She sat on the ratted and ripped bed clinging a flashlight to her chest as if it were keeping her alive. She knew it wasn’t going to help her once They got into the house, but she didn’t care. The flashlight didn’t make Them go away, but it did help her see the room she was in, and in some ways it made her feel less alone. The windows in the room were boarded up so there was no way she could be spotted with the light.

A small hole was drilled into the wall with a piece of cardboard taped over it. She could move the cardboard and look out into the night if she needed to. If there was a noise from outside the house, she could check. She would be prepared if there was an attack. It’s happened before, but it wasn’t much help. That was the night that changed her life. It was the same as any other night in the boarded up shack. She was sitting with her parents and two brothers in the candle lit living room playing cards. It almost seemed normal to her. It almost seemed like the disease never spread. It almost seemed like there was nothing to worry about… That’s when there was a noise from outside. She ran into her little room and peeked outside. The front door was knocked down and They poured into the small shack. She was scared. She locked the door. The rest of the night was a blur until she woke up and went into the small living room. It was too horrible for words. That night has traumatized her for months. Her family was taken away from her in a matter of minutes. There was nothing she could have done, or else she would have been killed too.

The girl got off of the bed and pulled the cardboard off of the wall and looked through the small hole. The sun would be coming up soon. That means she would have survived another day. That means that she would be able to sleep. Even though there were no mirrors in the shack, she knew that there were big rings under her eyes from lack of sleep. Her stomach was growling at her. She hadn’t eaten in a few days also. She pulled away from the hole and sunk to the floor.

Her small battery powered radio was sitting next to her. It had been some time since she changed the batteries. She chanced it and turned the radio on. The volume was turned all the way up and the tuner was on a static station. The girl picked up the radio and threw it at the wall parallel her. It turned off right away. That was far too much noise. They probably would have heard it. She crawled across the room to retrieve the radio. It wasn’t broken; the batteries just had popped out. She replaced them quickly and turned the volume down before she turned the small radio on again. She pulled it up so that it was pressed right up against her ear and turned the tuner until the white noise turned into a man talking.

The disease has spread from the U.S. to parts of Canada and Mexico. As of now there is no cure. Scientists have no name for this disease. All that is known about the infected is that they experience extreme sensitivity to the sun. Survivors are urged to move to the nearest coast. Rescue ships have been circling near Florida’s Coast and Texas’s Coast.

The man stopped talking. The girl thought that she lost the signal until a woman came on.

This broadcast is brought to you by the U.S. Military of 2079. Building a better America for the future.

Then there was static. The girl placed the radio back onto the floor and crawled back onto the bed. Her flashlight was still sitting there waiting for her. She picked it up and started to shake. That broadcast was from twenty-four years ago. How bad had the world gotten since then? She had no clue. She wasn’t even alive in 2079. She had never known a world without the disease.

There was a noise from outside. It startled her so much that she dropped the flashlight onto the ground. Quickly she dropped down, grabbed up the flashlight, and turned it off. She heard another noise from outside the shack. Cautiously she crawled over to the hole in the wall and looked out. Staring her in the eye was one of the diseased. She couldn’t help but scream and fall backwards. The flashlight rolled away from her. There was a banging on the wall. They were trying to get in. She stumbled onto her feet and ran out of the room and into the living room closing the door behind her. She stared at the ceiling, never looking down at the floor. The girl was frantic, trying to think of a place to hide from Them. Then, it came to her. There was a cabinet in the kitchen just big enough for her to fit. That’s where she ran and hid just as the door to her room was being knocked down. She held her breath while in the cabinet and crossed her fingers that They wouldn’t find her.

She always knew it was inevitable that she would die this way. She was born in this house, never left this house in her whole life, and knew she would die in this house. The only people she even knew were her family, and even they never left the house. It was a sobering thought, but they still haven’t left the house. Her food came from a small supply closet in her room. There wasn’t much food left, but she was getting by.

The girl curled into a ball and listened to the staggered footsteps of the diseased walking around her house. Silent tears ran down her face. She was terrified of being found. She knew what They were capable of. Her family had been killed by Them. She didn’t want the same fate. The girl could hear Them banging on the walls and exploring the house for her. Cabinets were being opened. She inched her way to the back of the cabinet, carefully putting bottles of cleaning products and cans of expired food in front of her, hoping they would hide her. The cabinet door slowly swung open. The ugliest face she had even seen looked into the cabinet. They locked eyes and the girl screamed. She screamed so loud that They all stopped and crowded around the cabinet, looking in on their next meal.

Hands flew into the small space and grabbed for her. Desperately, she started throwing the cabinet’s contents at the Them. Just when she thought it was all over, They stopped dead in their tracks. The girl could see the light filtering in through the cracks in the boarded up windows. They all ran. She didn’t know where they went; all she knew is that they were running away from her; away from her house. She crawled out of the cabinet and ran back into her room. She watched as they staggered away, back into the woods right outside the house. There was a giant hole in her room’s wall, but she didn’t care. She survived another night of hell.

Now she could sleep.