[Chapter 9] Closing Memories
Mason was lying on the cold ground of the forest with his eyes closed. Thomas sat next to him, staring into the hot flames of the campfire underneath a sky filled with bright stars. Somewhere in the forest Barbie and Linda were checking the area for walkers. They noticed that they were safer from the undead between the trees. Walkers seemed to be more interested in the cities where people were still trying to survive. There barely was any food for the monsters in the woods. Mason eventually fell asleep, triggering a memory of his past in the form of a dream. A nightmare.
Mason woke up with rays of sunlight heating up his face through the closed curtains. The smell of autumn leaves penetrated his nose as he threw the blankets on the ground and opened up his window. He picked up a pack of cigarettes from his desk, which was filled with empty bottles and lighters. Underneath was a layer of unfinished schoolwork. Schoolwork that was never going to be finished.
Het lit up one of the cigarettes. As he took the first hit, he blew out the disgusting smoke through his nose. He didn't like the taste of cigarettes, but he couldn't do without it either. It was two months since his grandfather passed away. He went to school only eight days of those two months, more busy drinking away the pain with cheap alcohol.
His door opened when he finished the cigarette. His father, looking at him with a red, angry face, and his mother walked into his bedroom.
'Good morning.' Mason smiled, but they didn't answer his greetings. His father was the one who did the talking, as his mother couldn't bear to see what had become of her son. She was looking at the posters on the wall from some kind of television series.
'It's time for you to go.' he spoke.
'I don't have school today, you know that, right?' Mason laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh, though.
'You have to leave the house.' his father persisted.
'What are you talking about?' Mason said. The smile was gone. He knew what was happening.
'We're done with you not listening to us. We tried to help you after your grandfather passed away, but you don't accept help from others. You keep buying alcohol and cigarettes and we can't take it anymore. Take your stuff and leave the house.' his father said. Mason was shocked. He realized how much pain he caused them. And it was too late to fix it.
Two hours after thinking about what was said to him and actually packing his stuff in two big bags, he walked out of the house, slamming the door behind him with tears in his eyes, not saying goodbye to the two people who raised him and loved him.
The dream flashed towards a point two years after the death of his grandfather.
Mason had quit drinking and smoking for a long time by now. He was happier, but still felt an empty space in his heart. He didn't hear anything from his parents since the day he was kicked out of the house. He never tried to reach out to them either, so it was his partially his own mistake.
He grabbed his cellphone from the couch and scrolled through the list of numbers saved on it. He tried to call his mother first, but he immediately got her voicemail, telling him to leave a message after the beep. His father didn't pick up the phone either. His third option was calling the house. A young, female voice answered the phone. A voice Mason didn't recognize.
'Hello, this is Amy. How can I help you?' the voice asked. She had a pretty sounding voice.
'This is Mason. Are my parents at home?' Mason asked.
'Mrs. Simmons is currently at work.' the woman said. Mason wondered why she was using his mothers last name.
'And what about Mr. Cooper?' Mason asked, using his own last name.
'I'm sorry, but Mr. Cooper passed away a year ago.'
Mason felt like he was hit by a semi-truck. His father died? He lowered his hand, almost dropping the phone as tears jumped into his eyes. Eight months after being kicked out, his father passed away.
'Sir, are you still there?'
But Mason didn't respond. He ended the phone call without saying anything else to the woman.
His nightmare felt more real with every second that passed. The others heard him talking in his sleep as he was moving and rolling on the ground, not able to escape his subconscious mind.
Mason knocked on the door of his former home, three years after being kicked out. It took him a year after hearing about the death of his father to get back there. His mother opened the door. When she saw him she wanted to close the door immediately. Even though his appearance changed a lot since he quit smoking and drinking, she recognized him like every mother would.
'Mom, I only want to talk to you for a few minutes. After that I'm gone again.' Mason said, because he saw that she didn't want to see him.
'You never contacted us. You didn't even phone when your father died. How could you?' his mother cried, still trying to close the door, but Mason prevented her from doing so.
'How could I know that he passed away?'
'Wake up – You should've called… - Wake up – You should've… - Wake up – called…' she said.
Her voice was interrupted by another voice as her face and body started flashing. Mason rubbed his eyes within the dream to clear his vision, but her talking was still interrupted by the male voice saying the words wake up. After a few seconds, his mother disappeared and Barbie was standing in front of him, yelling the same words over and over again.
Mason awoke from his nightmare abruptly, noticing the chaos around him. They were surrounded by walkers. The others were fighting them off. Barbie was kneeling besides him as he woke him up. Barbie helped him up and gave him his knife. Mason had trouble to stay focused on the situation after dreaming about his past.
He stabbed two walkers in the head to help clear a path through the woods. Somehow the walkers found their location and surprised them, even though Barbie and Linda had the area covered.
A walker pinned him to a tree and he dropped the knife. The walker got very close to his face and he could smell the terrible breath of the undead creature. Knocking it on the head didn't work. Barbie saw it happening in the corner of his eyes. He killed two walkers and ran towards Mason to stab the walker in the head.
