Dead Weight/Candles and Roses/Chapter One

This is the first chapter of the first special of Dead Weight. It is entitled “The First Dawn”. It was released on April 1st, 2019.

Timeline
Day 0-Day 1

Story
She stood. Entangled in the thick branches of a forest as she stood, alone, ash and dirt engrained on her face as she looked around panicked, her face full of fear as she was alone, groaning of the dead closing in on her.

2 MONTHS EARLIER…

DAY 0 - 4:32pm Bri left the tall, office building with her bag in one arm and an envelope in another. She held a pen between her teeth and a coffee between her forearm and stomach, balancing her heavy inventory as she approached her car. She places her bag on top of the car as she grabs her car keys from inside, adjusting her hold on the coffee, unlocking the car and throwing the envelope and bag inside, followed by dropping her pen onto the passenger seat and placing the coffee in a cup holder.

She slipped into the driver’s seat and started the car, slamming the door shut and sighing loudly, leaning back in her seat and reaching towards the radio, turning up the volume as she backed out of her parking space and turned onto the road, driving off out of the car park and onto the main road.

“'WE HAVE REPORTS OF A VIRUS WHICH APPEARS TO BE SPREADING ACROSS THE STATES OF OUR COUNTRY. CITIZENS ARE ASKED TO WATCH OUT FOR UNUSUAL ACTIVITY AND REPORT IT IMMEDIATELY TO THE FOLLOWING NUMBER:'” The man announced through the static radio, Bri raises her eyebrow as she listens, taking in the news. She continues driving, tapping her fingers to the occasional song that played through the radio before one of the songs got cut off by the same man’s voice.

“'CITIZENS OF THE FOLLOWING STATES ARE ADVISED TO FIND THEIR NEAREST SHELTERS OR GO HOME IF THEY CAN: TEXAS, FLORIDA, KANSAS, ARKANSAS. OTHER STATES ARE ON FULL WATCH. REMEMBER TO PLEASE REPORT UNUSUAL ACTIVITY.'”

The man’s voice is cut off by static as Bri slows her car down, spotting a traffic jam up ahead. Her phone begins ringing in her bag, she quickly turns her head to look for her phone, digging through her items before she pulls out the phone and presses the answer button as she spots her sister’s phone number pop up on the screen.

“Hey, have you heard the news recently?” She asks as Bri presses speaker, sitting her phone on the dashboard as she begins driving again.

“Yeah. About the virus? Are you okay?” Bri asks.

“Yeah. I’m fine, but are you? I think you should come over, or at least find a place to stay.” Bri’s sister tells her, just as she’s finished speaking the radio blares again.

“THE FOLLOWING ADDRESSES ARE SAFE:” The man says before reading out each state followed by local, large areas. Three seperate areas are read off for Bri, A nearby mall, a prison and museum.

“Did you hear that? I’m going to go find the mall, maybe we’ll find answers there and then I’m going to go straight home, I’m exhausted.”

“Just stay safe, please. I don’t know how long this has been going on for, but the images look bad.” Bri’s sister says before the call is disconnected. Bri sighs, knocking her phone briefly with her hand and allowing it to fall onto the passenger seat, propping against her bag as she leans forward. After the traffic moves, she takes a detour from her usual route.

Bri drives, hoping to hear some other message from the radio station, but as she continued driving she realizes that the radio station has fallen silent and nothing is playing anymore, she plays around with the radio trying to find a signal when she stumbles across a station that’s played faint music. She decides to just put the radio off, listening to instead the silence and the sound of the car driving along the road.

DAY 0 - 5:47pm Bri continues driving, it must have been an hour before she spots people standing in the middle of a road, their hands reaching up towards a tree. Bri’s eyes follow the hands of the people and sees a girl, sitting in the tree with her legs tucked upwards. As she gets closer, she realizes the people are something different. She doesn’t have time to react as one of them turn around, staring at Bri with cold white eyes that give her chills.

