"Come on Carol, I need this job, I have three other mouths to feed besides my own, I swear I'll get better, please." A young woman begged over the phone as she walked inside the house. She was silent as the woman on the other line spoke to her and she sighed softly as she shut the door quietly and walked over to the sofa, sitting down and putting her head in her hands.
"Something wrong sis?" A teenage boy asked as he popped his head out of the kitchen. She looked up with her glassed over eyes and finally lost it as she just broke down crying.
"No, this is the fourth job this month that has laid me off. I can't find work in many places that will pay me well and my own cousin won't even keep me on the job." She sobbed out as she stayed where she was on the couch.
"..Mama..?" A sleepy voice called out from the top of the stairs, making the woman shoot up from the couch.
"Erin? What are you doing up baby girl? It's way past your bedtime." She said as she looked up at her six year old daughter.
"Oh shoot! What time is it mama?" She asked as she perked up, completely awake now. The woman sighed and crossed her arms looking at her daughter while she ran back to her room for something.
"Lighten up on her Lex, you know she wants what's best for you just like me and Mari do." Roger said from behind her. She sighed and her shoulders slumped before she sat back down on the couch.
"Erin, it's too damn late for this.." Alexis heard Marilyn groan from the top of the stairs as she was dragged down by Erin making the woman crack a small smile. You see, the three of them lost their parents years ago when Alexis was sixteen, Roger was twelve, and Marilyn was ten. It was then that Alexis had been doing odd jobs to make money to support them and keep them in school. When Alexis was seventeen, she had gotten pregnant from her ex boyfriend. Now at the age of twenty-three, she had to raise all three of them by herself for a while and Roger helped out a lot more with working on paying bills while Marilyn helped out with Erin.
"Come on Aunt Mari, you promised we could do this." Erin said as she continued to pull her downstairs to where she was sitting. Erin came over and hugged her mother as Marilyn sighed and dropped onto the chair diagonal to the couch.
"Happy birthday mama!" Erin cried out quietly as she hugged her mother once more. Alexis smiled softly and hugged her back as Erin gave her a small box that was wrapped. Alexis had taken a small care to unwrap the box neatly and opened it up slowly to reveal a nice watch.
"Look inside the watch mama." Erin said as she pushed a small button on the side to reveal a picture of the four of them when they had a day out during the summer this year. Alexis felt tears well up in her eyes as she pulled Erin close to her and buried her face into her shoulder.
"I love you baby girl." She whispered in her daughter's ear and looked at Roger and Marilyn before smiling softly.
"Me and Mari got you a little something as well sis." Roger said as he pulled out another small box to reveal an anklet that had the words Family Forever and Always engraved into the silver band on the connected to the chain.
"Thank you guys so much.." Alexis said softly as she hugged the three of them close. She never wanted to let go of them, ever.
All of them had gone to bed for the evening and Alexis made sure all of them were asleep. No matter how old they get, she's going to always be the older figure in these guys lives and make sure she did everything she could to make sure they were safe.
She was exhausted but she didn't want to go to sleep just yet and decided to relax in bed and watch the news to see if anything had been happening since she started reading about that virus that was spreading around in the hospitals.
She watched and watched intently and was broken out of her trance by a pounding on the front door. She was confused at who would be there at three in the morning. She got up and slowly walked over to her desk to grab her hand gun from the drawer she had bought for protection a couple years back.
She made her way downstairs and had her gun tucked in the back of her pants just in case it was one of the neighbors. She walked over and looked outside to see a military soldier standing there. As she opened the door she made sure to not piss him off as he looked impatient and in a hurry.
"What can I do for you today sir?" She asked politely while stepping back to open the door wider to see him. He looked her over and narrowed his eyes at her.
"Is there anyone else living here with you?" He asked and she nodded her head to his question.
"Get them up and ready. The entire city is doing an evacuation due to the virus." He said as he left to move onto the next house. She started shaking as she hurriedly ran upstairs and knocked on Roger's door.
"Huh..? What is it sis? Why do you look so worried?" He asked sitting up in his bed as she bolted over to him. She looked him in the eyes and sighed.
"That virus I told you about. Well the city is doing an evacuation. Get your old school bag and pack essentials only. Clothes, food, and water and if you can get Erin up and get her ready, I'll take care of Marilyn and myself." She had said in a hurry as she hurried to get across the hall and wake up Mari about this.
Mari wasn't happy about being woken up a second time this evening, but the look of fear and panic in her sister's eyes made her forget why she was mad.
"What's wrong Lex?" She asked and Alexis had explained what had happened and the same stuff to her as she did to Roger. Mari nodded and immediately got to work on getting ready. Alexis had rushed back to her bedroom and the news was still on the TV when she started changing.
She made sure to pack comfortable and movable clothing to wear, while throwing on a pair of jeans and her baseball shirt while grabbing her tennis shoes from the floor and sliding them on her feet.
"Where in the hell did I put those bullets.." She muttered to herself as she looked around for the boxes of ammo she bought a couple months back. She had two guns. A 9mm pistol and a revolver. The pistol was for protection and the revolver was for when she went to the shooting range.
"Ah there they are.." She muttered as she found the big box in her closet that had four boxes of each guns ammo in there. She grabbed them and stuffed them inside the bag.
"Mama? What's going on?" Erin asked from the doorway with a bag packed with some of her clothes and a little bit of food and water.
