The Arising: The New World

Chapter 7

LAUREN
1,312 DAYS AGO

"Lauren! Hurry up and get your things packed. We are getting out of here as soon as we can!" My dad yelled.

"I'm trying!" I yelled back.

"Well try harder" My dad said ending the argument.

I quickly packed all of my things into my bags which were on my bed. I was packing clothes and things like that. I had a little bit of room left in one of my bags so I grabbed one of my favourite toys that I grew up with and stuffed it into the bag. I heard my door open quickly.

"Come on" my dad said.

"Coming" I said.

I followed my dad outside. We both ran to the car where both my mother and brother were waiting for us. I jumped into the back and put my seat belt on. My dad stepped hard onto the accelerator and we sped down our driveway. My dad quickly turned right and we were now speeding down the road.

"Maybe a little slower honey" My Mum said putting her hand onto my dads thigh.

"We have to get out of here as fast as we can" My dad said.

He looked petrified. I've never seen him like this. He's always been the confident one. The stronger one. The better role model. But now he looks like a mess. He looks scared. Scared of the bitters. The dead. It has been thirty days since the bitters were broadcasted on the news, and when society fell.

First it started off as a small disease in America. But then quickly the disease spread across the world. Making it to Australia, and now we are here. We try to stay away from people. It may sound like we are evil for staying away from them, but we know that everyone is dangerous. Anyone could be bitten. Anyone could if changed into something else. Two days ago I saw a man kill a woman for a can of spaghetti.

"Where are we even heading?" My older brother who was nineteen said.

"Somewhere. I don't know" My dad said.

It was quiet in the car for the entire trip. We drove past lots of survivors. Everyone of them trying to chase our car for a ride. But my dad would always just keep driving. He wouldn't stop for nothing. It quickly became dark and our petrol was halfway. So my dad decided to park somewhere hidden and we will sleep in the car for the night. My dad turned the car off.

"Make sure your doors are locked and your windows are winded up" he said.

We all double checked. We then all faced forward, waiting for my dad to come up with a plan.

"Alright. We will stay here for the night. Early in the morning we will continue driving. But we will be out of petrol soon so we are gonna have to stop and find some" my dad said.

The night was probably the longest night I've had so far. Every small sound would wake me up. Even from my brother squirming around trying to find a comfortable spot to sleep. It was also pretty windy out and the wind started to rattle a nearby fallen over 'stop' sign. Every now and then I thought I would hear footsteps but if I looked outside through the window it would just normally be a leaf or objects blowing in the wind. I took a while but I managed to get to sleep.

I woke up hearing the car moving. I was bumping up and down a lot so I looked outside. We were on a gravel road.

"Morning honey" My Mum said.

"Morning" I said.

I looked over at my brother to see if he was up. But he was still sleeping. Both my mum and dad were wide awake. We exited the gravel road and now we were on a main road. As we were driving I started to hear a second car.

"Do you hear that?" I asked.

All of a sudden something hit us from the side and I went face first into my dads chair. I felt the car quickly roll over onto its side and I saw glass shards flying in the air. The car flipped again except upside down. Then it stopped. I was still conscious. I could hear the tiers still spinning and I could hear petrol and oils leaking out and dripping. The car was also making clinking and clanking noises. I looked around and noticed that I was upside down. I reached for my seat belt buckle and took it out. I fell to the roof of the car hard.

I heard my dad wake up. He was groaning in pain. I looked over at my brother who was slowly opening his eyes as well as I slowly crawled out of the car. I crawled through the broken window, crawling over shards of glass. I finally got out and I rolled over onto my back. But I had no time to rest. My family were still trapped. I slowly stood up and walked over to my dads side of the car. I opened the door as my dad unbuckled his seat belt. He fell to the roof of the car.

I grabbed his arms and I was about to pull him out when I noticed his leg was stuck through the steering wheel. It was completely twisted around and you could see his bone. I carefully put his leg through first then pulled him out as he screamed in pain. I then helped my brother and mother. My mum was still unconscious. But luckily she had pulse. As I got her out the car started to smoke even more. Then a small fire started. But suddenly the small fire turned into a raging fire because of the petrol.

"Hey guys" someone said behind me.

I turned around and saw three men with axes and baseball bats in their hands.

"Why don't you come with us" one of the men said.

As they were walking up to us I quickly blacked out.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in a building. I looked to my left and saw my dad, my brother and my mother all tied up. I looked up and saw the three men. They smiled at me weirdly.

"I dibs the teenager chick" the first man said.

"Alright I want the mum" the second man said.

"What do I get?" the third man said.

"Ha. The boy or the father. Unless you want sloppy seconds" the first man laughed.

The third man looked disappointed as he watched the two other men slowly walking up to us. The first man was looking at me as he crouched down in front of me. I looked into his eyes as he creepily looked back into mine.

He quickly grabbed my hair on my the top of my head and pulled it hard. It hurt a lot. I started to sweat as I looked over at my dad and mum struggling trying to get them to stop. The man twisted my head around to face him.

"Keep your eyes on me sweetie" the man said.

The man grabbed my jaw with his hand and squeezed my face. He let go and let out a laugh while standing up over me. He quickly grabbed me and dragged me out of the room.

"This is going to be fun!" The man yelled.

He grabbed my clothes and started to rip them off of me. I closed my eyes as he pulled down his pants.

TWO DAYS LATER

We were starving. We haven't eaten for a long time. We all were still on our knees. With rope around our hands. One of the men walked in. Followed by another man. They were having an argument about something. I couldn't really hear what they were talking about. But the man that walked in first turned around and walked up to my dad. He grabbed him and dragged him out of the room. The second man who raped my mum looked at us and walked out.

A few tears went down my cheek. I just wanted to die. I couldn't handle this. I can't handle this. As I closed my eyes to try to sleep I heard my father scream. But then all of a sudden he stopped. There was no noise. Only shuffling from the other room. My father was never seen again.