This Is How We End It

Chapter Thirty One

That same night, Ellen had taken the two survivors to a small house. They had started a fire in the fireplace, and gathered blankets. Ellen and Heather were very cautious of each other, and knew that they were not to be trusted just yet. Scott had laid down on the couch, resting, as Ellen and Heather were in the kitchen, talking.

"Your boy.. he's british?" Ellen asked quietly, glancing over to the couch.

Heather shrugged. "Not really," she said with a small sigh. "When I was pregnant with him, I did a lot of bad things. I couldn't take having a child at the time, and my mother in England took him,"

Ellen nodded, pouring herself a glass of water. "I'm sorry to hear,"

Heather nodded. "He was visiting me when all of this shit went down," she sighed. "I hadn't seen him since he was eleven, and now he's all grown up."

Ellen stayed silent. "My mother.. she was in a nursing home in Atlanta," Ellen said, grasping the cup tightly, bad memories slipping back into her mind. "She had come down with pneumonia, and she was getting better. Then shit hit the fan, and we were staying at the nursing home full time. I left the building.. to go on a supply run." Ellen said as she looked up at Heather, seeing her nod slowly. "We had gotten swarmed, and I barely made it back to the nursing home. We lost a lot of good people."

There was a small silence before Ellen began to speak again.

"Security was weaker since we had people on the supply run.. and when we were gone, a group of men came and killed everyone in the nursing home. Took all of our food, medicine, and dignity. Those son of a bitches tried to get me to join them after they murdered my mother in cold blood," Ellen scoffed, sipping her water after.

Heather looked down, sighing. "I thought I had it rough,"

"Yeah? We all do. Why do you think we're alive? We've all been up shit creek for so long in our lives, God just doesn't want us in his kingdom yet." Ellen muttered before taking off her glasses, rubbing her eyes after. "He wants us to feel the pain."

Heather looked back to the couch, sighing again. "I don't believe that," she countered, looking back at Ellen. "I've got some shit under my belt, but I can sure as hell tell you that God's always been on my side."

She slowly got up from the table, taking her own glass of water to the counter, and sat it down before walking back over to the couch where Scott was.

Back toward the farm, Mikaela sat on the porch, looking out into the empty fields. The porch lights were dim, but they glistened on her tears. They'd formed on the outlines of her eyes. It was cold outside, but she had curled up well. Thoughts of what life was like before the apocalypse took over. She thought of school, and how much she said she hated it. She would give up a lot to be able to return to a normal school day, even though it seemed silly. She thought about family dinners, and birthday parties, and holidays. They were all bright memories. And there were even bright memories in the shit-filled world that stood before her. Chance was one of them, and she wished she could've protected him. Chance was taken too soon from her, as she'd learned and accepted her feelings for him. The way he'd look in her eyes? It made her smile, even with her father's death weighing down her shoulders.

She wiped a tear that had fallen from her eyelid, and sighed. She looked up at the moon, that stood high. It was peaceful. She glanced at the door, wiping her tears before standing up, walking to the door. Nature was calling. 

Inside, Andrea sat quietly on the chair, watching Beckah. It was quiet in the room, except for Lori's pacing. Eventually, she stopped, looking at Andrea.