One event that any kid like me would get out of the house and away from the Xbox to go spend the day. I had been marking down the days in the calendar leading up to this very day so I could drive my friends and I to Atlanta, GA to celebrate the coming of our most anticipated day. It was something we weren’t willing to miss.

My friends Zoey and Bri were bouncing around in their seats awaiting the opening of the gates so we could flood inside. We had a schedule for the times our favorite bands would be playing and the stages they would be playing on. I was excited to see Motionless In White, Bri wanted to see Crown The Empire, and Zoey wants to see Falling In Reverse.

“Jade! The gate opened!” Bri exclaimed, jumping around like a kangaroo. She’s really hyper.
“Let’s go!” Zoey demanded, pushing us towards the front.
“We’re coming.” I sighed, laughing slightly at my friends. The most impatient people you could ever meet are either angry or excited. In this case, they are both really excited. Don’t get me wrong, I am to! The only bands I really want to see don’t play until after two. It’s eight right now. I have a bit of time.

Bri’s favorite band was playing early, meaning that she was pulling both Zoey and me by our wrists towards the stage they were playing on, tightening her grip every time we would walk through a small packed area.

When we arrived to the stage we were a bit earlier than everyone else, meaning we got really close to the stage. We managed to get up to the gates as soon as the members started lining up on the stage, opening up with a new song of theirs, Bloodline.

The crowd immediately started jumping up and down along with the beats of the song, head banging along with the unclean vocalist of the famous band, David Escamilla. He started bouncing around when Andrew Velasquez started singing, smiling widely as the crowds were still chanting the song with them.

They went on with the rest of their setlist this way, not caring if he looking like a spider monkey or not as he tried to dance and head bang at the same time. After the band was done playing they thanked the crowd for seeing and supporting them.

It was now nine thirty. In another thirty minutes, Zoey’s favorite band was playing, Falling In Reverse. She insisted on going now so we could get close to the stage like we had with the Crown The Empire.

We had successfully shoved our way to the front with fifteen minutes to spare. “Oh my God! I’m going to see Jacky!” She squealed and started fangirling over how amazing he was. No one could deny that, he can play. That bro has talent. You would be stupid not to see it.

Ryan Seaman walked on stage, followed by Max Green, then Derek, Jacky, and lastly, Ronnie. Jacky set up in front of Zoey, making her fangirl like no one had ever seen. I seriously thought she was about to pass out.
I was worried.

The band opened with one of my favorite songs by the band, The Drug In Me Is You. Zoey was giggling, head banging, and trying to dance at the same time. She managed to hit her head on the gate a few times, causing Bri and myself to laugh at her.

Eventually, when Jacky took notice of her, he actually started laughing as well. It looked like he was struggling to play the solo he was belly laughing so hard. After the song was over, Ronnie looked over at his fellow bandmate, trying his hardest not to laugh at how badly he had messed up the song, and brought the mic up to his lips.

“Jacky, what the fuck was that?” He questioned, trying his hardest not to let his mean mug fall, failing near the end as he started laughing.

“Nothing. Im fine.” Jacky chuckled, looking down at Zoey and winked. “I just saw something funny.” He explained, his british accent showing through with the words he spoke.
“Do you need a moment?” Ronnie asked, looking concerned as his friend started laughing again, falling to his knees and holding his stomach. Jacky only nodded as the guitar tech pulled the strap from around him and fell to his side, his face turning bright red at the amount of laughter he had bottled up during the one song.

“Ok. Im good.” Jacky smiled as he got up off the stage and grabbed his guitar. He smiled even wider as he made eye contact with Zoey. Not the kind of smile that says ‘you just embarrassed the hell out of yourself’ but the kind of smile that says ‘you’re awesome’.
“Dude, Jacky so just laughed his ass off at you.” Bri gushed to Zoey, making the girl’s blush grow under her beat red face.

They played Fuck The Rest next and continued on with the set like Jacky’s laughing fit had never happened. The guitarist kept stealing glances down at my friend, smiling or winking every time he did so. I think Ronnie caught on. He kept giving Jacky weird looks when he would look this way.
After the set was over Jacky hopped off the front of the stage and walked towards Zoey. She started fangirling hard, clutching onto Bri and I’s wrist to keep from falling. It actually hurt.
“Hey!” He cheered, waving at Zoey.

“Hi.” She giggled, tightening her grip on my arm. This hurts for me. There is no telling how much pain Bri is in. She has the pain tolerance of an ant. Im surprised she hasn’t hurt herself yet.
“Nice dancing.” He chuckled. “I’ve been touring for a few years now and I have never seen anyone hit their head on the gate the way you did.”

“You know,” she shrugged, blushing madly, “it takes practice.”
“I bet. You don’t even have a knot or anything!” He exclaimed, looking at her forehead for damage.
“It’ll be there tomorrow.” I assured him, wincing a bit as Zoey kept tightening her grip on my arm.
“Probably.” He nodded. Ronnie came up behind him, followed by Ryan.
“Jacky, is this who you were laughing at?” Ronnie asked bluntly, pointing at my friend who only nodded.

“Yep. That’s me.” She blushed.
“Dude, I saw your moves. They were awesome. I don’t know why Jacky was laughing. They actually gave me a boner.” Ryan explained, causing Bri to drop her jaw.
“Ryan, you can’t just tell people they gave you a boner! That’s not how meeting people works!” Ronnie said to Ryan.

