Monday.  The worst day of the week.  I look at my alarm clock, it’s five o’clock.  I woke up an hour early than normal.  I get up to take a nice, long, hot, shower.  By the time I get out, it’s 5:45 and my parents are getting ready to leave for work. 
“Have a good day hun,” my mom kisses my forehead.
“I’ll try…” I mumble.
I hate school, and I hate most of the people in it too.  They all are either immature, or flat out stupid.  Now I know I’m not a genius, and I do have a sense of humor, but come on.  School is supposed to be a place of learning, not a playground.  I choose my friends wisely.  My friend Josh, he’s a savior.  He knows math better than I know the back of my hand.  Whenever I feel stuck on something, I can rely on him.  My other friend Kennedy, she’s the only reason I show up to school sometimes.  Oh boy, that girl fuels my flame; she is the prettiest girl I have ever laid my eyes on.  Her eyes, blue as the ocean.  Her voice as soft as a baby's blanket.  I have had the biggest crush on her ever since I met her.  I’m pretty sure she has no idea about my feelings toward her. 
I get prepped for school and by the time I’m ready I notice something on the news.
“Fifty-six people dead after attack at a train station.  A group of about ten to twelve people ‘foaming at the mouth’ described by a survivor of the attack, came out of the train and started killing everythi-”
It’s a bloodbath.  All I can make out is chunks off red flesh spread around the ground of the train station.  I turned it off before I got sick.  I got my bags, threw them in my truck, and took off for school.  I got there five minutes before the bell and made it to class with a solid minute to spare.  I sat down and noticed most of the class missing.
“Hey Matt,” said Kennedy.
“Ha-hey, what’s up? Where is everyone?” I stammered.
“Some flu or something is going around.  Josh is gone too,” she answered.
For better or for worse, our teacher was not in the classroom either.  I just listened to my music and did homework for my other classes.  By 4th period, I was a little freaked out about how many people were absent due to being sick.  I sure as heck didn’t want to catch this thing.  The intercom system came on before lunch, telling us we were getting out early, really early, like in ten minutes early.  I didn’t have a problem with this; Kennedy and I planned to hang out after school anyways.  So we had more time than what we had expected. 
“So we chilling at my place or yours?” I asked Kennedy.
“Actually, my parents got off work early and they want me home with them, sorry,” she told me.
“Oh, ok, tommorrow maybe then?” Please say yes, I thought.
“Um, I’ll have to ask my dad tonight,” she replied.
I left school and called Josh on my way home.  Voicemail.  I call again, and he picked up this time.
“Hey Matt, what’s happenin’?” he asks.
“Where were you today?”
“I didn’t feel well so I stayed home.”
We talk for a little bit longer and he had to hang up and pick up a call from his girlfriend Jessica.  I wished I had something like that.  Their relationship is so amazing, they are always so happy together, always laughing, always smiling, always loving.  One can only hope for happiness like that.  Anyway, I got home and cooked up some mac & cheese for my lunch.  I sit down at our table and mow down on my food; I finish and I lay on the couch.  I plug in my headphones and drift off to Identity Disorder by Of Mice & Men.
I hear a loud screech and a boom through my sleep that wakes me up.  I must have napped hard because it was dark outside.  I look at the clock and it reads 8:21. 
Geez, a seven hour nap.  That has to be a new personal record.
I hear screams outside, I peek out the blinds and see flames.  A car wreck is what it looks like.  I call for my parents, but then I realized that they haven’t even gotten home yet.
Odd, they are never out this late without calling me to check in.
  The screaming has deceased and I have no idea where it went.  I lock the front door and go out the back to see what happened at a safe distance.  I take out my phone and dial 911. 
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“There’s been an accident, a car wreck, outside my house,” I told her.
“OK, I’ll try to get someone out there right away.  Are you injured sir?”
“No ma’am, I’m fine.  I think I see someone in the road.  They’re not moving.”
“OK, stay where you are and don’t get too close.  A lot of calls have been made tonight about those lunatics on the news.”
“What lunatics?” I panicked.
I hear glass shatter in the streets, I hang up the phone and duck down.  I don’t see anything for a minute and almost decide to go back into the house.  But then I see a man come from behind the crashed car.  He’s walks toward the unconscious man on the road and circles it for a few moments.  He reached for something in his jacket and pulled out a freaking meat cleaver.  He started dismembering the corpse one limb at a time, I am horrified.  I turn to run back into the house, and in my haste I trip over myself and face plant into the dirt.  I land pretty successfully on a pile of rocks as well.  I get up as quickly as possible and run into the house.  I shut the back door and lock it.  I pull out my phone from my pocket to call my mom.
Great.  Just great…
My phone was destroyed.  The screen shattered and it wouldn’t even turn on.  I turn on the TV and check out the news. 
“For those just joining us, this is the end.  The speculations are true.  The world as we know it will be gone by the end of the week.”
Oh my gosh…
The news cut to a shot of downtown.  Death, it’s everywhere.  All I see is bodies.  On the streets, in the windows, everywhere.  Men, women, even children.
“Now this is very graphic people, raw footage of the killings downtown.  Police and military are advising everyone to stay inside, and lock their doors or any point of access.  They are sweeping the streets and are trying to clear out the infected.”
I heard a loud knock at the door.  I walk to the door and peek out the window to see who it is.  It’s Kennedy.  She knocks again.
“Matt please open the door!” There was much panic in her voice..
I open the door and let her in and  close it behind her once she’s in.  I turn around and she wraps me up in a hug, and begins to cry in my chest. 
“They’re dead Matt..” she tells me.
