My eyes locked onto the street below my house. What I had expected to see were cars passing through and joggers going past my house. Instead, what seemed to be blood splattered the streets as if someone threw multiple crimson paint cans on the ground. What seemed to be some ripped up body parts were lying here and there. Was someone filming a movie here? Then something caught my eye. A person with their back towards my window stood aimlessly in the middle of all the bloodshed. I turned away from my bedroom window and fumbled through the drawers beside my bed. I grabbed a binocular out of it.

Using my binocular, I zoomed in on the person in the street. I noticed a couple of fingers on their right hand were gone. A zombie movie? Or was this a prank… I was pretty sure today wasn’t April 1st. I placed my binoculars down. Another person shuffled down the street without an arm. Blood was splattered all over her. For some reason, I got the feeling that this wasn’t a zombie movie. I stood still at my window tracking the slowly shuffling armless woman. Her steps were uncoordinated and blood dripped down from her onto the pavement. I pinched my cheek to check if this was just a very vivid dream. It hurt.

I went to grab my smartphone that was charging on my desk. Once the screen lit up, I scanned through it. There were some messages from Bliss, many phone calls from both my parents and a couple of messages from Mom. I entered my passcode in haste and skimmed through Bliss’s messages. The first message was around 4:30 pm.

‘Hey Val, something’s happening. There’s a lot of police appearing for some reason.’

‘There are people attacking others in the street! Val are you okay?’

‘VALENTINA’

‘The police are evacuating people in our neighborhood. They are telling us that the town is lost for some reason. I hear a lot of gunshots. Valentina, plz reply.’

The last message came at around six.

‘The police are telling us that we are heading to the nearest military base. They are talking about zombies for some reason. Suzie can’t find her family. She’s coming with me and my family. I’m not sure if you are seeing my messages but if you are, meet us there!’

I wasn’t actually sure how to react to this. I quickly tapped out a short message to Bliss and sent it.

‘What’s happening?’

The message popped up with a bright red ‘Not Delivered’ below it. I quickly looked at the top right of my phone in surprise. No service or WiFi. It was also plugged in but not charging. The realization kind of dawned on me at this point. There was too much evidence to deny it. This was an actual zombie apocalypse. It also only took 18 hours for everything to go down. How widespread was this... I looked at my Mom’s messages.

‘Valentina, something bad is happening over here. Are you fine?’

‘Valentina?’

‘Pick up the phone!’

‘Valentina?!’

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My heart sank. It was also happening in California. My parents… will be okay… right…?

I looked at the message time. At around the same time as Bliss’s it seemed. I stood there in silence whilst staring at my phone. I just stood there. Before long, I snapped out of it. I sat on my bed. This didn’t feel real. What do I do now? I looked down at myself. Well, first of all, I was going to need to get dressed.

Looking into my closet, I found the perfect clothing for this situation. An army combat uniform, a pair of army combat boots, and a patrol cap hung in the corner. Gramps bought those for me to replace the older ones. The last time I wore this getup was nearly two years ago when I went with him for summer vacation...wonderful, I had not grown an inch. Okay, now was not the time to worry about my height. There were definitely more pressing issues at hand.

I partially pushed open the door of my room and poked my head out. It looked the same as yesterday. Nothing was out of place. The carpet was blood-free and there seemed to be no walking corpses out to eat me. I cracked the door fully open and stepped out. Not a single sound other than my foot touching the carpet could be heard.

I opened the door to my parents’ bedroom and walked straight to the closet. I threw it open. At my feet was a steel safebox. And inside that safe was an AR-15 that Gramps bought me for my 16th birthday. Of course, my parents were quite upset at this but didn’t want to get into an argument with him. Instead, they locked it up in a safe and didn’t tell me the passcode. I was only allowed to use it when I went to Gramps for summer vacation.

Of course, my parents made one mistake, they told Gramps the passcode. I punched the passcode in and the safe clicked open. Inside, a rifle leaned to one side of the safe, and magazines were stacked neatly below the gun. One AR-15 and seven 30 round magazines. Good enough.

I tiptoed down the stairs while tightly gripping my gun. Looking around the first floor of the house, I saw no broken windows or opened doors.

The house appeared to be completely zombie-free. I flumped onto the couch opposite the TV. I considered my choices. The first option was to stay here and wait for the military to come. The military definitely had a plan for this. I read it somewhere online. I wished I still had WiFi to search this up. That would be so much more convenient than trying to remember. I thought about it for a bit before figuring it out. CONPLAN 8888. I was pretty sure that was the name. I sighed. I also remembered that it was only a training plan. I hoped that it could be used in this situation.

The second option would probably be getting out of here. I could try to go where Suzie and Bliss went.

I sat on the couch with my mind flip-flopping between both options. They had their pros and cons. In the end, I wanted to go find my friends but I got the feeling that home would probably be the safest and most sensible. This would also probably be the first place that Mom and Dad would check.

I looked into the refrigerator. The electricity was definitely off. The refrigerator still felt cool but the food in there would spoil within a few days. I then looked into my cabinets. It was definitely not enough to last me more than a couple of days. I wasn’t one of those survivalists so I didn’t stash away any food. I was going to need to go to the supermarket. I didn’t want to attract a following of zombies so driving there was out of the question. The forest behind my house should lead to a supermarket but I was not sure of the exact route. My family didn’t use paper maps. Just then, I thought of something. I whipped my smartphone out and checked. My eyes lit up. Thank God! The smartphone map still works!

Ah-ha! There was a route. A few miles of forest from the back of my house should lead directly to the parking lot of a small supermarket. Might as well eat some breakfast before I go. Can’t go out in the middle of the zombie apocalypse while hungry. An army marched on its stomach.

I opened the refrigerator again. I got out some eggs and milk. I also grabbed some bread and a box of cereal from the cabinet. I was going to make myself a good hearty apocalypse breakfast.

I put a pan on the stove and poured some cooking oil into it. I twisted the knob. I heard the ‘pshhh’ of gas coming out but no fire appeared. I frowned… did the stupid thing need electricity to work? I twisted the knob again. Oh, come on!

I pouted, Okay then, cold bread and cold milk with cereal it is.