33 Epilogue

The thunder was so loud, I sat in the house looking at the rain that was pouring down. Liam was asleep in the crib just sleeping, without the thunder you could almost say that it was relaxing. I loved Ben so much, but when he was around he was so loud, it was good for him to be hanging out with his friends even if the messed with him some times.

I sat back wanting to fall asleep almost. I was so tired, I had been outside non stop almost not wanting to sleep with Tony at my side on this mission. I could not imagine losing him, he loved me so much and I loved him back.

I felt bad for Tyler, he had expressed his feelings for me on several occasions. I was just not attracted to him, but I could still consider him as a friend. I loved Tony so much, he loved me as well, I could not imagine a world without him.

I looked at Liam who was sleeping at in the crib peacefully, my mother was with my step father at a meeting downstairs and I could tell that everyone there was in an argument. I didn't know who was attacking who, I could just here yelling from the other room.

I wanted to sleep, but every time it seemed like I was going to, out struck I quick bolt of lightning. I just sat back, I was genuinely surprised that somehow Liam had not woken up from all of the thunder.

I almost wanted to go pick up Ben, I didn't like him in the rain, coming home with wet clothes, especially since I was the one who normally washed them. But at this point it would more than likely be too late. He would come home like he normally does drenched in water.

I kept on moving on the rocking chair, I normally did not like them, but on a day like today with the storm outside it made everything feel so peaceful. I could not sleep though, with all the yelling that was going downstairs and the thunder.

I got up from where I was sitting on the rocking chair, I went straight the the refrigerator wondering what I should eat for lunch on a day like today. I figured I would make a sub, they were a bit harder for the community to make that type of wheat but they made me feel so much better.

I began to put the usually on it, I put the pieces of ham, they were hard to get in the community so I had to be wise with how much I put in my sandwich, I then put the cheese, and then the olives and tomatoes on it, I finished the rest of with some mayonnaise.

All of the sudden there was a loud noise, like someone had shot a gun right into my ear, for a second I thought maybe that's what it was. I almost slipped on the ground... My sandwich fell to the ground however...

"Shit... You have to be kidding me." I said to myself. The loud crackle of thunder had woken Liam up as I began to here his crying. I walked over to him to calm him down, I wondered why the ground had shaken, it was a loud bolt of lightning but maybe it was an earthquake.

It really could not be though, earthquakes usually did not make that type of noise. I sat down and gently began resting Liam back into a deep sleep. Once he was a looked around in the kitchen. There were picture frames that had fallen off the wall all over the house.

A few of them were shattered, I made a mental note to myself, after the storm and my mother finishing her meeting then I would have to go to the market and get some new picture frames. I looked a bit sadly at one of the larger ones, it was a picture of me with my mother and father and a baby Benjamin.

We were smiling happy in the photo, I wish I could smile like that now, this world had all turned straight into hell. I just had to do my best to make Ben and Liam know what was good in this world and what was bad. Most of everything in this world was bad, before it was bad but no one had been exposed to it as badly as it was now.

This community was good though, I was proud of my mother for making it the way that it was. She chose he got to stay and he had to leave in this community, 1 man had attacked my mother and almost stabbed her when she had told him he had to leave. That was the obvious reason why he needed to.

I heard yelling from outside, I was tempted to go out and see what was going on. It was probably just kids yelling at each other while they were playing in the rain. I had to take care of Liam right now, I could not be going outside.

But the yelling grew louder and louder and it sounded like more and more people each time. They were not kids either, I was wondering what was going on because it clearly was not coming from the community. I heard yelling from downstairs and someone slammed the door open, clearly they were wondering what was going on as well.

If it was something serious or something my mother felt like I needed to know then I would just wait it out and wait for her to come upstairs and tell me. I had this feeling that there was some sort of fight, or maybe I assume the worst and one of the dead was attacking some people.

Whatever it was, I'm sure we would be fine and I didn't need to worry about it. My mother told me that I spent to much of my life worrying about other people and I needed to start living a little for myself. I just told her if I did that then everyone that I cared about would die.

There were some people in this community I was not too keen on but I would risk my life to save every single one of them if I had to. I suppose that was the whole point of working as a scavenger, I gathered important supplies and risked my life every day for this community.

My mother and my stepfather would always tell me how proud they were of me. My stepfather told me that I was the best scavenger he had ever met, I thanked him for it, but how many scavengers did he really spend time around?

I heard the yelling getting louder and louder and it was coming from many places now. Liam woke up because of all the yelling, sometimes I wished that we had sound proof walls. But this place was built after all of this had happened, we didn't have the correct tools or the correct people for that.

People did their best to read through books and all of that trying to learn as much as they possibly could of how to live. But in the end it didn't tell you everything you needed to know, there weren't just books sitting around telling you how to make sound proof walls.

We had dudes that worked on construction but they didn't really know how it all worked when it was all said and done. They just did what their managers and leaders told them to do. They were still smart enough on how to build houses and the walls though.

The walls took a long time to build, my mother always talked about how proud she was of the community for building them. My father lost his life because he was building those. I didn't know him very well, he was working always before and after it had all really gone down.

My mother was in a different place after that happened for a long time. It happened around the same time the old leader died as well. She had to take over the role of the community during that time. I was thankful for my stepfather, he had brought my mother to the light when she was in a dark place.

Liam was crying now from all of the yelling and I picked him up and began to cuddle him trying to get him back to sleep. He hadn't slept well last night, my mother and brother had gotten into a heated argument and it kept waking him up, and now we had all of this going on.

