The End Of Life

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Someone from the outside was having to door hard, waking up Mark from his sleep. He looked around and found Suzie was already awake. She had her back against the wall and was looking towards the door. He noticed the sun had already gone down by the dark sky outside. 

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

Hearing it again, Mark got irritated. He whipped his head towards the door and shouted as he got up, "Wait for a second. I am coming." And opened the door. He noticed it was only David outside. 

Mark sighed and asked as he let him in, "Why to bang the door so loud?" And closed the door once David entered. 

David sat on his bed and said, "I was knocking on the door from the past 10 minutes. You didn't respond, so I started banging it." 

Mark sat on the chair and asked, "How did your mission go? Were you able to find any vehicles enough for the people here?" 

David nodded and said, "We went to a moving company. We brought 4 trucks, enough for 10 to 15 people. The other teams were also able to bring some trucks and other large vehicles. The number of vehicles we brought and the already existing vehicles should be enough for the people here." 

Mark nodded and continued to ask, "Did you face any problems?" 

"Ah yes, I forgot. We faced two large zombies. They were huge, easily twice the normal size with a huge stomach. No matter what we did, they didn't stop moving. Only by shooting several bullets into their brains were we able to survive. It was scary." 

Hearing him, Mark said, "Those are called Bloater, at least that is what I named them. You already know the fast zombies called bitter, these are Bloaters. I faced one back when this all started. From what I understood after facing it is that it has a high defense. 

The only part which you could use to kill it is the head, any other body part would have absolutely no effect. It walks slower than a normal zombie, but its strength is huge. So, killing it is a big pain. We need to be precise when we face it." 

David was surprised to know Mark already faced such a zombie before. He nodded and asked, "You were able to kill it?" 

Mark wryly smiled and shook his head. He said, "No, at that time I only had a metal rod with me. No matter what I tried, I couldn't win against it. It was able to land several hits on me and I fainted after crashing into a car. I was saved by the military, which came to rescue us at that time." shrugging his shoulders at the end. 

David nodded. It would be very hard to win against that zombie only with a metal rod in hand. He then looked at him, smiled, and said, "I heard there was a zombie horde that attacked the camp while we were gone. I also heard you went and saved them when they were in trouble. Thank you for doing that." 

Mark shrugged and said, "Well, I did promise you. That was the only reason. I aided them when they were in trouble, nothing more. So you don't need to be thankful. This is the last time I will promise anything like this." 

David nodded and stood up when he heard the knock on the door. He went to the door, peeped through the hole, and found an unknown man on the other side. He opened the door and asked, "Yes, do you need anything?" 

The man nodded and replied, "Yes, I brought your dinner. The mayor asked me to bring it to you. So here you go." As he dragged a cart from the side. David looked at the 3 bowls of soup and 3 plates of simple rice and curry, he nodded. 

"Thank you. You can go back now, I will take it from here." The man nodded and went away. David brought the cart inside the room. Closed the door and pushed it near the coffee table. 

Mark noticed this and sat up. He nodded seeing the food and said to Suzie, "Suzie, come let's eat." 

Suzie nodded and Mark stood up from the bed and went to the cart. David already took his plate and bowl and already started digging in. He was hungry for the mission earlier and so didn't wait. Mark took a plate and a bowl of soup. He went near Suzie and placed the bowl of soup on the lamp table. He passed the plate to Suzie before going back to the cart and picking up his own share of the food. 

He sat on a chair and slowly ate the food. It was alright, Mark felt he had worse and so it wasn't a problem for him. After finishing the food, they kept it back on the cart. 

David stood up and said, "Alright then. I will return this cart and go see if they need any help in preparing for tomorrow. You both can sleep." 

Mark noticed and slowly said, "Be careful, David. Don't be too trusting towards people. Especially during such times. It would be really nice if this will be the last time this happens." Looking into his eyes. 

David started back but sighed and nodded back. He felt it was true too, and so he couldn't retort. He quickly pushed the cart out of the room and passed it to one of the people before making his way towards Baren's office. 

After he went out Mark looked at Suzie. She wasn't getting any sleep and was looking outside the window into the darkness. Mark felt this was the right time to do this and so slowly called her, "Suzie." 

Suzie heard him and turned around. She looked at him but didn't say anything in return. Mark sighed and slowly said, "You can not continue to be like this Suzie. You need to fight the fear for yourself. You need to face the ugly truth head-on." slowly trying to make her understand his words.