Day 21: Goodbyes

Day 21: A strange sound jolted me awake. I rolled off my bunk, turned off the white noise machine and listened. Birdsong. No gunfire coming from either of the towers. That’s what woke me up.

Beto was up all night and told everyone he wanted to meet on the overlook outside the back gate after everyone had breakfast. He was in a good mood so we were all wondering what was up.

He started his speech by thanking us all. He specifically mentioned Sandy, Moonbeam and I as we were the first to meet him. “What happened yesterday is going to keep happening,” he said. We have a plague free town, enclaves are working together to keep infestations down. This is going to attract people to come here. Not all of them will be good people as we saw yesterday.

“I think we can make a real difference.” Beto said. Sandy got up and walked over to him. He put his arm around her and announced, “We’re going to Meagher Valley. Enclaves need help and who better than us.” Sandy beamed as Beto raised his fist. “Who’s with us?”

It was a moving moment.

And unexpected. I didn’t want to move again.

Sissy spoke first saying she loves us all but she’s heading to Providence Ridge. She hasn’t seen her daughter since before the outbreak and has gotten word she’s there. Trish stood up and made her way next to Sissy. She looked at Beto and then Antonio. “Antonio and I are going with her. Family is more important now than ever.”

Tyler spoke up and said he and Moonbeam are heading to Drucker County. Moonbeam said that’s where her prepper aunt was heading and she’d like to look for her. “Family” she said.

Fulgencio told Beto he’s with him. “Family” he repeated and gave Beto a hug. “I’ll miss working with you two” he said to Tyler and Moonbeam.

I looked at Joe. “Where will you go?” He smiled and said he’s going to try and find a place called “Legacy Pool.” He said he was tinkering with the radio when the last CLEO broadcast aired ushering people to Trumbull Valley. Embedded in the signal was another transmission. Said he tweaked the receiver and picked up garbled voices from there.

Never heard of it.

He was insistent that it existed. “I’m telling you there’s another group out there doing wonderful things.” Heard transmissions of it being set up by Undead Labs. “Are they in cahoots with those Echo Labs people?” I asked. “No idea” was his response. He said no one is ever hungry and there is a zero chance of seeing a zombie. “That’s where I’m going.”

I watched everyone pack and get ready to go. This base has been our home, at least for a little while. I’ll miss everyone but mostly Sandy and Moonbeam. We came into this town together, killed zombies together, bled together, survived together.

I’ve decided I’m going with Joe to find Legacy Pool. There’s more adventure out there.

I’m going to leave my journal behind as a symbol of hope for future survivors. Who knows, maybe the world will return to normal one day and our story will become a best seller. Even better – a Hollywood blockbuster! No, what would be best I think is for our story to become a video game!

Good luck to you future survivors!

The Free People