Episode 8: Runaway

Episode 8

"Runaway"

(Bay's Point of View)

I started walking through the forest. A lot has happened, I just heard that Elise left after Ryan's death. I don't blame her, losing your husband, then your son in a matter of weeks. It was daytime, so I don't think I had to be afraid of any of Ryder's bandits. I felt safe, I made sure not to wander too far out though. I started thinking about more from my past.

When I was younger, I ran away lots. I was a bad kid, a troubled kid for sure. My parents were arrested when I was young for drug smuggling. My uncle took me in, he was the reason I didn't end up being a hard end criminal. By the time I was thirteen, I had already been in juvie once. I wouldn't say I was a bad person, just mislead. I was now twenty two, and was still living with my uncle. He was getting old, but he supported me every step of the way. I couldn't find a job, because every time I would apply for a job, they would see that I had been to juvie, and I would get rejected immediately. My uncle tried being as supportive as possible, but I knew I got on his nerves a lot. We lived in a small apartment in Kingston.

One day, I was leaving the house to go hang out with my group of friends. They were good people, but the rest of the world viewed them as bad. They were druggies, but that doesn't make you a bad person. My uncle was okay with them, since he was the one person who understood me well. I borrowed my uncle's car and drove to the pizza place where I would meet them. When I got there I saw them sitting in the parking lot smoking joints. I parked the car and got out. I walked over to the group. The group consisted of five people, Jason, Hilary, Phillip, Rachel, and Patricia. All of these people were seen as delinquents, but they really were good people once you got to know them. Hilary and Patricia were best friends, they never left each other's sight, Jason and Rachel were in love with each other, but apparently her dad didn't approve or something, so they always had to hang out away from him. Phillip just kept to himself most of the time, I had a small crush on him, but I would never admit it openly.

"Hey." Phillip said, handing me a smoke, I handed it back to him.

"What's wrong with you guys?" I asked, "You're gonna walk into the pizzeria smelling like weed. What are they gonna think?"

"Oh come on Bay, it's just a pizza place, we're not headed to a five star restaurant." Phillip said.

"Whatever, I'm not getting high yet. Let's just go eat." I said, heading into the pizzeria.

We did these kinds of things once a week, we would meet up, smoke a little, and go eat. We were always looked at differently by most people, whenever we went places together, some parents would keep their kids a safe distance away from us like we were some kind of criminals. I wasn't ashamed though, I loved these people, they were my family. One night, that all changed. I was sitting at my apartment when I got a call, I answered the phone and it was from Phillip, he was panicking.

"Bay! Bay!" he cried.

"What?" I asked.

"It's Rachel, she is in the hospital, with severe injuries. You need to get here fast!"

I hung up the phone and I took my uncle's car, I sped off towards the hospital, not caring about the speed limit. Once I arrived, I ran into the hospital and saw everyone in the waiting room. Jason was crying, and Phillip was trying to make him feel better. Patricia and Hilary were taking selfies, they always were self absorbed. I sat down next to Phillip.

"What the hell happened?" I asked.

"Rachel's god damn father! That's what happened! He never likes us together! He beat the shit out of her!" Jason yelled.

"How do you know it's him?" I asked.

"He ran away shortly after it happened. A neighbour found Rachel in her house after the argument."

We sat in the waiting room for a long time, I noticed while we were in there, we were looked at the same way people always look at us. Bad people. Even the nurses gave us looks, I could tell. The thing was I was so used to it by now it didn't even matter. I just kept my head down and acted like I didn't see them. After hours of waiting, we finally got an answer, a nurse went to get us.

"Jason? Is a Jason here?" she asked.

"That's me." Jason got up suddenly.

"Come with me."

We all got up with him, but the nurse stopped us there.

"Only Jason." she said.

"Go home guys," Jason began, "you have been good support, go get some rest."

We went home as instructed, and I headed to the car, Phillip followed me to my car. He slapped the hood and scared me. I screamed, and he started laughing.

"Dammit Phillip! Why'd you do that! Can't you just put off the games for one night?"

"Sorry," he said, "just trying to lighten the mood."

"Well you suck at it."

