The End

by Herman Grobler

  You're next! As he looks up at Abby, there is nothing left for you, for none of us, it’s either death or this I can feel it under my skin it feels wonderful, I can’t feel the pain anymore this is life now, let me show you.

  From what he is saying he clearly went deranged, she knows her mother is gone she witnessed a split in her skull and blood everywhere in a second, the only room she can possible hide is in her sisters room, but she too might be like this now. She holds on that thought and runs to her room while her father still mumble senseless words, she locks it and moves everything she can in front of the door, turning around to look at her sister she looks terrible she is sweaty and bloody but still knows what’s right, it won’t be long before she too loose control. Abby runs over to the table and dig in the drawers and lucky for her she finds the small steak knife she saw her sister play with a few days ago.

  Loud banging on the door continuously, it’s just as she feared that lock will never last, she stands in the corner right next to the door where she will try and stab him as soon as he busts the door open, the fear and the rush of adrenalin was the most intense feeling she had ever had.

  There is a horrible moan in the room, her body becomes cold, more fear strikes her innocent heart as she stares at her sister jumping on her bed and running around like a mad thing. She stands very still and hopes she doesn’t notice her, at least, not for the moment; she hits the mirror continuously until it eventually breaks. Big pieces are shattered on to the floor, she continue to hit it at the point where she grabs pieces and tries to chew it, blood runs faster with every bite.

  It’s too much for her to witness she closes her eyes and tries to block out the sound she thinks to herself why she will be doing this, why try and eat glass and then it Abby like lightning, it’s the movements, “I was standing still and the only thing she saw was her own reflection, that’s it, it must be, why else would she do this” While Abby thought to herself and finally figured it out. The door slams open her father already aiming she wait for that moment, she hears the gunshot and that was it, she launches her body out of the corner and stabs him in the chest three times with her eyes closed, it was the worse feeling ever.

  She opens her eyes with him simply smiling at her, he grabs hold on her wrist and pushes her arm back pulling the knife out as well, she starts to cry and beg she even tried to give him reason for her to live. She tells him that she too is already bitten, she shows him the wound, he takes his other hand whipping the blood from his mouth and onto her arm all across the wound, the blood has a foul smell he lets go of her and put his revolver back into its holster.

  He turns slightly away from her and not a second too late she grabs the revolver and at the same time she uses the knife to cut deep into the internal jugular, he grabs his neck and pushes his hand against the wound as hard as he can, it’s inevitable, the blood just keeps running. He starts walking over to her but he took only two steps, she points the gun to his head and steps back, he knows she won’t miss if she pulls the trigger, he steps back and lets go of the wound pointing his finger at her, you will pay for this he said furiously with blood gushing out of his wound with every heartbeat, he still wants to kill her and play with her heart but before he could say another word, he fell to his knees then he fell forward.

  Its blood everywhere, she couldn’t believe what just happened, everyone she loved all swept away right in front of her. She looks at her sister dead on the floor with broken glass in her mouth, cuts so deep in her mouth it will give anyone shivers, my dad deserved this, but everyone else didn’t not my brother not my mother or my sister, not even myself, she puts the gun to her head knowing for fact she doesn't want to be like that, like those things, not a second past after that thought.

  Danny hears another gunshot in the distance it’s been 6 shots now, it must be someone trying to fend off against those creatures, he wish he could go and look for these people but the risk is high, he might not even make it that far the people he try and save can be infected without them knowing yet. If he did wander off the rest is also endangered because they will be looking for me, the best is to just stay calm and it will be over soon if those people die or not.

  I am sure an hour or two passed by now it should be early morning by now it’s extremely hard to stay awake, Danny tried hard to stay awake in hopes those people might come, little did he know they were all dead.

  Everyone is up and early the sun isn’t even up yet, it’s just enough light to see, it’s a must the faster they can find a new boat the faster they can load their things over and get back on the move. Emma really wants to get some food ready but William insists they go now and once they arrive at Fort Jefferson they can do whatever they want. Emma could tell that his frustrated, maybe because it's taking much longer than he expected, those things are getting softer by the minute it must be something to do with the light. Emma still can’t pinpoint the exact reason why they go silent and gentle during the day, after multiple reasons crossed her mind.

  They are more aggressive during the night, maybe they can see during the night, maybe they don’t like the cold, it can also be that they do like the cold, I can’t say and I don’t want to find out either as long as my daughter stay safe then everything is ok for me.

  Danny pretends that everything will be fine but deep inside his struggling, he tries to avoid showing any signs, he doesn’t want anyone to worry about him and secondly he don’t want to scare anyone even if it’s just a common tummy bug a few moments later he starts to vomit but nothing out of the ordinary. No one have seen the side effects of this virus and all of them believed that his just getting sick Emma insisted on making some time to find much-needed medicine for cases like this at the moment she has some for flu and nausea it's not the best or any of the strong stuff but it will help.

