"Damn it Carter board up the damn Windows!" I heard my step dad, Daniel say as he was rummaging through a duffel bag I brought back from the nearest Walgreens filled with meds, cleaning supplies, and a few water bottles. "Where are the antibiotics?! Carter you had one fucking job!" I finished putting up the last board then faced my mother who was bend over nursing my brother, Tom. "They should be in there." She glared at me. "Well if they were there why can't Daniel find them?" I saw my brother sweating and twitching ever so slightly. He's showing symptoms. I reached into the worn out bag and retrieved a bottle of semi full pills and handed them to my frantic mother. She snatched them out of my hands and took a couple and began to grind them up and mix them with salt and one of the water bottles. She looked back at me, "What the hell are you waiting for? Get out!"
My mom, Susan blames me for everything. The sickness, my brother, the weather you name it.
(Italics = dream or flash back)
"I can't take it anymore." My mother is crying in the corner beating her fists against her forehead. My brother is beside her trying to comfort her and I'm standing in the doorway with tears rolling down my cheeks. "I'm such a horrible mother" she is hyperventilating and I can barely understand her.
Tom and I were out searching for food. We left the house at 8 am because the rotters are slowest in the morning when it's cold . The nearest supermarket is only ten minutes away, but with rotters roaming the streets and around the place we won't be back till 10am or 10:30am. Daniel gave me a Gso-10 knife that he's had for a few years now. Tom was given an Hk.45c gun with sixteen bullets.
As we made our way down to the market we saw very few rotters in the streets but mainly several severed rotter corpses caught up in traps Tom and Daniel set up. Rotters are mostly blind and are attracted to sound and movement. Of course they have other attributes like smell and occasional deformations that benefit them but like I said earlier we'll discuss that later.
"Rotter 2 o'clock." I gripped my knife firmly and looked at the corpse. It was small, a child. He was wearing a red shirt with the number twelve on it. He used to be our neighbor, his name was Romeo. As I reminisced about the little boy playing in our yard, Tom tripped the deceased Romeo and smashed his skull under his foot. Thick black sludge was left on his shoe and slowly running from the frontal lobe of poor Romeo.
"Carter let's go!" I quickened my pace to keep up with my little brother. The automatic doors were beaten off the entrance when we got there. Each isle was filled with half a dozen rotters or more. We were headed to the cookies and cracker section...One rotter, two rotters, three rotters, four how many rotters are in this store?
I took out the first four, the rest were further down the isle. We quickly rummaged through the shelves to find anything that wasn't open or didn't have bad damage to it. Three boxes of saltines, half a box of generic lemon cookies and a box of stale cheese crackers. "Let's see if we can score some beans or soup." Tom left the isle checking every corner for rotters. "There's too many of them here. We'll come back later when some have made their way to the mall." The mall wasn't far at all. The mall is a rotter playground. People used to go in there to find shelter and supplies, but the mall wasn't a very secure place and after a while the hoards of rotters grew by the hundreds.
"Who made you the boss?" Tom said, he's a stubborn work of art. "I'm the oldest and I'm carrying the supplies." I could hear rotters near by moaning and tripping over fallen carts. "Well I'm carrying the gun." He held up his gun and faced it towards me. "You're only 16 and so what if you have the supplies if I shoot you I'll take the supplies and gear from you then tell mom the rotters got to you...not that she would even care." Am I really hearing this right now? Before I can wrap my head around the situation a rotter was quickly approaching Tom from behind him. Against the fact that he wanted to kill me I threw my knife into the rotter's skull missing Tom by millimeters. Then I heard a gun shot.
I went to my room and packed several bags full of cloths, food, meds, weapons, and a homemade water filter. I got all this stuff on my own so no one can say I stole from them. I have to find Riley. She should still be at the shelter up town. All of my friends were there. I told her I would come back to get her and she knows that I will be there soon at least before winter.
Although it'll be though to leave my family especially my stepdad, I know where I'm needed and I'm obviously not needed here. Daniel is amazing he'll keep my family safe. Tom will finally get to have more responsibility like he has always wanted. And as for my mother well, I hope she can forgive me for whatever I've done.
I grabbed my journal and wrote about my day and how I was going to find Riley and survive with her. Riley is my best friend, I don't know what I'd do with out her. Just the thought of her being rotter chow made me cringe. There was a knock at my door. I quickly shoved the bags under my bed and hid my journal. "Carter we need to talk."
It was Daniel. "Doors open." He entered my room and sat next to me on my bed. It was silent for a good 60 seconds. "It looks like Tom is getting better.... Thanks to you." I forced a smile and said, "That's good." It was silent again. "I see you've been working on the jeep." Oh no, he knows. "I figured that one day the market with run out of supplies and we would need to leave." He nodded. "I see." We had four vehicles, one was stolen the rest broke down over time. I've been working on two for the past few months in my spare time. The jeep is fixed but no one knows about it yet and the car I was working on is almost done it just had a few quirks and it should run okay. "You're a smart kid Carter...too smart to stick around here much longer..." What?! "How?" He bent down and grabbed something out of the big pocket of his cargo shorts. "Here take this." He handed me a walkie talkie. "Radio in everyday at 8am. Since you'll be leaving I'll be getting supplies while your mother and brother are here." still in shock, I grasp every word he's saying. "But I-" he cut me off. "If you're going to leave do it in the morning before 6am. It'll still be dark so the rotters will be more active. Don't radio in today I'll radio you after I find out that you left." He got up and made his way towards my door. "Get a good night's rest you're going to need it."
I laid in my bed with our cat and cried. After today I would be on my own without any support or protection from anyone. The cat came up to me and fell asleep on my face.
