Month 6 Day 10; 7:04 p.m.
"Alright. Sorry about that. I was just so happy that you did what you were told the first time. You don't know how many people just stand there and do nothing.
"Now, I am willing to over look your, shall we say, rather combative response to my former arrival. That is on one condition. You surrender as a group. All of you have to do is surrender unanimously and I'll over look you firing on us." Graveyard bent down to my level and dragged my head back by my hair. "Well? What do you say?" He threw my head to the ground, making me kiss the concrete.
"I-I-I surrender." Graveyard chuckled. I lifted my head slowly and looked around at everyone around me. Everyone looked at me with sad expressions for surrendering so fast. I didn't really care what they thought. I had to protect them. I had to protect then from this maniac that wanted to kill them. I looked around at them and mouthed 'Please', asking them to just submit.
"Well? I'm waiting what are you going to do?"
"What are you going to do?" Luke questioned him. He turned to him and I wanted to shout for Graveyard to get away from him, but something stopped me.
"I'm going to liberate the world. What are you going to do?" Luke looked around across the ground and Graveyard grabbed his face and squished it, pulling him closer. "Answer my question," he stated in an agitated tone, throwing Luke backwards.
"I was going to help reestablish a school and be a teacher for the kids. I wanted to train them to take care of themselves. I wanted to sort of be an apocalypse gym teacher and help them learn to survive." Graveyard took a step back, surprised at that answer.
"Well that sure is noble of you." He smiled and then Luke fell to the ground and blood poured from an opening in his head. I hadn't even heard a gun shot, but I did hear the aftermath that followed. Some of the girls screamed and Reece pulled Scarlet into his arms, protecting her from the sight of Luke's dead body staring outward with a pale completion and a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead, leaking blood across the concrete. Gracie cried and balled her eyes out.
Graveyard huffed and puffed as if exerting himself. Then screamed into the night. "I don't like to do that but there are rules to this new world. Well...not rules exactly, more of...guidelines. Things that you must learn to survive in this world. We...-" Graveyard had finally taken enough of Gracie's crying and turned toward her with everyone else watching him as he did. He stepped forward and bent down in front of Noah as he held Gracie in his arms and Timmy kneeled behind him. "May I?" Graveyard questioned, offering to take Gracie from Noah.
"Not on your life," Noah shot back. Graveyard stood up and placed a gun at Noah's head.
"What was that?"
"Not on your life," he repeated. Graveyard sighed and pulled the trigger. I heard that shot, but I had hoped that I wouldn't hear it, but I did. The gunshot rang out in my skull and I felt my heart stop. In an instant my thoughts were not of Noah, but of Timmy and Gracie. How horrified they must be. How they would ever be able to get past this. I forced myself to look up and I saw Tony wrestling on the ground with Graveyard and Noah staring blankly behind them.
Immediately I froze. What was I supposed to do? What could I do? The fight began to turn. Tony was taller, but Graveyard was stronger. He pushed Tony off of him and began pummeling him into the ground. He beat him and beat him and beat him viscously, over and over and over again. Finally he pushed away from Tony's struggling form. He kicked him one last time and bent over again, this time with probable cause of exhaustion. I wanted to cry, but a sweet melody arose from within me. No, it wasn't within me. I was hearing it.
I turned and saw Cheyenne singing. She was humming at first, then she began to sing. "No time for rest...No pillow for my head... Nowhere to run from this... No way to forget..." She kept on singing and people started to join in. Hailey, Sasha, Tony, A.J., Noah, Timmy, Zach, and even something inside of me began to hum along until I began to sing.
Soon we were all in a chorus and Graveyard was looking around, wide eyed, struggling to understand what was happening. We were defying him. He wanted to oppress us, but we couldn't be oppressed. We would do anything we wanted to do. Whether that was running, jumping, or even singing, we would do it without thinking twice. "Meet me on the battlefield...Even in the darkest night...I will be your sword and shield, your camouflage, and you will be-"Bang!
Everyone halted. I turned and saw Cheyenne crying, then she fell over onto A.J.'s lap. He struggled to push himself up and hold pressure on his eye at the same time, but he made it and dragged Cheyenne into his arms. He cried. It was the only thing that could be heard anywhere. Until gunfire rained down over everything. Graveyard's men dropped like flies and even Graveyard himself fell. I heard a scream to run and I did. I ran forward and grabbed A.J. He fought me with the little amount of energy he had left, but he couldn't overpower me as I dragged him away from Cheyenne's lifeless husk.
