text: “We’re running out of time, Leave it!” I yell as Liam runs back to grab something. “I need to grab it, Grace!” Liam yells back as he retrieve’s his weapon. It was home-made, created from the spare parts of a broom, a butter knife, and some rubber bands. But then again, everything had to be home-made in a apocalypse. I run back and pull his wrist just as he touches the spear. We run with all our mite back to the bunker. “What did Noah say again?” Liam askes, “Did he say left turn on queens or right?” “Left” I answer turning the conner, we duck behind some trash cans. “Oh o-“he starts when I put my hand over his mouth. I can hear footsteps passing by, followed by some moaning “they’ll hear you!” I whisper as the take my hand off. “Okay!” he whispers back. Once they leave, we get up again and start to run once more. No talking this time, we know the rest of the way back. As we approach the hidden door and Still holding his wrist, I knock on the door. “Password!” someone says though the bunker door. “Emily there is no password, open up.” I say back. “not ‘til you say the password!” Emily shouts again. “Emily, there are nearly 16 zombies behind us...” I say looking back as the zombies slowly but surely we’re coming us behind us “And it’s going to be your fault if we’re eaten.” “Sheesh, I was just joking” Emily says as she opens the door. I let go of Liam’s wrist as we climb down the ladder into the bunker. “Did you get it?” Noah asks me as I set down my things on the table. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t” I reply as a throw a small engine to Noah. “I took extra care of it” I say to him. “I’ll make sure to tell Monica” he says back. Monica was our tech wiz- one of the best for all I know. Everyone here has a job; Monica’s the tech, Noah’s navigation, Liam is defense, I’m a hunter, and Emily’s the messenger. One of the reasons Emily is our messenger is because she’s the youngest. Only 9. You usually get a job when your 12 but Emily begged so much that we decided to give her messenger. “Anymore assignments?” I say to Noah once he comes back into the room. “No, grace” he replies. “You sure?” “yeah” he shoots back. “Not even a small one?” I squeak. He sighs “there is one-“ “I’ll do it” I say almost immediately. He sighs again “Monica needs more gears, and bunker 808 has spares” telling me, “we’ll send Emily to message them. Once we get an ‘OK’ you can go.” I eagerly run to the ladder and clime up with Emily tagging behind. “Did you hear the plan” I ask “When don’t I?” she asks me. She’s right. Even when she’s not part of a plan she knows. Emily sprints down the road and slides down the corner, out of sight. Five minutes pass, then ten, then twenty. I wonder what is taking her so long. I start to walk forward and continue down where Emily should be. “Emily!” I Whisper loudly, “Emily! Emi-“ I suddenly see someone standing on a small hill, donning a cloak, scarf, and goggles. I can tell they don’t want their identity revealed. “Uh, hello” I say slowly walking Towards them. They do the same but in the opposite direction, every second speeding by faster. She begins to a run. Instantly, so do I. “come back!” I yell, chasing after her. We run into an area with lots of hills. This mystery person slides down one of the hills and out of sight. I try to follow but can’t see her anymore. I look around for anything at all to tell me where she went. As I’m looking though the grass I feel something hard. No, not a thing, a metal plate covered with grass. I feel around a little more and find there’s a handle. Pulling the handle, I jump down into an underground type of tunnel. I suddenly see the mysterious person again and start to chase them. “Hello.” a voice calls out. “Hello?” I say back. Suddenly someone appears from the shaddows. “I’m amber, sorry about my sister. Willow’s not really a people person!” amber says. The girl that I was chasing appears behind amber. This time with out the goggles. “What is this place?” I ask, looking around the tunnel. “Our transportation lot” amber reply’s, followed by willow shushing her. “We have no reason to trust her!” willow snaps. “she’s not one of us!” “Correct, but she does have the skill for it,” Willow opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by her sisters shushing. “well, I’ve got to go,” I say to both of them, “My friends must be waiting for me” I walk away in silence as I hear them talking quietly in the echoes. “I just can’t wait until we take out all the zombies.” “Shush keep your voice down” My feet stop, and I stand frozen by this statement. All? Like forever? As in life will finally be back to normal? The thought made her smile, but only a little. But the happiness didn’t last long, impossible she thought. There’s no way she argued in her