The plague had changed everything. History once was believed to be divided into before Christ and after Christ. It wasn’t, not exactly, but that is what most people thought. That division had lasted a long time, over two thousand years. Now there was only one relevant delineation. Before the plague and after it. If you mentioned a before time, anyone living understood what you meant. Everyone knew what after was.

Cindy had lived fifteen years before the world as everyone knew it had died. It had been a happy time, even early into the plague. Yeah, people got sick and some even died, but who cared? Bad shit happened every day. To her, the bigger impact had been the lack of school and her inability to run around with her friends. Everything else was just noise. She hadn’t cared about infection rates or the plasticity of the virus. Even when she got it, nothing much changed. Her parents got sick as well, but they self-isolated and rode it out. Everything was going to be ok.

And then, the virus mutated. More aggressive, more deadly, but thankfully those previously infected were immune. A vaccine was going to be released any day to the public. The President said so and you couldn’t lie about shit like that during a pandemic. Cindy knew that. It was scary, but like all things, this was going to pass. She knew it. But it hadn’t.

One more mutation was all it took. One more mutation and the world came crashing down. 97% of the world’s population died from the new variant of the virus in less than a year. Those who had been previously infected were immune, but they had to deal with the remaining population. A fraction of those who survived the final infection became little more than animals, brutal, violent creatures of pure instinct and need. Whatever they were before was gone. Cindy lost her family while being chased down by a pack of the breed. That was what the survivors called those remnants of humanity. Zombies would have been cliche and the truth was they weren’t undead. They died just like any other animal or creature. But though they acted on instinct, they were still smart, still dangerous, and could use simple weapons. Not guns, but anything else they could get their hands on. Humanity had lost everything unique to it in less than a year.

And now, Cindy found herself sneaking through the city. Her stomach growled as it had been days since she’d eaten a full meal. Evading the roaming naked packs of the breed was a struggle and she’d had numerous close calls. She saw what they could do to a person, if hungry. Most of the time, they would ignore normal humans as long as they didn’t feel threatened. But if they hadn’t eaten, if they were starving, they would tear them apart. After all, food was food.

She slid silently into the battered remains of a grocery store. She didn’t expect to find much, but maybe some canned goods still remained. She ransacked the place, finding a few canned goods that might still be good, when she had to use the bathroom. She found a restroom in the back and closed the door, a habit learned from the before time. As she peed, she heard it, or them, rummaging about. She froze and slowly pulled her feet up. The bathroom door was pushed open and she barely held in a scream. She heard something moving about, sniffing around. She bit her lip until it bled as tears streamed down her face. She didn’t want to die, not on a dirty toilet in a ruined store. It rummaged about before finally heading out. She let out a sigh. She opened the door slowly and saw her backpack was still where she had left it. She stepped out silently, walking to it and the gun inside. That was when she heard the growl behind her.