The woman stumbles towards her car as Bri rolls down the window just a small bit, the screams of the girl in the tree coming into her car. Bri sits there, not sure what to do as the woman pushes herself against the window of the car. Bri screams.

“Who are you?! Can I help?! Can you tell me your name!!” Bri calls, scrambling back in her seat slightly as the woman begins creeping her out, she opens the glove box, looking for something to use as self defense. She finds a hammer, pulling it out. “I’m going to get out of the car now, miss. Please do not panic…” She says, climbing over to the passenger seat and opening the door, climbing out and standing at the other side of the car, looking at the woman.

She growls at Bri, stumbling around the car, her leg almost getting caught against it as she reaches out towards Bri, who stumbles back.

“Please! I don’t want to hurt you!” Bri calls out but she can’t stop herself, due to panic she swings the hammer at the woman, knocking her down as the hammer hits the side of her face. The woman stumbles to the ground, groaning as she lies there, blood pouring from her head. Bri shakes, tears pricking her eyes as she becomes disorientated and confused.

Bri turns towards the other person, a man, who is reaching up towards the girl in the tree.

“SIR!! STOP!!” Bri calls out, pulling back her hand and hitting the man in the back of the head with the hammer, causing him to hit the front of his face against the tree and fall to the ground. The man gets up again and Bri hits him again, caving in his forehead and causing him to buckle to the ground, his movement ceasing. Bri turns back to look at the woman, who slightly shakes on the ground. Bri looks worriedly at her, but decides to turn back to the little girl.

“Hey!! You alright?!” She calls out, squinting her eyes as she looks up at the tree, the small girl nodding as she carefully makes her way back down the tree. “What happened there?!”

“I-- I don’t know, they just came at me. I was scared I didn’t know what to do.”

“It’s okay, hey, it’s okay.” Bri tells her as the little girl shakes like a leaf, wiping small tears from her cheeks.

“What was wrong with them?!” She asks, looking behind her and out of the back window as the car drove down the road.

“I don’t know. I heard that information is at the mall. We’re heading there… What’s your name?” Bri asks, looking at the girl every so often as she fumbles in the passenger seat anxiously.

“Kelsie.” She says quietly. Bri lets a small smile appear on her face for just a second.

“That’s a nice name. I’m Bri.” Bri tells her, keeping an eye out as they drive. Kelsie struggles to regain her breath, panting rather rapidly as they drive. “It’s okay.” Bri states, smiling sweetly at the small girl.

“Where are we going?” Kelsie asks after a lengthy silence. Bri looks down to check the gas before looking back at Kelsie.

“We’re going to the mall.” Bri tells her, “It’s not that far from here.”

“Okay…”

“How old are you?” Bri asks.

“Twelve.”

“Oh, Where are your parents?”

Kelsie is silent, biting the inside of her lip. It doesn’t take Bri long to realize that she had just smashed in the skulls of this girl’s parents.

Bri gulps, clenching her hands against the steering wheel. She begins feeling sickly, ''how could she do this? What was happening?'' She hated the thought of killing anyone, but they were sick, right? Sure she might understand why she did it, but would the cops? Maybe they could be helped.

“You don’t have to say anything.” Kelsie tells her, staring out the window with a tear running down her face.

“I’m… Really sorry.” Bri says anyways, sighing heavily. “I mean, I wasn’t thinking…”

“There were more,” Kelsie starts, turning to face Bri again, “Two people were on the side of the road, we tried to help them. But… They… They attacked my dad, I saw alot of blood… and… I don’t know why... But my mom got out of the car and told me to hide… So I did. I climbed up the tree and… When I looked behind me, she was on the ground… I didn’t want to go down… She always said to hide.” Kelsie says, her voice shivering and shaking as she hiccups, wiping her eyes with her sleeve, taking a deep breath before continuing. “We had a family code, if mom told you to hide… You do it. Once we had a burglar in our house and mom told me to hide under the bed. I did and I think it was dangerous… So if I didn’t…”

“Your mom is a very smart woman.” Bri says as Kelsie sighs, finishing her thoughts. “We’re almost out of gas, should we turn off?”

