“Together, forever and always”
Those where the last words I heard my husband say to me. About 7 months ago a deadly virus was released in the world after a drug dealer first time trying to create his own crack and somehow messed up. What he made, the government called “Virus X”. It would stop all function of the brain and cause instant death. 24 hours after death the brain would regain the most basic motor function. In the beginning everyone called it a miracle and thought that their loved ones were back. They were wrong though. They had discovered about a month after the first case that Virus X had mutated and could be transferred from the host to others though a bite or scratch. The next week the small town of Brookfield Missouri was overrun with the walking dead and the state declared Marshall Law. The military was called in to deal with the problem but they were unsuccessful and the virus spread rapidly. Within two months there were more dead than alive. My name is Violet Ross, and I am the last survivor of Brookfield, aka ground zero
I sat on the bridge in North Platte, Nebraska and sighed. 7 weeks since my husband was turned, and I was finally starting to get my life back under control. When he was first bitten I was in a panic, but tried to pretend that everything would be fine. The bite healed and I thought that everything would be fine, it wasn’t. He started to get really sick about a week after he had already healed. 2 days later he had died while we were hunting in the woods. It was painful and horrible and was sickening. We had been married for 5 years, 5 wonderful happy loving years, gone by one bite. For the next few hours, I was screaming until it hurt and I couldn’t talk anymore, crying until my head hurt and my eyes were blood shot, punched the trees around us till my knuckled were bleeding and the bark was falling off the tree in the spot I had punched.
I had declared that I was in hell. Around three in the morning, 13 hours since he had died, I finally calmed down some. My cheeks were stained from the tears and I looked like hell, but I was calm. I was sitting on a stump close by him. 4 hours later I finally got up and gathered everything of use off of him. His bag, gun, knife, and anything else I thought was important like his jacket, shirt, shoes, and socks. For the next few hours I just sat there and waited. Hours seemed like minutes for me. The next thing I knew he started to move. At first he tried to sit up, but ended up falling onto his back again. That’s when I stood up and took aim, before he could sit up my boot was on his shoulder pushing down so he wouldn’t move. When he looked up at me, I fired. There was a hole in his head and blood running down onto my boot. I didn’t cry though. I just slung the rifle over my shoulder and grabbed our bags and walked back to where we had set up base camp. I was numb and felt no remorse. I ate some of the last cans of food and packed everything into the hiking bag we had. Our things filled the bag and with my sleeping bag and tent it was close to 100 pounds, but I didn’t care. I ended up finding a liquor store and suddenly all of the pain shot threw my body. I walked in and just started to drink. That’s all I did for the past 7 weeks. Drink and drowned my sorrows, how I didn’t die is a mystery to even myself. With a sigh I jumped down from my spot and grabbed my pack. Walking towards the town I was shocked to hear a high pitched scream. I dropped everything but my hand gun and ran. I haven’t seen any other survivor in months and the thought that one of them was going to die wasn’t making me to happy. I followed the sound shooting the dead that came too close. The screams were to my right now, but when I turned I was stunned. Dozens of them where crowded around a small pipe trying to get to the person inside. Without a second thought I rushed in pulling some back and stomping their heads in and others just a single shot to the head, more of the dead were coming and I could hear them getting closer,

“Grab my hand!” I yelled as I shoved my hand into the pipe “everything will be ok but you need to grab my hand.”
I felt a small hand grab mine and I pulled the child out and ran as I carried them. I couldn’t see if it was a boy or a girl but I didn’t care, a child meant a parent and that meant more survivors. The dead were starting to get closer and I could feel the tears from the child start to soak through my stained and dirtied shirt.

“Shhh, don’t cry hun it will be ok. We will find a place to hide and they will be gone and everything will be ok.”
The tears slowly stopped but I kept running. I reached the bridge and set the youth down and finally got a look at them. It was a young girl only about six and had long light blond hair. I pulled my bag on and looked around quickly and estimated we had about 5 minutes before the dead were on us.

“We have to go; do you know where your mom or dad is?” I asked her

“D-daddy said he was going to the prison to get food. He said it was safe there.”
I nodded and grabbed her hand walking quickly.

“We are going to find daddy and get away from them and be safe ok?”
I got a simple nod but took it as a good sign. I was on high alert and was turning to every small sound. The prison was placed about 20 miles out of town. As I tried to figure out how this young girl had survived this long alone I had slowed our walking. She was clinging to my hand and I didn’t mind. Suddenly there was a flash of pain and I tasted dirt in my mouth. I could hear the young girl screaming and my anger erupted. I flung my head back and felt the attackers’ nose crunch and they fall away from me. I was on top of them in an instant and had my hunting knife in my hand and the blade against, what I could now see, the man’s throat. His eyes were a bright orange and he seemed mad.

“Stop,” I heard the girl scream “That’s my daddy don’t hurt him!”
I pushed myself up and took a step back and let the small girl hug him. I watched as he started to cry and hugged her close. I simply put my knife in my boot again and started to walk off after I grabbed my pack, which I hadn’t realized was off.

“Wait!” I turned around to see the man had stood up and was watching me “Where are you going? I mean it’s not like anyone has a home anymore so why don’t you come with us?”
I slowly started to walk towards him and looked at his daughter. Her pink eyes shined and looked so hopeful, with a sigh I nodded my head “Sure why not.”
A high pitched squeal of delight was all that was heard before I had an armful of the little girl.

“Now missy, what’s your name?” I asked her

“My name is Lizzy but everyone,” she made a large sweeping motion with her hands to emphasize it, “Calls me Bubbles.”
I had to smile at that. I moved her so she was sitting on my hip and started walking towards the prison. As I looked back at the dad I saw him just standing there.

“Well are you coming?” I asked “If we keep walking we can make it the prison right before night fall. And by the way, my name is Violet.”
He ran into the trees and grabbed his and Bubbles packs, then ran to catch up with us.

“You know it rude not to introduce yourself to people,” I said

“Sorry, my name is Tyler.”
He didn’t offer his hand and I didn’t either. For the next few hours it was almost silent. I would have conversations with Bubbles but I didn’t talk much. She had fallen asleep not too long ago on my shoulder. I looked at Tyler out of the corner of my eye. His hair was a light blond and had dark brown eyes. His skin was deeply tanned and made his hair stand out even more.

“She really likes you. She hasn’t bonded with anyone really since this hell started.”
I nodded slighting. “You are traveling with other people?” I asked

“No, it’s just us now. The others didn’t like the idea of going to a prison so I just said ‘see ya’ and left with Missy. Were you traveling with anyone?” he asked

I shook my head “I was, my husband, but the dead got to him” I said.
He looked shocked but didn’t say anything, I was glad he didn’t.

“Why are we heading to the prison?” he asked softly.

“They have food, shelter and medical supplies, we will be safe there. Plus when winter comes we will be safe inside and the dead will freeze in their tracks and die, again.” I said

“Are you sure? If we are wrong this could be a horrible ending.”
Looking up I realized that the prison was in sight and I stopped and gently woke up Missy.

“Come on hun, you need to wake up. We are almost there.”
Setting the young girl down she slowly started to wake up and rubbed her eyes. “Yes mommy.”
My eyes filled with tears but I just blinked them away and took her hand and started walking again. I look Tyler’s hand and didn’t look at him as he looked at me shocked. I wouldn’t admit it, but I was scared. I was walking head first into the unknown, ready to hide in a place other don’t dare to go, just to survive.