Zombie Guide: Path to Survival

Have you ever wondered what day might be your last? Have you ever sat around in your living room, or layed around in your bed and contemplated your life and wondered if living was actually worth it? Some days were much easier for me than others, I can tell you that I was never one to be sad or depressed, there was never a time where I couldn't get through a rough day. I couldn't begin to explain how lucky I was to have a good life, a spectacular one even. But as there were good days, some were not. I experienced my first anxiety attack, and it was scary. I had never been so depressed or anxious, my first thought was that I was dying, what was I going to do? I'm so young, I couldn't die just yet, there were so many amazing things I had not yet accomplished, so what was I going to do? What could help me in this time of dyer need? Was this how it was supposed to end, me being so worked up over something so small? How was I going to get through this? I remained calm as much as I could. I couldn't tell anyone about my problems, and I certainly wasn't going to tell my parents. They had little confidence in me anymore. My life was different from there's. They were the strictest people I knew, as Christian families I've seen usually were. My attacks came from the constant stress, I had finally figured out. Stress from my family and working too hard, I never had a moment to myself. I never had those days where I just sat around and did absolutely nothing. I had a bedroom which I barely slept in anymore, my bed was always made and my laundry was never washed. It all stayed built up in my broken down basket which I kept hidden in my walk in closet. What a terrible mess I was. I had all this anxiety built up inside of me, that I didn't know how to get rid of. I knew the only person I could go to when I needed a good reality slap was my best friend and partner in crime, Mackenzie, who I called Mack, since we were younger. She was my guide, my guardian Angel, she was the only person who ever understood me. She had never seen me so stressed out before either, and didn't know whether she wanted to slap me or hug me. She always gave me the most wonderful advice, advice I always took and applied it into my life. I guess that's what made my life so easy for the last Nineteen and a half years.
'Existing
is easy, leaning how to exist is hard.' That was her biggest motivation in my life. I learned how to exist, I learned how to take all the bad thoughts and memories and put them into positive experiences. I knew if I slept this anxiety off and thought positive again than my life would go back to normal, I needed someone to be there for me while I made this drastic change to my entire life. I needed Mackenzie to back me up and support me, as she always did. She was my ride or die bitch, the main reason I remained as calm as I've been.
I decided to call her. It was dark outside, the stars were out, the clouds had disappeared and the moon was full, shining directly into my bedroom window. My bed layed next to the little circular window right below my pyramid shaped ceiling. I lived on the second floor, where no one could bother me. I lived in my own little sanctuary where I could be free and not have to deal with the nagging of my parents every hour of the day, as they bickered about which dancers on Dancing With The Stars was the best.
I remember calling Mackenzie, speeding to press the dial buttons, hoping I didn't accidently press the wrong ones, and held it up to my ear gently, pressing my fingers to my lips. As the ringing continued ten seconds later, I heard a screaming in the background as Mackenzie had started mumbling under her breath.
"Sorry, I'm babysitting right now, the little brat wants to get into every fuckin' thing, are you alright Angel baby?" That was her nickname for me when she thought I wasn't feeling alright. I told her I was fine and that I just wanted some company, we were almost conjoined at the hip.
"When you're done babysitting, there's an extra spot on my bed for you, I could use the company." I told her. She knew she could never abandon me and quickly accepted the offer as the screams behind her grew louder and louder.
"Of course, I'll be over when the little troublemaker goes home." Mackenzie stated before hanging up. I threw my phone on the edge of my bed, not caring if it dropped, and thrust myself down harshly on top of my pillow, stomach first, so I could stare at the moon and think about my life. It was hard not to think when you were alone, staring into the moonlight. I knew things were going to get better, I knew my life wasn't always going to be so rough, and my Anxiety was going to fade away. It was just another phase of sadness almost everyone went through, I was lucky enough not to get it at such a young age.
