School Of The Apocalypse

Chapter 21/Memories

Month 5 Day 20; 2:34 p.m.

We have had many struggles in this new world. The most prominent of which, is loss. We've lost friends, comrades, and family that haven't been able to survive or sacrificed themselves to protect us. I have lost so many friends: J.D., Tiffany, Jess, Emily, Joshua, Randy, Morgan, and Mr. Baker. I often wonder what else I must lose before this all ends.

At the basement of my house lies a brick wall. This used to be one of my favorite spots at my house. I would walk on the wall that was so high off of the ground and pretend like I was flying. Now? This wall was encased in pictures and scribbling of what I had come to call "Fallen Heros". This "Wall of Fallen Heros" is heavily visited. Some of the names that are on the wall, I don't even know who they belonged to, but I know what they are to others.

One of the most heavily used traditions that we have is that we place the warriors' weapons at the wall to remember what they have done for us.

I approached the wall and presented two machetes, Emily and Jess's weapons. We had found their killer, but at what cost? Both of them were dead.

"Hey," protruded a voice from behind me. I turned slightly and saw the face of Elizabeth. She had a solemn frown upon her face and held the leg of a desk in her arms. She walked over and placed the desk leg next to the wall and took out a rock. She carefully etched a name into the wall and I was unsure of who it was at first, upon completion, though, I remembered them fondly. The name read, "Pacey".

Pacey had been an acquaintance of mine in school. He always drifted between being nice and a pain in my back, but I never would have wished Pacey to die.

"Do you know how it happened?" I asked. She nodded slightly and sighed.

"It's my fault." She paused before continuing. "We were escaping the school. I was behind Pacey, walking down the stairs when we made it to the lobby. We were almost home clear till one of the things jumped him. Pacey fought it off, but just barely. We continued, but realized that they were following us. We had made too much noise. We got cornered. Pacey threw me the desk leg and told me to run. I tried to argue with him, but he screamed for me to leave. I ran as fast as I could and didn't look back." She paused again to wipe a tear from her cheek. "I play that scene in my head, over and over, trying to act like I can fix my biggest mistake when I know that I can't."

"Pacey is a hero. He is one of the only ones who deserve to be on this wall. He would be proud to know that you survived." She smiled and leaned onto my shoulder as we kneeled in the wet grass.

"Josh!" I heard someone scream. I instantly sprang into action and took off towards the front door, the source of my name. I leaped up the stairs and bolted across the porch. I almost ripped the door off of its hinges to see A.J. standing at the entrance to the hallway.

"She's awake," he blasted at me, returning down the hall. I knew who he meant, the girl I saved. I followed him down the hall to the halfway point and turned left to the small little room that was our sort of infirmary. In the room was Scarlet, Autumn, A.J., my father, and myself, surrounding the girl that laid on the cot.

"Hello," she said weakly. We all greeted her in our own way, but A.J. appeared to be stricken by her. If I didn't know him better, I would say that he had a crush on her.

"Who are you?" my father prodded, angrily.

"Giant. Back off," I tried to command to my father. Some of the members had acquired code names for inter-radio communications and, inadvertently, situations like this. My father was "Giant". Others included Amber Fox (A.J.), Blue Bird (Autumn), Lone Ranger (Texas Noah), and Neon (Leader Noah), to name a few.

"No! She needs to tell us who she is and what she is doing here before she can gain our respect," my father snapped back, before returning his hateful glare back to the girl.

"M-my n-n-name is Cheyenne," she stated nervously. I was pretty sure I heard A.J. whisper her name under his breath, but I didn't say anything and let Cheyenne continue. "I don't know what happened, but I remember being tied up in a big building and the building was burning." I gauged her. I had sort of a talent for telling when people were lying, but I could tell that she wasn't. That was good. It kept the secret of Graveyard contained, at least, for now.

"Maybe she has amnesia," suggested the star-struck A.J., almost tripping on his words.

At that moment, Ms. Cindy, Jake's mother and also Cheyenne's doctor, entered the already packed room and looked at us with her motherly stare. "Alright, everyone. This young lady is going to need some rest, but I could use some help if one of you would like to stay here and tend to her. With all the mall survivors, I have my hands full." Everyone sort of looked around to see if anyone was going to take the responsibility. Luckily I spoke first.

"Fox doesn't have any duties to do for a while, why doesn't he stay here and watch over Ms. Cheyenne?" A.J. looked around with a skittish expression while everyone debated it. In the end, after a little persuading my father, A.J. got the job. The last thing I saw as I left was A.J. sitting next to Cheyenne, mouthing "Thank you" in my direction as I smiled and closed the door. I wasn't sure how to feel, but I didn't have time to think. I had to get ready to go back to Elementary tomorrow, but this time, the teachers really did kill.