For a Second Time

“Make sure to look for the correct medicine.” Devon says, as we search cabinets in this beat up hospital.

“I know what I’m looking for.” I say. “None of this is what we need.” I turn to look at him, frustrated. We’d been searching for hours and have found nothing, anything of value has already been taken.

“We can’t go back empty handed. We need something before Minji has another psychotic breakdown.” He says, running his fingers through his hair.

“Maybe we can try going further? Maybe past the safe zone?” I suggested, quickly earning a look from him that told me it was a hard pass. “Devon, you said it yourself, we can’t go back with nothing.” I say, before he could protest. He stops to think for a moment, but lets out a sigh.

“Okay, fine. Only a few miles, we don’t know what’s out there.” He agrees, grabbing his bag, and leading the way out of the hospital.

It’s only been a few months since the world ended. Since the dead took over, and terrorized the living, just like some cliché zombie movie or tv show. Yet, even with the preparation the media gave us, we still lost. The military failed, riots quickly broke out, hospitals gone in the blink of an eye- people quickly turned on each other. Now it seems like the group I’m with is all that’s left, and even we are fading out slowly.

We created a safe zone around our camp, clearing out infected, and blocking off any areas that they could get in. But now, everything within that zone has been wiped clean, there’s nothing. We hadn’t left this place since we made it, there’s no telling what’s out there, but we’re dying, going back now is not an option.

“Stay close, okay? Let’s not get separated.” Devon says, once we step foot out of the zone. I cling to him like my life depended on it. Sure, I knew how to handle myself against the infected, we’d have a straggler here and there. I just wasn’t prepared for hoards.

The streets were a mess. Almost all the buildings had been broken into, cars that were set on fire in the early stages, just left in the middle of the road… Everything was truly depressing here.

Devon stopped walking suddenly, making me bump into him. I look up at him to see what’s wrong, and he was just listening, looking off into the distance, focused. I listened too, staying silent. The familiar groans and growls could be heard in the distance, not too far off from us.

“In here, come on.” He says, grabbing my hand, and dragging me into the building closest to us. We hid behind a counter, as the infected ran past the building. We collectively held our breath, too afraid to make any sort of noise, as they might come back and find us. We let it go, once we knew for sure that they were gone.

“We couldn’t have gotten the slow, non threatening zombies? Why the fast one’s?” I asked, still trying to collect myself, fiddling with the heart shaped locket I wore around my neck.

“We need to hurry, and find a pharmacy or something, so we can get out of here and- oh look, how convenient.” Devon gestures behind the counter, at the rows of shelves, filled with medicine. Lucky us, we ran right into a pharmacy.

“Let’s hope they have what we need.” I say, heading over to start the search. Thankfully, I knew what I was looking for, who knew my parents forcing me to learn their trade would come in handy in an apocalypse? There was only one bottle left of the medicine we needed. “Got it, this should hold Minji over for at least another month or two.” I call out to Devon, looking in the bottle to check the amount of actual medicine was left inside. “Look around for anything else that might be of use. Painkillers, bandages, first aid kits, stuff like that.” I say. He nods, giving me a thumbs up.

I continue to walk around the pharmacy, looking for anything good. I came up to what I think was the manager's office, thinking nothing of it, and not noticing the ‘dead inside sign’, I twisted the door handle, and pushed open the door. In a split second, an infected that was hiding in there, lunges out, pushing me to the ground. I let out a yelp, and fight it off me, trying my hardest not to let it’s teeth anywhere near my skin. It tried clawing for my neck, but got my necklace instead, ripping it off. Devon rushes over, and kicks the thing off of me, helping me up. I see the necklace on the ground, and go to get it, but Devon quickly grabs my arm, and makes me run out of the pharmacy with him, as the infected was standing back up.

“Devon, my necklace, it’s- it’s still in there!” I say, looking back at the building. The infected had tripped out of the broken glass window we came from, and was running after us.

“We can’t go back.” He says, still running.

“You don’t understand, it’s Kai’s, it’s all I have left of him!” I cry, stopping in my tracks. This was just about the most important thing I had, and I couldn’t lose it. Devon looks at me, terrified that I’ve stopped running. His eyes dart to the infected getting closer to us.

“Sasha-” He started, but was cut off but more growls. To our right was a hoard of infected, coming our way. “Sasha, I’m so sorry, we have to go.” He says, taking my arm again, and bolting, giving me no choice but to run.

In the locket was a picture of my parents and Kai when he was younger. It was all that’s left of him, and for the second time, I’m leaving my brother behind, never to see him again.