Episode 10: The Final Strand of Sanity

Episode 10

"The Final Strand of Sanity"

(Kayla)

I was sitting on the roof with Bay, we were sitting next to the mounted machine gun while playing cards. I sort of drifted off while playing cards, and the next thing I knew I was daydreaming. I started thinking of a long time ago, around the start of the apocalypse. I remember being at Patrick's house, I remember being Sabrina's friend. I remember the times we had together.

(Beginning of the Apocalypse: Patrick's House)

I was sitting by the creek with Sabrina. Dad was loading up some guns he had just scavenged from a police station. I didn't like guns too much, they were scary. I don't think my dad liked them either, he just used them so he could fight off the monsters. Sabrina must have noticed I was upset and she put her hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay Kayla," she said with a calming smile on her face, "guns keep us safe, as long as they are used on the monsters and not each other."

"I guess." I shrugged.

"I'm sure this whole thing will blow over very soon. The world has faced many sicknesses before. Once the military clears out Toronto, we can make it there and we'll be safe. I promise."

"You think so?"

"Yeah I do. I give this dumb virus a few more weeks to live. Then we will be back to normal. You'll be back in school and everyone will continue on with their lives."

"I hope so. I never thought I'd admit that I miss going to school." I laughed.

Sabrina laughed with me and we spent most of the day down by the creek, laughing and talking about before the apocalypse.

(Present Day)

"How many Lockwood soldiers do you think we can pick off with this machine gun?" I asked Bay.

"I dunno," she said, "hopefully a lot. I'm tired of these guys and I think it's time we set them straight."

I set down the playing cards and stood up, gazing over the tree line. I felt like I was becoming paranoid, because I always find myself looking off into the distance to see if any Lockwood soldiers are coming this way. I sat back down and sighed.

"Hey Bay," I asked, "do you ever think that this apocalypse will end?"

She shrugged, "I don't even know at this point. It's gone on so long I almost forget about the world before this. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. I just want to stay alive."

"I guess that's the only way you can think of it." I said.

(Jeff)

I was in the armoury room. Which was located upstairs next to the infirmary. Doug was sitting beside me as I loaded up all the guns I could. We needed to be prepared for Lockwood to attack at any moment. That meant loading up every single gun in the house. When Lockwood attacks I don't want us to make the mistake and lose just because we forgot to load up all of our guns. I would keep the safety on for now, we don't need anymore accidents.

I loaded up rifles, machine guns, pistols, you name it. I even sharpened some knives earlier. I've noticed people start looking at me weird, like I'm going crazy or something. I'm not, I'm just simply trying to keep everyone safe. While I was putting some bullets in a pistol magazine, I looked over at Doug.

"You scared of Lockwood buddy?"

He tilted his head to the right and looked at me in confusion. I snickered and pet him on the head.

"It seems like nobody is as afraid as they should be, I feel like I'm doing all the work. Nobody is taking this threat seriously. It pisses me off, you know?"

Doug once again tilted his head and made some kind of whimpering sound, almost like he was trying to talk to me.

I kept loading up guns until I heard a knock at the door.

"Come in." I said.

Samantha walked in and stood by the door frame. She crossed her arms and kind of just looked at me with sadness in her eyes.

"What?" I asked.

"Jeff," she started, "I understand that you're trying to help us and keep all of us safe, but do you think you're overdoing it? You're gonna work yourself to death."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked, starting to get furious, "I'm overdoing it? What the hell are you even going on about Samantha? A huge army knows where we live, and they have bad history with us. I'm trying to do as much as I can to defend us, and you tell me I'm overdoing it?"

"Well they haven't even attacked yet! Don't you think if they wanted to they would have wiped us out by now? If they are actually going to attack us Jeff, then where are they?"

"I don't know!" I yelled, slamming my fist into the wall, "do you really think they're just gonna forgive me for breaking out and taking you back? Hell no! You should know of all people, that Charlie Lockwood is a psychopath! He won't let this slide! He's probably just getting ready for a huge attack that'll wipe all of us out! I'm just trying to do as much as I can to keep you all safe!"

"You should just give yourself a break though Jeff, let some of us help. You're going to give yourself a heart attack!"

"Get out!" I yelled, "just get out!"

Samantha sighed and left the room, leaving me there alone with Doug. I looked over and realized that I had put a hole in the wall from punching it out of anger. I knelt down and sighed, maybe I was going too overboard. I did kind of feel bad about yelling at Samantha.

After I finished loading all of the guns up, I went outside to go find Samantha. Maybe I could apologize or something. Instead, I ran into Mark. He had a box of a bunch of glass bottles.

"Do you think it's time we go and fill these up?" he asked.

"I guess. Maybe we could. Where are we going to get the blood from?"

"That's what I was thinking, and then I came up with the best idea. We can simply just go up to the stranglers we tied up in the forest and take their blood. They can't get us."

"Alright then, are we taking the truck?"

"Yep, I have it all ready."

I looked over and saw the truck, already started up and ready to go. Mark must have been really excited to do this.

"Alright then, let's go."

I hopped in the passenger seat of the truck while Mark drove. We drove through the front lawn and into the forest, we drove a little further into the forest until Mark stopped and turned the truck off.

"Alright," he said, "this is around where Samantha and I tied up the stranglers. Be careful, these bastards could grab you at any moment."

I kept my guard up as we walked through the forest, looking for one of the stranglers that Mark tied up.

"I'm proud of you, you know." I started.

Mark turned around and looked at me with a confused look.

"For what?"

"You redeemed yourself. I thought I was going to have to end up shooting you before. You were out of control. I'm glad you have found some peace."

"Yeah, thanks. I guess I went through the same thing you went through." he told me.

