"Talking about zombies used to be a hobby... now it's more real than anything we could have imagined."



It was a normal day as anyone would have expected... depending on where they find themselves to be 'normal'. It certainly wasn't going to be the same soon, that's for sure. The typical warm summer day brought forth no suspicions of the world going terribly wrong, it was just another day in our life. Governments were still squabbling, neighbors still fought over who had the greenest lawn, mafia heads were still counting their dirty money, and children were still relishing the relief of no more school for the rest of the season.

As for me, well... nothing was different.

I used to live in the Bay Area of California, a place known as "Silicon Valley", for their pioneering advances in computer chip manufacturing and software bigheads swarming the city with their office towers. It was a place that was crucial to modern technology all over the world... of course, except for the very city it was in. Many of us still had our usual satellite dish troubles and appliances that went haywire. I guess back then, despite that, life was pretty easy for the human race. I had a girlfriend, Zara Tabi, who I've dated for almost three years and was getting a higher education at University of California, San Diego. That being a long-distance relationship, that was probably the single-hardest thing happening in my life. But I still kept my hope alive. Even now.

On that day in particular, you know the one I mean, I still lived with my family. Four of us lived in a small townhouse near an elementary school, and a fifth, my grandmother, also lived with us but was away to see family across the states. We were a close family, never had any signs of dysfunctional MTV-family syndrome. We knew and cared for what everybody was up to, and we always did things together, or none at all. But I digress.

On that day, we were to wake up early in the morning and drive into San Francisco to help my cousin in the Coast Guard move him and his wife and baby girl into a new home. Usually being the first person to wake up in the morning, the day started as per usual...

But a noise from the backyard caught my attention, as soon as I raised my head from my pillow.

A month before, our garage was broken into in the dead of night. I expected it to be the same, so I quickly got dressed and grabbed the Louisville Slugger I used for the college baseball team and ran downstairs.

Nothing was in the backyard, but the strange noise did indeed come from the door leading to the garage. Half-scared but half-ready to face those little punks, I opened the door and flew myself in.

Nothing, in my wildest and most terrifying dreams, prepared me for it. Three... creatures, whom I knew as neighbors down the street, had barged their way through the large garage door and were creeping around every corner of the large and dark room. Upon my arrival, they each looked at me. Pearly-white eyes met mine. Blood and chunks of muscle hung from their bodies, the lips around their mouths gone and their bright yellow and sharp teeth glared at me. Their clothes, as well as their bodies, were torn, and a snarl escaped from behind their clenched teeth.

It was like a horror film come to life.

It was zombies.

I dont remember much of what happened after that... I knew that I ran, I ran very far, and I knew my family was no longer in the house. They had disappeared somehow as if they never existed. Yet I was alone. I was lost, I was confused, I was running far and fast.

My next memory was reaching my friend's house two miles away. Nothing outside of my home seemed to have changed in the rest of the city. Life went on as planned. I went to my friends house, I told him everything that happened and I knew he could tell I was being crazy. That reality almost became real to me... who would expect it? Talking about zombies used to be a hobby.... now it's more real than anything we could have imagined. But he let me in anyway, and gave me a new set of clothes and told me he was going to check it out and call the police. I don't know why he left me there in his house all by myself... before I could do anything, he was gone.

He never came back. Instead, I watched the world plunge into chaos.

The news stations barely had time to react. Before any concrete evidence could be screened, the television went cold and there was panic in the streets. People had their arms full of random things, from luggage to looted goods, and ran in every direction. I had ran outside at this time to witness it, and I knew then that the disease that had begun at my own home had come out into the world.

Still with my bat in hand, I looked for the closest thing to a running vehicle I could find. The streets were congested with cars and people, but I was determined to leave by any unconventional means. My new plan was to leave the city, leave now, and go to Zara. Nothing mattered more now than to find her and protect her. Leaving behind my family would always hurt me inside, but that feeling in my gut told me that I probably would never see them again, anyway.

I found an abandoned car a few blocks away, people still running around with no clear sign of where the zombies were. I found the spare keys and jetted off, somehow managing to drive without any prior experience. I drove through parks and city streets, past people, zombies, and mutilated bodies lying in plain sight. At last I found the freeway going south, and stayed off the road and onto the countryside, driving as far away as I could.

Now I'm here, deserted at an abandoned farmhouse, the car out of gas and no sign of human or zombie. The food I've used here is almost gone, and I fear that I may have to only continue on foot at this point onward. My chances of making it all 600 more miles to San Diego are slim to none.... but I have to keep going.

If anybody ever finds this, please keep it and remember how this all began. Find me down south, look for me and my girlfriend, Zara Tabi. Help us fight off these creatures, because I know that it'll be a long, long time before they go away.

And if you don't find me........ please, look after her.

Grasshopper Signing Out