It was so dark in there, it took a minute for our eyes to adjust, we looked around and saw bodies, hung up seeming to be infused with the wall. Horrified looks came from all of us, I could hear the trembling breaths of fear coming from my friends, knowing very well that I was indeed doing the same thing. We followed the main tunnel of bodies, we came to this chamber where we saw the fresh meat. I saw Nathaniel, Sam, Bruiser, and a few other people, they were alive, but seemingly not fully alive. I brought out my sword and tried to trace a line around Sam to possibly cut him out. He came out just fine, seeming to have a few little acid burns, this stuff that these people were wrapped in was acidic, not good. I got my friends to help me cut out whoever was alive, these people may have been alive, but they didn’t act like it, they went limp when we pulled them out, they couldn’t talk, they couldn’t do anything but look at us. Knowing that they had been there for about 3 weeks, I knew they hadn’t eaten anything, sure enough, they were looking like just skin and bones, I could see Sam’s ribcage, not good for a young boy his age. Me and my friends pulled them out to the surface and got them to the building where Heimdall was, we got Heimdall to nourish them with whatever food he could while me, Austen, Daten, and Isabella went to get rid of this Mega Crawler. We went back down to the sewers to hunt this monster, as we went back to the main chamber where we rescued those people, we heard a shriek, so high pitched and loud that it broke the goggle on my mask. We turned quickly and heard the thudding of footsteps coming towards us, it sounded like horses galloping directly at us, we ran. We kept running down this tunnel and the thing kept chasing us, realizing there would be no escape I said to my friends, “Guys, we need to fight this thing, it’s the only thing that we can do.” Daten being the person he is, the person who loves to fight, had a terrified look on his face, that’s never a good sign. We drew our weapons and prepared ourselves, everything went quiet, silence, except for the quiet echo of a liquid dripping onto the concrete floor, waiting, waiting, but nothing came. We decided to move on and start walking, then it hit us, we got knocked to the floor by something that swiped us down, I had a big claw mark on my back. We all fell to the ground, in so much excruciating pain all I could do was move away from the Mega Crawler, my friends did the same. As we were crawling away, trying to be as quiet as possible, we heard footsteps, not Crawler steps, not zombie steps, I looked towards where we came from and saw one amazing man, Bruiser. Bruiser leapt on to the Mega Crawler’s back, and started stabbing it profusely, he was going crazy on that monster. The Mega Crawler shrieked and shrieked over and over again with every plunge of the blade into its back, the beast fell to the ground, “Surely it wasn’t that easy?” Bruiser yelled down to us, he was right, it was not going to be that easy, the crawler split open and out poured spider like creatures, they looked like Crawlers, but tiny. They started scampering towards any living thing that they could find, assuming they would try to eat us if we stayed any longer, we all worked up enough strength to follow Bruiser out of there to safety. You better believe we got our butts out of there, we headed towards the building with the rooftop colony and stayed there for the night, providing us with some warmth and shelter. We left early in the morning, bringing everyone from the building and staying away from the Mini Crawler hole, we headed for the Happy Raiders camp, families and friends reunited, Sam and Nathaniel thanked me and gave me a huge hug, they said that they were going to go comfort their mother. A little confused by the statement, Sam said, “Oh yeah, Nathaniel’s mom adopted me!” I felt so happy in that moment. I went back to my family, my mother and step dad pulled me aside, they both said to me, “You’re a good kid Ash, keep doing what you’re doing.” I thanked them and winced in pain as I walked away, remembering that I had that huge wound on my back I went to the doctor, the doctor cleaned it up, then stitched it up. We rested well that night knowing that the Mega Crawler was gone, tomorrow would be the day that we continue our journey.

As we were heading to Madison, Wisconsin, we came across the field where I spent that one night in my truck, the night where there were TONS of zombies, I didn’t like it there, there was always this eerie feeling, we kept moving and finally made it to the area where I found Kate. I called out to the camp of people and so did my friends, there was no response, I went into the camp with a few other armed people and there was no one there, just another note, “I’m getting a déjà vu feeling right now…” I said to Daten, I walked to the note and it read, “If you are reading this, that means you have discovered we are not here anymore, but that we in fact went into Canada to go live in this little group of people, if this is Ash, that means that we went to your family’s camp, see you soon. -Kate oh and P.S. Kaly and Petan came through and found us” I was pretty happy to hear this news, but at the same time sad, I wanted to be back with my friends and see them again, I would see them soon, but it didn’t mean I didn’t hurt. We continued our journey. We reached Tiny Pop quickly, we decided to make no stop for bathrooms or resting, but to just get there as soon as possible. This was it, the home stretch, (literally, I was almost home) I was so excited to see my family, my gf, and my dog, I got to relax when I got home. I was so excited, beyond belief, not only was a bringing practically a miniature army, it was… Incredible… We made it to the border, my first encounter with people after the Great Fallout, there were zombies all around the border, not good. We started clearing the area of any zombies that were there, realizing that a lot of these zombies were wearing military border patrol armor and there were guns lying on the ground everywhere. The place had been overrun, and we were too late to save them, its sad, but it happens, we just needed to keep walking and make it back, no matter the feelings that we were feeling at that moment, we just needed to go, then Daten said the one thing that everyone was thinking, “This place is a lost cause.” Yeah, he was right, it seemed as if the rest of the zombies from Canada had finally made their way to migrate south, destroying any small colony of people that they could on the way, that concerned me. This group of border people only seemed like maybe 15 people whenever I came through here the first time. Kate, Kaly, and Petan and Kate’s small group added to my family wouldn’t even add up to 20 people. They were in serious danger in a horde of zombies came through, even with me training with them, I hope they were safe. I decided to do a little scouting mission by myself, I didn’t want to put anyone else at risk, I went ahead to maybe see if there was a horde coming this way. If I was going to go on a killing spree with some zombies then I didn’t need to bring any more attention to whoever was around me, that just wasn’t the type of person I am. I went into the small little town I had stopped in where I had gathered my original armor and seen my first zombie, I was horrified, there it was, a large mass of zombie creatures looking as if they were melted together, the worst sight ever.

