After (#3)

10 Years Later - Lizzie and JJ

Lizzie woke to the sounds of distant screaming, as she did so often these days. Her eyes were tired and heavy, her bones heavier still, but she had never been one to complain. Suck it up and smile, as her mother used to say. Suck it up and smile.

The indent on the bed next to her was shallowing by the second, but still warm. JJ hadn't been up and about for long, although every second of shuteye counted for hours these days. Lizzie took advantage of her partner doing the morning rounds and took some time to update her journal. She had started keeping it not long after her father's death, at first as a way to distract herself and feel more connected to Max, but it soon became just another step in her daily routine. It felt good to leave some kind of trail, not only for others to read after she was gone, but also to look back on during those nostalgic rainy days.

If Lizzie had learned one thing from the new world, and how simple life would be if she had only been forced to learn one thing, it was that your journey cannot be predicted or manipulated. You never know when a corner you turn may be your last. You never know when a conversation with a friend could be the final one. And you certainly never know where the next attack is coming from. Her journal was Lizzie's way to stay grounded, to document her life, and to enjoy those precious moments of blissful escapism.

She had never told JJ, nor anyone else for that matter, but the back pages of her brown, leather-bound book were dedicated to final farewells. Lizzie had not feared death for many years, but the one lingering, terrifying thought was the idea of dying without being able to say goodbye. So, she took the slightly morbid decision to write letters to those she held most dear, just in case the time came when she would need to reach out and say goodbye from beyond the grave. It scared her to think that her last words to JJ could be an argument, or her last interaction with Dawson might be a nod from across the farm. No, she needed it to be perfect. If she could only predict and manipulate one thing about her future, it would be this.

Once she had entered her thoughts and feelings for the morning, Lizzie took the time to flick through the pages from front to back. When she had a spare moment to herself, she liked to stop on a random entry and reminisce on the words from her past. The distant screaming still echoed around the house, but JJ likely had it covered, so Lizzie shuffled through the pages like a poker dealer... 'Meeting Uncle John'.

Her heart stopped for a moment, as it often did during these moments. Silly, really. After all, they were memories from her own past. She knew the beginning, middle, and end of every story told within her journal. But certain memories held greater significance than others, and this was not one she had expected to revisit on a cold Thursday morning.

Lizzie's time with John had been brief, by all accounts. He managed just a few weeks on life support before the pain was too much, both physically and mentally. As was the case with so many, he was just too far gone. But the one thing Lizzie admired most about his uncle was that he wasn't scared. There wasn't an ounce of dread about slipping into the unknown.

"Knowing that I walked this Earth as one of them... a natural death comes with its own sweet release," he had told her. Lizzie had written that particular quote down.

She once asked him whether he regretted being cured, and all the nightmares that came with it, but John had cut her off before she could even finish. Why would he want to witness the fall only to miss the eventual happy ending? And waking up to the news that he had a niece, that was just the icing on the cake.

And so Lizzie spent three weeks by her uncle's side in that hospital bed, often appearing at first light and shuffling off to bed in the early hours. They spent countless hours swapping stories about Max. Lizzie, of course, wanted to know all the embarrassing details from his childhood, while John was transfixed by his brother's apocalyptic journey.