Lilian woke about an hour after she fell asleep. In the front passenger seat, she saw Liam fast asleep, his head rested against the cold glass of the window. He had a small drip of drool falling from his lips. She couldn't help but laugh a little. His dark hair stuck to his forehead from sweat, which was caused by the heat of the station wagon. Liam looked so much younger in sleep. He didn't have the face of a stressed thirty year old man in the middle of the zombie ruling world, but the one of a carefree man in his early twenties.
Something was wrong. Olive was curled up in the driver seat. Alone. Mason was nowhere in sight. A knot grew in the bottom of Lilian's belly. Something was wrong. He would never leave his young daughter unattended. Lilian quickly got out of the car. She looked up to see Daryl still on watch, which surprised her.
"I thought you would've gone to sleep long ago," she said.
"Couldn't."
"Have you seen Mason?"
"Said he was gonna walk the road."
"Thanks," Daryl gave her a nod and she jogged down the way all the cars were pointed.
The first thing she heard was sobbing. She ran around a silver mini van to find Mason on the hard ground with a gun in his hand, that he held to his forehead.
"Lil?" he looked up at her. His green eyes red and puffy.
"Mason Alexander Shaw!" Lilian exclaimed. "Is this your big plan? To leave this world? To leave your daughter!? Did you even think about how that would affect me, or her, or Liam?"
"Liam would've taken care of you both," he said softly.
"How can you be so sure?" Lilian challenged.
"He's in love with you...always has been."
"Wha...No! Give me the damn gun right now. You're not doing this."
"See you'll do just fine, acting as mother for Olive...tell her I love her."
"You can tell her yourself if you put the damn gun down."
"Why? So I can suffer whatever short life I may have without her?"
"Stop being so hardheaded. Do you think this is what Taylor would want!? No! She wouldn't want you to leave Olivia. She'd want you to be there for her...take care of her..."
"What could I really do for her? Face it. Taylor was the parenting type. I'm not...you'll do fine."
"Mason...I'm begging you...Don't do this," tears fell freely down Lilian's cheeks. "You are my brother..."
"No," he raised the gun again. Bang!
The sound was enough to bring Lilian to her knees. She fell without purpose when she saw that Mason had been tackled.
"Thought she tol' yew to put the gun down," the person who tackled Mason said in his rough country accent. "Yew shoulda listened..."
Daryl handed Lilian the silver gun. She nodded a thank you, since she couldn't think of anything else to do. How were you suppose to thank a man for keeping your brother from killing himself?
"Give that back!" Mason demanded.
"No. Go back to the station wagon with your daughter," she spat the last word at him. Daryl looked at Lilian, he noticed her beauty in the moonlight. He suddenly had the urge to be close to her...to kiss her. Something. But now was not the time, and he'd just kick himself for it later anyway.
Still, he found himself worried for her. "Are ya gonna be okay?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'll be fucking peachy," she sighed and ran her hands through her blonde hair.
"Don't sound like it," he attempted to lighten the mood. It didn't work so well.
"Sarcasm," she said coldly. Daryl began walking away. She caught his hand. He turned toward her before jerking it away. "I'm sorry. Thank you...for helping me..."
He nodded before turning to leave. But, again she stopped him. "What do yew want?" he asked, exasperated.
"I was hoping...I could talk to someone...I need someone to confide in..."
"Talk to yer pretty boy."
"Liam? No. I can't...please Daryl."
He clenched his jaw before he reluctantly agreed. Something about this girl was hard to refuse. But he had to.
"I don't think he'd like it much for you to confide in me," with that Daryl left, leaving the blonde all by her lonesome. Lilian took a seat on the hard concrete, and began thinking. What Mason had told her about Liam, bothered her. She didn't know how she'd never realized it before.
She decided to do something she'd done so many times since the world had ended. Lilian began thinking of her past memories. It always helped her forget that she was in an apocalyptic world. But, the memory that first came to mind was of the last normal day.
Lilian had awoke as usual. She was under the blue sheets of her queen size bed. Her window was slightly open, which allowed the salty South Carolina air fill her nose. She slipped on her purple silk robe. When she walked into the kitchen, she smelled bacon and eggs, which were being cooked on the stove by Liam. They'd been roommates since Mason and Taylor got married. It was normal for them. Whoever got up first made breakfast, and the other did dishes. Most people figured they were sleeping together, but they weren't.
"You always make bacon," she pouted.
"Tough," he grinned. "Make it your damn self if you want something else."
"Nah," she stole a piece of bacon and sat on the counter. "What time do you have to be at work today?"
"Ten," Liam was a columnist for the local news paper which Mason was the editor for.
"Shit, what time is it now?" she looked at the kitchen clock. 8:07 am. "I gotta go," she had to be at work at nine, and it took a half hour to drive to the elementary school. She rushed to her room and found clothes, after she fixed her hair, she walked back into the kitchen. Liam handed her a thermos with coffee. "Thanks."
"Yep."
"Bye," she went to her silver VW bug, and drove to the school. She was happy it was friday, so she was allowed to wear jeans. That also meant payday. After pulled up, she hurried through the glass doors and walked down the first grade hallway to her classroom. The door read MS. SHAW in big bold letters. Lucky for her, she was right on time.
All of the students came into class, and hung their stuff in their cubbies.
"Okay, today kids, we're gonna learn about the letter S. Who knows a word that begins with S?"
Joey, the most enthusiastic boy in the class raised his hand high. Lilian pointed to him. "Shit!" he exclaimed. She wanted so bad to laugh, but she knew it could cost her her job. It was just something about when little kids cussed, that always made her laugh.
"No, Joey. That's a bad word, that you are not allowed to use."
"My dad says it."
"He's a grown up. How about Shaw? That starts with S."
"Attention teachers get your students ready to go to the bus. School will be ending early today," the secretary said over the intercom. Lilian did as directed. Her cell phone began to ring, she quickly picked it up.
"Hello."
"Lil, stay at the school. Mason, Taylor, Olive, and myself are comin' to get ya. I packed you a bag."
"Liam, what's going on?"
"We have to get to Atlanta. Just trust me," the phone beeped, signaling the signal had been lost. She suddenly had no bars.
"Shit," she cursed. Joey pointed at her.
"I thought you said we couldn't say that word."
"I did. I'm sorry, c'mon kids."
She got the children to their proper busses, before leaving with her group.
AN: So, what did y'all think of it? Let me know!