Through The Night

Chapter 1. Goodbye World

The concrete felt hard under my aching feet and sweat dripped down my face as I walked along the deserted, lifeless highway.  I swatted at a fallen strand of blonde hair in my face and stared ahead.

My light jeans rubbed my legs raw as I put one foot in front of the other. I could see looted cars up ahead, but no sign of anything worth stopping for.

Nothing can ever prepare you for a 5 mile walk, especially when you have no destination in mind, but here I am.

Nothing can ever prepare you for the end of the world either, but again, here I am.

It had been about a year since the infection first began. It started as a whisper, a mere rumor that soon spread like wildfire.

From the news, it had originated in Eastern Asia, but I had heard plenty of conspiracy theories.

Some said it was a biological weapon used by the government, others said it was a plague sent from God. Then some said that it wouldn't spread, but others hunkered down into well maintained apocalypse bunkers.

If only my dad had been a little crazier and done the same.

At first, the infection only seemed to cause a sore throat and mild fever. It wasn't until later that those affected would begin to display rabid tendencies.

It caused their skin to turn a pale gray and whatever the hell caused the infection, began to eat them from the inside out. Sores began to develop on their skin and they became violent, attacking loved ones, or anyone for that matter.

They didn't become your stereotypical zombies that I grew up seeing on tv, but it was damn near close. 

They had no feelings, or anything resembling humanity once the infection took over. They began to attack those around them and it spread all over the world in a matter of weeks.

By the time it reached my home town in Georgia, we had already armed ourselves. It wasn't enough though.

It meant goodbye to the world I had known for 18 years and hello to a shit show, leaving me to learn as I went.

All I know for sure now is that to survive, one must remember:
   
1. Don't get bit. The infection is spread through saliva.
   
2.  A head or heart shot will put an infected down. Other than that, they feel no pain.
   
3. Trust no one. Nowadays, survivors are far worse than the infected.

So, here I am.

A lonely, 19 year old girl just trying to make it in this apocalyptic world.

I kicked at the gravel as I walked. The road seemed to never end, as I looked around at the rolling green hills encasing the highway.

I began to hum to myself, before I heard the shuffling of feet.

These were followed by low grunts and groaning.

The hairs on my neck began to stand on end, as I pulled a knife from its sheath on my side.

An infected shuffled around a car that had been ahead of me.  His hair was matted to his head with dirt and dried blood coated his face. Sores littered his body and the smell of his rotting flesh hit my nose as he made his way towards me.

His eyes were glazed over, with blood seeping out of them. I eased closer with my knife at the ready.

I surveyed his gray skin and gnashing teeth before finally looking up to his eyes.

They were lifeless, as they always were when it came to the infected.

It had been a year and I still hoped that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to see some sort of humanity behind those eyes. Something resembling the person he was before.

Maybe he had girlfriend or was a soccer coach.

All these things ran through my head as I ran toward him, closing the distance.

My knife sank into the the side of his skull with ease and he stilled instantly, falling forward.

He almost toppled me over, but I braced myself and yanked my knife from his head.

Great, just great. I got blood on my jeans.