MY FRIEND YURI

The plan was simple,live thru this.Ten minutes after Howie showed we left Jose's apartment and arrived at my house. We parked inside the two car attached garage,after a drive around the block to make sure all was quiet.We quickly went inside and starting loading supplies into the trucks,all the canned food i had ,which wasn't much,all the camping gear i thought we needed mainly the three sleeping bags i had and my big coleman stove,all the freeze-dried food i had ordered had arrived the day before thankfully.I always got all my camping food once a year so i could just throw some in the truck and go on a weekend trip when i wanted.My bug-out-bag was always in the truck along with some other supplies.The local radio station confirmed the first four cases of Mutalaters Disease as they were now calling this plauge had been destroyed by police at a roadblock south of town.So far no reports of problems in town had been reported.We were almost done packing when Howie's cell rang,it was Yuri asking if we knew what to do.Howie gave me the phone to talk to him as he kept packing.He was talking so fast i could hardly understand him as he mixed spanish and his native bosnian together into gibbersh.As i finally got him to slow down i finally understood what he was saying,he needed help.He was in his house trying to board it up because there was some attacks in his part of town,the south side.I told him i could go get him and he agreed.The others agreed to stay and pack anything else we might need while i went to get him in my spare car,actually it was an old 4door jeep cherokee i had since i was 16.The radio was now reporting some small proplems in town as i drove thru the now full streets of town,people were leaving to where i didn't have a clue and they probably didn't either.As i arrived at his place i was starting to hear gunfire in the distance,i walked in after i didnt get answered at the door.What i saw almost made me puke,in the kitchen was a body that had been beaten to a bloody death by a hammer.It's face was a bloody combination of shattered bone,teeth,torn flesh and spongy white brain matter but it wasn't Yuri.I could hear banging coming from upstairs and i thought it was him trying to board up the second story.I quickly ran upstairs and saw him banging on the door to his bedroom.For a second i didn't understand why,when i called his name he turned around and i knew why,he was infected.He stared at me for what seemed like hours but it was actually just a second or two,then he ran at me and tackled me to the ground before i could pull the small .38 revolver i always had in my left front pocket.I wrapped my hand around his throat to keep him from biting me and rolled him over onto his stomach and tried to choke him out but that didnt work,i realized i needed to break his neck.As i grabbed his chin and tried to turn his head i realized how strong the human neck muscles are,but i twisted with all the power i could and heard the vertabre breaking in his neck,the sound was something i would never forget sort of like a loud and long knuckle crack.I felt his body go limp and i pushed him off me and quickly got to my feet.The whole time we were wrestling i could hear screaming coming from behind the bedroom door,but now it had suddenly stopped. I didn't want to know why ,but i knew i had to.I pulled my gun from my pocket and slowly turned the doorknob and opened the door as i did i wondered why Yuri hadn't done that.When i walked in i saw his wife and daughter on the carpet both shaking very badly.When i reached down to see if i could help i saw they both had bites on the face and hands and i knew they were infected and were about to turn.I asked god to forgive me as i closed my eyes and shot both thru the head. I turned around as soon as i heard the noise behind me expecting to see another person but all i saw was Yuri.He was on the ground and his head was moving side to side and his mouth was snapping at me so hard i could see his teeth breaking.His neck was broken and his body wasn't moving but his brain was still alive.His eyes had turned from a bright blue to a dull lifeless gray.I realized i had to shoot him thru the head also.As i pointed the gun at his head i forced myself to remember all the good times we had all the great stories he would tell and what a good person he was to everyone he met,thats how i would remember my friend Yuri not like this.This was some evil thing that had taken his body and had killed my friend,he was a good man and thats how i would remember him as a pulled the trigger.I covered their bodies with sheets from the bed to give them some dignity before i went into the bathroom to splash water on my face and try to get my head around what i had just done.I had just killed three people,but they weren't really people so i didnt know what to feel.Move you asshole do something, i told myself as i stood in front of the mirror ten minutes later.So that's what i did, i quickly went thru the house to find anything i could use.I found his Mossberg shotgun under the bed and some spare shells in the closet then i remembered the gun safe he had in his garage as i ran down the stairs.There it was,a big mother, 4feet wide 5feet high and 3feet deep of useless steel,useless because i didnt know the combonation to the lock.Still as i looked around i saw plenty of supplies.I quickly pulled the jeep into the garage, i grabbed the two full 20 pound bottles of propane and put them both in the back,also two more sleeping bags,one empty ten gallon jug of gas,one full five gallon jug of diesel,one empty five gallon cooler of water that i filled before i put it in the jeep,a couple dozen large contracter grade trash bags and finally the honda generator that i had found in the trash and he had repaired last summer.As i packed the last of the stuff into the back of the jeep my cell rang it was Jose he told me i had to hurry and get back with Yuri and his family because the roads were getting bad and people were starting to loot stores.I couldn't tell him what happened over the phone so i said i would get their soon and asked if everything was ready,he said they were all set .Good that was one less thing to worry about,now i just had to make it back in one piece....