Outbreak - Kara

My neck almost broke as the bus slammed into a hoard of those brain dead… “things”. I threw the bus in reverse to keep from getting overwhelmed by them. These “things” recently took Knoxville by storm and… I don’t know. They just follow you around. They’re really slow but if they catch you, they eat you.

It’s actually pretty terrifying, to be honest. The thought of being chased down like food makes me feel like I’m some kind of gazelle in Africa.

I was at work when I started noticing odd things going on. Just small things here and there, like people staggering into the bathroom and customers complaining about homeless people loitering around outside.

Then this customer just started leaning on the counter looking like he was going to throw up. I touched his shoulder to see if he was going to be okay and then the guy had the nerve to throw up right on me! Things started to get real when the customer literally climbed over the counter and attacked my manager. He bit him and broke skin! What a freak, right? That’s what I thought at first, too. I didn’t know it was a disease making the guy do it or something.

We managed to get the situation under control by tying the guy up in the back. My manager tried calling the police but the line was busy. He ended up just closing the store completely and going to the hospital. I haven’t seen him since.

I called my mom to see if she could come pick me up, but no one answered the house phone. I was a bit hesitant to ride the bus covered in throw up so I called the house again. Still no answer. I guess I would just suck it up and wait for the bus. When I got on the bus, I quietly took a seat in the back by myself.

We were almost to my stop when one of the older men towards the front of the bus started seizing. The woman across from him jumped from her seat and held the man’s arm.

She pointed at me. “Call an ambulance!”

For a second I was too stunned to react but the bus coming to an abrupt stop had me scrambling for my phone. I clumsily keyed in the right numbers as the bus driver got out of his seat to help his seizing patron. The ringing in my ear was just a distant hum as I watched on in horror as the old man suddenly pounced on the woman aiding him.

Like a cheetah on its prey, the man went wild. In a vain attempt to play the hero, the bus driver wrenched the old man off the woman.

“She’s helping you! She’s helping you!” The bus driver yelled as the old man turned on him.

The woman did nothing but lay against the seat and cry. Her sobs made it difficult to hear the automated voice on the phone. The line was busy. I held my breath and dialed again. 

By then the bus driver was wrestling the old man off the bus. He managed to get the door open and pin the man to the side of the road. The woman started to push herself off the seat and limp to the bus driver’s aid.

That’s real courage, I thought. Trying to help someone out even while you’re injured. I wasn’t hurt at all and I still wasn’t going out there. Call me a coward, but I’m not trying to get killed. That was one crazy old guy.

As soon as the woman stepped off the bus, another man approached the three of them. I couldn’t see him very well through the bus’s tinted windows, but I could sure see that he didn’t look good.

The woman called to him, I guess she was asking for help. The man didn’t seem to acknowledge her cries as he slowly reached for her. I held my mouth while I watched two people become dinner.

I felt a surge of urgency when I realized that the door was still open on the bus. Those “things” might try to board the bus. I sprang out of my seat and searched the control center for some kind of button to shut the doors.  I just started mashing buttons. The windshield wipers came on, then the air conditioner shut off, and then I somehow managed to turn off the little fan over the drivers’ seat. I couldn’t believe how complicated it was just to close a door.

My frantic motions must have alerted the little cannibals because they stopped their meals and moaned at me.

Like, sorry. Excuse me for interrupting your meal.

By some crazy stroke of luck, the doors finally slammed shut. That didn’t seem to faze the men as they just banged on the doors. I decided it probably wasn’t a great idea to let them in.

I’m not a licensed driver, but I revved the engine anyway. I had to get out of there and I would have rather taken my chances with a ticket than crazy people.

I sped away before I could get a first hand lesson in cannibalism.

Photos of the Week

Knoxville Zoo

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Outbreak - Briana

If the smell wasn’t enough indication as to what was happening inside the house the screams were. It took me a moment to realize that the screams were my own. The scene before me was one that I had never imagined I would ever have to see. Blood covered the open door and soaked my shoes as I peered inside the house. My family, the only people I had left, were laid out on the wooden floor dead. Everyone else I knew was either long gone or dead. I was completely alone.

