Summary:

With the simple flicking at a needle tip and release of the first few drops of a black liquid, humans are being changed as it floods their veins. They transform into beings that don’t listen, don’t remember, don’t think. They run on instinct, and remember one thing, and that is they must eat. What and when they eat doesn’t matter to them. Sights such as man in a business suit crouching in the middle of an abandoned street, gnawing on a tin can with drool glistening on his chin and sounds of desperate hunger have become normal.

Little girls roaring as they chase rabbits to feast upon, mothers turning on fathers and beginning a war to who could eat who first, America has reached a devastating state of panic. Rose, a nineteen year old girl has become the source of reason to live in her brother’s eyes. With the government hiding and few military officials roaming the new born apocalyptic state of the U.S.A., Rose and Rain find themselves with two goals: One, avoid the military at all costs. Two, protect each other. These two are no heroes, they’re not here to save the world. They are just two siblings trying to survive in a world crawling with mindless humans.

Loud shouts of orders from men with deep and intimidating voices reverberated off of the thin walls. The only thing that rang in my ears louder than them was the sound of their bullets meeting rock as they zoomed passed my head. Too close, I thought to myself. I ran around sharp corners, trying to keep my steps quiet even though I was running, and trying to keep my voice down as my lungs begged for air. Do they know that they're shooting at me, or are they guessing? I ripped open a door that led to another hallway as I squinted, running into a few walls with my shoulders as I did.

I've been through this building hundreds of times. It was dark and carried a strong smell of mold. It was literally tilting from lack of construction throughout the years. In this specific case, the tilt was an advantage of mine as I ran through a hallway that felt similar to running downhill due to the crooked building. The open window was the only source of light at the end of the hall. I smiled as I reached it, not faltering to jump out. It was only about a seven foot drop to the ground, again, thanks to how much the old hotel building leaned. Half was slowly being eaten by the Earth, but I knew it'd fall over before being swallowed whole. The cool autumn air raised the hairs on the back of my neck as a breeze swirled across the vacant alley.

My view now consisted of a bright orange sun bleeding warm yellow rays and orange streaks upon the few clouds in the sky. As badly as I want to watch it fade and morph into the deep blue night sky, I knew I had to get moving. With a quick look back up at the window, I checked to see if the soldiers chasing me had kept up. When I sensed no movement, I carried on with a smile on my face. I was filled with a slight sense of pride knowing that I could lose them.

Walking down the alley, I kept my eyes wide open for movement. I walked, checking corners every chance I got, until eventually seeing a concrete highway that came after walking to the edge of town after me walking for two blocks. Two large pillars on both ends of the road in the sky held it up, leaving enough room for train tracks to follow along underneath. I followed them, going right. It led out of town and into the woods.

Half an hour of walking, never leaving the train tracks, and I had finally reached my home. I walked towards it, and made my way around to the front. The property had a fence surrounding it from back when fences were meant to show boundaries. I lifted the latch, and it made a quiet clink as it went up to open, then down to close. Before heading inside, I leaned on the fence. There were countless amounts of stars burning white, yellow, light red, green… The moon was full and filled my atmosphere with silver light.

Movement far away from me, across the pond that was closer in size to a lake, gave me goosebumps more than the air did. The pond was in the center of this tiny town, which consisted of three houses including the one I stood in front of now. It was cold out, my breath slightly visible before me with every exhale. I didn’t particularly want to find out if what I saw was a deer, a human, or something that used to be human. With another glance up at the sky and seeing many clouds close to covering the moon, I decided to head inside. I noticed that the door was unlocked when I twisted the door knob. I didn’t think much of it as I stepped in. Upon hearing a glass smash, I froze in my tracks.

To my left was a doorway, leading to the kitchen. To my right was the living room. Farther down the hall to the left was the dining room. I slowly stepped forward, listening to my own steps to make sure that not even I could hear them. At the end of the hallway, across from the dining room, was the bed room. It was split in half, which was good. One side for me, and one for Rose. I reached the door, which was left slightly open. I reached to out to open it more, but it swung open and away from me, making me yell out in fright.

A face covered in dirt with clean trails making their ways from the person’s eyes down their cheeks stared back at me in surprise. It was a girl, with short black hair cut several inches above her shoulders. She was also several inches shorter than me. But none of this mattered. All that mattered in this second was that this wasn’t Rose.

I lunged out at her, sending us both to the ground. Her arms got pinned down on the sides of her head, and my weight completely holding her hips down. She didn’t make any noise, at first. The girl just sat beneath me in horror, her warm brown eyes wide with shock.

“Who are you!?” I yelled. She flinched a bit at the noise.

“I-I-,”

“Rain no!”