What had seemed like hours wasn't at all, when only minutes had passed, I got a phone call from Mackenzie. She was outside waiting to be let in. I threw on my robe and ran downstairs, not paying attention to my parents in the next room calling my name to ask who was knocking at such a late hour. Mackenzie had come in immediately into me opening the front door, waving to my parents as they'd done the same, I dragged her into my bedroom, and slammed the door shut. She knew I wasn't feeling right, the only way I could change was if she was there right next to me.
"Calm down and take a breath, you only live once. Don't stress the small stuff." Mackenzie rubbed my back as I sat next to her on my bed, huffing and puffing before she smacked the back of my neck, I was more surprised than hurt.
"What was that for?" I had asked suddenly.
"You're working yourself up, don't be like this. We're going to have a fantastic night and you're going to be happy, are we coming to an agreement?" Mackenzie didn't put up with my Anxiety. She always knew how to kick it's ass right out of my system. This is exactly why I loved her.
We stayed up all night, talking about random things girls would talk about when they were bored, and having a sleepover with nothing planned out in advance. The talk of boys eventually came up into the conversation.
"How's your relationship with Travis going?" I asked her, knowing exactly what her answer would be. I was always brought into her drama with her boyfriend, I knew more about their drama than they did.
"I might dump him." Was the answer I expected.
She once had a great thing going with her boyfriend. He's tall, handsome, rich and young, just the way Mackenzie liked her men. She's Twenty Five, while Travis just turned Twenty. They were alike in so many different ways. They both liked the same things, but the one difference was that Travis was an ego hogging asshole who thought he was God's gift. He wasn't, and Mackenzie wasn't going to put up with it for much longer.
"When?" I asked her, knowing this was emotional for her. She would always love him no matter what. They spent two years of their lives together, through the ups and the downs.
"Tomorrow night, he's taking me to the carnival for our two year anniversary, I know that sounds bad but I can't wait any longer. He probably won't even care." And as much as that pained me to hear her say that, she was right. I could see the agonizing anticipation, as if she was being kidnapped and awaited the kidnapper to kill her. It was that kind of anticipation, it pained me to watch. I knew I had to cheer her up, even if I was facing my own demons.
"Let's listen to music, and than fall asleep on each other from eating too much junk food!" I clapped as she lifted her head up, with a faint smile, to thank me for at least attempting to cheer her up. It was moments like these me and Mackenzie were both incredibly lucky to have one another. We had our moments where we may have not seen eye to eye, but when it came to support we had each others backs and that was never going to change. No matter the situation, no matter the stress, the world could end and we'd be right there trying to surive together, that's how our friendship worked.
I hustled out of the bed and left her there as she layed back onto my Hershey kiss pillow, walking out of my room and downstairs to see my mother and father still awake and watching old horror movies from the twenties.
"Oh Fabel, there you are." I heard my mom's voice echoing from the living room and I slowly walked into the kitchen, pretending to ignore her. I looked through the pantry, finding as many sugary products as I could. Opening the fridge at the same time, I grabbed a boat load of junk and stuffed it into a plastic bag before running back up the stairs, still ignoring my mother's call out to me.
When I walked through the door, I saw Mackenzie staring up into the sky from my little window, she had a little smile on her face. It had seemed the moon was really affective tonight, for the both of us. I threw the bag of goodies down and let her have at it. Along with the scary amount of junk in one small bag, I grabbed my little Bluetooth speaker and jammed out to some music on my phone, music she loved.
Hours passed before we were full and tired, and ready to sleep. We threw all the empty wrappers in the bag and chucked it in my mini garbage can and fell asleep in the most awkward positions. By the time we had fell asleep it was almost three in the morning, we knew we never got enough beauty sleep, but pulling all-nighters was a thing we always did since we were younger.
