The day was warm. That's the first thing I noticed as my mom and I got out of the car and began walking towards the middle school. It wasn't absolutely boiling hot, just warm. The breeze in the air perfectly balanced out the sun that I could feel shining on the top of my head and shoulders.

"Grab the books, Rose. I can't carry them all myself." My mom said as she grabbed her coffee from the cup holder in the car and began grabbing books. I did the same, taking two handfuls and heading towards the entrance. From just glancing at the titles I could see they were not very advanced books, and neither were they thick. Each could have only been ten to twenty pages.

"What grade do you even teach?" I asked her, balancing all the books in one hand so I could grab the keys she was handing to me and open the door to the school. "'The Alphabet Has a Day Out' doesn't sound like a book middle school kids should have to read."

She laughed as we entered the school and walked towards her classroom. "I know it's a middle school, but I teach a preschool class that comes three days a week. Their classrooms are just in a different branch of the school. But let me tell you, I am so relieved they have me teaching preschool. If the middle school kids were anything like you when you were in middle school, I have absolutely no desire to be teaching them."

"Seriously? I was not that bad in middle school, I've always been an angel." My mom snorted at that, but didn't say anything else as we walked into her classroom. We both set the books on a desk while she began sorting and setting them in a small bookshelf. "I'm going to go to the bathroom." I stated, and left as I heard her mumble about it being down the hallway to the left. The doors at the end of the hallway were propped open, letting the warm summer air fill the school. It made me feel a little more reassured considering the school was essentially empty due to summer vacation with minimal lighting to illuminate the hallways. Looking straight down the hallway made me feel like I was in prison.

I walked to the double doors and stepped out for a moment to appreciate the weather. The fact that they were open must have meant someone else was here too, and that thought was confirmed as I heard my mother's incredibly loud and unmistakable laugh along with one other voice coming from her classroom. Another teacher must have come to set up for the school year as well. I could see her car in the parking lot.

I was just enjoying the breeze when movement beyond the parking lot caught my eye. I looked over and saw someone walking along the sidewalk across the street from the school. It looked like a middle aged man going for a stroll, but something was off. I could tell he wasn't walking quite right, limping almost. His shoulders also sagged as he walked. But he was too far to make out details. It unnerved me a little bit, so when he looked over at me I decided I had been outside long enough and headed to the bathrooms, which were to the left of the doors.

It was pitch black, so I felt along the wall for the light switch and flicked it on. Of course, the toilets were miniature, made for toddlers. I barely even fit on it, which made me laugh, but I made due.

Once I was done I washed my hands and headed back to mom's classroom. Sure enough, there was Mrs. Estes, chatting away with my mom as she got zero work done. "Hi Mrs. Estes." I said, taking a seat on one of the also miniature chairs.

"Oh, Rose, we were just talking about you!" My mother said, looking at my slightly horrified face and laughing. "Oh nothing bad, just you and Uncle Dixon as he tried to teach you how to hunt. You were so sad about killing animals you started crying! It was so cute."

"Mom, I was ten." I couldn't help but crack a smile, remembering going hunting with him whenever he would drop by. He was a crazy man, yelling at me that if made a connection with the animals and felt something for them, I would never be able to hunt. And he was right. I was never able to hunt. Eventually he taught me how to use a BB gun and wanted to teach me how to use a firearm, but mom screamed at him. I just went along with it.

Mrs. Estes was laughing right along with my mom. "I'm sorry Rose, I just love hearing stories about you when you were little, considering all my kids are grown and in college." I smiled, not really caring what my mom told her.

"Anyways, it was great seeing you! I think Rose and I will get going now." My mom said, grabbing five of the books and handing them to me. "I need to replace these books, some pages are torn." She said to me, picking up her coffee and smiling at Mrs. Estes.

"Ah, of course. I have to get some work done also. I'll be seeing you this year!" She gave me a smile and walked back to her classroom. She was a short woman, with knobby legs that sometimes clicked as she walked. My mom told me once that she got her knee replaced and that there is a metal plate there. I can't help but cringe every time I hear her knee pop.

Mom began walking out of the classroom. I followed her, and kept walking until I reached the doors she came in from, only to find her not behind me. I heard her and Mrs. Estes chatting and laughing in Mrs. Estes' classroom, which was a couple feet down the hallway, but far enough that I wasn't going to walk back down. So I waited for my mom to finish and shifted the books so I held them against my chest. The mom's incessant chatting became background noise to me as I studied the wall of the hallway, which was decked out in colorful art that looked about the quality of middle school students. Though some were drastically better than others, they were all pretty much the same. A close up painting of the face of some random person. Probably someone they knew.

As I studied these paintings, a new sound, one that didn't fit with my mom's talking, became prominent in my ears. The shuffling of feet. At first I didn't notice it; it was a very faint noise. But looked up towards the end of the hallway where Mrs. Estes' classroom was to investigate it anyways.

And my feet completely froze where I was standing. Literally, not a single part of my body moved.

I'm sure it was the man I saw earlier, only a close up view was much more worrying than the far away look at him I had earlier. His face was so pale, almost completely white, like he had no blood in him at all. I could clearly see his cheekbones and jaw because his skin was pulled so taught over his face. He was wearing a suit with some minor tears in it. But none of that was what really bother me.

There were three prominent things that froze me to the spot. His foot, the limp I saw, was because there was no foot. I could clearly see through his ripped pant leg that there was not foot to be found.

