(no subject)
Disclaimer: Any and all grammatical errors are the fault of the speaker, not the transcriber ;)
My name is Tobias James Bryan, and this is my story. Is… is this thing on?
Well from what I’ve been able to figure out afterwards, these crazy religious types released a virus in a bunch of major cities, all around the world. We were just in Laramie - me, my brothers and my mom and dad. It’s not a big city, so it took a couple weeks before the virus got to us, but it got to Laramie in the end, and I spent my twelfth birthday in quarantine. We were all holed up in the high school gym. It wasn’t too crowded, though, I mean, most of the town had already died. Everyone in my school, the choir… everyone. And my mom…
My mom died not long after we started living in the gym. I guess she wasn’t immune. Dad said we were, that he guessed he had the gene that made a person immune and that he must have passed it on to us kids, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway, my mom was gone, and Dad took us back to the house.
It was weird. When we moved in, I was only one, and Zach was just a baby, but Dad said that what attracted him to the house was the big windows and the front yard, that we could play in. After we came back from the gym I guess he changed his mind, cos he kept telling us to stay away from the windows, not to make any sudden movements or loud noises. We stayed in the house for, I think, two weeks? Then the Eaters came. Dad must have heard them coming, they’re pretty loud, because he ordered us kids upstairs, told us to grab some clothes. I only had time to grab my uniform and shove it in my knapsack, along with my jeans, a couple shirts, and socks and underwear. Lots of socks and underwear. Mom always said, if we went anywhere, to make sure we had enough socks and underwear.
Well by the time we’d done that, we came downstairs and were just in time to see the front window get smashed. Dad was fighting the Eaters. They just looked like people, I suppose, though not really. They looked sort of off… but maybe that was because they were fighting my Dad. I’d never seen him like that. Eli and Nate - that’s my big brothers, they’re twins - grabbed me and Zach, my little brother, and pulled us out of the house. I never saw my Dad again. I guess that’s when we became orphans.
I don’t remember all that much about leaving our house. Me and Zach were crying, I remember that, and I remember Eli and Nate pulling, always pulling on our arms, trying to get us to go faster and faster. Seemed like no matter how fast we went, they wanted us to go faster. And it wasn’t fair, because they were bigger and stronger than us, of course they could go faster than we could, but I guess now when I think about it, they were just scared that the Eaters were finishing with Dad and coming after us.
We went back to the gym. There were a bunch of people already there, we got told that we were the only people who had survived the virus and not been all changed into Eaters. Counting us Bryan boys - that’s what the town called us, right from when we moved to Laramie, the Bryan boys - there were about 14 or 15 people, I forget.
We couldn’t stay in the gym forever. The grownups said it wasn’t safe, something about it not being able to be secured? I didn’t understand then, all I understood was that we had to move again. It was like camping for a while. Eli and Nate love that kind of stuff, and they tried to get me and Zach excited about it, but I just wanted to go back to how everything was, even though I knew we couldn’t. I don’t know where all we went, but I know we crossed a bunch of state lines, and I remember thinking that if it weren’t for the fact that we were on the run, it would have been kind of neat, cos we’d never been outside of Wyoming before.
Me and Zach got real close over the course of the long journey, cos Eli and Nate were always out scouting or whatever. They were pretty much heroes as far as the group was concerned - tall and athletic and everything that people admire. They saved us a bunch of times cos they figured out where Eaters were and they came back and told us, and we found a different way to go, away from danger. Well one day they went out scouting and just… never came back. I guess they got eaten.
Sometimes I like to pretend that they just ran away together. When they were kids they were always happy just to have the two of them, they didn’t need anyone else to play with, so it’s not totally weird to think of them just leaving, so they didn’t have to deal with us. I told Zach my thought one time, and he told me not to be silly, that Eli and Nate wouldn’t have just left us, especially without Mom or Dad. But, I don’t know. Sometimes it’s easier to think that, and hate them, than to face up to them being eaten.
