If the smell wasn’t enough
indication as to what was happening inside the house the screams were. It took
me a moment to realize that the screams were my own. The scene before me was
one that I had never imagined I would ever have to see. Blood covered the open
door and soaked my shoes as I peered inside the house. My family, the only
people I had left, were laid out on the wooden floor dead. Everyone else I knew
was either long gone or dead. I was completely alone.
My body sagged against the wall with
the grief that weighed on my chest. My breath was shallow as I tried to
maintain my composure. The world we lived in now wasn’t one where you could be
weak. You had to be strong or you wouldn’t survive. A memory surfaced as I felt
my body meet the ground.
“Survival
of the fittest,” my dad said softly as he taught Hanna how to use the bow and
arrow. “The only way to survive is to be the fastest and the strongest. You
can’t show mercy. If you do they will take advantage of that and destroy you.”
Something out of
the corner of my eye moved and I automatically pulled out my swords. The
sluggish, clumsy movement of the Treader moved along the ground. It was the
body of my mother. The disease had taken over and turned her into the dead
thing we all had all feared before the world had gone crazy. One swift movement
later and the body stopped struggling along the floor. I quickly got rid of the
bodies and pulled out the cleaning supplies we had left over. Burying them
would have to wait until I could gather the strength to look at them again
without feeling the bile rise.
The house stunk of iron and Clorox as I
moved about the living room tidying up needlessly. My stomach felt like lead
and I had to lean against the wall as panic raced through my veins. I suddenly
couldn’t breathe and my head was spinning. My chest was extremely too tight as
I fell to my knees struggling to breathe. I heard the familiar jingle of my
dog’s collar as I felt a wet nose press to my cheek. Oliver whined low in his
throat as he nudged himself closer to me. I finally found my grip on reality and
pulled myself upright.
“Hey Oliver,” I whispered gently. My
throat was still too tight for comfort, but I’d have to deal with it. “I know
baby. I know they’re gone.”
I couldn’t stay here any longer.
They’re presence was too strong in this house. I took a shaky breath and stood
slowly to go pack a duffle bag full of clothes. I was going to head to my
Uncle’s cabin in Sevierville. He had always predicted this was going to happen,
but we had all called him crazy. Oh how we were wrong. I walked slowly back to
my bedroom. An hour later I was on the road to Sevierville in hopes of finding
my only relatives I might have left with my dog by my side.
Driving through the shopping area
that used to be a bustling Tanger Outlet felt incredibly strange. It was like
driving through a ghost town. I was waiting for the minute a hoard of Treaders
came running out into the street. I stopped to rest in front of an old Nike
store and decided I was going to sleep for at least an hour. Reclining my seat
I looked towards the ceiling thinking about how quickly the world had gone to
crap. The hollow ache in my chest took hold once more as I willed myself to
shut my eyes. Sleep was a friend to me in that moment. Every time I closed my
eyes all I saw was my family’s faces as they stared blankly at the walls. Being
alone in a world this cruel was a scary thought that I didn’t want to face. Not
now, not ever. Nothing would ever be the same. I couldn’t dwell in the past and
survive the harsh environments the world provided me with.
A tap on my window startled me so quickly that
I bashed my elbow against my emergency break. What I saw couldn’t be real. It
was my best friend, Trystan, who I had decided dead like everyone else I knew.
I had to be hallucinating. I gently drew my swords into my hands for the second
time that day as I pushed the door silently open.
“Step back,” my voice was hoarse from
misuse. Oliver was wagging his tail happily behind me, but I chose to ignore
him and shut the door. I didn’t need him interfering, “You can’t be real.
Honestly, Trystan, of all places you’re here? I’m going crazy.”
“What are you talking about, Bri?”
She asked wildly as she eyed the weapons in my hands. “If I’m not real then why is Oliver acting like
that? If I was a hallucination he wouldn’t be able to see me.”
I bit the inside of my cheek feeling
my inner battle. I desperately wanted to believe her. “Have you been bitten?”
“No,” she answered. Her voice was
soft and I could hear the underlying sadness. “Emily was though.”
“Where is she?” My world apparently
could get worse.
“Dead.” The finality in her tone
broke my heart.
I took a breath before asking the
question I dreaded. “Did you have to-“
She cut me off with a brisk, “Yes.”
I couldn’t hold myself back any
longer. I sheathed my swords and lunged myself at her. My arms wrapped around
her in a tight hug. We took a moment to share our grief as I told her about my
family. I told her of my plans to find my Uncle and she agreed to come with me.
Maybe my world was looking up a bit with someone I knew and trusted by my side.
-Briana Griffin
Follow me on instagram and twitter! @perksofbriana
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