Grape makes his way to the door. He looks back and smiles. "Thank you for the lovely night boss!" Grape looks around in confusion. He was supposed to get a ride home from Diego but he is nowhere in sight. "I told him to meet me here at midnight. Where is he? He knew I was celebrating tonight." Grape holds his head up and decides he is sober enough to drive. He decides he will take it slow on the way home, just as long as he gets there. He heads to his car but before he can get there he sees something interesting...

Grape slowly walks towards the man dripping in blood. He makes a point to keep an eye out for anything fishy, something just doesn't seem right. As he reaches the man he notices deep lacerations all over his body.

The man smiles and begins to sob.
"I need help"

A terrible mixture of desperation and evil intent.Grape pauses for a moment, unsure what to do. He decides he must help this man. Grape places his jacket over the mans shoulders. He walks him to his car.
"I've got to get you to a hospital. Just hold in there."

The car peels off heading straight for the hospital. The man begins to shake and slam his head into the window.
"What the hell are you doing!" Grape screams.
"I've got a secret. A secret message. A message, I've got a secret message." The man says without opening his mouth.
Grape eyes dart towards the man. Sweat begins to bead down his head and a nervous intent is clear.
"Whhh....aaaat was that?" Grape barely gets the words out of his mouth. He swallows then asks again as the man remains silent. At the end of his second question the man busts the glass with his hands. He opens his door, looks back at Grape and smiles, then jumps out of the car. Grape slams on the breaks.

Once the car comes to a stop Grape attempts to get out but before he can open his door he is surrounded by what seems like an army of injured men and women. They all have the similar lacerations to their bodies. Grapes heart begins to accelerate. He is covered in sweat and is starting to panic. He reaches for the keys to start the car.

click...click...click.

After three clicks he realizes he never turned the car off and slams on the gas. He runs at least five people over. As he pulls away from them he looks back and notices they are standing up after he ran them over.
"What is going on?! I've got to get somewhere safe. Where is safe? I need to find some help and fast.

Grape drives most of the night. Trying to find somewhere safe. Eventually he makes his way to a bar that was well lit and seemed to have other people in it. He slowly makes his way towards the door.

Hopefully these people aren't freaking out like the others...

So then he just jumps over this huge fence.

Luxx pauses in the middle of her story and shakes her head up and down towards the man she's speaking with.

I know, I was just as astonished as you look. Well you don't look all that astonished, but you should. This fence was at least twenty feet and he just runs up to it, jumps on it and climbs up it and all of a sudden he's over and we're running towards the car with the sirens blaring.

And that was my first jail break, even though I didn't break into the jail, or break anything at all. Well, I think I broke the car a few days later. That'll happen when you run it dead into a light pull. She smiles sheepishly before continuing. Exciting, exhilarating. Oh youth.

Luxx turns away from the man sitting on the bench beside her and smiles to herself. She then looks suspiciously back towards him.

Now don't get the wrong idea, I'm not old or nothing. I'm just not fourteen anymore. There is a difference sir, yes there is.

She nodded her head over exaggerated trying to convince her new friend of this fact, but possibly, more herself. The light that lite the bars sign above their heads buzzed out abruptly, but revived its self once more. It had been doing that for the last 45 minutes Luxx had been sitting outside waiting for her blind date. She wasn't going to let herself feel defeated by even thinking that she may have been stood up. Thankfully, she had found this guy to sit with while waiting. He had let her ramble on for this long so far, she wasn't going to stop just because her ego was a little bruised.

Eventually she was pulled out of the thought of how ugly this man she had been set up with was and turned her attention back to her new friend. While she looked at him this time she realized the light bulb above them had kicked into action a little better this time. Luxx was able to see more features of the man she was sitting next to and they weren't good, but she wasn't rude.

Sir, do you need a band-aid?

She asked carefully, maybe he was just a lepar and her mother always taught her how to be polite. The man just grunted towards her. Luxx put up her hands as to shield him from coming any closer to her.

I do thank you for listening to me jabber for the majority of this pleasant night, but I'm not looking for a quick and easy.

Just then Luxx noticed a man come up the walk of the bar.

Grape!

Luxx exclaimed and shuffled herself off the bench while grabbing her purse in one quick motion. She reached GrapeJam right as he was entering the bar. He looked disturbed and it was obvious he hadn't heard her. Before she entered the bar she did look back at her ex-friend. Luxx was relieved that Grape had shown up when he did, she didn't know how much longer she would have been able to look at the man on the bench. His face pussy and his body goozing of some sort of fluid. Luxx felt queasy just looking at him. And that smell, Luxx pinched her nostrils and scurried inside after Grape.

Once Grape notices Luxx he lets loose a sigh of relief.

We've gotta get back inside the bar! I can't explain now but we need to find somwhere safe! Lets get inside now! Are there more people in the bar?

Grape looks around the bar hoping to find some help.

"Your up next Diego...Diego!"

An older looking guy yells towards the bar.  Diego turns away from the lady he had just met and walks over to the pool table while still sipping his beer.

What's the hook?

"The hook is a 4.  Or you could just take the pot with a 3.  But it seems you don't like money, you've choked the last three rounds in a row."     the old guy says with a smirk

Who says I choked? Maybe I'm hooking each round on purpose, raising the pot up.  If I'm gonna take it down, mise well take everything you got.    Diego says with a cocky smile

The old man sets Diego up with three balls - 8 ball, 4 ball, and the 9 ball sitting on the pool table.  Diego breaks, putting in the 8 ball on the break. He had a nice leave with 9 ball sitting a little off-center in front of the left corner pocket.  He sinks it easily, but puts too much on it and leaves the cue ball on the rail across the table. This is not an impossible shot but certainly a difficult one.  Diego gets up and walks to the other side of the table to get a better view of the angle. After he decides which angle he's going to take, he picks up his beer and downs the rest. Diego picks up his stick, concentrates for a few moments, shoots the cue ball softly enough to touch the side of the 8 ball. The 8 balls rolls slowly along the rail inching closer to the pocket. In a moment that felt like ten minutes, finally the ball rolls into the pocket...3's a point! Diego turns to the old man with a smile. The old man smiles right back.

