The Awake

Rest In Peace

The next day, my friends had formed some sort of a memorial shrine thing for our fallen Hero, Aaron. After everyone paid their respects and left, I was the only one that remained.

"I'll miss you, buddy." I said softly to a picture of Aaron, I had found in his backpack. The picture was of him and his father. I had added it to the shrine that the others had put together, as I slept. The shrine had flowers, unlit candles, and some pieces of paper that we had written on. The photo was the last thing that had been added. The shrine was inside the empty tool shed. I turned and left the shrine. I wanted to get my mind off of it all. So I decided to go see Ben and Brianna in the garage. They were repairing the truck from all the damage it had taken. They saw me when I approached.

"Is she gonna make it?" I asked the two, about the truck.

"I think so. Just took a beating, that's all." Ben said patting the side of the truck. There were dozens of bullet holes covering the back and left side of the truck. Brianna looked into my eyes. I could tell she knew that I was still very upset about Aaron.

"How you holding up?" She asked, in a very concerned voice.

"I'm okay. Thanks." I replied. It was still a sore subject, so I wasn't comfortable talking about it yet. I was glad that she cared so much about how I felt. I went to see what Elizabeth and Emilie were doing, next. They were in the girl hut playing with Tyson. Tyson was getting bigger. He recognized me when I opened the door and ran to my legs, purring.

"Hi Tyson." I said closing the door behind me. The girls were sitting on Emilie's bed.

"Hey. What's up?" Elizabeth asked me.

"Not much, you?" I replied.

"Just playin' with Tyson. I'm hungry. Should I made dinner?" She asked Emilie. She just shrugged. "Hey, is Ty working on the Antidote?"

"I think so. I hope he gets done soon." I stated. They both agreed. Cailey had been asleep for far too long. All Aaron wanted was to bring her back. It was my responsibility to make that happen. "You guys know where the boys are?"

"I think Tim, Parker, and Nick are in their hut and Zach is in his room." Emilie said.

"I'll be back later. Thanks." I said as I left. I turned when I was out of the hut and saw Nick leaving the other hut. I waved at him as I started towards the other hut. He smiled and continued towards the house. I knocked on the door and Tim answered it. He smiled when he saw me.

"Come on in, Drayton." He said holding the door for me. I entered and saw Parker sitting on a bed. He had a pen and a piece of paper in front of him. Parker was an artist. He drew things, I couldn't even explain. On the piece of paper, in front of him, was a picture of a very detailed mushroom cloud.

"Do you guys want any dinner?" I asked the two.

"Sure." Parker said. Tim nodded and I tried to remember what we had to eat for dinners. I guessed soup or chicken nuggets. I left their hut and searched for Zach. I looked everywhere but couldn't find him. About half an hour later, I saw him walking in the front door.

"Zach, where have you been?" I asked. He had his backpack on and it looked almost full.

"I found something in the neighbor's freezer." He said, smiling. He walked into the kitchen and set his bag down on the counter.

"What did you find?" I asked, watching him unzip his backpack. He pulled out 5 frozen pizzas of the bag and set them all in a row. I figured out what Elizabeth was cooking tonight. I told Zach to go get Elizabeth so we could cook the pizzas and eat. I was getting hungry too. Zach did as I told and we started making dinner.