First Blood (Monsters)

First Blood is the first episode of the first season of Monsters.

Synopsis
Barry's life changes drastically when he realizes the end of the world is nigh.

Plot
BEEP BEEP

Rays of golden sunlight shine through the blinds of Barry’s apartment.

BEEP BEEP

Barry abruptly turns around in his bed, he’s far too tired to wake up.

BEEP BEE-

He slams his fist against his alarm clock. He slowly opens his eyes and lets out a deep yawn before getting up from his bed.

Barry slowly stumbles to his window to open the blinds. Right as he pulls the cord, he shields his eyes to protect them from the blinding light. He looks at his alarm clock, it’s 13:24 PM. He heads over to his bathroom to take a quick shower.

After Barry finishes his morning routine in the bathroom, he heads straight for his open kitchen for a cup of coffee to start the day off strong. However, he personally prefers a coffee that’s mostly milk and sugar. Right as he pours the coffee into his cup he hears a familiar tune coming from the kitchen counter. He takes his cell phone out of the charger and checks who’s calling. It’s his best friend, Walker Meyers. Barry and Walker have known each other since they were kids. They grew up in the same neighborhood, and have been friends ever since. He picks up the phone and asks, “What’s up, man?”

“I was calling about tonight, you haven’t forgotten have you?”

Tonight is Barry’s birthday, he and his close friends plan to go out for some drinks.

“Of course not, today’s the best day of the year.”

“Well, besides Christmas.” Walker responds jokingly.

Barry laughs at his remark, “Obviously.”

He takes a sip from his drink, “So, is everyone coming?” Barry asks.

“Leroy’s in, Jaz too. Cory’s sick though, Jasmine said he’s got a serious fever.”

“Damn, I hope he gets well soon.” Barry replies, disappointed his friend won’t be able to make it.

Barry paces around the room as he takes another sip, “Anyway, we’re going to Smithy’s, right?”

“Actually, we thought about going to this new place. Metropolis, on Barley Street.”

“Oh, I’ve heard about it, seemingly popped up overnight, right?”

“Yeah, apparently it’s pretty popular too. We’ll be there at 7.”

“I’ll see you then, man.” Barry responds, before hanging up.

“See ya.”

A while later, Barry leaves his apartment and heads out to meet his friends. As he walks out into the hallway he runs into one of his neighbors, Mr. Penderson. Jacob Penderson is a stern man, he’s not very fond of Barry, or his friends. Ever since the loss of his wife he keeps to himself, and often reacts quite rudely.

“Hey, Mr. Penderson.” Barry opens, before he realizes his neighbor looks quite sweaty and pale, “You don’t look too well, are you alright?”

Penderson coughs and rudely walks past Barry mumbling “I’m fine.”

Barry looks back at Penderson and shrugs before heading out the front door of the apartment building.

Barry walks through the busy street as the cold evening wind blows through the air. The racket of people going about their day-to-day lives, the roaring of the busy traffic, the smell of hot pretzels and cigarette smoke, all parts of living in the city.

He stops by a building with a bright neon sign that reads “Metropolis”. Walker wasn’t kidding when he said the place was popular, the line seems to go on for miles, luckily Walker made a reservation. Barry checks his phone to see what time it is, 7:34, he’s late.

He walks up to the bouncer, an intimidating man with broad shoulders.

“Name?” The bouncer asks in a deep voice.

“Barry. Barry Rhodes. I’m here for a party.”

“Aren’t we all?” The bouncer says sarcastically before taking out his clipboard to check the list, “Yep, you’re on the list. Head on in.”

The booming music and smell of alcohol strengthens as Barry walks through the large glass doors. The place seems even busier on the inside, it truly overwhelms Barry. He heads over to the bar to look for his friends. Suddenly he recognizes a familiar face, he sees his girlfriend Jasmine sitting at the bar. He heads over and takes a seat on the stool next to her.

“Late for your own birthday, why am I not surprised?” Jasmine says jokingly.

Barry smiles, “Well, I gotta keep a reputation.”

