"Eli Run!"

"Don't worry about me"

"Save yourself"

"It's not your fault Eli"

The woman's voice filled the empty black void.

There was nothing, only her voice.

So peaceful. So calming.

There was a flash of red and the black of the void was blown away, along with the serenity.

Eli felt the soft touch of a hand brush away something wet off his cheek, and then suddenly he could see.

It was dark. The only light source coming from a fire, which was beginning to die down, shadows casted from the flames danced all around the tree's that the tiny clearing was encompassed by.

He felt something shift in his arms and he quickly realized he was holding something, or someone.

He glanced down and his heart broke.

He was holding a woman.

She was covered in blood, which he could see was oozing out of her lower neck by her shoulder.

He was holding his mother.

His vision went blurry with tears and she went out of focus, until she wiped them from his face once more.

"It's not your fault Eli." She struggled out softly.

He went to say something, only for his voice to get caught in his throat as he continued to cry.

"Eli you d-"

"It is my fault! It's all my fault!." He burst out through tears, "I should've paid closer attention, I should've known something was wrong. I should've known one of those bastards was lurking around! I should've reacted sooner! I should've…" he trailed off quietly, defeated and broken.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry mom."

“L-look at me Eli." She asked him one last time.

Eli let go of her long enough to wipe his tears away so that he could do as she asked.

He looked at her, he saw her dark black hair, her small frame, her caring and loving face he'd known his entire life, and he saw her warm smile. The smile that had always made his problems go away. That had always packed his lunch for school. That had always been the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw before bed. And that now he was seeing for the last time.

"Please don't blame yourself." She said coughing up blood. "I'm go… going to a better place now."

She paused as she fought to catch her breath, the blood loss clearly taking its toll on her.

"I have two favors I want to ask you."

"Of course, I'll do anything. Just- just please, please don't leave me. I can't live without you"

"You have to. Please Eli, don't give up. I wouldn't be able to rest in peace knowing you'll be following me by your own hand. Keep going Eli. You have to keep going. Don't give up. You must live, you must survive. So keep going and never give up… for me. Promise me you will"

Her breath was coming in ragged gasps as she struggled to continue living.

"I promise mom. I promise I'll keep going."he wiped away more tears.

“Thank you." She said.

There was a pause once more, the crackling of the fire and her deep breaths the only things to be heard.

She broke the silence, "My final wish is for you to destroy my brain onc- once I pass on."

A wave of shock washed over Eli's face as what she just asked him set in, "I- I can't."

"You must Eli. I don't want to end up as one… of them. Please, for me."

He gripped her arm tight as the magnitude of her request continued to set in.

I have to do it.

"I will mom." He said quietly

"Thank you." She smiled one last time, "I love you Eli."

"I- I love you to mom." Tears were catching his words.

“I'm sorry you have to live in a world like this."

"It's not your fault. You don't have anything to be sorry about. Don't blame yourself. Blame anybody but yourself. Ple-" He stopped.

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The fire crackled one last time and went silent.

There was nothing to be heard.

Her breathing was done.

She was dead.

He gripped his mom tightly, pulling her up to his chest and holding her against it.

"NO! NO! NO!" He screamed out through his cries. "COME BACK! PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE ME! I- I NEED YOU! MOM PLEASE!" He sobbed even harder.

"Mom please don't leave me."

Eli shot awake, covered in sweat. Tears streaming down his face once again, just like that day.

He sat there and cried. He gripped his sheets, shaking, breathing heavy, trying to calm down.

"Why did I have to go through that again"

“Why can't I just forget"

"Why can't I just die"

After awhile he calmed down, wiping the last tear from his cheek he looked towards the window. There was no light leaking through.

"It must still be the middle of the night." He thought.

He swung his legs over off the bed so that his feet were touching the ground and leaned over.

"I'm not going back to sleep tonight"

Light slowly began to creep through the openings in the curtains as night shifted to morning, Eli could faintly hear birds chirping in the distance.

Shortly after dawn broke the door handle to his room began to rattle as a key twisted inside it.

The door opened, revealing Silas.

"Oh you're awake." He said.

Eli looked up at him but said nothing.

"How's the head doing?"

"It's… better." Eli responded

"That's great, at this rate that concussion will be gone in no time." Silas said cheerfully.

"Gone"

Eli stood up, "I should really get going now."

Silas frowned, "Are you sure kid? You've only barely started to heal. Stay another couple days please, I insist."

"You don't understand, I have to go. That's the safest thing for everybody."

"Why? Do you have another camp we're keeping you from?"

"No."

"So then what's the hurry? You need to rest and relax. When was the last time you did that?"

"You have to go"

"Don't let them find you"

“Everyone here is in danger"

Silas paused waiting for Eli to answer.

