A few weeks prior...
The door swung open crashing into the wall and shaking the bones of the old farm house.
"Get packing we're leaving in 20 minutes!" the old woman yelled.
"Grandma, why can't we just stay here?"
The old lady looked around the room with sentimental eyes; as if reprinting it to memory, before turning her steely gaze back onto the young woman.
"It isn't safe here anymore. Those things are becoming more and more frequent each day." Came her fear tinged reply. She nodded and did ad she was told. When her grandmother gave her the look, she knew she was deadly serious. "And check on your sister when you're done. I'm going to make sure we have enough supplies for the journey."
She zipped up her rucksack and small carry case and headed for the little girls room to make sure she was packing only what she needed.
"Hey boo." She said as she entered. She found the little girl staring out of the heavily curtained window, a faraway look in her eyes and her bottom lip began to quiver, but she sucked in a big gasp of air to stop herself from crying.
Crying was considered a weakness and there was no room for weakness if you wanted to succeed in this household!
"Hey. It's not so bad. We're just going somewhere a little safer that's all." She tried to sound as light hearted as possible as she moved towards the child. She turned the youngster to face her. "Lilly, we're always gonna be together. See..." she fingered the chain around her neck holding it up. "...These mean we can never lose each other..." the little girl held hers up. "...because they only fit perfectly with each other." Lilly smiled and grabbed her into an embrace.
"You promise we'll always be together?" she questioned.
"I do."
"Forever, Olivia?"
"I promise!"
She hated lying to the little girl because nobody lived forever. Death is inevitable. You can't run from it, you can't fight it and no matter how hard you try, you can't beat it.
But for as long as she lived she'd make sure that Lilly thought forever was at least a possibility.
They were so lost in their moment of sisterhood that they didn't hear the old woman coming upon them and her voice startled the two, making them jump into high alert.
"The cars packed and ready..." she focused her eyes on them suspiciously."...You all done or what?"
"Yes grandma." Lilly replied zipping her small purple suitcase and grabbing her matching side satchel.
Olivia stared at their grandmother trying to gauge some kind of idea as to what the woman actually had planned. Her mental state of late hadn't been at its best. She seemed to know what she was doing, but Olivia wasn't sure she'd thought too far ahead in the plan. The chance they would actually make it to where they were going was about 10 to 1; which were good odds, but the road was long and what about Gas? Or Ammo? It would all run out eventually.
True she had been a trained marksmen and had her gun license the minute she was old enough to have it. (She'd already been at expert level a long time prior. Good old grandpa had been letting her shoot since she could walk.)
At the thought of her grandfather she proceeded in going downstairs to collect the one thing she couldn't leave without. She stared at the picture that rested on top of the fireplace of the man she'd respected and loved the most in her life along with the man she never got the chance to know, her father. All the tokens of their remembrance were neatly displayed on either side of the golden urn that held the ashes of the late, much loved man. Her father had been buried in the family plot of the local cemetery. She'd never understood why, but their family had never been one to do things the normal way.
She ran her fingers along the frame as she etched the image of the two smiling men into her memory for the last time. She picked up the small glass box that held her father's college ring inside. This was her grandfathers' proudest achievement of his son as his been the first to go to college. She had just completed her college degree and the shit had hit the fan.
Zombies sure knew how to ruin a promising career!