Survive.Survive! | Teen Ink

Survive.Survive!

September 8, 2023
By Anonymous

John was an incoming junior in high school and is thrilled to be back. However, John does not start until Monday and right now its Saturday. John lives with his parents and has no siblings, but that did not matter to him. However, John was a unique teenager because he loves to fantasize that he is part of a video game and acting as he is the protagonist. Whether is a shooting game, adventure, or fighting, he will act it out. He does this on his own time though, he does not like to share this information.

Furthermore, John was home alone this weekend because his parents are working out of state. At home, John was cleaning the house, since he was the only one there, he had no choice. It was not much since his parents just left and John is not the dirtiest person, but the restroom was astronomically disgusting. The bathroom floor was wet and covered in hair. The white toilet was not even white anymore, it had brown stains all over the toilet seat like a kid who jumped in mud. The sink was not all bad, but it had some stains that needed to be cleaned out. The bathtub however was the worst one. The bathtub had black stains and even bits of mole at the top of the bathtub. The color was fading away because of all the dirtiness and stains. The little knob to turn on the shower was so loose it might as well be broken. The smell of the restroom was horrendous. It smelled like rotten eggs and human sweat.

John was memorized with how dirty it was, but he just had to push through. He continues as normal. He left the tv on in the next room and he heard an emergency news alert. “Attention citizens, an accident has occurred in a nearby science lab and now a virus has spread rapidly turning people into zombies around the surrounding area. Please evacuate immediately.” Suddenly, John hears a loud screech, CRASH!!! BOOM!!! “Oh my gosh, do not tell me what I think it is?!” John says. He looks outside through the bathroom window, which was filled with dust. “I cannot believe my eyes, no way this is real life.” he said. “Are those actual zombies eating other people? Well, I was warned, so I am ready.”

John had many emotions going on right now. He was bewildered, agitated, excited in a way, and anxious. When he looked outside, he can see cars flipped over on fire, zombies sprinting at people as if they were in a marathon, his neighboor resisting the ambush of zombies with wooden bats, hammers, shovels, sledgehammers, etc. He can clearly see the zombies devouring people left and right like its dinner time. John was horrified of the sights he saw when the zombies were eating people. One zombie bit someone’s head off and blood started spilling everywhere leaving stains on the road. Another bit someone’s forearm and slowly was getting infected by turning purple and quickly turned into a zombie. The zombies look like humans but purple skin color, veins popping out all over the body, with a angry face and the teeth sticking out. “It seems the zombies are attracted by sound, meaning their blind. There was a zombie who walked by an injured person and did not react.” John said. “Also, the zombies are immune to fire, one zombie literally walked through fire.”

With this gathered information, John grabbed some tuna for food, plenty of water bottles, clothes like some cargo pants and t-shirts, and stuffed it in a large black backpack. He also snagged a long sharp kitchen knife with a black handle and rushed out of the house. Now, John is an autonomous, independent person and really does not talk many people. Nonetheless, when he went outside, John was starting to feel pity for his neighboors, and people being eaten alive. The scenery outside look straight out of a horror game. There was people screaming everywhere, smoke and ash surrounding the neighborhood, blood in all places, cars broken into pieces, houses on fire, and the undead in ascendancy growing in numbers and taking over areas.

Subsequently, out of nowhere, a zombie grunting and screaming tackled John down to the concrete floor. Surprisingly, the zombies were not weak and frail, they were antithesis to that.  The zombies were stronger than the average human and was holding John down. John was not able to get up, he was pinned. The zombie was trying to bite John, but as the zombie attempted to bit his shoulder, John  maneuvered towards the side, now being unpinned from the floor, and rapidly strike the zombie in the neck with his knife and sliced its head with ease. The zombie fell to the ground, all bloody and dirty, and John was relieved he did not die today, but somehow, he never felt so alive before in his life. John was overjoyed and filled with adrenaline, he had a big smile on his face, his fantasies are coming to life. Even though John was covered in blood, with pieces of zombie flesh stuck to his pants, he did not mind that at all. He was expectantly excited to be here. Furthermore, zombies are literally eating other people next to him, but he remains calmed and composed.

John’s next move was to still try to find other people. He realized that he cannot survive on his own against the zombies. Therefore, he begins to look around for people in a clandestine and stealthy way to not catch any attention from the zombies. He searches all around but could not find anyone nearby, so instead, John will ascend to higher elevation to scout the area and escape his neighborhood to an isolated island nearby. For now, anyway, John will go into an abandoned house to eat and ease off. Nevertheless, the zombies are too close for him to eat comfortably. He needed to bring the zombies somewhere else. To do this, John simply grabbed a piece of rock next to him and chucked the rock into a car window which set off the emergency alarm. As expected, the living dead started dashing and rushing towards the car. The zombies were wild animals hunting their prey in that moment. The undead were sticking out their teeth out their teeth while their arms swigging all over the place just to go for the car. John took advantage of the noise he created and went inside the abandoned, broken, and unstable house and took shelter and started to eat.

