*In a southern drawl accent of a child 10-15*
Hello, my name is Aurora Abraham. My father was Buck Abraham, my pregnant mother Mya Abraham, and my little sister Juliet Abraham is only 4. I was born and raised in Macon, Georgia. My dad was a EMT and my mother was a CIA agent before meeting my dad. We lived in an lower middle class neighborhood. I am a daddy's girl…..I was until one night.
When I was 4 my daddy would come into my room and put candy under my pillow so I would have sweet dreams. Then I'd wake up and surprise him with a hug. Said, if didn't tell on him for giving my sweets he'd let me watch stars through the telescope in my room like we did every night.
"I won't tell honest!" I would say crossing my heart.
"Then I guess you deserve it then don't you?" He would smile at me with his slant eyes. I always assumed he might have been Asian. But I wasn't allowed to talk about our family since they didn't agree with my parent's marriage. We would sit and watch the stars till I fell asleep on his lap. I have a rare form of genetics. My mother being anemic and my father being a cancer survivor made my genes sort of funny. I was always getting sick. But, once the apocalypse happened I stopped getting sick.
The night of the walking dead I was 12 years old. My birthday was that night. Something told me to sleep in my favorite spot, underneath my bed. It was too small for anyone else to fit except me and my sister. I heard a strange moan come from a large man and I assumed my father was coming in to watch the stars with me. But an odor followed him so I felt disgusted. I had to sneeze but I was scared. Maybe it was an intruder? Maybe it was my dad in his skinning clothes? I didn't care at that point. I crawled as quietly as I could to the bottom of my dresser and took a key that locks my door. As soon as I felt he was over far enough towards the window I bolted for the door and locked it from the outside. I ran to my mother's room and shook her to wake up but…my father had eaten her stomach and the infant she was carrying…..I remembered what my dad told me about zombies. If you don't destroy the brain they never go away. He kept a gun under his pillow for burglars, I knew I had to do it. She would reanimate and just kill more. But, I didn't have the heart to. But I needed to. What is a child to do when faced with the choice to kill their own parent to save others? I slid my hand under the pillow watching my mother the whole time; Right when I was about to grab it I brushed her cheek by mistake. Her pupil less eyes shot open and tried to bite me. Before she could I saw my little sister in the door way throw a book at her head. Giving me enough time to grab the gun and put to bullets in my mother's brain. "Shoot twice. Always, first to kill, the other to make sure the son of a bitch is dead." My father told me when telling me how to shoot. I told my sister to come here and hugged her. Running to my sister's room, we had baskets of clothes and I told her to take what she needed. She packed her suit case with one stuffed rabbit, two changes of shirts, four capris, sneaker and a hand gun and butcher knife I threw in for good measure. I packed my bag with jerky, guns, and a hand grenade I had gotten as a World War II present, a shirt, blue jeans, sneakers, and a container of water my sister kept in the night. "Do you have everything you need?" I asked her. "Mommy *sniffle*….Daddy….are they gonna be okay?" My sister was about 3 feet tall, slim, had mocha skin tone, one short pony tail, amber eyes she got from my mother and pitiful eyes. I couldn't lie to her when I looked at her. I could if I didn't look but, she had caught me. I heard our father break my door down and start sniffing. I made sure her door was locked. My sister's bedroom was the only room that had a door, so my dad put an ax in her room so when he needed to chop would for winter he wouldn't freeze too much. I grabbed it and wrapped it around my back with two belts I had found. I got down on one knee and looked at her "Julie?" I smiled at her "Yes?" She returned the smile with tears. "Remember when mommy and daddy had the talk to us about; if they passed away I would take care of you?" I stroked her hair "Yes?" She grabbed her bunny tighter. "Well, it's time for me to take care of you. Do you trust me?" I looked deep into her eyes "Mhm." She nodded. "Your words please." I stood. "I trust you." "Shh!" I pushed her behind me and told her to run if she sees anyone other than me. So she hid behind me with her back to her bed clutching her bunny. My dad hit the door twice, before a massive hole was in it. He scrambled his hand around the nob to unlock it but before he could his hand was off. I held the ax like I did my baseball bat. "Stay away from us!" I screamed at him with tears in my eyes. The man who's arms once held me with love and affection was now trying to kill me with them. I grabbed my sister and put her atop her dresser to stay safe. At that moment my dad- the zombie broke the door open. He ran towards me as I prepared my ax and hit him twice in the neck. It hanging off partially as he still tried to hit me. I stepped on his head and looked to my sister. She knew what I meant when I winked at her. Shut your eyes and be aware. She did. I looked down at my father alive for the last time. Before I struck him in the head with my ax I could have sworn her called me "Friday." Like he did when I would bring him coffee on Friday mornings. I raised the ax above my head. Who knew this would be the end of a family, eh? "I'm not fucking Friday!" That moment, at 3:04 in the morning. I decapitated my father. I walked out with my sister. His car keys in toe. I did not look back.
