The Survivors

By: Rilee Lytle

“Mom, I want to go to sleep!’ I yelled. My mom has put up with my crap before, surely
she’ll let me skip this stupid barbeque.
“Sure honey just be sure to eat something when you are done taking your nap.” My
mom seemed done with me. That day was supposed to be a family day. I still regret my
decision to take that nap. I slowed my parents down. I ran away without thinking. I never
saw my parents again after that day.

“Hey, wake up. You're having another nightmare.” It was Ace. His hand was deep in his
backpack, searching for something. I don’t know what though.
“Thanks. What are you searching for?” I asked. My eyes were heavy but I sat up,
rubbing my eyes.
“I’m trying to find a flashlight. Karson is missing.”
“WHAT! Why didn't you tell me sooner!”
“Didn’t want to worry you. You stay here and take care of the fire. I’ll be able to see it.”
“Okay just take care of yourself,” I mumbled. Ace left, searching for Karson. This wasn’t
the first time and it probably won’t be the last. We are always moving and running, trying
to survive. It’s difficult sometimes with how clumsy Karson and I are. But I stood up, my
back popping. It felt so good. Sleeping on the ground made my back stiff but it’s the best
we can do at the moment.
I put some more wood in the fire, feeding the flame. It seemed like an eternity had
passed.
“Where are you guys?” I mumbled to myself. I picked up a stick and started to poke the
fire. The heat hit my arm like the sun on a hot day. I threw the stick in the fire and
walked over to my sleeping bag. I grabbed my pillow and stuffed it into my sleeping bag
and rolled the bag up into a roll. For a moment it reminded me of sushi but I brushed
that away. While I tied my sleeping bag I started to hear rustling coming from the
bushes. I quickly stand up as I place my hand on my knife holster but struggle to get it
unstrapped. We have to protect ourselves somehow but I always seem to end up
forgetting how to use this stupid knife holster. I never did like knives.
“Hey! It’s us!” It was Ace. I had my fists up and ready to pounce.
“Us? Did you find Karson?” I asked as I lowered my arms.
“Yes, I found Karson.”
“Hi, Sparrow.” Karson was out of breath and was half asleep from the looks of it.
“Well come on, we have to pack up camp,” I spoke quietly because, to be honest, I was
still waking up. Ever since the incident, I haven’t slept the same.
“Yeah I know, I’ll help.” Ace walked over to me and placed something in my hand. It was
a small, purple case, with a blade inside. It was my knife.
“Where did you find this?”
“It was over there,” Ace pointed towards his bedroll.
“Oh.”
“Hey can we get moving, I’m starting to get hungry and we are running out of food to
eat.” Karson seemed annoyed.
“Fine.” I sighed. We packed up camp and put the fire out. We tried to cover our tracks
like we weren’t even there and I think we did a decent job. But we were off.
We walked for a good 3 hours only stopping once for a bathroom break. I ended up
finding a granola bar and gave it to Karson.

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“You’re not going to wilt away. You’ll live.” I was joking.
“You don’t know that!” Karson was even more annoyed at me than this morning.
I lunged forward leaving Ace and Karson because I was starting to get bored. I
was about to take a leap of faith when I tripped over my foot.
“OWW!” I yelled. I landed on my arm. But I was pretty sure I didn’t break it.
“Dummy.” Ace sighed. He seemed done with my clumsiness. What can I say, I have
been clumsy all my life. I can’t control it. I got up and continued walking, holding my
arm. It was shooting pain up to my chest. It hurt so bad. But I brushed it off. I didn’t want
to worry about Ace and Karson.
I ran ahead, again but I was more careful about where I walked. And that’s when
I saw it. All motion left my body, I couldn’t do anything. Ace and Karson seemed to
notice me standing completely still. They ran up behind me and saw it too.
“What the hell!?” Ace yelled. He was right next to me and yet seemed so far away. All
outside sounds tuned out. All I could hear was the ringing in my ears.
It was an abandoned town, all signs of life were no more, it seemed. I wanted to
cry but I couldn’t. There were no tears left to cry. It was sad, even the air seemed.
Bodies were all over the ground, smelling rotting flesh like they had been out like this for
years.
“I’m gonna puke!” Karson was holding her stomach and covering her mouth. I didn’t
blame her. It was pretty gruesome.
“We have to continue, it might have supplies we could use.” Ace seemed a little sick but
he brushed it off. He acts tough but I wondered if he was that tough.
“Man I got a bad feeling about this.” Karson sighed. I could tell that Karson was done
with all of this. And so was I. To put it bluntly, I was exhausted.

