It all happened so fast...

One minute, the young girl was visiting her dad in the hospital every day after his accident. 

Bringing him flowers and watching the doctors try to pull him from his coma, but nothing seemed to work.

They had told her to say her goodbyes, but she nor her family could bring themselves to do so, ensuring that the doctors were doing everything they could up until his last moments. 

Allowing him to go on his terms. 

She would sit by his side, day in and day out, for hours upon end, holding tightly onto his hand, praying to the god she didn't believe in. 

The last day she saw her father, she sat beside his bed watching the news. It looked as though there was a virus going around. No one knew what it was, but everyone in certain towns was told to stay home. 

It hadn't hit Atlanta yet, but it seemed all under control. 

She smiled at her father. 

"I'll be back; wake up while I'm in there, okay?" She told his unconscious body as she walked to the bathroom. 

She washed her hands in the sink before running the cold water over her face. 

Staring in the mirror as she leaned against the sink. 

Her dark makeup around her eyes had smudged. She cleaned up around her eyes with her fingers, which carried more rings than necessary, and her chipped black nails, which she hadn't painted since her father was shot. 

Her pale skin showed off the tired bags under her eyes, her freckles more prominent.

Her green eyes stared back at her.

She looked exhausted. 

She prayed every day that she would hear her father's voice once more, that he would open his blue eyes and tell her that everything would be okay.

The four white walls in the hospital room became like another home to Theo. She spent most of the day in front of the large window that showed the city, a sketchbook in hand.

Except one day, that all changed. 

She had entered her home after being at the hospital all day, pulling in on her bike as she walked inside, not speaking to her mother as she headed up the stairs, flopping onto her bed and falling asleep.

The next thing she knew, there was a loud bang outside, and she found herself running away from her city with her brother, her mum and her dad's best friend.

No one knew what was happening; she didn't understand it.

All she knew was that something indescribable had hit the world, which would sound made up if you weren't there to live it.

Something you would read about in scary stories or hide behind a pillow during a scary movie.

Theodora Grimes managed to get out and escape where she had grown up.

Atlanta.

She and her family were well known; her dad, the sheriff's deputy, made her family seem and look perfect.

If only that were true.

Theo had never known another place to call home. Of course, she travelled and explored most of America, but that was away from her.

Shane, her dad's best friend, who worked in the force with her father, appeared at their front door that night.

He was bashing heavily with his fist, calling out to everyone inside.

He told the family to pack their bags, clothes, food, water, and anything else needed, get in his car, and leave with him, not knowing when they would return.

They had heard the stories on the news about staying put, and that was the plan. She couldn't leave her dad, not now. 

But considering the panic and troubled look on Shanes's face, something wasn't right. They didn't know why he looked so shocked; he never told them anything. He just said that if they didn't leave with him now, they were going to die.

That was enough to scare even the strongest people; if only she knew that wasn't the scariest thing she would hear in the years to come.

Her mum, Lori, obeyed what he said and did so. Carl, her younger brother, was asleep when Shane arrived. They got him up and made him do the same.

"What about my dad?" Theo asked Shane. She looked up at Shane fearfully, bracing herself for his answer.

He looked around, almost frustrated.

He grabbed his brown hair tightly and sighed, looking at the young Grimes.

"I'm sorry" Shane began gathering Lori and Carl, Theo's younger brother and mother.

"No..." Lori already knew what Shane was about to announce to the close family.

"He's dead; they were shooting people at the hospital, alive, people that were not dead..." he explained while packing the stuff into the car. 

Theo's heart wholly shattered at the thought of her dad being alone in his final moments. She and her dad were the closest. Theo considered her old man to be her best friend.

She didn't know why, but her body didn't react. She felt sick and almost faint, but no tears fell.

She didn't cry, not in front of her brother. She hugged him and walked him to the car.

She ensured her brother had his belt on, following the action for herself. Looking out the window as Shane pulled out of the drive, she looked back at her family home, which she would never return to.

As the car passed the streets she grew up in, tears finally poured from her eyes. She bit her lip and covered her face with her fist, trying to hide her emotions from her brother and be strong. 

"Theo..." Shane looked at her through the mirror; Lori and Carl were asleep.

She slowly looked at his deep brown eyes. 

"I'm sorry about your father. It's okay to cry and be upset, you know. You don't have to hide." He nodded at her. 

She looked at her brother before leaning forward. 

"Tell me what to fucking feel again, and you'll be joining him..." The tears had stopped, and all her rage surfaced; her voice was barely above a whisper, but it was clear and loud enough for Shane to hear. 

She slowly sat back, not breaking eye contact until he was forced to look back at the road. Theo looked back outside once again.

After a short drive, they were out of the city but now jammed in the car, as Shane wasn't the only one thinking they had to leave.

During the short car journey, it was quiet, with the family unsure how to react to Rick's passing, a father and a husband.

While waiting in the car, Theo and her family came across this woman with her daughter and husband, who also had no idea what was happening.

I wish she had bought her bike; it would have made her ride a lot quicker, but she needed a chance due to the rush.

The streets fell silent for a few short minutes before the air rumbled with the loud noise of planes.

"Mum..." Carl began, looking up at her, terrified. 

But she had run off with Shane.

"Stay there," Theo demanded. She and her brother were also very close, but Lori and her, not so much.

The woman they had met said she would keep him close by. Thanking her, she nodded in appreciation for keeping her brother safe before she began running in the direction Shane and Lori went.

"What's happening?" Theo asked as she approached the two.

Neither answered; instead, explosions occurred in what used to be their home. The fire overtook the skylines, Atlanta going down in smoke.

The shock hit Theo, almost like she had been punched in the chest.

Her world had just wholly flipped; what was to happen next was undecided, as no one truly knew what was happening.

She turned to look at her mother, who was holding on to Shane, their affair being made okay now that Rick was dead.

"You want to explain to us what you know?" She asked Shane. Pushing the hair out of her face

"I can, but you might not believe me," he told her. 

Theo listened to Shanes's story, laughing in his face. 

"Funny, Shane." She rolled her eyes and stormed back to Carl, who ran into his sister's arms as soon as she saw him. 

"I'm not lying. Okay. The radio message went out 2 hours ago; whatever the virus was that was killing people in other cities, it had breached Atlanta and everywhere else as far as we know. It kills people, and then they wake up again with no explanation for why. I'm not lying. I swear" He looked at the family in all seriousness. 

She laughed again, but then she saw the look in Shanes's eyes. 

It was fear. 

And it was honesty. 

But little did she know that the end of the world she knew started the beginning of something new.

Something she would describe as a better world.