Viv did not know how many hours had passed before she once again got up from the ground, nor did she care. There was no one in sight; even the zombies seemed to have abandoned this area, and she felt a sudden urge to run, to flee, to get as far away as possible. But darkness was coming and she knew that she needed to find a place to sleep if she was to uphold her promise to Henry. The thought of his words, his wish for her to be brave, was the only thing that made her force her body forward, one step after another, until finally she reached another house away from the city.

Viv almost pushed the door open before she remembered that she ought to be careful. Afraid now, feeling the ripples of panic in her chest again, she grasped her spear so hard that her hand hurt and shook, and stepped inside, closing behind her so that nothing else, at least, would enter. Then she stopped and listened, again trying to still that loud beating of her heart, and failing.

Less than a minute passed, but it felt as if she had been standing there for hours, before she heard it. A moaning from the other room. She sucked in a breath and was overcome by an overwhelming urge to run, but knew she could not. There were no other houses in sight, nowhere else to stay, and darkness was falling. So she stepped toward the sound instead of turning away from it, and found a kitchen. There, on the floor, lay half a zombie, its legs missing, and yet again Viv wanted to run. But she kept herself there, in the room, with the crawler, and, hands shaking still, lifted her spear and struck.

The zombie stopped reaching for her; its arm fell to the floor, and it was silent. A wave of panic rushed through her, now, when she had done what must be done, and she grasped at the wall, catching a corner of the doorframe, and managed to keep herself steady.

There were no more sounds in the house. But still she forced her unwilling mind to walk her body all the way through the place before she barricaded herself in the living room. Here, she unpacked her bedroll (they had found some, Henry and she, when the cold first set in) and pulled it tightly around her body. She knew, part of her, that she was hungry, yet she did not want to eat. She did not want to do anything.

In the end, she found the small radio stuffed at the top of her bag, and though she knew that it was too late an hour for Jack and Eugene to be hosting their show, still she turned it on. Nothing but the white noise came out of the speakers, but for the first time ever Viv found that sound reassuring. She knew she ought to turn it off again, to preserve the batteries, yet she did not want to. In the end, she lay awake for hours, listening to the sound. Then she finally did the sensible thing. Because that was what Henry would have done.

The thought of him haunted her that night, and each time she woke from another nightmare, she prayed that it had all been a dream, an evil dream, and that he would once again take her in his arms and make everything better. But every time she had to face that it happened, that he was gone, and that she was all alone now.

Yet she held back her tears, afraid that if she started crying, the creatures in the night would hear her and find her and tear her to pieces. When morning came, however, she curled up into a ball on the couch and allowed the tears to come, and she cried and she cried until, finally, it seemed like there was nothing left in her. She was empty.

That was when she reached for the radio once again, hoping that the white noise had been replaced by music. But it was not yet time, so she sat up and stared at the speakers, at the small buttons, at the once pretty table on which she had placed it, and she waited, till the white noise brushed up and then disappeared, and Jack's voice sounded,

"Hello there, listeners, and welcome to another couple hours with Radio Abel! I've got Eugene here with me, as always, and we're going to present you with some great music, as well as practical information, and, uh, other important subjects."

"Meaning whatever comes to mind as we go along," Eugene added. "But we'll start with the useful info. Here is a list of the areas that are currently off limits unless you're looking to befriend the zoms."

As they talked, Viv found Henry's map and looked at it. She knew where she was at the moment; Henry had marked it for her days ago, and she studied the area until she dared let her eyes glance down at the place in which Abel Township might be. She had not learned to interpret a map, not really, but she recalled how Henry had guessed that there must be at least a week's travel on foot to reach it, if they were even right in the town being there. Another wave of desperation nearly knocked her out, but she picked herself up and attempted to firmly tell herself that Henry was right, as he always was. If she wanted to find Abel, she must go south, and so she would.

Jack ended the segment and put on a song from his ipod, from which, she had learned, most of their songs came. This one she knew very well.

"I'm gonna marry the night,

I won't give up on my life,

I'm a warrior queen, live passionately tonight.

I'm gonna marry the dark,

Gonna make love to the stark,

I'm a soldier to my own emptiness, I am a winner,

I'm gonna marry the night …"

Viv thought of the mp3 player still in her pocket. Perhaps, when she reached Abel Township, she could give it to Jack and Eugene and they would have more songs to play. She imagined their happiness at that, could almost hear them thank her heartily, and she kept that picture in her mind, even though she still did not even know what they looked like. She would like to find out.

She only wished that she could have found out together with Henry instead of like this.

Viv listened intently to the voices and the music for the hours they lasted. For a while, she could pretend that yesterday had never happened, that in a moment Henry would be back with her, and she felt an almost physical pain when in the end the two hosts said their goodbyes for the day and ended with their trademark,

"Stay safe out there, guys."

