The Virus

Twenty Six

I wake up early, with Noah still fast asleep next to me. I make my way downstairs to make breakfast for everybody. I'm surprised to see Claire when I walk in. "You're an early bird too, I see." I say as I walk in.

She chuckles. "Yeah, I guess." She replies.

"Pancakes? We use powdered milk but they taste nearly as good." I say, smiling. She quickly agrees.

I prepare the pancake batter and leave it to sit for a while, I leave to take a shower and get dressed properly. When I come back down about an hour later, Stella, Terry and Mark are excitedly waiting for pancakes. I laugh at them and get to work cooking them.

One by one, everyone makes their way downstairs for pancakes. At about eleven, everyone goes to do chores and cleaning. I go upstairs the clean out my bedroom. I move all the medicine booklets to the bookshelf on the wall.

I go and tend to all our crops. Everything seems to be getting along fine. I expected a lot of them to fail the first time. But, so far we've had minimal losses. Next year, we should have plenty of food. Soon, we won't have to go on runs to collect supplies. We'll have everything we need to live here without even leaving. We'd be completely self-sufficient.

At around six, I head to the kitchen for dinner. I skipped lunch to carry on doing some, so at this point I'm quite hungry. When I walk in, nearly everybody's there. Things seem to be going back to normal. Like it was before Jayden died. When it was better. Everyone is happier and more talkative.

Alex and Mark are cooking rice and a matter of other things on the stove and the stove. I get up to make myself a well earned coffee. Everybody is laughing and joking and for a whole at least it feels carefree.

We all sit down for a mix of some chicken we found, rice, frozen peas and a sauce they made. Alex and Mark are incredibly proud of themselves and watch happily as everybody eats their dinner. I devour mine in minutes and go back for more. Noah raises his eyebrows at me. "I didn't have lunch." I say. He nods and continues eating his dinner.

After everybody is finished their dinner, they go on to talking. I leave for a walk of the grounds. I end up at Jayden's grave. Grass is already starting to grow over the mound. It'll look nicer that way, more peaceful.

I sit next to the headstone, facing the mound. "I'm sorry." I say. "You didn't need to die. You really didn't." I continue. "I don't know if you can hear me, and to be honest I doubt you can." I say. "But I meant what I said that day. I forgive you. For everything, the way you hurt me and what you did to me. I forgive you for all of it." I finish, tears streaming down my face. "I've known a lot of people who've died. It's just what happens in my life. For as long as we're here, which I don't know how long that will be. But, for however long that is, I'll visit you. As much as I can." I say with resolve.

I sit there crying for a while, when I realise it's nearly nine o'clock, I get up and leave. I make my way to the showers to watch the dirt from gardening off. I sit in there for ages, just thinking. Like I used to. Aimless thoughts with no real meaning. Just random thoughts. They usually comfort me and they don't fail this time.

When I'm finished, I'm slow to dry off and make my way upstairs. I'm stuck in a world of my own and I like it. Noah is sitting in bed when I come in. He looks up from the piece of paper when I come in. "I saw you at his grave. Is it still bothering you?" he asks.

I shake my head. "For once, no. It was just nice to sit there and talk to him." I reply happily.

"That's good." Noah says. "I still love this." He says, showing me the picture I drew of him the other morning. "I should get it framed." He says.

"Mhm." I reply. He puts the sheet down and gets comfortable. I crawl into bed next to him.

He sits up. "I have something to say." He says completely serious.

"Yeah?" I ask curiously.

"You are the bravest gir-person I've ever met." He replies.

I laugh. "I thought you were gonna say something completely like, well not that anyway." I say. I give him a hug. He lies down again and I lay next to him. He wraps his arms around me protectively. I nuzzle my face into his chest.

It's nice to be peaceful. Slowly, we'll all get over the sadness and shock of Jayden's death. We won't remember him with tears but with a smile. We all just need time. We're all healing.