           My body sagged against the wall with the grief that weighed on my chest. My breath was shallow as I tried to maintain my composure. The world we lived in now wasn’t one where you could be weak. You had to be strong or you wouldn’t survive. A memory surfaced as I felt my body meet the ground.

           “Survival of the fittest,” my dad said softly as he taught Hanna how to use the bow and arrow. “The only way to survive is to be the fastest and the strongest. You can’t show mercy. If you do they will take advantage of that and destroy you.”

          Something out of the corner of my eye moved and I automatically pulled out my swords. The sluggish, clumsy movement of the Treader moved along the ground. It was the body of my mother. The disease had taken over and turned her into the dead thing we all had all feared before the world had gone crazy. One swift movement later and the body stopped struggling along the floor. I quickly got rid of the bodies and pulled out the cleaning supplies we had left over. Burying them would have to wait until I could gather the strength to look at them again without feeling the bile rise.

           The house stunk of iron and Clorox as I moved about the living room tidying up needlessly. My stomach felt like lead and I had to lean against the wall as panic raced through my veins. I suddenly couldn’t breathe and my head was spinning. My chest was extremely too tight as I fell to my knees struggling to breathe. I heard the familiar jingle of my dog’s collar as I felt a wet nose press to my cheek. Oliver whined low in his throat as he nudged himself closer to me. I finally found my grip on reality and pulled myself upright.

         

           “Hey Oliver,” I whispered gently. My throat was still too tight for comfort, but I’d have to deal with it. “I know baby. I know they’re gone.”

            I couldn’t stay here any longer. They’re presence was too strong in this house. I took a shaky breath and stood slowly to go pack a duffle bag full of clothes. I was going to head to my Uncle’s cabin in Sevierville. He had always predicted this was going to happen, but we had all called him crazy. Oh how we were wrong. I walked slowly back to my bedroom. An hour later I was on the road to Sevierville in hopes of finding my only relatives I might have left with my dog by my side.

            Driving through the shopping area that used to be a bustling Tanger Outlet felt incredibly strange. It was like driving through a ghost town. I was waiting for the minute a hoard of Treaders came running out into the street. I stopped to rest in front of an old Nike store and decided I was going to sleep for at least an hour. Reclining my seat I looked towards the ceiling thinking about how quickly the world had gone to crap. The hollow ache in my chest took hold once more as I willed myself to shut my eyes. Sleep was a friend to me in that moment. Every time I closed my eyes all I saw was my family’s faces as they stared blankly at the walls. Being alone in a world this cruel was a scary thought that I didn’t want to face. Not now, not ever. Nothing would ever be the same. I couldn’t dwell in the past and survive the harsh environments the world provided me with.

          A tap on my window startled me so quickly that I bashed my elbow against my emergency break. What I saw couldn’t be real. It was my best friend, Trystan, who I had decided dead like everyone else I knew. I had to be hallucinating. I gently drew my swords into my hands for the second time that day as I pushed the door silently open.

          “Step back,” my voice was hoarse from misuse. Oliver was wagging his tail happily behind me, but I chose to ignore him and shut the door. I didn’t need him interfering, “You can’t be real. Honestly, Trystan, of all places you’re here? I’m going crazy.”

          “What are you talking about, Bri?” She asked wildly as she eyed the weapons in my hands. “If I’m not real then why is Oliver acting like that? If I was a hallucination he wouldn’t be able to see me.”

         I bit the inside of my cheek feeling my inner battle. I desperately wanted to believe her. “Have you been bitten?”

          “No,” she answered. Her voice was soft and I could hear the underlying sadness. “Emily was though.”

          “Where is she?” My world apparently could get worse.

          “Dead.” The finality in her tone broke my heart.

           I took a breath before asking the question I dreaded. “Did you have to-“

          She cut me off with a brisk, “Yes.”

         I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I sheathed my swords and lunged myself at her. My arms wrapped around her in a tight hug. We took a moment to share our grief as I told her about my family. I told her of my plans to find my Uncle and she agreed to come with me. Maybe my world was looking up a bit with someone I knew and trusted by my side.

