Dead Rising: The Run Aways

Chapter One

I push my bangs out of the way and use my hand to shield my eyes as I look up at the sky. It’s around midday. The sun is high, almost centered. The clouds are large and white and the sky is the lightest of blues. It would be a day where my mom, and Grace and I would be out on the lake. Grace would be splashing in the water, yelling at me to join her and mom would be sitting on her yellow beach chair reading the latest issue of People Magazine, looking up from it just enough to smile at us.

But that’s just one of many memories that will never be re-lived. The world isn’t that way anymore. Though I hate it, I will never forget when everything I knew to be normal, went to shit.

My mom and I were watching the news one night, as we do every night while Grace slept. The newscaster, who Grace liked to call Snowy because his hair was so white, was saying that there was a case where a woman died while in the hospital with the fever, and somehow came back to life a few hours after being considered dead. There were cases about that situation happening all the time, but that wasn’t the odd part. Snowy also added that the woman had all the signs of still being dead. There was no brain activity, heart beat, or pulse. And also, the woman was yelling and screaming and biting all the doctors who were trying to aid her.

Mom and I went to bed not thinking a thing of it.

 August came before I knew it. I was starting my junior year at the local high school and Grace was starting fifth grade at the elementary school right across the street from our house. It was normal at first, everyone was starting to get back into gear with the whole school thing and having to say goodbye to summer for a while. Then, kids started skipping school for multiple days. Next, parents were calling in sick from work and the elderly started dying off from extremely high fevers, just like the woman off the news a month earlier. Mom had us stay home from school for a while until whatever it was died down.

But the thing is, it never did.

The CDC began clearing out our neighborhood. They took everyone they thought had the illness to some ‘safe zone’ as they called it. No one knew where the ‘safe zone’ was, or what happened there, but I knew it wasn’t anything good.

Everything was okay with us for a while, until mom got the fever.

I’ll never forget it. It was like some sick horror movie. She was sweating constantly, even while in the ice filled bathtub I had her get in. Her face was red and her brown eyes were droopy and bloodshot. Her head, once filled with long, chocolate brown hair, was nearly bald. Grace cried by her side every night. I cried too, just not in front of them. I felt like I needed to be strong for Grace. For mom. But being strong didn’t help a thing. What happened was unavoidable.

 I remember the sound of a truck outside the house. I remember seeing a handful of people, five or six, dressed in white full-body suits. They stormed into our house with guns in their hands. Two of them pointed their gun at mom, still lying in the bath tub, and the others were trying to pick her up. They told Grace and I to lean against the wall, while one of the men began picking up mom’s head. All of a sudden her face turned into something monstrous. Her eyes looked ravenous and she had this foam coming out of her mouth as she tried biting the arms of the CDC workers. Grace was screaming, crying, and hitting them. “Stop! Leave her alone! She’s fine! She’s fine!” Grace squealed. I just stared in awe. Then, one of the men yelled out in pain and I looked to see that he was bitten by what was once my mom. Blood was coming out of the wound and some kind of pus oozed out as well. Without question, the two guys with the guns shot the man right in the head. He fell straight to the ground with a silent thud.

That’s when I grabbed Grace by her hand and together we ran outside. At that time, I had no clue where we were going. But I knew we couldn’t stay there.

After some quick thought though, I headed straight to the small corner store where I stocked up on supplies: food, water, a small tent, and a little hunting knife.

It’s been three weeks since then, and there has been no sign of any life. I’m to the point where it’s fair to say it’s just me and Grace.

“Hey Dylan! Look what I found!”

I turn and see Grace with a handful of black berries. I’ve never been so happy to see food in my life.

“Where’d you get these?” I ask her, kneeling down and taking them into my hands, observing them. They’re plump and juicy, just longing to be eaten.

Grace shows her crooked teeth in a small smile. “There’s two bushes over there,” she stops to point behind her, and sure enough there sat two bushes full of blackberries.

I grab hold of Grace’s head and kiss her swiftly on the forehead. “Let’s fill up the bag with them. They should last us for a couple days if we eat lightly.”

I grab the leather bag and start packing the berries into it. It doesn’t take long for the bushes to become naked. I hand Grace a small handful and she eats them one by one, taking her time. I do the same. I take small bites, savoring the flavor. It’s not filling, but it’s satisfying enough.

“What do you think happened to all the animals?” Grace suddenly asks, as she licks her stained fingers.

“Well,” I say, wiping my hands on my jeans. “I think they’re just as scared as we are and that they’re in hiding, just like us.” I tell her, putting her short, brown hair behind her ear.

“Oh.”

We sit on the ground quietly for a moment. The sun has moved a little lower in the sky and thankfully, the temperature has decreased.

I look back down at the ground and start playing with a tall blade of grass. “Hey Grace,” my eyes shoot back up. “We’ll be fine. I promise. Okay?” I force a little smile, trying to comfort my little sister. Nothing will happen to us; At least, not while I’m still alive and breathing.

When the sun finally sets, I pick up Grace and take her in the tent where I had sprawled a thin blanket across its bottom. Her brown eyes finally close and I take it as a chance to catch some well needed Z’s. I slowly zip up the tent’s door, not wanting to wake her up, and drift off into a restless sleep.