Entry 8: Miriam Prager

I'm Miriam...  Survivor.  I...  I thought I was over this, but I haven't had to talk about it with the others.  I've barely spoken to them at all.  It's just a fucking recorder.  Everyone I know is dead except Steven.  After what I did to him, I wouldn't have blamed him if he had just left me to the zombies when he saw them.  My parents had me home and one of their neighbors was hacking up loudly for about an hour before my dad decided to see if he could help him out.  We hadn't been watching the news on tv at all, we didn't know.  The incubation period for the infection meant no one we knew had it yet, and it hadn't ended up in the papers.  After my dad didn't come back, my mom went to check on him and barely got into the yard before screaming.  Mr. Jackson had knocked dad out and was biting him in his yard until he heard mom.  He...  Zoms aren't just shambling wrecks when they're fresh.  They don't slow by much until they take damage or dehydrate or start to starve.  He climbed half over the chain-link fence before falling onto our side.  Mom tried to head out the front gate to go check on dad, but Mr. Jackson...  The zom got up and attacked her.  I grabbed my softball bat and ran out to start hitting him.  He just kept biting until she stopped struggling.  I thought he killed her and dad.  I...  I hit him over and over and he still kept coming and I pushed him out into the street.  A few other zoms surrounded him and started coming toward me.  I heard mom tell me to run.  I felt like I was in a nightmare, that I could maybe just wake up and it'd be fine.  But I ran anyways.

Three days later I was trapped in the park when I saw a van going by.  I screamed out and then saw who was in it.  Steven driving, Richard with him.  I could see him look at me and I thought he'd just keep going, but he slammed through a few of the zombies and got me out.  Richard had a shotgun, he fired at a few zoms as I climbed in.  I looked into the hoard as we drove off.  My parents...  What used to be my parents had been heading toward my scream.  Steven saw it too and gripped the steering wheel tighter.  He told me they were gone.  Richard thought he meant the zoms.  I just nodded, bawling a fist against my mouth as I cried.  Despite...  Fuck.  Its still too raw.  I need to get some tissues.