The End of Days

[7]

Sam sat sifting through the pages of the journal he kept, strands of hair dangling before him in a way that must've gotten annoying after a while, Liam figured.

That was another in the growing list of strange habits about the guy. Not the hair although he did like it longer but the writing things down. Man was a complete control freak.

He liked to go on about how it was the end of the world and someone needed to keep track. When seasons changed or when sun would set sooner or later, all these aspects that needed to be accounted for.

Sure it made sense and he was right, especially when winter rolled around and he'd managed to prepare them just in time for the freezing hail to come. But after nearly 2 years knowing him, Liam knew far better then that. Dude was just seriously compulsive, it was kinda funny.

They had a plan, all those years ago, back when the outbreak first happened. They were going to head for the sanctuary. He was going to see Jack although that'd never been news he publicly admitted, not for the reasons they knew anyway.

Liam was committed, getting to the man alive and intact and hopefully Jack would be too. They did make the trip.

When the outbreak went down, Cam and him were in highschool, a pretty middle class district in a city in oregon. Sam still refused to talk about why he was there really, probably stuff with his family since he was all the way from texas. "I moved," was the only response he'd ever managed. Fair enough, right?
Well the massive military base they were fortifying was in North Dakota which was 3 states over.

There Liam sat on a oddly stiff couch watching the guy fiddle with his little diary. Sam glared as the term slipped his mouth and Liam smiled a little at the bird it got him.

The room was pretty modern but simple and bare enough to probably have been owned by someone young and new to adulthood. The windows had long since been boarded and their gear scattered around the house as if they were tenants or something. It'd been a few months there.

North Dakota was where they were. Yeah, they'd made it. Just passed the state border but still. He hadn't been sure what changed. They met this lady Chang who helped them out with supplies, the area had good vantage, low visibility, hardly any walkers and once they squatted they kind of just stuck to it.

On the surface, thats what he'd felt. But the inside well..he kind of gave up on Jack. Maybe he was scared. To get there and find the place rundown, to find out the truth. Maybe if he never went, he would never have to actually know. It would always just be a probability that he was dead. It hurt less that way.

Plus, that wasnt the only reason. They had a good group, a team. They managed like a well oiled machine, sure it took a few months but they got there.

Liam wasn't so scared of the zombies anymore. Or rather, putting them down. It was just a part of the new way of life and if him surviving meant putting them to rest, he'd found over time that he was okay with it. Wasn't like he had any other choices.

Cam and him came into their own, picking up some fighting skills along the way and could finally hold their weight on runs. The red head had a nack for guns it turned out. His childhood fasination morphed into a sort of expertise that Sam could only be proud of.

Liam would wield his messer and feel pleased, thinking back and imagining his form. Sam was a good teacher and so was his Grandfather. It was probably an awful pick of weapon given with guns you'd never have to feel what it was you were cutting through.

As nauseating as it was in the beginning, the zombie slashing grew easier day by day until it was simply instinct. He still respected them as much as he could but as Sam would often say, "courtesy is for the living not the dead."