The Awakening

It’s been three days since we hit the road, drastically under supplied, vastly unprepared for this horrible new world. We thought we were ready. Having seen nearly every theatrical film with ‘of the Dead’ in the title and read all Max Brooks had to offer, we figured we were the elite, the vanguard of the human resistance. In the end we were daydreaming and gaming away our time while Campion wrapped her icy coils around the world. Even as she started to squeeze and carriers became casualties, we drew smiley faces on our masks.

We laughed in the face of infection, “Avian flu, Swine flu, SARS, it’s all old news. People cry wolf! Pandemic! Apocalypse! At the end of the day though, it it’s all just a nasty cough over-seas. What’s so different about Campion? So what if it’s crossed our border, that just means we’ll have a cure sooner. Tomorrow the world will be laughing at how scared it was, and we’ll be cracking the jokes.”

We ignored Camp St. Teresa as it began the bubble under the desert sun. None of us respected Campion. None of us were infected, and neither was anyone close to us. She hadn’t slithered into our world yet. Our world was small though, shut away behind computer and TV screens, safe from the horrible reality the rest humanity was trembling before.

As spring bled into summer and the global battle raged on, more and more people became painfully aware that their frantic blows weren’t hitting home. We didn‘t care. Each breath they took to beat back the monster only tightened her grip. To them, the sudden summer mutation and camps beginning to boil over signaled the beginning of the end. To us it was just another boring headline. All the while Campion’s shadow spread wider and grew darker as she raised her head over a helpless planet.

It would have ended there, though. If the line had been held, we would be in a different world now. Many would have died, but somehow they could have found a way to starve Campion into submission, and she would have quietly slinked into the shadows of history… but. The greed of the few for money and acclaim at being the world’s savior, served all to well to ignite the growing desperation and need for saving. If only they'd taken moment to examine their miracle cure before slamming it into humanity's veins. Then again who am I to judge? I was so ignorant, I can’t even recall the damning drug’s name. Once it mixed with Campion though, it was swept up in her power and betrayed it’s cause to further hers. She drew open her mighty jaws and sunk her teeth into humankind at long last, edging the old world past her lips bit by bit.

The lively warmth of summer gave way to the sickly skies of fall as the media came to terms with the reality of reanimation. The first impressions were stories of hooligans putting on pranks which soon gave way to harsher attacks on the then niggling national hoax. If it hadn’t been for the extended period of doubt we wouldn’t have any warning as to what was steadily marching our way. Of course we took things even less seriously than the newscasters, ignoring the very signs Brooks had warned to us to stay vigilant for. Even as the number of stories reporting mysterious murders, disappearances, and “brutal cult activity” rose, our awareness did not. Instead of busying ourselves with preparing for the coming storm, we tended to our zombie costumes for Halloween. We actually celebrated dressed as our slaughterers-to-be! Even after the headlines of the following day, we went back to our movies and games.

It took Vegas to wake us from our delusion, and by then we were too far behind. The national rush on already thinning supplies following the initial newsbreak left major stores empty and many looted (if still standing at all). The wise had already prepared and the rest of us were left to fight for our survival in what ever way we could manage. This was our wake up call. Finally, we joined the rest of rest of the world, only to realize we’re all trapped within the belly of the beast.

We’ve stopped here after three days because, of the five of us who set out from town three days ago, only two of us have made it thus far. We were no match for these circumstances, as evidenced by my packing a laptop among survival supplies. Alread y we’ve lost most of our weapons and water, and food is down to two days worth for one man at tightest ration. Then again, we wont be needing to share it as I am already bitten, and likely wont see the sunset through living eyes. When I finish this,. my friend will do me the mercy of killing me in a manner to prevent my return. I’ve used these past minutes to process and recount (as best I could ) all that I’ve ignored for too long so that I might at least face death awakeand fully aware and maybe one day somone willl find what ive written hear and learn form my our mistakess and wake up to live……………………………….........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................