Unknown

Chapter One

Before you read this, please know I am slow to writing. But please enjoy.

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Birds chirp outside to an unfamiliar tune, as if warning of appending danger. The tree leaves rustle in the wind, a few creaking under their own weight. Wind causes my curtains to billow out around the balcony doors, moonlight shining in on the floor. I gently lean on the door frame, letting the calmness of the night captivate me.

The world has gone to shit lately.. The annual celebration caused the government to break down, where as every other time they rebuild quickly. This time the people destroyed everything, took others hostage, and killed off so many officials that used to rebuild. It happens every year, and this year the government gave up. We're all waiting now, for someone to take charge. But more and more people have gone missing. They say they're being kidnaped to fight off the strangers in the south.

So much has happened in such a small amount of time, I can barely wrap my head around it. I've kept myself inside and away from people, acting on my mothers final wishes before she left. My house is securely locked; aside from my balcony due to the height of my apartment. My mother told me the strange ones aren't real, that the news is just feeding us lies but a part of me thinks it may be real.

"It's all a sham Athena. They're trying to scare us into rebuilding the government for protection." My mother used to rant all the time about how the news lies, claiming the station is full of awful people. She always complained about crack conspiracy theories, saying the government creates all the chaos around us. I never listened, just rolled my eyes and told her she was crazy. Now I miss it.

  Caught in my thoughts, I fail to notice the silence. The birds have gone quiet. An instinct I've always had tells me someone's coming, and I need to close the doors immediately.

  No sooner after I lock them, a man appears on the balcony dressed in full black, wearing a gas mask. I know he sees me, and he knows I see him. As he takes a step to the glass I take two steps back, trying to recall where my mother left the gun.

He pulls the mask off his face, revealing an eerie grin that chills me to the bone. The infected they've been showing on the news run with the same disturbing expression. Guess they've spread faster than expected.

I turn quick and reach under the bed, my arm sweeping for a box that I barely find. It's heavy and I could barely drag it out, but I manage and open it. My mother's 12 gauge shotgun. A glance back to the man, and his grin is gone. Replaced by a mixture of anger and excitement. His fist begins pounding on the glass, small cracks easily forming.

Panic floods through me, sending my chest into a fluttering state. My fingers tremble as I load the gun, the glass becoming more fragile with each pound of his fist. The look on his face truly terrifies me. His eyes are wide and blood shot, and he seems to be screaming only with no sound.

   Suddenly my front door bangs open and falls to the ground, two men stepping inside with small hand guns. Panic floods through my veins and I scramble backwards into a corner, holding the gun up at them. One steps around me, and unlocks the balcony door.

  "Good job Freddy." The man says with a smile on his face. What? It was a distraction? But why when they had just busted into my house anyways?

  The man who kept his gun trained on me smirks. "Come on lass, time to go. Don't fight us or you'll have a worse chance in the woods."

  Woods.. What in the hell?

  Freddy takes a couple steps to me and I train my gun on him ready to pull the trigger but someone fired first and hits me. It feels like a burning tingling sensation that leaves me in tremors. Those assholes just tasered me.

Unable to move, all three of them grab me and tie me up, carrying me out of my house. This may be the last time I ever see it, sitting nearly perfect as my mother left it.

The bag goes over my head as I regain some strength, starting to kick and scream. But the bag is damp. Damp? My thoughts go foggy, vision blurring, and then darkness consumes me.