Life After The Virus

I hardly remember the time before the virus. Before things got really bad people kept saying things would get better. We had to stay in our homes, we couldn’t leave for anything except emergencies, and we had to wear a mask. Restaurants closed, some temporarily some permanently, movie theaters closed down. Things got better, gradually we could leave our houses (still with a mask on), restaurants and movie theaters opened back up, a vaccine was produced. All of my family and most of my friends got the vaccine. But some people didn’t want to get the vaccine whether it was stupidity or ignorance I can’t say. But that’s when the real trouble began. Soon the government discovered that people who didn’t get the vaccine were at risk for something far worse than the virus. When they were infected with the virus their bodies would mutate and change, for lack of a better word they became zombies.

The government assured everyone that if you had the vaccine, you would be safe. But I wasn’t taking any chances. I only left my house if I absolutely had to. Unfortunately, today was one of those days. I was completely out of coffee and cat food for my two cats Mo and Cray. They were both hungry and meowing at me every few seconds to remind me of that fact. If only grocery stores were still delivering groceries, I thought with a sigh. But after the one delivery guy was bitten by a zombie, deliveries were touch and go. “Alright, alright I hear you boys. I’m going, I’m going!” I surrendered throwing my hands up. I changed out of my pajamas, into jeans, a clean Superhero t-shirt, and sneakers. I looked at myself in the mirror and clutched my gold heart shaped locket around my neck. My mom gave it to me and whenever I wear it, I feel brave. Today I was going to need all the strength I could get. I grabbed my mask and put it on. I grabbed my baseball bat, keys, and my Superhero backpack, said bye to the cats and walked out the door. I locked the door and took a deep breath as I turned around. The streets were totally empty of people but there were zombies everywhere.

Gas was a rare thing anymore and by law you could only drive for emergencies. But this was an emergency! I needed coffee and my fur babies were hungry! I took a deep breath and sprinted to my car. Thankfully, I made it safely. I started it up and sped to the grocery store. Arriving I took a deep breath, at seeing the horde of zombies in the parking lot. I gripped my bat and got out. In my rush I hit the car alarm. I gasped seeing the zombies headed straight for me. I ran around to the back door of the store. I slipped in the long-ago broken window and breathed a sigh of relief. I grabbed a shopping cart and gripped my necklace. I slowly started to push the cart forward. A zombie started walking towards me. I sighed and bashed it in the side with my bat. “Excuse me, not getting zombified today!” I nodded running away. Another zombie missing its legs grabbed my leg. I hit it in the forehead with my bat, and it let go. I sprinted toward the coffee aisle. I quickly grabbed my favorite chocolate coffee and booked it towards the pet aisle. I grabbed Mo and Cray’s favorite brand of food, some more treats, litter, and some toys. I placed it all in my cart. A ton of zombies started coming my way. I sighed and put one foot on the bottom of the cart. I placed both hands on top. The zombies moaned, I roared back and pushed off the ground with my foot holding my bat out with my free hand. I ran over the zombies and the zombies that I missed I hit with my bat. My years of video games are finally paying off in the apocalypse. I gagged and wiped off a zombie ear from my pants. I picked up another case of water bottles, I had some at home, but I didn’t want to leave again unless I had to. I dug some cash out of my backpack while I bashed a zombie in the head and slammed the money on the counter.

I rode the shopping cart out and quickly slammed all my stuff into the car. I slammed my door shut and gasped seeing a former bag boy now turned into a zombie. I recognized his name on his nametag; I knew him, and he used to be cute! I sighed and hit him in the side of the head. “I’m really sorry but I have cats to feed, and I don’t want to be a zombie!” I said getting back into my car. I quickly started it up and drove away. Zombies walked out in front of me I tried to stop but I ran them over. “Sorry!” I called back. I didn’t want to kill them, after all they had once been people too.

Our government assured us that they would have a cure for zombies soon. Whether or not I believed that I wasn’t sure. They had also said this would be over soon as well and things have progressively been getting worse over the years. I sighed as I drove home seeing all the zombies it was sad. At one time or another these were friends, neighbors, mothers, children, husbands, and wives. But now they were just mindless brain eating things. A few months ago, it was announced on the radio that our government was beginning to test the zombie cure vaccine on zombies. I was praying that it would work.