  Even if William wants to continue he also feel like giving up, nothing is going as planned, Danny is sick and the others don’t seem to be up for the task either, everyone is happy with the time that was taken to sit down and treat Danny. William only wished they could see how important this is and how fantastic this might be, in his eyes they are failing to see this, unknowing that they know this just as much as he does.

  After some looking they finally see a nice boat that can carry them and all their things with ease, it also looks pretty damn fast too, William knowing the only problem is, they will either go in the water to avoid those things or trespass and try and kill the four that is roaming by the dock slowly up and down and in circles there could be more in this small house or maybe even the owners.

  It might be a better plan to check out the house first, it won’t even help to give the options to them it’s been made clear, they won’t enter the water; William can only wish that things will get easier for him and for them.

  After some thinking everyone agreed on a plan though Danny is in no position to fight anything he is too weak in his current position, Susan and Sally will stay with him. William and Emma will search the house and then try and take care of the four blocking their way, with any luck they might even find something better to use.

  William insist that he enters first, Emma don’t have time for show off and doesn’t even pay attention to what he was saying, she opens the door before William can even reach out for it. She enters and walks swiftly, William shocked and surprised by her bravery, this is exactly the attitude that can get yourself killed, he keeps it to himself, he walks in slowly to the kitchen where Emma stands sniffing and crying softly as he approaches he sees a dead woman on the floor. It's clear she was sleeping here covered in her blanket her head still on her pillow she also wasn’t alone there is another set of pillows next to her, she wasn’t infected or killed, she was murdered.

  It’s not safe to assume this person left, we must be on our guard he has a gun so be on the lookout William whispered to Emma, he grabs her by the arm and pulls her away from the body gently and slowly. They proceed to go down the hallway where the rooms are, one door is broken o
pen, it’s a rush going closer they can see someone’s feet, as soon as William got a glimpse of what’s in the room he turns back in a flash telling Emma in a serious voice to stay put. She doesn’t want to see what happened here, Emma holds her mouth tightly as she only feels like crying she sits down to just take a moment to get her head straight after she see the bodies over William’s shoulders.

  William enters the room he has never seen anything so gruesome, blood everywhere, the body closest to the door must be the husband of the one in the kitchen maybe even brother, in the middle where the shattered dresser mirror is, there is a little girl maybe around 13 years of age give or take, her teeth are badly chipped, her lips, gums and palate are deeply cut open, deep into her throat with glass shards sticking out, here and there. William doesn't know what to make of this she looks sick but not like the things outside neither does the man over there, he doesn’t look like he was infected either.

  At the far side of the room in front of the window there is one more body, William can see the gun in her hand, and she must have shot the man over here but not the girl as she was facing the door. William approaches the body it’s a teenager whatever happened here is something he can’t imagine there is too much confusion and even if it was clear, it’s still something William doesn’t want to think about.

  This girl shot herself there is no doubt about it or any other explanation saying otherwise, approaching the cold body he picks up the gun and realize there is no bullets left, there could be more we should search all the rooms fast and then go check on Danny and the others outside. Emma helped him search the other rooms, they grabbed food and anything useful and put it in the kitchen they will move them as soon as they were done outside with those things blocking our way, also look out for bullets I found a gun, but we won’t be using it unless it’s an emergency they should look like this.

  Emma and William start looking through the rooms and only found 5 extra bullets not much. Emma also grabbed a few jackets from the closest especially for Danny and William, in the bathroom they found some painkillers it won’t help for serious injuries but it will do fine treating basic pains. The kitchen had some can food that can be used, they also had a lot of baking materials flour, yeast, and coloring’s sadly no eggs.

  They found a lot, William stops Emma before she goes outside, he found strong industrial tape, and if they break off the mop and the broom then they can use the stick with knives to get some distance between them and the infected. It will be much safer this way and for short range we can always carry another knife, not the best of weapons, however this will do perfect fighting off these things or, at least, keep them at a distance.

  It was fast and easy to put this type of weapon together, they are ready in just a few minutes, William goes out first and attacks the one closest to him, stabbing this infected person in the chest and holding on to the stick as tightly as possible, with every bit of struggle the knife cuts deeper and deeper, still it doesn’t die, William realize this is going to be a problem for them, Emma goes straight for the head but the knife just slips and slides over the skull leaving only deep cuts.

  Allot more force is needed to push that into someone’s brain, Emma studied in medicine in hopes she can be a doctor one day for her to weakest is the eyes if she can jab him there it will surely pierce the brain, with any luck it will die much faster, she tries this and the knife pushes through like it was butter, it screams horribly and aggressively. She can feel his getting weaker and weaker soon it stopped moving she pulls the knife out and moves to the next one, repeating her strategy, it works like a charm this one died even faster thick blood and pus raise to the surface it stinks beyond imagination.

