A mysterious parasite has surfaced and started to spread in several different parts of the United States. It was developed by a shady terrorist organization in order to cleanse the earth of all humans. For the past few weeks it has spread from city to city, through lakes and rivers and with the help of rodents, cats, and water. Now it has found its way to the small town of lintel falls.

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Chapter One

Sixteen year old Evra Sway left her house at 4:59 PM on the fourteenth day of her parent's absence, to search for help. They had promised to return in twenty four hours, before they left to organize transport for the three of them to get out of the country. So she had waited there for two weeks, alone. Everyone in the entire state was trying to get away from the parasite. Refugees from all over the western side of the US had been attempting to travel over the Pacific Ocean, and away from the infected, but due to the high risk of it spreading, airports in countries all along the far eastern coast were being shut down.

It was a dramatic evening, the evening that her parents left. Her mother, Martha Sway, had cried and promised that they would be back in one day's time to get her. Her Father had hugged and kissed her. Though he did not show it, he was just as worried about his daughter as Martha was. They could not take her along, however, for fear that she would come to harm. They had decided that it would be better to go on their own, and come back for her once they had found a safe way to get the three of them out of the state.

After they left, anarchy began to build. Large numbers of infected began to slowly creep into their small suburban town through the woods from the neighboring city. The parasite had completely consumed them, and they were nothing more than stumbling bags of infected meat; relatively passive for the most part, but still always hungry. They slowly started appearing in the streets, schoolyards, parking lots, and on front lawns, until there were hundreds of them everywhere. They walked slowly, shuffling up and down driveways and roads in large spread out waves. They lumbered through the city aimlessly, driving frightened people out of their homes.

Many of the citizens of Lintel Falls where Evra lived were already infected, when they left for the airport to evacuate, they just didn't know it. Few had known that the city's water supply had been tainted before it was too late. Luckily, Evra's family's obsession with bottled water had saved her just long enough to be warned by the newscaster, and she kept herself away from the parasite by only taking drinking uncontaminated water. She was forced to bathe using a cloth, and a small amount of heated up drinking water.

Over the past few days Evra had seen many infected citizens change into the lazy sluggish ghouls. After the fifth day of surviving alone in her house, the infected began to reduce in number slowly until there were only a few of them to be seen every hour. Though she was very frightened, Evra had become accustomed to seeing these 'zombie' people outside all day. She had figured that they majority of them had migrated to the next town seeking food. She had seen them eat wildlife, garbage, Humans. It was amazing what you could see in just an hour of staring out the window.

When she was convinced that it was safe enough, it was time to pack, but where would she go? Most everyone had left town; abandoned it, in its infested state. She decided that she would be traveling toward the airport by foot to search of her parents. She knew the violence that occurred at the airport though. It was over-crowded; there were fights, shootings, and even bombings. Everyone wanted to leave, but there were simply not enough planes, or food, or fuel. Plus there wasn't really anywhere to go. People were contracting the parasite everywhere. Countries outside the US were shutting down airports and borders. Where did they think they would get? Soon the parasite would reach the airport. What would they do then?

All this did not matter to her. Her mom and dad were there, and that is where she was going. Maybe they were waiting for her there, she thought. Perhaps they were still organizing a flight to take the three of them to someplace safe.

Unfortunately, she had no car. Moreover, her parents had not yet taught her how to drive, though they were planning to do so soon. Of course, when the huge 'Toxoplasmosa Atrum' pandemic surfaced, things as trivial as driving lessons were at the back of their minds. This was very understandable since the parasite had come from nowhere so fast and taken control of almost the entire US population.

On the news they had estimated that at the rate that it was going, almost everyone in North and South America would be infected by next month. The parasite may have already traveled over seas. Perhaps a group of terrorist were breeding it and introducing it to large bodies of water in order to infect as many people as possible. That was a scary thought. What if the entire human race was doomed to become infected?

Evra shivered. This was her first time stepping outside in a week. She wore her blue and gray converse with her favorite blue jeans (if she was going to be eaten alive or become a ghoul, she wanted to be wearing what she liked), and white t-shirt under a gray hooded sweatshirt. She wore her dad's waterproof digital watch that she had found in his room. On her back she carried two spare changes of clothing, her last three remaining bottles of clean water, a book, an MP3 player, and a few other small possessions in a large white and blue backpack.

