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A Few More Days It all happened so quickly. I don’t think that anyone anticipated how contagious the virus actually was. No one even knew where it came from until it was too late. Two weeks after the first outbreak nearly half of the world’s population was gone. It was the strangest thing to be standing there watching everyone I knew and love die. Somehow, the virus never spread to me. There were rumors that some people were just immune to it and I just happened to be one of the unlucky few. The world is a much different place now. It’s been four months since it all began and I can’t put into words the bizarre occurrences. Many of the survivors have just gone insane because the virus did effect them, but in a non-lethal way. I have started to call these people zombies, but they aren’t really the walking undead. They can think, feel, and hunger just like the rest of us, yet they have bouts of dementia and some seem to be morally void. My sister, brother, and I survived the end of the world. We had to watch our parents die and our friends wither away. Three weeks ago one of the zombies got my sister. She was raped and then murdered. We never got a chance to save her. We found her body two days later. She managed not to contract the virus, but she couldn’t live through the tortures that he put her through. It’s just my brother and I now. Sometimes we walk through the street looking for food or water or anything that we could use. We barely talk to each other anymore. He and I were very close, and I would say we are even closer now. Of course, we have to be, since the other’s life depends on your trust. We’ve been looking for others like us that didn’t become zombies. Though whenever we meet someone with potential, it turns out they were just trying to lead us into a trap. With my brother’s military training and my former employment as a police detective, we’ve been able to survive decently. When the riots started, my brother called us over to his home. I remember his five year old daughter, Lesley, laying on a blanket in the cellar. Her skin was graying and her hair was falling out. She was infected with the virus that came to be known as the Judgment Day Virus. Her father’s immunity was not passed onto her like we had hoped, although she did fight it for a lot longer then most. My brother practically had an entire arsenal in his cellar, and we loaded ourselves up on anything we could carry. Rifles, shotguns, handguns, and all the ammunition. We had been on the way to our family’s cabin out in the country, when they attacked our car. I had only shot two people in my life as a cop, and neither of them died. That day, in that single moment, I killed six people without hesitation. I had to. They were attacking the only family that I had left. My brother also took lives that day, one of them being his own daughter. She was suffering so much. Blood splattered everywhere when she coughed. Our sister was more then willing to carry her, but Alec didn’t want his daughter to suffer anymore. He took her away from us and the only thing we heard was a single gunshot, and then he returned. We never talked about it again. Because of the attack to our car, we were unable to use it. The people had set it on fire before we had a chance to react. So, now we were stuck here inside the city. Any cars that we came upon were set ablaze. I told Alec that I thought the zombies were doing it to keep people from escaping. He seemed to agree with me. Anyway, that was the end of the world for me. Now it’s just me and Alec trying to stay alive, even though it would be so much easier to lay down and die. At least that’s what I think at night when I am laying there staring at the McDonald’s sign. Then it’s time to wake up and we have to go back out there. Safety in numbers type deal, so we have to find more people like us. I don’t know how we manage to gather enough strength to even try. My mind keeps echoing, “It’s worthless. This is all in vain! Just let me die already!” Then we are attacked and I defend myself to live another moment. If I didn’t have Alec with me, I would probably of let them kill me. He can’t take another person dying on him. I can already see the surrender in his eyes. The only reason he goes on is because of me and visa versa. Maybe if I just told him that I wanted to die, then he could tell me the same. No, I can’t let him kill himself. I am not by any means a religious person, but suicide isn’t the answer here. There might be a reason we were left on this earth. This might just be punishment for our sins. My eyes scanned our surroundings. None of the buildings had a single window intact. We were passing by the mall as we usually do. After four months it had been picked dry of practically everything useful. I know as most of it was done by the rioting and the rest was done by me and Alec. I saw Alec’s six foot frame out of the corner of my eye. He had stopped and was looking through a wired fence. His light brown hair was being tossed by the winds and I reminded myself that I needed to cut it when I got the chance. As I approached him, I noticed the small orange tabby cat in the alley that he was trying to coax over to him with a piece of tuna. He had opened the can earlier so that we could snack on it as we did our rounds. The cat seemed to decide it was more hungry then scared and slinked over to us. With a quick swipe, it