After a moment hesitation, my aunt, and godmother, Mary said:

"That… Arya, huh… those people, did you really…"

"Sigh… Mom, just say it already. The guy you let in yesterday, said you killed the sick people that were following him… That he is thankful for saving him and is sorry for troubling us, but you shouldn't kill… Maybe you can turn yourself in earlier to get a sentence reduction and if you can take him there, he can help you explain yourself." My cousin, Simon, said, rolling his eyes.

"Is he sick in the head? Where is he?"

"Sleeping…" Simon's voice sounded, but was drowned for another.

"RIGHT! That's what I said!" Luna said smirking, "not only you saved him, letting him in, we gave him food and let him stay, but he still talks like you're a criminal."

"Dear… But… if the police come later… you will… what should we do…" Grandma Adelia held my hands, trembling a little, not afraid of me, but for me.

"Should you hide?" Grandma Ada, who had the same worried look, said hastily.

That angered me. I really want to beat the guy up. If he had anything to say, he should say to me, not to others, what more in front of my grandmas, who didn't even know well what was happening. They're so nervous.

'I need to send this stupid man away sooner.'

I held grandma's hand firmly and smiled reassuringly, walked her to her daughter's side, Aunt Celina, who was with my cousins, Max and Justin, who gave space so she could sit there.

Then, walked in front of TV:

"Gael, can you put in one of the channels you found?"

He looked at me, then sighed, changing channels.

On the screen, three zombies are walking around.

"Grandma… Those things…"

I pointed to one of them.

"They aren’t humans anymore, at least not living humans, sadly they are corpses… I'm sorry you have to see it, it's a bit bloody, but I need you all to pay attention. Can you see this hole in the neck? Or this in his abdomen… Or the missing arm…"

I pointed to each.

"They would have lost enough blood to be dead hours ago… Even this guy who is whole… he is dead, because of some disease, this cyanosis degree… I mean, skin color, you know it's not the color of someone alive…"

I looked in the eyes of every single one of them. I knew my words reached them. They aren't stupid, they just didn't want to believe something like this was happening.

"I just released them from their wandering and sent them BACK to eternal rest, do you believe me?!"

I gave them time to digest. Getting some nods from the younger generation.

After a few minutes I repeated, to make sure everyone got it.

"They aren't alive. They aren't sick, they already died of sickness… There is NO WAY to cure what isn't alive. So, please, don't think we shouldn’t kill the zombies, that would put us in more danger. I'm sorry for being so direct, but none of us is a kid."

I checked their faces again, I can't let them doubt this fact later. To my relief, they didn't seem to reject it. So I continued:

"Maybe it's better to find a way to get out of the city..."

"No, if we wait a few days the cops must be able to do something... maybe the army could bring people out..." Fern, my maternal aunt Lily's husband, opposed immediately.

"How many months could it take, uncle? Their number isn't connecting. We can’t wait blindly." Kevin said back.

"But we should wait at least some days... we have energy here, maybe there will be something on TV..." Aunt Lily spoke, supportive of her husband's opinion.

"There is anything now?" Aunt Mary asked.

"No." Sophia answered, holding her mom's, aunty Mary, hands. "But we can't just stay here… don't you worry about Danny?" She looked at aunt Lily, unable to understand, "Don't you want your son with you? I'm worried about everyone, even more my dad and Mimi who can't protect herself, I can't bear to stay put…"

"Of course I'm worried but…" Aunt Lily had tears in her eyes.

Grandma Ada interjected:

"Okay, calm down, everyone is nervous, but we can't do much, they will be fine, so we must be safe to find them."

Her voice was soothing, but if you look well, you could see how she trembled more than usual and her red eyes. As a matriarch of a big family, she was stable, but the worry for her sons and other daughters and their families couldn't be hidden.

In the end, the worst fear of the white haired people is not death, but burying the younger generation.

"Don’t worry, I'm sure they must be somewhere safe." My mom echoed, hugging grandma.

"Humm.. so you can think better about it now, I will be out there if you need me… By the way, did anyone see my bow?"

