Meridian

October 20th, 2:26 pm

Current Location: Chunky, MS
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Thirty minutes. With the roads beginning to clear for us as if it was inviting us to Meridian, everybody was quiet for the time being. Nobody felt like playing a game to calm our nerves, although I wanted to. Evelyn was holding on to my arm, and as the minutes passed, the pressure got tighter.

Dad glanced at us through the mirror. "Try to calm down, guys. Think of happier things."

"Like what?" Amelia asked, her eyes wild. "We're practically walking into a death trap that's probably filled with Raiders."

"I'm not sure," Dad said with a shrug. "What were your hobbies?"

She hesitated. "U-Um, softball, I guess."

He smiled. "Then think of the good times when you played. When you hit a home run or beat the girl that rivaled you."

"Yeah, Trinity was something else," she said, already in her own world again. "I actually kind of miss her."

"You do?" Bryan asked with a smirk. "I remember you saying a while back that you hated her guts."

"W-Well, yeah, but..." Amelia stopped, now pouting. A few of us began to chuckle, noticing her reaction. It helped ease the tension a little.

I remembered the times back in school and the people I didn't like. When it comes to thinking about them now, it really didn't matter about how I felt about them. If I could go back with the memories of this, I'd tell them how grateful I was on simply being alive. Now, I have looked death straight in the face and survived multiple times. Like the bombs, the Tallahassee and Atlanta airport attacks, and most importantly the Battle of Memphis. It was fortunate that not only me, but the people around me were alive as well. I wouldn't stand a chance if I were alone in this ruined world.

I rested my head back against the seat and sighed. What did we do to deserve this? Why did the world get to this point in the span of a few days?

It hit me then. How did the apocalypse even start in first place? That was still never really explained to me. Was it simply a coincidence that we were going to the place that it supposedly started? It made no sense to me, but it was far too late to stress over it now.

I looked out ahead of us, and I then saw the place that I've been dreading for a while. "There it is."

Behind me, Amelia mumbled under her breath. "Yep, and we better strike gold here because it's not looking too pretty."

She was right. Zombies, mostly Regulars and a few Gouls were already spotted to be infesting the city and we haven't even reached the city limits yet. The shorter buildings had vines growing up the walls. The windows on the majority of them were shattered and empty on the inside.

A couple of minutes passed and the road got to the point where we could barely squeeze through. When we officially got inside the city, we were instantly met with unexpected company. Dad cursed loudly. "Shit! There's a bunch of Regulars blocking our way!"

I scrambled backwards and grabbed the rifles and the shotgun, mentally kicking myself for not doing it sooner. "Bryan, me and you need to clear the path ahead of us! Dad, you keep plowing through the ones we don't get!"

Bryan climbed back into me and Evelyn's shared seat. I threw open the sunroof and instantly pulled the trigger, knocking down a couple of Regulars. Dad continued to run over the smaller zombies.

"Christ, J!" Bryan exclaimed as he reloaded. "I didn't think there were this many still alive."

I heard him but didn't respond. Continuing to spray as many bullets as I could, Evelyn suddenly screamed in horror. I ducked down and saw the situation. A Goul had managed to shatter our window and had Evelyn by the arm, baring its teeth as it threatened to make her one of them. In the span of only a couple of seconds, I flipped open the pocket knife and lunged at the Goul, stabbing it in the forehead. Driving it inside, it let out a deafening screech as I landed multiple punches to get it off of our van. It finally let go and pummeled to the ground behind us.

I sighed and didn't waste any more time than I already have. Grabbing the shotgun, I flipped the barrel open and popped in two bullets, taking a few others and shoving them into my coat pocket. But before I left, I tossed the knife to Evelyn and the other rifle to Amelia. "Take care of yourselves!"

The bullets flew and blood continued to spray as we gutted our way into the city. It lasted for what seemed like merciless hours until things took a turn for the worse.

The van broke down. It finally had enough of the damage it took from the heavy zombies.

"Everyone out!" ordered Dad. "Grab your backpacks and get out!"

We scrambled to obey and I quickly grabbed the knife I gave to Evelyn. "Come on! Stick with me!"

I could see the true amount of horror that was running through her mind. Although, I could also see that it subsided just a bit as I pulled her out of the van.

We ran out of the danger and down the sidewalk away from the huge horde of zombies that broke down our only vehicle that lasted longer than it probably should have.

Evelyn suddenly gasped. "I know where this is! My apartment complex is nearby!"

My heart jumped. "Is it? Dad did you hear that?!"

He was already in pain. I could see it in his eyes. "Y-Yeah! Tell us where to go!"

"At the next intersection, take a right and the high school is down that road!" she stated. "The apartments should be further down!"

