❝sometimes suffering is just suffering. it doesn't make you stronger. it doesn't build character. it just hurts.❞ 𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐣𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐛𝐬.
━ in which there are no heroes or villains, just
survivors who would do anything to protect
the one...
FLY ME TO THE MOON iii. IF THE WORLD WAS ENDING ❝FOR YOU, I WOULD DO ANYTHING.❞
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THE UNEARTHLY SCREAMS ECHOING FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE CITY WAS THE ONLY THING JULIA COULD FOCUS ON. No matter how far they ran, it continued to buzz in her mind as the image of innocents being ripped to shreds flashed across her dark eyes. People had lost their minds and abandoned their morals, running aimlessly to avoid the ones who had succumbed to the unknown disease. It was no surprise their car had been plowed into by another reckless driver, looking to escape the same purgatory they were trying to. Sarah had broken her leg in the accident, making it impossible for her to walk on her own. Tommy and Joel had escaped with minor cuts while Julia was mostly unscratched, but all four of them were left unnerved as they faced what their town had deteriorated to within a few hours.
Yet, there was nothing they could do but run from the horrors they had witnessed. It was too dangerous to wander the streets, so the four had opted to go through the alleyways where a chain-link fence kept out the Infected. But eventually, the wired wall gave out due to their growing weight and the four had a group of snarling townspeople on their tail. They had kept running, making it to a restaurant Pistol Cantina where Tommy had chosen to stay behind to keep the Infected from reaching them. "Go! Get to the highway!" Tommy had screamed at them, holding the door closed with his pistol pointing at the edge where hands reached in. They did not cease their attacks as Tommy slammed the door harder, trying to keep them out of the restaurant. "Go, you guys have Sarah! I'll be okay, I can outrun 'em!"
They had run with the promise of reuniting at the highway, leaving through the restaurant's back door ━━ a place where Julia remembered eating after one of Sarah's soccer games. She had done her best to ignore the blood pooling from the kitchen, not wanting to know the fate of the owners of the establishment. The backdoor led to a small parking lot, fenced in by a waist-length brick wall. Beyond the wall, it led to a small river, and above it was the bridge that led out of the city ━━ part of the highway they needed to get to. Luckily, there was a broken patch in the wall where a motorcycle had crashed into about a few months back and it had never been fixed. They ran down the hill, Julia clutching her swollen stomach as pain shot through her legs and abdomen. Stress isn't good for the baby, her mother had told her multiple times throughout the course of her pregnancy but Julia had always thrown her mother's advice out the window. It wasn't any different this time.
With no time to catch their breath, the three were forced to run faster when they came to an overturned ambulance with its lights still filling the darkness with red and blue. A man crawled out of the open door, hissing at them as he tried to stand. He bared his bloodied teeth, still not satisfied from the EMTs he had torn limb from limb. She felt as if she couldn't breathe, feeling her legs start to numb as she kept running to keep up with Joel. Sarah kept her eyes on Julia, begging her to keep up as she clung to her father. Despite it all, Sarah was a brave girl ━━ much braver than Julia felt at that moment as she tried to ignore the vengeful screams behind her. But, the screams had been silenced by the shot of a gun.