It's been 3 years since then. I'm 15 years old as of today. Crazy shit happens on my birthday. My sister is 7. We're a real badass pair. I wear bindings now…..I've been bitten twice…something in my blood stream is keeping me from turning into…..one of them…."Friday!" I told my sister to call me to avoid bandits looking us up. "Yes Mai?" I said walking closer and holding her head to my stomach. "I'm hungry~" I knew she was. But I had to time our eating until we found more food. I dug in my bag and grabbed a jerky stick I had picked up from a convenient store in Savannah and handed it to her. She ate almost all of it before giving the rest to me. "No, eat it and no sass." She already had her mouth open to bicker before eating it. "There's a store!" She loudly whispered. It was a CVS and we ran to the front and knocked on it to see if anyone was inside. A young man opened the door, "Hurry inside before they see you!" He pulled us both in. I held my sister to the side of the store that held 8 other people. "Guess you're a part of the group now." A black man said smiling at us. "Yeah, I'm Friday and this is my sister Mai." "I'll introduce everyone so there's no confusion. I'm Lee, this is Katjaa, Clementine, Duck, Kenny, Lily, Larry Lily's dad and Ben." They waved except Lily. "Lee, we can't just let them into the group! Rations are hard enough as it is!" Lily snapped, cutting her eyes towards me. "They're kids Lily! If you quit being a bitch for once maybe you wouldn't be the first person I think about kicking out!" the old man, Lily's father, stood and walked towards us. "I'm Larry. It's nice to meet you princess" He said to Mai. Right then at that point I looked at Mai and myself. Mai had three thick braids cascading down her back, she had gotten a scar on the side of her face so I put a pink Hello Kitty Bandage on it, long brown eyelashes, still her mocha complexion but more of a richer color, a pink romper, black and grey Gaige the Mechromancer tights, black no heel riding boots, metal arm warmers, pouty lips, light brown eyes, 5"0, maybe 87-93 pounds, and a heart shaped face….Then I looked at myself. I was about 5"4 now, 101 pounds, dark brown eyes, full lips, dark mahogany skin tone, a pixie cut to avoid it getting grabbed, two scars on my top left eyebrow, I bite mark on my left arm and one on my inner left thigh, a black body suit and combat boots.
I looked at the tall man named Lee, he had a bite mark on his arm. I knew he was putting on a brave face for his daughter sitting on a mat next to his blue shirt.
"You've been bitten..." I lazily raised my hand to his arm.
"Yeah, that's why we're here at the pharmacy. Our friends Omid and Christa are uh...going to handle that.."
I don't know why. But strangley I felt compelled to help him.
I grabbed his arm and removed the scabbed over skin he had on each tooth mark.
"What are you-" He was about to pull his arm back.
"Shh~ When Friday does something it means a good thing will happen." Mai said clapping happily.
I finished pulling the scabs off and lowered my wrist to Mai. Before we met these people she said a body needs to be a weapon. Not a body with a weapon. So I filed her teeth into a shark formation. She bit my arm and blood drew from my wound as I held it over his bite mark.
"There's no need to remove this arm. It is saved." I said as the grey rot started to slowly fade away.
