January 3rd, 2024
Day Eleven
One day. It hadn't even been a full day, yet so much had happened.
"Alexa died right in front of me." Mikey recalled, cautiously stepping through the hallway of B1 as to not draw any attention to himself. "I almost died in B2, but I ended up saving them from dying of starvation the same way she had. Mary and Will were there, but they were different - Mary's bitter and distant, and Will..."
He trailed off, remembering how last night had been. The things he'd said to him when they were alone in his room, before they'd slept...
"Yeah, man. I never said it out loud, but I always liked you the most outta everyone - a character you are. You're the light in the darkness, y'know? It was what he needed during training, in such a bleak time period... but I didn't think so at first, to be completely honest. I thought, what the hell's a talking turtle doing tryna train for battle? But then you exceeded my expectations, in both skills, and personality. I'd never met someone so full of hope and joy, yet unwavering determination as well. When my health started to change, you became an inspiration for who I wanted to be, Mikey. I wanted your optimism, your happiness, your... willingness to live. All of it."
Mikey had been nervous and on edge the entire time, even though then and for most of the night, Will had acted relatively normal and calm. He'd greatly appreciated Mikey's company.
At least, until midnight.
Mikey had started to think the different things about Will were the things he'd already seen. But he'd been wrong; so, so wrong. Not even two minutes past midnight went by before Mikey had been woken up by an abrupt, terrified scream, and next thing he knew Will was scrambling for the light, crying that it was too dark. Mikey tried to help him, but the minute he got too close, Will attacked him by trying to choke him, but he was easy to deflect because of how weak he was with fear. Given that and the context behind his actions, by the end of everything, Mikey felt more sympathetic than afraid.
Once the light had come on, Will begged for Mary. She came in and consoled him, as Will adjusted to being awake from what was most definitely a nightmare. He claimed he was hearing noises coming from outside, and seeing things out of the corner of his eye. Mary assured him it wasn't real, and in response, Will continuously questioned if he'd taken his medication. She told him he did.
What medication? Turned out, Will was on some for schizophrenia. Mary ended up bitterly explaining to Mikey later that after February, Will's mental and physical health took a violent turn, the root cause being his trauma during the zombie apocalypse catching up to him, engraving itself into his daily life and preventing him from thinking of anything other than it. Not just of his own death, but Mary's death as well. Almost every night he had nightmares reliving the event, and every night he'd shower her with desperate apologies for being unable to save her, doing nothing but watching as she'd been stabbed to a bloody, ravaged, unrecognizable mess.
Mikey felt physically sick. He didn't get any sleep, and threw up multiple times just thinking about it throughout the rest of the night. In the morning, he'd gone out to bring back more food for the people of B2 - they'd calmed down enough to open up trust and allow him to leave. After Mikey managed to bring back enough to supply them for a good, long while, the people gained a different attitude towards him, seeing that he actually followed through and helped them, and didn't once try to escape for his own safety and survival. They started to essentially worship him - the same way they did with those men in the beginning. They seemed to have that amount of deep respect for anyone who brought them food. Especially since Mikey offered to give them more whenever they needed it.
