Yet again we were on the search for a safety. This time we were not having any luck finding somewhere to stay for a while. We stopped to sleep in an abandoned city bus. While everyone else slept me and my brother talked about what to do about the lack of supplies.

"I know what you're going to say but I think that we need to go to a city. I think that it's our best chance of finding supplies." I say.

"No, that is a really bad idea. It would be suicide." Jason says.

Suddenly, Sarah says, "Your sister is right we have drained every small town of anything of use so, I think that it's about time that we move into the city."

"Ok, you're right, but I still don't like the idea. But in any case I'll tell everyone of our plan in the morning. We should try and get some sleep before we have to get moving again." Jason says.

After a while of trying to sleep and failing, I give up. I look around the bus and notice that Sarah is still awake. "You cant sleep either can you?" I ask.

"Nope, … I haven't slept well since this whole thing started." Sarah says.

"I don't think anyone has slept good since it started." I say.

"Yeah, how could you, with people dying all over the place and those things moaning and groaning constantly?" She asks, rhetorically.

"Yeah, anyway where were you when this all started?" I ask.

"Well, I was staying in a cabin with my family up in the mountains. They didn't have a TV, and cell phones didn't work because you couldn't get a signal way out there. We packed everything up and went to return home, expecting everything to be the way that it was when we left, but when we got into town, we saw all the dead bodies and blood. We were driving down the road to go to our house when a girl runs out in front of our car. She was covered in blood and ash, and she smelled like death." She says.

"Please help! Let me in, I need your help!" A girl yells as she runs up to my parents car.

"What are you doing honey, let her in." June says.

My dad unlocks the car door and lets her in, then he asks "What's going on around here, where is everyone?"

"Are you serious? Everyone is dead and there are monsters all over the place, where have you been?" She asks.

"We were in a cabin up in the woods." Daniel says.

"Oh, well you should have stayed there its not safe here." The girl says.

"Yeah I guess so, we were going to our house to get some stuff, your welcome to come with us." Daniel says.

"Thanks that would be great, I haven't eaten anything in almost a week." The girl says

"That's terrible, we have plenty of food so you can eat as much as you want. My name is June, this is my husband Daniel and our daughter Sarah. What's your name?" June says.

"Samantha, but my friends call me Sam. Hopefully your house is ok, because when it started everyone began to vandalize houses, they would ransack them looking for food, water, and weapons. Some houses were even destroyed during the panic." Sam says.

"It's nice to meet you Sam. Do you have any idea how bad has it spread?" Daniel asks.

"There's no way to know how bad it is, but my guess is that it has spread across the country by now, maybe even across the world." Sam says.

"Oh my god, do you know how it started? Daniel asks.

"No, no one does but some people believe that a virus was accidentally released from a nearby C.D.C lab, but I don't know if it is true or not." Sam says.

"How many people are left in town?" Daniel asks.

"As far as I know I'm the only one left in town, everyone else is either dead, a zombie, or left town." Sam says.

"Wait. Did you just say zombie?" Daniel asks.

"Yeah. Zombies, they eat and eat. That's all they do." Sam says.

"I would never have imagined in a million years that this would ever happen." Daniel says.

"Dad, do you think that my friends are okay?" Sarah asks.

"I certainly hope so, honey." Daniel says.

Later I found out that most of my friends had been killed. I was so depressed because I wished that I had taken them with me. I blamed my dad for their deaths.

"Why didn't you let me them come with us? It's your fault that they're dead!" Sarah yells.

"No it's not. If we had brought them with us then their parents would have worried about them and they would have worried about their parents." Her dad says.

After a few years, we found our selves in a terrible situation. Sam had been bit by a zombie that came out of nowhere. My dad killed it but then more started pouring in and we ran as fast as we could. When we got away from the hoard, Sam and my parents I asked about what to do.

"What should we do, Sam has been bit so you know what's going to happen now." Daniel stated.

"Should we leave her behind?" June asks.

