Walk The Streets

K: Kate 2

  There were three rows of seats in the van. I was in the center row, all the way on the left, next to the window. As we were passing every street, I kept seeing these people, but they didn't look like people. They looked torn up, rotten and bloody.
"They're not people." Maria noticed my contemplation from the front passenger seat.
"What do you mean?" I was confused.
"They used to be people, they used to be alive. Now they're not." She said it like it was so simple.
"Then what are they?" I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear the answer to that.
"They're infected, I guess. They're dead." She seemed unsure of her answer.
"Undead," Garrett butted in. "The correct term is undead."
"Are they dangerous?" From the way everyone was acting, I already knew the answer, but I still had to ask.
"Yes, very." Maria sounded worried, maybe even scared.
"How do they get... infected?"
"From what we've seen so far, you have to be bitten or scratched by another one." Garrett replied.
"But where did the first one come from? How did it start?" I still didn't have all of the pieces to the puzzle.
"We don't know." Maria.
"Nobody does." Garrett.
  None of this made any sense to me. How could it just happen without having a start?
"What are they called?"
"We just call them the undead." Garrett answered.
"Well now we do at least." Maria agreed and glared at Garrett.
  It was hard to believe that just earlier, my parents could've become one of these things; one of the undead.
  After at least an hour of driving, we pulled over to stop at a drugstore. Garrett got out of the van first and pulled a gun out from under the seat. It was strange to see Garrett with a gun; He didn't seem like the type of person who would hurt anybody.
  Maria half way opened her door before turning to me.
"You coming in?"
  I looked out the window and slowly opened the door. Once I stepped out of the van, Maria was immediately by my side. Why was she acting weird all of a sudden?
  As we entered the store, nothing caught my eye as important. I watched others grab various items off the shelves and stuff them into their bags. Garrett and Maria were in the back gathering traditional medical supplies and average medications. I lazily wandered the store, gazing at all of the things everyone once wanted, but now, no longer wanted or needed. I turned and looked at the way the group was hoarding things off of the shelves; They snatched up the basic things they saw like they had never had anything like that in their life before.
  It hit me like a truck; I realized the world was never going to be the same; I realized people were never going to be the same; I realized I was never going to be the same.
  I shook the thought out of my head, and started towards the restroom. I entered the restroom, and I saw something, something shiny. I bent down to pick it up, to find out the object was a silver pen. The pen had the name of the drugstore engraved on the side. It reminded me of the samurai swords the Grimes family had given to me. All three of the swords had silver blades, and at the base of the blades, next to the handles, the letters 'HG' were engraved onto the swords; 'H' for Harris and 'G' for Grimes. I reached back and took out the sword just enough so I could feel the engraving with my fingertips. For a second I flashed back to the day I recieved them, but I quickly extinguished the memory. I stuck the pen in the front pocket of my bag, used the restroom, and washed my hands.
  I looked up at the mirror. For the first time today, I had seen myself. The person I was seeing in the mirror was me, but it didn't look like me.
  I still had long brown hair and blue-ish green eyes, but my face, my face was splattered with blood, sweat and tears. I forced the image of my parents out of my head. I was going to have to get used to this; looking in a mirror and not recognizing who I was seeing; I'd have to get used to forgetting about everything.
  I rinsed my face to get the blood off, and attempted to scrub hard enough to make the memories rinse off with it. As I was walking out, Maria was walking towards me.
"You good, kid?" She asked.
"Yeah, just washed up a bit."
"Well, we're leaving in a few minutes. If you need anything, you need to grab it now."
  I just nodded without making eye contact. Thankfully, she took that as an answer and backed up and turned to walk off.
  I took one last look at all the shelves before heading out the door. I spotted a small red pocket-calendar and held it briefly before tossing it into the same pocket as the pen. I thought if I kept a habit of something that was done pre-apocalypse, it would keep me slightly sane.
  I looked up and everyone else was already outside. I saw Maria and Garrett leaned up against the side of the van. It was still bright out, so I squinted my eyes to see better, then I stepped out the doorway. I headed for the van in the blinding sunlight and heard a strange noise from behind me. I could barely see when I turned around and made out the figure of a person.
"Uh, hello?" I had an eerie feeling.
No answer.
"Hello?"
Still no answer.
The person was getting closer and I heard Maria yell at me.
"Run, Katelyn!" She shouted.
  I looked back and the person finally came into clearer view, but it wasn't a person. It was one of them, one of the undead. I swiftly backed away as much as I could before falling backwards on the ground.
  It was almost on top of me when I yanked my dad's gun out of it's holster and held it up, aiming for the thing's head. It started to lean and fall towards me as I squeezed the trigger down, sending a bullet straight through it's skull. The body fell slap on top of me and knocked the breath out of my lungs. I layed there, staring up at the sky as Maria and Garrett came into view, and pulled the thing off me. I thought about what my mom said, "I need to know that you can do this". This, this is what she was talking about, wasn't it?
  The last thing I remember is hearing Maria's voice.
"Please stay with us sweetie."
  Then everything faded, and my eyes fluttered shut.