Our Life (Sequel to "Remnants")

Love and Loss

-Riley- 

(Ten Years Earlier)

I sat awake, my body trembling as I stared out of my bedroom window, with a distant rumble of thunder only adding to my fear following yet another nightmare.

I wish I hadn't watched that movie...

I had insisted to mom that I wouldn't be scared of horror movies, but this proved me wrong - and her right - and now I was paying the price, terrified of every dark crevice and every flicker of movement in my room. 

My glowing space mobile provided a bit of comfort, but that didn't change the fact that it was half past one in the morning and I was too scared to rest my head against the pillow for fear of something ghastly and monstrous happening. 

Another spear of lightning was cast down, scarring the night sky, with the subsequent white light that suddenly illuminated my room causing me to let out an involuntarily yelp of fear. 

I was so tired... But at the same time, the stupid, unreasonable fear stopped me from feeling tired enough to sleep...

I was at the age where everything and anything would make me scared, and this was just one of many such incidents recently where something, no matter how minor, had kept me awake. Sometimes it was the fact my dad would hit me when he failed his job interviews, and other times it was when my mom would argue with my dad and tell him how he needed to stop, and then there was the times where my dad would retaliate by hitting my mom...

All of these, put together, gave a 5-year old boy a pretty bad start at life.

At that moment, I heard a set of footsteps heading toward my room. The door opened with a creek, and in my already scared state this was one of the most terrifying scenarios that could be happening to me.

Is it a monster? A vampire? A zombie?

No. Possibly worse.

My dad.

"Will you shut your stupid little gob-shite mouth?" he demanded, clutching a bottle of vodka in one hand, and gripping the door-frame to keep him upright in the other.

He's drunk. Again... 

What a surprise...

"John!" my mom scalded him, her anger prevailed by fear as her husband turned to face her in his ever-menacing intoxicated state. 

I wonder if he was drunk at the altar?  When he told my mom that he'd love her forever? I'd expect so...

"You... You can't just do this..." she whimpered to him, her voice clearly on the brink of tears with a combination of terror and reluctance reducing her to a quivering wreck.

"I'll do whatever I like!" Dad responded, shaking his head with a sneer before turning to walk away back to his room, the bottle gripped tightly in his hand. He made it no secret that he prioritized the alcohol over his family - hell, he'd stolen half of my pocket money last week and spent it on nothing but booze. 

My mom was a victim. I wanted to help her - I really wanted to help her... But at the end of the day, I was nothing more than a 5-year old boy, and I could do absolutely nothing...

"Mom," I whispered her name, my voice trembling, and she turned to face me. Her face was streaked with tears but she managed to force a not-so-reassuring smile in attempt to assure me she was okay.

"It's fine sweetie," she smiled, "it's all fine."

Mom knelt beside my bed, combing through my hair with her hand.

"I know things look bad right now, with mommy and daddy, but I promise you that I love you. And so does your dad - the drink's just... stronger than him. Remember that trip to Lego-Land last year? We were all happy then weren't we?"

I nodded and smiled in recollection, but that smile faded when I wished that we could be that happy again.

"Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this is just a... This is just a 'blip,' okay? Like that time where grandma got angry at you for smashing her favorite cup."

We both chuckled in memory of that ill-fated afternoon.

"No matter what happens, I want  you to know that mommy loves you more than anything in the world," she reassured me, placing a kiss on my forehead, "I always have, Riley, and I always will..."

--

-Riley-

(Present Day)

Mom...

No. Nonononono. It can't be... It...

It can't...

I slumped back in the seat, forgetting that there was about 50 walkers clawing against the car. Forgetting about Carl, my boyfriend who had no idea what was going on. Forgetting that I could die, any minute now...

Because this was my mother. The woman who raised me - loved me. When my dad was drinking carelessly, she was the one who assured me that in spite of everything, everything would be okay.

But now... Now that loving, caring woman is gone. 

She's gone. 

She's gone forever. And this thing - this lifeless corpse, with a chunk missing from the neck and dried blood caking its body... This is her replacement. 

"Riley!" Carl urged, shaking me and only partially rescuing me from my almost comatose state, "Riley, what the hell are you doing?!"

She's gone. 

And this pathetic being in front of me is just polluting her memory.

With that in my mind, I slammed my foot down on the pedal and sent the car rocketing forward.

"Goodbye mom," I whispered to myself, ensuring that Carl did not hear it over the gurgles of the walkers and the rattle of the engine, closing my eyes briefly to avoid the sight of my mother being crushed beneath the car wheels, and continued driving.

A part of my asked me why I did keep going - after all, discovering your parent's mutilated corpse is not something you simply recover from - but the answer lied in that sentence my mother had said to me all those years ago.

"Mommy loves you more than anything in the world... I always have, Riley, and I always will..."

That thing wasn't my mom. She didn't love me like my mom had. 

Those thoughts gave me the reassurance I needed to continue our gory surge through the mass grave of shambling corpses, until eventually the blood-soaked Chrysler reached the other side of the herd...