Looking at my grandma, I slowed down. 'Maybe I'm too heartless, since I only worry about the ones I'm closer with. So I will let them think slowly, maybe for a day or two, while taking care of what I need to in the background.'

While feeling that it was for the better, I took a step back from the urgency I had in the beginning.

"What are you going to do?" Uncle Fern asked frowning.

Turning to him, I saw dissatisfaction in his expression, I frowned.

'Didn’t he accept reality yet?'

"What is needed…"

I spoke euphemistically, with a steady voice.

"Wasn't it enough already? Let that for when police come, they will immobilize those people, so they can't hurt anyone."

He said it like that, but his eyes seemed to condemn me. I tried to be patient:

"Uncle, they aren't alive, you saw it yesterday too… How one of those things killed that woman and the woman got up again…"

"Did you try to cure them? You didn't… They're normal until yesterday, they are moving!"

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

'Sure enough, there is still someone stupid who can't face what is in front of his nose.'

I facepalm, tired of explaining, so I just said:

"Uncle, I'm sorry, but there is no way, if we want to go out, it's them or us."

He got exalted and got up from the chair, face flushed.

'Maybe it's my fault for not hiding my contempt…'

Before I finished contemplating, he talked back:

"You can’t keep killing people and hope will cover everything up! I won't be an accomplice!"

Already impatient, I smirked, saying:

"Don't worry, if the police ever come, I will be pleased in turning myself in, 'cause that means we still have a peaceful world with laws, but I highly doubt it."

Everyone seemed uncomfortable, so I wanted to go out, before escalating the fight.

But when I turned my back, I heard Fern rebutting.

"You want to bring others in the water with you, don't you?"

I saw my aunt opening her mouth to be a peacemaker, but I said faster, laughing angrily.

"Haha… Do you think food will last forever? Are you waiting for those monsters to let you go out, buy some food?"

My aunt interrupted:

"Arya, he is your uncle!"

I looked at her and back at her husband, but still said:

"Don't you want to leisurely sit and wait? So you should be thankful someone is working for this family while you do that."

Clenching my teeth, I asked again:

"My bow?"

"I will show it to you."

Aunt Celina, who was quiet the whole time, said getting up.

I nodded, walking behind her. I lightly glanced back one more time.

'I have to judge carefully, it seems like people being in the family doesn't mean I can trust them my back.'

I continued, lowering my eyelids to hide all thoughts inside.

'Trusting the wrong people can mean death in the apocalypse. Maybe showing your distrust too.'

I walked out with a sweet smile on my face, as if I didn't take that to heart.

'Well, if people don't move, maybe I don't need to either. Let's hope to live peacefully.'

Reaching my sister's room, which had some sheets and cushions on the floor and two hammocks hanging.

My aunt passed between those and pulled my bow, quiver and arrows from a corner.

I reached to receive it and while touching it, I heard her low voice:

"Arya, I don't know about your mother's family, but we will go wherever you decide to go… I already told your father. What worries me is mom’s medicine… We only have enough for two months…"

"I know, don't worry, we can find it…"

"Find…?"

I looked in her eyes firmly.

"We have to forget about the peaceful world thinking, aunt, most things don't have an owner anymore… they will only rot away and we need it…"

I saw struggle in her eyes, before seeing her nodding back.

《☆》

After five minutes in front of the wall again, I couldn’t stop sighing.

Finally accepting my fate, I climbed the ladder. Looking down, I saw three zombies wandering between corpses.

'Did the others leave?'

With a question in the back of my mind, I prepared to shoot.

When the first fell, two corpses rose up from the ground going to where the other fell. Startled, I almost fell back from the stairs.

Immediately grabbing the wall, I stabilized myself. Looking carefully, I saw two more trying to get up.

'WTH… why were they lying down? Did they fall? Perhaps they sleep?'

Questions marks floated in my mind, curiosity getting over the previous surprise.

Soon, I saw the other two rising.

'Should I wait more and observe?'

The six zombies wandered, stumbling sometimes in the corpses in the ground. Most of the time they were able to continue walking or get up immediately, but soon I understood.

A zombie fell in an uneven bunch of corpses, moved a bit trying to get up and giving up after struggling a bit.

