I woke up early Saturday morning with my hair thrown everywhere, feeling like a filthy pig that had rolled in mud. My mom yelled, “Tony you up?” I sat up in my bed.

I yelled down to her, “Yes mom, I’m up.”  It was my 17^th birthday and I was hoping it would be the best one so far. I walked like a turtle to the shower rubbing my eyes to wake up. I finally got out of the shower and slowly made my way to my room. I took my time to get dressed not thinking about being in a rush.

“Hey Tony will you run to the store real fast and pick up a few things for me if I give you money.” “Yes I will go get you your stuff mom.” As I was driving home, I saw someone out in a field, walking slowly like I do in the mornings I kept driving, not thinking about it there were people on the side of the road holding signs saying “the End is here”. I laughed at them like I always did because they were never right but this time, though, they were. When I got home, my mom was gathering supplies and pulling out weapons I had never known we owned. I ran over to her and asked her what was wrong she told me to turn on the news. When I turned on the TV the news was describing a lifeless smell of decay that was coming from people. It made me think of my favorite show, The Walking Dead. Finally it all hit me; the person in the field was a “walker” zombie. The people with the signs were finally right, the end was here. As I ran up to my room to grab my gun, I heard gun shots.

I freaked out, grabbed my ammo and ran as fast as I could down stairs. My family was gone, the neighbors must have come and gotten them. I was all alone now. Nobody was their too tell me what to do; I was still young and inexperienced, but I knew to gather food and find people. My family must have cleaned it out all of are food before they left because there was nothing but empty cabinets. I knew not to go back to the grocery store because it would be a zombie buffet, but I also knew how to hunt so I wasn’t too worried about getting food. I ran outside and found my friends Ashley, Sarah, and Jason. We all had run up to each other, freaking out. Nobody knew what had caused this and what had happened to our parents. All we knew was that we needed to get food and find shelter now that we were stuck in the zombie apocalypse. We all piled in my Suburban and went anywhere but there. I had a cabin out in the woods nobody knew about. I knew I had plenty of food because I had stocked it a few days ago with food and ammo. We were going to have to do something none of us had done before; rob a store. We went into a local gun store wondering how are we going to rob this place, but they said we could have whatever we needed so we could survive. We grabbed machetes, axes, hatchets, and a lot of ammunition. Anything that was quiet and would help us gather food and firewood, but could also be used to fend off the walkers. I asked the merchants if they wanted to come but they said no that they were ready for this.

“Tony how are we going to live without our parents, I know in the past we said we couldn’t wait to leave them but now all I want to do is be with them.” I was scared too but I couldn’t show it for the sake of my friends.

I took a deep breath and said “Guys we will get through this I won’t let any of you get hurt, I promise.” We left the store and went to the car; we took the supplies and fixed our weapons. “We should be at the entrance of my cabin in 15 minutes. It is just down the road and a good 10 minute drive through the woods. I have a bow for all of us because my family occasionally went with me” I said. I explained to them how the loud noise from the guns would attract more walkers and they agreed with me. We eventually reached my cabin and grabbed the supplies we had gotten from the store and placed them inside. “I’ll be back within a few hours I’m going to kill something for us to eat.” They were scared but I told them if nothing knocked on the door to shoot it. As I grabbed my bow, they yelled to me and said, “Good luck Tony. Stay safe, we need you.” It was a shocking moment, nobody ever really relied on me, but they depended on me for their survival and I was not going to let them down.  I was in the woods for a few good hours and saw a few walkers cross my path but I was in a tree so they didn’t see me. Then out of nowhere came the biggest buck I had ever seen. As I reared back to shoot the deer I thought about my friends and how this will help us, and with all the walkers I just saw so I’m going to need to get a kill shot and move the guts far away from here. I felt the wind of the sting flow past my arm and heard the arrow pierce the majestic beast. The deer dropped and I ran to it like it was the end of a marathon and I saw the finish line. I gutted the deer and took it to a place far away so we wouldn’t attract walkers.  As I knocked on the door I was treated to the sight of guns and hugs. The jumped with joy as I brought in the deer. We did say much at diner so after words we went to bed.

The next day, we woke up we had bacon and eggs with biscuits. It was a new day and I had to teach them how to shoot the bow knowing it would save their lives. First I walked outside and checked the premises for walkers, then set up the target. As I walked in the door the sweet smell of bacon and eggs rushed at me. “Come on guys everybody grab a bow I showed you to use and bring it on outside Ill be waiting.” As I was waiting I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get some practice in myself. I was pulling out my arrows as Jason walked up to me. I jumped like a scared cat because I thought he was a walker. “Jason you scared me half to death. You’re lucky I didn’t kill you. I thought you were a walker.”

