Light Amidst the Darkness

Chapter Seven: MD

Melissa Dixon

Although I've grown up in New York, I've been mostly sheltered throughout my life, thanks to my parents.

I guess my background doesn't help me absorb the fact that my family just found and savagely killed a zombie in our living room.

Or that we're all running through the streets, hands connected, as we flee the zombie apocalypse.

Police cars' lights flash all over the place, confusing Joe and I, the former beginning to cry again. The only time I've seen police cars have been at the scene of accidents, and the common crime scene, which I've never been allowed to fully witness. People run through the streets, panicked, and the chaotic scene causes Joe to cry all the harder. Mom has to let go of my hand to scoop him up, and in that moment several things happen at once: three zombies round the corner, a mob of people presses between Mom and I, and I lose sight of my family.

Screaming, I have to lurch backwards to avoid being trampled by the crowd as the zombies attack their first victims, a young girl with pink barrettes in her hair and a high-pitched scream, and a middle-aged man who must be her father. Her mother is nowhere in sight--either she left them, or she's dead--and the father, even once bitten, makes desperate attempts at shielding his daughter from harm even once infected. Only seconds later, he's writhing on the ground, and the zombies have moved onto their next victims. The police run forwards with tasers--the zombies are too mixed up in the crowd for the civilians to be safe from possible gunshot wounds.

During these seconds, I begin to sob for my parents. The crowd is still pressing between Mom and I, running in the opposite direction of the zombies.

"Mom!" I scream. "Mom!"

Tears stream down my face as more people are mowed down by the zombies--I'm not safe standing here, and I know it. Just as I think that, a zombie leaps onto a young woman only five feet from me--she goes down with a scream and her head hits the cement with a sickening sound, the zombie's teeth already sunken deep into her collarbone. Biting back a shriek of surprise, I turn tail and run away with the crowd, trying to catch any sight of my family, but I can't. Fear closes in on my heart--what if they're gone?

Then, someone grabs my arm. I turn. It's one of my friends--Eliza Ryan.

"My dad!" There are tears in her eyes. "I can't find him and my sister!"

"I can't find my family, either!" I shout back. "We can't stop, though! They'll kill us!"

"I know!" she cries, as we begin to run, her grip still on my arm like a vise. "We were running to Rose's apartment"--glancing behind her, I see her older sister Rose, who's struggling towards us through the crowd as we run--"and I got there and found her and turned around, and Georgia and my Dad were gone!"

I shake my head at her, wiping the tears from my own face. "I'm sorry, Eliza!" I shout. "We just can't go back!"

Her lips pucker, her grip on my arm loosens, and she stands stock-still and begins crying. Rose finally catches up to her, grabs her around the waist, and begins forcibly pulling her towards me, away from the zombies, which are getting dangerously close and picking off stragglers--the young, the old, the slow...

One leaps on the Ryan sisters, knocking them down. Both scream and fall to the cement. Rose turns, to see a zombie at Eliza's neck. With a scream, Rose kicks the zombie off of her sister and kicks wildly at its head, but already Eliza is thrashing on the ground. A piece of flesh has been torn off of her neck and is now in the zombie's teeth, feebly stirring besides her with a frustrated moan.

"Leave me!" she begs her sister, her voice strained and her eyes wild, but Rose stands stock-still as the zombie next to her begins to rise.

Against my better judgement, I dart forwards, grab Rose's hand, and pull her away from Eliza. Tears jump into my eyes as I look into Eliza's eyes and see my friend disappear, and Rose screams and struggles against my grip. Honoring Eliza's last wish, however, I stubbornly cling to Rose's hand until she stops struggling and we run together through the city, both crying.