We turned back to the school as it crumpled to the earth. Specks of dirt flew everywhere.
I could hear everyone's breathing: faint and vague, just like the soft drums of my heart. My fingernails were caked with blood and gore; my clothes, I felt, would never be clean again. And I grimaced to think of what my hair looked like.
As for my soul, it was permanently tainted. I had seen to much killing, done too much sin.
I turned my thoughts away from the subject as the school crumbled away. Traces of zombies lay on the ground. I gave a heavy sigh. It was an odd sight to see, but my heart had seen enough that I felt emotionless.
Empty.
"So..." Abigail's eyes trained on the ground. "About James."
Sterling inhaled. "We've got to go see."
I hesitated. "Not today," I argued. "We've done enough, guys."
"Yeah." Abigail nodded. "Tomorrow."
And that was how we ended up standing together, arms locked. Sterling, Sophie, Abigail, and finally me. We stood in a row, feet upon the rubble. Ashes were still skating through the air: beautiful, yet disastrous reminders.
Despair, I realized, was just another emotion. At the end of the day, the sun would always rise again. Life is an interpretation. It's about the way you see things. We could have given up along the way: we lost Mason. We almost lost Sterling. We almost lost everything.
But it's about how you decide to take whatever life throws at you. In our case, we got up again. And again. Sophie found Sterling. I found Abigail. Life would have to find another, harder obstacle to throw at us, because next time, we would be ready.
We would be in it together.
With heavy hearts, we watched the glorious sun set on the ruined world.
A world to rebuild.
THE END
YOU ARE READING
Despair
ActionA zombie apocalypse that is overturning, killing and ultimately destroying the world shouldn't be something that kids (teens) should need to handle. Yet that is exactly what Evan, a young 12-year-old with his life ahead of him needs to face. But no...
