The sun can't reach through the leafy trees and I end up oversleeping. I wake up to the beeping noise of my watch as it strikes nine o'clock. I yawn and sit up, a little too grateful that I got a little extra sleep. I pick up my backpack and secure it to my back. I can't lose it. Not now, at least. I start walking down a steep path that seems like it leads to a lake. Even though a lake might be the nicest thing in the world right now, it's probably filled with the plague.
When I reach the lake, I take a turn around it and continue walking. I can just barely see a broken down city at the edge of my vision, and I head in that direction. There's my checkpoint.
I pick up my pace, at the edge of running in my renewed hope. The checkpoint looked to be about twenty miles away and that meant... roughly two days.
I wish I could've brought Ashton with me. I really do. I guess he's just too fragile for this kind of trip. I count how many months I've been out here alone on my fingers. It reaches about a year and a half. That makes me... fourteen. Right? I can't even remember what month my birthday is in. Though I do remember that Ashton's is April third. He was... four months away from me. I begin to develop a headache from all the thinking.
I decide to keep thinking instead of focusing at how tired I am. I'm a little rusty with math, probably because I haven't had to use but basic math to survive out here. August... I think. My birthday is August eighteenth. That makes me fifteen years old then. Goodness, I'm old now. And I'd be in tenth grade. To think! Trigonometry even sounds fun compared to this...
I stop by a rotten stump to sit down and eat my lunch. I take out my Ritz peanut butter crackers and little slices of cheddar cheese. Because yes, I eat peanut butter and cheese crackers. It's actually better than it sounds. I guess it may seem a little weird, but if you give it a chance it'll really shine.
I munch on my crackers for a few minutes, savoring the taste, and I would do anything for a good book and a place to sit right now. But that was a hopeless wish, because there's no where left in the world where that could possibly happen. I think of different things I'd kill to enjoy again. Painting, reading, socializing, malls... Everything a teenager could think of to add to a perfect life.
My hair keeps blowing into my face, so I reach down and pull out my emergency hair bands. They usually break in my thick, brown hair, but I need it anyways. I've got maybe fifteen miles left before I check my watch and it's already 3:00pm. I lean towards the nearest grove of trees and lay down. I take out my sewing kit again and my animal pelts. I start sewing, careful this time not to nip myself.
By six o'clock, I've got a quilt that can almost cover my legs. I lay it on top of me, curl up, and take a nap. I'm exhausted.
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I run through the streets, terrified. People roam around, looking tired and filthy. I don't know how the world went from perfectly normal to apocalyptic after just one announcement. Had they done that on purpose? Did they wait until we were certainly doomed to tell us to run? To hide in our houses or rather die? They probably did. Was it a means of population control?
This virus is a man-made beast. Scientists, oh yes, scientists. They probably made it somewhere in a secret government facility, just waiting to set it free of its bonds. I climb up a ladder onto the roof of a small gas station. I pull the ladder up with me, trying to make sure I am not captured by the numerous infected ones roaming the streets.
I lay the ladder on its side behind me while I look around. My backpack weighs me down, so I take it off for a bit. I check the contents: Canned beans, fruit, tomatoes, chili, and corn. I also have a container of plastic silverware and a handful of water bottles. This won't last me long unless I ration it. I eat a little bit of the can of beans, and open the other cans. I pour the corn in with the tomatoes, and leave the fruit by itself.
I seal the cans back up and stuff them in my bag. I check the Google maps app on my phone. There's a city about 2,000 miles from here that should be about untouched right now. It houses the government officials and the rich aristocrats. They surely would have bunkers and food and maybe even a cure...
I climb down the building and run as fast as I can through the city. Infected people mill around, some trying to touch me, some trying to steal my food, and some just chasing me. I focus ahead as I run closer to my destination. Soft tears slip down my face and fly past me. There must be hundreds of noises sounding around me, but at this moment all I can hear is the pounding of my heart against my chest and the sound of my sneakers hitting pavement.
I keep running.
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