School Of The Apocalypse

Chapter 28/ Expanding Home and Heart

Month 6 Day 10; 8:56 a.m.

I awoke to the sound of raging hammers and power saws buzzing in harmony. I was too drowsy to tell if I enjoyed the sound or not, all I knew was that it was loud. I threw off the covers and immediately regretted the decision. With only a pair of shorts protecting me, I shivered. I pulled the remote from my nightstand and shut off the fan that zoomed overhead. I felt the room grow silent, but it wasn't too silent, mostly because of the hammers and saws outside. I stood and rounded the bed, heading for the bathroom. I stepped through the opening and caught myself starring at the mirror. Was that me? It wasn't just the fact that my hair was wild in the morning, but something was different.

"What's wrong?" asked a gentle voice behind me. I turned and saw Sasha. She smiled drowsily as she cleared the sleep from her eyes. I smiled back at her and she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me and we both faced the mirror together. I looked at what I had to keep telling myself was MY reflection, but I still couldn't believe it. "Don't make me ask again," Sasha threatened squeezing my midsection. I coughed playfully and chuckled a little before returning to my hard stare.

"It's just that... Six months ago, if you had shown me, or anyone who knew me for that matter, a picture of me now and said that this was me, no one would have believed you. I wouldn't even have believed you. This person in the mirror might as well be a stranger because he doesn't look like me!" I slammed my fist down against the counter, for what reason, I wasn't sure, but I felt like I had failed for some reason. Maybe I was thinking that I had lost myself or maybe I was thinking that I had lost my humanity, although I wasn't sure how that had happened. Perhaps it was the fact that I could kill so easily. What was I becoming? Was this even me?

All of a sudden, Sasha lifted me into the air. She threw me onto the floor just outside of the restroom and stood over me, looking like hell had descended before me. I had a momentary thought that I would rather face Autumn; I quickly disposed of it. I was afraid that she would come in and kick down that door just to kill me.

"I got two things for you. One! People change. Get over it. I have changed all throughout my life especially when I was abandoned. So don't feel bad about yourself. You are an amazing person, Josh. Don't ever forget that."

"Yes 'mam. Sorry 'mam. What's the second thing though?"

"I got to pee!" She turned and slammed the door behind her. My heart felt as if it had just skipped about three beats. It took me a minute to compose myself. I ended up using the other bathroom on the other side of the house and tamed my wild hair. I got dressed through on my green jacket as I went to sit in the living room. I sat on that couch and instantly melted into it. This was going to be my home now. It wasn't that big. There was a small kitchen directly across from the door and a dining table immediately to the left. On the direct right was the living room and passed that lied the master bedroom with the master bath extending passed that. On the left was a hall with a mudroom on the left, a laundry room on the right, and the guest bath at the end of the hall. Again, it wasn't much, but this little piece of space was my home. My new home, at least.

Over the past week and a half, Decatur had slowly extended the walls around the reclaimed land. Most of our people helped with that, but a few had other jobs. Ciara had taken up the life of a farmer when she had learned what her shears could be used for that didn't involve killing. Jake, Carly, and E.J. began working with the mechanics and engineers of Decatur. I often found them robbing old cars for parts, but sometimes they could be found working on the solar panels that lied next to the farms. Rachal, Haley, Kelsi, Bailey, and Seth had taken up the job of guards on the ever-moving wall. Haley, most of the time, was in the "perch", or the guard tower, sometimes you could find Rachal or Kelsi up there, though, aiming the sniper around with accuracy. I had heard that Haley and Kelsi had contests to see who the better shot was. So far, Haley had killed three walkers with one shot and landed the bullet in the eye of the last one. She says that she did it on purpose, but I'm pretty sure that it was luck. Noah the cowboy actually took up a remarkable task, he ran the nursery. I hadn't believed it when he had told me, but after visiting him a few times, he was great with children. Tony was a construction worker now. Along with Marshal, Raynor, Grayson, Auston, and many of the mall survivors, they were reinforcing the walls as they expanded them and even worked on the buildings in town a little. Jasmin, Scarlet, and Ms. Cindy had taken up working in the infirmary. My father stayed there and was recovering well. I had visited him once in the time that we had been here and all he did was complain about being shot in the foot and how I went behind his back and took over without his permission. I wanted to smack him, but I held myself back.