People kept… dying. The further we went, the harder it got, and people were really unhappy. In the end it was just me and Zach, and Lance, this guy who was like a track superstar from Laramie High. The twins went there. I would have gone in a couple of years if all this stuff hadn’t have happened, I’m in eighth grade right now. Well, I was in eighth grade. I don’t know what I am now. Lance said we were in Colorado, and I just took his word for it, it was all starting to look the same to me. It was exciting, in the beginning, to cross a state line, but it got old.
Anyway, one day the Eaters were there. I don’t know where they came from. Nate or Eli would have seen them coming, read signs or something. Now that they were gone, I guess I figured that it was down to me, I should have seen something. But they were just… there, and all we could do was run.
Lance just fell. He was supposed to be this amazing runner, the star of the track team, and me and Zach were just little kids next to him, but he was the one who fell. I grabbed Zach’s arm, and we kept on running while the Eaters all swarmed on Lance and tore him apart. I did my best not to look back.
I don’t know how I made it, but I did. I started seeing buildings, and I crawled into the closest one. It was a diner, I guess, before the virus. I dragged Zach after me. I think if we’d been any bigger, we wouldn’t have been able to fit, so it was a good thing we were just little, I guess. Zach was all panting and out of breath… I don’t know why I wasn’t.
We hid in a freezer, only it wasn’t cold, and we waited for ages. After a while, Zach decided he was going to go check stuff out, since we hadn’t heard anything for ages, and the Eaters are always really loud, you know? So he went out, even though I tried to get him not to go. He was gone for ages, so I went to look for him, and the little jerk was like, a million miles away down the street. He knew how dangerous it was! He knew what had happened to Dad, and to just about everyone who had looked after us since! I don’t know what the heck he was thinking!
The Eaters make this noise, this high, screechy noise that makes the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up and makes you feel all shivery and scared. We both heard it at the same time, and I was just standing there, watching him run towards me. He was too far away, though, and… and… the Eaters got him. And I just squeezed back into the diner and ran into the freezer and locked the door, and that was it. That’s how everyone I know died.
Um, there was food in the freezer, and I ate that, and after a while, you found me. And that’s it.
My name is Tobias James Bryan, and this is my story. Is… is this thing on?
Well from what I’ve been able to figure out afterwards, these crazy religious types released a virus in a bunch of major cities, all around the world. We were just in Laramie - me, my brothers and my mom and dad. It’s not a big city, so it took a couple weeks before the virus got to us, but it got to Laramie in the end, and I spent my twelfth birthday in quarantine. We were all holed up in the high school gym. It wasn’t too crowded, though, I mean, most of the town had already died. Everyone in my school, the choir… everyone. And my mom…
My mom died not long after we started living in the gym. I guess she wasn’t immune. Dad said we were, that he guessed he had the gene that made a person immune and that he must have passed it on to us kids, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway, my mom was gone, and Dad took us back to the house.
It was weird. When we moved in, I was only one, and Zach was just a baby, but Dad said that what attracted him to the house was the big windows and the front yard, that we could play in. After we came back from the gym I guess he changed his mind, cos he kept telling us to stay away from the windows, not to make any sudden movements or loud noises. We stayed in the house for, I think, two weeks? Then the Eaters came. Dad must have heard them coming, they’re pretty loud, because he ordered us kids upstairs, told us to grab some clothes. I only had time to grab my uniform and shove it in my knapsack, along with my jeans, a couple shirts, and socks and underwear. Lots of socks and underwear. Mom always said, if we went anywhere, to make sure we had enough socks and underwear.
Well by the time we’d done that, we came downstairs and were just in time to see the front window get smashed. Dad was fighting the Eaters. They just looked like people, I suppose, though not really. They looked sort of off… but maybe that was because they were fighting my Dad. I’d never seen him like that. Eli and Nate - that’s my big brothers, they’re twins - grabbed me and Zach, my little brother, and pulled us out of the house. I never saw my Dad again. I guess that’s when we became orphans.
