We Are The Survivors Read online

  I stand up and walk inside. He lies down on the bed. I stand by the bed. He pats the empty side to the left of him. I lay next to him with my back against the queen-sized bed’s headboard. He looks at the ceiling.

  I look around the room. The walls are a navy-blue color. The bedspread is a lighter shade of blue and it is pulled down at the foot of the bed. There are posters hung on the walls of different bands, some I haven’t even heard of. It’s a teenage boy’s room most likely. I wonder what happened to him and his family.

  “I lost my family and it hurts like hell, I can’t lose you too. Please, be my girlfriend. I wanted to be alone to grieve but it’s not good to grieve by yourself, you need support. I keep thinking about her leaving to get help. She told me to stay inside. It’s my fault. I ran, freaked out when she didn’t come back. Twenty minutes, she was gone for twenty minutes. I didn’t wait.” He has tears in his eyes. “I can’t sleep. I keep seeing myself run from the house. How could I forgive myself for that?”

  “None of us can sleep. I can’t. I’m afraid I’m going to see it happen again.” I say.

  “I am too.” Xavier says.

  “Let’s talk more about ourselves. Normal things. What’s your favorite band?”

  He says a band name I’ve never heard of. I ask him what type of music they sing. He says it’s a heavy metal band. I tell him I only like country and alternative music

  He seems happier now. He comes to sit next to me on the bed. We are both sitting there when Gavin comes in.

  “Hey, looks like you guys are doing okay,” he says.

  “Yeah. We’re okay,” I say.

  “Good.” He pushes the door open all the way. “Keep this open.” He walks away.

  We sit down and eat breakfast. The others have begun eating. I’m sure we are going to have the same repetitive day we’ve been having. Eating breakfast, doing nothing, eating lunch, doing nothing, eating dinner, going to sleep. I sit by Xavier at the table. He holds my hand under the table.

  We both made mistakes. It needs to be put past us. We can’t be mad anymore. I don’t want to think about this. There’s no anger between us. I can understand him wanting to be alone. He forgave me for keeping his mother’s death from him. It must have taken a lot. Maybe that shows he does care about me.

  A hear a knock on the door. Dave gets up and walks up to the door. He looks through the peephole.

  “I don’t see anyone.” He opens the door.

  I turn around in my seat. Two kids in dirty clothes are standing there. The kid on the left is a nine-year-old boy. His brown hair is dirty and disheveled. There is a girl with him that looks about six-years-old. She has short blonde hair that is cut to the length of her chin.

  The little boy looks at Dave. “Hi, can we stay here, sir?”

  “Yeah. You can come in.”

  They both walk inside. The little boy has a back-pack on his shoulders. Dave closes the door. He leans the back-pack against the door. The little girl goes up to the breakfast bar counter that separates the kitchen from the living room. She stands on tippy-toes to peek over the counter. Sarah puts two plates of short stack pancakes covered in syrup on the counter. She places forks by the dishes.

  “Eat them I have plenty. Your friend can have a plate too,” Sarah says turning back to the pancakes in the pan.

  “He’s my brother,” the girl says.

  Sarah nods. The girl picks up a pancake with the fork. She cuts off a piece and eats it. She begins to shovel food in her mouth. She’s done way before me. Sarah turns back to the girl with a surprised look. The girl smiles wide with pancakes stuck between her teeth.

  I like the idea of having kids with us. It will brighten up things. I guess their parents are gone like mine. Today won’t be as boring as I thought it would be.

  “What’s your name?” Sarah asks with a friendly smile.

  “Adelynn. You can call me Addy for short. My brother is Avian.”

  Sarah nods. “Where are your parents?”

  Adelynn’s smile fades. “At home.”

  “Why are you here then?” Sarah frowns trying to understand.

  Avian sits on the couch staring at the wall.

  “We ran away. Our parents hit us, all the time. That’s why we came here.” Adelynn turns and lifts her shirt up exposing her back. “See they do this all the time.”

  Her back is covered in purplish-blue bruises from top to bottom. We can’t send them back there. What if their parents come back for them though? Adelynn puts her shirt down. She turns around.

