Introduction

June climbed out of the second-story window of her bedroom, looking down and seeing the swarm. For the first time, her reality was starting to set in. Hard.

She’s alone.

And if she can’t find a way to escape this mess, and fast, she will die a very gruesome death, just like everyone else.

Quickly, she scanned her surroundings for options. She could climb higher, onto the roof? Nope, it’d just make her more stuck. She could jump down? Into the swarm? Even June knew that was suicide. The only thing left was a nearby tree.

BOOM.

The sound of the bedroom door being busted open shocked her back to the current moment. She looked back inside and saw that the swarm had made its way upstairs, devouring her dead sister who had laid up against her bed, trying to heal from the bite wound she had received protecting June.

Without thinking, she jumped towards the tree. Grabbing a branch, she was able to lift herself into the tree. Luckily, this swarm was small enough so all she had to do was climb the tree a bit, and jump down on the other side. Easy enough.

She got a few splinters, and almost fell once or twice, but she made it across and did her best to quietly jump down. With one last look at what was once her safe place, she held her backpack full of essentials close and took off down the street—doing her best to move quickly but silently.

She didn’t know where she was going, but she knew she couldn’t stay here any longer.

Most importantly, she had to find a group. She knew she couldn’t survive long all alone.