The First Time Around

It was strange that I was once again feeling the urge to open my eyes. The last thing I remembered was the coldness of a blade slicing my neck. It was a bit difficult for me to understand how I was capable of surviving. I gave in to my urge and opened my eyes once again. 

The view that greeted me was the room that I had occupied during my orphanage days. It had been my home till the day the apocalypse arrived. After taking a moment to orient myself, I headed towards the common washroom to look at myself in a mirror. The face that was reflected was indeed the one that had the innocence which could only be seen on someone who had yet to face the horrors of the apocalypse. 

I washed up and headed down to the mess hall. My stomach had started making rumbling noises and I too was excited to eat food that no one would try to snatch away from me. The view in the hall was one that would give a good scare to anyone who had survived the very beginning of the apocalypse. The children were all noisily speaking to one another, the line in front of the counter was long and the sheer number of individuals densely packed in a confined space was frightening for someone like me, who was up until a few moments ago fighting in the apocalypse. 

I calmed my nerves and made my way to the line in front of the counter. This breakfast was the most peaceful meal I had in the past eight years. I made my way back to the room. It was only then that I finally turned my attention to the calendar hanging in my room. The month that was shown was May. The same month that marked the ending of this peaceful world. It was regretful that I did not possess something that could tell me the exact date I returned to. 

Just as I was thinking of approaching the orphanage in charge to inquire about it, a boy my age made his way into the room. Only after seeing him did I remember that I was not staying alone in this room. I did have a roommate. Being the recluse that I was, we did not have much of a friendship, but an occasional greeting and a simple question would not be a cause for alarm. I asked him for the date, and he replied by answering the date to be the 12th of May. The day before the apocalypse. 

He left the room soon afterwards and I was left alone to sort out my thoughts. Tomorrow would be the day when I will have to once again face the same hardships. Even though most of my memories had gradually faded in the past eight years the one memory that was as clear as a 4K video was that of my first hour in the apocalypse. It was after all the first time that I had killed anyone or anything. 

I still remembered that when the apocalypse struck, I was inside the local grocery store near the orphanage running an errand for the cook. The local grocery store was not very big to begin with. There were twelve people, including me, inside the store. It was exactly twelve in the afternoon when the notification of our doom sounded. 

The only thing this notification informed us was that starting from that moment our world had entered the apocalypse era and most of the population would soon be turning into zombies, if we were to be killed by any means during this era, we too would become one of them.

At the time, I was afraid of such a voice in my head and started to look around to check the reactions of others around me. To my immense horror, everyone else around me were showing signs of confirming what the voice in my head had just narrated. Their skin was starting to rot at a pace that was visible to the naked eye, they were starting to make weird noises and the bad smell was starting to hurt my nose. All of this pointed to the fact that they were starting to turn. 

It was not as if zombies were some alien concepts to any youth in this era, I was no exception. It was purely on my instinct to survive that I was able to somehow take the butchering knife in my cart and attack these people who were still transforming into zombies. The only thought running in my mind at that time was the information I had read on how to kill zombies. You either had to smash their heads or stab their brains. Seeing that I did not have a weapon to smash open their heads, I went for the only other option available.

I was lucky that my instincts made me take action before the zombification process completed. I stabbed the heads of all eleven people, and only then did I realize what I had done. I was not worried whether what I just did was right or wrong but whether more of these would come to attack me. The coward in me finally awakened and I made my way to the exit of the store. The scene outside scared me and I quickly shut the door while barricading it. 

It was the biggest mistake I made in my life. If only I had shown more courage, my life in the apocalypse would have turned out to be much better. 

It was only after a system announcement came saying that the trial was over, and the zombies would return in a week that I left the store and headed towards the orphanage to look for some form of normalcy and support. I was horrified and disappointed to see that the bustling orphanage was now empty. I thought that the survivors were hiding somewhere and searched the entire premises. There was no one. According to all that had happened, the only conclusion was that the entire orphanage had turned into zombies and after the trial, vanished. 

I found some food and made the shed on the boundary of the orphanage my base and shelter. Not once in the next week did I travel outside, and after the zombies returned the only reason I survived was because the zombies attacked based on the strength of the shelter, and since I was all alone there were only a few zombies who tried to attack my shelter. Since the orphanage was built with the intention to keep the children safe, the wall was very well built with barbed wire fencing and a solid steel door. It was quite durable and withstood any damage that the zombies could do. The only downside to all this was that I remain stagnant in this changing world for well over a month and after coming out I found out that everyone else had moved far ahead. 

As I recalled the past, I was filled with a new determination to be better this time around.