School Of The Apocalypse

Chapter 11/Finding: Journey Back

Day 7; 6:42 p.m.

Ben laid in the back of the bus, unconscious. Autumn was calming Hailey down. She had pieced together that she had shot Ben and she was desolated from the thought. Autumn was in the process of telling her that "It was just an accident" and "It wasn't your fault", but I got the feeling that she wasn't making any progress. David was being taken care of by his "nurse for a day", A.J. who was doing what Scarlet yelled for him to do. Everyone else was swarming around Ben and Scarlet, helping in any way they could.

I sat behind Nathan as he drove the bus. I held my head down and gathered myself. Tyson, Jeffery, Noah, and Luke had stayed behind to gather the goods as we took the injured back to the house. They were to meet us tomorrow, before dark, at the house. I feared for their safety, for some reason.

Nathan wasn't making a sound. He was a statue at the wheel. The rustle of the others behind me fell into silence as the world quietened. I had a moment of silence with myself.

In school, I had been the nerd. I passed every test, I knew everything there was to know for school, I didn't have a girlfriend, I didn't play sports, I never would have killed someone, and I never had the courage to face the bullies at school. Now...I had a bat and a pistol and I was fighting the dead!?! The guy I knew was gone, lost in silence... the silence after the first person was killed... the silence after a gunshot... the silence after a battle for pure survival in a life and death situation... but... if I wasn't Joshua, the nerd, then who, or what, was I?

You got this, A.J.'s words sounded in my head. Did I? Did I really? A.J. had told me that true strength was making it back alive, but I now thought that it was more complicated than that.

I think true strength is being able to find where you lose the person you used to be, and meet the person you are now, with open arms and a whole lot of courage. I was no longer Joshua, the nerd. I was Josh, the one who survived.

I looked up as Nathan pulled into the shed where we kept the buses. Everyone started rushing around, grabbing their things to transport Ben inside. They all piled off the bus in a frenzy. I stood in the door and smiled.

"Goodbye,Joshua. Maybe one day we'll meet again... one day." I stepped down ontothe ground. "Hello, Josh. Welcome to your new home. Welcome, to the newworld."