“And go where?”

“Find someones house, there’s a suburbs nearby, we can ask for help and then see if they have a car.”

“Okay.”

Bri indicates, despite there being nobody on the road, and turns off at the next exit. They make their way along the road until they reach a thinner one, approaching houses in the distance. Bri pulls in at the first one on the street, Kelsie looks across the street towards the other house, noticing the door open. Bri notices this, too, but decides to ignore it as she grabs her hammer and gets out the car.

“You coming?” Bri asks, leaning in the car door. Kelsie hesitates for a moment before unbuckling her seat belt and hopping out the car, the two girls slam the doors shut and make their way up the pathway towards the house’s front door.

Bri waits until Kelsie reaches her side at the front door before pressing the door bell down, a distant ring being heard from inside the house.

DAY 0 - 7:55pm A woman’s head whips around as she sits crouched inside her own kitchen, her doorbell ringing throughout the house as she wields a large carving knife in her hand, one of her hands coated with a layer of blood.

She stands, her eyebrows furrowed as she holds the carving knife out of sight and approaches the door. She looks through the tinted, stained glass, noticing two shadows lingering outside her front door. She stands at the door, her ear pressed against it as she listens, hearing nothing.

“Who’s there?!” She suddenly calls out, causing Kelsie to practically jump out of her skin. Bri looks down at Kelsie, rubbing at her back reassuringly.

“It’s okay… Uhm, Hi! My name is Bri. We’re running out of gas and we’re wondering if you can help us…”

The woman squints, tapping her finger against the knife as she takes deep breaths. She places her hand on the door handle.

“I don’t know you… You could be one of those things outside.” The woman says.

“I don’t think they can talk if I’m being honest, miss.” Bri says.

The woman curses under her breath, a strand of hair falling from her messy bun, her face of makeup smudged and old looking. Bri and Kelsie exchange glances as the woman absent-mindlessly unlocks the door and opens it, facing the two women behind the door.

“What do you want?” The woman asks.

“I’m Bri.”

“Yeah… You told me. I’m Jo.”

“Jo… I’m a fan of short names. This is Kelsie,” Bri tells her, earning a small smile from Jo. “Can you help us?”

“Why are you holding a knife?” Kelsie asks, looking confused up at Jo.

Jo shrugs, quickly hiding the knife, throwing it to the side. “There’s these things. They’re like aliens or somethin’. I’ve been in here for days because of them. They only moved out this morning.”

“Days? How many days?”

“About three. It’s not been that bad, though. Do you have any idea what’s going on?” Jo asks.

“No, I don’t. I know there’s somewhere we can go for answers, though.”

“Really?”

“Apparently, the mall.”

Jo thinks for a moment. “Do you want to come?” Bri asks. “We could use your car.”

“I mean, I don’t really want to stay here for another day… So sure. I guess.”

“Are you sure?” Bri asks her, Jo shrugs in response. “Alright, then.”

“Where are the other places?” Kelsie asks as the three girls get ready to leave the house with basically nothing but carkeys in their possession.

“Uhm, I think it was a campground and some prison.” Bri tells her, opening the door and leaving the house. Across the road, a woman stands on the sidewalk, swaying back and forth as she seems stuck in a daydream. “We can avoid her.”

“Her?! That’s no her, that’s an IT!” Jo protests as she leads the two girls towards her car, pushing a button to open her garage. It starts noisily opening, attracting the attention of the woman across the road.

“Quick!!” Kelsie cries out loudly, Bri looks around to see the woman making her way across the street. The garage door opens and Jo, Kelsie and Bri slip inside. Jo unlocks the car and climbs quickly inside the driver seat, Bri and Kelsie climbing into the back as Bri slams the door shut as the woman pushes herself against the car’s window, Kelsie screams out as the woman smears blood over the window from her jaw that’s been detached from her body.

