To Kill an Innocent Soul: Chapter 1

Three months? Oh, Arizona. You've got it all wrong. You want the whole thing? That, I can tell you.

It all started when I was thirteen at Manatee Art School. I was in Ballroom class when the announcement sounded. "All right. Students and staff," Mr. Devine's voice sounded from the PA, "please evacuate the building immediat-" Then, we heard a door break down and the most bloodcurdling scream before everyone went ballistic and ran for their lives. Then, I spotted them. Their faces gray with death, glassy lifeless eyes, and their insides spilling in the floor causing the white tiles to be died a dark crimson red. I screamed and ran over to my friend Natalie's classroom. Everyone left. My backpack slammed into my back repeatedly as I ran towards the courtyard in a vain attempt to find her or somebody I knew.

My eyes registered a lot of six-graders until I saw my little sixth grader run to me. "Erin, what's happening?" I held her hand, "We gotta get out of here!" I ran as fast as I could to the high school building. 'It has stairs, zombies can't climb stairs.' I foolishly thought. I felt her grip loosen as she got grabbed by zombies.

"BRIANNA!" I shrieked. I ran over to her, only to watch her final moments as the monsters mutilated her into a twisted, screaming body. I kept running towards her, holding on to that small sliver that this was all a bad dream. I felt myself be grabbed and dragged into a classroom. I was crying to hard to register where I was. "Hush!" A very familiar voice snapped. I stopped to see I was in the TaeKwonDo classroom. I saw many familiar faces, and then I saw Emily and Natalie. I ran over and hugged them.

"Where's Addie?" I asked. "She was put into Coach Zinna's classroom." Emily said as Natalie comforted my whimpering self. I counted the faces. Nine, including myself. Dark blue eyes pierced my soul's conscience and I immediately recognized who this person was. Master Thompson, my martial arts instructor.

I wasn't scared of him, just fiercely intimidated. I didn't have time to ask what was happening. He stood up, "Okay, I know that some of you are shaken up from the sudden zombie outbreak, but we have to go outside." Some people gasped, others begged not to go. I wanted to start bawling, curl up into a ball, and disappear. I wanted to have this all just be a bad dream. "I'm staying here!" Angus yelled. Master Thompson gave an annoyed glare and walked over to him, "It's either we go outside or starve to death and become a soulless, honorless, brain eating monsters!" I flinched from him yelling.

Everyone followed him, like sheep and their shepherd. We walked through the now death filled courtyard, littered with dead corpses. I felt like throwing up, and several people seemed to agree with me as their faces turned green. The teacher was stone faced as he quickly found a bus with the key still in the ignition. We all sat in silence as we saw cars still in the place where their owners died, leaving the machines to roast in the hot, Floridian, summer sun.

Emily, Natalie, and I fell into the peaceful emptiness of sleep as we were taking a bus to we-have-no-clue-where, USA. The last thing I heard was the ignition sputtering to life.