Okay guys, so a friend of mine at school has started writing comics about what would happen to himself and his friends if the apocalypse were actually to happen. The deal is, he writes the basic plot line as a comic and then I write a prose version of it that goes more into detail of emotions etc. We want to make these readable and enjoyable to people outside those we know here, so I'd love to post the chapters as I write them and get feedback from my lovely wtf-ers. He decided to write the first chapter about me (each chapter jumps between different people) and so here is the first chapter in its entirety.


Day One: Outbreak

It was only meant to be a mall trip… just a regular mall trip. Nothing odd about it, no impromptu laser tag afterwards, no costume shopping—just going to the mall to pick up a few new clothes with some extra cash that Taylor, Alberto, and I just kind of had on hand. What ended up happening wasn’t supposed to happen. Not that day, hell not ever. But oh dear god it did, it did and there’s no going back now. Normal mall trips are a thing of the past. I wish I’d appreciated it when I had the chance. I remember it in the stark clarity that only comes when you realize that a memory is so much more important than it first seemed.

Taylor was in the back, saying some comment about magic like normal. Alberto was debating the finer points of Taylor’s magic with him, as well as occasionally gangster ‘prrrring’ (No I don’t know why gangsters would purr. I already tried asking, it’s from some comedian). I was focused on the road, grinning to myself as the debate on Taylor’s magic grew more ridiculous. I turned up the music to cover up the amusing, but tiresome banter. That’s when I heard it.

He was crying, the reporter. It was hard to understand him as he interrupted the rock song I was listening too. Something had gotten out, escaped from wherever it was kept. One of the secretive military bases in Savannah I assumed. It was attacking others, and they were changing. It didn’t take long for me to put two and two together. I shushed Taylor and Alberto in a panic, yelling at them to shut the hell up or I’d do it for them. I listened intently for the punch line, the joke. I wracked my brain trying to figure out if today was some weird holiday. It wasn’t April Fool’s, nor Halloween, nor any horror film anniversary. It was just a normal day.

Right as this realization began to hit me and my mind tried desperately to rationalize it, we arrived at the barricade that was blocking the street. They weren’t allowing cars to go downtown. We were being redirected to the air field base. They cited an outbreak of some sort, a dangerous one that they weren’t sure how to contain. The epiphany happened instantly then, the radio report and the soldier’s.

It was real. The zombie apocalypse was happening. Taylor and Alberto had finally caught on and quit talking. We all looked at each other in horror. It was the emptiest, coldest deadest I’d ever felt in my life. My family. My friends. My job. My education. My future. It was gone, all gone in that instant. I just prayed that my parents had found somewhere safe. I felt the tears pool at the edges of my eyes, felt that tight thick feeling in my throat. I was about to fall into sobs, but I remembered that I was driving and our lives depended on our safe arrival to the base. And so I redirected my path and drove onto the place that would be my new home for an indefinite amount of time.

Once we reached the base, I called my family and talked to them for a long time, telling them both how much I loved them. I was sobbing nearly uncontrollably during this entire process. My mother and stepdad were all right- he had prepared for something like this. But my mom was so worried, and her words brought me no comfort. They only broke my heart more. I realized I may never see them again, and suddenly coming to Savannah for school seemed like such a stupid idea. My dad and stepmom were all right too. They were in Atlanta, which had great emergency infrastructure so they were safe underground. He was calm, but I knew him too well to believe his stoicism. I don’t know how many times I told him I loved him. I called Austin, my brother in Portland. He didn’t pick up, I feared for his life already. I desperately hoped that he was okay, just in an area where there wasn’t signal. I couldn’t bear the thought of his death, I wouldn’t allow myself to even consider the possibility. I loved them all so dearly, it nearly broke me to be away from them in this time.

I was going to dial someone else’s number, but I felt a hand on my shoulder. Casting my gaze, I saw Taylor staring at me. He shook his head, told me to put the phone away. I yelled at him to let me be, my family mattered more. My shoulders began to shake with the growing strength of my tears. Seeing this, Taylor pulled me against his chest, telling me I needed to calm down. It was time to report to the base commanders, get our weapons. Apparently it was serious enough that they were giving us guns, or at least knives. After holding me there for a few minutes, I calmed down and he released me. Alberto walked over next to us and together we went to the assigned meeting place. It was beginning.

Day Two:

Overnight. That’s all it took. We were awoken by them thrashing at the gates. Alberto, Taylor, and I didn’t even have time to mourn our lost friends- or more to try and figure out if we needed to mourn them. We were all rushed to a meeting place again. Me, Taylor, and Alberto had some of our gear in my car, so we grabbed it before we were rushed off. It may not have been bought for military use, but it was made for it—so we figured it was worth keeping. It was explained to us that the outbreak had come crashing in on us. The gates were secure, but they might not be for long. The soldiers were split between going to aid the resistance in other parts of the outlying areas and air lifting civilians to safety in larger cities. In all the push and shove of the panicking people, myself and my companions were unable to board any of the aircrafts. We’d already somewhat collectively decided to stay and fight though—we had friends in this city and they needed our help.