There this thing was, it was just sluggishly moving, like, like some sort of slug, it seemed as if there were about 50 zombies piled into this big melt of zombies, to put that into perspective, the average humans weighs around 136lbs, that’s 6800lbs of death, it was scary, it as loud, it was no longer human. This thing, I decided to call it a Merger. It was absolutely hideous, if there is one, then there’s bound to be more. I quickly looked around to see if there was possibly any Crawlers or maybe just a regular zombie, nothing. All there was left in this town was this giant Merger. I left and went back to the rest of the caravan, getting scolded by my family, friends, and some random members of the New Hostage Hill colony, I didn’t care what anyone had to say anymore, I had had enough. I said, “Everyone be quiet!! Listen to what I have to say, I have seen stuff most of you I hope never see, I’ve been through lots that you probably never have been through, I’m 17 for pete’s sake, good lord.” Everyone looked down, I wasn’t sure if it was from fear, respect, sadness, understanding, I don’t know what it was, but they shut their mouths. I continued to talk and explain the freak of nature that I call a Merger. I noticed the fear and horror in these people’s faces, it was an expected reaction. I tried to reassure everyone that everything would be okay, they started to calm down, that was good. We were ready though, we were ready to make it back home.

It was time, I told the big mass of people following me, the people that considered me the leader, that I was going to go in first and give a warning. I walked towards the camp slowly, noticing that there had been more security and protection set up since I’ve been gone, I shouted, “Is there anyone in there?” No response, I yelled once more but a little bit louder, “IS THERE ANYONE IN THERE?” I heard a small voice shout back, “Ash?”. I lit up, I ran into the camp pasts the gates and saw my brother, I gave him a huge hug, he started to cry, and so did I. I asked him where dad was, he responded, “Inside sleeping, wanna play a game with me?” I responded, “Here soon bud, I promise.” He smiled at me, as I was standing there with him, I noticed my friend’s tents sitting outside, and I woke them up, Kaly, Petan, and Kate were overjoyed, Kate had told me that her group of people decided to go further North and try to find more people, I gave my friends big hugs and then went to my brother. He walked with me inside to my parent’s room, I knocked on the door (because even in the apocalypse it’s always nice to have manners). I heard my dad’s voice say, “Come in”, I walked into the room slowly and he sat there on his bed, and he looked at me in shock and pure excitement and happiness. He jumped up and started yelling, “He’s home! He’s back! You’re back!!” He ran towards me and gave me a great big bear hug. I hugged him back and started talking to him, my stepmom woke up and welcomed me back as well, we started talking and discussing my journey. My girlfriend, sister, and my sister’s fiancé all woke up, my girlfriend came and gave me a big hug and wouldn’t let go, it was cute honestly. My sister and her fiancé came and gave me a hug as well, welcoming me back, but I had to get straight to the point. “Guys, I have news.” He all stopped their cheerful laughing and talking and went quiet, “Continue.” My dad said, “I’ve brought a ton of people to settle here with us, we could make a big colony and survive here in greater numbers.” That’s when I heard the push back from my father, “Son, I know this would be a “good idea”, however, there wouldn’t be enough food and shelter to go around, its freezing cold here, people wouldn’t survive, they’d suffer.” I understood what he was saying, but I had hard evidence to say why they should stay here instead. “You don’t understand, the zombies, they move South, we can’t move south, we need to stay as far away from Blast Zones as much as possible, and these people have their own tents, weapons, and food. I’ve brought about 500 people to survive here with us, this could be the beginning of something huge, and to make it even better, they made me their leader!” My father looked at me, quiet as a mouse, he just stared at me, trying to better understand the situation. He finally caved, “Fine, but our house is OUR house, nobody gets to stay in here, AND just because they made you leader, doesn’t mean you’re the leader of US.”, “Fair enough,” I responded, “Oh and, my mom and stepdad are with us too.”, before he could say anything I ran out of the gates of our little camp and went back to the rest of my people. I shouted out the good news and had people spread it to others who didn’t hear me. I heard cheers and laughing from almost every direction, I quickly started to shout back to them, “Quiet!! You can be excited, just don’t give away where we are to any possible raiders or zombies!” Everyone quieted down and started to whisper in excitement, I led them on to the camp and we started setting things up. Tents were set up, food and water stations were set up, blanket and coat stations were set up, all this would be needed to survive in the freezing weather of Canada. This was what these people needed, security, safety, comfort, and leadership.

