Daisies for the Dying (boyxboy)

Chapter 1: A Small Encounter

Three months after all hell broke loose. I'm honestly surprised I'm still alive.

Although it's only been three months, it felt like years. Some buildings are now even covered with vines and moss, cars all over the streets and roads, some smelling like burned rubber and burned skin, and there was this pungent rotting smell in the air, like rotten meat. I don't mind it anymore though, after months of breathing this vile air, you'd learn to get used to it. But the worst of all was the silence, eerie, and deafening silence.

After walking for almost four hours, Jess and I decided to take a rest inside a diner called "Marty from the Block".

The diner looked like the typical 1980's style family business, considering a number of family photos, a large picture of Marty, a pudgy man with a sausage for a mustache and receding hairline- typical diner owner. Surprisingly, there was an actual picture of Marty standing beside Jennifer Lopez.

We scanned the vicinity of the diner to see if there were any zombies and if there are any edible food left. Most of the food by then had been rotting or scavenged by other survivors, but considering our luck today, there were some canned beans and a couple of canned soup.

Jess threw me a can of beans and I proceeded to open it using my Swiss knife. If you told me three months ago that I would be walking in a diner to eat a can of beans amidst an apocalypse, I would laugh at you and then never talk to you ever again. I would never eat beans.

"Connie, it's almost dark. I think we should stay here for the night." I nodded. Jess looked at me worryingly, trying to read my expression. I just sighed and walked out the door.

It was getting fairly dark and starting to get chilly. Goosebumps start to form on my arms as a draft passed by, whispering their tune in the empty air. The smell they carried burning my throat as I breathe it in but not flinching anymore like I did before.

I looked at the road where we came from. Letting it sink in that we're miles away from home.

We live in a fairly big city so it doesn't surprise me that we haven't been back to our house since we first left. It's not like there's anything to return to on that place, but it would be nice to pick up a few things that could remind me that everything was once normal.

Last night we slept at a daycare center. It reminded me of Meg. I never saw her after the incident. I like to believe she's still alive, but after three months of not seeing her, I don't want to keep my hopes up.

I heard the soft creak of the metal doors of the diner as my sister exited.

"Are you okay?" Jess asked as she came to stand beside me. I didn't answer for a minute and just scanned the clear starry sky. In the end, I didn't answer.

"C'mon Con, talk to me." She sighed and gripped my arms. "You've been like this since last night."

"I'm sorry." I whispered. On a normal day, you wouldn't have heard it, but it's not a normal day. It never will be.

She heard me under the silence. Her grip softened a bit and she smiled sadly at me.

"Don't be. I miss her too."

I guess I was weak. Just a tiny reminder of my little sister makes want to bawl myself until I can't anymore. I wouldn't have minded to take a picture of her three months ago, but now? I would have died for just a glimpse of her face again.

She was only six. To think that a six year old bear witness to murder, famine, and death was unbearable. She wouldn't be able to understand any of it yet. I can't also ignore the elephant in the room that she's probably gone now.