• "Snap!", I mumbled under my breath as I tripped over a limb.
    Gotta keep running... It's the only way... I've gotta get to the safe zone... If it even exists..., I thought to myself as I made my way into a back alley.

    They say I'm infected. But I can't see where they are getting this information. What does that even mean? Infected? With what?, I stubbled over another limb.

    I've been running for three days straight. Why did I have to see Jill and Andy and Harley get taken away? What are they going to do with them? I would rather have killed myself than be taken.. probably to be experimented on and forced into telling them where the others were..., I thought some more as I came out of the alley and around the corner of a building.

    I looked around only to see more buildings.
    "Meow..."
    I jumped and ran back into the alley and hid behind a dumpster just as a black cat walked around the corner toward me. Okay Susan, stop jumping at shadows...
    "Hey kitty kitty... Wait," I began to think some more... Why is there a cat out here... Alive? I pulled the gun out of my boot and slowly came around the building, scanning every roof and window.

    "Hello?", I called, "Is anyone there?"

    I heard a mans voice speaking to me, "What's you're identification number?" , he said.
    I answered, " Number 004332849."

    I heard some rustling and muttering. Repeated phrases of, "She's just a girl..." and, "Can't you see she's exhausted?"
    Then the less friendly ones, "The scanner says she's infected." and, "We can't take her in, it's suicide!"

    "What's you're full name?" , he asked.
    Go figure, they don't even bother to put our names on the charts...
    "Susan Elizabeth Newton," I replied.
    "Are you aware you aren't welcome here?"
    "No, I am not aware. I was just passing through."
    "Drop your weapon."
    I then realized I had my gun pointed in the direction his voice was coming from. I quickly pulled it down and put it back in my boot.
    "Go to the building entrance that is titled Big Joe's," he told me.

    As I walked over to the entrance, I looked up at the roofs of the buildings and saw people following me, walking with me as I walked to the door. When I got about 10 feet from the door it opened and they pushed a cardboard box out, while at the same time someone loaded their gun... "Only for our protection," I heard them murmur.

    I walked forward to see what was inside the box. I opened it and laying inside was a bottle of water and a package of crackers.
    "Take the box, eat what's in it. Then turn around and go back the way you came. Don't turn back." The gun was pointed at me.
    "Daddy stop!" I her a girl scream. She grabbed the gun and came running out the door to me. There was a flashlight on the gun so I couldn't see who it was. But she saw me. "Susan? Is that you?"
    "Natalie?"
    "Yeah, it's me..," she was crying now, "It's really you. I thought I would never see you again. I had heard you were infected. I guess it's true." She began to cry harder.
    I took the bottle of water and chugged half of it in 3 seconds, then began to munch on the crackers. After I finished with them, I finished my water. It was short-lived, but it was good while it lasted.
    "Susan, I'm sorry about this."
    "About what?"
    "Don't talk! You're just making this harder for me!"
    "What? What am I making harder for you?" I sat there with her pointing the gun in my face, blinded by the flashlight.
    "I have to do this. It's for the better of all of us. It's for the better of you too. You won't be caught this way. I'm so sorry... I have to do this"
    And with that, she pulled the trigger and I was gone.

    The End