The Zombie Apocalypse (Zack Merrick/All Time Low)

Chapter 14

~The next day

~Zack's POV 

"She's been outside all night. Are you sure she's going to be fine?" Rian asked as we continued to watch Nalah hold Lucy. I had been outside guarding Nalah all night and she's still showing no signs of moving anytime soon. The only thing is, we now need to move location. More walkers are coming up here and it's now not safe. 

"Not really but we do need to go." I sighed. 

"What's going to happen to Lucy?" Rian asked as Nalah sniffled again. 

"We'll bury her, probably. The only thing is, we don't know where and when seeing as Nalah isn't moving but we need to go today." I replied. Maggie came out the VW and crouched down beside Nalah and ended up whispering something to Nalah. Nalah replied back in a hushed voice and they continued for a few minutes. Maggie squeezed Nalah's shoulder before getting off the ground and made her way over to Rian and I. 

"I talked to her for a little bit. She's agreeing to move but she wants to take Lucy with her and bury her in the closest cemetary." Maggie said. 

"I can deal with that." Rian said. 

"Could you run that by everyone else just to they know and that they can't take no for an answer?" I asked Rian, who nodded, patted my back and walked towards the VW. 

"How is she doing? She hasn't spoken to me or anyone else the entire night." I said to Maggie as Rian walked off. 

"Honestly, she isn't doing great. She's trying to compose herself but isn't doing too well after the way Lucy went. The first thing she said was that Lucy needs to be buried but not here because she's aware that it's increasingly getting unsafe." Maggie said as we continued watching Nalah. 

"I'm going to go and talk to her as well as try and move her into the VW. Can you do final preparations?" I asked Maggie. She nodded her head and walked over to the VW whilst I made my way towards Nalah and Lucy. 

~Nalah's POV 

"Hey, Nal." I heard Zack say from beside me. I heard a shuffle and looked slightly to the side, noticing that Zack had sat down beside me. 

"I know this is a bit of a stupid question but how are you doing?" Zack asked cautiously. I could feel his eyes burning in me as he waited anxiously for my response. 

"Honestly, I don't even know. I feel shit and horrible that I wasn't able to save Lucy fro-." 

"Nalah, that was not your fault. What happened to Lucy was because we all let our guard down and thought we were safe when in reality, we're not. Which is why we need to move and continue our journey to Baltimore. We have nothing to stay for here. More walkers are making their way up towards the VW, we can't loot many of the nearby houses because of the number of zombies and there was a death here of a little girl that we all love. Staying here would make it more painful. We need to leave. Today." Zack said as he rested his hands on my shoulders. 

"I know, I know we need to go, but where can we bury Lucy?" I whispered. 

"We can bury her in the first cemetary that we come across that isn't overrun by walkers. That way, we can have a quiet burial and you can say goodbye to Lucy." Zack quietly said to me. I thought over what he said for a few seconds before nodding and I started to stand up, Lucy's body still in my arms. 

"Have you slept at all?" Zack asked. I shook my head and Zack softly sighed. 

"You need to sleep." He stated as he guided me towards the VW. 

"Not until Lucy's buried." I replied and Zack was about to reply before he shut his mouth and stayed silent. The door opened and Alex helped me in. I still clung to Lucy's body as I got in the van and shifted around until I was comfortable. Jack got a blanket for me to drape over Lucy's body whilst we were in the VW out of respect and so we didn't have to keep seeing the reason as to why she died. The door closed and Jack got in the drivers seat, Lauren in the passenger seat and everyone else piled in the back. Zack pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me close to him and I felt his breath on my neck. I leaned into Zack and rested against him whilst Jack started to drive away. 

~1 hour later 

"Nal, we're at a cemetary. Want to bury Lucy here?" Zack asked as the VW engine cut out. I looked outside the window and took a good look at our location. 

"Yeah, this will be a nice place." I said as Raven made her way out the VW, followed by Maggie, Alex and Rian. 

"Do you want me to carry her?" Zack asked when it was the two of us left. 

"Please." I replied. Zack scooped up Lucy's body carefully, keeping the blanket over her body and followed me out the VW. 

"Jack and Alex went to get some shovels." Lauren said as I approached the group. I nodded slowly and started to walk around, figuring out where to bury Lucy's body. 

"Over there, by the willow tree." I said to Zack, pointing ahead of me. Rian whistled to the girls and pointed over to the spot that I had picked out. Alex and Jack joined us a few minutes later, carrying two shovels and we all walked over to the willow tree. Jack and Alex started digging under the tree and we all watched in silence, no-one daring to make a sound. Jack shoved his shovel in the little pile of dirt that had formed and wiped sweat droplets off his forehead. Alex was helped out the grave that had been dug and everyone stared at Zack. 

"It's ok, you can do it." I said to him as he gave me a look of permission to put Lucy in her grave. He stared at me for a few seconds before shuffling forward and gently placed her in her grave. Zack adjusted the cover to make sure it was fully over Lucy and picked up a shovel, along with Rian and they started to fill in the grave. When they were finished, everyone backed away to let me say my final goodbye. 

"Oh, Luce." I whispered as I crouched down to her grave. 

"I can't believe that we're at this." I said, signalling to my surroundings. 

"This is such a beautiful place, you would absolutely love it. It's really pretty and there are no walkers so you could walk around here quite safely." I said, softly chuckling. I stretched a little to the right and picked up two medium sized sticks and stuck them in the ground at the head of the grave. I gathered up some wild flowers and decorated the sticks to make a substitute gravestone. I stepped back and viewed what I had created and sniffled. 

"I can't accept that this is goodbye." I choked out as I started to realise that this was it. This was me saying goodbye to my little sister, the girl that I failed to save from an undead human and killed her. 

"Always remember that I love you and that will never stop." I sais as I slowly touched the sticks. Inside, I was hoping for a miracle to occur. I was hoping that I could hear her voice one more time or for her to appear beside me and tell me that she's fine. I was also hoping that it wasn't her in the grave. Even though I knew that those options would never happen, I wanted them to. I couldn't bear the pain and it was slowly eating me up inside. 

"Bye, sis." A tear escaped from my eye as I kissed my middle and index finger and placed them on the sticks for a few seconds before letting them slide away and I started to walk away. I barely managed to compose myself as I headed back to the group as they stared at me sympathetically. Maggie opened her arms up and walked over towards me, enveloping me in a hug. I wrapped my arms around her tightly and slowly started crying again as the recent events hit me. Lauren and Raven joined the hug a few seconds later, followed by the guys as we all mourned the loss of the youngest member of our group together. 

~The idea for this chapter came up because I've just come back from my uncle's funeral and I'm a bit upset. His death was unexpected and his funeral service was nice. We all tried to refrain it from being sad and we tried to make it happy, even though we were all there because of his death. His partner talked about how he was always joyful and never failed to make anyone smile and it sucks that he's gone. We all mourned his loss together today and it's helped us get used to the fact that he is gone and we can slowly start to move on.