Then the radio faded and the white noise was back. She turned it off and sat in the silence for a long time … before she finally opened her backpack again and pulled out a tin of peas. Henry would have told her that she needed to eat to stay strong, and she knew she could not stay safe out here unless she was just that.

And now she had a mission. She was going to Abel Township and she was going to deliver her mp3 player to Jack and Eugene so they could use the music it held on their show. It would be her focus, and she needed one such if she were to keep her promise to Henry, to be brave and live, for both of them.

For days afterwards, Viv's life turned to a new pattern. Every day she would wake up, eat a bit of breakfast, and listen to Jack and Eugene. Then, when the show was over and there was nothing left but white noise again, she would turn off the radio, grab her bag, and be on her way. She tried to read the map and go south, but for a while she was uncertain as to whether she was doing it correctly. But then she found a town whose location she had seen on the map and been heading for and knew she was on the right track.

The nights were the hardest. Without Henry and with no Radio Abel to distract her, she found it difficult not to give in to the fear that she would succeed in suppressing during the daytime. Then she could lay awake for hours, sometimes shaking, sometimes silently sobbing into the pillow, sometimes both. She was relieved when the sun was yet again up and she could pretend the night had never been. It was the only way she could get by.

She thought often of Abel Township, wondered what it must be like. She imagined the people there, those people that did not all seem quite like strangers to her anymore, though she knew not their faces, imagined herself as one of them. More often than anything, she imagined the moment when she would hand over her mp3 player to Jack and Eugene and the conversation that would follow. She began to keep the scenario firmly in her mind every time the night closed in, and it was never quite the same; often some thing would change, but they were always happy to meet her. And when the silence became too much, too unbearable, Viv would repeat those conversations, would whisper them to herself, as if trying to convince herself that she was not all alone in a big house or a small house or a tool shed for the night, with the moans of the occasional zombie or the fearful herd audible outside.

Then one day the radio would not turn on. She pressed the button again, and again, and once more, tried to adjust the channel, but nothing happened. Viv sat down and stared at the small device, willing it to start, though she knew things did not work like that, and still nothing happened. The longer she sat there, the more the silent panic spread in her stomach, up through her chest, her throat, until she could barely breathe and her eyes watered. No. No, this could not be happening. No, she could not lose this too, no, please no …

She did not know for how long she sat there motionless, but eventually the panic seeped out and down through the floor and gave way to the more sensible part of her. The radio wasn't necessarily broken. It was more likely that it had run out of battery. That she could fix. So she got up and looked through the cupboards in the cottage she had slept in, checked all the drawers, even the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, but without luck. Then she had a sudden thought and opened the remote control, but when she tried its batteries she realized that they were long dead.

Did this mean she would have to go into the city after all?

She shuddered at the thought. Though it was more of a small town than a city as such, she still knew that there would be a higher density of zombies there than out here in the countryside, and she did not much like the idea of coming any closer to the undead. But she supposed there was nothing else to do if she did not want to lose Radio Abel.

So Viv got up, put on her jacket and, spear in hand, ventured out into the day. The sky was cloudy and grey and very possibly holding in rain. She put up her hood and ran, only slowing down when she neared the first couple of houses that marked the city border. When she crossed that, she knew, she might be on dangerous ground, and so she stepped carefully as she continued.

Her heart was beating fast, but the last week (or was it more? She had forgotten to count the days) had steadied its pace out here and she did no longer feel the need to flee the way she had before, because there was no one to hide behind even if she did so, no one to rely on for getting her what she needed. She had not truly understood how much more than comfort Henry had provided until she was without him. If she had, maybe she would have been better at joining him on supply runs. She did not let herself think the thought that lurked in her mind behind the realization, the one that would tell her that she might have been able to stop the zombie that got him had she gone with him …

The window of a house on the corner of the next street was broken, but the door still closed. Almost daring to hope that meant it was empty, Viv climbed through the frame and landed on her feet, without falling the way she had often done in the early days, and looked around. It was a kitchen, a small one, with nothing but electronic devices. Nothing driven by batteries. She continued out into a small hallway in which one door, she guessed, led to the staircase and another to a different room. When she carefully opened it, she found it to be a living room, and she smiled.

She looked through the drawers and cupboards and finally found what she needed: An unopened pack of batteries. Quickly, she stuffed it in her pocket and went back to the kitchen. From the window, she could see a couple of zombies head down the street and she kept quiet while she waited for them to be gone. Then she crawled out and heaved herself downonto the grass surrounding the place.

