Virus-Q

All I wanted for my birthday was a simple shirt that says ‘Eat, Sleep, or Study’ and a $100 bill. What I didn’t expect was that the world started a party without me knowing it. It was a gross party if you asked me. And a very dangerous one, too.

Yeah that’s right, this big planet just gave me an Apocalypse for my birthday. Terrific, right?

I know.

Because right now, I’m literally running for my life with a backpack full of useless school stuff. I mean, seriously, of all the things I could grab at home I got my school bag.

Ugh, habits.

Well, it all started when I got home from school. Everything was normal, I drop my school bag on the floor and went straight to my mom to help her cook-

What? Oh right, introductions. My name is Sherry Garcia, I’m turning 15 today, I’m obviously a girl, my parents got divorced after the day I was born and I’m running away from a flesh-eating maniac.

Now back to what I was about to tell you. I was helping my mom cook -because I’m still learning- to prepare a small dinner for my birthday today when we heard a loud crash and people screaming outside.

My mom settled down her knife on the counter and wiped her hands on her apron while walking towards the window. I tried to follow her, when all of a sudden there was a rough knock at our back door.

Thud!

We both froze and looked back, not really knowing what to do than just stay quiet and try not move.

Thud!

We flinched.

Thud! Thud!

“Mom, what was that?” I whimpered, scared.

“Shhhhh. ... It’s okay.” She whispered back, looking calm... As if that made me calm down.

Thud!

My mom walked back to me as quietly as possible. I could see her face is pale so I’m guessing mine is too. She reached for the knife and hold it in front of her, signaling for me to step back. So I did.

Thud!

Another one.

Then it was all quiet. We didn’t move a single muscle as much as we could manage.

BANG!

We heard the back door burst open so we ran towards the front door -oh god I forgot to close the front door- and grabbed what we could get and not even bothering to look back at our unexpected guest.

Outside our house was a mess. Everyone was running with their family or alone away from whatever was after them. There were cars that’s on fire or toppled over, houses with broken windows and wrecked front doors..... and dead corps.

Which leads us to my current situation of running away from said dead corps. Well, not really dead since they could still limp run but they look dead and- oh, right. Zombies.

We’re running away from zombies. Sorry, I get stupid when frightened sometimes.

I caught a glimpse of my mom stabbing one of those zombies with her kitchen knife when it got close, but apparently that wasn’t enough.

Lucky for us, somebody else that we were about to pass by got the attention of the zombies that was so close to eating our guts by firing a gun.... Huh, so they’re attracted to the sound... and eating someone alive. Of course.

It didn’t stop us from running away, though.

“Mom! Do you know about this?!” I yelled.

“No! But I was listening to the radio a week ago-” She dodge one zombie, “-and heard about a virus spreading! I thought it was from another country so I didn’t-” She stabbed another, “I didn’t pay much attention!”

I groaned in annoyance.

This time, my mom took my hand and drag me to a nearby grocery store that’s not freaking touched by zombies yet.

We went in, and all people in front of the store that could see us looked at us curiously. We didn’t care. Well, at least my mom didn’t care as she continued to pull me inside.

“Empty your bag!” my mom ordered and so I did. Dumped everything on the floor, except the ones in the pockets. What? I have my important stuff there alright?

I opened my bag wide and my mom started filling it with food that’s light enough for me to still run fast and water that could last for maybe a week or three days. She ran to where the other bags were and filled it with more important stuff.

Our last stop is the kitchen corner where you could buy frying pans, tea cups, chopsticks, but most importantly, more kitchen knives. She packed at least three knives per bag.

Then she gave me a frying pan.

“Mom-”

“Bang it to their heads or throw it away....But not now.”

The guards in the store is now running towards us when my mom tugged me by my shirt and walk in what she thinks is the middle of the store and shouted at the top of her lungs “ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!!” which was kind of stupid in my opinion but appropriate in our current situation.

Then glass doors broke.

"Raaahgghh!!!"

“Oh no...”