I could hear the screams of panic, they echoed through my head. A feeling of nausea swelled in my stomach. I watched as my door knob turned slightly back and forth, praying that what ever was behind it would never reach inside. We prepared for months for this day to happen. Building security walls of steel that would turn our family home into a locked prison. August 11 2030, will always be the day the world fell a part in my mind. The newspapers warned of an epidemic sweeping out of Eastern China but I had felt so far removed...it couldn't possibly reach here. But it did. And there I was sitting in my home, listening to the screams and moans outside my door. They were here, the living dead were here.I gathered my families things, trying to take only what was needed but who could say at a time like this? What if I forgot something vital,something my father had reminded my countless times to bring? The list replayed in my mind, clothes,food,water, a gun... was I missing anything? My movements throughout the house were robotic, as if I was running on battery power. I wasnt thinking of what was happening outside my door, I just ran through the routine that my family and I had practiced over and over. But this was not a test run, this was reality. I looked around my house, the one I have known for 22 years. My family looks happy smiling in pictures at the beach, my college graduation, childhood memories, framed and displayed hanging neatly on the walls. But life would be different now, different then those pictures. I watched as my mother motioned for my brother and I to follow her down to the basement. My dad peered outside the window, his face drained of blood and a look of indescribable fear washed over his whole body. He quickly shut the shade and my family of four descended the basement stairs. In the corner of the basement was a door that led underground. I watched as my mother typed in the code to unlock it. I remember when my father first installed this, all of our neighbors thought he was crazy for wanting to build it. In this moment I was glad, that door was our only hope. An underground safe haven from the living heal that reaped above. The door opened and my mom ushered for my bother to go first. We followed, heading through a dug out dirt tunnel.
I remember my father telling my that if we ever had to escape to the underground city, life would at least by safe. As my feet stepped closer to this new reality and I could not stop thinking about how this new life would be. The dead walk the earth, and the living, they stay tightly underground..
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