From the letter written by Karen Gallagher, April 18

This letter was found in the Archive by Ruth while she was organizing the entries. It was written by a teenager who ended up alone after the pandemic hit and decided to head for another relations house. It was probably more common for this to happen in the beginnging than people want to believe. How many kids and teenagers ended up alone? And how many of them ended up surviving past a couple of days, let alone for longer?

April 18, 2017

   

 My name is Karen Gallagher and I'm totally screwed. I'm only 13 years old and I'm totally alone. My Dad came home from work at the Home Depot and he'd been bit by one of his coworkers who was in the back room for who knows how long.

     My Mom still hasn't come home. I'm not surprised because she works in an eye clinic at the local health center. After watching the last news show, and I mean the last because the TV went off after that, I bet she got killed at work. They said that most hospitals were overrun by undead who came from the morgues and sometimes someone dies in a room and is not discovered right away and was able to turn. These first zombies were able to infect whole hospitals of patients who were not able to get away from them because they were already sick or hurt. This next wave of undead spread out from the hospitals to the neighborhoods around them and then even more from there!

It's been two weeks since Dad came home bit. I took care of him for a week before he died. He got really sick and I knew he wasn't going to make it that first day. The news had told us that anyone who was bit or scratched could turn, especially if the person got sick. They never said if anyone had lived after being bit, but I bet no one has.

     Dad got a fever and cough that first day after he came home, then he started shivering and shaking. I had to keep turning him on his side when he threw up or coughed up the stuff in his lungs and I didn't know what to do most of the time. The aspirin didn't help his fever and I had to throw him in the tub with cold water to bring his fever down, and I only knew to do that because I saw it on some TV show.

     By the end, he looked like a zombie that was still breathing and just hadn't realized he was dead yet. I was relieved when he finally died, sad, too. But I was relieved it was over. He was suffering so badly and I couldn't stand to see him that way. He was my Dad, he was always strong and brave and now he was dead.

     I was alone for the first time in my life and so scared I went to bed and huddled under the blankets for the rest of the day and night. That was a week ago. I've just been on auto pilot for the last seven days. But this morning, I woke up with a plan kind of formed last night. I'm going to head to Aunt Stacey's house. She is the closest relative to our house and is only 30 miles away.

     I wrote this letter in case you make it home Mom. This will let you know what has happened and where I'm going. The old Toyota is in the driveway and Dad has kept it running this whole time. The gas tank was filled up a month ago when Mom's car was broken.

     Mom, if you see this, I did what I could for Dad and hope to see you at Aunt Stacey's! If someone other then my Mom sees this, know that it wasn't Dad's fault that he died or Mom's fault she never made it home.

As a writer and artist, I appreciate any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the art we produce in our Etsy store at etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at @ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.