My car suddenly started to sputter. I gasped realizing I was out of gas. “No! No! No! Not now!” I screamed as my car came to a sputtering halt. I leaned my head on the steering wheel and gripped my locket. I needed to be brave, and I needed a plan. Zombies were already starting towards my car. I didn’t really need the water. I took a deep breath and grabbed the cat litter and stuffed everything else into my backpack. I grabbed my keys and got out the car. Zombies ran towards me. I hit one square in the jaw with the cat litter. It fell to the ground knocked out. Paraphrasing a famous movie quote: Cat litter who knew? There was no time to celebrate in my victory as more zombies were headed my way. Using my bat and the cat litter I smacked, hit, and bashed my way through the zombie horde. After that zombie horde was all knocked out, I sighed realizing just how far from home I was. It was difficult to run while holding the cat litter, well that and I was an asthmatic living in the apocalypse with bad air quality. At least I had gotten stronger from carrying cat litter and water bottles by myself during all of this. Plus, now I knew if I ever needed it again that cat litter made a great weapon.

I felt something gripping my ankle. I sighed and bashed the legless zombie in the head. He let go and I kept walking. Thankfully one thing that zombie movies got right about zombies was that they’re slow. There were many, many, many things wrong about these real zombies from their movie counterparts. But that’s another story. I groaned seeing more zombies surrounding another car. Thankfully, no one was in it this time. Abandoned cars and houses littered the streets now, some people had moved to other countries hoping the virus hadn’t gotten that far yet, others sadly had been turned into zombies. Using the fact that they were distracted I quickly snuck past them.

I smiled seeing that I was at least in my neighborhood now. I kept walking. I saw the zombified delivery boy still knocking on people’s door. I shook my head. Before he turned into a zombie, he was really nice and always waved at my cats sitting in window. I walked past him, he usually didn’t attack anyone, he just kept knocking on doors. I walked past the now abandoned park, before the virus kids use to love to play in this park. I sighed and kept walking. Another massive horde of zombies were walking toward me. I groaned and gripped my bat and cat litter in my hands. “I’m really getting tired of this!” I yelled hitting zombies with the box of cat litter and my bat. One muscular zombie grabbed my leg, so I kicked it in the face, and it let go of me. I ran as fast as I could towards my house. Almost there, almost there. I kept telling myself as I began to pant. I passed my mom’s house and waved to her. She pointed to her car and towards my house. I shook my head and mouthed: I’m almost home I’ll call you when I get home. She nodded and signed the sign langue sign for I love you. I smiled and held it back to up to her as I ran again. I praised God seeing my house. I tucked my bat under my arm and unlocked my door and walked in. Mo and Cray greeted me by rubbing against my legs. I smiled and quickly set the stuff down. I quickly jabbed the delivery zombie with my bat as he tried to grab me and locked the door. I gripped my locket and took a deep breath. “Home sweet home.” I smiled walking into the kitchen to open the cat food. I poured it on a plate for them and petted them as they were eating, I changed back into my pajamas and brewed myself a cup coffee. I slid down to the floor of the kitchen and petted their soft fur as they ate. “You guys will never know how hard it is to get your food.” I smiled as I sipped my coffee. I stood up and grabbed the black walkie talkie. “Hi mom home safe and sound. "So, what was the emergency today?” she asked. I smiled. “I was out of cat food and coffee.” I shrugged sitting on the couch. “Well, that is an emergency.” she replied. “To Mo and Cray, it was.” I laughed. “It would be to my cats too.” Mom said. “What would we do without them?” I smiled as Mo hopped in my lap and snuggled in. Mom laughed. “I’ll talk to you later honey love you.” Mom said. “Love you too mom.” I nodded. I leaned back and sipped my coffee as I petted Mo. As hard as life was in the apocalypse it was moments like this that made it all worth it. “I hope you enjoyed your food boys; my car broke down and I had to fight off hordes of zombies.” I told them. He purred and snuggled into me. Cray finished eating and hopped up on the couch by my feet. I turned the radio on. “Breaking news, government scientist have discovered that the zombie vaccine cure has some unusual side effects on the zombies.” the newscaster said. I bit my lip -what could be worse than zombies? What now? “Reports say that the zombies have pale skin, fangs, and a thirst for human blood.” The news reporter said. I cursed. Fantastic just fantastic now real-life vampires walk among us!