Day 3
Me and Luna stared at the monitor as we sang song after song. I saw Luna's finger was starting to bleed from the heavy strumming, so I stopped her hand. She looked at me, shocked. "Luna, stop, your fingers are bleeding," I told her. She looked at her fingers and she saw the blood dripping down from the tips of her finger.
"Ah, thanks bro," She said as she put the guitar down beside her. "I thought that my calluses were thick enough." She said. Seeing that her fingers were bleeding so much, I got up and took the first aid kit in the pantry cabinet. We've been going through this box for 6 months, and whatever's left in it isn't much, but it was enough.
"Lemme wrap that up for you," I told her. She gave me her hand and I carefully placed peroxide on it to clean it. "Luna, how could you not feel it when you're playing?"
"I dunno bro," she said dejectedly. "Thanks bro, I'm sorry," She looked down. She sighed. As soon as her fingers were wrapped with a roll of bandage, she laid down on her back. I did too. We saw the gray concrete ceiling, decorated with ventilation tubes and water pipes. "Bro, if you were sent back in time and knew this was going to happen before it happened, what would you do?" She asked me.
"Depends, do I bring all the trauma or do I just know about it?" I said.
"You bring all trauma,"
"I'd cry, it's not like I can do anything about it," I replied with no emotion in voice.
"I guess I'd do the same," Luna sighed. We laid there, looking at the monitor screen, Leni's and dad's body laid there in front of the camera, their eyes wide open, lifeless. The maggots were climbing on Leni's body, digging into her skin in search of food. In a few days, that will be us, that was the only thing that ran into our thoughts.
I wanted to wake up from this nightmare, I know that the rest of us wanted that to happen too, but we all know that this fallout shelter is our coffin. Just as I was about to fall asleep, a loud BANG rang through the entire shelter. It was a gunshot coming from the bathroom. My ears were ringing, everyone woke up. I got up and walked to the bathroom door with Luna beside me. Slowly, I reached my hand and opened the door. The concrete walls of the bathroom were painted with brain matter and blood, and on the floor was mom, with a gaping hole through her head. She laid there lifeless and faceless in front of us. I fell on the ground when my brain finally read what happened. HOW COULD SHE KILL HERSELF? MOM?
"MOM!" Luna screamed as she entered the bathroom causing the others to clutter around the door. Even though Lynn didn't see what happened, she didn't want the younger kids to see what happened, so she blocked them from going in.
I could hear Lily crying, Luan laughing, and Lori sobbing. Maybe they already knew.
"Lynn what was that?" Lana asked with a wrench in her hands. Her face had fear and dread painted all over.
"Umm... It's just..." Lynn stuttered. "just stay back a bit... let me look, go look at the camera feed or something, leave this one to me. Let me know if you see anything in the feed." As the others went to watch the feed, Lynn came to us with a baseball bat in her hands. "What's going on guys?" pulled on Luna's shoulder to see what was going on. Then she saw the body. I could hear her guts wrenching. "Mom?" she asked. It wasn't even a second before she vomited her guts out into the toilet bowl.
"She left us," Luna said weakly. Luna crouched down and grabbed the gun in mom's hand and she shoved it on her belt.. The smell of iron was reek.
"Ugh... w-why?" Lynn stuttered as she got herself together. She pulled mom's body up on the seat, trying to find something. "Where is it?"
"Where's what?" Luna asked, her tone dead.
"The letter, there has to be a letter!" Lynn said angrily.
"There isn't one," Luna said.
Why? Were we that bad as kids that our own mother wouldn't leave us a last goodbye before killing herself? Those were thoughts that went through out heads. I don't want to hear it anymore. With both of my hands I blocked my ears and I rested my face on my knees as I pulled it up. I just want to wake up. What sin did we do to deserve this? Maybe it is time for me to do something. Maybe God wanted me to learn. I looked up, and I saw Luna standing there darkly and Lynn panicking in front of our lifeless mother. I need to be strong.
I got up, and I went to the pantry. There has to be a tarp or a table cloth. There has to be something we could use to cover the bodies. I opened cabinets after cabinets, and there was it. I found it. It was a plastic table cover. It will do the trick. I got back out and I stood in front of the two of them with the cover in hand. "We... umm... Should cover her up," I said as I laid it on the floor.
We had to tell the kids. We couldn't leave them in the dark. I wish we were in a bad dream, a very lucid bad dream and not reality. The crying, the screaming, the laughing that ensued was loud. We didn't tell them that mom didn't leave us a note. Just as we wrapped her body up, Lisa walked up to us.
"Put her in the empty food crate, it's airtight so it'll be safe for us," She said, and we did. Putting your dead mom in an airtight crate was a weird feeling. "I don't want to talk about it, leave me alone," She left.
I never knew that keeping your dead mom in a crate in the back room of your fallout shelter was something you have to do when growing up.
"There will be fallout," Lynn said. "Keep an eye on Lori, she's not stable right now."
"Are any of us stable at this point?" Luna asked dejectedly. "We're gonna die anyways, don't beat yourself up too much alright," Luna patted Lynn's shoulder before going to the bloody bathroom. "I'm gonna clean this up, care to give a hand?" She asked with a weak smile.
"Yeah, let's clean that up," I said.
"I'll help," Lynn replied weakly.
It didn't take long to grab bits of mom up and putting it in a bag to put with the rest of in the crate. We cleaned the toilet as best we could. Luna did most of the job. By the time we finished, our bodies reeked of blood, and our clothes were red. So we showered and changed. The day went by like yesterday, we ate something, and we sat down. Lori and Lisa didn't eat that day, Luan still haven't stopped laughing, and the rest of us just sat there in front of the monitor eating mush out of plastic bags as Luna strummed her guitars. At that point, even Lily knows that we're as good as dead. Why should I become stronger, when I know in a few days, we'll be dead, if not from monsters, suicides and dumb decisions, we'll die of starvation.
CAPITOL NEWS, JUNE 13TH 2022
PRESIDENT DECLARED MARTIAL LAW
WASHINGTON, DC - The confirmed casualties of the Pasadena Massacre and the "alien" rampage has reached 15,061,998 as of 2AM today. The army has been mobilized to evacuate the surrounding area. It is also confirmed that the Pacific fleet in charge of evacuating stranded civilians were under heavy attack with only 3 frigates surviving the onslaught. Casualties are expected to continue be on the rise.
"We are doing everything we can to contain this tragedy," General Baker stated in a press conference today before he left for Nevada.
On another note, the NCAA is urging the federal government to evacuate all the citizens in the Western Region after an illusive report stating that the creatures have breached the Army and National Guard lines in Utah.