The boy rushes over and shoves the biter off. My eyes are still wide in fear. I start to tremble as he offers me his hand but my body stays put, still petrified from the near death experience.
Eventually he puts one arm by my neck and the other under my knees, swinging me up into the air. I shut my eyes, shielding them from the sunlight as he exits the barn. He heads towards the farmhouse. The interior is country style and dated. He lays me down on a floral sofa, and then goes to the kitchen to get me a glass of water. As I take tiny sips, he holds up my head. For once in an extremely long time, I feel safe. Someone is actually alive and caring for me, like my Mother always did, but my Mother is dead and I'll never see her again. My chest swells up in mixed emotion, anger and loneliness, relief and gratefulness. I feel everything at once.
I let out an embarrassing sob, trying to hold it in. I hold my breath forcing the tears back but they're too strong and they pour over my face. The boy sits down next to me and lays my body in his lap, soothing me to sleep.
When I wake up, I'm no longer on the couch. Instead I've been carried to a bedroom. The walls are a calming cream colour. At the foot of the bed is a new pile of clean clothing. I get up and pad towards them. I carefully take off my camo jacket and pull off my blood stained tank. Quickly, I button up a plaid shirt, worried that the boy will come in while I'm near naked. Then I pull off my capri pants, pulling on a new pair. I pull down my hair, and do a simple braid down my back.
I pull open the door to find a long hallway, with photographs of people I don't know. "Hello?" I ask the emptiness. I hear footsteps and someone running up stairs; then the boy is in front of me.
"Thank you, really, thank you," I cannot express my gratefulness for him being there for me; for saving my life.
"It's nothing, really," then he looks down, his eyes filled with pain. For a moment his expression winces and then he looks back up and smiles.
"You knew them? Didn't you?" I ask. From his emotion I can tell that the biter he killed for me was someone he knew.
"Yeah," he scratches the back of his head. "It was my sister, Charlotte. She was only twelve."
"I'm so, so very sorry." I say, instantly feeling bad for being the cause of the loss, "for everything," I add at the end.
"You did nothing," he smiles. "It wasn't your fault."
"No, I mean I thought your farm was abandoned and I needed fuel; I have to get going soon. It must be dark already." I say having no sense of what time it actually is.
"Well, I saw you going into the barn, and then the thing following you. I knew I had to do something. Why don't we talk over breakfast?" he offers.
I thought that it was the evening but I must've slept through the night. I head downstairs after the boy and breakfast is served: scrambled eggs. "My name is Emma, what's yours?" It seems funny that after everything we've gone though, we haven't even exchanged names.
"Aiden. It's nice to meet you," he smiles, then takes a spoonful of eggs.
While we eat, we talk about all that's occurred to us since this happened. I tell him that my family had an RV and was traveling around the city, trying to find a way out, but we desperately needed supplies. We ended up at a supermarket on the edge of town. At first everything seemed normal, so I got up and explored. When I did, I heard moans from the aisle six, the one my family was in. I climbed the shelf and hid, trying to block out the awful gurgling. That's when I heard my Mother scream. My Father shouted out, "NO"! It was too late. I heard a gunshot and then footsteps, running. When I climbed down, my Mother has dead, just lying there, and my brother and Father were gone. I squatted down next to my Mother. She wasn't moving. I was feeling in such pain, just wanting her to wrap her arms around me one last time. Then more biters came around the corner. I screamed for her to wake up, but she lay motionless. "Please, mommy, wake up!" I kept saying but I knew it was too late. As I stood to exit I said goodbye to her, then continued on to the front door in search of my father and brother. They had already gone. I was on my own.
I grab a napkin and dab at my eyes, looking to Aiden for his reaction. The pain never goes away, I never forget. It's etching away at my heart every beating moment. "It's okay," Aiden offers and then comes over to give me a hug. For a moment I pretend that it's my Mother, giving me a loving hug but then I snap back to reality and let go.
"My story is pretty different but I can tell you, we do have a lot in common," Aiden starts off on a sunny Sunday afternoon when his father returns from town, telling them that the rumours are true. "That evening there was an attack;" he continues, "my Mother and sister didn't come out alive. They were bit. We killed most of the attackers, but Dad insisted that we leave in case there were more. He and my brother, Trevor, left. I didn't want to leave. It was the only place I'd ever lived, ever slept. I couldn't bare to leave so I made a big scene and they drove off. I've been alone ever since. They never even bothered to come back to see if I was still alive and breathing." He looks down, "but I've managed."
"We all have," I think out loud. Everything we go through tests our ability to survive, to compete with the mental and physical challenges that the world has thrown at us. All the pain, it stays with us forever, we just make room for it so we can go on.