"Katie." I heard next to me, some sort of fog coming through my brain as I blinked a few times. The harsh light hitting my face as I saw the lights in the room coming on. I grabbed the blanket without thinking and pulled to my bare shoulders, trying to get some more warmth in before I knew I had to get up. My red hair stuck to my face and I pushed it out of my way, seeing Jacob above me and squatting down to get to my level. His shotgun in hand and a bottle of water in the other hand, looking at me with a tilted head and his green eyes,
"It's time to move now. We'll make it today to your house." he said to me in his shot tone that he hardly uses, only when we are alone and not running for our lives. I nodded my head, feeling how heavy it is and I get up slowly, stretching out my back and legs before I get up to my feet. I looked down at my white wife-beater I was wearing, a bit sweaty and my blue skinny jeans with boots. I pulled my hair back in a ponytail and braided my bangs to the side, seeing my reflection in the mirror of the locker room we were in for the night. I took in a deep breath and replayed the same words in my head as before:
I am Katie Marsburn, I'mm 22 years old, and I am still living after the Apocalypse.
My father told me once, that there will come a moment where you have to decide whether or not to fight in order to survive. I never thought I would reach that point to be honest. I thought life was going to be a easy road for me to take. I had no problems to worry about, nothing to think about that would change my future.
That was up until the Apocalypse happened.
I was only 22 when it happened. Pretty young for my age really. I was in New York as a Bike Messenger when I heard the news and saw the breakout. It sounded too surreal for me to understand, too fantasy to even fathom. But it happened, and it happened fast in New York. I was on my own at that time, fresh out of College and trying to find a decent career. The one person I was with when it happened was my childhood friend, Jacob, whom I went to school with and was working with. We both ran out of town before we could get caught up in the massacre that spread like wildfire. Out futures were on hold, giving us the notion that nothing was ever going to go back to being normal.
Never again.
I grew up in a rather large manor in Georgia, but being the independent child that I was I had to move out as soon as I could. My father was a Captain at Fort Benning, where he's been stationed since the day I was born. My mother as a homemaker, raising myself and four other siblings as my dad worked at Benning. My upbringing was normal for a military family, but I wanted to get away from them. Something about being under the strict rules of my father and his way of life rubbed me the wrong way. I was the trouble maker of the family, since I was the eldest daughter and the second oldest to my brother Nathan. However, I did learn how to shoot a gun and how to fight, much to my mother's dismay and bitterness. No matter how hard I tried to please my father, nothing was good enough in his eyes. At least, that's what I thought.
My grandfather owned the house my parents lived in outside of Fort Benning, about 10 miles out to be exact. He was the one out of the whole family that kept me grounded from my ways of trying to reach my father. I looked to him when it came to learning about respect, giving to others and putting others before myself. He would house those who were running away, and help them get back on their feet. I saw this as something that I needed to change in my life, being more lenient with my parents and more helpful around the house. I knew the past was behind me, and I had to change for the better.
Since the Apocalypse I was on my own with Jacob, running from town to town until we can reach Georgia on our own. It was harder than it seemed, since the only thing we both had were our bikes and chains we had to use to fend off Walkers that would come close enough to bite. But once we found gun shops and looted off of them, it got easier since I knew how to shoot. It was only the two of us, and we never stayed in one place for far too long since we knew the herds would move from place to place to find food. Jacob knew how to track and hunt for food, since his father was a hunter and taught him how to hunt. I looked to him when it came to learning how to find food, find tracks and trails. I taught him how to handle guns in return, a fair trade for the both of us.
Since we were on our own, my mind has dramatically warped from what I was worried about to what I needed to worry about in this very moment. I was no longer worried about where I was going to go to Graduate school for Psychology, but where I was going to sleep that night. I was thinking about where to find food, how to kill off the next Walker coming after me, and how I was going to see my parents again.
Were they even alive?
I had the crazy notion in my head that they made it through, they made it and they war hiding somewhere in the Fort Benning area. The same with my siblings, they are waiting for me and hoping that I am alive as well. But I knew reality was harsher than fantasy, that they have to be dead by now and I am the only one left to survive and get through this whole mess.
"You ready to roll out?" Jacob asked me once from his spot near the door. I picked up the gun that on the floor next to the cot I made for myself, cocking it and looking over at him. I saw him shotgun loaded and ready, perched by the door with a hand on the handle. I nodded at him once, walking over to him and seeing him open the door slowly, the both of us looking down the hall and seeing nothing.
So far, so good.