The End Of Life

Waking up the next day, Mark looked at the window and noticed the dewdrops on it from the chilly wind at night. He then turned towards Suzie, who looked like she slept peacefully enough last night. But when he squinted his eyes, he noticed she clutched the bed sheet so hard that there were holes in them. Her palms had red markings on them. 

He shook his head, but still sighed in relief. This was progress. Unlike last time, even though she struggled, she was still able to sleep without shaking or waking up in the middle of the night. He checked the time and found out it was 6. So he stood up and gently shook her body.

"Suzie, wake up. We got to go." But as he did, her body jerked, and she woke up. She looked around as if she was searching for something. Mark immediately patted her back and said, "It's alright. It's no one, only me." And only then did she cool down a bit. 

She looked at Mark. Mark smiled and asked, "Did you get some good sleep this time." Suzie nodded in response. Mark felt she could be responsive by voicing out more. But this was still progress compared to before. 

Mark then nodded and went towards the living room to wake up David. But he noticed David was already up and was looking out the balcony into the grassy plains. David turned around when he noticed the door open and saw Mark coming out. 

"Did you get some good sleep?" Asked David. Mark nodded and asked him the same question. David smiled in response and said, "Yes, I had a good sleep. There is still a big day ahead of us. We needed to reach Loshin before sun sets." 

Loshin is the name of the town which is between Evergreen city and Stargaze city. A medium populated town with no importance to its name except the fact that they have one of the best fast food streets in the entire country. They fill their streets with vendors selling fast food from throughout the whole country, which makes it a fun place to visit. 

Mark was forced to come out to this city a couple of times because of Suzie and Kevin's interest in food. They love the food here and they always rented a car and drove it. They stay the night in the town before driving back the next day. It was a nice change of pace sometimes. At night times it was always crowded, and it looked like the whole town was in these streets. 

"Yes, we should be able to reach it by lunchtime if our pace remains the same." Said Mark while nodding to himself. 

"Alright then. Let's pack up quickly and move out. I will drive today. You can have some rest." While moving towards Mark. 

Mark nodded and looked at the kitchen and said, "Let's search the whole house for things like food, water, batteries and other useful stuff." 

David nodded and went for the kitchen, while Mark started searching all the drawers for any kind of useful items. As he searched, he found a few working torchlights and batteries for them. He found a sharp pocket knife, which he took. David on the other hand found canned goods and big bottles of mineral water. Now they have enough food and water for a month if they don't overeat. 

After searching for some more time, they placed all the food items into a big woolen cover they found and tied it up. Mark placed the batteries in a small box with the torchlights he found. Mark then cooled some breakfast for them as David went out to keep the new food cover into the jeep trunk and get the jeep fueled up for the long ride ahead. 

After having breakfast, all three of them exited the house and went into the shop. Mark asked Suzie to sit in the trunk as they search for useful tools in the shop. David already killed the nearby zombies which wandered around at night making it safe. Mark looked at the tires hanged on one side of the wall and found the matching tire for the jeep and took it out. With David's help, he tied the wheel to the top of the jeep.

He then searched for repair tools in case of any emergency for the jeep. After getting a suitable kit, he kept it inside the trunk. Now the last thing they needed to do was search for a big container to store some fuel. They could not search for petrol bunks like this all the time, so having a big enough container full of fuel would come in hand when things get rough. 

Luckily, they found 2 medium-sized containers and filled them up to the brim. They opened the trunk and found it full. Exhaling, they started to swift the food items to the back seat of the jeep meaning next to Suzie and kept the containers of fuel instead. After setting up everything, David sat before the wheel and Mark sat beside him. 

With one last check, David started the vehicle, and they hit the road once again. David was a much slower driver compared to Mark. He didn't take much risk with some vehicles and zombies on the road. They had to stop several times when the number of zombies were more. Mark took them out mostly with his sword instead of using the gun. Mark closed his eyes to take a small nap after some time and asked David to wake him up when they reached the town.

Eventually the sun was above them by the time they saw the Loshin town board by the road showing the town was only a few more kilometres ahead. They entered the town and just like the Stargaze city, there were zombies everywhere. David sighed as he drove through the streets and thought, 'Hope at least some people survived in the town.'