Bite {Niall Centric}

Day 678

Where is she?

When Niall knocked on Mrs. Baker's front door, he got no reply. He tried the doorknob, surprised when it turned and opened the door. He had looked in every room, calling out to the widow, even searched the neighborhood a bit. She couldn't be found.

A sinking feeling began to form in Niall's gut. When he was there the day before, she hadn't seemed well. Perhaps he had been too hasty in leaving yesterday. Maybe he should have stayed longer, or forced her to go with him. Thoughts about the worst possible scenario began to crowd his mind. She wouldn't, would she? Not if Niall was here; she didn't have to be alone anymore. Just as that thought settled, Niall also knew he wasn't the company she craved - just like Mrs. Baker wasn't Louis, Liam, Zayn, nor Harry.

Niall bit his lip as he fought back tears. He began to search around her house again, calling her name in a frantic manner. His head felt light as he began to grow dizzy. Finally, he had a sudden idea, an inkling as to where she might be. The brunette quickly made his way to the Robinson household, taking care to keep his gun out, but pointed low. Upon arrival, he immediately noticed the door was cracked open and smeared in a brown, crusted layer of blood and grime.

He used the tip of his gun to push the door open all the way, sunlight filtering past him and into the dark home. Dust particles danced in the sunbeams but did little to distract from the huddled figure of Mrs. Baker on the couch and the grotesque state of the living room. Several corpses littered the ground, and the trails of blood leading out of the room alluded to more bodies scattered around the house. He recognized one of the corpses to be David Baker, Mrs. Baker's oldest at twelve years old.

Niall gulped before putting his gun away, stepping into the room cautiously. "Mrs. Baker?" He called out, walking closer.

The silently mourning woman looked up at the sound of his voice, red-rimmed, heart-wrenching eyes making contact with his own. Niall took a seat beside her and wordlessly pulled her into a hug, guiding her head onto his shoulder. He rubbed circles into her lower back as she sobbed and quietly called out for her loved ones. Niall hadn't realized that her pain was still fresh and ever growing as she tortured herself with the sight of bloody, half-eaten bodies and grey, lifeless eyes.

Niall felt the tears streaming down his own face, mixing with Mrs. Baker's as he shared her heartache. It felt like it was just yesterday when he was laughing with his family before they were torn from him. It felt like he was back in the field, watching his parents get bitten and mindlessly follow Greg and him as they headed south and talked about stars and fate. The memory of six gunshots ringing out and the thuds of his parents falling to the pavement felt fresh. The ringing in his ears and his brother's voice still felt fresh. The visceral image of Greg dying twice in front of his eyes, by his own hand, still felt fresh. The pain felt so fresh and alive, burning away in his chest and behind his eyes.

The pain of suffering alone was all-encompassing, even though he wasn't alone anymore. Yet he still felt so lonely. He still felt like his heart was missing, even though it reminded him of its existence each time it twisted in his chest as he tortured himself with thoughts of his loss. He remembered so vividly the numbness with which he forced himself into just as much as he remembered the fulfillment he felt with his friends, his lovers.

Don't feel, he used to tell himself. Now, it was all Niall could do in the moment as he sat with Mrs. Baker and wept for all that had been taken from them.

When the tears dried up, Niall felt a lot better - better than he had in days. Mrs. Baker seemed to be all cried out, too, so he spoke up. "Do you want to have a proper burial? I can help. . . move the bodies."

Mrs. Baker took a long and deep breath, seeming to prepare herself to voice her decision. "Yes, that would be much appreciated. . . I- I couldn't bring myself to-" Her hoarse voice grew weaker until it eventually cut off, and Niall didn't need to hear anything else to start formulating a plan of action.

The most tiring and time-consuming part, he deduced, would be digging a hole big enough. Though, he had all day to do so, and with Mrs. baker's help, it would go by quicker. With a quick trip to the shed in the Robinsons' backyard, Niall acquired two shovels. He chose a nice spot under a Beech tree and confirmed the burial site with Mrs. Baker before the two got to digging.

It was another surreal experience for Niall. He never imagined he'd be digging a grave; even with the zombie apocalypse going on around him, he still never pictured himself digging a giant hole to bury a heap of bodies that once harbored the souls of people he knew. His own family had been left exposed to the elements to rot or be picked at by scavengers. All the zombies he had cleansed the mall of had been burned to a pile of ashes in the parking lot. Yet here he was with Mrs. Baker, helping her get the closure she deserved with each swing of the shovel driving into the earth. 

It was late evening by the time the pair finished digging a hole deep enough that Niall couldn't see the bun on top of Mrs. Baker's head when he looked out of the living room window. The grave was about four feet wide and six feet in length, big enough to pile in six corpses. He had just finished writing on a slab of pavement that would serve as a headstone, so he made his way outside to help Mrs. Baker out of the grave.

They had been digging all morning and afternoon before taking a dinner break. Afterwards, Mrs. Baker and Niall dug even more, determined to be finished and rid of the visual reminder of their burdens by the end of the day. The exhaustion could be seen clearly on Mrs. Baker's face, her hair frizzy and hanging in front of her eyes. Sweat dripped from both of their bodies despite the cool, winter air and the clouds blocking the sun in intermittent patterns of shapes.

Niall was unsure if she would be able to help him drag the bodies to the grave, but he wouldn't say anything if she didn't. He knew the woman was resolved to bury her loved ones. Surprisingly, they made quick work of moving and depositing the bodies into the grave. By the time he had put the last body, little David Baker, in the grave, night had engulfed the sky in murky darkness that seemed fitting of the atmosphere in the Robinsons' backyard.

Mrs. Baker was the first to shovel dirt over the two families, returning their bodies to the earth. Niall, for once, was grateful for the unnerving silence of the night that seemed to exist only in this town. If it hadn't been completely quiet, he might have missed the gentle sobs coming from Mrs. Baker. He couldn't see the shine of tears or the sorrow on her face, but he could hear and feel her melancholy.

Bit by bit, the grave was filled until only a giant mound remained under the tree. While Niall put away the shovels, Mrs. Baker positioned the headstone at the peak of the burial mound. The words on the stone were kept simple as it only had the names of those buried and a small message: Until death do us part, and even then you live in my heart. Niall waited patiently for Mrs. Baker to finish her prayers and her one-sided conversations with her family before the two of them headed back to Mrs. Baker's home.

It was well into the night by then, so Niall decided to stay over. He knew Mrs. Baker would appreciate the company after having such an emotional and physically tiring day, and honestly, he didn't want to drive all the way to Ed and Linda's farm. On his way to the front door, he passed by the tree in her front lawn. An idea popped up into his head as he paused and gazed at the monument of a tree. He continued into Mrs. Baker's house in search of a ribbon, which he found in a box with a bunch of tissue paper in the hall closet. He grabbed a spool of pastel yellow ribbon, a piece of paper, and a pen. He wrote a quick note mentioning Ed's farm and signed it with his name before plastering it to the tree with tons of ribbon.

When he decided to leave from here, he would give the boys a trail to follow. Hopefully, they would find him soon.

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Things will start picking up in the next chapter, but for now, let me know what you think of the story so far. I have lots of exciting (and dangerous) things planned for the future!