I woke to the sound of water dripping from the pipes above my head. Feeling the cold liquid plop onto my face and run down my cheek was nothing out of the normal. It was kind of my alarm to wake up. So I just never got around to fixing it nor did I have the money to. I rolled out of my small creaky twin bed I had slept in since I was six. I pulled open one of the only drawers in my dresser that was still intact and grabbed a change of clothes. I went into the bathroom which only had a toilet and a surprisingly clean shower. We ran the hose from our neighbors house to our shower so we didn’t have to pay a lot for our shower bill. I jumped into the shower and I flinched as soon as the cold water hit my back. Sadly when you live where i’m from you don’t get the luxury of hot water. I finished up after a few minutes and got into my change of clothes after I dried off.

Heading back into my room I popped open my floor board grabbing a small piece of cloth that wrapped around a present for my brother. I put the floorboard back in place as I stood up. I headed into our living room if you wanna call it that. I saw my brother sitting on the floor playing on our cloth chess board we made together. He didn’t look up; he was too focused on his game. I chuckled to myself as I headed to the fridge to see what I could make my brother for his birthday breakfast. I sighed as I saw an empty fridge with a few empty mashed potato containers. 

“Hey Kai, I have to head out to grab food, do you want to come?” I said as I closed the door to the fridge. 

I heard a faint “No.” as I looked over to see him still focusing on his game.

I walked over to him and crouched down so I could see the board better. I studied it for a second before moving one of the rooks to capture his rook. He looked up to me with a fake mad face as I smirked pulling him into a hug. I messed up his nicely brushed hair as we both fell to the floor giggling together. 

“Oh I almost forgot, I got you something.”

I grabbed the beige cloth covered object out of my pocket and handed it to him.

“Happy Birthday little bro.”

I saw him smile as soon as he unwrapped the gift. It was a small wooden box with a bracelet inside.

“I know it’s not exactly what you wanted bu-”

“I love it. Thank you.” He said as I got tackled into a hug.

I smiled and nodded as he opened the box to reveal the bracelet he’s always wanted. He slipped it onto his wrist tying the two sides together. The bracelet was made with different strands of white and black string which were his favorite colors. He sat there playing with the strings and admiring it. My family never had the money to buy nice things for us, so when my parents died I made it my goal to make sure Kai would be raised better than I was.

“Hey buddy I have to go grab some things from the store so i’ll be back in a bit ok?”

“Ok. Love you”

“Love you too buddy see you in a minute.”

I grabbed my backpack and tossed it over my shoulder. I stepped out of the front door into the cool morning breeze. I made sure to keep my Knife in my right pocket just in case. I started my way down the road towards the center of town. I didn’t pay any mind to the people around me. I normally tend to mind my own business when I’m out. Once I had gotten to the center of town I headed straight to the grocery store we had. It was small but it did the job. I stepped into the store and went straight to the food isles. I grabbed a few things we might need for the next few weeks because I knew that we may not be able to go outside soon.

When I finished getting everything I stepped outside looking up to the sky and saw the force field flicker. It worried me that the thing that kept us safe all these years may be gone in a few days. That force field protected us from the one thing that all of mankind feared the most, Zombies. It was horrible. A few years ago scientists were experimenting and they came across a new kind of disease so they decided to test it on rats. Let’s just say it didn’t go well and it turned into a worldwide outbreak. They killed my parents. After that, most places got it under control and set up small towns surrounded by force fields where the zombies couldn’t get to us. But now after all these years things are failing and the zombies are getting stronger.

I shook my thoughts away and started to head home. As I was on my way home I heard whispers of my neighbors making up stories about what’s going to happen after the force field goes down. I had no idea what was going to happen but the one thing I did know is that I had to keep Kai safe. I stepped into my house and dropped the bags on the counter. I started unloading the groceries into the fridge and pantry. I decided to start making us lunch so I grabbed some of the fried rice I could heat up in the microwave. After that was done I called Kai for lunch

“Hey Kai, lunch is ready.”

No response.

“Hello?”

Still no response.

I started searching around the house because there wasn’t much to do. I couldn’t find him. I got worried and looked around a few more times. I tried to think of where he could have gone but there weren’t any places he would go without telling me. I froze hearing screaming. I bolted outside. I stood there frozen. My house was surrounded by zombies. One of them now being my brother. I ran back inside quickly locking the door. I stood there thinking about what just happened. My eyes started welling up with tears as the image of my brother went through my head over and over. I started blaming myself. I heard banging on my door which snapped me out of my thoughts. I scrambled thinking of what I was going to do. Then I remember the escape tunnel I built in case of an emergency. I packed all the essentials and was about to run out of the house when something caught my eye. It was the bracelet I had given to Kai. Why did he take it off? That question ran through my head. I quickly grabbed it, running to the backyard and crawling under our back porch. I dropped into the dark hole climbing through it.

I crawled through the small tunnel wishing this was all a dream and I would wake up any minute. I knew in my mind it was real but my heart was wanting me to wake up.  It was dark but in my bag I packed a headlamp. I grabbed it out of my bag and pulled it over my head turning it on. I was so thankful the batteries still worked. I continued crawling through the tunnel checking behind me every few minutes making sure I wasn’t being followed. 

After what felt like hours I got to the exit. Well kind of, The tunnel had been built into a cave where we stocked supplies and things we would need in case of an emergency like this. As soon as I crawled into the bigger area I felt something drip on my head. I reached up and whipped the liquid off of my head. I looked down at my finger. Blood. It was blood. I slowly looked up not wanting to see what was there. Then darkness filled my mind, body and all my surroundings. Darkness was dripping down and absorbing me.