The Decay

Chapter Four

    It's dark outside again by the time I've cooled down and I finally open the door for someone. It's Miyonah. She walks in and sits on the side of the bed. I lock the door again and go to sit next to her. I know all three of them went back to sleep after this morning and I can tell by Miyonah's face. She finally looks well rested. Her eyes aren't as dark underneath and it looks like she found a brush because her hair is in a wavy low ponytail laying on her shoulder.

After a while she finally speaks.

"You can't go around just killing things, Tanner."

I don't respond and just lay back instead. The ceiling has stars on it. Miyonah lays back too,

"I'm serious, Tanner. How could you do that so easily? You can't do that. Killing changes you."

    I turn my neck towards her, hopeful. Maybe she finally remembers. Maybe she can move passed it and that haunted look will leave her eyes. Just maybe.... But then she faces me and I see she wasn't referencing herself. Just citing some of the many pieces of advice and knowledge people older than you say in an attempt to seem wise. I face the ceiling again.

    "I had to know I could do it, Mi. For you and Sarah. This is the world we live in now. It isn't killing if they're already dead."

"You could have gotten us killed. All four of us."

    "I would have had to do it at some point. I should have waited though. I know that now and I'm sorry."

"Tell that to Noah."

    "Why would I do that?" I ask, clenching my fists. She lays her hand on mine and I relax a little and grab it.

    "Because he saved us, Tanner. All he's doing is trying to save us. And..." She says squeezing my hand, "because your sister loves him. You may not pay attention a lot but I know even you can see it."

"We don't know him." I whisper angrily.

"We don't, Tanner. But she does."

    Miyonah leaves and leaves the door open in her wake. I think about what she's said and then I think about her. She still doesn't remember what happened on the first day of everything. When the world went to chaos. When those things became more than just things from nightmares and movies. When she killed her parents.

    The disease hit in such a random way that no one knows where it came from. Everything was fine and then people just started dropping. They'd convulse and choke up blood before their eyes would milk over and that sound erupted from their chest. That dead, hungry sound that no human should be able to make.

    When Miyonah came out of her house that day, bloody knife in hand, we knew what she had had to do but she didn't remember doing it. When we tried to talk to her about it a few days later, she looked horrified and confused. It bothered us enough that we had went back to her house when things had calmed down to see what happened. Sure enough, upon entering, we found both of her parents lying dead in the living room.

    Both of them had the creamed over eyes. Her dad's mouth was bloody and her mom had a bite in her cheek. They both had multiple stab wounds but the ones that stood out the most were the ones in their head. We drew the conclusion. Her dad had turned and attacked her mom, Miyonah stabbed him in panic protecting her mother, her mother turned after and she had killed her to protect herself.

    Miyonah broke down wailing when she seen it and it took a long time to get her to stop. We didn't know how she made herself forget. We didn't know what details she fed her mind for her to remember ending up with us and this whole thing going down. All we knew is that something went wrong in her head and now shadows haunt her eyes and she hasn't been the same.