Abandoned in the Light

December 21st, 2012.

I'll never forget that day for as long as I live.

It was the day that the catastrophic event known as 'The Cataclysm" struck the world and caused immense havoc and unparalleled devastation.

On that fateful day, a large 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck with no warning, causing parts of the land to break away, major cities to collapse, and flames to erupt from the earth itself. The amount of devastation and deaths that occurred that day, I couldn't explain to you; But I can tell you it was at catastrophic levels.

Unfortunately, that's not the worst part of that happened. A large-scale earthquake that would damage many cities and countries across the globe? That was expected.

But what happened next.....wasn't.

A short time after the great quake, a hideously virulent and incurable disease that caused those infected to turn into rabid crazies or reanimated corpses that sought out living flesh to devour made itself known. Reports of the virus originating from the Heart of Africa circulated far and wide across the news, though this couldn't be proven to be true or false. But that was the least of everyone's problems at the time.

Survivors of the great quake fought against the onslaught of these rabid undead corpses who laid waste to cities and towns across the globe, but to little avail.

As the zombie contagion enveloped the earth in disease and destruction, mass anarchy consumed most of Europe, Asia, and the United States as the news of the virus reached them and panic took absolute control, replacing order and peace with chaos and rioting.

After a few days, all the chaos, the death, and the eventual collapse of the United Nations, finally tore the always-so-fragile heart out of humanity, and it didn't take long for us to reach the brink of permanent extinction.

Within weeks, the catalytic virus consumed all of North & South America. But it wasn't over yet.

From China to Bulgaria to South Korea and Japan, the virus commenced a string of pandemics that nothing, and nobody, could stop. To make things worse, humans weren't the only things the virus could change. Animals too became bearers of the plague, hence how fast the infection was able to spread. Cities and largely populated areas became dangerous death zones while rural and isolated areas became desolate ghost towns.

As the days went by and turned into weeks, the earth began to slowly but surely wither away into a lifeless dead planet.

The U.S is just a smoking ruined dead country now, with each and every state full of infection and hostility. Bands of surviving humans sit at various spots across the country, trying to stay alive against the population of infected that continues to grow bigger and bigger each minute of each day.

I am a survivor of the great quake, currently living my life, or whatever I have left of it anyway, in California. I was originally just visiting there for a month, but 'The Cataclysm' threw those plans out the window. I'm now scavenging and hunting for food. How I have survived this long while everyone else is dying or turning into flesh-eating freaks was beyond my understanding. Maybe it's because of God's trust in me, maybe it's just a stroke of luck. I don't know. But like everything else in life, luck eventually runs out, and i'm certain that my luck won't last for much longer.

My name is Andy, and this is my story of how I survived the rest of my days in the aftermath of "The Cataclysm".