Not Ready to Die
Brand New Day
Ever since the apocalypse started, I’ve lost all those dearest to me except my 16 year old sister McKenna. The day it happened was a year ago if I’ve counted the calendar right. It seems silly for a grown man to be writing in a diary, but if things ever get better, I’d like for my story to go on for however long I may live. I may die before the resurrection of our kind happens.
I should explain who I am. My name is Brian Haner Jr. I am…was the guitarist for the band Avenged Sevenfold. We had a couple of CD’s, one that went gold. You could say that we were living the dream. Until our best friend Jimmy died. That was a hard year for us but had we known that we would be living the way we live now…maybe it was better that Jimmy passed before this all happened.
I still miss Jimmy dearly.
It all started when we were on tour after our new CD dropped. Still in the middle of our tour, the CDC and the news told everyone to remain calm and seek shelter in larger cites. So we had to cut our tour short and try to reach Atlanta, since the last place we played was Columbus, GA.
Atlanta wasn’t a safe haven and I ended up losing 2 of my best friends; Johnny and Zack. It was a horrible experience. I don’t feel like going into detail about what happened to them. All that I can say is that they were ripped a part before my eyes. I was separated from Matt and Arin, I’m hoping they are still alive but in this world…you shouldn’t dwell on hope for the living.
I’m glad to have McKenna with me. She was with us on tour when it all went down. It was her summer vacation so why not? Suzy and dad called one last time before the phones were cut out to tell us they loved us and hope that we made it through. As far as I know, they may still be alive. I don’t even know if my wife is alive…Michelle. I miss her so much and I’ve spent some nights crying silently, horrified at the thought of those…things getting to her. She called before dad did, and said that she was safe for the time being. I wanted to talk to her forever and wanted her with me so badly. If I had known of the events that unfolded, I would have made her come on tour.
We have traveled many places; towns that I have long forgotten their name. But I remember some in particular...
Story with Dialogue
After 6 months of infection McKenna and I ended up in a small town of Macon. We ended up living in an abandoned motel; Travelier Motel. It seemed that camp had been set up here at one point but had been overrun by undead or bandits. We cleaned it up and tried to rebuild the barriers. Whoever was here before did a good job making camp.
We moved the bodies out of the camp, looted their guns and set up in one of the rooms. Only took us morning and part of the afternoon.
“Brian, do you think that we will stay here long?” McKenna says as she plops into a chair.
“I sure hope so. I feel like we’ve been running for too long.” I say. I stretch and lay down on the bed.
Nice enough that it’s a room with two beds. McKenna yawns and digs into her backpack and pulls out a book. She tries to keep her sanity by reading. She picks up new ones wherever we go and leaves others behind.
“Reading a new one I see. What one?” I say peering over to read the title.
“Love Story by Erich Segal, it’s a very different kind of love story for sure.” She says, turning the page.
I roll onto my back and lose myself in thought. I think back to the good old days, thinking about how this world only existed in the movies. About my wife, my family, all the things I hold dear to me. It brings a tear to my eye for a moment and I hurry to wipe it away. I don’t like McKenna seeing me like this; I want her to think that everything will be alright, but I think this world is already starting to harden her.
She reads for a while and I sort through the weapons we’ve picked up. So far we have 2 hunting knives, 3 handguns with a couple boxes of bullets for them, and a Taser we picked up at a farm not too far from here. I did have a shotgun at one point but lost it trying to run from a herd of walkers.
I start to clean each gun.
“Brian, I’m still not used to using guns. I know I’ve had to use them before” McKenna states, putting down her book and walking over to me “…but I still feel uncomfortable.”
“That’s understandable. We never had to use guns in the lives we had before. We had them, but nothing was trying to eat us then.” I continue, trying to focus on the gun.
“I suppose I’ll have to get used to it.” Sighing, McKenna sits on the other bed. “I didn’t imagine living in a world like this before turning 18. I wish I could have graduated high school at least.”
I look over and laugh “I’m pretty sure the things you learned in high school aren’t useful in this world. Except maybe learning about Darwinism. That seems to be a constant with everybody nowadays.”
“Okay I’m superficial, but there are many things I wanted to accomplish that I probably never will.” She sniffs after saying this.
I look over at her and think about how hard this has been on her. She is way too young for this. I put the gun down and attempt to reach over to her.
“No! I can’t be a fucking crybaby about this. This is the world we live in and I have to get used to this!”
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard her say that. She has an ongoing battle with accepting the fact that dad, Suzy, everyone we knew is probably gone. I don’t say anything, at the risk of upsetting her. She’s sensitive to the topic of the people in our past life.
After a while we look over the motel and check to make sure everything is secure and head back to the room to try and sleep. We sleep in rounds and I usually take first shift, but today was different after hauling dead bodies around. So McKenna takes first shift and I drift to sleep.