It had been 15 months since this whole apocalypse thing started, crazy huh? Yeah, and it seemed to go by so fast, you know how people would say, “Time flies when you’re having fun”? No, this wasn’t fun, I wasn’t really having fun, I was constantly anxious, paranoid, concerned, worried, sad, mad, the whole negative emotion wheel side of things. I had about 500 people to keep safe and lead, its difficult, nothing is more difficult then being a good leader, the right sacrifices have to be made, the right decisions have to be made, because if you make a bad decision, you might have an uprising on your hands. Its scary, I try to act cool about it, I try to make people think I’m fine, so they don’t worry about their friend or leader, in reality, I’m not fine, I haven’t been fine since the whole thing started, and chances are, neither have most of the other people. Its sad, none of this should’ve happened, this just shows you the stupidity of the world governments, but when you look at the people, we come together and survive together. I went to my father in the morning after we’ve been there and helped set up, I requested to talk to him about some stuff, he agreed. “What’s up my boy?”, “Dad, I’m scared, I’m worried, I’m anxious, I’m constantly depressed, but I need to stand strong, I need to keep these people safe, I need to lead these people.”. He looked at me, looking as proud of me as he can, he grabbed my shoulder and looked directly into my eyes, he said, “Son, it’s been 17 years that I’ve known you, you’ve grown strong in your physical and mental state, you are a truly incredible person. I have no doubt that you can lead these people well, however,” He said, “However, you need to focus on yourself sometimes, you’ve done nothing but exert all your mental and physical strength non-stop for 15 months. That’s not healthy, there’s a reason we have summer break for kids during the summer.” We both chuckled, I then said, “I understand, but what will the people do without leadership? What will happen, if something happens it’ll be my fau-,” “No, it won’t be your fault, you need your health too. Now go rest, go hang out with your girlfriend, she’s missed you.” I smiled at him and replied, “Alright dad, I will.” As I start to walk out the door, I stop and turn towards him, and say, “Oh and dad?” He looked at me, “Hm?” “Thanks.” I responded, he smiled and said, “Of course my boy, go have some fun.” I ran out the door despite all the pain and exhaustion I had and ran to my girlfriend. I relaxed with her and we watched some downloaded movies on a little laptop that we had a generator hooked up to, we laid there for hours and ended up falling asleep on our bed. The next morning at around 6am, I woke her up and said that we needed to get back to work and keep setting stuff up, she said no. She refused to let me leave and kept me in the bed, I was confused, she said and I quote, “You need to STOP working for a bit and focus on you.” Its like she talked to my dad about this same thing (Maybe she did…), I accepted her wishes and stayed there in bed with her for a little bit and just relaxed, I actually fell back asleep and slept in till 1pm, apparently, I really needed the rest. However, people needed help, and I needed to help them. I left and started helping everyone get settled and figure out things, I decided I was going to lead a party of people to go out and gather food, and then lead another party to gather building supplies. I first led the party of people consisting of my dad, my stepdad, Daten, Petan, Nathaniel, Bruiser, and me. We went back to the first little town that I went to with the vehicles that we had used to get us to Canada and gathered the rest of the resources that we could, grabbing any extra non-expired food, water, clothing, and spare ammo possible. We then drove even farther North to another town, getting farther from the deadly zombies that moved South. The gang came up to this town that was bigger than the last and we started packing as much as we could in the cars and my truck, stacking coats, gloves, socks, hats, ski masks, and other clothing to bring back to keep people warm. We saw a Walmart and decided to head into it, we all split up into different directions to cover as much ground as possible, I got to the back of the store where the toys were, hoping to bring back something for the kids of the colony to enjoy, that’s when I saw it. An even bigger Merger, this thing was 2 times bigger than the last one, maybe even 3 times more. This mega mass of mutated and fused bodies weighed about 14,000lbs, it was huge, and I was right next to it. I slowly started to walk away, then I heard it.

A shriek as loud as can be, as if 100 humans were shrieking all at once as high as their voice could possibly get. *SHRIEEEEKKKK* I ran. I had been spotted, and I was in a TON of danger, I grabbed some bags of chips on the way, hoping to bring something else from this mission besides the danger that I was bringing now. I could hear the shelves and things on the shelves falling down and being crushed, I kept running and started to shout for my friends as well as my dad and stepdad to GET OUT. This thing kept chasing us until we got our cars and sped away, we stopped maybe 2 miles away from Walmart and parked. We all got out and just stood there, not saying anything, realizing that all our ears were bleeding from the high-pitched shrieks, I said, “That… Was a Merger.” Everyone started talking about how we could take this thing down and that we shouldn’t bring it up to the rest of the colony because it could cause a panic. I disagreed, I think everyone should know what we saw today and what it did to the Walmart. I said, “Guys, they need to know, I’m the leader, I can deal with whatever panic or event happens with the people.” There was arguing amongst everyone for a few minutes while I was thinking to myself, “Something isn’t right, the zombies are supposed to move South to stay away from the cold, why are there so many Mergers up North?” Then it hit me. “Guys! I know why we didn’t see any Mergers down South; the mergers are zombies that fuse together to stay warm and then eventually end up forming one single hive mind with each other.” It all made sense now I know how to beat them.  “We need to burn these things to the ground!!” I heard Daten say, “EXACTLY!!” I shouted, “YEAH!! Wait what?” Daten responded, “Guys, they’re fused together and here because of the cold, we burn them to the ground or at least burn part of them, they’ll stop attacking us, they’ll die from the heat.” We agreed to tell everybody what we saw, and I decided to change the name of the Merger to a less threatening name, the smaller ones 50 zombies fused together and lower would be called “Little Brothers” and the big ones over 50 zombies fused together would be called “Big Brothers”. And we just came across our first Big Brother. We sped back to home camp, and unpacked all the supplies we had managed to gather, good thing everyone else got food and water from the Walmart while I was in the Toy section. I called everyone together and got to a centralized area, I spoke out and explained the monster that we encountered and how I changed the names because it only makes sense (not really, I just wanted to change the name). Everyone understood and there was no panic, good to know that they’re handling things better than what I thought they would. I gathered a group of about 50 people (all volunteers I might add, brave souls they are), and we made some makeshift flamethrowers and lit some torches and sharpened the sticks we lit them on. We drove to Walmart, and I explained the plan, “I will go in first and get the Big Brother’s attention and lead it out, whenever I come out, light that thing up!” Everyone cheered. I went in because I know the environment that the Big Brother was in better than everyone else, therefore making me a better candidate to get its attention. There it was, sitting there, eating what looked like a deer carcass, I got the torch and raised it up high and plunged it into the Big Brother’s fused body. The thing looked at me and shrieked, good thing I brought ear plugs this time, I ran out as fast as I could trying not to trip on things as I ran out, I made it, then behind me I heard the crash of walls being broken down, the monster shrieked again as it saw everyone else there, no one was phased, I told them to bring earplugs for this exact reason. You better believe we lit that beast up, we rained hell on that thing, 25 people with makeshift flamethrowers fired at that thing and 25 people with torches started to stab at this thing. We fought this thing for about 5 minutes, praying with every second that passed that this thing would finally die, it finally did. It smelled terrible, I was undoubtedly one of the worst smelling things ever, and I’ve smelled rotten flesh before, but burning rotten flesh? That’s even worse. The Big Brother collapsed to the ground, breathing its last breath, letting out one last pitiful shriek before I died. We all cheered, giving each other high fives, and congratulating each other on our accomplishment. When we were done cheering we continued to loot the Walmart for whatever we could get from there, this would be our greatest resource at this time. We went in and gathered as much food, water, clothing, ammo, weapons, medicine, car parts, and of course, for the kids, toys. We brought back the supplies and the whole camp rejoiced, I don’t blame them, this was a big win for us and seeing the joy on those kids faces knowing that they had something to enjoy during the end of the world, it made me so happy. We were done with the Little Brothers and Big Brothers for now.

