He is legend, and he gives us hope.

I am afraid of the outside world, but there is a hand in mine, and in my heart, the memory of the man who makes this possible. The gates open, and we leave. I, Rebekah, and my husband, Jack, we are going to the end of the safe zone. We are going into the darkness. "Will you be with me?"

"Always," he answers, and in his hand is his automatic, which somehow makes me more afraid. We went through so much, just to reach this place, and now we are going away from it. Still, I am glad. The last three years allowed us to stay together. We got married, we had a baby, and she died. She died... as soon as she came out into the world, she was infected, and she died because we were in the light, in the day. I wailed and cried and I would have died myself, if it weren't for him.

It was because of this that I volunteered to go out and test the vaccine. I didn't want what happened to my baby happen to any other babies. "How are we going to get to the city?" I asked him, because there was no gas.

"We'll walk, and sing, but don't worry. Tonight we'll be safe."

"How?" I had to ask, even though I knew.

"The lamps, the lamps will keep us safe." The lamps in our backpacks were specially made, down to brand new light bulbs as bright as the sun. We could put them in a circle and it would be like day, even brighter then day. Every protection was made for us, but we wouldn't have to go far to test the vaccine. Just walk until dark, and wait.

I fingered the charm on my bracelet, turning the heavy pendant over and over. 'Elizabeth,' it said on it, and next to her name was a rose. "Elizabeth Rose Anne Michaelson," I told myself, and my husband looked at me. He had his dark bangs in his eyes again, in his dark Hispanic eyes. We were so different, light and dark, but I loved him more then anything.

Even though we knew each other before the epidemic, I don't think we ever would have been more then friends if that damned doctor hadn't discovered the cure for cancer. She must have been the first to been infected, and maybe she was torn apart limb from limb once everyone realized what was happening. He disliked it from the start, he said 'Something as strange as cancer, something so unknown, can't be cured so easily.' His fears entered into my heart--I have always had a great dislike for medicine, and so neither of us took the vaccine. My mother, my friends all told me to take it, because there was a history of cancer in my family on my mother's side. I have my father's genes though, because I didn't get sick and change. It happened so fast, and all around us people were crying blood and turning white.

But because we didn't take the shots, we were clear until it began getting airborne. At that point, we contacted the authorities. Actually we'd been in contact with them before, because Jack's dad was in the army. They took us out as the doctors realized it couldn't be controlled. They'd been keeping them in labs, covering them with ice and all that stupid stuff, and then gotten it themselves. A whole bunch of doctors locked themselves in the hospital so that they wouldn't spread it, but it didn't do any good.

But none of that stuff matters anymore. None of the running around or crying over my mother's bed as she lost the tan glow of a woman in the prime of her life matters anymore. Because then we were in college, and now we are warriors. We are adults; we can drink with the best, shoot like the best, think like the best. Not as good as Dr. Neville, who saved us all, but the best of the rest. All of us, who stayed behind our gates and prayed, even though it once seemed very cowardly, are terribly wonderful people.

We are his legacy.