Even though she had no makeup, she looked quite beautiful (for not being able to have a real shower in almost two weeks). Her blonde hair came down just past her shoulders in length, and was darker near the roots. It had grown a little since she had last dyed it.

Using both hands, she pulled her hair up into a pony tail and began to walk down the sidewalk.

The streets were empty. There were very few cars to be seen anywhere. The only sounds were the wind gently blowing past her, carrying a few dry leaves of autumn along the street and down toward the intersection. Her neighborhood's streets were narrow with houses on either side and a sidewalk on one side of the street. The fall had brought many shades of red and yellow and orange into her world. A very colorful time for a nationwide parasite attack, she thought. It was not exactly the time of year you would expect to have to deal with large scale biological terrorism. It was almost comical. The season that "The Dead walk the Earth!" turned out to be one of the most beautiful.

She tried knocking next door to see if anyone was home. Unsure of what to do, she peered in the window. As she had thought, nobody was home. The door was locked, and the car was gone from the driveway. She tried knocking at each house and testing each door to see if she could sneak into someone's home and find something to eat. Few houses were unlocked and those that were seemed to have already been raided of all of their food. Each house that she checked was empty; abandoned.

She had seen many people outdoors… but traveling where there could be a lurking ghoul anywhere still made her uneasy. Many refugees had passed by her house on their way through town and toward the coast, but all of them carried rifles. Being unarmed made her feel vulnerable and defenseless. What was even worse is that she was alone. There was nobody to talk to or to keep her company.

She thought about all her friends. Lots of people in her neighborhood fled to the airport, but those who had stayed were all infected from what she could tell. Many of her closest friends had called her when they began to feel sick from the parasite, to say goodbye. The past two weeks had been full of mourning, as each of her friends had disappeared one by one as if they just ceased to exist. But they were there; her friends still walked the earth (as ghouls). The most frustrating part of it all was being unable to do anything. Useless; Helpless; but what could she do? What could anyone do?

Her head was full of terrible thoughts. What if her parents had become infected at the airport? What if none of her friends had made it out of the country? What if the parasite had made its way around the entire earth, and everyone was infected? What if she was the only one left on earth? She began to cry, as she had done so many times before in the past two weeks. Her tears dotted the ground with little wet spots as she walked.

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Evra had walked east for a whole half hour before her emotions began to subside. Feelings for her parents and friends all came out in tears. Every time she would try to push them out of her head, they would come right back along with all of the hurt. She remembered when she was little, before they moved to Lintel Falls. She remembered her father taking her to the hospital when she had broken her arm. She remembered when her mother used to read stories to her before bed. She missed her parents and now she was walking toward the airport by herself, in the middle of a dangerous parasite infestation. She felt cold and alone. It made it worse that there was nobody there to talk to.

The sun was starting it's decent toward the horizon, where it would disappear in a few hours. Evra was tired and hungry. She began to think about different places she could stock up on food. Walking all the way to the airport was a long journey after all. A longer distance that she had ever walked before anyway, but she knew how to get there. The area was familiar to her, and she decided to go to the local gas station as it was just an hour's walk away. There would hopefully be food there and maybe a place to stay for the night. She didn't think the owner would mind. After all, he had probably fled the city like everyone else. Being outside and vulnerable to the zombified citizens was frightening, and she could already picture herself holed up in the Chevron station, safe behind the front desk. There would be plenty of food and water.

For the amount of time that she had been walking, Evra was surprised that she hadn't seen any infected. The road ahead of her seemed just as quiet as the trail behind her. She decided to stop at the park and rest for a few minutes before continuing. Her bag had begun to feel heavy, and her shoulder needed a break. She dropped her bag in the grass and sat, admiring its soft green texture. The wind blew through the field, tousling the grass and making it roll in big long waves as if saying "hello" to her. She relaxed a little, decently contented with being outdoors, even under the circumstances.

All of the sudden, a deep low moaning noise rose up from behind her. She whirled around in time to see four ghouls limping towards her. Their eyes were dried up and blank, their pale grey faces expressionless. Their clothes were dirty and worn down, and only one of them was wearing a shoe... one shoe. The closest one, barely twenty feet away, was moving faster than the rest. Drool hung from his open mouth as he staggered toward her, grunting.