I don’t remember all that much about leaving our house. Me and Zach were crying, I remember that, and I remember Eli and Nate pulling, always pulling on our arms, trying to get us to go faster and faster. Seemed like no matter how fast we went, they wanted us to go faster. And it wasn’t fair, because they were bigger and stronger than us, of course they could go faster than we could, but I guess now when I think about it, they were just scared that the Eaters were finishing with Dad and coming after us.
We went back to the gym. There were a bunch of people already there, we got told that we were the only people who had survived the virus and not been all changed into Eaters. Counting us Bryan boys - that’s what the town called us, right from when we moved to Laramie, the Bryan boys - there were about 14 or 15 people, I forget.
We couldn’t stay in the gym forever. The grownups said it wasn’t safe, something about it not being able to be secured? I didn’t understand then, all I understood was that we had to move again. It was like camping for a while. Eli and Nate love that kind of stuff, and they tried to get me and Zach excited about it, but I just wanted to go back to how everything was, even though I knew we couldn’t. I don’t know where all we went, but I know we crossed a bunch of state lines, and I remember thinking that if it weren’t for the fact that we were on the run, it would have been kind of neat, cos we’d never been outside of Wyoming before.
Me and Zach got real close over the course of the long journey, cos Eli and Nate were always out scouting or whatever. They were pretty much heroes as far as the group was concerned - tall and athletic and everything that people admire. They saved us a bunch of times cos they figured out where Eaters were and they came back and told us, and we found a different way to go, away from danger. Well one day they went out scouting and just… never came back. I guess they got eaten.
Sometimes I like to pretend that they just ran away together. When they were kids they were always happy just to have the two of them, they didn’t need anyone else to play with, so it’s not totally weird to think of them just leaving, so they didn’t have to deal with us. I told Zach my thought one time, and he told me not to be silly, that Eli and Nate wouldn’t have just left us, especially without Mom or Dad. But, I don’t know. Sometimes it’s easier to think that, and hate them, than to face up to them being eaten.
People kept… dying. The further we went, the harder it got, and people were really unhappy. In the end it was just me and Zach, and Lance, this guy who was like a track superstar from Laramie High. The twins went there. I would have gone in a couple of years if all this stuff hadn’t have happened, I’m in eighth grade right now. Well, I was in eighth grade. I don’t know what I am now. Lance said we were in Colorado, and I just took his word for it, it was all starting to look the same to me. It was exciting, in the beginning, to cross a state line, but it got old.
Anyway, one day the Eaters were there. I don’t know where they came from. Nate or Eli would have seen them coming, read signs or something. Now that they were gone, I guess I figured that it was down to me, I should have seen something. But they were just… there, and all we could do was run.
Lance just fell. He was supposed to be this amazing runner, the star of the track team, and me and Zach were just little kids next to him, but he was the one who fell. I grabbed Zach’s arm, and we kept on running while the Eaters all swarmed on Lance and tore him apart. I did my best not to look back.
I don’t know how I made it, but I did. I started seeing buildings, and I crawled into the closest one. It was a diner, I guess, before the virus. I dragged Zach after me. I think if we’d been any bigger, we wouldn’t have been able to fit, so it was a good thing we were just little, I guess. Zach was all panting and out of breath… I don’t know why I wasn’t.
We hid in a freezer, only it wasn’t cold, and we waited for ages. After a while, Zach decided he was going to go check stuff out, since we hadn’t heard anything for ages, and the Eaters are always really loud, you know? So he went out, even though I tried to get him not to go. He was gone for ages, so I went to look for him, and the little jerk was like, a million miles away down the street. He knew how dangerous it was! He knew what had happened to Dad, and to just about everyone who had looked after us since! I don’t know what the heck he was thinking!
The Eaters make this noise, this high, screechy noise that makes the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up and makes you feel all shivery and scared. We both heard it at the same time, and I was just standing there, watching him run towards me. He was too far away, though, and… and… the Eaters got him. And I just squeezed back into the diner and ran into the freezer and locked the door, and that was it. That’s how everyone I know died.
Um, there was food in the freezer, and I ate that, and after a while, you found me. And that’s it.