King of the World

Finally. I've arrived at the City in the East. I know now the city's name is New York. Well, it was New York. My worst fear has been realized, there's really no one left. When I first got here my heart sank in my chest. The sight of the city at first overwhelmed me. It was just as the note had described it. There were huge skyscrapers around every corner as far as the eye could see, but it was all for nothing. No people anywhere.

I checked a few buildings to make sure but found nothing. The odd part is that there were no Z's either. In a city this big I would've expected the streets to be crawling with them, but not a single one could be found.

I searched the city like this for months, making sure that no building was left unchecked. Eventually I came across a huge crater where there looked to be a giant park before the massive explosion. Was this the cause of extinction in the city?

As time went on I found this place to be more of a home than anywhere else since the outbreak occurred. I decided to make this my permanent residence. Maybe the note wasn't completely wrong after all.

The Turning Point

 



http://thesunarisen.blogspot.com/2012/11/soft-defiance.html

I'm passed The Wall now. It's odd being on the other side, like I stumbled into a parallel universe or something. There was no resistance at The Wall. No guards with guns, no spotlights raining down on you everytime you got too close, which can only mean one thing, I'm alone. Plague Z has completely wiped out all traces of human life on the planet.

No! I can't accept that. There has to be life somewhere. The City in the East. It's the one hope I have left in this world. I pass a road sign that tells me I'm only 50 miles from a city named Chicago. I can't believe I've made it this far, in one piece at least. I decide to set up camp for the night.

I don't know how long it's been since I left home, however long it takes to walk from Vegas to Chicago I guess. As I lay by the fire I can feel how exhausted my body is. Unfortunately my mind is racing a 1000 miles per hour. I think about before, how it was before Plague Z ruined my life. I think about where I'm headed; the City in the East, if there's anyone even there, what I'd do if it was just like everywhere else, barron and deserted, well excpet for the Z's of course. These thoughts don't do any good to put my mind at ease. I decide that thinking about the positives is best, but what are they? It's hard to tell these days.

As I start to drift off into unconsciusness I remember the last encounter I had with a real live human being. It was back in Vegas and I was at the bank withdrawing every dollar to my name(some good that did) with my sister. In a separate line to my left I noticed a man who looked ill. He was tall and perhaps muscular but it was hard to tell. He was wearing a long trench coat which seemed odd because it was so hot out. After a few moments of sizing the man up I was next in line and forgot all about him. We exited the bank and made our way up the staircase leading to the street outside when I heard the commotion. The man in the trench coat had gone berserk. As all the people in the bank ran out the glass doors he was stumbling around in a fit of rage knocking over anything that was in his path. Apparently he had intended to rob the bank, as was clear by the automatic weapon he pulled out of his trench coat, but something wasn't right. If he was robbing the bank why the fit of rage? I could still see the man, stumbling about in a panic below us, his eyes lit with a fire I hope I'll never know. Thrashing, biting, tearing away at himself like a caged animal, he ran at the glass walls. I remember a dull thud and the sight of smeared blood. It was chaos in a vacuum.

That was the first time I witnessed the sight of the Z virus at work. Since then I've learned a lot more about the Z virus and its effects. Hopefully I won't have any more encounters with it ever again, but that all depends on the City in the East. Finally my thoughts begin to slow down and my eyelids start to grow heavy. I put out the fire and as I lay down right before I drift off to sleep I see the moon. The blood-red Hunter's Moon and I think to myself, "That can't be a good omen."


 



Towards the Light

 

http://thelakehouseoffloverslane.blogspot.com/

"Phototropism: "directional growth in which the direction of growth is determined by the direction of the light source."

Plainly stated, plants grow toward sunlight.
That glowing orb Apollo comprises their whole world, their meaning for living, their life source."

I remember my biology teacher, Ms. Larkins explaining the effect of phototropism and wondering what this could ever mean to me. It seemed like common sense; plants should grow toward that which gives them life, they should grow towards the sun. So what?

Now, walking east towards I have no idea what, towards the rising sun, the irony of that lesson is about as subtle as a smack to the face. It's been maybe 6 or 7 months since the outbreak first reached widespread proportions. A half-year since I lost my entire life. California is completely overrun and there is no way to go back.

I got by for awhile by migrating from one hideout to the next, but hiding isn't the way to survive this apocolypse. I have to keep moving, at least until I find what has become my only hope for salvaging any kind of life worth living, a city in the east supposedly untouched by the outbreak.

I find that I daydream a lot more in this post-apocolyptic world. Anything to keep from focusing on the reality of my situation. Life is good in my brief trances. It's simple, like when I was in high school and my only worries were to focus on my studies and being a good boyfriend. God what I'd give for those days right now.

Life is anything but that now. Complicated, like a book I read in college once, Nadja. In the book the main character meets a woman and becomes infatuated with her, but not because of her looks or because he loves her. He's more interested in her outlook on life and the various values and ideals she adheres to. It used to be that when a man fell for a woman it was because he loved her, just like it used to be that there were people all across the country. I guess things change don't they?

A Touch of Destiny

http://voguein1.blogspot.com/

As I keep walking I start to wonder if I'll ever get to where I'm supposed to be. I'm still not even sure I know where that is. How long have I been walking now?-- A day? A week? A month? Hell, it could even be a year. I walk on for a little longer, exhausted from each new day's heat, and just as I'm about to give up this ridiculous pilgrimage to nowhere a little piece of paper blows right into my leg and wraps around it like a car around a pole after a bad accident. As I pick it up and begin to analyze it I realize this was no accident at all. The first thing I notice is a photograph:

At first glance the only oddity I notice is the yellow cab. Why is this the only thing in the entire picture that has any hint of color? But then something else catches my attention. Everything else in the picture seems to be from a different time. Whether that is just a trick of coloration or a result of some other phenomena beyond my thinking I have no idea. I read the note to see if there is any explanation, but when I finished there was only more confusion:

"You have arrived. People passing, doors swinging open, elbows shoving. The lights are never becoming dim, the background only fades into blurry craziness. A metropolis not made for the lazy, your feet become the main mode of transportation. Everyone owns the sidewalk, and you better watch out for the shoulder shove. No one knows who you are, and most never care to. It's their city, not yours. You're too new, so watch where you walk.
The yellow ones don't stop."

I thought to myself, "What a strange place." By now my mind was set on this place. "They say curiousity kills the cat," I said to myself, "but they also say cats have nine lives." With that I continued my march east in hopes that 1) I wouldn't get stopped at The Wall, and 2) that I find this place and that it's better than anywhere I've ever come from.

Going Where I Want to Be

I step outside and it's bright, so bright my eyes don't adjust for a few minutes. Where are my sunglasses? It's mid-afternoon as I walk down the strip taking in the people along the way. Mostly tourists who all have that certain pace about their travels. You can always tell a tourist by their pace, walking with a group, occasionally stopping to take a picture of something, in this case a group of guys dressed up as Batman, Homer Simpson, and Optimus Prime in that order. I watch them but I don't stop, not even for Batman, I've got somewhere I want to be.

I step outside and it's bright, so bright my eyes can't adjust for a few minutes. Where are my sunglasses? It must be high noon judging from the intense dry heat raining down on me. The silence as I walk down the strip today serves as the soundtrack for the most eerie scene my eyes have ever taken in. No tourists out today, no Batman, no Homer Simpson, and no Optimus Prime. No people. At least none that are alive. No reason to stay here anymore. I have to find somewhere else I want to be now.