𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐔𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 - 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘐𝘐

14: The Beginning of the End XI

The Beginnings of the End
Part 11

As Susie had suspcted, her life was on a steady downward spiral. Since her hair-cutting rampage, the boys had only gotten more and more difficult to deal with. They argued more than she'd ever seen them before and they seemed to be making it their mission to get themselves killed. They were loud and reckless, helping Susie to see how little of their sitauation the twins actually understood. Susie had been fighting off monster after monster in the past few weeks, the things swarming to their cabin from the noise the boys made. Eventually it grew to be too much, and as always, Susie made a mistake.

Luke and Liam had been playing near a window. The thing was boarded up, Susie had double and triple checked it every day along wth the other windows, desperate to be sure that their temporary home was safe. She was absolutely certain about the structural stability of this window. Completely. There were a few monsters outside the house, something Susie remained extremly wary of. She'd become decent at dispatching the things, quickly becoming familiar with the way that they reacted to sound and learning that it was important to make your first blow against them count, they were faster than they looked and they didn't get tired; not like she did at least. If you were swinging at one of them over and over again, and not killing it, you were only buying time for more to gain on you.

This was the main reason she was leaving the ones outside alone. She was tired and she didn't dare atempt to kill them, knowing she would most likely need to retreat back inside before they were dead and that would only mean she brought more down on them.

She was sitting relatively close to her brothers. Though she was certain they were at least somewhat safe, she still worried about letting them too far from her sight. She never knew if they'd one day decide to just take off out the door and she prefferred being close enough to stop them if she needed to.

Susie had a book in her hands, not finding much else around to keep herself occupied. She knew that keeping her mind busy was important to keeping her wits about her. She didn't want to spend too much time mindlessly staring at walls, it was draining.

The book was boring, some random romance novel that Susie didn't much care for. It was a story that felt silly now, looking at the world around. How could someone care about finding love when there were cannibalistic monsters stalking their every waking moment, and haunting their dreams every time they managed to doze off.

Susie was getting sick of reading the book, but she couldn't bring herself to stop. It wasn't the kind of book she'd have normally been found reading. She liked to read of course, she'd been a gifted kid slowly starting to burn out long before the end of the world. She was no stranger to a book addiction.

She'd read all the normal gifted kid varieties; Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Alex Rider, Magyk, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. She had always dreamed of being on an adventure. Off in the world, fending for herself, living her life with danger and intrigue around every corner.

But now that she was here, the adventure had lost all appeal.

The romance novel wasn't like the things her mother had read either. She wasn't a sappy kind of reader. She preferred psychological thrillers and bad crime novels- James Patterson kinds of crime novels. Produced so rapidly that they were lacking in value or thought provocation.

But sitting here, reading this romance novel, she couldn't help but be reminded of her mother. Of the way she'd point out the romance books to her daughter while they were at the library or the bookstore, a joking smile on her face.

'Don't you wanna give this book a shot?'

'Ew, momma! That's a kissin' book!'

The memory made Susie smile, but it also brought on a crushing heartache.

Her momma was gone.

And it was all her fault.

Susie sighed, finally closing the book and taking stock of her surroundings. She had a knife sitting beside her, her brothers playing in front of her, and windows boarded up and covered.

Sad old house, sad old world.

"Stay put, guys, I'm gonna take a sweep, okay? Need to check up on the house, make sure we're safe."

Both boys nodded in response, looking a little nervous that Susie was leaving.

"I'll be quick, swear," Susie promised, grabbing her knife and leaving the crappy romance book behind on her uncomfortable chair.

She made quick work of unbarring the front door of the cabin and making her way out. She made sure to secure it behind her, but still leave herself the ability to get back in. It took some grimacing effort, but Susie finally gave in and took off towards the last known location of the monsters pinning her and her brothers inside the house.

She whistled shrilly, but quietly, making sure that she wasn't loud enough to draw in any more monsters that were already present. A few came stumbling around the corner of the house, Susie waited and watched with baited breath, keeping herself steady and waiting patiently for the monsters to get close. Once she deemed her wait to have been sufficient, she raised her knife and approached the first one. She didn't waste any time taking it out, pulling her knife back out of it's head and turning to the next one in her path. She continued on with this pattern, easily dispatching 6 monsters practically within the same breath.

When Susie was finally able to put her knife back down to her side she began to continue around the building, hoping to find any remaining monsters and make doubly sure that they would be able to last a few more days without her having to go out and do this again.

She paced slow and easy, taking her time to look around carefully, listening closely to every small brush of the wind in the trees, not wanting anything to be able to sneak up on her.

She was fully concentrated on her search.

That was, until a piercing scram rang out, throwing a wrench in her ability to stay focused.