We reached our destination a little bit after that. Looking out the window, I saw trees and leaves covering the ground. The woods. The woods used to be my favorite. I used to always feel safe when I was in the woods. The boy stuck out his hand in front of me and said, “Hi, I’m Brody.”

“I’m Mackenzie,” I replied shaking his hand.

“Well Mackenzie, nice to meet you.”

“You too.” He hopped out and helped the little kids in the back out. They all went to the back and got all the stuff from the room out. I came out of the truck and offered to help carry some things. The little boy and girl started to lay out a tarp and the boy began to set up a tent. “Need help?” I asked. Setting up a tent came naturally to me. I used to go camping with my family a lot and setting up the tent always used to be my job. Then it hit me, I haven’t seen my family since I got here. I needed to find my little brothers. “Sure,” Brody replied interrupting my thoughts.

“Wait, uhh, sorry I can’t, I have to go.”

“Where are you going?”

“I need to go and find my little brothers”

“You can’t go. You’ll just be putting yourself in danger. “Making a run for it, I ran in the direction we came from with Brody chasing me from behind. After running for only a couple minutes, one of those same creatures that confronted us in the hallway was in front of me. I shut my eyes tight and clenched my fists, accepting the fact that the creature would eat me alive, but then something flew past my ear with the speed of lightning and a whoosh. The sound of dead leaves crackling filled the silent woods as well as the sudden stop of the object that flew past my ears. I opened my eyes slightly fearing I would just see the monster coming at me. Instead, I saw the creature lying with on the ground face up with an arrow stuck in its chest. The sight disgusted me. I turned around to see Brody with a crossbow in his and the little kids behind him. “If you go, you won’t be safe from the undead. You won’t have weapons or any protection. Come back to camp with us,” he said as he began to walk with the smaller kids back to where we were before.

I followed. He was right. If I left I probably would have no chance of survival. Those creatures would have got me before I could even find my brothers. When I caught up to them, I mumbled a thank you and he replied with,”You’re welcome.”

We got back to where all their stuff off and picked up where we left off before I ran. We decided that I could share a room with the little girl. During the next couple of days, we struggled to get food and water and Brody introduced the little kids to me.

“Mackenzie, this is Caleb,” he said while patting him on the back,” he’s 13.”

“Hi Caleb,” I said and got a hi back from him.

“And this is Lacey,” Brody said as he messed up her hair,” She’s 12.”

“Hi Lacey,” I said again and got another hi in return. We also got to know each other better over these days. I found out that Brody, Caleb, and Lacey were all siblings; you could easily see the family resemblance, and Brody was only a year older than me. Because he was much taller and bigger than me, I thought he would be at least 20, but in fact he was 18. He was hilarious, but he also was very serious when he had to be. His presence made you feel so relaxed, like you could just talk to him about anything that was on your mind. We became friends instantly which surprised me because I never opened up to people until I’ve known them for a quite a while, Brody had also gave me some nicknames like Mack, Kenzie, and M. Despite all the things that were happening around us, he kept a positive mind set. While telling me about his past, Brody mentioned that the undead had got his parent a while back. I could relate to him in a way because my parents had also died a while back, but in a car crash. Not knowing what he meant by the undead, I asked him about them. Were they the creatures that we came face to face with and the one chasing me earlier?

He told me they were zombies and said people also called them walkers, the undead, flesh eaters, and biters. They feasted on humans’ and animals’ flesh. Once a zombie bit someone, either more zombies would come and eat the rest of your flesh, or you would become one which was the most common scenario. Walkers were also attracted to sound, so if we used a gun to shoot one of the creatures, more would probably come. I also asked how I got to where I was before we left. He said that some people probably tried to mug me and left me in that building.
I also got to know the kids. Lacey was sweet, kind, jumpy, very hyper, talkative, and easy to get to know. She was also very fast, great with medical problems (as in healing wounds), and could be as quiet as a mouse when she needed to. Though Lacey and Caleb were very close, they were quite different. Caleb was quiet, calm, kept to him, and was very good with traps and hunting. His age also surprised me because he was so tall like Brody. He reminded me of one of my younger brother, Jackson, because he was the same age and had the same personality. Brody, Caleb, and Lacey all knew each other very well and were very close.

I missed my brothers a lot during these days. I was determined to find them, but if I left Lacey, Brody, and Caleb, I would’ve died and my brothers would have no one to protect them. And if I left, I would have no idea where to go because they could be anywhere, or maybe even dead. Chills went up my spine just thinking about that. I convinced myself that they were both alive. Knowing it was best to stay with Brody, I still struggled to stay.

