Survivors

Chapter 14

I finished a few chapters and then looked at the clock, it was only 10:30. The car ride really messed with my head I slept all day yesterday, and I'm still tired. I closed my books and laid down, I gave Blake a kiss on the cheek and then fell into a deep sleep, I woke up at seven, normal time for me. I went to the fridge grabbed six eggs and went to the stove. I made an egg for me, then fed the dog. After continuing his lay down training, the girls came out. I made them their eggs and asked if they wanted to go on a jog with me.

"No thank you. I don't want to get surrounded by zombies. Just in case anything happened." Liv said with slight fear in her eyes.

"I'll stay here with Liv and clean up the dishes."

"I'll get them when I get back, why don't you guys color or something. You don't have to work."

"But I want to help." She said back. It was clear that I was not winning this argument so I just nodded and put Duke on his leash. I walked for a couple minutes to warm up then took off on a full on run. I ran to the area that had the chickens which was a small coop that was probably 200 feet from the house then slowly jogged to the cow and goat pasture which was 200 feet past that. We jogged all the way home and when we got back about 15 minutes later Blake was up and eating an egg. I refilled the dogs water and food before heading into my room to change. It was August, I think, there's a calendar somewhere, and it was hot. I changed and threw my grey shirt, blue shorts and undergarments into the corner of the room with Blakes dirty things. There was a small pond next to the cows were we could wash our clothes in until Landon adds more solar panels to the roof. I grabbed a white tank top that was very loose and comfortable and a light pair of ripped jean shorts. I threw my hair into a ponytail and walked out of the room. Ava and liv came over to me.

""Sky can you do boxer braids?" Ava asked.

"Yes I can."

"Can you do them for us please?"

"Of course just sit in front of me on the floor and I'll do both of you." They nodded and sat down I grabbed four elastics, and a comb, and first braided Ava's no longer long black hair. Then I worked on Livs bright blonde hair. It took me about half an hour to braid both of them and when the other two came out of their room it was nearly 8:30 I made them breakfast and they ate in silence, Landon still very bent out of shape from the loss of his family. It made me sad because I didn't know what had happened to my mom, and I'm sure Blake feels the same way. Nova never had a good relationship with her parents and moved out the day she turned 18.

"So we don't need to go on a run anytime soon, but Blake and I made a list of things, there's a school maybe thirty miles away so i thought we could take some school books, teacher planning books, pencils, anything school related so the girls can have a feeling of being normal." I said finally breaking the silence.

"Blake and I can go in a few days, I know the area pretty well and I've been inside the school a few times so I know which classrooms are which." Landon suggested.

"Are you sure you want to go? I can go." I stated looking back at Landon. After five minutes of arguing I gave up. I handed Landon the list. Apparently the nearest store was an hours drive away and that was a small grocery store that didn't have much, thirty miles after that was a gun store and a larger grocery store that had a gas station but the closest store that had curtains was a target but it was a forty five minute drive in the opposite direction. We talked for awhile and the boys decided that they would leave on Thursday and be back by lunch time on Friday. It made me incredibly nervous because they had never left for the night before.

"You're taking the gun and the machete." I insisted.

"No way I'm taking the gun." Blake said.

"You're taking the gun and all the ammo except for three rounds." This argument went on and on until he finally gave up. Today was Tuesday so they would be leaving in two days. The remainder of the day went by as normal, I went out back with the pot, the girls had a basket and they went to collect eggs while I milked the cows. I looked over at the girls who were laughing and smiling. I made a mental note to put a polaroid camera and lots of film on the list. We went back inside about half an hour later. It was about 9:20. I looked at Liv,

"What grade are you in again sweety?"

"I'm suppose to start kindergarten."

"Do you know how to write your name?"

"I can a little bit."

"Do you work on that and writing a few sentences today?" She nodded and I grabbed a notebook and a pencil. I helped her write her name a few times and once she had it down I helped her write a few simple sentences. She seemed to enjoy the writing while Ava was playing with the dog. About two hours later I told her she could be done.

"Can you teach me some math please? I know how to add and subtract all the numbers under twenty but I want to learn how to do them all the way to fifty."

"Sure. I'll make you a worksheet let me go grab more paper. While I was gone I added worksheets for kindergarten and a polaroid camera with lots of film to the list. I came back and wrote down a few problems and helped her solve them. Another hour later she was done and asked if she could have blank paper to draw on and I handed her a few pieces. And she colored for awhile while I read. After about twenty minutes she came up to me and handed me what she had drawn. There was six people and a Black dog. She was a really good drawer for her age. She pointed at each of the figures.

"That's Ava, that's me, that's Blake, that's Landon, that's Nova, that's Duke, and that's you." She had drawn me with my arms around the two girls like a mother would hold her children away from danger.

"It's beautiful." I said with a smile.

"It's for you."

"Want to come help me hang it up in my room?" Her eyes lit up and she nodded. She chose a place right above my dresser, in between two of the only six pictures I had of my family, one was of my parents and I when I was a baby playing on the living room floor, one was my parents wedding photo another was me and four of my cousins, my favorite one was of me my mom, dad, grammy and grandpa at my high school graduation. I had one picture of my grandparents and the last picture was a picture of most of my family. Liv asked who the lady in the wedding picture was.

"That's my mom." I said as tears filled my eyes.

"She's pretty." She said trying to hug me, but only reaching my waist. I gave her a hug back and wiped my eyes. We headed out to the living room and everyone wanted food so we boiled the milk I had collected and had a bowl of cereal. After that I helped Liz read and Ava played a game with the others. During the day we used flashlights, candles or sunlight. At night we would turn on the light of the room we were in and then only use the two little lamps in our room that we would charge every day. We tried to use as little electricity as possible so we could keep the fridge running, the stove on, and water running. Around five, Duke stood up, went over to the window and growled, a deep threatening growl I had never heard before. We all looked out the window and that's when we say them two men walking past the house with riffles over their shoulders. They stopped and looked at the house.

"Liv, Nova, Ava, Landon, go to Nova and Landons room. Quickly." Liv didn't get up right away and Landon picked her up and hurried her to his room. Ava and Nova were right behind him. I scooted back towards the wall to turn the switch off. Thankfully they didn't notice the light, I reached over and grabbed Dukes collar, pulling him closer to me, Blake deadbolted the door and locked the knob as I held tightly onto Dukes mouth. We crawled into our room, which was along the front wall. We got in and then there was a pounding on the front door. I heard them try the doorknob but it didn't turn. Then a deep voice interrupted the silence.

"We don't want to hurt you. Come outside so we can talk we haven't seen anyone else in weeks." I looked over at Blake, and he shook his head. Maybe If we stayed quiet long enough they'll go away. They kept knocking on the door and talking. Duke tried to growl again but I firmly kept my hand on his mouth. About an hour later I heard the other man say,

"Alright we'll go don't want to cause trouble." We waited about fifteen minutes after we heard that to go tell the others that they could come out. They came out but we kept the light off and stayed away from the window. Everyone was on edge and when 7 rolled around, nobody was hungry. Around 8:30 the girls put away their coloring books and went to their room. Nova and Landon went in around 9 and Blake and I went after they shut their door.