The sky had never looked so beautiful.
Nathan could taste the dried blood on his lip and jammed in between his teeth, from a previous injury that had broken his nose and nearly caused sharp, jagged pieces of cartilage to lodge themselves into his brain. His hands were clasped on his side and he could still feel the crimson liquid leaking past his grasp and running down his side in a slow, solemn fashion. Vision blurry, head swimming, Nathan threw the bloodied knife away from himself and glanced sideways at the lifeless body of the crazed women that had attacked him when he had entered an old bar in search of supplies.
The women reminded him of his mother - not in personality, of course, but in physical structure and appearance. She had the big, round eyes that let no one have the slightest clue to what she was thinking. They were light brown and often brought the comfort that no one else could, except when they were glazing over and her life was coming to an end. Her hair, light and often dyed a vibrant red despite the fact that her hair was naturally blonde that was often played with in between Nathan's thin, boney, caramel coloured fingers, fell in a straight block from her hair parting that much resembled the crazed woman's hair of an off blonde colour. Her nose, crooked and still bloody from a previous injury that had resulted in a shattered nose, was small, but plump and reminded Nathan of the times when he and his mother had spent hours pretending to grab each others noses. And, similar to his mother but not exactly the same, her thin, pursed lips often gave the impression that she was angry or even just annoyed, but somehow her eyes changed all of that… they made him feel alive in a world that changed people in a way that caused them to be incapable of exactly that.
He thought back to the times before the world plagued with walking corpses had screwed everyone over, tore families apart and tainted millions of children's view on life for the worst.
However, the women with an uncanny resemblance to his mother brought very little comfort, so he glanced back up at the sky and, mesmerized by the brilliant oranges and pinks and reds of the fading sun, thought back to his old group that had died just like everyone else he ever loved or even merely touched. Just for a moment - a singular, throbbing, painful moment - he felt calm… serene, in the current circumstances that were completely and utterly screwed.
He thought back to the little girl who was far too excited to meet new people and had got a little carried away one day. She had met a man who promised a safe house if she brought him back to hers and showed him her group. Then maybe they could live in a common place. He followed her through the twisting, complex paths of the woods and when they got there, he took a knife from underneath his coat and sliced her throat and hacked off her head and held it up to her father, his fingers knotted in her curly, ginger locks. Nathan had been on watch that day.
He thought back to the man with a chemical imbalance in his brain who had screamed and wept as he watched his little girl being murdered by the man with the knife. Slowly, as hours turned into days and days turned into weeks, the man began to wither and draw back into himself - further and further until he was barely there and functioning anymore. Then he had pointed a gun at Nathan, screaming and yelling about how it was Nathan's fault that his little girl had been brutally murdered, before turning the gun onto himself and pulling back the trigger without a wink of hesitation. Maybe Nathan had killed her… everyone he touched died.
He thought back to the pregnant women with anger issues and a dead husband. She had gone into labour at one of the most inconvenient times, causing even more attention to be turned onto them. Nathan had tried to birth the baby as the rest of the group held off the herd of zombies, but a lot of blood came before the baby did and the baby was born still. She had yelled and cried and punched Nathan with the little strength that her blood deprived body could muster. She soon died after of blood loss. The group had disposed of the bodies quite quickly after destroying the brain, and as Nathan watched her body slowly get covered by dirt, he could've sworn her facial expression changed. A facial expression saying, "You killed my baby!"
He thought back to the flawless women with a mechanical brain and heart. Her and Nathan had been sitting beneath the stars, occasionally glancing at one another, but mostly keeping their eyes on the sky. He remembered quite vividly how the woman with the pursed lips and perfectly cut hair looked at him that night; with a sense of longing and passion. They kissed that night. But then the women with perfectly soft lips had made a snide comment about the little girl who had been far too friendly for her own good from the deepest pits of her mechanical brain. He had yelled, screamed and howled, telling her that it hadn't been the little girls fault and that it was his. They screamed at each other and as Nathan turned away she screamed again, but this time it was a scream of terror. He turned back and saw a walking corpse with its teeth buried in her neck, gnawing and infecting her blood with the virus that didn't discriminate. Nathan had to debate in his head for a moment, wondering if she would've come back for him. He killed a zombie that was coming at him, then turned quickly and ran back toward their camp, leaving the woman he had shared a kiss with underneath the stars behind. He didn't think of her much.
He thought back to the man he had known since they were both three, nearly twenty-five years. A man that was quite plump, never learned how to swim and always gulped his feelings down, never allowing them to see the light of day. They were walking across a particularly rough lake of ice toward an old Superstore when he stepped on a bit that was especially thin. It began to crack underneath his weight and he began to scream, showing the emotion that Nathan had forgotten he even had. He began to scream about everything he had screwed up in his life, how he was sorry for everyone dying, how he was - then the ice cracked. He fell in and within a matter of moments he was sinking to the bottom, his limbs freezing in the piercing coldness of the lake. With his final bit of energy, he reached toward the ice and screamed. Nathan saw him every night in his dreams, yelling and whining about how Nathan didn't even try to save him.
Nathan felt the dewy grass beneath his back and curled his fingers at the numbing sensation. Face paler than before, breath slowed, his eyes began to glaze over. He felt as though the world was ending, but it was still very much alive. Birds still chirped ignorantly in the various forests, deer still pranced happily through the meadows and the sun still fell as the moon rose, just as it always would. The world was definitely alive.
Eyes focused on the fading sky, Nathan's lips formed somewhat of an inaudible whisper, then he fell silent.
Nathan was gone.
Dead.
But the sky had never looked so beautiful.