101 Things To Do During The Apocalypse ✓ (BxB)

ii. The Proper Way to Bury Your Loved Ones

Aug. 7, 2236.
Item # 1: Bury the Dead (If there is any).

     The first item on the list is self-explanatory…and surprisingly mature for a twelve-year-old.

     Even if it wasn't the first item on the list to begin with, I'd move it to the top. It's a high priority.

       ─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─

      Before I had realized it was the apocalypse, I had stumbled away from my mother's corpse.

    "Dad? Dad?" I called, making my way through the house, using the walls for support.

    When I reached my parent's bedroom, I stopped.

    Weirdly, the top part of the door seems to be missing.

    I peered in.

    My dad was laying face down, on the ground, suitcase still in hand—-he's still dressed in his suit. He had just gotten home from work when everything went to shit.

     I pushed the door open, rushing over, and collapsing right by him. I tried to shake him just like my mother.

    He didn't respond—-not at first anyway.

    Slowly, my dad began to stir.

    "Dad?" I sniffled.

    "Bradley! Watch out!" My older sister, Lexie's, voice sounded behind me.

    "Why?" I began, right as my dad lounged at me.

    With one shotgun round, my sister blew his face off and he collapsed.

     Lexie ran up to me. "You okay?" She held her hand out for me and I took it.

      I got pulled up into a standing position. "I think so."

     "Did he bite you?" My sister asked me.

     "What?"

     "Did he bite you?" She repeated.

     "No! Of course not!" I paused before asking, "Did you do the same with Mom?"

     "Didn't need to," Lexie began to tell me. "She was deader than dead… I mean… Dad must've bit her. Yada, yada, the venom killed her instead of converting her." She exhaled. "I mean, did you even see the bite marks on her neck?"

     ─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─

      Lexie and I walk to a nearby park, with shovels in hand. We drag our parents along behind us.

     "Ready?" Lexie asks me, to which I nod.

     We dig almost in sync—-our shovels tearing dirt from the ground and casting it aside.

     Finally, after hours have passed, we make a grave.

    Lexie tosses the shovel aside. She makes her way over to our parent's corpses. "A little help, Brad?" She asks.

      "Yeah. Okay." I grab my mother's arm and start dragging her across the ground as my older sister does the same with my father.

     We make it to the grave and push them in.

     We stare down a couple of minutes before saying a few words.

     Then it's time to fill the hole again.

     Lexie picks up her shovel.

     "Wait!" I shout before I reach down and pull off the tie my had has on.

      He used to claim it was his lucky tie.

     Then, I pluck a small flower from the ground before tossing it into the grave.

     I shove the tie into my jacket pocket. "Ready," I say to Lexie as I pick up my shovel.

     Once again, we move in sync… almost like a pack of wolves.

     Once the grave is filled, I ask, "Where's Liam?"

    Liam is Lexie and I's older brother. He had gone out to an arcade at the mall, but I haven't seen him since.

     "I don't know…" Lexie trails off. "I'm sure we'll find him through."

     I reach for the paper in my pocket. "Number one… check."

     "What's that?" Lexie asks me.

     "A list of things to do during the apocalypse… we just did number one… Bury the dead," I explain to her.

    "Okay… What's the second one?" Lexie asks me.

     I grin. "Raid a McDonald's."