"Yeah, I have some regrets as well. Stabbing Terrence, it still haunts me today. He was a good man and I killed him all because I lost Sabrina. That poor woman Elise, I can't imagine her pain."

Mark walked closer to me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"You just gotta move on. That's all we can do. Now lets go milk some stranglers."

"Okay that just sounds weird," I said, "don't say that ever again."

We walked through the forest for a little bit longer, until we heard the sound of growling very close. Mark stopped and put his arm out to stop me from going any further.

"One's close. Could be around any tree now. Keep your guard up."

As we scanned the trees carefully, Mark finally jumped back from a tree as rotted arms reached out for him, just missing him.

"Jesus!" Mark gasped, "that was close!"

I ran over to Mark to see the strangler. There it was, tied to the tree, looking very angry. It's body was tied to the tree with rope, with just it's arms reaching out. I almost felt bad for the thing, I wanted to put it out of it's misery, it was like a real person was trapped in that demonic body, wanting to get out. The only way to let it free is to kill the strangler. But I couldn't. We needed these guys to help us with Lockwood.

"So," I said, trying to ignore the strangler, "how are we going to get blood from it?"

With one simple motion, Mark slashed the stranglers stomach open with a knife, and all the blood and organs started falling out. Mark put the box of glass bottles under where the blood was falling, catching as much blood in the bottles as he could.

"Oh my god Mark." I said, almost throwing up.

"Sorry," he said, "probably should have warned you."

After that was done, we decided to head back. We pretty much filled the bottles with that stranglers blood. It was still alive though, it just looked a lot more mangled than it did before. Now I really felt bad for it. Mark carefully placed the blood bottles in the back of the truck and he got in the drivers seat. I sat in the back holding the box of bottles so they wouldn't break. Mark started up the car and we drove back to the mansion.

When we got back, everybody was already sitting around on the porch, waiting for us to come back. I hopped out of the back of the truck with the box of bottles and walked over onto the porch, setting them down there. There were caps hidden at the bottom of the box, where I took them and set them on top of the bottles. We could tape them on the bottles later, to make sure they'll stay there. Everybody held their nose and moved away from the box.

"Geez Jeff that smells horrible!" Samantha cringed, "get that away from the house!"

I rolled my eyes and picked the box back up, and walked down the porch, setting it by the garage. When I went back to the porch, everybody was talking to Mark, like they were telling him something.

"Alright guys." I said, clapping my hands together, "that's another defence ready!

I was expecting everybody to cheer, because it was another mission successful. But that's not what they did. Instead, they sighed and just kind of looked at me disappointed.

"What's wrong?" I asked, "we're doing good here! We're making progress! When Lockwood attacks they won't know what hit them! I'm thinking of building a few more things, maybe a few more watchtowers or even a fence along the perimeter, I mean that would be a big fence and it would take a lot of energy and resources, but I reckon we could do it!"

Still, nothing. Everybody just stared at me all with concerned and disappointed looks in their eyes. It looked like they were wanting to break something to me, but didn't know how.

"Okay guys, what the hell? What's your problem?"

"Well Jeff," Samantha said, "we all think you're working yourself too hard. This is not healthy for you, or for any of us. You need to slow down."

"Slow down?" I asked, "I thought we talked about this Samantha! I'm trying to keep us alive! I'm trying to stand my ground against Lockwood! Why aren't you scared? You know what Charlie is like, you should be the most scared out of anybody! God knows what he'll do to you if you get captured again! We need to fight back! Are we just gonna stand by and let him take us down?"

"That's not it," Bay said, "we want to fight Lockwood, but at the end of the day, what much can we really do? They have so much manpower, no matter how many traps we put up Lockwood will just send a hundred more men to knock them down. It's no use Jeff."

"So what are you saying? Are you saying we give up? Leave the mansion? Leave behind everything we've worked so hard for?" I asked.

"They haven't even attacked yet, who says they even will? Maybe they don't care about us anymore." Kayla suggested.

"So what are you guys trying to say?" I asked.

Samantha sighed and walked up to me she hugged me, probably trying to calm me down. Like I was some rabid animal that needed calming.

"What we're saying is, that all of these traps are going to do no good against Lockwood. They're sure as hell taking their time getting here, so why don't we take it slow as well? Let's just enjoy the last days we have together in peace."

I backed away in shock. Did I just hear that right? Did Samantha just say that?

"What the hell?" I asked, "so you all have just concluded that you're gonna give up?"

"Maybe we are working too hard." Mark said quietly.

"So you all want to just sit by and enjoy the last days we have together before Lockwood comes and kills us? You have all given up that easy? That's not like you guys. I thought we were going to fight by each others sides no matter what!"

Nobody said anything, they just sat there, slumping over miserably. They've accepted defeat. Even Kayla, she looked beat down and tired. I couldn't believe it. I felt tears coming, I couldn't believe my group wanted to just die out like that. After everything we've been through. I fell to my knees and tried to stop the tears from coming, but I couldn't. I cried like a baby, everybody came in close and held each others hands.

The sound of stranglers screaming in the distance interrupted our moment. Then more, and more screams echoed through the forest. The stranglers in the forest were going off like alarm clocks alright. Someone was here, and someone was setting them off. I got up and wiped the tears away.

"Samantha, go get the guns from the armoury," I ordered, she nodded and ran in the house, "Kayla and Bay, get on the roof and get the machine gun ready, and Mark. Come with me."

I ran over to one of the watchtowers and climbed it, Mark grabbed the box of blood bottles and climbed the second watch tower. I wasn't about to stand down. Not yet. Maybe if we fend these Lockwood soldiers off, then just maybe the group will have a little more trust in me. I'm not planning on going down anytime soon, and I hope my group isn't either.