“So, how’s your day been, birthday boy?”

“Day? I’ve barely woken up!” He answers while laughing, “How about you? Walker mentioned your brother’s sick.”

“Oh yeah, Cory’s been pretty sick the past few days. Seriously burning up, he hasn’t gotten out of his be at all today.”

“I hope he gets well soon, it’s too bad he couldn’t be here today.”

“It’s probably for the better, Walker and Leroy are already bad enough as it is, I don’t think I’d be able to deal with three of them drunk off their asses.”

“Speaking of, where is the dynamic duo?” Barry asks his girlfriend.

“They’re probably on the dance floor. Dancing like nobody’s watching... while everyone’s watching.”

“Yeah, that sounds like them, alright.” Barry says as he laughs at the thought, “I’m gonna go look for 'em, talk to you later.”

“Bye babe.” Jasmine says as Barry walks off into the massive crowd of people.

Barry gets close to the heart of the crowd as he sees Walker and Leroy dancing rather terribly in the middle of the dance floor. He walks up to Walker and taps him on the shoulder.

“Huh?” Walker looks behind him, “Well, if it isn’t the man of the hour! Or uh... day?”

“I thought I’d find you two here.”

“Pssst, Leroy! Look, it’s Barry!” Walker tells Leroy as he points toward Barry.

“Oh, hey Barry!” Leroy says as he waves at his friend.

“Are you drunk?”

“Wha-? Of course not! We couldn’t get the party started without you!” Walker replies.

“You’re drunk.”

“Okay, officer. You got me.” Walker says humorously, “Now are you gonna arrest me, or are you gonna join us?”

“Hand me a drink, Leroy.” Barry replies.

Barry has a few drinks with his friends, although he tries not to get as drunk as Walker and Leroy. A while later, Jasmine walks over to check on them.

“Hey Jaz, you want a drink?” Walker asks.

“No thanks, someone’s gotta keep sober enough to drive you all home.”

“Suit yourself, more for me!”

“Uh, guys. I gotta use it, I’ll be right back.” Leroy says before heading off to find the restrooms.

“Nature calls, Leroy m’boy!” Walker calls out to him.''' '''

Leroy notices a tall man standing awkwardly next to the bathroom door, his hood covering his head. These types of clubs usually have shady dealings going on in the back, he simply ignores it and walks into the men’s restroom.

The loud music gets quieter as he closes the creaky door behind him. As usual, the entire restroom is a mess, paper towels and empty cans on the floor, graffiti on the stalls, typical. Surprisingly, it’s relatively quiet here compared to all the noise outside.

He goes into an unlocked stall and takes care of business. He notices a roll of toilet paper rolled into his stall from the one next to him, suddenly he hears a soft growl coming from the stand next to him.

After he gets out and starts washing his hands he hears another growl coming from the stall. He knocks on the door, “Hey buddy? You alright in there?”

No response, Leroy notices the door is unlocked.

“Uh… I’m coming in.”

Leroy notices the guy, bent over in the corner of the stall, he reaches out to the man.

“Hey, are you oka-”

The man turns around abruptly and growls at Leroy, before chomping into his hand. Leroy suddenly pulls back his arm, before the man can really sink his teeth into it.

“Agh, what the fuck?!” He yells out.

He kicks the deranged man away and covers his wound with his other hand before running off back to his friends.

Walker is talking to Barry when they notice Leroy running toward them in a panic.

“Leroy? What’s wrong, man?” Barry asks, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Th-There was this… this crazy dude in the bathroom! I think he was on fucking crack or some shit! He fucking bit me!” Leroy informs his friends, trying to catch his breath.

Walker is visibly shocked, “What the hell?”

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Jasmine asks Leroy in a worried manner.

Leroy shows her his hand, the outline of the man’s teeth are clearly visible, and he’s slightly bleeding.

“Oh shit, that doesn’t look good.” Jasmine replies after seeing his wound, “We should get you to the hospital, or something.”

