Proverb Flash Stories

All Good Things Come To An End

Day 274

Alice and Joey left the group today. I suppose they want to try to find somewhere they can start again. Not that there's much left to start again with. Eleanor died sometime in the night, we woke up to find her corpse  struggling against  the rope she had demanded to be tied up with. We couldn't bury her - the ground is too hard here - so we left her body tied up in the cave and barricaded all the exits. By the time she gets out we will be long gone, any traces will have been covered by the wind. She will wander aimlessly until she finds something - someone to feast on or she dies of exhaustion and starvation. A zombie isn't too bad though, we have discovered worse. Humans mutated with whatever creature was nearest to them when the bombs fell, lusting for blood and killing anything that moved. We try to avoid cities and villages because that is where the zombies group together and become more than just mindless trackers. That is where they become an army, and five survivors cannot hope to win against an army who feel no pain and will stop for nothing. We will head north,  towards our goal, at dawn.

Day 293

We passed an abandoned nursery today. At first we were going to walk straight past, but then  Matt heard a baby's cry from within, and a frantic scrabbling at the door. He wanted to run in and save the child - or he did before Ellie mutely pointed a trembling hand at a mutilated child's remains and the baby's hand stuck through the letterbox. We left, all shaken by what we had seen, and as we walked away, a piercing, inhuman scream shook us to the core.

Day 303

There are rumours all around us, rumours of a paradise. Some say it is a mirage, and the river that is seen is a river of bones. I know it is too much to hope for, but still some part of me wonders if my job will be completed at last. The last place that humans could truly start again. Could it be that we are heading for Eden?

Day 306

Ellie has been very shaken by the incident at the nursery.  She woke screaming from a nightmare and insisted that we left because 'it' was coming. We were packed up and up the cliff in under an hour. about fifteen minutes after we arrived at the top, that same piercing shriek rang out and the monster threw itself at the cliff over and over, trying to get up to us until Ellie shot it. Again we ran, in fear of what else out there could be waiting in the night for us.

Day 322

Matt spotted land yesterday. Not the dusty, dry land we are used to, but green, fresh land. Today we spotted a dark haze around it. As we got closer, we discovered it was rain! Real rain! I have never been happier, other than when I married Ellie. This is the last place on Earth where we can properly survive, have children, enjoy not having to run from monsters that stalk in the night. This is the one place where I can be happy with Ellie, live a proper life. But I must not think that way. I have a job to do.

*Unknown Perspective*

A slim woman put down the tattered book she was writing in and tucked it away in one of the many blast proof safes left over from the war. She stood, dusting her knees, and rummaged through her bag till she found a small, metal tin, which she concealed in her hand before walking over to another girl. "Ellie, you know I love you more than anything in this world, right?"

"Cherry, of course I do! And you know that I love you more than anything as well."

The two hugged tightly, then the one called Cherry slipped out of the other girl's arms.
"Goodbye, my love."
"Cherry? What's going on-"

Cherry opened her hand, pushed six perfect, round buttons on the tin and smiled a smile full of sorrow, her eyes full of tears.

"I'm doing my job." she whispered. She closed her eyes.

And then she exploded.

My name is Ellie, and I am cursed to relive that moment over and over again, for the rest of my life. On that awful day, Cherry destroyed herself, Eden and those who came with us with a nuclear force that the world had never seen before, and never would see again. I am scarred horribly, both inside and out, yet something keeps me alive. I hope, now that I have summoned the courage to read Cherry's diary and write my own entry in it, that I can let go. I just wanted to say, before I go, that I don't blame you for it. I forgive you Cherry. I had from the second you were gone. I love you Cherry and I will never stop loving you. Never forget that.