pocket before he opened the fridge.

A quiet mumble of annoyance escaped his throat as he pulled out his phone and turned it on. He adjusted his glasses before reading the screen, having already seen a bit of the message. His heart dropped into his stomach once he read the entire message, the pinpricks of panic slowly rising under his skin. It wasn't often this stuff happened here, so when it did, it was pretty serious.

"Uh, Skeppy?" Techno drawled out. He wasn't the best at conversation, especially with serious things. "Yeah Tech?" He paused the game, turning his head to him. "There's been an evacuation call..." He spoke, getting straight to the point showing Skeppy his phone. "What? Why, what happened? I haven't seen anything on the news." Skeppy got up and shut off the game completely. "That's because you have only played Overwatch all day, idiot." Techno chuckled lightly.

"My family will be fine until we meet up outside of the city." Techno went upstairs to Skeppy's room as he talked, leaving little to no room to argue. It was safer to stick together during an evacuation situation than to go home, anyway. He heard Skeppy run around downstairs, probably packing some food for the trip and some drinks that didn't need to be cold to be good. Who knows when this evacuation would end? Knowing California, it was probably another wildfire. They seemed to come more often than usual, though it was still rare enough to not be expected when Techno opened his phone.

Skeppy's backpack was chilling in his room as it usually was as Techno dumped it out and put some of Skeppy's clothing in the bag. Skeppy would yell at him later about his school supplies, but hey at least the teacher couldn't blame him if all his stuff caught on fire. Techno also grabbed his and Skeppy's phone chargers. Techno uses his phone way too much to not need it, anyway. There was still room in the bag, so Techno went downstairs.

"Mind if I turn the TV to the news channel? They are bound to talk about it." Techno asked Skeppy with a raised voice. He only got a thumbs up from down the hallway for an answer. Taking the answer as good as any, he changed the channel. "Instead of evacuating, California's head of police has shut the state down. There is an illness causing those infected to become dangerous towards other civilians and themselves. Police are trying to get the situation under control and have changed the plan to a lockdown instead of what you thought was going to be an evacuation. They apologize for the notification, it was a mistake on their end. They can't know who has the illness or not and they would like it if it didn't spread outside of the state. So stay home. The illness has spread rapidly and could be anywhere. Whether it is your friends, your family or your loved ones doesn't matter. Signs of the illness are as follows. Gray ashy skin, the eye color will be diluted and lighter, falling out hair, a horrible stench, aggressiveness towards people and sounds-" The lady on the screen talked as Techno looked out the window.

The sky was cloudy, setting gray dim lighting over the streets that somehow made the pit in his stomach worse. What had drawn his attention away from the TV was a scream clearly outside. He stared and waited for something to happen. Maybe one of the sick would try to lunge through the window, or maybe the person who screamed would run by. Footsteps down the hall made Techno turn around to see Skeppy. He seemed frightened. Was it the news that did this or the scream? Had he tried to say something and Techno didn't hear him? "Techno, did you hear me?" Techno could only shake his head no with an apologetic look.

"That's fine. Right now, though, we need to reinforce this house. From that, I am pretty sure we know what could be going on, right?" Skeppy asked, turning to go towards the basement. "That's childish thinking, there is no way that this could be.." Techno paused lightly, "Zombies." Skeppy finished the sentence. Something hit the window then causing both occupants of the room to flinch. Techno turned to look. There was a person there that hit the glass. "I'll go get the bat.." Skeppy started changing course for the stairs.

The bangs got louder as Techno stood there. Their skin seemed to flake off. It was a more gray tint than it should have been to be healthy. On one particularly loud hit, the glass started to spiderweb. Watching it from where he was standing probably wasn't in any way a good idea, however, it was interesting to see how actual zombies if Skeppy was right, which he probably wasn't, acted. Skeppy came from upstairs a bit loudly with the bat as the person finally punched a bit of glass out of its way. The hole wasn't big, but it was bound to get bigger. "My window! Techno!" Skeppy lightly glared at Techno, "What did you want me to tell them to stop? Oh hey there, can you please stop breaking my friend's window?" Techno deadpanned as he faked a pleading tone towards the person who only continued to hit the window. Skeppy just sighed, pushing the bat into Techno's hands. "I think the comedic genius should kill the first zombie." Skeppy hummed with a smirk. "I still don't think that's a zombie." Techno took the bat anyway.

