In the End

I looked at Angelica through the darkness and could tell she was hurt. I didn't want to hurt her, but I knew I couldn't do this. Getting romantic during a time like this wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Surviving this, making it somewhere safe, was what filled my thoughts. Sure, maybe before all of this I would have wanted to get intimate with someone, feel the taste of a girl's lips against mine, but not now. Now there was something bigger than girls, getting drunk, and worrying about college. Sure I never would have thought ever, that we would have to deal with something like this.

Most of the time my mind couldn't wrap around everything that was happening. Almost every time I closed my eyes, I would see what used to be instead of what is. Life has taken us somewhere dangerous. Now was not the time to play childish games, it was time to get serious.

"I'm sorry, Angelica." She nodded her head and quietly made her way back to my sisters room. She must've been heart broken but then again how was I suppose to know she wasn't just being driven into my arms because of the fact that we were in this situation. Could love be real anymore? What did I know anyways, I never really knew what that was and I sure as hell wouldn't find it in this type of world. We were truly heading into a post apocalyptic world and all were are is a bunch of teenagers forced to face this alone.

My head fell into my hands as I tried my hardest not to lose it. That's when I decided it was better to start making a list for tomorrow. We needed supplies...and the supplies were out there.

I looked over what little weapons we had in my house and it wasn't enough. We needed food, new clothes, and something to defend ourselves with. I had my bat, the girls had knives, although I wasn't sure if those would even work, and Chad had my spare bat that I had kept under my bed.

"Wait a minute." I then remembered my electric guitar that was in my room. It was pretty heavy and sturdy so it should work. I handed my sister my bat and went into my room to retrieve my guitar.

"Logan..." She looked at me shocked as I smiled at her feebly. She knew how much I loved this guitar and how long I had spent saving up for it.

"Okay, here is the plan. We don't want to be out there for longer than we have to so, I want Chad and Bobby to go with, Lina to go with her to get the food."

"Logan! I'm not a little girl anymore. I can do it by myself, it's not too far and it sounds like there are less of them." I glared at my sister, I didn't want her to be alone.

"Plus, you need more people to go with you to help carry back all the equipment." I clenched my jaw and sighed.

"Fine. Then the four of us will head down the main streets so we don't get caught up somewhere. Lina, do you know if Mom and Dad still have that cabinet full of liquor downstairs?" She nodded her head and I told everyone to wait up here while I went into the basement.

None of us had gone down there since it happened, we were all too afraid to even think about what could be down there. Then again, come to think of it, it was the safest place in the entire house. Small windows, one door. I shook my head not wanting to think about what we could've done.

I went straight to the liquor cabinet, turning on the light above me and looked through what they had. Vodka, Sake, Bacardi, Johnny, Jose, and some other foreign things. I thought about it and decided it would be best to take all of them and so I did. I walked back upstairs handing everyone a bottle.

"What are these for?" I placed more into my backpack and watched my sister place the one I gave her into her own.

"Molotov cocktail, put a cloth in the bottle, deep enough to touch the alcohol and light it. When you do just throw it into a group...those things." Everyone nodded their heads as we double checked that we were prepared.

I looked over at my sister wondering if she was going to be okay. I didn't want to her to go alone but fighting with her is useless.

"Lina...be safe." She smiled at me an nodded her head.

It was time for us to go.

***

"I'm amazed we haven't come across anything for five blocks." Angelica stated, looking around the barren boulevard. She seemed happy but still nervous, everyone always checking over their shoulders.

"They must have cleaned up the main streets. Let's just keep going, boys keep your eyes open." Chad glared at me. I know he didn't like being referred to as a child, but in this situation, he was. We all were.

We finally made it around the corner and on the street that headed straight towards the Modell's we were heading for. We all knew it was down this street, so everyone got extra cautious. The street was a wide open space, so we were like sitting ducks walking out here.

No one knew if they could smell, see, or actually hunt us down. We knew they were stupid enough to walk by the house almost every night and not notice our presence but that was about it. We also don't know how the virus spread, by blood, biting, or just by them breathing on us if they even needed air.

We didn't know anything about these things other than what we had seen in the movies so that's the caution that we based everything on. Don't let them bit you, bleed on you, its best not even to not to even let them get near you. Then again how we were suppose to do that while fighting with bats and knives I really had no clue, but I knew my main priority was to make sure everyone got through this alive.

