It was a regular summer day, everything was all fun and going well, I was 16, hanging out at the pool with some of my best friends, just relaxing enjoying life. Then we started getting all these alarms going off on our phones, everyone at the pool starts to look at their phones, and I see the blood drain from their face, going as white as ghosts. As you know, curiosity killed the cat, so I got my phone out and looked. I felt a wave of horror come across me, scared as I could possibly be, seeing an alarm message that read, “NUCLEAR MISSILE INBOUND, SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY”. I was in shock, the sounds started to fade from around me, hearing the sounds of men, women, and children alike shrieking for their lives, start to fade away. My friend Daten told me we needed to go, still in shock I didn’t fully react, he then smacked me, (feeling kinda offended) I got up and started running, we got to my black Chevy Silverado and I started driving. Still feeling caseous not to hit people with my car, (because I’m not that insane) I dropped my friends off at their houses and Daten told me he was going to head to Memphis and going to try and get the other members from my friends to go, hoping to see them again someday. I gunned it to my house, both of them in fact, (parents divorced) I got home and started hugging my parents and siblings telling them its going to be alright. As soon as I left my mom’s house, I picked up my gf, then got to my dad’s house, then it finally happened. The thing that changed my life forever. This missile hit, Indiana had just been hit with a nuclear missile, Crane Navy Base was hit. We felt the shock, remembering what I had learned about Nuclear missiles is to get on the ground immediately, clench your teeth, breath out your teeth and close your eyes. I had told my mom and stepdad this before I left, incase it ever came down to it. But while I was at my dads’ I had told everyone to follow my instructions to the period. That is what saved my family’s lives. We all lived (as far as I know of course). Communication was down, entire cell towers down, nobody could contact anyone. Except through face to face communication. Everyone got in my truck, including my dad, stepmom, brother, sister, dog, sister, and her fiancé. We drove for miles, getting as far as we could from the radioactive zone. We had escaped, we drove to Ontario, Canada, where the Canadian government was taking in refugees from the danger zone. We stayed there for about a month, during that month period we learned that the TRSSR had sent the missile after their conquer of Ukraine. In retaliation the USA government sent a missile back at them and at one of their allies. Once again in retaliation the TRSSR sent missiles to India and Great Britain, and the USA in Washington, Mexico, South Korea, Germany, and Japan, the USA government sent one at TRSSR’s ally, China. The first missile should have been where it stopped, but the USA always has to have the final laugh. That was it, the nuclear fallout was devastating. Almost 6 billion people died in the initial blasts that were caused, and the radioactive poisoning that got them afterwards.

There was silence in the world for 6 months. After the 6-month period of silence, what was left of the world’s governments said that we were on our own. No more help from them, we were on our own. That when me and my family started setting up camp, me and my gf sharing a room, my sister and her fiancé, my brother and sister, and my stepmom and dad. It was scary, it was just us in our little camp, we hadn’t heard anything from anyone except the government in a month. That was how it was for about another 3 months, then I had had enough, someone needed to do something, I had just split with my one family and completely disappeared from the other, I NEEDED to find them, wherever they may be. So, I left, yeah, that’s right, I told my family and girlfriend that I was leaving, they wished me luck but at the same time begged me not to leave, I said I was going to be fine, not even fully believing that statement myself. I headed out one morning in my truck, and I headed to a location where I thought there might be a library. I was in this small, quaint little town, I guessed before the Great Fallout (that’s what I’m calling the nuclear war) that there was about 100 to 150 people in this tiny little town. While I was there, I found the library, and went inside, abandoned, just like the rest of this town. There was one thing that made me feel unsettled though, the groaning, I didn’t know what it was a first, I would soon find out for myself what the sound was coming from. As I was searching the library I found the martial arts section, books on all sorts of forms of martial arts. I kid you not, I grabbed EVERY book I could find on the arts and shoved them into my bag, I went next to the geography or for the simpler minded, the map section, I grabbed a map of Canada and then a map of the USA. Then I heard it again, the groaning, of something that sounded almost human, something that seems like it would be crying for help after the war. But that didn’t make sense to me, no one else was in this small town, why would there be one lone person? I went into this small room to investigate the sound, I opened the door, and saw it. This zombie like creature, staring at a wall, groaning and moaning away, me knowing what zombies are being very cautious, walked toward the figure, seeing if there might be some hope to saving this person. As I was about a foot and a half away, this thing turned around and shrieked at me, it tried to bite me (like what most zombies would). I kicked this thing’s legs out and ran, I ran like the wind, I was GONE. I escaped and ran to the nearest other building nearby. I got into the building, hoping that there would be no more zombies threatening my life, hoping that I would be able to relay the information that zombies exist to my family. I looked in the building and realized that this was a police station, getting hopeful but not too hopeful, because again, this is Canada. I looked in the armory room and found a suit for me to wear, a black suit with a vest, knee pads and arm pads, as well as a gas mask. I bet you can believe how happy I was to see that, already wearing a black hoodie, I could completely disguise myself from anyone at this point. I put on the gear and kept looking, I soon found a shotgun and a handgun, no silencer in sight. Being pretty disappointed because If zombies were in huge hordes like they usually were in the zombie movies and zombie shows, then I need something that wouldn’t bring too much attention to me. I left the building without a silencer. I soon headed to what looked like a little store, realizing what benefit that this could have for me and my family, I headed there quick, inside there was a ton of chips, still partially frozen pizzas, water and tons of it, as well as soda. I noticed how much of this stuff that there was, enough to keep a family my size going for at least another 3 months. I didn’t have the bag space though, but I then remembered my truck. I brought my truck over and stashed as much food, water, soda, medicine, ANYTHING I could into that truck, as well as another pistol and some ammo I found in the security room of the little store. I got everything packed, and drove to a place I started to call home. I got there and my family were surprised to see me, they thought I wouldn’t come back. I gave them the supplies and stayed there for a while, maybe a month, practicing day and night with these martial arts skills practicing with a metal pole as a staff, and a sharpened sign post as a sword. Training and practicing day and night longing to be better at the arts to I could survive on my own. In the meantime, me and my dad trained with the guns, practicing with those in case it came down to it, I trained with my little brother on how to use a bow. Everyone was practicing or training on something, for our survival, this was necessary. Every day for about a month, you could see the significant amount of strength and skill we all gained, slowly but surely getting well prepared for what should possibly come. When that month mark hit, I decided I needed to leave for real this time. I gave my father my pistol and shotgun, I took a spare bow, brought my staff and makeshift sword, hugged my loved one’s goodbye for now, I packed the maps and some water bottles with some rations, and I left.

