It’s been about two months since I’ve seen anyone besides myself. I’m pretty convinced I’m the only living human in the nearby radius. Everyone else is dead, or in hiding—and they’d have to be experts at hiding because I’ve looked in every alleyway, dead end, forest, and parking garages. I was hiding in the parking garage with my friend Benjamin. He said he was going to scavenge food, and then I never saw him again. It’s been two months. I doubt I’m going to find anyone else. I doubt there’s anyone else. I can’t shake that feeling – the feeling that I’m the only one left living. I have nobody left, and it’s so scary.
Background information: Before the outbreak of the deadly virus, all countries had declared anarchy. Which we never thought would happen—ever. The virus broke out in mid-August. It started with the drug Krokodil (Krokidil Tears, a drug with an origin of Russia), then it became something more. I don’t really know how it came about. But the living became the dead, and then the dead became more lively, and then everyone was dead. It all escalated so quickly. When I first heard of the Krokodil Virus, I had just gotten back from cross country practice. I walked into my house and there was a note on the table that read, “Tyde, I need you to stay inside when you get home. The news said that there was a deadly virus outbreak, and it’s spreading so quickly. Lock everything, and stay inside. Keep the lights off or very dim. Please make sure Camden stays by you and watch him closely, xoxo me♥”. And I did, I watched my brother. My mum just… never came home. But I found her in her car at her work. She was dead and she just reeked of rot.
Camden had just turned eleven. When our house started smelling vile and reeked of dirt and uncleanliness, I felt the sense that we should go. It wasn’t healthy to stay there. I went next door and grabbed Benjamin. We stayed at Ben’s place for about three weeks until it wasn’t a healthy environment for us anymore. We ran. We ran everywhere; we scavenged houses for food. People were in their houses, dead, sick and unaware, or just… unconscious. In one of the houses we bombarded, a guy was walking around. He looked like the stereotypical zombie character. And there were more. We ran so fast. We ended up on the other side of town in a parking garage. About a week later, my brother had somehow gotten sick. And he… went away. I moved his body to where my mum was. And then sooner than that, Ben was gone too. But I don’t know what happened to him. He just never came back. I don’t know if he died or if he couldn’t find his way back, or if he found someone and he had to hide elsewhere—but I had to keep moving.
Once in a while I stopped to meditate, sometimes pray. I didn’t believe that the praying worked though. I only meditated to calm me down, find my inner self, try to think. It was still hard though, I missed my mum and my brother, Benjamin, cross country (even though I still ran).
I don’t know.
