The sun was resting in the peak of the sky.

Noon, Alex thought. Need to find somewhere soon. Judging by the map she found, they were about one day closer to Eastport, and about five hours from the next town by foot. The previous night after leaving the girls had managed to find their way to a rest stop. As it turns out, an old manager’s office can be made into quite a suitable shelter. One semi-safe night, one semi-safe morning waking up, and one hour of restocking their bags later, the open road was once again their partner.

Alex brushed a piece of stray hair back into its place behind her ear. She turned her head to glance at her younger sister. Dani stared at the ruined pavement as if daring it to do something other than stay still and lifeless like the rest of her world.

“Hey,” Alex broke the silence.

“What?” Dani broke her entrancement with the road.

“Why don’t we play another one of those road trip games to pass the time?” Alex proposed.

“I don’t really wanna right now,” the little girl answered, trailing her eyes back down.

“Why not? We still have a bit to go before we’ll reach anything.”

“Because we’ve played all of the ones we can think of, and we just say the same answers over and over again.” Alex recalls how many times over the past three years that they had “Spied” trees and bushes around them, or how the phrase, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing…” is now forever ingrained in her cranium. As Alex tried to think of another activity, Dani presented one of her own Alex was all too familiar with.

“Well...you could finally show me how to shoot a gun-”

“No,” Alex snapped.

Dani rolled her eyes back into her skull, loudly exclaiming, “Why not?”

“Because, you’re too young to shoot a gun. We’ve had this conversation a thousand times-”

“NO, I am NOT too young to shoot a gun in the freaking apocalypse, Alex!” The tiny ball of anger stopped walking beside her sister, instead choosing to stand right in front of her as if to make her listen. “I’ve been practicing for months now!”

“Yeah, with a toy water gun we found in a Walmart!” Alex yelled back. She could feel herself becoming more and more irritated with every word out of her mouth.

“Well maybe if you’d just let me try then I could actually be helpful with scavenging and stuff!” The girl took another step closer to her sister, her voice slowly starting to rise.

“Dani, enough. You already are helpful with your bat and knife. And keep your voice down by the woods-”

The tot refused to listen, only stepping one final bit closer, nearly screaming at this point.

“No, I won’t keep my voice down! If a weirdo comes I’ll just kill it!” She screamed. Alex was so caught up in forming a rebuttal that she didn’t even see her sister’s eyes travel down to her waist. “In fact, I’ll prove it.”

In a split second, the girl yanked Alex’s gun from her own hand and took off sprinting into the woods.

“Danika no! Get back here right now!” Alex left sparks behind charging into the treeline, struggling to keep her sister’s bouncing ponytail in sight. “Dani you’re gonna get yourself killed! Get back her right now!”

Dani’s heart was thudding in her chest. This was her moment to prove herself to her sister. Her face was stinging from the twigs and branches snapping at her, and she could only trust her little legs to guide her over the bumps and roots.

Alex was running on pure adrenaline, panic, and terror at once. Her face drained of all color the moment she lost sight of the little girl at all. Desperately, she began screaming out, begging her sister to come to her.

“Dani! Dani where are you! Please just follow my voice, please!” Hot tears like magma stained her face and her lungs betrayed her by failing to supply enough air. Her head was bashing her eyes with blasts of black and red. Every tree was the same, every bush identical, every rock a twin of the others. Her worst nightmare was coming true.

Alex steadied herself and began taking short, quick breaths, but eventually forced herself to take longer, deeper one's just long enough to straighten her vision again and follow the sound of her sister’s footsteps.

Alex once again took of hurtling into the underbrush, shoving sticks, branches and all other things away. Her feet pounding against the rough dirt of the forest matched the beat of her heart as she felt herself getting closer.

All at once Alex shoved past another tree just in time to see her baby sister, arm extended outwards, face darkened with focus and confidence, aiming directly into the face of a gnarling, disgusting, weirdo. The world was slow and spinning as the only sounds that mattered to Alex rang through the air:

The crack of a gunshot, and the weirdo’s body thudding against the ground.

Dani lowered her arm in a bliss of disbelief, awestricken and surged with euphoria.

“Dani!” Alex wailed, stumbling over and falling to her knees to embrace her. Alex yanked herself away after a second, grasping her sister’s shoulders and staring her directly in the eyes.

“I told you I could do it!” Dani exclaimed, pride radiating from her.

“What the hell were you thinking? You could’ve died!” Alex ignored her sister’s announcement, instead allowing anger to flood back into her eyes.

Dani’s face started to do the same as she dictated, “But I killed it.”

