“What is that?” Cheryl asked.

“I found a supply crate near the church. It was hidden in a bush. In it was a flask, a bag, a knife, a lighter, and some of this meat.” Annabelle replied.

As she said that I noticed the bag on her back. It seemed that she was telling the truth. She then set down the bag and said we should worry about the supplies later.

She then started offering out the meat. Ezra declined it saying something about how he didn’t like meat. I also declined the meat as I remembered the rule don’t eat meat.

The albino girl also declined the meat. Cheryl and Jack were the only two left.

Cheryl spoke to both of them and said “Jack is a vegetarian however, I would love some meat. Thank you, Annabelle.”

It felt like Cheryl agreed to have the meat because everyone else declined it.

If I was being honest the sound of meat felt amazing however the rules still lingered in the back of my mind.

Annabelle distributed the meat between her, Wilson, and Cheryl. Afterward, we all started eating.

At this point, I was completely sick of eating berries. I felt like after I got home I would never want to eat berries again.

We finished up eating and as usual everyone started doing their own thing. Although I had only been in the church for four days I was sick of it.

It was completely different from back at home. Where most of my time was spent either working, Drinking with friends, or using social media

I thought about my friends. I wonder what they thought happened to me? Is somehow searching for me? How is my family?

I started thinking about my mom and dad. I hoped that I wasn’t worrying them by disappearing like this although I didn’t have a choice in the matter.

I kept thinking down into a spiral of negative thoughts as I thought about my family. Eventually, I didn’t want to think about it and I walked over to Ezra.

I sat next to him in silence thinking of what to say. I suddenly remembered when he was talking about his granddaughter.

I was about to ask when I questioned myself as to whether he wanted to talk about her.

He seemed to notice my hesitance and said “ask away.”

Sometimes I wondered if he could read my mind. I asked him “When we were getting chased by that bear you talked about your granddaughter. If you don’t mind me asking what’s she like?”

A gentle smile drifted onto his face as he started talking.

“Her name is Naomi. She is studying to get a doctorate in physical therapy. She grew up so fast, I remember when she was a kid. We use to go around to all of the playgrounds in the city on the weekends and she would pretend to review them as if her job was a playground analyst.”

He chuckled as he remembered his nostalgic memories. Him being so happy thinking about his granddaughter made me smile.

I felt as if for a moment we weren’t in a situation of life or death but, instead it was two men with a generation gap talking carefree as if there was nothing that could harm him.

He kept telling memories about him and his granddaughter. Some of them were funny like when she accidentally peed her pants at school.

Some of them were sad like when her dog died however, no matter what story he told there was a smile on his face as he thought about his granddaughter.

Sometimes he would stop talking for a moment and a sad smile would show on his face.

It was obvious that he missed her.

I hoped that if nothing else he would be able to live and see his granddaughter again.

We talk throughout the entire evening and it started getting dark outside

. He stopped the conversation by saying “well now, it’s gotten quite late, we should get some rest.”.

I nodded and watched him get up and move over to his sleeping spot.

Before he got and the floor he turned around for a moment and said “Dante thanks for listening to me.”

He then laid down on the floor and turned away from me. I looked at him for a moment before deciding to get some rest as well. I laid on the floor next to him.

At this point, everyone else had fallen asleep and we were the last two people still up. This was the first time in a while I felt happy.

I thought about the stories that Ezra told me. I managed to drift off to sleep quickly as I thought of happy memories and stories.

----------------------------------------

That night I had a dream.

I was on the porch of an old wooden house that was painted white. I was sitting there and relaxing in a rocking chair.

In front of me was a beautiful sunrise. The birds were chirping love songs into my ears as the world was at peace. I turned to my left and Ezra was sitting there in a rocking chair as well.

Besides the occasional cars driving by there was no one else around. We sat there in silence for a moment just looking at the sunrise

. A smile drifted to my face as I basked myself in the warm sun.

I turned to Ezra as he seemed like he was about to say something when suddenly a gunshot went off.