"We can't just leave her like that, I wouldn't want to be left alone, we need to do something." Sarah says with a little anger in her voice.

"Just cut it off. Please, I'll do anything, I don't want to be one of those things. I don't want to die." Sam yells while crying.

My dad grabs a piece of wood and hits her on the head knocking her out. While she's unconscious my dad cuts her arm off. Then stitches it shut and wraps it with a towel. Later on when she wakes up my dad asks her if she is feeling any symptoms. She says no, but she says that her arm really hurts and she is tiered. We didn't think too much of it. My dad thought that it was just because she had lost a lot of blood. But we were wrong.

Later that night, I was awoken by a loud crash in the room next to mine. I hear screams coming from my parents room, then silence. Suddenly Sam comes sprinting into my room. At first I thought that she was scared, but then I saw the blood dripping from her mouth, her eyes were solid black, and her skin was very pale and all of her veins were visible. I yelled for my parent but they didn't respond or run into the room. Sam suddenly charges at me full speed. I barley had time to grab my gun and shoot her. When she fell to the ground and lay motionless, I ran into my parents room and was horrified by what I saw. There was blood everywhere. I gathered up as much stuff as I could carry and ran out of there as fast as I could and I just kept going, I was on my own until you guys found me."

"How long were you alone?" I ask

"Since the first year." She says.

"That is so terrible, but if Sam turned after your dad cut her arm off, why did you try it again with my brother's hand?" I ask.

"Well, I thought that we had waited too long to cut her arm off. So when I cut Jason's hand off I hoped that the bite was still fairly fresh, plus I like Jason a lot so I did everything that I could to keep him alive." Sarah says.

"I'm glad that you care about him so much. It makes me happy to see him happy. We've had such a rough life, especially Jason. I just wish that I could find someone to connect with like Jason did." I say.

"Well, I'm sure that you will." Sarah says.

"Yeah, I'm not so sure about that." I say.

"I am, I know someone who has had their eye on you since he first met you." Sarah says.

"Really? Who?" I ask.

"Jeremiah." Sarah says.

"Really? I thought that he just wanted to be friends." I say.

"Nope. He asked me a couple days ago how to get a girl to like him. I knew that he was talking about you so I gave him some advise. I told him to just go for it and see what happens. But if I were you I would make a move because I don't think he is going to." Sarah says.

"Okay. Maybe I will, but right now, I think that we should sleep." I say.

"Yeah, your right. Good night." Sarah says.

"Good night." I say as I walk back to my seat.

I waited for what I think was an hour, so that I could be sure that Sarah was asleep. I walked over to where Jeremiah was sleeping as quietly as I could, I step one leg over him and sit on him. He wakes up and looks at me with a confused look on is face.

"What are you doing Alice? He asks."

I lean forward and kiss him, then I say, " I know that you like me, and I want you to know that I feel the same about you."

"Really? That's good, but how did you know?" Jeremiah asks.

"I would have to be blind to not notice the way that you look at me." I say.

He looks a little embarrassed. But he smiles at me and sits forward and kisses me for a long time. We were interrupted by a loud crash. It sounded like a bomb went off, but there was no light. It was so loud that it woke everyone up. I scramble to get off of him before anyone notices.

Joel stands up and says, "What was that?"

"I have no idea. Sarah, let's go check it out." Jason says.

"Okay Jason." Sarah says.

Jason and Sarah leave to go check out the sound. When they return the sun is up. They had to of been gone for at least 2 hours. I think that I know why, but I'm not going to ask them, because I really don't care.

"Did you figure out what the sound was?" I ask.

"Yeah, Part of a building collapsed." Jason says.

"Okay, why didn't you come back when you figured out what it was?" Jason doesn't answer me, which confirms my suspicion.

Joel walks over to Jason and says, "What are you going to do if she gets pregnant?"

Jason says, "She wont, we've been very carful."

