What Really Happened: A Memoir from the Apocalypse

Chapter 4: Postmortem

The next morning:

I slid into my bright red Crocs, grabbed a granola bar, and walked out of the tent.

Carl sat on the bench and held his face in his hands. "Are you okay?"

I used my finger to remove the sleep from my eyes. "Can you come with me to see Andrea?"

Shane laid his elbows on his knees and sat on a log next to the bench. "Hey Mallory, why don't you sit right here with me? You don't need to go up there."

Near the front of the hill, Andrea hovered over Amy and stared at her body. Mom sat beside her.

"When is she gonna turn?" I asked.

Shane pat my shoulder. "You don't have to worry about that, okay? We're keeping an eye on her."

I moved closer to the RV and listened to their conversation.

"I can't imagine what you're going through," Mom told her. "I know it seems like you've lost everything. But you haven't, because I'm still here. Mallory's still here. You need to stay strong because that's what they'd want for you. For both of us."

Dale grabbed my hand. "Let's go back to the tent."

"I need to see this. I can. It's what happens. I saw it with my aunt and grandpa," I said.

Mom turned towards me. She stood up, brushed the dirt off her knees, and walked over to me. "Don't talk back to him. You were supposed to stay near the tent."

I furrowed my brow at her. "When Amy comes back as a walker, she could attack Andrea. And you're worrying about me seeing it? We can't be afraid. We have to be ready to see these things."

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I sat on the edge of the mattress. Mom was beside me.

A gunshot sounded.

"That was Amy," I said.

Mom took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

The group stood around the grave that Dale and Glenn dug. Mom held my shoulder with one hand and wiped her tears with the other. Andrea sobbed and struggled to place Amy's body in the ground.

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The camp was deemed unsafe. The group debated whether or not to leave. Shane said we all needed to stick together. He planned to take a group to the CDC and leave in the morning; to find doctors and get some answers. We sat on the logs and discussed the plan.

"What if Chris and Phoebe are out here and we just drive away from them?" Mom asked.

Shane bowed his head. "What if they tried going to the same place we are? What if leaving gets us closer to finding them? There's no good in staying here if it puts you and your daughter in danger."

"They're in danger!" Mom was frantic. "We have to keep looking for them. Even if that means just me."

Tears welled in my eyes. "Mom, no! We have to stay with them!"

"Plans change," Lori told her. "Yours did. Maybe theirs did too. They wouldn't want you to stay here when it's not safe."

"Stop telling me what I need to do for my family. What I need to do is find them, and I haven't been able to do that."

"Mom, we can't survive on our own. If they're gone, we can't die too," I said.

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