Small warning for some kind of depressing themes, here.

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Date: September something-or-other, in the year 20heck-if-I-remember

The thing is, no one really ever realized how horrifying the zombies are. I mean, we do now, but back then. Before the virus. There were all these tv shows, books, movies. They were strong, then, in the films, but they were just... shambling masses. They killed people, sure, but...

Hogwash. That's what I said. I never watched those sorts of things. I said they were hogwash. Yes, me, a middle-aged man in the twenty first century, using the word "hogwash." That should go to show you how much I thought of them. And I still stand by that view. For different reasons now, of course. But still. Utter hogwash.

My daughter, she liked that sort of thing, though. Found it entertaining. Not any more. But I remember that first day. When the national emergency was declared. We decided to leave the city, safe from all the hordes of all the people. Kacie had looked nervous, yes. But not really scared. Don't remember exactly what she said, but it was something like "don't worry, I know what to do." Because she thought those shows were good examples.

And sure, for a time, they were. The virus, it started slow. Corpses dragging themselves from the ground, shambling along. So slow, uncoordinated, easy to escape.

But the virus, it evolves. In a matter of months, they gained strength. They couldn't run, not really. But they weren't so slow anymore, either. And the virus, it started attacking the living. Gaining itself more hosts.

I think the news said something about it attacking the brain. Leaves most of the body intact, but attacks the brain. Because, see, it can't just turn a person into a zombie. It's got to inhabit the corpse. Kill the body, then take it over. Can't go straight from living to undead. Got to be dead, first, to be undead. So it kills the host. Then reanimates it.

And there aren't many visible signs, at first. Maybe a little fatigue, but we all feel that now. Inability to focus, but that comes with the constant lack of sleep, lack of good food. Bruising under the eyes. But, they look just like bags.

Eventually, though, you can't function anymore. You start to die. Begin to decay.

There was a cure. Is, still, probably, if you're reading this. Because that means humanity survived, if you're reading this, so you had to fight somehow. Maybe you just slaughtered all the zombies. Quarantined yourselves until the last corpse rotted. But there was a cure.

But it was distributed in the cities. We left the city. For safety. They weren't able to make it out to places like this. Little outlying towns. Farms. We've been a lot of places.

But we couldn't make it to a city.

And the thing about the cure is, it only works on the living. They say most of the brain damage can even be repaired. But the dead- the undead- they're already gone. The cure doesn't work on what isn't alive to be cured.

So we burned her body. Charred it well, then left. Because I'd rather light my own daughter's funeral pyre than see her rotting corpse bearing down on me.

And I hope there's nothing left of her body. Nothing it can use, anyway.

And now we're here. For how long, I don't know. Maybe this is our last stop. Maybe we won't make it out alive. Sam's leg is pretty badly busted up, and I don't think we managed to relocate Michael's shoulder right. And I only have a couple shells left for the shotgun.

Maybe we will make it out, somehow. Maybe we'll make it to the next little hideaway. Maybe even the one after that. But we can't make it forever.

That's why they're hogwash. Those shows. Because they act like your little ragtag group of stragglers can band together and make it out okay. But they can't. You can't. You can't survive this. Even if you manage to escape the zombies, you can't win in the end. And escaping the zombies is hard enough as is. Because the virus evolves. Almost a year, I think. Maybe more, or less, it's hard to tell, but almost a year, and they move with the coordination of a clumsy person, and they can sprint, and they feel no pain, and don't have the physical endurance limits, or the fatigue that we do.

But if you manage to evade the zombies, it doesn't matter. Not for us, anyway. Maybe, in one of the fortresses. Or the quarantined zones. But out here, our little ragtag group of survivors, we can't win. Because even if we escape the zombies, there's still the virus, and all it needs is for you to die. And you do. You always do, eventually. Because we don't just have to deal with the zombies. We have to deal with hunger. Pain. Sleep. Staying on guard. We have all this we need to take care of that they do not.

And even if you manage to evade the zombies long enough, you still die in the end. You still die. You get old and you die. Maybe you get sick, or you can't run any more, or your heart just gives out. None of that matters to the virus. That ache in your knee you felt every morning? That doesn't affect the zombie. That fog in your head that followed soon after the fog in your eyes? The zombie doesn't even have half its head. That pain in your chest, the straining of your lungs, each painful gasp?

They don't breathe. I saw one once, dragging itself across the bottom of a lakebed. It just kept right on. Kept coming for us. Because you can't stop them. Not us, anyway. Because even if you do, there's still the virus.

We're probably all already dying. Breathed it in or something. And we're just rotting from the inside out, until we die and it keeps us going. Because we sure won't be able to. Maybe if we could have made it to one of the safe places. One of the cities that was protected. Maybe if we hadn't left.

But we did. And now here we are.

Maybe, in the cities, there's hope. Maybe you're from one, where everyone lives. Maybe the virus is long since exterminated, just another chapter in a history textbook.

But for us, all there is is the virus. It's coming for us, and our little ragtag group can't run forever, can't live forever. We all die eventually.

But hey, what's that saying? "If you can't beat 'em, join them"?

Maybe there's hope for the future. But there isn't any for us.

The virus will get us all in the end.

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A/N

Eh. Not sure how happy I am with this. I might go change it later.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!