Just Survive

Epilogue

In a world of mental cannibalism and a corrupt hierarchy, a new world was born with a different sort of pecking order: a structure in which man quakes under the wrath of the undead. The new world evolved from interminable corruption and left us with a place where there is no law to follow, no one to tie us down and no one to lead, to sacrifice, to be that undying hope. Yet, in this rare case, in this extraordinarily peculiar story of a woman who found her way in a world of heartbreak, Ash was that sacrifice, that leader, that hope.

Ashley Gray was a young woman who, when born into her minimalistic life in East London, couldn't have imagined her life becoming so complacent with sadness, hopelessness and death. Ash respected everyone and followed her hopes and dreams. But as she grew older, gained experience and held her dream for a while, she realised she was all wrong. The career that once filled her heart with glee every morning soon became her very own nightmare. A life of content became a life of brimming anxiety and everlasting grief. Her job, despite the collapse of the government, followed her every fatigued step that she took on the ruins of the life she once relished. The memories of what she was and what she caused clung to her shoulders like a thick coat of grief. The guilt ate up every last part of her joy. That was until she met the group who eased her back into a life of semi-fulfilment. They gave her hope, perhaps not much but just a dreg was enough for Ash to keep surviving, keep fighting and keep caring.

When Ashley received that acceptance letter on that fateful day back in England, (which stated that she was an 'Apprentice Lab Assistant' at the Disease Control Centre in Atlanta) Ash believed it was the best day of her life. She cheered and celebrated as if it was her last day on Earth, only to realise, that that very job would be the cause of the last day of life for billions of people. However, through all of the sadness and the lifelessness that came with that letter, it also brought Ashley to her very last and very best friends and family.

From Juliet to Cody, each one of her new family members changed her, helped her and made her into her best version. They took the panic-ridden, tormented Ashley and encouraged her to return to her loyal, warrior self that would continue to save lives as she did before.

The apocalypse helped Ash break free but within that, entrapped her in a universe of death. A new dimension encased her life in a little glass box on the desk of a madman or an alien or perhaps no one who existed outside of Ash's mind. But, for her, that life didn't feel real or fictional, it just felt like pain, pure agonising and consuming pain that felt so authentic within Ash's gut.

Yet, the context was so alarming, so unrealistic. The dead rising from their graves to eat people's brains - surely that is just something stripped straight from a movie or a TV show? But for Ash and her fellow survivors, it wasn't that. It wasn't fantasy because, with every individual that lost their lives to the sickening disease that rattled them from the inside out and every pang of relentless grief in the hearts of those who lost so much, it was real to them.

Ash never got the chance to save the world and find redemption. She didn't find a cure and she didn't stop the virus from spreading but she used her life in the time of the undead to protect her family, despite the loss and the pain that weighed them down. She may not have defeated those demons but they weren't the problems holding her down.

Her biggest demon, her heaviest weight was always Wayne Phillips: a madman who saw Ash as the enemy and as a toy. Ignorance blinded him but Ash saw right through him like he was tracing paper - and that's how she survived him. Wayne may have been a spontaneous lunatic but Ash knew exactly how crazy people worked because she had been there. Ash may not have lived to see what life could be without her scariest demon in her ear, leaning over her every moment of every day but she beat him. She was happy with that outcome because she knew at least he couldn't hurt anyone else.

However, little did Ash know, Wayne became the least of everyone's worries after the surge. She knew deep down in the pit of her stomach that the world that swallowed them up would never end with chocolate, flowers and a celebration - though they all hoped so. Ash knew that one day she wouldn't be able to save the people she had grown to love any longer, but the group also knew that they didn't blame Ash for any of it. They forgave her, trusted her and loved her and she returned it all the same.

The world, since Ash's departure, had dissolved and fizzled out into an endless repeat of massacres. All humans were soon wiped from existence and following that, so were the corpses. A surge of another outbreak of the virus that had developed from excess bacteria and the already infected corpses had wiped out every last human alive. The infection caused seizures, fevers and eventually death. You could contract it through a single touch with a contaminated corpse, which was impossible to avoid. The new virus left humans with zero chances of survival and no hope.

With no meat left to feed on after the extinction of humans and then the animals, the corpses began to collapse. At first, their skin would drop from their skeletons until they were only bone, then their bodies would connect with the ground. The earth became vibrant with green again, eating away at the corpse's nutrients as they moulded into the trees and the mud. But the corpses weren't enough for the planet to thrive off, so it slowly started to blacken. The leaves would fall, the thunderous rains would wash away the remains and the sun darkened day by day until it left the world in total twilight. No more daylight, no more photosynthesis, no more life. It won't be too long until the planet begins to cave into itself, creating a black hole to suck away all of the memories of the life that was never meant to be.

The universe said it's last goodbyes a long time ago, as did Ashley Gray. Her body washed away into the seas along with the rest of the debris - at least her carcass didn't have to see the mess left behind as she rotted away at the bottom of the ocean. Cody died as a corpse alongside Alex, Eloise and Craig who roamed their final days on Earth with bullet wounds forever strapped to their bodies. Juliet and Jack were also washed away by the heavy rain and the tsunamis swept them into the sea that took Ashley. Charlie, Megan and Jamie had run but not far and not fast enough. They survived for a while, living amongst the disaster with grief stapled to their backs. Eventually, death caught up with them and they got caught by a horde of the undead. They fought their way bravely but they were no match for the corpses that ripped into their necks and pulled apart their limbs, feeding the group of hungry monsters. Charlie and Megan never left each other's sides, even after death. They built their own new life in the unknown. Jamie was glad to never wake again and face the lonely world without his family and perhaps he found them again and reunited with Alice.

Ash couldn't save her family or the world, but she saved herself - and that is enough. Though Ash could never understand how the world worked in it's unusual and unfair ways, she always knew one thing and that was to just survive until it was time to leave and close the door, locking it in the process.

The End.