 I immediately started heading for the border of Canada and the USA I gunned it where I could, stopped at significant places, like stores for food and water, and police stations for armor and weapons. Taking down a zombie or two whenever it came necessary, being as quick and silent as possible. I got to the border and I found the first sign of other human life that was not a zombie. Being cautious I drove the truck close by, got out and stood in silence. The people at the gate looked like soldiers while as the same time, looked nothing like them. They asked who I was, I responded with silence. They told me to put my hands up, I responded with silence and no movement, that’s when the leader came out. This man, looked like a soldier and acted like one. He told me that he would like to talk to me, I agreed with a nod. He came towards me hands in front of him, keeping his hand away from his weapon, I did the same. He came close to me and asked, “What are you doing here stranger?” I looked him dead in the eye, through my mask and said, “I’m finding my family.” He looked at me, as if he was scanning for something, maybe finding some lie that I could possibly be telling, he was looking at me as if he was wanting something more from this stranger that appeared out of nowhere. He let me pass through, even giving me some more rations and ammo. His name was Sergeant Todd, he said he lost his son at the beginning of the Great Fallout, he said that if I ever saw him, to tell him that his dad is looking for him, I agreed to tell him. As I started driving from Ontario, I made my way into Minnesota, or as my family liked to call it, “Tiny Pop”. I got into this town, that was freezing cold, (like you’d expect from anywhere up North) that’s when I saw my first big horde of zombies, you better believe it, its as if the were migrating from the north to the south. There were HUNDREDS of these guys, ranging from big tall zombies, to small children zombies, there was just so many. I turned off my truck immediately, not wanting to bring too much attention to myself. I stayed in the truck and waited for the zombies to pass, it was one whole day before these zombies fully passed by. As soon as they passed by, I turned on my truck and I noticed that the check engine light was on. Fan-freaking-tastic. I couldn’t do anything at the moment, I started driving and heading towards Indiana, I looked at the map of the USA to where my hometown would be and I saw that it would be about a twelve-and-a-half-hour drive from where I was. So, I started driving, and driving, and driving, only stopping to get gas and stocking up on more rations.

I stopped some point in a place called Madison, Wisconsin, and I saw a little girl, she was just wandering in the streets holding her stuffed animal, I felt terrible for her, she looked about 5 or 6. I stopped and got out of the truck to see her, you know, check on her to see if she’s okay, maybe find her parents or caretakers after the Great Fallout. I got to her and realized this wasn’t a girl, or a living thing for that matter. It was a life size walking doll, then I heard yelling and shouting sounding like a bunch of people making war cries. It was a trap. I immediately pulled out my staff, not wanting to kill these people, because they might be able to help me survive this terrible world or possibly give me information on my friends and family. I started swinging and beating these people back away from me, that when I heard a familiar voice. It was Kate. Now, little back story, Kate was a really good friend of mine back when school was still existent, and at this time it was a little under a year since we had seen each other. She was part of my group of friends, Daten, Petan, Kaly, Austen, and Isabella. Enough of the backstory. I screamed as loud as I could, “KATE!!” Everyone that was trying to capture me, went silent and stood still. Kate backed away in confusion, “Who are you?” She asked, I took off my mask and brought down my hood and looked at her and said, “Remember me now?” She lit up and in a joking manner said, “Man I thought you’d already be dead by now.” I responded, “Ouch.” We both laughed and started talking. She told me that when she got the alerts on her phone she was actually hanging out with Kaly, Petan, and Isabella. I was confused on why they weren’t with her, then I remembered my actions before the Great Fallout, I dropped Daten off at his house Kate probably did or had the same thing happen to her. She explained that her gang here was under her command, confused yet again, I asked “Kate, you’re 18, how are all these people following you? Not because I don’t think you could be a leader, its just I’d figure they’d put someone older in charge.” She responded, “I found them here after I started making my way away from the Blast Zone, we set the traps for zombies and humans, in fact, some of the people here we helped because they fell for the trap.” I asked, “So why did you attack me??!!” “Well”, she responded, “We saw that you were in a vehicle and armed to the teeth, wearing armor and having a whole load of weapons. Causes for some alarm don’t you think?” I thought to myself that that would probably be the correct course of action. We kept talking into the night and just hung out, she offered me some food, water, and sleeping quarters, responded with a polite “No” I slept in my truck and ate some of my rations, I didn’t want to take the small amount of whatever they had with them, I’m not that type of person. In the morning I left a note saying that I am leaving and heading to the Blast Zone to find my family and the rest of my friends if they’re still alive that is… I figured that the farther down south I go, the more signs of zombies I’ll see, which is pretty logical, considering the fact that zombies seem to move away from the cold, as well as humans, it’s a natural primal instinct to stay away from the cold. I wasn’t going to head too far down south unless I had a group of about 50 people armed with armor and weapons, too much of a risk. I made my way to Chicago, Illinois, a truly beautiful city, destroyed with fallout, zombies, and overgrowth. I was exploring the city looking for any possible sign of survivors. I decided that if there were any survivors, then they’d be high up, were they could be seen by helicopter, and stay away from the zombies. As I’m walking through the city I see something that catches my eye, (redundant, I know) I head toward what looks to be a human, but definitely was not, but it wasn’t a zombie either, this creature, crawled on all fours, with plants like weeds and moss growing on and out of its back. It was what I decided to call the Crawlers, mutants from the Great Fallout, and I’m guessing they were zombies infected with more radiation and completely changed. I noticed they were crawling all over the streets of the city, in patterns seemed like total chaos to me. Then it dawned on me, they couldn’t see me, they couldn’t smell me, they could only hear me.

