tear droplets dripped from my pale cheeks onto my thin and baggy shirt. Every bump the wheels of my prison went over shot searing pain up my spine and caused unwanted memories to rise.

I shifted around the floor of the dark van for the hundredth time, searching for anything I could use to help me escape, but there was nothing. I could feel the bruises developing on my left shoulder from throwing myself against the metal doors which were all that stood between me and freedom whenever we stopped, unfortunately the noise of my attempts to escape didn't go unnoticed and I suffered for it.

I sat back down again wincing as my back leant against wall of the van, I had seen the bruises this morning, dark blue splashes spread across my back mixed in with scratches at random intervals. I shivered as more memories flickered through my mind, one lingered longer than the others. An odd memory of scraping branches flying past my face and raking along my arms and shoulders. I must have been sixteen in the memory, my horse had bolted while I was out trail rinding, I wonder what has happened to her in the past four months.

My thoughts turned to home, a place I'd never see again. I could always hope that things weren't so bad over there but I would never know. Taylor, Georgina, Grace, Cody, all of my little nieces were too young for this world. And what of my siblings? my parents? my friends? They were all on the other side of the world, there weren't any planes, and even if I found a boat I have no idea which way I'd have to sail.

More tears found their way down my face, stop it, I told myself, you can't let them see you like this. I wiped my face with the bottom of my shirt and tried to take my mind off of all of the things I had lost, unfortunately that was everything short of my actual life. Mindlessly I began to pick at the scabs on my knee, there wasn't much else to do but wait.

And so I waited, perhaps for an hour, maybe even longer, time doesn't really have meaning to me anymore. The van had come to a stop, the sound of people wandering around outside and talking drifted into my little cell.

"Do you think it'll be safe"

"No corpses"

"Which one?"

I listened as hard as I could, but only managed to catch snippets of the conversations going on outside.

I was suddenly blasted by a gust of cold air when the doors were opened and a rough hand grasped my upper arm, dragging me out of the van and into the crisp winter air. We had come to rest in a deserted town, broken glass occasionally littered the ground where windows had been broken. A small bike had been left lying on someones front yard. I shivered as the cold air pressed against my skin.

"Move!" The impatient young man that was currently manhandling me growled, pushing me forward.

Biting my tongue I moved in the direction he was shoving me. He wasn't particularly intimidating and I had a feeling that I could free myself from this guy pretty easily but that wouldn't help me against the other eight men in the group. "Hurry up." He complained, I ignored him taking in my surroundings.

I had been pushed towards an average looking house, the walls were made of your typical white wooden boards and the door was a pale green, not particularly fire proof but whatever, I guess that wasn't really an issue considering the world was over run with dead people. The man pushed me again this time pressing a bruise making me wince. This guy was so close to losing his pride and a few teeth.

"Could you not," I muttered under my breath as I walked through the door way finding myself in a narrow corridor.

I didn't look at the pictures on the wall as I passed them, it was better not to know who lived here before the virus spread.

The walls were a pleasant cream colour, a soft yellow that reminded me of summer mornings, the carpet however was not pleasant, covered in patches of blood as it was. I was once again pushed forward this time into a room with a comfortable looking bed and a chest of drawers, I turned around facing the infuriating man who had been pushing not only me but my buttons as well.

"Get changed." He commanded and threw something into my face before slamming the door shut.

I held the sickly short dress up to look at. There is no way I'm wearing that, I thought to myself throwing it to the side knowing that I most likely would be in the next hour, whether I wanted to or not. I looked around the room trying to find something to delay the inevitable reality of my fate. I decided to look at myself in the mirror. The bruises on my arms had become darker over the day, I also had dark rings under my eyes showing that I was indeed suffering from sleep deprivation.

Well that's certainly not taking my mind off of this situation, I scolded myself before swivelling to look out the window. A window? Am I stupid? Behind the house was a wooden fence, with an unlatched gate which was swinging back and forth from the wind, my brief moment of hope evaporated when I saw the corpses on the other side of the gate, there was a herd of them wandering down the street, probably in search of food. I couldn't risk them hearing the glass of the window pane shatter.

Sliding down the wall and onto the floor defeated, staring at the reflection of myself "Maria what are you going to do" I asked myself out loud. I couldn't take this anymore, I wouldn't take this anymore, perhaps it would be better to be ripped to pieces by corpses.

I heard quiet laughter and conversation flowing through the thin walls of the house and then I was inexplicably infuriated, as though all the torment of the past three months had built up a rage inside me that I could no longer hold back. I ripped the chest of drawers apart throwing parts of it everywhere smashing the mirror into pieces, and then as suddenly as the feeling had appeared it vanished, just like the sun peeking through a small gap in the clouds. I listened to the conversation continue on, apparently unfazed by my noisy break down, then I looked out of the window and was surprised to see one corpse wandering through the gate, perhaps it heard me trashing the place perhaps it just happened to wander into the yard.

As I stared at the approaching corpse an idea popped into my head, a really stupid and dangerous idea, but that wasn't going to stop me. I carefully walked over to the broken mirror and picked up a glass shard. I wrapped my left hand in the dress I had been given and took a deep breath as pressed the shard to my right forearm, not to deep, not to deep, exhaling I dragged the long ragged shard across my wrist and cursed at the pain. blood ran down my arm to my finger tips, quickly I ran my hand over the locked door and back to the window. I then tore a strip off of the sheets of the double bed and wrapped it firmly against the wound trying to stop the bleeding as much as possible. once that strip was soaked through I took it off and tucked it into the waistband of my shorts before wrapping another one around the wound.

I looked ouside, only one corpse to deal with in the yard, but I had to be quick. Picking up a draw that I had previously thrown I swung it at the window pane shattering the glass, I grabbed the glass shard with one end wrapped in a dress off of the bed and clambered out the window. The wind was working in my favour, carrying the scent of fresh blood to the passing herd that was now past the yard, the corpse that had managed to wander through the gate was already growling and stumbling towards me, acting swiftly I pressed the shard I was holding through its eye socket, racing across the yard I dropped the bloodied rag on another window sill and scrambled over the side fence and into the yard of the neighbouring house and continue to run and climb fences until I was beyond the herd which had turned back around and begun storming the groups safe haven after catching the scent of my blood. Crossing the street silently I ran into the night, hoping to never see the monsters that held me captive again.