-Briana Griffin

Follow me on instagram and twitter! @perksofbriana

Thankful – pleased and relieved

I am thankful for the roof over my head

I am thankful for a bed to sleep in

I am thankful for the clothes that cover my skin

I am thankful for the watchful parents that guide me on the right path

I am thankful for the friends that I can fall on when things get rough

I am thankful for the people in my life that will keep me safe

I am thankful for the words that flow from my mouth

I am thankful for the clear skies overhead

I am thankful for the leaves that crunch underfoot

I am thankful for the wind that caresses my hair

I am thankful for all I that I have and all that I have experienced because some have nothing but the clothes on their back and the stories that they have heard

-Briana Griffin

Follow me on twitter and instagram! @perksofbriana

Outbreak

I walked into the kitchen, and Austin was sitting at the table. The dust is beginning to build, and the smell is awful. The food in the fridge is becoming rotten and moldy. I would move the fridge, but there is no way me and Austin can move it. The milk itself is producing an awful stench. Well, I guess its better than smelling a disintegrating body.

His face turned towards me. I was amazed at how much he had changed in the short time since the outbreak. The bags under his eyes began seemed heavier than yesterday, and the color of his skin has turned to a death pale.

 “We can’t stay here anymore Austin. We have already stayed longer than I wanted to.”

He stood up and pointed to the master bedroom where the rest of our family is.

“How can we just leave our family? They have supported us all of our lives, and we are going to leave them behind?”  

“They want us to leave. If mom was healthy and knew she was going to turn, she would make sure that we would be gone.”

My voice began to choke, and I was trying to hold back tears. Austin looked at me like I had no heart. I thought he was going to try punch me, but he held back.

“At least give me a moment to say goodbye to them.”

 Austin began to walk towards the door leading to them. I didn’t want to see any of our family in this state. Every time I see them so close to turning, I begin to wonder why I still want to live.

I heard the door open, and didn’t hear anything for a couple of seconds. I looked back, and I couldn’t see him in the room. I heard a scream, but I couldn’t figure out who screamed. I ran back to the room, and my breath was taken away from me. I couldn’t believe what I saw.

Hiatuses and Comebacks

        Whenever an artist or a group goes on a musical hiatus, it always leaves a fan, or journalist, wondering when they will be back. Recently, rapper Macklemore and his producer Ryan Lewis announced they would be going on a hiatus from music after the Grammy Awards in 2014. The duo’s manager, Zach Quillen, released this information in an interview with xxlmag.com. “Yeah, we’re gonna disappear for a little while,” says Quillen. “This album cycle is coming to a close. We'll, I imagine, go to the Grammys in January this year and afterwards, kind of call it quits for a bit and take some time off." The rapper-producer team plan to release new material and new album sometime in 2014, but also said they are “in no rush.”

         But with music hiatuses also come musical comebacks. This year we have comebacks from artists such as Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z. The music projects put out by those two artists is award-caliber material, but what other comebacks are occurring this year? R&B superstar R. Kelly plans to release a new album in December and recent reports have said the hip hop group Outkast plan to reunite and perform at the 2014 Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. Outkast has not put out any material as a group since the release of the soundtrack to their movie Idlewild in 2006. Andre 3000 has made guest appearances on songs for artists such as Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, T.I., and Frank Ocean. While Big Boi has released two successful solo albums (Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty in 2010, Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors in 2012). The closest thing to a reunion fans have gotten is the Big Boi-assisted remix to Frank Ocean’s “Pink Matter” which features Andre 3000 on the original. The news of an Outkast reunion has fans and hip-hop heads excited because this reunion could be the ground work towards a new Outkast album in the near future.

Twitter: @OddKingz 

What Am I Thankful For?

What am I thankful for? That’s a good question because I am thankful for quite a few things in my life. First of all I am thankful for waking up every morning for the past 17 years. A great friend of mine told me to live today because tomorrow isn’t promised. I have definitely taken that to heart and have applied it to my life. I am thankful for the people that I have been blessed of having in my life and I greatly appreciate all of them. I am thankful for the writing skills I have been given and I will never take it for granted.

Thank You Based God! – Elijah

Thank you to the people who really love being alive and appreciate everything that earth has to offer I LOVE YOU NEVER FORGET THAT - Lil B 

Twitter: @OddKingz