"A whole new level" by Lee Stormy

Fear.
That was what kept John alive this past three years, constant fear for what lied ahead.
Another thing that kept John moving was a strong will, the will to survive and find some other survivors. He had lost so much, you couldn't imagine. Once he had a good job, beautiful wife and dozens of friends. John lost his wife Lynn two weeks ago to one of them. "Them" were vile creatures who roamed the world outnumbering the human population 1.000.000 to 1, they attacked, killed and ate the living, Once they were human, once... If you were lucky to survive an attack and get away but were bitten you would spend your last hours in agonizing pain until you eventually died and joined their ranks.
Lynn was all John could think of for the past two weeks. Her pretty, long, dark-blonde hair, her gorgeous adoring eyes and her beautiful, warm smile. She was a tall woman and he always admired her strength during all of this. Since her death John was a misserable wreck, his once so eager will to survive was now gone, this big, buff brute was now reduced to a sobbing, empty shell of a man.
"What am I going to do now?" John whimpered.
He sat alone in an abandoned farmhouse, he had lived there with Lynn for some months until she got killed while gathering supplies, she was just wandering through the forest when one of the creatures got a hold of her. John heard her screams, he ran to her aid, but it was too late, the walker got her before he made it. The creature used to be an old man who apparently was a hunter in these forests, he was completely dressed in camo, and still had the remnants of a feazant and two rabbits on his belt.
"I'm sorry." Lynn said.
"Why? No. No. No... This isn't happening!"
"I'm bitten." She said surprisingly calm while showing the bleeding wound on her arm.
"No, this can't be..." John sobbed while hugging his wife.
"We know what to do." Lynn said
"No, Maybe it's different with you!" He said, not actually believing it.
"You know better than that. I love you so much, I couldn't have wished for a better husband. I would kiss you but I'm infected now"
"Please Lynn, kiss me! I can't do this without you." John cried.
"You have to promise me you'll go on! I'll make it easy for you, just walk away but know I always loved you!"
"Lynn please, no!"
"Go!"
After she shot herself in the head preventing the reanimation John went back and burried his Lynn, all the while bawling his eyes out contemplating to break his promise and just blow his brains out to be with his precious Lynn again. 
So now, two weeks later, he sat there alone in the farmhouse drinking a bottle of whisky they found in the cellar.
"I'll have to go on and find other survivors!" He decided. 
He took his backpack, put as much of the food and water in it  as possible and left the farmhouse behind him.
He drove the old Ford pick up truck that the previous owner had left behind through the narrow forest-trail.

One last "I love you" escaped his lips as he drove past Lynn's grave.

