Sole Survival: A Zombie Apocalypse Story

Why was it that no one could understand? Raya formulated ideas. She must have been in an accident. She must be terribly scarred or disfigured. She feared learning the truth and she wasn't ready.

Raya maintained a sense of modesty. She could feel that her clothes were torn, though she knew she was covered in the right areas. Night grew colder, though, and she was wearing a skirt that hung just above the knee.

Raya was in the mall to forage.

There was activity in here. A police car had somehow been left in the center of the Willow Glen Mall. Several carousel mounts had fallen to the ground, paying final tribute to the amusement park that had originally occupied this space.

Raya took a moment to examine one of the creatures -- a lion -- first-hand. When she had been a child, Raya had feared this particular object. It had hung carelessly over shoppers, and it must have weighed thousands of pounds.

What if there had been an earthquake or a terrorist event?

Now there had been, and beneath the lion existed a contorted and segmented corpse. A boy.

Despite the carnage, the yearning of Raya's stomach became audible. She looked up to the food court; it was on the second floor. There were voices, and clicking noises. Probably guns. Men who might rape her. Food would have to wait.

Most of the retail stores had steel barriers protecting them. The event, whatever it had been, had occurred in the early morning hours. There were only a few mall walkers out then, so most of the stores were closed.

The chain coffee store was open. It looked green and friendly and inviting, but suddenly Raya didn't want coffee anymore, especially not from Sunbracks. She just needed pants, and then she could leave. She looked back in horror at the fallen animal statues; a grotesque tableaux.

Some of the dead shoppers had dropped money, but the looters weren't interested in money.

Raya scurried quietly from store to store. One of them was open: it was a teen store called Eternally 18. With a sigh, Raya entered, hoping they'd have a plus size section. Raya wasn't obese, but she was hardly eternally 18 -- she was a rather average 35 and a size 10 Latina. She was healthy, or at least she had been, before this.

Eternally 18 was untouched by the looting and events. Though it was dim in there due to generator lighting, Raya observed the store's decor. It was an angel theme, probably something that made the girls who wore this kind of clothing feel better about themselves. In contrast to the decor, most of the clothes had intentional holes or showed a lot of skin.

With night approaching, Raya needed things that would cover her. She finally snagged a green puffy coat and size 9 pants -- the biggest they had. Due to the injuries, it took her a while to don the new items. The jeans wouldn't zip, so she left the elastic waistband skirt on atop them and put her shoes back on.

She was coping -- or refusing to cope -- rather well until she realized she had just changed in the middle of Eternally 18. There were no other shoppers, and she wasn't shopping, she was stealing. No need to use the changing room.

Hearing laughter from the second floor, Raya was reminded of the necessity of leaving.

She thought about where to sleep and remembered a time in Sue-Jo Fabrics when a tired teen had curled up in a sewing display closet for a nap while her mother shopped. An employee had been ready to call emergency services when the teen was discovered, but she had just wanted to sleep.

Such a spot would be ideal now, but there was nothing of the sort in Eternally 18. Fortunately, this store was just next to Darcy's, a large department store chain. The gate was half-open and the lights within were dimmer; at first she had not even noticed the opening at the bottom of the metal gate. Raya snuck in.

It was the junior's department, so she forgot about finding better pants. It was time to find a sleeping spot. Eventually she found one; it was a closed cabinet beneath a register. She could feel dried blood on her face, but she wasn't bleeding any longer. She removed the shelving, hid it, and climbed into the cabinet.

Raya slept.

When she awoke, Raya waited about thirty minutes before exiting her compartment. There were no sounds. She decided to use the bathroom in the department store. She would not flush so as not to attract attention, but at least she could clean her face. Then she could go find her fiance and her dog, a small white Chihuahua who depended upon Raya's care.

She wondered about the overall panic and problem and when TV would come back. She wasn't far from KNOW, the local news radio station. If there was a place to find information, that would be it. The news station would be her next destination, and then she could get to her man and her dog.

Afraid of others, Raya had been holding it. By the time she got to the bathroom, she scurried in and urinated. Out of habit, she locked the stall door. As she went, she thought of a way to fashion a makeshift button extender with some fabric to make the jeans fit more comfortably beneath her skirt, but her hands were having enough trouble.

She managed to use the toilet paper, but her hands shook. Maybe it was lack of sugar. Maybe she was sick.

Raya was shaking too much to clean herself up. She knew the folks at KNOW would understand; perhaps they would be in a position to help her. Maybe they had a first aid kit. Seeing the blood would only make her freak out and probably even feel the pain to a higher degree. Raya avoided the mirror intentionally.

She exited the department store from the garbage exit door to avoid being noticed. The world was empty and dry. Fires burned. She smelled gasoline in the air. She imagined Center City Philadelphia and wondered how long it would be until the place looked like a scene from "12 Monkeys."

Sticking to the mall and then the buildings surrounding the mall, Raya made her way to the news station across the street. KNOW's lights were on. There were people inside.

Raya was hungry.

She was oblivious of the movement around her as she headed towards the station, but her ears could not betray her when she got close.

Moaning. Mumbling. Something trying to understand itself. Her hand reached the door as she spared a second to look.

They were zombies.

A man inside peered with desperation through the glass. The building was surrounded. Raya had a sudden fear. They're going to eat me first.

It took a moment for her to find her voice. None of them had touched her yet. She pounded on the glass and it seemed like slow motion, like the time before her car accident a few years back. Finally, she met the panicked man in the eye as she continued to pound on the door. She tried to articulate, to ask him to let her in. To cry for help.

When she couldn't, she was unsure as to why. Her neck was unharmed, but her voice was gone. All she produced were guttural sounds; mumbles, groans. She attempted to look the man in the eye with her own desperation, but she was met with the truth of him running down a hall, and then her own reflection.

Her skin was grey and her face bloodied. No words would form. She felt panic and so many other things, but her stare was vacant. The zombies were there, at her sides, but none of them tried to harm her.

They welcomed her as a member of their zombie horde.