In Charge

My apocalyptic nightmare, putting me in charge of my younger sisters.

In Charge

My clarity starts with my driving of our then fourteen-year-old Ford truck. My two little sisters, Cassandra and Katania, sat beside me with utter anxiety. Our parents were gone; I became the head of the family. Though I tried my best to hide it, I had no clue what to do. Where were we supposed to go? How are we going to survive on our own? It was a jarring thought, taking care of them on my own. It was even more nerve-wracking when the whole world was out of whack. This, I dare say, was an apocalyptic nightmare.

The walking dead roamed the streets. Public places were empty. Looters were everywhere. Everyone had to survive on their own. There was no place to go. And there I was, a fourteen-year-old at the time, driving up north Interstate 5. When I had a sense of what’s going on, I decided to head towards our summer home in Brinnon, Washington. Our unfinished house stood at the top of a hill, far off from cities. It was two hours away from Seattle: the most populated city of the state. Olympia, the state’s capital, was over an hour away. Brinnon was a quiet small town, surrounded by an endless maze of evergreen. It was isolated, and if there were infected poor souls, they would be scrawny, retired folks.

Thank heavens I immediately got on the road just before the roads were being blocked by traffic. We were heading closer and closer. Everything seemed so quiet. However, I could already see the destruction. I tried my best not look out the windows, so I focused on the road. Everything around me was too distorted to make out.

We arrived and unlocked our door. Dad usually set aside a mountain of firewood right next to the house. We brought some in with us to start a fire. Cassandra helped me haul stuff in, while Katania started the fire. We had to hurry; night was upon us�"an ineluctable part of life. Dad had left over boards and equipment�"he’s a contractor, which makes everything so much easier. I started boarding up our glass door that led to the back yard. Then I boarded up the living room window, which was closest to the ground. The rest of the windows were tall and wide, although all of them were too high to reach. Even then, I partially boarded them up for safety.

I knew that this town was going to be the last place to be hit with the plague. It was too isolated; not many people lived nearby. And most of them stayed indoors. So, I guess this was why I got careless.

In a choppy transition to my dream�"most likely I had experienced this dream amnesia that everyone goes through�"was when my sisters and I went to the dense, Pacific Northwest forest. We steadily walked down the hill toward the gully. This was when I grew more awareness of my situation: that this was all a measly dream. But that didn’t stop me from continuing on this strange journey. The way down the gully was short and sweet, but this trip became steep and dangerous. The surroundings around us began to change. The evergreen trees began to mix with tall coconut trees only seen in tropical areas.

Katelyn led me to a tree house atop one of the coconut trees. Small, rectangular stumps of wood were nailed right on the tree trunk. We climbed to the top where the beginnings of a tree house stood with stability and openness. There were no walls, so I could scan whatever was below us. Because it was a dream, the gully right below disappeared. It became flat land covered by a thick layer of leaves and boulders. The sky was out of sight, though the sun lit the already withering leaves. It felt like a warm, fall afternoon. And that was how I spotted my first zombie.

You know, your classic zombie. They seemed fresh though, as if they’ve been afflicted in under an hour ago. They weren’t in the process of decay just yet. They were like any of us, except for the fact that they were missing some limbs, skin, gutted, and were covered in blood. It was probably my subconscious doing this thing to me. I loved being terrified out of my wits. And this, deary, was not my first apocalyptic nightmare. This is just one of my longer ones.

A hoard of them began to climb up the ladder. These were incredibly fast ones, too. They weren’t mindless either; they could actually do some problem solving. My youngest sister, Katania, began to freak out. From out of the blue, a zip line going down appeared right in front of me. I went down first, then the girls. I let the girls run ahead of me while I stayed back to stop the hoard a little. I threw rocks at them as I backed up. There was a large stick that I struck one of them with. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought of the bb shotgun we had inside the house. That would have worked, right?

The small hill upwards suddenly morphed into a steep cliff. I had to climb upwards, slipping in the process. You know that feeling when you’re being chased, and how your body suddenly feels to heavy to carry? Yeah? That’s exactly what happened. Each grueling step was excruciating; my body felt like lead. It took me a while to get to the top, but as soon as I did I ran inside and locked the door behind me. My sisters and I were safe and sound.

I found myself riding a motorcycle. This was before my dad bought his Harley Davidson.. Cassy sat behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist. Katie sat on the gas tank, holding on to the steering bars. For a second I felt really badass. But then, the overwhelming butterflies filled my stomach. I am deathly afraid of getting lost. Apparently, we were heading out to find our parents. This no longer felt like an apocalypse. This, however, became a continuity of the previous dream.

Getting lost in an unfamiliar city is one of my minor fears. However, this nightmare blew that fear out of proportions. The green, highways signs were blurry. The roads intertwined in many different directions�"in loop-de-loops and criss-crosses. In the beginning, the road was so familiar. We came from Brinnon, so we had to be on Highway 101. But then the roads warped, leading to unknown towns and views. Cars lined up in traffic. Nighttime was heading our way. The red, glaring lights of cars’ behinds escalated my fear of being lost.

Then finally we found our way into a city which felt more comforting. It was the city we moved away from, years ago. I set the motorcycle aside, holding each of my sister’s hands. Crowds of people walked by and by, leaving no room to breath. Pollution filled the afternoon sky. Tall, unlively skyscrapers scattered around, increasing my claustrophobia.. In no time at all, both Cassy and Katie accidentally let go of my hands. We got separated.

I looked all over for them, calling out their names. I went around asking multiple strangers for help. None of them seemed to take interest in my predicament. Darkness quickly rolled in, and my only responsibility disappeared in thin air. A horn blasted throughout the whole city. If you’ve watched Silent Hill and heard that haunting, gripping alarm, you would know how I felt. Everything began to close. Store to store, building to building�"they were all closing up. Even the traffic began to die down. I was forced to hide in a jewelry store, or sleep outside alone.

The jewelry/pawn shop was connected to a larger building. The glass-pane boxes were empty. The lights were off. The large room looked too neglected for a shop like this. The walls and ceiling were wet, dripping water to the floor. The place was in shambles.

A dark hallway led to the larger part of the building. I walked right in. It was so quiet; all I heard was the contact between my shoes and the tiled floor. It felt like I was going through a school at night, and the loneliness seemed to be amplified by that feeling. Every door was looked. I tried to open each one to no success.

The hairs behind my neck began to stand on their ends. Someone was stalking me, but I could see him/her/it. I began to run until I found the closest bathroom. I locked myself in one of the stalls, sitting on top of the toilet. My feet curled closer to my body. My breath was slow, shaky and anxious. Patience isn’t one of my strongest qualities.

Soon after, my intuition was proven right. There was something out there, looking for me. I had no idea what the hell it looked like. I had no clue on what it would do to me if it found me. All I knew was to never be seen or heard. That thing would tear me apart. It began to grumble in a low growl, pacing slowly through the bathroom. The facility had two exits. The creature walked from one end to the other. It didn’t even bother checking every stall.

I went out when I thought it was safe. It felt like another lifetime had past since that slug walked by. I ran out the other direction, finding myself trapped in an endless maze.

*End of Dream Sequence*

Reviews

[melissa]

So i love reading this book keep up the great work and keep sending me more to read i love reading them

[kitty cat]

love it girl, sound nice but i have to read the rest later