Sanctuary
I came home to carnage. The whole of Town was a ruin, both rioters and zombies swarmed the streets. I managed to evade most of the chaos and run to my house. When I arrived home it was empty, but not in a ruin. As always the TV was left on and my brothers mug of tea on the table.
‘My family had left without me?... no,
surely not. The military must have moved them on to somewhere safe’ I tried to
reason with myself.
I broke down as any normal person
would. Being left alone in the chaos that was consuming us all, I was scared. I
scoured the house for any clue as to where they could have been taken. I was
growing desperate, my movements becoming increasingly more hastened and frantic
than the last. My cries of torment attracted one of them. He was coming for me.
His putrescent form gnawed at the air in anticipation of my flesh. The sound of
chattering teeth sent a paralysing pulse into my spine. I fell to the floor
grazing my hands where I tried to break my fall on the carpet. But I wasn’t
willing to become a victim, not like this. In the same instant I was paralysed my body suddenly found a panacea. In a violent struggle through the house I was
tearing appliances out of their sockets and throwing them in its way. It fell
to floor trying to clamber over the tower fridge in the hallway between my
kitchen and the living room. What came next was the beginning of something,
something that destroyed the innocence in me, I stood there studying the being
in front of me, staring at the pathetic waving of his arms over that fridge,
snapping his teeth at me; The look of primal hunger in its eyes.
‘How dare you look at me like that!’
The heat was rising within me, noise
had turned into a dull throb in my ear drums. I charged towards the flailing
body and I pressed my boot into the side of its head, I pushed and pushed,
bellowing with adrenaline as the resistance grew stronger. Until nothing. The
noise stopped. It was the end of the struggle but the birth of someone else,
something else.
That's when I knew I had to leave. I
packed a small bag of bare essentials and stuck a knife from the kitchen into
my belt straps just in case. I take one last look at the house and remembered the
memories we had here.
‘Please be safe’
I took off… hopefully towards
somewhere less chaotic. Somewhere rural before they close off the town, that's
what I had in mind. I hoped that I might see my family again. But I had to
ensure my own survival now if I have any chance of finding them.
A few days passed and I managed to
kill a couple of rabbits in snares and avoid most contact, being in the scouts
was starting to pay off. I stuck to the open fields to avoid ambush as best I
can. I eventually found a compound on the outskirts of town and I could hear
loud howls coming from inside, bored, alone and tired I was curious. I went
inside. The compound was dead save for a few
of ‘them’. I lured them outside the door banging a stick against the steel
shutter and ran around the side. Noise is my best friend. I jumped through an
open window and jammed the shutters. I had stumbled upon a Wolf Sanctuary. At least… that’s what I could gather
from the ruined posters and signs. An infected
animal is not something I wanted to come into contact with. I decided to leave
but then a man came from out of the shadows in the back of the pens strewn
across the back wall, he had been living there like a caged animal. His beard
was matted with filth and his clothes just the same. We may have been a dying
species but to witness a man trade his dignity to live in a cage like some kind
of spectacle to be gazed upon with wonder. It angered me. But then a single
wolf tackled him to the ground and tore out his throat. I can’t even recall the
incident very well. It had happened so fast. The only proof I had it happened
was the pool of blood before me.
The silver haired primal looked up
with a red muzzle; staring… waiting for a response and then another one of
‘them’ came crashing through the door behind it. I watched helplessly as the
ghoul savaged its leg. The wolf retaliated, tearing at its throat and face,
easily crushing the rotten flesh and decay. I approached it slowly and realized
that she was not changing; the radio said only humans were changing. It was
very clear though that she would not heal from her wounds, her sad whines were
painful and I helped ease her pain. My first kill that I truly felt sorry for
having to do.
Maybe it was an attempt at redemption I'm not sure. I followed her original muddy tracks from where she had stalked
the crazy man and found her pen.
‘Lila’ the sign read.
The gate bent open. I could hear
Faint whines emanating from the artificial den in the centre of her enclosure. It
was a mother, I had killed a mother, I could have saved a mother. I fell to my
knees in front of these two pups. I listened to them yelp and flop in the
bundles of straw. I had a family of my own to protect now. I scooped them into
my arms and ran, I didn’t stop all the while thinking.
‘This is what I’ll do, I couldn’t
save you and I wasn’t there for my family but I’ll keep your babies safe. I
promise’.
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