The sun had come up over the horizon and I started to feel its warmth as it hit my frigid skin. It had been a cold night; colder than it had been since the Opening happened and it showed on the frost covered ground where I had been sleeping on the tattered blankets. I managed to find them while rummaging around in abandoned houses in the neighborhood. I blinked my eyes, trying to focus on my surroundings while cupping my hand over them, blocking out some of the brightness of the beaming light. A pile of broken wood lie next to me from the failed attempt at creating a fire the night before. Why hadn’t I paid more attention when Dad tried showing me how to make one? Being a park ranger, he would always come home with dirt and leaves attached to him and his green eyes bloodshot from his allergies acting up. I hadn’t seen Dad in weeks, and I knew I probably never would again.

I tried to gather my thoughts as I threw the blankets off of me and stood up slowly. I was sore from sleeping on the ground and from walking the day before, but I knew I had to keep moving or I wouldn’t survive for long. I pulled on my boots over my blister covered feet and laced them up tightly. I grabbed what I had left of my food and supplies and put it in my holey backpack I had had since I was in middle school. I was going to try and make it to the other side of the city today before the sun went down again and the lurchers came out to hunt.

I began my trudging, limping along the best I could along the pavement of the empty street. The only noise I could hear was that of the wind whistling in my ears and scraping of metal from a nearby fence that was swaying in the wind that had been broken from the riots that had happened. It was deathly quiet, but I felt as if I wasn’t alone all of the sudden. A chill climbed my spine when I realized what was happening.

It began just as fast as it started. I felt the warm breath of the creature on the crown of my head. I had heard of how enormous they were but never realized how terrifying it would be when it was my time to go. It wrapped its clawed hand around the entirety of my body. It smelled of the earth itself. That smell seemed so familiar to me. I couldn’t help but look up at the monster and instead of being stricken with fear, I looked into somehow familiar eyes. No matter what the beast itself might have looked like, I could never forget those eyes. I opened my mouth to speak and ask so many questions but only one word managed to come out. “Dad?”