Life As We Know It

by Harper-Adams, Connor

  “What do we do then?” Charlie asked desperately.

  “We will all look for him.” Jack replied.

  They carefully retraced their steps, going through every single store they had been through earlier, as well as every other store they could find. They could not find Rory anywhere.

  “Fuck. RORY!” Charlie screamed, his voice crackling. “RORY!”

  It was no use. Rory was nowhere to be seen. The survivors looked absolutely everywhere, but they still couldn’t find Rory. They spent almost 3 hours looking for Rory.

  Audrey put her hand on Charlies shoulder. “It’s no use, Charlie. He’s gone.”

  “No, no. He can’t be. HE CAN’T BE!” He screamed, tears flowing down his face.

  “I’m so, so sorry, Charlie.” Audrey said, tears welling in her own eyes for her missing friend.

  Jack put his hand on Charlie’s other shoulder.

  “It’s time to go, buddy.” He said.

  “But, we can’t leave him out here, its getting dark.” Charlie said.

  “Exactly.” Jack said. “It’s getting dark. We need to get back to The house. Remember when James took Penny? And I wanted to go right after her and get her back straightaway? You convinced me to come back with you, and formulate a plan. Let me do the same to you now. If we go after him tonight, we might not make it back. You and I will go back out tomorrow. We’ll find him then, I promise.”

  “NO.” Charlie said. “That was different, and you know it. We knew who had taken Penny. We have no goddamned idea where Rory is. He could have tripped and knocked himself out, he could have been taken by someone, anything could have happened to him. We need to find him NOW.”

  “We can’t do that Charlie.” Jack said, shaking his head.

  “HE WAS YOUR FRIEND, FOR CHRISSAKES.” Charlie roared.

  “I WILL NOT RISK 8 LIVES FOR ONE, CHARLIE. NO MATTER WHO IT IS.” Jack screamed back.

  “We will find him tomorrow. I promise you.”

  “Fuck you.” Charlie said.

  Charlie, Jack, Penny, Audrey, Santa, Walt, Jessica and Megan walked solemnly back to the van. The drive home seemed even longer than the trip had taken originally, owing to the fact that no one said a single word the whole drive home.

  As soon as they got home, Charlie immediately went to his room, and sobbed until he fell asleep.

  ***

  The next day, at 8:38 AM, Charlie awoke and immediately got dressed. He knocked on Jack and Penny’s door.

  “Jack?” He said frantically.

  “Yeah?” Came the mumbled reply.

  “Come on, we have to go back for Rory.” Charlie said.

  There was a second of silence.

  “OK, I’ll be right there.”

  ***

  10 minutes later, Charlie and Jack were in the armoured van and heading towards the small village that Rory had gotten lost in.

  “Do you really think we will find him today, Jack?” Charlie said.

  “Yeah.” Jack replied. “I really do.”

  The journey passed without much incident. After two hours of driving, they finally arrived at the village.

  “Alright.” Charlie said. “I know what you said yesterday, but I think we should split up. We would cover more ground that way.”

  Jack thought for a minute.

  “Fine.” He said. “You get into ANY trouble, and you just holler.”

  “Gotcha.” Charlie said.

  He ran into the general store. He meticulously checked every single corner of the store, but could not find Rory anywhere.

  Disheartened, but not completely despondent, he ran into another store. This time, he shouted out Rory’s name, but still got no response from Rory. This continued on for some time, until both Charlie and Jack came to the realisation that they would not be finding Rory today.

  They both drove home devastated. Charlie really had thought that they would find Rory, but they hadn’t, and with each passing day that they did not find Rory, the bigger the chance was that they would never find him.

  ***

  Back at The house, the other 6 survivors were eagerly awaiting Charlie, Jack and hopefully Rory’s return.

  “Do you think they found him?” Santa said.

  “Honestly?” Penny asked. “No. It isn’t like Rory to disappear, not like that. If they haven’t found him already, I don’t think they will at all.”

  Soon after that conversation had taken place, the unmistakable growl of the armoured van was heard in the distance. The 6 survivors ran out to greet the van, and were sorely disappointed when only Jack and Charlie stepped out.

  ‘Never mind.” Charlie said to Jack, attempting his usual crooked smile. “We will look for him again tomorrow.”

  They did look again the next day. Once again, they returned without Rory. They went out the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and still no Rory.

  Charlie spent 3 months looking for Rory.

  After about a month, Jack had given up all hope of ever finding Rory alive, but Charlie refused to. He let the search consume him. Every single day, he would go out and look for Rory, and every single time he returned to The house, he would say the exact same thing.

  “No, I didn’t find him today, but I will find him tomorrow, you wait and see!”

