The sunrise of a bright new day gave all of them a much needed break from the horror of the night before, despite not wanting to open the curtains for the fear of being noticed by the undead, these things never slept and never  rested, they were relentless and aggressive beyond reason, they weren't people anymore, just flesh-eating moving corpses.

As Aiden and Jonas made it to the end of the tunnel, they were greeted by the old man who was  holding a pistol, he immediately told the two to speak "It's us, just calm down" Jonas said, the old man didn't look too happy to see them but he said nothing as he walked away and switched the TV on and reduced the volume to the bare minimum "Are your neighbours still human? Or...." the old man rubbed his neck and said "Don't know and don't care, as for you two, first thing tomorrow morning I want you out of here, out of all the people in the bar you two were the most shady"  He then turned around to face them, only then did Aiden notice his bandaged hand tucked under a long sleeve shirt, he must have gotten injured during the squabble

"You can't be serious right now...." Jonas protested

"I can't have such individuals near my daughter" The man then pointed at Aiden "I don't know who you are but you stink of military  and by military I don't mean foot soldiers or mere army and this I don't like"

Aiden stared blankly at the man  before glancing at the TV, houses on fire, entire blocks overrun and these incidents weren't just happening here in the Netherlands but worldwide:Nigeria, Chile, UK, Italy ,Japan, Canada,New Zealand.

Then the absolute worst part came, these fools were still calling these incidents:riots Aiden thought, but something else also bothered him, why was the government so slow in deploying military personnel, was it possible that someone was pulling the strings here?

"What are we going to do Aiden?" Jonas asked desperately, before he could reply one of the doors in the apartment was opened and Kara's stepped out, dressed in fresh, clean clothes and wet hair, she had probably had a bath, her gaze and Aiden's met briefly and it was obvious she still didn't like or trust him, she walked right past them and went straight to the kitchen to cook. The old man returned to the living room and gestured at both Aiden and Jonas to follow him to his room.

"So the two of you should tell me all you know about these things?"

"And why would we even do that?" Jonas scoffed "You will because I could decide to not even wait  for tomorrow before kicking you out of my house and who knows there might be one of those things lurking outside this corridor right now" the old man retorted with a devious smirk.

Jonas stepped right before the old man and said "I dare yo-"  But Aiden pulled him back "What is your name old man?"

"Marco" The old man said before rubbing his lips, while observing that gesture Aiden immediately raised an eyebrow, but decided to not question him further on that particular topic.

"Mr Jansen, these undead people can see and hear us perfectly, though it seems that they follow their ears more than their eyes" Aiden said monotonously  "Jonas tell us what you know"

"And why would I?" Jonas replied with a smirk

"Because I am this close to forgetting my knife in your left eye's socket" Aiden said casually and it was the fact that he said it so simply and naturally that sent a chill down his spine.

"I told you about how my daughter was attacked  by these things and I ended up under the tracks....well when I regained consciousness almost all the undead had spread out of the train station,I immediately rushed to my little girl's side...." His sad look returned and suddenly Marco placed his hand on Jonas's shoulder and said "No man should have to see his child's dead body" Jonas staggered to the bed and sat down.

"She wasn't dead when I got to her...she was still breathing, but she was also so badly bitten, those devils had eaten her so much that her innards were visible" Jonas then covered his face "I couldn't bare to watch my little girl suffer, she never did anything to deserve such pain.....so I took a glass shard, hummed her favourite song and drove it into her heart" He then raised his face from his palms to meet Aiden's and Marco's gazes "She died, but for just a few seconds......she  then opened her eyes, at first I was confused, but I knew that that wasn't my little girl anymore, she had white eyes like the rest of them and immediately attacked me, I tried to reason with her but she didn't even relent.....we struggled for a few seconds before I was able to wrestle her away and run,she was little so her legs were too small to keep up with me?"

Aiden listened with great interest "How did you then get to us before the undead? And  around what time did all this happen?"

Jonas sighed..."The train arrived around 2:30pm,by the time I ran out of the station,found an abandoned car and hot-wired it, the time must have been 3pm, I drove as quickly as I could  but the car ran out of gas close to your bar Marco, I then saw them coming from afar and simply knew that in such situation there was no out-running them,so I entered the first door that could be opened,which was your bar's........" The man took a big gulp of air and fought back more tears, he was trying so hard not to break "Now I need to find my son....he schools in France, he may have made it, he is all I have, he has to have made it"

Aiden ran his hand through his hair while thinking "This is a virus" He said out loud "It has all the characteristics of one and it got to Dutch soil yesterday and not today like the government wants us to believe"

Marco faced Aiden "And what makes you think this?" he asked

"Because I was on a plane that got to Amsterdam yesterday and in the news, I could recognise some of the so called rioters as people that I passed by or even travelled with, the outbreak probably happened few minutes after I left....the government is purposely feeding the public late and inaccurate news, it's almost as if they want the public to be as unprepared as possible"

Jonas sniffed "What do you mean...they may be trying to preserve the peace"

Aiden shook his head while saying  "If that was the case they would have told us to not come out and stay in-doors and that all problems would be solved in due time"

"What about the martial laws in China, Russia and Nigeria, isn't that a method of preventing people from going out?" Marco retorted

"Probably made up, Russia for example would never place the entire country under martial law over a few riots, if we had checked a Russian news station we would promptly see that no martial law has been placed and I bet that Russia will claim some other countries have been placed under martial law,the media is being heavily manipulated just to cover their tracks from people that might have figured out the first ploy" Aiden checked  the breast pocket of his jacket and brought out a cigarette "There is some international bullshit going on, and we are the pawns"

Shock was written in the expressions of the other two men as the words of Aiden sank in.

"I have just two questions now, why aren't you infected and what do you think is the medium through which this virus travels?" Marco asked.

Aiden lighted his cigarette and puffed,he was surprised that he didn't get questions on his identity but it was probably better that way  "The answer to both questions is BITE, I wasn't sure at first until you narrated your story, the one thing in common that all the people who have turned have is that they have been bitten, does it take a specific amount of bites to get turned? That I don't know" He then looked straight at Marco who broke into a cold sweat "But one thing is sure, the bites are the medium through which this virus travels"

That night they ate dinner in total silence, with the TV on and the terrible news kept rolling in, at times they could hear the screams of people calling out for aid as they miserably found their end, a particular scream came from their  very own road, they all rushed out to the balcony as quickly and stealthily as possible, that's when they realised that they weren't the only survivors in the building or on the street, several people appeared on their balconies to find out what the screaming was about, some were couples and some were even just children whose parents had gone out to work but never came back, they all stared at each other for some time with the relief of not being alone in this hell on earth, at the sight of other human faces Kara broke into tears, Aiden couldn't comprehend why she had reacted this way but something told him it wasn't sadness.

"Damn I have a nasty headache" The old man commented while stepping back inside "Pumpkin don't come into my room tonight, I might be coming down with something"

"Are you sure dad? I don't mind getting sick with you" She said while laughing

Marco smiled softly while rubbing Kara's face "You have your mother's face and her rough personality,don't ever change pumpkin"

"I'm sure that the personality came from someone else, but why all this softness?" she said while laughing

Marco simply smiled and walked away, as he approached the room he and Aiden stared at each other knowingly, finally the lights were switched off and everyone went to bed,but no one actually slept,everyone laid awake with their own demons and fears accompanied by the terrifying snarls and growls of the undead who now ruled the streets.

Anyway,this was last night but right now the sun was shining and with it came hope.......It was a brand new day.