The darkest path, the walking dead

Chapter 16: how it started

Flash back
"Mum, mum!" I say pulling at her jacket as she packs can food.
"Why did you unplug the tv and the radio" Jasmine asks, Jasmine is scared even more scared then me. Half an hour ago mum had unplugged anything that could tell us what's happening, like the radio, if she is trying to shield us from this crawl world she is a little late. She can decide to be mother of the year now.
"MUM! What is going on" Tara yells, she is easily the bravest, but also the oldest though to be far she is only fifteen minutes older than Jasmine.
"Girls go pack your things we are leaving soon" mum says frantically. I don't argue mums worried and that makes me worried, Jasmine starts sobbing as we all run into our shared room.
"What do you thinks going on?" Tara asks me, she's very curious, she got that off mum and so did I but Jasmine got her caring nature off my dad.
"I don't know, we should go see" I smirk at Tara and I can tell my curiosity is getting to me too as it usually does.
"Remember the old TV in the basement the one we use to sneak down stairs and watch horror movies on when mum and dad where asleep and Philip was passed out on the lounge?" I smirked at her and she looked at me in the same way. Philip is our uncle, he's mums brothers but my sisters and I hate both mums brother, mum has two brothers. Philip is an abusive drunk who has probably knocked up about 30 girls since I was three and he often ended up pasted out on our lounge, we also hate Philip because he hits me and Tara but Jasmine never had the guts to stand up to him so he never touched her, Brian is my mums other brother I think he's is different but we barley see him he has a daughter and his wife died half a year ago.
"Does it still work?" She asks referring to the TV, I nod and without a second thought or word we race own the hall as quietly as possible because we would get in so much trouble if mum or dad caught us and even more if Philip come to investigate the noise. We get down into the basement and I'm not surprised to see Jasmine didn't follow us.
"Come on turn it on" I say smiling at Tara, her smile alone tells me she isn't doing what she is told. Tara turns it on and holds the aerials up in the air, the TV flickers with colure and the news turns on.
"Wait hold still" I yell at her as we both laugh.
"The terrorist attacks have become more common and we warn you to stay in your homes" A blonde lady appears on the screen with a microphone.
"If you come into contact with someone who may have been infect we ask you to go to a quarantine as soon as possible" she says with no emotion showing.
"If a family member or friend is attacked by the infected be prepared for the worst" she says as if this was happening somewhere else, but it's not this is real.
"Get to Atlanta there will be refugee camps, the military is setting up there and the national guard is stepping in" she says showing a flash of worry but as quick as it is there it's gone. I get it know she is trying to stay clam to hide to panic, she knows something we don't.
"Jackson Misty coming live from a small town to the east of Atlanta" the lady say and a new screen appears. We watch the TV to see a young aged girl with bloodshot eyes and flesh ripped away from her mouth, it makes me feel sick at the sight, it's scary but intriguing. Tara looks with shock and interest just like me. The girl darts toward the man that looks about 33. He is about to start talking into the microphone when he spots here. She tackles him to the ground and bites a chunk out of his neck and then start to rip him apart piece by piece. He doesn't just die from the blood loss, will not instantly, he struggles and scream and cries as he chokes on his own blood.
"What is this?" I whisper. Tara doesn't answer and I don't think I want her to, another man pops up on the screen, a guy with a microphone stands nervously, he's obviously the replacement for the last guy who is hopefully for his sake no longer with us. My hands shake and I take deep panicked breaths. Why didn't we listen to mum?
"Stay in your homes avoided contact with people, stay away from infected and know your not alone. If you need help go to Atlanta there is refugee centres on the edge of town, it's safe there go to Atlanta" the message keeps repeating. They want us to go to Atlanta. That's is good I live in Atlanta.
"We are safe right? We are where they want us to be?" I ask panicked and Tara looks at me almost looking green, she shakes her head and shrugs without changing her expression. I hear foot steps coming and Tara grabs my arm.
"Come on we have to go" Tara pulls me toward the stairs but we are met by an angry Philip.
"What are you girls doing down here" he grins and I knew this was about to get bad.
"Leave us alone Philip" Tara spits, sweeping her brown hair out of her face,
"You don't want to talk to your dear uncle like that I'm your blood" he growls.
"You might be our blood but you sure as hell are not our family" I say eyeing him off.
"I've gotta teach you girl some respect" he says undoing his belt and for a second I think he's going to rape us again but he doesn't, he hits my sister with the belt in the stomach and walks to me, he pulls the belt back and hits me across the face, it slices my cheek causing a drip of blood to fall and I stumble for a second before collapsing to the ground, he hits me with the belt several more times before moving on back to my sister but he is stopped by my mother.
"You are to get out of this house now!" My mum screams at him and I pull myself to my feet and help my sister up. I will admit I'm angry that now my mum deicides to choose us, for the last at eight years she has chosen him. Our mum and dad know that our uncle Philip abuses us and that's why we almost live with our cousins, our cousins are spoilt brats and out of all the time I've been there I have not once seen my auntie, there mum, they have a theory that she died and they were not told..
"You ok?" I say helping Tara to her feet, she nods.
"I thought that was going to get nasty then for a second are you ok?" She says and I know what she means I thought he was going to rape us for a second there too.
"Yeah I'm fine" I say as we hobble up the stairs, mum doesn't bother asking if we are ok anymore she just knows we are, she had walked in so many times with me and Tara unconscious on the living room floor and for some reason she choose to do nothing about it.
"And as for you two pack your things now" mum yells at us, we stumble into the bedroom and I'm not surprised to see Jasmine barely even looking at us. I am the youngest and I treat her as if she's my little sister I protect her and so does Tara. I grab some bare essentials and we head out the door, it's night time and I can almost smell the panic as people rush around.
"We are in the safest place right?" I ask Tara quietly as we walk out of the house, she nods but as she does I see helicopters flying towards us and I see something I will never forget. They send explosives rushing down and I know it's over whatever is going on Atlanta isn't safe anymore, I look up to see Jasmine with pure terror on her face.
"Run!" Dad yells and we all run to the nearest building. We are lucky that they are only bombing the outside of Atalanta therefore where we are is safe from being bombed. The sky is orange and red from fire. I imagine all the people perishing into the flames or being blow to pieces.

