Darke Night

Day 11: Night

We were building a family. I could see that, plain as day. We ran into no more zombies as we headed back out. He didn't make any noise, the little boy. But he stayed cuddled up to Sasha and she kept rubbing her hand across his forehead, offering comfort. It made my heart melt. I felt sadness over his loss, over his pain. I knew that his age was a blessing, in the coming months, everything would be washed away in the haze of childhood. What was left of his family would be washed away in the haze of nature. But we would give him life and we would be his new family. I believed that there would be more to come.

The supplies from the farm were well loaded in the truck bed. The Branson farm was a mile from our house. I'd gone to school and graduated with their youngest son last year. Kade. He'd been sweet. Right after graduation he'd headed into the city for work, and then college. He'd been smart, had earned a free ride for four years. Both of his parents had passed in the second strain, none of the kids had come back after the funeral, the house was as it had been. My dad checked in on it from time to time and called Richard, the oldest, with updates. I felt no guilt over taking the things that we had. They were necessary to survive.

It was quiet the rest of the way and dark had fallen. Nothing seemed to move in the night. We scanned for zombies, our eyes seeing in the dark as well as we could see in the light, but there was nothing. We kept the headlights off, one advantage over them. After a short while, even the crickets began to serenade and the night owl hooted once. I sensed nothing to worry upon. It was strange. Zombies appeared to be nowhere. You'd think that they preferred the dark, but it seemed that it was the light they took advantage of.

As we took the drive up to the house, I could feel a difference. Something had passed this way in the hours that we'd been gone. Signaling to my mother, we both watched more closely for danger. We were a sitting target, the truck rumbling up the driveway, but we were not easy prey. I smiled at that notion. We were close to the house front when Mom...

"Oh my God!" She screamed in delight. "Their home." She pulled the loader up to the garage, pulling in and parking up in a quick blur.

Ash and Dad came running the remainder of the way to the truck. They were just as new and alien as we were.

"Where have you been?" Mom fairly screamed as she jumped on top of Dad.  It was disgusting, in that child watching their parents make out kinda way.

"We were sick. And Jason's Mom wouldn't let us leave." Ash said as he rushed up and crushed me in a bear hug. I gave back as good as he. I felt a sense of peace now. We were all back together. "What's happened since we've been gone?" He asked.

"That," I said, "is going to require a story. And I'm starving." I laughed as we gathered the little one's up, locked up the garage and headed in for the night.

© 2014, Aelfwynn MacGregor, AMB