My gut told me that this was bad. How could anybody survive in this? I doubted that Raiders could even get by the city without getting mauled to death by the speed the Gouls had and the strength the Regulars had. It had to be impossible.

Even so, we fought our way down the street. I kept glancing behind me to make sure the kids were still with us, and Amelia was managing to carry Olivia, who had her head buried in her shoulder. Braxton was crying into Evelyn's chest. I'd have to praise them for that later.

"It's just up here!" Evelyn yelled over the gunshots. Just as she said that a fierce grip tripped me, and I landed hard on my knees.

"Jeremy!" Evelyn screamed.

"Go on!" I yelled back. "I can catch up!"

She was about to protest, but Amelia pulled her away. Ignoring the stinging pain, I rolled around and stabbed the Goul square in the eye. Blood poured onto my neck and shirt. Kicking it off, I scrambled back up and kept running, dodging the swipes and lunges that they tried to give me.

Fortunately, I managed to catch back up to the group. Dad and Bryan were still shooting us a path while I kept an eye behind us. A simple plan, but it was still hard being so badly outnumbered.

"Take a right!" Evelyn commanded, and that's what we did.

The apartments we're surprisingly still in good condition compared to the rest of the town. Sure, a few of them had shattered windows and such, but I could see how somebody could hide out here for a short amount of time.

"Which one is it?!" Dad called out over the noise he was making. I could tell the amount of strain in his voice.

"The second building! It's the second floor towards the back!"

Dad paused to do a quick scan of the area. I saw him target the building that Evelyn was pointing to and resume his painful run towards it. Once we made it to the building, another zombie lept out from a darker corner and tackled Bryan to the ground. Amelia and I screamed his name in unison.

Dad was the first to react. He aimed the gun and quickly pulled the trigger, piercing it through the temple and out the other end. Bryan rolled the zombie off, and it looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Damn," he said, getting up and brushing himself off. "That one was heavy."

He had a little bit of blood on his face, but couldn't tell whether it was from the zombies or his own injuries. However, we didn't have much time to ponder that. Dad picked him up and drug Bryan until he managed to get his footing and eventually made it to the stairs of the apartment.

"Which door is it?" Dad hollered behind him.

For a moment, Evelyn looked scared and confused. I could hear the zombies closing in on us, but I still grabbed her by the shoulders and looked deeply into her chocolate brown eyes. "It's okay, Evelyn. Just calm down, clear your head, and think for a minute."

She took a deep breath and looked around. "Okay. Let me lead."

I turned to my father and nodded. He returned it and moved out of her way. "Lead the way."

We followed her until she stopped and stared at a door that read, "205."

"It's this one," Evelyn announced. She tried the door, and it was unlocked. For some reason, that detail made me a little uneasy. When we walked inside, a smell made me want to turn around and leave instantly.

"Mamá? Papá?" Evelyn called out, with no response.

We continued to roam the empty house until Olivia stopped and stared at the ground. I looked behind me and noticed what she was staring at. I had to stifle a gasp.

Bullet holes were littering the ground, and that gave me two quick possibilities if we ran into the worse possible scenario. Raiders, or self-defense from zombies. No, there wasn't quite enough damage that I have seen that could've been a Raider attack. So far, the house was messy, but it could've simply been that way to begin with.

It was silent as we investigated the house. Nothing was seen that was too out of the ordinary. There were a lot of broken plates and shattered glass everywhere, but I concluded that it could've been from the bomb's shockwaves.

Without much warning, a scream of agony filled the apartment. We rushed to the source and found Evelyn on her knees, crying her eyes out. When I asked what was wrong, she pointed to the master bedroom closet.

I gasped and almost lost my footing. Decomposed remains were found of a family that added up to four. Each of the larger ones was holding a child. What struck me the most was that bullet holes were piercing many areas across all of the bodies. It was like a mass murder.

Raiders.

"Mamá...Papá..." Evelyn mumbled. "Alex...Daniel..."

We were speechless. Amelia eventually kneeled down and wrapped her in a hug. "We should go, Evelyn..."

She didn't move. She was silent for what felt like forever. Dad glanced at the window, and the horde was getting close to the parking lot.

"E-Evelyn, we can talk about this later, but we're going to become one of them if we don't get the hell out of here," Bryan said in an urgent voice.

Then she screamed again, but this time, it was out of pure anger. Evelyn began to smash everything that she saw. Lamps were broken and stomped on, the window was shattered as she threw her first into it. I saw blood pour out of her knuckles. I started to go try to calm her down, but a hand gripped my shoulder. It was Dad.

"Let her take out the anger she's been holding back for too long," he said. "She knows that it was the Raiders who did it. She saw the bullet holes."

The next thing I could recall from the apartments was looking at an entirely different person. She was a brave and caring person, who loved her family no matter the circumstances.

And somebody had to rip it out from under her feet.

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