Hannah Gray

Hannah Gray. She was a pretty normal girl. She had a normal life. She had two parents who loved her very much. A little sister she loved to take care of. She had lots of good friends. And she had a cute dog.

Hannah went to school every day, got pretty good grades. Loved to read. Like, really loved to read. She spent most of her time reading; diving into a new adventure with each book, discovering something new with each chapter.

Her life was normal. The keyword there is was.

Disaster struck the summer before her sixteenth birthday. A power plant just north of her town exploded, dumping toxins into the rivers, destroying the trees and wildlife nearby. The town tried its best to help, planting new trees, helping animals as much as they could without the animals becoming too dependent, and cleaning the rivers.

Everything seemed to be working out until a random teenager decided he should touch a weird sludge thing. Turns out, that was a bad idea. One day later the boy died. But, not fully. His brain died, but his body didn't. His body kept moving on its own.

Scientists came from all over to see the strange anomaly. They studied it for weeks. It didn't do much. Just moving its arms or legs, sometimes its head. This made scientists think it was a perfect idea to get up real close. Well, guess what. That was also a bad idea.

One day when a scientist was taking some blood, the body jumped up. It attacked the scientist before he even had a chance to react. And soon it started raging through the compound they had taken it to. It attacked anything it saw. Spreading whatever disease it had to other people.

Fast forward to today. Hannah is currently the only person in her family left un-infected. She doesn’t know if her aunts in Texas are okay, or if her grandparents in Delaware are still safe. She desperately wants to know, but she has no way to know or even find out.

Currently though, her biggest problem isn’t whether or not her family is ok. Her problem right now is the horde of zombies chasing her. She wished zombies were slow like in a lot of movies she had seen, but sadly they were not. They are as fast as any other human being out there.

Her breathing was ragged from the many hours of running she had to do. Her legs felt like they would give in at any moment. Her head hurt because of how hard it was for her to find water. It felt like there was a weight on her shoulders dragging her down, making it harder and harder for her to keep running.

All she wanted to do right now was lay down and die, but she kept running. At least until she saw another hoard of zombies appear in front of her. She slowed to a stop, her head whipping around as she tried to find a way out of this.

"Come on," she groaned.

Hannah picked up a pole from on the ground and got ready to fight. If she was going down some zombies were going down with her. Her amber eyes watched as the zombies closed in. She raised the pole and got ready to swing at the first zombie when she felt fingers wrap around her upper arm.

She screamed when she felt them tug her harshly into a boarded-up building. Once she regained her senses she lifted her foot and rammed it hard into whatever grabbed her. It makes a strange gurgling sound. Like what she imagined a zombie would sound like if it were being drowned.

The grip on her hand vanished. She stumbled back, tripping on a can as she did, and fell flat on her back. Her head slammed on the ground. The air rushed from her lungs. She sat for a while, blinking the stars from her eyes.

Hannah's eyes widened slightly when she saw two boys. She hadn't seen other people since she left her hometown. It was kind of strange to see them. One was her age, or maybe younger. He was holding his neck, coughing a lot. He must have been the one she kicked.

His curly black hair fell into his face as he tried to catch his breath. His fiery orange eyes stared wide-eyed at the floor, probably still in shock from being kicked. His skin was deathly pale, almost like he hadn't seen a day of sun in his life.

The other boy, who was behind the one Hannah had kicked, was probably in his early twenties. He was currently on the floor laughing harder than Hannah thought was possible. He had tears in his sapphire eyes. He had short golden blond hair. He was trying really hard to calm himself down, but every time he looked at the black-haired boy he would fall into another fit of wheezes.

"That's one way to greet the person who saves you," the blonde-haired boy said laughing.

The black-haired boy turned and glared at his friend.

"Shut up Fletcher," he snapped.

"Come on you have to admit that was funny," the blonde, Fletcher, says.

"You weren't the one who was kicked in the throat," the black-haired boy said. He stared down at a heart-shaped locket in his hands in dismay. It was broken in half. "She broke my locket."

"Oh, boo hoo, is little baby Alvin sad," Fletcher mocked. "It should be mine anyway."

"Can you stop with the locket," the black-haired boy now known as Alvin hufed. He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "I won it fair and square."

"No-"

"I'm still here," Hannah said, pushing herself to her feet. She grabbed a rock from off the ground and held it, just in case she needed to defend herself.

"Right," Fletcher said blushing slightly. "Sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Hannah said, moving away from Fletcher, who had tried to get closer to her.

"Are you sure?" Alvin ased.

"Yes," Hannah said sharply. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be going."

Hannah turned on her heel and marched out of the building. She did not need to be near those two boys, nor did she want to. They just seemed like trouble. And she did not need that right now. She made sure there were no zombies around before walking out of the house and starting the treck away from the strange boys.

"Are you sure?" Fletcher asked jogging to catch up with Hannah. "Like one hundred percent sure. Like-"

"Yes," Hannah snapped as she picked up the pole she had dropped. "Now go away."

"You might need our help," Alvin insisted.

"I don't need your help, and I never will," Hannah stated with a glare.

"Looked like you needed our help a few minutes ago with the hoard of zombies chasing you," Fletcher said with a smirk.

"I didn't need your help with those zombies," Hannah growled, turning to glare at the boys. "Now go."

Hannah turned back around and stomped off. She rounded a corner and broke into a sprint. Alvin and Fletcher shared a look before taking off after the quickly retreating Hannah.

"We're not leaving," Fletcher said. "And if you want to ever kick one of us, kick Alvin. Because that was hilarious. I mean-"

Fletcher was cut off by Hannah kicking him in the stomach.

"If you're coming with me," Hannah said glaring, "you're going to be quiet. Got it?"

Alvin quickly nodded and Fletcher gave a thumbs up from his spot on the ground.

"Good," Hannah said. She could tell these two were going to be a pain to deal with.