Home is different now

It was Friday, everything started on Tuesday but it was Friday when Naraka’s life changed... After being away for the past three months, the teen came back to hell, driving through the muted fog laced wasteland she navigates the streets of what was once her home. All directions lead to the unknown but left is just mysterious, so maybe it’s the fear of not knowing if her loved ones are ok, Naraka feels drawn like the pull of one magnet to another, she verges left instead of right.

Driving past the trees she sees a murder not a person but hundreds and thousands of crows, so many they form a blanket making the bodies they peck at nearly undistinguishable. Her heart beats faster and faster almost as if it’s trying to escape her body, fear washes over her like a train running down the tracks coming right for her, when…

All of a sudden she slams the breaks, she will not allow herself to get out but something glistens in the sunlight, a heart, one heart still beating just in the middle of the road, she’s stopped as if waiting for someone, something to grab the heart and run. Run without even thinking she speeds off, crushing the heart, blood dripping, squirting, blood everywhere, everywhere it's all she sees.

Naraka keeps driving, ignoring all the noises and haunting shadows, hoping for some glimpse of hope when she sees a house. Thinking nothing of it, it’s just a boring old, paint peeling reminder of what was once was but, a campfire, she squeals out of happiness and pulls over.

It’s so calm, too calm she thinks as she asks “Hello?” slowly inching towards the fire, a woman, Birdie the leader, the mum, walks out the front door holding a rusty axe nearly half her size, as she circles Naraka, like a shark hunting prey. With a shaky voice Naraka manages to say “my names Naraka I come in piece I have no weapons and I haven’t been bit”.

“Hey guys!” the woman yells summoning 2 men, one wielding a shovel, named Paul, he was a carpenter now a survivalist with a chunk missing from his chin.

The other grips a wrench, a gardener with a young family who perished, they watch with intensity. “Move over here, put your hands on the wall and spread em” the woman demands. Naraka does as Birnie demands, keeping eye contact, she hands her axe to one of the men, they whisper a bit and then “I’m going to check you for bites, do you give me permission?” Naraka agrees, as the woman slowly glides the back of her bony, cold hands across her skin.

Almost as if they’ve know each other for years, the group invite Naraka in for a bland, flavourless rabbit stew, and ask all the questions when someone new, Cedric the bored teen as if appearing from thin air shows up, probing about the car, saying he wants to go shopping.

After the group enlightens Naraka one of their members needs meds and bandages, Naraka agrees, gathering the groups scavenged goods; a half-empty water bottle, a rusty knife, a handful of protein bars, and a tattered map, in her bag, Naraka and Cedric drive off, becoming instant friends, trying to distract themselves from the terror of outside, they play games and laugh enlightening the sulky atmosphere.

Arriving at a nearby servo they park, Naraka clutches the worn strap of her backpack, Cedric gripping his blunt knife, the door creeks open with a bell ding as Cedric takes a step in the store, he feels something slimy, looking down he sees melted slurpee flooded the floor, continuing to walk they awkwardly step around the sticky mess. Reaching for the fridge as something in the back dramatically falls, rolling on the ground, they freeze in fear.

A group of self-righteous bandits emerged from the shadows, their eyes glinting with greed. The foulest smells waft as they prey on the weak and desperate. Karaka and Cedric knew they were outnumbered, but Cedric refused to back down, with a fierce battle cry, he charged at the bandits, his knife dancing in the flickering, buzzing lights. He fought with the desperation of a mother defending her child, his movements swift yet deadly, he managed to take down a few of them, but there were too many, they were surrounded.

The group drag the two into the stale storage room and tie them up, taking Naraka’s bag and all their supplies, leaving them to fend for themselves. After trying everything to free themselves and nothing working they give up and start to accept their fate, confiding in each other, when the doorbell chimes, they pause for a moment then shout out in trying their best to sound like helpless children, a man walks though, adjusting his grip on his machete, he agrees to cut them free if they agree to let him join them.

Finally being free, they grab the few things left in the store and ditch the servo heading to the pharmacy, when they hit a dead end of car pileups, they make the decision to leave the car and fend on foot, listening to the moans and shuffling footsteps of the undead as they lurked the streets.

After struggling through for what felt like a lifetime, they finally find the pharmacy. Where once again they weren’t alone, meeting a dishevelled family of survivors, there was Ben, a former soldier with a gruff exterior but a kind heart; Sarah, a doctor who used her skills to heal the wounded and two young twin boys, Jay and Ace.

Joining forces, they banded together for safety, gathering everything they could muster and fled in pursuit of finding Naraka’s family. Pilling into the minute blue car now splattered in blood, dirt and grime, with the twins sat on Ben and Sarah’s laps they drove to Naraka’s former family home. Powerless to find her family, they stay the night, where Cedric and Naraka find comfort staying close for warmth. They wake up to raid her parent’s house to they discover the fridge was full with fresh food, giving them optimism for the future, they emptied the fridge and left a note in faith for her families return.

Once back at the survivalist house they celebrated their victory with a meagre feast of canned beans and stale bread. They knew the fight wasn’t over, but they were ready, having faced death before, they knew how to face it again, together, with the help of their new members they created a sanctuary, reinforcing the walls, setting up a watchtower, and continued with their already established rationing system. It wasn't much, but it was home.

When sun set, shadows darkened as the sun glazed through clouds, Naraka sat, her journal in hand, gazing out at the gloom, she knew that the world would never be the same, but she refused to give up hope. She would continue to fight, to survive, to protect her new family, for as long as there was breath in her body, she would never surrender.

Writing in her journal “Cedric doesn't know it yet but we will survive and I will marry him one day”.