After Life

Chapter Six

Our base is a seven room motel that we kind of made our own. Its two stories tall, with two rooms on the main level (A1 and A2), and five rooms on the second level (B1- B4), we have been here for about three months.  We made a wall with some barbed wire to go around the perimeter and set up a watch tower on the roof. We have had many Walkers try to get in, but the barbed wire always stops them from accomplishing their task. We each take shifts in the tower, two people each night. Zoe and I are going out on another run in the morning and I hope everything goes well this time.

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I wake up screaming, and my dad is sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. He clearly has just woken up; maybe I woke him up, "You were crying in your sleep, so I came to check on you. I guess I fell asleep."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you; I just had a little bit of a nightmare."

"You miss your mom?" my dad asks me.

"How'd ya know?" 

"You talk in your sleep, what was the dream about?"

"Nothing much, just Mom, Leah, and Kennedy where looking for us, I was screaming that I was right here but they couldn't hear me. Next thing I knew, they were g-gone."

"Look, Lee, I get that you miss your mom and your sisters, believe me I miss them so much, but you, you just have to accept the fact that they're," his voice dropped to a whisper, so soft that I can barely hear it, "They're, gone," upon saying that he got up and walked away.

My sisters' names were Leah and Kennedy, Leah who was  fifteen, she was the middle child, and Kennedy, who was ten, was the youngest. Leah was the fun sporty type, and she loved gymnastics and was great at it too. It's a shame that her love is the reason that she is dead.

Kennedy was more into books then the rest of us, don't get me wrong I like books and all, but it's not what I would want to do in my free time. My Mom wanted me and Kennedy both to attend the meet for Leah but I had some more important things to do, so I stayed home with dad. What was supposed to be a three day trip turned into a trip they never returned from, I miss them so, so much.

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            The next morning Zoe and I got our bags all packed up and headed out, we always go in the morning because there's always the least amount of walkers at that time.

"Ya ready?" Zoe asks me.

"Ya, let's head out."

Just as we were leaving the base Ben ran up behind us, "Wait!" he yelled.

"What's up Ben?"

"Where's my Mommy? I looked all over the house but I couldn't find her so I thought I'd ask you."

"Oh, well," I didn't know how to tell him the truth, "your mother, she, uh, she got up last night and told me to take good care of you because she is going away."

Ben didn't know how to react he just put his head down and said, "Oh, okay do you know when she will be back?"

"No, I don't, I'm sorry." I responded.

After a few seconds he asked me, "Okay, um, what's your name?"
"My name is Leeann, but you can call me Lee."

"Lee, that's a pretty name, I like that," And he walked away. After that Zoe and I left for the city.

"Why did you lie to him?" Zoe asked me a few minutes after we left.

"I couldn't tell him the truth. Believe me losing a mother is really hard and I'm not sure how he would take it, I mean, you never really had to get over losing you parents." Zoe's mother and father had passed away in a car accident just about a year after she was born, and her brother, who was nineteen, took care of her. Her brother passed away once the virus got out.

"Your right, but I did have to get over losing my brother."

"I- I'm sorry I didn't mean to-,"

She cut me off, "It's okay, and your right, I didn't have to get over my parents, I mean how can you grieve someone you didn't know. I can't even begin to imagine how it was to lose your mom and your sisters. I only had to get over losing Adam." A tear rolls down her cheek.

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            "Hey Lee, let's stop in here real quick we might find something to use!" We head in to an abandoned store. As we walk in we notice that it is dark but not too dark to where we need to get our flashlights out. This place has defiantly been raided before but if we look hard enough Zoe and I can probably find something of use. I kick some of the rubble out of the way and spot an old water bottle, it needs to be cleaned out but we can defiantly use it as a canteen. Zoe finds two batteries that we can use for flashlights, and we look around for a few more minutes then leave and move on.

            After walking about three blocks down we find a house that looks to be in fairly good shape and decide to check it out. Inside there is pretty dirty and it is very small, the main room looks to be a living room and a kitchen, and the next room is a small bedroom. I look through the cabinets in the kitchen while Zoe looks in the bedroom, "Hey, Lee?" Zoe yells from the other room, "I think I found something!"