Ava Knightly was your average 26 year old, middle class, women. She had just finshed university. And instead of working a job that showcased all the hard work she had done in the last four years she was in retail. She was also average in the sense that on Sunday night when she was watching TV and a missing persons report came on, average thoughts came into her head. “I hope the family is okay” “wonder what happpened?” And of course, the one that is only ever said in your head, “they’re probably dead in a ditch somewhere.”

A man’s reflection appeared on the screen, he had brown shaggy hair and a matching beard, he had green eyes like Ava’s only his were dark like a damp forest while hers were light like grass right before it dies. He’s standing next to a group of people dressed in suits that match his navy blue one. The reporter identified him as Ethan Jones, age 29, no kids or wife however when parents made a surprise visit and found his apartment destroyed and their son missing they went into panic mode, rightfully so.

There’s a short clip played of them, Ethans parents, crying and begging people to keep a look out for their son. The screen then changed abruptly onto the football matches over the weekend and then on to politics. Ava took the political debate as a cue to go and refill her snacks.

She had stocked up on them last Tuesday and intended to eat the majority of them before her mother could see the multitude of food stuffed in the cupboard and make a comment about her weight. It’s not like Ava was fat or anything, she just wasn’t skinny. Right in the middle of the size scale, which Ava didn’t think was a bad place to be. However her mother, who had been a model back in the 80s could barely stand to look at Ava’s figure for longer then a minute. Her reaction to Ava gaining 5 pounds while going on a summer trip with her university friends was almost as bad when Ava told her she wanted to study Art History instead of starting her beauty journey.

But Ava had to put her mum out of her mind if she was going to finish this bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Sundays were Ava’s day and no one else’s. She never had work on Sundays because the shops owner was catholic and refused to open on the day of rest. So instead Ava did whatever she wanted. But over the last year her Sundays had turned into a very traditional routine. She woke up around ten and grabbed a drive through breakfast on the way to the art gallery, there she would check out any new exhibits and revisit her favourite ones. Then, after 3 or 4 hours, she would return home and just watch movies.

She had already watched two today and while looking for a third one she had flicked onto the news while they were talking about baby animals in news, which would have been cruel to turn off. Then at some point the remote vanished into the sofa so Ava just accepted that she would be watching the news.

She had finshed filling up her bowl of crisps and was just reaching for a can of coke in her fridge when the door bell rang. Ava paused in confusion. Who on earth would be ringing her doorbell and 8 o’clock at night, she wasn’t that late, but it was November and it had been dark for quite a while now. Sighing, while closing the fridge door, Ava tied up her dressing gown in an attempt to hide her stain covered shirt and set down the corridor to her door.

She could make out a vague shape through the distorted window in her front door but not detailed enough to take a good guess about who waited on the other side. Ava reached for the handle of the door and turned it to see… huh?… Now why did he look so familiar.

Not familiar as in ‘he lives on the street and I’ve seen him in his car’ or in a ‘I think I might have bumped into him at a supermarket once.’ But non the less familiar.

The man stood there staring at her and breathing really heavily, like he’d just run a marathon. Ava wouldn’t be surprised if he had. Sweat marks were on the edge of my green shirt, his shoes and the bottom of his black jeans were covered in splatters of mud. Ava had time to notice all of this while the man still panted, looking at her like she was the cure for cancer. Which was kinda weird.

“Can I help you?” Ava asked uncertainty.

The man’s glasses were squint and were about to fall of, but behind his glasses his eyes were a beautiful shade of green, almost like a damp forest… wait like a what?

“Oh my God, are you Ethan Jo-“ Ava didn’t have time to finish her question before Ethan grabbed her arms and shoved her back into her house, before turning around and locking the door behind her. To say she was shocked was an understatement. He turned back around and Ava backed herself into the wall, scared of the sudden change in atmosphere. As if being able to sense her terror, Ethan stepped away from her before walking back through her corridor to the kitchen while simultaneously turning his head and yelling back at her.

“I know you don’t remember me, that’s fine. But you’ve got to trust me okay? I really need to use your phone.” Then he was gone, turned around the corner leaving amber standing against the wall with her heartbeat nearly breaking her rib cage.

Suddenly the realisation of having a strange man, a missing man who currently had a police search happening for him, barging through her house and searching for her phone (that had extremely private things on it) hit her like a bag of bricks.

“Hey wait a second!” She called running down the corridor trying not to slip in her fluffy socks, “what do you think your doing?! Get the hell out of my house!” Her screaming fell on deaf ears as Ethan, if that was his real name, had already unlocked her phone and started punching something into the search bag of google. How did he know her passcodes?

“I get that you’re scared” he said, splitting his attention between her and the phone in front of him, “but you’ve got to trust me their isn’t enough time to fully explain everything so just roll with it yea?”

Ava was not going to roll with it.

“PUT MY FUCKING PHONE DOWN YOU CREEP” she screeched. Ethan stilled and turned to face her, the still glowing phone clutched in his hand that hung limply by his side. His green eyes full of surprise and his glasses no less askew then when she saw him for the first time, she remembered that as being two minutes ago but this guy seemed to think otherwise.

Maybe he was mental ill. Oh God. Ava had just screamed the f word at a mental unstable man who was a good 5 inches taller then her and could easily kill her with brute strength if he so wished to. Oh God. Ava regretted not signing up for those self defence classes at uni and instead just going out and getting drunk every night.