The night we got back from Walmart I sat down with some of the most trusted people I know from my colony, I decided that we needed a council, a group of people who would make the biggest decisions for the colony. In this room with me there was, Bruiser, Heimdal, Kate, Petan, Kaly, Kaly’s sister Kaya (who I just met today, but assumed she was chill, considering the type of person Kaly is) turns out she was with the Hostage Hill group and I didn’t know that, Daten, Austen, Isabella, Nathaniel, my girlfriend, and my parents. The council also had lower ranks to it, people who couldn’t make the big decisions, but could advise to them, those ranks consisted of first responders and military personnel, (no political leader type of people, too much of an influence on other people).  We discussed the states of the colony with each other, how we’d gather resources and supplies, procedures to go through when threats come our way, escape routes to take when it comes necessary, and how our voting system would go. As we finished our little meeting I said to everyone that I’d be informing the colony now to let them know that this was the council and that if they had any questions, that they should come to a member from the council. I went outside our meeting area and got on a speakerphone, “Attention everyone! Today I have created a council system in which big decisions would be made through them, if you have any questions, you should go to them. Thank you for your time.”  I heard the murmuring amongst the crowds, I didn’t hear any disapproving murmurs, just murmurs of the situation. I was please with the event, no one started to throw a riot, no one came and talked to any of the council members about the event out of concern, mostly just congratulations and good words. I was happy with the outcome, and so was the colony, I made the right decision. Now, just because there is a council, doesn’t mean I’m not the leader, I still am, but we talk things out anyways. As another month goes by, our little society starts to look cleaner and more put together. People go and chop down trees for wood to build shacks, the children still get to enjoy themselves, and relationships prosper from this event. It seems that even in the end of the world, people can prosper and survive together as long as there is communication and a common goal in mind. This gave us hope, hope that someday we could possibly get closer to the status we held before the Great Fallout, hope that someday there would be a fully functioning society that was like the ones we had before. We had hope, and that meant a lot. We continued our rebuilding of society project for 3 more months, with our significant amount of people, we were able to put up lots of shacks and set up sleeping quarters where people could be more sheltered from the cold of Canada. As more and more building got put up, more people would tell me that I didn’t need to keep helping and that they had this and could do it on their own (personally, I didn’t believe them). I tried my best not to help all too much, considering people kept telling me to relax, I didn’t want to relax, I mean, sure I was due for some relaxing and rest, but I didn’t want to. I kept helping until we had 40 shacks set up, each fitting about 5-person families. That’s about 200 of the 500 people that were living in this colony, we were getting closer and closer to getting everyone a shelter.

After we started the progress and construction of some more buildings the council had it first official meeting, it was going to be about gathering resources and supplies. It was decided, some of the council leaders were going to lead a supply run, my parents, Bruiser, and Heimdal would stay, because first of all, they are older than a group of teenagers, therefore wiser and better to control the colony while we run out and gather supplies and risk our life (sounds great, doesn’t it). We went back into the little town with the Walmart, as we arrived there we realized that there was also a Menards. JACKPOT! Building supplies is what we needed, we split into 2 groups Me, Kaly, Petan, Kaya, and my girlfriend went to the Menards, while Daten, Kate, Isabella, Nathaniel, and Austen went into the Walmart. We said our goodbyes and wished each other luck, we’d all need it. Me and my crew entered the Menards, it was crazy in there, even though there it was cold up North, there was still plenty of wild life thriving that decided to just grow in here, there were plants and animals scurrying around everywhere. It was incredible. We looked around and found the wood supplies, as we examined the wood we realized that some of it was deteriorated from the environment, however some was still intact, we took those. We kept looking, finding things like screws, bolts, nails, other pieces of wood, roofing supplies, doors, all the things we’d need to build a shack. Our crew split up we all went our separate ways in the Menards, we had decided that if something was happening, that we’d yell for the others to get help. Me and my girlfriend (which I have come to realize I haven’t brought her name up, its Madi by the way) went and looked for extra snack and food items, where Kaya went with Kaly and looked for carpets to make rooms of the shacks somewhat more comfortable, and Petan went to get more building supplies and start stacking those up. Around the store we could see regular old zombies just walking around, being as stupid as can