I.   the billboards outside of georgia

two years before.

       Mia always liked to count the clouds. Every road trip, every drive, she looked to the sky and counted the clouds. Noticed their shapes. Over time, as the days passed by, she stopped being able to count them and instead just noticed they were there. It was hot in Atlanta. She found herself praying for the clouds to cover the sun for a little while.

Every day was the same. Drive, find shelter, scavenge for food and water, and repeat. Riley Jones was slowly losing his mind. Or maybe he already lost it. The drive through the empty streets of Atlanta was quiet. Paris was asleep. Mia and Lucas were quiet. She continued to stare out the car window. Lucas played with a toy car he found on the road. Riley glanced at him occasionally, thinking of how much he looked like his mother. Then, he got upset. His kids were only twelve and nine. They deserved a better life than what they were living in now.

He watched his daughters from the rearview mirror. "Mia, you doing okay back there?" He voiced.

She finally tore her eyes away from the window. The same honey brown eyes that they shared. "Yes, daddy." She answered softly.

"Lucas?"

"I'm fine dad. Are you?" Lucas said while continuing to play with his toy.

Riley didn't answer. He drove slowly through the streets. The city had been raided by corpses. Blood stained the streets with trash littering everywhere you look. There wasn't a person in sight. Everything was gone. "Yeah, buddy. I'm doing just fine."

Paris stirred in her car seat. Soft groans left her lips.

Riley looked back into the mirror and smiled. "Sleep well, baby girl?" He asked his youngest daughter.

Paris rubbed her tired eyes. "Where are we?"

"We're passing through Atlanta." 

It had been months since they fled their home in Dallas. The only thing they could focus on was survival and they were barely able to do that. They were running low on food and Riley knew he was going to have to go on another run soon. The sun was beginning in to sink in the sky, a brilliant orange enveloping over the blue. The radio read 7:30 pm.

"Daddy, I'm hungry." Paris started to get fussy.

"We'll stop in a little bit honey, okay?" Riley spoke softly, his eyes scanning the roads carefully.

"No, I want to stop now!" The nine year old groaned.

"Paris, listen to dad." Lucas warned from the front seat.

"No!"

"Stop being a brat!"

"Hey, Lucas, stop," their father warned. "Paris, we'll stop soon, I promise—"

And that's when the tears came. Paris let out a chocking sob. Mia stayed quiet, observing the anxiety that washed over her family.

"Paris." Riley said in a deep voice. "Stop it."

"Stop!" Lucas nearly shouted.

But she didn't stop. She was a little girl and little girls cried. In terms of their situation, crying and being afraid was something you had to keep to yourself in order to keep yourself hidden.

The cries of his nine year old daughter filled Riley's ears like stabbing needles. It made his blood run cold. His bones rattled in his body and he found himself squeezing the steering wheel tightly. The silence that enclosed the car space was gone and all he could hear was the ear splitting screeches of his crying daughter.

Mia began to shake from her seat in the back. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. She felt tears form in her eyes but she sucked them back in. Fear crept in her bones but all she could do was stay silent. She watched her father snap and whirl his head around. "Paris, please!"

"Dad, look out!" Lucas shouted while pointing in front of him.

Everything went black.

To watch another life being taken from something ungodly was the worst experience a person could have. To hear the screams of that person as their flesh is being torn from their body, to see the blood seeping out was enough to traumatize someone. But what hurt more was not being able to do anything about it. The world does not prepare you for that type of misery, especially a child. A child who had already lost one person they loved.

The smell of blood and smoke filled Mia's nose and it chilled her to the core. Her vision was blurry and in and out of focus. The slightest movement of her head made her want to cry out in pain. The tears steaming down her face mixed with the blood that wetted her skin. Her tiny body was sunken into the floor board of the crashed vehicle and folded under a blanket to hide herself. The crash came so sudden that she barely had time to process it.

The bitter her dad hit laid in the middle of the road, ten feet away from the crashed car.

Mia peaked her head out from under the scratchy blanket and looked around the mangled car. Broken glass from the windows scattered all over the ground, stained with blood. She felt something grab her hand and before she could yell, her eyes met with her twin brother and he held a finger to his lips, signaling for her to be quiet.

The moaning and groaning of corpses surrounded them, sending a wave of fear over the twelve year old girl. Lucas wrapped his arms around his sister and pulled her close to muffle her heavy breathing. Their brown eyes saw two corpses staggering around the busted car, their hollowed eyes looking for their next meal. The smell of their rotting flesh along with the metallic blood almost made them gag.

From the angle of the car, they could see out the busted window. In their line of vision laid two bodies, their forms twisted in a disturbing way. The corpses hovered over the unmoving bodies and before the twins could blink, the corpse's teeth sunk into the skin of the bodies. Blood gushed from the open wounds of the teared flesh and the metallic smell became worse. Lucas felt his heart sink into his stomach.

Realization hit Mia like a truck and Lucas noticed because he quickly wrapped his hand around her neck and covered her mouth with both his hands. She cried into his palm. Lucas couldn't look away from the scene. The corpses had completely ripped through the bodies like they were some kind of animal. His mouth hung open, brown eyes full of shock and it wasn't until he looked around the destroyed car and realized it was just him and Mia that he finally understood. The corpses were destroying his father and sister. They were gone, devoured by the undead. His body began to shake but he didn't cry. He couldn't cry because if he did it would give up him and his twin. So they sat hidden in the backseat of the car under a blanket, hearing the groaning of the corpses eating the last bit of family they had left.

Time passed slowly. It was almost excruciatingly slow. The sun had went down completely leaving a dark sky hovering over the world but there were no stars, only a dead and muddy black. The corpses had disappeared finally, satisfied with their meal. Lucas peaked from under the cover to see they were alone. His arm was still around Mia, who's body shook violently against his. "Mia, come on." He whispered to her before letting go and careful climbing out the window. He held his hands out for her to help her out.

Mia's soul was crushed at the sight of the mangled bodies of her father and little sister. Guts were strung out on the concrete and a pool of blood surrounding them. She let out a despondent cry. Her bones feeling like they were crushing inside her. Her heart shrunk in her chest. She felt her legs shake violently and began to collapse from under her.

Lucas caught her before she fell and they sunk to the ground together. He pulled her into his chest and let her cry as he stared at his dead father and sister. They were almost unrecognizable. Their bodies were torn in half, stomachs ripped out to where you could see the ground from under them. Paris's tiny body was almost completely gone. Lucas felt like he was going to throw up.

The twins sat on the concrete in misery, staring at what once was their family. It was dark outside and they could barely see what was around them. That's when Lucas began to panick. "Mia, we have to hide."

But she didn't move. Her dark eyes couldn't seem to look away from the mangled bodies.

Lucas shook her shoulder. "Mia, it's dark outside. We have to hide in the car till morning."

Mia opened her mouth but all that came out was a choked sob. She shook her head. "They're gone, Luke."

"I know Mia but we're all that's left and we need each other."

The twins slept in the flipped car that night, two blankets covering their bodies so they couldn't be seen. But they didn't sleep. It was hard too when they were filled with anxiety. They were alone in the ugly world now. All they had was each other.