“No, I-I’m fine. Well, I’m not, but… I think the hospital’s a bit much. I think I should just head home, get some rest.”

“Are you sure? It looks really bad…” Barry asks.

“Yes, I’m sure, man!”

“Alright, but we’re coming with you, you’re in no state to walk home alone.” Walker tells his friend.

“Heh, so much for that big party, huh?” Leroy says jokingly.

The four of them head out of the club to safely bring their friend home, Leroy’s apartment isn’t too far from Barley Street, so they arrive there pretty quickly. After Jasmine patches up Leroy’s hand and he goes off to bed, the others all return home.

Two days later, Barry sits on his couch eating some cereal, even though it’s pretty late in the evening. Usually he watches TV at this hour, but the signal’s down. He notices he has three missed calls from Jasmine, which slightly worries him.

Suddenly a loud knock can be heard. Barry quickly turns his attention to the noise, it’s coming from the front door. He gets up and shambles to the door. He opens the door slowly and notices Walker standing out in the hallway.

“Dude, we need to talk.”

Walker steps in and glances around the apartment.

“Talk? About what?”

Barry drops himself in the couch again while Walker paces around the apartment.

“I was watching some videos online, when I suddenly saw this fucked up video, straight from the deep web or something.” Walker explains, “There was this homeless guy, he just… snapped. He attacked a child and mother in broad daylight, bit right into the kid’s neck. Was about to go for the mom next, but the dad just started beating him.”

“Okay, that’s really fucked up, but I don’t understand why you had to come all the way here to tell me that.”

“No, man. Don’t you get it? This guy, the dad said he looked like he was on drugs or something. And he just snapped and attacked that family, bit the kid. That ring any bells?”

Barry thinks for a second before it hits him, “Same thing that happened to Leroy, right? The junkie in the bathroom.”

“Bingo. That got me thinking, I looked it up and I found a bunch of reports of incidents just like it all across the country. This has happened in at least 8 different states in the past month, that’s not just some coincidence.”

“So, what? Is it like, some kind of virus?”

“Well, that’s the working theory.”

Barry’s slightly scared after hearing that information, “I-is it contagious? How does it spread?”

“I read that some people came to a hospital with serious bite injuries. They got really sick, and a few days later they started attacking staff and other patients.”

“Jesus Christ, you don’t think that…” Barry is frightened at the thought of his friend becoming as deranged as that.

“I don’t know. I hope not, but it’s entirely possible.” Walker says, trying not to think about it.

“Then what we do? Do we just sit here and wait ‘til it fixes itself?”

“The government are trying to keep people in the dark for now, but I don’t think that’ll last very long. Things like this, they don’t end well… A disease like this, it could become a mass epidemic. And the fact that-”

Walker is interrupted by a loud noise outside, as if got knocked down the stairs.

Barry quickly turns around, “What was that?”

“I don’t know.”

Barry and Walker quickly run out to the hallway to investigate the sound. They swing open the front door and look over at the staircase. An overweight, balding man is lying at the bottom of the stairs, blood splattered around him.

“Mr. Penderson? That you?” Barry says as he slowly approaches the body.

“Barry, stop!” Walker commands, before grabbing his arm and pulling him away.

Barry’s neighbor slowly rises up, growling at Barry and Walker. He shambles in their direction, slightly leaning to one side. His skin is pale and rotten, and his shirt is soaked in blood. A large chunk of his side is missing, as if it’s been torn out by someone, or rather, something.

Barry, startled by the sight, stumbles back. Suddenly, Mr. Penderson lunges at him. Barry trips and falls right onto the hard floor. He ignores the pain he feels in his back as he attempts to crawl away from his undead neighbor. Mr. Penderson pins him, and Barry tries is hardest to push him off of him. Penderson attempts to bite Barry, his teeth just inches away from Barry’s face.

“Pull him off of me, goddammit!” Barry yells.

Walker grabs Mr. Penderson by the arms, and starts yanking him with full force, pulling him away from his best friend. He tears the undead man off his friend and pushes him away, causing Penderson to slip and drop further down the stairwell.

