Just another dead body
Everything changed after the plague hit.
Well, not everything. I was still the same.
Correction, just about everyone changed after the plague hit.
Except me.
I hope that I’ll be able to find others.. and soon. I’m not so sure I’ll be able to survive on my own for much longer.
The plague hit around five months ago, and it has already spread across the world. Once my family heard, we packed our bags and left for the closest airport. Unfortunately that’s what everyone else was doing too.
We all thought we could run away from our problems. Soon we found out there was nowhere to run. The only thing to do was fight.
When the plague appeared, you can imagine the shock I had once I found out that the ghouls from my avidly read horror books were real. I had always been obsessively reading horror stories, anything from vampires to… zombies.
I never expected them to be so fast… or so hungry.
All hints of humanity is wiped from the person once they are infected. They no longer operate the way normal human beings do. The only goal trapped in their brain-dead head is to bite and infect as many people as possible. To sink those rotting teeth into the warm flesh of a now former survivor.
Within the first few months of the plague, my family and I had been hiding in the library of our hours when we were discovered. We were all so shocked that they had broken in… which made it easier to get to us.
In a matter of minutes, my father, mother, and brother Henry had all been bitten. All infected.
I’ll never be able to forget their transformation. Henry was bitten first. He had his back to them, and we hadn’t noticed them arrive yet… one sank its rotting teeth in to his frail shoulder.
He fell back to the floor screaming, and then the monster focused on me.
I couldn’t help but notice how young it looked. She couldn’t have been taller than five foot three, and her blue eyes were now glazed over. A bloody chunk was missing from her leg and seeping with a yellow liquid. She staggered towards me in a fast way that vaguely appalled me, and yet I couldn’t help but stand there, fascinated.
“RUN!” My parents had screamed.
She turned to them.
Henry, still lying on the floor, began to have convulsions, his arms and legs flailing about. It appeared as if he was struggling against an invisible force.
I would never forget that.
Then the spark in his eyes fizzled out and he was… gone. The same happened to my parents.
I ran out of there. Ran like the coward I am.
The coward I always will be.
One year later
“Sera,” one of the boys called, his jeans were torn and dirty, his white shirt looked like a lost cause, and his dark brown hair was matted and slick with sweat at the same time. Honestly, I couldn’t tell any of the boys apart, they all seemed the same to me.. “We found one, Sera,” He panted, bending over and placing his hand on his knees.
I turned to face him, and gave him a harsh glower from my icy blue eyes.
He stiffened once he stood upright and looked at me.
I stalked towards him and yanked up the front of his shirt. He was a young, maybe thirteen or fourteen, and shorter than I am, but I was pretty tall for a girl, standing at five nine.
“Now, kid,” I snarled, not quite remembering his name. “I know you’re new and all, and I’m sure the boys have talked to you about this, but since they’re not particularly bright or good at explaining things… I want to make something painfully-”’WHAM!“-clear.” I hissed, pulling him up to me, so that our noses were touching. “Don’t. Call me. Sera. It’s ‘Phin or Seraphin. Never Sera.”
The boy dug his fingers into the wall behind him, looking at me with a mixture of fear, curiosity, and respect.
“T-they found one,” He stammered, eventually abandoning the “stoic” act and rubbed the back of his head with one hand.
“Is it dead?” I demanded.
“Yeah, but…” He trailed off.
“What? What?!” I growled angrily, shaking him, causing his head to flop around and thwack against the wall again. Several times.
“It’s Cal…” He moaned, rubbing his head even more now. “Brendan, his brother, got bitten… No one can do it… ow. Sheesh. Did you really have to smash my head into the wall like that?”
“Shut up.” I snapped, and took off.
They were all standing there in a circle. Just… standing there, staring at the monster that was twitching before their eyes.
Then the light went from Brendan’s eyes. Just like with Henry. Like it did with everyone who gets infected.
“Cal…” He rasped after his seizures halted. “Cal…I’m okay.”
“Br-Brendan?” Cal sobbed.
“Cal,” I sighed. “You know they do this. They’re programmed for this in the beginning. They try to throw you off guard…”
“NO!” Cal hollered. “He’s fine! Immune!”
“No one is immune,” I murmured.
“Someone must be,” He protested. “And Brendan’s the one!”
I sighed, pulled my gun from the harness, and took aim.
“’Phin! ‘Phin, he’s my brother!” Cal wept, trying to hold me back.
“Not anymore,” I whispered as I pulled the trigger.
Crimson blood and white brain splattered everywhere.
Two corpses now lay in front of me.
“Set the bodies on fire,” I instructed, turning and giving a dismissive wave over my shoulder.
“But he’s my brother!” Cal cried.
“No,” I said, turning back to him. “He’s just another dead body.”
Thoughts? Suggestions? :)
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