I almost threw us both into the house as gunfire raged to life behind me. I struggled to stand and drag A.J. behind me at the same time. A hand reached down and I looked up to see Autumn! My heart skipped a beat. I had never been so happy to see her in my life, honestly. She grabbed A.J. and hauled him up. I followed suit and we proceeded down the hallway. We made it to the end of the hallway and I turned around and saw the rest of the group hunkered down behind me. They were all here, I didn't have to count them, I just knew that they were all present. Autumn kicked out the back window and gazed over the drop, it was ten feet, give or take, but I saw the bus underneath so it was about a five foot drop now. I saw someone blast past me and dive through the window. I gazed outside at the person as they landed on the bus and stood as if they had just completed a flip in cheerleading. It was E.J. Go figure. Next Autumn went. People began to follow her out the window. I stayed, helping them out. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take them all to get out or how long it was going to take Graveyard and his men to recover and come after us. I turned around and a small object rolled down the hallway. I watched as Reece turned around and then it happened. Everything happened before I could tell what was happening. Reece flew toward me and I threw myself out of the way. He flew threw the window and out into the night. I struggled to stand and I saw as I felt a familiar heat resonating from the air around me. The building was burning. I screamed for people to get out, but everyone was in the same situation as I was, they were struggling to move. I picked up Zach as he laid next to me and hoisted him to the window. I caught sight of Autumn and immediately I threw Zach. She caught him and lowered him through the sunroof. I turned and grabbed William and proceeded to do the same with him as the rest of the group began to come together and regain their senses. I grabbed Timmy next and threw him to Autumn. She caught him as well and handed him to Hailey who was catching people through the sunroof. There were only a couple people left. Noah jumped next, carrying Gracie with him. A.J. went after him and the only people left now were Seth and Bailey. I turned to look for them, but as I turned, the building began to collapse. I covered my eyes and groaned as the heat was excruciating. I opened my eyes as the heat died down and saw Seth and Bailey a couple of feet in front of me. Bailey was caught under a piece of ceiling and Seth was trying desperately to pry her free. I moved toward them and placed a hand on the ceiling. I heaved and heaved, but I couldn't move it. I felt like I, myself, was burning as I turned to Seth. He smiled at me and spoke over the raging fire.
"Go, Josh." He handed me his machete and Bailey's katana. I shook my head since I was too shocked to speak and he placed a hand on my shoulder. "We'll be fine, Josh. We have eachother," he said as he clenched Bailey's hand. Bailey smiled up at me to.
"Get out of here, numbskull. Quit being such a third-wheel!" I laughed a small laugh and flashed a faint smile. I grabbed the weapons and proceeded to the window. I turned around one last time and they both waved at me. I waved back as a tear escaped my eye. I turned and jumped. I landed on the bus and I heard Autumn shout.
"Go!" The bus jolted forward and we flew through the woods. Autumn poked her head out of the sunroof. She didn't say anything, she just grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. I fell into the floor and gazed up through the sunroof. I didn't know how or what to feel. I had lost my home, I had lost my friends, I had lost my childhood. I grabbed the single baseball from my pocket and placed it in front of my view through the sunroof. The moon's embrace encompassed the edges and I knew one thing for certain with no second thought or hesitation at all.
"Their dead," I spoke into the bus filled with mourners. "Their all dead."
The bus remained silent, except for the sound of the engine, until E.J. spoke up in a solemn tone. "We all die at some point. What separates us from death when our destination is our enemy? Hope? Fear? The stubbornness to not accept our fate? Who knows? I just thought it was our job. Maybe we've just been let go. Perhaps that means a greater adventure awaits. Perhaps only more suffering is to be found. Why fight when we lose in the end? Maybe it's just to get TO the end..." E.J. let that thought settle as we all sat behind him and questioned what he had said. "...but maybe Squirrelly is wrong. I think hope, fear, and stubbornness all lead us to keep going. That's how I did it. You can all do that, too. We can fight today, live tomorrow, and die the day after. I guess you can just call me a procrastinator for not wanting to die today. Let's not die today. Shall we?" I stared at his reflection in the mirror as he watched the path before us. He was still crazy, but he was right. I stood and walked to the front. I placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I'll die another day."