September 27, 2013
4:48 AM
Collingswood, New Jersey
It was pitch black when I opened my eyes and felt my bed shaking. When some kind of bright light flew past my windows, I had to roll over to block my eyes from it, groaning from the flash of pain I briefly got.
The low rumble of a plane was gone as fast as it came when I sat up in bed looking around to check the time. Where my clock was supposed to be displaying the time was empty and black.
My whole room was dark, darker than usual. Pushing myself up to my elbows, I glanced in the direction of where my door was. The lamp that we usually kept on in the hallway was off. The lamp was so old that it would always produce just enough light for us to not run into any walls while walking to the bathroom at light while also not blinding us or pulling anymore sleep away.
Did the bulb finally blow? Nah, maybe the power was out. The low glow of red from my clock wasn't there.
"Mom?" I called out as I pulled up my legs to sit crisscross on my blankets, reaching over to my night table for my phone. "Ma? Did the power go out?"
Mom had to be awake. She was the lightest sleeper I've ever met. The slightest change of light or quietest creak of the floorboard woke her up.
Hand fumbling on the surface for my phone, I eventually found the small, curved rectangle and pressed the button in the middle to wake the screen. My eyes squinting when the display lit up with the screensaver.
The time displayed in the corner of the screen above the keypad read a little past quarter to five, but what really grabbed my attention was the missing bars up at the top where the words 'No Service' was written instead.
That's weird. The last time we lost service was during Hurricane Sandy that was almost a year ago. And it was only gone for a few hours due to the rains and wind.
It was silent outside. More silent than usual actually. It was a bit creepy. The only sound being my own breathing and the hum inside my ears.
Sticking my phone in my pants pocket, I crawled to the end of my bed to peek through the curtains. There were no headlights going by or any streetlights on. It looked like the whole street was out of power.
The rumbling of the plane returned as the bright lights came back, resulting in me flinching away from my window with my hands over my ears, practically yelling out in pain from the sounds of the engines being above my head. It felt like an earthquake was happening with the plane's presence shaking the whole foundation.
Why are they flying so low? Newark was nowhere close. It was on the complete opposite side of the state. And we've been out of Philly's flight pattern for about a year now. What is going on?
"Mom!" I tried again as I climbed out of bed only to end up tripping and yelling out as something screamed once I placed my foot on the ground.
"Shit!"
I landed on my ass as I hissed and groaned. My floor was littered with all the stuff from my shelves. The plane shook the house so much that all my things went tumbling to the ground, effectively making traps all over my room with this darkness.
Digging my phone back out of my pocket, I hit the flashlight shortcut to light up a good portion of my room. Yellow eyes glowed back at me from a few feet away, surrounded by Pokémon figurines and other random crafts from school art projects.
"Oh," I let out a breath as I rolled forward onto my knees. "Sorry, bud."
My cat stood in the middle of my room, hunched low to the ground and ready to pounce at any second. The hair on his back was practically straight up in the air as his eyes followed me while I got up to my feet and kicked the area clear around me. His whole tail was puffed up. He was clearly on edge as well.
"Where's mom, Jack?" I asked him like he was gonna give me an answer.
Using my phone flashlight and scooping up Jack as I passed by him, we walked to the stairwell and peeked out over the side while waving the light to see if anyone was downstairs.
Jack was stiff against my chest as I held him on his back, cradling him in my arms. What the hell was going on? Where was everyone?
"Mom!" I screamed this time as I could feel my own pulse in my head thumping with every step I took down the stairs to look out the front window with my flashlight.
The light bounced off the windowpane but allowed me to see the green pick-up truck in the driveway. That was Uncle Mike's truck. Why was he here? I didn't even hear him get in. His truck was modded and loud enough that I could always hear him when he got home. He also had a shift tonight. He wasn't supposed to be back until seven in the morning.
A plane flew by again. It had to be the same plane; it was circling.
Squinting my eye in pain yet again as I shoved one of my ears against my shoulder, I ran into the dining room hoping to find someone I lived with while also getting away from the plane's blinding lights.
There was nothing in the kitchen. The only evidence of someone being through here was that the side door was wide open. The door that was almost always locked and barely used.
Placing Jack back down on the ground, I told him to stay as I peeked out the door, shining my phone to be able to see the deck and stairs.
There was an orange light down at the horizon line that seemed like it was only growing brighter. Once out on the deck, I craned my head back to look up at the sky and all you could see were the red and green lights of planes circling and flying around each other.
Why aren't they landing?
I jumped when there was a slam of a door from my neighbor's house.
"Steve. Steve? I'm telling you to get back in your house. Something ain't right." I could hear my uncle's voice.
"What in the world do you mean? You talking about the news? It's nothing! Just another hoax to get us-"
"Man, I am telling you, get back in your house and don't come to mine. You better get nowhere close to my sister and niece."
It sounded like they were talking to each other from across the fence that divided our houses. The only thing we got out here is our garage that my uncle keeps all his bikes, tools, and Harley Davidson stuff in.
"Uncle Mike?" I called out as I moved my phone to light up the direction he was talking in.
"Kate? Kate, get back inside!" He turned around and started to point back at the house. "Go!"
"What's going on? Where's mom?" I asked him as I was stupid enough to start walking towards the steps.
"Kate! Go-"
That plane was back and this time it was lower than ever as its engines screamed while it flew by, but this time it passed over and clipped the neighbor's roof before falling straight into the house two more houses down across the street. The only thing I felt for the next couple seconds was heat and even though my eyes were closed as I fell back onto the deck, there was nothing but white in my vision.
