Apocalypse

•1: The Virus

"Arizona! Can you bring me that bucket of clothes?!" My mother called.

I picked up a steel bucket filled with blood stained clothes, Greta's clothes.

Greta had died the day before. Creepers got to her. She was so careless. Always boasting about how she was the only one in her family to survive the outbreak, so conceited. She thought the zombies would never get to her because of the tight knit security the boys enforced. Unfortunately, even the best of security can be breached.

Luckily, we silenced her just in time before the virus got to her.

It spreads like the Ebola virus, by bodily fluids. It starts by weakening you, making your bones crumble, shuts down your organs, then you die. Until you come back again, and you're not yourself. You're empty minded, bloodthirsty. Your emotions vanish and you're nothing more than a walking piece of flesh. We have been searching for a cure for years. No such luck.

I walked into the main house and saw Whitney and Rachel, my younger sisters, sewing baby clothes for my cousin Debbi.

Debbi was eight months pregnant in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and still received the neccessary prenatal care and vitamins for a healty baby. She has had an amazing pregnancy and the amount of courage she has showed these last months have been incredible.

I walked up to the armory and grabbed my crossbow. I was on perimeter sweep this morning. I was one of the only girls allowed to be on guard, other than the twins, and we did better than some of the guys.

I walked into the forest, leaves crunching under my feet, my crossbow raised in case I saw any creepers. I went deeper and deeper into the trees until I came to the chain link fence that had protected us for years.

I checked the hole in the fence missing from a recent creeper attack. It was filled in with unharmed barbed wire. It didn't look like any creepers had gotten in lately, which was a good sign. Greta went because of a stray creeper roaming around while we slept, since then we have had night guards just in case.

I walked along the fence and saw a group of maybe thirty creepers clawing and biting at the rusted metal. Thier bloody grey faces emotionless. Mindless zombies looking for food, kind of how I felt right now.

They followed me along the fence line as I continued my sweep, moaning, groaning and trying to press their mouths through the links in the fence.

"Sorry boys, I'm taken." I said.

I couldn't help but sigh thinking of my boyfriend Jim. We had been together ever since I turned twenty. My mom insisted I had a boyfriend to protect me during this time, even though protection was the last thing I need. Jim is the son of our group leader, Luther. He manages the guard shifts, takes care of supplies, and any other stuff leaders should do during a zombie apocalypse. It's a dictatorship here, whatever he says, goes.

I saw movement from the trees to my right. I aimed my bow and saw a creeper moving slowly towards camp. I shot it in the eye then went over to retrieve my arrow. That was odd. Usually we don't get creepers this close to camp. But I didn't  worry because it was just one.

I kept scaling the fence and the creepers kept walking with me, like moths to a flame. I stopped and tempted them by putting my face inches away from the fence. They bit and clawed furiously. Idiots.

I laughed at their stupidity. Their ignorance was one of the only things I laughed at anymore.

I was about to turn to head back to camp, when I felt someone breathing on the back of my neck.