rise ➝ zombie apocalypse

☨ prologue ☨

☨ rise ☨

☨ prologue ☨

Winter in Alabama is always cold. Nothing old nothing new.

It was always the same. Sometimes it just got a little bit boring.

The same routines all the time. Sometimes you just need something new. New is good, well at least most of the time.

So here I sat at the window, watching the Alabama wind shake the trees on my father's farm.

My dad owns the only farm in Richmond, Alabama.

Richmond is a small closed off town, not many people come here. It has the smallest population in Alabama of 465 people.

Everyone knows each other and their life stories, there really is no privacy in such a small town.

I guess that's bad but in a way it's not, it helps us not to judge each other. That's not always true though. Everyone judges people just like the people in Richmond.

Old man Will is one of the victims in this town.

People would laugh at him when he went into one of his 'episodes'. He would spit out the craziest things claiming they would happen, but they didn't.

We treat him like a small child, it's unfair but that's just how it is. He was fine before I was born, that's what my dad told me. He became this way when he lost his wife Patricia.

He's never been the same since. It's upsetting to hear him say that Patricia will come back, even though she's not. Whenever he had one of his episodes he would mention her coming back or her death but today it was different.

My dad and I would go into town regularly, obviously so I could go to school but for other things as well.

Every Saturday my father would take us into town. We would visit Old man Will and then go out grocery shopping.

My dad came down the stairs, averting my gaze from the blowing trees to him. He gave a stiff nod towards the door, indicating that we were leaving.

My dad and I don't need to talk all the time, we can understand each other just from our body language. It is like a secret code of ours, one that we have had since I was younger.

The twenty minute drive to town was spent in a matter of small talk and a lot of comfortable silence.

Pulling up to the old country house of Old man Will's, I look up at the house in awe. It is the oldest house in town, the most beautiful too. Everything about this old house, had charmed everyone. It was not only apart of this town but apart of us too.

I love everything about this house, to the way the front steps creak when you walk on them, to the way the wind blows through the front door, creating discreet small screams.

Walking into the living room, sat in the corner next to the fire was Will. Rocking back and forth on Patricia's old rocking chair, his now prized possession, mumbling something about something big coming.

That Patricia was coming back.

"Will," my dad said walking towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Are you okay?"

"She's coming, something big is coming. You need to get out of here." He replied in a faint whisper, eyes wide.

My dad looks over at me, contemplating what to do next.

"I'm going to go get you a glass of water, Nova is here though." My dad gave me a look, as if to say don't work him up.

I slowly walk to where Will is sitting, and take a seat on the floor, in front of the rocking chair. Will looks down at me with a face of horror.