John had a relaxing 5-minute break, enjoying his tuna, the silence in the house, nice refreshing water to drink, and a comfy table to sit on. Now that he had time to think, he thought that what if he could not make it out alive. What if he made a sudden sound and all the zombies start attacking him. All thoughts came rushing into his head. Then, out of the blue, AAAAAA!!!! John’s thoughts, peace and quite was shattered by the scream of a little girl. He got off the table, grabbed his backpack that he left next to him, and bolted out of the house towards the scream. John sees a small young girl, maybe around 10-11, with black hair and brown skin. She is running for her life from a horde of zombies. The little girl was running towards John, bringing the horde of zombies. John signaled the little girl to be quite by putting his index finger over his lips while he was running away too down the street. Somehow, it worked but the chasing did not stop. John could not think of what to do besides throw things in his backpack to make sound, so the zombies go another direction. It did not necessarily work, but he threw a water bottle which then popped open and water bursted all over. To his surprise, the zombies started to disintegrate. “I think I just found my key to survival.” This mini explosion cleared off the zombies and John and the little girl kept running up until they reached a hill John saw.

John and the little girl start a conversation. “What is your name,” said John. “Emma” the little girl said. “Ok, my name is John, nice to meet you.” Replied John.” Nice to meet you too and thank you for saving my life.” Emma said. “No problem, I would not just let someone a little girl die in front of my eyes, but anyway, how did you end up by yourself, and do you have any family members nearby?” John asked. Then, Emma started to tear up and cry. “Oh, I'm sorry, I did not mean to make you cry, it is ok if you do not want to tell me, you can just stick with me for the time being.” John said trying to calm her down. “Sorry, I did not mean to cry, I will tell you what happened to me. You see, my parents were attacked by zombies like everyone else, and my dad was fighting them off, but then he tripped on a dead body and a zombie bit him immediately and got turned into one. Then, my mom snuck us out of the house and went outside to escape this place, and she told me “I will defend you do not worry sweetie everything is fine” then a couple minutes later a zombie appeared out of nowhere and was about to attack me, but my mom swooped in and got bitten. She sacrificed herself for me, and then that is when I went out screaming and running” Emma said. “I am sorry for your loss Emma, I sincerely am.” John said while giving her a side hug. “I will protect you at all cost Emma, no matter what happens to me, and I will not die on you Emma, it’s a promise.” John said. “You better not, ok” Emma said. John just nodded.

“Now, we do not have much time here lets head to the isolated island over there, we will definitely be safe there. ”John stated. Emma nodded her head yes. John and Emma headed East towards the island in silence, not making a single sound. The zombies are literally feet away from John and Emma. The zombies are reacting to little sounds like bits of glass falling from broken cars. Since most of the people got turned into zombies, no humans are in the area so the situation has calmed. CRUNCH! “Oh no!” Emma shouted. She stepped on a roach and reacted. Ra!!Ra!!Ra!!Ra!! Raaa!!!! Zombies started coming towards the sound Emma made. John stayed calm and the knowledge he had about these zombies, he created water guns by poking holes in the cap of his water bottles. “Get behind me!!” John shouts. Emma goes right behind him. Pshhhh!! John starts shooting water from the bottles all around him. Tssss! The sound of the zombies disintegrating was loud. John exterminated the horde of the undead. John left a whole pile of ashes behind. John grabbed Emma’s hand and started to run to the island. John saw from a distance a boat that can be used to go to the island. However, he made a lot of noise while killing zombies which echoed throughout the neighborhood, and he could hear zombies coming their way. Both Emma and John were running as fast as possible, but the zombies had superhuman strength and speed. The zombies eventually were catching up to them. When they got to the boat, John did not realize that there was a metal fence in the way. “Emma, I am going to throw you over the fence, just wait for me in the boat.” John said. “But the zombies, they will get you!” Emma said in a anxious tone. “No they wont, trust me.” John grabbed Emma and literally threw her over the fence. John started climbing and used one of his hands to shoot water at the zombies that were close. John ran out of water and a zombie to the left of him bit his hand. He managed to climb over the fence and got on the boat. “I do not know how to tell you this Emma, but I got bitten by a zombie and the virus would spread on me soon. Please, for the sake of me and your parents, row the boat to the island and survive this pandemic. Thank you for being with me until the end. Goodbye” John said as he jumped in the ocean. "Goodbye John” 


The author's comments:

This story takes place in the near future, around the 2030s.


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