How I Survived The Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter One - Avoid Dark Alleyways

Chapter One: Avoid Dark Alleyways

For months I was clueless, I mean for the first few weeks I didn't even know the extent of how badly everything had gone wrong, I still thought I was going to get back home to England and see my family and friends again. I was, of course, very wrong.

Anyway, I guess politeness dictates I introduce myself before I tell you my life story, or there about. I'm Alex, just your regular sarcastic bitch from the UK. I don't look particularly special, you'd never be able to pick me out of a crowd and to be quite honest I kind of like that, I liked that even before the world ended.  

At the time I was seventeen and on holiday with my Mum in America, a once in a lifetime trip. We'd already been stateside for two months, touring around, seeing the sights, and we were in Las Vegas. God, that name is practically a curse now, like if you say it three times in front of a mirror some crazy bitch will jump out and eat your eyeballs. We still had another month of travelling ahead of us and we were enjoying the city that never slept. We'd met some really interesting people and had an amazing time all round, I should have known something was going to go wrong.

We'd just seen that crazy water show outside of that hotel, I forget what it's called now, and we were headed back to our hotel, a little off the strip that costs a fortune.

"We should have booked into one of these hotels, they're much nicer than ours." My Mum complained.

"Yeah but then we couldn't have gone to that fancy restaurant last week." I reminded her.

"That's true. It was nice to mark the occasion wasn't it?" Mum asked, unsure of herself. "It wasn't morbid?"

"No Mum, it was nice." I reassured her. The Wednesday before had marked the one-year anniversary of Dad's death. That was the whole reason for the trip. Dad had battled against cancer for two and a half years before a simple infection had walked right on through his weakened immune system and killed him. He'd desperately wanted to travel, it was that thought that had kept him fighting and this was our tribute to him. America this year, India the year after and China the year after that. The money had been put aside and we were still saving up for the following year, to tour Europe by train.

I know that some people might think that at seventeen it's pretty sad to travel with your Mum but honestly, after losing one parent I was getting in as much time with Mum as possible, she was healthy and all but, so was Dad, until he wasn't. That's the thing with life; it is one sneaky son of a bitch. You never know what's around the corner; it could be the best pizza you've ever eaten, or a slap in the face.

"Good. I'm glad." Mum's eyes were misting up so I quickly tried to change the subject.

"I think we should have got a taxi, this place is a bit dodgy." I said, looking around at the graffiti covered walls and shifty looking people.

"Crap, I think we've taken a wrong turn." Mum cursed. "I'm sure we're supposed to be heading more that way." Mum pointed to the left and I nodded.

"You're right, I don't recognise any of this."

"Ah!" Mum exclaimed, looking down a dimly lit alleyway. "Through there, I recognise that liquor store!"

I looked and agreed that the liquor store did indeed look like the one we'd passed earlier that day. Then I looked at the alley and became a bit nervous.

"Come on then, we'll walk round." I suggested.

"Don't, be silly, we'll just cut through." Mum said confidently. That was the thing about Mum; she lacked any and all street sense.

"Yeah Mum of course, let's just cut through murder alley, I'm sure two women, obviously tourists I might add, wont get mugged or beaten up or shot down there." I said happily. She just laughed at me and set off down the alley.

"Always so dramatic Alex, come on it'll be fine." I really didn't want to, but I followed her into the shadows, linking my arm firmly with hers.

"I hope you know I think that this is a ridiculous idea." I mumbled, eyes darting around like some paranoid rabbit.

It was here I had my first encounter with the virus.