It stayed in place, its head coincidentally to my side with eyes closed, looking like the other corpses.

"Rustling…" a zombie approached it.

I felt a chill looking at its suddenly open eyes, moving from side to side, and its moving nose, one hand digging its claws in one of the corpses, before stopping again.

'If it was a person, maybe they would already be missing a piece…'

I put another arrow in place and took a breath.

'Careful, you have to be more careful, way more careful. Always observe well before moving… Don’t leave any place unturned before giving your back…'

I chanted to myself, as if to imprint in my mind the carefulness I will need to survive. I can't continue to be carefree in this world.

'I can already see my cortisol levels rising…'

Mourning for my health in my heart, I continued shooting arrows.

When I shot the last one, the zombie continued to move even with an arrow on its head. Looking carefully, only the tip of the arrowhead was fixed in place, seeming to just pierce the skull slightly.

"Hm? Did I miss the point?"

Without thinking much, I released another arrow that broke the bone this time. I waited in place for a few minutes, looking carefully, called a few times, not shouting, but like a talk, just to see if there was still any zombie in the street, near our house.

"Nothing."

I fixed the bow in my back and got down.

《☆》

I found my father who just walked out of his room, probably didn’t sleep well last night and made up the sleep in the morning, that’s why I didn’t see any of my parents in the living room earlier.

"I need the keys."

Dad only stared at me, without a word. As a reflexive habit, I soon explained myself, ruffling the back of my head, while arguing:

"Huh… I really need to get my arrows back… You know that… I will be careful… You said you would give the key today…"

He raised one hand with the keys hanging from one finger.

Happy, I tried to pick it, only for him to pull back before I reached and to raise one finger in condition, rising others while talking:

"First, you can't go out alone, it's too dangerous. Second, always talk to me before going. Thirdly, you have to stop being an airhead, I'm serious, be careful, it's about yours and others' lives. Fourth, don't go too far, not for now at least. Promise me."

"Dad, I'm not a kid anymore", I said aggrieved, "I already live alone since I began university…"

"Yeah… Me and your mother have worried everyday since…"

"I take care of myself."

"Sigh… Just promise, you can’t be impulsive and always remember: if anything happens to you or your siblings, I and your mother won't be able to get over it."

Seeing his seriousness, I stopped grumbling like a child.

"I know, don't worry."

And reached for the key, this time he let me get it, before saying.

"This time, you climb the ladder again, if anything shows up, you can shoot it. I will be the one to go out and get the arrows. Let's go."

"No, wait…"

I pulled the car key from my "pocket" and ran to my car to pick a baseball bat from the "trunk".

Silent apologizing in my heart, it's not that I don't believe him, but it's safer for no one to know, maybe like that I will always be alert with this secret.

'Maybe one day… but not now…'

"Dad, even like that, you can’t be alone, wait for me to call Kevin."

《☆》

A few minutes later, I was looking down the street again, with an arrow ready to shoot.

Luna is at the door, she will open it and close when everyone is inside again, as fast as needed, Max was by her side with a broom, since he couldn't sit still. Dad has a cloth bag in hands, he will pick the arrows, Kevin is holding a bat on one side and Justin a shove on the other.

"Okay, you can go."

After checking and calling again, I let them go out. Of course, I explained everything I saw earlier, so after going out, before dad pulled any arrow, Kevin and Justin poked some corpses, to make sure there was no fish out of the net.

It was surprisingly tranquil, Dad picked all the arrows without a hitch, walked back and put everything inside.

I relaxed my nervous heart for a moment, only to be alert again the next second when he walked out again, picking the corpses and piling it up in a few mounds.

“Daddy”, I tried to call whispering, “come back, please, there is no need to do that.”

“We need to burn it soon, if we will stay here.”

He told me back.

Max and Justin let what they were holding inside and began helping dad. Kevin, who just wanted to do the same, stopped, continuing to hold the bat.

‘Damn it.’

“Later, dad, later we think about it, come back.”

I whispered again, while looking around frantically, afraid of losing sign of any danger.

My dad ignored me and continued.