"What was that?" Angelica jumped a bit clenching onto her knife till her knuckles turned white. She looked around and then at me. We were nearly half-way there as she gripped my arm, the boys looked around frantically.

"What did you see?" Angelica started to stutter and I knew she had seen something that we should all be afraid of. Angelica was so terrified that I grabbed onto her hand and looked around myself to see.

All of us seemed to sigh in relief when we saw a small cat slowly walking over to us, sniffing the air and the ground. We all thought that we were safe and then it looked up at us. It's eyes were completely white, the color dying out with the rest of its body. Hair was missing from underneath it's body and drooled as it looked at us. Angelica started to cry and grasp my hand tighter as the boys stared at it, readying their bats.

"Okay, remember how I use to say envision the ball?" Chad looked up at me and nodded his head. I was his coach at his high school, baseball being our thing.

"Same thing goes for the cat." Soon enough there were more of them, crawling their way over, many of them missing limbs, a jaw, or almost to the point of complete decay. The smell was putrid so just standing there we started to become sick with the stench of their rotting bodies.

Then one jumped at Chad and he hit it far enough back and when we heard the thump the six that had surrounded us began attacking. Angelica was screaming, not really knowing what to do since she was the only one with a knife so as they came close to her she kicked them as hard as she could. I kept her behind me to fight off the coming barrage of dead cats that jumped at us until they all seemed to lay there motionless on the floor.

"You think that's it?" Chad asked as I looked around. They seemed to be no more and all of them were actually dead now. I grabbed onto Angelica's hand to try and calm her and pulled her in close.

"Angelica it's over." She nodded her head as she slowly began to breath normally again and we continued on our way.

"I've never seen it so empty before." Angelica stated as we looked around at the intersection. Everything seemed empty, or rather was empty.

I looked around and saw a car dealership that still had a couple cars left, with any hope, the keys to at least one of those cars would still be in the office somewhere. Then there was Modell's of course. We all walked towards it and entered with caution. Chad and I looked around as Angelica looked behind us to make sure we weren't being followed or anything lucky enough we weren't so we began to look around. A lot of the stuff had already gone missing, the placed trashed. Maybe there were still people that were alive.

Once we knew the place was secure I put my guitar down and went over to the baseball section to retrieve a metal bat for both myself and Angelica. She smiled at me feebly as I handed her the bat and she went off to search for more proper clothing. The boys and I all gathered some clothes and changed into them, Chad placing a football helmet on Bobby's head and a cup for himself.

After I finished changing I walked around to make sure there wasn't much else we needed when I accidentally bumped into Angelica who had removed both her shirt and her bra. I quickly turned away as she glared at me from behind.

"Sorry." I heard her sigh and shuffle around as she put on the clothes she had picked out.

"It's fine, here, I found these." When I turned around I saw a whole new side of Angelica. She still looked frightened but ready for what was to come. She was in tight black pants, hiking boots, and a blue wife beater. She handed me some baseball gloves as she placed some on herself.

"Good thinking." She nodded her head and then grabbed her backpack and bat. She took a deep breath in and then looked at me in the eyes.

"There's a police station not too far from here. Should you and I check it out?" I thought about it. It would be nice to have better equipment than bats and if I had remembered correctly there was a paint ball store nearby too. Sure it wasn't a real gun but anything to slow those things down.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" Angelica nodded her head, her eyes glazed over in tears but she seemed willing and ready. Chad and Bobby came around and I looked at them sternly.

"You guys will stay here, hiding, while me and Angelica are going to look for some guns. When we get back we'll head to the car dealership and try to get us a car." Chad glared at me but agreed. I knew he wanted to more than just wait for us but for now I wanted to play it safe. There was no use in us risking our safety. Which made me think of my sister and how she was doing. I shook it off and looked over at Angelica who was staring at me.

"Let's go." With that we both made our way back outside, into the dead silence. All that you could hear was the wind as it rushed up against your ears. Angelica led the way, knowing this area a bit better than me. We had walked a few blocks, only hearing a few noises but nothing came out at us. The police station was in site and we made our way into it cautiously.

What we didn't expect to see were the bodies laid out across the floor. There were so many of them, that Angelica grabbed onto my arm and squeezed tight. She didn't make any noise and tried hard not to let it get to her. I place my hand on her shoulder and looked straight into her eyes.

