Kyle leaned over the toilet bowl ready to throw up. It had been only half an hour since he had made it back to the relative safety of his dorm. For the first fifteen minutes, he watched the group of former students roam the parking lot. He managed to count 75 before he thought he kept recounting some of them. He thought that close to a hundred was about the amount of students that could live in one dorm building so he didn't know where the rest could have been. Possibly in their rooms? The next fifteen minutes up until now he spent gagging and spitting up into the toilet. He leaned against the wall of the bathroom racking his brain for an idea of what to do next. Kyle had always been a nervous kid even about ridiculous things, always thinking of the 'what ifs' that could happen at any time. This isn't to say he was a firm believer in the zombie apocalypse, but his nerves told him it wouldn't hurt to be prepared, just in case.

Everywhere he went, whether it was a summer camp, his own house, or living at college, he made sure he knew where the best places would be to go in case something like this ever happened. For right now, his best bet was to gather what he could in the dorms that he had access to, wishing the entire time he would wake up from this nightmare. He looked outside one more time to see if the number had changed or if they had moved anywhere else. They hadn't. What seemed like the same group was still milling about the parking lot mindlessly. Kyle went back to his room to see what he had that could help him. One of his roommates had recently went and bought three cases of water, of which there was one full one left and a couple inside the second one. He had his phone and charger which was good since he could call for help. He was glad to see the power wasn't out at school yet somehow. He knew if the power went out, the card system that was used to get into rooms would be deactivated and the doors would unlock. This was so students didn't get locked in or out in case of emergencies. After the system deactivates, he could lock and unlock the doors manually. His other roommate had a case of ramen under his bed. Kyle also had a bag of chips in his closet. He went to get them and at the back he noticed something he forgot that he had. It was a wooden sword he got as a souvenir from the Renaissance Fair. It wasn't too heavy and it was only made of wood but for now this would be better than using his hands to defend himself. After looking through the rest of his roommates stuff, he found one of them had a knife that would do well if he needed it and the other had a hammer that had a screwdriver built into the handle.

After he finished looking and found nothing else of particular interest, he went into the other room. He didn't know his suite mates well but maybe they had something he could use. He didn't find anything unique, only some more water and sodas and some granola bars and chips. Not exactly the healthiest diet for right now but it'll have to do. He looked outside again; the group seemed to be a little smaller than before. "But where'd the rest go?" Kyle said to no one in particular. As he scanned the crowd he saw two of them heading back to behind the 200 and 300 buildings. Beyond the buildings were "woods" which was really a small area that had very sparse tree life. Speaking out loud again Kyle said, "so they're, well, what do I call them now? I guess there's no getting around that they're zombies, the zombies are hiding behind these two buildings." He sat on the floor and tried to plan what to do next. It was 12:30, he knew he had about 5 hours before it started to get dark out. He knew he should avoid places like the Palisades Mall which would probably be a hot bed for zombies. In fact any strip malls would have a higher concentration of them than stand alone stores like Walgreen's. If it spread overnight then there were definitely still zombies in the malls, and since there were cars at Stop and Shop, it makes sense that there were people alive this morning that got there and got infected so there would have been people at the mall early enough for them to be infected too.

He knew what he wanted to do, which was basically to loot Stop and Shop first and get back to his room. He knew leaving a zombie infested area and then coming back sounded incredibly stupid. He figured it probably was a stupid idea, but he thought that since he knew his room was safe when the doors were locked, coming back would be better than trying to find a new safe area on the fly. After he got the food he wanted and made it back to his dorm, he would probably stay the night in his dorm with all the doors locked. This would let the zombies become disinterested in hunting him over time and make them want to go for easier food. The next morning he'd go on a run to Lowe's and see if there was anything he could use there for weapons or defense for his room. He knew he was only missing about a quarter of a tank of gas so he could drive for a while and not need more. He still felt sick to his stomach. These were his friends, people he knew, his girlfriend, he hoped she was safe. Maybe she was still in her dorm. After he got enough food for the two of them he'd go get her and bring her back to his dorm.

With his plan set, he put his jacket on and put a water bottle in the pocket. He grabbed the wooden sword and his keys and he went out the door and stood at the top of the stairs. Before he left, he had seen most of them start slowly moving towards the 200 and 300 buildings again, so he figured he gave it enough time to get to his car which was parked a mere 20 feet away from his front door. He took a deep breath, bracing himself for what he was about to face. He went dorm the stairs and decided to test the door that lead into the downstairs dorms, it was unlocked. He made a mental note to check the rooms when he got back. He walked to the front door, one hand held the sword, the other his keys with his thumb on the unlock button. He opened the front door and took one huge leap out. He saw the zombies moving to the buildings still but they didn't seem to be good at hearing things. He started jogging to his car so he wouldn't make as much noise just in case. He was almost at his door when something came from behind his car. It was a gray skinned, yellow eyed person that had a chunk of skin missing from his left arm. It jumped on top of Kyle's car and then leaped toward him.