Are We Alone

The Mitchell Family.

The sun was shinning brightly through the broken windows of the abanded factory, the sheets Jack had put up were not doing a very good job at blocking it out, the brightness caused Lilah to wake up.

She wasn't in a deep sleep, she never was, she could always hear the mumblers walking outside.

Lilah walked over towards an old rusty cot that she had tried to make pretty by decorating it with paper flowers and teddy bears, there laid her baby sister, Perri, she was fast asleep.

Lilah smiled at her sister sleeping peacefully, so unaware of what was happening in the world, Lilah wished she could be so innocent again.

She walked into what looked like a kitchen and put some water on the stove to heat up, scooping some powder into a baby bottle and preparing some baby milk for when Perri woke.

As she grabs the last tin of baby milk from the counter she suddenly realised she was running out of baby milk, she could only make 2 or 3 more bottles for her sister.

She felt very angry at herself, she never let the baby powder get this low.

Lilah hurried back over to her mattress on the floor, quickly pushing her hand under the opened pillowcase and feeling around, the colour drained from Lilah's face and a worried look formed. 'where is moms journal?' Thought a very panicked Lilah..

"Jack.. JACK! wake up" Lilah shouted as she made her way to her brothers mattress.

Jack woke up abruptly and looked at Lilah.
"Its barely morning Lilah!, what's the matter?" He replied with a yawn, still tired.

"Mom's journal, it's gone!" said Lilah in a panicked voice.

"what do you mean its gone! things like that dont just disappear.. are you sure you left it there" said Jack calmly, sure she had just misplaced the journal.

"I know where I left it! I always put it back where I left it... Ah" said Lilah, with a sudden realisation.

"what?" asked Jack questioningly.  

"I know where it is!" Came Lilah's reply "its in Walmart.. When I was looking for food for us.. I must have put it down somewhere" said Lilah, feeling slightly releived that she knew where the journal was.

Lilah quickly grabs a backpack, puts in a bottle of water and a couple of blunt objects, then threw in an apple and headed to put her shoes on, once her shoes were on she ran towards the doors.

"where you going?" called our Jack.

"I'm obviously going to get moms journal, I have made Perri a bottle, it's on the stove, she's out of milk so I will get that too.  I will be back soon." She said calmly as she heads out of the doors.

"Be careful Lilah" called out a worried Jack.

The whole of the day before played back in Lilahs head, where she could have possibly lost her mother's journal, which aisle it would be in, probably the baby isle, and what if someone else found it and she no longer had the secrets to staying alive during a world pandemic, she didn't want to think about what could happen without that journal.

Lilah walked for miles before she saw the Walmart sign ahead saying that it was only 2 miles away, it was such a hot day 'it must be like 90 degrees' Lilah thought to herself, the sweat was visibly pouring off Lilahs head.

She could hear the mumblers in the distance, as she got closer towards Walmart, she heard the mumblers more clearly.

"Remember Lilah, think like one of them, act like one of them, they won't notice you if you do...' these words began replaying over in Lilah's head, they were the words written in her mothers journal.

Jack and Lilah had practiced being a mumbler for the past few weeks, blending in with them, moving with them but at a distance, it was easier to get around if you didn't have to run from them, but it had gotten harder now as Perri was starting to grow up it felt impossible, like they had to hide forever, they couldn't risk Perri crawling towards mumblers or having a tantrum and drawing attention to them.

Lilah started making slow and quite mumbling noises, like Jack had taught her, she began dragging her leg across the floor in a limp, never giving the mumblers eye contact.
'just keep walking and you will soon been where you need to be.' Her mothers words rang in her ears.

Finally she reached the Walmart doors, she pulled them open and headed inside; starting to look down each aisle to see if she could find her mothers journal.

She had no look, She couldn't seem to see the journal anywhere!
A very disheartened Lilah fell down towards the floor where she curled up and began to cry.

She was about to give up and head home, she wiped her tears and put her hands out to stand up, where she suddenly noticed a note next to her with the words
'I have your journal meet me here tomorrow at sunset if you want it back, I will be waiting for you.'

Lilah blinked, completely shocked by the note "there's more of us?"sighed Lilah, "And they have my moms journal.." feeling very confused and tired Lilah started heading towards the doors, ready to take the long wall back to Jack and Perri.

Before she left Walmart she remembered Perri was out of baby milk, she quickly grabbed the last tub of baby milk and shoved it in her backpack and then headed out.

All Lilah could think about was that note, 'who are they!' 'how many of them is there?' 'could they be mumblers?' a very confused Lilah headed towards her home.

"Did you find it" asks Jack as he heard Lilah come home, he looked up at Lilah and then moved his focus back to Perri who was crawling around.

"No... but someone else did" sighed Lilah.

"what do you mean someone else found it? did they give it back?" Asked a now worried Jack.

Lilah shook her head and handed the written note over to Jack who began to read it.

"Are you seriously going to go Lilah? this could be a trap?" Said a worried Jack.

"yes I'm going to go Jack, that has got everything we need in there, moms secrets and a guide on how to take care of Perri and keep us all safe!" Lilah said with exasperation.

After ending the conversation Lilah went to the kitchen and started to warm up porriage for Perri.

"1,2,3 open wide Perri.." grinned Lilah, Perri sat on the floor and openned her mouth waiting for her sister to feed her.

After eating Jack grabbed Perri and took her to the sink for a bubble bath, he began to wash her down, "two little ducks went swimming one day, over the hill and far away, mama duck said quack quack quack quack and only one little duck came back.." sang Jack.

Perri loved this song their mom used to sing it to her.

"Time for bed now Perri" said Lilah, scooping up the toddler and taking her to her cot.
she tucked her in and gave her a kiss "Goodnight Perri"

As they shut down the lights Jack and Lilah couldn't seem to shut off, the worry about who had their mothers journal replayed on their minds...