  Dave stands up. “You’re not going back. You can stay here.” He looks at the boy. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Just scared.” He doesn’t make eye contact.

  “You don’t have to be. It’s safe here.” Dave sits in his seat.

  Addy and Avian eat about six pancakes each. The day goes by fast. Oakland tells us that he is going to check the rest of the houses for supplies, he will bring back weapons and anything entertaining. Alex is sits on the couch after he leaves. I sit next to him.

  “A chopstick huh?” I ask.

  “What?” He looks at me confused. “Oh, oh. Yeah, I was eating by myself. One of the waiters came out of the kitchen growling at me. He tried to eat me. I grabbed the first thing I could use. I got the hell out of there afterwards, just kept walking until I found your place.”

  “You think if we go out there we will find people alive?” I ask.

  “You can’t say unless you do go out there. We will have to soon. The food won’t last forever. By the way that boy you’ve been hanging out, with is he your boyfriend?”

  “Yeah, he understood what I told him.”

  “Good. I told you he wasn’t mad at you. Does Gavin know about it?” He leans in closer.

  I shake my head. “No. I’m afraid he is going to tell me I can’t date.”

  “I can go ask for you if you want. I’m a people person,” he smiles.

  I shrug thinking it over. “It’s too much to ask really. You don’t even know me,” I say.

  “No problem really. In the meantime, I’m going to find other clothes. I wasn’t okay with the idea of wearing someone else’s clothes but mine are gross.” He stands up.

  “Wait.” I tug on his sleeve.

  “You want me to ask?” He smirks raising his eyebrow in question.

  “Maybe. I don’t know. Can you?”

  He walks into the hall. He comes back minutes later. He sits back on the couch.

  “He said he wants to talk to you both before he makes a decision.” He shrugs.

  “Fair enough.”

  We talk for a little while. Alex is a nice enough person. I ask him if he wants to find his family. He tells me that he doesn’t really have a family. I think how strange it is that almost all of us have family members that died or that no one speaks too. But then again a ton of people are dying so it makes sense that a lot of parents are dead. I bet a ton of kids are too.

  I go outside when it gets dark. I stand by the gate. I just want to be outside alone. The stars are twinkling in the sky. They are beautiful. The wind picks up a bit rustling the leaves in the trees surrounding the community. It’s like how my life used to be, without seeing the dead people. I can stare at the trees surrounding this place and pretend that I’m in my backyard. I can pretend Mom is inside cooking dinner. I close my eyes trying to tell myself this is a dream. That this isn’t real. I can open my eyes and be in my room. Oakland’s voice makes me open my eyes, realizing this cruel world is real.

  “What are you doing?” he asks.

  “I needed air.”

  He goes inside the house. I wander around the community a little. The houses were abandoned except for Sarah’s house. Where did the residents go? I walk in Sarah’s house searching for clues. There is a blood trail from the bedroom door to the front door. Oakland must have gotten rid of the body. I go into the bedroom.

  It doesn’t make sense why Sarah’s mom was the only person here aside from Oakland. />
  There has to be a clue to why Sarah’s mom is the only one here. It’s worth checking out. I start with the room she was found in first. There is a plate with nothing but crumbs of food on the nightstand. It smells like death in here. I open the drawer, while digging through it. I find a diary. I open it up. I hold the book up to the window trying to read with the light from the light posts outside. I read a few diary entries.

  1/01/2015

  My doctors think writing would be good for my therapy. I want to write about the things I feel. My whole life all I ever did was get drunk. When I got pregnant with Sarah my sister made sure I stayed sober. I had Sarah and I started drinking as soon as I was out of the hospital. I used to pass out leaving Sarah in her crib screaming. I don’t know if I can forgive myself for that. It horrifies me now. I hope Sarah knows I’m sorry. She’s living with my sister now. She’s probably having a good time in Pahrump. I know she’s working with the animals on the farm. She loved doing that stuff...

  I skip that and go to the most recent at the back of the book.

