Survive

• Kirtan Singh, Grade 12, St Monica's College - Senior School
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Top Secret 2016' competition

I grew up surrounded by people that were there the day it happened, the day the virus hit. It was an experiment gone wrong. Only people in the city were infected. This gave my parents some time to escape with a few friends and Uncle David. They survived for 5 years until my mother died. I don’t know much about my mother. She died shortly after I was born; my father doesn’t like to talk about it. He raised me and taught me how to fight. I remember my first kill…it wasn’t easy. My father was trapped by someone in the Strangler stage. Stranglers have eyes that glow like Amber and when they charge at you, they grab you by the neck and bring you to the ground. When I saw father on the floor as it continuously tried to bite him, I picked up his gun and shot the Strangler. It took me three shots because I missed the first one. That would be considered a waste of bullets.
The rule is; 2 bullets for the Infected and 4 for survivors. Father always tells me that it’s the survivors that I should be scared of because they can think. The Infected become more like animals. There are three stages to the infection process. Once you are infected with the virus you start to turn into a Strangler. After 6 to 7 days, a Strangler would turn into a Runner. Runners lose their vision but have enhanced hearing so they can know where prey is from afar. They don’t really look that much different from Stranglers the only difference being their size and the pink bacterium that grows around their eyes. Swollens are the worst. They are huge, multi-layered beasts. They have no eyesight but still have enhanced hearing. To make matters worse they are extremely strong.
I’m yet to encounter a Swollen. I hope I never will. From the stories my father tells me, I think I’d find them more revolting than scary, probably because of their excessive fat and lack of visible eyes. That’s why I hate Stranglers. Their eyes are frightening especially during the night. They glow of amber and pierce your heart. You become paralysed with fear.
The only time we travel during the night is when we are close to a checkpoint. The military or whatever’s left of it set up checkpoints in cities. They keep all the infected out and protect the people inside. It takes a couple of months for a city to be declared clean. There’s often trouble in the cities which is why my father gets us places on the edge of them. We can sneak off whenever trouble hits. We leave the city, gather supplies and kill infected. When things get too bad we move to another city. I hate when we have to move but I accept it as what it is.
It’s how we’ve survived for so long.