We're Still Alive(Book1)BEING REWRITTEN

One

Nocona, Texas

           It was late in July. The early morning day was foggy and peaceful. At least that's how it started out.

           Paige was in her bed when she heard the first gunshot. It was followed closely by others. They were loud and echoed through the neighborhood, causing her to wake with a start.

           She has fallen asleep the night before in her school clothes, exhausted from homework and chores. If 8th grade math was that hard, she didn't want to know what it was like in high school.

           Hearing another gunshot, she slid out of bed still half asleep, pushing her long brown hair out of her face. It was probably just a movie from their T.V. that they always left on. She wandered down the small hallway to her parents' room. They usually worked late at night and slept through most of the mornings. She stopped a few feet in front of the doorway when she heard a noise. It was coming from the room, and the T.V. screen was dark. She heard chewing, and a weird squishing sound along with it. She hesitantly took another step forward and peeked over the edge of the doorway. She didn't scream. She couldn't. She felt like she was frozen, unable to make a sound, to move at all. There was a soft light pouring in from a window, lighting up half the room just enough for  Paige to see it. There were two shapes, one laying on the ground completely still, the other bent over it. Paige watched as her father dug his hands into her mom's stomach, tearing out insides and stuffing  them into his mouth. Finally Paige managed a gasp and stepped back.  Her dad stopped chewing at the sound. She held her breath as he turned to face her. His eyes were blank and clouded, his face was covered in blood, and his skin looked strangely pale. He clumsily stood up and started to move towards her. Paige ran back to her room, slamming and locking the door. The gunshots outside seemed louder now, more clear. They were real. She jumped back when she heard the thump on her door and her father's voice outside. It was different, though. He didn't say anything, just made groaning sounds and clawed at the door. Paige could only stare as he started to throw himself against the door, when he had never even tried the doorknob. Coming back to her senses, she ran to her closet and quickly pulled out a pair of tennis shoes. She pulled them on, struggled with the laces, then reached into the corner of her closet behind her clothes where she kept her compound bow. Her closet was the only place she had known to keep it that wasn't out in the open to scare people. She also grabbed the pocket knife off of the top shelf and stuffed it into her front pocket. She worked on auto-pilot, only focusing on what she might need. All she knew at the moment was that she had to get out. The shooting, along with other moans outside, told her that her parents weren't the only ones that were sick. She would need the bow and knife to protect herself. She didn't focus entirely on her parents, who were suddenly these cannibalistic, clumsy monsters; her mom had joined Dad at the door. But she was dead, Paige knew; there was no way she could've survived after being...she shivered and tried to shake off the thought. And her dad; she couldn't begin to imagine why he would do that, but she could tell that he wasn't him anymore.

           She took the bow in one hand and with the other slung the quiver over her shoulder. She stepped out of the closet and looked at the door. It was starting to splinter in some parts, getting worse with every hit. She swallowed back the lump forming in her throat. She wanted to call out to them, but she knew that they wouldn't reply. Even if they did, what would they say? At this point, she knew it wasn't a prank; something was seriously wrong, but she knew that trying to talk to them would only confirm it, make it more real. 

          She turned away from the door and ran over to her window. She fumbled slightly with the lock that she put on every night, but she managed to unlock it and crawl out. She closed the window behind her, and when she turned around, she wished she'd stayed inside.

         Everywhere she looked was chaotic. There were people running, screaming, some shooting guns, and some that were chasing other people. Paige noticed cars scattered in the street. A few were flipped  over, but others looked like they had been abandoned.

         She was so focused on the sight that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her. She felt someone slam into her, knocking her to the ground. The breath was knocked out of her, and she rolled onto her back to see who it was; this time she didn't hold back a scream. She recognized her neighbor, Zoe, but at the same time she didn't. Zoe looked sick; her eyes were leaking blood, and there was more around her mouth. Paige could see something dangling from in between her teeth. She pushed back on Zoe's shoulders as she leaned down, snapping her teeth. Paige managed to get a foot  under her stomach and pushed, throwing Zoe back a few feet. She jumped back up, though, like the fall hadn't affected her in any way. Paige grabbed for an arrow and set it on the string of her bow. Zoe was back on her feet and running at Paige. Without thinking, she let the arrow go flying, right into Zoe's shoulder. Zoe stumbled backwards a step, then continued on like nothing had happened. At that, Paige jumped to her feet and ran. She didn't know where she was going, just that she had to run. She had to get away from the house that her parents were in just the night before. The house that now held monsters. She managed to dodge other sick people, like her dad and Zoe, that ran at her. At one point a bullet had hit the ground near her feet. Paige didn't know if it had been aimed at her or not, but she didn't care. She blocked out cries for help and ignored the people with guns, some of which aimed at her, only to find that she was human and focused on the sick people again. Finally she slowed to a walk when she saw a large barn looming in front of her. They had lived on the edge of town, only a few miles from the farm that she was so familiar with. On the rush of adrenaline, she hadn't noticed that she had pushed herself harder, physically, that she ever had before.

        Her aunt and uncle had the farm for years; she'd been taken there a lot by her parents. There weren't very many houses close to the farm, which meant there weren't very many people. She walked slowly up to  the farm house and stopped on the porch. The main door was wide open, the screen door torn and hanging on its hinges. To make it worse, the house was dark except for the morning light shining through the door and windows.

         "Hello?" She called softly, walking into the house. It was the first time she'd said something that morning; her voice was quiet and croaky, and she cleared it before calling into the house again. No answer. She walked further in, stiffening when the floor boards creaked under her feet. She'd been on edge outside, but being in the dark house only made things worse. She gasped when she heard footsteps coming from one of the bedrooms. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the silhouette of her uncle stepping out of a bedroom. She started to walk towards him but stopped suddenly when he stepped out into the dim morning light. His face was pale and covered in blood, and his right arm was bleeding heavily. Looking past him, she couldn't help but notice the body that lay still on the floor behind him. He growled and stumbled towards her, arms outstretched. He couldn't move fast due to his ankle; the bones were sticking at odd angles out of his skin. She jumped back and ran outside, almost tripping on the porch steps. Quickly regaining her balance, she spun around, pulled back another arrow, and pointed it at him. She didn't have time to think after that. If he hadn't charged, she might not have shot him.

        She stood there for several seconds, staring at the body of her uncle, at the arrow sticking out of his head. "It wasn't him." She told herself. She took a step back, took one last look at the body, then turned to look around the farm. "It wasn't him." She had to focus; her eyes scanned the empty field and the barn that sat not too far from the house. The farm used to have lots of animals, but when they couldn't afford to keep them, her aunt and uncle had to sell most of them. All that was left, Paige remembered, was a steel-blue horse that they called Cobalt. She ran to the barn and pulled one of the huge doors open. She fumbled for the light switch, turned it on, then closed the door behind her. There was only one light bulb in the center of barn that didn't give off a lot of light, but it was enough. Paige whistled as she walked toward the stalls. In return, she heard a whinny and saw the stallion's gray head poking over the edge of one. With a smile Paige ran to him, pulled open the stall door, and wrapped her arms around the horse's neck. He was the only thing left for her now; she didn't want to think of her friends, of their blank faces when she had run by, of the snarls that escaped their mouths. She let the tears fall as Cobalt nudged her shoulder, unaware that anything was wrong.

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Thanks for reading! This is my first book so I'm completely open to criticism and any thoughts you have on it! Enjoy!