My head shot up as my ears picked up both my name and a familiar voice. A girl with a knife clutched tightly in her hand was standing in the doorway that led to the second bedroom. Her long, bleach blonde hair flowed over her shoulders and reached her hips in the front. That distinct hair made me roll off of the girl under me. I tripped over my feet as I sprinted towards her. She dropped the knife and we wrapped our arms around each other. I was laughing from joy and she was squeezing me so tightly I thought my back would crack.

“Rose,” I said, the word leaving my lips like a satisfied sigh. She stayed silent.

I could feel her shoulders shake, and could hear very quiet sniffles that were clearly trying to be hushed. With a light pat on the back, she extended her arms to look at me. A smile greeted me before words, and I flashed a wider smile at her. Another sniffle before she spoke made my smile waver, but I kept it there for her.

“Sam, this is Rain. I’m sorry he attacked you,” Rose said. Her pale skin was turning a light shade of red from her crying, but I turned around and ignored it.

“Sam.” I said, connecting the name with the face of a girl I assumed a second ago was breaking in. Her eyes refused to meet mine, but I continued to take notice of the streams cutting through dirt on her face. She didn’t say anything in response.

“Sheesh,” I began to talk, hoping I could clear the air, “I leave for a few days and my return gets celebrated with tears? Is there at least cake?”

Rose chuckled behind me and a smile formed on the face of Sam. We all traded a few words before Rose let Sam know that the tub was filled. Rose explained who Sam was while she was gone. They met today; Rose was our hunting when Sam ran into her. She lost her cousin to one of the mindless creatures. Rose explained that Sam planned on saving him, but that mindless man was being followed by military men. Scared for her own life, she did all she could do. Sam ran away from the scene and never looked back.

“You’ve let everyone else – No, you’ve forced everyone else we’ve run into in the past leave us alone. What was different about this girl?” I asked at one point. Rose sighed.

“Truth is, when I was hunting, I heard someone screaming. A little girl was yelling as loudly as she could somewhere in the opposite direction of the woods. It went from her scream, to another woman’s scream, then a man… It had to be the mindless. Sam was sprinting through the woods on my side, yelling for help and sobbing so loudly. I did what was best for that situation. I shut her up by saying she could come to safety with me.” Rose sighed again and chewed her index finger’s nail for a bit before continuing. She wasn’t looking at me, her eyes were watching the picture her mind painted as she recalled what happened.

“I didn’t get any food, and now I have a stranger in my house. I’m so stupid. I’m so tired, and hungry and just…”

“Exhausted,” I said, finishing for her. Rose blinked, snapping out of her memory, and looked made eye contact with me.

“You got all of the parts on the list? After three days, you’d better have,” She said. I shook my head up and down, reaching across the bed we both sat on the edge of.

“Yeah, it’s all here, but,”

“We aren’t taking Sam.” Rose cut me off. She took the words right out of my mouth.

I smiled and said, “Uh, good. I was worried you were getting soft on me.” Rose lightly shoved me as we laughed in sync. Sam came into the room dressed in pajamas I recognized as Rose’s.

“Everyone okay if we sleep? Got one heck of a day tomorrow. Sam, I could use your help, too.” Rose announced. I nodded in agreement with Rose. It was definitely getting late, and Rose and I had big plans.

“I’ll help with anything you want, Rose. You saved me.” Sam said, “You saved me.”

***

The next day, Sam and Rose read from a mechanics book as they connected this hose to that tube, and poured this liquid in that opening. I kept watch as the two conversed on what the white car needed.

“No, the problem isn’t in the motor. Not everything is the motor when it comes to cars, Sam. This is the radiator. See? See that there?” Rose was pointing into the opened car hood and Sam payed close attention. It was a nice day so far. Sam and Rose fixing up a car in the middle of the vacant street, the strong smell of dead leaves. I just knew today would go great.

Unfortunately, after about fifteen more minutes of the girls fixing stuff up under the hood, opinions got pretty heated up.

“Yeah, well you’re turning the key at the wrong time! I’m hitting the tank as hard as I can!” Sam said, raising her voice a bit.

“Ha, turning the key at the wrong time,” Rose mumbled, “Are you banging on the right part?”

I glanced behind me, hoping they’d work things out. It was a stupid thought, thinking somebody as stubborn as Rose would kindly work out a problem with someone. I was walking towards the end of the street because I saw something moving. It really looked like a deer that ran across the street, but I could see a shadow stretching out from behind the corner of a building. When I heard Sam and Rose full on yelling at each other, I turned around. It was shocking to me that they’d yell like this in such a dangerous and open area.

“You’re- Just- Ugh! Stop being stupid, you-“

“I could leave right now if I wanted! I’d watch-“

“Leave? Um, I saved you! You better be more grateful, spoiled little-“

“Why, you-“

Their bickering blocked out each others words, and I couldn’t decipher them anymore. I looked back at the corner of the building. The shadow was gone; it must have been a deer after all. With a deep inhale, I turned to make my way back and hopefully get them to be civilized again. Sam screamed out in frustration. It was much louder than before. My mouth opened to yell at them to quiet down, which was ironic because I’d then be yelling to. My heart stopped when something grabbed me from behind. A large, rough hand covered my mouth and blocked my nose with their other hand. I tried screaming, but it only came out as a loud hum. I kept at it, but the man whispered orders behind him and moved his hand from pinching my nose to squeezing my throat. Now, no oxygen reached my lungs. Barely audible sounds of chocking made their way painfully out of my mouth. It was useless, I was caught.