grabbed the tuna from his fingers and began to growl as it chewed it down. As much of a cat lover that I was, I knew that we shouldn’t be wasting our few food supplies on stray cats. “We can’t keep it.” I announced. Alec’s dark eyes looked up to me as he had been bent over. “I know, but we can share can’t we?” Standing up, he stood four inches taller then me. “With humans, sure.” I surveyed the area as he gave the cat another piece, “Come on, it looks like rain. We should head back.” He straggled behind for a moment before catching up to me and offered the can of tuna up. I snatched it from his hand and finished it off, before throwing the can over my shoulder. “What’s up?” I asked when I noticed the worried look in his eyes. “This isn’t working.” Alec sighed, “We aren’t going to find anyone not affected by the virus by walking around in circles everyday.” I nodded in agreement, “Yeah, we are going to have to move. It’s a tough choice to make though, because at least here we know where everything we need is.” “Those supplies won’t last forever.” “And if we head out in the wrong direction we could end up starving to death or worse.” I tried to ignore the frustration that I heard in his tone. He looked up to the dark clouds forming in the sky, “I doubt anything will be there, but tomorrow we should pack up and head to the hospital. We might find some drugs there or better yet, it’s a good place for people to hole themselves up in.” “We don’t need drugs.” Alec frowned at me. He knew that I suffered from back pain. It was a spinal injury that happened to me when I was a young girl. I was in a car accident that had paralyzed me for nearly two years, but I refused to give up on myself. I went to rehab every week until I was walking again. Unfortunately, my back would still object occasionally to holding my weight and I would find myself bed ridden for the rest of the day, at least without pain medication. I could feel the prescription bottle in my coat pocket, and knew there were only four pills left. I had been trying to ration them out and only taking them when the worst of pain hit. Neither of us knew what we were going to do once I was completely out. If there was one thing that Alec couldn’t stand, it was seeing his older sister in pain. Even if I tried to pretend that it didn’t exist, he knew when I was having a hard time. “So, to the hospital then?” He asked once the McDonald’s was in sight. I nodded my head, “Yeah, we will head out tomorrow.” He opened the door for me and I made my way over to the small campsite we had made inside the fast food restaurant. We both began to make ourselves more comfortable by removing any excess clothing and weapons from our bodies. Alec was wearing his army combat uniform, where I was in a pair of jeans, a black sweater, and one of his camouflage jackets. I had a black leather jacket, but Alec insisted that I wear some camouflage. My clothing wasn’t exactly clean, but I wasn’t too worried about bathing or laundry at the moment. Both us probably stunk to high heaven, but we had gotten used to each other’s unwashed smells. When I was comfortable, I began to dig through some of our canned goods to find what we would be having for dinner. I settled on a can of chili, and opened it was the small can opener on Alec’s key chain. It was a pain in the ass to use, but that was all we had. I used my fingers to dig my portion of the meal into my mouth, while Alec waited patiently for me to finish. He took the can from me when I offered it to him, and ate in the same fashion. We gave up on spoons and forks, because we didn’t want to waste water cleaning them. Pulling out a hairbrush, I pulled my hair from its French braid and brushed my dark blonde locks. When I was finished I re-braided my hair and then brushed my teeth with no toothpaste just the brush. Laying my head down on my bundled up jacket, I closed my eyes. Alec and I switched off during the night to take watch. Every two hours we would switch, but he always took first watch. “Elliot?” I heard him say after a few moments, “You asleep, yet?” “No.” My eyes fluttered open and I looked at him. He was sitting crossed legged beside me with a shotgun in hand. “You think…” He began then looked down at his feet. “What is it?” I asked as I propped myself up on my elbows. He inhaled deeply, “What if we are the only ones like us? Maybe this virus was suppose to take us back to our more animalistic forms. Since we didn’t, maybe we are the weaker species and are suppose to die.” I frowned, “I certainly don’t like the thought of that.” My words did nothing for him, so I continued. “Let’s not worry about that until we’ve tried for a little while longer. There has to be more people out there like us.” I put my head back down and closed my eyes. After a moment, I felt Alec take my hand into his for reassurance. Even though he was bigger and more capable then I was, he still saw me as his big sister. The one who protected him from bullies as kids, and that he had to listen to when I babysat for our parents. It was comforting in its own way, I suppose. Even though I would of probably been killed by now without him, he needed me by his side for strength. To read the rest of this story, you must have a registered account on my forum and post 30 times. The posts must have at least three sentences each. http://www.rkphunt.com/forum If you have any trouble then let me know via email at rkphunt@yahoo.com. |