Infectious

1: Todd Tangsworth

I stare down the trail my mom just disappeared in. It was cold out, a light drizzle hitting me. I know I should start moving soon, but I couldn't. Not yet. It had always been mom and me, the two of us against the world. My dad was never in the picture, leaving mom after being married for less then a year. He didn't even know I existed, but I didn't care. All I had ever needed was my mother. I know, cliche, right, but it's true. Friends had come and gone, but mom was always there. I'd had a normal life. Okay, normalish, but what else could you expect when people are turning into killer robots and trying to capture you and do experiments on you? Mom and me were lucky enough to be immune. Okay, maybe not lucky, but if rather be running from the robots then be one of them.

Mom and I had been running for about a week after it started. Driving down abandoned roads, hiding in empty houses here and there, snagging snacks from here and there. You know, the normal end of the world life. It wasn't an easy life, I'll admit, being on the run, hiding from your once friends, now robots, having to fight for our lives every once and a while, but I couldn't complain much. It was actually a little fun, in a death defying, terrifying way.

That was until mom spring the news on me. I don't know what most immune families do, but I thought this wasn't considered normal. Mom decided it was too dangerous, not that it wasn't already dangerous, but she said that two immune people was more dangerous then one. She said that didn't apply for everyone, but she said that we had more chance of survival if we separated. After we found out we were immune, she started having these vision things. She said we had 'two separate destinies' whatever in the world that meant.

So that's how I found myself here, in the middle of the road, starring down the road she had drove down. I don't know how long I've been standing here, but I was still trying to wrap my mind around this.

Finally, after my clothes were thoroughly soaked, I got into the truck we had 'borrowed.' Hey, don't judge, it's the end of the world. Besides, we had watched its owner turn I to a robot and he tried to kill us, so I say he owed us. I slide into the cold drivers seat and start the car. I take a deep breath and let it out. I turn the car in and drive down the opposite road, putting even more distance between me and my mom. I stair out the window, at the dence woods surrounding me, blurred by the rain. It's tempting to look back one last time, but I know that it wouldn't help. The only thing to do now is move on. That is the only way to survive.