Thump. Thump. Thump. Okay, that can’t be a part of sleep. Thump. Thump. Thump. Whatever was making that noise was getting closer. With sudden bumps and bangs, a car’s alarm blared, shocking me and causing me to fall on my floor. Yep, definitely not a dream. I stood up, moving relatively quiet to the continuing thumping and alarm, picked up the stake leaning against my desk, and opened my window. The disgusting smell of decaying flesh filled the air. Zombies, attacking my neighborhood. Again. I heard muted voices as the humans locked up their houses in preparation for the impending zombie army.


As I sat there, waiting, I thought about how people honestly thought the world would end due to a stupid meteor in 2012. Movies were made, books written. They sure did find out how wrong they were. Nobody had known what the US government was doing in Area 51...until now. No aliens, spaceships, unexplained mysteries from space. No, the idiots were trying to create vampires. What they ended up with were people whose DNA was altered, causing the death process to start early-early enough to that the testers came to resemble dead bodies that were still alive-barely. That was two years ago. Now, only half of the world’s population remained; the other half were zombies or dead. The Zombie Apocalypse.


Suddenly, a sloped figure limped out of the shadows, very quietly. I sighed and opened up my window further. Time to stop thinking about the past and go hunting. I jumped out of my second-story window, thankfully not twisting or breaking a bone. I set the stake down, opting for the bow and arrow I kept behind a tree on the side of my house. I aimed at the zombie, and put two arrows in its heart. It dropped dead…at least I hoped. I pulled a matchbook out of my pocket and snuck over to the body, dropping a lit match on it. I’d just barely made it back to the tree before the body went up in flames. I watched as other zombies fled from the fire, faster than what people give them credit for. I managed to take down a few more before the sun came up, but it finally peeked above the horizon. I rushed to get inside, leaving the sun to decay the bodies and other zombies, since they couldn‘t be in sunlight. At seven, I was in my room, house locked from any life form. I had an old Calculus book open, pretending I was at college, like it was the past. Didn’t last long, because I’d graduated, and it wasn’t the past. School didn’t even do any good in this world. Either you fought to survive, or you became food for a zombie, or a zombie. End of story.


Someone suddenly began to bang at my front door. I sighed, put down the Calculus book, and walked cautiously downstairs. On my way to the door, I picked up the gun I kept under the kitchen counter, just in case. I unlocked and opened the door, aimed and ready to shoot.


“It’s me, don’t shoot!” My friend Ethan exclaimed.

“Sorry. You never know these days. Get in here before someone sees and comes to steal supplies,” I answered, putting the gun down. The moment he crossed the threshold, I slammed and relocked the door. Ethan shook his head.

“Wow, Hailey, you’re too worried. You need to relax!” He said.

“Better safe than sorry. And you say that every time you come over,” I sighed. “Oh, whatever,” he rolled his eyes and laughed.


We spent the rest of the day talking and watching TV. Normal for us, since we had no family. We lost them to the Zombie Apocalypse. As the sun began to set, we gathered up our weapons. Guns, bows, arrows, matchbooks, lighters, and stakes. Time to go hunting again. We headed out at dusk, just as another army of the dead undead attacked the neighborhood. I watched in horror as the zombies tore apart my neighbors, and as the rest tried to destroy them. Many were infected by the blood of the zombies, slowly and painfully turning into zombies. However, we’ve all dealt with death, and focused on destroying the dead. The sun rose, and Ethan, I, and the other survivors looked around at the bodies. We’d survived another day in this Zombie Apocalypse. I didn’t know how long this would last, though, and that scared me.