“Yeah and you also let his friends know where lunch is now MOVE!” Alex stood up and pulled along Dani by her shoulder after also taking back her gun from her sister’s hands. Together they ran back to the road, this time Alex taking care of any weirdos Dani had attracted with her knife in order to avoid drawing any more attention to the two.

Eventually, they arrived back at the highway, and silently began walking again. Dani knew not to say anything. The mood for the rest of the day was set.

“Stay right behind me, understand?” Alex whispered to Dani, earning a simple nod from the little one. The house they were attempting to search had seemed quiet enough, and just like any other in the neighborhood. Everything was fine until Alex started to notice that the open cans on the kitchen counter had to be at most a day old. Then, she wisely made Dani stay quiet until her ears--that had adapted to hearing the slightest sound--picked up a faint thump from the floor above them. Alex didn’t know what it was, as any weirdo would’ve come out as soon as it heard the door open. It had to be a person. Like weirdos, animals don’t hide and aren't careful to not make noise. Also, animals don’t quitely mutter “&#%!@?!” when you knock on the door of the room they’re in.

“Ok. Ready?” Alex prompted her sister, who stood arm raised and baseball bat in hand.

After receiving a nod from the tot, Alex steadied her pistol, took hold of the bedroom’s doorknob, and forced it open.

In a flash, Alex’s gun was yanked out of her hand by another, stronger grip. Letting out a quick yelp, Alex’s instinct ‘kicked in’ as she swung her leg up to her attacker. Alex  didn’t even pay attention to who she began hitting until she heard Dani yelling for her to stop.

After forcing herself to step back from what was originally her attacker, Alex forced a frustrated Dani behind her. That was when she heard his voice for the first time.

“Oh my GOD you can kick!” the boy who sat cradling his leg on the ground spoke up. “Seriously, ow!” he annoyingly spoke through clenched teeth.

Alex, who couldn’t believe the sight in front of her, scrambled her brain for something to say. Suddenly she felt herself mumble, “Sorry.” She was still trying to process seeing another person, let alone a teenager.

Instead of shouting something back at her like she expected him to do, the boy surprisingly laughed a bit, saying, “It’s fine. If some random dude grabbed my arm I’d have the same reaction.”

Instead of smiling, Alex continued to stare puzzlingly at him, until Dani walked out from behind her sister’s arms, and lowered herself to the boy. Sensing her sister’s lack for words, spoke for them both.

“I’m Dani, and that’s my sister Alex,” she bubbled.

The boy, who’s leg had appeared to stop hurting enough to stand up, smiled and held out his hand to shake the tot’s. “I’m Kane. It’s very nice to meet you, Dani.” His eyes shifted upwards, “You too, Alex.”

Alex gently nodded her head towards him as a simple returning greeting.

“So, um, sorry for almost breaking your arm,” Kane nervously chuckled, bending down and picking up Alex’s gun that he had displaced from her. Keeping the same gentle grin he had on his face, he held his arm out to hand Alex her gun back.

Alex did something that surprised herself; she returned a smile as she took it back.

“It’s fine. You didn’t know,” she remarked.

“Are you alone?” Dani asked the boy.

“Yep. Been alone for about a month now,” Kane answered, adjusting one of the weirdest fashion items Alex had ever seen: a pair of steampunk-esc goggles on his forehead. Alex made a mental note to ask later.

“Same for us,” the teenage girl chimed in.

Kane nodded before asking, “Where you guys headed to?”

“Eastport,” Dani beamed. “It’s about three days away from here by foot.”

“What’s in Eastport?”

“A community called The Outpost.” Dani’s eyes suddenly lit up as she exclaimed, “You should come with us! There has to be room there and it’d be cool to have someone else to talk to!”

“I don’t know, I don’t think your sister would agree, Dani-”

“Please, Alex? We shouldn’t just leave someone alone out here!” Dani turned to her sister, armed with puppy dog-like eyes. “Please?”

Surprising herself, Alex sighed gently. “Yeah, Kane can come with us.”

The boy smiled at Alex. “Are you sure? You don’t have to let me come with you guys.”

“I’m sure. Besides, after our first interaction if you try anything I’m quite confident I can easily put a bullet right through those goggles.” The two teens shared a quick laugh. Quietly, Dani mumbled, “So could I,” before earning a shove on the shoulder from Alex. Kane made a mental note of his own.

“I think we should set up camp here, now. It’s gonna be dark soon and I don’t know how far the next neighborhood is,” Alex stated. Kane mumbled something in agreement, and Dani simply nodded before the three began performing miscellaneous tasks getting ready to stay their first night not alone in a month.

