Summer
“Daniel! Get that boarded up and nail it shut!” My brother Thomas screamed.
“Ok, but shh, there’s infected.” I appointed. We see infected run past us by a little crack in the wall. I grip my gun tightly, my gut telling me something’s wrong.
“Calm down.” My brother tells me while putting his hand on my gun; lowering it.
20 years ago, there was an infection. I was at the age of 5, Thomas 7. Both of us went to the same school, had good lives, and so many friends. I’m still amazed I still remember that. On the news one night of June 12 of 2014, it said the U.S. military would begin building walls around certain cities; because of a virus. It was called the Cordyceps virus. It started as a scientist that got to close to an ant that had the virus. The scientist got it in his hand while studying it and the fungus got attached. Within 2 days, it mutated to be a virus for humans.
He was reported with red glowing pupils, an irritant twitch, slowly decaying skin, and zero body temperature. He them infected others; causing an outbreak.
I lived in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California; a town west of the city. The town became a Forward Operating Base for the military in the area. Me and my brother were forced out, which put us in Quarantine Zones after our parents were killed by a bombing raid on the town by the military.
We escaped the zone and refuged in the outskirts of Los Angeles. The military brainwashes the people in the zones, telling them they will protect them and not trusting other survivors. The old bank building, the tallest in Los Angeles, is where we refuge.
“In world news, because of the infection, new studies show 60% or an estimated 4,200,000,000 people are either deceased or infected. The U.N. and what’s left of the governments and militaries around the world are collaborating to find a cure and defeat the infected.” A T.V. blasting in the background talking lies like it always had.
In the second year of infection, we were able to reach the old bank building to refuge in. after 18 years, we still don’t have enough supplies to last us a week. We were able to get a generator and power the elevator, instead of climbing all 100 flights of stairs to the roof where we stay.
“Shh,” Thomas says in a low hush, both of us still looking through the cracks. Bang! Bang! Bang! Machine gun fire erupts behind the infected, killing the horde. Three military jeeps come passing by stopping in front of us.
“Check the bodies!” The leader says.
“Nothing sir. Just old shoes, no ammo, no food, nothing.”
“Alright, let’s move out!”
  “Yes sir!” They get in their cars and leave leaving fear in the area. It sends chills up my spine; thinking what would happen if they found us.
‘Alright, let’s leave. Quietly.” Thomas demands. We walk back to the bank. Thomas looks disappointed at the lack of ammo we found as I press the button to the 100th floor from the elevator.
“Take inventory of our ammo and guns; I’ll count our food.” Surprisingly, we have more food than ammo. I walk over to the lounge room. I walk to the fridge where our stuff is at. He has an assault rifle, mini Uzi, and a pistol. I have a shotgun, sniper rifle, and a pistol as well. Not a lot of firepower for what the bandits have.
“We got a good amount!” I scream, walking into the other room where there’s a window; Staring out into oblivion, thinking of the life before infection. I see army planes fly in formation as tanks roll down the street, blowing up bandit checkpoints while innocent people try to run for their lives. Something’s wrong.
“Daniel! Here!” Thomas screams tossing my book bag with my guns. I gear up.
“I packed your ammo and some food in there!” no wonder it’s not so light. The building begins to shake. It feels like its tilting.
“The buildings collapsing!” Thomas screams.
“What do we do!?” I reply, screaming.
“I don’t know!” he screams back. I put an ammo clip in my pistol in case something happens. The building falls over while we fall toward the windows. Crash! The window breaks as I hit it sucking me into the water with the rest of the building.
“Daniel! Daniel! Wake up!” I open my eyes to Thomas then pain on my left cheek as he slaps me.
“Don’t worry; your stuff is good as well as mine.”
“Alright, *cough*, were,*cough*, are we?”
“Shh, stay down.” Two soldiers come into the room
“I got the one on the left.”
“What?!”
“Get the one on the right.” Thomas takes out a make-shift knife and stealthily walks over. I walk up and wrap my right arm around him, then clenching my left wrist to close the choke. I feel pain in my gut as he punches my in the stomach; knocking me to the ground. I manage to hit him in the stomach, then hitting him with a right hook to the face, then a left one, then a right again knocking him down. I pull out my pistol, aiming at him
“Please! Don’t!”