  After about a week from when Rory went missing, Charlie had been resigned to the fact that they would not find Rory in the village that he had gotten lost, so the search had pushed him out further and further from where he had originally been. Charlie’s trips now lasted for as many as 4 or 5 days, as he drove for such a long time, and spent so much time looking. Regardless of however many times he was disappointed, he always remained 100% optimistic that he would find his oldest friend. While everyone else had given up on Rory ever being found, Charlie never did.

  Then, Charlie found him.

  Chapter 15: New Enemies

  The day that Charlie found Rory started off as a brilliant one. It was nice and sunny when Charlie had thrown open his blinds and gotten dressed. The others had managed to convince Charlie to take a week off from his seemingly infinite search, and today was the day that he resumed his search.

  Today will be the day, Charlie thought to himself.

  Everyone else was already up when Charlie hopped out of bed. He smiled at all of them.

  “Morning!” He said cheerfully.

  7 people replied ‘morning’ back at him.

  “When are you leaving?” Walt asked.

  “Right after I’ve had a spot of breakfast.” Charlie replied.

  He munched on some toast for a while before returning to packing the van. As the others may have needed the armoured van while he was gone, he had decided to take the van that Santa’s family had originally had.

  “How long do you think you will be this time?” Jack asked.

  “Hmm. Probably 7 days this time, at least.”

  “Jesus.” Jack said. “Just be safe.”

  Charlie winked at him. “I always am, my friend.”

  Charlie finished his breakfast and went back to packing the van. Penny had very lovingly packed Charlie a weeks worth of food, in a gigantic picnic basket. She had also made him some orange juice, which was his favourite, from the abundance of oranges in the fields of The house. Santa had given Charlie his most prized possession; a book entitled The Encyclopaedia of Bird Spotting, thinking Charlie would be spending his time watching for birds. Regardless, Charlie had accepted it, and under the threat of death, promised to guard it with his life.

  Penny kissed him on the cheek and wished him good luck, and Jack warmly shook his hand.

  “Good luck, buddy. I hope this time will be the one.” He said.

  “It will be.” Charlie said back, as he did every time.

  Charlie finished his packing, and left.

  Jack, Penny, Santa, Audrey, Walt, Jessica and Megan watched him go.

  “One day soon, even he will give up.” Jessica said sadly.

&nbs
p; “Do you think so?” Megan countered. “I think he is going to search until he dies.”

  “Lets not talk about that.” Penny said sharply.

  They watched in silence as Charlie disappeared down the road. When they could see him no more, they walked back inside.

  ***

  Inside the van, Charlie was hyping himself up.

  “This will be the day. This will be the day. This WILL be the day.” He mumbled to himself repeatedly.

  The drive was long and arduous. Charlie had estimated that the trip alone would take 2 and a half days. This only gave him 2 days to search for Rory, but he knew he could completely go over every aspect of the land.

  As Charlie drove, he noticed a group of zombies by the side of the road, devouring a human corpse.

  Poor bastard, Charlie thought.

  He stopped the van. Barely any of the zombies even looked up. Putting the zombies down had always been a great way of relieving tension for Charlie, so he took his sword from underneath the seat and jumped out of the car.

  This got the zombies’ attention.

  They all left the corpse and headed for Charlie.

  “Bring it, bitches.” Charlie said, smiling.

  In a swift motion, Charlie took the head of one zombie. He stabbed another one straight through the eye, blood and gore dribbling out of the now empty eye socket and down the decomposed face.

  Next, Charlie sliced a zombie in half. He whipped out his gun and blew the zombies brains out. He then shot another zombie in the throat. Bucket loads of blood flowed from the wound, and the zombie slipped in its own blood. Charlie walked over to it and put a bullet in its brain.

  Charlie then pistol-whipped another zombie, hitting it until blood and brains spurted out and the zombie lay still.

  Finally, the final zombie stumbled towards Charlie. He tripped it over and stomped on its head. The weakened skull crushed underneath the pressure of Charlie’s boot.

  “Damn, that felt good.” Charlie exclaimed, kicking a body aside.

  He returned to the van and continued on his journey.

  ***

  The next day, Charlie was still on the road. The scenery was becoming more and more city like, as he travelled deeper into the middle of Northern America. As he got deeper into the country, he noticed more and more zombies. They seemed to travel in packs, which wasn’t good, as it meant that they would be harder to kill. Regardless, Charlie was still safe in his van, although he would feel safer in the armoured van.

  As he passed through cities, his never wavering optimism was starting to falter. These were big cities he was passing through, with populations of 500,000 +. Most of them would have fled when the apocalypse had started, but the others would have been turned into the zombies. It was times like these that made Charlie wish the media still ran, because then he would at least have an idea of how many humans were left on the planet. He knew that on the day Jack saved Charlie and Rory, the day after the world as they knew it had ended, the world human population stood at roughly 3.5 Billion. Surely that had dwindled since then? Charlie couldn’t imagine that there would be any more than 2 Billion human beings left on the face of the Earth. The other 5 Billion were the zombies. He was driving down an empty road, when he heard the unmistakable cry of a human being. Or rather, a group of human beings.