Covering my eyes the best I could while I tried to sit up, I squinted at the road as my gaze caught sight of a person standing there in the middle of it. Their head was tilted slightly to the side as their left hand started to twitch.
"Uncle Mike?"
The reaction was almost immediate when I started to move again. The person's head whipped to a normal position as they took off running straight at me. Their limbs flailed around as they somehow still managed to run at top speed across the street and yard before I could even get to my feet.
There was the sound of a gunshot as the person fell flat on their face a few feet away from the steps. The hand twitched once more before lying flat in the dirt. Fingers still outstretched in my direction. Blood starting to spill out on the concrete path that connected the steps to the driveway.
Directly behind the now dead person was my mom with a rifle in her arms. Her cheek still against the side of it as the gun was still poised and raised, just in case the person decided that they could stand back up.
"Mom?"
She lowered the gun from her face as she jogged up to my uncle giving him a hand up from the ground. The force of the plane explosion pushed him flat on his back as well. "Get inside now."
Mike groaned as he got to his feet as Mom kept her eyes and the gun pointed on the body, "You happy I kept that now?"
"Am I happy you kept Dad's gun in my house and didn't tell me? No, of course not, but I'm not going to complain about it now."
Dad's gun? Grandpa had guns? We had a gun? I didn't know we had a gun in the house. Let alone a freaking rifle. I didn't know we had any weapons at all besides kitchen knives.
My eyes fell down to the body in front of me. Blood now rolling down the path, falling into the cracks and making its way down at a pace faster than I thought blood could move. It looked so thick. How did the head even keep that much blood in it? What about the rest of the body?
"You killed them." I said, completely monotone. "That blood is going to stain."
"Kate, baby, come on. We need to get inside," Mom spoke low as she handed the gun to Uncle Mike. Her hands were outstretched as she slowly walked up to be like she wasn't trying to spook me. "It's not safe out here."
"You shot them. What's going to happen?"
She just killed someone. Is something going to happen to her?
Mom wrapped her hands around my arms as she pulled me to my feet. Her fingers running through my hair to get me to focus on her. "Baby, please. Go inside. Something bad is happening. I don't know what, but some people are getting sick and are killing others. We can't be in the open."
"Then why did the plane crash? Why are you out here? Where did the gun come from? I thought you never wanted a gun in the house."
"Katherine! Get inside the house now!"
Her voice was desperate. The only other time I heard her voice like that was when Grandma passed. She was asking Grandma over and over again what she needed to do as I stood outside the door. It was the only time Mom never signed what she was saying.
Whatever was going on was bad. Life altering bad.
"Okay," I nodded as I could feel my throat tightening, the depth of what was happening finally sinking in.
We stayed in my room for the next week. All of our food, personal items, and whatever necessary was in the room as we bunkered down in there with a radio on low volume 24/7.
National warnings were broadcasted every hour along with the movements and decisions of the government. Every now and then a couple channel would play music, but it never lasted long before the same message would play out through the speakers.
This is a message from the National Response Team. Please stay indoors as we figure out how to respond to the current situation. Tune into other channels to receive information about your location. Please remain indoors.
They were extremely vague about what was going on. It was only the local channels that would give background, that would explain that some virus that would be transmitted through bites was taking over the world.
Texas was pretty much ground zero for the virus. The whole state was under immediate martial law and in a panic as almost everyone was turning or dying. I heard Mom and Mike talk all hushed about my dad, but the conversation never lasted long. They pretty much came to the conclusion that he was gone, especially since he lived in a major city.
The President spoke on the second day. He gave a short speech about how we as a country could get through this and told us the minute we see any sort of US military branch; we could come out of hiding and be escorted to a safe zone away from infected.
The army rolled through four days later. We were searched for any bites and symptoms of the virus as we were ordered around to hand over any weapons since they were already high in demand.
We were only allowed to bring a backpack and another small bag if it was light enough, and you had to make sure not to lose it along the way to whatever quarantine zone you were loaded on a bus to go to.
Jack wasn't allowed to come with us and the soldier that told me that definitely got an earful as I screamed and cried and even swung at his face as he ripped Jack out of my arms to throw him aside. To further piss the soldier off, I took as long as I could laying out bowl after bowl of water for Jack, along with dumping his entire food out onto the ground. I needed to give him as much help as I could. I wasn't just going to leave him to fend for himself if I could do anything to help it.
The Trenton Quarantine zone denied us.
The Newark Quarantine zone was full, no room for a family of our size.
Philadelphia QZ wouldn't let us in since we weren't residents of Pennsylvania. What a load of horseshit that was.
Harrisburg denied us next when some asshole tried to steal my bag off my back the second we got off the bus. Uncle Mike broke his nose, and we were turned right back around on the spot.
After two more days of travel, we arrived at Pittsburgh. And they let us in after some begging and pleading. They tried to find some fault in how we were related to each other, a ploy to try and get me to live full time in the dorm of their military school. The one time having a shit father that resulted in you having your mother's maiden name actually worked out.
By having all the same last name, we were prioritized for getting decent living for being in a group of three or larger. That was the only good thing that Pittsburgh ever gave us... before ya know, putting us on the track of Jackson, which I would like to see as the best thing that could have ever happened.
And we obviously know what comes next in the story before Jackson. A rebellion, two rebel groups, and three bullets changed everything... again.