I allowed my body to go limp and the man had to completely hold me up as we crouched behind a car on the abandoned road. More men ran passed us, out towards Rose and Sam who continued arguing. My body started shaking from fear that Rose would be hurt more than was shaking from oxygen deprivation. Tears streamed down my face knowing that I had failed. I let my guard down and now Rose would be captured. They’d inject her with their black fluid and turn her into another test subject for creatures that aren’t focused on their next meal every second of their life, like the one's they failed with that roamed around nowadays. The last thing I saw before my vision turned completely black was Rose and her beautifully long, distinct hair flowing as she tried to escape. The last thing I heard was the skull piercing scream of my little sister.

***

I dropped the empty water canteen in the middle of the secluded highway. The sun rose a few hours ago. I’ve been walking since before sunrise. Down below me, the deep green colors of leaves stood out. Birds were chirping songs with one another. It’d be nice to listen to that all day and let it soothe my mind. A growl from a few feet ahead grabbed my attention, though. A tall man in tattered clothes was chewing on what looked like was an animal’s carcass. When it noticed me, he slowly stood. It didn’t hesitate to drop the animal remains and sprint towards me once he realized I was edible. I stood my ground, and when it got closer, and closer, quickly close enough to see the black veins standing out against pale skin, that’s when I raised my machete and ended its life. I continued walking down the highway afterwards.

Far ahead, maybe less than half a mile, was what I’ve been looking for. Large makeshift wooden walls blocked off the highway. I jogged until I got close enough to read the signs nailed to the wood. Many had warnings about trespassing and that it was owned by the military. That wasn’t a big deal. What was a big deal were the men wearing camo pants and white tanks tops. They yelled for me to halt, and I did as they commanded.

They asked me questions and I answered them. It was as simple as that. I was lead from one man’s superior to another, and the hours ticked by quickly. My mind was hazy, it had been for almost a year now. After being checked up on by some medics in white pants and shirts, I was led to an army green tent. I’d sleep there, my stuff would go somewhere else, a man with a name I didn’t care to remember would be joining me. Training would start tomorrow.

When the night arrived, several of the men had learned my name. As they sat around a fire in a barrel, they exchanged rumors on being taken in the middle of the night to be injected with another attempt at changing us into monsters for war. I fell asleep before my mind could care about any of their gossip.

After about a month or two of being with the military, I learned that when the scavengers really couldn’t find people to recruit, they would steal some of the weaker men to experiment on. The rumors were true. With no government to stop anyone anymore, it didn’t really matter to anybody except for the one’s it was happening to. Apparently, some men would become incredibly strong and fast, but die a few days or weeks at the most afterwards. Others became the mindless creatures that trudged in and out of our lives like zombies, feasting on whatever they wanted.

A squad of five men including me were sent to help look for an escaped test subject. One day, while we traveled, a man with us spotted a rose bush. He tried to pick a rose, but got stabbed numerous times by the thorns. The men stood there, laughing at him before going silent. We all listened to the familiar sound of a motor. Out to out left, making its way towards us was a red pickup truck. One man raised his gun, but someone beside him pushed it down. He believed that we should stick to our mission and not worry about a civilian. We weren't on recruiting duty. But when the car got closer, I could see that the person driving had extremely pale skin with dark black veins traveling through them. A mindless one was driving?

The girl had hair cut above her shoulders and half of her head shaved. It was a bleach blonde color, and I didn’t want to believe it. But when that truck was directly in front of me, and she turned her head, Rose looked me right in the eyes. She flashed a sad smile and drove on, never even slowing down.

A man behind me said she looked like the subject we were looking for. He claimed that they had the same hair color.

“No,” I said, my voice scratchy due to lack of communication, “No. The subject had a lot of hair, that girl’s was short. He'd have mentioned it her head was shaved like that. We should keep looking.” At first, two men argued that she could have cut her own hair.

"You're right, she could," I said. Rose's sad smiled flashed in my mind, "But when would an escaped subject, always on the run, have time for that?"

The men talked it out until they were all convinced. Everyone shrugged it off and agreed. We continued down the street, towards the opposite way from Rose. I held back tears, knowing that she was alive this whole time. I failed twice to save her. Yet now, as this group of military officials got pointed in the wrong direction thanks to me, I felt as though I had helped. Maybe she'd be lucky and live. Nobody thought twice about the fact that the girl had black veins like the mindless, and nobody looked back.

Nobody.