Welcome to the End

Chapter 12: Finding Direction

Kevin sat on the hood of a burned out car, staring at his badge. Having removed it from his belt, he held the polished metal plate in his hands, turning it and letting the early morning sunlight gleam off the edges. He'd kept the badge to remind him of his days on the police force, back when it had meant something.

He'd tried to maintain his oath to serve and protect, but after the fall of Walton, Kevin was starting wonder how much his badge mattered any more. He wondered if anything mattered anymore. Regardless of what direction they ran, the zombies would eventually find them. They were all going to die, and he couldn't think of any way to prevent it.

Kevin glanced at his shotgun, wondering it a fast death was preferable to the long and torturous life and eventual consumption by the undead awaiting all of them.

"Thinking about the past?" Isabella asked as the older woman walked slowly over to join him.

"At least in the past, we had hope," Kevin grumbled.

"We still do," Isabella countered. "If you believe."

"Don't start," Kevin objected. "If I want a sermon, I'll talk to the priest."

"Who, George?" Isabella asked. "He's not a priest, never was.

"Why does he wear the collar?" Kevin inquired.

"He killed the man who owned it," Isabella replied.

"What?" Kevin practically shouted.

"It's not as bad as it sounds," Isabella soothed. "His friend was a priest. He got bitten by a zombie, and a George was forced to kill him when he turned. He started wearing the priest outfit to honor his friend's memory."

"Oh," Kevin said in a calmer tone.

"George had never been very strong in his faith, despite his friendship with the priest," Isabella related to Kevin as she joined him in sitting on the hood of the old car. "Having to kill his friend didn't help matters much."

"I could tell something was off about him," Kevin commented. "Who is George, really?"

"To be honest, I have no idea," Isabella admitted. "What little faith he has seems to be the only thing holding him together."

"Care to clarify that statement?" Kevin asked, not liking where the conversation was going.

"After the death of his friend, George began questioning everything," Isabella explained. "He asked how a loving and just God could possibly be in charge of the world with things being as they are."

"How did you answer him?" Kevin inquired, interested in knowing the answer himself.

"To start with, I pointed out the pattern of history," Isabella stated. "There have been many times when people must have thought the world was coming to an end. When the Romans enslaved the known world and expertly butchered those who opposed them, I'm quite certain people must have thought themselves abandoned by God. Similar sentiments would be common during the raids by the barbarian hordes during the Dark Ages, or when Hitler was running his death camps and exterminating people by the millions. In each of these horrible points in history, one thing remains true."

"And, what is that?" Kevin prompted.

"Humanity survived," Isabella stated. "No matter what terrible thing befell us throughout history, we always prevailed because God brought us through it."

"Not without losses," Kevin reminded, thinking back to those killed over the years and more recently during the fall of Walton.

"We lost them, God didn't," Isabella gently corrected. "Have you read the Bible?"