The sun was surprisingly gentle the next morning as the now trio meandered down the road again. Alex and Kane had been making random conversation as Dani lay asleep on Kane’s back, who had generously offered to carry her. Neither Alex nor Kane realized how they both, subconsciously, longed for conversation with someone like them. Kane needed to talk to someone, period, and Alex needed to have a conversation that wasn’t about guns, surviving, or books. Both ways, this situation was ideal.

“So..where’d you hear about The Outpost?” Kane inquired.

“About two weeks ago, Dani and I were just trying to survive going place to place. One day, we were staying in what used to be a bed and breakfast, and my radio all of a sudden picked up this broadcast from The Outpost. I wrote down every detail I could--they repeated it about like three times--and then Dani and I’ve been walking ever since.” Alex explained.

“How far are we now?” said Kane.

“I think when we wake up tomorrow, we should only have two hours to go before we cross the bridge onto Eastport.”’

“Cool. I cannot wait to just lay down on a bed and veg for a bit,” Kane sighed in content.

“Isn’t that what you were doing anyway?” Alex asked grinning.

“Yeah, but then I won’t have to worry about being eaten alive in my sleep.” Kane ended with a smug smile, earning a laugh from Alex.

A small silence passed until Alex broke it, saying, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” was his response.

“Why do you wear those..things?” Alex gestured to the goggles.

Kane glanced upwards towards them, before answering. “Well, for a practical answer, eye protection can be good when your only means of defense against monsters is to bash their head with a bat. But the real answer is that I was raised in an orphanage, and as you can guess, there was a lot of kids to keep track of. So, I had to come up with a way to kindof..stand out.” He paused, and checked that Alex was still following. When he saw she was, he continued. “Down the street was this halloween shop, and one day when I was around Dani’s age I took the, like, five dollars I had shoved under my mattress down there, and kept looking until I found these.” He suddenly stopped, and his voice got lower. “I guess I stood out a little too well, ‘cuz no one ever wanted to adopt the kid looking like young Carl from Up twenty-four seven.” Kane saw that Alex was searching for something to say, so he beat her to it. “It’s fine, before you say anything like that. I had friends, and I’m fine now. Ok?” he prodded.

Alex simply nodded and muttered a “Thanks”.

Kane opened his mouth a bit before saying, “Mind if I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Alex responded.

“Does The Outpost have power?”

“The broadcast said so.”

Kane’s eyes lit up as he dug into his pocket, careful not to disturb the girl sleeping on him. He pulled out a cell phone, saying, “When we get there, I’m charging back up this phone, and I'm blasting ‘Africa’ on repeat for days!”

Yes, this was much better than being alone.

“A gas station?” Kane actively argued against Alex’s proposed shelter for the night.

“Yes. It’s the only thing around for miles and I’m not even taking a chance with Dani outside. Look, it’s not the ritziest place we’ve stayed but it’s not bad!” Alex argued, taking hold of an exhausted Dani’s hand and leading her inside. Kane, too tired to argue any further, followed suit. After a thorough check of the inside and bathroom, Alex allowed Dani to sit down while her and Kane made a barricade out of the shelves by the door. When that was done, Alex addressed the group, “Alright. Let’s get setup.

About an hour later, Alex was packing away Dani’s book after another night’s worth of reading. After tucking Dani into her sleeping bag and saying goodnight, Alex shut the door to the office behind her and rejoined Kane sitting on the floor by a bunch of other shelves. Neither one was ready to go to sleep, yet, so they had decided the better option was just to relax and enjoy each other’s company.

About two minutes into the silence, Kane gently spoke up, “How long’s she been reading To Kill a Mockingbird?”

“About three weeks. I try to keep her mind active.”

“Well, she seems pretty active alright,” Kane chuckled.

Alex also laughed a bit, sighing, “Yeah, just sometimes she can be a little too active.”

“How so?”

Alex let out a breath, “Well, two days ago we got into an argument about her not being allowed to use a gun, so she took mine, ran into the woods on the side of the road, and killed a weirdo.” Alex watched Kane’s face change as she went on, first from shock, then to one she couldn’t exactly read.

“Well, I suppose that’s not great...did you say she killed it?” he prompted her.

“..yeah,” Alex nodded, not following.

“Well, why don’t you let her use a gun, then?”

“Because she’s nine! She ran off to make me trust her with a gun but now I trust her even less with one!” Alex fired back, hushed voice full of agitation.

“But why? You said it yourself that she killed it!” Kane pointed out.

“Because she’s not ready!” Alex finally snapped. Kane’s face softened as he saw Alex slowly do the same. A still silence filled the room before Alex began to pick herself off the floor and join Dani.

Before fully being out of earshot, she heard Kane softly mutter, “Maybe she’s not the one not ready.”

