I was awoken by Bea shaking me and saying our names. I felt a strong push and was met with the sound of music still playing at full volume. I groggily opened my eyes with an enormous headache. I guess I had passed my limit last night because the next second I hurriedly rose to my feet and over to the corner to throw up in an empty trashcan. After retching a few times Bea interrupted me and called me over, "MARS HOLD IT DOWN AND GET OVER HERE! IT'S AN EMERGENCY." I took a couple of seconds to catch my breath before turning to see all three of them huddled around the radio looking half asleep. I walked over to my sleeping area and grabbed my phone, water and sat down checking the time. 11:59 am.

"What's up? And can you turn down the music a little, I have a serious headache." I asked while resting my arms and head on my knees.

Bea started to speak, "You'll wanna hear what's after; before this song started there was some man saying there would be a broadcast at noon and we can't miss it. So rise and shine." She handed me some coffee and I accepted it, looking at her with wide eyes. She had a wide eyed grin and her excitement was palpable.

"Are you serious?! Someone's broadcasting?" I carefully put my coffee down, hurriedly turned the radio up as far as it would go, and asked "Did they say who they were?"

Before she could answer she was cut off by the sound of the song ending abruptly and static buzzing for the next few moments. I carefully sat it down and looked at the others as we waited for a broadcast to begin. Jon and Gannon stared at the radio while Bea carefully drank her coffee. I slowly picked mine up as we listened to the static. It suddenly erupted to life with a mans voice, startling me and causing me to spill some on my arm. I shook off the hot coffee and listened to the man speak.

"Good morning, survivors! This is Zephyr Atlas, your friendly neighborhood broadcaster, coming to you live from Lynn Dixie Military Fort. Can you believe it's already been six days since the world turned upside down? Time flies when you're dodging danger, am I right?"

He let out a chuckle before continuing. "But let's get down to business, folks. This is our first broadcast and we've learned quite a few things in these past five days of the apocalypse. For starters, we've sadly estimated that over half of the world's population has been affected by a mysterious mutation, turning a large majority of people into ravenous creatures resembling zombies that we here call, Savages. With their empty white eyes and insatiable hunger, they're a force to be reckoned with, that's for sure."

The four of us exchanged quick glances, Bea looking on in disbelief while Jon was nervously covering his mouth with his hands. I looked over to see Gannon staring wide eyed at radio, his hands supporting his jaw as he looked lost in thought. The mans voice continued and our attention was drawn back to the radio.

"Now, I need to stress this, folks. These mutants aren't your run-of-the-mill sci-fi "zombies." They're different and you need to be cautious. They have seemingly infinite stamina, moving at a slow speed walking pace, and they'll lunge at you when they get close. Oh, and here's the kicker-they'll keep coming at you even after you've pumped them full of lead. We've only found out that total destruction or decapitation of the head works. We've also found that they can be temporarily distracted by light and sound, a couple seconds or so. They also appear human, the only distinctive features being their white eyes, jagged movements and their absence of a white patch. Now, let me tell you about 'The Boom'. It happened the same day the mutants appeared. Asteroids rained down from the sky, leaving it illuminated in a blue ethereal glow. The sound was deafening as they entered the atmosphere and crashed, but it was a blessing in disguise, there were very few impacts in our immediate area. It drew the attention of the Savages, allowing survivors like me to flee while they were distracted by the booming sounds and lights. It also decreased the population of the savages in town, which is a blessing. That event is the only reason I survived and was able to make it to Lynn Dixie Military Fort. It's a day I'll never forget."

His voice seemed to be tinged with sadness but he continued. "But amidst chaos, there's always hope. Those of us lucky enough to be "unaffected" by the mutation now sport a distinctive white strip of hair, earning us the title of, you guessed it, the Mutated, Mutants, the people couldn't really decide. So if you see someone rocking that stylish new 'do, give 'em a high five-they've earned it."

He cleared his throat, shifting the tone back to a serious tone. "That's enough corny stuff coming from me. You may be wondering about the names I've been using-Mutants, Savages, The Boom. Well, it was actually made up by the survivors who've made it to our base. It's important to have names for things in times like these, wouldn't you agree?"

