Clear

Chapter 1

One year. One year and I had somehow managed to adopt a small partner-in-crime, a luxury RV, and enough food to last us at least another week.

One year and I was still wondering whether or not I would live to see the next day.

It was surreal when it all started. I first saw it on CNN, a highway in Los Angeles had been blocked off, a man who everyone thought was sick just kept coming back. He kept walking toward the officer, kept looking at him. Kept hissing at him, snarling. And then the officer shot him. A bullet right through the head. He finally fell to the floor, and then it started.

Whoever died somehow managed to come back. And pretty soon, there were more people dying and coming back than living and surviving.

It was simple, stay quiet and stay alert. Trust few, and if possible, no one at all. Keep moving.

"Are we almost there?" Mason chimed in, pulling me out of the whirlwind of tragedy.

"Almost," I responded, smiling as genuinely as I could manage.

I promised him a home, one that would keep us safe. Where I planned on finding that home, I had no idea. But I would find us a place. I just had to. We had to settle down. Being on the road 24/7 could not possibly be healthy for a twelve-year-old.

I had stumbled upon Mason and his family in June. Half a year and he was all that was left. Half a year and I cared for him more than I cared for myself.

It was important to survive. Vital. Necessary. But loving someone in the midst of such a horrific time, that was what helped us live. What gave us a reason to live. It was a luxury. Mason was my luxury.

"Do you think Noah made it to heaven okay?" His voice was soft, fragile. I wanted to cradle him, to tell him that everything and everyone was fine and would be fine.

"I think Noah made it to heaven just fine. Probably up there running around and being as wild as he was down here," I lied.

There was no heaven. There was no God. No prayer that could save us. No one to turn to. There was us, the dead, and the silence and evil that came along with this new world. Nothing else. There would never be anything else. We were all that was left. We were it.