The Grey

Chapter 12 - After

•To refresh•

Both him and Amber found a "comfortable" sleeping place and slept, leaving me alone in the dark room. I walked over to the small cracked windows of the cabin and looked outside to see the moonlight illuminating the forrest. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

I started to think about the camp, and what happened. How I managed to kill a living man, and how we lost our shelter and the only people we could trust. It felt like we lost everything.
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They both slept as I watched through the window. The night seemed so calm, so relaxed. It gave me some time to think to myself, about everything. I wondered where we could go from here. It seemed like there was no safe place anymore. I thought about going back to the city possibly, but that was a large risk. We've already seen too many people die, no one else needs die.

My mind started to wander off, making me think this was too much time to think. I thought about waking up one of them and going to sleep for once.

"Hey" Drake had whispered, startling me.

"I thought you'd be asleep still." I murmured to him as I continued to watch the outside.

He sat down on the rotted wooden floor beside me. He watched the night sky through the cracked panes.

"I haven't really asked you how you've been holding up since the camp." He asked me.

"I've been better" I said sarcastically to him.

He nodded and continued to look at the window.

"I killed him." Breaking his focus from the window.

"You did what you had to, you did what you needed to do to survive don't let it affect you." He told me reassuringly.

"I don't know if I can live like this though, I still have some humanity. Sometimes I feel like I'm supposed to lose, but something keeps me here. Sometimes I just want it to end and not have to go on living like this-I don't how you do it."

"You don't quit because you keep finding something to fight for, because your not meant to leave yet. You're a fighter, you'll survive through anything." He assured.

"I just feel inhumane, like a wild animal going for the kill, I don't want to be like that." I paused. "It starts to take its toll on you."

"At first it bothered me, but you adapt to it, doing what you need to do to survive. I know it's inhumane but, that they way the world is now, we don't really have a choice." He added.

We continued to watch through the window, becoming mesmerized by the night sky.
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We left at daybreak the next morning. Autumn was approaching and the trees started to turn pale orange. The country roads seemed longer and emptier than before. We walked as the wind blew gently against us causing some leaves to trickle away.

We grew closer to the city as we traveled but remained on the outside. I could see the abandoned buildings and streets filled with military evacuation signs and old cars. It brought back many memories of how it all started. Memories I wanted to forget.