I wake up in an empty attic with a splitting headache. I touch my head and look at my hand. I see a little amount of blood on it. I try to sit up when I notice a person sitting near a window looking out it. They are covered in heavy black robes I frown slightly trying to look for a way out. I try to stand up but my vision blurs slightly causing me to stumble into the floor. The person turns to me and they have on a gas mask. They walk toward me with a gun in hand. I try to crawl away but I stop when they point a gun at me. A muffled voice comes through the gas mask.

“How did you survive the Vessel?” I stare at the gun then at them.

“What? What are you talking about?” I barely mutter out. They push the gun into my forehead.

“How did you survive the Vessel?” They sound angry and for a split second my headache goes away. I grab the gun twisting it around pointing it away from me. I swiftly kick the person away and stand up pointing the gun at them. They slightly raise their hands as my headache comes back to me causing me to drop the gun. The gun goes off into the wall and the person runs to the window looking out it. After a few minutes, the person comes back over to me as I hold my head in pain. They pick up the gun and put it away. I look up at them as they start to take off their gas mask. The first thing I notice is beautiful piercing blue eyes that stare into me. The second thing I notice is their long blonde hair with their flawless white skin. She glares at me looking me over. “It looks like you are immune.” I stare at her for a second gaping slightly. “What are you staring at?” She says with annoyance.

“Um.. I didn’t.. Nothing.” I try to stand up trying to get rid of my headache. She goes over to the window looking out it. I slowly walk over to it and see my town completely destroyed. Buildings are torn apart, trash litters the street, and some buildings are completely destroyed. I feel a sense of horror come over me as I stare out the window. The women leaves the window and goes to the hatch in the middle of the attic. I look at her and frown following her. “Hey.. wait.”

She turns back to me putting back on her mask. “You’ll be fine. Just don’t stand out and you won’t get attacked.” She opens the hatch and jumps down as I stare down at her. I think for a second and jump down after her. She makes her way through the house and heads outside. I follow as she approaches a hidden car that is covered in tarps. She starts to uncover them but stops once she sees me. “You aren’t coming with me.” I frown slightly and take a step forward.

“I have nowhere else to go.” She shakes her head no removing the rest of the tarps. I go to stand in her way. “I need to go save my brother.” She pauses for a second.

“He is gone. He either got eaten or became apart of the Infection.” I glare at her.

“That’s not true.” I see Flint walk out from behind the car and I frown staring at him. “What are you doing here?” He looks at me.

“To help you.” He walks over to the women as she looks to where I am staring. She looks back at me confused.

“How bad did you hit your head?” Flint stares at her for a second then looks at me.

“Her name is Elizabeth Barkley. She was born twenty years ago. Her parents are named Steven and Mary Barkley. Tell her that if she helps you that you can help find her parents for her.” I stare at him wide eyed in shock. I hear the car door open and slam shut. The car starts and I knock on the window of her car. She doesn’t look at me for a second but slowly rolls down the window.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.” I frown for a second. I look at Flint for a second but I notice that he is gone. I look a little confused but look at it.

“.. I can help you.” She snorts a little and starts to roll up her window.

“No you can’t.”

“I can help you find your parents Elizabeth.” She stops rolling the window up and goes wide eyed. She looks at me a little shocked.

“What… How did you know…” She stops when a loud shriek can be heard from down the street. She looks down towards it unlocking the car. “Get in.” I run around to the passenger’s side door and get in the car. She starts the car driving in the opposite direction from the shriek. As we drive through town, the destruction gets worse and worse. We make it out of town driving along the highway. Many of the surrounding farms are completely leveled including the crops. We drive in silence for a few hours until she pulls over near an overturned car. She looks at me. “Stay here.” She gets out pulling out her gun. She starts to scout the area just like my brother taught me to do.

“Interesting girl you picked up. I would have gone with a little more helpless if I were you.” I jump hearing Flint’s voice behind. I turn around glaring at him. I pause slightly seeing Flint but he looks different. He is wearing a black hoodie and pants. He looks a lot younger also.

“Flint?” He rolls his eyes and makes a face.

“Wrong Zack. I am Nightmare. It will be a lot easier if you just call us Nightmare so it won’t be so confusing.” He starts to search around in the back of the car and pulls out a can of food. He uses his finger nail and cuts a hole in the top of the can.

“Wait what? Us?” He looks up at me and laugh slightly as he starts to pick through the food.

“None of the other one’s told you what is going on? Shocking.” He sounds slightly annoyed. “Basically you are chosen, blah, blah, blah, it’s our job to make sure you succeed, blah, blah, stay away from certain Nightmares, blah, blah.”

“That doesn’t answer anything! Certain Nightmares? What the hell are you talking about?” He shrugs looking up at me.

“Oh gotta go. The new Martha is coming.” I look to see Elizabeth coming back to the car.

“The new Ma..” I turn back to see that he is gone. Elizabeth opens the door.

“I need you to go get gas from the car.” She sounds angry with me. I get out of the car and grab the items needed to get the gas. I head over to the car and start to collect gas from it. I look over to the car and see Elizabeth hiding behind her door with a gun trained on me. I frown standing up.

“What the hell are you doing?” I yell at her as I hear something jump on the top of the car. I look up to see an Infected creature. It looks at me studying me as it hops down. It feels like time slows down for a second as I take in my surroundings. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a sharp metal stake sticking out of the car. I roll across my back grabbing the metal stake. I yank it out of the car as the creature charges me. It tries to claw at me with one of the black tendrils as I throw the metal stake to its head. The metal stake penetrates the head and goes through it sticking into the car door. The creature stumbles around for a second falls to the ground. I back away from the Infected creature watching it. It starts to shake with the black tendrils slowly stop moving. I turn to see Elizabeth slowly approaching me.

“Way to go on killing one of them.” I sit on the ground staring at the body.

“Um.. yea.” She starts to loot the car coming back with a bag.

“Come on. We need to keep going.” I pause looking at her.

“What about the gas?”

“It’s fine. I found some in my car.” I pause for a second and follow her to the car. We get inside and she starts driving. “How do you know my parents?” I pause surprised slightly.

“Um..”

“Don’t play dumb. I saw your training when dealing with the Infected person. Your worked with the government like them right?” I try to think of something but pause.

“No. My brother did.” She doesn’t say anything for a second.

“So how do you plan on helping me find them?” I curse Flint in my head for putting me in this situation. I try to think of a way out of this or at least buy me some time.

“If I tell you, you will just leave me. Once we get closer to the place I will tell you.” She slams the breaks on the car causing it to come to a halt. She takes off her gas mask glaring at me.

“Listen to me, you little shit. If you don’t tell me where my parents are at, I will blow your brains out.” I frown as she starts to pull a gun on me. I panic and say the first thing that appears in my head.

“Union Square.” She pauses confused.

“Union Square.. Why there?” I shrug.

“I don’t know but that’s where we need to go.” She looks at me for a second and puts the gun away.

“Fine. The first time you cause me any trouble. I am ditching you.”