No one ever imagined that the world would end this way. There was no way to predict the horrible beings that would befall mankind or the hunger that they'd bring. That insatiable hunger, always wanting more and more, clawing and biting for another taste of fresh, raw, flesh. No, no one was prepared to fight these. Not even the military with all their fancy guns and shit. But a small percent of the human race remains, unaffected by this virus, so far that is. Every single day is a battle for them. Once you step into the open, you've put a target on your back. These things, these monsters, these zombies.
The official day one of the outbreak was the worst. People had no idea what was coming to face them. They didn't take the government's warnings seriously. Then again, I don't think the government took the outbreak seriously. Not at first at least. That first week, that week of pure hell, I stayed locked inside my house. I was single, my parents had passed away a few years ago, and I had no close relatives. So I had no reason to leave. I saw what was outside. I saw the blood-stained streets. I heard the screams of the people who were stupid enough to try to leave. I saw these monsters that looked just like people, feast upon the flesh of others.
I remember the day when I got called into work. I was a doctor, so naturally, they wanted any surviving doctors to help find a cure for this madness. But I refused. I wouldn't open that door for anyone or anything. They tried to threaten me by saying I'd be fired. Hell, see if I cared! I'll be the one laughing when you're all dead! If you're not already…. That was the last I heard of them. I bet those bastards got what was coming for them. Karma will always bite you right in the ass when you're most vulnerable.
After a week I could tell I'd go insane if I stayed locked up there any longer. I needed to get out. I needed to leave. But the world beyond my front door was not a welcoming one, not even close. It was quite the day I finally decided to open that door. I looked outside and for the first time in a few weeks, it wasn't through a glass pane. Then I saw them, and I mean really saw them. Sure I had seen them from afar from the view of my window, but they were so much more terrifying up close. It was ghostly pale and covered in blood, most of it probably not it's own. I saw the blood that pooled in its mouth, pouring out like a water fountain when it laid eyes on me. That was the most terrifying part, the eyes. The crimson red eyes, even the pupil was red, and they stared right at me.
At that moment, time seemed to freeze. I didn't move, I couldn't, but neither did it. It simply stared, but that was much more horrifying than then it finally moved. It lunged at me, hands out, grasping for me. I felt the weight of the axe in my hand much more at that moment as I swung at it. The blade sunk into its shoulder blade and it let a scream. I panicked then, surely the screaming would bring many more, and I hadn't even killed this one, I only slowed it down. The blade was deep in its shoulder, most likely right in the bone, but I had no other weapons available. I pushed the zombie down and stepped beside the blade. It wasn't a clean removal, it had to do. The zombie let out another scream as I disembedded it from its shoulder, but it went silent as the blade came back down, burying itself in the zombie's head.
That day was the worst I had experienced for multiple reasons, and more just kept getting added to the pile. I was supposed to save lives, but that day, I took it away. With almost no food left in my house, I needed to get more, and soon. I didn't want to be out after nightfall and that was before I even knew the true dangers of the night in this new world. I wasn't at all prepared for the apocalypse. Not physically, or mentally. A doctor's degree could never prepare me for this pandemic. I surprise myself when I think back to the events that lead up to now.
I didn't dare take my car. The roads were catastrophic as I expected them to be. Vehicles crashed into each other, and into buildings and posts. Some had people still inside, some dead, some undead, others, hard to tell. I could hear screams and gunshots in the distance. At that moment I felt truly worthless, I was unable to even keep myself steadily alive, I couldn't try to seek out others as well. I tried my best to ignore them, but it wasn't very easy.
I carried my axe with both hands, clutching onto it for dear life. This was my only chance at survival, I wouldn't risk losing it no matter what. The roads became silent, and my eyes scanned every direction. At any time a zombie could jump out at me and if I wasn't careful I'd end up like them. Smoke trailed into the sky from burned-out cars, the outsides scorched along with the surrounding area. I was almost at the supermarket, but it felt like I had been traveling for days. I could feel my limbs trembling. It was the apocalypse, and I was on my own.
When I finally reached the supermarket, I got what I really expected. A parking lot filled with wandering zombies and the store must be the same. It was like looking at a minefield. There was no way I was making it there and back alive. I had seen how the virus was transferred, a zombie would bite someone and they would collapse in the street, a few hours later you could see them wandering around again. Only this time they were almost mindless creatures with biting another human being their only purpose.
While studying them from inside my house hadn't given me the best research, it was enough to determine my odds. They were very low. I stared at the supermarket from the street. I would have to find somewhere else. Somewhere smaller, like a gas station or a corner store. Those would have a better chance of not being stocked with zombies, but it's likely that others had already thought of raiding there. Yet it was my only chance and I'm glad I made the choices that I did, or I probably wouldn't be where I am today.
I checked several small stores, I was covered in blood and still had no food. The best I had were some snacks I had managed to get from the ground. The stores were all a mess, everything was everywhere and blood coated the floors and shelves. I spent hours looking through the trampled food for anything that would be salvageable. I didn't come up with much at all and the daylight was starting to fade. That's when I heard a scream. It wasn't the first I heard that day and it wouldn't be the last. But this one close, and numerous. People were yelling orders to each other.
My curiosity got the best of me at that moment, and thank the gods it did. When I got to where the yelling was coming from, I saw a small group of people. They were armed with some weapons, not the most effective, but hey, it's the fucking apocalypse, you can't expect much. One had a golf club, another a machete, a third armed with a shovel, and the last one had a baseball bat. The last one looks to have been that screamed. She dropped the bat and her hand seemed to be bleeding. There were corpses around the group as they rushed to the one. I wasn't sure how she had gotten injured but my best guess was a bite, the most obvious and deadly injury you could during the end of the world.
Even though I knew it was foolish, I approached the group. They were still picking off some strangers as I walked up so they didn't pay much attention to me till I got close. While I can't remember exactly how the interaction went, they weren't very friendly at first. I can understand that though, they were losing someone to the virus and had just killed who knows how many zombies.
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Zombie Eyes - A zombie's eye is the easiest way to identify them, if their aggressive nature wasn't enough. Unlike a human who may happen to have red eyes due to Albinism, a zombie's pupil is red as well and the red slowly overtakes the iris and pupil, making it easy to tell when a person has been bitten and how long they have.