- Chapter One -
Growing up in Michigan, things were good. Calm, warm, comforting. I lived in the city of Milford for a long time, grew up there playing in the lakes as a kid, until I was much older and moved to Flint.
That city, it was a dangerous one depending on where you lived, but nothing too bad. Watch yourself when walking at night alone, try to avoid certain neighborhoods, and most of the time you'd be alright.
After the infection started going around, people up north thought themselves to be safe. After all, we were the farthest north, it would most likely get to us last. We also used to have one of the best hospitals in the country, right in the heart of Ann Arbor.
Nothing could save us though; not the location, not the hospitals, not even fleeing. We all got hit just as bad as everyone else, and that arrogance about fighting the infection went away very quickly.
Now I don't know about you, but I would rather not live in an already shitty city during this shitty time. So, heading south seemed like a good plan to me.
I thought about my family before I started off, wondering if I should go back and try to find them, but it would be too difficult. Even if I could fight my way to their old homes, I most likely wouldn't find them there. They would be gone, whether they left to go someplace else, or maybe fight till they died. I knew I wouldn't find them.
When I started south, I didn't really have a destination in mind. Probably someplace warm, where I could survive winters without worrying about freezing to death.
Somewhere along the way, I learned that there were different civilizations desperately trying again, groups of survivors who were trying to build a new community again, and that appealed to me greatly.
It didn't take too much to arrive to Indiana, a few days of driving from flint. Normally that would only take about six to eight hours, but it took much longer with all the stops I had to make, and all the chaos going on.
I was lucky to pass the border to the state, things had started to get pretty bad out. I stopped in Indiana for a few days, pleased to find quite a few supplies in Indianapolis still available.
That's where I met David, actually.
He was one of the men passing out supplies to people. They all technically were looters I suppose, they stole a lot of supplies from all over when things started getting bad, but they were passing them out to people in hopes of saving as many people as they could.
I was in his line for getting supplies, each person had to wait their turn as each of the men packed them a bad and based it off before the next person could go.
"All this happening, and I'd expect people like you to be moving away from the problem, or hoarding their supplies, not sticking around to give them all away!" I laughed when my turn came, watching this man pack my bag.
He smiled, looking up at me. "I probably would leave, but I feel like I should help these people. They need it after all, right?" He would reply. "Besides, I always say, everything happens for a reason."
That man, he was soft hearted. I remember that particularly, when I knew him. He always wanted to help people; it was his goal with everything he did.
"Where you headed?" He asked me, looking up from the bag he was packing for a moment to get a good look at me. I delayed my response, since I didn't have an exact destination in mind.
"South. Need someplace warmer when winter comes, I can't stick around here too long. I think you should probably too." I admitted, figuring it was the best answer. Honest, without actually saying I don't know where.
He nodded, looking back down at his work.
"I see. That's a good thought in mind, actually, though I wouldn't go too far, I hear rumors that the spores survive even better in the warm." He advised me.
"Really? Nice to know, I'll keep that in mind. What about you, where will you go?" I asked him back. I figured it probably would be a good idea to ask around what other people were planning on doing, where they planned on going.
"Not sure, actually," I suddenly felt embarrassed, maybe ashamed that I wasn't honest about knowing where to go, though he could admit it to me. "I haven't really planned what to do from here. Help these people I reckon, but after that I'm not sure."
He smiled warmly at me as he handed me the bag of supplies. "I wish you luck uh... What was your name?" He asked, leaning against his table a bit.
"Ellen. And I wish you luck as well, don't stick around one place for too long." I said with a smile back as I held out a hand.
He shook it, nodding. "David."
That was the extent of our first encounter, and I left him there to continue with the next person in line. Heading back to my car, I looked through everything I had. It would probably be best for me to stick around for another day or two, I decided, and got into the car to sleep.