When the first person was infected everyone thought it was a miracle. It was all over the news, "Man stabbed in the chest and didn't even bleed". Then that man went crazy and stabbed like five more people and it was the same story... it went downhill pretty fast. We started calling them "the infected". Once you're stabbed you feel the need to infect everyone else. It started in New York and it took only a week for it to reach Chicago. It wasn't long until people started to evacuate the city to go to less populated areas for safety.
***
The humming of the car engine is all I can hear now that the radios has stopped playing music. The vibration shakes me as I'm trying to find a comfortable place to put my head, there isn't one. If I put my head on the window it keeps bumping it every time my parents hit a crack in the road, which is every two seconds. So now my only other options are to stand straight up like a dork or put my head on my little sister's head. Although she is already has her head on my shoulder with her eyes closed, so I'm pretty sure she's sleeping and the fact that she can do that right now is a miracle, so I'm not going to try wake her up. But I wish I could sleep too, I don't think I could ever sleep again knowing that "people" are trying to kill us. Plus this car is so cramped!! We packed everything that we could and put it in the trunk of our Mini Van. Let alone the fact that we have our parents in the front seats then me, my thirteen year old sister Addy, and my 18 year old brother Jordon all cramped in the backseat with barely any leg space. I just hope the ride isn't that long, even though I know it will be.
The car is now moving at like two inches an hour because of the halted traffic. I listen to the engine and the blasting horns from outside and drift into my thoughts.
Isn't it funny how just nine days ago I got my school schedule and now I probably won't ever even go again. You would think a fifteen year old guy would be happy about it but I actually want to go back. Now I don't think I will ever see my friends. Some may even be infected already and if this keeps spreading I'll be infected soon. Then I'll be roaming the streets waiting to kill someone- or stab someone, are they really dead?
I watch my parents faces through the mirror as they try to act calm, but it's hard to hide fear. You can hide sadness and even anger, but fear is different. My mother's usually tan face has been pail for days and even with makeup you can see the dark bags under her eyes that confirms that she hasn't had sleep in days. And her eyes, I have never seen her like this. It's like she is daydreaming all the time. She's so distant that I cringe when she looks at me. You know it's a nightmare when you can't even look your own mother in the eyes anymore. No actually it's worse when you start calling her mother. All the warmth and comfort is has somehow been sucked out of her. She even talks to you like she's saying goodbye, even when all you want is for her to pass back the chips. Constantly saying how she regrets everything that she did wrong, even forgetting to make my lunch for school when I was little. Saying how we were all she ever needed. The worst part is that she doesn't even cry anymore, like she has accepted what has happened. Some days I take one look at her and I think of all the times I have ever argued at her, I would do anything to have another argument with her. Where we would fight and then I would run into my room and slam the door. Then she would come in at night and wake me up. Then say how she loves me even when we fight. Some nights she wouldn't even wake me up. I was always awake of course but I would just keep my eyes close until I heard her leave. I would just pretend to sleep. Why did I do that?
My Dad on the other hand won't stop telling us that everything is going to be okay. I don't know what's worse. I don't want to hope for something impossible but I don't want to break done.
I move my head gently to the side in an extremely awkward position that hurts my neck. I look at Addy. She believes Dad. She always believes Dad. She thinks that it is going to be okay. I stare at her knowing that I will never have the heart to tell her that we are probably going to die. How could I?
I look up to see Jordon looking at me on the other side. I can tell he's thinking the same thing. Looking at my brother I see an older version of myself. We could be twins except for the fact that he just looks... older. We have the same dark brown hair that is short enough to look like an average boy but we both need a hair cut. We have the same green eyes and the same nose, but those three years... yeah that definitely makes a difference in appearance. We are both athletes so we are decently strong but his has more of a... thicker build, I guess.
Addy starts to squirm awake on my arm. Her arms stretch into what open space we have left in the car. Then in a squeaky voice she asks, "What are those people doing?"
It takes us a second to realize that she's talking about a mob of people running behind us. "Drive!!!" Jordon Yells.
"Great idea Jordon, what do you think we've been trying to do in the last hour?" I yell a little more harsh then I implied.
He's about to fire back at me when someone says, "Everyone get out and run." This voice took me a while to identify, but it's Dad's. It sounded like a child's. But why do I care, I just burst my seat belt of and jump out of the car. Addy is right behind me but she needs to scoot of the seat faster so I pull her out by the arm and drag her with me as I run through the maze of cars and panicked people. The mob can only be the infected, but I can't really tell. I thought they would look like zombies or vampire or SOMETHING bad, but they look like normal people. Jordon crosses through the maze of cars to join us but I can't see Mom or Dad. But we don't have time to look. People are running everywhere and I see knives flying, but no blood, not a single drop.
All of the sudden I'm pulled to the ground, dragging Addy with me. I try to shake it away until I see that it's Jordon pulling me under a car. My palms being punctured my the gravel I lay there waiting, as my pulse courses through my body. With our chests on the ground, the three of us wait together for this to be over, for our lives to be over.
