Welcome to Paradise // Billie Joe Armstrong // #Wattys2017

The Forgotten

For a long time, the four of us stayed inside the bar. Through the brick walls of the tiny building, we could hear the damage being inflicted out on the streets. We heard screams consisting of pure terror and crying so intense it left scars in our ears.

None of us dared to peek through the curtains in fear of being spotted. We wandered around that bar like we were goddamn Anne Frank. In the quiet atmosphere that was present, the sounds coming from outside seemed ten times louder. It drove us crazy, we had to get out.

Eventually, after a little less than two months, we ran out of food. Relief washed over us that we were finally going to have to leave the bar, but there was also a big deal of concern. We had no clue of where to go or what to expect.

Guessing from what we heard in the first weeks, it wouldn't be anything good.

I lay there on the matrass, staring at the ceiling above me and fantasizing what everything would look like, when Addy peeked her head around the corner. "We're leaving" she whispered, fear, but also anticipation glooming in her hazel colored eyes. I simply nodded my head, to which she smiled and went back.

I recollected the little things I had gathered over the past months and slouched into the bar, where Mike, Tre and Adrienne were waiting for me. Together, we stepped outside. I covered up my eyes with my arm as the strong light coming from the sun penetrated deeply into my skull, almost blinding me. The others did the same. We stood there for quite a while, until Tre spoke.

"I think we might be seeing The light, guys. Are you sure we didn't die of boredom in there?" he asked, making all of us laugh. Tre knows how to break tension like he knows how to fuck.

So, after we had gotten used to the light of day, which none of us had seen in months, we looked around the abandoned street. The destruction was definitely present; the broken glass that lay everywhere, the stains of blood, the rotten smell, it was all there.

However, the walkers weren't. We very soon discovered why.

"Where do we go now?" Mike asked. It was a question that had been burning on all of our tongues, but none of us knew the answer to. "I believe the library has turned into a shelter, they're handing out food there" Addy suddenly said, making all of us look at her questionably.

"I heard some people mention it a long while ago, but I'm not sure if it's true" she explained.

"If it is true, will it still be there?" Mike noticed. "It's worth a shot" I said. The others nodded at this and we all walked across the street. The building didn't look very inhabited anymore, if people had been sheltered there, they were gone by now.

Everything was still locked and the curtains in front of the windows were shut, making it impossible for us to see what was going on inside. I gently pressed my ear against the glass, hoping to hear the dimmed sound of chatting people.

What I heard instead was something that made a flame ignite from the core of my stomach, rising up all the way to my cheeks. I turned around to face the others. "I think... they are in there" I said alarmingly, vaguely pointing at the window, my fingers trembling.

"Fucking awesome, let's kill some bitches!" Tre yelled excitedly, to which Mike slammed a hand against his mouth to shut him up. I sent him a thankful look.

"Calm the fuck down, Tre. If they hear us, we're screwed. We need to think this through" I whispered harshly.

"I think the best thing we can do is grab some sharp pieces of wood and just... go inside" Mike suggested. "No, that's a bad idea. We don't know how many of them are in there" I said, shaking my head. "Honey, Mike's right. We don't have another choice" Addy stepped in, sending me an apologetic look.

sighed and ran my hands through my hair. I wanted to be as much of protection I could be for Adrienne, but I wasn't sure whether I was capable of it. Truth was, and still is, those things terrify me. I feared my muscles would just numb if I'd had to come face to face with them, but it was the risk I had to take to protect my wife.

"Fine" I finally gave in. "But we stick together no matter what, promise?"

"Promise" the others said in harmony.

Ironically enough, we then parted ways to search for anything that could serve as a weapon. There was enough wreckage on the street for us to grab, so after just seconds we got back together, the four of us now facing the entrance of the library. Sounds of the dead, that were vaguely hearable through the door, made a knot form in the pit of my stomach.

Or we can just find a different building?

The words lay on the very end of my tongue, but I swallowed them nevertheless. I was dreading to go inside there, but I knew it was something that had to be done. I was going to have to face them at some point, anyways.

We all took a deep breath, looked at each other for conformation and comfort, and smashed the door open. Everything that happened afterwards seemed like one big blob of misfortunate events, linked together, but apart from each other at the same time. As if I were in a stop-motion video that flashed before me, something I was unable to control.

The one thing that was clear, however, was the sour smell of eternal rotting meat. As if someone had thrown a steak behind the fridge and left it there for a month, letting it decompose and shrink away until there was nothing left but a pile of disgust.

We couldn't have known the amount of walkers inside that building, but the hurdle that came stumbling towards us, craving our flesh, was of an amount we were unable to control.

The first one had been the hardest. As its body collapsed to the floor in defeat, its sickening sound died out to silence, I felt my stomach turn upside down. Blurry spots were appearing in front of me, but this was the worst timing possible to slip into unconsciousness, so I got my shit back together and fought again.

It began feeling therapeutic, I zoned out, started killing them on full auto-pilot, until I head Addy scream behind me. She had been trapped by two of them. I threw myself in front of her protectively and got a hold on one of the walkers, fighting for dominance.

I subconsciously heard the groans of Tre, who had gotten his foot stuck behind something and was trying to hold back a few walkers himself too.

"Fuck!" he yelled out, repeatedly smashing one of their skulls to pieces.

I heard myself asking Tre if he was managing, but I wasn't fully aware of it. The situation had been so overwhelming it had casted a spell on my sense of awareness.

Until I was brutally sucked back into reality. I heard a screech coming from, what sounded to be, Mike's mouth. We all looked into his direction in shock, pondering what was going on. I could almost feel my eyeballs being torn out of their sockets as I had to watch the gruesomeness that was happening in front of me:

Mike was being torn apart, his flesh ripped away from his bones. The blood spilled all over the floor, forming a puddle that debouched into a tiny river of death flowing into my direction, stopping right before my shoes.

My shoes had Mike's blood on them.

The very few things I remember from what happened afterwards was having to continue our fight, the tears spilling from our eyes, as we heard our best friend being devoured as a late-night snack, aware that there was nothing we could have done to save him.

I remember arriving at the walkers that were amusing themselves on his body. I stabbed them, smashed in their skulls, until there was just as little left of them as there was of Mike. I was covered in their blood from head to toe, but kept going. I cried and called his name in disbelief of what had happened as I ripped open every single part of their decomposing bodies.

The decomposing bodies that had killed my best friend.

A/N: Fuck, right?

Also, thank you so, so much for 1K <3