Day 1:
It was a dark gloomy day in the city of Charlotte North Carolina. The cold wind stung my face as I walked home swiftly. I had a strange feeling like someone had been stalking me from the last few blocks.  My neighborhood was unusually quiet, like death itself.  I reached my driveway then my pace began to quicken once I saw my mom’s car sitting in the driveway.
“Weird…” I thought to myself.
Normally my mom wouldn’t be home until ten in the evening.  I looked up at the grey sky and felt a small raindrop hit my cheek. I continued to walk onto the driveway and approached the car. On the car I spotted a red substance on the car door in form of handprints on the driver’s side door. My heart nearly stopped. 
“Blood? Oh my god! MOM!” I screamed.
I ran to the front door and searched my book bag for my house keys as fast as I could. I poured everything onto the front porch. At last I found my key laying there on my English book. I unlocked the door slamming it open and shutting it quietly behind me.  The house was quiet and everything looked normal, just the way we left it this morning. I walked slowly into the kitchen and on the kitchen counter and saw my Mom’s black and gold purse. The gold stitching on the bag had been covered with blood.
“Mom?” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
There was no answer. I examined her bags again and behind the bag I found her car keys also covered in blood. I freaked out.
“MOM?!” I called again. Still there was no answer.  In the silence I heard a huge thud come from upstairs. I sprinted out of the kitchen and ran upstairs as fast as I could.
“Mom?  Is that you?”  I walked carefully down the hallway. It was silent. All I could hear is the sound of my pulse racing through my ears. In the hall I noticed small drops of blood in the carpet that lead to my Mom’s room.  The room door was wide open. The room looked trashed almost like we had been robbed. The bed was unmade, the dresser drawers were empty. Even her photo album was gone. I was completely confused.
“Where is my mom? And could she be okay?” I thought to myself. I examined her room carefully. I even checked her bathroom and the bathroom looked clean as always, Except for the shower curtain rod lying on the floor next to the tub.
“Apparently that was the thud I heard” I concluded to myself.
Suddenly I felt my phone vibrate repeatedly my pocket. I pulled out my phone and saw that my boyfriend was calling. I hit the answer button quickly so I wouldn’t miss his call.
“Hello?” I said speaking directly in the phone.
“Madison! Lock all of your doors right now and don’t let anybody in!” He said.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain in a second. Just do it! Now!” He demanded.
“Okay! But you gotta tell me what’s going on!”
I rushed down stairs with him still on the phone and locked the front door. And I nearly tripped running through the living room and locked the back door.
“Alright Jace it’s done.” I said trying to catch my breath.
“Okay, Madison what I need you to do is turn on the TV to Channel 7 and do not panic. And I will be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Wait…What? I’m so confused Jace. My mom is missing and there’s blood all over her things and her room has been trashed!”
“Madison relax! It’s going to be okay.”
“No! It isn’t…I need answers!”
“I know you’re worried but I need you to turn on the TV and take notes on precautions to take. There has been an outbreak…” He paused.
“Outbreak?” I scratched my head.
I grabbed the remote quickly off of the couch and turned on the TV.  All of the channels were out except for channel 7, the news channel. On the news they were showing videos of people ripping each other to shreds.
“Holy crap! Jace this can’t be real!” I said out of disbelief.
“Yeah…well it is” 
I was speechless.
“Okay” I responded. “I’m gonna go get ready!”
“I’ll text you when I get there. I love you. bye.”  He hung up quickly without waiting for my reply.
“I love you too.” I sighed.
