A Reason for Survival

 The dust kicked up underneath her feet, creating a sort of dust devil around her. It had been days since Kate had seen any water, or people for that matter. Though she hadn't seen any living people, she had run into few zombies. She grasped her shot gun tightly as she thought about her last few nights. She hadn't been able to sleep for days now. Every time the sun went down, that's when the zombies seemed to be the most active. It was as though the blaring hot sun made them sleepy during the day, which proved difficult to get any sleep.

Kate dragged her feet, praying that a building of any kind would appear in the distance. To her relief, she found a road, which meant that somewhere there was civilization. She needed to find shelter before the sun went down. She couldn't keep going like this. If she didn't get sleep, food, or water soon, she might as well just get eaten alive.

She wiped the sweat from her brow, her forehead tender from a sunburn. She examined her arms, which were also cherry red from being burnt by the sun. she wished for some aloe to relieve some of the discomfort. She also longed for a little shade to take a break in, but there was none to be seen.

To her right, she saw what looked like an abandoned gas station. She sighed deeply and began to jog towards it, leaving the road behind her. She leaped over rocks and brush, her heart pounding in her ears. She finally met up with the road she had abandoned. As she jogged, the building got closer and closer, giving her hope that it wasn't a mirage.

“Thank you!” she said excitedly as she approached what she could now see was a gas station. She stopped running and, dropping her gun to the ground, she put her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She inhaled deeply and picked her shot gun up off of the ground and walked the rest of the way to her shelter for the night. The sun was already nearly set behind the mountains, sending eerie shadows across the ground.

She grabbed the handle of the door and pulled; it was unlocked. Again, she sighed with relief. She found some rope behind the cashier's desk and wrapped it around the handles after locking the dead bolt. As long as she remained quiet, she should attract any unwanted attention. She went to the employee entrance and made sure it was dead bolted as well before collapsing to the ground, exhausted. She leaned against a wall and closed her eyes, drifting into sleep for a second. She jerked her eyes open, realizing she couldn't fall asleep yet. She was dangerously dehydrated and terrified she would not wake up if she fell asleep now.

Pulling herself to her feet, she dragged herself to the bottled water, which had been ravaged through. Thankfully, there were still a few bottles left. Glancing around again, she found some backpacks hanging on a hook, so she grabbed one and put the remaining water into it. She sat down again, and guzzled a bottle until it was gone. She stationed herself into a corner and closed her eyes. Sleep had never felt so good.

What seemed like after hours of sleep, she was startled awake by a noise. Her breath caught in her chest and she slowly grasped her shot gun. She put it on her lap and stared into the darkness. There was no movement, but again she heard a noise. It sounded like something was trying to open the front doors. Kate leaned over to look around a shelf and saw some glowing eyes in the dark. The zombie's eyes glowed like animal's eyes, that's how she could tell it wasn't a living person. She pointed her shot gun in its direction in the off chance that it would break through the glass.

She heard it moan and it jiggled the door again. Just then a second one showed up. No doubt the first attracted it with all the noise it was creating. Kate's heart was pounding so loudly in her chest it was deafening. The second zombie pounded on the glass while the first continue yanking on the handle. And, to no surprise, about five more showed up.

Kate kept to her dark, little corner, fear gripping her. Tears welled up in her eyes. She hated that she had to live this horrifying nightmare by herself. She had had family; a brother, a sister, and her mom and dad. But she had to watch as they were all eaten alive. Every night as she fell asleep, all she could see was her family screaming in pain and telling Kate to run for her life. And every day she wished that she hadn't run. What did she have to live for? Everyone and everything she had known was gone. She was completely alone in this post apocalyptic world.

Kate jumped as the glass broke on the door. She clutched her shot gun even tighter and pointed it into the darkness. She could hardly see, so she was relying on movement. She whipped her gun around as a zombie approached from the left. She pulled the trigger and the zombie fell to the ground, lifeless, so to speak. The rest of the zombies growled and she could hear more footsteps approaching her. She pumped her shot gun and released another round, dropping another zombie. 2 more were killed dead, before one was able to grab her and pin her to the ground.

“NO!” she hollered as it's gray, decaying face became visible. It bit towards her, trying to grab hold of any kind of flesh. Kate felt her arms beginning to give way; she couldn't hold it back for much longer. She closed her eyes and pictured her family. But, before her arms could give way, there was the sound of a rifle firing and the zombie flipped over and fell to the ground next to her. There were more shots fired by what sounded like multiple people. As soon as the room was cleared, a flash light was turned on and pointed at her face. She held her hand up, trying to protect her eyes from the blinding light.

“Are you all right?” a male voice asked.

“I guess so,” Kate replied as the man helped her to her feet. “Who are you?”

“I'm Jack,” the first man replied. Then, motioning towards another man and a woman he said, “This is Hugh and Jenn. We heard your gunshots so we came as quickly as we could. It looked like you needed a little help.” he smiled at Kate.

“Uh... yeah,” she replied, still taken aback. Apologizing, she said, “Sorry, it's just been so long since I've seen actual people.”

“Are you alone?” Jenn asked.

Kate nodded. “Yes, but I don't feel like talking about it.”

“Of course,” Jenn replied. “If you'd like, you can join us.”

Kate felt tears of joy fill her eyes. “I would love to! It is so scary doing this by myself. I've had to do this by myself for 2 weeks now with very little food, sleep and water.”

“We would love for you to join us,” Hugh said. “These are scary times, and no one can do this by themselves.”

Jack agreed. “For sure. We're actually heading West to a refugee camp. We've heard rumor that the army has created a safe location for survivors.”

“Let's do this then!” Kate said. She hadn't felt this kind of hope in a long time. At last, there was a chance of survival and a reason to keep going.