Ashley:
We found another neighborhood that had long been abandoned, and had only a sparse spread of infected. We split up into two groups to cover more area quicker. Mitch and I searched one side of the street whilst Dan and Sydney searched the other. At this point, we were all somewhat professional scavengers and it wasn’t even twenty minutes before a rumble of an engine penetrated the air. We converged at the neighborhood’s entrance, and Dan and Sydney were waiting for us there in a running SUV. “That was quick. I thought we’d be here for hours.” Mitch said, as we slid into the back of the car. Nobody replied. None of us wanted to speak, because our throats and eyes burned from the crying. Sydney insisted on driving, but Dan refused to give up the driver’s position. “Last time you were driving, you wrecked my car, gave me a concussion in the process, and killed a family.” She snarled coldly. “That’s a pretty good reason to not let him drive.” I whispered modeless to myself, but Mitch picked up on my words. “Dan, let me drive, just to keep the peace.” Mitch suggested. Sydney didn’t deny his suggestion, so Dan agreed to it. We switched seats in the car so that I sat by Mitch in the front, and Sydney and Dan could work out there problems in the back. There was a strong sense of unity but also separation between us. Mitch and I seems to act as one unit and Sydney and Dan seemed to act as another. It felt terribly solemn in the car. It lacked Jerome’s humorous laugh and Louise’s quiet statements. The road ahead of us was long, but with the increasing number of zombies and the decreasing number of survivors, we met very little human related trouble. Dan and Sydney couldn’t seem to work out their troubles, and Sydney eventually turned away to try to sleep it away. Dan sighed, but didn’t say anything until she was definitely asleep. “Is that true, what she said? With the whole car accident? You killed a family?” I asked. “Do we need to bring it up now? We’ve all dealt with enough death today.” He grumbled. “Yeah, sorry. I didn’t think before I spoke, I guess.” I replied. There was a long pause, but then Dan spoke again. “If we ever get out of this hellhole, I’m never going to forget it. Because of me, a whole family is dead. I just… what if I killed Sydney too? Or even Mark? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. She warned me, Sydney did, to slow down or pull over, but I ignored her. I’ve ruined her life, and mine too.” He rambled, distressed. “You didn’t ruin her life, Dan. The zombie apocalypse did.” Mitch replied, in a poor attempt to comfort him. “Yeah, Dan. I’ll be honest, it may haunt you for years even after we escape. But someday, you’ll be able to turn, and look back, and say, ‘I made the right decisions. I got Sydney and I out alive.’ And then, everything will be okay.” I said, smiling comfortingly at him. He looked at me with something like disagreement. “You seem awfully confident that we’re going to get out alive.” He said, glancing at Sydney, then back to me. “I know we’re gonna get out. If we’ve made it this far, there’s literally nothing that can stop us now.” Mitch chimed in. “Together,” He continued. “We can do anything.” As he said the last four words, he looked at me, and smiled genuinely. The world seemed to be full of genuine tears and false smiles, and it was a rarity to see a genuine smile. I think he was about to say something else, but Sydney, who must have either just woken up or had faking sleep sat up. “Keep your eyes on the road Mitch!” She grumbled. “We don’t have time for romance right now. We just need to get to Seattle.” As much as her interruption annoyed me, I remembered the tragedies she had also experienced, and my anger turned to sympathy, as we drove on, now in silence.
