"...my name's Marcus. Simply Marcus."

  I had to know if he could do it, could he really help save these people. I was in a room, more of an office really. It looked like it was once the office of someone important, but now it was empty just like everywhere else. I walked over to the desk where a large collection of papers were, I thought this would be a good place to start. Hell who was I kidding, this entire room was a mess along with this entire complex. Bookcases where broken and on the ground, files were spread out across the floor, the computer was broken, there was even some blood on the screen fragments, but it didn't matter. I had to find that piece of paper. I began to look through the files that were on the desk.

  "Nothing, absolutely nothing. That is just great, there is not even a single piece of paper titled anything remotely close to the title Marcus told me." I said this aloud to nobody in particular. "Why does the universe hate me so?" I decided there was no point in complaining, especially if there is not a single person to hear me complain. I couldn't find any sign of that sheet on the desk, so I decided to go to the floor. I went on my knees and started crawling around picking up each individual piece of paper to look for the one with the seven. Nothing, I found nothing for ten minutes and I was starting to thing this was pointless, but just as I lost hope I saw it. A piece of paper titled Seven. I ran over to it and picked it up, I was surprised with what it said. It only had one line, Get to town and wait.

  "What does it mean get to town and wait? Wait for what exactly? Now I have to go back to that hellhole right after I escaped. Really as if my day could not get any worse." I said in a voice heavy with sarcasm. I turned the sheet of paper over to see if there was anything else when I felt something sticky. I couldn't see what it was so I lifted it to the light and I screamed.

  There was blood on the piece of paper, but that wasn't what scared me, it was what was under it. It was a corpse, or more accurately a carcass. This guy looked like he was pigged out on by them, he looked as it he was around 50. His hair was gray and he was wearing a blood soaked coat. That poor man, eaten like that, but the worst part is that he had no legs. Almost like they were ripped off. Yes, I said ripped off, possibly while he still alive judging from the large pool of blood around him. He must have gone through intense pain when he was killed, that poor man.
No one deserves to die like that.

  I pushed back some bill that had risen in my throat and ran out of that room. I couldn't stand to be in there any longer, especially not with so much carnage around there. I was never good around blood, guess I'm gonna have to get over that if I was to survive. I proceeded to walk through the hallway, everything was white, almost pristine. It was as if this was some sort of research facility before this all went down.

  I would walk down the halls and search every room I could for any supplies. All I found was empty needles and bins. Nothing that could be of use to me. So I proceeded to walk down the corridor when I heard *tap tap.* The sound was coming from behind me so I looked, there was nothing.

  "There is nothing there. Nothing at all." I tried to reassure myself, but I failed pretty miserably at that task.  I started to travel much more slowly, my ears were perked to hear any sound. After a very slow five minutes I heard it again. This time it was accompanied with groan. I knew I wasn't alone, I also knew that I didn't want to meet whatever had been following me. I should have just ran, but against my better judgment I turned around and looked at my stalker. It was a man, or at least it looked like a man. It had extremely pale skin, like all the pigment just left the body. The veins were a bright blue and were sticking out of the body, and all over the body there were cuts, bruises, but it didn't seem to mind. Then I saw the eyes, those hideous eyes. The eyes initially looked like they were glazed over, but there was something else beneath those eyes. There was a hunger, and I realized that I would be what would satiate this things hunger. It was a predator, and I was the prey.
  It stopped suddenly and looked at me, almost as if it was sizing up how good of a meal I would be. It sent shivers up my spine. It started to move, but when I tried to back-up I found that I couldn't. It was as if some invisible force was holding me there, letting me look upon my death. I tried to move, but my body would not respond. It sensed this moment of weakness and prepared to strike. All I could do was stare in horror as I watched it get ready, then with a flash it struck. It had its fingers outstretched like claws, blood dripping off of them as evidence that it just ate.
  It was aiming for my heart, and if that hit connected I know I would have dies, but somehow I was able regain control of my body and move again. It was moving too fast so it slipped and fell and something fell out of its pocket. If this was a different situation I would have found what had just occurred to it as funny, but that was a different time.
  It was a gun, an actual gun. I could not believe my luck. If I could just reach over and get to the gun it dropped, I may actually have a chance to beat this thing. Unfortunately it didn't give me that chance and it rammed me in the stomach. This hurt, a lot. It knocked the wind out of me and I collapsed on the floor. It came around again, this time with its mouth wide open, full of pieces from its earlier meals. It wanted to bite me, not just bite me, but eat me while I was still alive. If it made that bite I knew that it was all over for me. It charged and out of reflex I brought my hands up.

*Crunch*

  I thought I should be feeling pain, but I felt nothing. I opened my eyes and saw that it had bitten the recorder. I must have brought it up when my hands shot up. The creature was momentarily confused, it seemed to have not expected to have a recorder stuck in its mouth, but I did not waste this chance. I got up and ran over to where the gun was. I picked it up and aimed it at the creature, it was no more that two feet away. I quickly aimed and pulled the trigger while it was running towards me.

*Bang*

  It landed less then a foot away from me, and I was pretty sure it was dead. I had hit it right in the middle of the forehead. I may not be an expert at guns and how powerful they are, but at point blank range I don't think it really matter. It seemed to have just crumbled when I shot it. Lucky shot I guess. I looked over at the corpse and noticed that it was a security guard. It explains the gun that I found. My arms would not stop shaking though, I had so much adrenaline going through my body that I could not stop shaking. I did the only thing I could do and sat against the wall.

  I started to cry. I had just killed someone, and if that Marcus guy was right I could have saved him. I slammed my hands against the wall and screamed. I must have screamed and cried for a couple hours, I was lucky nothing found me. I screamed so much that it hurt my throat to breath. Wiping away a few tears and blowing my nose on my sleeve I walked over the corpse.

  Off to the side I saw the recorder, it had a couple dents, but it looked like it still worked. This thing saved my life, I guess I owe it to Marcus to figure this out. I looked through my pockets where I put the additional tapes and put the one labeled 2 in. I pressed play.

  "I'm glad that you decided to at least keep the tapes. As I promised I will give you information. The first thing you need to know is about what is causing all the people to act the way they are. What causes this is a virus, it works in a similar manner to rabies, once a person get rabies it overrides the bodies functions and makes it into something more primal. This virus is passed through contact with body fluids. Contact with skin will not cause you to catch the virus. Remember it is only through the passing of body fluids, these can be blood to saliva."

  "The virus seems to be specific to humans, so it is most likely that it is safe to hunt animals for food if necessary. If you get bit there is sadly only one option, amputation. If this is not done the virus will spread  and you will become one of them, but do not give up for there is still hope for a cure. That is all I have for you in this tape, but remember that these creatures though they may not seem it are still human. They do not respond to pain, but that doesn't mean they cannot be hurt. Also they still need food to survive, if you can just hold out for a month or two most of the zombies will have died of starvation. Do not forget to follow what the sheet says. Goodbye and good luck."

  The recording was over and I now had renewed courage. I don't know why, maybe it was the way he said it, but I think it was that he gave me hope. Hope that this is not the end of the world, that I can survive. If there was a chance that I could save some people, I had to do it.

  I walked down the corridor and opened a door to the outside. I didn't know what to expect, but I had to do this. I had to go town.