"Well for your sake I hope so, because raising a baby in a time like this is not easy, just ask Madilyn. She has been raising her baby brother by herself, and she is just a kid, so that can't be easy. Every time he cries he attracts the dead. If Sarah has a baby to, then that would be one more baby to attract attention to us." Joel says.

Madilyn jumps into the conversation and says, "What are you getting at?" With an angry tone.

"I didn't mean for what I said to offend you, I just meant that it's not easy to take care of a baby right now, with the way that the world is." Joel says apologetically.

"Yeah, your right. It's not easy to take care of a child at my age. Some times it can be dangerous, for both us and the baby. It is most dangerous when we don't have a place to stay. But having another baby around would give someone for Isaiah to play with." Madilyn says.

After Madilyn said that, everyone was quiet. About as quiet as we all were when the end began. It was eyrie, and the silence was deafening. Jeremiah pulls me off to the side.

"What was with you last night?" Jeremiah asks.

"What do you mean?" I reply.

"You kissed me." He says.

"Oh, yeah I did. Did you like it?" I ask.

"Yeah, but why all of a sudden did you decide to kiss me? Why not do it earlier?" He asks.

"Well, I guess I didn't want to embarrass myself, and I needed to be sure that you felt the same why about me that I had for you. Plus I was tiered of waiting for you to make a move." I explain.

"Oh." He says quietly.

We remained on the bus for 2 or 3 more days. Then we decide to continue looking for a shelter. We were in more of a rush than usual to find a place to stay because it was starting to get cold, and we didn't want the baby or anyone else to get sick. Winters in the north are very harsh. We can get blizzards, and quit often we get white outs, and the snow can come up to your knees, or higher. I remember one year, when I was little, it was 14 degrees below zero. The snow was so deep that we couldn't open our door. The weather people issued a warning for everyone to stay inside and to avoid travel if at all possible. I hope that we don't have a repeat of that this year, because we will be trapped and unable to look for food, we could starve.

With winter on a fast approach, we needed to find clothes that are more suited to the weather. In our rush to leave the airport, we left all of our seasonal clothes behind. The problem is that all those extra cloths are going to double are load, and we have no vehicle so we are stuck carrying everything. When night fell, we took shelter in a grocery store. Everyone was asleep when Isaiah started to cry. Madilyn woke up to tend to him.

"I'll get him hunn, go back to sleep. As young as you are you need as much sleep as you can get." I say.

"Okay." Madilyn says.

I pick him up and start walking around the store, but he continues to cry. I remember my mom telling me that she use to sing to me to get me to go back to sleep. I was never a big fan of singing around people, but everyone was asleep, so I give it a try.

"She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati

On a snow white Christmas Eve

Going home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat

Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline

It'd been a long hard year

She had a lot on her mind and she didn't pay attention

She was going way too fast

Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass

She saw both their lives flash before her eyes

She didn't even have time to cry

She was so scared

She threw her hands up in the air

Jesus take the wheel

Take it from my hands

Cause I can't do this on my own

I'm letting go

So give me one more chance

Save me from this road I'm on

Jesus take the wheel"

"You have a beautiful voice." Jeremiah says from behind me.

"You startled me." I say after I spin around to look at him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to." He says.

"I know its ok. You really think that I'm a good singer?" I ask.

"Yeah. Can I ask you something?" He asks.

"Yeah sure." I say.

"Why did you pick that song to sing to Isaiah?" He asks.

"Well it was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid. I wish we had power because I would love to listen to that song again." I say.

"I like that song too." He says.

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah…" He puts a hand on my face, and with his other hand, he grabs my hand, and then leans forward and kisses me for a few seconds. "But I like it more when you sing it."

"Just a minute. I'm going to put him back to bed. I'll be right back, stay here." I return Isaiah to his bed and look around to make sure that everyone is asleep. then I return to Jeremiah. He kisses me for awhile, then he leads me into to a changing room and locks the door.

"What are we doing in here?" I ask.

"Don't you want a little privacy?" He asks.