be, they just stumbled around and acted like we weren’t there. “I don’t like it here.” Madi said, “I feel like something is watching me…” I comforted her and we kept walking, the hairs on my body stood up straight, I got a cold chill, something wasn’t right. It was one of those Spidey-senses moments, I immediately turned around and a crawler jumped right at me, as if this thing was going right for my face. As I panicked to get this thing off my face, trying to not get bit and killed, this thing scratches a huge wound down my face. Screaming in pain, I push this thing off me, and start to crawl away, Madi grabs my metal staff and starts beating the Crawler to death. She helped me off the ground, and started to clean up my wound so It didn’t get infected with who knows what crazy mutated viruses there are now after the Great Fallout. We ended up wrapping the wound with some gauss and gathered up supplies, for right now, I was blind in my left eye (not really blind, just can’t use it right now because of the would needing to heal), we met up with the others, they said they didn’t have any trouble but they did kill some straggler zombies who hadn’t migrated yet. We gathered the rest of our supplies and put it in the vehicles, got our wood, roofing supplies, screws and bolts, doors, and some food. We headed to the Walmart to get the rest of our team, but they were nowhere to be seen. “Odd.” Petan said, “Where are they?” I looked around, their cars were still here but we couldn’t hear them or see them. “Petan, we need to go in and check it out, Madi, Kaly, and Kaya, stay out here to start the cars if we need to get out in a hurry.” Everyone agreed to this plan, Me and Petan slowly headed into the Walmart, being as cautious as possible, it was very quiet, not even the slight rustle of rodents moving through the wreckage, or even the building settling itself with its deteriorated state. There was nothing but silence, it was concerning, me and Petan looked at each other in concern and confusion, it wasn’t the absence of our friends that bothered us most in this moment, it was the silence of everything around, we heard nothing. When we walked into the building, it stayed that way, we didn’t hear anything, we tried to make the least amount of sound possible when we moved, we still heard nothing. “I think we should split up.” Said Petan, “Uh, I don’t think so dude.” I replied, “Its too much of a risk to split up.” That’s when we heard a small voice, “hello?” a little girl walked out of the wreckage, “Nope, I’m out.” Said Petan, he backed away about 20ft and just watched. I called to the little girl for her to come closer, she walked a bit closer and then stopped about 10ft away from me, as if she was afraid of me herself. I understood her fear, I took off my mask to show my human face, that’s all she needed. She ran towards me and hung on tight, she was literally a scared little girl, alone and afraid of what was going on in the world, she looked about 6 or maybe even 7, I asked her, “What’s your name?”, she responded with a quiet, “Alice”. I put her on my back and carried her outside, Petan followed behind me. Kaly, Kaya, and Madi ran towards us, I calmly introduced them to Alice and I told Alice that these were my friends, she decided to trust me and my friends and stay with them. Kaya, Kaly, and Madi said they’d watch over her in one of the cars while me and Petan continued our search. As we re-entered the Walmart it just goes quiet, as if we entered a sound barrier, like no sound can enter or exit, just silence, but we knew that wasn’t true, it just wasn’t possible. Silence as we walked, we said nothing to each other, we made as little noise as possible, we didn’t want to alert someone or some THING that could’ve taken our friends. This wasn’t our territory, it was whatever took our friends territory. As we crept farther into the Walmart, we saw the back area, the place where they keep all the stock and supplies, the place that as a kid you’d want to go because you saw the little glimpse through whenever someone came in or out. There was light coming from it, not the good kind of “Hey there’s other survivors or people!” kind of light, this was the sort of eerie “Something isn’t right.” kind of light, we tried to look through the windows on the doors, but we couldn’t see anything, there was too much light coming from the room, we were practically blinded trying to look in there. I looked at Petan, “Okay dude, on 3, either me or you will swing the door open and the other will stand guard and be ready to fight whatever comes out of there, okay?” He looked at me and replied, “Sure, I’ll stand guard if you swing it open.” I agreed and we readied ourselves, “3, 2, 1.” I swung the door open and he cocked his gun, nothing came out, nothing attacked us, we just looked inside and saw our friends, asleep around a really bright fire. “That was anti-climactic.” I said with relief, we both walked inside and yelled at our friends, “WAKE UP SLEEPY HEADS!!” it was beautiful. The sheer panic I saw arise off their faces, they woke up screaming and it was awesome. I asked them what they were doing here, what Kate said next scared me, “What do you mean? We’ve always been here.” From that statement, I had three theories about what was going on, either A) My friends were complete idiots, B) My friends were pulling a prank on us or C) They had lost their memory, I was dreading the idea of the last one.

