“Why can’t you realize what you’re doing to yourself,” I shouted to my father, “it’s your fault you’re in this situation!”.

“My fault!” He responded from the other room, “It’s your mothers fault!”. He stumbled into the living room. “It’s always been her fault.”.

“No it isn’t,” my voice became more defensive, “you were an alcoholic before you met her and you still are one now!”. He lunged toward me and grasped my shirt collar and pulled me up to the tip of my toes.The smell of alcohol seeped from his mouth and coiled around my nose. I grabbed his hand and twisted it off my collar, putting him into a wrist lock. He reacted quickly but blindly and swung for my head. I jumped back and ran out the door, almost tripping over myself while my eyes adjusted to the sun. For some reason I wasn’t scared. This hadn’t been our first physical fight and something in my mind told me that this wasn’t real. Before I could make down the steps of the burgundy red porch, I was grabbed from behind and put into a forearm choke. I’m glad I took that Karate class because I knew exactly how to respond. I elbowed him, grasped his right shoulder and pulled him around my hip. He hit the wooden floor beneath us with a heavy thud. I quickly got on top of him and pulled out the pencil from my pocket. I looked him dead in the eyes and muttered “I loved you.” while I plunged the pencil as hard as I could through his temple.

His black blood splurted all over my hand and the ground. I got off from his chest and it became pitch black outside. I looked up into the sky to see the moon and stars. I twirled around and saw my mother lying on the ground in a pool of blood. She had a massive gouge in her shoulder where it looks like something bit her. Then I remembered that I wasn’t at my dads trailer and that argument happened a month ago. I remembered that the world I was in had been infected and people were turning. My dad bit my mom. And the weapon I had in my hand wasn’t a pencil it was a kitchen knife and it was dripping my fathers blood. I crouched next to my mom and realized that her head was intact. The only way to stop someone turning was to destroy the brain. I felt a lodge in my throat when I realized what I had to do. I closed my eyes and turned my head in the opposite direction. There was no past argument or fight that I could use to my advantage like I did when I killed my dad. With no hesitation I drove the knife through her skull. Her blood wasn’t completely black yet but I had to do it. I couldn’t let her live her life that way. I opened my eyes and was presented with the infected I presumed bit my dad. I was so startled that i fell back onto my mothers still warm body. The infected fell onto me clumsily, snarling and reaching for my throat. I put my left arm under its chin and held it back. The smell of it’s breath smelt like blood and rotten flesh and it made noises like a snarling dog. I took my knife and stabbed it in the stomach hoping for some reaction. It didn’t even flinch. As I pulled the knife from its chest I felt the heat of the blood. I proceeded to swing my arm around and stab the monster in the head. It instantly went completely motionless and became twice as heavy. With all my remaining strength I hefted the thing off of me. I needed to rest and catch my breath. I looked at my right arm and noticed it was covered in something other than blood. It was dark green and stung as it dripped down my arm. Quickly, I wiped it onto my chest. Almost in a panic. I looked at the infected and saw that I stabbed it literally in the stomach and the liquid covering my arm and now my chest was stomach acid. I rolled of my mom and got on my hands and knees. I started to heave and I felt vomit starting to climb up my throat. I quickly swallowed it and assured myself that I needed to keep any and all food in my body. Mainly because it was getting really hard to find. The thought of eating any good food quickly entered and left my mind.

“You call this food?” my dad had muttered toward my mom. “This tastes like it came out of a dog!” He slammed his fist down onto the table hard enough to spill his beer. My mom choked.
“I’m sor-sorry, I haven’t made it any different. Would you rather me have gotten a pizza?” My dad threw himself up and slammed his chair into the refrigerator.
“Come ‘ere!” He shouted as he pulled my mom up by her hair and into the living room. I sat there quietly with tears running down my cheeks.

“This can’t happen anymore,” I said under my breath “I won’t let it happen anymore.”

“AHH!” My mom screamed from the other room. I stood up and ran out the door. The sky was full of stars. I crouched down behind a bush around the back of the trailer. The sounds of my parents fighting echoed through the house and my head. A few minutes passed and I was dried out of tears. I heard the front door open and my mom call my name.
“I’m over here.” I said shakily. She walked toward me and sat beside me behind the bush.