I looked down the street that I was on, and saw a hooded person with a mask sneaking around some of the Crawlers, they saw me and signaled to pay attention, I watched closely. This person threw a rock at a car, making the car alarm go off, the Crawlers shrieked and squealed like pigs and ran as fast as they could towards the car and started jumping on it and scratching at it as much as they could, until that car was completely pounded into the ground. With horror I looked at the person, they couldn’t tell my reaction though, I was under the mask as well. They signaled for me to follow them, I did so, I followed them into this building, they closed the doors quickly but quietly, then barricaded them. The person then took off their mask, it was a man, he had a scar on his face, and was blind in one eye, 6’3, much taller than me (5’8), he had a beard, and was bald. He put his finger to his lip and said, “Shh, be quiet, they will hear you.” I shook my head in acknowledgement. I followed him up several flights of stairs, both of us growing tired as we climbed. We reached the top and there was a locked door with a slide open metal window on it. He knocked quietly and said what I learned to be the code phrase for, “I found a survivor.”, he said “The crow has brought us bread.” The window opened, and I saw two very stunning green eyes, the eyes looked us up and down and unlocked the door. The door opened and I couldn’t believe my eyes, there was about 50 people all on this building top, setting up more housing space on top. They welcomed the bald man, I learned his name, or at least the name he was given. His name was Bruiser, and I could see why, he looked like he hit hard. No one knew my name, and honestly, I didn’t care to give it, I would only say my name if I saw one of my family members or friends there. I was meeting people left and right, I met an older lady, maybe late 70’s saying that she lost her daughter after the Great Fallout, a young boy maybe 12 said his lost his family to a group of mutants, and a guy about my age saying that a group of raiders came and kidnapped his younger sister and mother. These stories were all about the same for every other person, the Great Fallout caused a lot of pain for a lot of people. I was introduced to the leader, his name that was given to him was Heimdall, I then recognized those eyes. The man that let me and Bruiser in was the leader. I understood now, Heimdall is the one who lets people in. Heimdall said that If I wanted to stay any longer, I’d have to survive The Pit for at least 5 fights. I was confused at first, he said that only the strongest survive and can stay here, that made me worry about the capabilities of that lady in her 70’s. I then learned that The Pit was in a basement of the building, so I had to go all the way down those stairs and then, if I “Survive” The Pit, then I’d have to climb back up all those stairs again.

We went to the pit, and I was up against that guy that was around my age, he said that if he beat me then I’d have to leave, but I’d also have to help him find his sister and mother, but If I did win, then I didn’t have to. I agreed to those terms (even though I’d help him anyways). This guy did wrestling, that was clear as hell. But he didn’t know that I did all sorts of forms of martial arts, I used some Karate and did some blows to his side with my knee, then I tackled him and used the wrestling training and practice that I had and held him down. I ended up choking him out because he didn’t tap out. He just took it, he passed out and laid there, sleeping. I picked him up and put him outside the pit. Mind you, I’m doing all this while wearing my combat suit, this stuff is heavy, I just can’t make myself vulnerable in anyway, people can’t know anything about me, and I mean ANYTHING. I’m on to the next person, some chick who thought she was better than every one there, would just jump on me and try and choke me, me being the person I am, not wanting to hurt her, I just pushed her off and threw her outside the pit. I was considered winner by default because I was the only person in the pit. Next fight was interesting, there was twins in the pit. They called themselves the “Deadly Duo”, how original I thought. These guys were two 14-year old’s, they were 2 years younger than me. Pretty scary when there’s two of them. But they didn’t last very long in the pit, they kept trying to show off, I simply just punched them in the stomach to knock the air out of them and let them twist and turn on the floor. While the were gasping for air, I asked them if they wanted to just let me win and let them leave the pit. They responded by shaking their heads up and down. I picked them up one at a time and set them outside the pit, letting them rest. That was my third win so far, doing pretty good, feeling a little tired, but not too much to scare me. My next fight was against mutant Crawler that seemed to have to humanity left in them. It was strange, they could talk and understand what was being said just fine, they just couldn’t see or smell, they kept jumping at me and biting at me but I eventually had to do what needed to be done, I slammed this thing on the ground and broke its back. I felt terrible, but if it meant me being completely annihilated by this creature, I chose my life first. At this point I was onto my last battle, I saw outside the pit that the guy that I beat in the first round had finally woken up, he was looking in so much despair, people were comforting him and calming him down because he really needed someone to help him. I didn’t at all feel bad, I already knew I was going to help him anyways, so I just ignored him. This was it, the 5th and final battle. I was waiting, for about 5 minutes, before someone finally decided to fight me. It was Bruiser, (Congrats if you saw this coming, I sure didn’t) He walked into the pit, this man is 6 inches taller than me, a literal full on man, looks a lot like Kratos, and he was not afraid to fight what so ever. I think that’s what scared me most, he showed no emotion, no fear, no sadness, no anger, no disappointment, nothing. He just simply put himself in a ready fighting position and stared at me dead on. I was scared out of my mind. It was time, all I could here was the sound of people shouting “3! 2! 1! FIGHT!” fade away. He moved quick for a guy his size, he threw a punch, it hit me head on in the face. I was in complete shock and disarray, it hurt, I knew for sure that it’d leave a bruise, oh, right, Bruiser I thought. I didn’t let that bother me though, I immediately dived for his legs, pushing him down, he hit his head on the floor and shouted in pain, I ignored it, because if I didn’t make it out of this without losing, then I would NOT be safe for the next night. I pinned him on the ground and kept punching him time after time after time again in the face. He was real bloodied up in the face now, but that didn’t compel him to stop. He stood up and took a huge swing at my side, it connected. Oh lord it hurt, I immediately felt the air get knocked out of me, I fell to the ground, this man had the audacity to feel proud of knocking down someone 6 inches shorter than him. I wasn’t going to have that. I stood up despite not being able to breath and I punched him in the throat. He immediately started gagging and gasping for air. He fell to the ground and ended up passing out. I had won, me, a 16-year-old kid, almost 17 in a month, beat a man who looked to be in his late 30’s who had a crazy 6 pack set of abs with muscles the size of an elephant’s trunk. That’s right, I’m safe for tonight. I got up to talk to that guy that was my age, see if I could comfort him in telling him I that I was going to help him anyways. He was so relieved, he said his name was Nathaniel. He’d been living there since the beginning, him and his father that is. It turned out that Heimdall was his father, and they actually lived in the city with all this started to happen. I decided to go up high with a few other people and just stay there, it was a smart move, you never know what might happen.