Secondly, the blood trail I could see when I looked behind him.

And thirdly, he, it, was heading into the classroom where my mom and Mrs. Estes were talking.

I couldn't do anything. I opened my mouth to scream and nothing but a sharp exhale came out. I felt like I was in one of those dreams where you're being chased but you can't move, for some reason you just can't move.

It was a scream that drove me out of my stupor. A scream that I could definitely detect as my mother's scream.

The books fell from my hands, and made a loud thud as they hit the ground. I watched it in slow motion, watched as the books gracefully left my arms and floated to the ground, hitting each other before hitting the floor. Then suddenly I was racing forward. Not thinking, simply running and maybe screaming but I couldn't tell, towards the sound of my mother.

I sprinted through the doorstep and ran straight into Mrs. Estes, whose face looked almost as pale as the man's and she was absolutely terrified. One doesn't experience terror much, and much less is able to see someone else in absolute, unfiltered terror. It stopped my breathing.

"GET OUT!" Mrs. Estes screamed at me, grabbing my arm and yanking me away. She was crying, I could hear it in her voice. But I couldn't care less. My mother was laying on her side on the floor, her face turned towards me. Her eyes looked like white glass. "She's dead Rose! She's dead! God help us, we're next." Now she dropped to the floor and sobbed, murmuring about us leaving right now. But she was also staring at my mother.

It was on her, its back to us. Blood was everywhere. Oh God it was everywhere. I've never seen so much blood, even hunting. It was covered in it. It was covered in it, because it had its mouth on her neck and was eating. It was eating my mom.

"Mom?" I asked, my voice wavering to the point where I sounded at least ten years younger. It stirred over her, but didn't stop with its meal. Mrs. Estes continued to murmur about how she had heard on the news about a virus or experiment gone wrong. She asked God why he didn't save us; she asked him why nobody stopped this man from attacking us. She asked him where the police were.

As I was standing there, watching the most horrific thing to ever take place, I remembered a conversation I once had with my mom. I was ten, after Uncle Dixon had left for the night. I had asked her where my dad was. She said that sometimes people leave, and that he left us when I was born. It can be a sad thing, but it's important to never stop living and dreaming and setting goals. She also said that sometimes it's best for people to leave. But no matter what, no matter anything that may happen, she told me something I will never forget. She said, "You are the best thing to ever happen to me. With a father or without one, you will grow to be a strong, independent, amazing person. You're a fighter Rose, you really are. I can see the fire in your eyes. So don't worry about a piece of shit father who left you, because I am here to raise you into someone who is strong enough not only for yourself, but for others too." I had laughed because she said a bad word. The true meaning of her words never really hit me. I'm understanding it more now.

I threw up. Everything was too much for me. Mrs. Estes' whimpering still didn't catch the attention of the monster hovering over my mother, who had now moved to her stomach. Once I saw the inside of her stomach I couldn't hold it in.

I contemplated whether this was a nightmare. But Mrs. Estes' grip on my arm was so tight it hurt me, which didn't wake me up.

"Rose please." Mrs. Estes shut her eyes and cried. This caught its attention. It turned around and I met its eyes and I've never felt such hatred and terror and horror before that I threw up again. I felt empty.

It rose unsteadily on its stump and I stared into its eyes. White and glassy, just like my mom's. "We have to go." I whispered to Mrs. Estes, almost calmly. I started to feel nothing, just that this situation was dangerous and we had to go. As it started walking towards us at an alarming speed for something with only one foot, I turned around and pulled Mrs. Estes to her feet. She complied and began running with me, still sobbing. I could hear knew clicking loudly with ever step. I didn't think about it. We sprinted to the exit near the bathroom, as I remembered seeing her car there. "We need to go to the police. They'll know what to do." I told her once we reached the car. She hiccupped and didn't do anything, so I pushed her into the passenger seat and took her purse to the other side where I sat at the drivers seat.

I was rummaging through her purse looking for her keys when there was a sudden slam of hands onto the passenger side window. It was covered in blood, but it was not the same one that had attacked mom. Mrs. Estes screamed so loud I thought my eardrums would pop. "LEFT POCKET!" She screamed at me, just as loud. I reached into the left pocket and got them, trying to stick the key into the ignition, which was hard with my hands shaking as if I was seizing. The banging on the window got louder as I finally got the keys into the ignition. My mom's attacker had joined the newcomer.

I didn't care for road rules as I sped out of there, ignoring stop signs and the speed limit. There were other cars, other people looking panicked, more people drenched in blood with dead eyes walked the streets. Women, men, children. I could hear the screams through the window. "What the fuck is happening." Mrs. Estes muttered to herself through sobs. Once I got to the main road I saw an incredible amount of traffic, more than I've ever seen before. The line of cars didn't seem to stop. Some people were just running. It was like the world had gone to hell in a minute. I turned on the radio, and on every channel there was only one thing. It was an emergency broadcast, it said there was a state of emergency, and to please be careful. I turned it off.

I focused on driving us to the police department, continuing to tell myself that the police will help. They had to help. What would happen if they didn't? I couldn't even imagine such a world.

This is just the introduction to Rose's character. She will change a lot as she adapts to her situation, and has to adapt to Rick's group after being on her own for so long. Please please favorite or follow or review if you liked this because I want to know if I should continue posting it on here. Well, I know this chapter was long, so if you read the entire thing through, thank you so much!