The Price of Humanity

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

I collapse in tears, dropping the crate of food I'm holding – which almost hits my toes. Gale holds me up slightly, to stop me from crumbling to the floor.

I sob and feel a pain in my chest, like someone's grabbed a chunk of my heart and pulled it out of me. Gale strokes me hair gently, whispering "Shh" over and over again into my hair.

They dig her a grave in the garden with a shovel from the garage, while me and Gale continue transferring the food. It takes a while, around an hour, to shift most of the food to the truck.

A couple more of the supposed dead walk up to us while we're packing up the crates. Gale swiftly moves to protect me, he stand in front of me, slightly blocking my view from the people stumbling towards us.

Gale brings his kitchen knife up and efficiently swings it into their head each time, like they aren't human beings, like they aren't alive.

I watch all of their bodies fall to the ground, lifeless. Actually dead, bleeding out guts onto our drive and the surrounding area.

"Do you have to kill them?" I say as Gale pulls the knife out of the third corpse. I wince at the noise and place the box I'm carrying into the back of the truck.

"They'll kill us otherwise, Kiddo." Gale looks down at the dead body. "But, that doesn't mean I like it either." He says bending down and closing the eyes of the corpse.

He leans over and picks up the arms, shifting his weight he drags it over to the other two bodies near where Mrs Michaelson lays, she reanimated too but Gale put an end to her second life pretty quickly.

Zane and dad come out onto the front lawn to join us.

"Are we ready?" Dad asks with red eyes and a sadness I've never seen him have, I may have lost my mother but he lost his wife, the person he's been with his whole life.

"Can I say goodbye first?" I ask tentatively. He nods, looking like he's forcing back tears.

"Be quick though, we need to go." I nod and jog to the back of the house into the garden.

Mr Michaelson is still in the middle of the garden, but the axe has been removed from his head. I steer clear of him, afraid he'll jump up at me.

I head over to the bottom of the garden when a small piece of wood marks my mother's grave. I kneel down and stare at the mound of dirt for a few seconds before putting my head in my hands and bursting into tears.

I sit there, sobbing, for the best part of a minute, realising I will never see her again before I begin to talk.

"I don't understand what's happening." I start, running my hands down my face. "How could you be here one minute, and then gone the next." I sigh loudly.

"I love you mum, so much. I don't know what I'm gonna do without you. I can't cope with this without you! How are the dead walking?" I sit in silence, subconsciously waiting for a reply. I don't get one, all I hear is the birds chirping widely in the surrounding trees.

At least they're having a good time. I look up at the sky, seeing several birds flying around. Thy have a better chance at surviving than us.

"I still don't understand or believe what's going on. All I know is that Dad and Gale are killing people and London has 'fallen', whatever that means. I can't do it without you." I stare at the makeshift cross, silently willing this to all be a dream.

"I'm sorry mum. I didn't close the door, I knew Mr Michaelson was acting strange and I knew about what was going on in London, I just didn't think and I didn't close the door. It's my fault he got in and it's my fault you're gone."

I put my face in my hands and sob once again. My shoulders shake and I feel an unexplainable pain in my chest. One I've never felt before.

My tears wet my hands but at this point I couldn't care less. She's actually gone.

Out of my life forever. I'll never be able to hug her again. I'll never be able to go to her again and talk about my problems. Oh, god. My only company is going to be my two twenty-year-old brothers and my dad.

Fuck. Who am I going to talk to? Really talk? About my, female, problems. Or any problems.

"Hey, Kiddo?" Gale asks, coming out of the French doors.

I sniff and dry my eyes, trying to pull myself back together. I wipe my hands on my bare knees to try and get rid of the dirt that has collected from the ground. I stand up, still trying to wipe the dirt of my legs.

Once I've somewhat calmed down, I stand up and turn to face him. He gives me a sad smile and engulfs me in a bear hug, I wrap my arms around him and breath him in.

He doesn't smell of alcohol at the moment, just himself. Thank God, maybe this whole 'the world is ending' situation will be good for him. I rest my head on his chest and he places his chin on the top of my head.

I hate being shorter than my brothers. They always used to tease me about it. I used to have the nickname 'Shorty' before Gale came up with 'Ninja'.

I'm still quite tall though, at 5'10 I tower over most girls, and boys, my age, meaning it unsettles me that my brother can rest his head comfortably on the top of mine.

I think being two years older than me, and being guys, gave them an edge in the height department and after a bunch of begging they stopped calling me 'Shorty'.

He pulls away from me and takes my hand.

"Come on, we need to go." I nod weakly and let him pull me though our childhood home and out to the front of the house where Zane sits on a crate in the back of the truck.

"Get in." Dad calls from the front and I do so, the harsh sound of the door closing startling me out of my hazy state.

Gale gets in the back with Zane, both of them armed with melee weapons.

Gale has his kitchen knife, which has been strapped to a wooden pole dad found in the garage and Zane is wielding a bat he used to play baseball with. Now it's going to be used for killing people.

Dad starts the engine and we head off away from our home, away from the school we used to go to and away from our lives in general. The engine hums healthily as we head to the coast.

We didn't live, too far from the coast and so it didn't take us long to get there and get a boat.

Only when we got there, all the boats were gone.