The next day me and Nathaniel tried to get someone else to come with us, because groups of 3 are always better than groups of 2. The only person that wanted to go with us was that 12-year-old boy who had no family left. Nathaniel decided as the person that was leading us to where the raiders were headed that the boy could go. The boy said his name was Sam, he was a shrimpy kid, not very strong at all, short for his height, barely any flesh on his bones. But we left with him anyways, we left the barricaded building at night to find that the mutants were asleep, good to know that they sleep during the night, that gives us of safety. We went out quietly and slowly, seeing that there were a few regular zombies with the mix, that we’d need to hurry. Zombies don’t move quick, as far as I know, the Crawlers do though. As we moved away, the zombies would moan and groan at us, snarling and showing their teeth, the Crawlers didn’t like that. As soon as they heard from those zombies, they were on top of them beating and clawing them to death. That’s when we knew that we really needed to leave. We hurried to my truck, and got in quietly, trying to close the doors as quietly as possible. We pulled away quickly and started driving on a highway, moving away quickly we started to relax, getting away from the danger. That’s when it happened, we heard a big BANG on our roof, panicked I swerved, and kept driving, the banging wouldn’t stop, something was hitting the top of the truck. I decided to do a quick break check, then we saw a crawler fly off the truck and start scampering towards us. It pounded on the glass and cracked it. Not wanting to risk the security of my truck anymore, I opened the door and jumped out. I pull out my makeshift sword and started slicing at the Crawler that was running right at me. 2 quick strikes and it was dead. We all were in silence, but you could feel the fear and panic that we all felt. I got in the truck and we drove and this time feeling a lot more relaxed, we started to carry out a conversation. “So, Nathaniel, where ya from?” I asked trying to break the ice, “Wow, he talks more than I thought.” He retorted, “Fair enough, I won’t ask.” Nathaniel responded, “Sorry, just nervous and scared, I’m from Indiana, moved up north after the blast.” I said, “Okay, first, call it the Great Fallout, it sounds cooler.” We all three laughed, He responded back to me, “Okay, that was the first thing?” “Oh yeah,” I said, “Second thing, I’m from Indiana as well.” “No kiddin?” He said, “Yeah, Bloomington, pretty close to the initial blast.” Thinking back to the event we all got quiet and seemed discouraged. “What about you Sam, you live anywhere before Chicago, Illinois?” “No.” The quiet boy responded, “Alrighty,” I said, “We almost there Nathaniel?” “Yeah, just about 5 minutes away.”

We kept going, then we arrived, I could see the glows of fire and here the chatter of humans. We snuck closer and kept watch, Nathaniel was clenching his teeth together, and had a grip on his hammer, “Nathaniel,” I said, “Don’t do ANYTHING, I got this.” I walked into the camp, with my armor and weapons. I walked in the front gate, and I heard guns and bows draw back everywhere, If I do anything stupid now, I would die. There was about 75 people with weapons watching me, 100 total people, the other 25 seemed to be children, I said, “I’m going to talk to the leader right now!” An older man walked forward and said, “We have no leader, it is a council.” I responded, “There is 2 other young men with me here today, and we request a meeting with the council.” The elderly man said, “I will discuss this with the council.” The man walked away and so did the rest of the council, the rest of the people kept their weapons pointed at me, not letting me go anywhere. I stood there with so many weapons pointed at me, if someone made the wrong move, I would simply be dead in a heartbeat. I waited for 15 freaking minutes, waiting, and waiting, and waiting. The man came back and said that we could talk to the council, I requested to get Nathaniel and Sam, the allowed me to go. I walked away and the guns and bows still aimed at me as I walked out scared me, “Would this be a trap?” I thought, I left and got the guys and we walked back in. The guns stayed pointing at us and we walked into the council chamber. As we got in we saw so much food, guns, ammo, water, clothes, blankets, everything you could imagine. Then I remembered, these were raiders, they took this from other people. They KILLED for this stuff, it was a terrible thought. We were sitting in the council chamber and then Nathaniel pointed out his mother sitting at one of the council seats. He cried with tears of joy, the old man asked, “What’s his deal?” I responded, “One of your council members is his mother, you took her and her daughter from him.” The old man responded, “That was a while ago, that is when our old leader The Hunter was in charge.” Nathaniel asked to see his mother, the council said it was okay. Nathaniel asked his mother, “Mom, where’s sis?” His mother looked at him with a grey sadness in her eyes, she said, “I’m sorry, she was attacked by some zombies, she turned and there wasn’t anything we could do, I’m so sorry honey.” He cried and cried for the rest of the night, I felt terrible for him. It was sad, I went and hug out with Sam while Nathaniel was with his mom, we relaxed I taught him how to play some card games, like Solitaire, War, Texas Hold Em, Uno, just a whole bunch of random games. We rested there for the rest of the night, meeting new people and just relaxing feeling somewhat safe, but always being cautious. People would keep asking my name, but then Sam came to my rescue, he said that my name was “The Lone Assassin” they referred to me as that for the rest of the time that I was there. Both Nathaniel and Sam came to me the next day while we were at the camp and said they wanted to talk to me. Nathaniel said, “Dude, I’m sorry, were staying here, in fact, we plan on storming the city and getting rid of the Crawlers, and were going to pull the people out of the building and move them here. It’s bigger and more secure here. We’ll be staying.” I completely understood, then Sam said he wanted to talk to me privately, he said to me, “Hey, Ash, and I bet you’re wondering how I know you’re name, I looked at your license while you weren’t paying attention, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, but anyways, I’m staying to be here for Nathaniel, because his younger sister died, I’m going to try and act as his younger brother and be here for him, honestly, he’s like a brother to me, good luck on your journey.” I kid you not, I cried, it was sweet of him to do that, it was awesome that he cared enough to do that for Nathaniel, I’m not worried about myself, I’ll be fine, I’m just worried about them. I told them good luck on them storming the city, and I left.

