No one ever tells you how your life is going to end, that the world was going to turn on you one day and you'd be running to live for another day. No one said that the world was going to end along with the life you once knew, everything torn apart in an instant. Your loved ones gone, those you cared about changed into monsters hungry for flesh. No one mentioned the nightmare that the world would ever truly become and how to survive within it. 

Not everyone survives, though. 

Running had only gotten Starla and Ryon so far, being on foot attracting the attention of nearby zombies looking for their next meal. Footsteps pounded the pavement of the road leading out of town, gurgling growls and screams following close behind them as the fled away from the last refuge they thought they had. The school lab was no more than an undead room to gathering in, leaving the rest of the school just as dangerous. However, that was not why they had left running, leaving Rodney behind in the zombie infested university. 

Life had a funny way of making a bad situation worse, and worse it had definitely made it. 

Rodney had called in an update on their antivirus like he was supposed to, but the update on Terran they had gotten set everything backwards all the way to the beginning. Terran was gone, the vaccine to the infection had been halted, and Rodney forced both Ryon and Starla to leave. He had told them to go somewhere, anywhere that wasn't there and never look back. Apologies were made as they fought their way through a horde gathering around the university building. Any hopes of getting out quickly being shattered as more and more seemed to filter through the door and into the main lobby. 

It didn't stop Starla or Ryon, not when their time was already limited and bite marks were the least of their worries. They pushed through the horde as if it were nothing more than a wave of people rushing in to get to their next class. Only, these people had gnashing teeth and a bite that tore the flesh right off the bone. New wounds were added to the ones that were already maring their skin, crimson dying the clothes that they were wearing. Nothing was going to stop them from getting away, their determination was making certain of that. 

The shade of a single tree could bring solace to a person in so many ways. It could bring calm, peace, a sense of serenity that nothing else in the world could truly bring. 

After having ran for who knew how long, exhaustion was quickly settling into their bite riddled bodies. The loss of blood was becoming too much and tiredness was beginning to take hold of them like death's icy cold grip. It was something that Ryon and Starla could no longer fight and the two of them were forced to find somewhere to sit and rest. 

The shade of a tree was their refuge, staring out over the large expanse of a nearby park's fields. The sky had turned into a beautiful array of pinks, oranges, and purples as the sun began to dip down below the trees that created a jagged edge at the bottom of a brilliant picture. For once, no one was around, not even the sound of the decaying corpses that roamed the streets. It was just peace and the wind. 

Starla and Ryon sat against the tree, shielded from the falling sun and watching as the night sky slowly overtook the world. Their hands were linked together, a sticky hold as their blood mingled together in their palms. Starla had her head resting against Ryon's shoulder, the two of them dare not speak, afraid that making any noise would attract unwanted attention. However, it wasn't the zombies that scared her, it was the silence and stillness of the person beside her that frightened her. 

Tears escaped her eyes, creating silent trails down her cheeks as she watched the lights flicker out from the sky. Her breathing had become shallow while her eyes became heavy despite her efforts to stay awake. Everything she had known had been lost within a single day and there was no way to reclaim it. 

As her final ragged breath was drawn into her lungs, Starla let it out in a slow raspy sentence at the same time the life seem to drift from her emerald gaze; 

"I don't want to die. . ."