The Undead Ruined Me

Chapter 2

After 6 long hours of sitting by myself listening to adults, higher in life than me, talk about topics that they have mastered in, I walk out of school and make my way home.

As I walk down the street I begin to run my mind, like I do every day. Wondering about life, and friends, family, all the usual stuff. My house is about 15 minutes from school, but I walk slowly just to gather my thoughts.

When I finally get home, half an hour after school finishes, I open the front door and what I saw made me open my mouth in shock. Instead of walking in to my happy and peaceful home, I am greeted to my younger sister Sarah crying her eyes out, and my Mum frantically power walking around the house filling suitcases.

"Oh my god, Erica, I'm so glad you're okay!" My mum says frantically as soon as she sets eyes on me. She gives me a tightly gripped hug, almost squeezing my insides out.

"Mum what's going on?!" I say panicked as I pick up Sarah and place her on my hip, trying to sooth her.

"We have to go! The media said so!" My Mum says with wide eyes.

"Mum! Stop! You're scaring Sarah, and quite frankly, you're starting to scare me." I say in a semi-sarcastic tone.

"Erica." My mum starts.

I place Sarah back to the ground and tell her to go into the lounge room to calm down. The nods and walks away.

"You are such a wonderful young girl. Your father would be so, so proud of you. You are loving, beautiful, funny and so kind hearted; don't let the new world ruin you." My Mum preaches to me, kissing me on the cheek.

Her speech makes me think for a minute. You see, my father passed away a few years ago from cancer, and my Mum always says that he would be proud of me, but this time, it was different. The look in her eyes stared me down, like she wanted me to completely understand.

"The 'new' world? Mum what are you talking about?" I ask confused and a little bit worried about what she is about to say.

"It's a virus." She says. "A very deadly virus. It attacks your body and it kills you and you come back and it just takes over everything and-"

"Mum! Calm down, okay? I will help you pack, wait, what are we packing for?" I ask confused.

"The country, to get away from the busy cities with lots of people, or monsters or whatever." She says panicked.

"Okay." I say, giving her a sense of security.

"Now, you need to get changed out of your uniform into something comfortable and convenient, okay?" Mum says seriously. "Maybe a t-shirt, long pants, boots and a jacket." She suggests.

I nod and walk into my room and open one of my draws. It reveals many pairs of jeans. I grab a pair of black skinny jeans and close the draw. I then open the draw above the previous one to reveal a colourful bundle of t-shirts. I unravel the shirt from its folds and stare at the picture on the front of it. It is a mint green material with a picture of darker green headphones on the front with the wire shaping a heart with it then spelling out the word 'music'. It's pretty lame but I'm not going to be picky.

I take off my school uniform and slide on my chosen outfit. I quickly grab some socks and a black hoodie from a pile of folded washing that is sitting on my desk. I pull on my socks and make my way to the front door. I locate my black leather boots and tie them to my feet.

I walk into the lounge room to prepare Sarah.

"Sarah, go get some of your toys together. Choose 3 really, really good ones." I say turning to my sister, whose eyes are red and puffy from her tears. "Do you understand?"

"Mmhm." My sister says, nodding her head.

I can't imagine what it's like, being six in a situation like this. Going through what happened with Dad was hard enough at twelve, now everyone's sick and she has to live with that.

Sarah walks up to me with a stuffed elephant, a brunette Barbie doll and a play picnic set that is concealed in a small basket.

"Is this okay?" She asks me with a sweet, soft voice.

"Yes, that's fine darling. Get a plastic bag from the kitchen and put the bag near your suitcase." I tell her with a firm tone of voice.

"Okay." She says back.

I walk into Sarah's room and start picking out some clothes for her. Short, long, under, over, pyjamas, slippers and shoes, all the usual. I take the pile of clothes into Mum's room where the suitcases are all lined up. I neatly pack all of her clothes into her small, purple case.

"Hey, Erica. Thank you so much for this darling, you're really helping out." My Mum says to me with soft eyes.

"No problem Mum." I say back with a smile.

I take my suitcase into my room and begin to stuff clothes into it not looking at the shirts or pants that I am grabbing. I then grab a few sweatshirts, pairs of socks, underwear, bras and two more pairs of shoes.

I don't know if I'll need all of this stuff but I guess it's best to make sure, just in case.

After all of our packing is done we walk outside to load up the car, and what I see next is mortifying.