I followed channel 7’s directions and went upstairs in my room and packed a light bag. But then I noticed there was a black book bag on my bed with a note attached. I picked up the note and it read:
Hey Madison
I figured today would come. I am truly sorry that I couldn’t warn you in advance.  But you’re very intelligent and you will survive this and I will make sure of it. Please take this survival bag it’s filled with everything you will need to survive. But I must warn you these resources will only do you good for seven days if you use them wisely. I also left you my favorite handgun already loaded and 5 clips of extra ammunition in the bag. Use ammo wisely because it will go fast. Please take care of it and keep it on you at all times. Remember breathe then squeeze the trigger. Also understand that not everyone you may meet will be so nice and understanding. Remember this is still a crazy world we live in and now that the virus is out the zombies aren’t the only things you will have to worry about.  Madison trust no one. Always wear sleeves and pants and try not to expose skin. One bite or the smallest scratch can infect you and make you one of them. You know I would never abandon you.  I love you and be careful we will be in touch soon.   Love always, Mommy
I folded the note and stuck it in my back pocket. I sat on my bed and looked through the bag and found the gun. Her gun was heavier then I remembered. My mom used to take me target shooting and she taught me to be a great shot. I examined the gun and on the handle of the gun I ran my fingers over the engraving that read Rebecca Stiles. On the other side there was a logo of the research facility that mom works at. The logo was of a silver skull with gold thorns wrapped around it. The nose of the gun was shiny and silver with engravings that read: “Death is everything “
The quote reminded me of my father because he was a weird man who was obsessed with death and loved scaring me as a child. He was the reason that I would always hate sleeping with the lights off as a kid. Not only that, he would always tell me scary stories about the world ending right before bed. Perhaps maybe that’s why my parents split. But for the most part I missed my dad; he would know exactly what to do in this situation. My dad was kind of like a “doomsday prepper”.
I stuck the gun in the back of my pants and pulled my shirt down over it to cover the handle. My phone buzzed quietly on my bed. I grabbed my phone and answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey come down and unlock the door I’m here” Jace said.
I ran down stairs and opened the door. There Jace was in his black leather jacket and his ripped black jeans. His hair was jet black and his eyes were as grey as the dark skies. When he looked at me his eyes sparkled with great fear.
“Can I come in?” He asked.
“Oh! Yeah sorry.” I blushed.
He came in and I locked the door behind him.
“Almost ready to go?”
“Yeah let me go grab my stuff”
“Hurry I want to get out of the city before the storm hits.”
Jace sat on the stairs quietly. As I ran up to my room to grab the bags I slipped on my pink Holister hoodie and tied my long curly brown hair into a ponytail. The bags were very heavy. As I got halfway down the stairs Jace stood up and took the heaviest bag from my and put it on his shoulders.
“Thanks” I smiled.
“Is this everything?” He asked ignoring my gratitude.
“Yeah. Although I didn’t pack any clothes”
“It’s fin-“
The thunder crackled throughout the house causing us both to go silent. I gazed out the window by the stairs and saw that it started to drizzle.
“Madison it’s time to go! This is what I was afraid of.” He sighed.
He took my hand and pulled me out the door. I pulled my hood over my head with my other hand and we ran to his car. When I got in and threw the bag in the backseat.  I snapped my seat belt on and took off my hood. In the driver’s seat Jace just sat there voiceless and still.
“Are you okay?” I touched his arm softly.
He didn’t respond he just looked at me with his deep captivating wolf eyes.
“What?” I said moving my hand off of his arm.
“Nothing” he said suddenly.
He cranked up the car and began to back out of the driveway.
We rode in complete silence all I could hear was the sound of the rain hitting the window shield and the windshield wipers dragging slowly across the window shield. For some reason I felt there was something going on with Jace he hadn’t told me any news of the survival of his family. I wanted to ask him about it but maybe it would be out of my place asking him about it. He has never in my life been so close to me but so far away at the same time. Then suddenly after about ten minutes I got up the courage to ask him about it.
“Jace….” I started.
He glanced over at me still driving cautiously.
“Is your family okay? Or-?” I asked with a sense of concern.
“I don’t want to talk about it…” He gave me a cold look.
“But… you know you can tell me anything...when you’re ready.” I said slowly
I held out my hand to him.
He took my hand and squeezed it tightly. After awhile Jace released my hand and said: “I love you Madison Stiles.” His words made my heart melt. “I love you too.” I smiled.
Jace pulled off back onto the panicking highway.
“So where exactly are we going?” I asked.
“Not sure. Anywhere but here.”
“Well I think we should at least have an idea of where we could go.”
Jace took a deep breath as if he was annoyed with me.
“You’re right.” He said. “Check the radio and see if anyone is broadcasting anything.”
I began scanning through different radio stations. But all of the stations were out and sounding fuzzy.
“Damn! Seems like you’re radio might be busted” I sighed.
“It worked fine earlier. Looks like we are screwed.”
“I know. It’s just like the movies.”
“I’d have to disagree with that.” Said Jace driving calmly.
“It doesn’t seem a little The Walking Dead-ish to you?”
Jace glared at me then shook his head.
“Madison this isn’t a TV show.”
“I know. I just think it’s strange, you know?”
“I guess” Said Jace with a lack of interest.
So I stopped talking.