I heard a few people talking from downstairs and eventually they left the building as well. I was tempted to go outside and see what was happening but I needed to take care of Liam first. He needed the sleep badly.

I heard something nearby the door and I wondered what exactly it was, maybe it was my mother and she had come in to tell me to stay inside and stay safe. I walked over to the door and began to open it.

Liam was on my left arm as I gently carried him over to the door to see what was going on. I opened the door and was surprised to see no one was there. Maybe they were on the patio or decided they didn't need to come in, in the first place.

I wanted to see what was going on outside, even with Liam still crying I carried him over to the crib, I dropped him in there and whispered to him to stay quiet I wanted to see what was going on.

Suddenly something grabbed on to me strongly, I spun around wondering what was going on... Was there a dead in the house.

I noticed that it was my stepfather, he was looking at me right in the eyes with almost a scary look. Not like he was going to hit me or attack me. But it seemed like something far worse was going on out there.

"You need to get on not of the house with Liam... Get as much food and water and milk that you can... The door is not safe enough, the walls are broken in, the dead are coming from everywhere... Be safe my Angel..." He said to me. I gave him a hug, it seemed as if everything bad that I was thinking about was becoming a reality.

"What about Ben? What's going on with him? Is he safe?" I asked him. He sat there for a few seconds but then shook his head. My world spun upside down, was Ben dead? What was going on? I wanted to go out there and help the community but I knew that I needed to take care of Liam first... He was the future of our family.

"I don't know... I wont lie to you, you're mother went to where he should be at but that area is not looking good right now..." He said to me. I wanted to cry, but I could not, I had not cried since my own fathers death, that was almost 5 years ago...

I looked down at him as he was about to leave, I went in for one last hug. I then noticed something on the top part of his arm... I instantly realized what it was, he had been bitten, in an area where it would be about near impossible to save him by even cutting off his arm...

A tear dropped from my face. He rolled up his sleeve a little bit and then he gave me one last hug. I loved him, I could not dare lose him, he was my mentor and my father to me.

"It's okay... Don't tell your mother, I will break it to her tomorrow... This community and you have to come first..." He said to me. I nodded and then he left the room and then ran outside. My heart was broken, I felt empty. I just wanted to give up for a few moments but I knew that I couldn't... My mother and my 2 little brother's still needed me.

I got up and grabbed my bag that I used to carry important stuff on my scavenges. I put nearly 12 bottles of water and a bunch of breast milk for Liam. I then put enough food to feed me for a few days. I didn't really know how long I would have to be on the roofs.

If it all went bad and I didn't have enough food or water than I would have to go down and get some more, but that was worst case scenario as I shook all of those thoughts from outside of my head.

Once my bag was full I ran over to Liam who was no longer crying, he was probably to worn out to even do that, but he was still awake. How could he not be? There was screaming and yelling from everywhere and I didn't even dare think about what I would see when I was on the roof.

I would see everything that was going on, I shook the thoughts from my head and then I quickly picked up Liam. I had to think about him first before I could possibly think of anything else after that.

I pulled myself up and then opened the ladder that would take me up to the top of the house, I almost wanted to not even go on the roof and just stay in the attic but I knew that I would need the sunlight and it would be more safe on the roof.

I just didn't want to go out there at the top of the building on the top balcony and watch as people were being torn apart while there was nothing I could do about it. I thought about going and grabbing a rifle maybe, but it was too late as I heard the dead grabbing through the weak door that was at the front of the house.

Once I was at the top of the house and I could see the entire community my heart fluttered. It was almost 100x worse than I had imagined... All I could see through the streets and the yards of the houses were dead everywhere. From far away I could see a dead person being eaten by the other dead that were all over it. I wanted to cry, I couldn't though.

Liam needed me to be strong, I turned and I looked further to the left where Ben should be at. I saw my mother with Peter, they were running around all of the dead as my stepfather pushed down the ones that were too close for comfort.

My mother spotted me from the top balcony and nodded. They were on their way over, I thanked whatever god there was and watched as they grew closer and closer to the house.

All of the sudden my mother fell over, she had been pulled down by one of the dead, I moved closer wondering what was going on, was she being eaten? Liam began to cry and I hushed him so that the dead near the front of our place could not hear him.

Peter then picked her up and they continued running over to me. But then I noticed the dead that were coming from the area that I was at. There were even more than there already were the other way. My mother and Peter were pushed against the wall.

My stepfather then began yelling and he stood in front of my mother. They were coming at him from all sides, there was no way out. I just watched in absolute silence as they grew closer and closer to him.

My mother was crying, peter pulled out his machete and started hacking into all of the dead that were in front of him. He got through the first couple easily and for a few seconds I thought that maybe he could fight them off and they would be okay. But I saw them coming from everywhere.

Eventually he would get too tired to keep fighting. There were about 4 around him and he cut into 1 of them and the other 3 grabbed onto Peter. My mother started cry and I just stood there and watched it all unfold.

He was being torn apart and my mother just sat there crying, then they began running after her. She had nowhere to go and nowhere to run. She pulled out her knife but I knew it was no use, she wasn't exactly the best with it and odds are she could not fight off hundreds to maybe even thousands of the dead that were running towards her.

By now Peter was dead and they grew closer and closer to her. She ran at the first one and stabbed into it, it died instantly but the knife got stuck into its head and she fell down with it. I looked closer as they fell over her and then began to tear her apart.

I turned away, hoping that it was all just a bad dream... Hoping that it was all fake... For the first time in years... I began to cry.