“I don’t see why not!” Ryan yelled. “I will happily tell every band member that I see today that they gave me a boner. I bet you some of them will be my friends.”

“If you say that to All Time Low, then yes. You will make friends. Jack has a whole wardrobe of shirts that say boner. If anything, he’ll give you a few burritos and tell you to have sex with them.” Ronnie says to Ryan, earning a few laughs from my friends and I.

“Its still making friends. I get to jizz in a burrito to. So that’s always a plus.” Ryan tells Ronnie.
“You’re so fucked up.” Jacky shook his head, laughing slightly. “It was nice to meet you guys!” He says to us as he pushes his friends away.

Zoey wouldn’t stop fangirling after that. It was absolutely horrible. She started crying and everything. The whole nine yards.

We decided to go get food from a restaurant a block away while we waited on the other bands to play. We found an Arby’s and went inside. I used the bathroom while Bri and Zoey were ordering for me.

I walked to the table where they were sitting and grabbed my sandwich off the tray and ate it.
“Hey, you know that cannibalism thing that’s been all over the news?” Zoey asked, looking down at her phone. There have been reports of ‘zombies’ walking around the country. I think it’s a load of crap. It’s probably just a bunch of really gross people who like raw human meat. Like the Texas chainsaw dude and his family.

“Yeah.” I nodded questionably, unsure of where she was going with this.
“What about it?” Bri asked, just as confused as me.

“Apparently there was a herd of them right outside Alabama. They are headed towards Georgia.” She explained. I rolled my eyes.
“Z, you know I don’t believe in that bullshit.” I stated, getting up and throwing my trash away.
“I know. I still think it’s for real though.” She shrugged, taking a fry out of the carton and eating it.
“You have always been a fan of the supernatural.” Bri giggled, nudging Zoey.
“We should get back. Motionless goes on in an hour.” I explained, getting up and walking towards the door, my friends in tow.

We made it back to the venue and went to the main stage where Motionless In White was playing. The walk here was about thirty minutes, meaning we still had thirty to wait for the band to come out.

I sat down against the gate, trying to rest my feet a bit from the two hours straight of bouncing around and head banging. I will most definitely have a migraine tonight.
I started thinking about what Zoey said about the zombies. I mean, what if they are real? We would drive straight through it going home. We live in Alabama so there is now doubt that we would miss it if they were coming this way.

Maybe we shouldn’t go home. Maybe we should try to avoid it. We could drive around it and be safe. Maybe drive towards Florida and take the Gulf Shores exit then drive north to get home, avoiding any conflict with the ‘threat’.

People started filling the area, meaning the band would start soon. I got to my feet and noticed that there were five minutes until they were on. I hadn’t realized I was thinking that hard.
Brandon, Devin, Josh, Ricky, Ryan, then Chris all walked on stage in that order, making me smile brightly. They started with their newest song they had released, Reincarnate. The whole crowd went insane with the familiar new sound, singing along with the lyrics.

“Ok! So you all have obviously heard Reincarnate!” Chris cheered after the song was over. “This next song you haven’t heard though! It is going to be released tomorrow! It’s called Puppets 3!” He screamed then started head banging as an amazing guitar riff blasted through the speakers.
The song was amazing to say the least. I was in my heaven as I listened to the song that made my heart flutter. The Puppets series was my favorite and the fact that I just heard Puppets 3 made me happier than anyone could ever understand.

After, they started playing If It’s Dead, We’ll Kill It. Halfway through the song security jumped on the stage and started shoving the band off and towards the busses, giving them specific orders. I saw fear in their faces as they were being pushed away. Josh broke away from the grip of an officer and grabbed a mic off the ground.

“Run! The fucking zombies are here!” He screamed before being snatched away. My friends and I started running, holding onto one another since our lives depended on it. We ran towards my car, Zoey in the front of the group.

She bumped into a zombie and got bit on the arm. Bri jerked away from our former friend and ran the opposite way, pulling me with her. She stopped and turned around to face me. “Where is the car?” She questioned, turning back every half second to see if something was behind her.
“I don’t remember!” I cried. She grabbed my arms and started shaking me. The tears in my eyes made it hard for me to see and my friends abandonment showered my mind with guilt and I couldn’t think. Bri started screaming and let go of my arms. I blinked and saw a zombie on her neck.

I screamed and turned away and started running until I ran into the bus grounds. I heard a lot of gun fire and I started freaking out, not knowing what to do. I searched around me, hoping to find someone.

Oliver Sykes grabbed my wrist and ran me onto the nearest bus around, which was Of Mice And Men’s. Bring Me The Horizon, Motionless In White, and Crown The Empire was on here along with the Mice members.

“There are other bands on a few other busses. They are going to follow us. We need to go now!” Austin demanded to the driver, Josh Balz. The bus jerked forward and started speeding away.
“Are you ok? Are you bit?” Oli questioned me, searching my body for marks.
“N-no.” I stuttered, searching with him.

“Ok then. What’s your name?”
“Jade Kasper.”
“Ok Jade. Welcome to the zombie apocalypse. Here’s a gun and shoot anything that wants to bite you in the head.” Tino Arteaga told me, handing me a .45.

Notes

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