Ellie's parents hurriedly stuffed their backpacks as they prepared to go out into the city to scavenge for food. The last item they grabbed were their guns. They checked to make sure they were loaded before they headed out.
"Ellie..." her dad spoke to her quickly... "if we aren't back in three days, you need to get your BOB (bug out bag) and go south. Look for an old friend of ours... his name is Joel."
"OK Dad..." Ellie paused. "Why are you taking your guns ?"
Ellies' Dad started to explain "There are more people getting infected Ellie. We don't know if we'll be able to hold them off. We'll try to kill them the best we can, but we don't want you to get infected. If they get to us and we come back here... I don't want to risk myself being a danger to you."
"We love you Ellie and we'll try to be back quickly." her mom said as she hugged her daughter.
As her parents left, Ellie went to her room and locked the door. This isn't the first time she had to be alone for a few days. Even though they lived outside of the city, her parents taught her that she must always be aware of what is going on around her. In the day, she could move about in the house freely.
At night, she needed to stay quiet in her room and not turn on any lights. Gangs and scavengers would search an area more than once during the night as they often found other survivors using their lights. They would then attack and take what all they could. Sometimes killing the survivors, sometimes taking them hostage.
She learned to stay quiet at night. She has even become very acute in her hearing as well as seeing at night. She gets in her sleeping bag to sleep for the night. She makes sure her pepper spray is beside her before she closes her eyes for the night.
Two days later. . . .
"Ellie!" her dad burst through the door. "Ellie !"
"Dad ! You're back ! " Ellie ran to him to give him a hug.
"Where's mom ?" Ellie asked.
"She got infected. You won't be seeing her again." he explained as he caught his breath.
Ellie began to shed tears and her dad grabbed her by the shoulders. "Ellie! Don't start crying now! You can cry later. I'm infected too, but I ran out of bullets."
"I won't leave you !" Ellie nervously exclaimed as she was unsure of what to do or say.
"Ellie. I have some food. You need to take this food and whatever else we have in the house and go find Joel. Do it now !"
Ellie tried to hold back her tears while she grabbed her backpack, filled it with food, her pepper spray, and water.
"Are you sure I have to leave Dad ?!"
"You have to leave Ellie before this infection takes over. After that you'll get infected or be killed."
"But I don't..."
"Leave now ! Get out ! Go !" her dad interrupted as he forced her out the house. "Here's a compass! That way is South ! Go find Joel ! Leave now ! Run !"
Ellie was crying and running south as fast as she could. She was alone. Alone for the first time in her life. She hoped finding this friend of her dads would be easy instead of hard. She was running and running while it was still day. Night would be coming soon and she knew she needed to hide and be absolutely quiet when it was night.