I woke up in my 3 bedrooms apartment in Brooklyn at 8:00 am like I do everyday and it was oddly quiet in the house. There was a chill in the air that I’ve never felt before. My name is Rebecca Finch, I’m 16 years old and I have a younger brother, Brad. He wasn’t in his room. My parents were gone too. I thought to myself “What is going on. Why is everyone gone!” I opened our sliding door and walked out onto the deck because I kept hearing this crashing noise. The city was blanketed in black smoke and flames. Letting out a scream, I felt so alone and scared. How could this have happened over night? I quickly went back inside, packed my backpack with some food, all the money I had, and I grabbed my pocket knife. As I made my way through our apartment building, and down the back staircase, there were bodies piled up outside the window. It smelled like rotting meat, and there was blood everywhere.  This looks like something I read in a comic book, or something you’d see on tv, not in real life. There was a Glock 19 laying on the floor, I grabbed it and checked the magazine, it had a full clip. My dad loved guns, so we use to always go to gun range. That’s where I learned how to shoot and handle guns.  I walked out of our building. Cars were crashed into telephone poles, and walking down the street was my family, they must have gone out to walk the dog as a family, because it was Saturday. I yelled “MOM, DAD, DOMINIC. WHAT’S GOING ON?” Running towards them. Dad was wearing his running suit, and Dominic was wearing his Iron Man Jacket. They all turned around. They were bloody, ruthless, human flesh eating zombies. My mothers arm was torn in half. My father was missing part of his face, and my little brother had bite marks covering his entire face. I pulled the Glock out from my waistband, slowly backing up, thinking to myself, “I can’t kill them. But they’re already dead…” I pulled the trigger 5 times… They all dropped to the ground, it was like everything was happening in slow motion.  I put the gun away, and began to run down the street looking for either a safe place or someone who hadn’t been turned. I didn’t even know what to think or feel anymore, everything that I was doing just came out of pure instinct.
Brooklyn was a mess, there wasn’t a single store or shop that hadn’t been broken into. Luckily, I had found a way to scavenge some food and warmer clothes--it was the middle of April, and it hadn’t warmed up yet. Being on the smaller side, I was able to blend in and stay clear from the crazy local gang members that had been disrupting the streets.. However, they were all drunk so a majority of them got bit and turned into zombies. After waiting about 45 minutes I was able to find a way to escape. I began walking to our cabin and I found an abandoned bike, that took me most of the journey, and then I went by foot once I reached the campsite. By the end of the night I made it out of town and spent the night at our cabin, which ended up being my home for about a week. I was just happy that I was able to have a place to sleep. After my food supplies began to run low, I decided to start searching for supplies, and I reached a town. In the distance I saw a large compound, so I began scoping out to see what it possibly could be. I was praying that there were humans, because I had been alone for the last week and I felt so alone.
I saw a group of survivors. They called themselves “The Saviors” they had been building a town surrounded by steel walls. It’s almost like they knew this was coming. They welcomed me with open arms. I met with their counsel leader Merle, he was missing half of his arm. He had been bitten by a walker, that’s what they called the zombies. But they were able to amputate the infected portion of his arm. He discussed his plans of packing all the survivors and putting us on a boat to survive at sea while the walkers on land slowly deteriorated.  He offered me a spot on their boat that left the next day, they realized that although they had steel walls staying on land wasn’t a good idea. So, I made the hard choice, and decided to join the Saviors on their journey to sea. I had lost my friends and family, it’s time for me to survive on my own.
We leave for sea, tomorrow morning. Once dawn broke the next morning, we made our way for the bay. All 113 of us loaded onto a cruise boat, we cleared the boat of any walkers and we parted for the coast.