Jennifer, Robert, Candy, Meredith and I decided that we wouldn’t go with them. We opted for now to stay at the Alabama compound and study our options, but we gave the survivors here as much information as possible based on our experiences to help them prepare for what would certainly be a challenging journey. There were many weapons here as well as food and other provisions that they would need for their journey, and we helped them with their preparations. After two days of preparation, the Drysdale survivors set off for Tennessee leaving us as the lone inhabitants of the compound.
Mary decided to stay with us. It didn’t take a lot of convincing. She was thrilled to be with her sister again; Jennifer was the only living family member she had. She was still sick, but the radiation treatment had worked and she slowly started to recover.
I found a graveyard a few miles away, and I buried my mother. I didn’t have a casket to place her in, so I used the blanket her body was wrapped in as a burial shroud. Out of some scrap lumber, I made a simple cross and carved her name on it. She deserved better. I felt as though I had failed her.
When I started to speak a few words by her grave, my eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t control my grief. I only managed to say, stuttering and crying, that she was a good woman, a good mother, and that I loved her. I asked Candy to read a few words from the Bible Reverend Sikes gave me. As she talked about fearing no evil and walking through the shadow of death, I felt as though a part of me would always remain in the ground with my mother.
Driving away, Jennifer began to talk to me.
“I'm so sorry about your mother,” she said.
“It's okay,” I responded.
"No, it's not okay. You just lost your mom," she said.
"I'll survive," I said.
"I don't want you to just survive," she said.
"All I can do is survive. My mom is dead," I said.
"You have me," she said.
Candy was listening in and interrupted.
"And you have a crazy sister in law," she said.
"I'm thankful for both of you," I responded.
"And I’m thankful for you," Jennifer said.
"So will you let me marry you?" I asked.
"Of course -- we just need to find a preacher," she said.
Even though we knew there were minsters there, we were not going back to the relocation center in Dublin. Our fates were ahead of us, not behind us.
Back at the compound I gazed over the scene around us I couldn’t help but think of the strange contrast between the beautiful woods and fields surrounding us, and the hundreds of hideous corpses that lay strewn around the facility we were in. How could we ever recover from such a catastrophe, and return to a normal way of life that only weeks before we had all taken for granted? As I looked around something caught my eye in the clear sky above me. I saw a large cylinder-shaped object flying completely silently, and faster than any aircraft I had ever seen.
“Let’s follow it,” I said.
The Chihuahua barked.
Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4 Page 32
