Part 1
The frosted grass crunched beneath her knee-high leather boots, every careful step she took. The sound was startling, she’d have to stop just to be sure she was alone. Not a single sound could be heard, except for the blowing wind. The wind blew her long black hair back, sending a chill down her spine. No birds singing, no cars driving about, no people, and this was now the new normal. The girl now lived in a world where it was the literal meaning of, “eat or be eaten.”
Just a few months ago in the early morning. People began to die off left and right from terrible fevers. Doctors couldn’t explain the cause, they couldn’t find a cure in time before it began. The dead began to rise as if nothing had happened, only now they were hungry for the living. Once a dead person got the taste for the human flesh, they went savage. Some would do anything for a meal, yet some gave up too soon or didn’t bother.
The girl was out scouting for food, she needed it soon before she was completely out. Her body was beginning to feel weak with hunger as she pushed on through the woods in search of anything. The smallest can of really anything would help her in this moment of need. She had to push on, no one was going to hold her hand and feed her. Once people began dying, so did her only known family member, her grandmother or so she had told her.
On the girl’s grandmother’s death bed, she admitted she wasn’t in any blood relation to the 19-year-old. The older woman found her and was only left to die in a box; the woman couldn’t leave her. She didn’t want to give her to authorities either, she just had to make sure she was kept safe.
On the night before her grandmother’s death, the woman laid in bed. Her skin was hot to the touch, covered in sweat, and pale as could be. The woman began to have trouble breathing between gasps for air, she said. “Hun, I don’t think I’m going to make it much longer,” her grandmother’s voice sounded weak and frail.
The girl’s eyes began to weld up with tears that stung. “Please, you can’t leave me not now. Not ever please, I need you!” The girl cried with anger shaking in her voice.
Her grandmother pulled out a buck knife from under her pillow. “You will be fine, you’re stronger than you think and braver than you feel.” She handed the girl the buck knife, “When I die don’t let me turn into one of them.” The women’s eyes began to tear up as well.
The girl shook her head and tears began to fill her eyes. “No, I won’t do it, I couldn’t do it, not to you.” She laid the buck on the bed shaking vigorously.
The woman put the knife in the girl’s hand making it close. “You can, you won’t want to see me like that, as one of them.” The woman brushed the girl’s hair away from her eyes and kissed her cheek softly. Even the women’s lips felt like fire touching the girl’s skin.
Once the woman died, the girl was alone yet again like she had been found all those years ago. She couldn’t bring herself to put her grandma down, she instead barricaded her in her room. Once the women came back to life the girl couldn’t stand being in the same house as her. She couldn’t take hearing her grandmother throwing herself around trying to get out so she could eat her.
Over the last few weeks, the girl had made herself a shelter in the woods by her grandmother’s old farm. She originally wanted to live in the barn, but the barn was far too old and big to defend. The girl settled for an old treehouse she and grandma built together one summer. The treehouse’s only entrance was up a rope ladder, not steps up the trees that were the girl’s idea. Her new home came with everything a common apartment would have. A small wood stove with a top to cook on, a single twin bed, a few lamps, lights strung out around the perimeter, and windows. The windows had bug screens in them and big shutters to help against cold winds. The girl now lived in this modern sized shack in the trees, where no dead could reach her.
A few days before her journey a loud boom shook her small home, and the tree it was in. The sound came from an old lab not too far from the farm. The lab was known for doing experiments on different diseases, drugs, and animals. The place was thought to be shut down way before the dead began to rise. The sound of the explosion caused the girl to nearly fall over in fear. She knew that sound had aroused some dead in the area. The dead love to investigate sounds, sounds lead to food. The girl’s curiosity was practically eating her, she had to know what caused such a big sound. She decided to wait three days before she was even tempted to see what happened. Once the third day came, she realized she didn’t have a choice, she needed food.
The girl began her walk just an hour before the sun would rise, she didn’t want to be seen. The girl slung her backpack on, laced her combat boots up as tight as possible then left through the trap door. She hadn’t thought of the frosted ground till her boots hit the wood’s floor. The morning frost she once loved to see now scared her with every step she took. Even with fear running through her she began the walk, the more she walked the better she felt.
The woods were still dark, the sun hadn’t even begun to rise yet. Trees had never felt safer for the girl as she moved to one than another as quickly as she could. After half a mile of going from tree to tree the building’s parking lot came into view. The sight made the girl’s stomach turn, she had never been this close to it. The parking lot didn’t have a single car in it. Its cement was now mostly gravel and had a spider web of cracks running through it.
The building was only one story tall, with brown sun-stained bricks. The building seemed to have not changed, its windows were still boarded up. The only difference was the only known entrance was a big glass door that now is shattered. Glass was laid everywhere around the door, some still hung on the frame of the door. She took a deep breath, she had to move quickly and quietly. Who knows who may or may not be here with her?
The girl tried staying as low as she could, moving like she was through the woods Once she was in the parking lot there were no more trees to help her feel safer. Her heart began to race, a lump formed in her chest. She had to move; if she just stood there, wind-up she would be a sitting duck. Slowly she began to walk, picking her feet up and lightly putting them down. The gravel crunched under her boots as she inched her way forward, one foot at a time. Once she was in front of the broken door, she knew she couldn’t avoid the sound of crunching glass under her boots.
The door’s glass was scattered everywhere, not a single spot was free for a quiet step. She took a deep breath letting it out slowly, adrenaline was running through her now. The girl was more scared than she thought she would be before she had left her safe treehouse. She gave one last longing look at the woods that seemed safer than her next plan of action. The girl had to enter the building; she needed any kind of food that would be inside.