“Pull the trigger Daniel.” Thomas says walking over; victorious from his kill.
“Please!”
“Daniel-“
“NO! PLEASE!”
  “Do it! HE’S A MURDERER!” As they argue for me to do something I notice he lifted his hands in surrender. Bang!
Fall
“Jackson County; huh?” I say out of curiosity.
“Yea, remember when we visited Uncle Tom and Aunt Amy?”
“Oh, yea.”
“Next squirrel I see I’m shooting it.” Thomas announces.
“No, conserve ammo and then we’ll-“
“Whoa,” Thomas says. I look in the direction he’s looking in. My god, an abandoned Quarantine Zone. Thomas starts running toward the zone.
“Wait Thomas! It might be trapped!” I yell running after him. I swear, sometimes I think he acts like a small child. I follow Thomas into a building. I walk in with him then feeling myself choking as a soldier tries to kill me. I elbow him in the stomach and push him through the door. He pulls a gun but I slap it out of his hands. He pulls me to the floor outside and pulls out a knife. He tries pushing it with both hands to plunge it to my chest as I force it back holding his arms. Bang! I see a bullet impact his skull and fly out the other way. I push the body off me as I see two girls in the distance. One might be in her twenties and a teen. I get up and wipe the blood, skull pieces, brain, and I think an eyeball.
“Stand down,” the girl in her twenties said.
“Alright, alright. Please don’t shoot. If you want us to leave we’ll leave.”
“Tell him to drop the gun.” I turn to see Thomas pointing a gun at them.
“Put the gun down Thomas.” He lowers it.
“I’m Kelly. This is Ellie.” Bang! Bang! A soldier begins shooting at us as we duck behind a car.
“Looters will be shot! Leave! Leave! Lea-Ahhhhhhhh!!” As I look over the car I see an infected running toward the soldier then biting his neck.
“Ahhh! Help me!” He yells as all of us watching in amazement. The noise of him screaming frightens me. I raise my gun without thinking and fire killing both the soldier and the infected.
“What is that?” Ellie asks pointing in the distance. A horde of infected run toward us. Thomas begins walking back as well as Kelly.
“Everyone…RUN!!!” Thomas screams. Then me and Ellie run behind them. We reach the entrance.
“Left! Left!” Kelly screams. We make a hard left as we see a 2014 Dodge Dart waiting.
“Hop in!” We dive into the car as we see the infected turn left toward us.
“Floor it!” I order as infected reach our car and we drive off.
Winter
I feel a brisk coldness as I step out of the car.
“Missouri-5 Miles” Kelly reads.
“Aww, that’s going to be so long! And I’m starving!” Ellie moans.
“Stop your whining girl, its only 5 miles. Plus when we get there we need to find a safe spot to camp, then if you want we can go hunt deer.” Thomas orders.
“We also need to check for infected.” He informs.
“Your face is infected!” Ellie cries.
“Pssh. Come here.” Thomas giving Ellie a knuckle sandwich. I chuckle. Finally, something happy; we found out were actually cousins from Uncle Tom. Ellie was born the 6th year of infection, miraculously. I walk over to Kelly who looks worried.
“Something up?” I ask.
“Nothing; just thinking about the life before.”
“Forget that. We live in a world where you pray that you get another meal and the only thing you think about is kill or be killed.” I reply.
“Wow. Come look at this.” Ellie points out. I cannot believe my eyes. It’s a herd of infected below us. Frozen, dead, still like statues in a museum.
“Are they alive?” Ellie asks.
“No, their dead, frozen I guess.” Thomas replies.
“We should go.” I suggested.
“Yea, let’s go guys.” Kelly demands. They all walk down the hump and pile into the car.
“Come on Daniel. Let’s go.” Kelly shouts. I get in the car and drive east.
Spring
“Are we there yet?” Ellie asks.
“No.” Thomas replies.
“Are we there yet?”
“No.”
Are we there yet?”
“Ellie! You’ve been asking me that for the past five minutes. We are not there yet!” Thomas screams as Ellie cracks up laughing.
“Ahh man, look” Thomas points to the highway full of old, broken, rusted, and mossed up cars blocking our route. He stops the car.
“What’s that?” Ellie asks.
“That’s an ice cream truck.” Kelly says.
“Yea, it would go driving around playing real creepy music and kids would go buy ice cream.” I explained.