Both of them struggle to catch their breath after their first encounter with the undead, Barry gets up from the ground after calming down a little. The men look down at Penderson’s corpse with a shocked expression.

“Is he alright?” Barry asks his friend, unsure of his neighbor’s condition.

Walker looks in horror at the body once he realizes his actions, “I… I think I just killed a man…”

Suddenly, Penderson snaps back to life, barely being able to stand up, he attempts to crawl up the stairs, albeit at the pace of a snail.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, dude.” Barry tells his friend.

“Shit, man… We gotta get out of here, now.”

“What’s your escape plan, chief? Because it seems he’s blocking our only path.”

Walker quickly glances around the hallway, trying to figure out a second method of leaving the building. His eyes light up when he looks over at the large window.

“There, the fire escape!”

Walker and Barry hastily force open the window and head outside.

“We can go down from here!” Walker exclaims, before descending down the metal ladders.

Barry looks down at the alleyway below them, “Uh, dude… I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”

Two more reanimated corpses are lurking around in the alleyway, “Shit.”

Walker quickly climbs back up to the same level as Barry.

“Where do we go?” Barry asks his friend.

Walker considers his options, but realizes there’s only one real choice, “No way but up!”

“What? Up? How’s that going to help us get down from here?” Barry asks, before he realizes his friend has already started climbing.

“We can jump the rooftops, we’ll climb down later, when it’s safe!”

Walker and Barry ascend the ladders, attempting to reach the roof of the apartment building, Barry starts getting exhausted after climbing several floors.

“C’mon man, we’re almost there!” Walker exclaims.

Walker hurries up the last ladder with ease, and arrives safely on the rooftop. Unbeknownst to either of them, their presence alerts yet another one of those monsters residing in one of the top floor apartments.

“Alright, now it’s your turn!”

Barry climbs up the ladder carefully, hoping not to fall. If the drop doesn’t kill him, the undead certainly will. He’s caught off guard when he hears something banging on the window next to him. Suddenly the window shatters, shards of glass fly past Barry as he shields himself from the glass as to not get cut.

“Oh shit!” Barry yells, startled by the loud noise and glass shards flying past his face.

The infected man crawls out the broken window and drops down, but grabs Barry by the leg. It attempts to bite his foot but Barry kicks it twice in the head, causing it to loosen its grip and drop all the way down into the alley.

Barry hastily crawls up the remainder of the ladder and drops down onto the roof, entirely out of breath.

“Holy shit.”

The two of them lie down on the hard, flat roof, trying to catch their breath. After about half a minute of silence, Walker gets up, “Okay man, that was scary as shit.”

“You weren’t the one who almost dropped down 50 fucking feet.” Barry says, still out of breath.

Walker stares out at the night sky, the skyline of the city in the distance, and ponders for a moment, “It seems like this shit’s a lot worse than I thought.”

“Huh? What shit?” Barry asks, unsure of what Walker meant specifically.

“The city won’t be safe, too many people. I say we get Jaz and Cory, and get the hell out of this city.”

“What? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Don’t you see? This disease, those things, they infect people. The more people, the more of those things. It’s not safe here, not with all the people around. We need to get Jaz and Cory and get the fuck outta here!”

“What, and just leave Leroy? How could you do that? You’re his friend!”

“Barry, you saw him! You saw he was bit! That’s how you fucking turn!”

“You don’t know that, Walker! Maybe… Maybe we can, I don’t know, treat him! Or something.”

“Treat him? You really think that’s gonna work? He’ll magically bounce back? You saw that guy earlier, he fell down two flights of stairs and got up without a fucking scratch!”

“How do you know the same thing happened to Leroy? How do you fucking know?!”

Walker sighs, “Barry… He was my friend just as much as yours, but he’s gone, man… He’s just… fucking gone...” Walker slightly tears up at the thought, and drops back down onto the hard ground, mourning the loss of his friend.