In the mass confusion, the three of us found our way to the armory. Once there, we proceeded to raid it for as many guns and as much ammo as we each respectively could carry. It wasn’t anywhere near as much fun as I thought raiding an armory would be. It was a cold, sobering experience. And each time we all looked at each other, we knew it may be one of the last. I was doing my best to hold myself together, but I was on the brink of tears consistently. Weakness seemed like my new default, but as Alberto reminded me, I was allowed to show a little emotion right now. The world was ending around us, and I’d have to be crazy not to feel something. The two of them looked the darkest I’d ever seen them look. Their eyes showed the stress and hidden terror that they didn’t want me to see. They wanted to be strong for me, for each other, for themselves. But I could feel it. We weren’t just college kids anymore. We no longer had that luxury. We were warriors and very well could die any moment. It was a hard fact to face, and I never believed I’d be so close to staring down my own death at the age of twenty.

But I guess that’s just how it goes. Life doesn’t let you do things your way, and the world was going to end. We all knew it, but we hadn’t expected it so soon. I thought I’d have time to fall in love, get married, have a career, see the world, and love everything I do with everything I had. But it had all been ripped away from me in that one radio announcement. There would be no white wedding, no love to defy all odds. No one to hold me on summer nights as we lay lazily in the grass. There was only this. Only zombies and death. Only loneliness and the fear of never seeing the only people I had near me alive again. At least we were together.

I wasn’t really sure what the plan was after raiding the armory, but Taylor and Alberto led me somewhere else on base. We stopped at a hummer. It was armored, looked pretty tough. I smiled to myself, figuring we were going to get in it and ride to the aid of our friends. I ran my hand along its side, reassured of its strength. I turned to them, bearing a smirk—after all with this thing we just might make it. But then I saw their faces. They looked pained. They exchanged a glance and nodded. Taylor walked up to the hummer and opened the door.

“Allison, you need to go. Get in the hummer and drive as fast and as far as you can towards downtown. Others should be there. Maybe even some we know.” He wouldn’t look at me as he said it. He was staring at nothing in particular, his eyes glued to the door. His face was angled down. He wouldn’t let me see it.

“Wait… wh-what?” I stammered out, a panic starting to seize me as my eyes darted from Taylor to Alberto “You can’t… I can’t… I’m not leaving without you!” I continued to pass my hurried gaze between them, those insidious tears starting to prickle at my eyelids again.

“You need to be safe. Go find the others, help them. If we don’t clear some of these unmentionables out for you, you’re never going to make it out of here. They’re breaching the gates, I can hear them.” Alberto said, his tone even as he held my gaze, doing his best to make me listen.

“NO! I’m not leaving you. You two are all I have, I can’t just watch you die here!” I argued against them, slamming the door Taylor had opened shut as the tears decided to finally make their appearance. I was so tired of crying, dammit. “You two cannot just abandon me in the fucking apocalypse! Separating is the worst decision at this time. Get in this damn hummer with me and we’ll go together. If we survive, we’ll survive together, if we die, we die together. That’s what should happen!”

“No Allison. If we all went together, we would die. They have to be cleared; you have to go- let us go. We’ll find you. Come on, you know Taylor and I won’t abandon you. You’re not going to be alone forever. Just long enough for us to clear them. You’ll be okay. We’ll be okay.” Alberto said, looking at me. He was trying to be reassuring but I could see the fear in his eyes. He didn’t know if he was going to survive either. I looked to Taylor, he was just as unsure.

“I’m not going. End of story. We clear it together, we ride into town together. That’s FINAL.” I said, placing my hands on my hips and doing my damnedest to look intimidating. The tears rolling down my cheeks probably didn’t help however. “I refuse to get into this thing until you get in first.”

“Allison, dammit we don’t have time for this! They’re closing in and you need to get OUT. Get in the fucking hummer, we’ll find you I swear it.” Taylor said, moving to where his blue eyes stared right into mine, he was saying a thousand things with that gaze and I could read them all “Do you really think I’d leave you to die…?” He asked, his voice and expression suddenly softening.

It caught me off guard, the softness in his face. I bit my lower lip lightly, unsure how to answer that question, that gaze. He took my surprise as a chance to reopen the car door and physically put me in there himself. And then I realized what he’d done. He’d tricked me so I wouldn’t fight him as he put me in the car. I went to get back out, to leap out and grab him, but he caught me by the arms, embraced me and let go. Alberto then stepped up and embraced me as well. The battle had been lost, and I knew there was no reasoning with them. I had to fight this alone.

“We’re not going to abandon you Allison, we’ll be back. I swear it. Now just do your job, survive. We will see you on the other side.” Alberto said, saluting me before shutting the door. I started the car and did all I could do for the moment, stare at them as they ran off to kill the zombies that had begun closing in on us during my battle. They were doing well, killing them quickly and efficiently. They knew what they were doing; apparently those stupid fake nerf battles we fought had done something good. A moment later, Alberto and Taylor disappeared into a bunker and I have no idea what happened to them next.

And so I drove. I floored that hummer’s gas pedal and ran over those disgusting zombie bodies, crashing through the entrance gate of the base and speeding down Abercorn as fast as I could towards downtown. It wasn’t like speed limits mattered- there were no cops to catch me, no traffic to fight. There were just bodies. Everywhere. My heart was sick with the sight of it, and with the loss of Alberto and Taylor. I ran over every fucking zombie I could—it satisfied me to feel the crunch of their bodies under my tires. They had taken everything from me, and now it was time to take a few things back.

With a new determination and strength from some unknown place, the tears dried. About five miles down the road, they dried. Anger was all I felt. Anger, determination, hatred, and above all the desire to live. I would show these fuckers exactly what they were messing with. A zombie decided to hobble into the street. I crossed the damn median and hit him at seventy miles an hour with the hummer. I watched him die. I smiled. I was starting to scare myself. And then I looked at the gas light. And I was scared even more.