The Fallen

Name: The Fallen
Author: Elle Richards

44 pages

I should be happy to be one of the small percentage who made it through a zombie apocalypse—and I am. Most of the time. It’s just… I’m the sole survivor of my family, and I only have one friend left; my eighty-year-old neighbour, Haruto.
It’s a lonely life. A dangerous life.
And now my food supplies are running low.
I’ve lived in the city for a decade, long before the pandemic took everything from us, but I can’t grow food here. I need to get out and search for a rural property somewhere with room for vegetable gardens and fruit trees, and space to invite others to join—if I can find more people like me who’ve hung onto old-world values in a new world where there are no longer systems or rules.
The problem? Haruto’s unwell and unfit for travel, and it’s too dangerous to spend long stretches of time outside. It’s not just the dead with their vacant eyes and hungry mouths that I need to worry about. It’s other humans, too.
There’s a gang roaming the city; they’re loud and violent and unpredictable, and I’ve never seen women with them. They intimidate me enough that I try to make myself as invisible as possible every time I leave the safety of my apartment.
There’s another man lurking around, too. He’s been staying in the building opposite mine, and I’ve spent the past week tracking his movements. He’s calm and confident, and he doesn’t belong to a group. Although I’ve kept my distance from him so far, just being around him makes me feel safer outside and less lonely.
It’s risky approaching other humans now, but Haruto isn’t getting any better, and soon enough I’ll be on my own—completely alone for the first time in my life.

And I’m reaching the point now where desperation is pushing me to risk it all and bear the consequences.

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