After these days in the woods, we all got really hungry because we didn’t have much food and decided to go hunting. We began walking deeper into the woods. These woods in particular were really beautiful. The trees surrounded us and were so tall. Their colorful leaves fell from the sky like rain and made the ground like a rainbow. The sun shone bright above us and gave us warmth. After walking for quite a bit, we spotted something we had never imagined we would see. A deer. The first one in months, and it even looked healthy. As exciting as it was, we had to keep quiet or we would scare it away. Brody was about to get a little closer and shoot the deer, but Caleb stopped him and whispered, “Can I try?” Handing the bow to Caleb, Brody simply nodded. Caleb swiftly moved from behind a tree to behind another. Crouching down next to a tree, he pulled up the crossbow, but before he could, the sound of a shot rang through the air as well as a scream from Lacey. There was also a thump and crackle of the dead leaves. Across from Caleb, there was a man with a rifle pointed at where Caleb was standing. His face was filled with surprise and shock. The bullet had missed the deer and was in Caleb. Brody ran directly at the man, but he got up and ran. They ran forward and out of my site. Looking down at Caleb, I saw Lacey was by him and tending to him. I rushed to them to try to help.

Lacey commanded me to rip part of my sleeve off, which I did. She took it, crumpled it, and put it on Caleb’s chest with pressure. Caleb let out a slight moan. My light plaid sleeve became soaked in blood and you couldn’t tell it was once part of my shirt. With no knowledge of what to do in this situation, I was helpless, so I backed up and gave him some air. Brody came back with sweat all over and mumbled,”I didn’t get him,” with great anger in his voice. Immediately after, he knelt down at Caleb and asked Lacey,”Is he ok?”

With tears streaming down her face, she replied with, “I don’t know.” Brody began to tear up and grabbed Caleb’s hand. By now, Caleb was as pale as snow and the sleeve was drenched in blood. Lacey put two of her fingers on his neck to check his pulse. “I don’t feel it, “she said. Brody also checked and stated that he didn’t either. Lacey went down and gave Caleb a tender kiss on the cheek and Brody whispered something I couldn’t hear to him and gave him a kiss on the forehead. Tenderly, Brody took the bow at Caleb’s side. With tears rolling down her face, Lacey ran into Brody’s arms and he picked her up. Lacey looked just like a little baby in Brody’s arms with her face rested on his shoulder. “Let’s go,” Brody said with great sadness in his voice. He began walking with Lacey in his arms, but I abruptly interrupted his walked and asked, “Aren’t you going to take him?”
“We can’t,” was his reply. I didn’t question him because I knew he had his reasons. We began to walk slowly back to our campsite. For most of our walk, Brody and Lacey kept a good 75 feet distance in front of me. After walking for quite a bit, a big zombie came in between our distance. It was behind Brody and Lacey and its back was facing me. The zombie crept quietly behind them, not even moaning a bit. It was about to jump onto Lacey when I yelled, “Watch Out!” Brody quickly turned around and shot a bow at its face before it even got a chance to jump at Lacey. “Duck!” Brody yelled at me. I crouched down and heard a whoosh over my head followed by a second whoosh. Looking behind me, I saw two zombies lying on the ground. “Run Mackenzie!” Lacey yelled when I looked back at her. Peering back, I saw even more zombies behind me. I fell on my first try to get up and struggled to find my balance. Luckily, I found my balance before the zombies were to close behind me. We all ran as fast as we could back to where the stuff was and the truck was parked with more zombies than I could count close behind us.

As we got to the campsite, Brody grabbed both tents, still put together and threw them into the back of the truck. “We don’t have time to start the car,” Brody said. He grabbed two knives and was also holding the crossbow. “To protect yourselves,” Brody said as he handed Lacey and I a knife. We began running and running. Eventually, we got ran out of the woods and onto an empty road. By the time the zombies gave up on us, my dark brown hair had become even darker because it was drenched with sweat and we were all out of breath and panting loudly. The sun beat down on us with its hot rays which made us sweat even more. Thirsty, we decided to go and look for some.

We began walking down the road. After waking for what seemed like forever, the sky became dark. It was hard to see in front of you, and the wind was howling. We finally spotted an old grocery store. When we walked in and opened the door, the lights flickered on and the sound of wind chimes and a zombie filled the cold air. Lacey raised her knife and threw it right at the creature, hitting it right in the eye with great precision. Falling onto the empty boxes and half eaten food, it let out its last moan. “Nice hit,” Brody complemented with pants in between each word, as we began to walk deeper in the store.

“Thanks,” replied Lacey. We went on our own to look for water. Then, a little bit afterwards, I heard a drip, drip, drip. Peeking in the next aisle, I saw an gallon container of water and other water bottles around it. “Yes,” I thought. I ran to the container, opened it up, took a scoop with my hand, and took a huge sip. The cold water running down my throat never felt better. “Guys,” I yelled, “There’s water here.” With excitement on their faces, they gulped down as much water as they could. “Thanks Mackenzie,” said Brody.

