Left

    The wind blew hard. Dust stuck to every inch of me. Dry, rough, and in my lungs. Wheezing in and out, I rubbed my hand through my brittle brown waves. I hadn't even thought to wash it during the past few days. I was to busy preparing. And outer appearance isn't important.

There is no one here but me anyway. Other things are on my mind. Staying alive and surviving the epidemic called Code X. It was broadcasted on every channel. The horrific images sticking to my memory forever.

  I can't shake the the memory of how fast they, the infected, move. Jumping on everyone and everything in their path. Beating all those innocent faces and spreading the disease through one, single bite.

A bite that could end your world. Leaving you drifting between life and death. Imagining that feeling only brings tears to my eyes. How terrible would that be? I did not want to know.

    With a grunt, I finally pried open the door to Charley's Hardware. My last raid. I tossed the rusted shovel  to the ground and wiped my dirty hands on my jeans.

This was my last and final supply store. There is no more for me to raid. After I scavenge here, that's it. I'll be left to my own survival tactics which is few.

The windows would have been busted and I could've been in and out. But the shop belonged to an old friend and he had put his sweat into it. I don't know how I'd live with myself if I destroyed it.

I jump behind the counter and grab a handful of lighters. The Miller's lights won't be on for much longer. I moved my way to the freezers and slid the door open. I caught my breathe, a body, cold and frozen, tumbled out onto the floor.

The poor women must have been hiding from zombies and died trying to live. She had something clutched between her stiff fingers.

I moved her hands aside and ripped the gold thing from her. It was a locket. Complete with a gold chain. I held it up to the light.

I hadn't seen anything like it before. It was beautiful. Must have cost thousands. I held it up to my neck. Was this bad? Taking a dead woman's last possession.

No. It can't be. What can she do with it anyway? I hooked the chain around my neck, guilt biting at me. I opened the locket.

A picture of a pretty woman holding a little boy in her lap as the sun rose behind her high in the blue sky, lay inside.

It must be the frozen woman and her son. The words Nathan was written in bold above his head. She looked worry less. And he just looked plain happy.

Completely different than what she looked like now. Frozen and dead. On the other half of it was a key hole. How odd. I gazed down at the frost bitten body. "Rest in Peace." I snapped the locket closed and continued with my scavenging.

I needed to be done before the sun sets. Before the predators come looking for a meal. I snatched everything I could see and jammed it into my bag.

I do not want to have to come back out here again. Running back towards the Miller's house under a dimly lit sky polluted with dust clouds that blocked out almost all natural light and making the sky a mix of dark oranges and brownish-grays.

The air smelt of dust and ashes. Mostly due to the several houses of those supposedly infected being burned. Everything they owned, ever touched, was destroyed. They were left broke and crammed into a lab to be tested on.

     Luckily, the Miller's were a little bit more fortunate. They could afford monthly check ups so there was no way they could be sick with anything. Meaning none of them were marked as potentially infected. So while they got to live in government experimental facilities, I was left their home.