head, hope versus reality back and forth with one another. But what if there is? That’s the question that keep Grace up all night. But what if there is? There isn’t a way... but what if there was? Grace decided she wasn’t going to sleep tonight by the time she returned to the bunker. Walking into the lounge area shortly after her weird encounter. She was stuck in thought so deep she failed to notice Emily walk in. “You all right?” Emily asked using her best whisper voice. “What?” I replied half-asleep. “you’ve been gone on so many missions, and-“ a sigh escapes” “No it’s nothing, I’m fine.” I said to her. She must be deciding if she believes me or not because we sit in silence for a little longer. “Emily?” I say. “Yeah?” “Can I ask you a question?.” She nods her head up and down as if giving me permission. “What if you had the choice to... Well, I mean, what if you had the choice to make stuff normal again? Like, all of it? Back to the way it was...before.” I take a deep breath thinking back to normal. “I’m not trying to get emotional or anything but, I miss my parents.” “I-I-I never knew my parents” she replied trying to hold back tears. Now I feel bad. I forgot that to Emily, this was the normal. I leanedin and hugged her. Emily’s like the little sister I never had. The decision was final. I am going to find a way to help stop this all. Not because of me, but for Emily. “I’m going out to scavenge” I say already climbing up the ladder to leave. “Already?” Liam looks at me, “it’s not even daylight.” “I know,” I said opening the door and shrugging, “less zombies” Before the doors is all the way open, I could already smell the fog rolling in. It was a little harder to navigate but I managed to find my way to the hills. When I dropped down the shoot, I could hear their voices, at least slightly. Most of the words are muffled until I get within earshot. One of the voices I recognized as amber. “Amber?” “oh, you made it!” amber replies to me, somehow knowing I’d come back. “You might be wondering who this is!” Gesturing towards the third figure. “This is my new friend Rebecca!” “I came here to trade not to make friends” Rebecca clarified. I must have interrupted some sort of deal. It’s been a long time since anyone has needed money, most of our things are made from pieces of broken things, or traded with other roamers. “Alright, here you go!” Amber said giving Rebecca a bag of parts. “Now- about your trade?” Willow said firmly. Rebecca hands Willow a hyper coil. “How did you get that?” I asked. “I have my ways” and with that she walked off as if to end our conversation at that. “So, what’s the coil for?” I ask amber. “It’s used in the Magnetic trap we made,” Amber said. And like she read my mind she said, “to trap the zombies. I’ll explain later” “we have all the parts for a trap, but” amber started. “We don’t have any idea how to get it working and functional” Willow pointed out. “I can help with that” a voice says behind us all. We turned around and saw Monica with the rest of our crew in tow behind her. “how did you find me?” I ask, shocked. “Emily told us” “I never told you what I was doing!” “I always know the plan, even when I’m not part of it” Emily replied with a grin. “Alright, is everyone ready to hear the plan.” Willow said rather than asking as she begins to explain. “...igniting activation on ploy” Monica says into a headset. “English please.” Willow said sarcastically. Monica sighed. “Turning on tra.p” she states instead, “it should hold for about 20 minutes” I wait impatiently for my part of the plan. Emily will first check the area, meanwhile Amber and Willow will fight off the surrounding zombies, while Liam sets down the barrier, and I, once I get the okay, will pull the plug on the battery to turn off the Satellite (kill code as amber call’s it). Any moment now. “Hello? Anyone?” I say into the headset. All I get is Static. “G...gr...ac...c...e” I hear. “Hello?” I repeat. “G...ra...ce!” I sit there confused. Suddenly it comes back, “grace behind you!” I hear Emily almost scream into the headset. I turn around just in time to kick a zombie square in the head knocking him out. As I run to Emily, “Thanks.” We’re so close, I can feel it. But right when I thought everything would turn out I hear Willow stammering into the headsets, “We need to retreat, now!” “But we’re so close!” I almost whine my argument. “No, too many zombies!” We can’t retreat now; we are so close! Then for the second time today, my mind made itself up. “Go one, I’m going in” “No- Grace-“I hear as I drop my headset to the ground and take off. As I run to the satellite the zombies start coming at me left and right. Luckily none hit. I look for the Satellite, the thing that started it all. Though, I’m going to be the one who finishes it.