The Survivors | Teen Ink

The Survivors

March 13, 2023
By GoofyGoober, Santa Ana, California
More by this author
GoofyGoober, Santa Ana, California
0 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Author's note:

I am in middle school

Josh, a 15-year-old boy in 10th grade, wakes up from his dream. He grabs his glasses from the desk next to his bed and walks over to his mirror, “It's going to be a good day today.”

"Josh come downstairs for breakfast!” said his mother.

“Okay!” Josh then goes downstairs and eats breakfast.

Josh goes downstairs for breakfast and sees his older sister Sandra and his older brother Juanito.

“I thought you would be at work today”

“No, I got the day off today”

 After eating breakfast Josh walks to school. Josh enters his classroom, sits down next to his friend Micheal and asks what the class will be doing for the next hour.

Micheal shrugs, “ I think we are going to read the last kids on earth.”

“Do you know if it’s any good?”

Micheal shrugs again “Wouldn’t know I never read it.”

Suddenly the school fire alarm goes off without any explanation, and everyone panics and runs out of the room. Josh and Michael follow the crowd, while following the crowd Josh trips and gets knocked out and trampled by the crowd, but he doesn’t get any help because they are trying to get out of the school safely.


**2 days pass**

Josh wakes up and wonders how long it has been since he was knocked out. He checks his phone and it shows it is March 4, 2026. “Dang, two days passed, what happened?” He walks out of his classroom and is horrified to see blood everywhere on the walls, lockers, and floors. Josh starts contemplating if he should leave his classroom to find an explanation for what happened. He eventually gets the courage to walk around the school, still, in shock, he looks for someone to explain to him what happened and where everybody else went. While walking he finds a person with half of their body missing.

“Help me”

Frightened Josh runs away. After a while Josh comes across a door he tries opening the door which leads into a math teacher’s classroom, but when trying to open the door he comes to find out he can’t really move his right arm without feeling immense pain, so he uses his left arm to open the door. Upon opening the door he sees a frightened little kid that looks no more than a 7th grader in a corner holding a fire extinguisher and sees a lifeless corpse next to him.

Josh walks into the room, “what is your name, and what happened here?”

The kid still frightened responds “Mark”

“We were trying to escape the classroom when a person with incredible strength and speed attacked us and the other kid was bitten, so we went inside a classroom to escape the person, but shortly after the kid started turning pale and then tried to bite me so with no other choice I grabbed the emergency fire extinguisher and killed him.”

“Do you want to come with me to look for other potential survivors?” said Josh

Mark nods.

The author's comments:

no


Josh and Mark tried finding any survivors in the school avoiding zombies, but with no success, so they decide to leave the school in hopes of finding some survivors outside of the school. The two boys decide to go to each other's homes to search for supplies to help them survive. They went to Mark's home since it was closer to the school. Along the way, they stumble across a large group of zombies, with no other choice they decide to go a different route to Mark’s home, but while escaping quietly Mark steps on a can.

“POP!”

They both look at each other in horror and as soon as they turn around they see the large group of zombies charging toward them.

“Run!” screamed Mark

They both run trying to escape the hoard of zombies, but the zombies keep getting closer to them, and with quick thinking, Josh and Mark go inside a house to try and get cover until the hoard of zombies left. They get inside an unlocked house and quickly lock all the doors, close all the windows, and make sure there is no way for the zombies to get in. The two boys are out of breath.

**Ten minutes later**

Some of the zombies left, but some still waited for the two boys. The two boys finally catch their breath.

“Mark let's search this house for a weapon or vehicle to help us get rid of these zombies.”

“Okay let's search the house, but whatever you find, put it on the rug in the living room.”

“Yeah we can do that” replied Josh

They searched the whole house and only found 1 key to an old car, 4 water bottles, and surprisingly enough they didn’t find any knife.

“Where did you find the key to a car Josh?” asked Mark

“I found it in a room upstairs and I think the people who were here must have had at least two cars”

The two boys check the garage and see a 2023 honda civic. Then an idea popped into Josh’s head and asked Mark if he could drive the car since his right arm is broken.

“I can’t drive,” said Mark 

“Then look for a driver's manual to help you and if you can’t find one I will try to teach you based on what I know.”

“What will you do?” 

“I will make sure the coast is clear so when I open the garage door we could drive out of here and be safe.”

Mark searched the house for the manual, but couldn’t find it.

“I can’t find it anywhere. I checked all the rooms for it, but still, I can’t find it.”

“Did you check the car? I believe that most people put the diver’s manual in the glove box of the car.”

Mark checked the glove box of the car and finally found it and started reading it.

**Night falls**

Josh checks his phone and sees it's 12:24.

“How are the zombies still there? It's been 8 hours?”

By this time Mark had fallen asleep reading the manual. 