He could have sweared that he heard her voice saying it too.
He came to a signpost saying "Blueville", John stopped and scanned the horizon for the town, it was a small one, the kind of town you wouldn't have known it was there until you passed it. He drove the streets just as he saw a man run around the corner, he was far to fast for a zombie. He ran straight to John's Ford. John got out and aimed his .45 at the man's head.
"Don't shoot, I'm alive!"
John couldn't believe it, a real live person, but he still didn't lower his gun. He had seen what people were capable of after the apocalypse.
"Stay where you are!" he yelled.
The guy didn't stop, instead he yelled: "I can't, look behind me!!"
Just than a couple of zombies shambled around the corner, and some more, and some more...
"Holy crap" John mumbled he put away his side-arm and got back in the truck and floored it in the direction of the guy in need. He screached to a stop just a meter from the horrified man.
"Get in!"
The man hopped in and they raced away.
"I'm Pete." the man said out of breath
"John." John answered still weary of his new found passenger.
"Thanks for saving my ass back there."
"How'd you get tangled up in that mess in the first place?!"
"I was gathering supplies for my group when all of a sudden I saw them coming." Pete answered.
"Your group?! There are more survivors?"
"Ofcourse, a lot more."
"Son of a bitch, why now! Why not two weeks ago! Goddamn it!" John sweared.
"What are you talking about?" Pete asked.
"Where is your group?"
"A couple of kilometers west from here."
They got to a big wall with an equally big iron gate in it.
"Here it is." Pete said.
John got out and was immediately held at gunpoint by three guys standing guard.
"Whoa, whoa, he's okay, he saved my ass back in Blueville."
They lowered their guns instantly.
The gates opened with a loud squeeking sound.
"Come on in, John" Pete said.
John couldn't believe his eyes, there were more than fifty live people inside, they all looked at John but not everyone looked pleased with the dangerous looking guy stroling into their little safe-haven. One woman walked over to John, she looked over thirty, had black hair and blue eyes. Before all this she probably had to beat off the guys with a stick.
"Hi, I'm Lea, welcome to our paradise."
"Paradise? Paradise? Three fuckin' years I've been fighting to survive, two weeks ago I lost the love of my life and you mean to tell me you live here like nothing ever happend?"
John was ready to explode when a huge man came up and calmed him down by telling him that she didn't mean no disrespect and that it was unthoughtful of her.
"I'm sorry, It's just..."
"Don't worry about it, we've all been through enough shit. What's your story?"
"When the outbreak started my wife and I drove to a remote cabin in the woods where we survived from the hunt and vegetables we found. We lived there for about a year and a half until we were driven out by raiders, I killed three of them, they were going to rape Lynn but I killed them. Lynn and me got away. Than we met a guy named David, he had a liquorstore which he barricaded and turned into a small fort. We stayed there for about three months, something had snapped in David, I'm not going to get in the details but it was messy." Again we left and we found a small farmhouse not far from here. We were finally getting comfy, Lynn didn't want to travel anymore."
"Where is she now?" A girl asked but was silenced by her father with a light tap to the head.
The biggest of the bunch yelled out: "Allright that's enough, let him rest!"
"Your tent is back there." A woman informed John.
"Introductions are for later, just get some rest first!"
John looked around, they had formed a small city between the walls including tradingposts, a barber, a bakery and a liquourstall with selfmade wine and beer. He got to the tent and saw some food and water waiting for him. He ate a bit and then fell asleep.
When he woke up Lea was sitting at his feet.
"Hi there, the chief thought you might want the company of a woman."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you can do with me whatever you want, I'm completly at your disposal."
"I'm still not sure I get this, you're a prostitute?" John saw the fear in her eyes.
"No, just a woman, we have no rights here, we fuck and in return we are allowed to stay."
"What the fuck?"
John stomped out of the tent and headed for the chief. When he got there he confronted him.
"What kind of a show you're running here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Giving away woman like pieces of meat?"
"Oh you've met her? How was she?"
"I didn't do it, what if my wife was with me, you'd do the same with her?"
The thought made John's blood boil.
"It is the way I chose, so yeah!"
John was about to punch the big man but held back and asked a final question.
"What if they refuse?"
"I make them"
"How?"
"By killing their husband or boyfriend and threatening to throw them in the pit."
"The pit?" John now was really steaming and was dead set on killing this barbarian prick.
"Come with me." The chief said.
John obliged.
They came to a big hatch in the ground, the smell of death hung in the air.
He opened it and a dozen of female zombies looked up and clawed at the two men.
"You son of a bitch" John mumbled.
"Watch your tone, I can easily kill you and throw you with them."
He hardly finished his scentence or John had took out his blade and slit his throat.
The chief couldn't even make a sound. John kicked him over the edge and his victims swarmed him, than he closed the hatch before anybody noticed, he didn't know how much followers the crazy bastard had.
He walked around the "town" and saw a lot of menacing looking guards. He went back over to Lea, he told her what he'd done and asked if there were others who'd support him.
Lea flew around his neck and thanked him a thousand times.
"There are lots of us who'll support you, I'll spread the word.
The chief's absence didn’t go unnoticed and everywhere whispers about "the new guy" hung in the air.

Part 2 coming soon.