Beyond The Walls

1

      It has ben seventeen years since the apocalypse, sixteen years since they found out, twelve years since I have taken, twelve years since my life changed forever. But I dont know that....

    "MAMA!" I hear a voice echo.

      I look around trying to find out where the voice is coming from but I cant find anyone. The voice comes again.

   "MAMA! Where are you!!" The voice echoes again. I can tell the voice is coming from a little kid. I frantically look around for someone. I hear crying "is anyone out there! Please..." the voice cries out though no one comes to help.

  The crying soon turns into loud sobs that no little kid should ever make. "Hello? Who's there?" I call out into the darkness hoping I will get an answer from the darkness. But ofcourse there is none.

    "Hello!!" I start walking looking around trying to find the little kid the voice I heard had belonged to. As I search I hear the crying getting louder, closer but still I see nothing. I spin around in circles looking for someone but I dont see anyone, just black. I look around trying to find where the sobbing is coming from but I cant, it seem to be coming from all around me. The sobs are getting closer and closer as I am getting dizzy and nauseous from all the spinning. Suddenly the sobs turn into soft crying and then completely stop. I stop sipping still dizzy and I stand still, waiting, listening. I then hear an ear piercing scream coming from right behind me and I wipe around only to come face to face not with the red, puffy eyed, tear stained face of a small child but something much more terrifying that I was not prepared to see.

      The thing that stood in front of me had gashes all around it's body that seemed to be melting. It was not dripping blood as you would expect instead black dripped out of the gashes that could very well just be called holes from how bad they were. Some were so bad you could see the bone as there was no tissue to cover it. The teeth were rotting and yellow with holes and what seemed like dead bugs in them but it was hard to tell as they too, were covered in the black that was seeping out of the cuts. The eyes were black with a small line of red around it. It was hard to see and the eyelids were drooping over them. 

      We stand there for what feels like hours as I struggle to try and find air as it seems there is none left, or as it is getting thicker. The very thing that I need to live seeming like it is suffocating me. I start to panic as I can no longer breathe but I'm not dying. Just then the thing lunges at me and I bring up my hands to protect myself and scream despite feeling as if I had no air left in my lungs or no lungs at all.  My eyes shoot open as I wake up in a cold sweat coughing and gasping for air. 

     I sit up still panicking eyes wide looking around in the dark room as my eyes slowly adjust to the darkness. After my eyes adjust my eyes land on the sleeping child next to me softly breathing in his sleep. I lay down on the bed next to him and my breathing starts to slow as I look over at him. I realize it was all a dream, like it always is. I tear my eyes away from the sleeping child next to me and look at the clock, 3AM, right on schedule. I turn my attention back to the kid next to me. His name is oliver. He is a five year old boy with soft messy brown hair with pale skin and blue eyes so pale they almost look white. I sight before sitting up and getting out of the hard, small, uncomfortable bed careful not to wake oliver as I do. 

      After I make sure he is asleep I carefully walk over to the bathroom making sure I don't wake the others up. I close the boor behind me as I enter the bathroom flicking the light switch on filling the small bathroom with a dim light as two of the three light bulbs were broken, they have been for a long time. I look around the sad bathroom with plain white walls and nothing but a toilet, sink, and an old mirror, not even a shower. Not that we would ever get a change to use it. I look at myself in the mirror that really needs to be cleaned as there were years of dirt and grime that has built up on it. I wet my hand with the cold water from the leaky forest on the sink and try to clean the mirror. After I think it is good enough I look at myself in the mirror. I have pale ivory skin with curly back hair and two colored eyes, the right one being green and the left black. You can clearly see the dark circles under my eyes from the lack of sleep and it sticks out on my pale skin. I was about to splash water on my face to calm down as I was still a little shaken up and anxious from my nightmare when I heard a soft small voice call out my name.

    "Alex? Where are you?" It was oliver who must have woken up calling out to me, I could hear him sniffling through the thin walls of the bathroom.

    I opened the door to the bathroom not bothering turning off the light because it was so dim it wouldn't wake anyone up. I look over and see oliver standing in the middle of the room clutching his stuffed bunny to his small chest. "I'm over here buddy" I call out to him in a whisper as to not wake the others but loud enough for him to hear me and look my way and start running over to me. His bare feet making a soft patting sound as he runs to me and hugs me around my waist as he buries his face into my hip. 

  "What's wrong buddy?"  I squat down  so my face is leveled with his as I see a few tears start rolling down his small cheeks. 

   "I-I couldn't find y-you" he sobs quietly. "I-I thought you l-left me" he sobs more tears rolling down his face . I place my hand on his face wiping the tears away as they fell. 

   "Oh no, no, no buddy I would never ever leave you, shhh, it's okay buddy" I pull him into my embrace as he keeps sobbing quietly as I softly rub his back trying to calm him down. 

   After he calms down and there is only a sniffle here and there I pull away. "How about we go back to bed okay? So we dont wake the others up." I say softly to him my hand on his cheek before I pick him up as he nods. I turn off the bathroom light not wanting to waste the last bit of light we have before I walk over to the bed and set him down on the hard bed taking the small, thin blanket and pulling it over him as I sit on the side of the bed.

    "A-are you not g-going to bed?" He asked me holding onto my shirt not wanting me to leave  still sniffling a little. 

    I smile at him softly and tiredly brushing some hair away from his small still big eyes. "I'll go to bed in a little okay buddy?" I say softly. He nods before closing his eyes holding his bunny still holding onto my shirt. I sit on the bed for a few more hours softly rubbing his back listening to his soft breathing when I hear a loud bell ringing telling it's time to get up, telling me the day has officially began.