Beyond The Walls

Chapter One - Present

Some people would probably find it hard to comprehend that I'm still alive. Me, out of all people. Who knew.

It started in 2063.
My Father disappeared on the 4th of January 2064, my Mother passed away on the 15th May 2065. It's now been two days since her death and four days since my little brother's.
This now means that I'm alone. It's me, and only me against them. I know there's still sane people like me - or at least I think I am - out there. Although, there definitely is more people, humans, still roaming the Earth our generation is decreasing every day. I no longer see any reason for carrying on. Our world is in shreds and every person I've ever cared for or loved are now dead.
I know I have no option. I need to live in order to fight back and keep us humans alive. Before your wondering I have no idea what's out there, but I do however know that whatever 'they' are aren't human.

Today is the first day I'm going to leave my house since my father left. If you are wondering how I've survived so long without going out, it is precisely because I haven't went out. My mother and little brother would go out to get supplies,food and anything they could find. They used an old run down truck that was left at our house when we first found it, I was always amazed that it never broke down.

We were lucky to come across this place, although it's a relatively small one story house, it's probably the safest place anyone could be. Our little house is surrounded by towering, grey stone walls and there is a large iron gate directly in front of it. Sometimes I wonder if whoever lived here before us knew. These massive, sturdy walls wouldn't of been built around a small country house for no reason, it doesn't make any sense.

While my mother and Lucas, my brother, went out I stayed at home to make weapons and keep on watch. The wooden shed joined on to our house had hundreds of tools inside when we arrived. It's quite big considering the size of the house, but I'm glad it's spacious because that's where I spend most of my time. It contains a large wooden work bench, numerous different kinds of machines that I have no I idea what they are for or how to use them, large piles of wood scrapes, metal and other random junk that come in handy to me. There was also two rifles hanging in the shed when we got here, we guessed that there used to be three from the empty hook next to them. Although I don't know how the machines are supposed to be used, I manage to work with them in my own way to cut materials and put them together. On a regular day I can make up to 2 bows and 8 arrows. The bows take longer to construct since it resorts to Changing the shapes of the materials to create the different parts and of course the string needs to fit into the string grove perfectly in order to work.

Now that it's just me, my days wont be spent in the shed and I will mostly be on the house roof instead while I'm at home. I can get up to it by climbing up on to the shed, there's a few bricks that slightly jut out from the wall so I can reach the shed roof easily. Then it's only a matter of climbing up on to the house roof from the shed, and it only takes less than a minute. When I'm up there I simply just watch. With the tall walls surrounding us it's hard to know what's out there behind them. Sometimes I like it, being able watch the sun set. It feels ever so slightly normal and alike the shed it's a place where I can think, a place where I actually like resorting to. Even when I notice one of 'them' in the distance I still feel slightly safe and as If I'm the one in control, watching over it.

***

I place my bow and arrows and one of the rifle's on the passenger seat of the truck and then head to the driver seat. I slam the door and start the engine. I never passed my driving test because I didn't get the chance to. I've had numerous lessons, but driving a high-tech, modern car is a different story to this rusty truck. I slowly edge out of the opening between the iron gate and then jump back out of the truck to close and lock it. There isn't much point in locking the gate, but I do it anyway.

When I'm sitting back in the truck I take a deep breath and then slowly and shakily exhale. I want to feel strong and act like I don't care, but there isn't any point, I don't exactly have anybody that I need to fool. As I head along the straight, long road the truck trembles over every hole and bump. It also reeks like fuel and a mixture of burning metal. At least I don't need to worry about fuel, there was two tanks of it back at the house when we first arrived, and mum and Luc managed to find numerous others while on there trips. It's kind of strange at the thought of using fuel, since before the disease broke out mostly everyone had re-chargeable vehicles.

Mum and Lucas always worked so great as a team. Mum was so quick and quiet when she used to come out here. They are two of the most important tactics. 1.) Speed, you need to be quick when your out here and 2.) Less noise as possible, it only attracts 'them' more. She always knew what to do though. Lucas was 14, but definitely didn't act like it. He moved fast, but was precise and I don't think he ever missed a shot. Wither it was a gun or one of my bows he could kill one of them things from about a mile away. When they found a building that might of had supplies in, mum would go in and Luke would stay on watch and look for any signs of anything or anyone approaching.

They both died from the disease and it was probably because they came out here most days. They did everything and suffered to the end. I'm still here and only here because they protected me, while I sat in my little shed or on the roof top they were out fighting for us to survive. We never had a name for the disease, but I'm sure many people did. It's kind of like how we don't have a name for 'them'. We preferred to call them 'them' over anything else. I think mainly because we didn't actually want to admit that they existed by naming them. I've never actually seen one close up, only from a distance. I did at first when the disease broke out, people started going crazy, but it's nothing compared to what they are now...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey, as you can tell this is my first chapter of 'Beyond The Walls'. I was hesitant to uploading this, but decided to anyway. I would love to see what people think of it so far and if they would be interested in reading more.
Abbie ❤️