The Collapse of Mankind

Chapter Eight

Whilst the group were at the camp looking for Ellie, Nova was busy doing something else. She sat on the cream colored sofa. She was curled up, looking at the floor. She let a tear fall from her blue eyes. She had lost the people she cared about. Lilly.... Amy. Her best friend and sister. Nova looked to the right near the window. There was a small, brown teddy bear on top of a pile of books. It was Amy's. Amy gave it to Nova a few years ago when Nova was going through a tough time. The memories replayed through Nova's head. Over, and over again. After a few minutes of overthinking everything that's ever happened, she had an idea. She shook her tears away and managed to stand up. She huffed and started walking towards the kitchen door. She opened it and walked inside. Right next to the back door, there was a cupboard. And inside were lots of tools and weapons. She rummaged around in there to find a shovel. Once she found it, she walked out the door. She stomped over to where Lilly was lying and knelt down. She smelled horrible and had flies surrounding her lifeless body.

Nova: I'm sorry.

Nova stood up and started digging. Her arms ached more than they'd ever ached before but she didn't give up. She dug around for an hour. Until she made a hole big enough for a teenage girl's body. Nova walked over to Lilly and dragged her by her legs. When she was right next to the hole, Nova pushed her in. Nova fell until she landed with a thud at the bottom. Nova wiped a drip of sweat falling from her forehead and smiled, trying not to cry. Nova decided to search the outside for Lilly's favourite flower. A poppy. She searched and searched. All she could see was lifeless flowers who have died in the blaze of the sun. As she was just giving up, she saw a parade of different colours from the corner of her eye. She looked towards it. It was a patch of flowers ranging from daisies, dandelions, buttercups, tulips and.... poppies. Nova sighed in relief as she picked two of them from the patch. One to go in the grave and one to go on top. She dragged her tired feet back to the grave and gently dropped a poppy on top of Lilly's body. It landed on her chest. She then took a step back and began to pile the dirt on top of Lilly. She stopped and sighed.

Nova: I love you.

Nova smiled and carried on piling the dirt. After she had piled all of the dirt back into the hole that she had previously removed, she fell to the floor and cried. Possibly hundreds of the small water crystals fell from her eyes. After a few minutes of crying, she finally got back up on her weak feet. Before walking back to the station, she placed the remaining poppy on top of the grave and smiled. She slowly walked back to the camp, not looking back at all. Once she was inside, she picked up the bear that Amy gave her and flung herself on the large, cream coloured sofa. She hugged it tighter than ever, trying hard not to break down. She slowly started to drift off. One minute later, she was fast asleep.

February 10th , 5:32pm.
Atlanta, 3 miles away from Aria and the camp.

Cisco looked the unknown person straight in the eye. He had thick, dark eyebrows. And his eyes were light brown. The wrinkles round his eye were minimal which revealed how young he was. He wasn't old at all.

Unknown: Tell me. What do you want?
Cisco: Um... we're just um... looking for our friend.
Unknown: They're not here.
Cisco: How do you know?
Unknown: I don't. But the consequences are severe if you even try to break into this goddamn place! So get the fuck out of here. Go!

Cisco gulped and pulled away from the wall.

Jess: What is this place?
Cisco: I guess we better find out.

Leo and Nick looked at each other, with a look of terror upon both of their faces. The group of survivors began to walk. Their legs ached like hell but they had to do it. For Ellie.

Cisco: We're going to have to find another way in. We've circled this for so long and found nothing. But I know there's got to be somewhere we can get in.