It all happened so fast. Disaster. Widespread panic.
A Pandemic.
It wasn't long before the Infected were everywhere.
When Hayley Brookes near-perfect life comes crashing down around her - due to a new, widespread, incurable strain of virus and she...
^^ Ace above, isn't he cute! ^^ ▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It had been a couple of hours since I had returned home, night had fallen, and and Lily hadn't left Ace's side once. She had fallen head over heels in love with him. Truthfully, I think he was getting slightly fed up with her constant doting but she didn't seem to care. Fortunately, he no longer seemed depressed about leaving his home and they had formed quite a bond. They stuck together like glue, even when Lily was asleep. I saw him curled up by the side of her bed, protectively. It reassured me that she was safe. It was all I wanted; for her to be safe and happy.
I was also glad that she was distracted enough to not ask questions like 'Why isn't Jason here yet?' or 'What happened to your head?' I didn't think I could handle answering all of her questions tonight, or scare her with the truth.
As soon as I had gotten back to our new, so called 'home', I had quickly stripped out of my dirty, blood-stained clothes and jumped straight in to the shower, where we thankfully still had hot, running water, trying to erase the horrific memories.
A glance in the mirror along with a stinging pain enlightened me to the fact that I had a large scratch on my forehead, running from just under my left eyebrow. It stung like a bitch, but I suppose it was a small price to pay for escaping with my life.
As for how I was coping with the whole situation, the guilt of taking a life, even that of a monster, had been destroying me. I had to put on a brave face and pretend like nothing was wrong so I wouldn't worry Lily, but damn it was hard! I felt like just wallowing away in my own guilt but I knew I couldn't, I had to look after my baby sister.
I tried to convince myself that what I did was necessary and that I had no other choice. That it was a kill or be killed situation. But nothing could excuse my actions. I was not a violent person, I was against it and now, here I was, drowning in the guilt of taking a life. The only thing that comforted me was the fact that he seemed to have lost all it's human nature. It had seemed completely consumed by the virus, no compassion or humanity left.
Deciding I had pitied myself enough by now, I began the daily routine of trying to contact my family. I picked up my phone, seemingly useless now, and attempted to call Jason and my parents. My hopes dropped even further, as each call unsurprisingly disconnected. Phone lines were still down. At this point, I doubted that they would ever work again.
Everyone had expected for this whole pandemic to just blow over and everything would be back to normal soon. By the looks of things, everybody had completely underestimated this virus: except Jason. He had made me and Lily leave the city and get away from people. We were probably alive because of him; and where was he? He could be dead for all I knew.
God, I missed him. I missed everybody. I wasn't used to having this responsibility on my shoulders, it was thrust upon me. Of course I would do anything to look after my sister but I just wish that I didn't have to do it alone.
I sighed as I put the phone down, moving to the TV instead, trying my luck. Nope, nothing but static. I sighed, we had been left blind out here, so far away from anybody. We had no idea what was going on in the world and it scared me. My fear of the unknown was almost greater than that of the infected, almost. What that virus did to people, it was despicable, sadistic! And it scared the shit out of me.
It was getting far too late and I was worrying about things I had no control over. I sighed, once again, and ran a hand over my face in frustration. Knowing there was no way I could sleep without help - there were far too many things on my mind - I popped a sleeping pill in my mouth and swallowed, pulling a face at the foul taste it left in my mouth. I had found a bottle of them when searching through the house, from when I had trouble sleeping before. I climbed in to bed as I felt the effects of sleep take over. I just hoped and prayed for a nightmare-free sleep, knowing it would never come.
Another month had passed, luckily without any drama or incidents. No more encounters with the dead. I hoped it would last but I suppose I knew, deep down, it wouldn't.
We were basically surviving on rations now, the constant ache of hunger in our stomachs. There was still no news of the outside world. Everyday, I had tried to contact my parents and Jason and everyday, I had been unsuccessful. In all honesty, I had completely lost all hope of ever seeing the rest of my family again. Lily, however, wouldn't give up. She was optimistic at the hardest of times - a trait I admired - even though she could tell that something was up.
Seeing her and Ace playing together lifted my spirits slightly; at least she was happy. There wasn't much to be happy about these days. We no longer had hot water, or heating; that had run out at least two weeks ago. Fortunately, it was the middle of summer, so things weren't too cold, but when winter came, we would struggle. That is if we didn't die of starvation first.
A part of me considered leaving - venturing out into the world and gathering more supplies. Perhaps we could go home and try to find our family. But another part of me was terrified to do so, unwilling to leave what we knew. The part of me that wanted to stay became insignificant as we ran out of food. I knew we couldn't stay any longer - there was nothing left for us here.
So, here we were. Piled into the truck, I had filled up with the spare fuel, carrying what little supplies we had left for the journey. Me, Lily and Ace were squashed in to the single cabin truck, nervous of what was to come. Unsure of where we were headed, I pulled out of the driveway, took one longing look back at the lake house in farewell, and set off in the only direction I knew:
