My side ached from running and dizziness clouded my brain. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. The gravel was hard and unforgiving beneath my pounding feet- the sun was merciless and beat down on my tired body. And the now familiar smell of death penetrated my senses. I could hear the labored breathing of my partner, Alekk, beside me. There was no reason to speak-it wasted too much energy. Energy was what we had. Time was what we needed.
I suppose it was mere luck for me to have worn my tennis shoes instead of my usual sandals or wedges that fateful day before. The only good thing heels might have accomplished was aiding me in bashing in the head of our enemy. Other than that it would have been raw, bloody feet. I wouldn’t have made it as far as I had. If Alekk hadn’t shown up, I wouldn’t have made it at all. When I rushed out of my house with only a flimsy kitchen knife in hand and saw the gore and bodies strewn in the street, I almost fainted. Like a thunderclap, he came out of nowhere, yelling and waving his arms at me. “C’mon! Let’s go!”
Stunned, I obeyed, and bolted after him towards a side road. We ran for what seemed like hours, weaving in and out of houses and through neighborhoods. I almost threw up when as I passed dead bodies and people’s innards scattered in the streets. Gasps of horror escaped me as I passed dead children, still clinging to their parents. Pools of blood collected in the streets and splashed onto my ankles as I ran through them. Bile burned in my throat, and I fought to keep it down.
Finally, I couldn’t go on any longer and pleaded to stop. He slowed down and turned into a small park, where we hid in the playground behind a climbing wall. Tears filled my eyes and I gripped my side where it ached. He kept a look out, his own chest heaving with exhaustion.
“Who are you?” I whispered, when the strength to talk finally arrived.
“I’m Alekk. A-l-e-k-k.” he replied, running his fingers through his reddish brown hair. It had dirt and tiny debris in it, and I could only imagine how bad mine looked, all thrown up in a messy ponytail. At least the dirt would blend in with my brown hair.
“I’m Kagan. K-a-g-a-n.” I spelled mine out like he had, thinking it was dumb because why would we ever need to know how to spell each other’s names?
He didn’t say anything, but merely nodded and turned back to scope out the surrounding area. At least, that’s what I assumed he was doing. “Do you know what’s going—“ his sweaty hand clamped over my mouth before I could finish speaking and he put a finger to his lips. I shoved his hand away, but followed the instructions. He pointed to the trees nearby, and I slowly peeked around the plastic wall. Something was slowly walking among them, lurching and teetering as it went. The beat of my heart pounded in my ears, and for the first time I noticed the birds were completely silent. There was no sound except for the rustling of the trees. Alekk tapped me on the shoulder . We need to go, he mouthed.
As we bolted for the open road, I heard moaning and growling in the trees behind us, but I was too terrified to look back. Alekk led the way; I had no sense of direction. Thousands of questions ran through my head as we ran along the road. Where are we going? Who is this guy? I hope my parents are okay. Phone lines were down, cars were turned over in ditches, and bloody corpses were strewn everywhere, rotting the torturous Texas heat. It seemed as if the Alekk kid and I were the only people alive in the world. But Dallas was such a huge city, it couldn’t be possible. The sun was setting, and my legs were buckling underneath me. We finally found shelter in an abandoned storage unit facility. There was nothing but a few old chairs with sheets thrown over them. I huddled in a corner and tried my best not to sob hysterically. Alekk was in the opposite corner digging thru his back pack. He pulled a granola bar out and slid it across the cold concrete floor. Ravenous, I practically swallowed it whole. “Thanks.” I whispered, but I didn’t make eye contact. He merely nodded in reply. Not
The eerie silence was deafening, so I ventured to ask Alekk about himself. He told me that video games had prepared him for this situation. The sound of his voice floated to my ears and was surprisingly laid-back and smooth. I was only used to hearing him whisper. “I, uh, play a lot of Xbox-Call of Duty and Mass Effect.” he confessed.
Inwardly, I scoffed, but noted the fact that he had brought supplies, and I hadn’t even thought to bring an extra shirt. Alekk also told me that he lived a few houses down from mine. When he heard the screams and commotion, he looked out the window and saw what was taking place. He ran to his room and stuffed some supplies into his old backpack and ran out of there when they started clawing through the windows. And that was when he saw me.
While I grimly peeled off my bloodstained socks and shoes, I told him how my parents were on vacation overseas. How I had been watching TV when I heard all the stuff outside. They started banging on my back door, and so I grabbed my knife just in case and ran outside. I didn’t play video games. So I wasn’t prepared. I just read books and worked on music.
Sighing deeply, a tear escaped my eye. Alekk sat back and moaned. “Please don’t cry. Because then I’ll feel like I have to hold you or something, and I don’t even know you.”
I felt slightly insulted. “I don’t need your comfort. I’m fine.”