Mason saw the head of the walker flashing into the face of his own mother as Barbie stabbed it to death. He fell to the ground with a pale face. He was losing his mind.
'Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.' he kept repeating to himself, shaking his head with his eyes closed.
Addison ran to him and sat down in front of him, grabbing his hands, yelling at him.
'Wake up!' she spoke. His eyes opened another time.
He was still lying on the ground. The campfire was slowly burning up. Thomas was still asleep. The ground wasn't covered with walkers and it seemed like no chaos had happened in the woods. He realized he just woke up from a nightmare within a nightmare.
Addison helped him sit up straight and she smiled at him.
'You were having a nightmare.'
Mason nodded. His shirt was drowned in sweat and stuck to his back. He rubbed his face again, trying to find out if this part was another dream, but realized he was finally awake.
'Do you want to talk about it?' Addison asked him, but Mason shook his head.
'It was about my past. And my past is in the past.' he smiled, not wanting to talk about it. He was told before the apocalypse that talking about what happened to him was a good way to get rid of the pain, but he was more addicted to the actual pain than he ever was to alcohol and cigarettes. The pain kept him going. The pain made sure he wouldn't slip away. But sometimes the pain become too much, like just happened with the nightmare.
Barbie joined the conversation and told Mason it was his turn to keep watch with one of the other survivors they rescued from the basement. He lost his own gun while leaving Atlanta, so he used Barbie's gun for now. His companion was a nineteen year old, joke cracking kid named Finn.
'I've got another one for you. What did the turkey say before it was roasted?' Finn said after the first five jokes, already laughing before Mason had the chance to answer. His jokes were terrible, but it distracted him from the bad things in his life.
'Not a clue. Tell me.'
'Boy, I'm stuffed!' Finn chuckled. Mason shook his head with a smile. It was the low quality of the jokes that made him smile, not the jokes itself.
'How do you even know all these jokes?' Mason asked.
'Because I like them!'
'You know they're terrible, right?'
'Of course! That's what makes them funny.' Finn laughed while stabbing a walker without legs in the head.
They found something curious as they walked further into the woods. Dead bodies were lying on the ground. Stabbed in the head before they turned. Mason gestured that they had to keep silent. There were people around, because Barbie and Linda didn't report dead people when their watch was over.
'Can't I just live one day only having to worry about walkers?' Mason thought as he turned over one of the bodies to check its back. No bite wounds. These people were murdered, not killed to give them mercy before turning into a walker.
'The bodies are cold.' Finn said after finding another one. ', These are lying here for a while now. The person responsible for this is most likely gone already. We'll tell the others. They'll know what to do.'
'Get some sleep. I'll take the last hour before we take off again. We'll stick to the plan and move for Columbus.' Barbie said, taking the lead, while earlier it seemed like Linda was in charge.
But Mason didn't go to sleep. He was scared he would fall back into his nightmare straight away. Instead he offered Barbie to stay on watch with him. The man accepted and together they went back to were they found the bodies. Mason showed him the way.
'No signs of bruises and cuts. I don't think they've fought the killer. It looks like they were sleeping here. Maybe killed for their supplies in their sleep?' Barbie was speaking with a low voice to himself. It was his military experience speaking about the state of the bodies. They used to do that in warzones when they found killed soldiers to understand what happened to them.
The first rays of sunlight cut through the last leaves of the trees. It was their sign to get back to the road and continue the journey to Columbus. They still had a long walk to go, because they weren't able to find a working vehicle to this point. Cars were broken open and parts were stolen alongside with the fuel. And the highways were filled with wrecked cars, meaning no one could get through easily.
'Are you okay?' Addison asked Mason when they walked out of the woods, aiming at his nightmares.
'I think so, yes.' he smiled.
'You still don't want to talk about it?' she tried again, but Mason only smiled to her. It was a clear answer to her.
The group walked towards the road. Linda carried the map so they knew somewhat where they were going. While they were safe in the woods, it didn't feel right to be there at night. Like some kind of danger was lurking in the darkness behind the trees.
And there was. The murderer of the two dead bodies in the woods had followed them from Atlanta. While most of Rais' men had given up on taking the group out, this lone person didn't. He wanted revenge for what they did to his leader.
The follower thought he wasn't noticed yet, but Barbie was aware of his presence since they entered the woods. He knew exactly that he was the unknown murderer, but didn't say anything in order to avoid chaos and restlessness within the group.
'Thomas, when we get to that intersection, I want you to turn around and shoot the person behind us. He's been following us since Atlanta. Time to close that chapter.' Barbie whispered to him. Thomas was surprised by the request, but followed the orders without a question. With a clean shot through the nose, he killed the man.
Addison turned around and saw the body falling to the ground.
'That's twenty-eight, right?' she asked Thomas.
'I only count the zombies I kill.' he thought to himself, but in order to give nothing away he only nodded as a response. He put his rifle on his back and turned around as if nothing happened.