She woke up all of a sudden in her own room, feeling the stickiness of her body due to the sweat. Looking around her room, she realized that it looked way more run down than the way she remembered. As she tried to move her head, she started to feel the numbness starting to hit her nerves. She tried as hard as she could to lift her left hand to get her iPhone but instead, while trying to reach for it, her hand lost strength and her fingers swiped her phone off the nightstand. The iPhone landed on the ground with a loud thud.

"Phil, did you hear that?"
"I heard it."
"Do you think it's one of them?"

Not taking a second to answer his friend, he held up his gun in front of him as he ascended the stairs slowly with his friend behind him. Together, they checked the rooms that had their doors wide open before noticing a door that had been boarded up. Phil signaled for his friend to help take off the boards before they opened the door. They noticed the figure on the bed in a sleeping position.

"H-Hello?"

His friend looked at Phil, wondering if he too heard the female voice. The two of them moved closer with their weapons in front of them as precaution. As his friend approached the bed, they could finally see the face of the figure.

"Are you okay? My name's Bryan Danielson. Can you move?"

She shook her head and said, "I'm fine but… I-I can't seem to move."

Bryan looked at Phil as he looked out of the window. Seeing the sky slowly turning dark, indicated that night was only a few hours away. He handed Bryan his gun and pulled the covers off her. He scooped her off the bed bridal-style and turned to Bryan.

"Get her glasses on the night-stand. We have to go now." Phil said

Bryan nodded and instantly spotted her glasses on the night stand. He picked it up and followed after Phil who was carrying her down the stairs. Bryan picked the bag of food they had gotten from her kitchen off the ground.

Phil looked at her, "Keep your eyes on me. Don't look anywhere else, got it?"

She nodded and Phil looked up as Bryan opened the front door for them. They made their way to the car they brought with them and Bryan put the bag of food in the backseat. He moved aside as Phil put Jasmine into the back of the car, lying down and closed the door. The two of them quickly got into the front seats of the car before starting up the engine.

Through the car mirror, Phil maintained eye contact with her.

"Don't sit up until I tell you to, okay?" Phil said

She nodded and closed her eyes as she felt the car move off from its original spot. As they drove out of the surburbs towards the mountainous area, she knew somehow or another that something had happened to the world she once knew. But, she didn't know how bad it was.

Once the coast was clear, Bryan turned back to see if she was alright.

"Hey, are you okay?" Bryan asked
"Y-Yeah…" She replied
"You're Jasmine, right?" Bryan said
"How-How did you know?" She asked

Bryan merely smiled before turning back to see Phil shift into parking gear as they arrived at their destination.

"You can sit up now." Bryan said, before getting out of the car.

Jasmine sat up and looked at her left to see a rather decent looking camp ground that had been set up with other tents. People were milling around, doing their own things like nothing had happened. Only, Jasmine noticed that most of them looked like they haven't bathe in ages. Feeling the strength come back to her limbs, she opened the door and slowly stepped out of her car.

"Jasmine?"

She looked ahead of her and saw a boy of about 10 years old looking longingly at her. Tears started to cloud her vision as the boy ran towards her and engulfed her in a hug.

"I knew they would bring you back! I just knew it!" The boy said

Jasmine hugged him tight as she kissed the top of her little brother's head. He broke the hug and looked at her before breaking into a tired but happy smile.

"I missed you so much!" He said

Jasmine smiled, "I missed you too, Bradley."

Her little brother hugged her one more time before pulling her by her hand towards the camp, where everyone had stopped to look at the two of them. Bradley brought her towards a tent where a pretty looking black lady was standing, arranging her clothes out to dry.

"Alicia! They brought back my sister!" Bradley exclaimed

She turned around and smiled, "That's wonderful news! I told you they'd find her, right?"

Bradley nodded and smiled before looking at Jasmine, "I'll go get some water for you."

Before Jasmine could say anything, Bradley ran off towards an RV parked near the other cars. Alicia looked at her and pulled her over to the chairs where they both sat down.

