Is This The End Of Us? Or Just The Means To Start Again?

We stare at each over in disbelieve, Jack Barakat my old friend we were close but you know the world ended and you have to give something’s up. Standing up to face him I wrap my arms around him, he pulls back in surprise but then slowly hugs me back.
“I haven’t seen another person in so long” I say.
“It’s good to see you too Alex, I can’t believe it’s actually you” he replies.
“I know, I can’t believe we’re here together after all this time”
“Me neither, I’ve missed you Alex”
“I’ve missed you too Jack” It’s true I have missed him, in the days after my parents... I missed everything about how the world used to be, but I did truly miss Jack. We’d been close in school, we’d even spoke of starting a band together and now we’re here in an abandoned Wal-Mart, being attacked by zombies.
“How long have you been alone?” he asks.
“A while” I answer, in truth I don’t know how long it’s been. Days, weeks, months it all seems to blend into one these days. “What about you?”
“It’s just me and this girl called Tay now”
“Oh...”
“Come on we should get out of here before they come back” he says, picking up a shotgun from beside the door before he heads out, I follow my out rifle in hand.

He leads me through the store, through a back room and up a flight of stairs to what I assume used to be the offices of the building.
“Tay” he calls out as he reaches a certain door.
“Jack? You’re safe?” A girls voice calls back.
“Yep, and I brought you a new friend”
“Oh god you’ve not found another zombie arm again have you?”
“Is that my new nickname?” I ask, the door flies open and the girl in question stands there, long brown hair that had been breached at the bottom, big brown eyes, a nose ring and a slight blush on her cheeks.
“Oh I’m sorry, it’s hard to tell when Jack’s actually being serious” she says.
“I’m never serious!” Jack laughs and walks into the room.
“Oh I know” I follow them in, the rooms quite small with desks around it but in the middle there’s blankets piled together and what looks like a gas stove.
“You live here?” I ask.
“Yep, some sweet Wal-Mart! I’m Tay by the way” she says, holding out her hand.
“Alex” I replay, shaking her hand.
“So Alex” Jack starts, sitting down on the pile of blankets, folding his long legs underneath him. “What have you been doing since you know the end of the world?”
“Running” I say, placing my own sleeping bag down to sit on next to Jack. “Always running”
“You mean you never stopped anywhere?” Tay asks, coming to sit next to us.
“Nope, I don’t even know where we are right now”
“A city in Maryland, not really sure; we were just looking for a place to sleep” says Tay.
“How did you end up here?” I ask.
“It’s a long story” Tay says, opening a can of baked beans.
“Know the feeling” I mumble, digging into my own can of food. We sit around the small stove and talk of the end of the world, as that’s pretty much all we’ve got. Tay tells that she was originally from New York and had been on tour with her band when it started, she was the only one to get out alive.
“I’m sorry” I say.
“S’okay, I mean we’ve all lost people in this war”
“War? This isn’t war this is survival” I say. Tay is about to reply as Jack walks back into the room, not that I’d noticed he’d left.
“Enough with the depressing talk, I brought relief” He says, dropping down beside me holding an old radio.
“Does that even work? Surely there’s no radio left now”
“Just hold on” Jack fiddles with the radio until it starts playing, a song blearing into the nearly empty room. It takes me a minute to realise what it is, Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day. My mouth falls open slightly, music the thing I’ve missed the most.
“How did you even?” I ask.
“A friend of mine runs like this little underground radio show, he sometimes tells us news and shit but mostly it’s just music” Jack says.
“Fuck I’ve missed it”
“I miss my band” Tay joins in.
“I miss my guitar” Jack admits.
“You played?”
“Yeah man, not well but I played”
“Me too” We sit there in silence for a moment, morning the things that we can no longer do. Take long hot showers, eat McDonalds, go outside without fear of being eaten or live our dreams. The radio starts up again, another song blasting out of the small speakers. This time Rollercoaster by Blink 182 before I know it I’m singing along, my voice kind of rough. I can’t remember the last time I actually sung.
Jack takes my hand and tugs me to my feet, badly dancing to the song as Tay laughs. The song ends but Jack keeps dancing, and I’m laughing, really laughing for what feels like forever. I’ve missed Jack; he’s the only person who can make me laugh at the end of the world.
“Guys....Guys” we stop and stare at Tay, who’s sitting holding the radio in her hands. I hadn’t even noticed it wasn’t playing anymore.
“What’s up?” Jack asks.
“Didn’t you hear that?” We shake our heads.
“Your friend what’s his name? Matt. Said that the East Cost is the worst effected place for zombie and the Government have a plan. They’re going to blow it up”
“What?! The whole East Cost?” I exclaim.
“Yeah, everything from the very edge of the East Cost to Pennsylvania” she says, her head hanging down.
“Fuck that’s us! How long have we got?” I ask.
“A month”
“We better start running” I say.
“Hmm guys we have a problem” Jack says softly, speaking for the first time.
“Can it get much worse?” Tay asks.
“You need to see this”
Walking over to where Jack is standing by the window all three of stare out. On the ground below there are zombies, not just a few but more than I can count, all lining the streets. I swallow hard, a month to travel hundreds of miles all why escaping hundreds of zombies.

Notes