Alekk just nodded, as he always did.


The next day was a Sunday. Usually, I would have been up at the church all day doing churchy things. But this Sunday, Alekk decided we were going to break into a gun store. I had never stolen anything in my life. With about as much stealth as a herd of wildebeast, we crept up to the entrance and peeked inside. It was abandoned. I grabbed Alekk’s lean arm with my small hands. “But it’s stealing!!” I squealed.

He rolled his eyes and I caught a glimpse of the gold flecks in sea of green. “Just think of it as borrowing for an extended period of time.”
Using a rock he bashed open the window and we crawled inside. I cut my legs and hands on the glass, but I wasn’t going to be a wimp about it. Alekk broke the cases, grabbing guns and ammunition. I stuffed ammo into the backpack he had brought and he carried the guns out. The alarms started ringing, and I could hear them far off, answering the call. I urged Alekk to hurry; he was already loading what looked like an AK-47. But I don’t know anything about guns so it was purely speculation. He blasted open the back door and we escaped. Four steps away and I could hear them already in the store, knocking things over and searching for us. Bloodthirsty. They were bloodthirsty.

Back at the storage unit, which was kind of our hideout now, Alekk taught me how to use a gun. With shaking hands I took it. My mother would die if she saw me with this. If she isn’t already dead…. I pushed the thought away and tried to convince Alekk to give me another granola bar.

“I’ve rationed them. No. You’ve already had two today, Kagan.” He batted my hand away from the back pack. “We need to go, anyways. They will find us soon. We gotta make it to the next city, we gotta find someone.”

“Not yet. Let’s just rest a bit.” I persuaded him. My rummaging in the storage unit had produced a small radio, and I grabbed from underneath the chair and shoved it at him. “See if you can make it work!”

Alekk snatched it away and began fiddling with the controls. Meanwhile, I quietly grabbed another granola bar and quietly shoved it my mouth. Alekk turned around just as I began to swallow and I almost choked. He waved a hand at me to be quiet, and we heard garbled words amidst the static. “Dallas….(static)unexplainable phenomenon….closed off…..quarantined….no survivors..”

I began to panic. “What does closed off mean? Alekk what if we can’t get out!?”


He threw his gun over his back and tossed mine to me. “Get up. We need to go. Now.”

This is why we were running. And we ran as fast as we could to the very edge of the city. I could see the fire trucks, and people milling about. Oh thank God! For the first time in 24 hours, I could feel a drop of relief. The hope gave me a rush of adrenaline and I ran with renewed energy-arms and legs pumping like a sprinter. I tried calling out, but it was like they couldn’t hear me. Alekk ran ahead of me, toward the nearest fire truck. But halfway there he ran into something and stumbled back. He pounded his fist, but he couldn’t get past the thin air.

“What are you doing!?” I yelled, “You think this is a game?!”
He turned around, and the terror in his eyes told me he wasn’t playing around. “I can’t get through!”

I finally caught up to him, but my stomach was in knots. Tentatively, I touched the air he was pounding against. I felt a wall-an electricity surging through it. But the police are right there! An officer noticed us and came over, holding up a sign. My heart dropped as I read the words….
WE CANNOT LET YOU OUT. THE INFECTION CANNOT SPREAD. WE CANNOT LET YOU OUT.

I screamed and pounded the invisible wall with all my might, and Alekk just stood there-stunned. I could hear them behind us-the smell of death filled my senses. The officer shook his head and turned away. Alekk touched my shoulder, and I turned around. I would at least greet death with a fight. They staggered toward us, arms outstretched for the hug of death. They were rotting corpses with fangs bared and dead staring eyes, ready to devour us-the only humans left alive. There were hundreds of them. Two deep breaths- and we ran to meet them head on.