 I headed for Indy, ah yes, I remember coming here with my step dad to look at the Indy 500 race track, it was so cool, so many cool things in Indy. I drove on the highway all the way there, I saw so many car accidents and cars destroyed, plants growing onto the road, zombies just wondering everywhere, barely any Crawlers though, I think that Crawlers are in big cities, so at the time, I wasn’t to ready to go the Indy, I was scared and nervous as hell. I got there and sure enough, there was a ton of Crawlers, and I mean a TON. They were everywhere, just scampering around on their hands and feet, I have to remember that these were once human beings, or possibly still are, they don’t have any control over what they’re doing, they’ve been infected with something, causing them to go crazy like this. I moved farther into the city on foot, and came to another police station to raid, got more ammo, armor, and guns. I went to the store nearby and gathered some more rations, then I came across my first zombie that runs, this thing was fast too, running at speeds that I didn’t even think were humanly possible, then again, they may not even be human anymore. I decided to call these zombies Runners, (original I know) I barely even had time to react, I pull out my staff as fast as I could and smacked this thing in the face, knocking it to the ground, I then proceeded to pound its head with the pole. “He won’t be able to get me now.” I said to myself. I gathered the rest of my rations and left the store, I went to a planet fitness, to see about me practicing my martial arts to stay good at it, I walked in and I couldn’t believe it, it was quiet, no zombies, no crawlers, no nothing. I was overjoyed, I started training in my gear, working with all this wait on me made me stronger and quicker for whenever I didn’t have the gear on me. I trained for about 5 hours straight, that’s when I heard the door open. I quickly got my bow and pointed it at the door, it was people. Two of them in fact. Two people that looked incredibly familiar. It was Kaly and Petan, it was my friends. I was so happy I couldn’t even describe it, I took off my mask and ran towards them to give them a hug, they were shouting and laughing, we were all crying tears of joy, it was incredible. We sat down and talked, I explained to them where I came from and what had happened the whole way here, they explained to me that they headed for Indy and stayed there as soon as they got the alert. They have been coming here to the Planet Fitness everyday to work out and stay fresh and healthy, congrats to them. I explained that I knew where Kate was, I told them to head to Madison, Wisconsin and stay there with Kate, I told them to be on the lookout for a life size doll and to shout who you are as soon as you find it. They understood and then we slept there for the night. In the morning we headed our separate ways. As far as I knew, I might never see them again, whether it be from them not making it to Wisconsin, or me not making it from the Blast Zone. I looked around in Indy and found a research lab that had a radioactive suit and a Geiger counter, boy I was a happy camper. I gathered my supplies up, and I practiced shooting zombies and crawlers from a rooftop with my bow, then I left.

It was time to head to Bloomington Indiana, the center on the Blast Zone, about a mile in every direction from Crane Naval Base was destroyed and burnt to a crisp, just remembering what I learned about nuclear explosions told me that, so In, reality some parts of Bloomington would just be highly irradiated, no doubt killing off most of the people there. I made it to Bloomington, seeing a whole bunch of Crawlers in the radiated fog I slowly got out of my truck and headed in the direction of my mom’s house, “Maybe she left a note...” I hoped, I got into the house, no cats in sight, that means that the fam took them wherever they went. I kept looking around, lots of the essentials were taken, even from my room, I looked on the fridge, and saw a note. It read, “Ash, I know that you’d come here and look at the fridge, considering how much you eat, it’d just be habit for you to check the fridge, so I’m telling you that we have headed south, we are all okay, we survived the initial blast, and we have headed to Florida and are living with your great aunt, you remember the place. If you see the note, please make sure to try and visit. Love you son, your brother and sister say hi, and so does your stepdad!” I cried after I read the note, it sounded exactly like my mom, I remember seeing them the last time I was with them, I miss them so much. I’m headed to Florida. I stored the note in my main bag and grabbed a few things that my siblings and parents may want, and a few of my own things and sped off. Florida here I come.

I started speeding down the Interstate, only stopping for gas, I had to dump anything open in my truck and leave it, not wanting to get radiation poisoning. I stopped about 100 miles out of Indiana and got a big bucket of water from a river, using a Geiger Counter I tested the water, it was clear, I used the water and washed anything I had brought from my house with it, as well as myself, hygiene is important anywhere. I cleaned everything from my truck, to my sibling’s toys that I brought for them. I made sure everything was safe enough to bring and started heading to Florida once again. I passed through Nashville, Tennessee. I remember going there with my dad and step mom when I was younger and just goofing around with all the things that we could find there. Those were good times, but those times are over. Now is the time to be grown up and find my family. As I was passing through Alabama I started to notice a lot more crawlers, and I mean a LOTTT. I was right, they migrate towards the heat. I don’t blame them. I stopped at the gulf coast in Alabama, knowing that’s where my Grandparents would’ve stayed, I traveled to the location where their winter house would’ve been, yep, still intact, I went to it and looked in the window. I saw them, my grandparents and their dog. Corpses just lying on the couch of their winter house, I would assume it was from a heart attack from knowing what had happened in the world. I left and headed for where my family would be, in sweet Pensacola, Florida. I found my great aunt’s house and went to the front door and knocked. No answer, I knocked again, no answer, I knocked for the third time hoping, just hanging on a thread of hope that they might still be alive. As I started to walk away, I heard the door swing open and heard my mother’s voice shout, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”, I turned around and she pointed a gun at me and I realized that I was still wearing my mask, I pulled it off as fast as I could a shouted, “MOM, MOM, ITS ME!!” She looked in surprise and cried and started sobbing I ran to her and gave her a big hug, I missed her, she missed me. I felt joy and comfort, knowing that my family was alive. I walked inside and saw my siblings, my stepdad, my older sister who I hadn’t seen in about 7 years, as well as my great aunt. Everyone ran to me and gave me a huge hug, I gave my younger siblings their gifts and my parents their little knickknacks. We all rested and talked that night and just relaxed, explaining everything that had happened, except for the parts that wouldn’t be to safe for my siblings to hear about. Those talks would come later on in the night once they’ve gone to bed. I told my parents of the safe places and the friends the I was able to find on the way, the weapons and armor I’ve gathered for the moment I did find them. They thanked God for everything, I thanked Him with them. We slept well that night, we decided to go for a swim at the beach, after first clearing the zombies and Crawlers from the area. I went out there on the beach and started clearing away the zombies and Crawlers, having to deal with a Runner or two, the bow was really helpful in this situation, being able to pick them off at a safe distance. Once enough were cleared away I went and tested the water with my Geiger Counter, it was safe. I relaxed with my family in Florida for about a little less than a month. I finally decided that we can’t stay here, its not as safe as it is up north. My Step dad was too happy about that, he hates the cold, my siblings were excited to move to where all the snow is, (In reality, from all the nuclear heat that was caused it ruined the weather cycle to where there isn’t that much snow there anymore, it’s still cold, just not much snow.). My family finally caved in, we go a truck cover for the back and everyone piled in to my truck, praying that my family wouldn’t go through all the rations. Then I realized, WE ALMOST FORGOT THE CATS! I ran back inside, grabbed the cats and put them in their crates. That’s when we started our great journey up north.