When we woke up, the sun was beaming straight on our faces. Beaming more than usual, almost causing a sunburn. We sat up and looked around. We couldn't believe how late we'd slept in. I missed work and was most likely going to be fired. I couldn't bare to think about what was going to happen, but knew that was the least of my concerns when I saw Mackenzie's face, her nerves getting the best of her. I remember she was planning on breaking up with her boyfriend, not knowing how it was going to turn out in the making. I hugged her tightly and stood up, pacing around the room looking for clothes to put on, trying to find something for Mackenzie to where to as we were the same size in everything. I handed her an outfit as I threw on a pair on Black skinny jeans and a camouflage tanktop, as I looked for my biker boots. Mackenzie got up and looked under the bed, finding my boots before I did and handed them to me. I sat on the bed putting them on, when Mackenzie gasped, almost making me fall of my bed.
"What's the problem?" I got up, asking her as I walked over to my window where she was standing. I was in utter disbelief. Something had happened outside, as if there was an explosion, but there couldn't have been, wouldn't we have heard it?
"What happened outside?" I asked her, knowing she didn't have an answer but was too shocked to ask a smarter question. We ran downstairs to investigate more, as I called out to my parents who were no where to be found.
"Mom? Dad!? Are you guys here?" I called out over and over again but they weren't around. Where could they have gone, and why wouldn't they wake me up to tell me first? I was starting to worry, as I unlocked the door and walked outside. It was much hotter than most days, the atmosphere was putrid. The smell of what seemed like burning flesh filled the streets up. Mackenzie covered her mouth in shock.
"Oh my God, what happened to our Neighborhood. Did we get mobbed?" Mackenzie's eyes full of tears as I took out my phone and dialed 911. But no one was answering.
"Aren't the police supposed to answer all 911 calls, because their not answering mine?" I didn't know what was going on, but was horrified at the massacre that was happening. The streets were blackened, cracked open, and there were stores a block away, in viewing distance that were on fire.
"I have to call Travis and make sure he's okay!" Mackenzie took out her phone from her pocket, her hands were shaking. As she held the phone up to her ear in hopes he would answer, I walked around trying to find answers as to what had happened. I walked to my garage and noticed my mom's car was still parked like it had been from the previous day. That was our only family car, and God forbid they walked anywhere.
"Mack, I think something happened to my parents, their car is still here!" I freaked out, noticing Mackenzie was freaking out just as much.
"Well I don't wanna just stand here, we have to do something." She sobbed as I grabbed her and hugged her tightly. There was nothing I wanted more than to do something, but I couldn't figure out what to do. I had hoped this was nothing more than a horrible nightmare. But nightmares didn't feel like this.
We walked up the street, finally parting from my house. The horrible smell reeked the streets again, except it had gotten a long stronger and a lot worse than before. We didn't know where it was coming from or what it was, but knew whatever it was, it was close. They looked around at the little stores in the cities promenade, all the windows were broken into, some stores were caught on fire, all the items inside were either used or gone, it was almost as if the world had ended.
"This is something you see in the movies, I swear this can't be real." Mackenzie held on to me, scared out of her mind, me on the other hand, I was more confused than anything. I didn't know how to react, my brain was on survival mode already. I headed up to one of those stores I was a regular customer at, the local Sally's Beauty Supply Shop. The place was a wreck. Everything had been broken, there was glass all over the floor, it was a good thing me and Mackenzie were wearing sturdy boots or we'd sure be all cut up.
"God, look at this place." Mackenzie mumbled. Her arms were folded closely to her chest as she looked around.
I simply nodded at her statement. The place looked like it had seen better days, I looked down the isles, seeing empty hair dye bottles, some splattered all over the ground in a variety of colors. It was ashamed to see such useful products go to waste. I couldn't bare to be in there any longer and rushed outside to take a deep breath, Mackenzie running after me. I looked out into the distance, the whole entire town was wiped away, like total oblivion. Was the world really ending? I didn't know for sure, but my only concern now? Finding my parents and getting to a much safer location, or else there was bound to be some trouble.