I kept staring at them while in shock, then I heard Daten ask, “Who are you guys?” Petan asked as calmly as he could, “Okay, guys, can you tell me your names?” They all looked as if they were about to speak, but then the stopped and began to look puzzled. “I can’t remember what my name is…” Austen replied, Isabella spoke next, “Neither can I, who are we?” Then every single member of the group started to say the same thing, they don’t know who they are, this wasn’t a prank, they weren’t stupid, they had lost their memory. Petan looked at me and asked, “What caused them to lose their memory?” I responded, “I don’t know.” I heard Nathaniel speak up, “All I remember is something foggy.” I responded, “Like a foggy memory or something actually foggy?” He responded, No, like something actually foggy or misty, it was something in the air.” Okay, I could work with that, I now have a basic understanding of what we might be dealing with, some type of fog that makes you forgot stuff, not much but its something. I could explore more because I had a gas mask and a suit, but no one else did, which automatically made me the core candidate. What was it? Some strange radiated gas? Strange weather phenomenon? Radiated monster that releases fume that will make you forget who you are? Its odd, what could have done this? We’re the effect long term, or would they just go away after a few days or sooner? These were the questions that were racing through my mind, and I’m sure were racing through Petan’s mind as well. Me and Petan lead the others out to the rest of the group explained what happened to them, “Great, practically five more kids to watch, how fun.” Madi said rolling her eyes, I understood her aggravation, I get it, but we’d figure out soon enough what it was. The team wished me luck, I was to go back into the Walmart to find whatever was releasing these toxic fumes that would make you forget everything, I needed to know. Again, it was quiet in there, no sounds, just nothing, it was still eerie, you think that it’d actually be peaceful and tranquil, no, maybe there was a time before the Great Fallout that this would be nice, no, it was terrible, nowadays, it would be nice to hear SOMETHING, I mean really, hearing zombies means you’re not alone, but when there is nothing to hear, its just sad, scary, and you know you’re alone. As I walked through the Walmart I kept my eye out for any possible supplies that would be needed, I also kept watch for anything that moved, I found supplies, but nothing alive (or dead for that matter). I went back to where I found my friends to the storage area, it was still silent, any life that was once living here was now gone, it was a strange feeling, I didn’t like it. As I made my way farther back into the storage room, I heard a small hissing sound, almost as if a tire had popped and was losing air. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a weird white and green fog slowly rolling towards me, I felt no concern, I had a mask, but I needed to know what had released the gas, I turned quickly and I saw a figure walking in the fog. “HOLY CRAP!!” This figure started charging at me as fast as it could, pouncing on my chest with enough force to knock down anybody, as I looked up at this figure I soon realized it wasn’t human, the monster had stuff leaking out of its body, liquids, gases and some strange solid like materials. It kept clawing at my mask, as If it knew that’s what was keeping me safe from the gas. I realized two things here, 1) If I took a breath of this gas I could either die or forget my memory, and 2) I needed to act fast or I’m screwed. I quickly pushed this thing off me as fast as I could, grabbing my staff and started to beat this thing to a pulp, there was no way I was going to let this thing kill me. I stood there in shock, breathing heavily, I kept looking around, seeing if there might possibly be more nearby. There wasn’t and I was relieved, I quickly left the room and headed for the entrance, not wanting to be there any longer than what I had to be. As I exited everyone was calling my name, I heard Daten cry out, “We got our memory back! You owe me money!” I assumed he was joking because I didn’t recall ever owing him money, I got back with the group and they saw all the injuries that stupid monster caused, my friends patched me up and cleaned the wounds. I told them about the crazy thing I had encountered, Kaya raised up her voice and said, “I get to name this one, sorry not sorry, its my turn.” That was fine with me, I was too tired to even try to come up with something at the moment. I ended up laying down in the bed of my truck and Madi decided to join me, “You doing okay?” She asked as quietly as she could, knowing I was still in pain, “Yeah, I’m uh, I’m good.” I said with a smile on my face, she looked at me, she knew I was lying, I shouldn’t have been lying but I was. I wasn’t good, I’m in pain, and the world is scary now, I’m falling into a depression and I didn’t want to admit it. “I believe you, I know you wouldn’t lie to me.” She smiled again, it hurt even more now, I hated this, I just don’t want people to worry about me when they matter more than I do. As I got out of the bed of the truck, I heard Kaia shout, “WIPER!!” and that’s how the beast got its name, for wiping the memories of my friends. Knowing that the Wiper was gone, my friends went back inside to gather supplies and bring it back, it was time to go home.

“What the hell just happened?!” I shouted, Nathaniel was in the corner of the room crying, the paramedics, nurses, and the doctors where trying to keep everyone calm, Heimdal was passed out at the moment, the bullet would need to be removed soon. “Well son, it looks like we have an attempted murder or actual murder if he doesn’t live through this.” I was livid, there was NOTHING I could do to figure out who shot the gun, wait, yeah there was. “We need to get this bullet out soon, I know how we can figure out who shot the bullet.” Bruiser spoke up next, “Kid, there’s no way in hell or on earth that you can figure out who shot the bullet.” But there was, we needed to know what type of bullet it was, that would tell us what gun could’ve fired it, and we could go from there. “Bruiser, come with me.” He retorted back, “What, I literally just told you that there was no way to figure it out.” He was wrong though, and I’d prove it. I told Bruiser to gather all the people who were at the meeting, we needed to determine how many people were possible suspects. There were about 250 people that were at the meeting, we separated the people into groups of ones who were for the wall, and ones who were against it. No one was against it, Heimdal had no allies here, which meant he was still in danger of whoever shot him the first time. One of the surgeons came out a little later while me and Bruiser were figuring things out, “Sir, the bullet was a 9mm.” This wasn’t all too helpful, the 9mm was the most common bullet type for most standard handguns, which is what most people had here in New Bloomington. We were able to rule out a good amount though, 100 people got ruled out, they had shotguns and some AR-15’s, they were safe. 150ish people left, we were getting closer, depending on the direction headed through Heimdal’s body, this could tell us the area where he was shot from, we needed this new information and we needed it quick. I waited for the information for about 30 minutes, no new information was coming back, I didn’t like that, I needed the information soon, so the attempted murderer can be dealt with. It wasn’t till another 15 minutes later that we finally got information back, the bullet went up from the entry point, this meant that the person was at the front row on the right side, closest to all of the council leaders. This was a huge threat, any one of us could’ve been shot, but we now knew where to look, this ruled out everyone but 15 last people, if they had an alibi, then they were safe, but as soon as we found the last person, they’d be forced to leave, or worse. Slowly but surely, we closed in on the criminal, one by one we figured out who was safe and clean, till we got to one last person, the 8th person we started to question. “What’s your name?” Silence for a minute, the woman said nothing, again she was asked, “Ma’am, what is your name?” She clenched her fists together, not a good sign. We all readied our weapons, preparing for whatever crazy thing she might try and pull. “Ma’am, this is your last chance before we put you under arrest, what is your name?” Immediately she shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out a hunting knife, she knocked down the officer that was questioning her, he braced for impact. I readied my bow and shot. There was a huge gasp of air, she was trying to breathe whatever air she could take in, there was a clanking sound as the knife fell to the hard ground. She collapsed to the ground and fell forward on her face. Immediately the doctor ran and tested for her pulse, she was gone. It was a sad day, despite her trying to murder 2 different people, this was the first death in the colony since we arrived, it was a tragic day. Her name was Susan Bailey, she was in her early 40’s, blonde and pale white skin, she honestly looked like a total Karen, but it was sad none the less. We held the funeral for her later that day, Heimdal showed up despite his pain, he still felt sorry even though she tried to kill him, I prayed at the leader of this colony that we would not have anymore deaths this year, 1 was still too much.

