Apocalypse

6

Liz

Everything just kind of went down hill from there. I really need stop being so optimistic. I'm disappointed every time. It's been a few days since I left town. Now I'm trapped inside a car with a bunch of the infected bashing against the outside to get in, with a girl that scares me almost as much as the infected do. I'll fill you in.

I'd made it to the city without any sort of mishap. Well that's not true, actually. There were a couple. Nothing big. I only almost got killed twice. At this point, my mood had gone from bad to worse and just about every noise or movement made me jump. I just wanted to curl up in my warm bed at home but I knew that wasn't going to happen.

I was dry now, but I was still cold, tired, sore and now I was hungry. I hadn't eaten in a while. I wasn't really used to going so long without eating, so naturally I was dizzy and slow. That's probably why I had almost gotten killed.

I tried really hard to be happier about my situation but something about your parents trying to eat you and chasing you out of your home, and then going without food for three days while being chased by other insane flesh eating lunatics kind of put a damper on things.

I'd taken the highway with my newly stolen bike. There was a bicycle lane, so I used that because I expected there'd be cars. But there weren't any. Usually on TV, when some new disease got out and people panicked they would create a traffic jam so bad that you could barely walk. But there was nothing but a few cars abandoned here and there. So I was pretty confused about it. I had stopped to check one of the abandoned cars, but all I found inside was a sick dog that leapt at my face. It was yanked back by the leash it was tied to though. If anything made me upset, it would be sick animals. Too bad I was already about as upset as I could get. Still. I'd closed my eyes and walked away, listening to its screams and growls as it threw itself up against the inside of the car. Smashing itself into destruction as it tried to get out and do what the infected did best. Somehow I managed to feel worse after that.

And then after that, I'd checked a parked van, its front window was cracked but otherwise it looked fine. So I pulled open the door. An infected screamed at me and startled me so badly that I fell. Just in time, too because it fell out of the van just then. It would have landed on top of me. I got up quickly and scrambled to run away. It had chased me for a good while before it gave up. I was glad, because when it was gone, I just hid myself behind a highway divider and I cried.

From that point on I hadn't checked any of the closed up vehicles. I didn't think I could handle finding another dog or survive another surprise infected.

I had came across one that was open, and I managed to snag a stray granola bar from an empty seat by the open door. But I'd left before I could consider stealing the car instead. They'd left the keys in the ignition. There was no one around, and I could drive. It made me guilty to think that I'd actually thought about stealing someone else's car because biking all day had made me tired. I was better than that, and I'd already stolen a bike.

I'd walked away.

Just in time too, because an infected was sniffing around in the other side and heard me get back out of the car. It growled. I ran. It chased me to the bike but I was on it and peddling as fast as I could before I even knew what I was doing. I had out distanced it in no time, and it had gone back to sniffing around for something easier to try and tear apart.

I'd decided a few days ago at this point that these things were not human. Not anymore.

I cried later on, because my parents weren't human anymore, either.

I don't think I cried for a while after that.

A week later, and now I was in the middle of the city. I had been sleeping in the streets and I desperately craved a shower and something warm to eat, and water that hadn't been sitting in a used water bottle at the side of the road. It's funny how you take so much for granted until it's not there anymore.