"Don't worry." Angelica nodded her head and we headed towards the back that had the small artillery case for emergencies. To our great disappointment there was only one weapon left. A shotgun was left hanging off the hinges it was displayed on. Angelica quickly took if off and handed it to me, looking through the drawers on the bottom for the box of bullet that were to suppose to accompany the weapon.

"Got it." She muttered and pulled out the box. You heard the clanging of shell casings in which she pulled out one bullet and handed it to me. The rest she threw in the front pocket of her back-pack. I loaded the shotgun and took aim, remembering when my father would take me hunting upstate. I then looked at Angelica and motioned for us to get out of here as I placed the shotgun over my shoulder.

She followed behind me, as we made our way to the paint ball store across the street. We heard some more noises and paused. Angelica was about to say something when I held up my hand to silence her. Something in my mind was telling me it was the sound they were attracted to. We didn't hear anything else to I continued to walk, stepping lightly, Angelica following in suit.

We go into the place and saw they were also practically cleaned out. Angelica had automatically went to look for things, having played paint ball as a child. Sure she was pretty girly at times, but there was this tomboy side of her that would pop out every now and then. She grabbed small pouches that wrapped around your thigh and handed one to me as she strapped one on each of her thighs. She grabbed a whole box of paint balls and the automatic that was high up on display that was tagged at almost 200 dollars. It had a laser attached to it and almost looked like an M-16. She filled up the container with the paint and attached it to the top of the gun, strapping it around her body. There was also a case of water that had been untouched that I grabbed and filled most of it into my bag and hers. She re-set herself as did I, bringing out what we knew we would need more often into easy-access places.

"I think that's about it, you have something for the boys and my sister?" Angelica nodded her head and we made our way out of the store.

As we walked back we could hear more noises, slowly getting louder. Angelica looked up at me as we stood in front of the Modell's. I looked out into the distance waiting for something to pop out at us. I couldn't see anything so I pulled out the binoculars I had taken from the paint ball store and looked around. There in the distance I saw something trying to move a large box that was in it's way.

"Angelica, get the boys now." Angelica tried to see what I saw but then rushed into the store to get the guys. I payed close attention and saw someone fall out of the hole from behind the box. It was pretty far away so I knew we didn't have to worry about it, until I heard barking.

"Shit." I muttered to myself as I saw more people come from the whole and then get tossed aside by the dog that was trying to get out. Once it was out it sniffed the air and looked directly at me. I began to panic a little when I saw two more pop out behind it. That when I knew we were screwed. Angelica ran out with the boys and at the same time the dogs began running towards us.

"SHIT! Car lot now!" Angelica heard the barking and we all began running towards the lot, instantly checking the cars to see if they were open and had keys. Chad ran indoors for some reason as we all panicked. Angelica hopped on top of the car, and began taking aim with her gun. She began shooting to try and keep the dogs at bay as me and Bobby ran around trying to find a car.

The dogs neared closer and closer and Angelica quickly glanced at me. I knew what she meant and I attempted to take aim with the shotgun, but it was difficult since they were moving so fast. That's when we heard a car alarm go off. Chad had found keys and a car, quickly starting the engine.

"Get in!" He called as we all ran to the car. Angelica and Bobby got in the back as I hoped into the passengers seat. Once that happened, we took off, Chad having never driven before was all over the place, the dogs catching up with us and attempting to jump on the back of the car. I quickly reached my leg over and floored it, Chad not being strong enough to do so, the car racing down the Boulevard. The dogs were still tailing us as I switched seats with Chad. Our speed has slowed and one of the dogs had ran up to the back window causing it to crack, Angelica letting out a loud scream, holding onto Bobby. I hit the gas again when I heard loud gunshots come from in front of us and the sounds of the dogs dying.

I looked in front of us, and hit the breaks hard a large stocky man standing in front of us. He quickly ran to the back door and Angelica automatically opened it for him.

"Have you been?" The man shook his head as I asked the question of whether or not he had been infected. Angelica then let out a loud scream and began sobbing. I looked back at her and the man confused when I saw what was in his hand.

"Where did you get that?" My voice was harsh as I looked dead into the strangers eyes. In his hand was my sister's back-pack.