  Charlie looked to where the cries were coming from, and saw to his great surprise, a group of around 8 or 9 survivors, running full pelt towards the van.

  “Oh, Fuck.” Charlie said, undoing his seatbelt and diving towards his sword.

  Charlie grabbed his sword and waited for the survivors to reach the van.

  “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?” He roared to the strangers.

  “Holy shit!” He heard one of the survivors whisper with excitement. “Its another person!”

  “What do you mean?” Charlie said, cautiously peering out of the van. There were 8 people there.

  “We haven’t seen another living person for months.” One of them said. “We were beginning to think we were the last ones.”

  “So, you don’t want to hurt me?” Charlie asked.

  “No, of course not!” One of the survivors said, laughing. “We just wanted to say hi, I suppose. I can’t believe you are really here!”

  Charlie walked out of the van. One of the people noticed Charlie’s long sword.

  “Whoa. I suppose it’s lucky we didn’t actually want to hurt you. You would have demolished us with that thing!”

  Charlie, having never been the humble type, nodded.

  “Yeah.” He said. “Yeah, I would’ve. So,” He said, changing the topic, “Where are you going?”

  “We are heading to Washington. Rumour has it that there is still a form of government running, and they are working on a cure!”

  “What?” Charlie said, astonished. “There is a cure?”

  “Yeah.” One of the survivors said. “Rumour is, and I want to make that clear, it’s a rumour, that even if you have been bitten, as long as you haven’t succumbed to it, you can be cured!”

  “Oh my God.” Charlie muttered.

  “Hey, do you want to come with us?” Someone said.

  “I’m afraid not.” Charlie said. “I’m actually doing something else at the moment. Besides, I’m already with a group. Can you tell me exactly where it is, though?”

  “Do you have a map?” Someone said.

  Charlie went back into the van and grabbed a map. The group marked exactly where it was.

  “Thank you so much.” Charlie said, smiling at them.

  “Not a problem, friend!” A survivor said. “Maybe we will see you there one day!”

  “Maybe.” Charlie said.

  The group left after that, and Charlie continued to drive.

  As he drove, he marvelled at the fact that after all this time, good, kind people were still living.

  Unless of course they were lying assholes, of course.

  Finally, after nearly two days of driving, he arrived at his destination.

  The weather was still warm and sunny, which was lovely. Charlie stretched his legs, and started searching. He grabbed his map from the glove compartment of the van. He hadn’t really planned a particular search. He just kept going further and further into the country, hoping to stumble across his missing friend.

  He searched through different stores, calling Rory’s name softly. No response. He walked out into the main road, and screamed at the top of his lungs.

  “RORY!” He bellowed, birds leaving the trees above him in a huff.

  “RORY!” He yelled.

  There was no response. Regardless, he spent the rest of the day looking for Rory all over the town. He found a small house, which after he put down 3 zombies that were ‘living’ inside it, he stayed the night in.

  He got up early the next morning and went straight to work.

  He had left a specific portion of shops unchecked the day before, simply because he would have something to do the next day.

  After spending 9 hours searching for Rory, he realised he wasn’t going to find him, and it was starting to get dark. Devastated, Charlie went back to his temporary home and slept the night away. He woke late the next day. Cursing, he dressed himself and got in his car, eager to leave and have a go the next week.

  In the van, Charlie realised that he would likely never find Rory. The revelation hit him like a shockwave, so violently that he had to actually stop the car.

  He sat in the drivers seat, shaking. How could he have been so stupid? It had been 3 months since he had last seen Rory. If, by some miracle he was alive, then he was hundreds of miles away from him. Charlie would never see him again.

  Before the apocalypse, Charlie had read about shock, and its various symptoms. Charlie realised that he was in shock right now. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t breathe properly, and he was white as a sheet. It took him all the work in the world to get his body moving again. He realised he couldn’t do this again. The constant disappointment every
single time was going to kill him one day. It was time to let go of Rory, and he knew that now.

  Still shaking, he put the van into gear and started his drive back to the house. Back to home.

  ***

  After 1 and a half days of pure driving, Charlie was starting to feel extremely sleepy. He knew he needed to find somewhere, even of he just had a powernap, he needed to rest. He passed a house, but something about it caught Charlie’s eye. He put the van into reverse and backed up. Apart from being extremely large, there wasn’t anything really significant about it. Regardless, Charlie decided to use this place as his temporary sleep space.