**Morning**

Josh wakes up, goes to the garage windows, and sees there are still some zombies waiting for them.

“One full day and the zombies still won’t go away.” Josh sighs and goes to the kitchen to see if they had missed any ounce of food.

Upon coming back to the garage empty-handed he sees Mark awake and finishing the manual.

“Finally! I finished this book and I think I understand how to drive a little,” said Mark

“Are the zombies still there?”

“Yeah,” replied Josh

“Are you ready to drive us out of here?”

Hell yeah.”

Josh looked out the garage window again and saw an opening for him and Mark to escape, he quickly told Mark about it and so Josh quickly opens the garage door and hops into the passenger seat, Mark does the same he hops into the driver's seat. The zombies heard the garage door open and head toward it. Mark turns on the car and steps on the gas pedal and they quickly escape the house and the zombies.

Not too long after they reach Mark’s home with the car gas tank empty. They get in front of the door, Mark grabs his key from his pocket and is about to unlock the door, but before Mark tries to unlock the door, the door opens due to the wind. Suddenly a huge wave of fear overtakes Mark.

“Is anyone alive inside my mom, dad, and my two cats?” Mark whispers. Mark wondered what if a zombie broke into my home, what if my parents are dead, what if- Josh just then interrupts his thoughts.

“Mark you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm okay.”

They go inside and don't see any blood in the living room. Mark sighs in relief, but as soon as they go into the kitchen they see the bodies of Mark’s two cats. Mark began to cry.

“Hey it will be alright, I mean at least your parents are alive?”

After 2 minutes Mark stopped crying over the loss of his 2 pet cats and Josh checked for food in the kitchen and found 2 cans of beans, 1 water bottle, 1 butcher knife, and 1 gas canister. 

**Night Falls**

The boys decide to spend the night at Mark’s house since their car ran out of gas. In the morning Josh and Mark both decide to go to the nearest gas station, while walking to the gas station Mark and Josh encounter a group of zombies feasting on something that was on the floor as the two boys look closer at the group of zombies feasting they realize that they are eating a pack of homeless dogs. 

“No way so that is how they survive without humans to feast on” whispered Mark.

Quickly they leave without being heard, eventually, they reach the nearby gas station and fill up the gas canister. When they got back to the car it was already noon so they quickly filled up the car and headed toward Josh’s home. While driving to Josh’s house the two boys stop at a parking lot and eat the two cans of beans and drink the water bottles.

“The beans may not be cooked, but it doesn’t matter, it still tastes good,” said Josh.

“That may just be because we haven’t eaten or drank anything in 4 days.”

“You might actually be right, oh well.”

**Night falls**

Eventually, they reach Josh’s home and when they open the door they are horrified to see his mom eating his father. Josh quickly grabs the butcher knife and swings it toward his mom, Josh’s mom lunges her body toward them. Thankfully the butcher knife slashes Josh's mom in the face, throwing her to the wall.

“Mark quickly grab the bat from my room and help me fight her off!”

After fighting Josh’s mom off they quickly grabbed supplies from his home and left, not looking back at the horror they survived. Although still terrified of seeing his mom eat his dad he can’t help, but feel a little sigh of relief at not seeing his sister or his brother anywhere in the house. At least I know that they are probably somewhere safe.

While driving they come across a cross-intercept and feel the ground trembling. All of a sudden they encounter a giant circular monster with 3 crab-like legs and a spikey back chasing a group of stray cats. They stop in front of the backs of the monster. The monster slowly turns his giant eye toward the boy’s car and starts chasing them. Quickly Mark puts the car in reverse and starts driving backward. 

“Mark turn the car around!” 

“I’ll try to”

Mark by some miracle manages to turn the car a full 180 and puts the car in D. After 5 minutes the two boys believe they escaped their monster, but when Josh looks at the side mirror he is horrified to see the monster they thought they escaped from rolling towards them.

“Speed up the car Mark!”

“It's already at full speed!”

Josh quickly tells Mark to head towards the supermarket that was not far away. Eventually, they reach the supermarket and quickly get out of the car to get inside the store. Once inside the store, they both look out the giant windows and see the monster jump on their car and crush it.

“Well there goes all of our stuff, our knife, and bat as well,” said Mark

“Don’t worry we'll probably find some stuff in the store we are in right now”

After 10 minutes of the monster looking for Josh and Mark, it gives up and leaves.

“Finally the monster left,” said Josh

“Well, what do we do now?”

“We should search the store for any signs of danger.”

“Yeah okay, but you check the right side and I’ll check the left side,” suggested Mark

“Fine by me, don’t die though.”

The two boys split up and searched the store.

While checking for danger Mark hears banging on a door and goes to investigate. 

“This place seems very safe for a big supermarket,” said Josh

Just then Josh sees a can fall to the ground and sees a figure that looks like a child quickly run away. Josh chases after it.