"Nice shot Diego. But don't get too comfortable, you got two shooters left."

I've been hooking every round.  No one has shot a 3 today, this pot is as good as mine.     Diego exclaims

Diego walks over to the bar with a cocky strut. He sits next to the girl he had been talking to earlier and orders the two a drink. As the girl starts to talk, Diego looks back at the pool table to see the next shooter. On the break he whiffs everything and scratches. The shooter is already at a plus 2...which means he needs to knock in all three balls in one shot. The guy wildly slams the cue ball sending it flying all over the table ending with one ball in the pocket. No hook. The guy racks the balls and sets up three balls on the table for the last shooter. The old man stands up and announces the pot before the last shooter. The pot is up to a total of $347. Diego is confident this money is in the bank. He turns back towards the girl while taking another sip of his drink. The girl asks Diego what he's doing this upcoming weekend...and just as Diego begins to answer a loud group of cheers come from the pool table. Diego turns to see a guy high-fiving all of the men surrounding the pool table. Diego notices that there is only one ball left on the table. The shooter had knocked in two balls on the break. He's at plus 1 with only one ball left. The leave is decent, not great, but a definately a makeable shot. Diego watches on as the last shooter knocks in the last ball for a 2.

Fuck! The best anybody does all day is hook a 4 and I shoot a 3....only for the last shooter to score a 2 for the pot!

Ahhh.....

Oh well, when it's not your day it's not your day I guess.

Diego turns to leave, but before doing so, asks the girl for her number. She writes it down on a napkin. Diego puts the napkin in his pocket and downs the rest of his drink. Diego stands up and walks toward the door, turning back to wave at the girl. Just as he approaches the exit two people, a girl and a guy, come running through the door bumping into him.

"

Woah! I found Diego!

Luxx exclaims as her and grape pour right into Diego as they are coming in and he is going out. She wraps her scarf around her neck a bit tighter even though it's not cold out.

Diego don't go outside, stay in here and buy me a drink. Also there is this guy out there that might have leprosy and he smells bad.

Luxx pinches her nose to exaggerate her story.

Grape will tell you all about it while I excuse myself to the ladies room.

Grape smirks at Luxx as she walks away.

Go ahead and leave me to do the dirty work!

He turns to Diego and walks over to the bar.

Get over here and buy me a drink. We've got to do some business. Remember when you were a kid and the older kids would tell you stories just to scare you? Well, I hope you do. I remember a story that was about dead people who... He leans in close to Diego, who seems to think Grape is trying to kiss him and leans away.

Well basically dead people don't stay dead in these stories. I ran three people over and they stood right back up. Diego looks confused.

"Looks like you are bad at doing a job" Diego giggles after the insult.

It wasn't a job you idiot! I think there are REAL! zombies. Everyone in the bar stops and stares at Grape. As the silence grows he turns around to see them all looking at him.

I said that loudly didn't I? Well, since I have your attention anyone notice and people not staying dead recently? They look kind of like they got into a knife fight and didn't win. Skin falling off. They are also trying to kill anything that is living as well. So, anyone noticed anything?

The crowd continues to stare at Grape. One man takes a step forward and speaks up. "Yeah, I've heard some stories about that. When I was just a kid. Why don't you go and cry to your mommy cause no one here cares that you have bad dreams at night!" Most in the crowd laugh and go back to what they were doing. Just then Luxx returns and notices the look of dissapointment on Grapes face.

Diego turns to the small crowd of people hovering around the bar.

Its obvious my friend here is a little drunk. Please forgive him for he knows not what he says. He's normally a pussy when it comes to drinkin' and I had him shooting the whiskey!     

Diego says with a large grin momentarily taking the crowd's mind off of Grape's words. As he turns away from the crowd, Diego puts his arm around Grape and pulls him in close towards the bar.

You sound pretty crazy right now...I've known you for a long time.  You may be one of the weirdest chracters I've ever met, but definately not fucking crazy! So, what the fuck is going on!?

Diego looks over toward the bar keep

Hey bartender! A brew for me, make it a corona.  A margarita for the girl. And uh...give the purple guy a rum and coke. Give us about ten minutes then bring us a round of apple pie shots...and keep the tab runnin', we could be here awhile.

Diego turns back toward Grape...as Luxx approaches and takes a seat.

I really need to know whats going on. I'm actually in town for some business that I gotta take care of.  You see the guy standing over by the juke box...

Diego stops mid-sentence, thinking to himself as he realizes something.  The girl he had been talking to earlier is gone. He scans the bar for her blonde curly locks. No sign of her, and Diego can't remember her leaving.

Hmm...

Noticing his concern Grape asks Diego whats going on. He informs him of the girl. Grape is frightened by this notion and pulls both Diego and luxx in closely.

What I'm about to tell you is serious. I've heard of this before but just though it was a story. I think we are dealing with Zombies, the living dead. They used to be humans but aren't anymore. All they crave is flesh. Supposedly they are suppose to be brainless but it really doesn't seem to be that way. The only way to kill a zombie is by shooting them in the head. With these things its kill or be killed. They have no mercy and only want to eat you. So, whats the plan?