  William tries the same but struggles to get it out, Emma rushes over putting it down in seconds, with only one left, she helps William get his weapon out and ready. They lure in the last infected person as it approaches closer and closer they stab him in the gut pinning the other ends of the stick into the ground finishing him off with a final blow.

  These creatures are pretty dumb they just want to reach their victim in the fastest way possible by going straight forward; this gives William a fantastic idea for some basic defense for when they do settle down. Emma rushes to her daughter and mother; they are still doing fine however Danny looks horrible he needs stronger narcotics. William loads their new scavenged goods onto the boat, this one is much more convenient compared to the boat they had.

  Arriving at the previous boat, only to notice it is covered in water with some toys floating around, William wants to take what he can but Emma insists that they just leave it, they did find some food the medicine they had will be of no use now that the boat is flooded.

  Now there is nothing soft to sleep on, there is nothing warm to sleep under either, I should have stayed at home Emma’s mother complains, it's actually very annoying to William and he bet it annoying to Emma as well, no matter what you tell Susan once something doesn’t go her way she goes ballistic and you will never hear the end about it.

  With a faster boat that has much more space, the small group set out to go to their safe haven, with limited supplies in a new dangerous world like this every bit of teamwork will count, team effort will be needed for the survival of this group William knows this much. Danny looks horrible and a plan to set out to look for stronger narcotics is a must, the hard work that lies ahead is too much for just one man, even if his condition saddens him, William knows he needs to remain calm and strong, strong for the others, good leadership must be shown or everything will get out of hand.

  The sights of the calm ocean are beautiful such a mysterious place to be, in the deepest side of the blue sea, you just want to go for a swim when staring into the waters, even if it’s dangerous might even be more dangerous now than ever before, still the feeling will always stay the same.

  “Corn Beef out of the can tastes so nice” said Emma with excitement, she always fried it a little in the pan before serving, it has so much more taste this way, enjoying the small amount of food, they are still hungry yet they all know not to be greedy with it, the food they have must last until they have found more and when that is, no one knows.

  It’s almost getting dark the sun is about to start going down, in the far distance they can see the massive Fort its truly amazing and even more the closer they got, on arrival the beaches is spotless its very clean the water very clear, just walking around on the sand was a good relief from all the sitting, even Danny looks much better he too was roaming around for a little bit. The joy was short-lived when William suggested that they stay and sleep on the boat for one more night, it’s really for the best, it must be kept in mind that many tourists come here and there can still be some minor dangers lurking around.

  They didn’t like this idea, but it made enough sense to stay one more night close to the boat, it’s going to be a very cold night and the chances of actually getting some sleep will be rare, only a few jackets Emma grabbed in that house will generate the most heat and this will mostly be given to her daughter, mother and Danny though William said he will prepare a campfire with whatever sticks and branches he can find close by.

  The night passed by peacefully the camp fire was big enough to generate enough heat, I think anyone could agree that this was some of the best sleep they have had in a long time of course not for my mother. Emma still smiles she is fully rested its early morning and there is still some branches and wood left for a small fire they can have some coffee or tea her smile drops as she remembers that was all lost with the flooded boat, she feels the need to do something anything will do to make time go by slightly faster.

  She decide to tend to the weapons the industrial tape did loosen a lot since their last encounter, she will pull it apart and then put it back together with new tape, while everyone is out cold sleeping, at least there will be something to do, a few minutes later Danny joined her, he seems much better, he asked if there isn’t something to eat it feels like his starving, Emma wants to say no
in the kindest of ways but since he had such a rough journey until now it will be a very good thing if he eats properly. Emma had no choice but to open another can of food, this time, meatballs and spaghetti it’s not a proper meal, but it will help with his condition he needs all the energy he can get.

  Here you go, you can heat it up if you want, Danny is skeptical, but she insist no one will know one can is missing unaware that William counted them before bed. Danny eats like a pig it’s disgusting for Emma he didn’t even warm it up, Danny starts the fire and walks to his bag to get coffee, he explains to Emma that he wouldn’t be able to survive the day without his cup of coffee in the mornings so he just had to grab this when he was hiding from those things.

  This cheered Emma up instantly, after all, she is a caffeine junkie and it’s been hard on her during this trip, but now it’s, even more worth it even if its bitter and without sugar, Danny grabs one of the weapons and start taking it apart helping Emma while they enjoy their coffee.

  Danny don’t slip anything personal, however Emma did mention that she wanted to be a doctor and this could have been very soon but then all this happened and before anyone knew it all fell apart. Danny feels happier and lighter knowing there is, at least, someone with knowledge over these type of things, she can help a lot when the time comes when someone get sick or injured with the right medication and tools she will be able to do wonders among the group. Danny still didn’t mention how his feeling exactly but Emma is convinced it was just a bad tummy bug it might just be a worse case of stomach flu.