Today was the day they’d been dreaming about for two long, painful weeks. In two short hours of walking, they would be crossing that strip of land into Eastport, and right in The Outpost. Dani was walking about two yards in front of Alex with Kane, the latter of the two effortlessly entertaining the smaller one. Alex’s mind, however, was stuck behind, battling herself with what Kane had said to her last night.

“Maybe she’s not the one not ready.” As much as she didn’t want to admit it, maybe she was wrong. Maybe Dani really was ready to take care of herself now. But, what if she isn’t? What if as soon as Alex loosens those reigns, Dani makes one last, final mistake, and then is gone forever? What if what happened in those woods was a fluke? But it couldn't be a fluke. Dani didn’t even flinch when she raised that thing--like it came natural to her. Any way she thought about it, Alex kept thinking back to what Dani used to be the night everything went down--a scared little girl, only six years old, who would never hurt a fly. And then, she thought about the woods three days ago, where Dani didn’t even react to shooting down a killing machine. Slowly, Alex began to come to a conclusion.

As the minutes passed Alex could feel how close they were getting to Eastport. The wind was picking up even more, so she could tell how close they were getting to water. Kane once again offered to hold Dani, and so he did so with her wrapped around his front, facing Alex in the back. Aside from the occasional weirdo, everything was looking smooth.

That was, until they rounded a corner of a building to reach the bridge.

“Oh, Jesus…” Kane muttered. Alex’s face went white and Dani shivered in both cold and now fear as they three saw what greeted them.

A hoard of twenty something weirdos were hunched on the ground by the entrance to the bridge making a meal out of the remains of two poor survivors. Before one could spot them, Alex yanked Dani behind a wall, Kane followed suit. Alex was thinking of what to do while trying to calm down Dani, and Kane was spilling out a string of every swear known to mankind.

“Kane what’re we gonna do?” Alex asked in a chillingly serious tone.

“I-I dunno...I dunno. I can’t use a gun and I don’t think one pistol is gonna make a difference,” he sputtered out, running his fingers through his hair and pacing.

“Alex, what now? Kane can’t shoot and we can’t get through this without another person shooting,” Dani also started to breathe heavy, until Alex spoke up again in one of the darkest tones Dani ever heard her speak in.

“I know...that’s why I’m giving you this.” To Dani’s astonishment, Alex reached into her backpack, and slowly pulled out the spare revolver she had packed. Dani’s eyes quickly lit up as she reached out for it, only to be briefly cut off by her sister. “Listen to me. I’m giving you this because I trust you. You need to make every. Shot. Count,” Alex looked her sister in the eye. “Understand?”

Dani said nothing, only taking her new weapon in her grasp, and nodding a stern nod in return.

“Ok. Kane, you ready?” Alex asked the boy. Kane smacked his bat against his palm, also giving a nod. The three exchanged one more look, before stepping out from behind the wall, and unleashing one hell of a charge on the group of weirdos.

All goreish details spared, let’s just say there was a significant amount of red spilled on the street.

Thirty quick seconds later, the world spun to a stop as all noise vanished. Even Kane himself seemed to disappear as the two sisters slowly met eyes again after unleashing every ounce of strength they had into fighting off the hoard. One of the longest hugs in history was shared, before the two looked out to the bridge.

This was it. Three, hellish, nightmarish years of hiding and running and hoping that they’d live to see another day, and they were on the brink of it all being over. It was over.

As the two smiled back at Kane and then each other before all three taking off down the bridge, there was only one thing flashing through Alex’s mind anymore.

It was all over.

Alex shut their door behind her as she and Dani began walking down the streets of The Outpost to Dani’s new school. A week ago was her first day, and she was more than thrilled to finally have the chance to meet the first new friend her age in three years. Alex was, too, although her friends were not met through any school. Mrs. Bishop only had a degree--and the supplies--for elementary school teaching, and any other higher education teachers didn’t bother stepping up, mostly because they knew the few teens that were in town wouldn’t show up anyway. Even if there were a lot of teenagers, Alex wouldn’t be even remotely as close with any of them as she had grown to be with Kane.

Alex had finally loosened Dani’s reigns so she could begin to enjoy life again, and not just be a shell of the girl she was whose only goal was to keep her and her sister alive. Now, she had time to go to the park with friends, or garden, or read, or sleep in, or do anything other than worry about where her next meal was coming from. In the mornings, Alex would walk Dani to school, and then return home or do something with Kane for the next hours. There were even many, many times Alex forgot the whole “flesh-eating-monsters” thing. They had power, running water, hell they even were working on getting the internet back up sometime in the next couple months. So, while the end of the world might’ve been hell on earth, living after the end of the world could prove to be anything but.