"I'm Alicia. I've been taking care of your little brother ever since he was brought here." She said

Jasmine smiled, "My name's Jasmine."

She looked at Alicia, "What do you mean by when he was brought here? Where are my parents?"

Alicia sat back, her face registering a look of guilt, as if she had said something wrong.

"Alicia… Is there something I should know? What is going on?" Jasmine asked

Seeing Jasmine's look of lost and a possibility of an oncoming breakdown, Alicia felt compelled to tell her everything.

She sighed, "It's a disease that came out of nowhere. People who died from the disease started coming back alive and biting other humans. It became an unstoppable cycle. It began in Miami and it started to spread across the entire country. Phil found your brother, hiding under a blanket in your parents' car. They were nowhere to be seen so he brought Bradley here."

Jasmine sat back, feeling as if someone just threw a stone at her and she was suffering a major concussion. She tried to register what Alicia just told her but no matter how hard she tried; she just couldn't understand why she wasn't in the picture.

"What about me? Why wasn't I with them? Why did Bryan and Phil find me in the house?" Jasmine asked, wanting her questions to be answered.

Alicia made a sympathetic face and said, "You've been in a coma for over a year. Your parents had to leave with your little brother because they thought you were never going to wake up. When Phil brought Bradley here, he kept saying that he wanted to see you. He kept calling out your name in his sleep. He always believed that you would wake up and that you were still alive… That's why Phil promised Bradley that he will go to your house to find you and get some more food at the same time."

"How long ago did this happen?" Jasmine asked

"This shit happened a little over two months ago. Phil brought Bradley back two weeks ago… He hadn't been sleeping well ever since he came here but now that they've found you and reunited the two of you, I expect him to sleep well now." Alicia replied

Jasmine merely nodded and decided to stop asking questions as Bradley came running back to her with a bottle of water in hand. He handed it to her and she downed the whole bottle as soon as it touched her lips.

Alicia clapped her hands together as she stood up and said, "Well, I should start getting packed up to move out of the tent now…"

"Move out? Why?" Jasmine asked
"I expect the two of you to be living together so I'll move to another tent." Alicia replied
"It's okay… You can stay. I'll just share the bed with my brother." Jasmine said
"Yeah. You don't have to move out." Bradley said

Alicia looked at the both of them and smiled, "Alright then. I'll stay."

"So you're not moving to my tent already?"

They turned and a woman came into their view with a smile.

"Hi, I'm Tamina."

Jasmine smiled and shook her hand, "Jasmine."

"Sorry, Tamina. I'm staying." Alicia said
"Well, that's good news for me. I have the tent to myself again." Tamina said

She looked at Jasmine and said, "Anyway, I'm here to check on you. I'm a medical student and I know a few things about comatose patients. I think I should give you a check-up just to be sure you're okay."

Jasmine nodded and Tamina walked her over to her tent. They sat down inside and Tamina took a small torch light that they used in hospitals to check her eyes. After a few checks here and there, she was done.

"Everything looks fine. You're good as new." Tamina said
"Thanks…" Jasmine said

Tamina smiled, "No problem. It's a relief that you're here now and back with Bradley. When Bradley came here, he was so fearful. Alicia and I had a hard time getting him to eat."

"Thank you for taking care of him. I really don't know how he must have felt when our parents didn't come back for him…" Jasmine said
"Well, all that matters is you're here now." Tamina said

Jasmine nodded as she thanked Tamina again before heading out of her tent. She was on her way back to her new home when a Hispanic woman came up to her, holding a set of clothes.

"Hola! Are you Jasmine?" She asked
"Yes I am… You are?" Jasmine said

She smiled, "Rosa Mendes. Phil asked me to find you a new set of clothes. And I managed to find a set. So, here you are."

Rosa handed the set of clothes to Jasmine which had a 'I heart NY' shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Thank you." Jasmine said
"De nada." Rosa replied

She smiled at Jasmine again before she walked off towards what Jasmine assumed was her tent that she shared with another girl.