The time for mourning was over, we needed to worry about our safety, we were very vulnerable to any type of attack, whether it be from some zombies or mutant zombies, or raiders. The night we had the funeral everyone went to the shacks and slept, with about 50 guards watching the corners and center of the colony, everyone felt safe enough to sleep, I didn’t though, something seemed off about tonight, after the attempted murder of 2 people and the death in the colony, it just seemed off. I sat outside my house, my dad and Madi came outside to check on me, “Ash, are you doing okay?” Madi looked at me with understanding in her eyes, “Yeah, I’ll be fine, there’s just so much going on and its stressing me out, my sleep schedule is completely ruined.” I nervously chuckled, there was just so much, “Don’t worry son, everything will be alright, go to bed and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.” He smiled at me, with that fatherly smile you’d see in your father or someone you had as a father figure, it was comforting. “Alright, I’ll head inside here in a few minutes, I still need some air, you know?” Madi and my dad both smiled and nodded at me, “We know son, we know.” It was very cold that night, even though the radiation heated up the atmosphere, Canada was still cold, it was around freezing, the sky was clear, then I heard a loud whooshing sound in the sky, like a jet flying by, I looked into the sky and my heart dropped. “What the hell is that!?” A jet with a red emblem on the side flew overhead, I recognized that red anywhere, it was a soviet jet, the Soviets (or whatever is left of them) were flying over Canada, and our fires were lit everywhere, we’d surely been spotted. I quickly ran inside, knowing that word would spread fast, I told my dad, then ran over to my mom’s shack and told my mom and stepdad what I saw, “Okay, Ash, its late, go to sleep, we’ll discuss this tomorrow.” I went back to my house and crawled into bed with Madi, I could finally sleep, but it wasn’t going to be easy. The next morning, I called a council meeting once again, we discussed what I saw, “This could be a serious threat of security for us, if the Soviets are flying over Canadian airspace and they saw the fires…” “Then we’ll die.” My step-mom said, “No, we’ll figure this out, if anything were to happen they’d come in as a ground unit, the soviets wouldn’t want to waste all this supplies and shelter and bomb it.” I said, “Considering they would need time to transport troops and vehicles here, we may have some time to still build this wall up and prepare ourselves.” I looked around the room, looking into everyone’s eyes looking for a response, heavy thinking coming from everyone, intense stares at each other was given. “I agree.” Petan spoke out, “We agree too.” Kaly and Kaya spoke up, one after another the agreement that we could win this was given, we start the wall today. “I agree.” Heimdal walked into the room with a proud smile on his face, “I thought we told you to take a rest and heal.” I said with a grin, “You did, but I don’t listen very well, and besides, we need to keep this place safe.” He kept his smile, but showed it with a serious face, “Now, let’s get to work.” Today was the day, we were going to build a wall, and yes, all the teens were making those stupid Trump jokes, it was so annoying, here we are trying to be serious about our safety, and they are making jokes. Then again, maybe we do need to lighten up a bit, maybe something that will help us all is lightening up, but we still needed to keep on track. I called the people together for an announcement, “Today as the people of New Bloomington, we are going to start the building of our wall.” Cheers from everywhere, everyone was excited and ready, we needed this extra safety, that extra sense of security that would help us rest better at night, this is what we needed. We started working at around 12pm, we didn’t stop working for the whole day, chopping down trees putting up posts, put up wall, repeat. It was at 10pm in the pitch black that we stopped working, the wall wasn’t even close to being done, it would take weeks to finish, unless we worked all day only stopping for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, even at that we’d need everyone working, young and old, male in female, not to mention we still needed people to watch our backs so nothing and no one could sneak up on us. I was deep in thought that night after we stopped working for the day, I was sitting outside on the porch of our little house, “Ash, are you doing okay?” I heard Madi ask it for a second time, “Yeah,” I said with even more pain, I couldn’t handle all this lying, especially to her, but I needed to stay strong, “Just tired.” I looked at her with a sincere smile, “Okay, I love you.” She said to me, “I love you too.” I responded feeling happier hearing her say she loved me, it brought me comfort. She got up and was about to head to our room, “Madi, I’m gonna go for a little walk really quick, I’ll be back here in a bit.” She smiled and said, “Go right ahead, I’ll be here.” She continued walking inside, I got up, and started walking. It was quiet in our colony, except for a few select areas, people getting drunk or just having little get togethers at each other’s cabins, but for the most part, it was quiet, not the scary Walmart quiet, but peaceful quiet. I enjoyed it, the night sky was beautiful, the stars were incredible here, no light pollution to stop us from seeing those wonderful stars. The moon, it was so bright, yet it was pitch black here on the ground, as if the moon didn’t want to interfere with the darkness below it, it was so cool. I made it to the edge of the colony, where we started building the wall, I felt like something was pulling me out of the colony, like something was past our soon to be walls, something special. I walked past those walls and kept walking, I walked for a while, till I saw something gleaming in the distance, it wasn’t fire, there was no smoke, but the light didn’t seem to move, it just sat there, miles and miles away. I wanted to see what it was, but my family, friends, and people were more important, who knows, maybe I would never see that light again, what I do know, is that my place is here. I walked back home to my wonderful girlfriend, she was already in bed, asleep, waiting for me, I picked up a note that was sitting beside her, it read, “Wasn’t sure when you’d get back, so I just went to sleep, I love you!” I wrapped up the note and put in in my suit of riot gear, I laid down next to her and went to sleep. The next morning was just a typical morning, wake up get breakfast, try and be a little hygienic by using deodorant and brushing my teeth with the rationed water we had, then get back to work. We were all on a grindset to get this done, we needed this wall built, the whole day we worked, except for our meals, there was no time to rest, even the kids were helping. Nothing special happened that day, we just worked and worked some more, we got about a fifth of the wall finished. That night, I sat outside in the cold with Madi for a little bit, “Beautiful, isn’t it?” She asked, “It sure is.” I replied, we were out there for about 30 minutes until we decided that we would head inside, as we started to walk into the house, I heard something, “Do you hear that?” Madi asked, “I thought it was just me.” I responded, we started running towards the sound, this eerie humming, it was at the edge of the colony.