“Oh my god…” Bri mutters to herself, Jo just looks at the woman before Bri turns towards her, “Hurry up, Jo!”

“Sorry!” Jo calls out, starting the car and reversing out of the garage, knocking over a bike and sending the woman spinning to the floor, hitting her head hard against the garage floor. Jo uses the garage door controls to close the garage door, causing the door to fall until it gets caught on the woman’s body, slicing her in half. “Oops.”

“It’s fine.” Bri tells her as they spin onto the road, making their way down the street and in the direction of the mall.

“Do you know anyone that’s going to the mall?” Jo asks as they drive down the street, the streets either deserted or packed with people who’re trying to get away.

“No, I’m hoping my sister will be there.”

“Right, so… She’s not your sister?” Jo asks, looking into the mirror to look at Kelsie before flicking her eyes back towards the road, swerving out of the way of a woman with a shopping cart filled with food.

“No, she isn’t.”

“Who is she then?”

“Bri is my friend!” Kelsie tells Jo.

“Right, I got it.”

“I found her just a few hours ago, she was in trouble.” Bri tells Jo. Jo nods.

“Must have been awful. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Bri tells her.

“I was talking to Kelsie, but thanks.”

Bri makes an o shape with her lips, her cheeks blushing a little as she looks over to Kelsie, who appears to have fallen asleep. “Hopefully she’ll sleep for the rest of the drive.” Bri says.

“You got kids?” Jo asks, “I never had kids, just wasn’t my thing, really.”

“No, I don’t. I haven’t really thought about it.”

“I don’t blame you, my career is more important than bringing a child into a world, didn’t people always say to put yourself first?”

“I guess… What’s your career, then?”

“I’m a journalist. It’s not much but it keeps the money coming in.”

“Not much? That’s a great job.”

“Well, I guess you’re right. I love it, though, I meet lots of great people. What about you, got a job?”

“I’m an Advertising copywriter.” Bri tells her.

“How interesting, I have no idea what that is but it sounds great.”

Bri giggles, rolling her neck as she speaks, “It’s a pretty creative job, I just work closely to the art directors and try and get the best advertisement out there.”

“Nice, I’ve probably seen one of your designs.”

“Maybe. I've probably read one of your reports.”

DAY 2 - 12:03am The driving continues for another three hours, Jo and Bri getting to know each other while Kelsie fades in and out of sleep. Soon enough, a mall comes into view in the distance as Jo finally makes it to the mall’s entrance, where it appears to be fenced off with cars and sandbags.

“What do we do?” Bri asks as Kelsie shakes her head, awaken by the car stopping at the front of the mall. Jo stares in front of her for a minute before pushing down on the car horn, a man suddenly appearing from behind a bus as she presses down. “Ah.”

The man walks up to the car, a gun in his hand. A woman, followed by a younger girl follows just behind him. Jo rolls down the driver side window.

“Name and amount of passengers?” The man asks Jo, her eyebrow raises as she sits up in the seat.

“Jo, two passengers.”

“Please drive your car inside.” The man asks before walking away, tapping his hand against the car to tell her to move. The woman and the girl watch as Jo drives inside, Kelsie slightly peeking out from behind Bri’s side. The car stops inside the carpark, sliding into the area that the man points out.

“I’m hungry.” Kelsie comments, Bri bites her lip.

“I’ll get you something later.”

Jo stops the car, unbuckling her seat belt along with Kelsie and Bri. Jo pushes the door open and slides out of her seat, staggering into the tarmac as she had been cooped inside the car for hours. Bri and Kelsie also come out of the car, Bri helping Kelsie down as she blinks hard at the sunlight.

“Welcome.” The woman tells them as she approaches them along with the other two people. “My name is Mary.”