"Now, let's talk about Lynn Dixie Military Fort. In a pine forest off one of the only roads connecting Pineview and Havenwood, this fortified stronghold has become a sanctuary for survivors seeking refuge from the horrors outside. Yesterday, our teams placed signs along the roads leading out of Pineview, Havenwood, and Oakridge. Today we're sending multiple teams to every town to try and collect survivors, so be on the lookout for them. If you can leave your towns and follow these signs, they will guide you to Lynn Dixie Military Base. It's about 45 miles away by car for Pineview and an hour for the other neighboring towns. We are here to offer safety and sanctuary to all who seek it. We have reinforced walls and ample supplies."

His tone seemed to turn serious as he delved into recent events. "In the past few days, we've faced our fair share of challenges here at the base. Savage attacks have been on the rise, putting our defenses to the test. But thanks to the bravery and plans from our general and soldiers, we've managed to hold the line and keep them at bay. We are actively trying to find out more information on this cataclysm. Although the soldiers will protect anyone found, no one gets to laze around, you will have to contribute with some small manual labor and minute tasks. I personally don't think that's too much to ask for a safe shelter under military guidance."

"We will be repeating this broadcast until 7:30 PM, our teams will also return then. I repeat.."

As the broadcast repeated, a mixture of emotions washed over me. Excitement, hope, fear, and uncertainty all battled for dominance in my mind. Jon interrupted the silence with a loud scream of excitement. "FUCK YEAHH. We aren't alone. We need to go there, our families might even be there. I'm going to go pack."

Gannon quickly stood up with Jon as they went to grab their backpacks while Bea was sitting there seemingly zoned out. I quickly pulled out my phone, planning to write information from the broadcast.

After sitting back down I attempted to conversate with Bea, "Jon doesn't think anything through, that's on the other side of town so it'd probably take almost 2 hours if we want to avoid those.. savages."

It felt strange calling them something, we were differentiating them from humans. I continued typing while Bea sat there still lost in thought, worry clearly adorning her face. She waited until the broadcast ended and I was done typing to reply.

"Yeah, you're right. Even if it takes longer we need to avoid them as much as possible. I'm a bit hopeful that my grandma would've been able to get there." She went silent and lowered her head before speaking again, "I'm sorry if that seems selfish, I know you guys must feel the same about your family. "

She looked upset, which was understandable. She had been up for almost 2 whole days when everything started and was constantly dialing and texting her grandma's phone number.

I attempted to console her and said, "You're perfectly fine, I know everyone is upset so you aren't alone. I can tell Jon is hiding it with how much he's been reading and his eagerness just now. I'm a bit worried about my mom myself, she's a travel photographer and she was supposed to head back today. The same is true for Jon, his dad is a pilot so I believe he was out of state too. I'm honestly not too sure about Gannon though, he's so quiet I sometimes forget he's there."

I let out a chuckle while handing her the paper. "Besides, we need to focus on getting somewhere safe, then we can worry about family, they could be out there feeling the same way. And I'm sure Mrs. Adams is safe, she's pretty feisty for a grandma."

I gave her a smile while standing up. She looked at the paper for a few seconds before saying, "You have a good point, she'd be upset I even doubted her. Thank you Mars." She flashed a smile and grabbed the radio, now playing the same song from earlier.

I walked over to my backpack and began to gather my belongings. After putting on the backpack I walked over and helped her up, "No need, without you asking us to meet and saving us with that cool ass bunker we probably wouldn't have made it this long. Thank you, and I mean it."

"I just think we were all just extremely lucky, do you really think anyone could actually be prepared for all this?" she retorted. She held up the paper and waved it. "Besides, we have a destination now don't we, we should get packing."

"You know I actually think the government had a contingency plan for zombies, the U.S. is pretty thorough.", I babbled. Bea and I had grown closer the past few days and became friends, I had gotten to see a whole new side to her. Her once optimistic attitude had been slowly dwindling but the broadcast seemed to have reignited it, I couldn't allow her to lose that attitude. She had been helpful in lightening our spirits and rationing our food, not to mention I only survived because of her and her bunker. I felt like I had a debt I could never repay.