People from all over New Bloomington started rushing towards where the sound was coming from, everyone wanted to see what the big deal was. There it was, about 1 mile away and approaching fast, was this convoy of military vehicles, glowing reddish orange from their windows. I heard an older man gasp as he looked through his binoculars, I pulled out mine and looked, there it was, The Hammer and the Sickle, on every single one of these vehicles. The remnants of the TRSSR was coming right towards us, and we have no defense against them except our barely finished wall and our weapons. People started to panic, I did too, I didn’t know what we were going to do, but we had to think and work quick. “Everyone!” I shouted, silence, “We need to put out our fires quickly, hide inside your houses, do what you need to do and quick.” The quick scatter of everyone running to try and save this new place they called home was incredible, everything I saw was people just working together, almost flawlessly. “Son, what are you doing, you haven’t consulted the council about any of what you’re about to do.” “Dad, do we really have much of a choice here?” I paused and waited for a response, “Good, that’s what I thought, lets go.” This was it, time to test our survival skills against an even greater threat, time to see how we would handle the Soviets, time to see if we would live to see another day or if we’d die and move on. Silence in the camp, the hum turned into a rumble then a stop, they stopped outside our camp. Steps, voices, possible death, I was hiding inside one of the shacks up front where they stopped, the door swung open, there was about 6 other people in here, all armed with a weapon of some sort, step after step, the Soviet inched closer, panic filled the room. Silence, he was staring right as us, he looked about my age, 17, “Комнаты чистые!” I was terrified, but he just turned around and walked away, and closed the door behind him. I got up, “Anyone know what he said?” A young woman, maybe 24 spoke up, “He said the room was clear, he let us go.” I was confused, he just let us go, then again, he was scared, it’s the end of the world and he’s being forced to kill people or capture them at the least. I heard the rumble of tanks and Humvees move through, slowly sweeping through the area, I heard a shot. No more were fired, a single shot, and the vehicles kept going through our camp and moved on. Silence was in the camp for about 5 minutes after they left, we all ran out as quickly and orderly as possible. We all headed in the direction of the shot, a Soviet, laying on the ground, with a bullet hole in his head, clutching his pistol in his hand, he had killed himself, and not one of the Soviets cared enough to take him. A few men decided to bury him with his rifle and his hat sitting above his grave, we had survived the night, and we needed to start building again tomorrow. Silence in the colony that night, everyone was still cautious, waiting, in case the Soviets came back, they didn’t. Madi held me close that night, still very shook about the Soviets being in our colony, I didn’t blame her, I was scared too, I didn’t want to die, I didn’t want to lose my friends and family. We didn’t rest very well that night either, everyone was alert, anxious, scared, worried, tired, all the things, we were just drained. The next day we continued the building of the wall, we were exhausted though, but we needed to push on, slowly but surely, we’d continue making our wall. We had finished about half of it by the end of the day, we were done for now, we would continue our work tomorrow. My father called a council meeting, “I have called this meeting to say that supplies are starting to run low, food and water is almost depleted, I’m sure we can drill a well if necessary,” He said, “but, there is no way we could grow crops here in the environment, so we’ll either need to start raising livestock or keep raiding shop after shop until all the nearby stores run out of food, either way we will need to start raising livestock.” I agreed, it was necessary that we raise livestock, this would mean a long trip back to the states though, there isn’t very much livestock living here in Canada. “Alright, everyone cast your votes for the livestock and well idea to set place, which means heading back to the states, or cast a no vote to make sure it doesn’t happen.” Vote after vote, in the box they go, 14 yes, 2 no. It was settled, a crew of people would head back to the states, to bring back livestock, the others would stay home and continue the wall, we leave in two days.

I didn’t ever think I’d ever head back to the states again, I guess I just figured we’d stay in New Bloomington for the rest of our lives. I wonder what we’d find in the states, I wonder if there’s new big colonies like ours out there, I just wonder. “Hey Ash, I want to be part of the livestock team,” I turned around, there was Bruiser, standing tall, “I’ve always dreamed of having my own farm.” I hesitated, I really thought it would be a could idea if he stayed and kept the colony safe, “Bruiser, I know you want to come and believe me, I’d enjoy it, but I think it would be best if you stayed and protected the colony, whenever we get back, I’ll leave you to work with the animals, okay?” He looked bummed, “Alright, that’s fine.” He sulked away and started towards his shack, “Ash, you almost ready?” It was my mom, “Yeah mom, I’m about ready.” I grabbed my staff and tied it to my back, all of a sudden, I get a big hug from my mom, “I already lost you once, don’t do anything stupid, come back, okay?” I heard the shakiness in her voice, I looked at her, she was crying. “I will mom, don’t worry, I’ll be safe.” And I walked away to get my team ready.