After The End Of The World

Chapter 1. Moving Forward

If I were to tell you three years ago that the world was going to be overrun by the undead you would've called me crazy and threw some change at me like I was some homeless meth head trying to bum a dollar, and honestly... I would've done the same. People thought this little 'virus' that came into the states was just going to blow over in no time... How naïve we all were in those early months of the pandemic.

It started off in big cities; New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, the list goes on. Then, it made its way down to smaller cities. My city, Wrightwood, was the last city in California to know that they were evacuating people out. It didn't take long before the biters swarmed our entire city. Now, it's about five months into this pandemic... There are more biters in the world than there are people at this point, there is barely any food or water left in the city, and the biters are making their way closer and closer to my house every day. It's time for me to leave, but I don't know how I can do it on my own. My name is DeMarcus Johnson, and my life was pretty normal until the end of the world hit.

The sound of distant screams woke me up again. "Another couple of poor souls got caught trying to make it out I guess. Should've known better than to risk their lives outside. "I said, sitting up in bed and making my way downstairs. I went towards the window and looked through the crack between the boards to see if any more biters were sitting on my door step. Luckily, the only biters in my neighborhood were walking down the street and the occasional straggler would walk into the abandoned houses and just stand around, waiting for some poor victim to go searching in the house. For a bunch of undead freaks, they're pretty smart when it comes to getting food. "I guess I can try to see if anyone is on the radio today. "I walked towards the couch and pulled up the coffee table and started fiddling with my old CB radio that I found a couple weeks back while scavenging this abandoned semi that was right outside my neighborhood. "Hello, to anyone out there within a twenty-mile radius that is a good person please listen. My name is DeMarcus Johnson. I live in Wrightwood, California, I'm by myself and I'm getting low on food supplies. If anyone is out there and is willing to meet up with me somewhere and take me in please advise." I sat there for what felt like hours waiting for someone to respond back to me. When I came to the realization that no one was going to respond back to me I shut off the radio and went to the kitchen to see what supplies I had left.

I opened the pantry door to see a mouse chewing into a package of crackers that I had stored in there. I scared the mouse off and grabbed the package to see what was still salvageable to eat. Turns out that mouse hadn't just started doing this and had been eating at these crackers for days now; none of the crackers there were safe enough to eat without getting a salmonella infection. I threw the crackers away and went back to the pantry to see if I had anything left to eat since I had not eaten since what I believe was last Thursday. I opened the pantry again and rummaged through the almost empty shelves to see if I could eat something. The only things left inside the pantry was expired bread and a couple cans of peas and corn left. "I'm so sick and tired of corn and peas. I would rather eat that mouse than another can of corn, but I'm low on options." I grabbed a can of corn and a can opener. I sat down at my kitchen table and ate my corn. The second worst part about being alone in an apocalypse is probably the silence. Knowing that everyone you cared for is either dead or walking around as an undead monster eating other people is the worst for me honestly, but the silence is for sure one thing I wish could just cease. At this point I'll take the sound of a herd of those monsters walking through the street than sitting in this silence any longer.

I guess my wish was granted. A banging was coming from my front door. I didn't move at first. A thousand thoughts were racing through my mind all at once. I thought it was a roamer at first that for whatever reason wanted to get into my house. It wasn't until I heard a voice from outside that I realized it was another person. "Hello?! Is anyone in there? Please help me! I have a family out here and we need a place to stay!" The voice outside was a female and from what I heard she had a family out there. I was hesitant on letting them in; what if they were infected? What if they had roamers trailing them and they're leading a herd of them right towards my house. "Please?!? We have a baby out here and we don't want her to spend another night out in the cold. I'm begging you if there is someone in there have a heart and let us in." When I heard that they had a baby something inside of me tore. Regardless of what was going to happen I couldn't live with myself knowing that I had the chance to save a baby and didn't because I was too self-centered to let them in.