  1/01/2016

  I’m going to have a really good day today. Sarah is visiting. I haven’t seen her since she was two years old, when social services took her away. She agreed to meet me at the house. We’re going to go shopping and do what other mothers and daughters do. I wasn’t there for her. I missed so much of her life. Fifteen years of me getting drunk, it wasn’t worth it. My life went wrong because of me. Sarah’s father left us when he found out I was pregnant. He was a lowlife. I drank because of him. I lost my daughter because of him. It was really stupid. Since I’ve been sober for a year now I can finally think straight. I want to go back to college and become a writer. Sarah is the one I should keep my focus on though. She calls me a lot. She is such a bright person. A straight A student, she says she wants to be a kindergarten teacher or work in a daycare. I’m so proud of her. This entry is shorter than the others but I can’t wait for her to get here. I don’t know how to describe it.

  I go to the flip to the next page. It paints a disturbing picture.

  1/01/2016

  The military showed up an hour ago. They are demanding everyone to go with them because there is an infected person who they think infected everyone else with some disease. I’m not leaving. I have to wait for Sarah. I have to. I hear screaming from outside. I locked the doors and my bedroom door. I’m hiding under the bed now. The military is demanding that people go with them. I hear screaming. They’re shooting people, I hear the sound of silencers rapidly firing. They shot them all. I have a cold, I’m sick too. They can’t get away with this. This is wrong. I would have recorded this with my phone if I wasn’t scared to come out. If anybody finds this, I will probably be dead. Sarah if you find this I want you to know I love you. I believe in you. With your kindness and intelligence, you will go far. I love you. Always do what is right. I believe one day you will be a part of something great and do something you never thought you could. I always loved you.

  A tear falls on the page. Her goodbye written in pen while she hid under her bed. How can this get any worse? The military new about the disease? They tried to stop it from spreading by killing people. Patient zero could have been here. The military knew what it was that caused this.

  I close the book. I can’t decide whether to give it to Sarah or not. Her mom wrote a goodbye to her. She needs this book. She can get closure. It’s better to give the book to her. I don’t want more people getting mad at me for keeping secrets. I take the book in my right hand.

  I get out of the house. The military must have taken the bodies of the residents somewhere. I need to look for them. I walk down to the end of the row of houses when I see several blood trails leading outside of the back gate. I look outside. There is a pile of bodies outside, they were all shot in the head. I thought the smell was coming from Sarah’s house. I run in the main house we are all living in. Sarah is cooking dinner. I walk up to her.

  She turns to me. “What?” She stops cooking.

  I hug her. “I found this it was your mom’s. Just read it. Thank you for helping us.”

  “No problem. I want to help.”

  I let go of her. “You lived in Pahrump. I read it in your mom’s diary. What happened there?”

  “Same situation. People ate people. My aunt told me to leave. I drove until my gas tank was empty. I went on foot from then on.”

  “I think we should go out there, we have to.”

  Dave comes out of the hallway. He joins in on the conversation.

  “We need to go out there. I’m done being scared. We have all these houses. We can get more generators and gas. We can bring people in distress back here,” He says it like he’s been planning this.

  “That’s a good plan. We have to be selective though with the people we help. You think the town might be safer since it’s a small town?” I ask.

  Sarah shrugs. “Might be. We don’t even know for sure if the town is filled with zombies.”

  “Most likely it is.” I sit on the couch. “Dave, who’s going with you?”

  “Nya, Oakland maybe. While I’m there I need, another person checking Las Vegas stores. This food isn’t going to last with these mouths to feed. It will go quicker with those kids here; they eat like I’ve never seen before.” He gets a water bottle from the fridge. “We need water, gas for the generator, clothes, food if you want fresh meals, not REMs. The list is going to be long.”

  Sarah puts her finger on her chin in thought not realizing she’s doing it. “It’s an hour drive. I would leave tomorrow. It’s too dark now,” she says.

  Dave takes a seat at the table. Gavin walks out of the hallway. He is wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans two sizes too big. He leans against the wall.