 I stopped In Memphis, Tennessee, and told the family to stay in the car and be as quiet as possible, I told them whispering was allowed, just don’t be talking at full volume and not to shout. I gave my sister, mom, and Stepdad a machete for silent defense. I got out and started looking around, I didn’t tell my family why we were here, I was here to find Daten, Austen, and Isabella. That’s 3 more people to try and fit into a truck, 3 random people that my family members didn’t know all too well, 3 more mouths to feed. I started to search, I went into another police station and found some weapons and ammo, as well as a megaphone. “I finally get to use one of these.” I thought to myself. I brought the supplies back, but hid the megaphone. I said to my mom, “I’m heading back out to get more supplies like food.” She looked at me, she had a disbelief, “You’re lying about something” She said. “Shoot” I thought, “Okay, I admit it, I’m not just going to get more supplies, I’m going ALONE to find some of my friends that said that they’d be here.” She looked at me with concern and sadness, I hated that, I looked away immediately, not wanting to look her in the eyes, “Be careful.” She said, I saw the tears in her eyes, I understand why she was crying, we had just reunited after almost a full year, of course she’d be sad. “I love you mom, I’ll be fine, just stay with the truck. If I don’t come back in a day’s time, just leave, okay?” She looked at me with more concern, (probably shouldn’t have brought up the “If” part) she said, “Seriously, I’m not losing you again, stay safe.” I nodded and gave her a big hug, I gave everyone a hug, not even sure If I’d ever see them again, I stayed with them for the rest of the day and left the next morning. I went looking around the city watching the Geiger counter, making sure to mark down any unsafe zones to rule out for search. Then I did it, I used the megaphone, I shouted through the megaphone, “HEY!! ANYONE OUT HERE?” I think that was a mistake, I heard so much rustling from the rubble, a whole horde of Crawlers started crawling out. Readying myself to fight off these monsters, grabbing my sword and having it ready, then I heard a loud shout, “ATTACK!!” I huge wave of people, maybe about 100 of them started running out from the buildings and started shooting and attacking the Crawlers. I didn’t recognize any of the people, immediately feeling down, but relieved. The army of people wiped out the Crawlers and few zombies that were around, in a quick 5 minutes all the Crawlers and zombies were dead, everyone started laughing and socializing with each other, relaxing and being happy that they got rid of these zombies. Some woman that seemed that she was leading the group came up to me and asked who I was, I didn’t say anything, but remembering what Sam said about me, I said, “I am the Lone Assassin.” The woman leading looked with a grin, “Good to have you here, anyone else come with you?” I responded, “Depends, would you kill them if I brought them here?” The woman said to me, “Not unless you threaten us more than the zombies.” I smiled and said that I’d be back, I went back to my family and they were overjoyed to see me, I explained that there was a group of people that had basically saved my life, and that they seemed friendly enough and were letting us stay for some time. My mom and step dad being hesitant said that they’d need to get some proper judgement first, and that they wanted to meet them first. I reluctantly agreed, considering the fact that my siblings would only be left with each other, my older sister who doesn’t have that much weapons training, and my great aunt, not exactly an ideal apocalypse team. I wished my siblings luck and headed with my parents, we got to the group of people and they started talking to my parents and just making conversation, talking about life before the Great Fallout. I remember it so well, I miss those days, the days where I could play video games during the day and game with my friends, the days I played video games with my parents. The days that I went to sports games with my Step dad. Those, those were the days, I miss them. My parents decided that my judgement was correct and that these people were safe enough. We went back and got my siblings and great aunt, them looking as bored as ever. We got in the truck and drove to the group, they woman told us to follow them to their camp, we followed.

As we were nearing the camp I saw hundreds and hundreds of tents and fire smoke coming up from all over the place, realizing what type of place this was, I got more hope for finding my friends. Upon the arrival of the fighting party you could hear cheering and whooping from all over the area, being paranoid from the other cities, thinking that the Crawlers and zombies might get us. This was a safe haven, no concern was needed, I went and looked around the woman showing me everything and basically giving me a tour of the place. I asked her If I could talk to the main leader in charge, she said sure and started leading me in a different direction, then she stopped and turned around. “Hello!” She said, “You must be the Lone Assassin.” It took me a second because I’m kind of slow that way, then I realized, “Ohhh, you’re the leader.” She nodded and laughed, “You bet I am, now, what’s so important that you needed to talk to me about.” I told her that I was looking for 3 friends, Daten, Austen, and Isabella, further explaining that they said that they’d come here. Looking for a sign in her face to know if they were actually here or not, she then said after silence for a minute, “Oh yes, I think I know them, follow me.” So, I did, we walked, and we walked, and we walked for about 1000ft, seeing that the tents went on forever, then she took me to this giant pole, and brought me to one of the tents. I looked at the tent and there was a sign on it, the sign read, “Please don’t come in unless you are our friend from Indiana.” Being grateful that they didn’t give my actual name I ran inside and there they were, eating some food that looked to be mutated deer. Revolted at first but incredibly relieved to find them, I went and gave them each a big hug, not knowing this stranger in a mask that was hugging them they immediately started pointing their weapons at me, Daten having a sawed-off shotgun, Austen having 2 makeshift small swords, and Isabella having a pistol, they ask, “Who the hell are you?” I then again remembered, “Right, the mask, can’t tell how many times I’ve had this happen to me before.” I took off the mask and they looked in shock, Austen and Isabella giving me a huge hug and Daten patting me on the back welcoming me back. I said to them that I know were Petan, Kaly, and Kate were and that we needed to go see them. They all looked at me in confusion, Daten said, “What do you mean go and see them? We can’t leave.” Realizing what this could mean, I silently whispered, “You guys aren’t allowed to leave?” They shook their heads no in silence, but Daten pointed to the ground and said lipped the words, “Come back later.” I wished them a goodnight after talking to them a bit more and then left, the leader still waiting outside the tent door, asked as I walked out, “Was it your friends that you were looking for?” She was wearing a mischievous grin on her face, I responded, “Yes it was.” I then asked for her to led me to my family’s tent location. She led me to our tent and I turned in for the night. I silently explained to my parents that my friend we’re practically being held hostage here, and that we need to leave tonight, my parents got my siblings and great aunt and explained that we were moving somewhere different, being careful not to lead the family into a fire’s light to hide our shadow, I led them to my friend tent and went inside, there they were, they looked at me and said, we have been waiting to reveal and use this until you got to us. They tore up a flap from the tent floor and revealed a trap door, they opened it and there was a ladder all the way down, it looked about 10 feet deep, but at the bottom I saw what seemed to be cement. We all crawled down and I recognized this place, it was a sewer system. My friends explained that they mapped out the locations of all the sewer entrances and made their tent there. This is how we escaped, we started following the system for what seemed miles, we made it to a landmark, my friends called it “The End”. At The End there was a sign that said, climb up here to get out of Hostage Hill, I asked my friends, “Hostage Hill? What does that mean?” They looked at me like I was an idiot, they replied to me saying, “We were just at Hostage Hill idiot, people get “saved” by the killing parties and are forced to stay there, if they try to leave they either A. get killed or B. get beat senselessly.” That was not something I wanted to hear. We hurried up and started climbing that ladder, we got out of the man hole and stood around blinded by the light. That didn’t make sense though, we weren’t even walking in the sewers for 3 hours, the light was coming from a whole bunch of headlights.

