Not every day do you get a chance to travel in style. Okay, this isn't a style. Traveling in a boxcar, meant for packages or whatever, isn't what most people would do, but it is faster. Especially with zombies. The train was going slow enough for Jill and me to jump on.

A few zombies also found the train. Luckily, they don't run. If they ran, like those in the movie Dawn of The Dead, or World War Z, Jill and I wouldn't be alive today. We sat inside the boxcar staring at each other. One of the doors was open, so we could see what was going on outside. We could always shut it if we needed to, but it wouldn't be a good idea, just in case we had to get out in an emergency.

I was so bored. I started looking at my nails.

"Ew!" I exclaimed. "My nails need cleaning."

"I know what you mean," Jill smiled at me. "I noticed mine as well."

I stared out the window. All we saw were many corn fields. They didn’t get plowed, and I doubt they ever will. From a distance, I saw an image of a human. Most likely a zombie. It was moving towards the train. I fear it could get us, if the train stops for any reason, while we sleep. I look up at the sky. It was a little past one or something like that. It’s hard to tell without a watch. There were scattered clouds in the sky.

I hear the train horn blowing. It was a peaceful sound. Just wished it didn’t attract zombies. Watching the train take a turn shows how long it is. It has to be about ten boxes ahead of us and seven boxes behind us.

The train passes a herd of bison. All of them grazing in the field. I hope that zombies don’t get them. I doubt it.
I wonder where we are? What state we were in? I know it's in the northern states because we are traveling north. I only hope we are heading towards the Canadian Province of Minnesota. I can’t believe Minnesota was sold to Canada only seven years ago by the United States. I was like nine then. I look at myself. I sure look younger than nine now. Thank you, George.

Seven years ago was also the time I met my friends, Andrew and Ralph, who live in Minnesota. I doubt they will even know who I was now. Me being a six-year-old girl. I stare at Jill. I can tell she is in a good mood. She is lying on the ground with her legs in the air, moving back and forth.

“What’s up with you?” I asked.

Jill stops and looks at me. “Nothing,” she smiles at me.

“I doubt it’s nothing. I can tell you are happy.”

“Well, I was thinking. We are heading north right?”

“Yes,” I said, confused.

“And it's almost winter right?”

“Yes.”

“And Snow falls in the winter right?”

“Yes, but why are you so happy?” It’s cold during that season.”

“Well, what happens to zombies when it is cold?”

I can’t believe it. Jill is smarter than I thought. “You’re right Jill! And I noticed the temperature has been getting colder at night.” Jill’s legs start moving again. I give her a hug, which isn’t easy while she is laying on the ground.

We must have stopped. All I remember was shutting the boxcar door for the night. It was pitch black in the box. What else could I do but sleep? The train was moving when we fell asleep. But since I woke up, there was a hint of sunlight coming through a crack in the door, and the train was not in motion.

“Jill,” I whisper to her. “Wake up” Jill is a sound sleeper. Even as Jack, she... Or at that time he was the same way. I crawled over to her and shook her. “Jill, it's morning, and the train has stopped.” I can tell Jill was not ready to wake up. While she was slowly waking up, I peeked out the door of the boxcar. It was silent. Not even a person, or zombie around.

I grabbed everything I had carried on with me and slowly opened the door. It squeaked loudly. So loud, I bet every zombie in the area could hear it. Jill got her stuff, and we quickly checked both ways and hopped out of the boxcar.

We wandered around. It was silent. The place was deserted. We could see lots of tall buildings. But from where we were, we couldn’t get into any of them, due to the fact we were on the train tracks. There must be some way to get past the train station. Advancing towards the front of the train, we saw a sign on a building.

“Minnesota’s Union Depot,” I read. “We made it to Minnesota.”

“ Yeah,” Jill said happily. “But what city are we in?”

“I’m not sure,” I answered while looking up. “But by the view of the tall buildings, I would say a big one.”

We entered the Union Depot slowly. I had my knife in my hand, just in case a zombie came out of nowhere. Jill had a knife as well. We would instead use a knife as much as possible, due to the fact that a gun can make a lot of noise and attract others. I learned that from the Walking Dead. I just hope this isn’t like that one episode in season two of Fear The Walking Dead.

“Nothing yet,” Jill says while we walk in the halls of the Depot.

“Let’s just hope we don’t find any Creepers” I whisper.

“Appropriate nickname for them.”

“Yeah, I figure it would be a name to call them.”

“Can we just call them zombies? The name Creepers sounds creepy.” I laughed and agreed.

We enter a tunnel to another building. It appeared a little newer, then the Union Depot, which seemed ancient. I wonder how old these buildings are. Have they even done maintenance on these buildings? The floors looked dirty. But I kind of expected it. Since the outbreak has almost been a week. No one could keep upkeep on the buildings without anyone to do the work.

There were no lights on in the building since the electricity was shut down. The only way we could see anything was from the windows. We must have been on the second floor because we went into a Skyway connected to another building. I looked down the dirty windows covered with blood and saw lots of zombies walking around on what looked like light rail or streetcar tracks. It must have been a light rail, because I could foresee electric lines above the tracks, meant to be for light rails. I knew that we shouldn’t go outside at this point. This seemed like the time Glen and Rick from Walking Dead were walking through the buildings of Atlanta, to get to safety.

Jill went ahead and motioned for me to follow. When I got to her, I noticed a few dead bodies on the ground. My instincts told me to stab them in their forehead, just to make sure they don’t come alive on us. We again went through another Skyway. It doesn’t matter where we are; zombies were below us. We were stuck inside.

“I’m hungry,” Jill complained. I had a feeling she would have said that soon. I was starting to get hungry myself.

“Well, if we look carefully...” I said, “...we might find someplace that doesn’t have spoiled food.”

We started walking the halls. Most doors were locked. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is, Zombies couldn’t get in there, and that is also the bad thing. We can’t get in there either if a herd of zombies comes after us. What gets annoying is that some doors won’t open unless we budge them open. Because they are sliding doors, and electricity powers them.

“Hey Natalie,” Jill said excitedly. “I know where we are!”
She pointed to a map on the wall. Why didn’t I see this before?

“Saint Paul?” I muttered. “We are in the former capital of the State, now Province of Minnesota, Canada?”

Jill was confused. “This was the capital of Minnesota?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe you didn’t hear about this. When Minnesota was sold to Canada seven years ago, they had a vote on what the city could be the new capital. Many cities wanted to be on the list. Saint Paul was still on the list, including Minneapolis, Duluth, Bloomington, Rochester and Saint Cloud. But none of them became the capital. People wanted a smaller city to be the capital. Everyone voted the capital to be the city of Blackduck.”

“I sure love your history lessons, since we don’t have school anymore.”

“Yeah, but I doubt anything is the capital now,” I pointed out, “Since this zombie apocalypse happened. Besides, that sure is history. We are now in the present and future of our world. If there were some man down on the streets holding a sign, it would have said THE END IS HERE.”

I looked out the window of the Skyway. The streets were still filled with zombies. Where were they coming from? Could they smell us? I am glad I am up here, where there are no zombies, instead of down there.

“Guess what Natalie," Jill said. “I got some good news and some bad news.

“Okay," I said, still staring out the window. “What’s the good news?”

“The good news is, I found a little store we can get food from.”

“That’s wonderful!” I cried. “But, what’s the bad news?”

“The bad news is...” She pointed to a door, which is luckily an automatic door not in service. On the other side, looked like twenty zombies that wanted us as food.