A World Apart

Chapter Twenty-Four

Final chapter! Thought I'd include a little goodie for you guys, picture attached is character art I had commissioned of some of the characters (past and present) that I messily photoshopped onto an apocalyptic background! Let me know what you think of them (if you can tell who's who) and any differences they have to what you imagined! 

Hope you enjoy the chapter!

--------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twenty-Four

Logan

From above, our problems seem so small, reduced to insignificant proportions. Streets and roads crawling with infected shrink to minuscule cracks in the terrain. Like veins, spreading between the cities and towns that make up its organs. Completely still and picturesque, not a single threat perceivable. The world looks exactly as it did before. 

It would almost seem peaceful if I weren't conscious of the horrors masqueraded beneath it all. Like the world has donned a facade from up above, still standing despite the poison that runs through its blood. Seeing it all fielded out below has made me hopeful though, a testament that no matter how big the horde, or how evil the man, the world will keep spinning, seemingly undisturbed by it all. 

Plus, who knows how many oases are hidden amongst the concrete jungles of rubble and decay. Club Calamity was just a glimpse of what Canada could be brimming with. Even though Ava confirmed it wasn't free from the infection as rumours claimed it to be, crossing the border and looking down at it from above, life seems to have wiggled its way into the creases and folds that America ironed out. 

Fires burn, small, contained ones that have been made and tamed with human hands. In one of the towns, the windows of a home are aglow with electricity. A small settlement seems to have been set up in the glade of a forrest, shielded by hills and trees. The whole country appears teeming with survivors. 

It may not be untouched by the infection, but it certainly seems to have been hit with a lighter hand than other places.

It's a bittersweet feeling that we might be safe here. I remember the question Stella posed to me back in Vegas. Do you think someday we won't have to worry? Back then I didn't think that would ever be possible, but now, sailing over serene looking land, I'm beginning to think carefree days might be ahead of us after all. 

Untroubled living that Stella only ever dreamed of, and now, will never get to experience. Or Gale. Or Rocket. Or Aaron. Or any of the people who didn't make it to this point. It seems a sick cruelty that they would be taken away, people who valued life, who fought tooth and nail for a chance like this, while I've been so apathetic towards it. 

It forces a reappraisal. No more indifference towards life. No more throwing it away or wishing for it to end. I owe it to those who no longer have it. To appreciate it. Not just surviving, but living. Actually living. I'll still help those in need, but I'll no longer devote my life to it, won't sacrifice myself as eagerly in devotion to theirs. Instead I'll join them, and survive and live together. 

I have enough guilt left to owe them that much. Maybe that can be my sacrifice. Choosing to live despite all the reasons not to. 

The plane delves towards the ground and all too soon our weightless reprieve in the air comes to an end as the wheels touchdown. After we've come to a complete stop, it takes a few minutes for people to start disembark. It would seem they didn't want the flight to end either.