Finding Hope In A World That Has Little

2: Finding a Safe Place

The woman and her kids wandered the desecrated streets of downtown Topeka, staying close to their mother of course. That wretched heavy bag was on Lorelei's back, and the baby was strapped to the front of her body, against her chest in a swaddle.

She looked at all of the damage that had been done in the short amount of time she was waiting for John to come get the kids. It had only been like an hour since that. It was insane. How quickly it went from normal life to looking for shelter in a crumbling world.

People were lying on the streets with legs missing, or bone exposed at the knee. Blood poured out of a poor lady's abdomen like it had been ripped open by force. Heads being smashed in with blunt weapons. Lorelei made the kids cover their eyes as she walked across the street and avoided the bodies and cars. 

Emily whimpered from the gap in between her fingers that covered her eyes. Stepping frantically away from puddles of blood. She didn't want to touch it. Any of it. Her mother had to grab her hand and coax her to step over the body, "Stay with me, just follow my feet. We're almost to the other side." Emily's innocent, terrified hazel eyes, started to focus on her, "O-Okay..."

Her tentative steps became leaps that were a little more confident, not so much daring. She kept her mother's hand as it bridged over another body, and she went over it without touching. That was her biggest concern because well, they were dead and all. Chris stayed glued to Lorelei so that nothing bad would happen. He wasn't as brave as his sister.

First the woman stepped off of the road and to the sidewalk, then Chris quickly did the same after. Holding onto her hip straight after. She kept a hold of Emily's hand as she stepped forward, a tight grip.

That was when it started going wrong. The girl's leg was grabbed from the ankle. Growling and snarling came from below as it fought to pull the child to the concrete. She screamed, "Mommy! Mommy help me!"

Lorelei eyed the thing that held her down, eyes void of life. Mouth covered in blood, skin dead and dull. She needed to move and fast. She looked to her son and had to pry him away before something happened to him. She was firm, "Stay right on this sidewalk, you hear me? Stay right on this sidewalk."

She moved forward to get a better grip of Emily with her arms despite the fact that there was a baby strapped to her chest. She could do this. If anyone could, it was her. She needed to save all of them.

She got her arms around her screaming daughters back and pulled, pulled as hard as she could. Even though that dead person seemed to be moving somehow and she couldn't understand why. Or the fact that she was inches away from losing her daughter to that thing.

So she yanked and pulled like her life depended on it, because it did. Her kids did. She stepped more forward and kicked at the arm gripping her leg.

"Let go of my daughter you crazy psycho!" She yelled and one final pull got her free as they both stumbled back to where they were on the sidewalk.

Chris watched and cried for what was going on, being relieved when both of them ended up alright. As for that person on the floor... They had their bone protruding from their elbow and poking out. So, they weren't doing that well.

The person was growling and writing like they were still trying to reach out for them. Hungrily, it began crawling which was terrifying enough. The woman held her kids once more and tried to just let the shock of everything course through her in a moment. Then, she saw them crawl, and the horror came back all over again.

She moved back more and pulled Emily and Chris with her, away from that thing. She shuddered, "Okay. We need to run. Let's go. Hurry now." She said to the two and went farther down the sidewalk, the corner of the street coming up, so she made the turn with the two in tow.

She quickly walked towards the other end of the street, seeing what she knew was an abandoned coffee shop. She used to work there from time to time until it closed down about a year ago. Her and the owner were close, but there was no telling where they were now.

Noises came 30 feet behind the four. Growls that were guttural and straight starved for flesh. The worst part was that it didn't just sound like one person walking towards them, but more than that. Chris of course screamed as he looked behind to see what those noises were, "There's more! Mommy! What do we do???" The 5-year-old was distraught and traumatized from the whole experience.

They were not even 10 feet away from the building now, the windows and doors were boarded up. She hoped that it wasn't locked up. There was only one thing she could tell Chris and Emily in that moment, hurriedly, "Just get to the doors! We need to get them open so we can hide from these..... Things." Her heart leaped in her throat, and they pulled at the door handles, as hard as they could. C'mon, c'mon. Be open!

She turned around as a sort of shield for them just in case, the people were slowly but steadily increasing in distance towards them. Hope was now crying as she was awakened by all the yelling and sudden movement, and the whole thing was stressful. She was trying not to think about what could happen. Her two older children were behind her and trying to get the door, pushing, pulling, everything imaginable.

And she was in front of them with her youngest crying in absolute terror, as those dead people came closer. If they got there then she would give Emily the baby. She would leave the backpack. That was what she would do so that they wouldn't get any of her babies. They would get her first and they would get away safely. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and finally: she heard a click.

The doors swung open with a rusty squeak, and everyone forced themselves inside. Then she pushed against it to shut it closed, to keep everyone safe. Her shoulders and back ached with pain because of the backpack so she let it slip down and off her shoulders to release the weight. 

Her energy went completely into closing the door and it worked, though she kept her body against it because now those things were starting to bang on it angrily. She looked around for a chair, table, anything at all. Emily and Chris started searching around too, following her gaze seconds before.

Chris went behind the old dusty countertops and the screech of chair legs on the floor signaled that he found one. He scooted it along the floor and brought it over to her. She picked it up by the legs and slipped it in between the bars that were used to push the door open. She tested how tight it was by wiggling and it barely moved at all.

They did it. For now, they survived this new world, she was insanely relieved. Her breathing was quick and sweat rolled down her face like a rainstorm. Everything hurt in her body, but she wasn't quite done yet. She slowly and sluggishly unwrapped the bundled baby from her chest and sighed, finding a spot on the floor. It wasn't the most ideal because it was pretty dusty.

She held little Hope in her arms and shushed her slowly, trying to soothe her. Emotions were all over the place, so she wasn't sure how good she was right now. But, Hope was always the easiest to console and get to sleep. Considering all these circumstances. Emily was the most sensitive and easily got upset as a baby. She seemed to grow out of that a bit, not too much, she was still sweet as ever and kind. Chris was shy and uncertain, and underneath that held a huge sense of humor, a great laugh.

Somewhere down the line of thought, both kids sat at either side of Lorelei and leaned up against her. She gave them both a soft yet tired smile and placed kisses on their foreheads. They were alive and well for today. She had to hope it would stay that way for the rest of the time they tried to survive out here.