Author's Note: This is my first attempt at FanFiction ever. I've read lots of submissions on the website and wanted to give it a shot myself. Hope you enjoy the first chapter :-) I'd love to hear what you think!
The rating right now is K but please be aware that this will be changing to M within the next few chapters. And yes, my OC will definitely cross paths with a few familiar faces very soon. :-)
My birthday. No. Fourth of July. Yeah, that was my favourite day. Especially after Mom finally agreed that the 14 hour drive to Aunt Liz's house in Roswell, Georgia could be done much faster on a plane. A whole week off from work, eighty-five degree weather and one of the few times in the entire year that we managed to get the whole family togeth -
"Stop it", I reminded myself. "Stop this".
That life was over. It ended 17 days ago. In fact, so much had happened already that sometimes it felt like it had never truly existed to begin with. I had to toughen up - and fast. Thinking about the past wouldn't help me. It wouldn't keep protected from this hell.
Jennifer stopped walking for a moment and dropped her backpack to the ground. As she rubbed her aching neck and stretched her tired muscles she took in her surroundings. She couldn't see anything except yellow fields and a few scattered farm houses. Same view as yesterday; same as the day before. She hadn't seen a single person for eight days. Well, not a living, breathing, human one anyway. Then again, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Jennifer learnt the hard way that sometimes you should be more afraid of the living than the dead.
Sighing towards the ground, she did a quick check on her food supplies, even though she knew exactly what was there. Two bottles of water, a packet of chips, one and a half candy bars and a few cans of soup. She felt my anxiety levels rise by the second; she knew that she didn't have enough to survive but it was also clear that the best chance of finding the things she desperately needed was in the areas that were once more populated. The areas that were now most dangerous.
Jennifer rubbed her eyes as she felt a headache begin to take hold. She couldn't think straight right now. "Maybe I'm dehydrated", she thought. She was angry at herself for having such poor coping skills. Here she was, wandering the back roads of Georgia alone, living day-to-day and without any sort of long-term plan.
"You need to step up", she coached herself. "You need to."