Chapter 1

Fifteen days. Fifteen days of canned tuna and corned beef while hiding in fear inside my own home since the events of The Day happened. The newscasts said it was some sort of infection that caused everyone I've ever known and loved to become raving mad monsters who stopped at nothing to destroy everything left untouched by the infection. Not much else is known about its origins but that doesn't matter. The news stopped broadcasting ten days ago. Judging from the fact that everyone around me is dead, that leaves me.

 

It wasn't that long ago, only fifteen days in fact, when I was the "It" girl. The ultra celebrity ogled by millions of men all over the world and admired by millions more. "Emma is unstoppable!" they would say. Fat lot of good that did me. It didn’t take long for me to realize that when it comes to these monsters, everyone is equal. The old lady across the street in her multi-million dollar suburban estate tastes just as good to these things as I do.

 

Day 16

From a distance, they look like normal human beings just going about their business - if their business was to aimlessly walk around hunting for more people to eat. Up close though, they are but poor remnants of the people they used to be. The infection caused misshapen faces in its host turning people into caricatures of human abstract art. You would think that a disease would cause other debilitating illnesses that would slow them down but it only made them stronger somehow. Angrier. And worse, faster. I watched as my neighbor, an all-county sprint champion, get outrun by a girl that couldn’t have been more than 10 years old - in a frilly pink dress no less. She caught him by the leg right in my front yard as I watched from my second story bedroom window. He’s still there you know. Alive and infected. It’s only a matter of time until he gets up to chase another hapless soul in the neighborhood. None of them have noticed me so far while I watch them from my window. I don’t know how much longer I can last.

 

Day 17

They found me! I was watching these things as they ran past my house. I got careless and one of them had seen me! I only had enough time to grab a few canned goods and a flashlight until it burst through my front door in search of me. I ran into my bathroom with everything I had and shut the door hoping it hadn’t heard me. I prayed for it to go away but only more showed up as I heard them break through my doors and windows. I turned the light off in my bathroom and hoped for the best. It’s been six hours since then and they’re still here.

 

Day 18

Who knew the bathroom would be such a defensible place? No windows and only one door for anyone to get in or out. I’ve been in the dark for close to 24 hours now and I’m starting to hear their voices in my head. “Come out, come out. It won’t hurt one bit. Be one of us. Just let go.” Sometimes, I feel like giving up and just opening that door and letting this all be over with. I’m now lying on my cold bathroom floor writing this through the light peeking from underneath my door. I think I’m going crazy.

 

Day 20

The most unbelievable thing had happened. I write this now while camped out under the stars in the outskirts of the city, finally free from the prison that was my former home. The events of yesterday were a blur but it was the most amazing experience of my life.

 

I had been trapped in my dark bathroom for what seemed like months when suddenly, I see one of them peek in through the crack at the bottom of my bathroom door. It sniffed the air. After an eternity of sitting there holding my breath, the creature slowly got up. I thought the danger had passed. I was wrong. The monster suddenly started to pound on my door which only served to attract more of the horde into my former bedroom right outside the bathroom.

 

The banging grew louder and just when I thought the door couldn’t possibly hold any longer, I heard a huge commotion downstairs. It sounded like swaths of people being butchered but I hadn’t heard any guns or any sort of firearm. “What’s going on?” was all I could think of. The monsters yelled and screamed in rage and agony - and were inexplicably cut off mid-scream. The banging on my door suddenly stopped as if the creature pounding on it was cut from existence. I heaved a sigh of relief just as the door shattered inward casting rays of blinding light into my eyes. When my pupils once again grew accustomed to the light, I saw the most dazzling sight I had ever seen.

 

This dazzling creature that had burst in was a man clad in black. The first thing I noticed was the odd cloak he draped around himself with a high collar that protected his face presumably from the wind, or more likely, from splattered blood. He wielded an extremely long and narrow sword that gleamed in the light as he pointed it at my direction. As I managed to look up after recovering from near-blindness, I finally noticed his face and only one thought crossed my mind: Impossibly beautiful. I thought perhaps I had already been bitten in the scuffle and hallucinations were just part of the symptoms. My mind was just unable to connect the vision it was seeing and with what it thought of as reality. Then again, the past couple of days haven't been normal either so I forced myself out of my stupor and focus on processing what was happening. He had the most striking features that bordered on effeminate that would make the most beautiful woman in the world swoon and stare in envy while even giving some men doubts over their own sexuality. But there was nothing feminine with the way he carried himself and the princely air that surrounded him as if the world existed because he allowed it. Although a wide brimmed hat covered the rest of his features in shadow, his pale, smooth skin cut through the darkness like a knife and revealed thin lips and piercing blue eyes.

 

He raised his weapon ready to strike.

 

“Wait!” I yelled. He stopped. His eyes evaluated me from head to toe, searching for bite marks or any sign of infection. Satisfied, he turned to leave.

 

“Hold on a minute!” I yell. “What just happened?”

 

No response.

 

The man kept walking towards the former entrance of my home and out onto the street. “You can’t just leave me here!” I pleaded with him as I waded through heaps of corpses littered around my house. “Take me with you!” I said as we reached the wide open space of my quiet suburban street in midday summer heat.

 

“No.” I heard him say. I've never felt a single word carry so much weight until it was uttered by him.

 

“Please! I have nowhere else to go.” I pleaded. He turned and fixed his penetrating gaze on me once again and I froze partly from the sheer beauty of him. After a long moment, he tossed me a gun and started to walk away again and all I could do was follow.

 

After a long walk towards the outskirts of the city, I couldn’t take the silence any longer.

 

“Where are we headed?” I ask.

 

“Somewhere safe” he explains rather unhelpfully.

 

“Look, I don’t know who you are but I appreciate you saving me back there.”

 

He said nothing.

 

“At least tell me your name! I’m Emma.”

 

We go on walking for so long without a word that I thought he hadn’t heard. Just as I was about to repeat myself he spoke the last words he would say that entire day.

 

“Call me Lucas.”