Caitlin Kelly

What We Left Behind Caitlin Kelly

Everyone has a different term for zombies. I call them Zee because that's the term my mother used before she turned, speaking about the whole horde as though it was just one individual. Grammar has no place in the zombie apocalypse....

Hazel is a regular teenager growing up in an irregular world overrun with zombies. She likes music, perfume, freshly baked muffins, and playing her Xbox--everything that no longer exists in the apocalypse.

Raised in the safety of a commune, Hazel rarely sees Zee anymore, except on those occasions when the soldiers demonstrate the importance of a headshot to the kids.

To her horror, circumstances beyond her control lead her outside the barbed wire fence and into a zombie-infested town.

"Five, Four, Three, Two--count your shots, Haze," she says to herself, firing at the oncoming zombie horde. "Don't forget to reload."