Here it is, the end of it all...but with the end there is always room for new beginnings...so I thank you for following me and my crazy ride and believing in the dream of a stupid optimist...I hope you enjoy this final chapter and please review. Also don't forget to send your OC ideas to me...I will await them eagerly...plus I can't really start a sequel with three OC's...

Epilogue

"Hide for Mommy, Miru, the bad men are here again."

Miru did as she was told and hid under her bed. The bad men were scary and always screamed and shrieked, running at people and eating them. Miru and her mother had been on the run for as long as Miru could remember. Recently Mommy had heard of a place they could be safe…a place called Boom Town, away from all the bad men.

She heard the click-clack of Mommy's safety stick and covered her ears as the slick made a loud bang! It continued with the screaming and banging as Miru waited for it to all be over, Mommy was tough, she could get scratched and bitten and would be okay, but this time was different, this time a strange one was with the bad men. It shrieked and swooped down from the air pinning Mommy and biting her. Miru stifled her scream and watched in horror as they began to eat Mommy.

She closed her eyes and covered her ears to block it all out. She sat there shivering hoping it would all be over and they would leave her alone. But it grew silent. Miru opened her eyes and the strange bird creature was staring right at her. Its mouth opened horizontally and it let out and un-godly shriek as Miru screamed. Then its head fell to the floor and a strange man in a coat stood over her. He was scary too.

He wore a blue jacket with a hood and a long, black coat. His skin was grey and beneath his hood, his eyes reflected gold. He had shaggy black hair and a beard and he leaned down to look at her. He looked like a bad man, so Miru backed away. And then he smiled, it was a warm smile, like Mommy's.

"Don't worry, I'm here to protect you from all the scary things. My name is Ray, what's your name."

She heard more loud bangs in the distance and people yelling as the bad men shrieked and ran away. "M-miru…what's going to happen to Mommy?"

He kept the smile, "We're going to take her to the hospital…do you know what that is?"

She shook her head, "Well a hospital is where we take people so they can get all better. And sometimes is they don't get better we send them to a place called Heaven, where they get to relax all day and be with their friends until they get better."

"I want to go to Heaven…but I don't have any friends."

He smiled again, "Well Miru, you don't look sick to me so we're going to take you to the city and we're going to help you make lots of friends…just tell them that your best friend is Ray and they will get you anything you need."

She smiled and hugged him, "Okay!"

"Now this is my wife Becca…she's also a Mommy…she'll take you to the city. I hope you can be good friends with our son Daniel."

As the girl skipped off with Becca I turned to look at April, "Log it…out of this camp of fifteen only six survivors…the Badlands are becoming more and more dangerous…this was an encampment only 100 miles from the city…imagine what'll happen when things get closer."

"You also have to remember this was a weaker encampment, some of the stronger ones have at least 50 people and are well fortified…but they're not very trusting."

"Especially of Outsiders…just hard to believe though…that girl is four years old…she was born into the middle of hell, and she'll never see her mother again."

"Yeah…but we have to keep pushing."

"Yeah you're right sis…call in Seth, tell him we're bringing in some new citizens."