The Light At The End Of The World

Broken Grace

"Yeah, you look ready to take on the world!"

Grace face starts to turn a deep, bright scarlet. "Thanks, June." She smiled.

I opened the front door and the street was covered with a few centimeters of freshly fallen snow from the night before. The dead will be much slower than they usually are. The warm sun feels warm against my skin making me smile at the thought of being somewhere else that's warm. I grabbed Grace's hand and she smiled up at me her cheeks turning red from the icy air that bit at her cheeks. The street itself looked like an unfinished painting. So much of the canvas was still perfectly white as if waiting for the artist's hand to return. The morning light struggled through the murky cloud, but even in its weakness, it was enough to blind me for a second as my eyes adjusted to the sunlight reflecting off the snow.

Grace looked onward and smiled because there were no dead wandering about on the snow covered highway. We walked down the road making casual small talk as we went not knowing where the road will take us. That was still about two full days of walking to get to the city. I honestly don't know exactly what to expect when we reach the capitol or what the group will be like it was a chance that we had to take its already been five years since I last saw my sister. The sun had started melting away the first bit of snow fall but I knew there would be a lot more snow in the next week or so.

"Where are we?" She asked her small strangely colored eyes looking up at me and her hand tugging at my coat sleeve.

I sighed wishing I could give her information that would satisfy or help her survive the long walk to the town. "I honestly don't know, I think we're lost."

"What happened to our map we just left Airville a few hours ago we can't be that lost."

"Oh, we're definitely lost. I think the map was upside down so we've been going north for the past three hours." I nervously let out my face turning red from embarrassment.

"What makes you think that you know everything, June?" She snapped yanking her hand away from mine.

"Excuse me?" I replied a bit shocked by her change of character.

"Well, you don't know everything. You're just one teenage girl where everyone turns their back on you, so you want to claim authority by bossing a little girl around!" She shouted causing a few birds to take flight from the surrounding trees. She struck her hand out landing a solid slap on my left cheek then stormed off into the woods.

"Grace!" I shouted after her with my left hand on my cheek stinging sensation bit at the corners of my jaw, and a metallic taste spreading through my mouth as I spit blood into the snow and ran in after the forest after her. The frost covered leaves crunched under my boots as I tried to follow Grace's footprints through the little snow that remained zigzagging through the trees that had lost their color and were beginning to die.

The trail that I had been following came to an abrupt end as it reached a plain dirt road that the snow had completely melted off. Called Grace's name again hoping that I would get a response this time. No answer. I had a choice left or right. The dirt road that went left curved off into the distance. A large wooden sign was knocked over with a car crashed into it the sign said 'Welcome to Cherokee National Forest Campground'. And written on the sign in crude dark spray paint was written 'sanctuary.' .The woods had become eerily quiet and void of life as I made my way to the crash site. Groaning was audible from the broken windshield I saw glass and dried on blood stuck on the hood of the white Chevy Malibu. The Changed grew louder as I approached now sensing my appearance and began trying to escape the car halfway through the windshield. The broken glass had caught on the female Changed stomach and it ripped it open causing it's guts to fall out onto the hood. No new blood escaped. By the rotting flesh that had disappeared off her face it looks like she had been stuck in the car for a while probably all the way back to the first day of the infection.

The sight of the woman pained my heart to look at her. She looked so young. Forever frozen in time in her twenties, making me think about who she was, and who she would've become If the infection hadn't put an abrupt end to her short life. My eyes lingered to her left hand where a diamond ring sat forgotten covered in dark dried on blood mixed with dirt and decay.

I start to tear up as I realized that her stomach was swollen. She looked like she was about in her third trimester of pregnancy. A faint Growl came from her cut-open stomach causing the stomach to move a little. I stifle a cry the sight of the forgotten mother who had never even had her baby. I had never seen a baby Changed and I never planned to, I was glad the small Changed was hidden from my view I didn't want to let my guard down and try to hold it in my arms and be turned into one of them. The Changed grew louder and more frantic as I climbed up onto the hood still out of reach with one foot I placed my foot on the back of the Changed's skull and plunged my knife into the brain the mother went still. Now all that was left was me and the baby Changed trying to reach its pale hands through the opening of her stomach. I turned my head I couldn't bear to look at the undead creature that was coming out I squeezed my eyes shut as I reached for the handle of the Colt Python and withdrew it from its holster. The pistol now seemed to get heavier as I aimed at the stomach of the now unmoving Changed. I turned my head even more as my hand tightened around the trigger. I fired twice and the growling ceased and I was now left in a deafening silence.

Tears fell down my face as I hoped down from the hood and continued down the dirt road towards the campground. Why was I feeling these things? I'm not weak. June Atlas is strong so why am I shedding tears. I didn't even know the woman, so why should I care?

I am weak.

June Atlas is still only just a girl.