“RUN…. GET OUT HURRY IT’S COMING! Eric where are you!” As I look around frantically for some hope to get out of this place, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m forgetting something really important. Let’s not spoil the rest of this story I’ll start from the beginning when my family decided to move from North Carolina to the “relaxing, calming, and beautiful” island of Utopia. I guess we should start from when we made it to Florida. After the annoying, tiring, long, grueling two-week drive to the Florida Keys. We finally made it to the last boat to the island of Utopia. Oh, yea I guess I should probably tell you why we need to get to Utopia so badly. Well, I guess in the easiest terms possible it would have to be because of the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. My parents heard about the island of Utopia as the only safe haven(4831-3… 24.561042562224802, -81.80175940212719… Utopia is now fully built… Free housing is available… Mandatory Health check… Safe haven awaits… so come on down the Utopia awaits.24.561042562224802). The message repeats over and over. It continues to go on talking about how there's one way there and one way off the island. To make it better at the slightest hint of "zombies/infection" the whole island will be hit with a nuclear weapon. In other words, we're being sent to a random new island that no one’s ever heard of, for who knows how long or till they make a cure and wipe out all the zombies whichever comes first. What can go wrong?
The coordinates left in the message lead us to Key West where the ship will be taking us to Utopia. After a long car ride and lots of walking, we finally made it to the port. It felt like hours went by waiting for the ship's crew to finish checking for infected and ill-packed explosives. We were allowed to finally board the “S.S. Last Hope”. A ship bigger than anyone has ever seen. Standing at 248 Feet High, 666 Feet wide, and 400 Feet long. Once everyone made it onto the ship we gathered on the main deck where the Captin went over the rules and layout of this hulking vessel. After the run down we are herded in the dining hall for introductions. Sorry, I fell asleep as soon as we sat down so I don't remember much of what happed there. But I do remember this strange little boy just staring at me. Too bad lost him as we were leaving the dining hall. After that, we made our way to the top floor to our rooms, but I still couldn’t shake the weird feeling that something wasn't right. I unpacked and decided to do a little bit of exploring. The lower I go the creeper it gets. On the fourth floor, I’m not sure how to explain it but there’s just some kind of eerie presence each step you take. As you pass each room it feels like someone’s staring down into your soul. “Hey?” said a random voice. I whip my head around hoping to see someone. But there’s nothing there. I turn back around and I see a little kid probably a few years younger than me. As I continue my tour down to the fifth floor. It felt even colder and much more ominous presence than on the previous floors. “Hey?” said the same voice but much deeper than before. I whip my head around again but still don’t see anything or anyone. As I’m about to continue on my journey again I get this cold feeling down my spine. I freeze, standing there motionless too scared to turn around. What must be lurking behind me must be the most terrifying thing I’ve ever encountered. I finally get the nerve to turn around. Nothing “You're fine nothing's there let's just go back to the room and continue this tomorrow.” I say to myself. But when I turn back towards the stairs there he was the same kid from the floor above I didn’t even notice that he was following me. “Hey wh- who are you?” I said with a bit of a quiver in my voice. The strange child just looks at me standing there motionless looking at me with cold dark apathetic eyes. I feel like we are standing here for hours just looking at each other as the room feels colder and colder. I finally start to surrender to his powerful gaze. Then he slowly disappears around a corner.