"We're gonna have to go away for a while baby girl. I promise no matter what mama will protect you with her life okay?" She said to her daughter as she got down to hug her and give her a kiss on the forehead.
"Mama, I'm scared... I don't wanna leave home.." She said softly as she looked up with teary eyes. Her mother felt her heart break some and sighed softly as she got back up.
"I know baby girl, I know, I don't wanna leave either but we don't have much of a choice." She said softly as she grabbed the bag and started heading downstairs to their kitchen where Roger and Marilyn were packing up food and water.
"I have room in my bag for some stuff guys." She said to the two of them and set it down on the counter where Roger had immediately started packing canned goods and dry stuff in there. The lights in the kitchen had flickered ever so slightly before they cut out completely.
"That's just great. We need to move faster." Alexis muttered as she helped them pack more into the bag before zipping it closed and throwing it over her shoulder. She walked to the front door and grabbed her car keys before looking at the wall next to the door.
A lone picture sat there of the four of them when Alexis had just given birth to Erin. She smiled softly and was sure to grab that picture before she walked out with them. Placing the picture inside of her bag, she zipped it up once more before placing it in the back seat with Erin and Marilyn.
"Where do we have to go?" Mari asked from the backseat and Alexis sighed softly before looking in the mirror at her.
"We just have to get the hell out of town." She said as she put her car in gear and started to drive down the road towards the highway, hoping that would be the fastest route out of town.
"Holy hell... that's Robby's house.." Roger said in shock as they passed a house that was on fire. Alexis bit her lip and sighed.
"I hope that son of a bitch made it out. He was a good man." She said softly as she continued driving down the quiet road. It didn't take long to reach the highway and was not surprised to find that it was packed.
What had scared her most and made her move was the men running towards the car in front of hers. They had ripped the door open and pulled out a couple and tore them to shreds in minutes before trying to reach her car next.
She quickly backed up and started driving away and back to the city before they were hit. Alexis screamed and was really dizzy. When she finally came to completely she heard Erin and started to break the windshield with her foot.
She crawled out and told her daughter to climb out before reaching for Marilyn who was coming to. Marilyn was grabbing the bags and Alexis put hers on her shoulders when her daughter cried in pain.
"What's wrong Erin?" She asked her daughter as she helped Marilyn up off the ground. Erin whined and leaned against her mother before clutching her leg.
"My ankle hurts really bad mama.." She whined and before screaming when Alexis was tackled by one of those things. She struggled and put up a fight before Roger came with a brick and slammed it against the sick head.
"Thanks Roger. I think Erin broke her ankle I'm gonna have to carry her but please keep us all safe." She said as she handed her brother her gun before picking up her daughter bridal style. It was a run to keep out of others way as they too ran for safety and to avoid the sick that kept coming from no where. Roger was leading the way around the city and trying to keep the safest route for all of them and an alleyway seemed to be the safest as it was completely empty of any kind of life form.
They took shortcuts and eventually had to cut through a store. Roger and Marilyn closed the door behind them as they held it shut to keep the sick off of them. Alexis turned around and Roger yelled at her.
"Go get outta here! Now!" He yelled using all his strength to keep the door closed. Marilyn was using everything she had to keep them off as well.
"I won't leave you!" She cried out and Roger barked out an order at her.
"Go! You have Erin! She needs help! We'll meet you at the highway! Now go!" He yelled at her and she left taking off in a sprint down a hill pathway towards the highway.
She heard the sick coming after her and took off faster as she ran. She heard gun shots and tried to cover her and Erin.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" A soldier yelled at them and Alexis froze. She bit her lip and looked up at the soldier.
"Look we've just seen hell on Earth and my daughter has a broken ankle. Please sir we need help." She cried out as she shook in her place. Erin had her face buried into her mother's shirt as she cried softly.
"Sir, there's some civilians in the outside area. ... But, sir, there's a young child. ... Understood." The soldier said into his headset as he raised his gun at the two of them, making Alexis' eyes widen as she tried to turn around quickly and sprint, but it was too late as the shots were fired and she fell dropping Erin from her arms and her bag came off her shoulder.
Alexis took cover as the guard walked over to finish her off and heard more shots as the soldier dropped dead. Roger and Marilyn ran over to check things out and Marilyn gasped making Alexis turn and look at her daughter.
"ERIN! Oh god no... Erin please.." She cried as she crawled over to her daughter, letting the tears spill, cradling her in her lap. Erin wheezed and cried letting the tears and blood mix as she continued to bleed from the wound in her chest.
"Please baby girl... I can't loose you.. please..." Alexis cried as she started to move her daughter's hands to get a better look at the wound itself. She was bleeding heavily and she knew she didn't have much time left before things ended.
"..M-Mama.. I-I love y-you... p-please don't l-leave me.." Erin cried out as she whimpered in pain.
"I won't baby girl.. mama loves you forever... please just stay with me.." Alexis cried and pulled her daughter close, just keeping her body in her lap and held her bloody hand in her own as Erin's hand came up to touch her cheek one last time before her final breath escaped her lungs.
"No, oh god please no.. no, no, no, no, no..." Alexis sobbed and couldn't stop herself either. She lost the one girl that meant the whole world to her. Marilyn and Roger watched as their hearts broke.
"NO!" Alexis cried out into the night as she clutched her daughter's body close to her chest not caring if blood smeared all over her clothes or if she looked insane holding a body close to her like that.
If one thing was for sure, it was that Alexis had finally broken.
