Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back

Chapter 1

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I've ended up where I needed to be - Douglas Adams

People always ask where you were during big moments in history, like, “Where were you when JFK was shot?” or, “Where were you when 9/11 happened?” Personally I was only around for one of those events, and I was in my history class.

But there is another event that I will be able to say where I was when it started.

“Where were you when the Zombie Apocalypse happened?”

I was on a bus.

--

I was on my way to work at a mall which was the last stop for the bus; it was 8:30am when we were pulling in.

I think I may have noticed it first, there was someone on top of a woman near the bus shelter, she wasn’t moving and the guy was straddling her and bent over her neck. The first thing I thought of was that she was being assaulted, I stood up and went over to the bus driver, but he was already stopping the bus and looking over there.

“Everyone stay here,” he said before getting out of his seat and leaving the bus. I’m really nosey, so I stood by the open bus door to watch what was going to happen.

The driver was shouting at the guy to stop and get off of her. But it was like he was in his own world. Finally the driver went over and pushed the guy, and I saw the driver jump back and yell.

The woman’s neck was just...red. There was blood everywhere. I put a hand to my mouth and thought back to the news reports that had been coming in, to be careful because people had been getting attacked.

The man looked up at the driver for only a second before lunging at him and biting him. A woman on the bus started screaming and trying to push open the back door.

“Shut up,” I yell-whispered at her, “Do you want him to come do that to us?”

She stopped but kept whimpering.

But it was too late, the driver was on the ground and the guy was coming for the bus. I pushed the bus doors shut to give us a bit of separation. I looked behind me at the driver’s seat and saw the keys still in the ignition.

I looked back at everyone still on the bus and everyone had these shocked expressions on their faces, hell, that’s probably how I looked too.

I slid into the driver’s seat when someone came up and spoke quietly to me, “Do you know how to drive?” he asked.

I looked up at him, he was a tall black man wearing jeans and white t-shirt and a hat that had ‘ARMY’ written across the front.

“I’ve been driving since I was sixteen, I was going to get my car from the mechanics after work today, but this isn’t the time for small talk,” I said as the guy hit the bus doors trying to get in.

That was when I got a good look at him, his face looked like it a decaying, and he had yellow eyes. He had blood all around his mouth, he was moaning and banging on the door.

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“Zombies,” the man whispered, finishing my statement.

We looked at each only briefly, “Miss, I drove tanks in the army, let me drive.”

I didn’t even think when I slid out of the seat and he slid in, he started it easily and we took off. It didn’t take long for us to see more zombies around, attacking.

“This is what they were talking about on the news,” I stated, more to myself, but the guy answered.

“I guess so. I’m Ryan. Ryan Logan Tilson,” he said without looking away from the road.

“Emerson Ryn Penley,” I said looking back at the people on the bus. Most were calling people and crying. I couldn’t blame them; I would’ve been doing the same thing...

We went a few minutes in silence before Ryan pulled the bus over and stood up to face everyone.

“Listen,” he called over everyone, “there is a real threat out there. Some of you may choose to believe it; some may choose not to believe it. But there are zombies out there, and this isn’t a movie or a T.V., show or any of that shit. This is real life. I’m going to try find somewhere safe and get supplies. Y’all are more than welcome to come with me, if not; by all means you’re welcome to leave. Be with your loved ones.”

He opened the back doors for the bus and only a couple people got off and started running. There were four of us left on the bus.

Ryan looked at me and nodded, I nodded back. He went and sat back down and stated driving again.

--

And Ryan did what he said, he found us a shelter in the woods – an old farmhouse – and he took care of us. And we brought in some more people to our little group.

Ryan was our leader; he took care of all of us. He went on a ‘run’ as he called it to get a supply of guns he knew about. He taught us all to shoot...to protect ourselves.

He taught us how to survive, how to hunt, how to make shelter and fires.

He became my best friend during the zombie apocalypse. I knew everything about him, just like he knew everything about me.

--

I adored Ryan. In the month and a half since we had first met we had started sleeping together. The first time, I think it was more of...a comfort thing. After that, I think it might have been more convenience, something that reminded us of life before this shit happened.