“Look man, we should just find Jaz and Cory, and then we’ll figure out what’s next, okay?” Walker explains.

“Yeah, Sure. Sounds like a plan.” Barry answers, letting out a deep sigh.''' '''

Several hours pass, as the sun is already up by now. Walker and Barry jump from one roof to another, until they seemingly reach a dead end. Walker peeks over the side of the building, looking if it’s safe to go down.

“Coast is clear, no dead in sight.”

Walker and Barry carefully head down the fire escape, thankfully this one has stairs instead of ladders.

“To be honest, I hoped I’d never have to climb another fire escape in my entire life.” Barry says humorously, chuckling at his own joke.

Walker laughs too, “You and me both.”

They both safely arrive in the alleyway at the bottom of the fire escape, the alley leads to the parking lot of a few small stores. Despite the circumstances, there’s still a reasonable amount of people going about their daily lives, going shopping or walking their dog, unaware of what’s going on.

“We should be able to get to Jasmine’s place in about 20 minutes if we keep up the pace.” Barry informs his friend.

The two of them cross the parking lot and start making their way to Jasmine’s house.

Barry looks around him and notices all the people, he recognizes neighbors, friends, or just people he’s seen around town. A single mother with a baby stroller going to a convenience store, a sweet old lady walking her dog crosses the road, a band of enthusiastic children chasing each other around playing tag. Barry feels bad, realizing none of these people know anything about what’s going on. Walker looks over at Barry and can immediately read his face.

“Ignore it.”

“What?”

“You start feeling guilty about other people, that’s not gonna help anyone.”

Barry’s slightly surprised at how matter-of-fact Walker is about it, but he realizes he’s probably right.

“That came out more heartless than I meant it to. There’s nothing wrong with feeling bad about it, but you can’t let it eat you up from the inside.”

Barry thinks about what Walker says, but doesn't answer, “We should hurry up if we wanna make it to Jasmine’s.”

Both of them pick up the pace and head on to Jasmine’s house.''' '''

Barry and Walker arrive at Jasmine’s house, it’s a relatively small home, but it’s larger than Barry’s apartment. Her brother, Cory, has been crashing at her house ever since he got fired from his job and evicted from his flat.

“Alright, we’re here.” Barry says, as he opens the gate to the front lawn.

He sees one of Jasmine’s neighbors, Mr. Holmes, mowing his lawn, and waves at him. Holmes looks back at Barry with a smile and returns the wave.

“Enough with the meet and greets, let’s get Jaz and Cory and head out, man.” Walker says impatiently, although survival is probably the best reason to be impatient.

“Yeah, of course.”

Barry and Walker walk up to the front porch, Barry knocks on the door three times, “Jasmine? You in there? It’s Barry!”

They wait for an answer, instead all they hear is complete silence. He knocks again, “Jaz? Cory? Open up!”

Yet again there’s no answer, “I don’t think she’s home, man.” Walker says.

“Don’t worry, I know where she keeps her emergency key.”

Barry walks over to the window to the right of the door, and picks up the decorative horse statue, revealing the key to the front door underneath it.

“Seriously? She keeps her keys under the horse?” Walker asks, “Secure.”

“She’s never had any break-ins yet.” Barry says as he unlocks the door.

“Yeah, until now.”

Barry and Walker step inside, “We’re not breaking in. We’re just-”

“Coming in unannounced when she’s not even home?”

“Oh, shut up.”

Barry and Walker start looking around the house, “Jasmine? Are you here?” Barry calls out.

“Cory, you hear me, dude?” Walker yells.

“Dude, I’ll go check upstairs, you look down here.” Barry commands.

Walker walks into the living room and carefully looks around, “Alright, man.”

Barry heads up the stairs and starts looking around on the second floor. The steps of the staircase creak loudly when he steps on them. He opens the door to the guest room, but finds the bed empty.

“Huh, that’s strange. Jaz said that Cory hadn’t left his bed in days.” He mumbles to himself.

Suddenly he hears a loud knock. Startled by the noise, he quickly turns around, turning his attention to the source of the noise; the bathroom door.