“Hey! It’s gonna be fine. We are together and that’s what counts. Remember back in
school when we learned about sicknesses that caused people to quarantine. We just
have to be careful. And when we find a good enough spot, we can quarantine to make
sure we aren’t infected. We can do what they did in the past. It’s the plan we have so
far, okay.” Ace made a good point and Karson nodded her head so she agreed.
“Oh yeah! I remember that day, it was boring and I fell asleep. Still didn’t fall behind
though.”
“Yeah, I know. Anyway, let’s keep going.” We continued on foot, observing the bodies. It
was horrifying. It was like having a bunch of eyeballs staring at you. It was as if you
were being judged for every single move, and the slightest mistake, everyone would just
stare.
Maybe Ace and Karson felt the same way. I reassured myself to calm some of my
nerves.
We moved for about 30 minutes until we reached a rusted fence. It seemed so
old that I could’ve touched it and it would’ve fallen to pieces. But we ended up touching
it and no it didn’t fall apart, it was just rusted badly so we had to be a bit careful when
opening the door of the fence.
“Don’t want to get tetanus,” I smirked.
“You know you used to mix up tinnitus with tetanus. It was pretty funny.” Ace
smirked and gave me a side glare. Ace liked getting under my skin about memories,
especially ones that I messed things up with.

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 “I got things mixed up, okay. I still do. But hey you used to mix things up too!” I
exclaimed.
“Yeah, I know. Anyway, let’s look around. This place might have some supplies
that we can use for camp and such.” Ace forcefully pushed the door open, avoiding as
much rust as he could to not get cut. He got the door open but he stumbled back a little.
“Ah, I got cut.” Ace was calm whilst Karson's eyes widened.
“WHAT! I don’t know what to do! Let me see it!” Karson was yelling. But Ace
showed her his finger. Karson raised a fist and then bam! Ace plummeted to the ground.
He started to chuckle.
“You freaken jerk! You scared me!”
“I take it he didn’t have a cut.” I sighed. He did the same thing to me when we were
younger. At that point, I was used to Ace’s jokes and pranks.
“Come on. We have to keep moving,” Ace sighed as he got up and brushed the dry dirt
off of his pants. Ace, Karson, and I paced through the edge of the town. Bodies were
everywhere, all smelling of death and sadness. Best way to describe it was like having
so much mold in one place. It smelt so bad and it was so unbearable.
“Try not to step on the bodies. We have to be respectful,” I exclaimed. Both Ace and
Karson nodded.
Oh, believe me, it was indeed very difficult to avoid them. It’s like they had gathered
bodies due to the incident and just dumped it here in this abandoned town.
I was looking down for most of it, trying to avoid the bodies as much as possible. Most
of them seemed burned or maybe it was just so much decay. I couldn’t tell. I did look up
once though, and to my surprise, there was a gas station right there.
“Hey look! It's a gas station! Maybe it has some canned food or something,” I was pretty
ecstatic that I wasn’t paying attention. I felt my body lung forward, running towards the
gas station. I guess the thought of supplies moved my body forward.
“Hey! Watch out! You’re stepping on the bodies!” Ace yelled to try to get my attention,
but it didn’t affect me.
“What?!” I screamed behind me but as soon as I turned my head forward, I ran straight
into a pole. I stumbled back and fell on my butt.
“OWW!”
“I told you to watch out! But you don’t listen. Am I right Karson?”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Karson was still annoyed at Ace about the whole cut thing. It was
pretty funny.
“You know, you said that I was stepping on the bodies, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, so were you. Look.”
Ace turned his head back and saw that I was right. I know it was a shocker.
“Wow, I didn’t even notice.”
“I know,” I got up and brushed the dust off of my pants and my hands.
“Anyway, it’s a gas station, it’s bound to have something useful we could use to take
refuge somewhere. Right?” It was Karson. She took the lead, walking towards the door.
She gently placed her hand on the doorknob and turned it.
“It’s locked.”