Sydney:
I didn’t feel like myself anymore. And I would never feel the same way again. I would never be the same cheerful girl I was, making silly videos for some site. What was it called? Youtube? I couldn’t even remember it. Life before the outbreak felt like a dream really. It was nearly impossible to remember the details, but there were still traces of it in your mind. I missed my old happy go lucky self, but I knew that I’d never see her again, and that hurt me worse than anything. After snapping at Mitch, I could feel a wave of hot dislike flood me, but nobody said anything. To them, the whole world was just delusion. They had yet to actually grasp the situation, and understand what was really happening. They were still living in their dream. “I thought you were asleep.” Dan said, looking at me softly. “I was. Some bump in the road woke me up.” I replied. “I didn’t feel it.” He said, tilting his head to the side. I didn’t reply, because I didn’t want to play twenty questions with him. “Sydney. What’s wrong? we can work it out. You’re acting different.” Dan stated the obvious. I bit my lip for a moment, filtering out all the anger I felt toward that question. “I experienced something life changing. My best friend died next to be in a battle. I saw Gardenwall fall, and we ran like cowards. People have been slaughtered before us all, we’ve encountered the undead, and seen betrayal in it’s finest form, but you all don’t seem to understand what’s going on. Why can’t you see the world we’re living in?” I explained. distraught. Dan looked into my eyes with the utmost sympathy like he understood what I felt like, but couldn’t feel it himself. I hugged him tightly, but held in the tears. Mitch and Ashley didn’t understand, but I didn’t expect them to. I liked them, and they were my friends, but they would never understand me on the level that Dan and Mark did. The road trip continued, but it became a little less painful, when I was in someone’s arms, warm, and with a false sense of safety. We crossed the state border into the edge of Washington hours later, and were met with an unfamiliar sight. It was group of oddly familiar looking people trying to change a tire.
Sonja:
Mr. Jones smiled a bloody smile, with ebony twinkling eyes. I put my gun up, aiming it as quickly as I could, but the cannibal was more experienced with a gun than I was, and placed his gun’s aim on my chest. “Drop your gun miss. I can assure you even if you shoot me, I’ll shoot you before the bullet touches me.” He smirked. “Don’t drop the gun Sonja. He’s not that fast.” James warned nervously. Mr. Jones’s smile widened even more. “Try me, if you must. You know what? I’ll make you a deal. If you drop the gun, I’ll let you go for being such a good listener.” He said, humoring himself. In that moment of panic, I couldn’t think for myself, and looked to Tucker and James for an answer. “Sonja, drop the gun. At least you can get out of this situation.” Tucker told me. Without thinking, my sweaty fingers released the gun, and it clattered onto the floor. Mr. Jones looked infinitely pleased with himself. “Everybody seems to trust the fat man. He seems harmless I guess. But he’s not. He lied.” He laughed viciously, keeping the gun aimed on me. “But since you were a good listener, I’ll shoot you, rather than decapitate you with a chainsaw.” I heard a bullet click into the gun’s chamber, and squeezed my eyes shut, unable to watch myself die. I heard the bullet fire, but didn’t feel the bullet. Slowly, I opened one eye, and saw Tucker’s body at my feet. He had shielded me from the bullet, giving his life to save mine. The rest of the world melted away. Mr. Jones, Tom, James, Ella. Nothing mattered but Tucker now. I dropped to my knees, speechless. Tucker’s shirt began to turn dark red as blood oozed from his wound, but he was still breathing. “Tucker..” I whispered, grabbing his hands. “Hi Sonj.” He smiled at me weakly. “I’m so sorry Tucker.. This is my fault. I’m so so sorry.” I whimpered. Tears rolled down my face, dropping onto the ground, but I was too stunned to really cry. “Don’t worry Sonja. It wasn’t…it wasn’t your fault…” He began tot trail off, unable to hang onto his life for much longer. “I..I love you.” He whispered, trembling from the intense pain, then he closed his eyes, and stopped moving. “Tucker? Tucker! Wake up!” I began to sob, shaking his shoulders. The amount of agony I felt emotionally was indescribable by words. The last thing he said was that he loved me. “No, Tucker, come back.” I whispered, pressing my head against his chest to hear for a heart beat. There was none. “I love you too.” I cried. My sorrow was so intense that I was unaware of anything besides Tucker’s death. For all I knew, Mr. Jones could have come at me with a chainsaw and ripped off my head. However, no chainsaw came, just a gentle hand. I turned to see how had put their hand on my shoulder, and was filled with shock to see Aurey standing next to me. “You’re alive..” I whispered. It would have been a joyous occasion, if Tucker had not just died. “Yes I am. You’re safe now. Mr. Jones is dead.” She informed me softly. I looked away from Tucker, and saw the bastard’s corpse on the ground. I wanted to take the chainsaw in his hand and tear off every single limb for what he did, but the emotional toll was too much, and I could hardly look at him. I sat beside Tucker’s body for a good while, mourning extensively. After I finished crying over him, I looked up at all my friends who were patiently waiting for me to finish. “We can’t leave him here to rot in some torture basement.” I said finally. “I agree, let’s give him a proper funeral. Or as proper as we can make it.” Aurey noted. We carried Tucker out into the house’s backyard, and set him under a large tree in the backyard. “We can’t bury him, Sonja. We don’t have enough time, or a spade for that matter. We can take some time to honor him though.” James said. A bolt of lightning followed by a clap of thunder shattered the sky, and rain began to pour from the Washington sky, as we gathered around Tucker in silence. I reflected on all of our memories together. All the silly fights, great banter, and fun times. I’d never see him again, or hear his voice again. Tom seemed to have taken it almost as hard as I had, and he stood by me, putting his arm around my back partially to comfort me, partially to comfort himself. After everything we had experienced on that wild adventure, that was the worst.