  It's been three days and we have no food left so me and mum are going to get some stuff at the grocery store not too far from here. Jasmine and Tara won't leave each other since Jasmine is a mess so they are staying back.
We enter the store and I can tell things aren't right the shelves are almost completely bare and no one is in here. We haven't been there for long when I hear mum scream and I come face to face with four mean looking guys. One steps forward and grabs my arm to stop me from running and another grabs my legs I scream and cry as they carry me away so I can't see my mum anymore, they tie me to a pole.
"Your next" one of the guys smiles with a smelly beard and rotting teeth and they walk away, I hear my mum scream and cry as they rape her. I don't hear the door open but before they come for me my dad is cutting the ropes that hold my arms, he shoots one of the guys and I jerk at the sound of the gun fire. His bow and arrows slide across the room to my feet when dad kicks him still holding the other three at gun point. I grab the bow and arrow, I know how to shoot I grew up on a farm with my cousins and they made me learn. I fired four arrows into one of there chests and then two into the next guy while my dad shoots the next. It's too late for mum, we don't give her a funeral we just leave her body. I tell my sisters the news.
"Oh my god are you ok?" Tara asks checking my body as Jasmine sobs.
"They didn't rape me it's fine and if they had it's not like it would have been the first time" i say quietly and she nods hugging me tightly. We sleep in a small house that night and I can tell dad is going dark and to make matters worse Philip found us and while dad was all..... I don't even know but he was just so out of it he just stared into space, so while dad was out of it me and Tara got beaten until we fell unconscious and maybe even more after that.
"It's your fault!" He screams as he kicks me in the ribs "you and Tara it's all your fault!"

I wake with blood dripping out my mouth as I cough up blood and this would be my life for the next two weeks until Tara pushes Philip into a walker. No one cared that he was gone he only caused trouble, I didn't like him and obviously Tara doesn't like him much, Jasmine was terrified of him and he wasn't in dads good books. Me and Tara spend most of our time leaning on each other for balance because I think we both have broken ribs but we mange to get through it all. Jasmine acts like she is the only one who misses mum and she acts like she's the only one going through a tough time even know me and Tara have been coughing up blood but she is just to selfish, I wish I could be selfish.