“You’re welcome,” I replied with a smile. We decided to keep on exploring this new town, so we grabbed a lot of food, water bottles, and put it in a backpack that we found in the store and left. While exploring we encountered quite a few zombies, which we fought off with minimal struggle. Brody didn’t even crack a single joke and Lacey was really quiet. I thought about my brothers most of the time and I came up with a bunch of different ways to find my brothers.

The days went by and we Lacey found a couple tents in the store we were in, so we started to travel again. We passed forest after forest and past stores after stores. One night, when I was sleeping in my tent, I heard the sound of a zipper. After hearing a noise that sounded like someone or something was dragging something and the zipper of my tent started to open, I was ready to defend myself. I grabbed the knife Brody gave me and stood up with caution, but with speed. “Whoa,” Brody said with a hushed tone, “It’s just me.”

“Sorry,” I replied.
“Can I talk to you,” Brody said. After replying with a nod, he sat down next to me. I saw that the entrance of my tent and Lacey and Brodys’ tent were connected. “Did you drag your tent here?” I asked with some shock because the tent with all our their in it was probably really heavy and with Lacey sleeping inside, it would’ve added a lot of extra weight. “Ummm, yeah,” he replied while scratching his head, “I have to keep Lacey in my sight.” I sat up as Brody started to talk some more. He began to tear up. In between sniffles, he managed to get some words out like how he should’ve died, not Caleb, how Caleb was such a good boy with a bright future ahead of him, how he shouldn’t have let him try, and that he needed to stay strong for Lacey because he was all she had. Trying to comfort him, I held him in my arms and wiped his tears with my sleeve and told him he did all he could and shouldn’t beat himself up about it. After all, Caleb was in a better place. I could not imagine what he was feeling at the time. He stayed in my tent crying the whole night. After this, we continued to talk when only needed and acted like this never happened.

One morning, we were looking for food and spotted a bunch of zombies nearby, so we climbed up a tree and hoped that the zombies wouldn’t come for us. On the top of the tree, we saw something that was really peculiar, there were humans walking with the zombies. Astonished, we waved at them so we could ask them how that was possible. They began to walk over, and then I swore I saw one of my little brothers. I yelled, “Sam, SAM!”, but Brody put his hand over my mouth and whispered,”Shhhh!” I hadn’t noticed, but a zombie was fairly close to the tree we were hiding in. When I looked up again, I could no longer see my brother. I thought I must have been imagining things. Brody handed Lacey the cross bow and she shot the zombie down and then he took his hand off my mouth.

By the time the people who were walking with the zombies came, the sun was going down. We all hopped out of the tree to talk to the people. Brody blurted out questions like how that was possible and how long they could do that.

The people explained to us that they had something that was like a vaccine. With the vaccine, the zombies couldn’t tell you were human, so they wouldn’t attack or eat you. They also said they had some of the vaccine left, but only enough for a full dose for an adult, or a half dose for a child and adult (a half dose only gives half the effect of a full dose, so the vaccine may have not worked with just a half dose injected).Which meant it was either Brody and Lacey, or just me. They said they would let me choose. I don’t know why they let me choose and not Brody or Lacey. I was about to say to give the vaccine to Brody and Lacey, but something changed my mind and I blurted out, “I want the vaccine.” I mean with the vaccine I had a chance to find my brothers and keep them safe.

“Okay,” the strangers said, “Come with us.” I followed them and couldn’t bear to look back at Brody or Lacey, but I did. Both their faces were filled with anger, dismay, and shock. Just before I turned around, Brody yelled at me, “We could’ve protected you if we had it.” He looked away and was about to go, but turned and yelled one more thing, “I thought more of you Mackenzie, after all we did keep you alive.”

I know,” I whispered, “I’m so sorry.”

10 Years Later

You may think I was being selfish and cold, and Brody would’ve stayed with me. You are absolutely right. I don’t know what got to me. Maybe it was just the pressure or I wasn’t thinking straight. There is no excuse for this. I think maybe the tiny string of hope in my heart became much bigger and I thought that with the vaccine, I would most definitely find my brothers, but I never found Sam or Jackson. Right after I got the vaccine, I realized Brody was right, they would have protected me.

When I first set out alone, the government or something started to set up refugee camps to help the wounded or shelter and protect people. I stopped at every one I saw and asked if there was a Brody or Lacey staying there, but I never found them. Every night I thought about why made that decision, I knew I didn’t have much of a chance of finding my brothers anyways. I just hope they were vaccinated and are safe and happy now.

I hope Lacey and Brody, and Sam and Jackson at least have had each other over all this time and I’m sure they are living a great and safe life with their very own families.
Even though it was long ago, most of my days are spent thinking about them or thinking about Lacey and Brody. As I look out the window watching my own kids play, they remind me so much of Lacey and Caleb. My kids have no need to worry about their safety as much as I did because most of the zombies have been killed off. I’m happy they will never have to experience the horrible world of zombies.