As she stood there and looked around once more, suddenly a reckless curiosity she did not know she possessed seized her and Viv made her way down the street, past trash and abandoned cars and bikes, toward the corner that she guessed must lead to the main road toward the city center. Her heart was still pounding fiercely in her chest, but now she was, for but a moment, an adventurer. A part of her could not help but wonder whether the cities really were as bad as Henry had told her? He had said they were swarming with zombies, but so far all she had seen were lonely strays. Could it possibly be that he had been wrong (she hardly dared think that way about her brother!), or maybe that things had now changed, that the undead were vacating as there was nothing more left for them to eat? And what if she was the only one to know, to dare check, dare hope? Then there would be so much food she could gather and bring with her south, and she would no longer have to rely on the dusty cupboards of her homes-for-a-night to hold anything still edible!

She was shaking, she realized, as she reached the corner, almost not daring to go past it anyway, afraid of what she might find there. So she took a deep breath to steady herself and found her adventurer spirit again. Then she stepped forward.

It did not seem so bad. The street was not much different from the one she had just been on and that made her feel comfortable enough to continue. At the far end, she could make out five zombies, and Viv knew she should not get too close because at least at this distance she doubted very much that they would notice her if only she kept silent, so she did. After a few hundred meters, however, she lost part of her nerve and hid behind a dumpster, peering around it to keep an eye on the undead as they shambled mindlessly around in circles. Her heart was starting to beat loudly again, very much so, and she put a hand on her chest in an attempt to quiet the sound, though she knew it was no use. Perhaps she ought to get out of here and back to the house before anything dangerous might happen. She peered up at the sun for a moment, but she had never quite learned to tell time that way and so she did not know whether she was already too late to listen to at least a little Radio Abel today.

Suddenly, a strange sound began from the distance, and Viv grimaced and covered her ears. It was loud, almost like a siren, except not quite the same, and it seemed to originate from somewhere further into the city, or perhaps even on the other side of it? She wasn't sure.

She was not the only one to notice, however. The strange sound seemed to draw out the zombies. The five on the street stopped going in circles and began instead to wander in the direction of the sound, and for a moment, Viv felt relieved that they were heading away. But then suddenly, more of the walking dead appeared from the adjacentstreets, and Viv held her breath as she saw the number of them. At first, there were perhaps ten. Then another flock appeared, and another, and as they grew in numbers, her panic grew with them. She got up and had enough sense left to quietly back away, back to the corner she had rounded. Once out of sight, she ran, and she ran, and she did not stop even when she was once again out of the city, did not even slow down. It was not until she was safe behind the walls of the cottage that she allowed her legs to slow and stop and give in, and she sat there, out of breath and out of courage, against the wooden wall. No, she promised herself, she would never go into the cities again, ever! She bit her lip to stop the tears that were once more close to taking over.

Then her gaze landed on the radio on the table. Still shaking, she got up and walked towards it, suddenly able to ignore the way her legs burned, unused to the speed she had set. Viv sat down and pulled out the pack of batteries from the city house. She needed to change them. It was important. Even more so now, at this moment of doubt that had suddenly hit her. Then she pushed the on button.

"I raise my flag and dye my clothes," the tones of a song Viv did not remember was the most welcome sound she could have possibly heard right now,

"It's a revolution, I suppose;

We're painted red to fit right in, whoa …"

She sat down and took it in, enjoyed every second that ticked by too quickly, every word of the lyrics that continued for a few minutes until the last chorus after which, she knew, she would hear the voices she had come to depend more upon than anything else in this grey world because they made her feel less lonely.

"I'm waking up; I feel it in my bones

Enough to make my system blow,

Welcome to the new age …"

And those moments of almost-companionship was the only thing that kept her going still. The thought that she might, one day, not too far from now, reach that sanctuary that Abel Township represented to her. A city in which she might be safe and, though she barely dared hope so, perhaps even almost happy. Without Henry, she knew, she would never be truly glad again, but at least in Abel Township maybe she would not have this constant need to cry in the back of her mind. She was tired, so very tired, of being alone in a hostile world. She would like to stop running now.

"I'm radioactive, radioactive ..."

The last tones of the song slowly died out and Viv pulled her bedroll around her and waited for Jack and Eugene. She could still feel the pounding of her heart and the adrenaline it was spreading in her body, could still when she closed her eyes see the mass of zombies, still hear the strange siren mixing in with the mindless moans. The sounds seemed to grow inside her and wash out everything else until she felt as if she was drowning in them. She reached for the radio then, pulled it closer to her, and fought to regain her sense of here and now, of safety and calm and maybe, just maybe, a strange beginning sense of happiness at the voices of Jack and Eugene. And although she barely comprehended what they were saying, she still felt her heartbeat slow minute by minute until, at last, the city panic had been washed out of her chest and she could embrace again the goal she had set.