The Cure Within

John Black

The sudden sound attracted one of the nearby muertos and it grabbed Abigail. Abby was quick to scream and try to jerk away. She got away enough so that when the muerto bit down, it only got her arm and not the side of her neck. Abby still would have been torn to shreds if it weren't for John running up and killing the muerto. John had been in his house when things started to get bad and once he realized it was really bad he started packing his bags. He had food both canned and MRE’s. He had a plentiful supply of weapons and ammo packed too. He was going to get packed up and then head across the street to his best friend's house. He knew that they had been at work and their kids were home alone with their cousin. He wanted to get to the kids and keep them safe. His plan was to go straight over there, grab them and leave until he heard screaming from inside the house. He couldn't bring himself to go inside. He couldn't bring himself to go look at the mess of bodies of the children he had watched grow up. So he turned around and went back to his house and loaded up his truck. He was in his garage getting ready to leave when he heard a loud knock at his front door. As far as he had seen these things didn't have the brains to knock so he figured it had to be a person. He got out of his truck and went out his shop door instead of his front door just in case. Then he heard another scream and took off in a sprint around his house to see Abigail Avenue being bitten by one of the things and the other two Avenue children standing there. He quickly killed the thing and saved Abby. “Hey come on Abby I got you.Sam grab Levi and follow me I'm gonna get us out of here.” Sam did just what she was told without question. Once they got into the garage John sat Abby down on his work table and picked Levi up and sat him next to her. He ran inside and grabbed a bunch of medicine and medical supplies that he hadn't thought to grab. He quickly cleaned both children's wounds and wrapped them up so that they would stay clean. “Where are we gonna go?” John had almost forgotten Samantha was there; she had been so quiet while he was cleaning the other children's bites. She was usually really talkative and the fact that she had stayed quiet for so long worried him a bit. “We are gonna go to Donnie's. You remember him? You played baseball with his son when you were younger. I think your dad still hangs around him sometimes, just not as much as he used to, right?” “We’re gonna go see Tommy?” Levi was about as good of friends with Donald Rackle's son, Tomas, as Samantha was the only thing stopping them from being really close was the age difference. “Umm. Yeah, we’ll see Tom. And yeah, my dad used to still hang out with Donnie. But what if they're gone? What if they didn't make it? What if the muertos got them?” Samantha was on the verge of tears now. She had been doing really good at keeping them at bay to keep her emotions to the side so she could focus on getting her siblings somewhere safe but now that they were safe all those emotions started to show themselves and she wasn't sure she could handle it. She wasn't sure she could handle it if they got there and her friends really were dead. She wanted to go find out, but at the same time she didn't because if they were dead, going to find them would prove it. But if they didn't go, then they could just always be alive in her head, at least. Samantha was starting to cry at all these thoughts and John questioned why she was calling the things muertos, but figured they didn't have time for that right now and knew they didn't really have time for one of Sam's panic attacks, either. They had to get out of there and if the girl let everything get to her now, they would only waste more time. So he knelt to her level. “Sam, listen to me. They are ok. They are in the country, it's not very populated there. They have fields and cows and things we could use to survive. They are alive. We are going to go find them and we will survive. I promise.” “Jane promised too- and she -she's gone now- and so are my mom and dad- what if-what if-” John cut Sam off. “We don't have time for what ifs Sam we have to go. I'm gonna keep my promise and I'm not going anywhere, ok? We have to leave. We don't have time for this Sam.” “O-ok, sorry”. Sam really felt bad. She didn't want to mess anything up or put them in danger, but it was just a lot for the girl to deal with, and she was doing her best. John piled the three children into his truck, and they were on their way. It was a decent drive, taking about forty-five minutes to get there. Along the way, the children had all fallen asleep because of the hardships they had faced in the past couple of hours, but Sam only stayed asleep for a little while before a nightmare of Jane's death woke her along with seeing her parents as muertos. She cried and John did his best to calm her down, but everything finally caught up to her. Everything finally became real to her and she couldn't stop crying. She cried so much she felt like she couldn't breathe and that led to her believing she couldn't breathe, so John had to park the truck and get out to calm her down before the girl passed out from hyperventilating. After her breakdown, the little girl fell back asleep and slept till they got to their destination. John was worried out of his mind. He now had three children he was responsible for, and he had no idea what he was doing. He wasn't a parent. He had never really wanted to be one and now that he has to take care of these three; he had to figure this parenting thing out and quickly. At least knew all the medical stuff about the children. That was a plus. Sam was mildly claustrophobic and had panic attacks sometimes. Abby had a messed up ankle from rolling it too many times and Levi also had panic attacks sometimes. He had learned all of this from being around them their whole lives. But that didn't mean he knew how to handle it. If their dad had been here, Sam wouldn't have had a panic attack. He would have been able to calm the girl down before she could get the chance to freak herself out. John couldn't do that. He didn't know how. However, he made a promise earlier that day that he was always going to be there, so he would figure all of this out and keep these kids alive and well, no matter what.