"I'm gonna get you out of here" said Jace suddenly.
Jace always made me feel so safe that I almost forgot we were trying to escape a city overrun by walking corpses. Then suddenly my stomach tightened with hunger. I looked over at Jace. He looked stressed and exhausted.  With one hand going through his midnight black hair and small beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. But even though I was starving I didn't   want to tell him and that would be another thing he would have to worry   about. I took my left arm and rapped it across my stomach to help ease the hunger pains away. Jace glanced over at me quickly. 
"Madison, what’s wrong?"  "Nothing" I said releasing my stomach. 
"You sure?"
  “Yeah!" I gave him an awkward smile.
"Madison, I know you. You don't have to lie to me and you know I'll do anything for you." He told me.
  "I know and that's why I love you” Jace hesitated and put his eyes back on the road.
Then out of nowhere my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I pulled out my phone quickly. I had a text message from an unknown number. “Mom!” I thought. “Maybe she’s safe now and maybe she knows where we can go!” I opened the message and the message read:
Madison,
I’m assuming you got home alright and you’re with Jace. I know you’re probably worried about me, but I’m okay. I have arranged for a helicopter to pick you up at Mercy Hospital in exactly two hours. Please don’t be late the pilot is on a schedule.
Love always, Mom
My heart burned fiercely with hope. “Jace my mom is sending a helicopter to get us at Mercy Hospital. We have to turn around!”
“What?” Said Jace.
I looked at the time on my phone: 5:15pm
“We need to be there by 7:15.”
“Hold on Madison! Slow down.” Said Jace puzzled.
“My mom is sending a ride for us. Look!” I told him giving him my phone.
His eyes scanned the screen quickly, then handed me my phone back.
“Alright. Looks like that helicopter might be our only hope.”
“Yeah” I said calmly.
“Looks like we had a good head start on traffic. We should be there in no time.”
“Good” I thought. “We should get there early! So we are gonna be okay.”
At that same moment Jace’s phone began to ring. He answered his phone as soon as he heard it.
“Hello” He said.
While he was driving I notice one someone in the road.
“Jace look out!” I screamed jerking the steering wheel.
After missing the person completely, we tried getting off the highway on the nearest exit but there were police cars blocking the way. As we approached they stopped us and signaled Jace to roll down his window. The officer shined his flashlight in Jace’s eyes. The officer’s uniform looked soaking wet. When he approached his voice sounded full of fearful and alert.
“Where do you two think you’re heading tonight?” The officer asked.
“My sisters  Elementary school” Jace said trying to block the light from his face.
“Well son I’m sorry but I’m gonna have to ask you to turn around. We are trying to evacuate the city. That means no one can enter city and anyone who has had any been bitten or scratched cannot leave the city.”
“Please officer! He’s looking for his sister! She’s only five! Don’t you have kids?” I tried convincing him.
“Yes, two.”
“So can you make a small exception? Please…?” I begged.
“I’m not sure if you’ve came into contact with the infected…but from this point on its hell.”
“We understand. I would risk anything to save her.” Jace said.
“Are you two armed?” The officer asked.
“Yes” I said reaching behind my back to pull out my gun.
I showed the officer my gun. Jace reached over me and opened the glove compartment. He pulled out a silver magnum with a brown handle and trigger. He also showed the cop his gun.
“Okay, I’m gonna allow you two to pass. But…you cannot drive your way through, you must continue on foot. And I would advise you to park your car over there to the left so that it doesn’t bring notice and your car won’t be looted.” He told us.
Jace pulled over to where the cop instructed us.  We got out of the car and into the freezing cold rain. I took the survival bag onto my back and left my bag with my stuff in the car.
“Good luck”   The cop said shaking Jace’s hand.
“Thanks!” I smiled walking between the two police cars with Jace.
As we made our way Downtown the rain let up. It was still pitch black and I absolutely hated the dark.
“Madison!” Jace nudged me.
“What?”
“Look!” He whispered.
There was a ton of infected wondering the streets.
“Wow…that cop wasn’t kidding…” I said pulling out my gun quietly.
“Ready your weapon”
“Already on it!”
I took safety off on the gun.
“So what’s the plan? We can’t just go out there shooting…We have no clue how fast these things are or how strong they are.” I say with concern.
“You have a point…”
The streets were not only full of the infected they were full abandoned cars too and that gave me a good idea on how we can pass through Downtown without being detected.