"Not going to be my fault if we get bit then, is it?" Skeppy stated. Techno sighed, "If I get arrested for murder, I'm bringing you down with me." Techno got a good grip on the bat as the person broke more of the window, out of the corner of his eye he could tell Skeppy was getting nervous. Finally, he stopped stalling when the window actually broke enough to the point the person could crawl in. It was weird, there were cuts on their body from the glass as they crawled through and yet they didn't say anything. Only quiet groaning, actually they should have been breathing a lot harder now thinking about it. Were they even breathing at all? Maybe Skeppy was right.

They flopped through the window onto the wooden flooring after getting through the window. "Techno..." Skeppy stated quietly moving a bit backward, looking at him before quickly looking at the person on the ground. He groaned lightly muttering a small 'fine' before going forward to the thing on the ground that was currently trying to stabilize itself on the bloody floor, that was only getting bigger because of them, holding the bat up before swinging down.

CRACK

The sound was sickening and made his stomach churn however he only lifted the bat up again before bringing it back down to hear another sickening crunch. The end of the bat was fairly doused with blood as he breathed out slowly. The blood puddle on the floor only grew. He quietly thanked his family for letting him get that gym pass a while ago, otherwise, that would have been harder.

He listened and there was nothing other than Skeppy's and his own breathing. "That... was a lot worse than I thought it was going to be..." Skeppy muttered, Techno straightened himself lifting the bat up again to inspect it. It was bloody at the top, fresh blood at that, it didn't sit right with him probably never would. Skeppy who was farther back walked forward to get more of a close-up before immediately regretting it. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Go to the toilet then, I'd rather not have to clean up a body, blood, and vomit. I think that'd be overkill for the things I'd have to clean off this floor." Techno hummed trying to make a joke. Skeppy only shook his head, "We need fortification, now." he breathed out before turning to go to the basement, "Keep watch outside make sure no other zombies get in." Techno could only nod to nobody but himself.

Zombies are such a boring name you know? Now that they were real they deserved something at least a little more interesting, but what? Walkers, eh they do walk and they also bite what should we call them biters as well? Boring! Lurkers? No basically the same thing. Man video games and TV have failed him when it came time to make a name idea. Zombies were fine for now he supposed, he'd figure something new to call them. For now, though, he'd look outside and maybe try to forget the growing blood puddle under his feet from the body of something that could have been a young woman with an entire life ahead of her, and he was thinking too much now.

Skeppy soon came upstairs with boards and a hammer, "I still need more can you get started on that window?" Skeppy pointed towards the window he was looking out of. "You know I don't think this place is going to last, in what zombie game do the main characters stay at home the entire time and live?" Techno stated, Skeppy sputtered to come up with a reply, "So what, we pack and find your family or somewhere else to go? It's a lot worse out there than in here." It was a bit stuttery as if he was unsure of himself. "We could try that, your family is already out of state doing something so I don't see another option. If we get out of the state it should be fine, the police will handle this like they do every problem." Techno hummed in thought, truth be told he was just telling himself that the police had it handled, in the history of zombie games and such it gets much worse than the police handling it. Though he had to have faith, even if it was small.

"Fine, but we have to bring more weapons than that bat. Text your family Tech." Skeppy put down the boards and kept the hammer in his hand and left, probably going to get another hammer or something. The bag Techno packed was on the couch next to the one Skeppy packed, his sister's school bag. They would definitely need more food. He took out his phone and texted his family group chat. They didn't reply immediately which slightly worried him, slightly, they were a very able family very active the only thing he was worried about was the fact that they lived in a much more populated side of town than Skeppy did. It'd take a while to get there that was for sure. He put his phone away and walked to the kitchen to gather more food and drinks, mainly water though, it was going to become rare and important if this thing isn't contained fast enough. It would be smart to have a lot.

He zipped up the bag as Skeppy came back, he had another hammer and a first aid kit. He grabbed his sister's school bag and Techno grabbed his swinging it over his shoulders with a light grunt. "What'd they say?" Skeppy asked quietly, "They haven't responded, though I am sure they are fine." Techno lied through his teeth, he was getting more anxious as time passed on. "Oh, I'm sure they are fine too. Here's a hammer if you ever need it." Skeppy gave him a hammer and he took it with a nod. Skeppy put on the bag and looked at the door, "Are we sure this is the best option?"

"I mean if we want to survive what other choice do we have?" Techno questioned, Skeppy was silent. "Ready?" He asked him after a minute of silence. "Ready," Skeppy replied with a nod, and with that, they left the house.