The Messengers of Sanctuary

Epilogue 2 - Eventide

Warning --- a bit descriptive of violence, but not much worse than that time Chicory got mauled by a feral nightstalker.
It's also more than twice as long as most of my chapters so don't you dare get bored >:U

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Eventide hadn't been a very special kid, but she was a dreamer.

She remembered simple times before the outbreak, she remembered playing in the garden with her father, squealing happily as they played some type of unremembered game. She remembered collapsing into the grass afterward, plucking a dandelion and holding it proudly toward the heavens.

She remembered her father picking her up and putting her on his shoulders, both of them looking up at the clouds, "look, Eve, there's a plane, isn't it majestic?"

She remembered looking at it with wide eyes, "Yes! So majestic, can I ride in it do you think?!"

Eve remembered collapsing into the grass and opening her eyes to see the tiny world below, the soil beneath her fingers, the grass that tickled her nose, and the sight of a tiny blue and purple flower that caught her eye. She looked up at her father, pointing at the flower, "What's this? It's really pretty, I remember seeing them all over the place before."

He smiled, "That's chicory. Did you know that it's edible?"

Eve gave him a shocked look, glancing back at the flower, "WHAT? Who would ever eat a flower?!?"

The father laughed, his shoulders relaxing from some unknown tension. Eve didn't notice the tension though, she only looked at him, expecting an answer, "Eve, there's a lot that people will do when they're desperate." He looked sad at that fact.

Eve sat up, frowning, "Why are you sad, Dad?"

He sighed, "People are being people again Eve. Sometimes I have to be in two places at once..."

Eve stood up and gave him a hug, "It'll be alright! This is about those weird videos that keep playing on the news, right?"

He froze, "When did you watch the news?"

She blinked, "Oh, just the other day when you were at work and I was bored, was that wrong? I'm sorry I won't do it again."

He let out a long breath, "Eve, it's alright, I just...I don't want you to be worried. There are lots of scary things happening on the news."

She hugged her father's legs tighter, remembering the angry words that had echoed from the television. She remembered the pictures of people attacking other people, she remembered the red eyes and the gunshots and how none of it was working and she was going to die. "Are there really zombies? Why would there be zombies?"

Her father sat down beside her, enveloping her in his arms, "It's okay my girl, they won't come here."

But as with all promises that are made, eventually, this one too was broken.

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Eventide sat in the car, dutifully covering her ears and ducking her head as her father sped the two of them along an abandoned highway. She wasn't sure where they were going or why or how, but she did know that the world had somehow ended. How was that possible? How could the enormous cities be destroyed? How could it all be over?

Eve didn't know anything.

She didn't know that a virus was sweeping the lands, taking humanity to its knees. She didn't know that so many people were still fighting it, or that most of the world had died. All Eve knew was that there was nothing she could do except pray to heaven that this was all just a nightmare.