This is a story about how the whole world changed, and
I changed with it. My name is Will Sandren, and I am one the last surviving
people, that I know of anyway. I’m 21 and I am, was I guess, a university student, I
was going to be a teacher. If you had asked me how well my friends and I would
survive in an apocalypse type situation a few weeks ago I would have said we
had no chance, but now I think we had exactly what the situation required. We
were nerds you see, big fans of sci-fi shows and horror movies, less big fans
of physical exercise, except for a few of us. One of my best friends Todd loves
zombie films and as a science geek we are constantly discussing whether it’s possible,
what we would do and how it would happen. Turns out it was through a flu
vaccination, or at least that’s what we think, and we’ve had a lot of time to think about it.
But those
things are not important, what’s important is how we survived those first few
days of the end of the world as we knew it, and what happened afterward. This
is my story.
I hate being
sick, but wanting to work with children means I’m going to have a lot of exposure to
illnesses, that’s why I usually keep up to date with my vaccinations. My sister, Sophie,
does the same, she teaches swimming. But when I got an email saying the latest
flu vaccination was available I just ignored it, I wasn’t a teacher yet. I
worked part-time at a child care centre but they were on holidays at the time
so I didn’t have much worry about catching anything. So that’s why I ignored the
new vaccination, it wasn’t mandatory for anything and I had until the end of
the holidays until I have to return to the petri dish that is my workplace. My
sister however, got the vaccination. She was one of the first victims.
And that’s how I made
the decision that saved my life. A decision I will either regret forever, or
feel grateful for, I still haven’t decided. The day after my sister got the
injection she got sick, really sick, she was coughing a lot and looked really
pale, she stayed in bed the whole day. I didn’t take much notice; I was just
excited that I got sole control of the television for a few hours, I’m now
regretting I didn’t take better care of her, or at least said hello. I was
chatting with my friend Nicole, you’ll hear more about her later, arranging to
meet up the next day when my sister came downstairs. She had coughed up blood
and my dad had to take her to the hospital. At this point I was concerned, we’d
had illnesses in the family before but only the more common stuff like Dad’s
pneumonia or Grandpa’s heart problems. This seemed different. When I woke up
the next day it was noon, my parents were with my sister at the hospital so I
was alone in the house, and it seemed unnaturally silent.
I got dressed
as usual and started to walk downstairs, thinking about maybe going to the
hospital today when I heard a scream from outside. We lived in a small
south-east suburb of Melbourne and although one side of our house faced a busy
road there wasn’t really any crime or anything to scream about. I had never
even heard a scream so chilling and scared before, not even on TV. I looked
through the window, it was glazed so I could see much, but what I did see had
me frozen in place. The woman who had screamed was now running past our house
until she tripped, she wasn’t exactly wearing clothes for running, a business suit
and skirt I guessed, she fell, hard. Another figure appeared, walking strangely
as if he had hurt his leg, but that did nothing to hinder his speed. I wondered
at what could be happening, maybe he saw her fall and ran to help her I
reasoned. But his purpose I couldn’t have predicted, or even considered with
any rational thought, but rational thought had no part to play in what was
happening.
As the limping,
creature, reached the fallen woman she struggled to get up, but just as she
found her footing the other figure reached her. And bent down to rip into the
flesh of her calf, with its teeth.
I ducked down
from the window in sudden, horrifying fear that he would see me, it was all I
could do to stop myself from screaming just as the woman had. I quickly called
the police, even with my hands shaking uncontrollably, but the phone simply
answered: “All lines are currently busy.” I almost screamed at the phone, but my sense caught me
and I slapped my hand across my mouth.
I panicked, I
felt like the whole world had dropped away and I was in a place completely
alien to my home, nothing felt familiar or calming, all my eyes saw was what
that thing had done, and what it could be doing now. Maybe it was still biting
into her, maybe she had managed to get away and it was chasing her down the
street. Or maybe it had left her and had come to investigate the house next to
them. I scrambled up and ran downstairs, keeping low as if that would help, and
grabbed a large knife, I don’t know why but I felt like any moment the man would
enter my house and try and kill me too. I must have sat there, quivering, for
at least an hour until I had the courage to call 000 again. I got the same
unhelpful and distressing message as before and almost threw my phone across
the room until I remembered Mum and Dad. And my sister.
I called Dad,
for some reason I thought he might know what was going on. I had no idea of the
repercussions of my actions.
He was in a
store room in the hospital, he too was shaking, curled up against the wall. He
hadn’t turned on the light so it was still very dark. He was barely breathing
he was so afraid to make a sound. He swore quietly when his phone in his pocket
went off, he cursed himself that he did not turn it off when he entered the
hospital. But there was a greater danger now than disturbing some patients or
doctors. He thought to turn it off but when he saw the caller ID he had to
answer out of hope. “Hello?” He whispered
“Dad?” I sobbed over the phone, I hadn’t even noticed
I was crying, “is that you?”
“Will! You’re alive!” he was so relieved he forgot his
situation for a moment and allowed himself to speak louder, “are you alright”
“A women outside our house was attacked, I saw it
happen,” images of those events kept repeating themselves in my mind
“Stay inside Will! Okay? Just stay inside!” the hope
and joy inside of my father had been replaced with fear. “What happened Dad,
are you okay?” I had never heard my father like this before
“Will, Sophie died an hour ago,” my father moaned
“What?” I was crying again, “how? What happened?”
“I don’t know but a few seconds after she woke up,” my father was
speaking faster and louder as fear took control, “but she wasn’t the same, she
didn’t speak, she didn’t even seem to recognise her. Your mother, oh god your
mother hugged her but sh-she just bit into her neck. The blood it.... oh god” All I could do
was listen as my father went on, “I called for help but all I heard was screaming, I ran
outside and everyone was running past me,” he just kept talking, the memories
flooding his mind, “I tried to grab one for help but another patient came up
behind me and bit my arm, oh god there were so many of them”
“Dad are you alright? Where are you?” my horror now
came second to my concern, what was happening, the truth hadn’t appeared to me
yet regardless of the evidence
“I ran, oh god I left your mother there and I just ran
with the others, but the people in front just closed the doors.” my father was
talking loudly now and crying, “We tried to open it but they locked it! They locked us
in with those, those THINGS! I hid in here because people were”- his voice was
cut off by a scream as the door to the store room was knocked down by two
patients, both covered in blood, some their own, most was not. My father clung
to his phone, his one connection to the world now rapidly disappearing before
his eyes, “Will they’re coming, don’t leave the house Will! All the people that were sick
they”- but he never got to finish the sentence as the patients torn into him.
All he could do was scream. And all I could do was listen.
