Survivors of the Horde

Chapter 12 - Our Short Time - William

"Over two months have passed since my last entry in April. We finally made it to Toronto, though. The city has been utterly destroyed. Not a single sign of life has been seen for two days. Not even a single zombie. Taeh and Ace have officially started dating. Like no one ever saw that coming. If I'm correct the current date is July 26th, 2026. Around six months after the wave of zombies hit our home. everyone's spirits are broken. After getting lost in the woods for nearly three weeks we finally saw another person... who tried to cannibalize us. Before Ace bashed his skull in he yelled something about the rapture. It feels like the entire universe has thrown humanity out though, I'll give him that. I haven't seen a single animal be affected by the zombie outbreak. I don't get it. The Blue Legion or whatever the fuck that guy back in Chicago called it is gone. The building it used to reside in has been nearly flattened. It's like a large bomb just utterly and absolutely destroyed everything. After some discussion we decided that we should make a pitstop in Ottawa before going south to D.C. I fear there may be nothing left. Being there made me feel sick. The whole group seemed to have fallen ill of some sickness. Everyone had been throwing up, our nausea getting worse every second we stayed there. We decided that we should leave as quickly as possible. We're currently about a quarter of the way into Ottawa. It's been a slow travel as we have a lot to carry. We never did get the van back. At the time of us writing this everyone has almost healed up completely."

I close the small notebook and look up. I see Ace teaching Kireina how to cook the canned meat on the camping stove we have. Faith is still in her sleeping bag. I don't think she's recovering from whatever we got at Toronto. Whatever we got, she got it the worst. Though, she should be fine in a few days. Her condition was getting better until she was practically perfect but then it hit her again, and this time much worse.

We should be leaving around 10:00 AM. That's if Faith starts moving. We might have to stay here for a few days while she recovers.

I hear a loud clanging noise. It's the "Breakfast bell" according to Kireina. That's the kind of shit that's going to give me a headache at 10 AM. Whatever, hopefully the canned bacon tastes good.

I take my fork and jab it into the first strip. As I lift my fork towards my mouth I hear a footstep coming up the stairs behind me. "Fuck" I think to myself, "another fucking zombie? When will this morning end" I quickly take the tire iron I found in Chicago and bash the zombie in the head. He falls down the stairs and squirms around at the landing for a few seconds before giving up. I walk down and slam my tire iron into his skull for good measure. Rule #2 they say. Well, I've really been numbed to all the gore by now so I can just go back to eating my bacon. "Yep, slightly off." This canned bacon shit never tastes like the real thing. And it's not like I'm ever going to get any more real bacon. "Worst tragedy of the pandemic to be honest," I whisper to myself. I chuckle slightly.

That's when it happened...

"Oh fuck off. I was here first!" I hear Kireina scream.
"What?! The fuck does that have to do with anything? I obviously am a better match for him!" Estella yells.
"The hell you are! I don't need to go around being petty and shit!"
"You're literally fictional!"
"Shut up whor- wait what did you say?"
"Now leave him alone he's mine!" I just try and ignore the situation. They end up not talking for the rest of the day.

Ace made the call to stay here at our current camp site to allow for Faith to recover. She reasons that continuing to travel would only cause more stress upon her weakened body, making things worse, which I have to agree with. There's no reason to make her move in her current state. She can barely walk as it is. She's having trouble keeping anything down.

Three Days Later

Her condition has gotten much worse. She can't even sit up at this point. Unless a miracle happens, things are looking grim.

That Night

I wake up to yelling. Ace is shaking me in my sleeping bag.
"Get up! We need help!"
I jolt up. "What's going on?!"
"She stopped breathing! C'mon you can help!" I race out of my tent, and I see they moved her out of her tent. She is laying on the carpeted floor about 5 feet away from her sleeping bag. Taeh is giving CPR. After around 5 minutes I get tagged in. I devote every ounce of my energy into reviving Faith. Each and every grueling second I feel my energy lessen and lessen. After what feels like an eternity I tag Taeh back in. The cycles continues, and after what seems like an eternity, we give up.
Through my panting I ask, "what time is it?"
"3:13 AM. July 29th 2026" Estella replies. Everyone is in denial at first. Not a single tear dares to fall down a person's face for almost a minute. We all just stare.
"Oh my god, she's really gone," Kireina starts bawling. Within ten seconds we're all crying enough tears to fill the great lakes tenfold.

We all know Faith to be one of the more quiet ones of the the group. Though she didn't say much, she still was able to bring a certain glee to the whole group. Needless to say we won't be the same without her.

In the morning we fashion up a stretcher and carry her body to the outside of town. We bury her and leave her bag of personal valuables leaned against the edge of the mound. Old photos of family, her notebook, and favorite picture of us.

We have a funeral. We mourn for a week straight, no personal matters are addressed. It seems that life itself allowed us to mourn in peace.