We were surrounded, and trapped, they had found us. My mother yelled at my friends saying that they led us into a trap, they responded in fear saying that they hadn’t. The leader jumped down from one of the cars and said, “They didn’t lead you to a trap.” My mom being the awesome person she is, charged at the woman and slammed her down and started beating her. I was in shock and awe, she was a total badass, kicking this woman’s butt, that’s when the guns started firing though, we all jumped to cover, as well as my mom, the Hostage Hill Milita was firing at us, trying to defend their terrible dictator. We fired back, I used my bow and got some sneaky shots In. Not trying to kill these people my family and friends decided to take low shots to the legs or feet, or we’d try and shoot them in the arms or hands. It was sad, this was the biggest fire fight any of us had been in, and it seemed like the Milita was losing. But that’s when an uprising began, the citizens of Hostage Hill charged at the Milita and started to shoot them and beat them down. My parents, friends and siblings standing behind cover hid from the fire fight and the battle. Not me. I wanted to help these people of Hostage Hill, I ran in there and started taking down Milita members left and right, there was no way I was going to let them win, I took one big guy down then a smaller guy, just fighting and fighting, blood and spit everywhere. It was chaos, but amongst the chaos, a woman walked towards me, slowly creeping and stalking. That’s when I felt it, I felt a knife plunge right through my stomach, it hurt. I felt sick, I felt the sound leaving me. I fell to the ground, I heard my family and friends scream, this woman stood over me and said, “You should’ve never left, you cowardly scum.” I was bleeding out, if I didn’t get medical attention immediately I would die. As the woman was walking towards my family, I pulled out my bow and mustered as much strength as I had left and I shot the bow right into her neck. I then passed out. According to my family and friends, I woke up 3 days later stitched up and hurt, like hurt BAD. I couldn’t walk all to well, it hurt my stomach too much. The doctor that stitched me up said that I’d be fine in a couple months, I didn’t like that. I needed to be ready to defend my family and friends, as well as any other defenseless creature or person out there. I was not going to listen to the doctor, I was going to train anyways. My family walked in the room where I was being taken care of and told me about what happened during the rest of the battle, the woman that stabbed me died, and the people of Hostage Hill took over, granting freedom to the Milita, just not allowing them to have any weapons, the colony of people decided to relax at Hostage Hill until they could figure out a better place to go to survive this apocalypse, little did they know I had the perfect place to go. Every day for the next 3 months, I trained, during that time I turned 17, not a big party, considering I was “bed ridden” my family, friends, and the doctor didn’t know that I’d secretly been training and keeping fit while I was supposed to be “healing”. I finished my healing and ended up with an awesome scar. I decided to make it my goal to become the leader of the people of Hostage Hill, I got an election to happen, and I was able to get people to suggest my idea of going to the safe location. Sense I was the only person that knew of the safe location, they voted for me, wasn’t exactly my intent, considering that fact that I was going to try and win this election legit. Everyone got into vehicles and gassed up and stocked up on supplies for the trip. I had amassed an army of about 500 people and we were all heading in one direction, Chicago, Illinois.

 On the way there was the constant question from kids, “Are we there yet?” those poor parents, they were going to be dealing with that question for the next few hours, in fact, I even started asking myself that question, wondering when we’d arrive. We decided to stop for a bit at this little open field area off the interstate. Resting for the night, but always having people on guard, I was one of those people. That’s when I saw it, a huge horde of about 2,000 zombies heading our way, we were in a lot of trouble now, I alerted the guards quietly not wanting to cause a panic, our 500 could surely beat the 2,000, right? We woke up everyone and prepared for the worst having people who didn’t have weapons prepare the vehicles for departure. Then we unloaded our guns out on to those zombies. Row after row after row, zombies drop and fall to their death, realizing that we might actually have this we went easier on the shots. Little did we know that there was an army of Crawlers scampering our way from the woods, hearing all the gun shots. Panic rose amongst everyone, while the New Hostage Hill Milita fired repeatedly at the zombies and Crawlers. We were out there shooting for about 30 minutes, when it was all said and done, we had almost depleted our ammo supply, and we were incredibly tired. The next morning, we decided to head into a nearby city to find a National Guard station and a few police stations, and some gun stores, we raided and raided building after building, finding whatever we could find, ending up with over 500 pounds of just food, and over 10 extra rounds of ammo for every gun we had. Not to mention the fact that we got tons of police swat gear and riot armor, we basically were making our military at this point, arming everyone with something. Our next location was the hospital as well as any pharmaceutical agency we could find, moving in groups of ten to prevent too many people from leaving our caravan of vehicles and supplies, I went and stormed a hospital with 9 other people, Daten being one of them. It was everything you’d expect from an apocalyptic hospital, zombies everywhere. Easy when they move slow and there’s only so many to kill. We raided that place and got as much medicine as we possibly could. We left and met up with the other resource gathering parties and took account of what we had. We got back to the rest of the group and decided to move during the night, we knew now from my previous experience that the Crawlers sleep at night, and we could easily defend off a few zombies.

