After Act III

Chapter 1 - Waking Up

Waking up 

I remember the moments leading up to everything going dark. I still had to go to school; Mom made me. I somehow knew it was going to be the last day. I refused to watch the news, but I overheard it from the living room whenever my mom watched it. As a high school girl, I had a crush, on a boy. Since it was probably my last day on earth, I walked up to him and kissed him, he was repulsed, naturally and everyone laughed at me, but I take comfort in knowing they're all probably dead now. Was that mobid? Probably, but I've always been like that. I remember walking home and staring at the trees. I stared at the gas station that I always got ICEE's at with my friends. At the McDonalds that we all ran through the drive through at  2am. All the memories played in my head of my life. Granted I wasn't cheer captain, but I had friends. I went to school dances and stayed out late. I remember cooking dinner for myself because mom was at a friends house and pulling Netflix up on my TV and playing on my laptop. I stayed up late because I knew I wouldn't be going to school the next day. We got the emergency warning on our TV and the city blared for us to brace ourselves.

 I remember wishing I wasn't alone. My dad left when I was ten and my mom was a good mom, she just spent her afternoons at her friends house. Which I wasn't complaining. I enjoy being alone, but in my last hours. I wished they were with me. 

There were planes over head and the ground shook with impacts. There was a brilliant light outside my window when I remembered we had a basements entrance in our coat closet by our door. I dug out the shoes trying to get in. I ignored the spiders as I stepped in and my roof collapsed. 

I don't know how much later I awoke, but I'm still surprised I did. I pushed up on the trap door into rubble. I gathered supplies in a duffle; food and clothes and set out. The gas station was gone, but so was the road. I picked through crushed trees and buildings and cars. Trees that once blocked my view of the horizon now laid beneath my feet. I tried to keep my ear out for any survivors as I made my way towards my mom's friend's house. I ate a protein bar as I walked. Were I lived everyone owned a four wheeler, I was hoping to find one. I couldn't be the only one still alive. 

Turns out I was right. That was two months ago. Since then I've met a few other people. They picked me up outside of a crushed Elementary School a week after Act III (As I call it). I was looking through the First Aid kits they had in all the class rooms when I heard a bang echo through the halls. I had grabbed some sharp knives from a Target so I pulled one out. 

"Hello?" I call out walking through the hall. I heard whispering from around the corner, I call out again, "Hello."

Suddenly, there's a knife at my throat and someone much bigger wraps their arms around me. I struggle but don't lash out with my knife. I scream and kick as four more people come into view. A tall, beautiful woman with long red hair, a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, a handsome boy about my age, and a middle aged woman with cat earrings. They glared at me and interrogated me and almost killed me, but they didn't.

After that we became a family. The woman with cat earrings, her name's Dalia. The lovely redhead's name is Jo, the man that put the knife to my throat, his name is Knox, the handsome boy's name was Charles, and Odin is his little sister.

We live together in a camp down south. Everyone thinks Knox is in charge cause he's tall, muscled and mean looking but Dalia is who everyone listens to.

If anyone gets so much as a sideways glance from her they were worried. She wears sweaters and leggings and cat earrings. She has big fluffy hair and a slight accent. She had three cats before the world went to down the drain apparently. She's furious at the Government, she's ready to fight them if they're alive; she tells me. She cooks every night for us. The rest of us have an unspoken rule that we'd do anything to protect her, she's the best of us. Her and Odin