It was a chilly morning in Pasadena, Texas. I got ready for school while I called my best friend, Lily. “Hey, don’t forget I’m coming to pick you up!” I say as I grab my jacket and say a quick goodbye to my family while I wait for Lily to respond to my previous statement. “Don’t worry I didn’t forget! I am ready and waiting for you!” Lily playfully shouted to me over the phone. I laughed as I heard my boyfriend, River, honk his car horn outside my house. “Alright~, we are on our way already. Bye, Lily~.” I say in a sing-song-like tone as she laughs at her response to my statement and hangs up.  I left my house and got in my boyfriend’s car after grabbing my school bag. “Let’s go get Lily. I don’t want to keep her waiting.” I say as I go on my phone on TikTok as he drives off.

“Woah-. Look at this!” I say as I show him a TikTok that popped up on my “For You” page while messing with my Lego Zombie keychain on my school ID. It was a TikTok of what looked to be a freshman who went to our school, Pasadena Memorial, eating a tainted burger as a dare. They cheer or make grossed-out noises as the freshman ate the burger. The video ends there. “That is so gross,” I say as I make a face of distaste and my boyfriend fakes a gag. “Agreed.” He said as we continued the drive to Lily’s house and then to school. We took about 15 minutes to arrive at school and pick up Lily. I showed Lily and our whole friend group the same TikTok I had shown my boyfriend. Eventually, the bell rang for first period. All of us had 1st period off, so we decided to hang out on the patio. The aura outside was quite eerie. I can hear the trees whisper to one another from the wind blowing against them. The clouds blocked the happy sun from shining like the brightest star it is.

I look towards my friends and boyfriend who are all talking to each other. Citlali and Lily saw a sick-looking student, stumbling around in the cafeteria. “Hey guys, Should we help them? Or like get a teacher?” Citlali said as I looked at the student they were looking at. “Oh! That’s the kids from the TikTok that I showed y'all!” I say as I remember what the student looked like. The kid slowly faces us and starts approaching us. River sees him and calls out to him, “Hey kid, you alright?” The kid ignored my boyfriend’s question, but due to my boyfriend calling out to the kid, he came at us at a faster pace. We all backed away but as the kid came closer, we could see his gray, clouded eyes and pale but slightly green skin. We can all easily tell that this kid is no longer human and is something else. A zombie.

What we didn’t know was that this kid had already turned the entire school into zombies as well and was coming for us. We all ran off to our cars. Me, River, and Lily in his car, Crystal and Citlali in Citlali’s car. River drove to my house and Citlali followed. It took only 5 minutes to get to my house. We quickly got out of our cars and went inside my house after I had unlocked the front door. We went inside. I locked the door and we went to the living room. “Is it just me or is the zombie apocalypse actually happening?” I ask as everyone looks at me like I’m extremely slow. “What else would it be logically!? You saw what that kid looked like!” Citlali said, well more like yelled at me which caused my family to exit their rooms to see what was happening. “What’s going on?” My dad says as he looks directly at me and my friends/boyfriend.

I go to start talking when we hear all sorts of sounds of horror outside along with cars crashing. Crystal runs over to the window in the dining room and peeks outside. “Guys! We need to leave or hide at least! The zombies are here!” Crystal shouts out to us with urgency but horror and fear are hidden behind the urgency in her voice. The second she finished her sentence, I heard zombies banging at the front door, garage door, and back door. “Get in the attic!” I shout as my friends start booking it to the attic. “Dad, get the bats and the guns!” I yelled as my dad went to get the guns while I quickly went to the kitchen and grabbed every canned food I could and took it up to the attic, passing it to my friends. As the zombies continued to bang on the doors, I could finally hear the zombies breaking the window in the dining room. My dad passed the weapons to me and I passed them to my friends. As the zombies got inside I climbed up the ladder to the attic where my friends were. My family tried to get up the stairs but I didn't let them.

“I’m sorry but me and my friends need to survive…I hope you can forgive me after this. I love you guys.” I say as I push my family off the ladder and close the attic door. I hear my family’s screams of horror and agony. I felt terrible since I had just sacrificed my family to the zombies so we could live. River’s first thought as a boyfriend was to comfort me as my friends looked at me like I was crazy. They at first showed signs of animosity to me, but they knew though deep down that I did it for us to live. 10 minutes pass in absolute silence from me and my group till I finally decide to break it. “We’ll stay here in the attic for tonight till my house clears out. When it’s safe we drive to Walmart for protection, more food, gas, and all that. Okay?” My friends nod along with my boyfriend as I go to a window that is located in my attic and has a view of the streets. The streets were crowded with zombies and I am so glad I made the wise decision to stay in my attic for the night.

When morning finally hit many hours later and a mildly restless night, I was the first one up and I went to the attic door. I carefully but quietly opened it enough to poke my head out. I look around the hall to find no zombies. I grab a bat and exit the attic as quiet as a mouse and I walk around my home. I check the house to make sure it’s empty and luckily it is. I go and grab every car key in the house including Rivers and Citlali’s. I then go back up into the attic and close the door. My friends and boyfriend by then had already woken up. “All right guys the house is empty so grab a weapon and let’s go. We need to go to Walmart to get gas. Citlali, We need to figure out a cure for this cause I’m not gonna live in the apocalypse forever.” I say as Citlali nods. It took us about 20 minutes to leave because we grabbed the important stuff like food and our phone in case there was still some service. 

We quickly drove to Walmart’s gas station without crashing and we all got out of our cars. We have 5 cars now. We fueled up our cars and I walked to Citlali as my car was filling up. “Okay, so I'm pretty sure we need a bunch of chemicals and stuff but luckily I’m sure there is like a cryptic lab in Costco,” I say as I lean on Citlali’s car that she was fueling up. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure there is too. The faster we get there, the quicker we can cure everyone and this will all be over.” I nod as I speak loudly for everyone to hear me. “All right guys! Let’s head to Costco! Follow me and be careful when driving. There are sure to be zombies on the road so watch it!” I say as I walk off to my car and everyone else does the same. 

We all drove to Costco with me arriving first. I wait for everyone else to arrive. When everyone arrived we made our way inside. We kill any Zombies on our way to the underground lab while ignoring the horrible aroma. It took about 30 minutes since there were a lot of zombies at Costco when the apocalypse hit. Me and Citlali were very quick to get to work on the cure when we cleared the room of zombies. My boyfriend and the rest of our group did what they could to hold off any zombies that got in somehow with the shockingly sturdy bats we had or help me and Citlali with the cure. Me and Citlali were careful when making the cure since one wrong move could ruin the whole thing. It took us about 2 days to make the cure correctly without any mistakes. We got to work immediately by using special guns and bullets to cure everyone. It took us a very long week to cure the whole state since it was only the state that was infected. Those who were killed as a zombie, however, did not make it to receive the cure. Those who lived got to go back to a normal life.