The heat of the sun warmed my skin as I lay on the sandy beach, listening to the waves lapping away at the shore line. I look over to see my mother and father chatting away in that nonchalant, loving manner they always had and then to my other side seeing my brother smiling and laughing with two pretty, tan girls. I'm sure they were completely under his 'Prince Charming' effect, to which there was no escape for them. That was how it had always been though, Jake was the more likable twin. The only thing we had much in common was our appearance. With jet black hair, a wild spark in our green eyes & an olive complexion to our skin, there was no mistaking we were brother and sister. Yet, by our personalities, we could've been from different planets. While I kept myself stuck in school work, going unnoticed by most, Jake was the football star and prom king. How we even shared the same DNA was beyond my comprehension sometimes.

"Rose! Get over here!" Jake called out.

I replied with a wave & shut my eyes again, noticing a very faint beeping but it faded away when I heard my brother sit down next to me.

"Rosa," he said, using the nickname he had given me when we were very little, "you need to be more social..-"

I opened my eyes, seeing him sitting there talking but instead of words all I heard was the beeping, becoming louder and louder. Slowly the beach starting fading into a blur, along with my parents & finally, with that goofy smirk he had, Jake faded away too. I woke up to my digital watch beeping frantically, alarming me that dawn was approaching and it was time to face another day.

"Couldn't have another five minutes on my tan, could I?" I said to nothing in particular.

Through the sheer curtains of my room, I saw the deep blue turning lighter as the sun began to rise. I laid there a few moments longer, thinking back on the dream of a family I might never have the chance to see again; thinking back on the past 293 days since our world was taken by the creatures I'd learned to call 'walkers'. What they are is obvious the second you see the rotting, used-to-be human type creature stumbling around trying to naw on anything that has a heartbeat. Zombies. The brain-dead monsters you see in horror flicks, but you just know, and you're told time again, that things like that don't exist. Yet, how these things came to be real is still a mystery.

The outbreak happened close to ten months ago and it burned through the population like wildfire. Those that didn't contract it initially were quickly hunted down and eaten, or turned. I haven't seen my family since it started and only heard from my brother once in the very beginning telling me that we would all meet at my grandparents old farm in the mountains. I got here about two months into this mess, & have not seen or heard any sign of my family since. Yes, maybe they're holed up somewhere with a group, getting through this, but that is a far away, deeply buried hope that I cannot allow to bloom any time soon.