Eli was barely staying afloat before the apocalypse. Working long shifts, taking care of his younger brother, and just trying to figure out what to do with his life.
When he finds his mom trying to take a chunk out of her youngest son though, Eli...
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The next few days were full of work, even Mason was pitching in. We wanted to get this place as secure as we could, so we wouldn't have to worry about things later. We worked on the fence first. Aubrey and Vivian would take the wooden fence pieces from the ground and pile them in front of Red, who sharpened them as Javier dug out a hold for them and I filled them in.
Red brought up the idea to have another catching system inside the fence, in case not only the dead getting past but the living. Mason was lining a fishing wire that we had found in a few towns over, stringing together metal cans that would clang together when disturbed.
That same town is where we found a heavier sledgehammer, to take the stairs down, and barb wire, Aubrey, and Red worked on putting that on top of the metal fence, making it harder for anyone to get into the gate, also adding a lock that only I knew the combination to as of right now. Vivian, Javier and I worked inside the house, working on tearing the staircase out of the house.
As Aubrey and Red finished with the fence, they were gathering leftover boards to board the windows up. We were taking no chances, but only the bottom floor windows would be boarded up. Vivian was working on knotting together rope in the fashion of a ladder.
When we asked about how she knew how to do it so efficiently, she just grinned saying that girl scouts finally paid off.
And now, using the broom I was sweeping away the rest of the debris from the destroyed staircase. The curtains blocked the boarded windows away from view, almost giving the illusion of a normal home. More dead have been flocking the house, drawn to the noise. But it was less than we've dealt with before.
Vivian was in the kitchen, making a list of the provisions we had and was making a list of what we needed to look for on the next run. They had two tables in the house, only needing one we put the smaller one outside with gallon buckets set up ready to catch rain if it were to happen.
Red was walking around, taking down the family pictures of the people who used to live here. She took each photograph out and laid it in the drawer that we had designated for the owner's things we found around the home. Their keys, money, photographs. Memorable things that would feel wrong if we had them.
Javier has been just keeping an eye on Mason and Luna, keeping them down as they worked on straightening up the upstairs. With the dead lurking around so close no one felt comfortable with Mason being on the ground floor.
Aubrey, on the other hand, has been disappearing for hours at a time, coming back with odd things that wouldn't necessarily be useful, but we left her be. She had to be escorted in and out of the gate as I was still the only one to know the code.
Tossing the last of the dust into the trash, I figured it was time to let some things off my chest. "Come with me," I told Red, taking her by the arm and ushering her to the basement, that had been off limits since we got here.
I had organized the weapons we had stockpiled, along with the blades, nails, screws, anything that is useful here in the basement. The generator I had managed to snag was also down there, used to charge batteries only for now, as we didn't want to waste its own battery.