Aurey:
We followed Sonja and Tucker silently, not wanting to alert Ella’s kidnappers. “What could they be doing here?” I whispered to Jordan who led the way. “I… I have no idea. I didn’t think we were ever going to see them again. I thought they were dead.” He whispered back to me, obviously as stunned as I was. We followed them at a considerable distance, and lost sight of them as they jumped the fence. We followed their trail, and entered the backyard, where they seemed to have vanished from. The sliding glass door was open, and using my top notch investigation skills, I drew the conclusion that they had entered the house. Jordan continued to lead the way into the eerily quiet house, but suddenly, I heard a voice from what seemed to be the basement. We snuck down the stairs, only to see Mr. Jones in all his glory with a gun aimed at something. Jordan signaled me to stay away, and I obeyed. Then, he snuck up behind Mr. Jones just after the fat man pulled the trigger, and grabbed his neck in a head lock. I heard another gun shot, but unable to see what was going on, I shut my eyes and prayed that Ella and Jordan were both okay. “Okay Aurey, you can come down.” Jordan called me. I scampered down the stairs, and saw a gruesome yet bittersweet sight. Two corpses were on the ground, one was Mr. Jones’s, and the other was Tucker’s. I had known Sonja for several years, and never had I seen her so emotional. I turned to the other people in the room. There was the man who bought Sonja from the slave trade, and mrs importantly, there was Ella, unharmed. She looked partially horrified to watch Tucker die, but at the same time overjoyed to see us. She ran to us, and all three of us embraced in a hug. My family. “Did you get Atticus?” She asked us, eventually pulling away. “Of course we brought Atticus.” I smiled at her. It was the most overwhelmingly joyous feeling to be with Jordan and Ella again. However, eventually, my attention shifted to Sonja, who was sobbing now over Tucker’s body. I gingerly walked over to her, and rested my hand on her shoulder. She looked up with an expression of terror and extreme sorrow, but then surprise. “You’re alive..” She murmured. “Yes I am. You’re safe now. Mr. Jones is dead.” I said smiling at her. I felt terrible for my friend, but there was nothing I could do or say to make it better. She continued to mourn over her best friend. The thing about losing someone like a boyfriend or husband is that they’re not only a lover, but a best friend. After a good while, she finally looked up and suggested a proper funeral. I agreed, and we took Tucker’s body out to the backyard and set him against a big tree. We spent even more time to mourn over him, and reflect on all the shared memories of him, but eventually, it started to storm, and Sonja’s owner from the slave trade, who’s name was James, suggested to take cover from the bad elements. We said our final goodbyes, and regretfully left a good friend behind forever. We split up into two cars, but James supplied Jordan with a radio to communicate with on the road. It was Jordan, Ella, Atticus and I in one car, and Sonja, Tom, and James in the other larger truck. There were a million questions I had, but I found no answers. We started up our cars, and began down the road once more, Seattle bound. We followed James because he seemed to be the best leader of the group at that point for a while, until his voice came through the radio. “We got a flat tire over here. We’re gonna pull over, I got a spare.” We all pulled to the side of the road, and James got out to change the tire. As he did so, the familiar rumble of an engine penetrated the air, but it wasn’t from either of our mobiles. We looked down the road, and saw another car coming our way.