We were about 30 minutes from Chicago, Illinois, and I decided to make the New Hostage Hill people stay behind so I could check it out. I drove there as quickly as possible as I could, I needed to see if Sam and Nathaniel were still alive and working. I got to the raider camp, there was a sign, “Welcome to the home of the Friendly Raiders!” it read, “Kinda stupid if you ask me, but okay.” I went in the front gate and there was a barely anyone here, I yelled, “I have returned! I need to see Nathaniel and Sam quickly!” The Council ran out of their chambers and praised, “What were they praising for?” I thought, the old man from the council ran towards me and said that I would be the one to save them from the big beast in the city, I did not like the sound of that. The council called me into their chambers, in there was 3 people less than when I was last here, I asked where the other council members were, I got my answer. “It was 3 weeks ago, it was a relaxed day, just cleaning and bettering our camp and preparing for whatever may come, we weren’t ready for what came…” there was a pause, everyone looked down in despair, I saw some begin to show tears, something terrible had happened, “A beast, had attacked, gigantic in fact, it crawled on all fours, it didn’t have eyes, but “It” knew exactly where we were. We started firing at it as soon as it came in the gates, it killed about 25 of our people, including 4 council members, and 6 kids. But they attack wasn’t over, it kidnapped a few people as well, including your friends Sam and Nathaniel.” I looked at Nathaniel’s mom in the corner, she was sobbing, and they believed that I could save them? I’m one guy, I can’t do much against a beast that sounded like some sort of Mega Crawler, I didn’t know how to tell them that I wasn’t capable of defeating this thing. “Lone Assassin, please, you’re the only person who can save us.” That was it, I caved in. “Give me 2 hours at max, I’m going to bring people here to stay, they’ll provide extra protection and security.” The old man nodded and let me go get everyone else. I left and headed straight for the New Hostage Hill civilians, I told them to follow me. We started driving for the Happy Raider’s camp. I explained to my friends and family what had happened, “What’re you going to do about it?” my mom asked, “What I have to do.” I responded with a seriousness on my face, inside, I was freaking out, I didn’t know how I was going to pull this off. I led the caravan to the Happy Raider’s camp and introduced people to the council and other camp members. I went to the old man, he said to me, “I’ve decided to let you know my name,”, “Strange timing.” I said back, he then went on, “I am what the people of the Happy Raider’s camp call The Old Wise One, but you can call me Rick.” “Fair enough” I thought, “I am going to bring my friends to help me fight this beast.” I said, Rick responded, “That is fine with me, the more the better. Just be careful.” I nodded and left to get my friends, Austen, Daten, and Isabella were standing together in a corner talking to some other teens nearby, I explained that they were coming with me to fight a monster  of a Crawler, Daten was happy, he wanted to kill something, Austen was alright with it, as long as he got to bring something of his choosing, that was going to be debatable, and Isabella didn’t care either way. I went to my mom, and told her that I was leaving with Daten, Austen, and Isabella to get rid of the monster, she was worried, so was I. She wished me luck and gave me a hug like a good mother would, and we left.

We went deep into the city, where the building people were, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Bodies everywhere, ranging from human bodies, to zombies, to more Crawlers. There were hundreds of them, I looked around at the human bodies, sadness hit my face as soon as I saw the twins from the building colony, and I saw Heimdall’s cold body lying there. Flies were flying around the rotten corpses constantly, there were so many flies you could constantly here the buzzing wherever you stood. I signaled to my friends to be as quiet as possible, telling them that Crawlers respond to noise, I then signaled at my friends to follow me. We walked towards the now even more deteriorated building that had the other colony in it, we got inside and barricaded the doors quickly. I then proceeded to whisper to my friends, “There is a colony of people all the way up these stairs.” We went as quickly and quietly as we could up those stairs, getting incredibly tired. We reached the top, not wanting to knock and bring too much attention to myself, I tried to think of something to do to get the peoples attention. I remembered the code phrase, “The Crow has brought us bread.” The slide window opened, just wide enough to see those awesome eyes light up in excitement. The door swung opened and we were pulled through the door as fast as possible. Then it hit me, there was barely anyone here, I saw no Bruiser, no Sam, no Nathaniel, no Old Lady, no stuck up, snooty, better than anyone lady, there was no one, except me, Austen, Daten, Isabella, Heimdall, and a kid that looked about 8 years old. Heimdall rambled on and on about the monster that we already knew about, he said that from what he saw, the beast didn’t kill everyone right away, it only killed a few people, at first, but took the others. “Heimdall, have you happened to have possibly seen Sam or…” I remember now, Nathaniel was Heimdall’s son, I shouldn’t have said anything, Heimdall slowly walked towards the building’s edge and looked out amongst the rest of our dystopian world. “Heimdall, I’m so sorry, I was only trying to get information to help…” He looked far out and said, “Remember when our world was sweet? Remember those good old days where we didn’t have a care in the world? The days where we could just be happy? I remember, I remember it well, why did this have to happen to us? Just, why?” I started to cry, I did remember it, I remembered the beginning of it all, I remember the trauma I got from this, I do remember. It was scary, it was sad, I walked to Heimdall and pulled him away from the edge. I gave him a big hug, he cried on my shoulder, and I cried on his. We both needed to accept that were not in the “before”, but here in the “now”. I left him and the kid with some rations and ammo for a little care package, and we headed out into the city. Following the corpses, we found a giant hole in the ground, a hole that lead to the sewers, “Revolting” Isabella said, “Cooollll!!” Austen said, Daten then turned to me and said, “What’s next?” I responded, “We go in.”

It was so dark in there, it took a minute for our eyes to adjust, we looked around and saw bodies, hung up seeming to be infused with the wall. Horrified looks came from all of us, I could hear the trembling breaths of fear coming from my friends, knowing very well that I was indeed doing the same thing. We followed the main tunnel of bodies, we came to this chamber where we saw the fresh meat. I saw Nathaniel, Sam, Bruiser, and a few other people, they were alive, but seemingly not fully with it.