Chapter 1:
I stand in front of the door listening carefully for what might be lying ahead waiting for me on the other side. A few minutes pass and I finally gather up the courage to place my hand on the door handle. I feel a cold electrifying current flow through the door and up my arm. I shudder and shake off the feeling that I won't like what I see. I slighty push the door open just a crack, just enough to see the room full of blackness waiting to engulf me. I flick on my flashlight. Nothing. The room has already been raided. I slump my shoulders in disappointment. My only chance of food, warmth, and life depended on this, this one little room in this old beaten down shack of a house. This was my breaking point.
I haven't had food in over a week, the water is almost gone, and they are so close to finding out where I've been hiding. I have to do something and fast. I remember a house not far from here I spotted the other day. It looked like it was in pretty good shape compared to the others, like it hasn't been discovered yet. If I could make it there without being seen it could be the difference between life and death. I slowly make my way up the creaking stairs back to the main level of the house and through the back door. The door swings open too fast and slams into the side of the house with a loud crack. I wince and look around hoping they haven't heard it. After 5 minutes of scoping the area and reassuring myself I'm safe, I continue down off the porch. I quietly run to the next house in a desperate attempt to stay hidden.
The house is in sight, still looking the same as it had before. It's olive green siding still looking like it's been freshly painted, the white picket fence standing with no broken boards. The garden, the garden is magnificant. Wild flowers growing up around all of the dead ones making them appear invisible. It's hard to imagine something could be so beautiful at a time like this, when my world has been destroyed. This one little insignificant thing gives me hope that one day the future will be brighter, that things will get better. It makes me forget my gut wrenching hunger and the death of my family. I become determined to push through all of this and make a new life for myself, a better one. Maybe I will even have my only family, my own beautiful house and an exquiste garden with beautiful flowers. With tulips, they're my favorite.
But I don't have time for wishful thinking. I have to make it to that house if I want to survive to see the next day. I see them standing outside the old bar that's now being used as their living quarters. I watch carefully for the perfect moment to slip into the house. Now! I make a run for it and make it inside just in time to esape their glances. I breathe heavily and hang my head low to catch my breath. Then I see it, the thing that will change my life forever. I see it out of the corner of my eyes. I jerk my head up suddenly to see a boy standing directly across from me. As I stand in the open doorway of the house with my jaw hanging open, I realize this is the first person I've seen in four months.
We stand staring at each other for what seems like forever. Neither of us make any effort to move. I see his eyes flicker toward the open window which he came through. I can tell he is thinking of bolting but suddenly he does something that catches me by complete and utter surprise. He begins running at me at full speed. His blue eyes turn a storm gray color and look so fierce I find myself scared. I stand frozen in place at the sight of him running at me with no intention of stopping. I feel his heavy, hard body slam into me with its full weight.
As he lies atop of me on the floor I struggle underneath his grasp, he is too heavy to get away from. Just as I am about to scream he slips his cold, calloused hand over my mouth and holds a finger over his signaling for me to be quiet. I do as he says because as I see it, I don't have a choice. He climbs off me and motions for me to follow him out the window that he had smashed in only minutes before. I follow, unsure of what he is up to.
