(Unedited) Stage One: Hope in Darkness

Curses (Lara)

"Lara! Get up!" I heard my friend yell at me from the living room. I didn't know what time it was but I knew it was far from my normal time I would wake up "get up!" She snapped now inside my room and I forced my eyes open to look at her hearing she was out of breath and panicked. I frowned looking around my old room and saw my best friend Annabelle. My dresser and packing my things.

"What's going on?" I muttered to myself as I stood up and tried to look out the window

"No there's no time we have to leave" she told me as she dragged me away. I could still feel her fingers digging into my arm and dragging me with her. I got into her car not having control over myself. She got in and pulled out and got onto the road. I looked around to see the whole neighborhood in total chaos.

Families packing and loading they're cars with goods and even some screams could be heard in the distance. You couldn't see anything past the headlights other than some orange light in the distance hinting at fires that had started all across the city.

"Where are we going?" I asked, turning to see her just staring out the windshield and gripping the steering wheel. Her knuckles turned white from how tight she was holding it. I felt a sudden anxiety flow over me as we stopped in the middle of the road seeing miles and miles of blocked up cars. Then we heard screaming and she got out of the car. "No dont!" I yelled as a mob of people started rushing past her and she was carried away by the sea of people. I turned to my side but couldn't open the door.

I rolled down the window and moved to climb out when I was grabbed and hit the ground. I tried to get up as I felt hands grabbing me and then turned me around only to face my best friend. Only she wasn't my friend anymore. She wasn't even alive. Eyes foggy and skin pail with veins hashing through and blood all over her face and clothes. I fought and shoved her away to get away but nothing seemed to work as she got closer and closer, her teeth snapping at me until they were right above my skin

I jumped awake finding myself back in my bed. My room. Safe. My breathing was off the charts and my heart was thumping hard to get out of my ribcage. My hair was sticking to my sweaty skin and with shaky hands I pulled my hair up and tied it back up. I looked around to see the sleeping area of my little camp filled with people who were sleeping. Some turning over to the other side and others snoring in the distance. Our beds lined the hallway of this school building on the upper floors.

There were windows over our heads and I moved to stand and looked outside. It was still dark but I could see the sky lighter on the horizon signaling the sun was soon to be up. I could see the courtyard from here and nature had mostly taken control of its land again and a couple miles out you could make out the makeshift fence. It was silent out here and the only thing there was some patrol guards with some lights and all you could hear was the birds chirping.

I moved and sat down back in bed and relaxed on my small patch of space that was mine and mine alone. I let the dream replay inside my head. My best friend. There one second then in an instant she was gone. After we were separated I was hoped by a group of survivors after about a week. I holed up inside an old basement and waited. But it got to a point that I was so starving I needed to risk going outside and finding something.

I nearly got killed in the process because the zombie snuck up on me. I came back to my old place after a couple more weeks and looked for any sign that she was there but there was nothing. The house had also been stripped of anything useful and trashed. After a while even I had to deal with the loss by just simply believing she was gone. Hopefully not a walker but dead dead.

"Hey you're up early" a voice whispered and I looked up to see Rose who had her own bunk next to mine. Her pixi cut black hair was spiked and crazy looking but practical and eyes to match. She volunteered to take a night shift for someone and she must have been coming in to get rested herself since I didn't see her backpack with her. She sat down and closed her eyes feeling relief to be off her feet.

"Nightmares again" I mumbled to her as a explanation and watched as she took her shoes off

"I'm sorry. I don't think I would have gone so far if I had those" she said, showing sympathy for my curse as I called it. I nodded as my thanks and laid back again to just relax and she did the same

"Well hey it's a new day. New days bring new things" I replied.

"Yeah. Hey since you're awake I'll tell you now" Rose began and turned on her side to face me. "On my patrol I heard a boom in town" she said and I turned to her confused. We lived on the outskirts of the town so we were kind of okay.

"What do you mean a boom?" I asked confused and she shrugged

"I don't know, just a boom?... point being where there's noise there's people. I told the chef already so if he calls for you to be a scout don't be surprised" she said yawning. I nodded

"Thanks for the heads up-"

"Oh but don't go telling everyone I'm sure it's nothing" she said before turning around to get some sleep

"You really think I would cause full blown panic?" I asked her and she shrugged

"Tell that to Ryan and his now ex- girlfriend " she teased. Ryan was with his girlfriend and because he normally slacks off and disappears from his job so I decided to yell that we had a code red which was that we had an outbreak and they came out half dressed and scared. I got a good laugh at that for like a week. I smiled at the memory

"They needed a wake up call. I was helping them" I shrugged. Rose giggled to herself before we both fell silent and then I heard her snoring. She worked harder than anyone else in this camp I think. I helped a lot in town but I was actually great for scouting. I normally was sent out every other day to check the town for any infection or if it called for it we would leave to check any disturbances. And that so-called 'boom ' definitely sounded like something I was going to have to be ready for.