It took me all the way to eleventh-grade summer to finally get over her on that faithful day after talking to Deshon. Literally the next day, I saw her!

Eight months & 21 days ago, June 20th, 2019.

Why did my grandma make me drop off a vase with two dozen roses? And why does she have me in Fayetteville at these rows of shops? And I’m sitting here waiting on someone?! I could be getting something to eat, then I can work out at home. A rose-colored Ford sedan approaches and parks right next to us.

I check my phone. It’s one thirty-nine in the afternoon; it’s a clear sunny day, temperatures as high as ninety-four degrees. The sound of the car door closing got me to look away from my phone. I notice her walking away from the vehicle. My heart started pounding like a blacksmith’s hammer in my chest. For a second, my inadequate eyesight became perfect when I saw her.

I can actually tell what she looks like from her brownish light skin complexion bouncing wavy raven’s hair. She has on a gray top and gray high-waisted jeans to what she is wearing. My grandma texted me to give her the flowers. Oh, I get it now; it was her birthday yesterday. And this is grandma’s gift for her. I guess I’m the delivery guy. I got out of the car and headed inside to the same building. I opened the dark oak door. I went inside; there were three chairs and a full-size window with the blinds semi-up behind them. The main attraction here is the reception desk with all types of files behind the counter. This place kind of of looks like a clinic, but I’m positive it’s not. But it could be mistaken as one. And next to the reception desk is the wide-open dark oak door. I placed the flowers on the reception desk and proceeded to call for her. My voice deepens drastically the last time we have seen each other. My voice no longer has any high pitch to it. She walked out of one of the rooms; her facial expression went from slightly annoyed to an utterly joyful one. She sprang at me so swiftly, and we embraced.

Present Day

Justin taps me on the shoulder and tells me to wake up. According to the plan, we’re here at the Dollar General, then we hit up the gas station. Justin: Are you coming? Eli: Gone ahead without me. I need some rest. I don’t want to get killed because I’m sleepy. Justin: If you change your mind, you know where to find us.

Where are you love? I pray for your safety and wellness.

11 minutes later...

Awoken by the knock on the glass. I rubbed my eyes and it’s fucking Tim. I opened the door.

Eli: What is it nigga? Tim: You know you could be helping us load this shit up? Eli: Y'all good. Tim: Come on man. Your steroid ass don’t be sleeping in the damn car. Eli: First of all if I was on steroids, I would be way bigger than this. And let a nigga rest. And second of all having times to breathe and reflect will be finite. Might as well take advantage of this situation. Tim: I had to run for my life. Justin had to do some samurai shit to save my ass! Eli: Just be more careful. Is everything loaded up for the first trip? Tim: We’re getting the last things in. Come on get up! Eli: Later! Now, go before I slapped the black meat off you. A nigga need some sleep! I slammed the car door, and drifted off to sleep.

5 minutes later...

I opened my eyes, we’re at the Chevron gas station. Marv is fueling up the Mercedes. Surprisingly, the lights for this place is still on. I got out of the car and grabbed my bat. And went inside the FoodMart. It’s strange to see this place didn’t get ransacked yet. I see the guys in the back on fridge drinking beer.

Justin: Look who woke up! Eli: Shouldn’t you not be drinking? Or any of you. Tim: The world is ending. Fuck the law. Justin: What Tim said. Eli: You’re driving! Justin: I only had a little bit. Yo, Tim you put the margarita’s in the car? Tim: Yeah, I thought saw me. Justin: Do you think we can come back here tomorrow? Tim: And the place still be intact?

Eli: A snowball chance. Tim: I think we should defend this place. Justin: Yeah, make this shit an outpost. Eli: But we don’t even got the man power to do that shit. Tim: Yes, we do. We got Don, Mike, you, Justin, me, hell even Niko, hell even Audrey. Fuck even Imani! We have hold down the fucking school. And we need all hands on deck for that. We can’t divide our forces up to protect something so small, and we can get overran by a fucking horde and not to mention fucking people! It will only take a sizable group to take over the damn place. Tim: Come on someone like Don and Justin or you could hold this place down, and you’re immune to fucking virus. We just need a solid strategy.

Justin: A fucking diabolical strategy. Tim: Come on we can think of something. Marv walked inside of the store and saw some king-sized Twix and scoop it. Tim: My nigga Marv. We need a plan, because this super nigga don’t we can hold this place down. What you think? Marv: Well for starters, we need a big rotation, and we need to use one car to get here so, that’s fuel being consumed. Then if we risk encounter zombies that costs bullets or the risk of someone turning into one of them. And this is a small place. So zombies can literally run through here. Tim: I got a key! Marv: This place is literally a glass house! And if one of you miss your shots and shoot the fuel line, and this place explodes. There’s a lot of risk.

Eli: And plus there’s one more issue, who do you send to defend this place. Marv: True. If we send You and Justin, that’s valuable resources at a lost. Just trying to defend this place is risky. And plus Elijah is the only one that can reliably roam around during the day. Our supply runner stuck guarding this place. Tim: Come on you gotta think of the benefits! Marv: The benefits? You know what, I’ll entertain it. If we hold it down and secure fuel and supply on food and beverages. And we can refuel without going to a random dangerous location and go on longer supply runs. But that’s all I can think of. Eli: And plus we’re trying to take everything out of the dollar general store that’s useful to us. And that takes multiple car trips back and forth. Tim: Okay, you’re right.

Eli: But here’s the kicker, we don’t know Deshon and them will survive. If all of them die, we can’t do it. We have to focus all of our resources into the school, and we can’t leave the school, because we have a lost of numbers. Tim: Come on nigga! Don’t put that shit in the air! You can’t say shit like that! It’s bad voodoo bro! Eli: I’m sorry. But I’m being realistic. Hell, what if none of us survive and the girls are just left with Niko. Imani can hold it down. But the girls will tear each other apart. And they definitely won’t listen to Niko ass! Justin: So we stay alive! We’re close to the school. And we can wait there. Before the air gets bad we will go look for the others. Tim: Man, fuck this bro! Ya’ll; putting this bad energy in the air bro! Justin & Eli: You hear that!? Tim & Marv: Hear what? Justin: That sound likes a fucking horde!