Survive Above All: Outrunning the Apocalypse

Chapter 1:

The sun beat through the glass and warm light into my lap. The afternoon sky was nearly perfect; not a single cloud. I tried as hard as I could not to focus on the road, but it was impossible to avoid it. I tried thinking about my destination but, seeing as I had none, it wasn't distracting me at all. Subconciously, I knew that there was no way around facing reality. After all, they made it very easy to come to this conclusion.

Droids. That's what I call them. Maybe you prefer zeds, walkers, the living dead, or zombies, but me, I prefer droids. Whether it be out irony, or the simple fact that they act like badly programmed robots, that's the way I like to refer to them.

 They wandered aimlessly through the streets, presumably looking for their next meal. Thick ammounts of blood and deformed flesh covered their expressionless faces. Some of them  dragged themselves across the ground due to loss on limbs. Every so often I would drive past a human who had been unlucky, or maybe just hadn't been fast enough. They gathered like sharks in a feeding frenzy, ripping the flesh off the victim and consuming until there was nothing left. That's just how they survived.

I, on the other hand, survived much differently. I hadn't been doing it very long, but in my opinion, I had it down.

Of course, it hadn't always been this way. There had been a time when life was somewhat normal. But it had all happened so suddenly. I'm not sure anyone had been prepared; I know I hadn't been.

It had just been earlier that day when I had been in school, hearing the first murmers of tragedy. The panic had started to rise as everyone was told to remain calm. They had called them rumors and told the people that we were just paranoid. Even I myself had been slightly skeptical. Thats is, until I saw them...

I didn't have a destination now. I just knew that i had to be anywhere but here. Keeping my mind on the road got progressively harder as the sun began to set. Light had been my only way of obtaining a warning of any undead obstacle that would block my path. Paranoia tore away at me as I started to consider how I would possibly rest tonight.

I kept my eyes peeled for some sign of others, but all that was out there were the Droids. I was sure that there were more survivors, but how I would find them was a mystery.

Checking my gas gauge every so often, I began to get really worried when the sun had completely set and I had yet to find a safe place to stop for the night. I still had plenty of fuel to keep running, but to where?

Finally, I came upon a gas station and pulled into the parking lot. After the checking to see that the coast was clear, I grabbed the baseball bat that was sitting in the passenger's seat and got out of the car.

There was no sign of Droid occupance as I cautiosly pushed open the front door of the station, but I knew better than to let my guard down. I held my bat tighter in my hands and began checking the store aisle by aisle.

As I neared the end of my search I noticed restroom signs towards the back of the building. I approached them slowly, turning to the Men's room first.

It looked and smelled like a typical gas station Men's room. There were no blood stains or odor of rotting flesh. It was a generally small bathroom, only a urinal and a sink with a slightly cracked mirror next to a single toilet stall. I opened up the stall and peeked. Finding nothing, I decided that the room was clear and stepped out.

I checked the Women's restroom in the same manner and made the decision that the gas station was the safest place I was going to find to sleep that night.

I went back out to my car to grab my backpack which held a bottle of water, a few cans of food, a single 10 guage shotgun round, and a Glock with an empty clip and now extra ammo. I didn't bother to lock the doors knowing that if someone came along and tried to take my car, breaking through a window would not be out of their character based on the situation of society.

Taking advantage of the abandoned store's hospitality, I grabbed a few packages of peanuts and jerky along with bottles of sports drinks and water and threw them into my bag. I knew I would need supplies to live, and I had found a pretty good place to stock up.

I pulled a bag of chips off of one of the shelves, took a can of tea out of the cooler, and went back to the Men's room. As an extra precaution, I locked both the front door of the gas station as well as the door to the restroom itself.

I took my hoodie off and folded it, then put in on the floor to use as a pillow. I propped my baseball bat up against the wall next to the stall and set my backpack down next to it. Then I sat down on the cold tile floor and began snacking on the chips and tea I had brought in.

After finishing the food, I tossed the garbage into the bin next to the sink and returned to my pathetic bathroom-floor bed. As a few tears began to wedge their way into my eyes, I layed down on the floor with my head on my hoodie.

The only thing I could think about was how pathetic my life become so quickly. Just the small act of putting an empty tea can into a garbage bin had reminded me of how it seemed civilization had fallen. No matter how much trash I put in that bag, no one was ever going to come and empty it, or replace it. I wasn't sure if it was the truth, or just pessimism getting the best of me, but I couldn't fight the feeling that nothing was ever going to get better, and those were the thoughts that filled my head as I drifted off to sleep.

 

I awoke the next morning to complete silence. It was a sound I was not neccesarily used to. Whether it be the bustling sounds of the inner city, or cries of pain and sorrow after everything had happened, there had never really been much silence.

I grabbed my baseball and did a clean sweep of the entire gas station once more, never taking my mind out of self preservation mode.