Take down the walls.
That is my mantra as I pick at the concrete with my bare hands, Grace working beside me.
Alex brings me a wrench, and a hammer for Grace. The sharp clang of the metal resonates in my ears, pounding in my head every time my wrench hits the wall.
A seemingly endless drone of clang, clang, clang.
Take down the walls.
Shouts for joy when a section of the wall collapses.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Take down the walls.
Darkness descends on the wall. No one stops picking at the walls. Torches are lit. In the flickering light, I realized that it is late. Grace and I need to eat. I don't know where to find food.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
No one else seems hungry.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
As I step away from the wall with Grace, her small hand in mine – I don't want to risk losing her – my other hand is grasped.
Alex.
He guides us away from the wall, into the forest, and probably the trailer park and Alex's trailer. Or "Crest Village Mobile Park" as it used to be called, in the days before the Blitz.
Heading into the woods, the clanging fades into the distance.
I lift Grace to my hip when she starts lagging behind. It is obvious that she is exhausted. Her head falls to my shoulder, her brown? hair bunching up underneath her head. Her eyelids close over her big gray eyes as I continue walking.
Eventually we reach the Invalid camp. Crest Village. Alex's trailer.
Alex.
I smile when I remember the books in his fridge, and the tarp on the roof, and gazing at the night sky from the mattress.
Grace stirs, her head still resting on my shoulder. Eventually she wakes up fully, and I set her on the ground next to one of the campfires. Instructing her to stay there, I search the camp for food.
After searching for quite a while, I find a can of beans. Bringing them back to where Grace sits, I open the can. Grace, Alex, and I share the beans.
There are only a few people left at the camp, besides Alex, Grace, and I. Most of them are surrounding a campfire. Probably roasting some sort of food.
Food is one thing that has always been in short supply. Now that we have taken Portland, we may have a little more food than normal, at least for a while. But we will have to grow food. Portland has been taken back by the Invalids.
Slowly, we will regain the country and eradicate the cure. No longer will there be cities full of empty people. Zombieland shall be no more.
Take down the walls.
Love will re-enter the country.
No longer will every heart be guarded by the cure.
No longer will love be illegal.
Take down the walls.
We are free.
Soon, everyone will be free.
Take. Down. The. Walls.