She jokingly punched me and replied with, "Shut up, you know it all."

I quickly exaggerated her punches strength and threw myself into the wall. "Jeez, dial it back Hercules, you almost broke my rib."

This lightened the mood and made her chuckle. We began to head towards where Jon and Gannon were, ready to pack and leave this place. She was right-we had a destination now, a place where we might find safety and maybe even our families. It was time to leave this place behind and begin our journey to Lynn Dixie Military Base.

As we stood on the ground floor of the Archives we quickly went over our supplies, almost all of backpacks bulging with necessities and personal belongings. Bea had allowed us to take whatever books we wanted as she didn't want them to go to waste. Jon, of course, had grabbed a handful of comics and put them in his backpack. I had grabbed a couple books about foraging, hunting and trapping as well as the map I had found previously. After the broadcast I realized that society may have collapsed all across the world and with it most food production, clean water, energy and technology would too. It was a fact that was hard to accept, but I had to remind myself that things had changed. We had the gun in our possession but it was a last resort. We planned on using Gannon's truck and siphoning the gas from our cars into a gas can in case we didn't have enough, and to use the bed of the truck for storage space.

After quickly double checking the number of savages surrounding the building we quickly put our plan into action. He hastily rose then maneuvered the drone using the same route he did yesterday luring all thirteen away and further down the street in the direction opposite of where we were planning to go. Once Jon gave us the go ahead we quickly rushed out and ran towards our own cars and began to siphon the gas while Gannon packed our supplies. Jon came outside and sat next to the entrance of the Archives. Being the first to finish I quickly rushed to Jon's car and siphoned it while he was examining the edge of town and which route would be the safest. Once done I rushed and put the gas can in the back, noticing a baseball bag in the bed of his truck with two baseball bats as well as all four of our bags.

Gannon had hopped into the front seat and started his car to make sure nothing was wrong. I looked over to Bea seeing her still filling up her gas jug but as I looked over to Jon I noticed a figure behind him moving closer. It was a savage. One that we had missed. It's neck was slashed with a blood trail flowing down his clothes. Jon hadn't noticed yet and I knew shouting would most likely attract the ones Jon had lured away and we'd be back at square one so I grabbed a baseball bat and quickly rushed towards him. He was about 30 feet away from me still piloting his drone, I tried whistling but he didn't seem to hear me. I had shortened the distance to around 10 feet but the savage was about 7 feet.

Just as Jon noticed my presence he heard a crunch on the gravel and turned around to see the savage, having closed the distance to about 3 feet, lurch towards his sitting position, giving him no time to process it. Just as the savage was about a foot away from him I had caught up and whistled drawing its attention as I swung the metal bat with all my strength. It made contact with a disgusting crunch, sending the impact vibrating back through the bat and into my arms, barely knocking it back and doing seemingly no damage. It quickly recovered and grabbed my right arm, not giving me anytime to change from my swinging position. It gripped it with extreme strength and swiftly brought it's teeth down, chomping on my bicep. I shrieked in pain as it's grip hardened and it bit down with a firmer grip.

I tried to regain my composure and dropped the bat, grabbing the savages arms I quickly thought of a plan as a last ditch attempt to loosen his grip. Using its weight and gravity I brought it down with me, landing on my back and placing my legs on its stomach and chest. Using as much strength as I could muster I used my feet to launch the savage over and behind me, it taking the chunk of my bicep with it. After speedily getting up with my left arm and grabbing the bat Gannon had already came over and was hitting it's legs, leaving it stuck on the ground. I hastily rushed towards him and helped, continuously swinging the bat, aiming for it's head until it became a bloodied deformed mess. After about 5 more swings, it's body went limp. I let out a sigh of relief and used the bat as a crutch, exhausted from how much the encounter had taken out of me. As I stood there taking deep breathes and wincing at the pain, the world seemed to tilt on its axis. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and my vision blurred at the edges, with a final, desperate gasp, the world around me dissolved into darkness.