"This whole thing is pretty crazy huh, I've met Rachel's dad several times, he seemed like such a cool guy. Eric was his name, right?"

"I don't care what his name is, he's a monster. Can't believe he'd do something like that. I knew he didn't like Rachel dating anyone, but this was harsh."

Phillip hugged me, I was surprised at first, but I just went along with it. He backed away after a couple of seconds.

"It'll be okay," he said, "I'm sure Rachel is just fine. They'll catch Eric, and put him in his place."

While he was talking, I leaned in and kissed him, it lasted a long time too. I didn't know what I was doing, but I just kept doing it. Phillip and I just stood there in the parking lot, kissing. Phillip just went with it too.

Shortly after, Rachel was pronounced dead from internal injuries. A manhunt started for Eric, they never found him. Phillip and I started going out, and Jason moved away, we never saw him again. Then about a year later, the apocalypse hit.

I was in my apartment with Phillip. I heard a scream outside, followed by many others, I headed towards the window and looked out of it. I backed away in horror, there were people attacking each other, ripping people to shreds, strangling each other, beating the life out of each other.

"Phillip?" I called in a shaky voice.

He walked in the room with his toothbrush in his mouth.

"What is it?"

"What the hell is going on outside?"

He walked over to the window saw exactly what I saw. The toothbrush dropped from his mouth, he ran to the bathroom and spit the toothpaste out and rinsed his mouth with water, he then started instantly packing.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Should have listened to the news, should have!"

"What is going on?"

"The news have been warning people that some virus is going around, and we should get to the nearest city where they will have vaccines. Toronto. I didn't think it was a big deal since we weren't sick, but we were wrong."

"What virus?" I panicked.

The front door shook, something was pounding on it. Phillip turned slowly and watched as the door got kicked in slowly.

"Get something to defend yourself with."

"But-"

"Now!"

I grabbed a carving knife from the kitchen and got ready, Phillip made sure I was behind him. He had a rifle which he used to go hunting once in a while, good thing he had it.

"Phillip what is going on?" I asked.

"Some outbreak, there had been reported cases of people having weird, violent activity who were infected, but that was only a handful of people down in the U.S. I didn't think it would reach up here, I thought we'd be safe."

The door finally got broken down, and three angry sick people piled in, they growled and slowly stared circling us around the room.

"Bay run!" Phillip yelled, he fired his gun and hit a sick person in the stomach, they fell to the ground, only to get back up, this time angrier than ever. Two of them pounced on Phillip, one darted for me. I stabbed it in the eye with my knife, killing it instantly. I yanked the knife out and looked at Phillip who was getting ripped apart by those things. He still managed to look me dead in the eye, and say,

"Run."

I listened to him, I couldn't save him, and I heard more of them coming. I left Phillip to die, and escaped the apartment.

I ran, once I got outside I saw a bunch of poor people that didn't listen to the news. They were getting ripped apart, screaming for help. I ran, and I kept on running. I survived on my own for a couple of weeks, just barely on scraps. After the end of the second week, I gave up. I was sitting in the middle of the forest, sitting up against a tree trunk. I had a pistol next to me, I was lucky enough to find it. I was starving, and dehydrated. I picked up the gun and put it in my mouth, I closed my eyes, and was about to pull the trigger until I heard the sound of a twig snapping in front of me. I opened my eyes and saw a funny looking man, he was wearing a checkered white shirt, skinny jeans and had long brown hair, he was tall and skinny, and was looking straight at me. There were a bunch of men and women behind him. I took the gun out of my mouth and kept looking at him. He reached his hand out to me and smiled.

"I'm Ryder. It looks like you need some help, because last time I checked, guns weren't on my grocery list."

I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up, all of the people behind him were well equipped, and they looked pretty healthy. Maybe this was my break. But it wasn't, it was the start of a war.

I stopped thinking about my past, it hurt too much to think about it. I snapped back to reality. It was getting cold out in the forest anyways, I think it's time to turn back to Stan's mansion. I turned around and saw Ryder in front of my face, I gasped and a hand covered around my mouth, preventing me from screaming.

"Oh Bay," Ryder began, "You've been bad, bad, bad."

He then punched me across the face, I blacked out.