“Alright I have a plan…you see those cars straight ahead? We can use the cars as cover to sneak by the infected” I told him.
“Okay let’s go!”
We moved swiftly onto the streets of Downtown Charlotte. Hiding behind cars wasn’t a bad idea after all. The infected seemed slow and stupid because all they want is to feed. As I started getting tired I leaned on car to catch my breath. A loud alarm began to go off. I alerted a horde of infected. I immediately panicked and got ready to fire my gun.
“Holy Crap! Jace what do we do?” I cried.
“Run!” He yelled.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me into a nearby dark alley.
“Shh! be quiet it will die down soon” He reassured me.
“But I think we should find a detour…we could use the car alarm as an advantage to distract all of the infected.”
“Good idea”
I pulled out my phone and saw our location. We were about one hour away from the school on foot. On the map there were roads that lead around the building we were near. I showed Jace my phone and pointed to the roads we should take. He nodded.  Suddenly the alarm stopped. I heard a groan and heavy breathing from behind me. I turned around slowly with my gun cocked ready to shoot and my phone in my other hand.  Behind me were ten zombified sick people. I felt sudden rush of adrenaline go through my body. I backed up slowly and raised my gun to shoot. Jace took the first shot. The sound of the gunshot startled me. He got clean kill right in the head.  Still backing up I took a deep breath and made a shot. I missed. I fired again and hit the zombie’s neck. Blood squirted rapidly from the wound. I closed my eyes and shot again. The bullet hit the zombie right between the eyes. I began to feel my shooting skills coming back to me. Jace continued to shoot and dropped three more. I rapped up the fight quickly and didn’t even have to reload once while. I felt like I had been touched by gods. More infected approached.
“Jace! Fight or Flight?” I yelled.
“Flight!” He quickly responded.
We turned around and ran.  As I ran it felt as if the survival bag was weighing me down. An undead torso grabbed my leg and tripped me. My phone dropped from my hands and the screen cracked. The torso clawed deeply my leg. I kicked the torso off of my other leg with all my strength. I smashed its face in and blood splattered everywhere. Jace turned around and ran back to help me up. I couldn’t stand so he acted fast and picked me up.
“My phone!” I screamed.
He turned around quickly with me in his arms and picked up my phone. The scratch on my leg gave me excruciating pain. It burned like alcohol in a freshly cut wound. He carried me almost three blocks. He couldn’t carry me any longer so he had to break into a souvenir shop. He carried me in and sat me on the floor, then secured the door so anyone or anything could enter. The store looked as if had been looted. The place was a wreck. Snow globes and knick knacks were scattered everywhere. The floor was disgusting, I hated that I had to sit on it. I then noticed blood seeping through my light denim skinny jeans. I tried rolling up my pants to get a look at the wound, but as I rolled up my jeans the fabric rubbed against the scratch and the pain was unbearable. I could almost scream.  Jace kneeled beside me.
“Hold tight Madison. I’m going to see if I can find anything to help your leg.” He said. He helped me get the survival bag off of my back and started going through it. He took out the rubbing alcohol and bandages. He tried rolling up my jeans. I let out a screeching yelp.
“Sorry!”
“It’s okay…maybe we should cut it...” I said taking in a deep breath.
He dug in his pants pocket and pulled out his pocket knife I gave him for his birthday.
He began cutting my pants leg slowly.
“Jace…” I started.
“Yeah?” He replied.
“I’m scared…they said all it takes is one scratch.”
“Everything is gonna be okay. Alright?”
“You know everything isn’t gonna be okay so why do you say it?” I slowly started getting ticked off.
“I refuse to fight with you right now” He said calmly looking me in the eyes.
I stopped talking.
The calm look he gave me made me so sick. I had only a few minutes to live apparently. “How could he take it so lightly?” I thought to myself.
He began soaking one of the bandages with rubbing alcohol. He then placed the soaking bandage over my scratch.
“Ahh!” I screamed.
He cleaned around the scratch carefully, and then tied a clean bandage over the scratch to stop the bleeding. After he was done I felt tired and sluggish. I watched him as he put all of the supplies back in the bag, and then looked at me nervously.
“How do you feel now?” He asked anxiously.
“I feel a lot better.” I lied trying to hold back the pain.
“I’m sorry if it seemed like I didn’t care. I’m just trying to process all of this. I can’t lose you too. I knew we should have just left and never turned back…”
For once I actually agreed with him. Although it felt wrong to leave the city without finding his sister but it wasn’t worth dying for. But it was already too late to go back…
“Can you stand?” He asked trying to help me up off the floor.
