Grace had been walking for the past 3 days, her body was slowly deteriorating in the summer heat. Her hair, that had once been bright, brown and highlighted with a stark blue, was now ratty and unkept. I was a tangled mess that had grown to a considerable length over the past weeks of minimal upkeep, there were brief glimmers of the blue highlights that shimmered sometimes in the summer sun.

Her hair hadn't been the only thing she had been neglecting, her clothes were filled with holes and her face was cut and bruised. She was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing since the outbreak; broken and muddied Dr Martens; grey jeans that had once been ripped for style but were now ripped due to being worn for 5 months of intense running; a slowly fading Clash Sandinista T-shirt; a tattered blue and black flannel shirt and a thin woollen overcoat that was splattered with long forgotten paint marks, which had now been covered by the deep red coloured stains of blood.

She began to look around her surroundings, she'd been walking for days now and she had lost track of time and her location completely, she knew she was somewhere near the Glen. It had been her favourite place to come and she knew she would recognise the steep crumbling walls like mountains, the gushing of water through the ravine below, the warm summer air and the smell of Heather and summer that felt like the closest thing to home she could remember now. She continued to walk, letting these warm memories of a time that felt like such along time ago, like a distant memory. She looked up again, surveying her surrounding like a wolf on the look out for prey, she had began to walk into a thick forest of tall and twisting Birch trees that stretched up to the sky, like great spires of dark marbelled stone cold and lifeless. The smell of damp moss encased and surrounded her, she was beginning to feel extremely claustrophobic as the trees around her almost felt like bars on a cage of isolation. As she continued to walk and the sun also began to fade with the day and behind the thick foliage that surrounded her, she became even more unnerved.

That was when she heard it, a shrill screech a vast distance behind her. It sounded like the dying cries of a rabid animal and the sounds of nails scratching on a blackboard. Grace felt a deep and unnerving feeling shiver down her spine and putting her mind into a frenzy of fear, filling every inch of her body with blood curdling fear.

She began to run.

The birch trees whisked passed in a confusing blur, branches scraping past her face as she ran deeper and deeper into the dark forest of birch. The screeches seemed to be getting closer and closer it rattled around in her brain, like it was a pinball machine, as the birches seemed to bend in lower and lower, trapping and isolating her in the dark as she ran for her life. Deep into the distant forest in front of her, she could see a vague glimmer of the evening sun that was breaking through the thick foliage that surrounded her.

She briefly looked behind her and regretted it instantly. Following her was a broken husk of what had once been a man, ripped and tattered clothes, soaked in week old blood that clung to his putrid, cold face and glistened in what little light was left of the day. The deep reds and golds of the setting and falling sun illuminated his rotten body, showing up all the bullet wounds and rotten holes that covered its body like a rash. It let out another shrill and deathly howl of anger, rage and fear and continued towards her as she ran faster and faster and faster...

The end of the deep and dark forest seemed to be in sight and grasp of her worn down hands, she knew this for a fact because the damp and dingy smell of moss was beginning to fade and be replaced by the warm and soothing smell of the summer heather.

Suddenly, she was out of the forest finally. She paused just for a minute to take in the view and catch her breath. The light was trickling through the clouds high above her that clung to the mountainsides, letting brief glimmers of the summer haze to appear. She finally felt like she was home agai....

Her rest and tranquillity was soon and expectedly ruined by another shrill and deep howl of terror from the thing that followed her. She suddenly snapped herself back into full gear and began to run again, she let the rich and vibrant landscape that surrounded her drive her to go on because it was the only happy thing she had left in her life.

The heather and thistles tickled at her feet as she ran, deeper and deeper into the Glen. The last embers of the days summer sun were dancing on the vast, beautiful and monstrous sides of the Glen, like the dying flames of a fire. Of in the distance she could hear the gushing sound of the rushing, gurgling and ferocious river that snaked through the beautifully bleak landscape, the only thing that felt like safety and home any more. She could smell the sweet smell of the heather underneath her feet, as it crinkled and crunched due to the late summer heat. She kept on running and running till she couldn't feel her legs and feet any more.

Her tired and broken legs finally hit the rugged path that weaved through the Glen like a snake, she could hear the deep roar of the river that cascaded down the ravine somewhere near her. She knew that if she got to the river and could cross it, she would be safe from it for the time being at least.

She briefly looked around again, instantly regretting it. Its great, rotting and lumbering body was now completely visible in the final glimmering embers of the dying sun and it was even less pretty than before. Its skin was the colour of a mouldy fruit and it was covered in moss and weeds, it had obviously been sitting in the woods for the past months and she had woken it from its deep woodlands slumber. It looked almost like a rotten log had come to life and was lumbering towards her with great speed. She turned back again, now focusing on the prospect of getting to the river and to safety.

The sound of the bubbling and ferocious river seemed to be getting closer and closer, even the shrill cries of the creature behind her was downed out by its raw and untamed power. Closer and closer she got, the sound bouncing and thumping around her head. She began to feel more and more light headed, as her body slowly began to give in and buckle under the strain of running for her life. Every inch of her body ached beyond compare, it had now began to ache right down to her bones but she knew that she had to keep on going because everything she knew that everything she had lost that she had loved would have all been in vain. She kept on going and going, as her mind swirled and melted like a whirlpool of fear, isolation and loss.

The river was so close now that it was the only thing she could hear, it was deafening. It rattled through her body as she lurched forward, closer and closer to safety.

Suddenly she was there, after running for what had felt like ages she was finally there. She looked behind her for one final time, it was only about 7 meters away from her now and she could now smell the putrid smell of rotting flesh and that suffocating smell of damp. She looked back at the river below her again, it thrashed and twisted like a snake below her, bubbling and hissing as well.

She jumped.