Zombies ARE Real

I had a fascinating thought about our world and about how art can imitate life. A person who very kindly critiqued a single chapter of my zombie apocalypse manuscript commented she didn't believe my teenage heroine would leave a place of safety to live alone in a world of toxic rain and zombies. Now, I have (I hope) set-up several things to help the reader buy into my story: 1) my heroine is incredible impulsive and demonstrates this several times early in the story, 2) her place of safety has become anything but - everything she cares about has been taken from her and she is forced to do/become the thing she hates most, and 3) she is a very capable markswoman and has fought zombies first-hand for years. But still, would a teenage girl really leave "home" and go out in a dangerous and potentially-deadly world? My thought - they do it all the time. Girls run away from their families, choosing a life on the street rather than deal with whatever is happening in their home-life. According to girlshealth.gov, one in seven kids between the ages of ten and eighteen will run away at some point. And think about it. Our world is just as hazardous as one filled with zombies. Runaways deal with starvation, drug addiction, crime, pornography and rape. And one out of every three teens on the street will be lured into prostitution within forty-eight hours of leaving home. So who are the REAL zombies? PIMPS! And anyone else who takes advantage of a vulnerable child.