The Last of Us

Chapter 3: Outbreak

Low voices around me began to raise and I groaned as I woke myself up. I was relieved that the nightmares ended, but I didnt expect what was coming next. I lifted my head from the pillow and noticed that my head wasnt on a pillow, but was on Linda's lap.

She was wearing pink shorts and the soft skin of her thighs comforted me. I found myself laying back on her lap when I heard her sob and sniffle. I looked up at her and she covered her mouth and nose with a tissue. I sat up to find her mother sitting in the chair across from us with a tissue as well, wiping her tears and her father sat with her, holding a shotgun. I was startled and sat up quickly to find that they were all watching the television intently.

None of them seemed to notice me getting up, and I looked at the news show they had on, to see what had their attention so fully. I was horrified when I saw the news. The reporter was running and screaming into the camera for everyone to stay indoors and to wait for police or the coast guard. She said that Colorado was being quarantined off from the rest of the United States. Nobody was getting in, and nobody was getting out. But even worse than all of that, people were being shot dead right in front of the news camera. People were eating each other alive so gruesomely that my stomach turned uncontrollably. The screams of these people pierced our ears and we all winced as some of them begged into the camera for saving.

"wh... what the fuck is happening?" Linda's father said, as he brushed back what was left of his hair on the top of his head. "I need to get home, my dad is there by himself." I said as I rose up from the couch, and put my boots on quickly. "Bobby, you cant go out there. Look at whats happening. You need to wait until the coast guard or the army or somebody comes to help." Linda pleaded, but I was too stubborn to listen to her.

"don't worry, I'll be fine. It seems pretty quiet out here. Maybe they are holding it off in the city. I can take the side streets and i'll get there in 5 minutes. i'll call you as soon as I get there." I told her as reassuringly as I could. Though I didn't believe all of it myself.

She nodded and hugged me tightly. Her dad opened the door for me and then shut it quickly behind me. I looked around me, the sun was up and the sidewalks were shoveled which made for easy walking. I noticed many people shutting their blinds and boarding up their windows. Other people packed their cars, I assumed they were going to try and get out of Colorado, which didn't make much sense since the army was closing off the borders.

I began to jog as I got closer to my house. My house was just outside of town, about a quarter mile into the woods, which wasn't far at all but given these circumstances it seemed a lifetime away. Surprisingly though, I made my way through the thick snow in the forest rather quickly.

I reached my house and saw that the front door was slightly opened. I was worried that one of those things we saw on the news had come inside, so I picked up the most formidable looking branch I could find and I pushed the front door open and walked in.

Blood streaked across the walls and floors. It dragged from the kitchen, straight out the front door and nowhere else. Blood stained hand prints littered the counter and refrigerator door. But there was no sign of life anywhere. I closed the front door and locked it. I then used one of the chairs from the kitchen table and wedged it under the door knob for good measure.

"Dad?" I called over and over, but no answer. I slowly tip-toed my way up the stairs towards my bedroom. An empty bottle of whiskey laid at the foot of my door, seemingly where my dad would have left it last night. I continued my search through the house, but still found nobody. I double checked in every corner of the house just to be sure. I called my dad over and over but there was no answer.

The news emphasized staying indoors and waiting this out, so I decided to start boarding up the windows on the first floor. It was pretty easy because we had all the supplies for this down stairs already, since we were going to board them up anyway for the storm. Once I finished doing that, I began to unload everything from the refrigerator downstairs, and stock everything in my smaller refrigerator in my room. I had gotten it as a present from my aunt a few weeks ago, for college next fall but I decided this was a useful situation for it.