The art of survival (Maya Hart/joshaya)

Chapter 2

My breathing had gotten heavy the last couple of hours. I had run a long time to get as far away from that community. At first it had looked peaceful and I thought that I wouldn't have any problems trading with them. I was in need of some ammunition. I should have known better than to try and talk to them. I should have left as soon as I saw that it was only men there. No women at least not that was walking around. When I tried to trade they wanted favors that I wasn't going to give them no matter how much they paid me. I am not a prostitute. Of course they got mad. They always do. When I tried to leave they blocked the way out. I sneaked out when the sun had started to rise and they probably found out that I had left two hours later if you think about how fast one of the men found me. I didn't have any choice but to kill him. I can't leave any trails. It's too dangerous.

It has started to get dark again. I haven't seen that many walkers yet which is good since I think about finding a place to sleep. I usually would find a house or a cabin somewhere that I could lock but I am currently in the middle of the woods. The nearest town is at least thirteen kilometers away. I was a good fighter but I hadn't had a good sleep in at least thirty hours and it is probably more walkers near the town. I didn't have any choice but to choose a tall and secure tree instead. To my luck I found a big old oak on top of a hill. That would give me a good look over my surroundings and the branches would easily hold up my light body through the night. I immediately climbed up and tied me to the branches with the help of a rope that I had in my backpack. Even though the chance that I would fall down without the rope was minimal I still didn't want to take any chances. I have seen too many people end up as growler food and it looks horrifying. I am not going to end up like that.

It had gotten colder outside, winter is coming. The apocalypse started when I was sixteen. It has been two winters since that. I am probably eighteen now. It's been a year since I last saw any of my family. I don't think they have survived. In the beginning we were all together, me, my mom, Shawn, Cory, Topanga, Auggie, Riley and Josh. Lucas and Farkle went with us too. Their parents died of the virus like my grandmother. The plan was to go to Philly. We had heard about a military base there. When we got there we were able to live there for a couple of months. It had started to feel like a home. Then it got shattered by a bunch of growlers like every other single thing in the world. We had been going from town to town for a couple of months. Then we lost Auggie. I couldn't fight the tears that were building up in my eyes.

Flashback

"Come on Maya, we have to go now!" Shawn screamed at me. I looked behind my back. A heard of at least eighty growlers were headed straight towards us. I had grabbed the last of our ammo and had made a run for it to the car. I was a fast sprinter and didn't have any problems to catch up to my family. No one had noticed the smaller herd of growlers that had blocked the road in front of us. All of their focus was on me. Auggie was the one to stand closest to the slowly approaching growlers. I screamed for them to help him when I saw what was about to happen but I was too late. A growler sank his teeth into the eight year olds neck. I screamed and fell to the ground. Everyone was paralyzed, unable to move. Everyone except for Josh, he took a step and blew the growlers head of. Auggie was already dead. Josh cried, everything was chaotic and Josh cried. He put a bullet in Auggie's brain to stop him from turning into one of them.

Nothing was the same after that. We got into the cars and drove away, leaving his body behind. Topanga didn't speak or eat for days. Riley was completely blank. Cory tried to stay strong for the remaining pieces of his family even though I could see that it was killing him but the person that took Auggies death worst was still Joshua Matthews. He got crazy, he killed every growler in sight. He was angry at everyone. He had lost hope about everything.

End of flashback

I cried myself to sleep that night. I miss my family but I have lost all hope to find them. Hope is for suckers, especially in a world like this.