Ethan was still staring at her, she began to fidget. She couldn’t help it. The intensity of his stare made her severely uncomfortable and without her phone calling the police certainly wasn’t an option and with all of the fights between her and her mum the neighbours probably wouldn’t think anything strange was going on if she stated to yell. This was it, there was no way out of it, he was going to kill her and then go down the street and knock on some other defenceless girls door and kill her to, the cycle would repeat until he was caught. She should have listened to get mum when she said to get one of those door bells with the litter camera so you ca-

“Did you just swear at me?” Ethan asked.

“Yea” Ava answered in a weak over that sounded more confident in her head.

“You hate swearing, you say people who swear only do it beycase they don’t have the vocabulary to properly get their point across.” That was… correct. Ava can remember saying those exact words before, letter for letter. That had been her policy on swearing for as long as she could remember.

Who the hell was this guy.

“I understand that everything must seem really scary right now, but I need to make a quick phone call but then I’ll sit down and I will explain everything, okay Millie.” He took a step closer but Ava wasn’t scared anymore, just confused really.

Her middle name was Millicent but she had always hated it, named after some dead aunt who she never met. It made her feel old and detached from her family and everyone had a story about Anut Millicent besides the person who was given her name to carry on. But hearing this man call her Millie didn’t make her cringe of subconsciously scowl. It brought back that weird feeling of familiarity she had experienced when she saw him for the first time.

Having run out of options, (as previously discussed fighting him was out the window) Ava had no choice but to agree, she nodded her head before jumping back as Ethan came closer opened his arms and came in for a… hug.

Reacting to her retreat he looked back at her and made a face that could only be compared to a kicked puppy. “You really don’t remember do you. At all.”

Ava shrugged her shoulders, “remember what?”

Hearing this Ethan’s face dropped even more, before he shook his head and headed into the corridor to take his phone call. Ava could make out his hushed voice after a few minutes and she could feel herself coming down with a headache.

What in the world had just happened? And more importantly, what was about to happen?

The apocalypse sucks.

I know that that seems pretty obvious but it really does.

Like I’m 17 and instead of going to parties and getting drunk, like people did 40 years ago, I’m learning how to shoot a sawed off shotgun. We’ve tried to throw parties but once a large group of adolescents crack open a whiskey bottle it’s all over. We were way to loud, got caught within half an hour. As punishment we all had to run 15 extra laps the next day followed by a very stern assembly about why throwing parties when zombies lurk right outside your doorstep isn’t a good idea, but we were all out hung over to really be listening.

Also hygiene goes right out the window. I mean the dorms aren’t so bad, but that’s because we have routine cleaning every Thursdays before lunch. But when your sent out on tasks the smell is unbearable. Mould and fungus cover almost every surface and one girl, Clara, was so sensitive that she couldn’t stop throwing up and is now strictly on communications. There is also no hot water, which I don’t understand because you have electricity but not boiler? But im not a engineer so hey, what do I know?

Speaking of the dorms, imagine a one person room with two bunk beds shoved into the corners and random bags with clothe stuffed into them hanging from every hook and littered over all the floor then reduce the size by 4.

Yea, there tiny.

I got lucky though. I get along with all of my room mates. I’ve heard some horror stories about kids from other camps killing their roomies in their sleep. And sure, Ross threatens to kill us when we annoy him (which is all the time) but in reality he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Which isn’t a very good quality to have when your suppose to be killing zombies for a living.

Ross sits beside me right now in morning announcements, he stares straight forward taking in every word and piece of information that he can. Caleb, who sits on the other side of him, makes scribbles down notes to fast I think his wrist might dislocate. He’s one of the few of us that stilll have a living parent, his dad is a scientist currently working on a cure in Florida, (which everyone has pretty much forgotten about beaucse they have been working on it for over 10 years) they never see each other but some how they have the closest bond of any two people I’ve ever met. He takes everything way to seriously if you ask me.

And finally to my left is the fourth and final inhabitant of dorm 74… my best friend… the best shooter in the whole facility… Mitch.

Who is currently asleep.

Honestly I can’t blame him though, I can barley keep my eyes open right now. The only important things you need to listen to are the group assignments for that day and then it’s all about trades and other boring stuff like that, I would be asleep right now expect our commander is sitting behind us right now and the last time I fell asleep in front of him he kicked my chair and I fell on the floor. The reason Mitch can get away with it is because he is constantly asleep and everyone has given up on telling him off by now.He successfully completes all assignments and is a perfect marksman with any weapon so who cares if he sleeps through meetings or sometimes starts fights in the canteen?

The assembly ends with all of us standing and saluting the Head, Mitch is jerked awake and stumbles up and gives a half-hearted salute. If I had done any of those things things I would have been put into solitary confinement.

We march out of the assembly and disperse into the halls. Ross and Caleb walk briskly ahead of Mitch and I talking about how we were going to carry out our mission.

“What’s our assignment?” Mitch slurs from beside me, still half asleep.

Caleb stops walking and turns to face Mitch who nearly walks right into him. “You have got to stop falling asleep in assembly, we can’t repeat everything twice just for you.” The order falls on deaf ears as this argument had happened almost every morning for the past 4 years and Mitch continues to snooze away.

“Stop being an asshole dude, just tell me.” Mitch grumbles and rubs his eyes.

“We’ve got night watch.” Ross speaks up.

Mitch is definitely awake now.