“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!” I wake up and turn my head to see a shotgun pointed in my face. My eyes widen as I see a woman pointing the gun at me, ready to shoot.
I should explain who I am. My name is Brian Haner Jr. I am…was the guitarist for the band Avenged Sevenfold. We had a couple of CD’s, one that went gold. You could say that we were living the dream. Until our best friend Jimmy died. That was a hard year for us but had we known that we would be living the way we live now…maybe it was better that Jimmy passed before this all happened.
I still miss Jimmy dearly.
It all started when we were on tour after our new CD dropped. Still in the middle of our tour, the CDC and the news told everyone to remain calm and seek shelter in larger cites. So we had to cut our tour short and try to reach Atlanta, since the last place we played was Columbus, GA.
Atlanta wasn’t a safe haven and I ended up losing 2 of my best friends; Johnny and Zack. It was a horrible experience. I don’t feel like going into detail about what happened to them. All that I can say is that they were ripped a part before my eyes. I was separated from Matt and Arin, I’m hoping they are still alive but in this world…you shouldn’t dwell on hope for the living.
I’m glad to have McKenna with me. She was with us on tour when it all went down. It was her summer vacation so why not? Suzy and dad called one last time before the phones were cut out to tell us they loved us and hope that we made it through. As far as I know, they may still be alive. I don’t even know if my wife is alive…Michelle. I miss her so much and I’ve spent some nights crying silently, horrified at the thought of those…things getting to her. She called before dad did, and said that she was safe for the time being. I wanted to talk to her forever and wanted her with me so badly. If I had known of the events that unfolded, I would have made her come on tour.
We have traveled many places; towns that I have long forgotten their name. But I remember some in particular...
Story with Dialogue
After 6 months of infection McKenna and I ended up in a small town of Macon. We ended up living in an abandoned motel; Travelier Motel. It seemed that camp had been set up here at one point but had been overrun by undead or bandits. We cleaned it up and tried to rebuild the barriers. Whoever was here before did a good job making camp.
We moved the bodies out of the camp, looted their guns and set up in one of the rooms. Only took us morning and part of the afternoon.
“Brian, do you think that we will stay here long?” McKenna says as she plops into a chair.
“I sure hope so. I feel like we’ve been running for too long.” I say. I stretch and lay down on the bed.
Nice enough that it’s a room with two beds. McKenna yawns and digs into her backpack and pulls out a book. She tries to keep her sanity by reading. She picks up new ones wherever we go and leaves others behind.
“Reading a new one I see. What one?” I say peering over to read the title.
“Love Story by Erich Segal, it’s a very different kind of love story for sure.” She says, turning the page.
I roll onto my back and lose myself in thought. I think back to the good old days, thinking about how this world only existed in the movies. About my wife, my family, all the things I hold dear to me. It brings a tear to my eye for a moment and I hurry to wipe it away. I don’t like McKenna seeing me like this; I want her to think that everything will be alright, but I think this world is already starting to harden her.
She reads for a while and I sort through the weapons we’ve picked up. So far we have 2 hunting knives, 3 handguns with a couple boxes of bullets for them, and a Taser we picked up at a farm not too far from here. I did have a shotgun at one point but lost it trying to run from a herd of walkers.
I start to clean each gun.
“Brian, I’m still not used to using guns. I know I’ve had to use them before” McKenna states, putting down her book and walking over to me “…but I still feel uncomfortable.”
“That’s understandable. We never had to use guns in the lives we had before. We had them, but nothing was trying to eat us then.” I continue, trying to focus on the gun.
“I suppose I’ll have to get used to it.” Sighing, McKenna sits on the other bed. “I didn’t imagine living in a world like this before turning 18. I wish I could have graduated high school at least.”
I look over and laugh “I’m pretty sure the things you learned in high school aren’t useful in this world. Except maybe learning about Darwinism. That seems to be a constant with everybody nowadays.”
“Okay I’m superficial, but there are many things I wanted to accomplish that I probably never will.” She sniffs after saying this.
I look over at her and think about how hard this has been on her. She is way too young for this. I put the gun down and attempt to reach over to her.
“No! I can’t be a fucking crybaby about this. This is the world we live in and I have to get used to this!”
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard her say that. She has an ongoing battle with accepting the fact that dad, Suzy, everyone we knew is probably gone. I don’t say anything, at the risk of upsetting her. She’s sensitive to the topic of the people in our past life.
After a while we look over the motel and check to make sure everything is secure and head back to the room to try and sleep. We sleep in rounds and I usually take first shift, but today was different after hauling dead bodies around. So McKenna takes first shift and I drift to sleep.
“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!” I wake up and turn my head to see a shotgun pointed in my face. My eyes widen as I see a woman pointing the gun at me, ready to shoot.
11/12/13