“This won’t happen anymore, I promise,” she assured me. “Not anymore. You need to stay strong. Don’t let him hurt you.” I wasn’t sure how to do that, I was only seven at the time. A completely unnecessary fight over food. The thought of that happening now baffled me. Not in the time we’re in.

  I slowly pushed my self to stand up and check my surroundings. This area was all too familiar to me. The blue house I passed all the time was on my left and an area of tall grass had been on my right. From my past memory  I remembered that there was a party store a few 100 feet from where I was standing. My family and I were going to raid the party store in hopes that there was still some food left in it. But now I will have to do it alone.

I reached the party store in approximately 20 minutes. To my luck there were no infected and a couple cars that looked intact. I decided to check the cars before the party store. The first car was a tan Chevy minivan. During the search I found an unloaded handgun and a new set of clothes that were a little too tight. I made my way over to the second car which was a blue truck. The tailgate had a cover on it but the door was down. I checked that first and found an old backpack with nothing but a folded up tarp in it. The trucks doors were unlocked but I found nothing in it. Only a single photo of the owners family. The faces of the children and parents were filled with joy. This was probably the last happy and playful moment that this family faced. I was suddenly struck with an overwhelming sadness. I no longer had a family, I had killed them 40 minutes ago. I’d never share another moment like the family in the photo did ever again. The last memories of my parents were full of anger and sadness. I backed away slowly from the truck as if it was a venomous snake about to strike. I could feel tears form under my eyes and I wiped them away without hesitation. I had to stay strong. As I walked toward the party store I scoped out the inside through a window. It looked safe from the outside and I hoped it was. I walked through the open door and started my search. Luckily there were no infected in the store. For some reason I checked the cash registers hoping that there was money in them and if there was I would have a need for it. The one thing I did find was a tattered notebook sitting next to a phone with no line. I picked up the notebook and started flipping through the bloody, ripped pages. The contents shocked me. It appeared that there was a group of people who were camping here. The last sentences read “Salvation is 32 miles north from here.The rest of us are about to head there. We can’t stand it here anymore. It reminds me of death.”

“I need to make it to that ‘Salvation’,” I assured myself. “It’s the only way I’ll stay alive.”

I put the notebook down and continued my search. As I headed to the back of the store I found 3 protein bars, a single can of tomato soup, and 3 water bottles. I stuffed them into my backpack and continued the search. As I stood up the sudden stench of what smelt like a rotting deer on the road hit my nostrils. I turned a corner to see a pile of rotting corpses stacked on top of one another. I turned around and bolted out of the store running past empty shelves and the bloody notebook. The sharp sting of vomit climbed up my throat and I sprinted to the side of the store. This time I couldn’t hold it back.

I stood up and wiped the remaining bile from my lips. The notebook said 32 miles north so that was the direction I decided to walk. I walked about 5 miles before I realized how tired I was. I checked my surroundings and spotted an oak tree that was easily accessible and looked easy to climb. I started my climb up the rough trunk of the tree. By the time I reached the top my hand were red and scratches started to form. I spun around to make sure I was alone and nearly got my eye poked out by a branch. The eye slowly started to swell and close shut. I lowered my self carefully away from that branch so I wouldn’t wake up with only one eye. It was a cold night. I took the tarp from my backpack and used it as a blanket. Laying my head against the tree trunk reminded me of the one time I went camping with my dad. I cleared my head from the obscenities that had happened me to that night and dozed off.

When I awoke the sun was almost directly above me. I opened my backpack and took out a water bottle and a protein bar. I twisted the bottle open and took three large gulps. The need for more was almost unbearable but I needed to conserve it. The protein bar was probably the best thing I had eaten in days. I inhaled the thing in four bites. I didn’t realize how hungry I actually was. Especially after I had thrown up. I packed up my things and noticed a clearing to my right. It had a pair of infected stumbling around like my father had the day of our argument. I snuck across the street and dipped into the ditch hoping to avoid them. I looked up and saw a hill that I crossed everyday of my past life. When I made it to the peak I encountered a large pileup of cars and trucks in an intersection. It looked like everyone was making a frantic attempt to leave in all different directions. It was probably because when it got too bad people started running red lights and crashing into each other. From what I could see every car looked empty, but as I got a little closer I saw some movement between the vehicles. Not some but a lot of movement. There were at least 28 of the infected in the center but there were more on the outskirts moving toward the center. Of course that was the direction I was headed in.