Zombies.

You'd always thought they were just characters from horror movies. Unreal monsters you'd never encounter. Everyone did.

But they were real.

Very real.

The outbreak had been five weeks ago. The first week, panic. Looting, murder and every man for himself. The second week, all electricity failed. No lights, no heaters. No phone line. The third week, everyone who could left the city. The outskirts were clean, they'd say. The fourth week, the outskirts got infected too.

The fifth week, those who stayed in the city struggled to survive. You had stayed. You couldn't leave your little brother, Elliott. The outbreak had happened when you were at school. You'd managed to take Elliott from the elementary school, which was below your high-school, and ran. You'd been struggling since then, trying to contact your parents. You'd lost hope the fourth week. But you pretended. For Elliott.

You were currently trying to find food in a grocery store. It had already been raided, there was probably nothing. But your stomaches were growling.

Then a hoard came. You cursed under your breath and grabbed Elliott, running. But he broke his ankle and started crying.

"It hurts!" He sobbed. Then a group of people came out of nowhere, shooting the zombies. You just hugged Elliott to your chest, shushing him gently and praying they weren't bad people.

A woman in her thirties with a blonde braid and a gun crouched in front of you. "Are you bitten?"

You shook your head. The woman nodded and looked at the two guys behind her. One of them was a black man in his forties, and the other, a thin boy with a bandage over his right eye, didn't seem out of high-school.

"These kids coming with us." She nodded to you. "What's your name, kiddo? I'm Eleonor. That guy is Hugh, and the kid's name is Axl." Eleonor waited for you to reply. She was presumably the leader.