the others

Chapter 2 hope

A few weeks passed, and the world seemed like it was ending already. Ninety percent are so far dead. Bodies are building up everywhere, causing everyone to go into anarchy. Everyone is living their lives like Savages, looking for their next meal. They always said the future would be something they would never see before. Something they could not see coming, and they were right. They didn't see this one coming. I woke up on a hard floor I used to call my bedroom. I picked up a piece of glass from the ground alongside me and held it to my head to look at the gash I got yesterday. I stood up and glanced through the broken window. The only thing I saw was destruction.

"I always knew we would be the downfall of the earth,"

I whispered to myself.

My sister stood up, walked toward me, and said,

"You know how mom feels about you looking through the window. Someone might see you."

I rolled my eyes; and I was about to say something, but we heard our mom calling us before I could reply. We walked to her room, and she told us,

"It is time to leave again."

I learned never to ask questions, but I knew the Others found us again. My sister and I walked back into our room and grabbed a few items. Our mom yelled at us to hurry. I took my small bag and ran outside, watching Nadene behind me.

We have been walking for 45 minutes without a break.

"Mom, can we stop?"

Nadene mumbled under her breath,

"My feet feel like I have been walking on glass."

My mom took a deep breath and said,

"We can't stop until we get to where we are going."

Nadene wipes the sweat off her forehead and moves her short coiled hair out of her face. I turned towards my mom and said,

"Mom, a 5-minute break is not going to set us back that much."

Right after I spoke, we heard a loud deafening scream coming from behind an old

Broken-down church. Without any question, all of us ran behind the old church. There were two kids. One was a girl with a headscarf around her head. She was standing over a boy with his foot encompassed by a bear trap. We walked closer to them, but my eyes drifted over to my mom's as we got closer. She looked unbothered by the entire scene. She almost seemed cold, but she was always that way with everything. In her line of work, she had to. She looked over at me, and I dropped my head. When we reached the kids, my mom turned towards Nadene and me and told us to see if we could find anything she could use for the boy's leg, and that is what we did,

I grabbed Nadene's hand, and we walked into the cold, dark, and empty church. When we got inside, we caught sight of a small candle in the middle of the room. It sat so perfectly it made me feel anxious. Nothing was ever that perfect. While we were walking to the back of the church, the ground began to creak beneath our feet. Nadene squeezed my hand tighter and laughed. Her nervousness began to take over her body. I could feel how scared she got, so I tried to calm myself and not show my fears. Nadene took a deep breath and said,

"I don't remember this place being this creepy."

When we got to the back of the church, I opened the supply closet. All I saw were old towels and a half-empty alcohol bottle. I grabbed them and mumbled,

"This is going to have to work."

We ran back outside as fast as possible and handed mom the alcohol and towels. I moved the hair out of my face and said,

"This is all we could find,"

I watched as my mom grabbed a stick from the ground and made the boy bite down. My mom then got up, walked behind him, and started to press down on the bear trap. The boy was screaming and yelling.

"hope, move his leg fast but as steady as possible."

My mom demanded,

I lifted his leg and sat it on the ground. My mom grabbed the alcohol and poured it on his wound. He began to scream even louder, then she wrapped his leg in the towel and told Nadene to hold pressure on it. My mom looked up at the girl and asked,

"Do you know how to sew?"

The girl's face grew confused, but she nodded her head yes.

My mom wiped the sweat from her head and said,

"He's going to need stitches. There's a clinic about 20 blocks from here. So you need to take your brother and stitch his leg up. Make sure you keep a steady hand."

Tears began to run down the girl's face.

"I can't; I can't, I can't do this, please, you have to help. You can have whatever we have. Just don't leave us here."

At that moment, I saw my mom's face change. It wasn't as harsh or cold as she usually kept it. She seemed to have pity written all over it, but it changed back quicker than the tears were falling down the girl's cheek. She turned to me and said,

"Get your bag, and let's go."

The tears from the girl's eyes began to fall quicker. So I grabbed my mom's shoulder and yelled.

"Mom, you can't just leave them here. We have to help them."

She cut her eyes at me and said,

"We helped them enough."

I grabbed her arm and screamed,

'Dad would have helped them."

She got in my face and screamed,

"You don't get to bring him into this."

I wish I could say that was the most scared I've been of her, but that would be a lie. So my mom slowly backed up and whispered.

hope, I am so sorry, but we have to leave."

Something inside was telling me I couldn't just leave them, so I said,

"If you don't help them, I will."

My mom threw her hands and the air and said,

"Fine."

Then she walked off. I thought she was bluffing for some reason, but she wasn't. Nadene looked at me with sad eyes, but I didn't expect her to stay. Then she ran off with my mom. I didn't think my mom would actually leave, but she did. So I stood there watching the backs of them walk off. After they got so far down the road that I couldn't even see their silhouette anymore, it finally hit me that I had to do this alone. The girl ran in front of me with the biggest smile painted on her face and hugged me. I didn't react. It was like I couldn't. I stood there with the girl's arms wrapped around me for a few minutes. It almost felt like I was outside of my own body watching everything happen until I heard a scream come from the boy. I ran towards him and noticed his leg began to gush out blood. I made his sister grab one side of him, and I grabbed the other side, and we both ran down the road and didn't stop until we reached the clinic.