“Who’s dead?”
“My parents Matt.” She sobs, “My dad tried helping someone outside and they just... ran up on him.  They tore him apart, my mom was screaming… They came through the windows… I ran out of there before they were finished with my mom…”
My shirt is soaked by then.  I can’t imagine what it would have felt like to watch your parents get murdered in front of you.  I hold her tightly and tell her she’ll be safe here.  I tell her my parents haven’t gotten home yet. 
“Probably held up somewhere, waiting out the night,” she tells me.
“Yeah, probably,” I say.
I set up pillows and blankets on our couch and turn the news back on.  Basically, this is the end.  The world and its inhabitants are slowly dying.  This “infection” starts in the brain.  It drives you mad and you no longer have control of your own actions.  The news showed a mother killing her own children for christ's sake.  I take a lap around the house to make sure everything is locked up and there are no easy points of access. 
“Ok, I don’t think anyone is getting in this house tonight.” I didn’t sound as confident as I wanted to be.
“I don’t even know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight,” she said.
“Yeah me neither.  Well if you need anything I’ll be in my room,” I told her.
I turn to walk to my room but before I could make it halfway, Kennedy calls my name.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“I’m scared,” she tells me.
“I’m scared too.”
I turn back around and lay on the couch with her.  She wraps her arms around me and kisses me.  She lays her head down on my chest and shuts her eyes. 
I can’t believe it’s ending like this.  I don’t want it to end like this.
I fall asleep shortly after she does.
I wake up the next morning to Kennedy sitting up watching the news. 
“There’s a camp Matt,” she says.
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
She explains to me that there is an outpost not so far from here, providing safety and shelter.  She tells me we could go there and wait it out.  I suggest we stop at Josh's place on the way and take him with us.  We agree on the plan and  get ready to set out for this camp.  We leave my house around 11:30 am.  We get to Josh's house about ten minutes after we left.  There are a few abandoned cars but that’s all I’m able to see.  I parked outside and see that Jessica's car is here.  Something just doesn’t seem right. 
“The front door is busted down,” Kennedy points out.
“Do you think it’s safe to go inside?” I ask.
“We’d better check to see if Josh is ok,” she says.
“Ok, just stay behind me.”
I walk in through the front door and the first thing I see is blood, splattered on the floor and walls.  It reeks of death, and I can only hope that Josh is ok.  I turn the corner and walk quietly toward his room down the hall.  The smell gets worse as I get closer and closer to his room. 
Oh gosh.  He’s dead.
I wish I was right about him being dead, because what I saw in there was horrifying.  All I can make out was a leg, maybe an arm, but the rest was just bloody chunks of flesh scattered around the floor of the room.  And that’s when I see him, Josh.  I see him standing in the corner of the room staring into the wall.  The door creaks open and he spins around slowly. 
“Josh is that you? What happened?” I ask.
He looks at me like I’m speaking a foreign language.  The only response I get is a tilted head. 
“Josh where is Jessica?” Kennedy asks.
He smiles a wicked smile.  And then he points around the room.  I now know whose blood was covering floor and walls.  I now know who was scattered on the ground in his room.  The infection had gotten the best of my friend Josh.  Before I could get over that fact, Kennedy pulled me back from the door.  And I’m glad she did because a kitchen knife flew into the door where I was standing. 
“C’mon we have to get out of here!” She screamed.
She pulled me out of the hall and into the living room by the front door.  We were running pretty fast and before we could make it out the door, we slipped and fell in the pool of blood.  I hit my head pretty hard and my vision was blurred.  I tried getting up but just fell back down.  I could make out Josh coming through the hallway.  He started after Kennedy, who was still on the ground from the fall.  With all my strength I got up and charged at Josh.  I shoved him back and he flew into a corner of a wall.  I waited for him to get up but he never did.  I walked up to his body and took a look.  He must’ve gotten knocked out from the impact, because he made direct contact with the edge of the wall with his head. 
“Are you alright?” I asked Kennedy.
“I think so.  You saved me, Matt,” she tells me.
“I did what I had to do.”
“Let's get out of here.”
It took us another ten minutes before we got to the camp.  Unfortunately, infected had gotten there before we did.  The front gate was smashed in by a truck, the guard towers were burning to the ground, and the bodies, the bodies were everywhere.
“We’re too late Matt,” Kennedy told me. “We have to get back home.”
All this way, for nothing but death.
We get back to my house at sundown, and wait. I sit on the couch and bury my face in my hands. 
I can’t do this anymore.
“Matt, I have something to tell you.  I lo-” her sentence is cut off.  A body flies through one of the windows by the front door.  Another body comes through, and another.  They found us.  I grab Kennedy by her hand and we run into my parents room.  I shut the door and push my parent’s dresser in front of it.  I want to put as much space between them and us.  I flip over the mattress and put it against the dresser.  I look back at the bed frame and that’s when I see it, our way out.  Kennedy sees it too.
“Matt are you sure?” She asks.
“I don’t want to end up like them,” I tell her.
I grab the gun that was under the mattress.
“Are you ready?” I ask her.
She hugs me, and we kiss. 
“Matt.  I love you,” she begins to cry.
“I love you too,” I say.
I keep her in my arms for a minute and she tells me it’s time.  I take the gun to her head and kiss her.
I’m sorry.  I’ll see you soon.
I pull the trigger.  Her blood paints my face and I slowly lower her to the floor.  I can’t control my tears as they run down my face onto her lifeless body.
I love you.
The infected break through the door and plow over the debris.    I cry my last tear, and take my last breath.  I put the gun to my temple,
This is the end.