Survival

Chapter One

"Mom?!?," I struggle around in the dark listening to the moans and explosions. "Mom where are you?!?" I feel around until I find my kitchen window and look out just in time to see my family shoved into a helicopter and watch it take off. I go to open the door but the moaning flesh eaters are everywhere and the door won't open because a big branch fell in front of it. I scream for my mom and dad but they can't hear me and I see my little brother look around and he makes eye contact with me just as the door is pushed shut and the helicopter takes off.

I wake up startled and see that there's a groaner (what I call the decaying and monstrous flesh eaters that used to be my town's citizens) at my window. It scratches it and stares at me growling. I can tell that it is a woman and I wonder if I knew her before the whole epidemic. I stare at her and notice spots of blue peeking out in some places that aren't splattered with blood. 

Many questions buzz around in my head. Who was she? How old is she? What is her name? Did she have any children? Did she ever fall in love? None of these things matter to her anymore. She is just a decaying organism with the hunger to eat flesh. It used to sadden me to see people like this but this has been my life for a few months now. I have become numb to it. She continues to scratch at my window, not knowing that it will not get her in here to me. She no longer has the concept of logic and emotion. 

After my mind becomes unclouded by questions, I walk around and check that all of the windows and doors that I boarded up to make sure that none have broken or damaged. Everything seems to be okay so I go outside, stab the groaner in the head and ride my bike to town to look for supplies.

There aren't many groaners around today because it's really sunny and hot. They tend to stay in the shadows on these kinds of days which I take advantage of. It's probably around the middle of July and Massachusetts is really hot during this time. The fact that it is summer makes me think about what I would be doing right now if things were back to normal. I would probably be swimming at at the lake down the street with my friends and family. 

I stop outside the nearest store and head in through the hole in the glass door. I come here at least twice a week so I've cleared all of the groaners out. I put a board over the hole I came through so if anything tries to get in I'll hear the board fall and be alerted of it's presence.

I swing my backpack off of my shoulder, take out my knife, and do a quick sweep through the store to make sure that nothing has gotten in since the last time I've been here. I find nothing so I start stuffing bottles of water, chips, and anything else that I can find that's not moldy or spoiled. The food has been very picked over and there is not much left. I am going to have to find another means of getting food fairly soon. 

When my bag is almost full, I go to the toiletries aisle and grab a brush, mirror, and some hair ties. I brush through my greasy hair and put it into a ponytail. I look into the mirror and see that my hair and face are both very dirty and my clothes are stained and ripped. I feel embarrassed by this even though I know there is nobody around to see me. The groaners don't care what I look like, they just want to kill and eat me. 

When I decide that I have enough I put my bag on and all of the sudden I hear the board hit the floor. I quietly pull out my knife and sneak over to inspect the door. What I see amazes me... Three people are crawling through the door with their knives ready to stab anything that moves. I think about making my presence known but decide to watch them first. I haven't had any sort of contact with a living thing for about three months.

They all slip in and it's obvious that they come here often too because they just do a quick sweep of the place and then get to packing their bags. There were two boys and one girl. The girl had reddish hair that was down to her shoulder blades and had a little wave. She's pretty tall and had freckles dotting her face. She looked to be about my age if not younger. One of the boys had dark brown hair and dark green eyes. He was short and looked to be around eleven or twelve.

Before I could get a good look at the second boy, the girl said "Jason come here." And he walked over out of sight. I quietly followed them and got a good look at Jason. He had light brown hair with bright blue eyes. He was pretty tall also and looked like he could be the other boy's older brother.

I was squatted down and didn't dare move in fear that they would see me and kill me. I was unsure of what to do. I was trying to create an escape plan but then realized that they might not want to kill me. What if they would help me? I knew that by making myself known, I could be killing myself but if I went much longer on my own, I would end up dying anyway. I had to take the risk and hope for the best.

I got the brush again and started to brush my hair out really well this time. I knew that I couldn't leave it down but a ponytail was not good enough so I started to braid it. While I was doing this I could hear them shuffling around and I hoped that they wouldn't find me. I wanted to make sure that I could introduce myself at a safe distance so if they tried to kill me, I would have time to either run or grab my knife and fight back. I took a towel from a nearby shelf and wiped my face off the best that I could. I took one look in the mirror and decided that it was time to step out of my hiding place in the aisle. So I did.