There were eight of us in the group. The four original from the bus me, Ryan, Susie, and Abby. After a few weeks we got Alex, Micah, Katie, and Lucas.

We were as strong as we could be. But we were a little family, and it worked.

But one night...one night we were overrun. I remember Ryan and me running in the woods, and I remember the screams from the group. And I remember Micah running alongside us and suddenly he was gone.

Ryan was shooting the dead and I was using my knife on as many as I could. We were getting more surrounded by the second because of all the noise drawing them to us.

“Run, Emerson!” I heard Ryan yell suddenly.

“I’m not leaving you!” I shouted back, just as I stabbed a zombie in the forehead.

“Listen to me, you have to go! I’ll be right behind you! I swear!” he shouted as he fired off more rounds of ammunition.

“Ryan-“I started.

“Emerson! Run! Now! Take your bag, you can survive! I will find you!” he shouted, shooting.

There was a little clearing to my right, and only a few seconds to do it.

I picked my bag of guns, bullets and food up and threw it over my shoulder, “You’ll find me?” I called turning my head to face him.

He turned his head to me, “Promise,” he said and nodded.

I nodded back to him and ran. I heard Ryan yelling at the zombies, distracting them to give me a chance. I hadn’t heard him yell in pain, so I hoped he was still Ryan.

I don’t know how long I ran for. Minutes, hours, a whole day even. It was daylight when I finally stopped, I sat at the base of a tree and opened my bag, I pulled out a water bottle and drank the whole thing in seconds.

Ryan had made us pack emergency bags; there were bottles of water, dry and canned foods, two guns with two boxes of ammo and a knife.

“Just in case,” he would always say.

I cried. I ran without even looking back to him, I could have helped. I could have saved him like he had saved me a hundred times.

I knew I couldn’t stay in one place for much longer; I picked myself up and started walking.

--

I walked for three days. Only slept for a couple hours each night, up in trees or if I was lucky enough to find some sort of cave, like Ryan told us to do.

I never stopped going, hoping that Ryan would run up behind me. But he didn’t.

On the fifth day I was exhausted, I felt like I couldn’t move anymore. And I just...fell. I rolled onto my back and looked up at the trees, and I sang quietly to myself.

I was tired, and alone, and scared. I was sure I was going to die there. Whether it be by the zombies, or from exhaustion and dehydration, I wasn’t sure.

The singing kept me calm, and let me focus on one thing, just the lyrics coming up. I laid there for at least twenty minutes, just singing the same song over and over again.

That’s when I heard the voice, very faintly at first. I paid no attention to it; I thought it was just the heat getting to me.

It kept getting louder, and I really tried to listen. Then I heard what the voice was calling out.

“Sophia!” the female voice called.

I looked to the left where I thought the voice was coming from, “Help,” I tried calling but it only came out as a whisper.

“Sophia!” she called again.

“Help,” I said, a little louder lifting my head up.

“Sophia!” she was so loud now, like she was right beside me.

I knew...I knew this was my chance at surviving any of this. If I didn’t muster up every fiber of my being, I wasn’t going to make it. I leaned up on my elbows and took a couple deep breaths.

You have to do this, Emerson, I thought, if you don’t everything that Ryan did would be in vain for you to just lay here and die.

“Help,” I called stronger this time.

“Sophia?” the woman asked. She didn’t shout like she was looking! She heard me.

I sat up a bit more, “Help!” I called, as loud as I could have at that moment.

I heard footsteps running to me, crunching over the leaves. I fell back again smiling and breathing heavily. I might be okay.

The lady fell to her knees beside me, her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was wearing a vest over a plaid shirt, “Are you alright?” she asked.

I smiled and closed my eyes, “Yeah,” I replied.

“Shane!” the woman called away from me, “Shane, come here, quick!”

I opened my eyes to stare up at the trees again; I started humming my song again.

“What’s your name?” the woman asked me.

“Emerson,” I whispered turning to face her.

She smiled faintly at me, “I’m Andrea, hang on, okay? We’re going to help you.”

I smiled again, kept humming and turned to face the other way. I blacked out.