"That's my wife, Sheryl. The light of my life."

"Aw, she seems like a very nice woman," Sara awed.

"She is," Higgins smiled. "Shall we get ready for dinner?"

At the pure thought of eating a home-cooked meal, the siblings smiled, and their stomachs growled.

Madison, Georgia

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Morning - Apocalypse Month 5

The bright golden sun rose up from beyond the tree line and shined a bright light onto Sara's face. Her eyes instinctively squinted from the sudden blazing light from the sun, and her body twisted instinctively to the other side of the bed to stop the uncomfortable feeling.

"Wakey, wakey," Higgins said softly as he knocked on the door. “It's time to wake up."

Sara groaned. It had been a long time since Sara had been in a real bed. They had been on the road for almost a month now, sleeping under the stars, bridges, in the cold. It was rough out there, and she finally got to sleep in a real bed.

"Come on; breakfast isn't going to wait on you. I also have some people for you and your brother to meet."

Sara's ears perked up in the thought of an actual meal and then jumped out of bed, "I'll be right down. Just give me a few."

Higgins chuckled and closed the door leaving her with some privacy. Sara got up and instantly looked outside of the window. The winter snow had dissipated, especially since they’ve gone further south from Holm Castle. The birds chirped from the window seal, and people were walking about in the town. Sara smiled, "We finally met another community. Thank the lord." Sara walked down the stairs, and as soon as her foot hit the steps, the sweet aroma of breakfast hit her nose instantly, and her mouth watered. As she got closer, she noticed a grand amount of food on the table, with Luis and the host family enjoying their meal.

"Well good morning sleepyhead," Luis announced, twisting his head to face Sara.

"Yea, yea," Sara groaned, sitting down next to Luis and began to pick the various breakfast options in front of her, "What's going on today?"

“We don’t have many… welcomed visitors so the wife and I wanted to show out,” Higgins chuckled and dug into his food. Grits, sausage, and biscuits filled his plate with warm honey drizzled over it.

“That’s very kind of you, Mr.Higgins,” Sara praised.

“We try our best!”

“Any plans for today, Mr.Higgins?” Luis asked.

"Well, today my son, Kyle, is going to show you guys around town," Mayor Higgins stated. Sara glanced in Kyle's direction. He had long golden wavy hair that reached his shoulders, dark brown eyes, and a typical suburban kid’s outfit. He looked around her age.

Kyle smiled, "Nice to meet you! My name is Kyle!"

"Nice to meet you too, Kyle," Sara smiled in return and then turned back to the Mayor. "But, I don't think you're going to need to show us around."

"Aw, why not?" The mayor asked curiously.

"We have a home that we miss and I'm pretty sure that they miss us too. We have no time to relax. My apologies."

"Sara... can I talk to you for a second?" Luis asked, but before she could respond, Luis pulled her out from her seat and to the side of the room. "What're you doing!?"

"We can’t stay for too long. There are other communities we need to know about, Luis.”

"But, Sara! Come on," Luis begged. "We haven't slept in a nice bed for months! Are you not tired of sleeping in the forest?"

Sara stared at Luis’ puppy dog-like eyes with no remorse, "... Luis, no. We have to explore the region and find more communities... like the one they call Havenstead."

"Okay..." Luis said, stringing out the word looking for an excuse to stay longer, "But, don't we have to learn about the communities as well. If we don't know anything about them then what's the point of discovering them."

Sara shook her head slightly, speculating on it.

"We can even use that Kyle guy to our advantage. He seems like a talker and we can know a lot about this place."

Sara stood there, the cogs in her mind turning, "Fine, but we leave in three days."

Luis smiled and brought them both back to the table, "We'll take you up on that offer!"

...

‘I can't believe I let him convince me into doing this,’ Sara thought. Sara and Kyle had been going around the town for almost two hours now just talking about the people of this town and how it came to be post-regression, what they were doing with it, and the occasional question about Holm Castle and how it came to be.

“Alright, well that honestly concludes the tour. Anything else you would like to know?”

Sara paused and thought about how she would phrase the question spite it being in her head for the entire day. “How have yall survived so far. Most of the people here barely have any understanding what they’re doing and you guys are barely… surviving.”

Kyle chuckled awkwardly, “That was a pretty harsh way to say it.”

