Two days later Roy recruits myself and a few others to go out and continue to search for William, the missing person. The story is they went out on a supply run and they were separated when a pack of infected spotted them. Apparently our camp was set up nine or so months ago and they've been searching for supplies ever since. "Let me think for a second," Roy says in front of the group. "It's been twenty or so years since this outbreak started, there's not going to be many places that haven't already been ransacked more than a few times." Several people get down on one knee. "We've got a job to do men, we have to take care of the people who are remaining and take care of each other, now that means we have to search this entire area." He takes a few seconds to scan over the men. "Our top priority is to find William Marshall, he helped us get here and now we have to help him get back." With that said we set off to find William. It's a long and hot day of following in each other's footsteps. Vultures can be seen circling in the sky above. We come across the lower half of a human body. No sign of the other half. The little food that I had this morning exits the way it came in. The visual of the body is nauseating but the smell is even worse. Roy checks the body's pants pockets for any information or supplies. One pocket knife is all that is found. The stench lessens the further we move away from it but I still feel as if the smell is on me. "If we had the time and resources we would burn or bury the body but we need to push forward and hope that smell doesn't attract the infected" Roy says. It's a steep climb up the side of the mountain. The slightest hint of a trail is visible, grass, fallen limbs and pine cones have taken over most of it. We see another body just below the ridge. It's sitting upright against a tree with what looks to be a machete lying across it thighs. Everyone in the group squats down hoping to not be seen. "Let's wait here for a minute and see if anything moves" whispers Roy. So we wait, the hair on the back of my neck rises. I slowly turn my head away scanning the sloped hillside above us, afraid we may have just walked into some kind of trap. After a while Roy breaks the silence "okay Tom you're with me and Hector you take Josh and Alex and go on the right side." Everyone nods their heads and starts to walk down the side of the hill. I try and stay close to the others not knowing exactly what to do. As we approach we can start to tell that the person is a woman. Her brown hair is half covering her face. When we get within five feet of her she snaps awake and grabs the machete. "Wo, wo, wo" says Hector with one open palm towards her. "Stay away" she says pointing the machete at him. "It's all right" he says while sliding out the Firefly pendant from underneath his shirt. She takes a look at the rest of us while still holding up the machete. "Guys" Hector says while tapping on the pendant. The others start to show their pendants and I follow suit. "So what?" she says. "We're not going to hurt you; we're just looking for our friend, his name is William have you seen him?" With her weapon still raised she says "no I haven't". Hector continues "are you with anyone else?" She finally lowers the machete and says "I'm with my child and two men." She stands up and slides the machete into her belt. "Can you show us where they are?" asks Hector. Taking a deep breath, she lowers her shoulders and gives in. We follow her further down the mountain. A half a mile later we come upon a small red barn. Roy steps in front of the woman and grabs a hold of the barn door handle "I'll go in first" he says. Roy slightly opens the door on the left side and steps foot into the barn with his rifle raised. A brief moment later he waves everyone forward as he opens the door even wider. Inside sits four faces beaming with joy in being reunited with each other. It turns out the mother had led two infected away from her child while the men were off trying to hunt for food. She was able to take down one infected, the other infected was slower and somehow she was able to lose it in the forest. Meanwhile the two men came across William while he was skinning a squirrel.
When you're living with a group the good days seem to stand out even more than before. I had a mother and a couple of good friends before. But seeing these four new people join the group feels big. The sense of accomplishment in knowing that you probably just saved these people's lives is something that I haven't felt before. The little boy Hunter is only six years old and his smile becomes infectious in a good way. The mother Molly can't find an outdoor shower and then a bed fast enough. The two men Ben and Lamar are quickly integrated into the routine. Tina grabs me by the back of the arm, "I found some files for you, you can take a look at them in my office if you want." I turn my head to the left and look into her eyes, "sure that's sounds good." She takes a couple of seconds to look at Hunter who is entertaining some of the others. "When's the last time you saw a kid?" I ask her. Her eyes change as she walks away from me. Shaken a little I walk into her office and see the stack of files on her desk. A small note is placed on top of the files. "The key for the file cabinet is not working, these were all I could find, I did not go through all of them but I will find a way to open up that cabinet." A battle inside me begins. Anxiety starts to take hold; this nervous energy comes from the idea that I may find him or just find out more about him. My head tells me something different, that I'm trying to find a needle in a hay stack that there's no way I'll find Tommy. I open the first file, there's no picture just the name at the top "Thomas Howard." Age "22", sex "Male", height "5'8"". Down at the bottom of the page Cause of Death "self-inflicted gunshot wound." That idea hadn't really crossed my mind before, the fact that I would find out about him and that he would be dead. I believe he would be taller and older than this guy. I close the first file and plop it on her desk. Do I even want to know? Yeah I think I do. The second file has a photo, it's a small two by three-inch photo of a woman standing in front of a brick wall from the chest up. "Leslie Green" age "30", Cause of Death "infected". Her Firefly pendant is taped to the file. Apparently if you become some sort of legend they keep your pendant with your file. So future Fireflies can remember you and what you sacrificed for the group. Two more files of dead people and my head seems to be winning out. Then I get to the fifth file "Tom Granger" age "23", sex "Male", height "5'7"". At the bottom of the page it says "disappeared no know location." Palms sweating, heart beat increasing I shake my head. "I'm pretty sure it's not him" I say to myself. He wouldn't be five foot seven, I'm stupid to think I would ever find him. I close the file "it can't be him." The next file is a little heavier it must have a pendant. I open it up and my heart leaps. As plain as day their he is in the photo. The same two by three-inch photo in front of a brick wall. He looks younger then I remembered. "Thomas Young" age "24", I'm almost too afraid to look at the bottom of the page. "Left voluntarily empty handed believed to be in the Montana or possibly Texas." I rub my finger over his pendant, still in disbelief over finding his file.