"Yeah, I guess." He starts to kiss me again, then he pushes me back into the wall of the changing room. I wrap my arms around his neck. After a little while he starts to pull at my shirt and I get a little nervous.

"I've never done this before." I say.

"Neither have I. I'm only 2 years older than you, but don't you want your first time to be with a friend?" He says.

"Yeah, It would be nice to spend that time with someone who really care for me the way that you do." He kisses me again, and unbuttons my plaid shirt, and pulls it off.

He stairs at me for a second. "What are those scars from?"

Tears begin to form in my eyes as I explain. " I use to spend whole summers at my uncles house. He drank a lot, because his wife left him. Sometimes he would yell at me and my cousin, and sometimes he would use me as an ash tray, and he would beat me and my cousin."

"What are these ones from?" He asks as he turns my arms over.

"It was my way of dealing with pain. Some of them are because of being bullied at school but the rest are because of my uncle." I say.

"I'm so sorry that all of this happened to you, but I have a lot of scars too, so don't be embarrassed." He says, then he takes his shirt off, and I stare at him for a minute. I had never seen him without a shirt on before. He is a lot more muscular than I thought he was. He always wore baggy cloths, so I just thought that he was really skinny. He was really attractive. I couldn't stop staring at him, and he noticed.

"Is something wrong?" He asks.

"No, sorry. Your just really buff." I say.

"Yeah. So?" He says.

"I like It." I say, then I stand on my toes and kiss him. He unbuttons my jeans and pulls them down. He grabs my hands and puts them on the waistband of his cargo pants, as if to tell me to take his pants off without actually saying it, so I do. He sits down on the bench and pulls me on to his lap. He takes off the rest of my cloths and his, then he pushes me to the floor and lays on top of me, and kisses me. A tear falls down my face.

"What's wrong?"

"I am a horrible person."

"No your not." He says. " You're one of the nicest people I have ever met."

"I have killed people."

"We've all killed people."

"Yeah but were we all twelve? That's way too young to have to do something like that."

"I'm sure that you had no other choice."

"I didn't, but I also didn't feel bad about it."

"You're not a bad person. I don't always feel bad when I kill people either." Then kisses me until I stop crying.

Then he whispers in my ear, "Are you sure that you are ready for this?"

I whisper back, "Yes."

He puts one of his warm, soft hands over my mouth and whispers, "Shh, you'll wake up the others." We remain in the changing room for about an hour.

"We should get back to the others and try and get a few hours of sleep, Jason wants to start moving again at dawn." He says.

We were getting dressed and I happen to look over at Jeremiah before he puts his shirt back on. He had scars on his back.

"What are those scars from, if you don't mind me asking." I ask.

He puts his shirt on and then turns around. "Before you and your family saved me, and before all of this, I didn't have the best relationship with my dad. He would whip me with a belt. One day at school, they did a swimming class. I took off my shirt to get in the water and everybody stared at me. One of the teachers pulled me out of class and asked me what had happened to my back, but I wouldn't tell them. Because of that, they called my mom. When she arrived she told them what had been happening. She told them that if she said anything to him he would hit her too, sometimes hard enough to knock her out. The next day some cops came to the door and arrested my dad. About a year later she got remarried. The guy that she married was so nice to me, he never even yelled at me. But… then everything changed. The world changed. My mom and my new dad got sick, and that's when we met." He says.

"I am so sorry." I say, as tears begin to roll down my checks.

"Its ok." He says. Then he kisses me one last time before we go back to bed.

"Alright everyone, pack it up and look for anything of use, food, water, ammo, clothes, weapons… and make it fast, I want to be on the move before those things catch our scent."

I was running low on art supplies so I decided to go to the arts and crafts section to load up on my stuff before we leave. After that I went to the tools section and found some items that I could use as weapons, hammers, screw drivers, crowbars, etc. I returned to the group with two extra bags. Once everyone met up at the front of the store we were on the road again.