Forever Changed

The world never knew what was coming. We joked about this fictional horror and labeled it as nonsense. I can remember when it began, for me at least; it was pitch black that night. My yard looked as if a blanket had been thrown over it, the air was crisp and held the faint scent of fresh laundry. That was the day the world changed for not just me but everyone in it, forever.This was the invasion of the Zombies.
I was in the family room attempting to watch my favorite show, but couldn’t over the clashing voices of my mother and brother. “Clean your room! Why cant you do this one thing!” my mom yelled, “its clean enough!! Its MY ROOOM!!!” my brother shouted back. This was a typical Friday night. My father was in the kitchen, I could smell the oregano, so I was looking forward to some spaghetti soon. Fluffy, our dog, was relentlessly barking out the window in our dinning room, barking at nothing but the dark. We thought it was a cat, some animal in the garbage. The window in the dinning room suddenly came crashing down, we were unprepared for what was about to happen to us.
We ran to our dinning room, it was a very plain room except for the dark cherry wood table and the cabinet full of thin china glass. Now the room was loud, full of color, full of red. There was a blood covered man on my floor, I could see his flesh torn, missing, his bones poking out the most unnatural way possible. The oder that was coming from him was unimaginable, it gripped my senses and held them as tight as I could. I couldn’t get a hold of myself, I was going to be sick, I could feel it burning and creeping up my throat but I was too horrified to realize it. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t run, I couldn’t even think straight I was just staring.

Looking back now, I should have known something was wrong. I should have ran, locked the door, grab a bat. Something, I should have done something.

I thought he was dead, but he stood up to stare at us, to stare at me. He looked me in the eye for what felt like a life time, and he ran at me. I could move again but it was too late, all I could do was scream, scream like I never have before, as if it were my last breath. My father had gotten his gun without me noticing, he shot the hollow shell that had been a peron down. First in the arm but that didn’t even phase the creature, than in the head and he stayed down. The second shot was like a rope, pulling me back into reality. We grabbed a few things, canned food, water, clothes, my dads few guns, a cell phone and headed to our SUV. The radio said those, things, were everywhere. They were attacking people, eating them than turning into them. I didn’t know what this was, a disease or our worlds end but I planned to survive. There was a city that was letting uninfected people into it, they were low on supplies but it was secure. The guys on the radio referred to it as the Safe City, and that was our destination.

Everything seemed to change so suddenly, and so drasticly. It didn’t even feel real to me.

We drove for days on end, killing a few of those things on our way. We had a few scares, thinking we were going to die, turn into some mindless thing. I just wanted this to all end. I knew that once this was over, I’d be changed forever. I could see it happening to my family around me, everyone but my father and I had given up hope and reaching Safe City. I was determined. It was dawn, we should have reached the city days ago. I was worried about my mother, she needed normal, that city was our only chance to live and her only chance at sanity. We came over a hill and I felt an instant wave of relief over my entire body. It was like these past few weeks I was choking, that permanent noose around my neck had finally loosened. We pulled up to gates that were as tall as my house, they looked indestructible. It was the SafeCity, and it was on fire. My noose tightened again.

©HeyJude