James

• Jack McQuellin, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2016

James is 21 years old, he is alone. Well, there are Zombies with him, but I guess you can’t say that you can be happy with that. Because Zombies aren’t really your best friends, though. They are more like your enemies and they like brains, especially your brain! So, James wants to escape – from the world. He thinks he hasn’t got anyone in the world. When he went to Oklahoma with a stolen car, he found an old farm where he hid for several months. One day he went to a city 12 miles away from his farm to get new food and medicine and weapons. On his way, he shot 16 Zombies who wanted to attack him but then he saw a girl who really didn’t look like a Zombie and ran through a street after she had hid behind a trash bucket. James screamed and yelled at her. When she saw him, her eyes glanced. There was hope in her eyes. James shot a Zombie that came along. She got scared. James stopped the car and the girl ran to him. She breathed very fast.
James started the car. He drove along the street and parked in front of a supermarket, where no Zombies were. They still didn’t talk a word. Suddenly she started a conversation with a “Hi, I’m Jane.” They got into a long conversation while James was searching for food and other helpful things in the supermarket. She just walked by his side and told him about her story and that she had lost her whole family to the Zombies and hid herself in an old hospital at night.
James took her home. They felt safe. One day, when he was going home to the farm, after he had gone to the forest, he saw thousands of Zombies at the farm.
He ran as fast as he could but he couldn’t help anymore. The Zombies got Jane. He screamed and cried. His new-found hope was gone, he lost Jane in the Zombie invasion.
The Zombies got attentive because of John’s screams. But he got his eyes closed, he opened them when he heard some strange noises in front of him and saw all the Zombies coming toward him. He ran to his car and turned on the engine. He drove away from the farm, crying. After hours of driving he didn’t know where he was. But he was still crying. He drove along a lonely highway. Every hundred meters there were some crashed cars with dead people or Zombies. He knew he was lost. After days of only driving around, he stopped the car on the highway. He took his gun and held it to his head. His eyes hurt and were red. There was no other way. He lost his only hope and he got crazy in the last days. He started conversations with himself and had no food for days.
There was no noise around him. He pulled the trigger, a loud noise came out of the gun.
He took his life, two miles before he reached the military base where he could have been safe with other people who gave up on their hope. But he didn’t make it.