“I’m sorry Tony I didn’t mean to scare you; I thought you had heard me coming.” “It’s fine where are the girls at they are taking forever?”             “Here they come now.”                                Sarah and Ashley came strolling in with their bow in one hand and arrows in another. “It’s about time you guys showed up. Jason and I were waiting on you guys.” “I’m sorry Tony we didn’t mean to keep you waiting.” “Your fine, don’t worry about it. Go stand were those markers are that’s were all of your first sights are set on.” “Do y’all see how I am standing? This is how you should be standing so the arrow flies straight and right where you aim. Now do not hold the bow tight let it rest in your hand because when you shoot, you want it to fall out of your steady hand. Now use your hand that is holding the bow and pull back. Take in a deep breath and release the arrow.”  It was amazing; all of them were a bull’s eye. They were like pros. After a few hours of shooting we called it a night. “You guys were amazing today. I’ve never seen such good shots on their first time shooting; tomorrow Ill teach you how to track.”

The next morning came along and I was going to teach them how to track, but we were not going to track game. I made them track a walker so they could put their skills to the test. “Alright guys what are we tracking today? “Is it a walker?” Jason answered “That’s right Jason it is. Today I am going to put your skills to the test and make you shoot a walker. Don’t forget the only way you can kill them is a headshot.” It wasn’t long until I realized we were where I put the guts of the deer and there were a few walkers. We didn’t know what we were walking into but I knew we could get out of it. They heard us approach and turned around to look at us. There was my neighbor, Sarah’s mom. She froze in fear, knowing she lost her mom. I rushed and grabbed my knife before the zombies could bite into her flesh. I barley made it and had to throw Sarah over my shoulders to get her out of their.

“Guys, just run back to the cabin. We have to get Sarah out of here.” Something right there broke Sarah and she went crazy, she grabbed the knife I had in my hand and killed every zombie she saw. As we stood their stunned as Sarah’s entire grasp on what little reality was left was broken into a million pieces. We walked back to the cabin with Sarah dripping blood. What where we going to do. That was a long night for me because I thought about my parents and wondered if that could have been one of them? I didn’t want to lose hope, though in case they were trying to find me.

When I woke up Jason was gone. “Does anybody know where Jason went?”      “Yeah he went hunting for some game.” Jason was inexperienced and had no idea what he was doing. All I could hope for was that I could get to him before the walkers did. He was very easy to track but he had walked a good way. I noticed blood and my heart started to pound. I wanted to yell for Jason but I didn’t want to bring anything near me. I noticed walkers had been around here. “HELP!” that was Jason’s voice and he did not sound far at all. “I’m coming Jason.” By the time I got there I was to late the zombies had sank their teeth into his flesh ripping it to pieces. I killed everything and ran to Jason as he took his last breath. He said, “Whatever you do, kill me so I don’t kill any of you. I can’t be one of these lifeless zombies.”`

I cried, “Don’t worry buddy we will get through this I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” His body was at ease and when he woke he was not the same. As I threw him away, I took my gun out and struggled, shaking like I never shock before and shot him. The girls heard the shot and came out to see what had happened. “Jason is dead, grab everything you can we can’t stay here anymore.”

As each day went by we struggled to stay alive. We ran into another group and I wouldn’t go because I couldn’t take the risk on losing anybody else.       The girls left and I was alone feeling as if I was dying. I grabbed my gun and put it to my head. How could I go on anymore? There was no way I could trust anybody. When I went to pull the trigger, I heard a faint voice yelling. Don’t do it! I looked around but nobody was there so I took the gun and put it back were it was. I heard the voice again. This time it was much closer and it sounded familiar. It was my mother’s voice. Thinking she had said it from heaven and wanted to live, I put the gun on my head but this time there was no voice. Instead a hand was in front of my face. I looked up there was my family. Sarah and Ashley came running up to me saying they found them along the way. I asked where my mom was and they had a sudden shock on their faces. “She was right behind us. She was yelling at you to not kill yourself.”

I got up and ran as fast as I could to find her.  As I ran as fast as I could back from where I heard the voice I saw my mom trapped, out of ammo and surrounded. She gave me a smile and said “I love you son”.      My mother was dead. I killed the lifeless walkers and hugged my mom but she came at me to eat me crying I did not want to kill my mother. As she went down to bite me, a person in the group shot her. I grabbed her, screaming bloody murder. They pulled me off of her and told me we had to leave. I took my gun and shot the guy that killed my mother. The group then grabbed my gun and beat me to death. As I was laying, there about to die and they were ready to shoot me once I turned I felt at peace. I could see my family again and I would no longer be stuck in this world. There was a bright shining light and then a gun shot. I was finally at rest.