CHAPTER 2 - First Days

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Eden just lies down on her sleeping bag inside her tent, a flickering candle providing a dim light beside her as she flipped the pages of her journal in the beginning first pages to where she had written her first entries from when the zombie apocalypse began, how it started, and when it started.

Eden's gaze was almost distant as she read the written entries again as she remembered those dark horrific times that happened so suddenly a year before.

She decided to write another entry to her recent one, reached for her pen that was there beside the candle, and despite the low dim light, she can see very well to read and write even in the dark.

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JOURNAL ENTRY: DAY UNKNOWN, 8TH MONTH AUGUST, 2XXX

Hey, it's me again, Eden.

I had to write this down just so you can get the idea of how long has it been since I had remembered when, where, and how this apocalypse all began.

It had all happened and started so suddenly that anyone including me wouldn't have expected it at all or was even prepared for it.

It was just a year ago that it all began.

Starting the first days when I first moved into this city, thinking that this place might be the chance I'm looking to have a normal life. Me finding and living in a simple apartment, searching and working in a normal job, and so on as normal and simple like that.

But I didn't know that everything was going to change.

Just go to the beginning.

And you'll understand.

*****

Eden finished writing, put her pen aside, and then flipped to the first pages again, reading the first entries once more before the candle goes out and she goes to sleep peacefully for another night.

Her mind wandered off as she read her first written entries again, remembering those times.

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A YEAR AGO BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE

Eden was so happy that she felt like screaming with joy as she finally put the last storage box into the storage room inside her new and cheap apartment she's now living in, after moving into the metropolitan city.

She looked around at her space which is already filled with furniture and stuff and decently made up in a simple homely appearance.

She was happy with this kind of simple set-up for she isn't like most people who wanted to decorate in a fancy or messy way.

Once she double-checks everything and saw that everything is all fixed up and fitted to her satisfaction, she went straight towards her desk where a newly-bought big book is at the top and a new pen is there beside it.

She opened it, almost caressing her new personal item like it was a treasure, and then started writing on the first blank page.

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JOURNAL ENTRY: 1ST DAY, 1ST MONTH JANUARY, 2XXX

Hi! This is Eden, the new owner, and writer of this new journal.

I just moved here into the metropolitan city. But I will not write here exactly where and who I am, because if ever I lost this book somewhere in the city whenever and wherever I bring it along, I'd rather not have some stranger find out even if it's a kind Samaritan one or something.

There are plenty of other journals in the world obviously, so it's not a loss that I lost this one, even if it's like a diary to me.

It's not like I don't care if someone did read what's inside it since it's just some random stuff I write in here about what I'm doing in my life, what my thoughts are, and venting out my frustrations.

Anyway, I'm getting a little sidetracked.

I just found and moved into a new apartment, it's simple and luckily cheap. And it's in a good neighborhood where I don't have to worry about coming home late at night and worrying about some gangsters that are going to be roaming the streets.

Not that I don't know whether there are in this city I moved in. But I hope there aren't some here.

Seriously, all I want and wish for in my life is a quiet and peaceful normal life for once.

Since the beginning when I was a kid, my whole life has been noisy, hectic and a complete mess with me being someone used as a punching bag verbally as an outlet for my own family's frustrations and anger, much to my dismay upon learning those revelations when I grew older and then wiser enough to understand.

Don't get me wrong. I know it's not all my fault and everything, and they're just taking it out on me.

Still, I love my family in a slightly twisted mindset way.

But for once in the former past of my life, would it be nice for them to at least not try to use me as a literal punching bag for almost all my life?

I have ignored them or tuned them out whenever they talked bad to me as if I didn't do anything good in my life, since my high school, college, and now my first ex-job days.

Hey, all I want is just normal life. That's it.

Simply put, it's not like I want to go anywhere, even if I had super-high grades or anything.

I don't want to be one of those people looking for supreme and high-end rich jobs that will provide so much for me and my family.

That's not me at all.

Sure, my whole family has been medium-poor in a way of sorts. But it's not like we're about to go homeless so soon.

That's just me sounding a bit selfish for myself but I'm telling the truth here.

Anyway, I finally had enough and when I secretly saved enough money for myself, I left my family behind without looking back except leaving a simple note and then moved away to this city so that I can firmly become a sole independent.

For most of my life, I have been doing something for my life, it's just that my family didn't even consider listening to me or giving me a chance to show it.

Well, fine.

Who cares about them?

As the saying goes, they'll reap what they sow when the time comes.

So right now, before I finish writing this entry. I'm about to go to my new job, which it's only a part-time job as an office assistant in a small firm during the day and cashier at a small grocery store during the night.

Though it's part-time, I'm just content with that. I have enough money saved up for myself that's with me kept safe and hidden in cash and the one in my bank account.

I'm off to bathe and get ready for work.

So stay tuned for more! (smiles, laughter)

I'm writing this in my journal to liven it up and lighten up a little.

I'll be writing my next entry and telling you how my first days go here in my new normal life in this new place.

*****

After Eden finished writing her first entry in her new book journal, she stopped and put down her pen and sighed and stretched her arms up high as if instantly tired from writing, and then rotated her neck around to heal the strain she was feeling inside.

Then she turned her head to look at the curtained windows beside her and the desk she was sitting next to and slowly stood from her chair and went over to it.

Eden moved the curtains a bit, staring at the grand and beautiful view before her which is going to be usual and normal in her new life.

She wouldn't trade it for anything and if ever in the future something goes wrong, she won't go back to her life before and keep on trying and moving forward to stay and live in the city.

Then she let the curtains fall back to covering her windows and she walked to her bathroom to shower and prepare herself for her new part-time job and start working in her first days living and working in the city.

Little did Eden know, it is that her whole life is going to change.

In an unexpected way that she had never expected and wasn't prepared for it.

*****

It was exactly 7 days later, right there in the same apartment in the same city Eden is living in for only a week now.

Eden came bursting through the door like a bomb just exploded from outside and she ran for cover in her apartment instantly.

She quickly slammed shut and locked the door with the double locks latched as well and she panted heavily as if she was running a long marathon.

Then Eden seemed urgent and panicked and felt like she had to write in her journal to calm herself down from what she seemed to saw or witnessed before.

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JOURNAL ENTRY: 7TH DAY, 1ST MONTH JANUARY, YEAR 2XXX

Holy Mary Mother herself and Jesus Christ himself too!

Sorry, I wrote this so suddenly that I couldn't help but do it.

I'm sure you're wondering why I'm suddenly writing and looking a bit frantic in this entry.

Well, something happened that I didn't expect at all and I'm pretty sure that the people aren't as well when they saw the news and heard stories and rumors about it.

I don't exactly know when, where and how it happened.

But it did so suddenly that I wasn't even prepared for it.

This is how it all started in the beginning.

I'm writing it all here in my journal.

The first days of the apocalypse.

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