"HEY... COME BACK" I scream at the top of my lungs only to see the back of the same little kid skipping away from me. "Hehehehe come and get me" the child repeats over and over skipping down the corridors of the boat. All of a sudden the boat begins to sway drastically and the child just keeps skipping along unaffected by the movement of the boat saying the same thing "Come and get me..... Hehehehe come and get me..." A blinding flash of lightning strikes the boat. I shield my eyes still trying to find the strange little boy. When I open them again the child is gone but I can still hear his laughter "hehehehe". I blink my eyes to get a better look at where I am and I notice that I'm in my room but I can't see anything just darkness. There's another flash of lightning but within the flash, I can clearly see the horror that is my room. As I look around frantically for a switch to make sure that what I just saw was real. The light switch. Slow and shaky I reach for the switch and flick the light on. My heart jumps into my throat and then feels like someone's trying to choke me at the same time. I'm too frightened to turn my eyes to see the dead bodies of my family laying in pieces in the room. My father’s head was chopped off and placed on the lamp next to the bed, his chest looked like someone ripped his heart out, his left arm was on the floor to my right. My little (nine-year-old) brother Eric's body was placed in a chair his neck was split open. His stomach looked like he ate a porcupine or was shot with needles. All of his limbs were torn off and stitched backward. I soon felt something warm drip on my face what I saw next broke me. My own mother had her head, torso, and limbs ripped apart and hanging from the ceiling. I burst out screaming and in tears running to the door. When I open the door the whole ship is split in half... gone like it never existed. No waves. No clouds. Just nothing but the shining sun. Before I hopelessly shut the door I hear the little kid laughing. "Hehehehe". Then the laughter of my brother Eric, my dad, shortly following my mom's laugh. The worst part isn't over yet all of my mom’s limbs start swinging back and forth the blood from her torso splattering all over my face. I close my eyes again hoping that this is just a nightmare. I jump through the door with my eyes closed. When I open my eyes all I can feel is the pain in my throat and throughout my body almost like I was hit by a car. My vision is a bit blurry then I realize I'm on the floor of my room. When I get up my dad is just sitting next to staring at me. The countenance on his face provided me with the shock and horror of watching me while I was having that horrid nightmare. "Hey, are you okay?" He said with a shiver in his voice
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" I replied.
"Well for starters you've been screaming for hours and then you tried to jump headfirst off the bed. Good thing the sheets were covering you it could have been really bad."
"Well, I'm fine now!" I said sharply not even looking at him.
"Alright champ if you need anything everyone is on the top deck playing in the pool."
"Yeah fine, I’ll be there later."
"Okay well, I'm off back to the hot tub with Stephie (She’s dad’s new GF he found her in a store being attacked by zombies a few months after mom died)”. When my dad left I hopped out of my bed and headed towards the bathroom still replaying the horrors I just witnessed. Panting with my face in the toilet I finally get to release the slimy nasty taste of my stomach acid. It was such an amazing relief. On the downside, it looks like some peaches that I ate a few weeks ago and smells like the breath of a zombie. After a nice refreshing shower and sadly some more vomiting I decided to keep looking for the strange kid I saw earlier.
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As I walk down the hallway searching for the kid I can’t help but think about my mom and how much I miss her. I’ll never forget the day she died. “It was just another trip to a camp they said. It will be fine there’s nothing to worry about,” both parents say with hopeful glee. Not at all how things went. The day I lost my mother is the day everything changed. Unlike most days this day started out perfect compared to the usual zombie head bashing, shooting, and crushing. On that dreadful day, the sun was shining very brightly not a cloud in the sky. Mom made breakfast, and Dad was preparing the compound bows for our hourly survey for zombies that try to break into the house or any sign of people. Dad, Eric, and I got ready to start looking for zombies while Mom cooked breakfast. Eric ran up to his post on the roof, I went to my treehouse, and Dad went to his spot in his room. Everything was going perfectly as planned Mom was almost done cooking no zombies in sight. I had a bad feeling everything was just so relaxing and calming something must be wrong. While on the verge of leaving my post and taking a quick nap in the nice spring shade under this big shady tree. My eyes slowly shut, next thing I hear is the piercing sound of a gun being fired. I spring up with my arrow loaded and my bowstring pulled tight and aimed it Searching everywhere for where it came from. That’s when it hit me “MOM”! I dive out of the treehouse with my bow still loaded rushing towards the house not even prepared for what happens next. As I reach the back sliding glass door I see my mom in tears just standing there in the middle of the kitchen she looks down then she slowly lifts her head and looks at me and only a single tear can form to fall down her soft cheeks a bullet comes crashing through the window and hits her straight through her head. The blood from her head splatters all over the window in front of me. At that moment it felt like everything just happened in slow motion. My body was paralyzed I just couldn’t move any part of my body. I just stand there watching my mother’s body slowly hit the ground into her own blood creating a splash. After a few minutes, I finally realized that my brother was giving the signal that something was coming. I need to get to my spot and hold my post. Running in tears I quickly rush back up to my spot. Whipping my tears I ready my bow and arrow. Looking around for my rage-induced victim I find my target. Sadly the unpleasant idiot that fired what sounded like a Savage 110 BA(a type of sniper rifle made by the U.S. in 2009) attracted/woke up some of the zombies in the area. As they come in hordes of 10 or more to the smell of my mothers’ fresh blood. My father, brother, and I fight for our lives to try to escape. As we start to run out of arrows we decided its time to end it and find a new place to hide. So my dad blows up the house and we move to a nice home next to a gun shop. Still to this day, I don't know who fired that shot, and when I do I will put three arrows into his chest.
