The Grove |5Sos|

Survival

            The world spiraled into anarchy about a year ago. It started out slow, one or two people becoming sick. You'd say goodbye and leave but what happened next was beyond anything you could imagine. The dead would come back to life. Of course you've seen movies and TV shows about this but never in a million years would you expect it to come true. Yet here I am, sitting in a tree high off the ground, sitting in the blaring hot sun, hoping for safety.

            My father was the first in my family to go. About a month or so in we were trying to avoid some Roamers and he tried to fight them off. He was surrounded and there was no way that we could get to him, so my mother made us leave. My mother was turned a couple days ago when she went to try and find us food. When she hadn't come back by the next morning I went out to check and that's when I saw her, walking aimlessly around. No longer able to tell the difference between the dead and he living. I walked over to her and did the unthinkable, I had to kill her. This left my brother and I alone, to try and survive.

           

"Briar? Are you okay?"

"Hmmm?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah I guess... just wondering why this happened."

"You mean what happened with our parents?"

"No... well yes... I mean everything. Our parents dying, this new world, all the death."

"I guess life happens..."

"But why? Why does it need to happen?"

"No idea..."

            It went silent between the two of us. This happens multiple times a day. Where we lose all conversation between us. This is usually where he ties himself to a tree branch on the tree to have a nap, then it leaves me to be alone with my thoughts.

            A year ago my family lived in the busy city of Atlanta.  We were new, having lived in Toronto, Canada for most of my life. We had barely been there half a year until this happened. It was my parents, my brother and I. We were just a typical family. Busy with work, school and social lives. My brother and I were never near each other. He spent most of his time with the football team, his girlfriend or with his other friends. My brother was the quarterback, his girlfriend was the head cheerleader. My brother seriously had the perfect high school life.

            Me on the other hand I was the black sheep of the family. My parents never treated me like it but I knew I was. My parents were both doctors, my father had 2 PH.D's. My brother's an angel. I'm the one that didn't fit in with the family. If you were to look at a photo of my family you would have first seen the three perfect people on the one section then you would notice the girl separated slightly from the rest of the family. Looking very different from the rest of the people. I had grey hair at the time and was constantly wearing black, I had many piercings and tattoos. I looked like I belonged to a couple of bikers. And if you would have asked anyone at my school they'd tell you my attitude and personality matched my look. But none of that mattered anymore. The only thing that mattered was survival. And even that was hard. You're fighting the dead, the animals and the people also fighting to survive. It really is a vicious cycle.

            In the beginning we were with 2 families. The one family left us in the middle of the night and the other was killed by a group of people. This other group of people we came across shortly after this began, maybe a month or two into it. They had told us it was safe and that they could protect us. But they really weren't the angels that we thought that they were. We trusted them and we really lived to regret it. They had other things planned for us. Things that no human ever believe they could witness or be apart of. My mother helped get my brother and I out but the other family we left behind, it sickens me everyday knowing what they were left with. It was horrible to even think that people these days would even consider doing something like that.

            I came out of my daydream to see my brother staring intently at his knife. He turned in over in his hands, running his fingers over the engraved initials.

"What you thinking about?"

"Just wondering if they would be proud..."

"Of what? How long we've survived?"

"No, I always wondered how proud they were of everything I did before this..."

"Are you kidding me? You were their amazing child who never did anything wrong. You were the dream child."

"That may be what you saw, but that's only what they wanted. They wanted me to be the perfect child. They wanted me to be an example for you. But wow was I disappointing them fairly bad right before this happened. Plus they were so proud that you never had anything given to you. You always fought for what you thought was right and you worked insanely hard for what you wanted."

"We both worked for what we had. Neither of us were ever given anything for free."

            We were interrupted by the groans and gasps. I looked down to see the dead. All they did was walk into the tree we were siting in. I just stared down at them, wondering how they died, what there story was before all this happened. Not before long they moved towards something else. They began moving further and further away.

"Should we move on?"

"Wait..."

            I watched as each roamer dropped to the ground, a bullet to the brain killing them. Then two young males walked below the tree. They both looked to be around my brothers age, maybe in between both Ashton and I. I motioned for my brother to be quiet then pointed down to where the two strangers stood.

"Those are also labeled. I think were getting closer."

"I really think that we should get back to The Grove mate."

"Don't be such a pussy."

"Fuck off dude, its getting dark and I don't want to be out here at night."

"Fine, we'll head back, but I still want to find that girl... and the boy she's with."

            Then they walked off without another word. We stayed quiet for another couple minutes then Ash looked at me.

"Are they looking for us?"

"Who knows."