Age of zombies

[50] Edge of dawn

We had been walking for two weeks. Two long, brutal weeks of trudging through the cold, the snow getting thicker as we made our way deeper into the Rockies. The nights had become almost unbearable, with the temperatures dropping lower than we'd expected. We were wrapped up in every layer we had, still freezing our asses off even by the fire. The weight of everything—what we'd seen, what we'd done—hung over us like a storm cloud. But now, finally, we were nearing Banff.

It was early morning when we crested a hill and saw the town spread out below us. The first sight of it stopped all of us in our tracks.

"Holy shit," Ethan muttered, wiping the sweat from his brow, though the air was freezing. "We made it."

The town of Banff sat nestled in the shadow of towering, snow-covered peaks, looking almost untouched by the world's collapse. The mountains loomed over everything, jagged and imposing, their tops dusted in fresh snow from the night before. Down below, the town itself was small and quaint, with its clusters of log cabins and buildings. It was a postcard scene, like something out of a different time, a different world.

"Banff," Daisy said, her voice low and full of disbelief. "I didn't think we'd ever actually get here."

Yabe stood next to me, her breath coming out in small puffs of steam. She was quiet, her eyes wide as she took in the view. The snow around us crunched softly underfoot as we all stood there, staring down at the town. For the first time in what felt like forever, there was a moment of peace.

"Looks peaceful from here," I said, my voice breaking the silence. "Like nothing's changed."

"It's like stepping into a painting," Yabe murmured, her voice soft. She glanced over at me, her eyes full of something I couldn't quite place—relief, maybe, or hope.

Liza snorted from behind us, her breath visible in the cold air. "Don't get too attached to the view. For all we know, that place could be crawling with zombies."

Ethan, always the optimist, let out a long sigh. "Yeah, but for a minute, it's nice to pretend everything's normal again, right?"

Daisy chuckled, her eyes still scanning the town below. "Pretend all you want, but we need to figure out what the hell we're walking into."

We stood there for a moment longer, none of us wanting to break the spell that the sight of Banff had cast over us. The snow around the town was untouched, save for a few faint trails leading into the trees. The river that cut through the town was mostly frozen, but we could hear the faint sound of water rushing beneath the ice. The air smelled crisp, clean, almost like a fresh start. But we all knew better. The world had changed, and nothing—not even a place as beautiful as Banff—could be untouched by it.

Yabe shifted next to me, pulling her coat tighter around herself. "It's strange, isn't it? How something can look so perfect, even when we know it's probably not."

I nodded, my eyes still fixed on the distant town. "Yeah. It's like... it doesn't belong in this world anymore."

"We don't belong in this world anymore," Ethan added, half-joking, but there was a sad truth in his words.

Daisy let out a long breath, her hand resting on the butt of her rifle. "Enough standing around. We're not getting any warmer up here. Let's head down, see what we're dealing with."

***

After another half day of walking, the snow crunching beneath our boots and the cold biting at our faces, we finally reached the outskirts of Banff. The town's border was marked by a makeshift gate, a tall fence of rusted metal and wood that stretched across the entrance. It looked hastily thrown together but sturdy enough to keep out unwanted visitors—or worse, the dead.