  “When you have time I want to talk to you and Xavier. Alex told me.” He smiles.

  “What’s the smile for?” I ask.

  “You have a boyfriend, you have a boyfriend, you have a boyfriend,” he says like a child teasing an older kid.

  “Quiet. We want two small groups going to stores in Las Vegas and Pahrump. We need a lot of stuff. We are going to try to find people who need help.”

  “What’s the we? You are not thinking about going out there? It’s dangerous.”

  “Fine.” I sigh.

  He looks at Dave “Who are you going with?”

  “Nya, Oakland maybe. That’s it.”

  “Do this, Alex and Nya go to a store here. You can go by yourself or with Oakland to Pahrump.”

  Xavier walks out of the hall. He is wearing a grey T-shirt with blue plaid pajama pants. “Can I go with you and Oakland?”

  “It’s okay with me,” Dave says.

  I walk over to him. “Are you sure? It could be dangerous.”

  “I will be fine.” He puts his hands on my shoulders reassuringly. “I want to go. I haven’t been outside for a while this’ll be good for me.”

  He lets go of my shoulders. I sit on the arm of the couch.

  I want to go with one of the groups. My cousin won’t let me. I want to see what the world is like. I want to help. I would like to go with Nya and Alex. I also want to pick my own clothes. “How are you going to get the right size in clothes?” I ask.

  “I’ll ask everyone to write their sizes on a paper for me. I take what I can get. It’s not safe for all of us to go out there. Nya will have to walk with Alex to the store and back. It won’t be that long. We leave in the morning.”

  Dinner is served after Dave says that. Sarah made meatloaf. She tells me that the she made it from her mom’s recipe. I really like it. The kids don’t taste their food; they swallow it in seconds. As soon as they take the last bite they are asking for more. The food is going to be gone real soon.

  Sleeping on the couch is pretty uncomfortable tonight. Maybe I’m being a brat. The couch is fine. I’m just not used to it. The lights are off putting me in total darkness. I was never afraid of the dark before all this.

  My friend Jessie used to tease me whe
n we were in kindergarten. She would ask ‘Are you afraid of the dark?’ I would tell her ‘No, I’m not afraid of the dark, I’m afraid of the monsters in the dark.’ She would laugh at that then tease me about being afraid of the monsters.

  I wonder where the hell she is? Where would she have gone?

  I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m afraid of the zombies in the dark now. I get up every five minutes looking out the window by the door. I make sure the doors are locked. I lie awake in someone else’s house, dressed in their pajamas. I can’t sleep. I keep staring at the ceiling. Nya turns and tosses when I get up.

  “Go to bed.” She growls and turns so her back is facing me.

  Oakland brought back some books from the houses but I don’t want to read. There’s nothing to do. I look in the fridge. There’s barely any food in there. What will keep me awake? Coffee. I look in the pantries, no coffee. I sit on the couch. I’ll stay awake. I want to see the sunrise. My eyes close. I open them. I can’t have a dream about Mom. No sleep in a few days is exhausting. I keep closing my eyes, opening them. This is going to be a long night.

  I want to go with Nya tomorrow. I have to see for myself what the world is, I am going stir crazy here.

  The morning comes. I watch the sunrise. The orange light shines through the window. Orange mixes with blue on the horizon.

  Alex gets up first. He grabs a water from the fridge.

  “Good morning, me and Nya are going to head out.”

  I walk in the hallway. I open one of the doors. It’s the master bedroom, Sarah’s room. The kids are sleeping in the same bed as her. There are four bedrooms in the house. Dave and Oakland sleep in one room leaving Gavin, Alex, and Xavier in another room. Nya sleeps on the couch and so do I. The weather is extremely cold so we sleep here for the heat. It works okay now but I would like more of the houses to have generators. It gets cramped in here with everybody.

  I go in the closet. I find a sweater that fits and jeans that are a little too big for me but would work with a belt. I put a black belt I find in a drawer through the belt loops. I make sure it’s tight enough. I walk in the kitchen. Nya is up talking to Alex. I walk up to them. “I’m ready.”