“Hey, stop running!”

The figure turns around an aisle and so does Josh, but when he does he sees the figure isn’t there.

“Dang it, I lost it.”

“Where could it have possibly gone?”

Mark then screams “HELP ME!”

Josh quickly runs over to Mark and sees him being attacked by a zombie. Josh then grabs a broom and uses it to help Mark get away from the zombie eventually they manage to kill the zombie. Josh looks at Mark and sees that his right arm was bitten by the zombie when he was attacked by it.

“Mark your arm, it was bitten.”

“Josh grab something and cut off my infected arm.”

“That only works in movies!”

“Just do it!”

Josh goes around looking for something to cut off Mark’s arm with, and eventually, he comes back with a knife. Josh quickly cuts off Mark’s arm to stop the infection and uses rags to stop the bleeding. After two hours the bleeding stops and so does the infection Mark had.

“I can’t believe that actually worked,” said Josh

“Do you still feel pain?”

“I can’t even feel my left arm.”

“I still do feel pain, but I'm okay.”

The two boys eventually fall asleep on the floor. In the morning Josh spots the figure walking around and quickly, but quietly follows it. Eventually, Josh manages to catch up to the figure and sees it's a little girl feeding a chihuahua. The dog notices Josh and starts barking at him. The girl turns around.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Josh, what is your name?”

“My name is Sarah.”

“Okay Sarah, why are you here alone?”

“My parents died a couple of days ago because of the zombies.”

After a while of talking Josh manages to convince the girl to agree to come with him and Mark. Mark eventually wakes up and asks Josh “what's with the kid?”

“I found her here alone and long story short she is now with us.”

“Her name is Sarah.”

“Oh okay.”

** 2 months later**

“Josh, is the radio working now?” asked Sarah

“No, it still won't work”

After two months of being inside the store, Mark finally got used to only having one arm, and while inside the store they found a broken radio. While Mark was recovering from his injuries Josh and Sarah tried fixing the radio so they could call for help. Occasionally while fixing the radio they would hear static and sometimes if they were lucky they would hear music playing even if it was just for a couple of seconds it gave them hope that there were still people alive in the world. One day while trying to fix the broken radio Josh stumbles across an announcement.

“If there are any survivors please make your way to the honey forest. We have plenty of food, water, and shelter.”

Excited Josh quickly tells Sarah and Mark about what he had heard. They quickly decide to leave early in the morning. The next morning they got up and quickly left the store with the dog following them right behind. 4 hours into the walk to the honey forest Mark says “Maybe we should head back. It's too far for us to be able to make it without it being nighttime and that is when the zombies are most active.”

“We've already come too far to turn back now Mark,” said Josh.

**Night falls**

**Thunder and rain**

“Finally we’re halfway there,” said Sarah excitedly

“It's so cold,” said Josh

While Sarah and Josh were celebrating Mark turns around and is horrified to see the street they were on was infested with zombies. Mark quickly and quietly tells Josh and Sarah about what he saw. They decide to be quiet so they don’t alert the zombies of their presence, but the dog notices the zombies and begins barking at them quickly Sarah grabs the dog's mouth to keep it from barking any further. By the time Sarah got the dog to be quiet, it was too late the zombies had spotted them so they began to run.

“We have to lose them somehow,” said Mark

“I don’t know if we can,” said Josh

After a while of trying to escape the zombie, they all get trapped at a dead end. Josh, Mark, and Sarah close their eyes to embrace their demise, but just before the could zombies get close enough to them to bite them gunshots are heard in the distance. When they opened their eyes again they saw a truck and a tall man with two other people.

“Hey kids get in the car quickly before the zombies start coming again,” said the tall man.

“Okay” said Josh

Once they were away from the hoard of zombies Josh explained to the people why they were there, to begin with, and where they were planning to go. As it turned out the strangers were headed the same way so they decided to tag along with them. After a bit of driving they get near the honey forest. From the corner of Josh’s eye, he sees the giant circular monster headed towards the truck, in a blink of an eye Josh finds himself upside down in the truck Josh looks to his right and left and sees 2 things number 1 Mark and Sarah are nowhere to be seen and 2 he sees oil spilling from the car. 

“What happened?” He quickly gets out of the truck and looks around for anyone, but only finds the dog. Josh sees the monster in the distance and sees it feasting on something when he takes a closer look at what the monster was eating he sees it is eating the kind stranger, Mark, and Sarah being eaten. Josh picks up the dog and tries fleeing with it, but the truck explodes catching the monster's attention, thinking quickly Josh hides behind a boulder. Eventually, the monster leaves and Josh and the dog also leave for the camp. Josh and the dog finally reach the camp.



Similar books


JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This book has 0 comments.