What Really Happened: A Memoir from the Apocalypse

Chapter 15: Shelter

About twenty days on the road:

I sat on the edge of the train tracks while the rest of the group caught water in the lake. I stuck pieces of the deer we found for lunch into the fire, bit by bit, and let it cool before placing it in my mouth. I tried not to think about how wrong it tasted.

Abraham paced back and forth on the road. "It's been almost a whole month! How long are we gonna sit on our hands, searching for something we're never gonna find?"

"Every day that passes, we get closer to finding them," I said. "You know that."

"That's inspiring, but —"

I placed my hand on my knee and rolled my eyes. "For all the hope you have about saving the world, why are you being so negative about finding them?"

"Because finding a lost relative's not a code. It's a tricky and slippery guessing game that you're praying you have all the pieces to."

Dad placed the containers of water into the backpacks. "We're going to Terminus. It could be safe. They could be there."

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Nighttime:

I sat on watch with Rosita, because I couldn't sleep. My oily skin itched in its entirety. I stretched my back against the front of the tree, and placed my hand on my head. My hair was wet from sweat, and grainy from dirt and dandruff.

"You wanted to give up at first," Rosita said. "When I first met you, you didn't have any hope that they were alive, and I could see that. What changed?"

"I was weak when everything started. Scared of pretty much everything. People told me I was strong, that I had to be, but I wasn't. I waited for everyone else to fight for me. Hoped it would work out. And I lost a lot of people. There were things I probably could've done something about. But most people don't get a second family. And I'm not watching the same thing happen again."

"I don't think Abraham doesn't have hope for you. He just doesn't want any distractions. He's a good man. I've got his back. But that doesn't mean I have to agree with everything he says."

"Do you really think getting to Washington could stop all of this? We were there at the start. Everything fell. Everything was gone. More dead than I've ever seen anywhere else. Who knows how much worse it's gotten now."

"It's not about how bad things are now. It's about doing whatever we can to fix them. Sometimes you have to take risks for what's right. So if going there can somehow fix anything, we have to."

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Walking on the train tracks again, Dad froze and stared ahead. Knowing what the sign said from feet away, I exhaled and smiled. I looked to him, and we ran to it.

Written with blood on the sign, "Glenn, Mallory, go to Terminus. -Maggie, Sasha, Bob."

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We reached a big tree with leaves that looked like oval spears, and a dark tunnel surrounded by rock. The message was there again, written with blood on the outside of the tunnel.

Dad felt the writing with his fingers. "We're gaining on 'em. It's still wet."

We couldn't see anything inside the tunnel, but walkers groaned from deep inside it.

"We sure as Shinola can't go up and over," Abraham said. "How about around?"

"No. That'll take a day, maybe more. If Maggie went through, I'm going through. We're close," Dad said.