Chapter 1: Things Change
Character Information
Kim Solean
-15 years
-short, athletic build; long ombre hair (black roots-pink ends); blue eyes;
Personality Characteristics: distanced, tough demeanor but soft sided, generally neutral, attaches slowly, rarely shows weakness (break downs/emotional bursts), open to familiar faces
Often times I think of why I ended up alone. How is it that I was, seemingly, the only to make it through the outbreak? You'd think that a teenage girl would be one of the first few to go after the young and elderly. Hell, even the boy who lived across from me went before I could even blink. To be honest, I should have been dead by now. But fate has been known for having unpredicted surprises, and just so happened to grant me the fortune (still up for debate) on leaving my alive and mostly well, barring the emotional trauma of seeing so many people die and rot away to nothing.
One little accident was all it took, I think to myself as I reflect, and then everything went to hell, straight to shit. A simple bite and contamination from an infectious animal to a person in charge of whatever experiments they were even doing to the poor things sent the entire world through an epidemic of the U.V., better known as the undead virus, or zombie apocalypse, they're pretty much the same. The infected person dies, but the brain does not, and while the organs and body rots, the corpse continues to move and work in the most primal state of looking for substance to eat, which in this case would be living organic matter, or human beings and other livings animals.
So the virus spread faster than the common cold and flu, and like I guessed since the beginning of the outbreak, it took less than a year for it to reach worldwide, by then having killed a few million people. The military had no control over the spread or containment or really anything anymore, the government collapsed within the first month of the spread, and major populated areas around the world like New York and London were the first places to fall. I lived in a small town near Dance Central City, about a mile or two off the freeway, so the infection wasn't as overwhelming, but it still hit. My mother contracted the virus about a few months ago; I had no choice but to head her order to put her down, as per her own suggestion.
Now here I am, still in my hometown. Most of the residents who were still alive after the first few months had abandoned their homes to seek safe spots placed by the army to try and help those who weren't yet taken out or infected by the virus, I never figured out if they worked out or not, but my town was left abandoned and deserted. Most of the food was left to rot, spoiled or taken in violent raids that started when the news came out, but many of the canned and packaged foods were left in the aisles they were stacked in, crazily enough. Lucky for me when I had gone on a raid to the nearest grocery store and had gotten about three bags full of canned and bagged foods, which would last me quite few weeks if I rationed them out correctly. Water by now was hard to find, and even harder to find it uncontaminated. The bottle water I had was only enough for a month, so I had to forage for a filter bottle and find any running rivers to use.
I was always a light-sleeper, so as soon as the sun rose from the East, my routine began, so I guess it's great that I'm a bit of a morning person. The first thing I do in the morning is eat at least halve the serving size of any meal I have on hand and keep track of all my supplies before looking to clean myself up, most of the time I just grab the cleanest rag I can find and head to a nearby creek by the old neighborhoods with the decade old houses to wash up there. After that I spent my time scavenging for weapons and food while putting down any "walkers" I find that are in my way or that were to close for comfort. It became a sort of game for me as I tried to conserve ammo and see how many of them I can take down at once with one bullet, the highest number being three if I aimed correctly. Often times I used my trusty kitchen knife to do the job.
Most of the day is spent just scavenging around any area I haven't gone over, and as soon as the sun started setting, I look for the safest place available to stay, which would be in abandoned house attics or two-story houses with working locks and unbroken doors or windows, but those were scarce and hard to find. Last night I had slept in my own home, which was surprisingly still in good condition seeing as all rooms still had their doors and padlocks. Today I decided I had stayed in my familiar place for too long, and packed my things to travel somewhere else. But not before raiding the whole neighborhood first, the only trinket I held on me a gold ring hanging from a small chain around my neck, it was my mother's wedding ring.
My neighborhood is fairly small, with only about thirty or forty houses all together, with a small shopping center and grocery store, and the three different school level campuses around the town. The schools had shut down ages ago for fear of the spread of the infection, so many of the students were left to be home-schooled by tutors or parents, some people even having to teach themselves, me being one of those few people. I gave up with education when my mother saw everyone had left town, and all buildings were left empty. I only ever made it to tenth grade education and stopped reading the textbooks I took from school.
It was around noon when I left home with all my supplies and food in bags and bins I had found lying around the house, stashing them away in the back of my mother's silver Honda Civic. The car was small yes, but it was efficient. About a week worth of clothes and food was in a strap bag in the front passenger seat. My black JanSport backpack carried weapons and ammo for the double pistols I took from a gun shop a few weeks ago, which were currently in the back pockets of my jeans, as well as a few knifes I kept. It took about an hour to get everything packed and away in the car while avoiding making too much noise and attracting any walkers. With everything set, I spent another hour opening a can of sliced peaches, briskly enjoying the silence of the day, muting the barely audible moaning of the walkers in the area, it was very peaceful day for the apocalyptic world I inhabited. How I haven't lost my mind and sanity to the loneliness I face every day? I have no clue, but I can still think straight without having to be paranoid too much.
After the small meal, which I savored the entire time, I made sure I had enough gas in the tank as I possibly could have- I only had a half tank - I turned the key to the ignition and started the engine. Whether or not I knew how to drive didn't matter, though I guess I could handle the wheel fairly easily, I was taught to maneuver a car at thirteen, being my mother didn't want me to wait like other people 'till the age of sixteen to get a permit and start driver's education. As soon the car was heated up enough, I put it to drive and slowly let go of the gas pedal, making the vehicle move at about ten miles per hour before twisting and turning around corpses and other cars left on the streets. They weren't loaded; the roads were empty enough that I had no issues driving over 35 MPH.
Thirty minutes later and I had made my way through the neighborhood, now making my way down the entrance to the freeway with all my supplies and weapons in hand, before stepping harshly on the pedal to pick up speed, now at about 45 miles per hour as I went through the abandoned freeway with little care to anything.
This would be when everything changed, when I made my way on the freeway, having to go through Dance Central City.