“Cory? That you?”

No answer. He slowly approaches the door, as the banging gets louder and quicker. The bathroom door seems to be locked from the outside, the key’s still in the lock. Barry steps closer and unlocks the door. He slowly opens the door, about to step foot inside the bathroom, when suddenly Cory pops out from behind the door.

He jumps Barry, attacking him out of nowhere. His skin is pale and slightly decaying, his eyes are dead and white, and he has a bloody bandage around his left arm. The undead Cory pushes Barry against the bed, but Barry kicks him in the leg, causing him to fall down.

“Help! Walker!” Barry calls out, in need of his friend’s aid.

Walker is checking out the kitchen when he suddenly hears his friend calling for help. He quickly grabs a large knife from an open drawer and sprints upstairs. Once at the top of the stairs, he stops for a minute to find the right room. He spots Barry in the guest room and makes a beeline right for it.

Cory crawls back up and approaches Barry, but Walker comes in and pushes Cory away. He holds the knife out in front of him, as if he were about to stab him, but in reality he didn’t think he could bring himself to kill his friend, even if he was already dead.

“Get behind me!” He commands Barry, who quickly obeys and hides behind Walker.

Cory shuffles closer to Barry and Walker, and tries to attack Walker, but he holds out the knife directly in front of him and stabs Cory twice in the shoulder, to no avail. Despite being stabbed twice, Cory keeps approaching them as if nothing’s happened. Walker grabs him and throws him against the sink, he flails his arms trying to regain footing, but tears down the shower curtain.

Cory attempts to attack Walker again but Walker slashes right across his chest with the knife. However, he clumsily drops the knife as he loosened his grip. After nothing else seems to work, he grabs Cory’s head and repeatedly bashes it against the sink. Fueled with adrenaline, he bashes his head as hard as he can, and again, and again, and again…

Once Cory finally stops moving, he lets his lifeless body go, and it drops dead on the floor. Walker takes a few steps back, and drops onto the bed, exhausted, he covers his face with his bloody hands and processes what just happened. Barry stares at the lifeless Cory in pure horror.

“Dude… You killed Cory…” Barry barely manages to mutter in his shocked state.

Silence engulfs the room for what seems like entire minutes.

“No, man. I think somethin’ else did.” Walker explains.

“W-What the fuck?”

“Think about it. Jaz said Cory was really sick, right? He had a serious fever?”

“W-Well, yeah… But what the fuck does that have to do with anything?”

“Look at his arm, bloody and bandaged. I’m willing to bet that if we remove that bandage, we’ll find a bite.”

“You think he was bitten? Why wouldn’t Jaz have mentioned that?”

“I don’t know. She probably thought it wasn’t a big deal…”

Barry looks over at his dead friend, “But it was a big deal, huh?”

“A very fucking big deal.”

Walker gets back up, wiping the blood on his hands on the bed covers.

“Well, we found Cory… But we still have no idea where in hell Jasmine is…” Walker says, Barry looks down after realizing that.

“Hey, man. Don’t worry, we’ll find her. I promise you, we will.” Walker assures his friend.

Barry looks up, looks him in the eye, and sighs, “Yeah, I know we will. We have to.”

Starring

 * Barry Rhodes
 * Walker Meyers
 * Jasmine Cox

Also Starring

 * Leroy
 * Jacob Penderson
 * Cory Cox

Uncredited

 * Bouncer
 * Mr. Holmes

Deaths

 * Leroy (Alive, Off-Screen)
 * Jacob Penderson (Alive, Off-Screen & Zombified)
 * Cory Cox (Zombified)

Trivia

 * First appearance of Barry Rhodes.
 * First appearance of Walker Meyers.
 * First appearance of Jasmine Cox.
 * First (and last) appearance of Leroy.
 * First (and last) appearance of Jacob Penderson.
 * First (and last) appearance of Cory Cox.
 * This chapter is longer than other chapters, as it is the "pilot" chapter.