The Life and Times in the Zombie Apocalypse: Part 3: Homecoming

Cranbury: A Place of Happiness.... Most of the Time

As the night sky only grew darker and darker everything settled in. Everything was soaked up and everybody had heard about what had happened within Cranbury's walls. Everyone knew that nothing would ever be the same again, they knew that Heather's life was taken by Zeke and Benji. They knew that two little boys would grow up knowing that their mother was gunned down, right next to them and that their father was in the ground useless and brutalized. That nobody stopped it from happening and that nothing could bring her back. Ever.

"Who's graves are these?" Donny asked as he threw a pile of dirt to the side of a lengthy plot which he and Martin were digging up for Heather's body to be placed in.

Martin looked behind him to four other graves near the one they were digging up. "The closest one to us was Richard's daughter, her name was Leah, she was his youngest kid... She got bit and she died." He tossed some dirt on top of the pile near the grave. "The other three are just other people that lived here with us, one was named Trent, another Kelly, and thirdly Marco. Marco was related to Carlos, they were brothers."

"When did they all die?" Asked Donny.

"Well, Leah died early on." Martin told him as he continued digging. "Kelly and Trent I honestly never really knew, but it was a long while back. Marco was the last of them to pass away, he was bit and made sure that he said his goodbyes. He ended things his way and that was about a month ago."

"Martin?" Donny asked as he looked to his newly found friend.

"Yeah?" Martin asked as he stopped shoveling and wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.

"Why'd they do what they did?" Donny questioned as he sat down into the dirt pile.

Martin waited a moment... Thinking of what to tell Donny. He wasn't too sure what to say to him, he wasn't good at expressing feelings. Finally, after what seemed like a century he answered, "I don't know. Zeke, something in him just snapped.... I'm sorry this all happened. I really am and I will do anything to keep you, your boys, and everyone else in Cranbury safe. I promise." He then held his hand out to Donny and helped him back up to his feet. "Let's get this done." He said as he again wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Julie, It's going to be okay. We'll help out, like we always did." Jim told his wife as he iced his still very much injured leg from the attack in the store just a few weeks beforehand.

Julie was sitting in a lounge chair with her hands in her face... She hadn't slept at all, she didn't want to sleep at all. She was torn by what had happened... She wasn't sure how to recover from such a loss... The mother of her grandson's was gone.

"Honey, please say something." Jim said. "If worst comes to worst we'll care for the boys."

Julie then turned to him.and stared angrily at him. "If worst comes to worst? Really? Is thst how you're going to phrase the death of my son's wife? Not the worst of the worst? She didn't deserve to die. She was a good mom!" Then she jumped out of her chair and quickly paced upstairs to cry some more... This time away from everyone else.

As Julie slammed her door shut, Emily left her room and walked downstairs to see Donald and Jacob on the floor sleeping and then Jim on the couch icing himself.

"Why are the boys here?" Emily asked as she wiped her eyes.

"Because they just are. Go back to bed, alright?" Jim promptly suggested.

"Uh, okay." Emily mumbled as she fumbled up the stairs and went back to her room to sleep.

Jim sighed in relief that he hadn't had to tell her what had happened that night... Surprisingly both Emily and Mikayla had slept through everything.