Apocalyptic Love

Fight for what we want

Silence. It filled the air, was this my life now? Running from the monsters from hell and my father. How long could you keep running until enough is enough.

We pulled into the driveway with our new van at the same time as Matt, he and one of the scouts parked in a truck and a smaller van.

Carter left first while I stayed in the car to gather my thoughts, the first instinct raking my brain was to run again, far enough that Thomas could never find me again. But I knew I couldn't do that; I needed these people and my family.

"You okay honey?" I hadn't noticed Sandra slide in the passenger seat, but I knew I had to tell her, she deserved to know who killed her husband.

"My dad found me" I watched her features, her lips slightly turned up as if this was good news and I knew what I said next would break her "I thought he died at the start of the outbreak, he was a good man and he looked after us once everything went bad, but him and my mum got caught saving me".

"Breathe" She rubbed her hands down my arms when my lips started to tremble.

"The men in mask's who attacked us, he was leading them. He killed Andrew". I didn't know what I expected, her to lash out and tell me it was my fault, but instead she wrapped her arms around me and silently sobbed.

"I meant it when I said it wasn't your fault Katie" her chocolate eyes stared into my own "I will miss Andrew forever, however long that is in this world".

"I'm sorry".

"The fact that you stayed with us instead of going with your father shows you aren't the same as him. You tried to protect my Andy and I am so proud of you for that" I smiled lightly through the tears "You remind me of him you know. I think that's why he took to you so fast, if he could pick anyone to lead us it would be you". My breath caught in my throat, I could think of so many other people to take that role, older, stronger people.

"I'm not strong enough to do that" I shook my head as she took my hands into her own.

"Andy saw potential in you, we all see it too. Right now your mind is at war with yourself and that's only something you can win. But you can do it" Sandra reminded me of my mother. The way her soft words hit deep; she could make you believe even when you didn't believe in yourself.

My mind was on overdrive and all I could do was nod, even when she leant forward and left a kiss on my head before heading back into the house.

Matt ordered everyone in the house, a map held in his hand and a huge smile on his face. "About an hour's drive away, there's a place called cosmic world. We could do this today". For the first time all day I smiled, I looked over to Carter just as he did the same. His hazel eyes finally had that sparkle back I missed, now all we had to do was hope.

My uncle and I worked up a plan and everybody else fell in line. A few of our stronger people would stay back and protect the vulnerable, while the rest of us would take the vans to scout the place.

The whole journey we were all smiling, Carter caught my line of sight a few times, but he turned each time we made contact.

The van halted to a harsh stop, and it was time. Time to finally solidify ourselves a safe space, a home.

Huge metal fences surrounded the park, we couldn't see much past the entrance, but it looked almost untouched. The gates were still intact with a thick metal chain wrapped around the lock, but we wouldn't know how safe the place was until we were actually inside.

"Are we actually doing this?" I looked over to our group, there was about twelve of us, but we were the strongest to fight out of the bunch.

Each and every one of them nodded while unsheathing their weapons as we neared the gates, just as Matt inched closer to cut the locks he turned to us; determination evident across his face "We move in groups, go slow. If there's too many dead you back away and get to safety, we will take this place, but we do it without losing anybody".