“I don’t mean to be mean but all you guys have is remnants of canned food, and I’ve seen no prepared soil for the coming spring months,” Sara critiqued. “If you want to survive then you have to plan ahead. Especially with that Atlanta problem.”

“You’re gonna have to take that up with the big guy…” Kyle trailed off and kept walking. For a minute, the silence was deafening as the two of them walked back towards the house. Sara tried to scope something interesting before she had left this town.

"Okay, okay," Kyle said, stopping Sara and getting her to look him in the eyes. "Please tell me this isn't crazy."

I already think you are but go ahead, Sara thought, "What do you mean?"

"This world we live in is so much different! Just a year ago I was sitting in my room watching tv and eating pizza, and now I'm learning how to farm and use a bow. How are you dealing with this!?"

"I'm not. I promise you, I'm not."

"Then how do you keep such a calm face?"

"Atlanta is destroyed, the rest of the US is in ruins, and it won't come back and neither will my friends. I've come to terms with it. My family and I reside in northern Georgia now to survive. My ax skills and my brother's intrigue in swordsmanship are the only reason why we survived through this damned nightmare. I have to make most of what I have. Do you understand that? Do you think I want to be here? No. I want to go back to my apartment with my family, but I have no choice, and neither do you so we have to stick our heads up high and live in the moment."

Kyle sat there in silence, thinking about what Sara had just said, "I'm sorry... I didn't think about what you had to do... and how the city was burned down."

Sara nodded and started walking again, "To a crisp." This was the first time she had actually talked about the past and not what was happening in the present. Things really were changing, and she had no control over what would happen next.

"Listen, before this, I was a college student too. I was studying engineering, but I had to come back here because I was kicked out," Kyle stated.

"Kicked out? I know your parents were not happy about that," Sara chuckled.

"Oh, trust me. I'll never hear the end of it," Kyle chuckled, "Especially since this thing happened."

"Before this, I was just a nurse in training and on the side a competitive archer. I was on my way to becoming a nurse and getting my degree. I lived in Atlanta and it was my home..." Sara stuttered off but then regained her strength, "Now, I am here."

...

Crunch! Luis huffed, out of breath and at the brink of death. Men lay around him as he was the only one standing, blood running down his face and body but none of it his own. Corpses laid scattered amongst his feet with the blood gushing from every man’s wounds. The man’s blood seeped into the ground, but as Luis pulled his gaze upwards towards the sky, away from the man, he saw a black wolf staring at him. Intrigued, Luis walked closer to the wolf, its teeth as sharp as the axes on his back. In response, it turned around and started running. He ran after it. Chasing the wolf, he got closer and closer until they hit a giant ash tree with bright green leaves that gave off an unfamiliar aura. He pulled back to see it stood too tall to even measure. It shined so brilliant; he squinted his eyes. Luis gasped as he pulled his body up from lying down on the bench for a quick nap.

"Something wrong?" One of the guards said as he nudged him on the shoulder.

Luis nodded his head and looked around. He was currently outside of the police station's parking lot now training field. For a while, Luis and the Marshal have spoken about the situation in the world they're in. Luis had found out that the town hasn't given up on the American Dream and will bring it back to its former glory, they had installed civil conscription into their system, and all men at least the age of 18 must serve in the army for ten years, and they're actively searching for a person who can train them thoroughly.

"How'd you even get the weapons you have?" The Marshal asked.

"Our leader was a former police officer and remembered a time where they had confiscated some LARPers' wet dream."

"Ah, that must've been a treasure to find and use."

Luis nodded and patted his ax, "It sure was."

"I'm assuming your leader also taught you how to use that thing?"

Luis shook his head and laughed, "No sir, I taught myself. I was very interested in medieval weapons when I was younger and my parents had supported me in my endeavors. I like to think my sister had some influence in that since her ax skills are beyond exceptional."

The Marshal laughed hysterically.

"Enough questions about me, how have you and your people survived this apocalypse and also the hordes of people. You're not that far from Atlanta."

"To be frank, luck. At first, it was chaos, and murderers and looters roamed the streets. But then, Mayor Higgins brought the community back together via controlling the food system and aligning himself with me. As for the hordes, it was difficult. Especially with the plague coming along with them."

‘The plague,’ Luis thought in disgust.

"But, with enough manpower and faith, we were able to survive whatever God... or whatever slash whoever did this to us."