Not paying attention to where I was going I somehow ended up by captain’s quarters. For some reason, it feels so cold up here but it’s almost July. Trying to resist the urge to venture into this room. I begin to get that cold feeling again but this time it's stronger than before. My hand shaking with fear comes inches away from the handle before I quickly draw it back. In disappointment, I turn around back to my room. As soon as I turn around I stop dead in my tracks. That same feeling I had earlier is back. “It must be him!” I think to myself. In a blink of an eye, he appears again. Our eyes lock in an awkward intimidating stare down. It feels more intense than last time. It takes me a while but I notice that he has the same clothes on that he had last time. A white buttoned-up shirt, cargo shorts, high socks that go up to his knees, and blue and black high-top Converse shoes. But this time I notice how pale his skin was also last time I don’t think he was wearing a weirdly shaped necklace or a ring. Looking at him more I didn’t see the scar on his face that runs from his nose across his right cheek to his chin. Suddenly caving into his gaze. I feel myself begin to blink. Then I hear the sound of the door to the captain's quarters begin to slowly unlock. With an echoing creek, the door slowly opened. A chilling gust of wind creeps through the slightly cracked open door almost knocking me over. I turn around to see if someone is going to come out of the captain’s room. I watch the door as it slowly opens. The slow creeks echo through every bone in my body as I stand there motionless waiting for someone to come out. The door starts to open and closes slowly and loudly. My body cringes every time the door slams shut. I look back at the little kid. He’s just standing there watching me with no change. The slam of the door grabs my attention one more time. I slowly reach for the door. Sweating. Shaking. I close my eyes and take a big “gulp”. The door swings into my hand. With my eyes closed, I swing the door open. A gust of wind hits me almost pushing me back. I open my eyes. I’m now falling from the sky facing the blue fluffy clouds. As I’m still falling I manage to turn myself around. When I look down I see the ship it’s split in half and I’m about to hit it. I attempt to let out a blood-curdling scream, but the wind is too strong. With the cracked boat quickly approaching I try to make my body fall where the boat split in half. Hoping to hit the water with some chance of survival. As I get closer to the top of the boat it feels like everything is slowing down I get to about the top floor of the boat where my room is; suddenly everything is in slow motion to the point where it feels like I’m flying. I spot my room. It is almost like it felt like a freeze-frame moment but as I look at my room door I see myself. I look straight into my own eyes. The door to my room then slowly shuts. It slams shut and my body falls even faster than before. I look down towards my impending death at the warm calm waters below. As I’m inches from hitting the water a giant metal-like beam from the boat shoots out from the water-splitting me in half. I feel every second of it. As the left side of me is still falling I close my eye and hit the water. Everything feels so cold and empty, and suddenly my vision goes black. I open my eyes and jump up screaming at the top of my lungs. Looking around still screaming and touching my body to make sure every part of me is still there. I take in a deep breath. Sweating trying to catch my breath. Then I look to my right and I see my dad looking at me with shock-like last time I had a nightmare on the crazy ship."Hey, are you okay?" He said with a shiver in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" I replied.
"Well for starters you've been screaming for hours and then you tried to jump headfirst off the bed. Good thing the sheets were covering you it could have been really bad."
"Well, I'm fine now! Dad… Didn’t we already have this conversation?" I said sharply not even looking at him.
“No, we’ve only been on this boat for a few hours. You..” He replied.
“Really? It doesn’t feel like it… oh well just go have fun with Stephie in the hot tub.”
“How did you know that I was in the hot tub with Stephie?”
“I don’t know…”
“ … Alright, weirdo seeing how you already know where to go, just let someone else know when you’re ready.”
“Okay Dad,” I said looking him dead in the eyes.