"Lola is a strong girl..."
"...huh?"
"Have you seen someone you love die right before your eyes?"
A moment later I shook my head in a 'no' motion.
Kamile looked at Lola for a moment before looking back at me "My husband... her father died for us." she continued "when that... thing broke in our house, he lunged at it, holding it by the neck, shouting for us to run away somewhere, and that he would be right behind us... we haven't seen him since, Lola is optimistic but I'm..."
Before she could finish her sentence, she covered her face, beginning to weep.
A moment later, without a word, I stood up and walked over to comfort her. A while later she regained her composure. "Thanks, I needed that"
"Yeah... you okay?"
"Does that even really matter? I mean with everything that happened in such a short time... if not for Lola, I would have probably lost the will to live... it's because of her that I'm still here..."
I took a moment to think of what to say, "I'm sure that someone IS doing something to stop this, it doesn't necessarily have to be the government but just someone, I'm sure this'll end one day, we just have to persevere."
Kamile seemed to take my response well, "You're right, I'll try to be a bit more optimistic..."
She still seemed a bit sad, but I knew a change couldn't be made in a single conversation - "You should go to sleep."
"Yeah, what about you? Are you heading to sleep too?" Kamile asked curiously.
"No, I'm still wide awake, I'll walk around for a bit."
"Alright, goodnight." Kamile said rolling up near the small campfire they had made.
"Goodnight." I said while standing up. I had no real goal or objective where to go, just to tire myself out sooner.
The quiet of the night was deafening, only interrupted by my footsteps and the barely audible scratching and banging at the main entrance. The night made the hallways hauntingly dark, the only illumination coming from the moon which didn't cover a lot of space as only tiny windows were installed on the roof. The more I walked, the more I came to enjoy the peace in this time of chaos and uncertainty, it was just me and my thoughts in this lone hallway.
"Will it really be okay?" I couldn't help but ponder on that thought, I had reassured Kamile everything would work out, but truth be told, I was just as uncertain as her. It made sense, but it seemed improbable. "If someone really was doing something about it, then why have we heard nothing?" The idea that the entire army had been infected seemed absurd to me, but if they really were still alive, why did it seem like nothing was being done?
*Sigh*
Was there really a point thinking about this? If someone really was doing something to prevent it from spreading or fighting against it somehow, there was nothing I could do... at the moment at least.
I suddenly felt exhausted, I took off my jacket and laid down on a nearby bench.
...
Almost as fast as I fell asleep I awoke again, weirdly, the day seemed nearly as calm as the night. Slowly, I stood up from my sleep, noticing my jacket had fallen to the floor while I was sleeping. With a quiet chuckle I picked it up and put it back on.
With a clear head, I began looking around for Kamile and Lola, I went to where they had slept the night before without a trace of them being there. From there I decided to just wander around, I would surely find them sooner rather than later.. Right?
Going through the long and empty hallways, I remembered the situation I was in, one wrong move and I could die. If I was going to survive long enough to see the end of the apocalypse, I couldn't let my guard down like that again.
Suddenly, Lola and I ran into each other. "Hey! Where have you been? I couldn't find neither you nor my mom since I woke up! Do you know where she is?" Lola asked me curiously.
"No, sorry, I haven't seen Kamile since I woke up, you lost her?"
"Yeah, when I went to sleep, she was still there, but when I woke up, I was alone! And when I started looking for her, I couldn't find her! I still haven't found her... I'm starting to get worried..."
"I'm sure she's fine, want to search together?"
"Sure! Any ideas where to look?"
"Honestly.. No, but I'm sure that if we keep looking, we'll find her eventually."
"Yeah.. you're right"
Eventually we had searched most of the mall, without a trace of Kamile, nonetheless, we kept on searching.
Lola suddenly said something I wasn't expecting to "Hey... I wanted to ask you yesterday but couldn't bring myself to do it."
"Oh? What is it?" I asked her, curious to know what she was referring to.
"The bandage on your arm... how did you get it?"
"Oh this?" I responded lightly chuckling to her question "from how you said it I thought you were going to ask something more sinister."
"Oh, no no! It was just something I noticed immediately but wasn't sure how'd you react if I asked about it."
We laughed together for a short while before I answered "I had to cut my arm to bait some zombies a few hours after they began appearing, I these bandages are just what I had to cover up the wound."
"Oh, really! It must have been painful, does it still hurt?"
"No, I doesn't anymore, but it was really painful in that moment, though it was totally worth it, I doubt I would have survived if I hadn't done what I did."
"Really..? That's interesting, you'll have to tell me about it sometime!"
I chuckled a little bit "Sure, if you say so-"
Suddenly, my words were interrupted by the sound of Kamile screaming from afar.
Both Lola and I immediately began running to where the sound came from "Mom!! Where are you?!" Lola screamed out.
The indistinct shouting started becoming clearer the closer we ran to Kamile, still, it was too unclear to understand anything she was shouting.
Finally, we arrived at a balcony at the second floor facing the main entrance where Kamile was standing. Something was wrong, she looked concerned and frightened.
"Mom! Where have you been!? I've been looking for you all day!" Lola screamed leaning over the balcony.
What Kamile said made me freeze for a moment and sent chills down my spine.
"RUN! THE BARRIER IS GOING TO BREAK!!"