Apocalyptic Love

The blare of the emergency broadcast cut through the usual teenage banter, snatching away the last vestiges of normalcy. Ashley, Melanie, and I, inseparable and laughing moments before, were now glued to the TV screen, our hands clasped tight as the grim reality sunk in: a viral outbreak, fast-acting, fatal, turning the dead into monsters. Our world, once simple, was now shattered.

My mind raced to my family – my parents, my nine-year-old brother, Kyle. The panic was a cold dread in my stomach, a tremor through my body. The banging on the door downstairs was them, my dad’s voice a wave of relief. We left my friends, a silent promise hanging in the air, a desperate hope for a future that suddenly felt impossible. Inside the car, my mother's touch, Kyle's small, trembling body beside me – these were the only anchors in a world turned upside down. The town outside our window was carnage, a horrifying landscape of overturned cars and chaos. This was real. And it was only the beginning.