“Yeah I think”
I rapped my arm around his neck to stand. I tried not to lean on him as much and stood on my right leg. I turned my head slowly to look at Jace. His eyes were glowing yellow and his face looked pale and discolored. He bit deeply in my neck.
“Help!” I screamed.
The blood gushed from my neck and my screams became muffled. 
My eyes flashed open. I had been dreaming. There was glass everywhere and the air bags were popped out.  I felt a sharp pain in my left arm and pounding in my forehead. My face felt as if someone slammed it into a concrete wall. I looked down at my arm. There was a huge shard of glass stuck in my arm and there was blood pulsing from the wound. I braced myself and began to pull it out. I cut my hand on the other end of the shard.  I gave out a loud scream. The glass would not come out. I looked over at Jace. He was out cold with his face on the steering wheel and his phone in pieces on the dashboard.
“Jace!” I called shaking him.
“Please wake up!” I cried.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and grabbed my survival bag in the back seat awkwardly with my right arm.
THUD! The noise from behind me startled me. I looked behind me. There was a bloodthirsty woman forcefully banging on the back window. My heart fell through my stomach. “This can’t be happening” I said to myself. My pulse began to race.  I had never seen the infected up close until now.
“Jace please wake up!” I cried again.
The banging got harder and harder. But this time when I looked back, there was a whole horde of infected banging violently around the back of the car.
“What do I do?” I thought. “I can’t die here!” And then I remembered I had my mom’s gun to defend myself. I pulled the gun from the back of my pants. I rubbed my fingers across the engravings of my mother’s name again. I had no idea what to do and I could never leave my true love stuck here and matter of fact I’d rather die with him than leave him here alone. Part of me knew I could live without him, but my heart told me I couldn’t. So I unbuckled his seatbelt and grabbed his wrist to feel for a pulse. He felt cold like ice, but he was definitely alive.
“I’m gonna get you out of here.” I whispered to him.
At that instant I began searching for a way out. I pushed the sunroof cover back and hit the button to move the window back. But the power in the car wasn’t working.
“Crap! Now how do I get out?” I panicked.
I began kicking the cracked windshield as hard as I could. The glass shattered like a firework exploding in the night sky. At that moment the infected took notice and came stumbling towards the front of the car. It appeared that the infected were attracted to noise.
“Darn!” I sighed taking my gun off safety.
As they approached the car they began sticking their arms through the broken windshield, thriving to get hold of my flesh. The corpse’s pearly, milky skin gleamed under the moonlight and their eyes appeared diseased and blood-rimmed. I was spellbound and paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t move. Just as I became fearful Jace picked his head up slowly from off the steering wheel.
“What happened?” He mumbled rubbing his bloody forehead.
He paused then said: “Madison are you okay?”
“We got to get out of here.” I replied, not taking my eyes off of the vile creatures.
“Alright let’s climb in the backseat and try to get one of the doors open.”
He climbed in the backseat and grabbed hold of my shoulder.
“What?” I said.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t! My arm!” I sobbed in pain.
“Relax! You’re okay. I’m gonna get you.” Jace looked down at my bloody arm and breathed in deeply.
The undead’s flesh began to peel back from the broken glass where the window used to be. Holding the gun tightly with my right hand I raised the gun to the nearest infected.
“No! Don’t shoot! You might attract more of those things.” Jace warned.
I nodded lowering my weapon. I climbed carefully to the backseat so that I wouldn’t hurt my arm. I sat closely beside him.
“Are you okay?” Jace asked examining my arm.
“Yeah besides the gash in my arm I’m just peachy.” I breathed heavily as he touched my wounded arm.
“It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay. Give me your gun?”
I handed him the loaded gun.
Jace swung open the car door and we both took off running to the main road. Jace fired a few shots behind us as we ran. The road was full of cars backed up in traffic. People were fleeing their cars and running deep into the woods. Some were even trying to drive around the highway and ended hitting people along the way. I grabbed Jace’s warm hand and squeezed it tightly.
“So what now?” I asked.
“I don’t know Madison. What time is it?”
I pulled my phone from my pocket surprised it was still intact.
“6:30”
“We’re not gonna make it in time. I’m sorry Madison.”
“I realize that.” I said with disappointment.
Just then I felt like things couldn’t get any worse, but they did.
To be continued….