Prior to the Rapture I was out of high school and working at a gas station.  I was curating a weed habit, and a mediocre tattoo collection.  I was perfectly fine.  I was alive, and surviving, and persisting.  I was eating 5 cent candy, and spending a lot of time reading fanfiction on my phone behind the counter.  

One particular night, I thought I saw something glimmering in the sky out the gas station window.  I’m not sure why I even looked up in the first place.  It was sort of like how you notice when someone is staring at you.  Like a sixth sense.

It was almost one in the morning.  I remember because I looked at the time on the POS before I left.  Matteo was on break for a few more minutes.  I walked out into the lot.  December chilled the air, like it does in my hemisphere.

The thing in the sky:  It was some kind of sparkling mass, like a cluster of stars.  It shifted and swirled, sort of like it was alive and breathing. 

I stared into it.  I was enraptured by it.  

It was of this world, as it was a part of my current reality.  But it seemed bigger than that.  My first thought was that it was an angel. Like the biblical kind, and each glitter was a winking holy eye. 

So I thought maybe I was dying.

Or maybe having a seizure.  I had never had one, but I knew a guy in high school that had them all the time.  Maybe this is what they felt like.

It reached down from the sky.  Extending a limb, like a pseudopod.  I reached back to touch it.  It seemed rude not to.  It was cool and soft.  It changed my vision as it enveloped me.  It was like looking through beveled glass.

Then, I remember rising to a suspension, about six feet off the ground.  I enjoyed the feeling of being up high.  But I remember it began to feel like something was pressing on my throat.  I remember kicking.  I remember my whole body going icy hot, and a coat of sweat on my back, and chest.  Then my whole world went black.

I awoke in a grassy meadow, in a bed of small blue and white flowers.  They smelt subtle and sweet, and the sun was soft on my face.  I don’t mind the smell of gasoline, and the light of fluorescents and neon, but it was a nice change of pace.  The grass was cool.  I stretched, and groaned.  I almost wanted to just go back to sleep forever.  

Just before I drifted off, I sat up in a panic, thinking I was out in public.  Like in a park, or a school ground, someone’s fucking front yard.  That would be horrifying.  I wasn’t, though, because when I looked around there was nothing in my vicinity.  It was just an expanse of lush forest under a setting sun.  It was just a beautiful, and blossoming summer, as far as the eye could see.

But last I checked it was December.

I looked to my phone, but it was dead.  So I got myself up.  There were a few reasons I thought about to rationalize what was before my eyes.  Clearly, one of the most plausible was that I had finally stepped off the edge of sanity and plunged headlong into the abyss of madness.  That was quite possible.  

The next one was this was all a dream.  Maybe I had been drugged or something, and this is just my subconscious in full swing.  That was very much a possibility also.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

There was a chance, too, that everything was just real.

Whatever the case, I might as well enjoy it.

So I took off my non-skid black shoes, and flamingo socks, and I walked forward through the grass.  I couldn’t remember the last time I had walked barefoot outside.  So that was nice.  

I headed to where I heard a river.  There was also music coming from somewhere.  For the life of me, I couldn’t make out the direction it was coming from.  It was a lo-fi track that blended with the sound of birds, and the wind through the blades of grass and stuff.  I didn’t mind it.  

Along the way I picked up a stick that seemed pretty decent as a self defense weapon.  Plus it gave me something to hold onto.

I reached it.  There was a rocky bank, and the clear water of a shallow river.  I did drink from it, even though I felt like I wasn’t supposed to.  I cupped water in my hands to do so, which brought me back to childhood for a moment.

I continued on down the bank, as I figured it was my best bet.  Here’s what I learned:  Summer is so much better when you aren’t expecting it.  

However, I did eventually need to find out where I was enough to know where I could get something to eat, and where I could rest.  I needed to find out where I was in relation to my crappy apartment.  That would be helpful.  I didn’t know how to do that, though, so I kept walking.

I heard that when you are lost you are supposed to stay where you are.

It was probably too late for that thought.

I walked until I noticed an inconsistency in the tree line.  There appeared to be a path.  Not a formal one, just a place that’s been traveled before.  Now it could have been an animal, or something awful.  It could have caused more harm than good, but I wasn’t really afraid of the prospect of harm.  I’m not sure why.

I went for it.  

The path continued further into the forest.  It started to get so dark.  The sky was navy.  I thought in that moment I was quite stupid for wandering how I was.     

I back stepped and lost my footing over a rut in the ground.  It wasn’t even that big of a rut.  I just fell on my ass.  It hurt.  And It pissed me off, honestly.

Then, there was a rustle in the raspberry bushes.

“Hello?”  I called.  I rose and dusted myself off.

A zombie launched itself out, and at me!  It knocked me straight on my back.  I instinctively held the stick between myself and the creature.  That’s when I got a good look at its rotting human face.  The skin was oily over limp muscle.  The colour of its eyes were a milky, vacant grey.  It’s jaw, with perfect teeth, gnashed in my face.

I kicked it off.  Because for how spastic it was, it actually had the physical weight of like a broomstick.  I shoved it off and scrambled away to wield my stick like a baseball bat.  I didn’t know anything about fighting.  But I had hit a pinata once or twice.  And theoretically this would be easier, because I could see, and aim.  

I waited for it to come to me.  On the first hit, there was a red number that popped into my vision.  It was a 24.  I hit again and it happened again.  I did it until the numbers stopped popping up.  It seemed the undead creature was ultra dead.

I heard a grumble behind me.  I looked.  There was another one.  I couldn’t help it.  I grinned as I side stepped, and caught it in the back of its head as it charged.  It crumpled to the ground.

I looked back, and there were the figures of a few more closing in.  I decided that I couldn’t handle it, so I ran.  I could hear them pursuing me.  My heartbeat rang in my ears, as I ran along the path.  I came up on a house, which was good, because I was almost out of stamina.  It was cobblestone.  Narrow, but a few stories high.  I didn’t even knock.  I pulled open the door and slammed it behind me.  I caught my breath.

I locked eyes with a man in an oversized witch's hat and a long cloak.  It was dark blue, and his hair was white, but his face was young and annoyed.  In his hands he had a plate and dish towel.  

He said,  “Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?”

I caught my breath.  It took a few moments.  “Zombies,” I said.