Eli, meanwhile, was trying to think of a way to get Silas to let him leave.

"Food's scarce enough as it is, why waste it on me when you could keep your family fuller." Eli said, as more of a statement than a question.

"Food's not a big problem here for us Eli." Silas responded.

Eli allowed a puzzled look to show on his face for a moment.

"Got him." Though Silas.

He made a motion to follow him with his hand, "Come on and get up, let's go take a walk. Stretch your muscles a little."

Knowing he had no choice, Eli got up and followed.

"At least walking's not an issue today." Eli thought to himself as they exited the front door of the house.

He blinked his eyes rapidly as they adjusted to the outside light, the sun had just begun to peak over the tree line, shining right onto the front of the house.

After his eyes adjusted, partially to his surprise, he realized they were in a clear area completely surrounded by trees. Off to the right a little he could make out a decent sized garden, too far away to tell if any crops were bearing, that was surrounded by a chicken wire fence.

Straight ahead there was a small animal pen which Eli guessed had chickens in it based on the noise coming from it.

"So what do ya think kid?" Silas asked, "It ain't a whole lot and we certainly aren't as full figured as we once were but it's certainly better than what most people got these days."

"Most people these days are dead." Eli responded plainly.

"Well that's… dark."

Eli shrugged.

"Well it's true." He thought.

"Come on." Silas said. "Let's take a walk and talk."

They walked down the steps and walked off to the left following the driveway.

The more they followed the driveway the more confused Eli got.

The driveway went directly to the treeline and ended where the trees began.

"You like it?" Silas asked with a chuckle.

"Like what?" Eli responded.

"What I did with the driveway here." He pointed to the tree's, "I figured you would've got it as soon as you saw it."

"All that I see is nothing but trees."

"Exactly! That's what you're supposed to see." Silas began, "As soon as this whole thing started and I realized everyone was really screwed I stirred up all the dirt that made up my driveway and unpacked it. Then I brought over some soil from nearby and scattered all in with the dirt that was already there and planted a bunch of tree's where my driveway had been. That way, after they grew up a bit, nobody would ever realize that past these tree's we were here, or that there had ever been a driveway to begin with. I even did my best to move older, already developed trees as well to make it look more natural."

Eli thought about what Silas had done for a moment.

"That was very smart of you."

"Thank you."

"So that's how you haven't been found yet, and how you've all remained well off."

"That's correct."

The two men paused, looking off out into the woods.

“Eli there's something I need to ask of you." Silas said sternly.

They turned to face each other, Eli crossed his arms.

"I need your help."

Eli looked at him blankly.

"Rebecca's sick. Her health has been deteriorating for some time now and we don't know how to fix it, or even what's wrong with her. I know it's selfish of me to ask you to help us, but I don't see anything else we could do. We need medicine or something, or hell anything that could help but we don't… I don't know where to find it. So please, I'm asking you man to man, help me make my wife better." Silas said, choking up at the end.

There was silence for a few minutes.

"It's not your problem."

“Let them figure it out."

"Leave already"

"They're at a bigger risk if you stay."

There was more silence as he continued to think.

"Remember your promise."

"You have to help them."

"He saved your life."

“You saved his first."

"You don't owe these people anything."

"Remember your promise."

"What would she do?"

He sighed deeply.

"Fine." He said.

Silas's face perked up as he was filled with happiness, "Thank you." He started, "Obviously we can wa-"

"But…" Eli cut him off, "On the off chance we find anything good, I get to keep some for myself."

"I was hoping he wouldn't say that." Silas thought, "Of course of course. That's only fair. How much are you wanting?"

"I'll be taking half." Eli stated blatantly.

Silas sighed deeply "Why does it have to be so much. He doesn't need that much!"

Eli studied the trees deeply, then the ground. He squatted down and ran his hand across it, picking up a small pine twig covered in needles still as he did.

"Is something wrong?" Silas asked perplexed.

"You said Rebecca is sick, correct?" Eli asked in return.

"Yes."

"Well, if she's sick then she'll need vitamin c."

"Well we're fresh out of oranges."

"That's fine, you don't need them. You're surrounded by something better."

Silas raised an eyebrow, "I don't follow."

Eli held up the pine twig he was holding, "This is what I'm talking about."

"How is that supposed to help us."

He twirled the twig in his fingers, "You can take these pine needles, which just so happened to be packed with vitamin A and more importantly, vitamin C. Several times more than that of an orange per gram as a matter of fact. Make them into tea for her."

The shock on Silas's face was all too obvious.

"How do you know that?" He asked.

"I didn't manage to survive this long just because I'm a good shot with a bow."

Silas let out a hearty chuckle "Yeah I guess you're right."

He turned and started walking back towards the house. "Come on kid, let's go see if the chicken's laid any damn eggs, I'm starving."