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IN MY EARLY ELEMENTARY YEARS, I was taught that around 300 million years ago, humanity simply did not exist. Just as the Carboniferous period began, vascular land plants began to sprout with the large releases of limitless carbon. A dense mass of plants, and more plants overtook the earth, stretching for miles.
It was beautiful, without humanity.
Though, the plants, they weren't the only thing inhabiting the planet. If it wasn't humanity, it was always something else, right? Just like it is, now. In the years that the streets of Atlanta had seen nothing but sunlight and clean air, it flourished. The city had taken on small colonies of moss, and overgrown ivy which traveled up the sides of buildings, bursting into a sprouted bloom in areas of direct sunlight.
In a sense, it was beautiful, but a frightening kind of beautiful.
Although the time of early life sounded peaceful and serene, it contained some of the largest insects ever existing, consisting of scorpions ten times the size of their current shape, and enlarged beetles. All this time later, we still were posed with a threat. Not insects, but in this stage, a virus. A walking virus we had to outrun, everyday. The same virus I ran from at the current moment, the corroded dead behind an injured boy and I.
I turned for a short moment, pointing the barrel of my pistol to the group of walkers behind us. My finger naturally slid into the curves of the trigger, pulling back, nothing but a click coming from the weapon.
"Shit, I'm out." I told Noah, pushing the useless object into my back pocket.
He tried his best to keep my pace, scrunching his face through the pain with short, deep breaths.
"You have a knife? Anything else?"
I grabbed his arm, helping him along before his legs collapsed on him.
