*Rachel's POV*

The days, I knew, were growing numbered. The peaceful days. The days when everything was going to be alright. The days when I didn't have to let things get in the way of my happiness.

When I opened my eyes on that first morning, I knew that yesterday was the last day that I could have peace of mind. The groans… those soul-crushing, blood-chilling groans… they came in numbers from outside.

I didn't know why it was that I wasn't one of them.

It all began like this. Somewhere south of where I lived, an experiment had gone horribly wrong. Doctors had isolated a parasite into a petri dish in the lab that could completely take control of one's brain and transform them into a zombie.

When they weren't looking, the parasite escaped and infected one of the doctors. That doctor then attacked and infected all of the other doctors. Then, those doctors broke out, and so did a living hell.

But that was ages ago. I figured that as advanced as we were in our knowledge, someone would have done something about this and put all this chaos to rest.

Nope. As soon as we were advised not to leave the city, I knew that the days were numbered.

I kept a radio by my bedside ever since I heard that the so-called "G-parasite" escaped from that lab. It both crushed me and relieved me to know what was happening. I had always feared something like this.

And on this dismal morning, I woke up to the EAS Alert System announcing that we had 18 hours to evacuate the state. That everything was lost, and that it had to be nuked.

With misty eyes, I packed my things. My technology, the chargers for said technology, a few items of clothing, and all the food I could find. That would fit into a luggage bag, that is. Nobody could have time to lug too much around.

How wonderful my life had been before. I had had the best of friends. They all had amazing powers. Either that, or amazing willpower. Their names were Shadow, Knuckles, Sonic, Amy, Blaze, Silver, Vector, Charmy, and Espio. I could count on each and every one of them.

Especially Silver. If someone were to ask me who my best friend was out of all these great friends, it definitely had to be him. He could tell me anything. I saw something special in him. Shortly before the G-parasite broke out, I kinda… desired to be more than friends with him.

I could have sworn I could still hear groans groaning from outside my walls. Moaning in utter desire… for my flesh.

I had always pictured myself losing my will to live in this type of situation. I mean, I was a rather picky person. If I couldn't do what I wanted, what was life worth? An apocalypse had always been my biggest fear. A time where I have to worry more about my survival than my own happiness. A time where my life would never be the same.

But when actually thrown into the situation by the hands of fate, my natural desire to not die kicked in. No matter if there was hope or not, I knew that dying would be painful. I wasn't quite ready yet. Or so I thought.

My heart rate increasing by the boatload, I pushed the door open and made a run for it. It was here that I figured I'd die, and it was a realization that came entirely too late. The zombies… I didn't even recognize what poor, undead souls were crying out for help under those empty eyes and those salivating mouths. Either way, a few saw me and were beginning to limp my way.

That, and I wasn't in any shape whatsoever to do any endless running.

I could run for a little while, but once fatigue actually did catch up with me, I was in the city. The patchy, damaged, dismal city where there would have been lots of people… and where there were now lots of zombies. My throat felt as if it had been stabbed. Breath was hard to come across. I could not run any longer. The zombies were only getting closer…

Before I knew it, I was surrounded. If I tried to find a gap in the horde, one of them would certainly manage to bite me. I knew how this parasite was spread: through the teeth of the infected.

As my life flashed before my eyes, I suddenly heard an explosion. Oh, God… was I already too late? The radio had told me that I had a total of 18 hours… It had only been 10 minutes since then!

By instinct, I had shielded my eyes. The light from atomic bombs and explosives of that type were known to blind. I didn't want to see it coming.

When I realized I wasn't dead yet, I uncovered my eyes to find that a huge fraction of the zombie horde around me was dead. There was a huge space in the circle for me to escape through.

Standing there, on a heap of dead zombies… was Shadow. He had a gun in his hand. I wondered where I could get myself one of those.

"Shadow!" I cried, running away from the remaining zombies. "Thank you!"

He didn't say a word, but first brought up his gun and shot down every last one of the zombies that had their sights set on me, and even a few that were going after him.

I ran up to him, panting "Would you happen to know where anyone else is? That's not undead, that is?"

"Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles are the only ones I know are alive," Shadow sighed.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"They're waiting in a station wagon nearby," said Shadow. "We're hearing a lot about this 'Safe Haven' that's supposed to be free of all this undead mess. It's thousands of miles away, though. But even I'm sick of all this crap, so I'm willing to go."

"I'll go with you guys, too," I said, finding my luggage bag and picking it up.

I followed Shadow, trying my best not to let what was bare of my legs scrape against any of the zombies below my feet. Ugh… it was so disgusting… but I knew that this was our new life.

We made it over to the car that Shadow had mentioned. Sure enough, Amy, Knuckles, and Sonic were waiting rather impatiently within it. I also noticed that sitting between Sonic and the driver's seat was a huge crate.

"I'll drive," Shadow announced, getting into the driver's area of the station wagon, finding a key, and starting it.

I opened one of the back doors, and Amy moved over so that I could sit. So this was going to be the location of the remainder of my life, huh?

"I know I asked you this already, Shadow," I asked. "…But does anyone know where any of our other friends are?"

Amy shook her head solemnly, not a word to be spoken. I knew she'd be permanently in tears if Sonic wasn't with us.

"No, we don't," said Knuckles. "Everywhere you look for miles, the place is in ruins. Everyone's a zombie except for the 5 of us, it seems."

Now, I was the one very close to breaking down in tears. I knew by the tone of Knuckles' voice that everyone else I had ever known was presumably dead or undead. Either way, never to be seen again.

That meant Silver was probably gone for good as well. While there was no way for me to know, there was no way for me to try to find him.

Well… either way, this "Safe Haven" sounded like paradise to me. I couldn't wait to get there and hopefully… hopefully have my life restored.

Author's note: This almost wasn't possible. Shout out to RCTSG for convincing me to go through with it! Now you tell me: How's this going so far? Oh, and very likely, every chapter will be just a section of the trip. One chapter will likely be between one place and another, and the next will be at the current landmark they've arrived at. Like, one chapter would be between Point A and Point B, and the next chapter would be at Point B. Got it?

Question for the readers: What if, in the future, I were to bend the rules and have them encounter another party?