When life throws different people into the middle of an apocalypse and the end of the world approaches, it's a matter of survival for all of them.
This is the story of the survivors, those who have seen their loved ones die to protect them. The one...
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Daniel had warned me not to get attached. He had repeatedly told me that feelings had no place here. We had to survive and to do that, we simply had to rely on each other. Our relationship was getting stronger, we'd seen a lot of people die, a lot more than people our age should have. Life was like that now, we had to get used to it. We didn't have many resources left, our camp had had trouble surviving the last rains and a horde of Infected had signed the end of our ammunition resources. That's why I'd chosen to explore Ravenmoor. I told myself we were bound to find something there. It was my decision to return to this town when it had surely already been pillaged by other groups of survivors. This city that had once been the powerhouse of the country had ended up being one of the first to be affected. I thought its military base might still have munitions, maybe even weapons. I imagined that some people didn't know the secrets of this now almost destroyed building of Ravenmoor, but I hoped that there were still secrets to be discovered. Maybe we could find food, anything would do. So we walked, for hours, along the deserted roads. Finding wrecked cars, sometimes the desiccated bodies of people who'd rather die there than be infected. Daniel had remained serious, it was rare to see him like that, but he hadn't agreed with me. He thought the town was dead and unimportant and that we should stay away from it. It still belonged to the government, and he'd sworn to me that he'd heard a scream coming from there once. He thought something, or someone was torturing the anarchist survivor groups who wanted to regain power. I didn't know what power he was talking about, there was nothing left. In any case, he thought the trucks of soldiers we'd passed had something to do with it. On the road, we'd seen three armoured trucks coming back onto the main road. Northwards, there was nothing but Ravenmoor, they were the culprits of what we were going to find.
"Are you sure we should go on, Max? I may not be a genius, but I'm sure they've released Infected there." He put his bag back on his back, emerging from our hiding place behind a car door. It was a close call, and we would have been spotted at the last second. This enabled us to avoid coming face to face with soldiers, and who knows, maybe being captured. A deserter like me deserved nothing less.
"I'm sure, yes. What's the worst that can happen? We're safe. I'll go first and you cover me. They'd have nothing to gain by releasing infected." I'd never seen them let sick people go publicly, what an image they'd have if they did. "We need to get weapons, I think I know where to find some."
"I don't understand Max, how can you be sure you'll find any?"
I hadn't yet told Daniel I'd been a soldier. He'd always criticized them, so I'd just said I was in charge of security. It wasn't really untrue, I travelled a lot. I'd probably been here hundreds of times. I knew this city by heart, its nooks and crannies, its alleyways, its grand buildings, but all that had disappeared months ago. All that remained were the ruins of what had once been my second home. I blamed the people who had decided to destroy these cities. Especially when I recognized the military uniforms I had once worn. All my life I'd been proud to be a soldier, but when I didn't know whether my profession was good or bad, I immediately thought I'd failed. I was beginning to imagine them guilty, all those little government pawns. And to see my superiors continuing to work for this government that made us suffer so much, I told myself they liked it. I still had friends there, people who were doing well, that was all I hoped for.
