The Event, or How The World Basically Quit

The world, as it was once known, had never seen anything like The Event. The Event, as many modern scientists called it before they either died or succumbed, was, in a sense, the end of humanity. A few people, like me, survived the whole thing. The rest, inevitably, died withing the first year and a half.

The Event started on December 21st, 2012. Yes, the Evangelists were wrong. The Mayans were right. Goes to show, you can be extinct and still kill off the human race. So, I'm waiting for the day the dinosaurs come back and kill us all. All... 20... of us.

The Event cannot be traced to a single minute, though is known to have started between 4:00 and 4:15 pm, in Times Square of New York City. With only 4 shopping days left until Christmas, it was possibly the most crowded place The Event could have originated from, bested only by St. Peter's Square on pontification, and Chinatown during Chinese New Year.

Newspapers from then claim that it started just beneath the M&M World sign, when a large, burly man sort of exploded in the middle of a large crowd. His insides rained down from the sky, falling on people, infecting them. The man was what we now call an "Xpl", short for Exploder. Xpls don't last very long beyond being infected. I know of two other types. There are "KO"s, so named after Knock Out, due to their large, brutish size. I've come to realize that what you become depends on your Percent Body Fat. The rest are nothing special. They're just your average zombies.

After having the Xpl's insides rained down on them, it did not take long for the victims to have their motor skills controlled by the virus. I do not know if they are aware that they are being used like puppets by the virus. The virus then uses the victim to pass on the virus' DNA to other people, which occurs through contact of either the blood or saliva of the Infected.

From Times Square, it quickly engulfed New York, within the hour, from what I understand. The zombies were smarter than originally thought, and surprisingly fast. The President was evacuated from the White House and taken to a bunker high in the Rockies. The whole eastern seaboard was infected within a week. The U.S.A. was infected within 3 weeks. It took 3 months for it to completely overrun the world.

A little later, it was realized that since the virus controls the motor skills, it finds no need for the Infected to eat anything, so it ignores such sustenance. Thus, the cells eventually start to die, resulting in the decaying action. The Infected completely decompose by the fifth week after infection. Without a host, the virus then dies.

***

Before The Event, I lived on a farm in Ohio with my dad. My mom had died while giving birth to me. When The Event reached Ohio's borders, my dad and I were prepared for it, having watched plenty of Romero flicks in the previous four days. Let's face it, that's how you survive this sort of thing. You see what the guys who lived did, try to do that. See what the guys who died did, try to avoid that.

The night after The Event reached Ohio, our farm was hit. After two hours of fighting off the horde, my dad told me to go down to the basement to get more ammo.While I descended the stairs into the basement, my dad locked the door behind me, and subsequently locked me in the basement. He then slipped a note beneath the door. Paraphrasing the note, it said he loved me too much to let me die. He was saving my life. Then, I heard the front door crack open as if ripped off it's hinges, probably from a KO. There was some shooting, then my dad screamed. He screamed for a minute. After that was done, I heard a thud on the basement door, then another. I quickly ran up the stairs, and locked all the locks my dad had since installed on my side of the door. I then found a mattress he had put downstairs under the stairs, and slept for the night.

In the morning, I realized my dad gad stocked the basement with enough weapons and ammo to supply the army. He had even made some of his own weapons, including two homemade flamethrowers. He had also barricaded the windows with hard, thick metal netting, so I can see outside, but nothing could crawl in. I looked outside, and saw nothing. I then unlocked all the locks, and went out to check on the house.

I found my dad's corpse in the kitchen. One arm was missing, and there was a knife sticking in his chest cavity. As I got closer, the head rolled toward me. I pumped two rounds into it, which obliterated my dad's face and brain. I then loaded as much food as possible, and as many weapons as possible into the old station wagon. I even mounted the two flamethrowers on the hood, for when I needed to cut through a crowd. I then made my north, to Canada, where it was cold.

On my way, I stopped in Detroit, to see how much damage was done. Detroit lay in ruins and rubble. The streets were lined with blood, dead bodies, and Infected. When I passed where was once a mall, was now an open crater, probably due to an attempt to rid Detroit of Infected by an air strike. I continued on with almost in incident, except for one on the other side of Detroit, where a KO almost smashed my car with a bus. I took him out with the flamethrowers.

When I mad it to Canada, I found an abandoned cabin on a lake. There were no major cities nearby. The window were not broken, and there was no blood. So I stayed here, where I've been fro the past two years. I found a stray dog who I named Wilson. He eventually trusted me enough to come inside, where it was safe. Aside from him, he has been my only non-Infected contact since my dad locked me in the basement. Until now.

I hope that someone will hear this radio transmission. if so, please come get me! I'm on Lake Adirondack, in Ontario. I am in number 21 on Lake Road. My name is Michael Corman. I am 20. Please, if you can hear this, come get me and Wilson. Please anybody!

Hello? Is anybody there?

Anybody?

Author's Note

I'm finding I like writing in first person narrative. What do you think?