What Now?

October 20th, 9:46 pm

Current Location: Bailey, MS

Current Temperature: 29 degrees Fahrenheit
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It was cold that night. It was so cold that everyone's teeth were audibly clattering. I tried my best to hold Olivia close to me so we could warm each other up with body heat. It only helped but so much, but it was something.

"I-I don't feel good..." I heard Braxton mumble from where Dad was holding him. I glanced over at Amelia, and we shared worried expressions.

"That d-doesn't sound good," she said, scratching the side of her head. "I h-hope it's not a fever b-because we lost all of our medicine."

"It'll be okay, Braxton," Dad comforted with a strained voice. "Just h-hang in there. Go to s-sleep if you want."

The house we invaded did happen to contain three Regulars that were taken out by Dad with my knife. In the middle of the action though, Dad stumbled and dropped to his backside in a lot of pain. Since then, he's been quiet and keeping to himself as if he wanted to ignore us.

It's been scaring me even more than it has been.

It was already a God-given miracle that we made it out of Meridian without any serious injuries. Thanks to that gate and fence that held the gigantic horde back, it gave us a small but bearable opportunity to escape. But even so, Dad's only gotten worse and worse. I had a feeling that if he goes on as he has been, something is going to happen to where he'll be completely unable to move. But what is there that we could do? We lost almost all of our supplies, including our medicine that Amelia mentioned earlier, so we couldn't even give him pain pills.

Finally, someone broke the ice after a few minutes of silence.

"S-So, what do w-we do now?" Bryan asked, keeping his head low and his arms wrapped around him. "Our m-main mission is over. What now?"

A few of us looked over to Dad, who was cradling a sleeping Braxton in his arms. He also seemed a little out of it, like he was zoned out. I decided not to bother him.

"I'm not really s-sure, to be honest," I admitted, trying to speak properly over the chattering. "I don't t-think we thought this f-far ahead."

There really wasn't anything we could do. Sadly, it was impossible to check on anybody else's families as we tried with Evelyn's. There was also the issue with Dad's and recently Braxton's health, and I doubted that they would want to continue our never-ending and deadly road trip. What I did know was that everyone was exhausted. I could see Evelyn's eyes drooping from beside me, although it did surprise me that she was even tired especially after what she went through.

I had to give it to Evelyn, though. It's been obvious that she's been as strong as she can be for all of us, and it's been paying off. I mean, after seeing her parents and siblings decaying in the closet, I honestly expected a much worse reaction than breaking the furniture, and I hated the Raiders as much as she did.

But Bryan had a point. What do we do now? We can't sit here and expect to live off of nothing. We had no food, no water, and no medicine to help us survive a few days in the house. As soon as we arrived here, Bryan and I instantly checked to see if the family left anything behind, and there was absolutely nothing. It was most likely that Raiders had invaded the house and took everything they did leave behind. That meant that we were pretty much left without anything to ration.

"Well, I t-think that we should go rest for tonight," suggested Amelia, cuddling up close to Bryan for heat. "We'll figure s-something out in the morning."

Nobody argued with her. It was definitely obvious that everyone was exhausted from the amount of running we did all around Meridian and it seemed like the cold was starting to get to us. I picked up Olivia and carried her to one of the beds near the back of the house. As I laid her down, all she did was simply pull the covers up to her chin and rolled over. Olivia was already asleep.

When I walked back into the living room, I noticed that Dad fell asleep in the recliner. Braxton looked like he was passed out in Dad's arms, but he had a slightly strained look shown on his face. I walked over to him and gently placed my hand on his forehead to check if he had a fever.

I could relax a little. It was warmer than it should be, but not to the point where it could instantly be an emergency. There was also a small amount of sweat near his hairline. At this point, however, there was nothing that we could do. I could only pray that it doesn't progress and get too far out of hand.

"It's just a little cold," I told myself as I entered my own room with Bryan, but he was still on the sofa with Amelia. "Let's not stress too much over it. He'll be okay."

I observed the room. It was relatively smaller than I at first thought it would be, but it was pretty cozy. Before I pulled the sheets down to climb in, someone knocked on my open door, making me jump a little.

"J-Jeremy?" Evelyn's voice called out. Due to the darkness, it was hard to see her figure.

"Evelyn?" I called out. "What's the matter?"

She slowly stepped inside the room, and I remained still beside the bed. Evelyn stopped right before me, and I stood there, trying to anticipate her next motive.

The girl completely broke down crying. I had to catch her from falling on the floor and I quickly pulled her onto the bed. She sobbed her heart out into my chest, and I speechlessly let her.

It was around that point that I realized that she had finally reached the breaking point. This whole time that she was with Bryan and Amelia, she kept her mouth sealed about any signs or details of her family, as if she kept it a secret from everyone else. It was understandable, though. If I was in her shoes during that time, I would find it difficult to bring up lost family, not even considering the fact that I had lost my memory of them.

A few minutes passed and Evelyn's crying turned to soft sniffling. Neither of us had said a word, but we didn't need to. All we did was lay in the bed staring at nothing in particular. After another couple of minutes, though, I could feel my eyes behind to grow droopy. I held Evelyn close to me in case she was cold, and eventually, she grew quiet, too.

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"Jeremy."

An unfamiliar voice echoed in my head. It seemed to be another nightmare, but this particular nightmare seemed...off? Was that the right word? It didn't feel real, but my mind told me that it was.

"Jeremy," the voice echoed again, this time in a sing-song tone. I couldn't control myself like I could in the past ones either. My body felt trapped as if I was confined in something. Of course, it was pitch black as always.

The voice chuckled, and it echoed along with it. "Oh, Jeremy. You thought you could run from me?"

The darkness began to feel distorted, and it made me dizzy. I gripped the side of my head, unable to speak. Although, my thoughts freely went wild. Who was I running from? Who was this person speaking?

"You simply don't know who you're going to deal with," the voice taunted. "But in time, you will find out."

The distorted darkness transformed to show a cage. Once it settled down, however, it was actually a prison cell. Simply looking at it made me feel like I was actually in the cell.

I finally uttered out a few words of my own. "What do you want from me?"

The voice echoed again. "It's not that I want anything from you..."

Footsteps could be heard from a far distance. Then, it was silent to the point that my ears began to ring. I could only look around and see my family members lying dead against the ground. Blood was visible around their bodies with snow resting on top of it. What madness could've caused something this gruesome? Zombies, perhaps? Raiders? There seemed to be no possible explanation.

My senses instantly locked itself. I could feel a hard grip against my throat. "It's the fact that you're going to walk right into a death trap, and we'll make sure you'll be the only one left alive to see the suffering you put your family in to."

As soon as he finished that last sentence, I began to fall.
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