Aug. 28, 2020

Nothing to do but think so I was just thinking about when all this madness started for me. I just got back to college after my mom’s funeral. It was too hard being at home so I decided to go back to school. Maybe it would keep my mind off what had just happened. Weird things were happening already, but nobody was really paying close attention to it yet. The point was to go to class, but I wasn’t ready for that yet. I would just sit in the room staring out the window. Then we all got an alert that there was a fight somewhere on campus, and the school was investigating. I barely paid attention to it. None of my friends really knew what happened either. The next thing I know I was sitting by the window and noticed smoke coming from the dorm across the street. Then students came pouring out of the building. They all gathered outside watching the building become overtaken by fire. I was waiting for the fire department, or police, but they never came. Some administrators were there, but they didn’t seem to know what to do. All the sudden the crowd went nuts. Yelling and screaming, and then it dispersed. There were only a few people left. I had to look really hard to see, but it looked like one person was on top of another beating the hell out of them. A couple of other people just stood there watching. At the time, I didn’t know what was happening, but I do now. It was a hungry zombie. It jumped off its victim, and latched onto one of those stupid bystanders. I hadn’t noticed, but most of the people in our dorm had evacuated. I am not sure what made me do it, but I emptied my book bag, and then filled it with everything we had in the frig. I left the building like everyone else, but wasn’t sure where to go. Still no police. School staff was hard to find. Students were just running all around. Then a few of my friends stopped me, and told me they were getting in the car to leave. I didn’t care so I went with them. Apparently I graduated that day because that was the last time I saw that school. We fought through the chaos, and made it to the car. As we were driving, we noticed no one was stopping at red lights, or stop signs. People were driving on both sides of the road, on the grass, on the pavement. I don’t know how we got to Duke’s house in one piece. His mom was so happy to see him, and she welcomed us into her house. He had to explain to her what happened. She hadn’t heard anything because it turned out she was taking care of her husband. He had become really sick. She originally thought it was the flu, but she couldn’t cool down his fever. She didn’t want to worry Duke so it was a surprise for him. Ethan and I turned on the TV hoping to find out what the hell was going on. There was nothing for hours until the emergency broadcast came on. It advised that everyone should stay in their homes until further notice. No reason why. Just stay home everything was closed. Things should be back to normal in a day or two. So much for a day or two. Never trust the government especially with the lack of details they were giving out. So we had no choice but to sit there and wait. I just kept thinking about mom, and Duke was thinking about his dad. Then his mom told us her husband had passed away. They tried to call the police, hospital, and fire department but the lines were all busy. She let Duke see his dad one more time, and then locked the door. Of course he asked me how I was dealing with the loss of my mother, and I told him I wasn’t doing a good job of it. I know I should have been stronger for him, but I didn’t have it in me. There were just too many things going on. A few more awkward days passed until we all got a real shock. We all got up but couldn’t find Mrs. Bradley. The only place we didn’t look was where her husband was. Duke found the door unlocked so he opened it, and looked inside. We were down the hall watching him. He had stepped just inside but didn’t say anything. We heard some noise, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Then Duke hit the floor. His father was on top of him. Ripping away at him. We both hesitated. Ethan took a few steps closer but had seen enough. He turned around, grabbed the car keys, and told me to get my stuff. What a way to return our gratitude for letting us stay there. We just left them to die. Again we were on the road, and it was even crazier. Cars were all over the street. Accidents. Fires. People running around. No order to anything. We only got so far before another car hit us. It was bound to happen. There was no time to argue about it. We just got out, and set off on foot. That was when this journey began. We didn’t know where to go back then, and I still don’t. Everything has gone to shit. How quickly things changed for the worse.