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“I got this,” Ace rushed behind Karson and slammed his elbow into the door without
warning. And sure enough, the glass broke. He placed his hand through the glass and
turned the doorknob on the other side.
“Thanks.” Karson was being sarcastic, anyone could tell. A little bit of silence followed.
“Well then, let’s go,” I broke the awkward silence. Ace opened the door and stepped in.
Karson followed and I was last inside. I looked behind to see if anyone was there
but it was just the bodies. Canned food was all over the floor along with little toys here
and there. It was extremely messy. And everything was collecting dust.
“Let’s check some of the cans to see if they are expired or not. If not, let’s take them,”
Ace made the point that I was just about to say. He beat me to it.
But we all went to separate spots at the gas station. I crouched down, it hurt my
knees, but I started to check the cans. 1/5/2046 Expired. 4/18/2048 I could take that
one. I found only 4 more that weren’t expired. A can of refried beans, two cans of green
beans, one can of spam, and a can of peaches.
“I only found 5 cans!” I yelled towards the other side of the room.
“I found 6!” Ace responded.
“I only found 3,” Karson quietly responded.
Ace jumps in before I can, “That makes 14 cans. It will have to last us.”
“I guess we should get out of here before trouble follows us,” Karson spoke a little
louder and I couldn’t quite hear her but I got the gist of what she was saying.
“Yeah, I agree.”
“Me too.” I was the last to respond. But I did have a feeling that trouble would soon
come. We packed the food, determined to find a better place to camp and to finally eat
something that’s actually good. My cooking sucks because I never really learned how.
The incident happened before they could teach me.
There was nothing else we could use. Everything was either torn, rusted, or went
bad. Ace stepped outside first, taking the initiative. He stepped out, and I followed, and
Karson was last.
“Hey, do you hear that?” Ace’s voice echoed through the quiet town, breaking the
silence.
“Something feels off, like when the Natives ambushed and killed 400 Spaniards and
drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. That was the pueblo revolt, I
think.” My mouth started moving, normally I didn’t speak about history. It was one of my
least favorite subjects in school.
“We didn’t ask for a history lesson.” Karson rolled her eyes at me.
“Well we could learn a thing or two so we don’t get ambushed by anyone,” I remarked.
“I mean, Sparrow isn’t wrong. We could learn a thing or two from history to not get hurt
or something.” Ace agreed with me for the first time in forever.
“See! I told you!” I pointed at Ace.
“He agreed with me! He doesn’t do that!” Karson rolled her eyes again and scoffed.

Then it happened. It happened so fast that it was impossible to catch. A loud

bang echoed through the abandoned town. I felt a sharp pain shoot from my stomach to
all over my body. I looked down and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Blood seeped through
my dirty shirt. My eyesight was going in and out, blurry, then everything went black. I
could hear Ace and Karson screaming at me but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

4
 I could feel my body hit the ground.
“Where are you taking us?” Everything was a muffle but I could make out that it was
Ace’s voice.
“To sanctuary.”
“Then why did you shoot Sparrow?”
“It was an accident. We thought you guys were with the government. But you are just
kids.”
“And that doesn’t change the fact you shot our friend!”
“I know, but at the sanctuary, we can help them.”
“...Okay.”
I slowly opened my eyes, almost blinded by a flashlight.
“Sparrow!” Karson hugged my head.
“Owww! What happened?”
“You got shot, and now we are going to a place called sanctuary.” Ace responded. I
could hear the relief from his voice.
“Oh okay. That’s not confusing… Or nothing.” I had to push those words out. The pain
was excruciating. Then I closed my eyes again.
“I’m gonna take a nap.”
“Okay”
The next thing I know is I’m in a bed, my chest and stomach bandaged. Ace and Karson
were sitting beside the bed. A man was towards the back of the room.
“You’re awake.” He whispered.
“Can someone explain what’s going on?” I was so tired.
“So you know how the government basically ruined the world, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Many of us had found this place. This is a place where all of us can live and thrive
without that B cell virus that the government created.”
“Do you know why they created it?” Karson asked quietly.
“It was to wipe out humanity, so they could restart the world and rule it. It was supposed
to be a painless disease but it mutated. It kills the person from the inside by liquefying
their inside. The way to identify if you have it is if there are black spots in your eyes.
None of you have it though, luckily.”
“That’s good.” Ace sighed.
“Yes, it is. Now rest up, all of you. We all have to stick together and fight back against
the government. It won’t be easy but you have each other.”
The man placed his hand on the doorknob.
“Wait!” I raised my hand.
“What is your name?”
“Elijah. Now all of you. Get some sleep.” He closed the door behind him.
“What are we going to do? Now that we know what we are dealing with, what’s the
plan?” Karson was the first to respond to the situation.
“I guess we have to stick together like glue.” I smiled.
“But that’s what we have been doing.” Ace gave me a side glare.
“Oh well. Then we rest up and prepare for the future.” I looked back at both of my
friends.
“This is the beginning of the end. We are the survivors. We have to survive.”