It was your typical day for three college-grads out touring the country in celebration of their freedom from books, classes, and final exams. Bartemus "Barry" Sheldrick, Dianne Westrose, and Evan Cost were living the good life. They were some of the fortunate few who were bright and eager students. They had each recieved enough scholarships, grants, and/or familial support to go through college and emerge on the other side debtless.
The three had met their freshman year and created their own little clique to keep out the evils of drunken jocks, menstrual sorority girls, and nosy teachers. Other additions to their little college-life family had come and gone. Barry for instance had kept up a string of short-lived girlfriends but all had perished before the truly intimate nature of the group. No one else seemed to develope their telepathy or a nack for the secret language that a group of friends often creates.
Now at the end of their college run the three are out on the open road in a van that Barry had recieved for just this purpose. Their first three stops had been their families. All three had come to their college of choice from out of state and so it seemed only right to visit each family before driving off into the sunset.
The three are not what you'd think of as athletic nor are they bookworms. The three are geekier than geek hell sporting super hero emblem and video-game homage T-shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes for the most part. As the three road through the morning finishing off their egg Mcmuffins and various beverages the stereo of the van played Cutman by the Protomen, it had been Evan's turn to pick the music. As the singer came around to another run of "Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut!" the van seemed to hit a bump and then the day became a whole lot stranger.
"What in bloody hell?" Barry asked the open air as he re-oriented himself after the bump. The view beyond the windshield had changed. This could not be possible, the bump could not have thrown them that far, but somehow it was different.
"Nice driving, man," Evan said from just over Barry's shoulder. Barry was still scanning the view outside the van's windows as though hoping this mirage would fade so he could get back to the road trip.
"Will some one please turn off that music until we figure this out?" Asked Dianne fingers symbolically plugged in her ears. Since Barry seemed in a state of shock, belying the Batman emblem emblazoned on his T-shirt that day, Evan reached up between the front seats and switched off the CD player.
Now all three looked out the van's windows and they could not believe what they saw. The van that had only moments ago been coasting along an interstate highway was now standing still in a large field-like expanse. The entire atmosphere of this strange place was grey. It seemed to be a dead place there was nothing living in sight, that is except for three freaked-out college grads in a displaced van.
"Anyone have a clue as to where we are?" Barry asked his two friends. He could not bring himself to rip his gaze away from the dystopian landscape however. For a long while the three were silent. It felt as though not even a breath passed among the three then things went from merely unsettling to downright horrifying.
What snapped them out of their state of trance was a slap at the passenger's side window of the van and when the three looked out they all screamed. There on the other side of the glass was a geek's worst nightmare, a zombie.
"Oh shit! Is that? Is it really?" Dianne asked backing as far away from her window as possible.
"I think it is and he looks hungry," Evan said also sliding to the opposite side of the van when more slaps came from the other side of the door on that side.
"Don't just sit there, numbskull," Dianne said to Barry, "Drive the fucking van!"
As though this command were directed at one of the mighty d'jinn of Arabic legend Barry's foot fell on the gas pedal like a concrete block. The van rocketed away from it's fleshy assailants and began to barrel along the great open plain.
"I can't believe I'm actually saying this, Evan, but get the zombie survival kit from under your seat," said Barry as he focused on keeping their frantic escape as easy on their vehicle as possible. They couldn't know when they'd have access to a new one, or if they would at all. Evan did as commanded and retrieved the customized shotgun case. In it along with a shotgun were hammers, bandages, and various odds and ends that people might want in an end of the world scenario.
"I'm sorry I said it was a waste of money," Dianne's voice quaivered only slightly, "Give me one of those hammers, Evan."
Evan did as commanded then took the shotgun out of the case and opened the back window of the van. Thus perched at the back of the aforementioned vehicle Evan fired rounds into any zombie that showed enough inhuman speed to catch up to the dirt-speeders.
"If we ever get back home I'm sueing Capcom," Barry said to his beleagured friends, "Resident Evil did not adequately prepare us for this kind of danger."
He managed to elicit a small chuckle from his otherwise occupied friends. That was enoguh for him though as they rocketed on through the open field which seemed to have no end at all. Then it abruptly did end. The landscape, as flat and unending as it seemed had created enough illusion to hide a small canyon. Barry took his foot off the gas and on the break but it was too late. The van was falling into that small ravine and nothing could stop it. Then came a bump and the feeling of falling was gone. The van was again sitting in an unfamiliar landscape. Not the interstate, and not the valley of the living dead either. Only one sentence could give voice to the thought in all their heads and Dianne spoke it.
"What the hell is going on?"