Some of the lighter news wasn't what people were doing in Decatur, but more of who they were finding. Elizabeth had stood silent when she had found him. He had just smiled as she ran at him and tackled him to the ground. He had cried tears of joy about five minutes. Then, she turned. She began beating him and yelling complete gibberish. Pacey had to have help getting her off of him, but she quickly settled down again and had stayed that way for the time being. Bailey had found her little brother, Bentley, and I wasn't sure how she felt about that. I knew at the core she was glad to know that he was alive, but she had become fed up with how annoying he was after about five minutes of meeting him. I had actually been avoiding my sister for much of the same reason, so I couldn't blame her for wanting to chock the life out of him sometimes. His friend, Hayden, was more or less that exact same. The look in Bailey's eyes said that she had just found two of her brother and I think that thought had killed her a little on the inside.

There were three more people we met that we knew and that reunion was one that I will remember for a while. Kameryn was always shy so naturally she stayed back at first, but as soon as the conversation got under way, she chimed right in. Brittany was a fiery spirit and the first thing she did was smack me. She then screamed gibberish at me before pushing past and joining Ciara, Jake, Rachal, Bailey, and Seth. She was happy at least, but that sentiment hadn't helped my cheek at the moment. Lashea was like Kameryn except that she initiated the conversation to begin with by tackling A.J., Hailey, Autumn, and I in one fell swoop.

Speaking of that trio, I had completely forgotten that they were now on the "city council". It was a loose term because it was just some of the leaders of the groups that came together. Of course there was Sampson who represented Decatur and Ronald was now his "advisor". Neon Noah had taken a spot, claiming that his house and his team had been on their own for quite some time and that their "Castle" was a pillar of leadership or something like that. I'm pretty sure that we had stopped listening at that point and just let him on the council. Autumn was the leader of the armed forces so to speak. Basically she was a general now and no one wanted to argue with her about assuming that title. Hailey and A.J. had become Autumn's advisors. Hailey was the public relations. She went out and helped around most everywhere and learned almost everything there a police officer. Apparently the rules that were made by the council had to be enforced, although there weren't really that many and everyone thought them redundant: no dead allowed inside the walls, no killing allowed inside of the walls, and no beer to the under aged.

Speaking of which, I had left out four people from all of this. Ben now ran a restaurant. It wasn't an exact restaurant; he really just prepared people's rations for them and handed out drinks. Most of the customers that came in were older and ordered a form of alcohol and he happily obliged. We would lean over the counter and strike up a conversation with whoever was sitting there. He was a pretty skilled cook too and I heard that his mashed potatoes were to die for. I wasn't all that big a fan of mashed potatoes in general so I just took everyone's word for it. He had help, though, in his kitchen. Chloe, Cheyenne, and Sasha were waiters and they did a fine job of it, too. People would come in and be ushered to a seat and pretend like society was starting anew. The ladies would approach and strike up a conversation just like Ben did and soon it would be a faint memory that they had come in for food. When the stomachs started growling though, the ladies would hand out menus and take tickets.

People were given these tickets that they got holes punched in and that consisted of paying for anything that you wanted. Too many holes and it was the same principal with an empty wallet. You would go out and work and whatever you did, you would be rewarded with a ticket with a certain number of circular outlines. You had that many holes to spend on anything that you wanted. Some people would spend it all on food, but you could only use so many holes on food and since Ben was the only restaurant in town, you couldn't sneak passed the rules. You also had to use tickets for electricity, water, and plumbing. Some of the warriors liked to go to the pawn shop that Gaven owned and trade in tickets and their weapons for an armory upgrade. I thought about getting rid of my bat for a while, but it hadn't failed me yet and I wasn't going to ruin the flow. Each job would pay you different amounts, though, and it also mattered on where you felt comfortable because the better you did, the more tickets you could get. Everyone had sort of found their calling. Everyone seemed happy with their choices. Then there was me.

I turned out to be good at one thing and that was fighting so I sort of lead Autumn's army. She didn't go out, but I had been on two small scavenging missions already and it was enough to pay the bills, at least. Most of the time, though, I just lounged around. It was relaxing to have nothing over you, nothing pressing down on you, nothing stopping you from being calm, but peace was shattered easily in this town. Especially when I head those words echo over the entire city. Those five simple words.

"Listen up you pathetic rats."